Fake dating, Oh well!!

This past weekend was a great weekend for me on a personal level. I titled this passage this because that is what all my friends are calling this. I am writing here also to update anyone who may not know how things are going although I know some of you are tired of hearing me talk about it. I am really excited that's all, all the girls want to find out how things are going with me and this new girl.

The weekend, On Saturday, Dex and I met at the church at 10 AM. I grabbed my drums and we put them in her car and drove to Kent. We met the first African family. When we got there it was awesome, I had a great time playing soccer with her and all the kids. I will have to admit there was a litlle bit of fun being had by all. I gave her a few good kicks and maybe and elbow or too just because I am so competitve but she was OK with that. The kids were great, I really liked the littlest one, I don't remember his name because I met a ton of people that day. I really connected with him and the other boy. We were there until about 12 and then left for the next family.

The second family was the one that I already knew from them coming to the healing room and that is who we brought the drums to play with. This family was Abi, Balu, Halle, and others. It was really cool though because they made us lunch and we ate it with our hands and had a great time talking, playing the drums and eating together. After being there about two hours, we walked to a different part of the complex where another family was. It was just the mom and kids, she had seven kids. She was very generous and offered us tea when we arrived and then later pineapple juice and bread. I really enjoyed experiencing Dex in her ministry time it really gave me a better understanding of who she is and what it is that she is most passionate about.

On Sunday, we both ended up on the worship team. After church everyone went to Taco Del Mar. She was there, we didn't really get to interact very much because we were in the group setting so sometimes that can be hard to really get to know someone. Meg and J were babysitting Araina Taft so that the Tafts could go on a date, by doing this they gave them there car so Dex gave J and Meg a ride. After lunch we took Ariana to my house to watch Shrek 2 which I suggested because I knew that Dex hadn't seen it and wanted to see it. So it really had a two fold purpose, to reach ariana and so Dex could see a movie she wanted to watch. I am leaving out lots of little details that I recall but that's ok this would be really long if I included everything.

Around 6 it was time to go, Dex was going to Harp and Bowl after she dropped off Meg and J at the Tafts. I was quite bold and asked her if I could go with her. She said yes. I was excited because this gave me more time to share with her and by this time believe me I am eating this up. I really really really......... enjoy spending time with this person, she is so awesome. She is one of the ministry team so to speak at Harp and Bowl which I really wasn't aware of but it was really cool. On the way home we talked all the way and then I noticed she was almost out of gas, so I said better stop and get some gas so we stopped at the gas station. I asked her if she wanted something to drink and then went inside and bought her a drink. Somewhere in our conversation we talked about the Bluff that is not far from my house so again when we got back to my house I was bold and asked her if she wanted to walk to the bluff with me. She did and so we did. it was great we talked she opened up and shared more about herself and her story, I was really interested to hear from her. We sat and talked until the sun went down really it was quite a beautiful night, I had such a great time. Again I really wanted to put my arm around her or hold her hand or something but again resisted till a later time.

I will update the rest later I have to get to work now.
Love you
The Toph

My Awesome friends!!

I love all you guys so much. Thank you for sticking by me even when I was goin gthrough the hard weird times I was. I am back to normal and loving life and even if things don't work out with Dex don't worry about me because I am very confident in the Lord that I will get through this whole thing no matter what happens good or bad. I just wanted to give a shout out to you because I love you all and I really feel that I am quite a blessed person to be in the church that I am in surrounded by great people. Thank you Lord that you have given me some of the greatest kids in the world to work with and one of the really cool cities in the World to work and live in. I am so happy to be your servant Lord Thank YOU, Thank YOu Thank YOu!!!

Props to: J and Meg, Tuber and Laura, Smacks and Bec, Dan and Melissa, Papa smooth and Laura, youth group kids and fellow leaders and my whole church family.

God is Awesome!!

Tuesday was an OK day not much to blog about except that I really wanted to call her when I was done withwork but I held back that temptation. It was tough but in the end it was probably for the best.

Wednesday night was cool! I rode my bike to church which was pretty amazing since I ran a marathon like three days before. The church service was great I had fun playing my drums and trying to sing, all and all I think it went well. Charlie talked about what Fela and I had gotten into a heated discussion about on Saturday night. He asked me what the purpose of youth group was. Basically, he told me he didn't like to bring his friends to church because we didn't preach Jesus to them. I told him to step up and preach about what he felt he should preach on. I have been challenging some of my junior high kids to do that. It ended up being a deep time for everyone where we all were praying for each other and people were getting touched and healed it was great. After church I went over to see Girl at the big church. I can right in and sat right behind her and started talking it was fun. She told me that I looked nice, I was taken aback a little by that because it was coming from her. It made me feel good inside to have her notice. I wanted to say something like "Well, I kinda dressed up for you." but I knew that was way to far over the top. I didn't really want to ride home although I would have if I had to. She offered to give me a ride home and of course I was like you bet. We had a great conversation, she actually thanked me to for the conversation that we had on Monday night. She also asked me what i was doing on Saturday. I was like well I have to work at night but the rest of the day I am available. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to hang out with the people she met from Africa when she was doing social work. I was like yes I would absolutely love that. So tomorrow I will be meeting up with her to go meet some African refugee families. This is her ministry and I am quite excited that she is allowing me to see this part of her life, it makes us closer I can understand her heart better. It will be so much fun.

We stopped at Safeway to buy ice cream for everyone. When we got to Meg and j's everyone was there and we all hung around and had ice cream and talked and stuff it was awesome. I was a little disappointed with Meg though because she said she would be done with her home work in like 10 minutes and it took her longer. We were goin gto watch a Freaks and Geeks episode all together but it was like 11:30 so Girl left. She said that she didn't want to go but it was getting late which again to me was another sign that something is there. Also when someone asked who brought the ice cream Girl said "oh we did" signifying her and I. That was cool. Please stop me ladies if I am reading to much into these things. Later that evening when my roommate Chris got home at like 3 AM I was awoken and was wide awake. Also Dan came in about 30 minutes later, we had a really great conversation about Girl and I revealed a nickname I was thinking about calling Girl and they liked it. Chris actually shortened it to Dex, so that is what I am going to refer to her on here until June 1st when I reveal what everyone who reads this probably already knows, her name.

Today I went to go see her at work. I told her I would see her at like 2 or 3 but it ended up being like 4 because of work just getting crazy all of a sudden. It was cool though, I ordered my sandwich from a different girl and while I was doing that Dex got me a glass of water. Then she was sweeping and she stopped and like sat with me my whole lunch and talked to me I felt like quite a special person. We talked about certain things and then when my glass was empty she went over and filled it up for me. I really enjoy spending my time with her it is so much fun.

I just talked to her on the phone as a was writing this. We tslked for about 11 minutes about totally random stuff but it was super funny. I was totally hamming it up giving her a bad time and such. She was hanging out with her friend Lauren, they had dinner and then were going over to her house to watch a movie. I was hoping she would invite me over but she didn't and that is OK. I will see her tomorrow for the whole day and it will be a great time.

God has been doing great things for my confidence on all levels. I am really excited about how much He is speaking to me about certain things and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is Him speaking to me. I love the Lord so much and man I just want to serve Him. I will be going on a mission trip to Canada next week with the Healing Rooms crew, and will be doing some speaking so I am real excited for that.

Well God bless you all and if anyone has any questions or needs prayer please leave me I comment I would be happy to pray for you.

Love
The Toph

Again with the Girl Story!!

Hey I can't help it there are two things on my mind Jesus and Girl. I think about both of them throughout the day because I am driving so I have a lot of time to think. To finish out the news about my weekend: Sunday morning I woke up at 4 in the morning to leave for Olympia because I had to pick up my race packet. I had to wait around for like an hour or something before the start of the race. Right before the race started it was downpouring and then as soon as the race started it quit raining. The race went pretty well for me actually. I ended up with my best overall time ever, a 3 hours 37 minutes and 2 seconds. I finished in 114th place out of 495 runners and was 11th in my age division. Not to bad. I was praying as much as I could for the Global day of prayer. It was cool I would feel drained and then all of a sudden get these God power surges and actually had one of my better miles at the 18 mile out of 26. I stopped and walked a couple of times which probably added about 3 or 4 minutes to my time.

After the race I drove home as quickly as possible in hopes that I would make it before service let out so I could see my good friend, Girl. I made it for the end of service and was jumping around and praising the Lord afterwards and I was really energized. I wasn't able to talk to her much because I had to get going immediately after church to the last marriage class in Everett. After that I had to go to a youth leader's meeting until like 7:30 or something. Girl was invited to Meg's birthday party (I take this space here to give a shout out to my good friend Megs, God bless your next year and continue to bless your marriage, Love Ya) . The party started at 7:00 so I was sitting in the youth leaders meeting looking at the clock tapping my foot hoping it was over and then as soon as it was I tried to get home as soon as possible. When I arrived though she wasn't there I was disappointed but thought oh maybe she is just running late she was and I will tell you why. (This portion of this blog is what I heard from another source) She went to Harp and Bowl up in Everett, one of the people who was there was Monique. Now I know Monique but not real well and this is what she told Girl "Oh you know who would be good for you, The Toph, you two would be good together." This is totally hearsay maybe even gossip I am not sure but God please forgive me if this is wrong. That was cool maybe it is giving her a confirmation or something I don't know but for Mo to say that is cool.

Well when she showed up man was i happy. She came about the time the cake was being served, she said she was hungry so I offered to make her some food over at my house because on Saturday I bought like 100 dollars worth of food at Costco. She came over to my apartment and I made her some of the Spinach and artichoke dip and wheat thins. While we were standing there we were talking. One of the things I remember her saying was that she put my name in her phone as Tophurkey and I really thought that was interesting because she is the only one that calls me that. It is the name that she gave me the night we went to Mcmenamins. We had a great chat and I brought up that we were planning on going to the Monroe races on Sunday May 29th for there Memorial day show and invited her to come. She and Laura got all into it and now they are going to go to a thrift store and get some interesting clothes to wear that night. I know she will look awesome because I am really impressed with her style, she always looks cute in her clothes. We watched a movie later and I sat down on the futon and she came over and sat on it with me which was cool. I really really wanted to just reach over and put my arm around her but that probably would be really bad since I haven't ever said anything to her about my feelings. It was hard but I resisted.

On Monday we had the Healing Rooms and there were two rooms going the whole 3 hours it was awesome and God did some really awesome stuff. One of the things he was doing to me which again was a new thing for me was that he was telling me stuff for people by the way my actions were before we prayed for the people. For instance before one guy came in I was down on my knees and I was like God what is this, and he told me it was for the guy. he was supposed to bend his knee before Jesus just like you would before a king. Another time He drew me to a part of the room that was seperated and I put my head down like a first grader would do on a desk, I was like God what is this, He told me that it represented a quiet time that the person was having and that He was revealing life changing revelations to them. As soon as I told the person she totally knew what I was talking about it was actually super cool. I just have been doing everything that I think the Lord wants me to do and it keeps getting confirmed I just get more and more confident in Him, it is really exciting. After church was over we went to our usual hangout spot, Starbucks. Girl knew that I always got hungry after Healing rooms so she brought me food. Come on now how many people know you well enough they bring food for you, not many I was blessed. While at Starbucks she brought a book of pictures from her time as a social worker. When she was showing me the pictures she didn't really say much about them and I could tell she wanted to say more so I prodded and got her talk a little more and it was a pretty deep conversation and helped me understand her better. I felt kind of bad because I pushed a little but she responded pretty well all and all. It is hard to explain exactly what it is that we talked about but I learned some valuable stuff about her. It was actually a great night. I can't wait to see her again. I have a hard time being away from her but God has called me to wait until June 1st as a sign of my obedience to Him and I will do that. Hopefully June 1st is going to be agreat day in my life anyway got to get back to work now later all.

The Toph

Hey here's some new news!

Well I haven't updated over the weekend because it was crazy full all the way until tonight. Let's look back shall we...... Friday I told Girl that I was going to go see her at work. I was waiting until the afternoon because I knew that was the time she would be less busy and I would have a better chance to talk with her. It was like 2:30 and I wasn't there yet and I got a call on my cell phone. I was surprised to get a call but hey cool, I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Girl and I was like whoaaa cool. She was calling to see if I had eaten lunch yet, I told her I hadn't and that I was planning on coming to see her in about twenty minutes. She said oh cool then I will wait till you come in so that I can sit down and have lunch with you. NO WAY!! I was so stoked that she called me to make sure I was coming, there is definitely something going on between the two of us that is for sure. When I got there she came over and sat with me and we had a very enjoyable lunch. I asked her what she was doing because I wanted to have her come to the Bible study at Charlie's but she wasn't able to because she was spending time with her family that she lives with. She told me they were going to Green Lake, and I knew I was going running after work because I was in training for the marathon and she knew that. She was supposed to get off at like six, I usually get off work at like 4 but for some reason I ended up working late. On my drive home I saw her and the family she lives with driving by me on the Aurora Bridge. It was interesting that God made us pass at that time, a mere coincidence but cool. So I went to Green Lake to run, I saw her walking with her family when I got there but she didn't see me. I decided not to say anything because I didn't want to invite myself over to hang with them, but later I found out she tried to call me and invite me to come down there and run with them. It was interesting.

On Saturday I didn't have anything to do and also didn't have to work so Jeremy and Jason wanted to go for a ride on our bikes. To find out more about the bike ride go to pedalrevolution.com/ . After the Bike ride we went to Costco for food and that was quite an adventure. We had Sausage Dogs and sodas for lunch then hit the aisles of Costco with avengence and ended up with a huge cart full of food. BY the time we got home the whole bed of my truck was filled with food. It was quite the site. On Saturday night, we had a youth Movie Night. It started out slow because peopl were taking their time to get there and such. Matt Heck and some of the boys wanted to go and play over at the center and I was happy to go because I love basketball and don't get a lot of opportunties to play. Anyway the guys invited two of the guys that were over there to come to our movie night and they did and really enjoyed it . It was awesome because I had just talked about boldness on Wednesday and getting over fear to do things that God was telling me to do. We had like eight visitors or so come to the movie it was awesome. We watched the Winter Breakaway DVD that was made from all the footage that was shot during the camp. It was good and funny and it was a good way for the kids to reminisce about the time at breakaway. We got some pizza and had soda and it was great. The kids had a good time and I am really excited about all the good things going on in church right now. God is really doing some great things withthe church and the youth group.

I will finish the rest of the weekend sometime tomorrow probably I need to get to bed now so that is the latest for now though.

The Toph

Holy COW!!!

Wednesday night church was absolutely awesome. I don't think it could have went any better. I was preaching to the youth group that night. The night started at 5:30 when I showed up at the church and went over to get my drums and bring them to the youth building. Then we had worship practice, it went pretty well but we were a little sluggish. Preservice prayer was like normal except that Iwas expecting God to do a big thing with our group and oh man I think He really did. The thing that floored me the most was that Girl came over to the youth group to hear me preach and to support me. ???? Say what??? She was my only "friend" that went that far, is it just me or does she like me? Maybe I'm crazy maybe not but what I do know is Whoa this girl is super cool. I preached about evangelism and outreach. The one thing that I talked about most was getting over fear in regards to sharing God with people. When I gave the altar call I was surprised because the kids that came forward were not the ones that I expected. The ones that came forward were the ones that didn't really need more boldness but they were saying they were afriad. God broke that fear in them and I can not wait to hear the results from these great kids. I have one of the coolest jobs in the world.

Back to the Girl story. Holy Crap!! I don't really know what to say except that man do I like her. If she pulls the "Oh I'm just your friend card on me I will be totally floored. After coming over by herself to youth group, a place she has never been to before, she helped me carry my drums back over to the church. Wow! Cool! After church a group of friends wanted to go to Cafe Minnies, so we went. i suggested that we carpool so we didn't take fifteen different cars downtown and everyone was like ok. I went with Girl and I thought more people were coming with us but they backed out so it was just her and I in the car. It was really great because it gave aus a chance to talk a little bit. Earlier at church I started talking about doing my blog and all and she started asking me questions about blogs but I was good I did not reveal my blog address. She may be reading this right now I don't know if she is well I guess that wouldn't be so bad. This has really helped me to not just go tell her all my feelings about her because I want to develop this friendship first and let it develop rather than rushing into it and telling her everything that I am feeling. We got to the place and this was the first time she had ever been there. It is a kind of weird place it is definitely a Seattle style place. We had a good fun time.

On the way out of the restaurant there was a man named Winston who was asking for change. As the rest of our group walked right past him, I decided to stop and talk with him. I asked him some questions and then after a couple of minutes I asked him if I could pray for him. He was really excited to get prayer and it was a little God moment , Cool! And all this was shared by my good friend Girl. On the ride back to church which normally is about 5 minutes took us like 15 -20 because she missed a turn while we were driving and it ended up taking longer. That was alright by me because I got to talk to her some more. When we finally got back to the church we were still talking and she started to tell me about this book she was reading and it sounded really cool, I could have sat there and talked with her all night but I knew that I was trying my hardest to keep things on the downlow so I basically cut off the conversation very nicely and said well thanks for the ride I will see you when I see you. That was one of the hardest things for me to do, but I knew it was for the best. If I make it to June 1st before telling her it will definitely be a miracle. I have been fighting the urge to tell her for awile but I know that it is good and it is healthy so that is why I am waiting. Another funny thing happened when we were talking that made me think HUH! I told her that I was going to come to her work on Friday for lunch and she said Oh do you like the food? I said not really I mainly come to see my friend. and she said Oh well I like it when people come to visit me at work. Interesting definitely. All the signs are pointing toward something but only God knows it is in His hands. If it is meant to happen then it will continue to grow and happen in this healthy way that it has already started. I am excited about the day I get to tell her. I have already begun to start a plan of action for that day. It will be cool. I am going to invite her to Bible study at Charlies tomorrow hopefully she will come or at least hang out with us afterward. Wow!! God is Awesome the way he works things out.

Another cool thing I was thinking about the other day is that she left Horizon in June of 2003 and I came in to Horizon July 2003 . he didn't allow our paths to cross until this point in tim. Which is cool because I thought I was ready for a relationship but I needed to get healed up from the whole Elizabeth thing, this 1 year and half gave me the time to do that and I am at one of my healthiest points I have ever been at right now. Amazingly God is bringing us together now, Huh! Interesting! Just a ponderable!
Love
The Toph

The rest of the Girl story

Well as you can tell from my more recent blogs that my mind has been filled with either God thoughts or Girl thoughts, both are great and I'm really excited about both. God is using me tonight to speak to my youth group about some of what God did for me during the one Desire conference and such. The topic is on evangelism and I am really excited about it considering that I started working on it last night at 10 pm. I didn't even find out from Charlie about it until Monday afternoon so I took all that time thinking about a direction to take and then God put it all together and I think that I have a great sermon the only thing is I haven't had much time to practice it so I think that it will be a little rough around the edges but I think God is going to bless it anyway.

Now back to the Girl story. Last Monday at the Healing Rooms was the beginning of a new era for the Healing Rooms, we opened up a second healing room officially on Monday nights and this was one of the first weeks. We had two rooms of people praying and God used us to pray for 9 people which was cool. The Lord was giving me stuff for people and it was right on. I have learned to just speak it even if I don't think I should because most of the time I am right on with what I am hearing from God and when I do that I am blessed in my confidence in Him. This has really been growing also. Well Girl, came to the healing rooms that night and played her guitar in the sanctuary during the time when we were praying. After the prayer time was over I went to the sanctuary to get her. I talked with her for about 10 -15 minutes and then we had to go because they were closing up. We invited her to go to Starbucks with us afterwards to hang out. She came with us to the Queene Anne Starbucks, it was basically Jeremy and Meg, Girl and I and then Jason came later. She is so cool I really like hanging out with her. I had told her I was so hungry and when she came in she brought me a bagel from her work so I could eat it, I was surprised but it showed me she cared about me. There are many little things like this that have been happening that I am probably reading to much into but then again maybe I'm not, Maybe she really does like me and care about me. She doesn't do stuff like that for my other friends, so it made me feel special.We stayed till like 11 and then went home.

The next time I saw her was on Wednesday night after the service. I was with the youth group so I came over to see if she was there she was and I didn't really talk to her until she was leaving because she was talking to other people but a bunch of people were going to McMenamins pub to get something to eat and I asked her if she wanted to go and she did. It was kind of cool because again God orchestrated things to happen. For instance we were the last ones to leave church so everyone had walked up to the pub and so we did too but it was only the two of us. We had a great talk on the way up there , it was sweet. When we arrived it happened that we had too many people to fit in one booth so we ended up taking the one next too it. The only people who were in that booth were Jason and Becca (who are dating so theye sat together) and Girl and I. So it was like two couples who went out to dinner together kind of weird the way it worked out but again super cool in my book because all these things that happened I had no planning or anything that went into it they just happened. She was giving me a hard time being sarcastic with me and that kind of thing. She even gave me a new nickname because of what we talked about. Tophurkey( Tofu turkey) anyway that is another story.

The next occurance was that I went into her work on Friday and had lunch there. She works at a place called Harried and Hungry which is downtown and I have to work downtown with the courier job so it doesn't necessarily look out of the ordinary.When I came in I ordered a sandwich and a glass of water, well the water is self serve but as soon as she heard me say water she went and poured me a glass of water, I thought that was cool. Then later she came over and sat with me while I ate and worked on the tips for everyone but it gave her an excuse to sit down with me and talk so that was cool. I wanted to see her before she left for the weekend because she was going to Portland to spend time with her Mom on Mother's day.

Monday the ninth was the next Girl occurence. This one really threw me for a loop. She brought the normal family in that she brings in for prayer but she also brought in one of her friends named Girl's friend (Lauren). From talking with her it sounded as if Girl had talked to her about me and some of the things that I did. Also I told Girl that I was going to quit one of my jobs because it was too much work and she said that was good because that was something that she had been praying for me about. To me correct me if I'm wrong that shows that you are concerned about a person or your thinking about a person because you feel a burden to pray for them so that made me feel special. They left and took the family home and I thought I wouldn't see her again that day but when we were all done Meg called her and asked her if she wanted to hang out. She actually canceled her plans with her friend Lauren just to come hang out with us, which I thought was super interesting. She came and hung out with us and again it was fun. She was having a problem with her skin being itchy and having bumps on her skin. We prayed for her but it got worse toward the end of the night which sort of concerned me. Backing up before that I had her number but felt bad about having it because I didn't actually get it from her but stole it from the church directory. So I was the one who gave it to =Meg so she could call they all wanted me to call her but I didn't feel right about doing that. I was way blessed by getting that chance to hang out with her.

Yesterday, she called Meg and told her that she was going to the hospital to get this rash checked out because it concerned her. I had just come home from work and got the news. My heart was wrenched: Do I call her and show her my concern or do I do nothing? Well, I had to call her even if I didn't ask her for her number I had it and called her. I wanted to make sure she was ok and I had already changed out of my work clothes and was ready to rush to the hospital for moral support but she was already about to see the doctor and actually our conversation got interrupted by the doctor coming in. She called me back as soon as she was done at the hospital and we talked for like 10-15 minutes all the while Chris and Laura were in the background making google eyed comments about her calling me back but I didn't care I was blessed by her. And now she has my phone number and it doesn't even look like I stole it it just looks like I got it from Meg. There are many more things to say but again I must get back to work before I get in trouble. I just can't get her off my mind though you know!

Love always,
The Toph

One Desire Sunday

After service was over I had a chance to talk with Girl about what had just happened with me and all my friends praying for me. She was playing the guitar up on stage just singing to the Lord. I saw one of my friends from Life was sitting off to the side having a deep time with the Lord and I really sensed that the Lord wanted her to get prayed for. I did not want to go over there by myself because she is a girl and I'm a guy and that would not be right. I also tried to get a group of girls to go pray for her but they ended up taking a while so I asked Girl if she would go over with me to pray for her so I didn't have to pray alone that gave me some accountability. So Girl and I prayed for Soleil and it was cool because we had a chance to minister together and really I wasn't even trying to have that happen it just did, it was cool to pray with her. Then after that she asked Soleil and I to pray for her and we did.

It was the fifteenth anniversary of Horizon church so they had a potluck after the service for everyone. Girl, Soleil and I all ended up being the last people to arrive. I was immediately thinking that no food would be left but praise the Lord, he provided enough for all of us. Girl and Soleil followed me over to the table that I went to so that was really cool because I got to talk to her even more. When we were just about done eating my friends came over and said they were going to Green Lake to go swimming. Girl asked me if I wanted to go running with her, and of course I said yes. When we were getting ready to leave she asked me to come pray with her for a lady named Rose who is from Africa. We got a chance to pray for her in her native tongue so that was awesome. There was some awkward moment when Rose was holding my hand and Ambers hand and she was trying to bring our hands together. It was kind of weird but we both kind of laughed about it.

We finally got out of church at about 3:00 or so. We just left our seperate ways to go get our running attire on so we could go running and then meet up with my friends to swim with them afterwards. I got to Greenlake first and I waited for her to show up. After she showed up I asked her if she wanted to go swimming first or running. She wanted to run so we just started running. By the time we had gotten around one time my friends had already left the swimming area and we did not see them so we decided to go around again. After we were finished running she wanted to go swimming which I did too because it was warm and she wanted me to so I did. I knew I would catch flax from my friends because I never go swimming witht hem but Girl asked me to and of course I wanted to. They did give me a bad time but that was OK. It was weird how God orchestrated it basically so that it was like a date because it was only the two of us. When we finished running 6 miles and then swimming for about 20 minutes. When we were all through it was about 5:00 I think. Girl said that she was thirsty so I suggested that we go back to the church and then walk down to 7-11 and get a drink and she thought that was a great idea so that's what we did.

We walked down to 7-11 and I bought her a drink and then we walked back by that time it was time to change and get back to church for the service so that is what we both did. The service that evening was quite good but I think a lot of the people were pretty worn out because there was a lot of work that went into being at that conference, I was ODing on God. When the service was all over Adam had come to the service and had some free Papa Murphy's pizza so everyone went over to my house after the service to have pizza together. There were like five guys and then Girl because she wanted to be where I was at it was actually quite cool.

God totally worked it out so that I spent the whole day with Girl and really there was not very many other people who were around that day it was kind of like a date but not really. It was totally a God set up bunch of circumstances that happened to bring us together. I should probably stop blogging for today because I am at work today and I don't want to get in trouble for spending a bunch of time typing on the computer. I will update everyone on the happenings of this last week soon. I have had five other times where I have interacted with Girl that I need to update people on. One thing I would like to say though is that I am being very cautious witht his girl and am trying not to say anything to her about like her for at least a month which is really amazing for me to do because I usually just tell someone how I am feeling about them as soon as I know, so it is a challenge but I think that this is for the better. June 1st is a Wednesday and I think I will tell her how I feel then, so please pray for me in regards to this issue. Have a great day, I am!!! Love you all!!

The Toph

The rest of One Desire weekend ( God makes things happen)

The Saturday evening service was quite cool. Dan Hammer was the speaker and man many people were touched in a mighty way. I know of at least five people who were baptised with the holy spirit, at least one saved and many more that were touched in a mighty way. One of the people that I prayed for was Michael the guy from Pike place market earlier in the day. One of the first questions I asked him was if he was saved. He said yes, then I asked him if he had ever been baptized with the Holy Spirit and he said no so I explained it to him and asked him if he wanted it and he did so we started praying. It was awesome it was like I could see the hand of God working as I prayed.

Later on when everything was over the person I like was having a dilemma, she really wanted to help this girl and guy who didn't have a place to stay. I could see that it was kind of stressing her out a little because she didn't want to invite both of them over. So I came over and was the hero. At first I wasn't sure if it would work because I didn't have my own car, I rode with someone else but it really did work out well. She was relieved and I was happy. But this really turned out to be a God experience for me because the guy who came over that night was my divine appointment for the day. His name was Dennis. He just got saved and baptized that evening. When we got to my house I stayed up till like 1 in the morning just teaching him about the Bible and stuff it was really quite cool. I liked teaching him it was fun.

Now Sunday for all those who have missed this story. Sunday morning started early because we had to be at pre service prayer because of worship team. We got there at about 8:30, Girl (This is what I have chosen to call herfor the time being so anytime you see girl that is the girl I like) was there also because she was on worship team. This is the first time she has been to a preservice prayer that I can remember. We both were on the choir. I tried not to stand right next to her just because I like her but Soleil actually switched us during the middle of practice because she wanted me in the front because I was more confident witht he songs. So God moved us together which was cool. The service was really rockin, I mean like 3/4 of the church was dancing and jumping around it was awesome the presence of the Lord was very strong. The service was really all for me, I think Pastor Doug even said something to the effect that the service at one point was for one person, I knew it was for me and so did my friends. I was supposed to be on altar ministry but found myself surrounded by friends who prayed for me it was awesome. After service was over I had like three people come up and give me a bad time about Girl. One said it looked like we were having fun and I said really I didn't even realize that we were interacting with one another. I had another that said we looked cute up on stage together. Also someone else said that same thing. It was weird but other people are starting to notice so I am sure that she senses something is up.

I have run out of time I will finish this later, I have to go work a double shift today about 12 hours or so. Love ya all
The Toph

Not Bad For a guy with Small Shoulders!

That title of this blog really has very little to do with what I am going to write abiout but I thought it was a funny moment. Oh wow, I have had the most intense last week or so. To start with let's talk a little about the healing rooms. This is really where a whole lot of God stuff started happening for me. I have been praying in the Seattle healing rooms now just about every Monday since they opened back in October. I have went through many times where I really didn't believe or have confidence in myself and that God speaks to me so many times I would get something but not say it because I was possibly afraid it was wrong. But God has broken that off of me in a huge way and I am now walking in a confidence that I have never felt before and that in itself is almost scary. People are getting miraculously healed through this ministry and the number of people who come each week keeps increasing. After this last week I think that we are averaging somewhere around 9-10 people a week. A lot of times it is some of the same people coming back to get pray for for the same thing but amazing each week God gives us something new to pray with them about, it's cool. It's like God has given us a puzzle to work on only when the person first arrives God only gives us a few of the pieces and progressively as they come each week God gives us more and more pieces. This is weird because some people just come once and they are released into the healing and we may never see them again. God works in mysterious ways. I love praying for people it is awesome!

So there are really one reason for today's blog to give a recap of the One Desire weekend, if you don't have time to read on in short I will say "God is my One desire." The cool thing though is that as I focus on Him, He has brought a desire that I have longed for a while into my life and really I wasn't even looking for it, it just happened. That is that He brought me a new friend that I have taken interest in because primary because she is an awesome women of God. Sorry no names, but those of you who know me know who I'm talking about.

One Desire is a worship conference here in Seattle that is for youth and young adults, and adults too I guess basically anyone who God decided to bring. It was for the whole weekend. The first night Barry Eglehorn led the worship with some people from his church and others. The worship was intense and there was a lot of dancing going on. I really like dancing and jumping around I think it is a lot of fun. God wants us to have fun with worship because he is an amazing God. Pastor Doug Heck spoke the first night about offenses. Many people were touched. I felt like God was giving me something new but I wasn't sure what that was. He was giving me words for people. I prayed for one of my youth named Poppy and an urgency popped up inside of me I didn't know what it was but it was intense. I started yelling at the devil and telling him to stay away from this one because you have no right and I will fight for him. it was cool that really is the one that I can remeber the most there were other things that happened too. One really funny thing is that I was praying for another one of my youth named Fela and God has really just put it on my heart to pray for the junior high kids who were there from my group. I did a nono when praying for Fela because I had my eyes closed and sometimes when that happens bad things happen. My hands move around when I pray with fervency, and while I was praying my hand happened to push somebody in the butt. Fortunately it was someone who I knew who was a leader, Jessica, who is Jeremy's sister. I was quite embarrassed. After the conference my friends all went out to Denny's for dinner. We had a group of about thirteen people. We had to sit in two groups. I led the way but right behind me were a few people I was hoping would follow me to my table and one of those was the girl that God has seriously been putting on my heart. She is one of the coolest Christian girls I have met and man do we have a lot in common. We had some chemistry going on at Denny's too it was major fun. We ended up staying till about 1 o clock in the morning. That was crazy because we had to be there at 8 am the next morning.

Day Two, Oh man I have to shorten this up a bit or you are going to be here all day. The youth group sold coffee and muffins and bagels to raise money. The morning part didn't go so well but later on for the lunch that we made it was good because I think that we made about eighty dollars or so. The conference worship was a little more mellow in the morning because after all it was morning you know. Tom Isengard, I think this guy has a cool name sounds like he should be in the Lord of the Rings or something was speaking about prayer. I kind of felt bad because I had to leave and prepare lunch for everybody. The youth group was selling hot dogs. After lunch we went out to Marymoor park to watch the model airplanes fly but it happened that there were none out there, so we went to Redmond Town Center a mall. It was actually a pretty dumb mall, a lot of high priced stores for rich people like the ones that work at Microsoft. We got a call from Dave Swensen that a group of people from Corvallis Oregon were down at Pike Place market preforming human videos and they needed people to come down and pray for them. We were thinking that there was going to be this huge throng of people but it only happened to be a few. Everybody went and prayed for certain people but I wasn't really feeling like God wanted me to talk to anyone, I think He wanted me to just observe so I did. One of the people prayed for was Michael. This is an amazing story! This guy was sitting down in Pike Place market because he was from Bremerton and didn't have anything to do. He is a beliver of Jesus but didn't have a church yet so Meg and the people with her invited him to come with us to the conference. Turns out he is in the Navy stationed in Bremerton and had the weekend off. Mike ended up coming to the conference Saturday night, got baptized in the Holy Spirit , received his prayer language, stayed the night with someone he just met, came to church the next morning, hung out all day Sunday, stayed for the Sunday night service and basically stayed as late as he could on Sunday night, the 12:50 ferry. It was cool, I got to pray with him to re3ceive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, it was awesome how God touched Him. I have to go to work now so I will try to finish this later on. Sorry ran out of time!!

Love,
The Toph,
Embrace him