Perfect Timing

I had been working on different information for the revelation seminar coming up, and finally got an opportunity in the afternoon to go knock on doors for a couple hours. I knocked on my first door, when an older gentleman, Bill answered the door. We began talking and he invited me in to meet his wife Barbara as well. We hit it off, they loved traveling around and helping out orphanages, meeting needs of communities, and sharing their faith. As we were talking they learned that I am Seventh Day Adventist. Barbara then asked me, "I have a question, one thing I know about the Seventh Days is that you don't believe in a living soul. I am at a point in my life where I want to know what it says in the Bible, I have heard both sides but I have never seen anything really in the Bible on what it says, could you show me? I am open to believing that the soul does or does not live after death, I just don't know what the Bible say, and that is what I want to believe." So I answered her questions with Bible verses and she was able to see how a loving God has us rest. At the end of the study she was processing through everything. I asked her if the topic was clear and if she had any questions. She asked some questions on other Bible verses that I was able to explain to her. Her last comment was, "Wow, yes everything was clear. I believe you, I see exactly what you were saying in the Bible."  One blessing about that study is that Sheila wasn't feeling well about a week prior and asked me to give the state of the dead Bible study to one of her contacts, and because of that I had a list of verses and examples and ideas of ways to explain the topic to others who had the same questions about the state of the dead. God sent circumstances to help me be prepared for Barbara's question, and I will be going back to her and her husband this week. =)

Castle Built On a Hill

Melina and I have a saying, "if you're not going up a hill in Sonora, then you're going down one." Sonora is absolutely beautiful and one of the geographical features that adds to its beauty is the beautiful rolling hills. While driving (or walking) you pretty much are always going up or down a hill. I'm telling you this because this story involves yet another hill.

The beginning of this story actually took place the very first night Melina and I ever went door knocking to seek Bible study interests. Melina's leg was hurting so when we split directions on the street, I took the houses with massive driveways. There were four houses in a row with huge driveways. The last house up the steep driveways was special from the rest. I was greeted by two massive dogs as I made my ascent and was also greeted by Nate, a young high schooler dressed in a suit, who was attempting to call his dogs back. After conversing with Nate for a bit I asked him if his parents were home, so he went to call his mom, Heidi. 

Heidi and I totally hit it off from the start. I really don't recall exactly everything we talked about but I do remember that it led to a spiritual conversation. It just so happened that their family was watching the new Nicholas Cage movie Left Behind, and she told me how her son had questions about the secret rapture. She then said, "I sent him to Christian school all his life, and I feel like he should know this...but then I realized, the word rapture isn't even found in the Bible?" Heidi continued to tell me how she had several other questions about the Bible, for example she said, "I believe that when you die you go straight to heaven, but then I was reading that at the second coming the dead in Christ shall rise? So I'm just a little confused about that." 

Heidi then looked at her watched and realized that she needed to take Nate to his basketball game, but she did want to continue talking with me and said she would like to study with me on Thursdays at noon.

The following Thursday at noon I arrived at her house, but she wasn't home. I would sporadically stop by her place in attempt to catch her home but I always seemed to miss her. The following Thursday I stopped by again but this time I ran into her husband, Scot. He told me "my wife really enjoyed talking to you and she really does want to meet with you." He then gave me her cell phone number to try to reach her. I called Heidi and she was thrilled that I got a hold of her. She apologized because emergencies kept coming up and she hasn't been able to be there but she rescheduled for the following Thursday. So the next Thursday I went and again she wasn't there, but I ran into Scot again. He kept telling me to keep trying so I did. I called her again and she apologized and asked to reschedule for the following Thursday. 

The next Thursday, Heidi called me in morning and apologized again because she wasn't going to be able to make it and then rescheduled again for the next week. During this entire time of hit and miss, God kept putting on my heart to continue to pray for this family and not to give up. 

This lead to this past Thursday, six weeks after I initially met Heidi. I drove up to her house knocked on the door and found met her house cleaner. Heidi wasn't home, yet again. I walked back to my car and began to pray, "Lord, I know that you have me coming back to this family for a reason. I just want to commit this situation to You. Please let Your perfect will be done."

After I finished praying, something impressed me to check my phone, I'm not really sure why, I wasn't expecting a phone call and I wasn't even sure if I was because I was going to call or text anyone. However, when I checked my phone I saw I had a text message from Heidi. She said that she was running 15-20 minutes late, but that she was on her way. Joy filled my heart and nervousness also. I've been trying to meet with Heidi for five weeks and today was finally the day, so I decided I needed to pray some more. I called my dear friend, Janell, whom I love praying with, and asked her to pray with me and for this study.

Soon after Heidi came home and invited me inside. Since it had been several weeks from the last time I actually saw her, we spent the first few minutes just catching up and she was just asking me questions to get to know me. Her husband Scot then walked in and greeted me. He said, "Hey it's you! You are persistent, and I like that." Scot and Heidi continued to talk with me and get to know my background. I'm not entirely sure how the conversation led this way, but God impressed me to share my personal testimony with them, so I did.

As I spoke, I could see the tears welling up in their eyes and at the end Scot said, "You've really touched us with what you shared and I want to help you more in your ministry. Come by my office tomorrow and I'm going to write you a check." Interestingly enough, I never asked them for money. Heidi then said, "You know, normally I would've just canceled meeting with you altogether, but something kept telling me that I needed to meet with you and I'm sorry it's taken this long for it to actually happen. But I can see now why God wanted me to spend time with you. You know it would be great if you could study with my 14 year old daughter." Scot then interjected and said, "it would be great if you could study with our entire family actually." 

God then had me do a Bible study with Heidi about wrestling with God and how we shouldn't give up even when it's difficult. Heidi was mind blown by the study and then said that she really wanted have a deeper relationship with God and it studying the Bible would be great for their entire family. They then told me that they wanted me to come back to study and also to cook for them as well (they found out that I love cooking...haha). 

This is Scot (President of California Gold)

The following morning I received a text message from Scot telling me to come by his office because he had a check waiting for me. The more I ran into Scot the more I started learning how influential this family was. Scot owns California Gold Development Corporation and turns out that his company has built and owns all the nicest subdivisions, shopping centers, business offices, medical centers and even gas stations in Sonora. Things started to make sense why they had the nicest house with the nicest view. Scot did tell me that he would call his house a castle built on a hill.

I walked up the stairs to his office and although he was incredibly busy he came out to greet me and give me a check. I thanked him and he told me that they would invite me over again and was excited to try my cooking, then he went back to work. I walked back down to my car and just prayed thanking God for whatever was in the check. I carefully opened the envelope to find that Scot had given me far more then I would've asked for. 

God pricked my heart and the thought came to my mind, "I know you've been busy working for Me and you haven't had a chance to earn much money to support yourself, and I just want you to know, I'll take care of you."

Little did I know that there would be a blessing on both sides of this story and the best part is this story isn't over and I'm excited to see what else God has in store. 

And my God shall supply all your needs according to 
His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

Traveling Back in Time for Tea

Have you ever been in a room and heard a phone go off and automatically checked to see if it's yours? It's pretty funny to watch, especially when everyone has iPhones. Even though there's settings to customize our ringtones and even change the pattern for our phone to vibrate, most of the time, we don't bother to change it. Therefore, when one iPhone goes, we all automatically think it's ours. That happened to me this morning, but then I realized I was in the kitchen all by myself, and it dawned on me, "oh that's my phone." To my pleasant surprise, my friend Lindsey called me and invited me to tea in Old Town Columbia. Columbia is about ten minutes away from Sonora. It's a quaint historical little town that makes you feel like you've traveled back in time to the 1850s. The main town square only allows stage coaches to pass drive on the main road as well as travelers on foot. Also all of the employees in the shops in that area dress up like they are from the 1850s as well. It's actually pretty cool. I literally had to park my car several blocks away and walk on foot just to get to the tea house. 

I've never gone to a tea house before but it was really fun. It made feel dainty and elegant. I even held my pinky up as I drank my tea cause I want to feel fancy. Anyway, I had blast hanging out with friends and drinking tea during my lunch break. After leaving lunch I walked back through the town and decided I would get some work done while I was there. I brought flyers for the health seminar and the Revelation seminar as well, and I also stacked my pockets with GLOW tracts.

The first shop I walked into was a black smith shop. It's pretty cool. Everything they make in that shop they do the old fashion way. Anyway, I continued to go into every shop, talked story with the workers and then would invite them to the events coming up and ask them if they are interested in Bible studies. 

There was one shop in particular that stood out the most to me. I walked into what looked like a museum. There was an older gentleman that seemed like a tour guide. The shop was filled with displays and artifacts from the past. In case you didn't know this area is really well known for finding the Mother Lode (the largest gold nugget in California, 195 pounds). Things started to click in my mind such as why the main state route that runs through town is called State Route 49, after all we are in the historic mining area of the 1849 gold rush. (You can obviously tell I'm not from California, cause only now is things really clicking such as why there's a football team called the 49ers. It just makes so much more sense.) Anyway, this gentleman, Tom, started telling me all about the gold rush and it really was fascinating. Then it was my turn. I invited Tom to the health seminar and then proceeded to invite him to the Revelation seminar as well. 

The invitation to the Revelation seminar caught Tom's attention. He asked, "are you associated with the Seventh-day Adventist church?" When I told him I was, he was delighted. "I've been meaning to look you guys up." Apparently Tom has been studying his Bible and has found that the Seventh-day Adventist church is the closest that he's found to following the Bible. There was only one problem. Tom motioned me to walk toward the back of the exhibit hall away from his wife sitting in the front and then said, "the only thing is my wife is very committed to her own religion." I offered him Bible studies and he then began to tell me that he has been doing Seventh-day Adventist study guides online. He then said, "I've realized that the closer you get to the truth the more difficult it is to accept." I left Tom with a copy of every GLOW tract I had on me and he is planning on attending the Revelation seminar and also checking out the church for himself as well. 

True Friendship Evangelism Part 2

Recently (or a couple hours ago) Melina posted about her contact Linda reaching out to her neighbor (who had originally told me no for Bible studies). The interesting thing is this friendship evangelism has worked in reverse circumstances as well. In an earlier post I talked about my friend Kim. Well Kim's parents live across the street, where it just so happens to be the doors that Melina knocked on. Kim had told me to go talk to her parents to see if they would be interested in Bible studies, unfortunately no one answered when Melina came by. However, Kim was able to invite her mother to join us for our studies and they are planning on attending both the health seminar and evangelistic series together as well too. So I second what Melina mentioned, God is able to reach people in a way that Melina and I can't.

True Friendship Evangelism

The same day I met Linda, Janelle was across the street inviting people to have Bible studies as well. Linda's neighbor rejected receiving any activity or help from us, which is her choice, and Janelle moved on to people who would desire Bible studies. After studying with Linda the first time, she shared with me how she really enjoyed learning about how God has shown His love to her by giving prophecies (specifically Daniel 2) so we can learn to trust Him. The next week when I returned, her neighbor, who had declined everything Janelle offered, was at the house as well and asked me if I had another Bible she could borrow. The past several weeks I no longer only study with Linda but her neighbor whom she invited to be able to study with us as well. Friends are able to reach friends in ways that Janelle and I would not ever be able to reach them.

Only at Home

"Dear God, I pray I will meet someone who can only be reached at their home." I began knocking on doors, momentarily dismissing my prayer from my memory . Linda answered, she is retired and rarely exits her home. We began chatting, I struggled to see any interest in any of the activities we offered, but as soon as I reached inviting her to join me in studying the Bible she accepted. You see, Linda and her husband attended a church several years back when he decided he would no longer go to church. Linda, in "respect" to her husband, ceased to attend church as well. Since that decision he made three years ago Linda has longed to sing songs, study the Bible, and have the support of a church family. We nonchalantly set up a time for my return the next week and bid farewell to each other for the time being. As I walked away, I recalled how God had specifically answered my prayer finding someone who desired to get to know God better but was unable to be reached at a social function.

Daniel^2 and Daniel 2

The sun was starting to go down as I walked down this street. I knocked on the door and a muscular gentleman probably in his forties answered the door. As I started to make small talk with him I handed him a DVD entitled Daniel Chronicles. "Hey that's my name," the gentleman said. "Well I guess that just goes to show that this DVD is for you then," I jokingly commented. I was only half joking because I really do think everyone should watch or own the Daniel Chronicles.

Daniel Chronicles is a two part documentary. The first part goes through an ancient dream found in Daniel chapter two, that has predicted over 2500 years of history and the second part goes through the probability of one man fulfilling over 300 prophecies. It's seriously an awesome movie. However, that wasn't my ultimate goal with this family. After talking for a bit, I got down to the real reason I was there, Bible studies. Daniel responded in a very resistant way, and turned the option for Bible studies down.

So I started to strike up another conversation. It so happens that they had a sign on their door that says, "please remove your shoes." The sign looked very familiar because it had similar qualities to ones I've seen at tourist places in Hawaii, so I commented on it. "Hey I love your 'please remove your shoes sign' it reminds me of home." That perked Daniel up again and we started talking about Hawaii. The conversation consisted of a variety of topics such as how beautiful the islands are and how we both thought poi tasted like cement (maybe it doesn't actually taste like cement but it sure has the consistency of it). After a smile returned to Daniel's face, he decided to buy the DVD from me, but he accidentally left his wallet in his truck.

This is poi (seriously...edible cement)

Right then Daniel's wife, Carly, pulled up in his truck and handed Daniel his wallet. I decided to let Carly know what I was doing, I'm sure it's not everyday that a young girl comes to their door with a bag full of books, so I thought I would catch her up on Daniel's and my conversation. I decided to mention Bible studies again because I didn't know if she was at a different place and maybe was even searching for something for herself. The moment I mentioned studying the Bible, Carly's eyes lit up. From reading her response it was much different then it was for Daniel, however Daniel responded for her. His demeanor changed back to being resistant and defensive. However, I couldn't get passed Carly's response, so I interjected, "I understand and respect that, but I just wanted to give your wife the option." Daniel then looked over at his wife and she said, "what about for Daniel?" You see they also have a 13 year old son named Daniel and he has had a lot of questions about the Bible. Daniel (the father) looked deep in thought and said "you're right, this would be good for Daniel." I responded, "I'd be more then willing to study with your son and answer any questions that he has about the Bible." Daniel then looked up and said, "yeah, that would be great and you know what, I'll do them with my son too."