3 days to go...

I really cannot believe that it's coming up so quickly! Time flies by so quickly. As I'm typing this I'm in the middle of starting to pack my suitcase (a girl has to start several days in advance). It's supposed to be raining while we are in Vancouver, which isn't ideal, but I'll go anywhere that currently has consistent weather- while I have no room to complain, the weather in S CA has been nuts. Sunday it was hot and sunny. Monday I walked out to my car in the morning to be greeted by thunder, lightning and, shortly thereafter, rain. Now today its' back up to 90+ degrees!

But, that's off topic... my prayer has been that God will use me on this trip and at the conference to have an impact for His kingdom. I pray that He will place it on the event coordinator's hearts to place me where I can best be utilized and, probably most of all, I pray to develop more of a servant's heart. My natural tendency is to think about how something is going to impact or effect me or what's going to be the most fun for me. I pray that, as each day passes, there's more of Him and less of me. I've been focusing on the scripture in Ephesians 4:23... "Let the Spirit change your way of thinking." That's my prayer. Change the way I think. That God would give me His eyes to see, His heart to love, His ears to hear the cries of others and that He would work through me, so I can be His hands and feet.

Video Time!

I still have four worship leaders to go and only 3 days, so I'm doubling up today. The first song is "Shine" by Matt Redman and the video was taken at Passion 2007.



This video is of Charlie Hall singing "Marvelous Light" from Passion 2005.

4 Days to Go...

I couldn't pick one from this next group, so I'm posting two youtube videos from The David Crowder Band.

The first one was taken at Passion 2007 "The Glory of It All" and the second one is "O Praise Him"- this video was filmed at the 2006 Harvest Festival in Anaheim, CA.

I can't write anymore...it's 11:25pm and I have to be up in 6 hours...be happy I even got one out today (lol).

Enjoy!

5 Days to go...

This is a clip of a talk by Louie Giglio who started the Passion Conferences. He's a phenomenal speaker and I especially liked this two-part series on having hope in Christ when you are going through the difficult times in life.

If you have a chance, click on the title of this post and it will link you to a site where you can watch both parts of the 'Hope' series.



This video is from Passion 2005.

6 days to go...

This video is from Passion 2006. It's Kristian Stanfill singing his song "Jesus Paid It All".

I was reminded, last weekend, of how powerful this song is... we sang it at the Fuse Service at Saddleback and when it gets to the chorus, you can't help but raise your hands to the only One who is worthy of our praise.

I hear the Savior say
Thy strength indeed is small.
Child of weakness watch and pray
find in Me thine all in all.

Jesus paid it all
all to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow.

Chorus
Oh praise the One who paid my debt
and raised this life up from the dead.
Oh praise the One who paid my debt
and raised this life up from the dead.
Jesus.

Countdown to Passion Vancouver

It's officially less than ONE WEEK before I leave to travel to Vancouver. I am excited beyond belief!!! Can't wait to meet up with my friend, who I haven't seen since we met at the Atlanta Conference in April. I can't wait to meet and make new friends, to travel to a new city (and country for that matter)and, of course, can't wait to be a small part of something that is so much bigger than myself...to see God move in the lives of the students, volunteers, event organizers and myself is such an incredible gift and I pray that I am allowed the opportunity to continue to be a part of the Passion movement.

Since you all can't be there, I'm starting a "Countdown to Passion Vancouver" series of posts. Each day I'll post a video that will highlight something about the conferences. Some will be videos talking about what Passion is about, others may be brief snipets from talks at the conferences and others will be of the various worship leaders who participate.

First, a little about Passion...

The Purpose:
Passion exists to glorify God-uniting students in worship and prayer for spiritual awakening in this generation.

The Vision:
From the beginning Passion has been rooted in the confession of Isaiah 26:8: “Yes Lord, walking in the way of Your truth we wait eagerly for You, for Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.”

As a result, Passion seeks to gather college and university students across the nation and around the world to seek the face of God, asking Him to ignite in our souls a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ and a desire to spread His fame to everyone on earth.

We believe God is calling out a generation of college students committed to the glory of His name in all things. God longs to bring awakening to every campus, mobilizing the students of today to finish the task of global evangelization in this generation. God is calling us out for this purpose, in this moment, for His renown.

For more information on their history, click on the title of this blog and it will take you to the Passion Website.

Until tomorrow, here are a couple of videos. One is a brief synopsis of Passion and the other was a video taken by a student at the opening of the Atlanta Passion Conference this past April. Enjoy!

Plan B

Plan B.

For major events we always have a Plan B, don’t we? If you’re getting married outside, you always have a Plan B in the event that it rains and you need to move it inside. At church, if they have too many people, they always have a Plan B for overflow attendance and where they will move them to. It’s hard to imagine not having a back-up plan for important events.

However, God didn’t have a Plan B with us.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
—Matthew 28:18-20

We were God's plan.

Heck, we still are the plan.

We are to go out and spread the Good News and to share the Gospel with others who both have and have not yet heard about the saving grace of God and the Savior He brought to us, in the person of Jesus Christ.

Numerous times I’ve heard Pastor Rick comment on this very topic… that according to God’s Word, we were God’s plan. Nowhere in the Bible does it mention anything about what God’s plans were if we failed to follow through on this command; and, being that God is perfect, I don’t think that He simply forgot to include that in the Bible. I don’t believe that God forgot to mention His Plan B, and that’s because there isn’t a Plan B. We have been commanded to share the Good News…that’s our job and purpose. That’s why the Bible calls it the Great Commission…not the Great Suggestion.

Like I said, I’ve heard this topic over and over, but, you know how you can hear something over and over and over again and then, for whatever reason, it finally sinks in and hits you??? Well, for whatever reason, it sunk in last Sunday at church. I began to think that if we were the plan…if God was planning on working through us and He didn’t offer up a Plan B…then He must have a lot of faith and trust in us to do so. And, these are PEOPLE He is having faith in. Fallible, messed-up, unreliable, self-centered, dishonest people. Yet, He believed, and continues to believe, in us. So, why then, do I have so much trouble trusting and putting my faith in God??? Perfect, faithful, trustworthy, loving, all-knowing God. The One who doesn’t change like shifting shadows and Who’s promises hold true.

Last Sunday, I really felt God speak to my heart. He reminded me that He trusts Me with the most precious gift and honor of sharing His story with the world. So why, everyday, do I show such a lack of trust in Him?

You Know You Grew Up in the 70's if...

I never get tired of reading these... they bring back memories.

You know you grew up in the 70's if...

* "All skaters, change directions" means something to you.



* You wore the little bootie socks with the colored balls on the back.
* You remember when Ricky Martin was a member of Menudo.
* At one point during your teenage years, you walked with a noticeable tilt to one side due to the number of plastic rings on that arm.
* You rolled the sleeves of your suit jacket up
* You yearned to be a member of The Babysitters Club, and tried to start a club of your own.




* You're doing absolutely nothing with anything pertaining to your major degree
* You owned at least one Choose Your Own Adventure book.
* You had top-of-the-line Commodore 64s in your jr. high computer lab
* You had to stay after class to scrub your desk because your silver Outliner pen leaked through.
* You wore a banana clip
* You owned a Big Wheel




* There were days that the homework just had to wait until the ABC Afterschool Special was over.
* You have heard of "Garbage Pail Kids" (and perhaps still have a collection of them).
* You remember when McDonalds served their burgers in styrofoam boxes.
* Atari was the ultimate gaming system to own.
* You made shrinky dinks in your oven.
* You remember and/or owned any of the Care Bear or Muppets glass collections from Pizza Hut.
* Pierce Brosnon will always be Remington Steele, not James Bond.
* This rings a bell: "and my name, is Charlie. They work for me."
* Your first Walkman weighed about as much as a brick.
* You used to own a Snoopy Sno Cone Machine.



* You wanted to be a Solid Gold Dancer
* You ever had a Swatch Watch, and a Swatch Guard for it.
* Four-square was THE playground game.
* You wore French rolls on the bottom of your splatter painted jeans.
* You hid out behind the gym during recess to read "Are you there God, it's me Margaret?" with your friends.
* You know what leg warmers are and probably had a pair.
* You just had to have a Trapper Keeper to stay organized at school.



* You can remember the words to the theme song of "The Greatest American Hero." ("BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I'M WALKIN' ON AIR... I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD FEEL SO FREE-EE-EE...")
* You wore 3-8 different colored socks in layers and thought that the more you could wear the cooler you were.
* You were not allowed to see The Blue Lagoon when it came out.
* In your sophomore class picture, you're wearing a shirt with the collar "up".
* Your parents paid $2,000 for a top-loading VCR that was almost the size of a coffee table.
* If you ever made/wore braided barrettes

I love Jesus but I drink a little...

This is hilarious... funniest thing I heard today

Cleaning House

Lately I've really felt the need to just get rid of, or give away, all of those things that I no longer use and that are just taking up gobs of space. A week ago I began the process of going through my things and, as it turns out... I've got a LOT of stuff!

How on earth did I not know that I had a lot of stuff??? Because I hid it, that's why. It was in storage bins in the garage, in my desk drawers, and even under my bed, in those all-too-convenient Rubbermaid under-the-bed storage containers. So, what I thought might take a couple of days, has turned into a week now and I'm still not done. Part of my problem is that I have the 'what if' syndrome...

What if I get invited to a party and I need this dress?

What if I ever get married and have kids...wouldn't they like these princess frames? (assumming that I have girls...oh, and assumming I get married- details you know)

What if I decide that I want to make homemade french fries and I've given away my potato slicer-thingy that cuts potatoes into the perfect fry shape?

And on, and on, and on...this went on for a while and then I started realizing how ridiculous I was being with regards to the things I was holding onto. I mean, really Julie??? Yes, sure, maybe you'll re-read that book in the days to come...that book that had so much dust on it, that when you fanned through the pages, you started choking on the cloud of dust that rose up. Or how about that Sony Walkman??? Yes, I said Walkman. The one that plays cassettes. Yes, I'm sure those will make a comeback any day now. Oh, and especially having worked in both Disneyland Park and in HR for Disney, I've got quite the collection of buttons. They are constantly giving you buttons/pins (or 'Flair' for my Facebook friends :-) for EVERYTHING. "It's the 5 1/2 year anniversary of when we repainted the Norway children in the 'It's a Small World' attraction" here's a button! I'm obviously exaggerating (a bit), but you get the idea.

Here are a couple of the things I came across... try not to be jealous.

This book was so good that they made it into a movie... a bad movie, but a movie nontheless



"ohhhhhh.... the claw..." (you have to see Toy Story to get it)


Boy Bands through the years...



I began looking at these piles of unused stuff and realized that there might be people out there who could, and would, actually use it now. That coupled with the fact that, over the past couple of weeks, I keep seeing scripture after scripture about possessions and giving to others. When everywhere I turn, I'm reading about something God has to say about giving, I get the idea that He may be wanting me to apply that in my life. (I know...I catch on quick). Besides, too often I let possessions become all too important in my life...things oftentimes get flipped around and I don't own my possessions, they end up owning me because the more things I have, the more things I have to take care of.

As I'm oftentimes reminded by Pastor Rick, 'you never see a hearse with a U-Haul behind it.' I'm not taking any of this stuff with me. Our stuff will usually give us brief moments of happiness, but it's never lasting... we always want more. However, I've found that it's not this way everywhere. Having been blessed with the opportunity to spend time with some of the 'poorest' people in Africa, I've found that I've never met people with so much honest-to-goodness joy in their hearts. Possession-wise, they have next to nothing...over the span of two weeks, I would see women wearing the exact same dress everyday and they didn't own one single pair of shoes, much less the 5 pairs of black shoes, alone, I have. Not only do they seem to have more joy, they also have stronger relationships with one another. They actually know their neighbors, and I truly believe that they demonstrate a stronger level of love for one another; and, they are able to do this simply because they don't have all of that 'stuff' to get in their way.

This weekend, at church, Pastor Rick was commenting on our tendency to put all of our things, our tasks, our errands first in our lives and whatever time we have leftover, that is what we give to our relationships with people; and, really, it should be the reverse. We should devote as much time as is needed in our relationships, showing people our love by giving them our time, and whatever time is leftover after that, that would be the time we give to our tasks, errands, etc. That comment really resonated with me and got me to thinking about how many times I have said that I couldn't do something with a friend/family member because I just 'didn't have the time and I had too much to get done'. I'm always reminded that when we're on our deathbed, we won't be asking for someone to bring us our jewelry or our trophies to look at one last time; but, we will be asking to have those we love around us. If people are what is most important to us when we are dying, shouldn't they be what is most important to us while we're living?

Defining Moments

Defining moments...we all have them. Both as individuals and collectively as a group. Those moments where you remember exactly where you were, what you were doing and who you were with when you 'heard the news'. I was thinking back, over my lifetime, and there are a few events that occurred where I could tell you where I was and what I was doing at the time:

1986 Challenger blows up shortly after take off
I was on my way to Middle School and the DJ on KMEL radio station came on,
in a very somber tone, and announced what had happened. My first class
of the day was English and they rolled in a TV set so we could watch the
news.

1995 OJ Verdict (fyi- I do not consider this anywhere near the significance of
the Challenger Shuttle blowing up, but it's still very memorable)
I was in my Junior year at UCSD and I had Biology class at 10am when they
were scheduled to read the verdict. The professor began class and minutes
into the class, you hear everyone around you whispering and the professor
stops class and asks for someone to announce the verdict...and then I felt
like throwing up.

1996 Princess Diana killed in a car accident
I was working in Disneyland, on Main Street, and I had just gone on break
and went back to the 'Inn Between' Cast Cafe for food and the TVs in the
breakroom were making the news announcement.

These were all major events, although I don't know that I, personally, consider them 'defining moments',they were obviously memorable all the same.

To me, defining moments are moments in time when there's now a sharp distinction between my life before 'it' happened and life after 'it' happened.

It seems that every generation has at least one of these events. My grandparent's generation had the bombing of Pearl Harbor, my parent's generation had the JFK assassination and, unfortunately, we of course have Sept 11th. I think anyone could tell you the when/where/who of that day. For me, being on the West Coast, it was around 5am, our time, that everything started happening, so I was in bed and my radio alarm had gone off and I just remember hearing the DJ say, 'wow, this is a happy day' and then they cut to a statement from President Bush speaking about 'an act of terrorism'. At that point I new something had to be going on, so I got up, went downstairs, turned the TV on and saw the first WTC Bldg with smoke billowing out of the middle of it. I figured a bomb had gone off. I woke my mom up and then I then went upstairs, woke up my sister and turned her tv on and it was during this time that we saw, what we thought was a second explosion, but it turned out to be the second plane hitting the other WTC Bldg. Even when I found out it wasn't bombs, but planes hitting the towers, I took that to mean those small, two seater planes, not passenger planes- that wasn't even a conceivable thought in my mind and it was when I found out that they were passenger planes, that I cried for the first, of many times, over that day. I remember mass confusion as to how many planes there were, where they had hit, etc. And then weeks upon weeks of tv coverage.

Now, when someone reminds me of something in the past, my frame of reference, as to when it happened, is 'did that happen before 9/11 or after 9/11?' And, while I think that it's easy to get sucked into the sadness of it all, I think that we also have to remember the good that we witnessed in the aftermath. While our buildings were falling, heros were rising. People became more selfless than I've ever seen them. People put aside their best interests, some to the sacrifice of their own lives, to save someone else...in most instances, a complete stranger. We saw countless people step up and serve others- not because it was convenient, but because it was the right thing to do. During one of the worst trajedies in our nation's history, we truely saw the very best come out in people and we never felt such a sense of community or felt so much pride in being an American.

Today is a day when we need to pray for those directly impacted and ask God to continue to give them strength, peace, hearts of forgiveness, joy, hope, faith, and comfort. We should never forget that day, but we also shouldn't focus on it. On that day, we saw what we were capable of becoming- selfless, sacrificial, servant-hearted people, and while I know God wept with us on 9/11, I'm also certain that He was smiling down on us as He saw us become the type of people He made us to be.

Vancouver Passion Conference

I am SO excited!!!

I have the opportunity to go and help out at the Passion Conference World Tour stop in Vancouver, Canada- YAY! I’ve so enjoyed, and have been so incredibly blessed to help out this past year at three of their regional events in Los Angeles, Washington DC and Atlanta and to now be able to be a small part of this amazing World Tour they are doing… well, it’s incredible.

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to put my experiences with Passion into words. It’s an overall feeling you get just by having the privilege to be there and serve the students. You are able to visibly see an invisible God in everyone you come into contact with- from the students to the volunteers to the worship leaders to the speakers… everyone. As is usually the case when you volunteer your time, I’ve always walked away feeling almost guilty because I feel like I got more out of it than I could have ever given. Seriously. In L.A., I walked away from it with the certainty that God had specifically showed me that He wanted me to go to Pattaya, Thailand that summer; and, that weekend I came to the conference with doubts upon doubts with regards to the trip. In DC, I had the opportunity to witness students being the hands and feet of Christ when I helped out with “Do Something Now”, where the students donate towels and socks to be given to the local homeless shelters. The students had been very generous with their donations, but prior to the dinner break on the second day, the students were told that we were several thousand towels short of the goal they had wanted to reach. Those students went out to the local Wal-Marts and K-Marts and practically bought the stores out of their stock of towels… it was amazing… stacks upon stacks and garbage bags full of towels were brought back after dinner. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but it was incredible. And, finally, in Atlanta, I had the chance to see my Mom and sister experience the conference for the first time and God had me walk away from the conference with the gift of a new friend :-)

It really is an experience and there have been very few times in my life where I would say I physically felt the presence of God, but it’s happened at every single one of those conferences… again, impossible to explain, but you can just feel it. (now I’ve got DC*B’s “Can You Feel It?” song stuck in my head)

Each and absolutely every time- L.A., DC and ATL- God has cleared the path for me to go. For ATL, I was able to get a great airfare deal and was struggling with finding hotel/rental car that were reasonable; however, Orbitz was having a special and I was able to get the hotel/rental car combo for a cost that was far below what the hotel, alone, would have cost. And, DC… well, talk about a drop in airfare prices… I was able to get a non-stop flight from LAX to DC, taxes included, for $140 and came to find out that my uncle lived 15 minutes from the college it was being held at, so room and board were free, plus I was able to visit with my family and see the east coast. With Vancouver, I honestly had decided that I was 99% sure I wasn’t going. There were too many obstacles that were presenting themselves- ridiculously high airfare, no matter how you tried to book it, my job was having a college event that day that I was heading up, etc. I told God that it seemed that the doors were closing on me and that He obviously didn’t want me to go and I wasn’t going to try and go around Him and do it anyway, so I was fine with not going. Literally, the next day, the college event at work was delayed to a later date and I came to find out my friend, who I’m meeting up with, was actually flying into Seattle and driving into Canada- a flight that was $200 cheaper than the other ones I was looking at. Okay… now I was leaning more towards going, but, true to myself, I still wasn’t 100% on board because I had been so sure, previously, the doors had been closed. A couple of days later I was visiting my parents and still trying to make a decision when I read this prayer in a devotional that spoke about following in God’s will and asking for guidance. So, I prayed that God would provide me with that guidance and made the promise that I would trust Him to do so and I wouldn’t worry about it anymore. Right afterwards, I went with my parents to their church and had, honestly, completely forgotten about the prayer. The worship team comes out and they begin playing. At the fourth song I leaned over to my Mom and made the comment, ‘that’s funny, they just sang songs from Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder Band and now their starting a Matt Redman song- those are all Passion people’. I turned back to face the front and my words literally just replayed in my mind, ‘those are all Passion people’. It felt like God gave me this push and my stomach felt like it dropped to my knees and my breath caught and I, then (finally) realized what I had just said and the prayer I had, earlier, prayed. I’m not a ‘certain’ person… I tend to lean on the side of doubting way too often, but in that moment I absolutely knew that I should be going. That night I signed up to be a volunteer, prior to even arranging my flight/accommodations, and just decided to take that step of faith that everything would fall into place, and it has been falling into place and I’m thrilled to say that I’m going!

Car Brakes

There seems to be a common theme lately between my friends and I. We all feel like we're in some sort of holding pattern. We've never felt like we've had so LITTLE to do in our lives! We are all used to a fast paced way of life where a spare minute is rare. Ironically, it's during those super busy times that I pray for just a moment of peace and quiet...one night where I have nothing to do but sit in front of the TV, eat nachos and watch meaningless reality TV shows.

Right now I feel like I've watched more reality TV than I can handle and I'm feeling very anxious and impatient and would just love it if God could give me a sneak peek as to what He has planned for me. I'm thinking that is not going to happen anytime soon.

I was sharing with a friend today that I was driving back from a Dr. appointment today and I was pulling up to a stop light and I really started to question why I can't trust God more. Oddly enough, what made me think about it was when I was braking at the stoplight... I began to think that I don't stress out everytime I put my foot on the brake...I don't clench my hands on the wheel and hold my breath hoping that the brakes work. No. I'm trusting that my car will stop and I don't even really think about it. I'm confident my car will stop. This is a car. Cars are not reliable- they break down all the time; yet, if I honestly look at my faith, I put more faith in my car than I do in God. I trust that my cars brakes, even though I can't even see them, are going to do what they are supposed to do; but, I have trouble when it comes to believing God's promises for me. It's really insane, isn't it? Maybe it's because God's promises, at least in this world, seem way too good to be true. But, they are true. They are true for everyone who puts their faith in Him. And you don't have to worry about Him changing His mind- God is unchanging, He's 100% reliable and trustworthy, and, really, He's the only one who is worthy of our complete trust. I think that I need to start trusting my God more than I trust my car.

New CD's! (and other things)

So excited because three GREAT new CDs were released, all bands/worship leaders from the Passion Conferences- Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin and David Crowder Band. You should definitely check them out and you can order them online on the Passion website 268generation.com (still haven't been able to insert a link... sorry! If any of you knows how to do that on blogspot, please let me know)







All of that aside, things have been pretty mellow. I haven't had a whole heck of a lot to do it seems like. Work has slowed down because, with the economy, we're not hiring like we always have; so, instead, now we are doing more project oriented work, which is a nice change, but it's just different- I'm used to being able to go on autopilot and now I actually have to think... I know... scary :-) But, even outside of work things have been really slow. I feel like I'm not doing anything worthwhile. I like planning things and, well... I have nothing to plan right now and it's driving me nuts. (this may change within the next couple of days and I might have something to plan... more to follow) Funny thing is, I've got this sure sense, from God, that this is a waiting period and I just need to trust that He's working on my behalf. I haven't gotten any signs indicating that is what is going on, but do you ever have that feeling that you know that you know it's a period of waiting??? Nothing more than a feeling of certainty. I don't know... can't really explain it well.

I did go home (N CA) this past weekend and it was nice to be back home. There are so many memories in my house and in the city seeing as I spent most of my life there. My elementary school is across the street, we passed by the streets where my middle and high schools are...I see a Trader Joe's and remember how it used to be a K-Mart and I remember (I have no idea why) going to Swensen's one night for dinner with my friends and we ended up in K Mart taking turns riding in the shopping carts up and down the aisles as fast as we could. I see Shadow Cliffs, a small park with a man-made lake and remember being SO excited when we would take trips to that lake with our next door neighbor friends. We'd pack up things to eat and we'd all pile into the back of our neighbor's station wagon and off we'd go to swim in the water until we had to leave. Thinking back on the water in that lake, I don't know that I'd even want to stick my feet in it today, but when you're little, you never think about those things. Even at home, I was glancing up at the ceiling in one corner of the room and remembering that we used to hang those countdown to Christmas paper chains in that spot... you know... you take strips of green and red paper and make circles and link them together and at the start of December, you cut one ring off every night until you get to Christmas and Christmas' ring was always made out of gold colored paper. It's weird how many random memories will flood your mind and many of them are SO random and you have no idea why that particular memory is stuck in your head.

I'm not the best flyer in the world. I've gotten better recently, but I still get nervous. Of course, I always pray for safety and protection on the flight; but, the words I used in my prayer on my trip back to S CA struck me for some reason. I was praying, and part of my prayer was "Lord, please let me get home safely." All of a sudden I felt like God emphasized the word 'home' and I felt reminded that because of the Lord's grace and my faith in Christ, I will make it home safely. But, not home in the sense of four walls and a roof in S CA; but, 'home' in the sense of heaven. It really gives such a sense of hope that this is God's promise to us, as believers, and, unlike people, God always keeps His promises and has guaranteed me a safe journey home one day. (of course, I then had to clarify my prayer to God, 'God please get this plane safely to S CA'... you know... just to clarify as to what I was asking :-)