About Me

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About me. . . I am a California native with strong European background and upbringing. I am a Christian who believes in being active in my faith. I have been involved with missions since 2003 and hope do continue doing this for the rest of my life. If you're reading this blog hopefully you know me or know of me and have taken an interest in following me and the work of God throughout Europe. Keep reading and checking in for updates! If you would like to receive my newsletter personally please email me! aansofie.guzik@gmail.com

Monday, January 31, 2011

Hello!

Greetings to all of you who may be checking my blog for the first time! I hope there are a lot over you since I just got back from a trip to California where I handed out over 200 prayer cards with this web address on it!

I am back in Cork, Ireland and I must admit I am still adjusting. Don't get me wrong I love being here but it is so cold! I mean cold! And I'm told it had actually warmed up the last few days! And then there is the time difference... 8 hours ahead of California time! My second night I didn't fall asleep until 6am! That would be 10pm CA time. I'm getting better but jet lag is not fun. Usually I'm able to will myself into submission to the time reality I am physically in but not this time!

I have many things to do:
Update email contacts
Missions Newsletter Update
Sort through photos
Meet with Pastor Mike
Call my parents
Go grocery shopping

I plan to get all this an more done this week! So to all you newbies, expect an email from me in the next week! And some more posts as I sort through the photos and events of my 5 week trip!
Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Time well spent!

Well after 5 weeks in California I'm heading back to Ireland! All in all it has been a really good trip. Holidays with my family, missions conference, visiting friends, family and churches. All good stuff! But I am eager to get back to my life and work in Cork. So please pray that I make all my connections including my train from Dublin to Cork. And pray that I'm able to transition easily back into the time zone, the weather and work mode!
Thank you all for your faithful prayers!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Junk, Jury Duty and Explorations

So last week on Wednesday my father took me to their storage unit in Goleta. Among the mattresses and lawnmowers were the boxes I had packed up over 7 years ago when we were leaving for Germany. With the trepidation I prepared myself to see what my 16 year old self thought was important enough to save. Oh boy!
TO any of you 20 year olds, remember when in jr. high/high school it was cool to be way into children's toys? Yeah well I had a whole box of blue's clues, sesame street and disney stuff. oh my!
Then we come to the evidence of my hoarding: a box of saved gift bags. A WHOLE BOX! Not just gift back but store bags that I thought were cool. *shakes head*
Other than those chilling finds, the rest was a delightful walk down memory lane as I sifted though school projects, VHS tapes, childhood mementos and lots of books.

The following day, Thursday, I had Jury Duty. It was too late to try and get out of it. So I went! I had to go to Ventura since that is where I'm registered. My dad told me to bring plenty of reading materials. But when I got there they had free WiFi! So I sat for a couple hours. We could go outside so I sat in the sun and read. They would call us all in at times and read off names for Jury Selection. Around 10:30 my name was called! I went to the second floor and sat in the court room. They explained the basic details of the case (Criminal court: sexual battery and petty theft) and told us we would be interview by the judge, prosecutor and the defender. I must say as interesting as the whole process is there is nothing more mind numbing then Jury Selection. One by one, the 50 were going through this long process of elimination until it was 4:45pm. The judge announced that we would recess until the next day. I had to come back even though I might not be selected!
They opened the next morning by filling in the empty seat they ended yesterday with. When a jury was excused they select a random name to fill it. At 9:15am my named was called to fill that seat. After being interviewed by all three people, I stayed in my seat. I was to serve on the jury!
The trial started after the final jury selections were made and around 3:30 were went into deliberation. I learned many thing that day including that "sexual battery" is any touching of an intimate area with sexual intent. I really think they should change the name cause it was really hard to overcome the battery word when we were dealing with someone who had groped not beat someone. Of the whole process the deliberation was my favorite. 12 strangers discussing and deliberating the charges and the law! I wont go into the whole process, not because off court order but I just don't want to type that much! But I will say that I was a very vocal prat of the process. Eventually we found the guy guilty of sexual battery and not guilty of petty theft.

Then on Saturday my mom and I spent a day exploring Santa Barbara1 We sent to Monetcito, the Mesa, a bit of State Street. We ate lunch on the Mesa. Tri-tip blue cheese sandwiches! Yum! Bought some raspberries and ate them at the beach! Fun!

All in all a very exciting week!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

What a Week!

Whew! I have had quite a week! Amazing but tiring! Thus today I slept till I woke!
Monday (3rd) my parents and I left for the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Murrieta. All I can say about it is totally blessed! I went for the whole conference experience, not just a day or two as in previous years. I stayed in the dorms, ate the meals, went in the hot springs! And though it all my dear friend Annie was with me! Annie and I met in Germany but I was visiting my family and she was working at the Bible College. We both new we'd be best friends if we could just be in the same city for any length of time! So we are kindred spirits from afar! Anytime we are together though it so blessed and we can just talk about anything.
So back to the conference, the speakers were amazing! The line up was a good mix of bible text teaching and ministry sharing. I got to see so many people! Some that I haven't seen in 5 years! And I made new friends! It is just blessed to hear and see what God is doing in so many lives.
The conference ended Thursday afternoon and I drove straight to Sand Diego to visit another dear friend, Robin and her husband Ryan. I only had a day and a half to be there it was so good to see another friends. This is part of getting older I guess, you have friends in random places and you visit when you can hoping to never fully lose touch.
So Robin and I went to Coronado, ate amazing pizza and had delicious frozen yogurt! Then it was back on the road early Saturday morning to meet my parents in Simi Valley to condense to 1 car and head to ... get ready for it ... Magic Mountain! We spent the day riding the most insane roller coasters! A ... MA ... ZING! Then off to Olive Garden for Dinner and Best Western for bed then Denny's for breakfast. bEst family weekend ever! Sunday we went to Reality LA for church then off to one of the biggest Thrift Stores I have ever seen. Then home! Where Annie was come for frozen yogurt, bed and a ride to the airport in the morning.
After taking Annie to the airport I popped down to New Port to visit another friend Dannah, then straight up to Santa Maria for a prayer meeting.
The End! Whew!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

California #1

So this a welcome to those of you have have picked up my prayer card. Welcome! I have had this blog since being in Ireland but am sorry to say was not so great at up dates.
It's the typical self conscience blogger deal; "No one wants to hear about how I went to the grocery store." "Who reads this thing anyway" "No one cares".
But since being in California I have realized how loved and prayed for I am! You do care! So my New Year's resolution is to blog more. (I did make this last year, but lets be honest most resolutions take a few years to stick! ;)
So thank you to all of you who have been praying for me and who intent to pray for me in the future! I can truly attest to the blessings of God in my life over the last year and I know it is largely due to those who have been faithfully praying for me (shout out to Calvary Chapel Santa Maria Monday night missions prayer group!)
Right now I am siting in my dear friends house in San Diego after the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Murrieta. I will visit a bit then head back to Santa Barbara. I am really tired but it the good kind of tired. The tired that comes from talking to amazing people all week. Meeting new friend and re-connecting with old ones. So I'm going to keep this one short but expect more to come!