Ok guys and gals, here's the story of God's awesomeness!! :) Im really bad at not being detailed...so it's kind of long..but i cant help it! haha.
So for those of you who didn't know this, Suzanne and I went to toasty beaver's bar after FNW (we got there around 10ish). We met up with one of Suzanne's friends and sat in the bar part of the bar (there is also a dance floor part of the bar in another room) eating pizza and attempting to talk to each other. We quickly figured out that it was difficult to hear and therefore was slightly difficult to have important conversations where delails are important. haha. God was definitely with us in those conversations with both of Suzanne's friends (one ended up coming a little later) and I definitley think it opened up some more doors for another time of interaction!
Anyways, it wasn't very packed at first but once 11:30 rolled around people started to flood in. I know for me, and Suzanne said this was the case for herself as well, that it felt as though we were supposed to do something instead of just sitting at the table looking at the people. So as the night went on we continued to ask God, "who should we talk to? what are You doing God?" And we heard nothing. Some of my other friends ended up coming later in the night and so I went into the dance floor part of the bar with them and Suzanne, during part of that split, decided to go outside.
On Suzanne's way back into the bar, she was stopped by a guy (John?). She ended up figuring out that one of the guys that lives in the REM house that she works at is his uncle, and she asked him what she could be praying for and he said that he wouldnt die while working.
While Suzanne was having this convo with John, I was sitting at a table in the dance floor area, just waiting for God to tell me something. I was soon invited onto the dance floor by another friend that was there and began to dance with her. She introduced me to one of her guy friends and then soon left us two to dance. ha. It was cool to get to know someone just slightly while dancing. Then one of his friends came up to us and he introduced me to her. Nothing more happened, but I know that these new relationships that were being built last night are just more open doors!
Suzanne and I were headed out of toasty's around 2:30, which is when they close, we step outside and it was raining slightly. I couldnt help but think of the verse that stuck out to me earlier in the night on the Thoofts wall: "Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." As we were walking towards Suzanne's appartment and away from the bar, my head kept turning back to the crowd of people that were standing right outside the bar door. I kept thinking to myself, "did we miss something? is there anything else you want to do here, God?" We walked a little farther, just about to cross the street and Suzanne suggested that we just stand where we were. So we stood in the rain. Soon after we heard this girl talking and we turned around and realized she was talking to us. She was pretty drunk and one of the first things that she was telling us was that she noticed us and that throughout the night she continued to look at us sitting at the table. She was talking about driving home, but Suzanne offered to give her a ride to her house. haha....oh boy, im getting excited again! As we pull up to her house, she offered for us to come in. Suzanne and I look at each other, and say yes! Little did we know that we would end up staying there until 4:30 in the morning! :)
She was quite talkative! As the night went on the conversation began to get deeper and deeper. It was maybe about a half an hour in that Suzanne posed to questions for heri. The first was the exchange of numbers, so that she has another option other than driving drunk home and the so that when she is bored we can invite her to things. The next was if we could pray for her and her family. She accepted the invite and we went and sat down in her living room. For me personally (I dont know about you, suzanne) but this is the point where God totally annihilated my assumption of what He was doing and what was going to happen. First Suzanne prayed, then I prayed, and then immediately after I was done, out of tears came the cry out to God from her! I was so overcome by God's power and love for her that I began to cry as well. After we were done praying, she became even more open and shared even more of her story. God has been persuing her like crazy! We figured out that close to when she first came here 5yrs(?) ago she had checked out intervarsity but stopped going because she didnt want to feel like a hypocrite. One thing that sticks out the most to me in all that she said, was that she knows that going to the bars isnt going to solve her problems. she said as well, "I know im not going to meet any good....well, other than you guys...I know im not going to meet any good people at the bars." She was so blown away that God had brought us together at the bar of all places! :) She was like, "it's like God knew that I need you guys!" oh, man; oh, man! God is so crazy! We also invited her to come to church with us and this week i think she will be coming with me.
So, as we looked back on the night and in a sense debriefed with each other, we quickly realized that both John and our new friend were being affected by God's presence. The atmosphere around them began to change, and so did they! Our new friend's language began to less full of swearing as she began to feel God's love for her, I felt this sense of peace and hope within the space we were in. Another interesting thing is that looking back to all of the people we interacted with, they all came up to us! :) God was already there before we got there! He had already been working!
There are more smaller details that were pretty awesome too, but you can ask us if you want to more!
God has CRAZY love for people, and the majority of people don't know it! Let us be avalible for God to use us in the darkest places!
So for those of you who didn't know this, Suzanne and I went to toasty beaver's bar after FNW (we got there around 10ish). We met up with one of Suzanne's friends and sat in the bar part of the bar (there is also a dance floor part of the bar in another room) eating pizza and attempting to talk to each other. We quickly figured out that it was difficult to hear and therefore was slightly difficult to have important conversations where delails are important. haha. God was definitely with us in those conversations with both of Suzanne's friends (one ended up coming a little later) and I definitley think it opened up some more doors for another time of interaction!
Anyways, it wasn't very packed at first but once 11:30 rolled around people started to flood in. I know for me, and Suzanne said this was the case for herself as well, that it felt as though we were supposed to do something instead of just sitting at the table looking at the people. So as the night went on we continued to ask God, "who should we talk to? what are You doing God?" And we heard nothing. Some of my other friends ended up coming later in the night and so I went into the dance floor part of the bar with them and Suzanne, during part of that split, decided to go outside.
On Suzanne's way back into the bar, she was stopped by a guy (John?). She ended up figuring out that one of the guys that lives in the REM house that she works at is his uncle, and she asked him what she could be praying for and he said that he wouldnt die while working.
While Suzanne was having this convo with John, I was sitting at a table in the dance floor area, just waiting for God to tell me something. I was soon invited onto the dance floor by another friend that was there and began to dance with her. She introduced me to one of her guy friends and then soon left us two to dance. ha. It was cool to get to know someone just slightly while dancing. Then one of his friends came up to us and he introduced me to her. Nothing more happened, but I know that these new relationships that were being built last night are just more open doors!
Suzanne and I were headed out of toasty's around 2:30, which is when they close, we step outside and it was raining slightly. I couldnt help but think of the verse that stuck out to me earlier in the night on the Thoofts wall: "Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." As we were walking towards Suzanne's appartment and away from the bar, my head kept turning back to the crowd of people that were standing right outside the bar door. I kept thinking to myself, "did we miss something? is there anything else you want to do here, God?" We walked a little farther, just about to cross the street and Suzanne suggested that we just stand where we were. So we stood in the rain. Soon after we heard this girl talking and we turned around and realized she was talking to us. She was pretty drunk and one of the first things that she was telling us was that she noticed us and that throughout the night she continued to look at us sitting at the table. She was talking about driving home, but Suzanne offered to give her a ride to her house. haha....oh boy, im getting excited again! As we pull up to her house, she offered for us to come in. Suzanne and I look at each other, and say yes! Little did we know that we would end up staying there until 4:30 in the morning! :)
She was quite talkative! As the night went on the conversation began to get deeper and deeper. It was maybe about a half an hour in that Suzanne posed to questions for heri. The first was the exchange of numbers, so that she has another option other than driving drunk home and the so that when she is bored we can invite her to things. The next was if we could pray for her and her family. She accepted the invite and we went and sat down in her living room. For me personally (I dont know about you, suzanne) but this is the point where God totally annihilated my assumption of what He was doing and what was going to happen. First Suzanne prayed, then I prayed, and then immediately after I was done, out of tears came the cry out to God from her! I was so overcome by God's power and love for her that I began to cry as well. After we were done praying, she became even more open and shared even more of her story. God has been persuing her like crazy! We figured out that close to when she first came here 5yrs(?) ago she had checked out intervarsity but stopped going because she didnt want to feel like a hypocrite. One thing that sticks out the most to me in all that she said, was that she knows that going to the bars isnt going to solve her problems. she said as well, "I know im not going to meet any good....well, other than you guys...I know im not going to meet any good people at the bars." She was so blown away that God had brought us together at the bar of all places! :) She was like, "it's like God knew that I need you guys!" oh, man; oh, man! God is so crazy! We also invited her to come to church with us and this week i think she will be coming with me.
So, as we looked back on the night and in a sense debriefed with each other, we quickly realized that both John and our new friend were being affected by God's presence. The atmosphere around them began to change, and so did they! Our new friend's language began to less full of swearing as she began to feel God's love for her, I felt this sense of peace and hope within the space we were in. Another interesting thing is that looking back to all of the people we interacted with, they all came up to us! :) God was already there before we got there! He had already been working!
There are more smaller details that were pretty awesome too, but you can ask us if you want to more!
God has CRAZY love for people, and the majority of people don't know it! Let us be avalible for God to use us in the darkest places!
