Adventures, blessings, and things to pray for...

I'll start with the adventures:
1. I painted my entire room this weekend... all by myself! I should mention that I have never painted anything before (well, unless you count primer... I did help some friends with primer a couple months ago... but never paint). Deric gave me a quick lesson on how to edge and paint, and off I went. Two coats of one colour, three of the other, lots of paint, and a lot of time during a weekend... and voila! My room is no longer drab grey and icky yellow... it's brown. That may not sound like an improvement to some of you, but believe me, IT IS! When I get all of the furniture put back in place and touch-ups done, I will take some new pictures and post them. I'm really happy with the way it came out, and I feel like I accomplished a great lifetime feat by painting a room (by myself at that)!
2. I explored a little bit more of downtown and checked out a $450,000.00 condo that is for sale in the heart of downtown (for that price in downtown Vancouver you can get a two bedroom condo that is 873 square feet... what a STEAL! HA! No wonder everyone in this city rents. I doubt that I would ever be able to buy real estate in this city... unless I decide to become a doctor after all. Even then... as you can probably imagine... if a small two bedroom condo is half a million, a house is too much money to even fathom. It hurts my head just to think about it). So, no, I did not run into a lot of money recently... there just happened to be an open house for this condo in the building that Sarah (see blessings) was house sitting in for a friend. I got some free chocolate out of playing the role of an interested buyer. It was fun!
3. I learned how to juggle... o.k. well I can't actually do it yet, but I started learning how to. I need a LOT of practice. So far I can't even manage two oranges (even one was a bit of a struggle), so it may take years before I get to three (and I probably shouldn't be using oranges... sometimes they split open). For those of you who know me, you're probably not at all surprised that juggling didn't exactly come naturally to me... but the point is that I tried, and that I'm learning new things. I know the technique now, and the theory behind it, I just have a hard time putting it into practice (go figure this coming from the kid who couldn't catch a ball if it was coming straight for her head). The free juggling lessons came out of an unexpectedly fun evening (see also blessing).
Now for the blessings:
1. My dad informed me this week that a refund cheque came in the mail for me. It was something that I had forgotten all about and wasn't expecting. The amount was for the same amount as the interest on my loans. So, the money went into paying back some of that heaping pile of debt I have incurred. That was a nice surprise (the cheque, not the debt).
2. Last week at church I met Sarah, who got in touch with me during the week and invited me to dinner at her place on Friday night. Friday ended up not panning out for her, but we did get together for lunch and an afternoon of fun adventure downtown on Saturday. I had such a good time and left feeling so happy to have really had a chance to connect. I really think that Sarah will be someone who I will become good friends with over time. Hanging out with her, and the fact that she took the initiative to befriend me was such a blessing to me.
3. A couple of weeks ago at the Jacob's Well workshop I met someone involved in a local kid's ministry who invited me to their community meal on Monday nights. The last two Monday's haven't worked for me, but this Thursday I called to ask about coming today. I found out the time and location and agreed to be there for dinner tonight. For various reasons, that I won't expound on in this blog, I was really not looking forward to going by the time today came. In fact, I spent much of yesterday and today thinking of ways that I could gracefully back out of going to this dinner. However, I had already committed to being there, and didn't feel right about backing out just because "I didn't feel like it" So I resigned myself to the fact that unless I came down with some kind of illness today, I was going to dinner tonight. I decided that I would just try to have fun and try to remember that any time I meet new groups of people, I may be meeting someone who will become a good friend or good connection. Well, it's funny how God works. After totally not wanting to go tonight, it ended up being more fun than I could have imagined. We ate, walked, talked, laughed and juggled. I may have made a couple of new friends. I learned more about this ministry and I am seriously considering volunteering once a week.
4. Reine gave me an old sweater of hers that she doesn't wear anymore. It's my new favourite article of clothing :)
I'm sure there have been other blessings along the way that I'm missing, but these are the ones that stand out at the moment.
Things to pray for...
1. Continued financial provision... a way to pay back loans.
2. Wisdom in deciding my level of involvement in various things, including volunteering with ministries.
3. That God would continue to bring people across my path who will be important people in my life here and the ministry that God is calling me to.
4. I had an opportunity today to share with one of my co-workers a little bit about my God. I listened as she told me about her background, her search for truth, and the confusion that she is feeling. I encouraged her that God wants us to know Him and that if she is praying and seeking to know more about Him, He will give her understanding and allow her to see more of Him. Please pray that God would show Himself to her and that she would continue to grapple with those tough questions.
5. Pray that I will be faithful to the Spirit's promptings and that I will truly be an ambassador of Christ both at work and at home.

P.S. The font colours I chose are similar to the colours in my room... just to give you a little sneak peak :)