Open Doors and Answered Prayers (part 2)

(continued from previous post "Open Doors and Answered Prayers"
http://alexmindmyself.blogspot.com/2014/05/open-doors-and-answered-prayers-part-1.html)

So everything was going good I was getting ready to start at River Crest in 2 weeks (April 9th) when God opened another door.

I had been talking with John, a local Youth Pastor, about doing a internship with him. I started talking with him in January. As we talked for the following weeks, he decided that it would be best to send out my information to all the Youth Pastors and Student Ministry Directors in the area to see if any of them need some help because at the time he did not really need help. So that is what I decided would be a good move. So within the next few days he sent out the email and then what was left to do but wait.

March 29th was the day. I had already decided to take the job at River Crest and was in my last 2 weeks with Meijer. On that day, March 29th, I received an email that was going to change up the rest of my year.

The email came from a guy named Kevin and he was looking for a guy like me. As we began meeting I realized that he had been looking for someone to help him out and well need an "amigo" as he put it. So we began meeting to get to know each other and to see what our vision and thoughts were. As we kept meeting we began to get more excited about the conversations and the future of City Chapel.

So this was just an amazing set of events to show me a thing or 2 about prayer. I (after praying) received a new job that would help me serve the Lord better and later it became apparent that God had something else in mind as well and that was City Chapel. In my old job and schedule I would have had to turn down Kevin. But God knew that Kevin was going to come looking for me, so He provided me with a way to be able to work with Kevin and I started work on June 1.

But after seeing this and other things that God has done in my life and the life of my family, why does prayer come more natural. I mean it is easy. God says "Ask." in Matthew 7:7, John 14:13-14, and John 16:24.

That's simple right. Just ask.

Open Doors and Answered Prayers (part 1)

Well, it has been a while since I have post anything on this blog. There has been a lot that has happened over the last few months that I just wanted to let out there. So here is part 1 of this 2 part blog post...

A few months ago I had  been running into some trouble trying to get Sundays off at work so I could serve and be a part of the ministry at Granger Community Church. It is very important for me to be there every week and serve those kids and God. But due to a new position at Meijer (one that overall helped my family as it gave me full time) turned serving into a fight. A fight that started to wear me out. So it got to the point where one day I told my wife that I wanted a Monday - Friday job that would take away this scheduling conflict. I also began to pray and ask God for a different job to come my way so that I could better serve him. Well, ask you shall receive. 

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

(Matthew 7:7-8 NIV)

A few days later I was at church and I was talking with another person and kind of venting to them about what I have said in the above paragraph. When I finished my sentence I looked up and I saw another volunteer motioning at me to come her way. So I did. When I got over to her I sat down and the first words out of her mouth, no joke,  were... 

"Do you want a job??" 

I said "Really?!"

She replied "Oh, yes. I have a job for you if you want it."

"I don't know." I said. "I have had people offer me jobs in the past and they don't always 

work out for me. I wind up not being able to do the job."

"Oh, you can do this job." She said.

"Really, you think so." I said back.

"Why don't you send me your resume and we will go from there?" 

"Ok."

So I sent her my resume later that week and a week or so later I received a phone call from a lady that worked at River Crest hospital in medical records. I went a few days later for the interview and started a few weeks later on April 9th. No experience or anything. I just got the job. 

I was also praying for something else at the same time and the new job that God gave me to better serve him and provide for my family just flung open another door.

But that is for next time... 

Foul Balls

So last night I went to my first Silverhawks game. Well, my first Silverhawks game in many years.

We took the kids with us well. Brooklynn liked it. She clapped and cheered.. for both teams.

But one thing I was thinking while sitting there. The ball is really hard to see as it gets higher up in the sky. I found myself covering my head because of the foul balls. There seemed to be a lot of foul balls last night and a lot of them went right over the protective netting.

So as I was sitting there I was thinking that they should make the ball a color that is easier to see in the sky so you don't get smacked in the forehead.

Brooklynn went down the big slide there. We did not think she could do it by herself. But she sure showed us wrong. She climbed up there twice and slid down.

But we all had a great time and we got to watch fireworks after game!

Vacation, Well It Was More Like A Trip

So we took our first Family Vacation at the end of June.

We had a lot of fun!!!

First we went to Six Flags Great America to ride some of the rides. We were really going more for the kids than us. We had already been there about 4 times already.

Yes, we have season passes!!

Anyway, we wanted to see how the kids would do on some of the rides and we knew that Brooklynn was tall enough for some of the roller coasters. She knew what roller coaster were because I play Rollercoaster Tycoon all the time. So she was really excited to go and ride something that she had never ridden before.

So anyway the first thing that we decided to ride was the Sky Trek Tower right in the front of the park. It is really tame but really tall and we thought that would be a good place to start.

We are getting ready to go up in air!!

Brooklynn and Emmerson both loved the view from way up there. Brooklynn kept saying "We are up really high!!"

So after that we went and rode the Carousel.

But Emmerson didn't like that the Carousel started moving. He was fine while it was sitting still but once it started moving he was all done.

Then came the fun part! The moment we all had been waiting for... Will Brooklynn like roller coasters or not?!

This was actually the 2nd rollercoaster she rode. The Little Dipper.

This was her first! She rode this one with Mommy. I couldn't see them to take a picture. 

And the result.....

She LOVED THEM!!!!

She kept wanting to ride again, but the lines were really long.

We had a lot of fun!!

Then the next day we went to BrookField Zoo and saw a lot cool animals.

It was a long day. But I think that she like the Dolphin show the best!

We also got Emmerson his first stuffed toy. A Wolf.

We did the same thing for Brooklynn when we went to Shedd Aquarium. We got her Roar. I was unable to find our pictures of that event. Hmmmm....

Anyways, that was our little trip.

He's Starting To Really Get This Walking Thing!!

So as I said over the last month some things have happened. One is Emmerson started WALKING!!!!

He started just as most kids do the shaky couple of steps. But he took a couple out of the blue one day. So after he did that we tried and tried to get him to do it again but he wouldn't. It is almost as if he knew we were on to him and he didn't want to reveal any more of his secrets to fast.

But we found out that if we didn't watch him or make a big deal (to much) about it then he would randomly walk.

But then he really started to get it and we got a video of him. This video was shot from a phone so it isn't the best of quality.

Emmerson Walking
(this link may not work. it is linked to facebook.)

But now he is walking in full swing. He doesn't really crawl any more!!

He is officially a toddler!!

Oh, and a silly boy!

More stories to come!!

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

I haven't posted on you in a while. However, there are A LOT of things that have happened over the last month. I have some things to write about and share with you so keep checking back.

I do have this for you though. This came through on my Bible widget yesterday...

Psalm 19:1-6

New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 19[a]

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
5 
    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
    and makes its circuit to the other;
    nothing is deprived of its warmth.

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 19:1 In Hebrew texts 19:1-14 is numbered 19:2-15.
2. Psalm 19:4 Septuagint, Jerome and Syriac; Hebrew measuring line

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms%2019:1-6&version=NIV

It was just a cool thought and sent me into wonder.

Totally Unexpected And in An Unexpected Place (The Final Part)

I heard back from Evangel Heights yesterday while I was at Six Flags. I received a lot of positive feedback for them. But they decided to go another way with the youth and did not select me as their Youth Pastor.

However, they did tell that I was liked by 4 of the people on the committee. One of the people that liked me was a teen in the youth group as well as a retired pastor. So that was some really good news to hear. I am glad that I did not totally bomb the whole interview process.

Brett (the person I have been talking with the most throughout this time) gave me some great insight and some resources to help me in the future.

I really enjoyed meeting all of them and I enjoyed gaining this interview experience.

I do appreciate the time they spent with me.

I also learned a lot through this process as well. God showed me something through this. As I mentioned in the first post this came out of nowhere. Just as I was getting down about the whole process and thinking that I was never going to get a good opportunity, failed interview after failed interview, God shows up and gives me this chance to interview and meet some more wonderful people. I DID almost get this position and that means that I still have some learning to do and that God does have an opportunity for me in the future and that this just simply was not it. 

Here are links to the rest of the story if you missed any of the parts.

http://alexmindmyslef.blogspot.com/2013/03/totally-unexpected-and-in-unexpected.html - Part 1
http://alexmindmyslef.blogspot.com/2013/05/totally-unexpected-and-in-unexpected.html - Part 2
http://alexmindmyslef.blogspot.com/2013/05/totally-unexpected-and-in-unexpected_8.html - Part 3
http://alexmindmyslef.blogspot.com/2013/05/totally-unexpected-and-in-unexpected_15.html - Part 4
http://alexmindmyslef.blogspot.com/2013/05/totally-unexpected-and-in-unexpected_22.html - Part 5

This Time Last Year

The thought of this is a hard thing to remember or think about. This is what my wife, Sunnshyne, posted on Facebook last night...

May 30- june 13 2012 Emmerson was in the hospital. These 14 days were very hard on us and this mommy cried a lot. He was at kidney failure when we took him to the emergency room because of blood in his diaper. We were at St. Joseph Medical Centers ER from 1130am-630pm then transferred to Memorials PICU which we were at until we left for our 10 day stay at Riley Childrens hospital. the first week was bad news after bad news and the thoughts of losing our baby was the worst thing to have stuck in the mind. And being seperated from brooklynn for so long broke my heart even more.
Today as I sat on the couch cuddling my now 1 year old son I think back to those days and thank God for not taking him away from us and blessing us with wonderful nurses and doctors who worked so hard to make my baby better and to help me stay strong for him. Even though there was nothing I could of done to prevent the problem he had I couldn't help but beat myself up. Thank you God for giving us more time with our chunky boogerhead!

These are the links to the original posts from last year. I wrote these posts last year as soon as I could and as the story evolved. It was a long hard few weeks for the Pierce Family.

http://alexmindmyslef.blogspot.com/2012/06/here-it-is-in-nutshell.html

http://alexmindmyslef.blogspot.com/2012/06/here-it-is-in-nutshell-2.html

http://alexmindmyslef.blogspot.com/2012/06/here-it-is-in-nutshell-3.html

That's The Point

So on Tuesday May 14th Sunnshyne and I took our trip to Cedar Point. We like to go in May because the crowd is smaller. We were not able to go last year because we were expecting our little boy Emmerson.

Anyway we brave the chance of it being freezing cold and we go. It's kind of our thing.

I mentioned in a Facebook status a few weeks ago that I hope to be able to ride GateKeeper, Cedar Point's new winged coaster, and I would tell you about it. But when we got there GateKeeper was closed and stayed closed for most of the day.

So we rode this first....

The line was really short (because everyone else was over at GateKeeper finding out that it was closed) and we got right on. My eyes almost froze shut because they watered up and it was a little cold.

Then we went toward the back and rode...

Maverick!!! It's a fun little coaster!

We had a great day together even though we didnt get to ride GateKeeper. That's the point!
We rode everything else and in pretty good time for being at Cedar Point.

I did however get to ride a Winged Coaster but that story is for another time.

Totally Unexpected And in An Unexpected Place part 5

So Sunday I had my 3rd interview with Evangel Heights. I finally heard back from them yesterday afternoon and posted this to Facebook...

Alex David Pierce

Yesterday via mobile

JOB UPDATE: I am at Six Flags today but I wanted to let you all know this... they felt like my interview was not fair because I was #3 after they had already done 2 other interviews. So they want me to come back on Thursday night!

So I guess getting another opportunity is a good thing. They felt as if the interview was not as good as could have been for me since I was the 3rd one over a time span of 3 hours.

So I am going back tomorrow at 6:30pm for the 2nd 3rd interview!! This is the final interview.

So will I have a new job by the end of the week?? Check back later as this story comes to a close... hopefully by the end of the week!!!