First Sunday In San Diego!

So there’s this band and they’re kinda the best.  Here is the link: http://www.myspace.com/frontlineministries760

 I first heard them here in California during the Festival of Life in Coachella Valley in April. They played at the mini festivals within the community.  They have this song called “God’s People Rock the House.” Seriously go listen to it…and to all the rest of their songs.  It will bring you great joy!

Anywho, I went to The Rock Church here in San Diego on Sunday night and it was a marvelous service! They have 5 services on Sundays and one them starts at  7 pm,  mostly for 18-25 year olds. It was one of the most high energy, enthusiastic, spirit-filled services I’ve ever experienced!

We started out the night with an awesome worship session.  They had a special guest singing…I wish I could remember her name but I can’t.  She shared about her suffering and how the Lord brought her through it, healed her, and how much she loves Him. It was so encouraging!

Then they had a “Rock Hero”. It’s where people within the church nominate someone who they think has shown dedication and sacrifice in serving or evangelism.  The “Hero” speaks a little bit about where their heart is for ministry. This blessed my heart because the bible says to “build one another up” and what better way to do it then by rejoicing in their love for Christ!

After that Miles McPherson came out and had everyone do the wave. Yeah, it was amazing. Then he asked if it was anyone’s first time coming.  What was so neat was that there were thousands of people there and Miles still talked to us like we were a small group sitting in a bible study.  Two girls in the front shouted out that they were from England, and Miles went down to the front with a microphone so that we could all hear their accents.  Then someone from the back shouted out that they were from France. Soooo….Miles ran all the way to the back of the auditorium with a microphone and had her say stuff in French.  Haha!

There were many other things that happened but I’ll just cut to the point.  The teaching was amazing. The worship was amazing.  The energy was amazing.  

So many people worshiping and praising God all together was a beautiful thing. When Miles was teaching it was just like he was talking to you, just having a conversation.  At the end he gave a alter call and at least 50 people came forward to receive Jesus as their Savior.  It was incredible! The whole service was real and relevant.

Speaking of relevant, this is the reason I wrote about that band at the beginning… because on Sunday, GOD’S PEOPLE WAZ ROCKIN’ THE HOUSE! Yeah, I’m cheesy…I know.

Well, it finally hit me. IMA GROWN UP!

My dad left me on Friday night. It was a sad ordeal, I cried…a lot. The realization that I'm on my own set in.

I dropped him off at Long Beach Airport and had an hour and a half drive home.  Plenty of time for my eyes to swell to the size of golf balls. And they did, my poor left eye was so swollen it took two days to go down!

The home sickness was setting in, the separation from my loved ones.  I put on my Tenth Avenue North CD and as I listened to each song The Lord reminded me of His faithfulness, what I’ve prayed for and how He is answering those prayers. In every situation in my life the Lord keeps reiterating

He wants to be my great Comforter in such a way that I would come to Him before going anywhere else.

 Now, every time I think of the word “comforter” I think of a blanket. Remember when you were a kid and you had that blankie(or perhaps it was a stuffed animal)? It probably has a few scars and a stain or two still on it ( mostly that nasty Gerber organic “Pea and Cheese Mix” that mom forced you to eat, You knew Blankie had your back!). Even so, it was YOURS and you loved it.   

Ahhh… man oh man, how wonderful that blanket felt after a hard day of making mud pies in the backyard. You’d crawl into bed, wrap yourself in the big ol’ fluffin’ puff and doze off to dream land. It just felt nice.

 You and Blankie would do everything together. You were BFFL’S!  You’d cruise with Blankie to the jungle gym, the zoo, to Mickey D’s, to the grocery store…you might have lost Blankie a few times while in the store. Your whole world turned upside in seconds,

 Dad searched frantically only to discover he was holding it in his hand.  In the end you found him again and life got back to normal.  When you were hurt you’d grab Blankie. It was Blankie that helped you through the scraped knee or oozing pustules ( ok, that was gross… sorry).

That’s how it should be with Jesus!! We should just let him wrap us up and hold on tight. Be our comfort when we’re hurting. Be our assurance when we’re fearful (or tearful in my case).  How great would it be if when our hearts were weary that it was as easy as grabbin’ that old bag of rags. Well, it IS that easy! (Only Jesus isn’t a bag of rags) I’m learning to take it back to the basics with Jesus. You should too.  Just let Him be your Blankie.  That’s what I’m doing!

I’ll leave you with a few verse from a worship song called “ The Lord Is”

“ The depths of your grace who can measure?

You fully supply all I need

You restore my weary soul

Again and again

And lead me in your righteousness and peace

You’re with me through every dark valley

There’s nothing that I have to fear

You are there to comfort me

Again and again

Protecting me, assuring me you’re near…”

Day FOUR!

Day 4:  Gallup, New Mexico to San Diego

  

Gettin’ our Kicks:  Before we left New Mexico we drove down part of Historic Rt.66! I loved all the old buildings. There were also a lot of Native American jewelry places.  We never ended up stopping…but we thought about it. There was this fountain  which I was slightly obsessed with. The water jumped around and made different patterns. I could have watched it ALL day :)

Walnut Canyon: REALLY REALLY REALLY beautiful place! Native American Indians used to live on the side of the canyon. They had rather small square stone homes and they had to climb down the side just to get water…Then they had to carry it back up! They were NUTS! Hmmm, maybe that’s why they named it “wal-nut” canyon! GET IT?!?! Hahahaha, I think it’s funny…

 Montezuma Castle:  Located in Arizona, it wasn’t just a “normal” castle. This is a ruin that was built into the side of a cliff by the Singuna people. It’s one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America it’s over 500 years old.  At the park they said that one day, the people just picked up and left. No explanation, nothing.

SEE IT?!?

Verrrooommm:  Sand storm. I saw one… in Arizona. 

Squish: The number of dead bugs on my car is ridiculous.  And I killed so many butterflies I lost count. 

  

Left Arm “Driver’s Tan”:  Thanks to the rotation of the earth, I now have a very tan left arm and a not so tan right arm. Thanks a lot sun shine… You’re the best!

BORDER PATROL: Once we started getting close to Mexico we hit border patrol checkpoints. The first station was by far the most entertaining. These guys weren’t in official uniforms. Wearing traffic vests they stopped us, looked in the back seat at large pile of suit cases, trash and maps, then asked us if we had any fruit. WHAT?! (They were trying to steal MY fruit! I felt offended.)  Then they asked if we had any animals.  (Now they want my pet?!)   What would they have done if I had a dog? Take him away with the fruit, oh.. the heart ache. Then they wanted to know if we had plants.  (They can take those.)  Long story short…(or not so short) …we didn’t have any of those things.  So they let us on our way.  Yes yes, they are doing their job…but oh what a strange job that is.

As we ended our trip in San Diego, there was great relief that the Lord had kept us safe along the way. No car problems...no tickets.  We were thankful, as well, for quite a few extra hours of sleep as our bodies adjusted to time changes.

We had traveled through The Great State of Virginia… down the  foot hills of the Appalachians into Tennessee with tall trees and lots of green… across the great Mississippi River… through Arkansas, dusty  Texas,  versatile New Mexico, blazed through 104 degree Arizona heat and mapped our way safely through sand dunes, mountains and speeding highways of California.  Overall, it was a wonderful trip with lots of interesting things to see along the way.  Mostly I will remember this trip as a sweet time with my dad that the Lord really blessed.     

Day 3

Day 3:  Oklahoma City to Gallup, New Mexico

Oh the traffic! When we rolled into the hotel just outside of Oklahoma City we asked the dude behind the desk ( who was very nice by the way, gave me a free water bottle) about going into the city in the morning. He told us that rush hour was at 7am and that it would take us forever once we got closer.  

Now, maybe I’m crazy or maybe I’ve just been living outside of DC too long but, the “rush hour traffic” here was like driving to church on Sunday morning!  There was ( from what I could see) one exit ramp full of cars, which was moving, and one lane coming from a different direction moving about 10mph under the speed limit( the speed limit it 65mph, so they were still going at a good rate). People here DO NOT KNOW what traffic is!  I wonder what would happen to them if they came to NOVA and experienced at little I-95? Hmmm

 Indian Nation: Off of I-40, starting in Oklahoma there have been signs. When the Indians were forced onto reservations here, they named the land after their tribe. We’ve seen Chockata Nation, Creek Nation and so on and so forth.  It’s been really neat and it makes me want to research the tribes and find out their individual stories.

Giant Duck: Stopped off in Amarillo, TX for lunch and saw this giant yellow duck.

Devil’s Rope Museum: My mom has been obsessed with this place since I was in middle school. I did a research paper and presentation when I was like in 7^th grade on barbed wire, we found info from this places website. Anywho, I texted her when we drove by it and she called us and said that we HAD to go…and this is what the conversation sounded like

Mom,” It’s the largest barbed wire museum in the US!”

To which my father replied, “That’s because it’s probably the only one!”

The museum was in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t end up stopping. Needless to say my mom was very disappointed and reminded us of how barbed wire changed farming, the military and the world at large.  Oh, well, maybe on our next trip!

Boots are Made for Walking… and that’s just what they’ll do.  On my GPS instead of a car I have little boots.  Every time I look at the screen, I start sing that song by Nancy Sinatra.

The Great Search for the Rio Grande (Another piece of geography I half got to see.) We rolled into Albuquerque, and we were hopeful to get to a waterfront to get some pictures. Mission Failed.  Can you believe that we couldn’t find the river!! 

75 during the day, 65 at night

Driving Fast: This is the fastest speed limit I’ve ever seen posted, and the weirdest

If I Owned Land:  When we were driving through New Mexico, the land there had green mountains and dry, vast stretches of land. So I started talking about what I would do if I owned land and I came to two conclusions:   

1.      If I owned land in New Mexico I would breed Kangaroos. Yes, it would be incredible. Then, after I had hundreds of them I would start releasing them into the New Mexico country side. Soon the whole south western United States would be overrun by Kangaroos!  

2.      If I owned land on a mountain I would build a castle. A real, legit twelfth

century castle on the side of the mountain in the middle of nowhere, just to trip people out. It would be the funniest thing ever. Think about it…you’re driving down this really long boring road, there is nothing around and then…BAM! A castle. And by the time your mind realizes what you just saw…( a castle)… you think you’re losing your mind because you are back driving on the same boring road. Ah…so good.

One more day of travel for us, “are you ready boots? Start walkin’!”                                                                             

Day 2

Day 2 – Nashville to Oklahoma City

We started in Nashville, eating at the ever grand Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

We walked in and the woman at the front of the store said something to us. Between the accent and the radio playing in the back ground we couldn’t understand what she said.

Assuming she said “ Good morning, welcome to Cracker Barrel” we stood and waited to be seated. No one came because she had told us to seat ourselves (which she repeated). So we seated ourselves and ate breakfast and went on our way.

Pandora Jewelry:   The stupidest name for a jewelry store I’ve heard. Like Pandora, really? Do they even know who Pandora was?

Pringle Park Stadium: This place had two giant Pringle Man faces on the front of the stadium. It was awesome!!

Toad Suck: Somewhere in the haze between Tennessee and Arkansas we drove past a park named “Toad Suck Park.”   What were they thinking?! It’s almost like the dude building it asked his three year old,  “ Son, what should we name the park?” and the kid said something like, “Road Duck. “  But, because the kid had a little slur going on, where his R’s sound like T’s and his D’s sound like S’s, the dad thought he said “Toad Suck.”      ….Gotta love America!!

The Stage Coach:  I only saw the back of it, but dad saw the whole thing. There was a truck with a legit life size stage coach on the back.

 Memphis:  Later on in day one we stopped in downtown Memphis so we could take pictures of the Mississippi river. The city was really neat! We saw the studio where Elvis recorded his music.  I loved all the buildings there… old cities are my favorite :).  And, there were quite a few trolleys that came through the city.

Road Killed Armadillo: We saw one.  Fact.

Fort Smith:  If you know anything about my family, you would know that we ALL LOVE HISTORY.  So, getting a chance to see a fort, much less a fort that is so rich in history was legit.  I’d heard about Fort Smith before, but I never knew it was so important during the 1800’s. Are you ready for a History lesson? Because here it comes….

Fort Smith was built in 1817.  It was home to Judge Parker and the very first U.S. Marshals. They kept the peace after the Indian tribes (Who were forced from their lands and travelled the “Trail of Tears”) settled in Oklahoma.  The fort housed notorious bad guys (and gals) and was the iron fist of justice in the prairie lands of Oklahoma and Texas.  People came west and settled around the fort for 60 years.  

Being out here in the West makes you realize the bravery and courage of the men and women who left their homes and trekked over thousands of miles of hills, rivers, desserts, mountains and fields in rickety wagons in search of a better life.  Imagine those very first pioneers!  There was absolutely NOTHING out here…except hope and opportunity.  How could they tell where they were going? How did they get supplies?  They really were crazy and really driven….. I’m glad they helped settle the West, making Manifest Destiny a reality for generations (like mine) to come.  They were so hard core!