The Adventures of Darcey & Watson

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted anything on here. Let me catch you up on some recent happenings in my life the past month or so. Starting off with a recent picture of me!

Yes, I’ve grown a hideous nose and have been working on that mustache for quite some time now. Looks great right?!

Part 1 – Tim Zink:

One of the most exciting things to happen to me is the introduction to a new chapter in my life. Courtship. There is this amazing guy who was in my school of discipleship class back in 2009. He had apparently been praying about courting me for 2.5 years before I found out, and had already gone to leadership for permission/advice and had been told to wait. We have been best friends since the SD year, yet I had NO idea that he liked me. Either I’m clueless, or he is just really good at hiding things.
So I found out he liked me and I kinda freaked out. Thinking that this could ruin our friendship and I didn’t want to lose him as a friend and brother. I also didn’t like him like that. I took this news to my mentor and she prayed with me and asked me to go, pray and fast about this. She said to not have a “yes” or “no” in mind, but be okay with whatever answer the Lord gave.
I did so and was praying for the Lord’s will in this situation. After a while I didn’t really want the answer to be “no” because I was starting to like him too! So I started praying for the Lord to change his heart so this whole situation would be settled. After all, it’s a really big decision and I didn’t want to mess up anything between us.
After a while the Lord just kept confirming time and time again that He was in this relationship, since the beginning, and has been preparing us for courtship with each other. Soon, he discovered that I liked him too, and so we went back to leadership, they prayed about it, and gave us the go ahead, and now we have been happily courting since August 29th.
I also will be going to spend Thanksgiving with him and his family in Florida! Even though it’ll be way warmer than I’m used to for a Thanksgiving, I’m still looking forward to meeting his family and building relationships.

my mom came to visit and took this picture of me and Tim

Part 2 – Detox/Elimination Diet:

A few of my friends and I have decided to embark on an interesting journey of hunger and no caffeine. We have started the Detox/Elimination diet. It starts off with two hard days of only drinking green smoothies, then a week of very few veggies, fruits, and rice, slowly after that we can add stuff back in to see if we are intolerant to anything that we add in. So far I’ve had more energy, but have also been sick most of the time. This diet is supposed to last till December 4th, but it’s really tough! Thankfully we can start to add in real foods soon, and last night was the first dinner that actually looked like a real meal, vegan chilli! Yum. I’ll let ya know how it goes as the weeks progress.
Part 3 – Colonial Grand at Hebron:

I’ve moved apartments! From a third floor to another third floor apartment, but this is a big improvement. Not only is this apartment within walking distance from the office, but it’s in the same apartment complex as Tim and the rest of my friends, I’ve gained a roomie, the apartments are “luxiary” apartments and reeeeeally nice, there’s great amenities, and it’s right next to Sprouts! I’d say it’s a winner!

Part 4 – Camping:

I went camping this past weekend with a HUGE group of Gospel for Asia staff peoples and their families. It was a marvelous time spent in the great outdoors. We played Horseshoes, had fellowship, napped in hammocks, froze at night, saw all the beautiful stars, there was a camp fire, we took a hike to the lake and skipped stones and walked a bit, played guitar, had fellowship with the Lord in His creation… it was an amazing time

A group of GFA staff members went camping this past weekend at Eisenhower state park

Part 5 – Marriage!

My aunt Kristie got married recently and I’d say it’s a great catch on her part, and on his. Happy times indeed, welcome to the family Jeremy

Jeremy and Kristie, don’t they look happy!

This is Jeremy and Kristie with their four beautiful children. Such a happy family!

That’s pretty much all I can think of at the moment. Thanks for catching up! I’ll keep you posted on any new developments and hopefully post more often than I have been. Have a great day!

Source: A Courtship has Occurred, Change is Happening

Recently my friend Sieka and I were going to hang out at our friend’s house after work and just chill. A seemingly simple task right? Well, it didn’t quite turn out the way we expected, but I think it was better that way.

After work we had decided to take her car to the store, pick up some super healthy ramen, head over to our friend’s house and eat it there, then just hang out the rest of the evening. We got to her car, and our plans were changed right then and there, as she went to turn her key in the ignition, it wouldn’t budge. Her car was locked, we tried everything from holding in the brake pedal, to turning the steering wheel while trying to turn the key, but nothing worked. Eventually we called our friend Kevin who knows cars better than most people I know, and even he couldn’t fix it! So, we decided to just take my car instead.

We head over to my apartment, so we can change out of work attire and into comfy clothes. As we get to my door, on the third floor of the apartment complex, I discover that I left my house key on my desk at work, behind a locked Web Department door. So instead of changing, I drop Sieka off at Kroger to pick up the food as I drive 10 mins back to the office to retrieve my key.

As I get to Gospel for Asia, I realized that my fob, to get into the building, is with my housekey behind the locked Web Department door (and the key to get into Web is with the housekey as well). So I call Sieka, and at this point we just laugh at this interesting adventure that our simple journey turned out to be. Thankfully she left her purse in my car when I dropped her off at Kroger, and her fob was in her purse. So I took her fob, let myself in the building, tracked down Uncle Keith who opened the Web Department door, grabbed my keys, locked the Web door, drove back to Kroger, picked up Sieka, drove back to my apartment and changed, and then FINALLY we arrive at our friend’s place with a rather exciting story to share.

Overall I am glad that I had Sieka with me, would have been very frustrating to go through alone. And this way we are building memories as our friendship continues to grow.

Source: That Took Longer Than Expected

It was a happy reunion indeed when our dear, long-lost roommate showed up in the grand state of Texas to bless and surprise those serving at Gospel for Asia. Three years ago, on August 15, 2009 seven students arrived for Gospel for Asia’s School of Discipleship program. Twas a year of intense growth for the students, and at the end of the year four stayed on to join staff, one lived there anyways, and the other two went their separate ways.

Last time Chantelle visited we had grand plans to create a music video like old times sake. For the Bonsai girls loved creating videos… sadly, time slipped by and she was back on a plane to Florida and the plan for wonderful videos was lost. This time however, the night before she was to leave, we gathered together and created a music video.

So, I introduce to you, our evil plan to save the world.

My Evil Plan to Save the World – by Five Iron Frenzy

Source: My Evil Plan to Save the World

Way back in my preschool days my mom was in college. So I went to a preschool called the Montessori School, and I didnt want my mommy to leave. So we came up with a goodbye solution that would get me through the day till she came to pick me up again.

I still remember the path I would take from our hug at the door to the small window where i could see her at the car. Then we would motion back and forth ” I love you 1″ “I love you 2” all the way up till 10.

This tradition has continued even to this day, and we have gotten pretty creative in our motions

Anyways, just wanted to share the special memory with you all. I love my mommy 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.

Source: To my Mommy: Preschool Goodbyes

So, I’ve heard this I don’t know how many times, that your vertical relationship with the Lord is more important than your horizontal relationships with those around you. Which makes perfect sense! However this last time I heard it mentioned something clicked.

I had a vivid image in my mind of an arrow going upward as I continue to pursue the Lord. And I realized that the higher I go up in that relationship with the Lord, the farther out I can reach those around me as His Spirit flows out of my life.

Think about throwing a ball from a tall building. You can throw it further out the higher you go. So the more I build my relationship with the Lord, the more people He can impact through me!

So yes, my vertical relationship with the Lord is waaay more important, and He can reach so many more people the more I get to know Him.

Praise God for that.

Source: Vertical Relationships

Tonight after an amazing prayer meeting at Gospel for Asia, a group of friends and I decided to hit up a great restaurant called Cafe Brazil for some food and felowship. We usually do something like this each Tuesday night after prayer meeting.

Today however, I called my mom and walked around outside while I caught up with her for a bit. I really miss her, so it was cool to chat with her about what’s going on in our lives.

While I was chatting with her a guy came up to me drinking a red bull and asked if when I’m finished if I could give him a ride up the road a bit. I said sure but that it would be a while before I could drive him there because I’m with a group of friends hanging out. He said that’s alright and waited. I asked his name and his name was Tony.

Sam then came out and joined me and so I hung up with my mommy and invited Tony in to hang with the group. Trying to share the love of Christ with him through my actions. After a while he decided to leave, before we could give him a ride.

I know his intentions may not have been right, but I really think I should have shared the Gospel with him. Because regardless of his intentions, God loves him and brought him there to meet me for a reason. Sadly I didn’t share Christ with him, but I will be praying for Tony.

Can you join me in prayer for Tony? That he will learn of the Truth and maybe one day we will see him in Heaven praising God with us.

Thanks for reading and for praying!

Source: An Unlikely Person

So, I love my friends, I’ll start by saying that.
I was on my way home from work today and it just so happens that some of my friends drive home the same way as I do. I got to a shorter light and was in the process of changing my CD when all of a sudden, out of nowhere there is an arm reaching across my windsheild and puts up one of my windshield wipers. (A harmless prank that my friends and I usually do to each others cars when they are in a parking lot).
I of course jump a mile in my seat, and look over in time to see Patrick running back to Tims car which is in the far other lane away from mine, and he’s laughing, Katie pulls next to me, and I have very short time to act.
With barely 15 seconds before the light turns green, I quickly roll my window down, put my car in park, take my seatbelt off and reach out my window to put the windshield wipers back down. Of course my arm was too short so I had to reeally reach for the thing. Just as the light turned green I got back in my car and drove off. Putting my seatbelt on as I stole a last glance
back to Tim and Patrick who were laughing in the car.

Gotta love my friends I couldn’t stop laughing about it till I got home. Hehe

Source: Scared to Death on the drive Home

Today was an interesting day. Starting off at 1AM I woke up and couldn’t really get back to sleep, save maybe a few 15 minute naps here and there, mainly just staring at the ceiling thinking and praying and such. Around 8:30ish I got kinda bored of my attempts to sleep that I got up and decided to check all the boxes of my Xbox, Playstation, and Wii games to try to locate some of the ones that were missing. I found one!! HUZZAH!  At this time Katie had woken up (Jess was already at work), and she lay on the couch as I cleaned my gerbil cage and talked about potentially going to check out all the yardsales in the area (since we were up early enough and had been talking about doing that for a while now). Katie, barely awake attempted to wake herself up a bit more, got dressed, and I toasted some bagels for us and we were off to check out garage sales at around 9:21AM.

We found quite a few garage sales, but as we were looking for bookshelves or dining room chairs, we were kinda out of luck. However, we did discover a few older games, a book, two rubber duckies, and after a stop at the ReSale, I got a little book holder for my bathroom and a few reeeeally old CD-Roms (all for under $10 total). Score!  We also had the chance to say hi to a few GFA people who were also having a garage sale.

Nearing the end of Katie’s energy levels, we stopped by Chick-fil-A (since we knew we would be craving it tomorrow on Sunday, but it’s not open on Sundays… sad!!) refilled our energy and had some time to chat and catch up for a bit. After a few hours, we headed back home and it was only 2PM!!  So productive for a Saturday! A little time passed and Katie and Jessica’s mom came over (she will be staying with us till Tuesday) and I went to clean/organize/get rid of/and consolidate all the stuff I have, while listening to the audio Bible on my iPod. I consolidated a LOT! and got rid of a LOT! and discovered some really cool letters from friends and some nice pictures, and some stuff that I forgot I had, like my Pokemon Card collection, and learned a lot from God’s Word.

So now my room is clean, stuff is organized, an Up for Grabs pile is accumulating in our living room, and I’m just now starting to feel tired. Where did this energy come from?? WHY DID I WAKE UP AT 1AM???! Praise God for all the productiveness and for catching up with friends.

I wonder what will happen in the next two hours or so before bed… hm… the possibilities are endless!!

Source: A Rather Productive Saturday

So, I was going through the memory boxes I have in my room in an attempt to consolidate them into one box (which I was successfull! Huzzah!), and I came across a something that the leaders had my School of Discipleship class write during our first week of orientation. The letter (of sorts) was to be what we want the Lord to accomplish throughout our year. Here’s what I wrote:

“My goals for the year spent in the GFA school of discipleship:

-Not let fear get in the way of doing all that I can to serve

-Learn everyone’s names, and call them by their names

-Serve my class in practical ways, not wanting anything in return, not even a ‘thank-you’

-Lord, help me to take seriously the job I’ll be given, and any homework I may have

-Help me to solve any issues with my brothers or sisters in Christ the way Christ said to

-Lord help my voice to be heard, if I have an opinion, let it be heard, unless it is not beneficial or not glorifying to God

-Please push any thoughts of depression, suicide, or distracting from Christ away from me

-Help me to not be dependant on my computer, let that not be where I go to to spend free time

– Keep me disciplined in reading and learning from Your Word daily, and not as a chore, but as part of my enjoyment and freetime

– Keep me constantly in prayer like I was way back before the beginning of this year

-Help me to be more self-confident, not worry about what everyone else thinks, but only what God would think

-Help me to be sensitive of other’s feelings

-Let me ask more questions if I don’t understand something

-Lord, help me to be trusting of those you would have me be trusting of

– Let me be able to discern between guys who are just being friendly, and guys who might mean harm…

-Let me draw nearer to my team, that we will be as family

-Please control my crush-meter. Let me not get any crushes, but only friends

-Help me to keep things at a friendship level and not a crush or more

-Allow me to ask for help if I need it and let me accept help if I don’t think I need it

– Let me be more perceptive of others and even if I’m too busy, let me be there if they need someone

– Don’t let me fall into my past sins…please…

– I ask that we all will work as one body and in one accord

– I would love it if I could be more flexible with the Lords calling, if He wants me to jump up in the middle of something, let me do it even if it seems ridiculous

– Let me not worry about life back home, let my sole focus be here at GFA

– Let me work on listening during prayer for a change…not having a one-way conversation all the time

– Help me to accept criticism, even if I don’t think I need it

– Lord allow me the strength to write my dad a letter telling him that I forgive him.

– Let the spiritual gifts you gave be evident, and flourish while we are here

-Help me to treat everyone with equality and not have prejudice against anyone.

LORD RENEW THE FIRE…”

Just thought that was an interesting find in my memory box. So far the Lord has worked all of those things into my life in one way or another, and is continuing to work them. I love discovering how the Lord has worked and is working and has answered prayers and is still answering prayers. :)  Thanks for reading!

Source: Prayers Answered from my School of Discipleship Year

“In a world that’s still trembling in the wake of the fall, our hearts are desperate for hope.
They’re hungry for freedom.
They’re longing for redemption.
And here’s the good news.
In Christ, we have all three.” – Tenth Avenue North

So, recently I’ve enjoyed listening to Tenth Avenue North a whole bunch. I love their heart to proclaim Christ through their music. Relating to me, and so many others because of how deep and real their songs are. For me, it’s been a healing time with the Lord, and He has used those songs to speak to me in countless ways.

Anyways, since I’m enjoying their music so much, I decided to dig a bit deeper into their music and read bios and watch videos and of course pre-order their newest CD. As I was watching their videos, one video blog stood out to me: God is Not an Elephant.

As I was listening to this and agreeing with what was being said about God forgetting our sins, as far as the east is from the west, I couldn’t stop thinking about my dad. My dad is in jail for something he did that hurt my family and left many emotional scars in our lives. Now, I have forgiven him 100%, and I love him because he is my dad. I’ve wanted to tell him this for a while, but haven’t had the opportunity until recently. I prayed over, and wrote him a letter, and in this letter I let him know just how God has been using this whole situation for good (just like Romans 8:28 says, “all things”). Now, I’m not going to go into detail about my dad, but I had to give you readers this background information so that you will know where I am coming from with what I will say next.

A quick summary of the video blog is that “God is not an elephant” meaning that He doesn’t live up to what the saying says “an elephant never forgets”. Because God forgets our sins. We are bought and paid for in Christ. His blood washes us white as snow. And the video said that since God forgives and forgets our sins, we should forgive and forget the sins of others towards us.

For a really long time I have wanted to let my dad know that I forgive him, and I want to show him in a practical way that God loves him. I know there are consequences for sin, and that we are supposed to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves, but we are also not supposed to live by the world’s standards. Like one of my leaders said once “live so that even your Christian friends think you’re crazy” meaning, follow the Lord even if others don’t understand and think you’re stupid for doing so. Obedience and submission to the Lord is better than not.

That being said, I feel like the Lord wants me to let him into my life once he is out of prison. I totally understand everyone else’s feelings towards him, and how they don’t want him in their lives, but for me I don’t want to be an elephant. Now, of course I would wait until he came to me and asked for forgiveness, and more importantly had gone to the Lord and repented of this sin. However, once he does that I will welcome him with open arms (almost like the prodigal son type story, where I’m waiting for him to come out of brokenness and surrender, and then embrace him with open arms back into my life with a feast. Except, he isn’t my son, he’s my dad). Isn’t he a child of God and brother in the Lord? Why shouldn’t I treat him as such?

Sin is sin. Yes this was a pretty big sin, but still…a sin is a sin. God forgives and forgets, so I should too. He is my dad no matter what happens. He knows the Truth, but he messed up. It would be like if someone lied to me, and then asked for forgiveness, I would TOTALLY forgive them without a second of hesitation. How would it be true forgiveness though if I didn’t trust them after that? Wouldn’t that not be real forgiveness? Love keeps no record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5).

I want to do this because I love my dad. I’ve already forgiven him, and I want him to know Christ like I do. To know the depth of Christ’s forgiveness and love for him. I’m praying for him everyday, and I really miss him. This past Father’s Day was hard. I’m also praying that he reads my letter that I sent to him, and that the Lord speaks to his heart through it.

I don’t want to live a life of fear of what “could” happen if I forgive him and in turn start a relationship with him, growing in the Lord as father and daughter. I can understand the fear that others have about me opening up too much of my life to him, especially if one day I have children, but I am trusting God to orchestrate it all. There is still healing to be done, but I serve a God that is without a doubt capable of mending this relationship and transforming my dad’s heart.

Just like in Hosea where he married a harlot. She was SO unfaithful to him, yet he loved her with the love of the Lord and never divorced her when times got hard. God used that as an example of how He loves us despite our failures and falling away at times. He’s always there to pick us up again and restore us unto Himself.

Think of how cool it would be if at the end of the day, my dad and I could once again be praising God together. My desire is that He will get all the glory from this whole situation, despite what happens. But I’m praying that one day… my dad and I will have a father/daughter relationship like it should have been. Together as heirs of the ONE and TRUE Living God.

Anyways, thank you for reading this blog post. This is where my heart is currently. I would love to hear what your thoughts are on the matter, and if  you have any amazing stories of how God mended relationships through true forgiveness in His Spirit.

Source: I Don’t Want to Be an Elephant