Now that I am moved and settled into my new apartment I have been so blessed with the honor of having a few guests already. I know the title of this made it sound like an apartment blessing but we did that when we moved me in. Pastor Pat and several of the guys were there and I said, "hey, we are all here now lets just pray." So Pastor Pat prayed and asked God to use this place to be a place of refuge and reaching out.

It has truly been a refuge. I can come here and relax and rest in the Lord. He is SO good to me! Now its becoming a place of reaching out. Recently I had over two couples that are friends of mine. They did not know each other and one couple does not know the Lord. So we were talking and visiting and the two couples really hit it off and were even able to give some marital advice to my unsaved friends. Then we played Imaginiff (if you haven't played that game it is really fun and funny!).

It was a wonderful blessing to open up my home and, hopefully, be used to help someone know a little more about how we Christian live.

Love to you all!

Happy Birthday to one of my oldest friends...uhhh...I mean...HAHA!

For those of you who don't know Alicia she is a dear...well...actually she's pretty ornery but I love her because of it :)

We met when I was 11. That means we have been friends for 17 years. 17! Thats almost a whole adult! Like a kid that was 1 when we met is now an adult!!! YIKES!!!

We have been friends through thick and thin (whatever does that mean anyway? Unless its referring to weight it really doesn't make any sense), through boyfriends and breakups, through laughter and tears (more laughter than anything). Its amazing because we are SO different. I am flighty and she is practical.

Have you seen Sense and Sensibility? I would be Kate Winslet and Alicia Emma Thompson (wait, does that mean I have to marry some old dude? Ugh). Or I am Giselle from Enchanted and Alicia is Sally Fields in Steel Magnolias.

Actually Alicia has her own Giselle side to her, she just doesn't let everyone see it.

I love my friend, and I love that God has allowed me 17 wonderful years of friendship. I can't wait for heaven when I can move in next door to her (hmmm...Alicia sorry, that's my heaven...what would that be for you?).

The No Diet is because I have to now say no to lactose and no to soy. Do you realize that everything has Soy in it? So I will be saying no to everything. Which means I will get really skinny. Its a great diet!

Seriously, I believe I am Lactose and Soy intolerant and am going to cut it out of my diet. Right now I am slowly working at cutting it out since I need some alternatives in the meantime.

I found this bread at the store that has no lactose or soy. YAY! Plus some deli meat and some slice rice cheese (this has traces of lactose and soy but for me that is better than no cheese at all). This was my sandwich for lunch today and it tasted pretty good. I noticed a small difference at first but thats mostly in the bread. The meat obviously was fine and the cheese tasted normal. YAY!

It may turn out that cheeses, or certain cheeses are ok (many LI people can eat cheese) but I don't know for sure because yogurt seems to mess me up too and the cultures in Yogurt are supposed to still be ok for LI folks. So we will see. My goal is to get to where I can go 2 weeks without any Lactose or Soy and slowly introduce certain types back in and see how intolerant I am.

How will this work on the cruise? I might have to just not worry about it on the cruise :)

Do you know, living alone has its advantages. One of those being that I believe I see a side of God that you married people possibly miss out on. That being the fun side that says, "hey Bri, remember those glow sticks that Debbie gave you? Pull them out tonight and get your camera!"

If I remember right, this picture was taken after I got sick. Thats why I look somewhat tired. I was weak from losing so much weight (5 lbs in 24 hours) and the kids couldn't help but still want to be held. It was a blessing though, wouldn't change it for the world!!!


Tonight we all met at the church to see the El Salvador team off. Let me begin by saying that I have a complete peace about staying. I know it is God's will this time. Praise the Lord! I stayed because both Pastor Pat and Chris went so I am here to hold down the fort. Pastor Pat told me not to sell the new church for anything less than 5 Million. I told him I would start at 10 and work my way down. :)

It was strange not going though. I think because I understand exactly how they are feeling. At this moment their plane should be taxiing to the runway and taking off. They are feeling a mix of excitement, sadness, thrill, nerves and so many other juxtapose emotions.

Please pray for them through the next 10 days. Pray for me as well...I am holding down the fort remember!

No pictures, I'm sorry but I forgot my camera. Maybe I can get some later from our unofficial church photographer.

What an amazing weekend. Psalm 103 was the theme, "Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name!"

One thing that stood out to me was the meaning of the word bless: to yield, to adore, to congratulate, to salute and to thank.

Bless the Lord, yield to the Lord, adore the Lord, congratulate the Lord, salute the Lord, and thank the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me, bless, yield to, adore, congratulate, salute and thank His holy name!

He alone is worthy.

As a single gal I have times of being alone, and feeling vulnerable. Not always, but in certain situations. Sometimes for no reason, just because I'm alone. When I am with my father there is always the security that everything will be ok. It doesn't really matter what the situation is around me, I can relax and be at peace knowing daddy is in control (sounds like a spiritual application is there!).

Today, however, daddy wasn't able to be there and God showed me that He always protects me. Several of the men from church (5 to be exact) had met at my apartment at 6 a.m. to help me move.

At about 6:30 I was upstairs with Pastor Pat and I hear some yelling outside. There was a guy out there yelling profanity at the guys downstairs helping me move. Apparently he was angry that we had woke him up (honestly we had not been all that loud. No more than anyone else in the neighborhood at one time or another. I have lived here three years and never had anyone complain about me being noisy where plenty of others has caused problems. We were not whispering but we weren't yelling or anything). Pretty soon the whole neighborhood is up. They all told us that he was pretty much crazy (so obviously we hadn't bothered them).

The part that started getting scary was when Eric told me what he had said to them. He talked about me and called me some profane names. He knew we were Christians and mocked us with that. The guys handled it very well, though Danny, when the guy started talking about me, was very upset and Eric talked him down a bit. Danny is an ex gang member. Had he not been saved when this happened...well...Danny may have turned that guy's other cheek for him.

So Eric, having heard a lot of what this guy was saying about me, got concerned about me coming back alone to clean. So they basically decided I shouldn't come back alone.

We went to my new place (much much much nicer neighborhood and I met my neighbors already they are about 80ish and adorable!!!) and unloaded. When we finished there I stayed to unpack and Pastor Pat left to go drop off his trailer. He decided to grab Kelly, his wife, and go clean for me at the old place so I wouldn't have to go back at all.

He and Kelly arrived at the old place and the guy started yelling at him again. Using what can't really be described as colorful language since he basically only used one word over and over. He wanted to start a fight with Pastor Pat and was getting in Pastor Pat's face (just inches away) trying to egg him on. As they were leaving the assistant manager came out and asked Pastor Pat to call the police so that they could get a police report filed on this guy.

I walked away from this somewhat shaken up but feeling very secure knowing that any of those 5 guys was ready to deck that guy for my sake. The fact that they didn't was not unprotectiveness but being Christ-like. Its nice to have many men in my life who will stand up for me. Makes me feel very safe.

I will post pics of my new apartment when I get more unpacked!