Stopping The Rain

Rain, I HATE the rain! I hate getting wet, I hate walking on muddy grounds, I hate stepping on those wet things just sitting there on the sidewalks, I hate the wet sole of my shoes if I'm lucky the water doesn't pierce through, I hate the wet seats of public transports where water traps germs germs germs!

How can someone look like this!?

When I'm all..

In fact I despise rain so much, I can leave behind all academic responsibilities for the sake of not wanting to go out and experience the grossness.

But this time its different, I HAVE to do my work at school.

I woke up to the sound of strong winds and prayed "Lord, for the time I'm out there please don't let it rain". Selfish prayer I know, BUT God knows how important it is for me to do work and how hard it is for me to go out there with rain.

I was ready to leave the house and prayed again, moment of truth..

I opened the door and.. HALLELUJAH it's wonderfully dry!!! :D

It barely rained, it was so little you can't call it rain. So I walked to a nearby bakery to buy bread and the moment I stepped inside... the rain started pouring down hard.  

(Did God protect me just enough to get into the store dry? I wonder~)

I was shocked and worried.

But instead of holding out my umbrella, I claimed, 'Lord, faith as small as the mustard seed can move the mountains. Lord, the second I get out, let the rain stop".

Buying the bread took less than 3 minutes, I'm not sure if scientifically rain would start and halt in the course of such short time. But God is above all science amen?

So I paid the cashier and put the bread in my bag. I turned to the door and...

The rain was gone.

Praise You Lord! I walked up the hill waiting for my bus which took quite some time to arrive. The whole entire time there was not a single drop of rain. I danced in joy with my water bottle like a mental.

The point here is not that God will immediately answer all of your prayers (especially if it's selfish like this one). But God is a caring God, He is the Lord of detail, God of understanding, God of love.

+ in my defense, it took faith to believe for the rain to stop right after it started. God sees the heart.

God listens to every prayer of ours, big or small. He shall do according to His will, but know that the things He does will be for your own good.

Matthew 17:20

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Lord I thank you for stopping the rain
For the mud and worms would've driven me insane.
Let my praises never stop to Thee,
God of love, God almighty.

ps- This is the 3rd time God stopped the rain for me through prayer :)

Story Worth Telling

Become a living testimony to others!

Gift From Faith

God use friends to become His voice.

I was at that point in my life after graduation where I had a mental breakdown. I would cry every day because I wasn't able to get a job. I could be patient, but I kept negotiating with God. "You know how I only plan to stay here until my OPT finishes. So it would be better to let me start early..." But of course God had His own plan, which I started to doubt. I even considered the possibility that He just wanted to keep me longer in the US so I could serve Him at church. Or maybe He wants to push me to go back to Indo sooner. Whatever it was, my days would be filled with tears and complaints.

Until one day, as I was applying for jobs in my room, the door was suddenly opened. (Literally, the door of my room). Melanie came in holding a bag, followed by Jason who played his ukulele, and behind were Dorothy and Imanuel. Basically they knew how I have wanted this one particular shoe, but didn't buy it because it was so expensive. As Melanie presented me the bag, she said that everyone in CG Faith decided to chip in and buy me the shoes as an encouragement to find a job. Plus they wrote a card, and Jason even made like a small personalized "comic book." I teared up.

God is really amazing. Even though I complained to Him a lot, but He still showed me His unconditional love. He used my friends and dear caregroup members to show that He is still supporting me. And off course I am very thankful to my members for doing this as well.

PS. The strange thing is the timing! Cause like 2 weeks after this, my favorite shoes that I wear all the time broke down. Like literally, sole was separated from the heels.. But now I don't have to go barefoot since I have my new shoes! Yay!!!

Faithful even in the small things.

Yesterday, Melanie, Steve, Fenny, and I were planning to go eat after church. For the longest time we didn't know what restaurant to go to. Some of us had an urge to go somewhere, but one of us would always interject and respond with "Oh! I'm fine with everything EXCEPT that." In the end, we ended up going on a double date to Zensen Sushi, the place where we had our first double date together!

So when we got there, the line was super long...it was about 7:26pm and the restaurant closes as 9pm...(we still needed time to eat and waiting for a spot will take a while) Steve and I were both amazed, as we have never seen so many people in that restaurant before. Man there were literally crowds of people filling the restaurant inside and out.

We weren't sure whether to switch restaurants at this point because the line was so long but then we saw a piece of paper posted on the side of the window of the restaurant. It said something like "Zensen sushi will be closing after 2/23/2014. This is the LAST day"

Wow! Today was the last day that they are going to open here in Berkeley. Now we HAVE to go. So we wrote down Melanie's name and waited for our spot to come. We were one of the last if not the last person to sign up on the waiting list because after our name was written, the waiter drew a black line underneath our name saying "Store closing". We saw several groups of people getting rejected after that, the waiter really had no time to deal with them. Wow thank God, we somehow came here on the last day and managed to get on the waiting list. Seeing the others get rejected, I felt a mix of pity and being blessed because we got on the waiting list.

As we waited for Melanie's name to be called, we saw people eating at the "booths". The booth provided seats for 4 people that faced each other. It provided more privacy too as opposed to the "bar" style seats. By faith, we said thank you God for giving us the booth! Albiet, at first, in a half joking way but soon the passion lit up and we kept claiming it in Jesus name!

Not to say the waiting wasn't tough though. Faith in the statement was definitely tested. There were 3 booths and as soon as we saw 2 of the booths have opened, we got our hopes up and thought we might have been able to get those. But almost as quickly as the booths have opened up, 2 groups of people that were ahead of us took the booths. Also, more seats in the bar were being opened up and we thought we were going to get those.

Oh...that sucks...But no! We kept giving thanks to God and still said "Thank you for the 4-seater booth God :)" Even though it was a small request (eating at the bar wouldn't ruin the night as we were already thankful to even be able to go there on the last opening day), it would be cool if we actually got it.

Long story short,  in the seats at the bar, there was a row of 3 seats not 4 so we got the last booth. Zensen sushi closed the doors after that. We were all full and even got free dessert on top of it all!

Give thanks to God as if you've already gotten the thing you wanted. If it's His will, it WILL happen. Wow! He even stayed faithful to the little things even though our motives might have been a bit selfish? (cause we wanted the booth for ourselves?) but in the end we can still use this experience to glorify His name! Steve, Fenny, and any others that are looking for jobs. I believe looking for jobs is kind of like this. Sometimes we might get our hopes up and then all of a sudden that "booth" will become taken by someone else. These are things beyond our control and times when perseverance and patience will be tested but you know. Keep being faithful and saying "Thank you for the job I wanted God!" Say it over and over again because if even God was willing to provide for something so small, I believe He will will provide for the bigger things too :) Dear God, please let Fenny and Steve(and anyone else) be able to use this experience as a reminder when they are feeling down and thank you for providing the wonderful jobs for them :)

By Faith!

Our Caregroup Faith has finally published our very own blog.
Why? Because God has blessed us too many times, and we want to share these amazing stories with everyone out there. In the future, we want to remember all of God's goodness and kindness in our life. No matter how big or small it is - God's love endures forever~

So stay tuned! Bookmark this blog in your favorite tab. Allow us to become a blessing to you guys... We know that we will BY FAITH! So here are the stories of our caregroup:
What Faith Can Blog.

- Melody-