Merry Christmas

Holiday greetings to all of you!
And I know, I am in Iowa at the moment, but the picture is taken in Colorado, so it fits.
I hope you all are doing great :)

Tuba Christmas and a hockey match

Yesterday was fun, my friends Rhema and Matt asked me to join them to enjoy tuba music in Forth Collins and a hockey match between The Eagles and the other guys from Odessa (not Ukraine but Texas).
The tuba music event called Tuba Christmas was basically about 50-60 tuba players gathering together and playing Christmas carols in the city. I have never seen so many tubas in my life, i like that deep sound they make.

Afterward we drove to Loveland, hung out in some stores and later went to see the hockey game. Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing a live hockey game before, so that was quite an experience. There is something about watching sports events in a crowd. Since it was not the highest league game I missed seeing slow motion replays of exciting moments from the screens. It was fun never the less :)

A true hockey game

There is no proper hockey game without a good fight to please the audience :P

Winter pleasures

I was taking a little walk outside just now, it's -19 degrees Celsius (-3 F), I guess it's bit warmer in the sun though. But anyhow, I love this weather! Absolutely love it! Cold, snow and sunshine, I wanted to dance down the streets, but I did not. Winter rocks!

Snowshoeing at Brainard Lake

On Saturday a group of people from the Highway Community Boulder and friends went to a little snowshoeing trip to the area around Brainard Lake. I have never done it before and I enjoyed it a lot. Here are the snowshoes, they are really helpful in keeping one from sinking into the deep snow and also give a good contraction when walking up steep tracks.

The weather was perfect and the mountains were beautiful as always, it was pretty cold though, but layers, many layers was the answer :)


Here's Rachel, she's a lot of fun to be around.

We made it - the Brainard Lake, elevation 10300 ft, which is about 3140 meters.

The whole event was yet another proof to the well known fact that I love snow. Just give me something to do like skiing, shoveling snow, snowshoeing, soccer, building snowmen, etc so that I don't have to freeze and I'll be fine.

It's Christmas time

I am loading my pm3 player with Christmas music and people in the area are decorating their houses. Here's one fun example, my favorite is the Santa on a motor bike.

Click on the image to see it bigger :)

Onething at IHOP

The other day someone sent me information about this conference. I believe I have to go there and I want to :) Pray that everything would work out from logistics to my heart to be prepared, thank you! And if you happen to be around, come too!

Thanksgiving

My first real Thanksgiving holiday, yippee! I am looking forward to see what it brings and I am very thankful that I can be in the States to enjoy it :)
I am also thankful that I have had an opportunity to see what a computer addict I am. I don't have a laptop at the moment, and the whole day today I was just constantly brainstorming where I could go to access internet and who's computer I could use to do some design. I must say I don't like being so dependent on things, so I hope this weekend without a computer will bring me some freedom :)

Alright, gotta go back to stuffing envelopes, there are still a couple hundred left to go :P

Have a great day you!

My name is Pride. I am a cheater.
I cheat you of your God-given destiny…
because you demand your own way.
I cheat you of contentment…
because you “deserve better than this.”
I cheat you of knowledge…
because you already know it all.
I cheat you of healing…
because you are too full of you to forgive.
I cheat you of holiness…
because you refuse to admit when you are wrong.
I cheat you of vision…
because you’d rather look in the mirror than out a window.
I cheat you of genuine friendship…
because nobody’s going to know the real you.
I cheat you of love…
because real romance demands sacrifice.
I cheat you of greatness in heaven…
because you refuse to wash another’s feet on earth.
I cheat you of God’s glory…
because I convinced you to seek your own.
My name is Pride. I am a cheater.
You like me because you think I’m always looking out for you.
Untrue.
I’m looking to make a fool of you.
God has so much for you, I admit, but don’t worry…
If you stick with me you’ll never know.

By Beth Moore (from her book Praying God's Word)

Mexico

Just about a week ago I had a wonderful opportunity to visit Juarez, Mexico (and El Paso, TX). M J was teaching the Word for a group of about 30 pastors and other church people. And in the evenings we were at the Reto Teen Challenge center for women with addiction problems.

Crazy things are happening in Juarez right now, a lot of threats, blackmailing and murders. We were safe though. I did not see anything that would reveal that such things are going on, except for many police and military troops.
But good things are happening as well. People are open for the Word and most of the pastors in the city have started to come together regularly to pray, fellowship and share testimonies. There are fruits already, as whatever is done in the spiritual, it will have a manifestation in the physical realm. I heard some testimonies even of people being raised from the dead recently. So, there is definitely hope for this city!
One day MJ gave me some time off and I got to see around the city a bit. As we walked into the city park, guess what, I saw ----- many cactus bushes!
Not a big sensation, well, actually I wanted to say that I saw a giraffe! I have never seen one before and Mexico was the last place I was expecting to see it ! They have loooong tongues, did you know that?

One night I got to stay in the Teen Challenge center and I slept in a room full of girls who did not speak any English. That was a lot of fun actually. One of them went to an English class though but I think she had just started. Anyhow, she had a some sheets of paper with sentences in English and Spanish on them. So in addition to body language we used that to communicate.

The program that is running there is very successful, mostly thanks to a godly woman Elena who is leading the program. The girls there don't just get out of their addictions and problems but they learn how to live their lives with God on their side. They are also taught many useful skills to help support themselves once they are out of the program. Part of the program is quilting and every girl sows their story and the new found hope into it. Beautiful stuff!

It was a great trip for me, not just because I got to visit Mexico and meet this wonderful culture and people there, but mostly because of what God did in me. I am not sure how it exactly happened- maybe it was through me sitting in teaching sessions for 3 days, maybe through meeting the people I met and seeing what God is doing in them and hearing their testimonies, maybe it was the Holy Spirit that caught me off guard because I was out of my comfort zone, and maybe it was all of it together.
I have more hope, the desire to know God through His Word is even deeper and I have this sweet assurance that God is with me all the time. And something is inkling inside, saying "greater things are yet to come".

Thank you, all of you who made it possible for me to go there! Thank you for your prayers and support!