It all started with a text saying "wanna come to San Diego these dates?" to which I immediately said yes please. And within 2 weeks I was headed out west! Now why San Diego you might ask, reason #1 would be to see Mallie and reason #2 would be to spend time with the Phelan family!
A little background, the past 2 summers Mallie has lived with the Phelans for a month. Bradford and Stephen are two AL natives that the Lord specifically called to share the gospel and be his hands and feet in inner city San Diego. Stephen is the pastor of Harbor Mid City Church (check out the website http://www.harbormidcity.org/). Bradford is a hardworking mom of three: Ford, Mille, and Virginia Grace and Stephen's greatest asset and partner in ministry! When I lived in LA last fall I spent a weekend with the Phelans and was incredibly blessed by seeing how they glorify Christ in everyday life. So for multiple reasons I was thrilled to have the opportunity to spend time with some great people!!
Saturday was lots of fun! I went sailing for the first time! What a blast. The Phelans next door neighbor took Mallie and I on a sailing tour of San Diego bay! It was incredible! We saw the naval base, Cornado bridge, and the seals! Believe it or not, they were even crazy enough to let me steer for a minute!
Saturday night we celebrated Bradfords birthday in the Gas Lamp District of San Diego, at a super trendy new restaurant called Searsucker (yep, we loved the southern name!)
Sunday we went to church and then came home and had Friendship Club! This is a group of 8-12 year olds that the Lord called Bradford to reach out to. What was really cool about Gods timing of my 2 visits to the Phelans was that last fall when I visited the Friendship Club's first meeting was a sleepover so I got to spend time with the girls. Then to go back later and spend time with the same girls was a treat! Bradford had asked that I share the message and I decided to share with the girls the story of Rahab. Didn't quite highlight the fact that she was a prostitute, but shared the fact that she wasn't a Jew but acknowledged that the God of he Israelites was the one true God. From that confession of who God was, He used her as a part of the plan to give the Israelites possession of the town of Jericho. And another cool thing about Rahab is the if you look in Matthew 1 she is in the lineage of Jesus! Wow! What a beautiful picture of the fact that God is Sovereign and chooses to uses broken sinners for His greater purpose and to bring Him glory!! Isn't He great?
If I have one thing to share with any girl in this world, I would want them to know that they are specifically and uniquely CHOSEN by the Creator and King of the universe. So our memory verse was Isaiah 43:1 "...I have called you by name, you are mine".
Monday morning we were able to spend the morning with a neighbor across the street who is bed bound. This woman has been in a bed for the past 3 years and she has a dear son who cares for her day in and day out. Maria had told Bradford and Mallie that she wanted a haircut. So Mallie cut Maria's hair and I read her scripture. She lights up when people read the Bible to her. I also showed her son a few OT techniques to keep her from getting ulcers from laying 24/7. Maria also prayed with Mallie and I for a long time. This was truly a HUGE blessing for her to speak scripture over our lives. Everything she said was prophetic, speaking truth into our lives about what God had been doing in our lives individually. God had been laying on my heart the importance of being intentional in memorizing His word. Maria had psalm 103 completely memorized it and multiple times during our few hours with her she repeated
