My Birthday Month

Dear Family and Friends, November 10, 2007

I am writing you all again for the best month of the year, my birthday month, the month of November. I hope this letter finds all of you in great spirits and good health. I was born Thanksgiving morning at 8:10 on the 27th, just in time for turkey, and in time to give thanks. I came out backwards, poor Mom, sorry Mom, probably why I ended up so backwards in this world, but I wanted to land on my feet. There have been lots of new happenings going on in California to let you know about. I survived the San Diego wildfires, I got a new part time teaching position, a new daily promise, and there is also a new guy that has struck my fancy.

The San Diego wild fires were a different experience living here versus being out on the east coast back in 2003 (the last big wildfires) and having to watch the news coverage 3000 miles away. It was a new experience, something like Armageddon when it was pitch black and ashes and smoke filled the air. It was hard to breath and made your chest and head feel like you were breathing a heavy poisonous gas that would suffocate you like a pillow plastered on your head. Just imagine being cooped up in a house with your dogs, roommates, some friends where it was dark and gloomy for four days straight. Although there is something about living on a mountain that can be both safe and hazardous with wild fires; I was on the safe side, thank you Lord. Unfortunately, approximately 1600 homes were burned to the ground and over a half million people were evacuated from their homes. My Mom was evacuated from a nearby town, my roommates and I had a couple (friends of the roommates) stay here all week who were evacuated, several friends and family were evacuated, and my new church provided a shelter for around 60 people who were forced to leave their homes and all their belongings in the surrounding area. They even used the high school that I work as a shelter for animals being evacuated. It was quite a week of heroism and an amazing amount of generosity in the name of love for each other and the creatures the Lord created.

After a recent interview with a company called TVS, I started studying for a test to become a licensed traffic violator school instructor run through the CA DMV. So I get all the people in San Diego that violate traffic laws regularly and are forced to go to traffic school on a Saturday for eight hours. The company has promised me 2-3 Saturday’s a month and since I quit eSylvan, this job replaces that income. Also, if I truly ever want to teach college, I will need experience teaching adults and this is an awesome opportunity to do that. Thank you Lord for making getting this new job easy, which must be God driven, or my sister called it validation. It’s the hard things that we all try to manipulate for our own benefit, instead of the Lord’s will, and it usually isn’t where the Lord is leading us. Sometimes knowing which direction He wants us to take is hard to realize. Through validations of coming easy and without the force my own efforts and wills, tells me that I’m in the right direction. Or it could be the opposite, like me trying to force my way through this local school district for a teaching job and realizing it just might not be for me or where the Lord is leading me at this time. We tend to get sidetracked with our own agendas, dreams, and goals, and we fail, as I have, to realize if I am truly considering where He wants me OR am setting my own goals and dreams and trying to force them? Thanks Amy for sharing your story of God driven happenings coming easy through validation and realizing that the things that are hard are usually forced through our own efforts, causing frustration and disappointment.

My daily promise for today:

Tuesday, November 6

This week's promise: God comforts those who are persecuted

Where do you turn when threatened?

"Send your light and your truth; let them guide me

Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.

There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy.

I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!

Why am I discouraged? Why so sad?

I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!

Psalm 43:3-5 NLT”

An Appeal for Guidance

"Being lost in the darkness can be a very frightening situation. Imagine if you were being pursued by people who were out to kill you!” This was the psalmist's urgent dilemma, and he didn't know which way to turn. But he did know to whom he would cry out for help. He asked God to show him the way, to guide him in the truth, and to lead him to the Lord's presence.

Pray that God will guide your steps.

Set your sights on your final destination—God's dwelling place—and encourage yourself with the prospect of living joyfully in the Lord's presence.

I loved this Daily Promise and I thought I would share it with you. Isn’t it awesome to know that our creator is there when we call, even in the darkness? I personally don’t like being in the dark and the thought of someone after me trying to kill me, wow, it freaks me out!! Especially after watching a movie like 30 Days of Night, where the setting of the movie took place in Alaska, during their actual thirty days of darkness, when the vampires/zombies are out to kill you and everyone in the small town.

Of course the 30 Days of Night movie, as many movies do, implodes the concept of evil, but as Christians, we will be persecuted and we will run into people that will want to fight and be negative about life, people that will display the opposites of the fruits, the sour fruit, as I like to call it. The world we live in is filled with people that want to make you miserable, because they are miserable and misery loves company. It is too easy to fight evil for evil, as shown in the Old Testament. This is why I enjoy reading the New Testament, because “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whom ever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16. Nothing in this world could be so bad as to want to put hurt, bring down, put down, make miserable, take advantage of, or even lie or deceive another human to gain your own selfish desires.

Lord, thank you for sending Your only Son, that died for all of our sins, including these people we can become when getting too involved with the things of this world. I want to pray for those people Lord, lift them up to you and poor Your insurmountable love on them as they walk this earth, and help them to realize that we live in a spiritual world, where good and evil are in constant battle, and we are the ones who have the choice of which side to follow. I say all of this in your precious heavenly name, Jesus Christ, amen. We need to be in constant prayer for our enemy as Paul told the Romans in Chapter 12 (please read, especially if it has been a while), it is by far one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. It literally can be an inspiration for us all.

The new guy’s name is Avery, and it actually has been a long time since I have been on a date, and we have been out like six times now. We were set up through my room mate Glen, who has been good friends with Avery’s dad for several years now. I dated a few guys here and there while living in California, but nothing serious. This guy is a California native who works for his Dad, whom owns his own business, so we have that in common, way to go Pops! He is really sweet, loving, smart, and loves sports as much as me. He is 29 and never been married and no kids, we have so much in common and have been connecting on many levels. He likes to write and has many manuscripts of fiction created by his hand as well as a large family that he is close to, something else we have in common. We recently went to a High School football game, the big rival game between Oceanside and El Camino, and we are getting together today to play basketball down at the beach. I am trying to take things slow, please pray for our relationship to grow and allow the Lord to lead us on the right path.

I am sorry that my letter is so long this time, it actually was about three days in the making, but I do love to write and inform my family and friends of what is going in my life. I post all of my letters to my BLOG, so if you think you might have missed one of my letters or post’s, hit the BLOG for reading as well as pictures. Thank you so much Lord for allowing me to share the wild fires experience, my new part time job, my daily promise, as well as my new friend Avery with my family and friends, thank you to those that read this far and may you bless them accordingly, thank you Lord for sending Your only Son who died for my sins and the promise of eternal life, may I not ever fear anything, including death because of You. I say all of this in Your precious and holy name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let’s put our Armor of God on together on a daily basis and not fear anything evil or even death. I love you all and God Bless!!

Tonya

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