Returning A Year Later

I haven't forgotten about my time in Sonora. In fact I love going back an rereading the blog posts from my time there. That little town will always have a very near and dear place in my heart. A few months ago I had the opportunity to go back to California and I made a special stop in Sonora to see everyone. I specifically asked our Pastor, Nathan Renner, if I could sing special music. I love singing but my real motivation for singing at church was the perfect excuse to invite everyone I studied the Bible with to come to church.

I stayed a few nights with Uncle Pops and Aunty Gogo. It was such a blessing to see them again. I remember crying like a baby when I left their home the previous year. Uncle Pops stood out on the deck and watched me drive off. It made me think of those movies where the son or daughter leaves for college and the parents cry as they watch them drive away.

Now as I returned Uncle Pops greeted me the exact same way. He sat out on the porch and watched for me to come back. I cried, again, but this time tears of joy. His greeting made me imagine what it would have been like in the parable of the prodigal son as the Father is watching for His son to return home. 

I sat on the couch and fellowship with my favorite Sonoran couple. They told me had they were continuing to study with Alan. Both Uncle Pops and Aunty Gogo continue to study with him every single week. They told me how Alan needs to take things slow and they're more then happy to help him. Just recently they decided to study the book of Revelation together. 

Uncle Pops also said, "hey do you remember when you got all excited during that one Bible study with Alan?" Indeed I did remember that day. It was so memorable I blogged about it, "Walk to Me and I'll Run to You." 

He continued and said, "Since you've been here my devotional life has been just like that day you got excited. There's many time I have the same reaction you did that day and I can't help but tell Gogo about everything I learned."

My heart was warmed when I heard him say those words. I had no idea that one of the biggest impacts I would have was with the very family I was living with while I was there. 

The next day was Sabbath and I went to teach the Youth class. I had a blast teaching them because I was able to study with many of them during my time in Sonora as well. It's amazing to see how much they've grown. I believe a few of them have gotten baptized since I left.

Before going back to California, I called all of my friends that I studied with and invited them to church. Because I was singing I sat in the front and I didn't see who walked in. But when I got up to the front to sing I saw so many familiar faces. 

After the church service, all of my friends came up to greet me. It was such a blessings to see everyone. I found out that Al is still studying with Tony. Kim is still very interested in health and wants to come to more events. Nathan Renner personally is following up on Eloise. Sheila is still in contact and keeps up with Rhonda. And Mike and Emily now have another little boy and they faithfully come to church. 

I was so touched to see glimpses of the impact of my time in Sonora. The last bit I want to share is what Eloise told me when I saw her. She told me the following.

"Janelle I just want you to know, you have no idea the impact you had on me. I think about you frequently and praise God for the blessing you have truly are. If you're ever back in town, be sure to give me a call."

The Story Isn't Over Yet...

Our Bible Work term in Sonora may have ended, but my heart for the people I’ve met hasn’t left. When Melina and I first found out that we were going to be Bible Work partners, I thought about the things I wanted to see God do and I specifically prayed that God would use me to reach someone like me. However, throughout the three months that prayer request seemed to have slipped my mind.

Honestly, it’s hard to measure success sometimes in ministry because we work on a delayed gratification system. We don’t always have the privilege of seeing the fruits of our labor. I remember praying one day during our time in Sonora and saying, “Lord, I don’t need to see the results, it would be nice, but I know that You will do what You know is best in Your perfect time.” 

The very last night of Taj’s Revelation Seminar, seemed like another night. I didn’t really think much of it. During the seminar’s Melina and I were placed in the lobby that way if anyone came in late or left early, we were able to be the smiling face to greet them. This night Emily and Mike happened to come. Since they live so far away they weren’t able to come to all the meetings expect on the weekends. Instead Taj, gave me mp3 of his sermons to give to Mike so he could listen to them on the way to school every day. It was a blessing to see how quickly Mike and Emily were growing, and I was aways excited when they were able to make it to the meetings. Sometimes Anakin gets fussy so Emily will come and hang out in the lobby with Melina and I so Anakin can move around. 

It was right when Taj was ending his sermon. He decided to give another appeal if people wanted to give their life to Christ and enter into the waters of baptism. Emily and I moved to the back door because we wanted to see who was going up. Then I gasped and grabbed Emily’s arm, “Emily! Mike is going up!” Emily then turned to me and said, “oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you, can you tell me about re-baptism?”

As Melina and I drove home that night, I was like a kid in a candy store. There was a smile on my face that was impossible to wipe away. As we talked about the decisions Mike and Emily were making, Melina brought up something, “maybe that’s a reason why God had you get re-baptized, cause now you were able to relate with her.” 

Suddenly my prayer request that I had forgotten about popped back into my mind. Last November I had gotten re-baptized. Although I’ve always been in the church, there was a time that God didn’t have my whole heart and I wanted to give it to Him. When Emily asked me about re-baptism, I was able to share with her why I decided to get re-baptized. 

As I think back on our time in Bible Work, I would’ve been satisfied without seeing results, but God is just so loving that He decided to answer my prayer request just because He wanted to. 

Several weeks later, I received a picture from Sheila of Mike’s baptism and it just reminded me that God loves answering specific prayers and reminded me why I love doing this work. The best reward in the world, is being able to help lead someone to Christ. 

The rest of the stories of Sonora are still being written and my prayer is that in heaven I'll be able to see and hear how they ended.

I'm Not Done With You Yet

Today has been a day full of emotions for me as it's the second to last day of our time here in Sonora. Melina and I decided to stay longer by request of our church and it's been a blessing. However, this week has also been bittersweet. It's getting to the point where it's time to say goodbye to the people that I've been studying with and have grown to love as well as our church family.

The hardest family to say goodbye to definitely has to be our wonderful house parents, Uncle Pops and Aunty Gogo. They've been such a blessing to us. They have to be by far the sweetest couple I've ever met. They would always pray for us and our studies. They paid for Melina to go home when her family lost a loved one. They bought Mike and Emily a Blue Bible Stories set, and just today Uncle Pops paid to get my car fixed. That's literally just scratching the surface of how wonderful this family is. Words can't describe how incredible and truly inspiring they are to Melina and myself.

I was blessed with the opportunity to spend some extra time with Uncle Pops because he has been coming with me to my study with Alan (the guy I met at Starbucks). They hit it off from the moment they met each other and have become very good friends. There is one particular story that really bonded them. You see, both Alan and Uncle Pops have had near death experiences yet their lives were spared for some reason.

A few months ago, there was a horrific lightning storm in Sonora. Alan lives up in the mountain in a old style wooden house with a tin roof. He was terrified of the lightning hitting the roof and burning down the house so he decided to go and take shelter elsewhere. However, when he ran outside, little did he know a lightning strike was going to hit just the ground a few feet in front of him. The moment the lightning hit the ground, it shot Alan back onto a pile of wood. From that day on Alan knew that God had spared his life for some reason and he began praying that someone would study the Bible with him. Little did he know a few months later, I would show up asking him if he would like to do the very thing he had prayed for.

Uncle Pop's story is also quite miraculous. Before Uncle Pops retired he was a dentist and worked at Twain Harte Dentistry. It was an ordinary day at the office. He was working on of his patients as he sat in the chair he always did. He was in the process of making a mouth piece for his patient and needed to cure the mouth piece in a solution in the back room. It doesn't take long to cure. Once it finished he grabbed the mouth piece and proceeded to head back to his hair. Suddenly a thought  came into his mind, "you know, I don't have a lot of patients today, I could let this mouth piece cure a little bit longer." Uncle Pops stopped in his tracts, turned around, put the piece back in the solution and sat down to wait a few more minutes.

All of the sudden there was a huge crash. A tree suddenly crashed through the building, splitting the dentist office in two. Interestingly enough the tree landed in the same exact spot that Uncle Pops would've been in if he hadn't turned around to cure the mouth piece. Uncle Pops also realized that God had spared his life for some reason was well.

Uncle Pops has been coming with me to study with Alan consistently. Alan has expressed how he doesn't want to stop studying the Bible and asked Uncle Pops if he would continue to study with him after I leave. Uncle Pops was more then thrilled to say yes. They've become very close friends since we started studying together. Next week Uncle Pops and Aunty Gogo will be going to study with Alan and plan on continuing to study to learn more about God.

As we drove home after a study Uncle Pops and I talked about their near death experiences and Uncle Pops expressed, "you know, after that happened I realized that God wasn't done with me yet."

I then responded, "what if God saved your life, so He could use you, to help save Alan's."

Quick Transformations

About a month ago I saw this cute couple walk into church. In my mind they looked like the picture perfect family, husband and wife holding hands while the husband held their son, although I did notice that they looked rather young. I was talking to someone else when I noticed them walk into church and I didn't really think twice about seeing them. The Sonora church is so large that I don't even feel like I met half the church members. I wanted to go talk to them but I didn't get a chance, little did I know God has something planned the entire time. 

I was making my way to the front of the church to meet up with Melina and Sheila to give our weekly announcements, when our pastor, Nathan Renner stopped me. He motioned to the couple I saw earlier and told me to go talk to them so I did. I walked up and told the mother how adorable her baby is (he really is quite a cutie), and then proceeded to introduce myself. I just took time to get to know them and talk and briefly mentioned that I attend a Bible college and that I’m currently working with the church. Before I could even get to it, Emily asked me if I could give her Bible studies. She said that she had studied the Bible before but she hasn’t in a while and she feels like she doesn’t know anything. So we arranged to meet the next day.

They live about half an hour away so I drove up to see them. I knew that Emily had an Adventist background but I had no idea what her husband Mike had. I walked in and brought Real Heroes and Prince of Peace for their son, Anakin. And the moment Emily saw the books she said with excitement, “I know exactly what those are!” Turns out Emily canvassed 2011 in Bakersfield & Tulare. She told me Ricky was her leader and when she showed me her summer book I saw she was also a student with Heidi Maekawa. However, she felt like she lost hold of God and now she wants to come back. Her husband, Mike has never touched a Bible before and Nathan was able to give him his very own Bible. 

I mainly studied with Emily. Mike is a chemistry major and drives to school over an hour away every day. I was mainly teaching Emily how to do devotions the way I was taught. Every time Emily and I would hang out our friendship would grow  deeper. I realized how Bible work is far more then just studying the Bible with each other. There where times where I would just go grocery shopping with Emily or teaching her how to cook an asian dish before studying. Emily is absolutely precious. She has a tender heart for ministering to others and sharing the light that she has. Meanwhile, her husband, Mike would listen to sermons every day while drive to and from school. Every Sabbath they would consistently come and when they could make it they would come to the Revelation seminar as well. Mike is a great student and he's super interested in everything that he has been learning. He also takes notes profusely. 

Today was the last official day that I was personally able to study with Mike and Emily. It's amazing to see the transformation that Mike has had since the first time I met him. He went from not knowing where anything was to remembering specific things that he and Emily have read and even wanting to share what he has learned with his friends at college. 

I've really grown to love this family, especially their little one, Anakin. Mike and Emily taught Anakin how to saw my name and my heart melts each time he says it. I could go on about how adorable Anakin is. I think I have more picture of Anakin on my phone then anyone else. But what I really want to share with you is a text message Emily sent me this afternoon.

This is what Emily wrote me:

"Every single thing you have done for us has helped us in our faith since we met you. Mike was far from a believer and I was far from a follower when we met you but with your help and the grace of God we have come a long way in such a short period of time. We will really miss you when you go, and I want you to see that even if you don't have any other testimony as to why you think God led you to our little town that we believe that you coming in to our lives was crucial in leading us back to God and giving us the motivation to do so. I hope we find some good people to study with when you leave! And you can always stay with us if you're ever back in the area. Thank you for all you've done for us."

Emily, Anakin, and Mike

Victory In Depression

Depression is a very serious illness that unfortunately is also rather common. While it is true that everyone will occasionally get a case of the blues, depression is much deeper then that. According to the National Institute of Mental Health,  depression "interferes with daily life and causes pain for both you and those who care about you. The reason why I'm telling you all this is because I have a burden for people who suffer with depression. I have several friends who I dearly love that suffer with this very illness. A friend once described it to me as "it's like any other disease, but it's your brain that is sick." Recently God has put me into contact with some precious people that I had no idea suffer with depression.

A few weeks ago Sheila had asked me to take a church member with me to one of my Bible studies. When I approached this church member she wasn't very hesitant. I could see sadness in her eyes but I really had no idea what was going on. She's very active in ministry and helps out with several but she was explaining to me that she was just really tired and didn't know if she had it in her to come with me. I didn't know what was going on then but had a feeling there was something deeper that was going on. Instead of asking her to come with me to a study I offered to come over to cook her dinner and we could study together. I told her sometimes in ministry we give so much of ourselves but we forget that we need to be "fed" too.

The following Sunday evening I went to her house. I made her some sort of asian dish and spent some time just talking and eating. It was then that she opened up to me and told me about her past and I began to understand that her not wanting to come with me to a study was a lot deeper. That's when she opened up to me that she struggles with depression and this was the most severe that she's ever had it. I immediately started praying in my head because honestly I had no idea what I should do. Even though I didn't know what to do in that moment, I knew God did.

A thought popped into my mind, "the first thing you need to help her with, is you need her to teach her how to have a relationship with Me."

I then asked her, "do you get a chance to study your Bible?"

She responded, "I do but I don't feel like it's been doing anything for me. I have things that I do every day but I don't feel like I'm really getting anything from it."

In my mind I completely understood what she was talking about. I had been raised in a Christian home my entire life, but I felt the same way just a few years ago. So I said, "you know someone actually needed to teach me how to have a relationship with God, and if that's okay with you, I would like to offer to do the same with you."

She agreed. I realized how important it is to spend time with God in the morning and I wanted to help her to make that a habit. From that day on I drove to her house every morning at 7:30 and I began to teach her simply how to do devotions. The last time I taught someone how to do devotions, God showed me I needed to take them through this powerful book called Steps to Christ. So I did the same with her. All I did was simply pick out all the Bible verses used in each chapter and we would study one verse at a time.

One day we were reading a verse in the book of Jonah. I was teaching her different methods of studying and that day I was teaching her to read the context around the verse to give her more understanding. It happened to be the chapter where Jonah was very sad and rather upset at God. He was even asking God to take his life. As we read it together, thoughts started popping into my mind, "you need to ask her questions to help her realize that Jonah is suffering with depression."

I asked, "what do you think is going on with Jonah in this chapter?"

She responded, "I think Jonah has an anger problem."

"I does seem like that, but I think there's something deeper going on." I replied. "From what Jonah is saying, what do you think is really going on with him?"

She looked back at the verse and it clicked, "Jonah is depressed!"

"I think you're right." I answered.

She then said, "but the problem is we don't ever see a resolution for Jonah in this chapter."

"You're absolutely right, so let's go to a place in the Bible where someone else is depressed but we see a solution." I honestly couldn't believe those words came out of my mouth. In my mind I was saying, "Lord where are you taking me with this? I've never studied this before." My hands started to flip back to 1 Kings 19. I remembered a speech my friend Taja gave in speech class last year about depression and the name Elijah came into my mind. I seriously didn't know where that story was but I knew it had to be somewhere in the Old Testament and guessed it was probably in one of the Kings.

Elijah was one of God's prophets in Israel at a very key time. The king of Israel at that time, Ahab, had married a heathen woman named Jezebel, and because of her idol worshiping practices, the nation also fell into idol worship. In the previous chapter you see how God used Elijah in a mighty way to prove to the entire nation that Baal was a false god, and who the true God is. In this mighty victory for God through Elijah, all of the prophets of Baal were killed and this made Jezebel furious towards Elijah. When Jezebel threatens Elijah's life, he decides to run away. He runs off to the wilderness and that is where this study really began.

Photo Credit: goodsalt.com

Like Jonah, Elijah is also asking God to take his life and then we see him asleep under a tree. Suddenly an angel comes to him and tells him to wake up and to eat and drink, so Elijah does. The angel comes back to Elijah a second time and feeds him again. This is clearly food from God since it's an angel that is feeding him and also because that food strengthens him for 40 days and 40 nights. What the angel said also stood out to me, the angel says, "arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you." God then asks Elijah, "what are you doing here, Elijah?" To me it almost seemed like God was saying, "what's going on Elijah, why are you here?" Elijah is then completely honest with God and explains everything that is on his mind. Elijah doesn't really use a filter either, but complete pure honesty.

The next scene we see is Elijah in a cave and some crazy things happen to him. God asks Elijah "go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord." First there was a strong wing that tore into the mountain and broke the rocks in pieces, yet the Lord was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake, but the Lord wasn't in the earthquake either. After the earthquake there was a fire, yet again the Lord wasn't in the fire. But after showing Elijah all of these great and mighty things, He finally decides to reveal himself in a still small voice. He asks the same question He asked earlier, "what are you doing here, Elijah?" Elijah's answer doesn't change at all, instead Elijah gives God the same honest answer. This time God basically tells Elijah, I just want you to know that even though you feel alone, I want you to know you're not alone. God then gives Elijah further instruction. God then tells Elijah to go help and train others, such as Elisha, the next prophet that would take Elijah's place.

As we read through the study, light bulbs started going off in my mind and I began to share this:

1. From what my friends told me in the past about depression, suicidal thoughts and tiredness are both symptoms of depression, so it really seems as if Elijah is depressed. So first we need to acknowledge that someone is struggling with having a low point in their life whether its actually depression or being extremely down. 
2. Next we see the angel feeding Elijah, in the same way we need to be fed by God spiritually.
3. Being fed spiritually isn't something that you can just do once, but it needs to be done consistently, and if you need someone else to help you with it, like that angel needed to feed Elijah, that's okay. 
4. The reason why God wants to feed us is because He knows there is a great journey ahead that is too great for us to do alone. Ultimately He has something great planned, but we need His help.
5. The next step is to communicate with God. He simply wants to ask "how are you doing?"
6. That's when it's your turn to answer and be completely honest with Him. Tell Him everything that is on your mind.
7. While you're taking the steps to have a relationship with Him, that's when He really wants to start revealing His true character to you. Yes, He is a mighty and powerful God, and He could have easily revealed Himself in the wind, earthquake or fire, but He didn't. Instead He chose to reveal Himself as a still small voice that wants to see how you are doing.
8. God will constantly check up on you and see how you're doing, and it's okay to still be completely honest. In fact Elijah used the same exact words. It made me think that it doesn't matter how many times we pray for the same things over and over again, God still takes the time to listen. 
9. After we're completely honest with God, He cares enough to let you know that even though you feel alone, you're not. 
10. The last step is to go and help others. It made sense because in this context it seems like it accomplishes at least two goals. One it helps to further the cause of God by reaching out to others, and second it helps that person not to focus on themselves but to care and focus on the interests of others. 

As we finished the study, the church member and I were both mind blown. When we closed with prayer she said something that touched my heart. She said, "Lord, thank you for sending me an angel, Janelle, to spiritually feed me."

I continued to go to her house everyday for two weeks and each day I went over I saw her becoming happier slowly but surely. The Revelation seminar was coming up at our church and Melina had asked her if she could help out in making sure the guests felt welcome. She was scared to do it at first, but the more we studied together the more confident she felt in helping.

I've literally seen a complete transformation from being sad and depressed to happy and social. The other night she came up to me at the end of the series and told me "I just wanted you to know that that time was the lowest I have ever felt but you studying with me every day has given me victory in depression. I'm cured."

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3

The 20 Minute Divine Appointment

As the Archaeology meeting came to a close, Janelle and I stood in the back to pass out notes for the evening and invitations for the Revelation seminar coming up. As the crowd dwindled to a stop I noticed a lady standing in the middle of the foyer, looking like she was waiting for something. As I approached her, I asked her if she needed something. She shared how Janelle had just gone to make copies for her of the Archaeology seminar we just completed. we chatted about how wonderful the meetings were, then I invited her to come to the Revelation seminar which began a few evenings later. She lit up, "Oh I am coming to that! This is incredible! You can count on seeing me there!" I continued to stoke her excitement with the Revelation seminar. After sometime she asked what I was doing there, and I shared how I give Bible studies and help the church in whatever areas they need help. Janelle walked up at this point and handed her the copies she requested, but the lady and I had made such close friends that we continued to chat. Bible questions came up, and we answered one here and there, but the amazing thing was, the questions asked were questions I had just studied a week before in my devotions. Janelle mentioned Bible studies again, and Rhonda, who by this point was highly interested in how we answered her questions with verses in the Bible, jumped on the opportunity. She has now attended all the meeting accept one, but has requested for me to come over to her house early this week to catch her up on what she missed. She canceled plans for Friday night to be able to attend the Revelation seminar, and has been bringing a friend with her every time. Continue to pray for her us, God jammed the printer for a reason. "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

Divine Delay

This past week kicked off two of the seminars our church planned. First we had an Archeology Seminar by Tony Moore, and March 6 was when our Revelation Seminar started with Taj Pacleb. The Archeology Seminar went amazingly. The church was packed every single night and a lot of people from community came to check out our special event.

At the end of the night Melina and I would stand at the back to hand out notes from the seminar as well as giving them a warm goodbye. Several people had asked me for notes from previous nights so we made sure to keep extra copies in the back. However, it was so popular we would run out fairly quickly. 

One of the seminar attendees named Rhonda came up to me and asked me if she could get several copies of each night so she could share it with her friends. I went back and grabbed the notes for her and the only ones that were missing were the notes from the second night.

"If you want to wait, I can go make copies for you. It should only take a few minutes." I said. 

Rhonda responded, "Okay sure, I'll just wait here."

Keep in mind that normally a print job like this should only take three to five minutes max. I grabbed the original copy and put it into the copier. So I know our copier is pretty fancy and there's an option to get it to staple the copies. I was trying to figure it out and literally went through all of the options and I couldn't find anything. "Fine, I'll just do it the normal way,"  I thought to myself, "but it would've been so much cooler to get it to staple, oh well." 

I made a test copy, and it came out with the print only filling one fourth of the page. Apparently when I was going through the setting I accidentally hit a reduce size button. (For the record I didn't even know that was possible.) 

I went back and fixed the problem and attempted to print again. This time the original copy got jammed while it was being fed into the copier. The original got crumbled pretty badly so I now needed to remake an original copy for that page again. So I did that. Finally I could start printing. But then the copier started to jam on me, not once, not twice...but about five times. Something else you should know about this copier is when a paper jams, before you can get it to print again you have to open every single compartment so it will work. 

I actually started praying for this copy machine, I was like "Lord, this woman just wants to tell her friends about you, please help this copier so she can have these notes." Finally...20 minutes later, I finished making the copies. 

As I started walking back towards Rhonda, I saw Melina talking to her and it started to make sense why God allowed the copier to cause me so many problems. He was trying to delay her from leaving so she and Melina could talk.

To find out the rest of the story, read Melina's next blog post.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, 

to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28