A Moment in the Mind of Me

You know for being someone who has spent most of their life trying to be what I thought people wanted… it makes it really difficult to just stop and try and be who I am. Once deciding to stop living for “other” people and finding that I am not quite sure who this “Leah” girl is the only plausible conclusion is to find what the options are… so let’s find people that I like or admire… there are SO many great people in this world let’s just chose which one I want to be and then do it!! There are artists, singers, performers, leaders, travelers, builders, entrepreneurs, mothers, cooks, farmers, teachers, etc… this great idea worked really well!... for awhile… then comes the problem of, once you find a great person to be then you end up trying to live someone else’s life without the tools they have for their own.. not a good plan! You start not knowing the answers to simple questions like… What is your favorite music? Favorite foods? Let alone: What do you want to do in life? I tried this path for a few years and found that I am actually quite good at being a chameleon of sorts, and in many ways did learn things about myself along the way… but I feel as though I have come to a pondering point in my life… not necessarily a huge decision time or anything of the sort, but looking back over the paths, trails, streams I’ve tried I stand still wondering, who is Leah?

I have a theory that really who we are does get formed by the people around us in many ways but I can’t say that I know that for sure because I never experienced life from a different side. Maybe there are those people that are just born with an understanding of who they are and in what ways they are going to reveal the kingdom of God on earth in their own unique flavor. My theory is I really do think that God made us moldable so that we do influence each other. I look back over the years and see places where the people around me left their fingerprints on me and my personality and I can’t say that I truly believe it was all bad. I do think that ONLY copying those around you can be a bad idea… but aren’t we made to influence each other?
I think that the reason why I have had such a hard time finding the “Leah” is because I keep dismissing anything that I may have “picked up” along the way… not realizing that maybe God put certain people in my life to actually pull out something that was ALWAYS a part of me?! I have recently found the joy of “thinking my own thoughts”… I know that sounds pretty ridiculous… but honestly, I have just been on this quest to let me be me EVEN IF someone else may think it does look just like a copy. Everyone has to start somewhere, but as long as the journey is bringing life and joy then it’s a journey worth taking!

The Scary Things In Life

I have decided that it is about time that I share with you some of the scary parts of living in DC… They are called Thousand Leggers.. dun dun dunn. I heard rumors of them before I came but once here didn’t have to wait too long for an encounter of my own. Let me share a typical scenario..
It starts with a scream…. “Or a Leah..LEAH!!!” I come into a room where Michelle usually is perched uncomfortably on some piece of furniture as high off the ground as she can be… I automatically look at the point that is farthest possible from Michelle and most often that is where the bug is located. Melissa is a little braver, so she will actually get close enough to point out the bug itself.. but usually she points with some sort of an object.. just in case it decides to move quickly towards here… because they are very VERY fast little guys.. after all they do have a thousand legs. Then comes my part…

I get a clear container of some sort so I can keep my eyes on it the whole time.. my biggest fear is to have one of them squeeze out and crawl up my arm!! So usually I my tool of choice is a nice large Tupperware. Then I get a hard thin object that I can slide underneath. Now for the catching part.. always gets my heart rushing… even after ALL the times I’ve done it cuz in the back of my head I can imagine the horrible feeling of this thing crawling on me and it gives me the heeby jeebies just enough to get my heart rate up every time I go to catch one of these little guys.
Melissa will usually take one side of the room or object and stand guard in case it tries to escape.. and her job is to help scare it towards me so I can catch it. A quick explanation as to why we are “catching” this horrible critter instead of just “squishing” it on the spot is because if you miss:
1. It will run away and you chance losing track of it.. which can never happen because then Michelle with never come off of the furniture and everyone will be slightly on edge for the rest of the day.. Imagining that every little thing that happens to touch them is a Thousand Legger!
Or
2. There are much higher chances that you will end up with one of them crawling up your arm when you are trying to quickly thrust you arm at it before it escapes… You end up with it climbing up your arm as a means of escape from the crushing hand!! (That’s the scariest!! )
So… I catch it. Once it has been caught I go to the kitchen sink to do the dirty deed… at this point Michelle is insistently telling me “make sure you KILL IT!!”.. “Leah, make sure it is totally dead!”.. I assure her I ALWAYS kill them. I release it into the kitchen sink because then it is trapped and I can easily execute quick execution. I use a wet paper towel.. that way I don’t feel the crunch… cuz THAT I cant handle. Once done, the Tupperware goes into the dishwasher the remains and paper towel go into the trash, although im sure Michelle wishes we would burn them :). And we go on with our day.
My tally of how many of these horrific creatures I have killed is up to 27!! That’s way too many if you ask me! We did finally get the exterminator to come and spray and I think it might be helping.
...And Now you know ;)


The other day I killed one and its guts were PURPLE!!

The Joys of Life

The last two weeks have felt like about two months!! We had Melissa's really good friend staying with us, he name is Rene and she has been a Christian tour guy for 14 years and is so much fun to pull from regarding our nations history.
Melissa just had her birthday so we went on a road trip to Pennsylvania, Hershey PA to be more specific... it was SO much fun! That city is like a wonderland Mr. Hershey was an amazing man with lots of godly vision. You should really look up his story if you have never read about him because he just oozed with Kingdom thinking.
The second day of our adventure we went to a lake called Mt. Gretna Lake.. SO FUN!!.. it has a really tall structure you could dive off, a swing you would jump off.. that was my favorite.. although i almost ate it really bad because i had so much sun tanning oil on that I came way TOO close to slipping off when the man was pushing me to give me some high before my jump.. VERY scary!


After a nice long relaxing day at he lake we went to one of Lulu's hotels to stay the night and do some prayer walking and kingdom releasing over the business. It was such a treat to stay there! She even called ahead of us and had these yummy cheese, crackers and chocolate trays sent to our rooms. We snacked on them and then did some listening to what God was up to with her hotels.. lets just say He is always up to something good. :)

This last weekend we went to Williamsburg VA, for a gathering called the Blaze Manifesto it was a gathering to release the sound of heaven in the womb of the nation, which is the Federal Triangle, Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown. We also go to watch the fireworks!! The next day we got to go to a service at a local church where Georgian Banov was speaking. He is always so much fun!! Pretty much in a nutshell.. LIFE IS GOOD!! ...AND GOD! The two together can never go wrong.


This next week we will be having three women from Bethel visiting and praying in the city with us... sounds like a God adventure to me. Love to you all and thanks for checking whats been going on in the life of me!!

La la la... :)

The last few days have been quite fun here in the city of Washington DC. We have had a loverly visiter staying with us, Camille, who is from Bethel, and we have been having such a fun time! The first day that she was here we went to the Supreme court and did a life siege with JHOP (Justice House of Prayer) and then we tromped around the city for a bit and enjoyed a nice lunch at one of my favorite sandwich joints called Potbelly! Seriously I will never be the same after that place J We then enjoyed a wonderful dinner with our good friend Lulu! We sure love her!!

Yesterday we went to Ocean City and enjoyed a day at the beach!! So much fun! Very relaxing and I accidently got a bit crisped in the sun Even though I was actually wearing sunscreen! I guess I should have put another layer of it on.. oops! Now I have all the random lines of red where it used to be white and then the rest is just nice and tan. After a stroll on the boardwalk and a nice dinner at a restaurant called Shananagains we headed home but not without a detour to find ICE CREAM!! One of my favorite things ever! Always worth a 20 minute detour.

One of the extra highlights for me this week is I got to see lightening bugs for the very first time ever!! I love them!! I tried to go out and catch one last night so that I could observe it at a little closer but then the rain started up again so I went in. But tonight!... I am gonna catch me some lightening bugs!! Yippee!

We have had some of the craziest thunder storms lately! I have never heard such crazy lightening in my life! It woke me up the other morning quite early (which I not very easy to do J ) and then I couldn’t go back to sleep for about an hour because it was SO loud. It actually woke everyone in the house up!! It was pretty amazing!

Well this is really just kinda a whole bunch of random information but I wanted to post something so I didn’t lose my blog followers and that way you could know what I am up to.

We went on a prayer initiative today at the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln just to remind our nation of its true destiny since “others” have been speaking lies over it and it was lots of fun just releasing the Kingdom there! Definitely the fun part of our job out here!! God is so good and He is up to great things in our nation.. we just need to make sure we are keeping our eyes open to see it!

Other great news is my sister is getting MARRIED!!! craziness really!! But i am SO excited!!! It has been quite awhile since anyone in my family has been married! It about time really :) Congratulations Faithy Lu!! and Todd! Much loves your way!

I'm Jumping on the Bandwagon

I have never done a blog before but it seems to be the new thing these days and since I now live 2800 miles from most of my family and am trying to successfully stay connected I thought this might be the perfect tool to do so.

For those of you who don't know... I moved out to Washington DC from Redding CA on January 7th, 2009. It was my first time moving away from my family AND to see the East Coast. I knew that God was orchestrating it though so I jumped in head first. It didn't take me very long to absolutely fall in love with the Washington. I had always wanted to move to the East coast and specifically "live in a city with its own culture, lots of green growth and lots of History"... I cant say that I knew anything about DC before I came but so my delight it fit that bill exactly!!

The first month or two of me being here consisted of lots of praying for our newly elected President Obama and Nation because the shift in the atmosphere was so apparent when he came into office, and shopping for much more warm clothes because it is SO much colder here than in Redding, and meeting all kinds of amazing people!

I live here with two amazing woman named Melissa and Michelle whom I absolutely LOVE and am so privileged to know. Our job out here is to host the presence of God, host people that God brings into our lives, and join with what God is doing to bring revival and restoration to our Nation. Couldn't ask for more really!!!

Well that is all i can really fit into a nutshell and quite scattered really but i am hoping to pretty faithfully keep all of you updated in the days to come!!