Afternoon Tea at Church

Today was exactly what I needed, afternoon tea at church with the ladies. I didn't know if I'd know anyone there but I went anyway. What better way to get to know strangers, right?

I chose to sit at a table with women close to my age - there's very few of those up here. Usually, they're born here, move to Phoenix for their "productive years" then move back up here to retire, maybe becoming a snowbird and maintaining a condo in the Valley.

Anyway, I chose an Island Mango type of tea for my meal. The food was presented well and tasted pretty good. There were scones, small sandwiches, and some phyllo cups with veggies. The Chicken Tortilla soup was very good, too. I'm going to get a copy of the recipe at church tomorrow from one of the guests.

Dessert was a little dish with 4 small tea desserts. They were pretty good too. I chose a Vanilla Caramel Truffle tea for that.

The nice part was really the conversation, getting to know the ladies at our new church. They're mostly in their 60s and up, but there's a few younger that I can fit in with, and all the ladies are so nice. We had a time of focusing on Christmas with little prizes to fill up a bag of reminders of the season. Our table hostess Erica was nice enough to buy everyone at our table a little fall scented candle too. I even met a woman who approached me to say she too was a Monavie distributor and one of her customers saw the sticker on our van and told her about me. Maybe she'll tie in with some of us and we'll get our local business growing like our distance group.

Tomorrow at church, I'll have new familiar faces (still bad with names when they're all so similar: white, white curly short hairdo's, glasses, and shaped about the same, same height, and most with blue eyes). I think this new church will be great for us - not too big that we can't meet everyone, not so small that there's nothing going on to fellowship outside of service. I'm interested in what their Christmas services will look like!

Learning to Trust

What an "adventure" this past 6 months have been! We've watched our business grow and shrink, back and forth, half a dozen times. We've used up all our savings, tax refund money and cashed in 401ks. We've put out job applications (in case that's what God wants us to do in the meantime) and not one has responded back to us. By the way, I hate this new getting a job by online applications only - how are you supposed to sell yourself to the new employer?

Anyway, as we approach Christmas, we realize that this year will have to be very different. Even in years with what looked like no money at all, we managed a few things for the kids and baked/shipped gifts to close relatives and friends. This year, it'll have to be just about being together, appreciating that we live in a nice home, with heat and running water. We'll be celebrating that we've made it this far. We'll have to focus on hope for 2011 to be better with God's blessings finally arriving.

This morning I couldn't sleep past 5:30 so I got up to read my bible and take notes on the verses brought to my attention. They almost always have one common theme when I do this - isn't it "funny" how that works?

Today, every verse was about how God saved people from poverty, enemies, starvation, etc. and He promises to bring us into the Promised Land with food, water and financial stability. I've learned to trust God over the past 10 years or so. He's brought me through more than I could ever explain. My joy isn't quite back where it should be, but my hope is growing. I trust Him to get us through this and that if we follow His commands, remain humble, and serve others above ourselves - I truly believe that He'll bless and reward us this next year. We've had some difficult lessons to learn, but hopefully, we're learning the last of them now so we can help others and in turn, get ourselves up and out of this mess too.

I still remember the morning I awoke to what really sounded like God's audible voice regarding this business saying, "I've ALREADY given you everything you need." I trust Him to bring us out of this with our business. I've known for years now that this is how He's going to change our lives, but first, He had to change us on the inside to prepare us for that leadership role.

What do you need to trust God for today?