Danielle Sutherland’s Blog

So for those of you who don’t know, since September I’ve worked at a restaurant called Fox and the Hound. The best/only way I can describe it is as your typical sports bar. Its an interesting atmosphere. We have a ton of regulars who have faithfully been coming to the bar for years, a little like CHEERS, where everyone knows your name. Then we get the families who bring their seven children in after a baseball game. And, of course, it never fails that we get those 20 something and 40 something guys who come in, get a little too comfortable after a few drinks, and lose all sense of respect (although sometimes I wonder if they had any to begin with).Now you might be asking yourself, “Danielle, why would you want to work in a place like that?” Well truth be told I really didn’t want to for a long time, but it was the first place that hired me and I was a little (or a lot) desperate to start making money.  And a few months ago I actually tried to move to a different restaurant. I applied to 3 different restaurants that were hiring, but for some reason…nothing! So here I am still working as The Fox, and ya know what? I love it! 

So let me break it down. I am a full time intern at Orchard Road Christian Center. Everyday I am blessed to be surrounded by people fully seeking after the face of God. People full of joy who love nothing more than to encourage you in your faith and equip you for God’s calling on your life. The other half of my life is spent at The Fox. A place where men come to drink away their sorrows and get company from a pretty girl while they forget about their wife and children at home. Sounds sick? Yes I agree. But thats our world. You can either ignore it, pretend its not there and stay in your little church bubble, or you can be the light in it.I choose the latter. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that a 20 year old female is the ideal witness to a drunk 40 year old man. Thats just not smart! But I’ve found that by having a true intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, people instinctively notice something different about you, and they are drawn to it. And standing up for what I believe has brought a lot of attention my way, good and bad. 

I made no reservations about telling people I was a Christian and the only reason I was out in Denver was to do an internship at a church. I got mixed reviews but most people were just curious why a 2o year old girl would rather spent her time at church than out partying like “normal” people. But over the past 7 months i’ve had some amazing opportunities to unintentional evangelize. It was nothing big, it just started out with me talking about my church and what I did there. Then questions started coming up about what I actually believe, and why it was so amazing that I would give up all the “fun stuff” a person my age should be getting into.

As months went on I think people started to see a difference. I remember one instance where our manager told us we were having a bunch of Frat boys rent out the restaurant and we would be required to wear little black cocktail dresses to serve them.  I respectfully, but very sternly told my manager that I would NOT be wearing a little dress and he should not schedule me that night. He then told me that it was a huge party and he needed all the staff to be on that night. I politely told him that I would come in but I would be in my normal uniform (a black shirt and black pants) and not in a dress. He was quite annoyed with me at this point. Oh and did I mention he’s an atheist and did not find it funny when I wrote him “Jesus loves you” on my day off request forms. But hey its the truth! Anyways he got all the girls together and informed them that we would no longer be wearing dresses because Danielle refuses to wear a dress and we can’t have one person be dressed differently. All the girls were so relieved and some of them came up to me afterwards and told me how happy they were that they didn’t have to wear a dress because I said no. I can’t even tell you how victorious I felt in that moment. 

Not too long after that my other manager, a lady who got kicked out of youth group when she was a teenager and is now completely bitter towards church, was having shoulder pains. Now she’s only 25 and already has arthritis so bad that she walks with a limp. Well she was complaining one night about her shoulder and I asked her if I could pray for her. She was hesitant and asked if it would make her shoulder feel better, I laughed and said yes. So right in the middle of the dining room I layed my hand on her shoulder and prayed in Jesus’ name. I left work shortly after that. The next day I came into work and she came to me and said the second I walked out the door all her pain went away. I’m continuing to pray for her and believing that God is going to completely heal her arthritis.

So that same day one of the servers was having chest pains and my manager told her to have me pray for her because I “heal people”. Now let me stop right there, by no means do I think that I had anything to do with all this. It is totally God and his amazing power, I’m just the silly vessel he’s chosen to use to impact a bar, who would have thought. Anyways I prayed for her in Jesus’ name, and sure enough the pain went away. 

A couple months later another server and I were talking about my beliefs when my atheist manager came over and told me that I had to stop talking about Jesus because it offended people. This got me all fired up. So you’re telling me that it’s ok for guys to sit here and say the most crude things my poor ears could ever imagine, while throwing some F bombs in the mix, and what I’m saying is too offensive to be talked about. Needless to say I did not stop talking about Jesus.

The very next day I was at work when all of a sudden my atheist manager broke out in horrible sweats. Apparently he has a heart condition and forgot to take his medicine that morning, and he had to be rushed to urgent care. I asked the girls working if they would pray with me in the back. Now let me remind you that these girls are very curious about what I have to say about God, but none of them actually believe in him…or so they say But all of them bowed their heads and closed their eyes as I prayed for the safety and healing of our manager in Jesus’ name. And they all joined in with “Amen”.

The next day 2 pretty cool things happened. First one of the girls who had prayed with me in the back (the same one I got in trouble with for talking to her about Jesus) texted me and said she thought it might be silly but her mom was going in for surgery the next day and wanted to know if I would pray for her, and if I would that she would pray too. So of course I told her I would! And her mom’s surgery went amazing and she recovered very quickly, PTL! The second thing that happened that day was that I found out that while my manager was in the hospital his heart started to fail and they were going to have to shock his heart, but just as they were about to shock him, his heart stabalized. Hmmm…interesting. I wonder how that happened?

So with all that to say I guess I just wrote this because I love my job and I love the opportunity my God has given me to share who He is with others. And I guess to encourage everyone who actually reads this. You don’t have to stand on the street corner with a bull horn and shout “TURN OR BURN”. All you have to do is have a real relationship with a real God, and who He is can not help but shine through who you are.