heh, I really did. It was to write down things that I wanted to post in my livejournal. Weird eh? anyways, yeah….employees who steal from Christian store… and are sent to BOOT CAMP! on the next Maury!

Ok, lesse what’s first….

Merry Christmas! haha, that was like from last YEAR (2002). Uhm, yeah. Christmas was a blast. Got some cash, some Matrix clothes from the next movie, and got a Family Size George Foreman Grill (which my brother wanted, not me, lol). But it came with a belgium waffle maker….now if I can only get some Bisquick. Christmas dinner was alright. The prime rib tasted kinda funny this year (the garlic was overcooked, so it caramalized on the outside and tasted sweet, and the prime rib was also cold…booo). Oh, and the Au Jus was homemade at first, so it tasted funky….I want some good prime rib now…*sniff* House of Prime Rib anyone?

New Years! Happy New Year! Welcome in the year by buying Wow Hits 2003 for only 23.98 at Berean! (wow, expensive, ask me for the hook ups though! hah). Uhm, yeah. New Years was spent over at Ali’s new apartment. She threw a New Years party and a late Birthday Bonanza for Michi. It was fun, and Nate brought out the big guns from the 80s. He brought Connect Four as well as Guess Who?. Crazy how many people loved those games and played it for awhile. I was stuck on the screen playing Grant Theft Auto 3 and shooting and running people over. I got 5 stars once till the FBI came by… I shot their car with a rocket, and I was a bit too close to their car and got wasted…. Oh, the reason I stayed back down here instead of going up to San Francisco for New Years was because I was working like a dog this week. I’ll have like 38 and a 1/2 hours this week. That’s like almost $300 after taxes….taxes, boooo! BUSH do something about Taxes and give us more money back!

So yeah, on to stuff I wrote down on my stolen note pad…heh

Yesterday at work I met a guy named Gary Palacios. (yeah, we were open New Years Day, sucks dont’ it? But I got double pay for it. =) ). Anyways, he used to work at Berean way back when (only 2 of the employees who current are here worked then, oh, this was 14 years ago too BTW). Anyways, he used to work as the Music Manager, but back when each store ordered all their own products. Nowadays, we have a home office in Cincinatti that orders everything for us. Gary told me about his testimony and it was just so amazing. He had been at SJSU as a business major, and left to work at KMart. He was going up at KMart and participating in their managerial program, when God told him he needed to quit, and go work at a Christian store. So he went over to Berean and turned in an application. The mananger told him he had no open positions and asked him why he wanted to work here when he was over qualified. Gary simply told him that God had told him to work at a christian store. The manager found a position for him in the music department. After about 3 months that manager left, and a new manager, Dick, replaced him. After Gary was there for about 6 months total, he was called into Dick’s office and made the Music Buyer. Gary studied up on everything in music, he knew who was in what bands, what song was on what album down to the number on the cassette or lp (no cd’s back then, hah), and set up a lot of good artist to come into the store (Amy Grant, Sandi Patti, etc). At the same time that his career with Berean as the Music Buyer was flourishing, he was asked by his Pastor at Victory outreach to help out with worship. Eventually Gary crossed paths with a fellow worship leader from a then small church of Jubilee Christian Center, Ron Kenoly. He got to oppertunity to see Ron lead worship, and found it stunning. Ron also saw Gary lead worship and said the same thing, and that he wanted to train Gary in worship leading. The two made a nice friendship. A little later Gary had been working with some of the company’s music reps and was working on a contest of sorts where they would find the best new talent in the Bay Area. Ron Kenoly immediately came to mind to Gary and he got Ron signed to Hosanna/Integrity and even appeared on his first album! A little while later, the Berean manager Dick pulled Gary into his office and told him that God had said it was time for him to go. He knew that working here was holding him back from whereever God wanted him to be. He wasn’t firing him but he was telling him that God wanted him somewhere else. Gary had just been recently engaged to be married, and the pay at Berean is nothing close to what can support ya forever. About a week after that Gary got a call for a place that offered him three times more than he was getting, and was right up his alley. He took the job, and God was just blessing the socks off him. After about 2 years Gary was married, just bought a house, was asked to be the minister of music at Victory Outreach, and started his own record label.

Nowadays, Gary is actually the head of all the music/worship stuff for all the Victory Outreach churches. He travels around internationally and does seminars for leading worship and leadership skills. He said that God had called him back to the Bay Area to do ministry though, and he’s starting a new thing called 27:4 which comes the book of Psalms (Psalms 27:4 “One thing I ask of the Lord, and this is what I seek. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord and gaze upon his beauty all the days of my life” I LOVE that verse! It’s one of my favorites. ) Anyways, it’s set out to be sort of a bible study and refreshing time for worship leaders and musicians weekly, to get together and worship and study the bible, pray, and have teachings. He’s wanting to start it up in a couple of months. Exciting! Anyways, yeah, Gary told me he wasn’t quite sure why he told me all that, but yeah, I’m thinking it was God’s plan to bless me with a hope and a future of what’s to come. =)

The coolest thing that I saw was that when Gary went into his wallet to give me a business card of his, he had a Berean business card from way back when. I asked him about why he still had that in his wallet (this was like 14 years old). He told me he had it in there as a reminder of where he came from, and about how it all started for him. Cool eh?

I’ll post about the other two things I wrote down in another entry, this one already is pretty LOOOONG!