How do you know of Gods faithfulness?

(Written Wednesday night, September 6^th)

I (matt) am sitting down, trying to scramble and get a lesson prepared for Youth Group this evening when the point of the passage hits me. I started thinking about what Sarah and I are about to do and realized that we have just been through a similar (but not as drastic) situation as Esther.

Sarah and I are leading the Youth Group for her home church here in Camarillo. We are leading the kids through a series young people in the bible who took risks. This week is about Esther. It's a fairly lengthy story about how God used her (go and read it for yourself) but the point is that she took a risk and put herself in an uncomfortable position in order for God to work through her. Perhaps the the best line is when Mordecai tells her, “and who knows but that you may have been placed in this seat of royalty for such a time as this.” I began thinking of ways that we can all put ourselves at risk for God. But more specifically God showed me how he is doing that in Sarah's and my life currently.

Sarah and I just spent several days looking at apartments and attempting to apply for one before we left. We didn’t know much about the town, or really what it will be like to live in any place other than California; the whole snow thing will be an adventure amongst itself. We debated over location, cost, what’s included and all the other things that go into house hunting. As the process went along, we continued to pray that God would show us the house that he wanted for us to live in, and therefore the people that we would live near. It became clear that there was only one place that seemed to fit. Eventually we decided to take a risk and go for it, only applying for one apartment and no backups, so we dropped off the paperwork. We were told that they would get back to us in about a week to see if we could move in. However, in less than 24 hours we got the call saying the apartment was ours.

God accepts your risk taking and rewards it more than you know; sometimes those rewards come the day after, sometimes years after. But whenever your reward comes, know that it is a most amazing God that gives it.

Cheese Curds and Cheese Heads

Well, we managed to get ourselves back to Wisconsin for some apartment hunting and general cow hunting. It was an interesting experience and we managed to bag a colorful cow (or ugly one depending on your fashion sense). Wisconsin has this funny tradition of having a cow parade where artists from around the nation (I think), decorate a statue of a cow and have it displayed around the city. They were everywhere!!! Crazy!!!
Funnier than the cow was our run in with the law. Our second night in Wisconsin, we decided to do what most Madisonianites do and headed for the mall. As we exited the delightful establishment of Barnes and Nobles, we were astounded by a really amazing sunset. Matt with his ever trustful camera in hand decided this moment could not go to waste. So he raced across the parking lot to capture the sunset. As he headed back to the car, he was bisected by a large burly security guard gruffly asked "Excuse me sir, what do you think you are doing?". It was quite a scary moment. Matt rather taken aback responded, "umm...taking pictures of the sunset." It was a tense moment as the guard tried to decide whether to believe this rather strange response. Honestly, I think Matt should have said, "hey, I'm from California and I'm just taking pictures of the parking lot to prove to people back home that you do really have pavement in the Midwest." We got off with a warning.

Overall, we are excited to be moving to our cute 2 bedroom apartment! We are starting to pack up and it looks like we will be moving September 27th! Cheese here we come!!!

Fiesta

I have been told that you have not really experienced Santa Barbara until you have experienced Fiesta Weekend. Fiesta weekend is a weekend where Santa Barbara celebrates it's Spanish heritage. In all it's a fun filled weekend with lots of confetti eggs, dancing and music, much of which Matt got to see.

I however was stuck working at the scrapbook store. The most memorable part of fiesta for me was when a woman decided to sit down outside our store and fall into a drunken sleep with half of her shirt completely off. This proved quite entertaining for the multitude of cars passing by the store honking wildly. Needless to say we contacted the police and this woman joined the multitude of others who will remember Santa Barbara in a haze and will leave wondering where the other half of their shirt has gone!

To see more fun photos from Fiesta that Matt took go to http://public.fotki.com/mkirk/