Happy Friday!!

I was blessed to have a work lunch today where this bad boy was served as our dessert:

This is a fresh strawberry shortcake from the Grand Lux Cafe in Dallas. Oh my goodness, it was AMAZING!

With that, I should probably join our firm's "20 Ton" weight loss challenge cause lately I've just been eating all of these not so healthy foods. At least I thoroughly enjoyed them :)

Oh yeah and I'm running a 5K on Sunday, so that kind of off-sets it right??

The Universe is Under Your Command

Here are a couple things that are going on in the hearts of the Milliken unit lately:

• The Unknown: Reed's job situation is completely unknown. There are no leads, there are no prospects. We don't even know the plan for the summer. It's a crazy feeling to not know. BUT, I do know that God promised that He has a plan for us. God's not a liar. Reed is being faithful in his search and other than that, all we need to do is believe that God keeps His promises. That sounds really beautiful and peaceful, doesn't it? Trusting God keeps His promises has looked messy in my life...involving a lot of tears and fear. I don't know if I can adequately describe how BIG of a thing this is for us. Reed feels the weight of this burden and is fighting the urge to feel defeated and inadequate. And for me, my biggest dream for us is to just have a definite purpose and directions...maybe cause right now we don't. If you wanted to know something to pray for us about, this would be requests 1-3.

Jeremiah 29:11

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

• The Homeless: God is inexplicably gracious to allow us to be a part of what He is doing in the hearts of the homeless in Dallas. OurCalling recently signed a lease for a BUILDING!! We will be able to have our bible studies in a quiet environment that will allow us to better focus our study and not get distracted by the constant coffee shop atmosphere. ALSO, we will have a place to have mentoring relationships, teach celebrate recovery for those healing from addictions and SO much more (like a place to store and organize all of the boxes of things God has provided to us!). Crazy thing is, we signed the lease last Wednesday and then on SATURDAY we had a huge volunteer event and half of the volunteers helped us move out of our storage units into the new building. God is so perfect in His timing. That would have taken our normal labor force of volunteers weeks to accomplish. It happened on Saturday from 10-2.

• Missing Boerne: I don't know that I really need to explain missing my family. I just do. I miss my mom and being able to run around Boerne with her and talk to her. I miss my sister, my best friend, my confidant. We could talk about anything together. And we share clothes and that is so much fun :) I miss my brother and his family. I just want to snatch them all up and give them bear hugs. I miss Boerne in the spring. Its insanely beautiful and just thinking about the hill country gives me a sense of joy, peace and contentment.

• Running: We are running a 5K with my friend Maria this weekend!! More pictures to come :) I'm super excited and ready to run a race with my cute hubby :) He promised he would run the race with me, which is sweet because I know how fast he can run.

That's a little glimpse at our lives right now.

Running!!

Running is my new/old favorite thing.

I've always loved running but couldn't always do it because of health reasons...that pesky chronic mono.

Lately I've been running a lot more and was a week away from running a 10K before I got a nasty sinus infection that put me in bed for three days (including missing work, which is never a good feeling) Is it weird that I still feel guilty calling into work, even when I'm legitimately sick?? Not to get off topic, but seriously!!

Anyways, back on topic. I was kind of bummed this weekend that I couldn't run my race, BUT I realized that that's just silly because I've had so much victory in my running that I'm not going to let a week and a half of not running blind me of all that God has blessed me with.

For instance, did you know that the weekend before I got sick I ran 5.35 miles!! I ran for an hour straight!!

I got home from running and hung out with a friend who commented, "How do you have energy after running" and I honestly replied, "I don't know, God just is letting me do these things. He is so good to let me run".

I'm appreciating running now because I'm realizing that its only by God's grace that I'm staying healthy while doing it. The last time I got mono was because I was training for a half marathon, so its pretty spectacular that I've been running since mid-January and I haven't had a huge bought of just pure mono. Sure the sinus infection was magnified by my suppressed immune system (that's my fancy pants new term for chronic mono), BUT it is almost gone and things haven't drawn out for more than one week.

For me, that's saying something. That's God saying, "My mercy and grace is sufficient in all things". Even those little things like running :)

I'm a good blog stalker...

But not a good blog poster...

I really do need to do a better job of keeping everyone in the loop. I've decided I need to start writing shorter posts...to quote Michael Scott - "KISS. Keep it simple stupid". Well actually Dwight used the quote when taking Ryan out for his first sales call: "Michael says KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. Hurts my feelings every time." Haha. Oh the Office, makes me smile :)

As far as life, work has been busy and chaotic (or at least it makes my life feel chaotic). More than it simply taking all my time, its really that work is totally stressing me out. This past week I had 4 different clients that I needed to wrap up...but with there only being 24 hours in a day and I need to sleep, it just wasn't possible to finish each one. So I feel like a disappointment. Like I can't deliver. In reality, I can't, its just not possible. Sometimes I get frustrated that I'm even put in the position, when I really don't have any control. I end up having to tell one of my managers, "Sorry, I can't do this cause the audit partner wants everything done for this other client in two days."

Everyone at work is experiencing this. So its not just me. But still, I really don't like what it does to me. I lose sleep. I feel guilty for working on one client over another (yes, you read that right I feel guilty for working). I can't spend quality time with my husband. And friends? What friends? I know I shouldn't complain, but work is just tough now. There is no way of getting around it. My peers and I are all just plain burnt out. And it makes you question your purpose in working so much...are we living to work or working to live?

Two more weeks and hopefully everything will settle down...hopefully. Actually, I'll be safe and say it'll probably be three more weeks...

Encouraging Scripture - I need YOUR help!

I have a friend that attends our woman's bible study who is really struggling with joy, hope and peace.

Today when we were reading Romans, coveting was mentioned in chapter 7 and she asked "Is it wrong to covet anything?". We asked her watch she meant and tears started coming down her face as she pointed at me and said, "I look at her every week and I see peace just gleaming from her and I covet that."

It was heart wrenching. I went over and sat next to this beautiful woman and we prayed for peace, hope and joy. She shared with me that she struggles with regret. Regret for the things she has done and regret for the things she has not done. She also struggles with anger and feels like it is always inside of her. She so longs for peace and to be free from her anger and her regret.

She lives in the Bridge, and said, "I know people call this a homeless shelter, but for me, its home."

None of us know a home like that and we have been blessed beyond measure. We cannot relate to this woman who is struggling to come to peace with where she is and how she has gotten there.

Would you pray for Rachel AND would you help me out by giving me some ideas of encouraging verses for her. I have some in mind, but I want to hear from you guys (whoever is still out there reading this) what verses encourage you when you feel that you have no peace, no joy or when you feel constantly reminded of your past sin. This week I want to make Rachel some cards with scripture and words of encouragement. I think it would be awesome if I could make her cards from people who are praying for her or who want to share scripture with her. Maybe, if you guys want to commit to praying for her, you could find a verse that relates to what Rachel is going through and also include a short note of encouragement.

If there are no takers for the note writing bit, no big deal, but even just giving me some of the verses that lift you up when you find yourself down would be amazing.

Love you guys and sorry its been so long since I've update. Work has been a challenge and blogging has been relegated to the bench for a bit.

Julie

Can you please pray for my friend, Julie?

She came to bible study during the summer when we were studying John. She was so enthusiastic about what we were learning. I remember the Friday after she came to the Sunday woman's bible study, she came up to me and gave me a big hug and wanted to talk about what she learned the week before to see if she could remember everything.

After that couple of times seeing her, I hadn't really seen her at the Friday night life skills classes or our woman's bible studies on Sundays. Before I met Julie, I had already gotten to know her boyfriend, Louis, pretty well. Once I met Julie, I would get tid-bits here and there about how she was doing. Although Louis wasn't very specific, he would tell me that she would run-off with other men and to the other side of the bridge (not the Bridge, the shelter, but the bridge that was near the shelter that lead to a REALLY, REALLY bad neighborhood).

Last Sunday was the first time I have seen Julie in a long time. I didn't get a chance to talk to her because I was helping a couple of woman finish the bible study questions, but she seemed a little off.

Then we get to the Bridge last night and before class I see Louis and we start chatting about nothing too particular. The next thing I know, I see Julie walking up. I was really excited to get a chance to talk to her, but again, when I saw her something was off and I realized that most likely she was high. I asked her how life was and she said really up and down. I asked her what that specifically meant, if she wouldn't mind sharing, and she definitely didn't mind...

She shared that she has a crack problem and that it feels like it calls to her constantly. She wanted to stop because she knew she was going to lose Louis. While she is sharing all of this, I can tell that part of her wants to stop, but part of her doesn't care and wouldn't mind going back that night...which she did.

We prayed right then and there...I asked God to save her from this addiction and asked Him that He would pour out His love on her so that she would not run to the drugs to fill the voids in her life. I prayed in confidence knowing that Jesus is our more than a conqueror.

Later, Wayne (the director of OurCalling, who used to have a serious drug problem when he was younger), talked to her about what it was going to take to quit.

She told him she really wanted to.

But, when it came down to what she needed to do, she kind of smirked and didn't really believe us. It was very apparent that her words and her desires are not in the same place. Her words say she wants to quit, but her actions are contrary. When we prayed earlier that night, she left and got high, and then came back to get candy. That's when I asked her if she was serious about quitting, and that if she was we needed to talk to Wayne. We pleaded with her, trying to convince her that nothing is going to fix her, that SHE has to want it. Wayne said this: It's not a "salon" where you sit there and they "fix" you; YOU have to be the hardest working person in the room. What's sad is I don't think she's ready to make that commitment.

Driving home, I don't know how to pray for this. Not at all. Nights like these at the Bridge I have to SURROUND myself with truth so that I don't let satan lie and tell me that God isn't doing anything at the Bridge and that the truth won't set anyone free there. I listened to 3 songs the whole way home. One was "Awakening" by Chris Tomlin and I prayed this over Julie...that Jesus would awaken her soul to HIM AND HIM ALONE. Like the rising sun pierces the darkness. The second song was "Our God", again by Chris Tomlin...I just needed to hear scriptural truth that OUR GOD IS STRONGER, that NOTHING can conquer Him. I thought and prayed to truly believe that satan could be vanquished, no matter how "far gone" someone was. The last song I listened to was "He Loves Us" by David Crowder Band. I needed to just keep reminding myself of the truth that God loves us more than we could ever imagine. He is jealous for Julie...loves her, including all the mess, more than she could fathom.

Could you guys join me in praying for Julie? Jesus is mighty to save, mightier than the drugs and the lies that satan is feeding to her.

Our Sustainable Food Day

Reed and I watched Food, Inc. yesterday/today and we were kind of in shock at the lack of attention we have paid to the things we buy. FACT: The things we buy directly affect other people. It's not just about health, although also very important, its mainly about what we are doing to the workers "making" our food. The movie is pretty crazy with all it reveals about the practices of the corporations that produce most of the food in our country.

Anyways, all that to say, Reed and I really think its time to stop pretending we don't know what is going on and make sure that our purchases honor God...even if that means spending a little more money.

So here is me documenting our sustainable food day adventures...

We started the adventures off (after we hung out with Rachel this morning) with lunch at Chipotle, a "sustainable" restaurant, ie. a restaurant that uses local produce and meats.

Reed couldn't finish his burrito and was very distraught about it. This has nothing to do with being aware and conscious about our food choices, but I thought it was cute :)

Next we headed downtown to the Dallas Farmers Market. This thing is intense...I think it is one of the biggest in the country (don't quote me on this, but just know its rather large). Before we actually got to the food, we decided we wanted to spruce up our apartment with some fall decor, so we picked out some pumpkins! P.S. I love that downtown is in the background of the farmer's market...something about it just makes me want to giggle.

Our pumpkin! Reed was thrilled that he was the one showcasing it :)

They had some seriously BIG pumpkins!

And some seriously cool mini-pumpkins!

Next we ventured to Shed 1, which had the local farmer's produce! You can't really tell from the picture, but the shed is really long and you can drive and park in the middle and the vendors line either side. They all had AMAZING samples...I mean the cantaloupe we tried was just spectacular!

In the end we came home with all these wonderful veggies AND some natural pork chops! As in not the "manufactured" pork you get in a store. You'll have to watch Food Inc. to understand what I mean by "manufactured". We got to see a glimpse of how cows/pigs are raised these days and also how they are slaughtered (they featured the largest pork slaughter house in the WORLD). They didn't show the gory stuff as much as how they are raised and treated. Anyways, we were really pumped to find some local butchers who are raising their animals naturally. And here is our bounty...

I'm definitely pumped. It ended up being pretty darn fun going through the Farmer's Market with Reed. And the people were so nice and helpful. I'm pretty sure I never know what to look for in each vegetable (as far as ripeness), but these people GREW them, so they were able to help explain what to look for in something you want to eat soon and in something you may want to eat in a couple days. Pretty neat.

Also, just as an FYI, after typing the word "pumpkin" so many times, it no longer feels like a real word to me. Maybe I need to go to bed...