Little Miracles

My time in New Zealand brought me such a passion for Christ, and I suddenly began to see Him in absolutely EVERYTHING. The following is an email that I sent out to friends and family towards the end of the PC:

Today, four really cool things happened to me! I've been up in Denver for the last few weeks, working on staff with Operation Christmas Child at the Processing Center as a volunteer trainer. For those of you who don't know, Denver is about an hour away from where I live in Colorado Springs - a family opened their home to me in a southern suburb of Denver, for as long as I'm working. I've been having a blast! I get paid to talk! And talk, and talk, and talk, and talk! What a perfect job for me, eh?

Well, onto the cool things. Midmorning, there was a press release at the PC. Franklin Graham, the president of OCC, was there and gave a speech, which was very inspiring, and there was a children's choir who did a wonderful job. So this morning when I left the house, I didn't pack a lunch, because I was hoping to get by Chipotle (a giant burrito restaurant - the burritos are giant, not the restaurant ;)) for lunch. After the press release, my boss made a big announcement: "Chick-Filet is here today, and giving out free lunch to everyone here!" Wow!

The second neat deal was that I got an opportunity to shake Franklin Graham's hand and thank him for what he does. After all of these years with OCC, around 12, I finally got to meet him.

Now one of the jobs at the PC is going through the boxes to pull donations. We stress keeping the "integrity of the boxes," because there are so many great stories (spiritual impact stories) of how God matches up the perfect box to the perfect child. One instance of this happened last year when a little girl got two of everything in her box and it turned out that she had a twin sister at home who couldn't make it to the distribution! And it happens all the time too! But I
digress... So I was working in Presort to end out my shift for the day seeing as that I had no more volunteers to train, and I began, of course, talking with two other ladies. Well, they got distracted, and realized that there was a stuffed toy which they didn't know who's box it belonged to, because it was on the table in between them. I suggested that we pray. The three of us held hands, and I asked God to give us discernment as to which box it belonged to. I thanked Him for the gift and I acknowledged that He had a child in mind for that toy. I asked Him to make it completely obvious which box it belonged to. Immediately when we finished praying, one gal says, "I know where the toy goes." And she tells the other lady, "When you unpack all of your contents, you always put it on that side, so this toy must belong in mine." Never really thinking about it before, God brought it to her mind and she knew.

The fourth occurance is the coolest of them all. Since I talk all day long, during trainings, inspection, presorting and even during breaks, I get the opportunity to meet a lot of people. One lady in particular, I've seen several days so far, with her two oldest children. A few days ago I started telling her more about these spiritual impact stories and the miracles that have happened. I was also able to tell her how OCC isn't about gifts at Christmas; many times, the kids don't get their gifts by Christmas time. It's really about getting our proverbial foot in the door of a country so that we can share the Word of God. We additionally have the Mail Box Club, which is a ten week correspondence course discipling these children in the Bible and do relief work with their communities. Boxes are distributed by local churches and missionaries, so that these people also have a place to plug into after they've come to know God. The more and more I told her, the more and more she got excited. Little did I know, she went home and told her husband these things, who got equally excited. Today she returned with her entire family for the press release. She called me over to her and introduced me to them.

Then her husband randomly asks me if I happen to be a writer. I say yes, and so asks me who I write for. "No one yet. I'm actually an aspiring writer." He then tells me that he is an editor of a magazine for Focus on the Family, and if I wrote an article on the deeper ministry of OCC, he might be interested! Even if it doesn't get published, it's still awesome to get the opportunity. But please keep this in prayer. If he does like it, it will be published next October,
right before OCC begins.

Praise God for He is so good! He has taken care of so many things, opened so many doors, and I never even had to ask! How much more will He provide for the big things that happen. Daily, He has been teaching me to have complete faith in Him. Thanks for listening... I thought that this might be an encouragement for you. I urge you to open your eyes today and look to see how God blesses you and have total faith that He will - you'll be pleasantly surprised I'm guessing ;)

Blessing to you :)


I did write that article, but the editor's boss decided that in the end, the subject-matter didn't fit into the magazine's overall purview.

Instead, I received a kill-fee (which did amazing things for my confidence, as usually, only well-established, published writers receive this), and a finished article that I will be sending out to other magazines for possible publication this winter.

Unexpected Paths

Another God-ordained thing happened while I worked at the PC; I met Christina Moos, an adjunct professor at Colorado Christian University. I had remembered that my youth pastor and his wife both attended the college, and I was sent a brochure shortly after graduating high school, but I knew that CCU was costly, and so I never pursued the idea of attending there.

While in New Zealand, however, I did quite a bit of soul-searching. With offers to stay at Crystal Springs, head down to the South Island, move to England for the summer, and aspirations to tag along to Cambodia, Australia, and Singapore, I wasn't sure where God wanted me. It seemed like He was opening door after door, and telling me to just choose one - it didn't matter which one, because He would do great things through me no matter what I decided.

But I also knew that there were people at home waiting for me, and that Angela's engagement was almost a certainty (I couldn't possibly miss her wedding). So I applied for a job with OCC, knowing that I would return home, and needed a job for the winter months.

Going back to college seemed like the obvious next step, although returning to Pikes Peak Community College did not appeal. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs was too close to home (about three blocks), and The University of Colorado at Boulder was too much of a party school. The University of Northern Colorado was too far away (2 hours north), and Colorado College was far too liberal for my tastes.

So when Christina suggested that I look into CCU again, it sounded hopeful. I was already in Denver for several more weeks, and the school was only about 20 minutes away from the PC. After one of my shifts, I scheduled a tour and drove over.

CCU was the perfect situation for me, and I couldn't wait to tell my parents! Small classes, caring professors, bi-weekly chapels, apartment-style dorms, a creative writing degree, and a killer music program.... All of these wonderful things, and I knew inside that it would never work out. But I really liked that school.

Thank God, my parents agreed.

Next Fall, I will be a Senior at Colorado Christian University, having already completed a year there!