God is always cool....but sometimes he is REALLY cool!

So I have to share this story. It may be silly, but it's these little "I love you" moments from God that make full time ministry totally worth it.

I have been lamenting to myself about creative arts ministry and money - everything costs money, and when performances are being planned, those dollar amounts are always in hundreds, and usually have a few thousands thrown in. Costuming is one of the biggest expenses, especially now that we are going to be doing Cinderella, which involves a lot of random costumes (mice in dresses?) and sets to make it look good. I am so excited for Cinderella, because it is so familiar to people, that it is going to be EASY to sell tickets and be a GREAT outreach opportunity for others to hear the message of Christ.

ANYWAY, so as I was saying...I have been whining to myself that costuming is going to be astronomical, especially for Cinderella, who herself will need at least two dresses. Costumes from dance stores are very expensive, Halloween stores only get you so far, and there are really no savings in having a seamstress do it as fabric can get so pricey.

Sam is with his grandparents today, and so I took the morning to wander over to The Children's Orchard. They are a gently used kids clothing store in Roseville and they always have gorgeous stuff. If I do say so myself, I have a very well dressed baby, and I do it for under 12 bucks or so a month because of the families that sell their hardly worn Baby Gap, Ralph Lauren, etc. castoffs to this shop.

So today was the day they rolled out their halloween costumes and winter coats. We are going to Apple Hill next weekend and so I went to find Sam a fall jacket...and they were having this big kids event and who do I run into? Cinderella!

She was wearing the most GORGEOUS ball gown ever, and she is the average size a lot of the Turning Point girls are. The dress must be worth at least $500, and so without even thinking, I ran up to her...."Excuse me WHERE did you get your dress?"

"My fairy godmother made it for me!"

Oh boy.

So I asked a few more questions and she finally looked around to make sure there were no kids around, and told me she is a professional actress who worked at Disneyland and now does character parties in our area. And.....drum roll please....she is a CHRISTIAN and YES she will LOAN US THE GORGEOUS DRESS FOR OUR CINDERELLA SHOWS as well as ANY OTHER COSTUMES SHE HAS ON HAND THAT WILL FIT IN!!!

Thanks, Jesus. Thanks for saving us a gazillion dollars....you are so nice :)

So inspired and energized by that little miracle, here is a list of prayer requests for our OTHER potential miracles:

1) To keep up with the amount of dance participants we have, we are converting a room in our church into a secondary dance studio on Tuesdays and Saturdays. For this we need to raise the funds for a portable dance floor and some mirrors. The floor is about $500, and the mirrors are about $300 each (ouch).

2) We need to find a dance studio within the area that we can rent for our extra large dance rehearsals at the end of spring as we are doing show runs. Somewhere near our little studio :)

3) We need people! Children! Adults! Teens! To fill our technique classes! Art classes! Photography Ministry! Our audition days! Our outreaches! We always have plenty of participants for Turning Point's mainstage productions....now there is a desire to see that replicated in all other areas of ministry we are starting this fall.

4) We need seamstresses for what magical wonderful actress costume girl cannot provide.

5) We really, really need a venue for our show. It is very difficult to book a theatre in late spring with festivals, high school productions and college events happening all over town.

6) We need a "silly nonsense" fund for the ministry, so when low-income girls sign up for events like ministry in southern california, they aren't left behind in the motel room on Disneyland day with their boring old dance leader.

7) I need to raise full support so I can continue on as a missionary and keep on keepin' on with these programs and outreaches.

8) We need the Lord's peace, renewal, vision and passion in all we do <3