Perfect Day, Perfect Parking..Jesus has Risen!

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. I woke up excited and ready to go and ready to serve in the Parking ministry. People were praying for me cause we were told there would be about ten thousand visitors attending this weekend. But for some reason I was not scared, worried, nor hesitate to serve yesterday morning.

It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky. The air smelled clean and refreshing. When I arrived i stopped in the lot to look out and soak it all in.
As I anticipated the rush of cars, it was amazing how SMOOTHLY everything went. Everyone in their cars were smiling and happy. Jesus has risen!

I thank you Lord especially on that Easter day, to have the opportunity to honor, worship and serve you.

Why Serve...Or Not?

Someone asked me why do I serve so many ministries? I pondered the question a moment and answered it this way. "I don't serve out of guilt, I don't serve cause I feel obligated to, I serve because I want to, and feel it is my opportunity to use my gifts given from God to impact ones life, and help them find our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

"So how does working in parking and as a producer impact lives?"

I paused, then replied. "Many people associate 'impacting lives' with a major significant act, which in many peoples mind is some miraculous way (through God) they caused an individual to see the light and change their ways and ultimately changes their lives, but not me."

God is good and God it great. Although major significant acts transpire, I see God's greatness everytime I serve through the tinest, insignificant acts.

In Parking how you greet a newcomer as they are contemplating and struggling in their mind whether or not to come to our church for the first time. Your 'hello' may have change thier mind to sit in service and hear God's word....

In tech ministries as a Producer, I am just one piece of a larger group of individuals doing small acts. In this ministry we dont directly interact with an individual, however, how the service is percieved could have changed the view of ones perception of the church and took their mind off a stresser they were thinking about, and allowed them to open their hearts during worship to hear God's messege.

"Tiny insignificant acts make all the difference. You may never know that you have impacted ones life, but trust in God, through Him all things are possible!"

Think about it and ask yourself why are you serving or not?

Guard Chicken??

This is comedy!! I wonder where I can get one of those chickens?

Happy Birthday

Its my birthday today, the BIG 35....I cant say I am excited for presents or a party like my children are. I cant say I am excited to be older like I was when I was much younger as I couldnt wait to be older so I could drive, vote, or drink.

I was at some good friends house yesterday as they were hosting a friends baby shower yesterday and my mind wondered cause I knew I was getting older the next day. During that time I listening to their playlists of 80 music remembering my youth and wondering, if on my birthday, I could get younger instead.....Fat chance. haha!

As I get a little older, I am excited as I look back on a spectaular year and look ahead, I and am thankful for awesome friends in my small group, thankful for a wonderful family, and I pray to continue growing my relationship with our lord and savior and thankful for everyday he gives me to worship and praise Him.

When your hungry, what language do you speak?

The family and I were looking for a place to have dinner. I had my mind set for 'Chili's'; it's relatively good food, decent selection, kid friendly and pefect on the pocketbook.

As I was driving through the local mall of restaurants in the neighborhood, my boys were asking about different restaurants and what they serve. My oldest asked the following:

6 y/o: What's that place?

Mom: That's P.F. Chang's

6 y/o: What do they have?

Mom: Chinese food.

4 y/o: Chinese food? Nah! We don't speak Chinese!

Urghhh, He prays tooo long......"Hurry, say Amen!"

Everynight before bed, my boys say their prayers. Its always interesting hearing prayers from a 6 and 4 year old. Tonight was no exception.

My 4/yo started to pray and said,

"Thank you Lord for this day, please protect us, and keep us safe from the bad people, and thank you for keeping us healthly, and protecting us, and taking us to our grandparents, and watching us, and..., and...., and..., and..., and...,and...," (lasted about 4 mins, seriously :-) )

During his prayer his older 6/yo brother chimes in..."He is praying tooo long, its my turn now.......HURRY, say Amen!"

4/yo says,"amen."

6/yo starts to pray, "Thank you Lord for this day, Amen!"

4/yo says,"Thats too short, mine was better cause it was longer." (Smiling grin)

When my boys are bickering about prayer in prayer, rather than hearing whining from them about who took what from whom or who hit and hurt whom.

It was a good day.

A Moment of Clarity...

I had an a-ha moment! I teared up as soon as I realized it.....I get it!

My father and I were not close, but when my mother left us just before going into high school, that changed. He had prostate cancer and he knew he was going to pass, so he left to the Philippines on the first week of Feb 1993 to shield me from his death. He died on 2/13/1993. I was 19 years old when my father passed away.

I loved him very much. He taught me to be strong, be a man, be the best and don't take crap from anyone. My time with him was short. Too short.

I was angry. I was mad at God. Perhaps thats why I really didnt have a need to seek Him back then.

As I was worshipping at service yesterday, I was praising and singing to a song called, "Made me Glad". It had an impact on me. Enough of an impact, I wanted to hold back tears.

When I got home I decided to download the song and lyrics to listen to. I noticed this song was based on a verse in the Bible:

Psalm 144:2 (NLT)
He is my loving ally and my fortress,
my tower of safety, my rescuer,
He is my shield, and I take refuge in him

Thats when it hit me.

We all have a physical father who raises and guides us on earth and we have our Almighty Spiritual Father who raises and guides us.

Although I lost my earthly father and have been sad, angry, and at times hateful. I realized my spiritual Father, Our God, was reaching out to me in a way he knows I respond to. At that moment of listening to the song and reading the verse in the Book, it was clear to me although my earthly father is no longer with me to share his guidance, his wisdom and in my failures and successes. Our God, Our Father was reminding me He is here, with Me always, to lean on, to ask for guidance, for wisdom and to share my successes and failures. He would be my fortress, my shield, my strong tower, my rescuer, my loving Father.

To my earthly father Romeo - I truly miss you and love you.
To my God the Father - Thank you for reminding me I am not Fatherless.

Quiet and Free time is overrated.

My kids are with their grandparents....My first thought was what do I do next?

Its so silent in the house. It relaxing and erie and the same time. How weird, when I want silence, I finally get it, but miss the noise.

I finally get free time and I seem to catch myself say, I wish I had free time, now I have it but dont know what to do.

Perhaps this is Lord's sense of humor saying becareful what you pray for.....?

Speak up says the Holy Spirit!

Interesting week at work...We had a fairly significant client reach out to us to activiate a backup service they has been paying over $4k a month since 2002. I was responsible for the dreaded RCA aka Root Cause Analysis. Here was my dilemma:

1. I was asked to attend a conference call with the client and discuss the service from a technical standpoint, answer any questions and confirm we would activate the backup service during a maintenance window. [What my boss and sales people said to me prior to the call- We know it not set up so please dont discuss with client the details just answer technical questions and confirm date]


2. As a result of the RCA I discovered the service was NEVER setup from the very beginning. YIKES! And they had paid over $100k in total MRC since 2002 (monthly recurring charge) [First thought in my mind popped, We have to inform the client, apologize and refund their money!]

Here is what is interesting, before following my current path with our Lord, I probably would not have cared to say anything or think to say something, cause in my mind it didnt impact me so why should I put myself (my job) at risk with my company for bringing up such thoughts. I wouldnt want to be exiled at the breakroom because I was the cause for the company losing revenue.

But when the Holy Spirit tuggs at me, its by no means a small tug. Its like he is saying, "SPEAK UP silly, you know this is wrong", but with a megaphone inside my head! I spoke up and informed my VP how I felt and what I believe. He listened, he hemmed and hawwed and pretended to understand to pacify me. After that conversation I decided to publish my findings in my RCA! (Please note RCA goes to all Executives for review). Per my boss he said, "Please lead deep dive of RCA and publish all facts". I did just that. I published ALL the FACTS......I have not heard anything since, but will find out more next week. I think I still have a job (LOL)! I believe my actions were appropriate; Just because I am at work doesnt mean I have to follow a completely new set of rules and values which would comprimise who I am, and when I am in my personal life, I go back to following the Lord. It doesnt work that way....and when you stray off the path HE will gently remind you with a megaphone. ;-)

I am happy I left my old self behind and spoke up...