when the air was on, it only blew out heat. And when the heat was on, it only blew out scorching heat. Needless to say, we asked for a different car.
We were joking around with the tenant of how we wanted a cute and pretty car. She smiled and laughed and handed us the key. As we walked to find the car, we both stopped and jaws dropped....
We seriously got Rory Gilmore's little blue car!!! Same color and everything!!!
we both screamed in excitement.
oh ps. Leilani loves Gilmore girls too :) Instant love.
We get into the car, made sure the air worked and made our way towards Monument, CO (which is only 30 min away). They had sent us directions that were really vague and had brought them with us. We made our way off the exit it told us, and continued to make the turns.
However, we were not in Monument. We ended up in a different little town that only had probably 100 people in it. Just as we were about to turn around, we saw this little festival going on. We drove a bit closer, then out of nowhere, this man in tradition Indian headdress pops out!
Basically, I pointed and said, "We need to go to that."
Leilani is just as spontaneous as me and so she laughed and we pulled in. Come to find out, it was an Indian festival celebrating old tribes and traditions. Kind of cool! We saw a ton of people dressed up, we bought some hand made earrings, and then realized that we were starved! We found some food on site (I had a buffalo burger!) and then headed on our way.
We got out Leilani's iPhone and typed in the address(don't know why we didn't do that before!)to get to the GEM Headquarters. They were expecting us...
... or not.
We pulled into the lot and it was completely empty. Not a car in sight! We went and knocked on the doors and all but came to our senses that no one was gonna let us in. So I called Tim Garrett (remember him?) and he just laughed. Apparently they weren't expecting us till 5 hours later. So we took some pictures and then headed to our hosts house till get settled in and rest till dinner.
Linda is fantastic! She took us in immediately. We got things unpacked and we sat and chatted with her for ages. She has such a beautiful story of how God has worked in her life with such huge times of pain. She has such a heart for France and calls it home. She and her husband had done work there for years, but soon things started to go bad in their marriage. The organization had called them home to go through counseling but he refused. To make a long story short, he had come out and admitted that he had been gay this whole time since he was a teen and wasnt remaining true to his wife.
This had happened 10 years ago. Tear jerker I know! And this was the very short version! She is now ready and going back into the mission field in France and will be leaving soon.
i am so excited for her!
We then went and had dinner next door at the Rudeen's, where all the staff of GEM came for us to meet. This is where I met the baby of our group, Natasha. She is the sweetest thing ever! From Minnesota so I got my other half of the Midwest there with me. Anyway, we all had a good time and got to know other and was able to just have some. We then went around and did introductions of everyone and told who we were and where we wanted to go. It was so cool to see how God is pulling people in so many different areas!
Some of the staff went in and then explained what this week will look like to us and how it will be laid out. I am quite relieved actually from what I was feeling entering this. It will be fun!
The commission day will be Thursday... eek!
After all was said and done, the three of us girls went out for a lil' walk and took in the beauty of Colorado. We gazed at the mountain tops and admired the huge thunderstorm that was coming right at us, which I am listening in the background to right now.
We then came back inside and chatted more with Linda as she asked us questions like, "What got us to GEM?" and so on. these girls who I am living with are phenomenal. I cannot wait to see how God uses both Natasha and Leilani in their futures, and how we can use our new friendships to encourage each other along the way.
All in all, it was a great first day :)
PS. Linda totally has thee cutest dog and worlds most fattest cat. ever.
