CELEBRATION DAY!

November 12, 2008

Today is one of my friends special day. Today is Yuri's birthday. Happy Birthday Yuri! I am so glad the Lord placed her family in our lives. I will always remember how Yuri and I met. I started attending Union Grove Baptist Church in October of 2001 and started coming on Wednesday nights. I always felt a little uncomfortable coming into the church by myself and sad that my husband was not with me. Rachael would be in the Wednesday night clubs which left me trying to find a seat where I felt comfortable by myself. It wasn't that people were not friendly. There we a lot of people who made me feel welcome but I just had not made that personal connection because it was still early in my attendance at the church and I was still meeting people. One particular Wednesday night I came in and was looking for a seat. I was walking down through the center aisle of the church and I heard a lady say, "you can sit with me if you like". That would be the start of a wonderful friendship and light that my husband would see that would ultimately assist in him giving his life to the LORD. We began to sit together in every Wednesday night service. Yuri's husband, Jon was working in the Wednesday night clubs so that left her upstairs alone as well. We soon became good friends and she started inviting me out to events with her. She soon invited me on a "girls" only trip to the beach and her and I left on a Friday and returned on a Sunday. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and grew closer as friends. I looked to Yuri for guidance in a lot of areas of my life during a time of deep struggle. I had accepted Christ as my savior and was trying to live the Christian life but was in a deep struggle at home with my husband who was not saved. Yuri was there to encourage me and to listen to me. She would let me sit and talk for hours sometimes even through my tears, she continued to encourage me. She made me laugh and made me realize that God was still in control and knew every request that I prayed. Jimmy said he will never forget the first time Jon and Yuri came to our house and how Yuri made him feel comfortable around "Christians". You have to understand, Jimmy was still unsaved and other "Christians" made him feel uncomfortable. Jon had come over to help Jimmy with something one evening. Jon and Jimmy had went into one of the bedrooms and started looking at some electronic camera stuff and Jimmy said he remembered how Yuri came into the bedroom, jumped on the bed, and proceeded to just start talking away as though she had known him for years. Jimmy said in that moment he knew that they were just "real people" who were the "real stuff". They never pressured Jimmy about the Lord and Jimmy said they never had to say a word. He saw Christ in their lives in every way. He fell in love with their family and through them, he saw Jesus. They were many prayers, people and situations that God used to bring Jimmy to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He placed the Browns in our lives in his timing. Yuri has been taking Rachael home with her every Wednesday since around 1st grade. Rachael has grown up knowing the love of 3 other boys whom she considers to be her brothers. She calls Yuri her second mom and I know there are things that she feels more comfortable talking with Yuri about than she does with me. That's okay. I always want her to have a Christian woman mentor that she can go to and talk about anything. Sometimes parents are not the ones that kids talk to and I am thankful that Yuri is in Rachael's life and that Rachael feels comfortable talking with her. I pray that God will continue to use Yuri in Rachael's life. I am thankful for all the friends that God has brought our way and what they mean to us. There are many friendships we have formed and I'm sure through future blogs you will hear more about them. I went to weigh in today and lost another 3.6 lbs. Yeah!!! I have lost a total of 16.4 lbs now and still seeking God's strength in all of it. I had another chance today to be a witness to my weight watchers group and God opened a door for me to tell them about RU and my church. God is so Good! I had one lady to ask me what verse I had quoted in the meeting which was James 4:6&7. I told the group that I had to meditate on this verse and realize that in order to lose this weight I have to submit myself to God each and every day. If not I will eat for all the wrong reasons. We have a Grove Girls event today and I am looking forward to it. We are baking bread and taking it to the shut ins. I know smelling home baked bread will be a temptation that I will need prayer for so I have started praying this morning and making sure I have a satisfied stomach before I go. I have to get going and get busy. Lots more to do today before I can leave.