Danielle Sutherland’s Blog


Norton Anti-Virus Systems is the Antichrist.
April 7, 2008, 2:18 pm
Filed under: I love Jesus!, Rants

So since my laptop charger decided to go on an unexpected vacation somewhere, I was forced to use my apartment’s business center. I was trying to finish up some homework using Blueletterbible.org . Yet, when I tried to go to the site, a blocked page came up. I double checked to make sure I had typed the correct URL. And sure enough, the site was blocked because of its “Religious Content”. WHAT??? Maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked by all this, this is the world we live in! But I am very very disappointed in you Norton Anti-Virus Systems!

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Faith and the Fox
April 4, 2008, 5:14 am
Filed under: I love Jesus!

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. 
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JTTC construction is over!!
March 20, 2008, 4:50 am
Filed under: I love Jesus!

 So tonight Journey to the Cross kicked off and it was amazing! All those sleepless nights and showerless days were well worth while. And now I’m packing up my stuff and moving back into my apartment. But I think I’m going to miss sleeping at the church… NOT! 

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“My heart is restless, O God, until it rests in Thee” -Saint Augustine
March 4, 2008, 6:55 pm
Filed under: Growing stuff, I love Jesus!, Thank God for my family!, Travel

So I know my blog has been, for the most part, pretty silly. But every now and again I write something seriously from the heart. Being transparent is not something I do naturally, but the more I do it the more I like it, weird. Anyways, this is going to one of those, so if you don’t care to hear the inner workings of me then I suggest this is as far as you read. Well here goes:So for girls disciplship we are reading Jeanne Mayo’s book Uncensored, if you haven’t read it yet I strongly reccomend it! This is my second time around. There is so much truth jam packed in there, plus its so easy to read, you could fly through it without really digesting it all. Well this time around I had another revelation due to Chapter 8: R-rated dating advice from the scriptures. In this chapter Jeanne talks about how everyone desperately needs to feel like they belong to someone, the “Longing for Belonging”. Wait what? You mean I’m not the only one who feels like this? I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve cried out to God just asking for him to take that desire away. Life would be so much easier without it. But after all didn’t God make us in his image? Jeanne brings up a great point. Not only do we as humans have the desperate desire to belong, but so does our Creator. “Even the one and only God of the Universe ‘longs to belong’–to somebody, somewhere, sometime.” I read this over a couple of times before it hit me…that “somebody” that God longs to be with is me! It’s all of us. The God who created everything, who could have anything just by opening his mouth, longs for me??For everyone who says Christianity is illogical, I’m right there with ya on this one. That just doesn’t make sense, but either way, it’s still the truth. And I’m happy it is. But thats not the end of it. Since we were created in God’s image, we too have the “long to belong”. But ours is different. God’s heart longs for intimacy with people; whereas he created us to long for him. It’s that whole “God-shaped hole” theory. God created us with a void in our hearts that could be filled by Him and only Him. But so many times we (especially me!) get caught up in trying to fill that void with cheap imitations of God i.e. friends, relationships, drugs, whatever. We think that if we have the best friends or the best boyfriend/girlfriend it will fill that void and make us feel complete. But what happens when you “have it all” and you only feel more empty than when you began?Welcome to my life! Before becoming an intern in August, and entering into reality, I was your classic case of searching for fulfillment in ALL the wrong places. I would definitely have to say my biggest down fall was dating. I thought that once I found Mr. Right I would be completely satisfied. Well after several failed attempts over the course of 5 years, and multiple broken hearts later (and with a little help from the big guy upstairs and jeanne) I’ve come to the concrete realization that my relationship with Jesus Christ is the only place where I will find true stability, intimacy, and consistency that makes my heart feel safe, fulfilled, and whole. And until I get to a place where I am content with Him alone, my heart will always be restless no matter how amazing of a person I may be with.So all that to say, “I need to deeply and completely belong to Someone. So once again, Lord, I choose to make that someone You.”Ok now I’m sure you’re all wondering what these pictures are all about. Growing up in Florida one of my family’s favorite vacation spots was St. Augustine, Florida. So when I saw the author of the quote in my title it brought me back to those days. I remember visiting the Fort (the picture above) and having my dad stuff me and my sisters into old cannons while my mom watched in horror. I have pictures to prove it. Then we would move on to the old wooden school house, which would be the cause of many many nightmares. Inside the school house there were many animatronic students, one of which I’m certain was the devil himself (also pictured below). Aww I miss St. Augustine!So there it is. I guess you could say thats 2 blogs in 1!

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Can’t even think of a description amazing enough for this one…
January 11, 2008, 10:00 pm
Filed under: I love Jesus!

So one day while I was bored and surfing myspace I opened up a bulletin one of my friends had posted about a love song. It was a youtube clip, so I played it, and for about the next 6 or 7 minutes I was brought to tears and my entire world was rocked by how much my God loves me. Then on Wednesday night we sang the song at Catalyst and I fell more in love with my God and with the song, I can physically feel God’s love for me through it. Well today my heart was craving that feeling again, so I went back to that bulletin and played the song, here it is…

Yes, wow, I know! Well after the youtube video is over it gives you some related videos and I happened to click on one. This one tells why the song was written, if you watched the first one you have to watch this one:

I know my God is faithful and I can’t wait to see the youth of this nation absolutely rocked by that man’s sacrifice and by this song!

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Thank you Zach and Evan…
November 13, 2007, 10:40 pm
Filed under: Friends, I love Jesus!, Things I find funny

For introducing me to the wonderful world of Shimmy…for those of you who have not been as fortunate, dry your tears because here it is!The Shimmy Show!

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