{"id":72,"date":"2018-01-27T02:46:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T02:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/?p=72"},"modified":"2020-06-15T21:58:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T21:58:45","slug":"just-keep-smiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/27\/just-keep-smiling\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Keep Smiling"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives<\/em>.” – Genesis 50:20 NIV<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the 2017 year ended, my church closed the doors to our Dream Center, do to some unforeseen circumstances, but let me tell you about my Daddy God!  No sooner than we had to close the doors, Daddy provided another open door for us; a door to an even BIGGER location for a new Dream Center location.<\/p>\n

January 21st, we had a small dedication service for our new CityGate Dream Center!  What a beautiful sight to see the many faces that came out to worship together and work towards getting our new Dream Center cleaned and put together.<\/p>\n

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One of my besties took pictures on my phone for me, while service was going on.  Once I had some time to look over the pictures, I found this one.  Let me tell you about this picture:<\/p>\n

One dream of mine is to go into all the world – sharing the love of God through leading worship to the young (which will also naturally mean their parents).<\/p>\n

Take a look at this picture and tell me what you see!<\/p>\n

Daddy God gave me the opportunity to stand alongside 3 very powerfully gifted women of God, as we led worship during our small dedication service.  And standing, sweetly in front, was a precious little one.  I only wish I could put into words the feelings that overcame me as I stood on that stage, being part of worship.  The best way I could put it is like being a little kid in a candy store.<\/p>\n

Looking at this picture, I felt as though Daddy was showing me my dream; telling me to hold on to my dream, to not forget about it, because He hasn’t.<\/p>\n

I love that Daddy is giving me the opportunity to take a step towards living out my dream, as He prepares to send me to Spain.  As I prepare for this next adventure, Daddy sent my little sis and I on yet another adventure:  to apply for my visa.<\/p>\n

One of the requirements for applying for my visa was to go up to Washington, DC.  You see, this could have been an issue, because my car is not fit to make that drive [at the moment].  Now, I had this all planned out, where I would spend the weekend away with some friends, then head into DC that Monday to apply (this needed to happen during this specific weekend, because I was told that it would take about 4-5 weeks for my visa to be returned to me, and I needed to make sure it would be back before I leave for Spain – this weekend marked 6 weeks away from my departure).  Well, that door closed, but my Daddy, being the coolest Daddy that He is, opened up another door.  My little sis and I decided to make it a road trip, and a friend of my mom happened to come in clutch with a place to stay and being our tour guide #WontHeDoIt<\/p>\n

We drove up Sunday after the dedication of the Dream Center.  The drive up to DC was smooth – NO TRAFFIC!! [can you believe it?!]  Dinner Sunday night was quite the learning experience.  We went to Friday’s and were seated in a booth in the bar seating area, where we waited, at least, 30 minutes [lesson of patience I guess].  Our tour guide, let’s just call him Steve, was very hilariously outspoken about the terrible service.  Okay, if I were to be truly honest, it was a little bit too much for my comfort, but I simply tried to keep smiling about the effort that was being put forth.  <\/em><\/p>\n

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What I do want to tell you about is our server.  His name was Mike, but he looked like Nick Cannon [you know, you meet a celebrity everywhere you go..you’re welcome].  You see, Friday’s was not very well staffed, so Mike was EVERYWHERE trying to get his job done while also trying to appease ALL of his customers.  The poor guy looked like a chicken with his head cut off trying to take care of everyone.  What stood out to me about Mike, was his smile.  Mike NEVER stopped smiling.  Even when he came over to our table and had to deal with the “shark-like” comments of Steve, he remained smiley.  He even laughed, and tried to “keep the air light” by joking around about being Nick Cannon [yes, we did tell him he looked like Nick Cannon].<\/p>\n

#Funfact…<\/em><\/span> Once I turned in my visa application (after having to fill out the correct one twice – I know, I’m a mess), the lady behind the window said to me, “alright, we’ll get this back to you in about 2-3 weeks.”   My jaw dropped to the floor; 2-3 WEEKS?!  2-3 weeks sounded so much better than 4-5 weeks #WONTHEDOIT<\/p>\n

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“Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope”<\/p><\/div>\n

Lessons I learned from this trip…<\/span><\/em>  Don’t allow anyone to steal your joy!  Thanks to Mike for reminding me of this<\/em>.  [“The Joy of the Lord is your strength.”<\/em> – Nehemiah 8: 10<\/strong>].  Daddy God has me in the palm of His hands, so I just need to trust Him wholeheartedly. Why I even allow myself to freak out (even if it’s just a little bit), I will never understand, seeing how He has proven to be faithful EVERY TIME<\/em>. Jeremiah 29: 11<\/strong> is a great reminder!<\/p>\n

My encouragement to you…<\/span> <\/em>Do not despair.  If God has shown you the path He wants you on, He will get you through any obstacles that may arise.  He knows the plan, He’s got you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” – Genesis 50:20 NIV Before the 2017 year ended, my church closed the doors to our Dream Center, do to some unforeseen circumstances, but let me tell you about my Daddy God! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,8,13,19,6,12,16,20],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/20180122_101910.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetnostrangers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}