A wonderful, nice and blessed weekend of July 4th

What a weekend this 4^th of July was for us! For you to understand what just happened I have to take you back many years. I don’t want to trouble you with the details but I can tell you this: In 2000 my wife and I went to CLC (that became our church) in Gaithersburg and after the service at the guests reception Patrick Ryan welcomed us. From that moment forward this godly man has been our friend and prayer partner. So when he asked me to pray for him as he was seeking God’s guidance as to propose to Norma, I started to pray along side with other prayer warrior from the church. Then the time came when Patrick proposed to Norma and she said yes. At that moment I told Patrick that I was going to make his wedding cake. As the time was going by and we were coming closer and closer to the wedding date, many things had to be done. I volunteer to paint their houses (my mom got all her children trained to do handy work-- like painting, sewing, building houses--). Since he knew that I am also a photographer, Patrick asked me to take pictures for his wedding as the main photographer.

300 people were invited to the wedding, so I had to make enough cake to satisfy all guests. The wedding date was July 3^rd 2010 at 1 PM, but I had to be at the church at 11 AM for picture taking. As I was getting things together to make the cakes, another friend Steve came to me and asked if I can make a birthday cake for his son who was turning 14 on July 4th. Early this year I made a cake for Jane (Steve’s wife) and their son told them that on his birthday he would like for me to make him a cake. So when I was asked, I couldn’t no, so I said yes. How can you turn down a young adult’s request?

To put things in perspective, just imagine that I work every day 10 hours. Making these cakes was a labor of love, I had a wonderful time making them sleeping only for couple hours. For me these two families (and many others) have been there for my family in prayer and other ways. The lack of sleep or my feet hurting for standing for a long period of time was worth it, because of the honor and opportunity to give back to those you love. You cannot put a price to that.

The way I look at life is that God gave me gifts and talents: I try to use them to bless those that come on my path. After the wedding many guests came to me and wanted my business card. They were saying: “the cake was delicious-- I had a small piece then wanted more and went for seconds-- One lady said that she sent her husband twice to get her a piece and the second time she asked him to get her the biggest piece available".

On Sunday Steve’s son came with his dad to pick up the cake, he was surprised to see that I made him a cake decorated with a red electrical guitar just like the one he got for his last birthday. I never saw a young man so joyful like him for his birthday cake. I thank God for the opportunity to serve.