The Fisherman

I just finished reading "The Soul Winner" by Charles Spurgeon. For those of you who haven't read it I would definitely recommend it. It is an awesome book.. :) I was really convicted by a certain paragraph in this book and I thought I would share it with you.

The fisherman is a very hardworking person. It is not at all any easy calling. He does not sit in an armchair and catch fish. He has to go out in rough weathers. If he that regards the clouds will not sow, I am sure that he that regards the clouds will never fish. If we never do any work for Christ except when we feel up to the mark, we shall not do much. If we feel that we will not pray because we cannot pray, we shall never pray. If we say, "I will not preach today because I do not feel that I could preach," we shall never preach any preaching that is worthwhile. We must be always at it until we wear ourselves out, throwing our whole souls into the work for Christ's sake.

So with whom, will you share the gospel with today?

I'm not sure about who God will have me share the gospel with today. But tomorrow I will be teaching Sunday School again and I will be sharing the entire gospel with whomever I have in my class. I teach PreK-2nd grade at Granada Hills Community Church. I can't wait to see what the Lord has planned. :)

My Testimony

Before I came to Christ:

Well, I was raised in a Christian home. My parents are both Christians and we go to church, regularly. Before I became a Christian I had a major problem with lying. It was a habit that I couldn’t control. It seemed like every time I opened my mouth I would lie about one thing or another, even if I wasn’t going to get into trouble if I told the truth. I am no longer like that. Although I do sin, it isn’t a continuous thing and not something I do daily like it was before I came to Christ. This is a major change in my life since I repented of my sins and put my faith and trust in Christ alone to save me. Before I became a Christian, I only read the Bible and memorized Scripture because I was required to do so for school. Being home-schooled, my parents included the Bible and other Christian books in most of our curriculum. However, I was more interested in history and not really in looking at the world with a Christian perspective. I remember I loved learning about archeology but not from a biblical perspective. This has entirely changed. I love reading my Bible and other books with authors like Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, and John MacArthur on the top of my list. I love learning about Biblical archeology as well.

How I become a Christian:

How I came to faith in Christ is somewhat vague for me because I was fairly young at the time. I remember one day coming into my parents’ bedroom and closing the door. I don’t remember why I went into their room. I started asking my dad several questions, which then led to him having a conversation with me about sin, judgment, and salvation. I seem to remember asking my dad, “Why did God make me this way?” I had asked him this question many times in the past. I had always struggled with that issue. The fact that I had all of these medical problems and my sisters had none to speak of made me wonder. I guess I was questioning God, really.

I remember being upset when I asked my dad the question. The conversation gave my dad the perfect opportunity show me my sins and how I needed to repent and receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I had already known about Christ and the cross so that information wasn’t new to me. But the way he showed me brought it to life. He didn’t use any fancy analogies but just brought it to me straight from God’s Word. He then asked me a couple of questions. I don’t remember the questions, but I remember I started to cry. I remember my dad asking me if I wanted Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior. I said yes. My dad had a huge smile on his face. He led me in a prayer and then prayed for me. After that he called my mom in and told her. We all gave each other hugs.

My parents were so happy since I was their eldest daughter and first of us kids to become a born again Christian. My father baptized me the following January. He pastored Pico Canyon Community Church at the time. I’ll always cherish that day.

Today:

Well, since then my walk with Christ has grown tremendously. As I mentioned earlier my problems with lying is no longer an issue. Although I do lie, from time to time, it is nothing like it was before. I also love reading my Bible. I’m not perfect and I don’t read it every day. I use to get bored reading God’s Word. I would have rather read something else. Now, whenever I read God’s Word I am always gleaning something new from it. It seems that some days that God is speaking directly to my heart from His Word. He does this by convicting me of sin. Other times verses and passages seem to leap from the pages and remind me to pray for someone in my family.

Today, I enjoy fellowship with believers more than I do with unbelievers. Even if the unbelievers are people close to me—even members of my extended family—I still enjoy the fellowship more with my Christian brethren.

I also enjoy going out and doing evangelism with my dad and sharing my faith with those who are lost and are bound for Hell. I have attended an Ambassadors Academy where I learned to share my faith in a biblical way. This has significantly changed my life as well. Before attending the Ambassadors’ Academy, I was very timid when distributing gospel tracts. Since then I have handed out a bunch of tracts. I have also open-air preached a few times, which really made me nervous, to say the least. But I had all the back up I needed. Phil 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I have been able to have quite a few 1-2-1 conversations, with various people. I have talked online to one young man in Indonesia and I’ve talked to a heckler that Ray Comfort engaged while open-airing at Huntington Beach. These were two very different conversations. I still get nervous every time I go out to evangelize lost people. This is normal. We should hope that we are a little fearful when we go out and share the good news because it helps us to rely more on God than ourselves. When fear comes, don’t quit.” Press on. God is always with you and you don’t need to be afraid when he is on your side.

As I mentioned before, I use to question God about my medical problems. Sometimes I still struggle with accepting the way that I am and the fact that I am going to have these problems for the rest of my life. But with God’s help I plan to overcome them.

I have a found a way to use my medical problems for the glory of God. I am currently going to college and will soon graduate with my AA degree. I will attend California State University Northridge beginning in the Spring Semester of 2009. I am working toward a degree in Child Development so that I might minister to kids in hospitals, by spending time and interacting with them or, if the opportunity arises, by sharing the gospel with them and other hospital workers. That is my ultimate goal. I have always had a desire to work with kids. When I first started taking classes at our local community college, I thought about being a preschool teacher. I began praying and doing some research online. I discovered that I could work with kids in hospitals as a Child Life Specialist. I have had a lot of experience in hospital room settings, having endured several surgeries and hospital stays. I thought I might be an encouragement to the kids. As I thought about the medical conditions I have and how I could be helpful in that area, I was reminded of a verse. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His pupose" (Rom. 8:28). I finally realized why God gave me so many medical conditions. The reason was so that I could help kids who find themselves in hospitals around the world. To Him be all the glory forevermore. My heart’s desire is for all to come to repentance and put their faith in Jesus Chris alone for salvation. So, I will strive to do all I can to get the gospel to a lost and dying world and to rely fully on Christ no matter what happens.

It Is Well With My Soul

I'm just going to write what is on my heart for the time being. I don't know why I decided to put the title as 'It is Well.' Maybe it is because that is the hymn that popped into my head as I was walking earlier. A lot of things popped into my mind. The one thing I didn't like was the sun on my back. I don't like the heat. I would rather have it be cold. That's what I have to say for those of you that it is actually feeling like fall. I wish it was here too. But no I am actually sweating. lol. Feels more like summer. Although the trees are shedding their leaves, laughing at me and saying I'm wrong. Well to get back to the real reason of this journal I guess. As I was saying many things popped into my mind. I thought primarily things about my future. I had ideas/plans for what I thought God had in store for me but now within the past few months I have seen that start to change. I can not give all my reasons why just now. My views and ideas of how my life and my walk with Christ should look like has grown. I have to thank my friends and family who have led me in wanting to grow closer to Christ daily and becoming more of a godly woman. I won't mention you by name but you know who you are.

One idea that has changed were my thoughts about homeschooling. Now don't get me wrong. I loved being home schooled and wouldn't change that for the world. But did I ever think of homeschooling my own children if God ever gave them to me. My answer would be..

No.

My reason for this was because I thought I would be incapable of doing this or never being as good as my mom or some of the other ladies I know that have done it and still continue to do so. They are amazing!!! Well after having conversations with one person about what I had talked to a coworker about I feel quite firm now that I will home school. My friend asked me if I would want my children to have a worldly influence that I saw other children tend to have after being in public school? My answer to him was "No I would not." I do not like all the results and affects that the world has over the children I see nowadays. Now I know that the world will probably influence them in some way but I can hinder that as much as possible. I don't want my children to be influenced by the world but to have them follow in Christ's footsteps. One way I can do this is to teach them myself with the help of my husband whoever that may be and lead them to the Lord as my mom and dad did with me. That is what I will do now if God gives me the blessing of having kids.

I also thought a lot about having children as well. With my medical conditions my endocrinologist has told me that I will need to take medication to help with that. That doesn't mean that if I take medication that I will definitely be able to have children. I have also done some research online and found out that women with some of the medical conditions I have are more likely to have miscarriages. So it's like two strikes in a row which discourages me a little. I have prayed about this alot and even though I may not be able to have children on my own, I have decide that I would most likely would want to adopt if that was the case. That is of course my future husband agrees and is willing to think of adoption as an alternative. Those children need as much love as another child that I could try to have on my own. I have always had a desire to if I could be a missionary and work with orphans. Not many of you know that. Where as of right now it doesn't look like it is in the plans, plans can always change. Whether he calls me to go out and be a missionary and minister to them or he brings them to me to have me adopt I will wait on the Lord to see where he leads.

I also have been thinking about the job I am currently trying to pursue as I am finishing up my degree in the next couple of years with a BA in Child Development at California State University Northridge and hopefully becoming a Child Life Specialist at a Children's Hospital. I think it would be hard for me to have a job like this if I couldn't have children of my own or not being able to adopt any. I would grow to love those children like they were my own. I just don't think my heart as compassionate as my dad says it is could take that. I cry just thinking about that. I couldn't take it knowing that they weren't my own and that I would never be able to have any children to take care of at home.

These thoughts seem to be on my mind continuously but now even more so as I am growing older and thinking a lot more often about what God has in store for me for the future. So whatever God has in store for me all I can do is trust Him and say like the old hymn says "It is well. It is well with my soul."

August Academy (Day 2) God Had Other Plans

So I just finished my last blog about some 1-2-1 conversations I had during the Ambassadors Academy I went to. I mentioned in the previous blog I told my team leader and mentor that I was only going to be handing out tracts and streelight preaching at Hollywood and then when we went to Glendale I might get on the box and open air preach.

God had another plan than what I thought.

So after the girls and I were done with our conversations we joined the rest of our team in front of the subway station on Hollywood Blvd. Things went well there until we had a regular visitor come and set up some buckets as drums and some long sticks to bang on the buckets to make noise.

I saw my dad and said "Hi."

He then asked "Have you gotten up on the box?" with a little smirk.

"No." I replied.

Dad talked to me some more and one thing led to another and my dad asks a couple of the other guys on my team if I could cut and go up on the box and read Scripture. He would then talk about the Law and Gospel. He knew that if I didn't do it soon then I might not do it later. What do you think their answer was? Of course..

"Yes."

Dad proceeded to go to the drummer and asked if he would politely hold off drumming because I was going on the box for the first time.

The drummer said "No."

I was already on the box and would have to go on with him playing loud. My dad tells me that the drummer is not going to stop. "I was shaking up there on the box with the microphone in my hand and proceeded to read James 4:1-10.

I started crying..

"I can't do it."

I thought like getting down but dad kept encouraging me. I also heard someone clapping. Dad would later tell me the E.Z Zwayne did that. What a sweetheart! I did have my first heckler. A man heard me as he walked by and yelled out.

"That is boring!"

I kept going. I finally finished after what seemed I was standing there forever. I also thought that my microphone wasn't on and everyone said it was.

Hmm...

After that I just listened to my dad follow up with the law and the gospel. We gave each other a hug and dad told me how proud he was of me for just reading Scripture.


So that's how God had other plans for me that day at Hollywood. :)

August Academy (Day 2) Conversations at Hollywood

For those of you that don't know. I was able to be apart of an Ambassadors Academy last month. An Ambassadors Academy is like a 3 day boot camp to help you in evangelizing to others and sharing them the law and the gospel. It is done by Living Waters and the Way of the Master. Day 1 is full of teaching from our leaders. Days 2 and 3 we go out and practice what we have learned by way of handing out tracts, 1-2-1 conversations and open-airing. I had a wonderful team leader who's name was Bart McCurdy and lady mentor Liz Ebert.

Well day two got started without a hitch. We prayed first and then got on the bus. We were going to Hollywood Blvd and Glendale to practice. Before today had started I had already made my goals for Hollywood Blvd. At Hollywood I decided I would mostly hand out tracts and doing the streelight preaching. For those of you that don't know streelight preaching is where you time your message of the gospel to the stoplight. You are trying to get the message out before the light turns and all the people walk across the street. Anyways I had told myself and other members on my team that my plan was to possibly open-air out in Glendale and not before that.

They were like "Okay Michelle."

We first decided to go in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater. I didn't do much there. I just listened as Ray Comfort got up and was heckled by Batman and the Joker. He also took a young man from Cambridge(England) through the law and gospel. His mom came up to the mic for a few minutes after telling Ray how he was wrong of accusing her boy. She also told Ray that her son was very respectful to everyone. She then walked off.


After that the 5 of us girls decided to do some 1-2-1 conversations. Dede, Trish, and I walked up to 2 very tough looking guys. Trish immediately started a conversation and it seemed like she knew everything to say. At one point she asked them if either of them had committed murder or killed anyone. One of them said...

"Yes."

My eyes must of been as wide as saucers and I had to leave to answer a long distance phone call. I don't know what happened after that with the two gentlemen.

After that we talked to a couple of other guys. One's name was Dean. I don't remember his friends name who we could tell was pretty high on something. We asked them how precious were their eyes and then from there transitioned to the gospel. After we handed them the million dollar bill.

"We can't use that. We are hungry. Why don't you feed us instead of giving us these million dollars."

Trish immediately said we would and took them to get them a slice of pizza and a drink. You can see that there was some conviction in Dean's eyes as we continually shared the gospel. He kept apologizing for his friend who he said was "tripping out." He thanked us for the conversation and proceded to give each of us a hug which was a tad uncomfortable for me but I just followed Trish lead. His friend proceded to ask if we had a Bible he could have. Dede had a pocket bible which contains Psalms, Proverbs and the New Testament. The guy looked through it and said he wouldn't take it because it had the book of Revelations in it.

'Okay' I thought to myself. Dean again apologized for his friend and we wished them well and left to go back and join the team again. When we walked back we stopped for a moment and prayed for those young men. It was so sad.

Chinese Fire Drill

So I have a funny adventure to share. I visited the Ambassadors Academy on Friday. Well after an eventful day of evangelism on Hollywood my dad asked me to go with Anita to get the van for the mentors. Sure! So we went to the van and hopped in. We picked up the mentors and my dad said I could ride in the van with the mentors on the way to Glendale. Dru would ride in the car with my dad. So we headed to Glendale and followed my dad's car and the bus.

Now since there is traffic in Hollywood, Jaylene, one of the lady mentors says "Hey! Let's do a Chinese Fire Drill." "What?" I ask. Jaylene then explains to me it is when they park the car in traffic and everyone runs out and switches places. "Oh No!" "No way." I say. "Let's see what your dad will do when he sees us." says Jaylene and Leon. I shake my head and say that I'm not doing it.

So we decide to pretend. Anita parks the car in the traffic and we all open our door, pretending we are going to get out. You should of seen the look on my dad's face. We did this several times and he's like shaking his head in amazement. Anita then gets a phone call and he asks her "Are you corrupting my daughter?" lol. We are all in the car busting up a gut. So we stop for a while.

At the next break the rest of the team plan on doing it for real when to our very eyes, Dru jumps out of the car!!! We think he is going to run to us when we see he makes a beeline towards the bus ahead. Woah!!! We are all wondering what's going on now? Well we call my dad and I guess that the bus driver got the wrong directions from Hollywood to Glendale so Dru had to hop out of the car in the middle of traffic and run to the bus to help the bus driver because he knew the directions of how to get there. We all had a wonderful time on that trip fooling around with my dad. What fun that was!!!

Academy #4

For those of you who don't know my dad leads an academy every month for Way of the Master. I was able to come out on Friday and do some evangelism out on Hollywood and Glendale. I had the privlege of meeting Winona Huber from Illinois. She is a grandmother with such a tender heart. She came out here for the Academy. I remember hearing her share the law and the gospel and she brought me to tears. It was so neat that she could use her story of her brother becoming ill with a virus and dieing a few days later. She could then tell us how we as unbelievers are ill because of our sins and how Jesus is the cure. It was awesome to see how her variation of sharing the law and the gospel impacted my life and another lady hearing the gospel preached this way for the first time. It was something I'll never forget. I gave her a big hug afterwards and we are keeping in touch.



I have one little prayer request. Just like Winona went through the Academy this month to strengthen her witnessing one-to-one and open-airing, I will be doing the same in the August Academy. I am really nervous and excited. I just pray that when I get there that God will give me the words to say and be able to have the most tender heart like my sister in Christ Winona.

A Conversation with Alex and Manny

I was able to have my first full one-2 one conversation with two boys Alex and Manny this past Saturday. I had been giving out a whole bunch of tracts in Glendale and I only had three tracts left. I had met a girl Ashley who came out with the team and we struck a friendship that night. Seeing that we were almost done Ashley asked me if we could see if we could strike up a conversation with someone with the million dollars. At first I kind of hesitated and started to get a little nervous. I told her okay and that I had never really had a full one to one conversation with anyone before. She said that we should start off by praying. I said great. So sat by a water fountain and prayed together. I felt such a peace and comfort surround me that I really hadn't felt before that. So after that we headed off to find someone. She told me she thought it was best if we found someone sitting down at a table by themselves that didn't look like they were in a hurry. I aggreed. We walked up to one lady but when I handed her the million dollars she rejected it and didn't want to talk to us. But we didn't stop, we kept looking.

As we were coming to the end of the pathway Ashley spotted two guys about 15 or 16 years old and said we should talk to them. Okay..

"Hi, Did you get one of these?" I asked handing them a million dollar bill.

"No." they answered.

"Do you know what the million dollar question is?" Ashley asked.

"No."

"Where do you think you will go when you die?" Ashley asked.

"I don't know." Alex and Manny said.

"Do you think you would go to heaven or hell?"

"Heaven?" they replied with hesitation.

"What do you think you would have to do to get into heaven?" Ashley asked

"Have a lot of money." Alex said "Be kind." said Manny

"So be a good person?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah." they replied.

"Do you think you are a good person?" she asked

"Yes." they said.

"Can we take a couple minutes of your time to see if that is true?" she asked.

"Yeah. But only a couple of minutes." said Alex. He looked at his watch as if to time us.

"Well have you ever stolen anything, doesn't matter how small, cheated on a test?" Ashley asked.

"Even something small from Legoland?" Manny chuckled

"Doesn't matter what it was." Ashley said

"Yes."

"And if I were to steal from you, you would call me a..."

"Thief."

I jumped in. "Have you ever told a lie?"

"Yes"

"And if I lied to you I would be called a..." I asked

"Liar."

Ashley then jumped in. "So by your own admission you are liars and thieves."

She told them how they are breaking the Ten Commandments and asked them if they would be innocent or guilty. They tried using the excuse of what if they had done all these other nice things too. She took them through the courtroom analogy and asked them what they would think of the person that paid their fine. They said "Nice."

I jumped in. "That is exactly what God did. God came down to earth, God in the flesh as Jesus Christ. He died a horrible bloody death on the cross to pay for our sins so that we wouldn't have to spend an eternity in hell. But it isn't just enough to believe. We have to repent, turn away from our sins and put our faith in Jesus Christ alone to save us.

Alex asked "Where can I read about this?" Ashley told them to get themselves a Bible. Manny kind of chuckled and said "Maybe we should buy ourselves a Bible since they have been telling us this."

Ashley then took them through the parachute analogy. Manny tried to get around it by saying since you are flying over land couldn't you just drive to where you wanted to go. So we took them over water. Who would survive the fall the one with or without the parachute.

"The one with." Alex said. "Yes, we can't just believe in the parachute. We have to put it on and trust that it will open up."

"I see." Alex said.

Ashley suggested that they get a Bible and read it, pray about it. The time to get right with God is now.

Alex then mentioned how "My parents won't like this. They are Jewish." Ashley then told him how it was hard for her when she became a Christian and how she was actually raised in an atheist home and how the rest of her family was Atheist.

Afterwards Alex thanked us and we thanked them and they left. I could see by the conversation that God was working in Alex's heart. I felt an unspeakable joy and had to give Ashley a big hug. We prayed for them as we walked back. I told my dad and gave him a big hug as well. Please be praying with me that God would convict Alex and Manny and that they would repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in Christ alone to save them.

My first one-to-one conversation

I did it Saturday night around 6pm. I initiated my first one-to-one conversation. Here is my story.

I had been watching a couple of girls sitting beside a fountain down on Brand Boulevard and they were just chatting together. I felt this deep urge inside of me telling me to go and start a conversation with them.

I told myself no. But it kept nagging at me to share with them. So finally I said yes..

My heart was pounding in my chest. I looked to my dad and told him that I want to have a conversation with the girls.

'Oh no, I thought. There is no turning back now...'

My dad asked me if I wanted some spiritual support and back up and if I wanted him to go with me. I nodded my head yes. So we headed over to them.

We walked up to the girls my heart still pounding in my chest. I had a couple million dollar bills with me. "Did you get one of these?" I handed it to them.

"Do you know what the million dollar question is?" "What?" they asked.

"Do you know what happens to somebody when they die?" Silence. She said something that I don't remember. I had no idea what to say next. I looked to my dad for help. "Well what do you think you have to do to go to heaven? Be a good person?" he asked.

One of the girls said "yes." "Would you like to go through a good person test to see if that is true?" he asked.

"Yes." I took it from there. "Have you ever told a lie?" "Yes" she replied.

"If I lied to you what would you call me?"

"I don't know," she replied. I looked up at my dad again for help. He said "It rhymes with fire and starts with an L." She shrugged her shoulders. "Liar."

I asked her "Have you ever stolen anything, even something small, downloaded music that you didn't pay for?"

"No." she said.

"Have you used God's name to express disgust, like saying Oh my g."

"Huh" She wasn't understanding. Her friend standing next to her tried to explain. "Like saying Oh my G--."

"Yes." the other girl said. "That's called blasphemy." I said. The girl still didn't seem to understand. The other girls' phone started to go off. She said "You know what, we have to go. Our ride is here." "Oh Okay." I said. And that was it. That was the conversation I had.

After they left I talked to my dad and he said that he thought there was probably a language barrier between us since the girls were Hispanic. The girls were only 15 years old. After that I was able to hand out about 400-500 tracts that night. When I got back to the car, I broke down in tears. My dad gave me a big hug. I was so sorry that I couldn't really get in a deep conversation and share the gospel with those two girls because I was literally shaking with nervousness, my heart pounding and stuttering my words a lot and they had to leave as well. That was a huge step out of my comfort zone... Never before had I taken so huge a step to share the gospel with someone.

A Day That I Will Always Remember

This past Saturday, I had the privlege of getting the day off work. I was able to go with my dad to Hunnington Beach to do some evangelism. My dad was leading the Ambassador's Academy for the past couple of days. Ambassador's Academy is an intensive training course on how to be more effective in evangelizing. It was so awesome to see ladies go up and open-air preach. One girl, Hollie, 20 years old, open-air preached for the first time. It was such an encouragement to me I almost decided to jump on the box and preach too. But fear came over me and I didn't. :(



It was also cool to meet Trish. She and I were together for most of the day. I would listen to her as she would talk to people about Christ. At the end of the day I didn't want to leave her. She would be flying back to Texas the next morning. She gave me a challenge though. She had seen that I was nervous talking to people. She said "Michelle, I want you to by next Saturday have a one-to-one conversation with someone. I want you to email me on Saturday to tell me if you did it or not." I accepted the challenge and we shook hands on it.



Since being there at Hunnington Beach for one day of the Academy I have never been the same. I feel on fire for Christ and I can't wait to tell Trish that I accomplished the challenge that she gave me. Please be praying for me that I do complete the challenge she gave me. I have a challenge for you "Who will you share the gospel this week with?"

A Wonderful Time at Way of the Master

Wow! All I can say is wow. What a neat experience today was. For those of you that don't know, my dad, works for Way of the Master.

Yesterday,since I had the day off I went with him to help him out and spend the day with him. I never knew how much I was going to learn and experience while I was down there.

When we first came in we met a missionary from Nepal which was really neat. I never fully realized until that meeting how blessed we are in this country. This man was missionary from Nepal finishing up his Masters of Theology in the U.S. and then going back to his home country to preach the gospel. Now you might ask how are we blessed compared to people who live in Nepal. Just wait until I tell you more of the story and you will see why.

Harka was a missionary in Nepal, leading a ministry called Jesus Ministries International and led an underground church in Nepal. This means that the church is hiding from the government and the other religious sects in Nepal, which are Buddhism and Hinduism. They literally just celebrated their first Christmas as an official government holiday this past year. Christians in Nepal if they are caught preaching the gospel can be sent to jail for 6 years with the maximum being lifelong depending on the circumstances. He told us you have to be really careful as to who you allow in the church because some people might be spies. The Christians have only been in Nepal for about 17 years which I found fascinating as well. This man has gone to jail at least once and has been persecuted for his faith.

As I think about this I wonder why it is that so many Christians have a hard time sharing their faith including me when we have it so easy compared to the other people around the world like Harka who I just met yesterday. We have no idea what it means to be persecuted for our faith. All we face is man's arrogance and possible arguments. We should be stepping out more in our faith to share the gospel. We don't really have a need to feel intimidated for we have really nothing to fear. It is like the bible verse that says "What can mere man do to me?" Absolutely nothing. Now that doesn't mean you have to open-air preach, or have a one-to-one conversation if that is a little uncomfortable still for you to do. Just handing out a simple gospel tract to someone can make a huge difference. You are planting a seed. If you keep working on it you will eventually find the strength to actually start a conversation. Once you do you will probably feel more joy than you can possibly imagine and I think it will become easier for you. I am still working on this myself. I am working on strengthening my courage to talk to others about Christ in a one-to-one conversation. This is my next step. All I need to remember is that God will always be right by my side no matter what I may face.

Chad Fell Down

A couple of days ago I decided to start my own blog. I was thinking I could use this blog to keep some of you informed as to what I am doing these days and also put up possibly some short stories I have written. Well once I had decided to make a blog I had to think of a name. I wanted it to be something sophisticated and smart but I also wanted the name to be something that would immediately tell people that this was my blog and no one else. Maybe a name that was unique. So I asked the rest of my family during dinner if they could help me think of any titles.

The first suggestion from my mom was Michelle's Blog of Whatever. To those of you that do know me I like to use the word whatever quite a bit. Just like my mother and grandmother. :) I wrote that one down as an idea and we kept thinking. Well we decided to talk about things that interested me and try to incorporate that into the title. A few of them being Peanuts, different movies, books, etc...

Another name that my sister Marissa thought of was Darla's Dilemmas. For those of you don't know who Darla is she is the little girl in the movie Finding Nemo with the braces that Nemo is going to become her pet before he luckily escapes. My sisters when I first had gotten braces which I now have off gave me a nickname of Darla. Well that idea didn't stand a chance with me and I immediately shot the idea down.

Well next we thought about one of my favorite movies That Thing You Do. If you haven't seen this movie you'll love it. That is the only commercial for today. Just to warn you there is an instance of blasphemy. : ( After thinking about the movie my entire family and I out of nowhere started quoting lines from the movie to think of some more ideas.

"Got any three's. Looks like Lenny's goin' fishing."

"You mean actually make a record? A record record, record?"

Then came the funniest line of them all. Nothing made us laugh harder.

"Uh, guys. Chad fell down."

I can just see the scene running through my head right now. I still giggle every time I think about it. Well after that was over, we kept thinking about different movies that I liked. Another movie that I absolutely love is A Walk to Remember. It such a sweet romantic movie and the book is even better. I would definitely recommend this movie too. This one I am happy to say doesn't have any blasphemy in it. : )

Well it was between the two. Which one would it be? Michelle's Blog of Whatever or Michelle's Walk to Remember. Although Michelle's Blog of Whatever was unique and it did sort of fit me it was just a little too silly. So that was how I chose "Michelle's Walk to Remember" for the name of my blog. An online journal of my walk through life. Now to finish this post, I decided for those of you that haven't seen the scene where Chad falls down in That Thing You Do, I will put up a video clip of this scene I like so much. It's a short one and I hope you all have fun watching it. : )

Hello Everyone

Wow! I can't believe that I actually have my own blog now. I hope you all enjoy it.