Thursday, January 4, 2007
Here I am in Snowmass, CO one of the four mountain areas of Aspen.
I am helping take care of my ex-boss’s six and nine year old boys, which basically entails helping them with their homework, making them breakfast, and taking them to ski class while she goes to her CLE (continuing legal education) classes. The rest of the day I am free to do whatever I want. Also, my ex-boss, Vida, paid for a ski class for me. Wow, God is indeed amazing. He gives us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4); of course he does, He keeps all His promises. I had wanted to go skiing since freshman year in college. In fact, it may have been Vida that helped plant that desire; she gave me the ski outfit she used while she was in law school in Vermont.
For some bizarre reason I thought I could be safe on skis before taking a class; result: today I went careening down a hill. As I was descending at a speed I had never gone on a non-motorized vehicle I was scared, the most scared I have been in my entire life for something that could have been prevented, well, minus the time I thought a friend was going to get arrested for stealing. When I saw a pole that I was about to smash into, the fear grew exponentially. I was screaming, “How do I stop?!” My arms may have been flailing; I don’t remember much of what my body was doing accept that I was standing up and my head was turned towards upcoming doom. Finally, I sat down; I stopped; I laughed.
Vida had prayed right before we started to cross this hill horizontally that we would have a joyous time. Indeed, joyous it was. Ha, that horizontal turned vertical real quick, and looking back it is even funnier. I will never forget my first skiing experience. I hope this is the last I-thought-I-was-going-to-die experience.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Today was a lesson learning day. I took a skiing lesson. I fell soooo much. I told the instructor that he could go ahead of the class since I was not doing as well as them. He told me, “Go up to the previous hill and practice there. I’ll get you in a bit.” As I was struggling with my stopping I bumped, not literally, into another instructor. He stopped to help me. He told me, “Focus on putting wait on the opposite arch that you are turning.” That clicked! I was able to stop. I had been told for five hours to stop moving my upper body and to stop with my feet. Maybe because I love to dance I could not isolate my lower body from my upper body. When he helped me focus on my arches it finally made sense. I realized there’s a difference between being a teacher and being a good teacher. I want to be a good teacher, one that uses different words, different methods, to make things click for kids.
Today was also a day to allow God to shine His love through me. I was able translate for a lady who only spoke Spanish, until she was so good she went on her own down the hill. Even neater than that, God allowed me to show my instructor that some Christians walk their talk. My instructor asked what I was going to do in the future. I told him am thinking about becoming an overseas missionary. He said, “I looked into the Mormon faith. They walk their talk.” I responded, “I am glad you didn’t become a Mormon. They are trying to earn their way to heaven, and do not give God’s grace the importance it deserves.” (They also believe they are going to be Gods one day, which has been the problem since the beginning of time.) After the second teacher showed me the new stuff I went to practice on my own. I saw a girl who was struggling with stopping. I began to teach her what I had learned. My first instructor came to get me and saw me teaching this girl. He said something like, “You are a missionary.” He also saw me stop and ask a family who was taking tons of pictures of themselves, if they wanted to take a picture of them. At the end of the class I gave him a tip and a tract.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
My friend, Jeremy, came to visit from Grand Junction, a town in Colorado about two hours away. After we had a tasty brunch consisting of french toast and a salad topped with lemon pepper chicken (I love making stuff out of leftovers), we hit the slopes. Jeremy helped me sooo
much; he’s a great friend and teacher. He was super patient, helping me every time I fell and stayed behind me to be able to tell me what I was doing wrong. We skied for four hours. I went up the chair lift for the first time. I made an okay (with Jeremy picking me up) run down a green slope. I had a really hard time stopping, completing my turns, which meant I careened down the slopes like the first day, with a little more grace and much less fear. I also made a run down a blue slope, which basically was a tumble, fun nonetheless.
After our day as ski bums, Jeremy and I went into the city of Aspen for sushi. I had a great seaweed salad and unagi (I think of my roomies when I eat sushi, especially Joanie who introduced me to the wonders of bbq eel). Jeremy had unagi, spicy tuna, different types of sashimi, and tempura shitake mushrooms. Jeremy wants to go to Japan to share God’s love, so it was a nice meal for him.
We also got to talk to one of the sushi makers. Well, mostly I talked. He told us that that he worked in Austin before where they have Hispanic-Asian fusion restaurant making things like. I
told him about my roommate Li and I would talk about making a Mexican-Chinese fusion restaurant. He told Jeremy and I that he was Korean, so I began to tell him about some of my experiences with some of my Korean friends. I told him about one of my friends from Harvard whose father passed away our senior year at Harvard, but who became a Christian before he died. Then I said, “Which is great because I believe only those who have accepted that Jesus died for our sins and follow Him get to go to heaven.” It was interesting that he made this comment, “So you went to Harvard and studied psychology and are a Christian.” He saw that those two things are almost complete opposites. I told him about some of the things God was able to do through me, things that I never could have done Harvard degree or not. I left him a tract with a note.
Jeremy and I then walked through beautifully lit Aspen. We went to a bookstore to get Jerry a book. The book wasn’t there but I found some very valuable information. Earlier in the week I
had met a girl with a What Would Jesus Do bracelet. I asked her what church she went to and she told me, “Crossroads.” I went back to the restaurant she waitresses at to ask her for the church’s location and time, but she wasn’t there. The woman at the bookstore was very thorough in her search for the book. I thought of the verse in the Bible that says we should do everything as if unto the Lord. I asked her if she was a Christian; she said yes, and told me she attended Crossroads church. She took out a map and showed me how to get there and the times of service. We then stopped at a gazebo that still had Christmas lights on it. It overlooked a huge pine covered with lights that went from being all purple to all green to all…
When we came back to the condo Jerry told us about the things that are going on in Israel and how the Bible details these things. There are so many prophecies that have already been fulfilled. These too will come to pass. After Jerry said good night Jeremy and I prayed for those who don’t know Christ and for our futures. I stayed on the couch; he took my bed, since he had a long drive for the morning. I love sleeping on a couch; I did so happily for nine months last year. I think it my messed up back appreciates the sinking in of the middle cushion…
Sunday, January 7, 2007
After a pleasant breakfast of steak (again the yummy leftovers) and eggs, I said good bye to Jeremy. I then dropped of the boys at there class and headed to church. It was an amazing
service. I rarely cry while singing songs, except while singing Amazing Grace and Majesty. One of the songs was so awesome. It was written and sung by a local Aspen snowboarder. The teaching was also great. It was on Revelation 21:6-8:
I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
The pastor expounded on how those who will be in heaven.
1) Those who thirst for God.
2) Over comers.
He talked about how many people think being a Christian is a cake walk; and how it isn’t about setting up a nice home and being comfortable and forgetting about the rest of the world. He made it clear that Jesus never intended the Christian life to be that. He was radical, kicking out the money changers from the temple. The Christian faith is not kick back it’s something we must forge through, it is forceful.
Forceful faith: a new freedom to risk. We need to move radically into people’s lives, with love.
Forceful faith: boldly living for God rather than just managing sin.
My favorite
Faith: Not what you do or don’t do, it’s who you know and who you follow.
He went on to talk about those who will go to hell, especially the cowardly. That particular word, coward, is only used one other time in the Bible when the disciples wake up Jesus when they fear that the boat is going to sink; Jesus calls them cowards, because they have no faith. So basically those who have no faith will suffer the second death, will “have their part in the lake which burns with fire…”
The pastor asked us to ask ourselves, “What are you for?” Christians should be for sharing Jesus’ love radically.
As I left church I prayed that God would put people He wants to hear His good news in my path. Guess who He put in my path?! A deaf man. I was walking down the street when an older gentleman asked me how I was doing, I said, “Good.” I asked Him how he was. Instead of walking on he stopped and responded. He told me to speak slower since he had to read my lips. I asked him what he lived for. He responded, “Contentment.” I told him I was a Christian. He went on a monologue about how anthropologists are discovering how every culture basically has the same values, therefore have the same God. I was about to tell him what I believed, but he didn’t allow me. He said, “I know about you. You are fervent.” I responded, “You’re right I am fervent, because someone died for me.” I held out a tract for him to take, and said, “Please take this” but he refused to take it and walked away. I prayed for him and walked into a coffee shop.
The waitress sat me at a “Joiner’s table”, which is basically a table for people who are by themselves so that they can talk to others. I thought I would be able to share God’s good news with many. Not so; only one woman sat next to me, right as I was about to leave. I ended up eating one of the pastries I was going to eat at the bookstore Jeremy and I went yesterday; they have a café. She was a Christian. We talked about the things God has done in our life. One of the things I told her was that I was thinking of becoming a missionary. Unexpectedly, she gave me her address and told me to contact her if I decide to become a missionary so that she can sponsor me. Wow!
I continued on my plan to go to the bookstore. Cheryl was there again and she told me she was looking for me after church to offer me her apartment for a nap, since I had told her I was going to stay in the city until an event at church at five, five hours later. I told her about my day and she said she admired my energy and thought I was very trustworthy, which she said was pretty rare. I was about to get in line to buy some books when a middle aged man comes along with a book on Muslims. I asked him if he was a Christian. He said, “No, I have been a Buddhist for two years.” I told him he should really read the Bible, since it is the only book that predicts the future accurately. What the Old Testament prophets said about the messiah, Jesus fulfilled. He said, “I have. That’s not logical. I have Ph.D in …” I responded, “God is without time. He knew since the beginning of time, since he made Adam and Eve, that evil would be allowed into this world and that He would have to send His one and only begotten Son to die for our sins. He did this for those who would choose to love Him. If God would do that and He is beyond time, why wouldn’t He give us signs to show us our Savior?” He looked at me and didn’t say anything. I gave him a tract. He took it and left. I bought Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina and left as well.
I too left the bookstore and stopped at a Historical Landmark Cheryl recommended; the Jerome Hotel is beautiful. There were plush, soft, green velvet couches in front of a fire place in an indoor courtyard. Then, I went to the grocery store to pick up something for the potluck for a missionary to France. As I walked back to the church, I walked right in front of Kenechi, the Japanese restaurant Jeremy and I had gone the day before. I walked in to talk with Joe. He was eating with the other cooks. I told all of them about the church I had gone to and gave them directions and the times of service then said goodbye.
The potluck was very informative. R.C., a young man leaving to France as a missionary, talked quite a bit about the organization he is going with: Greater Europe Missions. I was intrigued, since I am thinking about going to Spain as a missionary. The video he showed confirmed what I already believed: Europe is a Godless continent. After the talk I met a woman who told me she was raised Catholic, but said she always had a relationship with the Lord. She said she never believed in praying to the Mary or the saints. She also knew that the Eucharist was said to be “the body of Christ” when matter was declared to be evil. This woman offered me to stay in her bed and breakfast if I ever wanted to come back to Aspen.
I arrived to the Young Adult Service a little late, but just in time to hear the speaker teach about using our talents in the new year. He quoted Proverbs 20:5: “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, But a man of understanding will draw it out.” He also talked about the talents, personality type, and circumstances. He said ever since he was little he loved to talk. I remembered ever since I was a little girl to I would always love to say hello to people and talk. I think God has given me the personality and circumstances to be a missionary and I believe is giving me a life worth writing about and giving me a desires to do that. I never thought I would like to write.
At the end of the night I bumped into R.C. and I told him about my stay in Aspen and what I was planning to do: read and learn about writing. We continued to talk and I told him about how I think God has given me a desire to write a book. He told me to come visit him where he works, which is in the neighboring resort. We said we would pray for one another.
Chris, one of the guys in the young adult service, gave me a ride to the bus station. I sat by myself while the bus filled up, then a semi-drunk man sat next to me. He said he had lived in Aspen for years. I commented, “So, you are an Aspenonian.” With that, the two guys sitting in front of me turned around, smiled and said, “I like that.” I continued to talk with Bob about how drinking is not good for him. The two guys in front joined our conversation about drinking. I asked them if they were snowboarders. They said yes. I told them I was a Christian. The two guys didn’t seem so interested anymore. Bob said he had lived in Boston for awhile. I told him I went to Harvard. The boys in front of me started saying something. They began to talk again. We talked about how Brendan, one of the guys, majored in forestry. Bob left.
Knowing many guys minds are on sex, I told the two snowboarders, Brendan and Justin, about the mission trip I took to London and mentioned how one of the kids asked about Christianity and sex. Another guy, who had sat next to me without me noticing, joined in the conversation. That got us talking about God and heaven. I posed a scenario to them, “Suppose this bus goes off the cliff. We all die. What are you going to ask a man at the gate of heaven who asks, ‘Why should I let you in?” Kevin and Brendan basically answered, “Because I’ve been good.” Justin answered, “My name will either by in the Lamb’s book of life or not.” “That’s right,” I responded, “There’s no way we can earn heaven. It is a gift. Being a Christian is not so much what you do or don’t do; it’s about who you know and who you follow. It’s about accepting Jesus and having a personal relationship with Him.”
Kevin said, “Why do you need to be a Christian? It’s so lame.”
I answered with one of my favorite word pictures.
In the Old Testament when someone committed a crime they would have to present a sacrifice of two spotless, without blemish, pigeons. One of the pigeons was killed and its blood was put into a basin. The second pigeon was washed in that blood and then set free to fly. Jesus was that perfect sinless sacrifice. When we accept that He died for us we are like that second pigeon, we are set free.
All three gentlemen got off the bus, but Justin walked next to me and told me he knows God’s power. His friend Brendan left, but Justin stayed at the bus stop with me. He said, “I know everything you said, almost verbatim.” I responded, “What do you think God wants you to do with that?” “Repeat it,” he answered. We talked for awhile. He told me some of the things God has done in his life. I told him some of the things God had done in my life. Our respective buses came. We continued to talk. He said, “I know I need to surrender it all to God. But, I just don’t want to.” It was getting late. My bus came. I said a quick prayer with him for guidance and left. I think God will do great things in his life, once he gives it all to him.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Jerry, Joseph, Jesse, and I went to the Aspen Recreational Center and went ice swimming, ice skating and swimming. It was my first time ice skating. Jerry prayed for me, so that I wouldn’t fall and that I wouldn’t get anymore bruises. I didn’t fall or get any more bruises. We had a lot of fun.
Besides Jerry and the kids there was only one other person on the bus. After getting settled in the back of the bus and singing a bit, I went to sit next to him. He told me he was a snowboarder and had lived in Aspen for seven years. He commented on my singing. I told him about the snowboarder who sings at the church I attended on Sunday. At one point in time I asked Him if he died where he would go. He said, “I’m in heaven.” I responded, “You think this earth, where there are kids eating out of the trash, is heaven?” He said, “Wow, you’re right.” We started talking about what it means to be a Christian. Sex was brought up. He told me about his night and how it is too hard to resist. I told him, “Not if you don’t put yourself in tempting situations.” He said, “You’re missing out.” I responded, “I’ve been there, done that; this is better. I am going to wait for my husband. That is what this ring on my left hand stands for, ‘I will be honorable before God and my husband. It’s going to be a gift I give him.” I hope things were clicking in his head, like things clicked in my head when a guy in college expressed who he was abstaining from sex. His stop came. I told him I would pray for him. He responded, sounding sincere, “I will pray for you to.” Too which I responded, “God will only hear your prayer if you accept His son.”
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
A nice slow day.
After making the kids breakfast, and taking them to class, like the past days, I went to ski. I fell a bit, but not as much as when I was with Jeremy. Things were starting to click. I came home to a quite, empty condo and made myself a nice sandwich. After lunch I took an hour nap. I got back on the slopes after my nap.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Another day on the slopes, this time with company.
I sat down on the six passenger ski lift next to a talkative man. Before we got to my stop, mid-station, I told him I was a Christian. He said, “There is a lot of hypocrisy in the church.” I began to tell him about what God was doing in my life when my stop came. He asked if he could ski with me. I said yes. He immediately started teaching me. We talked a little while we skied, but mostly while on the lift. After two runs from midway without falling, I asked him if he wanted to go all the way to the top. He said yes. We had a great time. I had to take something back to Jerry at the condo so I asked him if he wanted to join us for lunch. We picked up some Philly cheese steaks and came to eat with Jerry. Jerry asked him if he was a Christian. Robert told him about the hypocritical Christians he had met. Jerry told him, “We all sin.” He took that quite well.
We went back to the slopes and took made one last “run”, more like tumble for me (I wanted a nap like yesterday) down the slope, before sitting down for a nice cup of hot chocolate with a lot of whipped cream. While sitting down, he said he found me to be self-righteous and confident. I said, that I didn’t mean to come across that way and that if I have any righteousness it is from Christ. As for confidence I said, “I never considered myself confident, in fact, I doubted myself and my abilities, especially in college. But, there is one thing I am confident of, that God loves me.” At the end of a day of hanging out and skiing together, and him seeing me talk to others about Jesus he said something like, "Why do you talk about Jesus all the time?" I answered, "I see someone without Jesus in their life like being in a burning building without realizing it. I want to do everything I can to help them see what they are in and the way out." He said, something like, "Ooh, I guess if you see it like that..."
Thursday, January 11, 2007
My last day on the slopes.
After a restful morning, the first of which I didn’t have to take the boys to their class, I hit the slopes one last time. I went to the top, came down, and didn’t fall once! Vida and I had fun being on the lift together and going through a race course. Joseph won first place out of all the kids in school. After the lift closed I helped Joe with his homework for a couple of hours. Then I left to Aspen to hear “God’s Story” at the church I went to on Sunday.
At the bus stop I met Francisco. He told me he had started reading the Bible seriously. I told him I had become a Christian a year ago. He told me he was a Catholic. I brought up two things that the Bible says: 1) Do not bow down to images, 2) Communion is to be done in “remembrance” of Christ. I told him what I thought was very important: the Bible does not contradict itself and the most important thing is to love God above all things.
The teaching on God’s story was good, although we only went over the first two “chapters”. The biggest part of the class was on Communion, how God was in perfect communion with Himself: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How he made us to be able to be in communion with Him. That’s why he created us, the second “chapter”. I liked the way one of the speakers described the Bible:
I didn’t like something that same speaker said: you should wait two years before you go on the mission field.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Our final day in Snowmass, CO.
After returning our stuff and shopping for souvenirs we headed to the ARC for some more ice skating, rock climbing, and swimming. Good times; I can skate backwards,
slowly. On the bus 
there I sat next to this little boy who was crying because he lost his older brother while skateboarding. He was afraid that his parents were going to hit him when he got home. He only spoke Portuguese so I tried my best one-semester-of-Portuguese, hugged him, and prayed for him in Spanish. He smiled and stopped crying. He told me some of the things he liked to do. I told him about Jesus and how people can sometimes be very cruel because they don’t know God’s love and pointed to my cross.
I was also able to share God’s love with people at the ski shop where we rented our stuff and were always at storing skis, returning equipment, etc. I made them cookies, gave them some tracts, information on the church I attended in Aspen, and gave them the letter below. Well, I am off to get things ready for more cookie/tract/letter delivery…
Dear Four Mountain Sports Employees,
It’s been a pleasure talking with many of you the past week and a half. Below is my story. I hope you make time to read it. More than that I hope you make time to search for God.
Until a year and a half ago, my goal in life had been to please myself. For the most part this meant striving to live by the “golden rule”; I loved making people happy. During my first year at Harvard my focus, my god, changed. Whatever one focuses on, what one puts in the center of their life, is their god(s). I still strived to help people, volunteering in several community service activities, but I added two gods to my life in college: sex and boys. Last summer I realized I needed to put God in the center of my life.
This decision came after someone said: “I think people don’t chose to become Christians because they don’t want to change.” That hit home. I didn’t want to change my lifestyle; I was happy the way I was living. More than that, I could not change my way of thinking. I could not accept that someone who doesn’t try to follow Jesus’ teachings and accepts that He died for his/her sins is going to hell. I thought about my lifestyle and what I would need to change be a Christian. I realized I could remove the two gods I added in college. The change of mindset was impossible to have; I thought of so many people who are not Christians. Then, I started to think about the people in the Christian Fellowship I had joined at the beginning of my senior year at Harvard. I thought about the joy and peace they had and others did not, and how I wanted that for my children, for my friends, for everyone. I realized I had to change myself first. I had to take pleasing myself and others out of the center of my life, and put God there.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18). God has truly saved me. I had resentment in my heart towards people who had hurt me. I knew I needed to forgive them, but I could not. God gave me the power to. God has also truly opened my eyes. I learned more valuable things in a few months while reading and abiding in the Bible than I did in four years at Harvard. I have come to experience that what Jesus says is true; “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He has indeed brought me life abundantly full of love and peace. I have seen/am seeing that the best life comes when one lives by both of Jesus’ commandments: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39). Abiding by these two commandants is what it means to be a Christian.
The Bible is not just instructions for living; it is much more than that. It is God’s love story. It is also the only book that accurately predicts the future. There are over three hundred prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, for example, simply in Isaiah 53, ten prophecies are fulfilled. Here are five:
Prophecy Fulfillment
He will be widely rejected (53:1, 3) John 12:37, 38
He will be disfigured by suffering (53:2) Mark 15:17, 19
He will be buried in a rich man’s tomb (53:9) John 19:38-42
He will justify man from their sin (53:10, 11) Romans 5:15-19
He will die with transgressors (53:12) Mark 15:27, 28; Like 22:37
There are many other prophecies about Israel, Jesus’ birth, life and death. Please, if you are not a Christian please seek Him, with all your heart. God makes Himself known to all who seek Him with all their heart: Atheists, Agnostics, Muslims… God keeps all His promises. This is one of my favorites: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
If you have questions about God check out: www.gotquestions.org; Other Good websites: www.greatcom.org/laws/english/flash http://www.livingwaters.com/good/AreYouGood.html,
God’s work in my life: www.livingluzly.blogspot.com. My e-mail: Gonzalez.luz@gmail.com. God bless you.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
We got snowed in! When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Vida and I went skiing and had a blast. We also bumped into three guys we got to talk to about Jesus. The first two were younger kids and to which Vida talked with and I shared my testimony. The third guy was a guy I was in a class with at Harvard, Human Sexuality. He said that class taught him to not be judgmental. I said something like, “Yeah, we should not be judgmental, but there are absolutes; it isn’t just, do whatever makes you happy. I have learned doing what makes God happy is best.” I told him how I had joined the Christian Fellowship at Harvard and had become a Christian shortly after college. I told him about the awesome things that God has done in my life. Vida told him how as an attorney it helps so much knowing the root problem of her client’s: sin. The answer for life and having an afterlife free from punishment is only found in Jesus. I told him about the church I had been attending in Aspen.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Finally, back in the warm climate. Thank you, Lord!
Here I am in Snowmass, CO one of the four mountain areas of Aspen.
I am helping take care of my ex-boss’s six and nine year old boys, which basically entails helping them with their homework, making them breakfast, and taking them to ski class while she goes to her CLE (continuing legal education) classes. The rest of the day I am free to do whatever I want. Also, my ex-boss, Vida, paid for a ski class for me. Wow, God is indeed amazing. He gives us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4); of course he does, He keeps all His promises. I had wanted to go skiing since freshman year in college. In fact, it may have been Vida that helped plant that desire; she gave me the ski outfit she used while she was in law school in Vermont.
For some bizarre reason I thought I could be safe on skis before taking a class; result: today I went careening down a hill. As I was descending at a speed I had never gone on a non-motorized vehicle I was scared, the most scared I have been in my entire life for something that could have been prevented, well, minus the time I thought a friend was going to get arrested for stealing. When I saw a pole that I was about to smash into, the fear grew exponentially. I was screaming, “How do I stop?!” My arms may have been flailing; I don’t remember much of what my body was doing accept that I was standing up and my head was turned towards upcoming doom. Finally, I sat down; I stopped; I laughed.
Vida had prayed right before we started to cross this hill horizontally that we would have a joyous time. Indeed, joyous it was. Ha, that horizontal turned vertical real quick, and looking back it is even funnier. I will never forget my first skiing experience. I hope this is the last I-thought-I-was-going-to-die experience.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Today was a lesson learning day. I took a skiing lesson. I fell soooo much. I told the instructor that he could go ahead of the class since I was not doing as well as them. He told me, “Go up to the previous hill and practice there. I’ll get you in a bit.” As I was struggling with my stopping I bumped, not literally, into another instructor. He stopped to help me. He told me, “Focus on putting wait on the opposite arch that you are turning.” That clicked! I was able to stop. I had been told for five hours to stop moving my upper body and to stop with my feet. Maybe because I love to dance I could not isolate my lower body from my upper body. When he helped me focus on my arches it finally made sense. I realized there’s a difference between being a teacher and being a good teacher. I want to be a good teacher, one that uses different words, different methods, to make things click for kids.
Today was also a day to allow God to shine His love through me. I was able translate for a lady who only spoke Spanish, until she was so good she went on her own down the hill. Even neater than that, God allowed me to show my instructor that some Christians walk their talk. My instructor asked what I was going to do in the future. I told him am thinking about becoming an overseas missionary. He said, “I looked into the Mormon faith. They walk their talk.” I responded, “I am glad you didn’t become a Mormon. They are trying to earn their way to heaven, and do not give God’s grace the importance it deserves.” (They also believe they are going to be Gods one day, which has been the problem since the beginning of time.) After the second teacher showed me the new stuff I went to practice on my own. I saw a girl who was struggling with stopping. I began to teach her what I had learned. My first instructor came to get me and saw me teaching this girl. He said something like, “You are a missionary.” He also saw me stop and ask a family who was taking tons of pictures of themselves, if they wanted to take a picture of them. At the end of the class I gave him a tip and a tract.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
My friend, Jeremy, came to visit from Grand Junction, a town in Colorado about two hours away. After we had a tasty brunch consisting of french toast and a salad topped with lemon pepper chicken (I love making stuff out of leftovers), we hit the slopes. Jeremy helped me sooo
much; he’s a great friend and teacher. He was super patient, helping me every time I fell and stayed behind me to be able to tell me what I was doing wrong. We skied for four hours. I went up the chair lift for the first time. I made an okay (with Jeremy picking me up) run down a green slope. I had a really hard time stopping, completing my turns, which meant I careened down the slopes like the first day, with a little more grace and much less fear. I also made a run down a blue slope, which basically was a tumble, fun nonetheless.After our day as ski bums, Jeremy and I went into the city of Aspen for sushi. I had a great seaweed salad and unagi (I think of my roomies when I eat sushi, especially Joanie who introduced me to the wonders of bbq eel). Jeremy had unagi, spicy tuna, different types of sashimi, and tempura shitake mushrooms. Jeremy wants to go to Japan to share God’s love, so it was a nice meal for him.
We also got to talk to one of the sushi makers. Well, mostly I talked. He told us that that he worked in Austin before where they have Hispanic-Asian fusion restaurant making things like. I
told him about my roommate Li and I would talk about making a Mexican-Chinese fusion restaurant. He told Jeremy and I that he was Korean, so I began to tell him about some of my experiences with some of my Korean friends. I told him about one of my friends from Harvard whose father passed away our senior year at Harvard, but who became a Christian before he died. Then I said, “Which is great because I believe only those who have accepted that Jesus died for our sins and follow Him get to go to heaven.” It was interesting that he made this comment, “So you went to Harvard and studied psychology and are a Christian.” He saw that those two things are almost complete opposites. I told him about some of the things God was able to do through me, things that I never could have done Harvard degree or not. I left him a tract with a note.Jeremy and I then walked through beautifully lit Aspen. We went to a bookstore to get Jerry a book. The book wasn’t there but I found some very valuable information. Earlier in the week I
had met a girl with a What Would Jesus Do bracelet. I asked her what church she went to and she told me, “Crossroads.” I went back to the restaurant she waitresses at to ask her for the church’s location and time, but she wasn’t there. The woman at the bookstore was very thorough in her search for the book. I thought of the verse in the Bible that says we should do everything as if unto the Lord. I asked her if she was a Christian; she said yes, and told me she attended Crossroads church. She took out a map and showed me how to get there and the times of service. We then stopped at a gazebo that still had Christmas lights on it. It overlooked a huge pine covered with lights that went from being all purple to all green to all…When we came back to the condo Jerry told us about the things that are going on in Israel and how the Bible details these things. There are so many prophecies that have already been fulfilled. These too will come to pass. After Jerry said good night Jeremy and I prayed for those who don’t know Christ and for our futures. I stayed on the couch; he took my bed, since he had a long drive for the morning. I love sleeping on a couch; I did so happily for nine months last year. I think it my messed up back appreciates the sinking in of the middle cushion…
Sunday, January 7, 2007
After a pleasant breakfast of steak (again the yummy leftovers) and eggs, I said good bye to Jeremy. I then dropped of the boys at there class and headed to church. It was an amazing
service. I rarely cry while singing songs, except while singing Amazing Grace and Majesty. One of the songs was so awesome. It was written and sung by a local Aspen snowboarder. The teaching was also great. It was on Revelation 21:6-8:I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
The pastor expounded on how those who will be in heaven.
1) Those who thirst for God.
2) Over comers.
He talked about how many people think being a Christian is a cake walk; and how it isn’t about setting up a nice home and being comfortable and forgetting about the rest of the world. He made it clear that Jesus never intended the Christian life to be that. He was radical, kicking out the money changers from the temple. The Christian faith is not kick back it’s something we must forge through, it is forceful.
Forceful faith: a new freedom to risk. We need to move radically into people’s lives, with love.
Forceful faith: boldly living for God rather than just managing sin.
My favorite
Faith: Not what you do or don’t do, it’s who you know and who you follow.
He went on to talk about those who will go to hell, especially the cowardly. That particular word, coward, is only used one other time in the Bible when the disciples wake up Jesus when they fear that the boat is going to sink; Jesus calls them cowards, because they have no faith. So basically those who have no faith will suffer the second death, will “have their part in the lake which burns with fire…”
The pastor asked us to ask ourselves, “What are you for?” Christians should be for sharing Jesus’ love radically.
As I left church I prayed that God would put people He wants to hear His good news in my path. Guess who He put in my path?! A deaf man. I was walking down the street when an older gentleman asked me how I was doing, I said, “Good.” I asked Him how he was. Instead of walking on he stopped and responded. He told me to speak slower since he had to read my lips. I asked him what he lived for. He responded, “Contentment.” I told him I was a Christian. He went on a monologue about how anthropologists are discovering how every culture basically has the same values, therefore have the same God. I was about to tell him what I believed, but he didn’t allow me. He said, “I know about you. You are fervent.” I responded, “You’re right I am fervent, because someone died for me.” I held out a tract for him to take, and said, “Please take this” but he refused to take it and walked away. I prayed for him and walked into a coffee shop.
The waitress sat me at a “Joiner’s table”, which is basically a table for people who are by themselves so that they can talk to others. I thought I would be able to share God’s good news with many. Not so; only one woman sat next to me, right as I was about to leave. I ended up eating one of the pastries I was going to eat at the bookstore Jeremy and I went yesterday; they have a café. She was a Christian. We talked about the things God has done in our life. One of the things I told her was that I was thinking of becoming a missionary. Unexpectedly, she gave me her address and told me to contact her if I decide to become a missionary so that she can sponsor me. Wow!
I continued on my plan to go to the bookstore. Cheryl was there again and she told me she was looking for me after church to offer me her apartment for a nap, since I had told her I was going to stay in the city until an event at church at five, five hours later. I told her about my day and she said she admired my energy and thought I was very trustworthy, which she said was pretty rare. I was about to get in line to buy some books when a middle aged man comes along with a book on Muslims. I asked him if he was a Christian. He said, “No, I have been a Buddhist for two years.” I told him he should really read the Bible, since it is the only book that predicts the future accurately. What the Old Testament prophets said about the messiah, Jesus fulfilled. He said, “I have. That’s not logical. I have Ph.D in …” I responded, “God is without time. He knew since the beginning of time, since he made Adam and Eve, that evil would be allowed into this world and that He would have to send His one and only begotten Son to die for our sins. He did this for those who would choose to love Him. If God would do that and He is beyond time, why wouldn’t He give us signs to show us our Savior?” He looked at me and didn’t say anything. I gave him a tract. He took it and left. I bought Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina and left as well.
I too left the bookstore and stopped at a Historical Landmark Cheryl recommended; the Jerome Hotel is beautiful. There were plush, soft, green velvet couches in front of a fire place in an indoor courtyard. Then, I went to the grocery store to pick up something for the potluck for a missionary to France. As I walked back to the church, I walked right in front of Kenechi, the Japanese restaurant Jeremy and I had gone the day before. I walked in to talk with Joe. He was eating with the other cooks. I told all of them about the church I had gone to and gave them directions and the times of service then said goodbye.
The potluck was very informative. R.C., a young man leaving to France as a missionary, talked quite a bit about the organization he is going with: Greater Europe Missions. I was intrigued, since I am thinking about going to Spain as a missionary. The video he showed confirmed what I already believed: Europe is a Godless continent. After the talk I met a woman who told me she was raised Catholic, but said she always had a relationship with the Lord. She said she never believed in praying to the Mary or the saints. She also knew that the Eucharist was said to be “the body of Christ” when matter was declared to be evil. This woman offered me to stay in her bed and breakfast if I ever wanted to come back to Aspen.
I arrived to the Young Adult Service a little late, but just in time to hear the speaker teach about using our talents in the new year. He quoted Proverbs 20:5: “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, But a man of understanding will draw it out.” He also talked about the talents, personality type, and circumstances. He said ever since he was little he loved to talk. I remembered ever since I was a little girl to I would always love to say hello to people and talk. I think God has given me the personality and circumstances to be a missionary and I believe is giving me a life worth writing about and giving me a desires to do that. I never thought I would like to write.
At the end of the night I bumped into R.C. and I told him about my stay in Aspen and what I was planning to do: read and learn about writing. We continued to talk and I told him about how I think God has given me a desire to write a book. He told me to come visit him where he works, which is in the neighboring resort. We said we would pray for one another.
Chris, one of the guys in the young adult service, gave me a ride to the bus station. I sat by myself while the bus filled up, then a semi-drunk man sat next to me. He said he had lived in Aspen for years. I commented, “So, you are an Aspenonian.” With that, the two guys sitting in front of me turned around, smiled and said, “I like that.” I continued to talk with Bob about how drinking is not good for him. The two guys in front joined our conversation about drinking. I asked them if they were snowboarders. They said yes. I told them I was a Christian. The two guys didn’t seem so interested anymore. Bob said he had lived in Boston for awhile. I told him I went to Harvard. The boys in front of me started saying something. They began to talk again. We talked about how Brendan, one of the guys, majored in forestry. Bob left.
Knowing many guys minds are on sex, I told the two snowboarders, Brendan and Justin, about the mission trip I took to London and mentioned how one of the kids asked about Christianity and sex. Another guy, who had sat next to me without me noticing, joined in the conversation. That got us talking about God and heaven. I posed a scenario to them, “Suppose this bus goes off the cliff. We all die. What are you going to ask a man at the gate of heaven who asks, ‘Why should I let you in?” Kevin and Brendan basically answered, “Because I’ve been good.” Justin answered, “My name will either by in the Lamb’s book of life or not.” “That’s right,” I responded, “There’s no way we can earn heaven. It is a gift. Being a Christian is not so much what you do or don’t do; it’s about who you know and who you follow. It’s about accepting Jesus and having a personal relationship with Him.”
Kevin said, “Why do you need to be a Christian? It’s so lame.”
I answered with one of my favorite word pictures.
In the Old Testament when someone committed a crime they would have to present a sacrifice of two spotless, without blemish, pigeons. One of the pigeons was killed and its blood was put into a basin. The second pigeon was washed in that blood and then set free to fly. Jesus was that perfect sinless sacrifice. When we accept that He died for us we are like that second pigeon, we are set free.
All three gentlemen got off the bus, but Justin walked next to me and told me he knows God’s power. His friend Brendan left, but Justin stayed at the bus stop with me. He said, “I know everything you said, almost verbatim.” I responded, “What do you think God wants you to do with that?” “Repeat it,” he answered. We talked for awhile. He told me some of the things God has done in his life. I told him some of the things God had done in my life. Our respective buses came. We continued to talk. He said, “I know I need to surrender it all to God. But, I just don’t want to.” It was getting late. My bus came. I said a quick prayer with him for guidance and left. I think God will do great things in his life, once he gives it all to him.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Jerry, Joseph, Jesse, and I went to the Aspen Recreational Center and went ice swimming, ice skating and swimming. It was my first time ice skating. Jerry prayed for me, so that I wouldn’t fall and that I wouldn’t get anymore bruises. I didn’t fall or get any more bruises. We had a lot of fun.
Besides Jerry and the kids there was only one other person on the bus. After getting settled in the back of the bus and singing a bit, I went to sit next to him. He told me he was a snowboarder and had lived in Aspen for seven years. He commented on my singing. I told him about the snowboarder who sings at the church I attended on Sunday. At one point in time I asked Him if he died where he would go. He said, “I’m in heaven.” I responded, “You think this earth, where there are kids eating out of the trash, is heaven?” He said, “Wow, you’re right.” We started talking about what it means to be a Christian. Sex was brought up. He told me about his night and how it is too hard to resist. I told him, “Not if you don’t put yourself in tempting situations.” He said, “You’re missing out.” I responded, “I’ve been there, done that; this is better. I am going to wait for my husband. That is what this ring on my left hand stands for, ‘I will be honorable before God and my husband. It’s going to be a gift I give him.” I hope things were clicking in his head, like things clicked in my head when a guy in college expressed who he was abstaining from sex. His stop came. I told him I would pray for him. He responded, sounding sincere, “I will pray for you to.” Too which I responded, “God will only hear your prayer if you accept His son.”
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
A nice slow day.
After making the kids breakfast, and taking them to class, like the past days, I went to ski. I fell a bit, but not as much as when I was with Jeremy. Things were starting to click. I came home to a quite, empty condo and made myself a nice sandwich. After lunch I took an hour nap. I got back on the slopes after my nap.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Another day on the slopes, this time with company.
I sat down on the six passenger ski lift next to a talkative man. Before we got to my stop, mid-station, I told him I was a Christian. He said, “There is a lot of hypocrisy in the church.” I began to tell him about what God was doing in my life when my stop came. He asked if he could ski with me. I said yes. He immediately started teaching me. We talked a little while we skied, but mostly while on the lift. After two runs from midway without falling, I asked him if he wanted to go all the way to the top. He said yes. We had a great time. I had to take something back to Jerry at the condo so I asked him if he wanted to join us for lunch. We picked up some Philly cheese steaks and came to eat with Jerry. Jerry asked him if he was a Christian. Robert told him about the hypocritical Christians he had met. Jerry told him, “We all sin.” He took that quite well.
We went back to the slopes and took made one last “run”, more like tumble for me (I wanted a nap like yesterday) down the slope, before sitting down for a nice cup of hot chocolate with a lot of whipped cream. While sitting down, he said he found me to be self-righteous and confident. I said, that I didn’t mean to come across that way and that if I have any righteousness it is from Christ. As for confidence I said, “I never considered myself confident, in fact, I doubted myself and my abilities, especially in college. But, there is one thing I am confident of, that God loves me.” At the end of a day of hanging out and skiing together, and him seeing me talk to others about Jesus he said something like, "Why do you talk about Jesus all the time?" I answered, "I see someone without Jesus in their life like being in a burning building without realizing it. I want to do everything I can to help them see what they are in and the way out." He said, something like, "Ooh, I guess if you see it like that..."
Thursday, January 11, 2007
My last day on the slopes.
After a restful morning, the first of which I didn’t have to take the boys to their class, I hit the slopes one last time. I went to the top, came down, and didn’t fall once! Vida and I had fun being on the lift together and going through a race course. Joseph won first place out of all the kids in school. After the lift closed I helped Joe with his homework for a couple of hours. Then I left to Aspen to hear “God’s Story” at the church I went to on Sunday.
At the bus stop I met Francisco. He told me he had started reading the Bible seriously. I told him I had become a Christian a year ago. He told me he was a Catholic. I brought up two things that the Bible says: 1) Do not bow down to images, 2) Communion is to be done in “remembrance” of Christ. I told him what I thought was very important: the Bible does not contradict itself and the most important thing is to love God above all things.
The teaching on God’s story was good, although we only went over the first two “chapters”. The biggest part of the class was on Communion, how God was in perfect communion with Himself: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How he made us to be able to be in communion with Him. That’s why he created us, the second “chapter”. I liked the way one of the speakers described the Bible:
I didn’t like something that same speaker said: you should wait two years before you go on the mission field.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Our final day in Snowmass, CO.
After returning our stuff and shopping for souvenirs we headed to the ARC for some more ice skating, rock climbing, and swimming. Good times; I can skate backwards,
slowly. On the bus 
there I sat next to this little boy who was crying because he lost his older brother while skateboarding. He was afraid that his parents were going to hit him when he got home. He only spoke Portuguese so I tried my best one-semester-of-Portuguese, hugged him, and prayed for him in Spanish. He smiled and stopped crying. He told me some of the things he liked to do. I told him about Jesus and how people can sometimes be very cruel because they don’t know God’s love and pointed to my cross.I was also able to share God’s love with people at the ski shop where we rented our stuff and were always at storing skis, returning equipment, etc. I made them cookies, gave them some tracts, information on the church I attended in Aspen, and gave them the letter below. Well, I am off to get things ready for more cookie/tract/letter delivery…
Dear Four Mountain Sports Employees,
It’s been a pleasure talking with many of you the past week and a half. Below is my story. I hope you make time to read it. More than that I hope you make time to search for God.
Until a year and a half ago, my goal in life had been to please myself. For the most part this meant striving to live by the “golden rule”; I loved making people happy. During my first year at Harvard my focus, my god, changed. Whatever one focuses on, what one puts in the center of their life, is their god(s). I still strived to help people, volunteering in several community service activities, but I added two gods to my life in college: sex and boys. Last summer I realized I needed to put God in the center of my life.
This decision came after someone said: “I think people don’t chose to become Christians because they don’t want to change.” That hit home. I didn’t want to change my lifestyle; I was happy the way I was living. More than that, I could not change my way of thinking. I could not accept that someone who doesn’t try to follow Jesus’ teachings and accepts that He died for his/her sins is going to hell. I thought about my lifestyle and what I would need to change be a Christian. I realized I could remove the two gods I added in college. The change of mindset was impossible to have; I thought of so many people who are not Christians. Then, I started to think about the people in the Christian Fellowship I had joined at the beginning of my senior year at Harvard. I thought about the joy and peace they had and others did not, and how I wanted that for my children, for my friends, for everyone. I realized I had to change myself first. I had to take pleasing myself and others out of the center of my life, and put God there.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18). God has truly saved me. I had resentment in my heart towards people who had hurt me. I knew I needed to forgive them, but I could not. God gave me the power to. God has also truly opened my eyes. I learned more valuable things in a few months while reading and abiding in the Bible than I did in four years at Harvard. I have come to experience that what Jesus says is true; “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He has indeed brought me life abundantly full of love and peace. I have seen/am seeing that the best life comes when one lives by both of Jesus’ commandments: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39). Abiding by these two commandants is what it means to be a Christian.
The Bible is not just instructions for living; it is much more than that. It is God’s love story. It is also the only book that accurately predicts the future. There are over three hundred prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, for example, simply in Isaiah 53, ten prophecies are fulfilled. Here are five:
Prophecy Fulfillment
He will be widely rejected (53:1, 3) John 12:37, 38
He will be disfigured by suffering (53:2) Mark 15:17, 19
He will be buried in a rich man’s tomb (53:9) John 19:38-42
He will justify man from their sin (53:10, 11) Romans 5:15-19
He will die with transgressors (53:12) Mark 15:27, 28; Like 22:37
There are many other prophecies about Israel, Jesus’ birth, life and death. Please, if you are not a Christian please seek Him, with all your heart. God makes Himself known to all who seek Him with all their heart: Atheists, Agnostics, Muslims… God keeps all His promises. This is one of my favorites: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
If you have questions about God check out: www.gotquestions.org; Other Good websites: www.greatcom.org/laws/english/flash http://www.livingwaters.com/good/AreYouGood.html,
God’s work in my life: www.livingluzly.blogspot.com. My e-mail: Gonzalez.luz@gmail.com. God bless you.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
We got snowed in! When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Vida and I went skiing and had a blast. We also bumped into three guys we got to talk to about Jesus. The first two were younger kids and to which Vida talked with and I shared my testimony. The third guy was a guy I was in a class with at Harvard, Human Sexuality. He said that class taught him to not be judgmental. I said something like, “Yeah, we should not be judgmental, but there are absolutes; it isn’t just, do whatever makes you happy. I have learned doing what makes God happy is best.” I told him how I had joined the Christian Fellowship at Harvard and had become a Christian shortly after college. I told him about the awesome things that God has done in my life. Vida told him how as an attorney it helps so much knowing the root problem of her client’s: sin. The answer for life and having an afterlife free from punishment is only found in Jesus. I told him about the church I had been attending in Aspen.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Finally, back in the warm climate. Thank you, Lord!
