Dinner time = Loads of Laughs!

Dinner time in the big house can be quite full of laughter and tonight was no exception.  It of course ended up in hysterics as people discovered yet another one of my many phobias.  This one I haven't shared with many because... well, because my list is already quite extensive and there really isn't a need to continue to add to that every growing list.  Oh well!  It makes other people laugh even if it really seriously freaks me out!

It started like this... well, actually this is the middle part after a bunch of other conversation.  The topics of mannequins came up.  I was saying how I had to ask someone a couple of months ago to take an item of clothing off of a mannequin for me because it was the right size and the only one left (it was a Christmas present from my mum to me, it was just cheaper for me to buy it here and pick out the exact ones I wanted).  I am sure it started before that I just can't remember exactly how... anyway.  Then, we started having a whole conversation about mannequins.  I suddenly flashed back to when I used to work at a department store when I first graduated from high school.  I worked in the accessories department which included jewelry, handbags and socks.  I never liked working where the socks till was because of the really creepy mannequin feet... seriously!  They are creepy!  The way the foot is shaped and how it just stands on the tiniest bit of the feet.. creepy!!  I also never liked changing the socks on the feet and often times I wouldn't.  I would make someone else in the department change them.  Then, one day one of my coworkers finally asked me why I wouldn't change the socks.  I then revealed my fear of the seriously creepy mannequin feet.  And you know what happened next???  She started chasing me throughout the department with the feet!! AHH!!!! Scary!!!!  Yes, it scarred me. Forever. And ever.  Even to this day!  As I am telling the story (towards the end) PT leaves and comes back in the room with a foot of stone... AHHHHHH!!!! And then they all start chasing me with the foot!!!  AHHHHHH!!!!  SCARY!!!  It was funny.. we were all laughing, but seriously!  I had to leave the room!

~Trista

It's Friday Night...

And, I can't sleep.  It's 1:00 a.m.  And, it's not because I am doing something awesome.  I finished listening to one of my class lectures over an hour ago.  The reason for this restlessness? Partly pondering the things from classes this week and just in awe of God and how amazing He is.  The other part... it's too loud outside and it's making my heart heavy.  We moved here to minister to these people, people who need God, people whom God loves more than we can even love them.  These people who were once sending out missionaries to various parts of the world now are in need of missionaries to come to them.  I am honored that God would call us here and extremely humbled.  Tonight though is one of those nights that makes my heart so heavy and long for a revival here.  A night where the drunkenness is extremely loud and grates on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.  The pub on the corner is blasting its music so loudly that I can feel it.  And, it makes me sad... sirens, screaming, the bass from the music.... it all swims in my head.  Not even the soothing sound of my husbands breathing is calming me or lulling me to sleep.  These are the moments I pray for rain!  But, I know that God has me up hearing this for a reason... to break my heart even more for these people.  To sit here and pray for them and intercede on their behalf.  Please God, save this country!  Save this city!  Save the people screaming right now!  It's not impossible.

~T

Only Because it's Funny!

I love running... most of the time.  I found myself hating it this morning but thought that the situation required a blog post because looking back 12 hours later, it's actually quite funny even though I didn't think so at the time.

Back in December, I started training for a half marathon to be hopefully completed in March. A number of years ago I ran a short 5k then a couple years ago ran a 10k and now it's time to conquer the half marathon.  Crazy?  Maybe!  I do really like to run but didn't realize how intense the training is to run for so many kilometers.  But, I know it's good for me and once I accomplish it, I am sure I will be crazy happy!  My sweet hubby decided that he wanted to run the race with me {well, not with me at my pace, but run in the same half marathon}.  Let me just say that my hubby is the runner.  I refer to myself as the runner in training and have been so for over 4 years now.  Since we started training we have done a couple of outside runs together.  It's helpful for me to run with him, but I hate holding him back at the same time.  It motivates me sometimes to have him in front of me for the most part.  But, this morning, something went terrible wrong... drama queen came to the trail today and apparently wasn't leaving until the long 1 1/2 hour run was completed.  For whatever reason, I have been hitting 20 minutes and have wanted to quite almost every time I have been out for a run.  Gym running?  Way easier and normally I can get through the hour fine.  I decided that I would be kind to myself and try really hard not to check my time until I thought we had been our for about an hour even though I was tempted to look at what I was sure had been 20 minutes and right in the middle of running up a hill.  I didn't.  I kept running anyway.  The tough thing about trail running for me is that when it is muddy, it's really slippery and I hate falling, no less falling the mud!  YUCK!  Today, it was really muddy and very slippery.  And just when I thought I was through the worst of it, it got even worse!  There I am, in the middle of a green field slipping in mind, meanwhile my hubby is a ways ahead of me.  I stop.  Then, drama queen came stepped in a took over.  I cried.  {picture me writing this and now laughing}  Hubby turns around to see where I went and sees me crying.  He comes over and I start saying how I don't feel like I am even running because I am just sliding all over the place and how I just want to go home {which is quite far from where we are so it would be silly to just walk there... I would get there faster by completing my run anyway}.  Then, I expressed how much I don't like running when it gets hard.  This causes my husband to start laughing, I see him laughing, I start crying more.  I look over only to see park workers staring at me holding back their laughter.  I then realize what I am doing, get a grip, continue on to finish the last 45 minutes of the run.  Yay, I must have looked so silly!!  I came home got on with my day and just a bit ago recounted the events of this dramatic run to Suzanne and started laughing at how silly I was!  Crying because I was stuck in the mud!  Ha!  Really silly!  But, glad that I can look back on this morning and laugh about it now and realize that I really just have to press on!  Yes, it gets hard and uncomfortable, but seriously!  Get a grip!  Isn't that life though!  We go through situations where we think there isn't possibly anyway to get through it.  But, we can. With God!  It's not always the easiest road, but one that is far better to travel than on the other option. So, next week when I am back running in the freezing cold and in the mud, I am going to remember this funny thing that happened today, laugh and get on with the run {hopefully}.  No more tears on the trail!

~Trista

Your Ways are Higher

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts."
- Isaiah 55:8-9

I love this passage!  I can remember the first time that I really mediated on it.  It was at a Wednesday night Bible study in Morro Bay and Pastor Tonye was teaching through the book of Isaiah, a beautiful book!  This night in particular, this passage really stood out to me and I remember underlining it in my Bible and then writing it out on a notecard and taping it our bathroom window.  We were living in Cayucos at that time and it was before we even had thought about the possibility of being here.  But, God knew that I needed to memorize this passage and keep it close to me before beginning on this crazy fun journey to move countries.  And now, I constantly go back to these two verses and it comforts me to know that it's not my ways that are THE only way, but it's God's ways.  And His ways are far better than mine.  He is not confined to the small box I try to put Him in and when I show Him my options A & B, He throws in a curve ball and gives me something I would have never thought of on my own.  How great it is to serve a God who is not limited to my thoughts or my resources.  I was reminded again of these verses this weekend.  Through some funny events that happened, I was reminded again that just because I think I have things all figured out doesn't mean that's what God's plan actually is.  I think it's also a really good reminder of another reason why it's so super important to stay current with Him.  If we aren't, then we kind of go off and do our own thing and don't allow the room for God to move.  And we all know that when we take matters into our own hands, it's never pretty.  Look through the Bible to see some great examples of the mess people have made when trying to do things are their own!  On Sunday, the young kids we have for children's ministry weren't around so I sat in the service.  We are going through the book of Genesis on Sundays and at this point, we are where Jacob is going to meet Esau after all this time.  PT kept stressing that there are two different camps we could potentially be a part of.. God's camp or my camp.  When we start making our own decisions and loving the things of this world more, we are putting ourselves in the me camp.  But, when we allow God to move and guide is in His ways and love Him we are putting ourselves in His camp, a far better place to be in.  Again, being in His camp where He has unlimited resources, duh!  Of course I want to be in that camp.  Not to mention, all those verses that talk about not being able to serve two masters, you can't serve God and mammon.  I want to serve God and not fall into the worldly lusts.  When I put myself in my own camp I can't possibly be serving God because I am putting myself first and doing what I think is best for me.  It was such a great reminder to really search my heart and make sure that I have both feet in God's camp.  Right after that message I had a great chance to exercise this.  Was I going to allow my flesh to take over and freak out and get anxious - or - was I going to surrender to the Lord knowing that even though the plans I thought were working out were not and then trusting that God has even better plans!

May will mark out 2 year anniversary of being here in this amazing city!  I am so blessed to be here serving!  And, I am excited to continue on serving here!  As we hit this 2 year mark, we will be looking for new housing which is always exciting!  We know that God already as the perfect place for us picked out and we are excited to see where He will have us :)  There are so many options in the big city!  We are just praying for the right location for us and that the price will be right!  Also, right now as I write, Hubs, PT, and Lando are meeting with the man in charge of the church we are currently renting a room from.  This meeting is exciting because although he hasn't promised anything he mentioned that he would like to see if they can accommodate our growing fellowship.  Please be praying with us!  We had been looking into other accommodations, but God closed the doors on the other places.  So, who knows what He has in store for us!  It's exciting either way and I can't wait to watch as the next season of adventures starts to unfold before our eyes.

Thank you so much for your prayers and for taking the time to read my thoughts and our updates.

~Trista

Christmas Traditions - buying a Christmas tree

I love this time of year!  I love that we get to celebrate the birth of our Saviour! There are so many beautiful things to look at this time of year!  Beautiful Christmas trees, wreaths, advent calendars, lights, and many more decorations!  2 weeks ago Sunday, the Holyde's and I went to go get our Christmas tree (we went right after church, so hubs was cleaning up the church and didn't come with us).  We walked a short distance from the church where we found a market (by market, I mean like convenience store) that had a couple of trees outside the shop.  The first place we looked at had trees for a ridiculously priced amount and we thought it was way too much to pay for a tree.  This place was more reasonable, but what we have noticed since picking up our tree is that it had probably been chopped down quite some time before we got it even thought the worked said that they had been freshly chopped down that day... kinda funny!  Anyway, we picked up our tree and because there wasn't any room on the bus, PT walked home with the tree while the rest of us girls rode the bus.  As we were on our way home, I was laughing in my head thinking about all the times that I can remember picking out a tree and this was by far the strangest place I have ever gotten a tree from!  When I was much younger, my family and I would go to tree farms around the city I grew up in a chop one down.  When I moved to SLO, I would purchase them pre-cut from one of those temporary tree farms set up in the car park.  One year, I even got one from Rite Aid.  The year before we moved here, we were living in a small studio and there really wasn't room for one so a lady from church let me borrow her the Grinch Who Stole Christmas looking one.  It was fake and pink!  Perfect for me!!! Not sure that hubs loved it that much, but he allowed it :)  Last year, the weekend of Thanksgiving, we picked one out from one of the home base stores here which reminded me a lot of the one year that I got one from Home Depot.  Same idea!  The challenging thing about buying a tree here is the fact that we take public transportation.  The tree we had last year was quite big and it was super funny taking it on the bus and then the walk down the hill from the bus stop to our house.  All this to say, we are breaking our old Christmas Traditions and making new ones!  I love it!  I love that things are not the same every year and that buying things like trees in the city is such a funny experience.  But, it's all part of the complete experience!  I would't change it!  Instead, you have to embrace it and laugh about it!  The greatest part was bringing it home and decorating it with my London family!  What a hodgepodge of tree ornaments we have!  I didn't have very many, but you can most definitely tell which ones are mine, which one is hubs, and then whose the rest of them are.  It's cute!  It's like the blending of our families, all on one tree.

Do you have any Christmas tree traditions?  When do you get your tree and decorate it?  What kind of decorations do you put on your tree?

~Trista

30th of November - I made it!

Woot!  I made it through the month of November - 30 days of Thankfulness.  I realize that I didn't write a post for every single day, but I have felt that in my heart I have been thankful more often throughout this month than I ever have been before.  I want to keep this momentum.  I am just so thankful for everything that God has provided for us and has blessed us with!  So, thank you for reading this month!  I am also hopeful that this has helped me get into a good blogging habit!  Meaning, I will be prayerfully blogging a lot more!  For now, I must rest.  Still not feeling so great and I have a busy day tomorrow.  Your continued prayers for health, not just for me but for all of us in this house, are much appreciated!

~Trista

P.S.  Another thing that Hubs and I have been doing the past couple of weeks has been reading through the book of Philippians every night.  What great timing!  Every time we read it, I am reminded again and again and again to rejoice!

29th of November - Church Thanksgiving!

Our church Thanksgiving was AWESOME!  What a new fun tradition we have with our church family!  I wish I had some pictures from the evening, but sadly, I didn't have my camera with me :)  Suz and I made turkeys and pies and cranberry sauce (because cranberries are hard to find) for that evening and then had the rest of our church get involved by bringing some of the dishes that you would probably find at a traditional American Thanksgiving!  We provided the recipes for them to take and then they brought their cooked dish that evening.  It was so fun to see their interpretation of the recipe as well as their reactions to all the food.  Everything turned out so yummy!  And most definitely reminded me of a very traditional Thanksgiving meal.  I think there was something so sweet about experiencing some of these peoples first Thanksgiving ever!  Everyone really seemed to enjoy it!  And what better way to end our evening than with praising and thanking our wonderful amazing God!  It was perfect!  I am thankful that everyone had such a great time and I am also very thankful that it's fairy easy to find Thanksgiving type food here and even if you can't find the exact thing, you can find a great substitute!  I have heard that in places like Japan, it is really hard to find anything resembling American food!  Have any of you readers experienced a Thanksgiving outside of the US?  What did you do?

That's all for now, but I do have a prayer request... the flu bug has been going around and there are a couple of us who have been resistant to it until now.  I feel the beginnings of it as does another.  But, maybe since we are the last in the house to get it, it won't last so long :)

~Trista