Here’s an update on what has been going on here.
At the beginning of March, my dad informed me that Paul Nison (an acquaintance of ours) had posted a job opening on his Facebook page. The job was part-time and could be done from anywhere as long as internet is available. After prayerfully considering the position, I shot Paul a private message to let him know of my interest in the position. Paul quickly got back to me and hired me after a phone interview, sharing the job description and hours I would work. Working for Paul these past few months has been fun and somewhat challenging. It can be difficult to work-in time to ‘do the orders’ but I’m getting the hang of it.
Speaking of sun exposure, we Potts kids had the wildly amazing opportunity to go to Florida for the first time in our short lives! We went to Jacksonville for the Revive 2014 Conference and made a great time of it.
Revive is a Hebraic Roots conference hosted by HRN (The Hebraic Roots Network). It is a conference that has speakers, worship, and fun activities. Every day there was a general session which would consist of Praise and worship (through song and dance), a speaker (the speakers included; Rico Cortez, Ed Harris and Brad Scott) and various breakout sessions. Many times it was hard to pick which breakout session to attend!! Who wants to be forced to pick between dance class or listening to John Diffenderfer give a breakout session called “The Marriage Commandments: Ten Keys to Bliss” (I picked the dance class, by the way. I can always buy an mp3 of John D’s message). One of the activities I attended was the Youth Pizza Party, even though I’m not a youth and I didn’t eat pizza. All my siblings are youth and they did have pizza, and most of my friends were there, so I got permission to attend and had a great conversation with my new friend, Rachel D.
Paul Nison also attended the conference and I was able to help him run his table in the marketplace… actually I just stood around and watched Paul run it. It was really just a one person job, so Paul said I should just run along and socialize.
As I walked to the bench he was sitting on, I could see the troubled man; he looked discouraged, head hanging as he looked into the palms of his hands. I followed the others as, one by one, we shook his hand. His name was James and he needed eight dollars. We all knew that he needed more than eight dollars, but he softly insisted that he only needed eight dollars. My friend, Caleb, took the lead communicated our collective desire to share what we had with him. Christian also spoke, telling James what had just transpired upstairs. We asked James if and how we could pray for him. As Caleb prayed, I was overcome with a feeling to give my bible to James. I thought, “Is God asking me to give my bible away? My bible? I can’t do that!”. Surely he wasn’t asking me to give up my bible, it had been mine for years, ever since I was a Christian and was filled with all sorts of notes, dates-to-remember and even pictures. My heart sank and my eyes filled with tears, as I protested in my heart the feeling would not go away- so I prayed “make me willing”. Then, after Caleb finished praying, we all gave to James some money. I then knelt down next to James, where I was standing, and asked him, “James, do you have a Bible?”. I prayed that he would say ‘yes’ and I could keep mine. “No”, he said quietly. I pulled my cherished bible from my bag and gave it to James. I felt relief, joy and sadness rush through my heart as that book left my hands. I told him that he could have my bible if he promised to read it.., he solemnly promised he would. Soon others were giving from their hearts as well, Shanteyl gave a small bottle of anointing oil and Chris gave a bottle of essential oils. After another prayer and some encouraging words we returned to the hotel, believing in our hearts that we had just left James with more then eight dollars; we left him with hope.
In awe of how God had just worked, we continued the late night planning until the group dropped off, one by one, each person needing sleep for their journey home the next morning.
We are still in the process of organizing this ministry, but already this group has provided young adults with a place of encouragement from their peers. These peers have the same desire to serve as Yeshua served; the same desire to love as Yeshua loved; and the same desire to give an answer for the hope that is in us, to anyone who asks.
Until then,
Shalom,
Bethany :)