Warning! Extremely Long Blog Follows!

I am sorry it has been so long. As I add more and more to my life (in this case a job), it gets harder and harder to sit down and post something. But here I am on a Sunday evening with some time to spare so I’m taking this time to inform you of what’s been going on down here in the Valley of the Sun.

About a month ago, I had an inconsequential conversation with a guy from work. He worked back in the plant but he had to take care of some paperwork in the office. So, I was helping send a fax and we were talking, and in the course of things he found out I live in Peoria, and it turns out he lives there too. Meanwhile, I faxed his paperwork three times because I wasn’t sure if it went through or not. So, that is about how significant the conversation was. Then about two weeks ago I ran into him again in the lunchroom on my lunch break. He works the first shift from 5 am to 1 pm, so he was just getting off work when I was eating lunch. We had another insignificant conversation about the flavor of yogurt I was eating, and whether or not I’d gone to any of the nightspots in Peoria. When he found out I hadn’t he made the comment that I didn’t get out much. To which I replied, “I do get out, just not to Wet Willy’s!” And with as much indignation as I could muster. Because I’m tired of being conceived as the naïve, innocent, good girl who is overly protected by her family, which I am well aware I am in danger of being, but I just don’t like being judged for it. So, after he saw that little flash he asked what I did do to get out. I told him that I had taken up ballroom dancing knowing full well that this would only perpetuate the stereotype of the good-girl/princess. But by now he was past teasing me for my lack of social life, and was floored by the ballroom dancing admission. But all in all, an insignificant conversation. About an hour after lunch, I’m back in the reception office with my headset on and the phone rings, and for some strange reason I answer it wrong and say, “Good Morning, ~insert company name here~”, but it was well into the afternoon. I was so busy chuckling to myself about this slip I hardly noticed the person at the other end of the phone. But it was the guy.

A not so insignificant conversation ensued about how he liked talking to me because he could tell I was different, and would I be comfortable talking outside of work? After several moments of hemming and hawing, and helping an actual person with their application, I managed to say that he could call me if he wanted and gave him my number. The next day he called and invited me to a baseball game because he had the day off owing to Good Friday, not knowing us office people had to go into work. So, I called him back over my lunch hour, and after some good conversation in which I started my testimony, but couldn’t finish it because of the fact I was driving to Subway and I was on my cell phone, he asked to see me that night. So, right then and there I asked him what he wanted out of this because I don’t date casually, and I didn’t want him to get his hopes up. He explained that he was hoping for potential at the very least and was tired of dating casually. So, I agreed to meet him with the intention of finishing my testimony.

We met at Applebee’s (a nice public place), and right after we were seated, he asked me to finish telling my testimony. So, I started by asking him what he thought about God. He told me he believed in God, and grew up going to church, and wanted to raise a family going to church, but he hadn’t been doing much in that direction for a while. So, I told him my testimony about God. How I was a good girl in high school, with lists of rules for myself to adhere to so I could gain heaven. How I thought I had everything I needed with family, friends and swimming. How all that was altered my freshman year of college, when all I had that kept me full, and blinded to the truth of my emptiness was stripped from me, and I was so alone I could finally hear the quiet voice of God calling to me. And how I finally answered that call. And so, I was finally able to explain to him that the reason I didn’t date causally is because of what the Lord calls me to in my life. That when I am with someone it is for the purpose of glorifying God, and emulating Christ and His church. To all this he said that I was an answer to prayer and that he had ceased to believe that people like me existed.

He started telling me about his life, and through his story I could see all the wounds he had collected, and how a life of partying was what he was doing to cope. But, he said that he wanted what I have. To be living for the Lord.

Since this conversation, I have learned that he was highly churched. I mean to the point of knowing all of the Christian lingo, but he never had any sort of accountability, and so he continued to live life out of his wounds. Well, this past Wednesday I met with him at Barnes and Noble, and talked with him about entering into new life. He had tons of questions about what that would look like, and I could only answer a few because you never know what God will do in your life. Anyway, by the end of the night I prayed with him, and he either recommitted his life to Christ or committed his life to Christ for the first time. Praise the Lord! He has started reading his Bible and is in the gospel of John. He went to church this Sunday, and wants to get involved in one of their men’s groups. Praise the Lord!

If you have made it this far, then I’m going to ask you to pray that he would continue to grow in the Lord and really set down roots. Pray that he would meet really godly men that will run alongside him, and can bring him closer to the Lord so that he can deal with his wounds and his past in light of what the Lord has to say about them.

All through this extremely exciting situation I have been able to simply be a vessel of God’s love to this man who didn’t believe God could love him or change him. It has been a great miracle to witness! Praise the Lord!

Good Things

These are just some things from my quiet time book that I liked:

Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts Him--I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him--this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole Bible.

Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest

When God wants to drill a man,
and thrill a man,
and skill a man
to play the noblest part;
when He yearns with all His heart
to create so great and bold a man
that all the world shall be amazed,
watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How he bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And with every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try his splendor out--
God knows what He's about.

Author Unknown

God's Grace for a Woman of Folly

I've been a little worried about finances as of late because of my risky decision to pay for ballroom dancing lessons without any funds coming in. Add to that the pressure of a father who thinks you are wasting your money and ruining your credit only a few months out of college, and bring on the panic. Have I made an unwise decision? Or is this the best time in my life to get started since I have no other time or monetary commitments? I really had to force myself to calm down enough to ask God to provide for me through Manpower, which is a temp agency. I was still waiting for a phone call from them and still freaking out yesterday when I went to this grassy knoll by where my house is being built. I went to work on Bible study, but first I prayed one more time for God to have mercy on me even though I might have acted foolishly with my money, and to rescue me from my own folly. After I prayed I had this certainty that not only would God provide, but He would do so that afternoon. Strange. So, I did Bible study for about an hour and drove home. Maybe about an hour after I got home Manpower called and offered me a receptionist job for next few months. I start on Friday.

Praise the Lord for He is good.

And a One, Two, Three

In answer to Tom's questions in his posted comment:
1. Zero trophies, one medal for the team match.
2. I did not keep the false eyelashes. I didn't even wear them. They felt too weird.

The competition was an exciting time with lots of great dancing. There were two highlights of the evening. The first was when they announced that team Phoenix had won the team match. However, the real highlight was watching the pro couple dance. They were amazing. I think in the pro dance world they dance faster, and I think that is to showcase their skills of balance and footwork. So if they are playing a song that has a beat like 1-2-3-4, us normal people would do one step for each beat. These dancers danced at about twice that speed. So picture really fast latin dances punctuated by really slow drawn out movements.

I also found out my score for the competition. I got a 93 out of 100. I found this out Monday night at my critique with the male part of the pro dancing couple. He was really nice and British. He said a 93 isn't bad because the highest score they gave was a 97, and they only gave out a few scores between 93 and 97. So, that was nice. Then he wathced me dance with Robert and corrected my posture.

So, that was that. It was a really fun time, and it also helped me think about and evaluate the place ballroom dancing will have in my life.

Wish Me Luck

Well, on Sunday March 6th I will be competing in my first ballroom dancing competition. I am dancing in the freestyle events which means I don't have choreographed routines. I will be competing in the salsa, cha cha, mambo, rumba, hustle, waltz and tango. I will also be doing the Salsa in a team match. In the freestyle events I am judged on technique in the team match we are judged on how much fun we are having and how loud we are cheering for our team. Woooo!

I will be wearing more makeup than I've ever worn on all the other occasions in my life combined, I will have false eyelashes, and a really big smile. I will have numerous costume changes (by costumes I don't mean the ridiculously expensive dance costumes you typically see, but my own outfits. However, I have met someone who knows the person who made the costumes for Jennifer Lopez in Shall We Dance, so perhaps someday...). I will also be having a really good time. I am super excited to be doing this and my mom is coming to watch.

In all my wildest dreams I never imagined I would actually be in a competition. It's something I always said I would be doing, but never took steps to realize. So, wish me luck on this exciting endeavor, and I'll keep you all posted.