Bolder Boulder

Well...I did it! I ran the Bolder Boulder. I ran the whole thing and didn't walk any of it. I am so proud of myself! My first 10K! And it was a blast! There was entertainment the whole way with bands playing on the sides of the streets and lots of people watching. People were in costumes: gorilla suits, banana outfits, wedding dresses, men running in jock straps, the whole works! It was crazy! And it went by so quickly! Before I knew it, it was over. And I wasn't tired at the end, I even sprinted the last part.

I think I'm addicted to it now, which is okay. I mean, it's running for goodness sake! I'm running another 10K in July and then my dad and I are training for a half marathon in September. He's going to fly out here and run it with me. I'm planning on using the elevation to my advantage as he'll be training at sea level:)

But I had a great time and I want to keep going with it!

miles

I ran 6 miles yesterday afternoon.

 

After much driving looking for this place downtown Denver, Donna and I found it and it was worth it.  It was a great trail that marks out the distance for you and runs behind all of these houses (nice houses).  It was shaded with a little bit of sun.  The best part-no creepy guys.  There were only older people and young families.

 

But yeah, I ran six miles and I didn't walk a bit of it.  I was so proud of myself, as this is the first time I've ever done this.

 

I'm training for a 10K I'm doing on Monday.  Should be fun!

 

Next goal-a half marathon-13 miles baby!

sleeping

Well...I'm finally sleeping!  I slept Saturday, Sunday and Monday night!  Now, it hasn't been a whole lot of sleep, but that's my fault-I've been going to bed late.  I've got a life to live you know!  I've spent too much of it sleeping it away.

 

Now, feeling better, eating whatever and not trying to diet anymore, which I think has something to do with it.  I need more protein. 

 

Oh my gosh, this weekend was so much fun!  Friday night I stayed up way late baking cut-out sugar cookies that I decorated with different color frosting.  It was so much fun, but really exhausting!

 

Saturday was filled with many activities that exhausted me and probably helped me to sleep that night!  Breakfast with friends at the Pancake House and then down to Colfax downtown Denver to help restore an old Synagogue being transformed into a ministry/community center for youth and young adult Hispanics.  I did yard work-which I've missed terribly!  Lunch with those same friends at Heidi's where I had the best tuna salad on pumpernickle I think I've ever put in my mouth! 

 

The afternoon was spent practicing soccer with those same people!  Have you ever played a sport with people who weren't really into it or weren't very competitive and you were?  That normally happens when we play with people from church, but this group of people was so different.  We were all competitive and kicking each other and tripping and playing rough.  It was awesome!  I was so nasty at the end of the day!  It felt good to have worked that hard all day and gotten that sweaty, you know?

 

That night I made homemade pizza for some friends and we watched "Gone With the Wind".  Brynn really wanted to watch it and Liana had never seen it.  I love it of course!  I found it in India for $6, which was a really sweet deal considering it has three DVD's in it.  I was scared there for a bit because I thought it might be in Hindi, but it wasn't.  It was in English!  But it still stopped at the most random times.  Ahhh, the memories!

 

Sunday was fun too because I played volleyball and went to the pool with pretty much the same people as Saturday.  And...I was outside for three hours on Sunday and got NO sun!  What is that about?  Talk about frustration!  Anyway, left the pool and went on to youth group and then met up with those people that night for mexican food at Casa Vellarta and then on to Cold Stone for some yummy ice cream! 

 

I'm exhausted just typing all of this out!  But I had so much fun.  The week is proving to be just as fun with softball games, LOST season finalies, bar-b-ques, Boulder, swimming, parties and a 10K race.

 

Can anyone feel that summer is finally here?  Yeah!  I'm so thrilled!  I'm lovin' it!  And...I'm doing my first house-sitting job.  Should be fun and exciting! 

 

Sleep...or lack there of

I have been so tired lately. So...tired. I don't know what it is. I went to the doctor on Tuesday to get some blood work done to see what the problem may be, but I got nothing. I am a very scheduled person who goes to bed at the same time and wakes up at the same time each morning. (I hear that's the best for good sleep...to be on a regular sleeping schedule.)

The thing is that I still go to bed at the normal time, but I'm not getting good sleep. I'm not getting any sleep. And becaues I'm so tired in the morning, I can't get out of bed. I haven't been going to the gym every morning because I can't get up to do it. I'm too tired. [I sitll go to the gym, it's just in the afternoon, which I don't like. There's too many people!]

Last night was a perfect example. I tossed and turned all night long! I don't think I fell asleep until like 3:00am and then I kept waking up. Anyone who's ever been around me when I'm sleeping can vouch for the fact that I sleep like a rock. I don't hear anything and you can' twait me up for anything. Once I'm out, I'm out. But not over the past two months. I can't go to sleep and once I finally do, I just keep waking up. I have nightmares and dreams all the time.

I don't know what the cause is. It's really frustrating. I finally talked to my boss about it and he said he was having the same troubles. We think it could be an attack from the devil. Now, I'm very hesitant to blame Satan for things. People do it all too often, when really it's their own fault. But on this occasion, I've done everything I could do. I didn't even think of it, my boss suggested that that could be it. I don't know.

I really need your prayers. Not just for sleep but for really good sleep. I'm exhausted all of the time and it's taking away from living life. It's making it hard for me to focus on anything and I'm forgetting everything. It's so annoying because I feel like I'm letting so many people down and I can't do my job well. Aaaagggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Prayer please!

communion with God

The last few weeks have been so neat.  Sooo neat!  I have felt closer to God than I feel right now, but I feel like I'm in a deeper communion with God now than I've ever felt before.

 

January, February and March were silent months for me and very difficult ones at that.  I tried talking to God so much and had so many questions with no reponse whatsoever.  I didn't even get a "Wait".  I got nothing. 

 

I somehow felt like I wasn't do something I needed to be doing or that I was doing something wrong.  But last week God finally spoke and He spoke very loudly and clearly.  All of those questions that I had: He finally answered.  He said, "Remember when you asked me ____________?  The answer is _______." 

 

God chose to be silent during those months and now He's choosing be to extremely vocal, which I'm glad for.  Apparently I wasn't ready for the answers like I thought I was.  God knew that although my heart was searching it wasn't ready to hear what He had to say.  I guess now I am.  He's talking and I'm listening.

 

God is doing a lot in my life and I'm learning a lot about what it means to truly commune with Him and His heart.  Prayers don't seem so tedious and tiresome as they once were.  The Holy Spirit is leading me in intercession for others and it's awesome.  He's also revealed a gift that's been in me all along.  I think it's another instance of something I wasn't quite ready to take on, but now He sees fit to bring it out.  It would be discernment.  Obviously, it's a gift and not a magical power, so I don't have it down pat.  But God's showing me what He would like to do with it and He's tying a lot of it in with the intercessory prayer I mentioned. 

 

It's all new to me and really thrilling.  It's awesome to see God working in my life and through it.  Who would have though?!?!?!

 

Update:  My mother, sister and friend, Yvonne came out to Colorado over the weekend and we had a great time!  We watched movies, ate really well, went to a dinner theater to see "The Music Man", went shopping and went to the "Body Worlds" exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  [It was an awesome exhibit that I highly recommend.  If you're not excercising and eating well yet, you will after you see the effects of poor health on the body!]

 

And...I'm going to summer youth camp this summer with the youth!  Oh my gosh, it's been what...7 years since I've been to camp?  Crazy!  But I am really excited.  I'm going for a whole nother purpose this time.  I'm going with these amazing young girls and expecting great things to happen.  David Nasser is the speaker for the week and Charlie Hall is the worship leader and it's in Durango!!!!  I'm am so thrilled.  But really, the most exciting part of it all is that I get to spend a week with these high school girls staying up late with them and playing games and sharing hearts and seeing God change their hearts into hearts sold out for Him.  Praying for God's annointing on their lives.  Praying for a fire to be started in their heart.  A fire that can never be put out.  A fire that will ignite and lead to a life on purpose for the Kingdom. 

 

This is going to be awesome!

 

Prayer Request:  I am currently underfunded for my support account for working at KBM.  I cannot make it back east until early August at the earliest to do support-raising.  I'm praying that God will provide extra financial gifts for the next three months to last me until the September paycheck.  Please do the same.  He is already providing with my first extra gift coming in yesterday.  But I really need you to pray as I continue to pray for God's provision.  Thanks ya'll!

Surprise!

My sister is coming to visit me!  And she comes tonight.  She called this morning to tell me that she's flying to Colorado today and she'll be here tonight at 11pm.  I'm soooo excited!  And...mom and Yvonne come tomorrow morning.  We're having a weekend for the girls.  We're going to the mountains, the Body World exhibit, a dinner theater, a baby shower, shopping, etc.  We are going to have a ball!

 

Question:  Have you ever had God tell you something that you thought was totally crazy and didn't make sense, but you couldn't deny that He told you and that it's true? 

 

Yeah, that's what has happened to me.  God has revealed to me/told me some things that I can't deny are from Him.  I'm trying to make sense of it all and I can't.  Partly because God works in a way that doesn't make sense in this world that we live in.  But also there are my own doubts that cause me to not make sense of it.  I guess I don't need to.

 

I told a friend of mine last night what God had revealed to me and although she tried her darndest not to seem shocked and she tried to be supportive.  I could tell part of her was thinking I was crazy. 

 

The insecure part of me wanted to not tell a soul because what if I'm wrong?  But what if I'm not?  I do believe this was the Lord and if I don't tell anyone and then it's true, how will He be glorified?  When this turns out to be true, I want people to praise Him because He's the one who did it and orchestrated it.

 

You know?

 

Has anyone else ever had this happen?  Or am I alone in this?

In your church

Mark Roberts was speaking Sunday night at Oasis about influence.  He said something that was so true.

 

He said (and I don't quote cause I'm too slow to right it down word-for-word).

 

Most people in the Bible are people you wouldn't hire at your church.  They were murderers and adulterers and liers.  But those same people were the ones that God chose to use.  You know why?  Because they were willing to be used by God. 

 

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

1 Samual 16:7

Finality

I'm sure you all know the hymn, "Jesus Paid It All".  But have you heard it lately?  I hadn't...until recently.  I bought the most recent Passion: Everything CD just for this song and I listened to it I think 50 times yesterday during my Day Alone With God.  Read the words.  And don't just read them quickly to read them, but listen to what they're saying. They're powerful.  There's also an extra chorus at the end that the new musicians put to it.

 

I hear the Savior say

"Thy strength indeed is small

Child of weakness, watch and pray

Find in Me Thine all in all"

 

Jesus paid it all

All to Him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow

 

Lord, now indeed I find

Thy power and Thine alone

Can change the lepers spots

And melt the heart of stone

 

And when before the throne I stand in Him complete

Jesus died my soul to save my lips shall still repeat

 

Oh praise the One who paid my debt

And raised this life up from the dead

 

 

There's so much finality in what this says; so much simplicity.  It's supposed to final.  Jesus did pay the final debt, it's over.  Never again to we have to worry about the right sacrifice being given, He did it once for all and "It is finished".

 

The other part that really stuck out to me was the extra chorus, "Oh praise the One who paid my debt, And raised this life up from the dead".  That really pierces my heart.  But it stuck out to my because I was studying a verse in John 4:14: "Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  The notes on this verse say that the words "welling up" are meant to be extremely powerful.  It's a vigorous term meaning a vigorous, abundant life!  "In him was life, and that life was the light of men."  John 1:4

 

Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the fullest!  It wasn't meant to be a life lived in ho-hum existence just drifting along a lazy river.  He raised this life up from the dead!  We are a new creation.  We were once dead and now we are alive!  The water He gives is to become a spring of water WELLING up to eternal life!  In Him we find life!  It is meant to be abundant life. 

 

So often the world talks about Carpe Diem and living life to the fullest, but apart from God you can never experience abundant life.  I have a well of living water in me that will never run dry.  I will never thirt or hunger ever again.  I have it all.  But the questions remains...am I using all that is inside of me.  Am I tapping into the well that is laid out before me?  Am I living in the abundant life that God meant for me to live in?  Am I giving an injustice the terms "abundant life"?  And what does that truly mean?  What does "life" entail fully? 

 

The gospel of John uses the term "life" more than any other book.  He uses it in reference to life given by God and through God.  It's a four-letter word that has a huge meaning that I don't think I quite understand. 

Making time

Monday night me, Kristen, Brynn and Mark went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. We went to B.D. Mongolian. It's Mongolian bar-b-que and it's delicious! I ate way too much food, but I tried calamari again and some mahi-mahi. Oh and to top it all off we had some caramel apple dessert and I got a chocolate sundae on the house (for it being my birthday and all!). I was stuffed, but we had a great time. Poor Mark didn't get much of the dessert as we encouraged him to go get more food while we ate the dessert. It was our secret plan although it probably wasn't a secret to him!

And after that we just walked around Denver for a while (after we took funny pictures of the girls of course!). It was a great night. It's that whole spending time with less people and making the "less people" ones that are loyal friends. It was nice not to have a big party filled with a bunch of people that I don't know all that well while doing things that I don't really care to do all that much. But eating, talking, walking and spending time with close friends is something that I would prefer to do over most anything esle. It was great fun!

Oh and I tried the new Green Tea Frappucino at Starbucks last night! I was surprised, but it's really good and refreshing. I love the blackberry sauce on top! Warning: it's a strong taste and overpowers most anything. So if you want to take a "taste" of someone else's drink at any point during your time there, do it before you take a swig of your Green Tea drink!

Linka

I'm trying to figure out how to do a link. So go check out this out and listen to my friend play the piano beautifully!

Weekend fun!

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!! I'm 24! I can't believe it! I am officially in my midi-twenties. And sad to day, but I think people are right. Birthdays just don't feel as special as they once were. I guess I had this naive thought that they would...

So I went to Winter Park this weekend with Brynn and Kristen. We had so much fun. We talked a lot and shared and discussed and laughed our heads off. And you know the best part? It was meant to be a completely relaxing weekend and it was. I was so relaxed not worrying about anything and I came back rested and refreshed, having spent time with loyal friends that are close and know me well. We walked through the mountains. We ate really good. We watched movies. We helped Kristen get some stuff ready for her wedding. They made me a cookie cake with my number 1 ice cream flavor of all time-German Chocolate Cake! It was sweet.

And last night? Oh yeah, we took the youth group country-line dancing for our fellowship night! We had a ball and I got good pics. I'm going to attempt to upload them here, but we'll see how that goes:)

Well...back to work. Another day, another nickle!