The importance of finding an amazing ALMOND CROISSANT in Boston

I have fallen in love with the creation called the almond croissant!

It started with Au Bon Pain, probably in high school.  The crispy, crunchy outside juxtaposed perfectly with the sweet and gooey softness and rich almond flavored inside....perfection.

At $2.93, it's the perfect combination of great price and absolutely delicious ratio.  Personally, I think they could put in a LITTLE bit more gooey almond filling, really...just a tad more.

Tatte run you about $4.50-4.93 after taxes.  I am not sure of the exact price but it's absolutely weak in comparison.

Same with the Whole Foods version.  It might be $2.50, I'll have to double check, but also quite lacking.

The winner is AU BON PAIN!!!
If you know of a better one, please lmk.  My taste buds thank you in advance! 

Giving up Facebook for Lent

It's been a good lesson in how "connected" we need to be, or at least feel. So far I have found that I have not missed it too much, nor missed too many events.  I find that I am less self centered and self promotional.  But I have found that it's a great way to connect with MANY people instantly.  I miss it but so much awesome stuff has happened bc I am not constantly checking News Feeds and status updating my life constantly!!!

The Evangelism Challenge lifts off, 2015!

Okay, so last year I met this kid Emmanuel, and I shared the gospel with him, or rather, found out that he was a Christian.  We found each other on facebook and he told me that he wanted to take up the #evangelismchallenge.  Last year 3 other men and a pastor's daughter also took up the challenge. But then Emmanuel started posting them in the same style that I had been posting them, and seeing them written out like that was really just so mindblowing.  You know how you have been dreaming about something for SO LONG and then you start to see it materialize right before your eyes?  THAT'S WHAT THIS IS LIKE.  I am a dreamer, a poet, a dancer, at heart, but in this world I am also a mover, a shaker, a world changer, a hell destroyer.  Yes, we are coming for all the demons of hell to be bound and destroyed.  We know how it ends in Revelations.  Satan is destroyed and he knows that Jesus is coming back to rule this earth so he's trying to bring all the people of this world to hell with him.  But not on my watch.  Not in our city.  Not with this kind of revolution.

So what is your passion?  What is your calling?  What did Jesus create you for?

Is it to dance?  Is it to paint, write?  Is it to give and be a blessing to others?  Is it through your vocation?  Is it through serving?  How do you love best?

I am an evangelist but the Holy Spirit works through each of us differently and God has gifted us with different callings.  So my goal is to help others find their calling.  And to connect them with those who need it the most desperately. My dream is to shift reality here on earth.  That we would be UNAFRAID to be who God dreamed us to be, before we were ever created in the womb.

In Jeremiah 29, he writes:
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Find your calling, and seek God with all your heart to find out what your destiny is.  Because once you are walking in it, your dreams will COME TO LIFE! L'CHAIM!!!!

3/09/15 Monday Prayed with my store friend T, who I have seen grow up, since she was about 10 years old.  She is an interesting mix of Jewish, Christian and Catholic but doesn't seem to believe in God at all. She is a senior in high school and it was so awesome to be able to share the gospel with her after many times of initiating conversations about God.  I had never really shared the gospel and good news of Jesus so hopefully some seeds were planted!  :D

3/10/15 Tuesday I ran into my friend Kaitlin and we prayed for a guy who had a missing toe and a black foot (he wasn't there but maybe he'll get the healing anyway).  Then I suddenly felt the need to share the gospel with the guy sitting next to me, as I didn't want to slack on my challenge.  Believe it or not he was a Christian from Tremont Temple Baptist Church, which is an evangelical church in Boston!  What an amazing mix of Chinese, Cape Verdean and Lebanese!  I was like, Oh, you're my Asian brother!  But it was nice to connect with him.

#evangelismchallenge 7Jan2015 Eddie

Really funny story...so I saw this guy standing at the JFK UMass platform. Kind of in this random spot behind the fridge so I just knew this challenge was going to be INTERESTING. We chatted about the cold, he's from Cape Cod. What an interesting look he had! At first I thought he was West Asian aka Middle Eastern. But then he didn't. His grandmother is from Thailand and I guess he's German and a bunch of other things.
Anyway I asked if anyone had ever shared the gospel with him. He said no. After a little back and forth he gave me 3 min but I told him we're going on the same train so 10 min. I shared about how Jesus came to live and die so he could have life. (He liked my evangecard Janel Blood!) He went to the Thai temple with his grandma sometimes so I shared about being a Buddhist for 11 years and searching for truth. His name was Eddie and he had this insanely cool gold backpack. Yes. It was gold. Though I already have several backpacks I have to admit I kind of wanted to go buy one at Evelyn's just like it. I prayed with Eddie and I could feel the prayer reaching him. I asked him to come to ‪#‎AletheiaChurch‬ and he said probably not. But I gave him a card anyway. He wanted a hug and it just seemed right. So please pray for his soul! I am really loving the ‪#‎EvangelismChallenge‬.

I thought I would want to stop once the year ended but it's become such a lifestyle shift, a mindset shift, living to serve others. I am CLEARLY not the most holy or godly person, (of course there's no comparison in God's eyes), and I still have so much son separating me from God, but I feel so on fire for Him every single time I share the gospel. Like I'm reaching my God given potential and this truly is what God means for me to do in Boston to ‪#‎reachthelost‬. Anyway I pray for you, my friends and readers, all the time that you would know Christ's awesome love, permeating this intense cold, cutting through all the bitterness, weariness of life. I feel so blessed to be able to share the Word of God without fear of death and persecution. I feel the full richness of life when I encounter the emptiness of this world. Wow. Just being in the middle of all His goodness. THIS is what it means to be in the heart of His divinity. Sometimes I can't reach it, just me and Him, but when I'm worship dancing or evangelizing, it's like a drug and I'm hooked. Crazy, right? I hope we can all access that holy Ecstasy that God means for us to experience. Day in day out. Be blessed my lovely friends!!!

Small world for yogis

Okay craziest life I have. Saturday was so amazing. I went running in my neighborhood and starting meeting all of my neighbors. I am SO GLAD we have this yearly yard sale bc otherwise I would never meet my neighbors! My neighbor is a fellow follower and I ended up hanging out at her house for a while! As I do anywhere I go, I made myself comfortable and started hanging out and met this incredible woman named Wyoma who teaches African Dance healing. Yes. Beautiful woman who has aged so incredibly gracefully with beautiful gray in her dreds. Rosa and I both could not believe that she started practicing yoga when she was 18! So she invited me to this event tonight at Brookline Booksmith for her friend Becky Thompson's book release, Survivors on the Yoga Mat: Stories for Those Healing from Trauma. I figured why not, it was right in my work neighborhood and I had nothing else going on. Well, talk about amazing divine appointments!!!! We're sharing all kinds of stories and I'm sharing my experiences in the Protestant and Catholic ashrams in India. Then at the end, my new friend H is writing her name for someone else and she has the same last name of this girl that I used to run track with in high school!!!! It was such an usual last name I say, hey do you know S? And she's like YEAH THAT'S MY SISTER!!!! I really couldn't get over it. She was saying that there were parts of her experience growing up 7th Day Adventist that were really constricting and now she was learning about Buddhism but she really missed the structure and community of church. Wow well I just pray that Jesus can touch her again. She and Wyoma were saying that they didn't want an intermediary to THE SOURCE and that they wanted direct access. But I said to H, I believe that Jesus is the source, so He's not really an intermediary. I just get so excited when God weaves our lives together in this tapestry. 

Not only that, the author invited me to Simmons to speak about yoga and social justice because of the work that I am doing with Boston Rescue Mission with ex-addicts and ex-convicts. Oh man. So on fire. It's like this academic, activist healing space and circles that I used to run in that are so beautiful and alive and full of this community spirit that I really miss. But I gotta have Jesus. I really gotta have Jesus. 

http://www.amazon.com/Survivors-Yoga-Mat-Stories-Healing/dp/1583948260

Ode to my high school best friend

I just got back from my best friend in high school's cookout. He is one of the most special people I ever met. I think he has aged like a fine wine. It's hard to even explain how awesome he is.

It could be that he likes jeet kune do and is sensitive to women and people of color. It could be that he throws on a mean grill, makes insanely perfect pancakes and always knows the perfect moment to play Pink Floyd. Honestly, it breaks my heart that I was never in love with him in high school. By all laws of realism and good in the world, I SHOULD HAVE BEEN. He's irresistibly adorable and has the whole Justin Timberlake look going. It just never happened that way.

Seeing him again after many months of not seeing him and then there we were at our high school reunion brought back so many memories. Especially tonight, just hanging out with him, helping him get ready for the party was truly blissful. I love the easy comraderie after years and years of struggles and this and that... emotional gut-wrenching wrestling. I truly love him all my heart. It feels like true agape, a pure sibling love. He's so awesome. He's perfect. And I hate myself for not being in love with him. I hate myself for going against the natural order of things. I have so much regret and nostalgia for what was and what never will be.

I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the way I hurt you and hurt you over and over. I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry life was so confusing and we didn't know anything about anything when we were 16.

If I could give anything, it would be to see you dance at your first wedding with your beautiful wife and to be able to dance with you at mine. I'm truly blessed to have you as a friend and while we're not best friends anymore, you will always be my best friend from then. Those memories are crazy and confusing but I would never trade them in for anything. It's made me who I am, just like you made me who I am. I probably have influenced you too. That's the beautiful thing about friendships. We create one another and create ourselves through each other as our lives weave 

Post Prophetic Conference / Healing from Boston Marathon Bombings

I've decided that overnight buses are pure evil, but got to witness to a mother and her 3 and 7 year old who got on (haha God forced me to share the back row). They were from Angola so I busted out my broken and boy is it broken Portuguese and shared my sleeping bag, gave them leftover General Tso's chicken (purpose for everything) and helped them get to the bathroom on the bus. Then this morning I witnessed to a homeless man my age and fed him a crazy big breakfast of the bagel from the hotel, two bananas from the conference, grapes, a brownie and a devil's food cake, juice, PLUS ginger ale.  Hmmm. God used my food gathering skills to feed him and I also gave him a Gospel of John. He said he belived in Jesus but I told him more importantly one has to FOLLOW JESUS. Today coming back from church and downtown, I also witnessed and prayed for a man on the red line who brought a healing/therapy dog to Boston from Abington MA for the people of Boston.  I told him he was doing God's work and then prayed for him. I learned in my Beacon City Church evangelism class that when you pray for and with people use their name because MANY people have never heard their name in prayer.  He also took a gospel of John and his face was so surprised when I told him I was a missionary. He thanked me so sincerely kindly and told me he was so touched when I prayed because I prayed so sincerely and no one had EVER individually tailor made a prayer JUST FOR HIM!!!! That made me so happy that Jesus touched so many lives today, and now I am just grateful that he's given me so crazy mad intercessory skills which I didn't even really appreciate...didn't even know it was a gift but now I feel super blessed. The Every Nations Prophetic conference super charged me up...I'm ready to take on this city and THEN SOME!!!!!