Rachel's Reflections

January 19 - Part 1 When I woke up the next morning after seeing Geraldo for the second time at the coffee shop, I continued with life as normal. It was Sunday, so I went to the 9:30 service at my church, as always. I sat in the same spot, as always. I saw Geraldo talking to someone in the foyer, but I made my way to my Sunday school class (Catalyst), as always. I was early to Catalyst, so I picked a seat between two girls to talk with them before the class started. Suddenly, my phone rang. It was Geraldo. I almost didn't answer my phone. I didn't want to. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I answered. "Where are you?" he asked.  "In Catalyst," I replied. "Is that the class that guy invited me to?" "Yes," "I don't know where that is," he said, but I could hear it in his voice. He wanted to come, he wanted to see me, but he didn't know where the classroom was. I closed my eyes and sighed, "It's okay...

"Rachel, there was a new guy at Small Group last night!" Lydia told me the first week of October. "You should meet him!" "We'll see," I said with a shrug. I had given up on guys at that point. I had liked a guy months before who had just played with my heart. I had tried online dating but quit after two months. I decided that if God wanted me married, He'd have to throw someone in my lap. I wasn't going out of my way or holding out any wishful thinking anymore. I'd stay focused on ministry for the time being.  When I met Geraldo at Small Group the next week, I didn't pay much attention. He seemed like a nice enough addition to our Bible study group, solid in his faith in a lot of ways, but he said one thing I disagreed with about the prosperity gospel and Benny Hinn, so I wrote him off and carried on with life. Three months passed. Occasionally, Lydia would tease me about him, but I always told her I wasn't interested in him because...

"I feel like God made you an Oreo, only a backwards Oreo." I knit my eyebrow trying to follow my mom's line of thinking as I listened to her voice note. "He's got cream on two sides and the hard cookie in the middle," she continued, "As in, you're standing in the blueberry patch on Saturday just talking with Dad and suddenly this lady goes, 'Hey, I want to get your newsletter.' I mean, wow, cream, sweet cream. And then... a hard cookie." I laughed a bit sardonically as I realized where she was going, "There's a lot more layers to the 'Oreo' than that this week!" I replied. I was having a weird week and wasn't sure how to feel about it. Yes, God had given me several moments of sweet, delicious cream, but those moments of cream had been broken up by more than one hard thing. On Thursday, listening to my mom's message, I couldn't decide if the cream outweighed the hard or if the hard outweighed the cream...

The big week had finally arrived! I smiled in excitement as I thought about the 5-Day Club about to happen at the Welcome House. Several refugee families had been invited of mixed beliefs and backgrounds. I was also nervous. How would it go? Would anyone get offended? Angry? Keep their kids from coming? Or stop the 5-Day Club from happening? (A 5-Day Club is a ministry of CEF, a type of backyard Bible club with stories, songs, games, and memory verses) Day 1 As the CEF teachers walked toward the tree, one talkative little boy following in my shadow went on the defensive. He said his family doesn't believe in Jesus and asked something about God having a dad. I went on alert as I listened to him. This is exactly what I was nervous about. I wanted to navigate these conversations with respect for others but in a way that the Truth could still be proclaimed. "I know you don't believe in Jesus," I said as we walked into the shade of the tree. He seemed happy that I knew thi...

My ears perked up. The three men at the table across from me in the coffee shop had started talking about the Bible. My intentions of working on my historical fiction novel got pushed aside as I started eavesdropping on their conversation. Who were they? What were they saying about the Bible? The smartly dressed, white-haired gentleman facing me pulled up Romans 8 on his phone and read part of it to the young man sitting with his back to me. Intriguing. I love Romans 8. Was it a pastor mentoring a young man in his church?  Then came the revelation. The two older men facing me identified themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses. I should have known. But what about the young man with his back to me? Who was he? I could hear the older men quite well, they had louder voices directed towards me. But the young man had a softer voice and was facing away from me. I couldn't hear him very well. Concern for the young man grew in my heart. I know who Jehovah's Witnesses are. I know what they...

Why do I doubt and worry and stress? Because life can seem stressful at times, especially when it came to car and insurance shopping this past week. I know intellectually that God is faithful, yet I revealed my doubt in Him by stressing myself out with worry. I found out, it was completely unnecessary. My brother has been gracious enough to let me use his car while he finished his last year of college, but he graduates in a few weeks. My time to shop for a car was running short. What could I even afford in this current, inflated market? I stressed out about it last week. Then a gentleman from my new church called on Saturday, "I found a great car for you. A 2010 Subaru Forester in great condition and within your price range. You can go test drive it this afternoon." I felt elated! I even laughed on my way to look at the car. I had joked with my dad weeks ago that a Subaru would be a nice size (not too big and not too small for the ministry) but the chances of that happening w...