Laurie Ishii and Daryl Bargy

Well, I just woke up from a short nap – yesterday Daryl and I were running around all day. I had to get the MRI on my brain at 8am, and of course it took them 12 sticks with the needle and the whole process of finding a vein on one floor (with no luck) and then having to go to the ER and have two different nurses try, one on each arm (and feet & legs too) took almost three hours!!! (I didn’t even ask when the results will be in but I’m sure if it’s important they’ll let me know)

After that we went to eat and then find a less expensive motle (the one we were staying at was $112 + tax a night.) The cheapest one we found near our neighborhood is $70. So we took it. So far, we’ve got a room until Tuesday.

Daryl is with our friends Fred and Jenny at the apartment packing and throwing stuff away. I’m at the motel – because actually both of us woke up with sore throats (but mine feels like the ‘CFS’ sore throat) and my lymph nodes on my neck are all swollen. Daryl insisted that I rest since we only got about three hours of sleep last night – not to mention the other nights since Wednesday when we discovered the bed bugs.

We got home at 5am this morning – early cause there were no girls out – well at least we didn’t see any. But we saw some pimps, two we already knew. So the girls must’ve been nearby somewhere…

Around 7pm last night we met with a three people from Bakersfield, and they helped us put together some more gift bags. Two were able to come out with us on outreach.

We saw our pimp friend MB – we hadn’t seen him for quite some time. He actually said that he felt like God has been “tapping on my shoulder” the last few weeks and he wanted to come to church with us again. (He’s the pimp we threw a birthday party for and he’s been to church with us twice before.) I told him to call me – and he said that he couldn’t promise me that he would cause he’s bad at calling on the phone – but that he WOULD promise that he would come to church! He said that “You know that I’m a man that keeps my word – I’ll come to church.” And he does keep his word – that’s why he wouldn’t promise that he’d call me, but both times he’s said he’d come to church, he has. Last time he even brought both his mother and his son with him. Praise God!!!

I spoke with two other pimps and one was wearing a large gold cross with diamonds – and gold and diamonds on his entire front top grill. (Teeth) I commented on how beautiful his cross was and said, “So you believe in Jesus, huh?” And he said, “Oh course I do.”… the other pimp chimed in, “It’s disrespectful if you don’t believe in Him.” I sensed the way they said what they said that they were a little on the defense. I didn’t feel led to make a comment – although trust me – my flesh sure did. My flesh wanted to say, “So if you believe in Him – why don’t you do what He says?” Or “It’s one thing to believe in Him but another thing to do what He says…the devil believes in Him too…” But like I said, to say that would have been out of my flesh. It’s obvious that they don’t have a deep personal RELATIONSHIP with Jesus, and so they can do what they do without feeling they’re doing something wrong.

Anyway, as far as the other drama in our lives – please pray because we are moving tomorrow. Daryl said that Jenny had her camera and she took pictures at our apartment and spoke with another neighbor across the hallway – they’re hispanic and speak very little English – but they communicated that they have a rat in their apartment they see every morning – the husband also has a jar of bed bugs that he thought were cockoroaches – he said they’ve had them for SIX YEARS!!! They’ve got all eaten up and have bites too. They’re also illegals, and so they haven’t reported the bugs and rat…but they’ve documented everything and even VIDEO taped the rat and bugs.

This is so gross. Our apartment owner said over the phone that she would give us our security deposit back – Lord willing, she’ll keep her word. On the other hand – we can’t afford staying in motels much longer – and we are deserting EVERYTHING – all of our furniture – we’ve only took our clothing to the cleaners and keeping kitchen supplies – the rest is going in the dumpster. We’ve lost everything…to count it gain, for Jesus Christ lol – but seriously – when stuff like this happens – we just realize what is really important, and how attached we are to stuff and things – and when it really comes down to it – everything is replaceable. All that really matters is God and having eachother. Daryl and I were talking yesterday over lunch that this is probably the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to either of us – we feel so violated…especially because the landlord and owner knew about this…how quickly we can lose everything in a moment…but at least we have eachother, and the Lord.

We praise God – He’s really not allowing us to get too attached for any material things – ever since both of us have been serving the Lord – we’ve had to get rid of almost everything that mattered to us, over and over again…this is the third time we’ve moved and gotten rid of all our stuff in three years – we’ve moved every year of our wedding anniversary!!! (Which is the end of this month)

Count it all joy – we’ve gotten to the point where we can actually laugh about this now. It’s true – weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning…

Please just keep us in pray to find an apartment QUICKLY, one that has no bugs – and that we don’t bring any with us to our new place…and for the finances to afford a place, that the owner gives us our money back – for favor in this situation…etc. etc.

Thanks….