If they would’ve told us 15, 16, 17 years ago as Tim  and I were sitting at Portland Bible College that we would be running a specialty wood & custom furniture business, we would have laughed them all the way back to China. God has an amazing sense of humor. So all you Bible College students out there,do not despise the process or the opportunities God brings across your path. Sometimes you may feel like throwing them out the window because you may think that the only way to serve God is to go into “the ministry” and be on staff at a church, like that is your highest aspiration. THINK AGAIN!! God uses even the job you get “in the world” to open up doors you never thought would open or that you would even be walking through. The tricky thing is keeping your focus on God’s face and not his hand. When you keep looking steadily at his eyes, listening to his voice and moving with his heartbeat you wont make a mistake. 

At PBC Glenda Malmin, my first mentor, would look at me in class and chapel and say “Stir it up!” And motion it with her hands. This has never left me. (Thanks Glenda) Because I have had to make sure that whatever season I was in, (working at CBC, Bible College, Mom with a newborn, Mom with three kids and running a business while working with Children’s ministry and Family Life at Destiny Christian Fellowship) I kept stirring the Gifts that were within me. Every season has its difficulties and challenges. We have to make sure, even in the hard seasons we are doing everything we can to find fulfillment in God’s will. If we fight it we will miss out on the joys that God brings to us every day.

And I tell you what, “being in the ministry” has a completely different look and definition that I thought in Bible College. 

Ministry is every day being obedient to what God is leading you to do. If you are not on paid staff, than praise the Lord! That means you get to work a job and bless the Lords house with your tithes and offerings while pouring your life out to all those you have the chance to minister to inside and outside if the church.

God is faithful to fulfill the desires of your heart because many times HE put them there. My friend and mentor Helene Spacek reminded me on Sunday of a word she had for me a few months ago, “Dream with your eyes wide open”. This time she addded that at just the SCENT of rain God will cause a shoot to come out of what we thought was dead. She said she saw one of our custom tables with a new green shoot coming out of it. (Aaron’s Rod) It meant the world to me. God’s method, path and timing do not belong to us. We don’t understand it when it’s happening. But take a second to look back and remember all the times he had been faithful and the little doors he opened to get you to this point. GOD WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU OR THE DREAMS IN YOUR HEART. Dont stop dreaming! Seek His Face!! His plans WILL be fulfilled through your life, if you surrender it to him. There is nothing more fulfilling in this life than walking in HIS will.