ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

november 18.

this isn’t the one year anniversary that many would associate as a happy one. it isn’t of an engagement, marriage or job. for me, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my dad’s passing.

to reflect on this day hurts a little. i didn’t get to be by my dad’s side when he passed. rather, i was told of his abrupt passing as it was happening on the phone by my mom and the doctor only to arrive that evening… 12 hours later. i didn’t know that my goodbye hug and kiss when i left LA for denver was going to be the last that i would give my dad.

to reflect on this day makes me realize how time passes so quickly. i’m slowly calling denver home and plugging myself into a community here. loving people surround me. work consumes me. travel is nearly every other month if not every other week.

yet, in all the busy-ness, i inevitably stop to remember this day. this day is the day i lost the only man in my life. yet this day is the day that dad got to finally rest after living most of his adult life working like a dog to provide for his family… me…

so in essence, this day is not as sad for me. it’s more of a commemoration and challenge. it’s to commemorate a man that loved me so much that he worked so hard to give me the best life he could. it’s a challenge for therefore to live the best life i can.

love you, dad. see you in heaven.

 

D2S Blaze – DENVER

as propaganda would say “AWESOMENESS!”

the teaching. propaganda’s spoken words. promote’s tight beats. the dramas and skits.

i’m humbles and honored that GOD has given me the opportunity to help set all this up. we challenged. we trained. then commissioned. what a sight to see when all the room was filled with kids holding up signs of SEND ME for THE Cause.

What is THE Cause? It’s based off of matt 28:19 – “go and make disciples of all nations.” but it’s not about just going and tell them of Jesus. as you go and tell them of the good news of Jesus Christ, make disciples. train and equip so that they can and will do the same as you are. about 2 centuries ago, people called it “the great commission.” but today, D2S is renaming it THE Cause!

denver (home and base for D2S) had great people and great energy. all the volunteers were on top of things extending their hands out to help us and be a part of all of this. things went great logistically and presentationally.

AWESOMENESS YOU ARE, MY GOD!!!

 

WHAT THE … NECK…

Upon my mom’s insisting, I ended up going to her chiropractor during my LA visit/vacation. It’s not like I had neck pains or anything extreme in the pain department. I do have occasional cracks in the neck as I twist and turn the neck. Well, mom said she’d pay for it so what the heck.

The examination consisted of multiple exercises of lifting my left arm, tensing it and breathing in & out. After 5 minutes of that repetition, the prognosis is that the cervical spine is out of place. The chiropractor then tells me to kneel down and lay my cheek on this soft bench. He then starts to put intense pressure with his palm right behind my left ear, which definitely is a scary feeling, until there was this POP. Whow…. Pop & Lock…
I started to think back at a couple of friends who talked about a treatment that involved a chiropractor and adjusting the cervical spines. That area of the spine not only connects the head to the body but is also one of the determinants of circulation and blood flow thus affecting the functions of major body organs and hormones.  Blah blah blah…

Going back to me…

So now I’m “adjusted”. My friends have said that there’s a domino effect where that one disc realignment eventually properly realigns the rest of the spine to have the proper “S” curve to the spine. I don’t know if you can actually feel that and maybe it’s me feeding into it psychologically, but I felt taller today. A couple months ago, I was stunned that my height was measuring 1” shorter than my usual – 5’5”. Walking next to my mom this morning, she seemed shorter than yesterday. Is this possible? Either she’s daily shrinking or I’ve grown just a tad bit taller… both viable situations. yea?
My muscles are a bit sore in areas that have no reason to be. Texted one of my friends to make sure this a legit feeling or if it’s something to be freaked out about. Googled “cervical disc” and it mentioned that those discs are connected to the upper body muscles. Makes sense…. Below is a description of the discs and their connections:

The cervical nerves control many bodily functions and sensory activities (http://www.spineuniverse.com/displayarticle.php/article1021.html).
C1: Head and neck
C2: Head and neck
C3: Diaphragm
C4: Upper body muscles (e.g. Deltoids, Biceps)
C5: Wrist extensors
C6: Wrist extensors
C7: Triceps
C8: Hands

Now I must monitor my progress. I must see how my body reacts to this minor yet pivotal change. Oy vey… the travesties of growing old.

 

D2S – COLUMBUS, OH

HAPPY FEBRUARY!!!

it’s cold here in Denver… but not as cold as frigid COLUMBUS, OH!!!! this past weekend was the start of Dare2Share’s second leg of the tour starting out in cold columbus. there was an ice storm that shut down the city day before our arrival last thursday. but our staff’s prayers of protection and for good weather carried us through safe travels & return, an awesome columbus conference and wonderful weather for outreach.
the columbus convention center not only housed our conference this past weekend but 2 other youth-oriented conferences: AN ANIME CONFERENCE & A CHEERLEADING COMPETITION. all of this youth chaos going on ALL AT THE SAME TIME… God has a sense of humor. but it was a good training ground for our youth to conveniently walk outside our halls to share their faith to their peers right there, to practice what they learned that day. it was quite a site seeing our dare2share students sporting their d2s shirt talking to another group of kids dressed like the SUPER MARIO BROTHERS… (I GOT IT ON CAMERA!!!)

listening to these conversations on the side, i realized how much MISUNDERSTANDING, BITTERNESS & ANIMOSITY some of these anime kids harbor against christians and those who approach them about THE LOVE OF GOD. their hearts are hardened if not jaded at the least. but the worst part of it is that we christians are at most the root of the cause by those who misrepresented the Word and Love of God. these anime kids may have once went to church with their parents, but were scoffed, rejected and unaccepted more so because of their interest in anime, if not for some other odd reason, which to their peers seemed “nerdy”. the continual rejection created an even harder heart in these scarred kids as they scoffed back at our d2s youth that CHRISTIANS ARE HIPPOCRITS. ouch…

yes, our GOD IS TRUTH. but our GOD IS LOVE TOO. Christ came out to hangout with the rejects, to listen and lovingly guide them back to the Father. but most importantly, he left us with a challenge to “DO AS I’VE DONE”.

now, i’m a decade or more older than these kids… wow… i’m that old!!! but once again and again and again, i’m truly inspired by them that I TOO FELT THE CONVICTION TO BOLDLY SPEAK THE WORD OF GOD THROUGH LOVE. one of our security guards was on her shift in our breakout room that i was working in. as i started to instruct her of what we wanted her to watch out for, she and i got into an hour conversation and that eventually lead to faith. lisa was raised by a charismatically faithful grandmother who served the church with joy. but lisa’s path led her to fall away from the church as she experimented with other lifestyles. but she said that in her 40 years of life she’s not lost faith in God while being spared from the worst. her confession was that THERE WAS ONLY GOD WHEN I HAD NOTHING OR NO ONE ELSE. she talks to God and believes that he’s there.  however, she still wasn’t sure if she was saved. how easy that was to answer… ephesians 2:8-9 – by faith your saved. it triggered a peace in her that showed on her face. i prayed with her… gave her one of our evangelism books (VENTI JESUS PLEASE) and encouraged her to continue to talk with God and hopefully the hunger for His Word would follow along with the longing for a community of encouraging believers church. would you please pray for lisa too?

well… now i’m back in denver resting up for the 3 back-to-backs to come in less that 15 days: lincoln-ne, phoenix-az, & atlanta-ga. every city is unique with its blessings and trials. dear friend, please keep me and my d2s family in your prayers. it is truly by UTTER SURRENDER that God’s will be done in us. we really ask God to use us too to advance His Kingdom. We hope you’ll do the same and join us in this prayer.

 

END OF OCTOBER UPDATE

Dare2Share: 2 weeks ago, D2S wrapped up our 7-city preview tour where we did small luncheon training for youth leaders/pastors in how to help youth leaders tackle their youth groups as like a reality series – how to deal  & teach with drama. We got a lot of positive feedback from it.
Next weekend (Nov 7-8), Dare2Share will kick-off the first conference of our 9-city INVINCIBLE tour. We’ve been preparing and going over checklists, equipment, presentations, catering, etc. for the past couple of months, and of course there are still small things here and there that continue to be honed and finalized. Today, we finally packed and loaded our truck and every day inches closer to the long-awaited first tour of the conference. Half of our team (including myself) will start traveling into DC next Wednesday (Nov 5) – the day after election results!!! This will be interesting regardless who’s elected as the next president of America. Following the next weekend (Nov 14-15), D2S will continue the tour in Denver.
Prayer request - Please pray for our team’s health. Since the Chicago trip 2 weeks ago, Greg Stier, Ken Allen (my boss), myself and a few other members of our team have been struggling with a cold and sickness. Please pray for travel mercies for the D2S team as well as all the youth groups that will be traveling into DC & Denver. Please pray for all the logistics of this conference.
But if you forget all of the above please remember this:  pray for the 4000+ youth and their youth leaders that D2S will be training at the Patriot Center (Fairfax, VA) and the 6-7000 youth and their youth leaders in Denver’s Pepsi Center. We pray that these groups of youth will claim their faith leading them towards a a deeper move for that personal knowledge and intimate relationship with God. We pray God will use D2S to wash the feet of the youth leaders (as Jesus did to the apostles) so that they may be equipped to continue training youth to be fearless ambassadors of the Truth.

Personally: I continue to adjust to this odd place called Denver – rocks cracking my car windshield, daily drives inhaling the fumes of Purina Dog Food Factory, no Bank of America, etc. Financially, it still continues to be really tight living from paycheck to paycheck, but thank God for the GAS PRICE RELIEF – today’s average $2.50. YAY low prices!!!
As mentioned above, I’ve been suffering from a horrible cold that’s affected my sinuses. It’s been taking a long time for me to recover (2 weeks so far). Due to the crazy times of preparation and all that sorts for the conference, I’ve forgotten to make and go to my doctor’s appointment. Plus, I’m a little nervous because this my is first conference of the tour and I try to be overly prepared imagining every scenario that could go wrong.
To add to the drama, my dad’s health continues to suffer. His kidneys are pretty much shot and the doctors want to put him on dialysis but dad doesn’t want it. Doctors give the worst case scenario that dad doesn’t too long to live if he keeps refusing dialysis.
Prayer request – Please pray for my health that I’ll fully recover by Nov 5. Please pray that I’ll know how to budget my finances better (at the least). Please pray that my dad won’t feel the pains of a dying body but be filled with the comfort Our Lord’s peace.

 

november MAP

november is rolling over sooner than thought. the ideas of how to incorporate MAP into my life has been roaming in my head especially being around the man who started it and challenges others to do it. i’m still not situated when it comes to denver, living, church and important stuff like that, but i got to start sometime and somewhere. and it’s always easiest to start with what you got and what you know. so as november comes over, these are my MAP goals are:

1. D2S conferences are coming in the month of november. will be praying for dc and denver in terms of city, youth, youth leaders, conference logistics and conference team.

2. inspired by jason and his means of going wide everywhere he goes. very bold… feel challenged to do that. must get some “gospel of john” booklets and give them out relentlessly.

3. re-reading the book of john.

4. i don’t have children yet but i do have a core group of younger sisters that i need to challenge and convict.

5. buy “venti jesus, please” booklets and have an on-line discussion with the girls (since they are in LA)

6. pray that i can get better situated in my budgeting so that i can finally give offering financially.

 

WRITER’S BLOCK

have you ever felt like there was sooo much you wanted to talk or write about that when it came down to actually talking about it or writing about it, you feel this mental block? this is true at this very moment and has been true for a few weeks now. i’ve had a pleothra of ideas, situations and thoughts to expand my thoughts. but it’s blocked from leaving the cavity of my brain.

 

THE MEANING OF CUTTING HAIR

sometimes cutting hair is a therapy. it’s like saying, i’m ridding myself of the old style so i can pursue a new style. to spiritualize it, i’m ridding myself of the old so to take on the new. i’ve had friends who wouldn’t cut their hair for an entire season/semester so that they could preserve the luck of that season/semester – superstitious. when the final game/exam is spent, the first thing they’ll do is go get their fresh haircut. on the other hand, some girls cut their long locks after breaking up with their boyfriend signifying that he’s cut from her life now.

for me this time around… it’s none of the above. for a while, i saw this picture of a hairsyle that i  self-negotiated for a while now whether i would do it or not. i’m not like those girls who are afraid of cutting their hair and trying different styles. i’ll try almost anything. my one requirement is that the cut shape my face in a complimenting and suiting manner.

so i cut my hair again for $18 in aurora, co. my stylist back home in LA, kay, would not be happy at the quality of this cut. the lady sorta went her own way without talking to me about it. i started pointing out that this doesn’t seem like the picture, and she kept making excuses that it wouldn’t look right on me. oh, the quality of the cut, i’ve ben tossing my hair around a couple of times (the short amount that there is) to find some awkward clumps. (I MISS YOU, KAY!!!) then she starts making a smirk remark that i should’ve scheduled a few days in advance so that she could give more attention to this cut. WHAT?!!! you haven’t been? – it shows from the quality of the cut. that’s not cool.

i walked out a little irked. haircut is satisfactory but not the best that i’ve had. i’ll make it work somehow as i wait for it to grow so that kay could fix it. grow, dead cells, grow!!!

 

my MAP

it’s nearing about 2 months since i started working for this ministry called DARE2SHARE YOUTH MINISTRIES. sincerely, it is the work of GOD’S hand on me coming here. i don’t even like denver. why would i move out of the comfort of los angeles to come to denver, ho-bunk in comparison. it’s got to be GOD.

but with that, i share that it’s a blessing in disguise. NO, I STILL DO NOT LIKE DENVER FOR ALL THAT IT LACKS. but i love this ministry and the passion of the leadership, the focus of the organization and pursuance of HIS KINGDOM COME. i get the rare privilege to travel with one of the nation’s most sought out youth speaker, greg stier. i’ve been working beside him, learning from him and feeding off of his passion. yes… i feed off of people’s visions and passions. i’m drawn to visionaries.

recently, he set out a challenge to our staff along with the donors/partners of Dare 2 share ministries calling it MAP. i’m the type of person who wants to live and breathe her passion. of course i jumped on and took the challenge. however, at this current state of being, i’m definitely feeling things out and seeking the ways to apply this in my lifestyle ministry to be an effective agent of HIS KINGDOM for the generations to come.

here’s a description of MAP (from www.gregstier.org/mymap): MAP stands for “Mobilization Action Plan.” It is the primary tool that we use at Dare 2 Share to equip adults to mobilize teenagers to share the gospel with every teenager they know. The idea is to engage adults on six different levels:

1. Pray for the Spiritual transformation of the next generation. (Ephesians 6:18)

Ideas:

• Pray for the school(s) in your neighborhood.
• Pray for the individual teenagers in your teenager’s yearbook as a family.
• Pray in your small group or Sunday school class for teenagers consistently.
• Pray for your church youth group.
• Pray for those leading the youth in your church(paid and volunteer)
• Pray for teen events you know that will have an impact

2. Set the pace for the next generation by going wide with the gospel personally (Matthew 28:19)

Ideas:

• Ask a neighbor, friend, coworker or family member, “what are your spiritual beliefs/religious background? and engage them in
  conversation about christ.
  Give someone you know a tract or a book that explains the gospel.
• Invite a neighborhood family to church and take them out to lunch afterward and find out where they are at spiritually.
• Write a letter that lays out the gospel to a friend and send it.

3. Set the example for the next generation by growing deep in your relationship with God. (Matthew 28:20)

Ideas:

• Schedule a time to study God’s Word and pray daily
• Tackle one area of your life where you are being disobediant to God.
• Get a friend to hold you accountable in specific areas.
• Start a memory verse program
• Start journaling your spiritual walk

4. Train your own children to grow deep and go wide. (Psalm 78:1-7)

Ideas:

• Ask openended questions that help you engage in real and raw discussion about God with your child. (consider using Soul Fuel on
  www.dare2share.org as a tool)
• Read Culture Commission as a family weekly on the Dare2share website to give a weekly way to bring God up with their friends.
• Train your children how to share their faith with their friends and hold each other accountable.
• Go through the book Dare 2 Share…a field guide to sharing your faith as a family.

5. Mobilize teenagers to share the gospel with every teenager they know. (Colossians 1:28-29)

Ideas:

• Give a teenager a tool that will train them to share their faith.(Dare 2 Share Survival Guide)
• Take a group of teenagers through the GOSPEL Journey Reality Series and use it as a tool to train them to share their faith.
• Give a teenager an evangelistic book like Venti Jesus Please to pass to a friend they know and engage in evangelism
• Challenge teenagers in your youth group to reach every teenager they know with the gospel.

6. Financially invest in teen focused Great Commission causes. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Ideas:

• Become a monthly donor to Dare 2 Share Ministries to regularly strengthen your commitment to teen focused Great Commission causes.
• Prayerfully consider a sacrificial donation to projects and events that equip teenagers to reach teenagers.
• Support your youth group’s outreach efforts (buying resources, subsidizing training efforts, etc…)
• Send a teenager to camp, conference or a missions trip where they will have the opportunity to share their faith.

i’ve created a page in my blog to especially track this subject. FOCUS & PRESS ON