to all you eager readers..here's a visual treat. well...here i am. which of course is short for...here i am. rocking. like a hurricane. i'm finishing up the semester..and let me tell you, please, i just might be strapped on the last day. oh yes. packing the heat, scaring the fuzz, locked and loaded ..cause i am DONE with that place. slash. this is not a bomb threat..AND you should pretty much stay in school...but this girl...she is done for a while. i have now reached the month of my midwest dismissal. ---> and it is a bittersweet thing...my friend megan really inspired me. she has spent the past few months in indonesia. and has left us with a phrase to mark this radical journey she is on... "stepping in faith". thanks meg. ooOOOoo. but seriously..so often i say that i have faith in what God is doing for me. and convince myself that this is real. but so close is the grasp i keep on the world. real faith is being able to let go of what i am familiar and comfortable with and step outside of myself..being willing to compromise myself, NOT for the world, but for Jesus and His kingdom. being steady in my affirmations. saying. yes, Jesus. you are my Lord. you are a God that saves..a God of love, and hope, and direction..and my life IS in YOUR hands...and i choose to follow the direction and plan you have made for me. making a choice.to step down and let Him drive..to really let go of the wheel... so..i have decided to step in faith. to really let go..and give all of this to Jesus..the good and the bad...my fears, my expectations, my desires, my hopes and dreams, my anxieties...my "mys"..i am making them His... and asking for your prayer.. a older man that i work with at cracker barrel..was asking me a week or two after i started. "so, what DON'T you like about this job?" cause of course..ptch.i love the food...so i told him. he asked me if i was a christian. and i said yes ..and he responded by saying "what these people don't teach you in training is to pray. PRAY in this kitchen. ask for patience and a good attitude. but also you have to make the decision BEFORE you get here that your work will be for God." before that moment..he had never mentioned God to me. never corrected someone for cursing..or prayed over people or broke into gospel...he didn't make a show of anything.but i knew. i KNEW that he was a man of God..it was glowing in his skin...and he was so right... please pray that when i arrive in sacramento..that my worship is a lifestyle...so that people KNOW that my joy, and laughter, and labor is that of the Lords and not my own. i find myslef wondering how the heck i get caught up in some of the things that i do... but what these people, of the world, don't teach you is to pray. when the kitchen gets hot..and also when it is not..to give each day to God for His doing..to make the decision BEFORE things get hard and tempting...make that desicion to let God drive and to have your work, and play, and sleep, and talk, and thoughts be for HIM. i have made that decision, that promise. not just for this journey. but for every day. but i still need your prayer and as Christians we NEED accountability. i challenge you to wake up, and not just in your head. but on your knees and with your tongue. tell your Father..."God, today is for you. give me patience for the situations i cannot handle myself and faith that you will guide me through those. thankyou for this day that i do not deserve and help me to live it in a manner that brings glory to you. i am giving you control of my lips, my mind and my hands. help me to use them to make worship and prayer a lifestyle, rather than a show or weekend festivity. thankyou for your perfect plan. today i am giving you the wheel...." having faith in those words and the guy that i speak them to ....thats what carries me. so....i guess you could say..i'm excited..and nervous..and eager..and anxious..and about to pee my PANTS!..cause God has taken me on a heck of a ride..and DANG He knows how to make me smile. so...this is me. stepping in faith, rachel. <>< | 
