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By Melissa Castro

God spoke to Brother Richard in a dream to start a magazine called “Friends”. On the cover of the magazine was a picture of my two-year-old daughter Havah, and another two-year-old girl in our church named Chloe. The plan was to meet after church around 6:00pm, to put make-up and cute outfits on the girls, and to go out around the city San Francisco to take some snap shots of the girls looking adorable for the cover of the magazine. I was so excited thinking how beautiful my daughter is and what a great opportunity it was for her to be on the cover of a magazine. My thought was, that I’d have that cover forever, and that I’d totally won as a mom. We ran late from the moment we started.

After preparing the girls, we finally got on the road around 6:45pm and the sun was already going down. That was when my buttons began to be pushed. There were about four cars in our caravan and every car seemed to have their own idea of when we should shoot, where we should go, and whose picture we should take first. This was very difficult for me because I feel very comfortable when things are well planned out. Finally we arrived at Golden Gate Park. Everyone parked their cars and found where they were supposed to be. I think there were three or four different photo shoots going on at the same time.

We finished up the girl’s pictures with their cute little blue summer dresses and bear feet underneath the cherry blossom trees. I was so happy we finished the shoot in time; it had just started to get really cold, and the sun had about fifteen minutes to go before setting.

Just then I heard Brother Richard say, “All right, we still have time to go to the beach. Do the girls have another dress to take more pictures in?” I could feel my motherly blood begin to boil as I looked at my two year old start to shiver in the cold. We all got back in our cars and headed toward the beach. As we started to walk to the sand dunes for the girls final shot I realized my daughter had the hiccups, so I hurried and put her down. Suddenly an icy cold breeze overtook the girls and they both started to cry. My husband and I covered them with their jackets and tried to keep them warm.

As if that wasn’t a big enough test, the camera suddenly stop working so we had to wait. Just then my daughter looked at me with her purple lips said “Mommy, I all done.” I then felt the duty to announce to everyone that we were done and never doing that again. So, bitterly we left. I battled internally with what I said for a week. I knew I needed to apologize, I just wasn’t sure why. During that week I started to experience panic attacks. By the end of the week my husband and I prayed and asked the Lord what was the open window that allowed these attacks. The Lord instantly spoke to me and said, “You have an offense with your pastor that you haven’t taken care of.” The Lord let me see that the situation with the girls might not have been the best planning, but any situation that doesn’t make me happy is not an excuse for me to run my mouth or make such absolutes that can change my future just to make me happy for that minute.

Finally I got it. I called Brother Richard and instantly apologized. The next day at work we were asked if Havah could go on another photo shoot because the shots from the last week did not work out. I jumped up and said “Yes!” Two days later we went out again. It was a warm evening without any breeze. The girls had new outfits that included sweaters. Also along with us on the photo shoot was  Ed Traut, an anointed and amazing Prophet . He happen to be in town and accompanied Brother Richard on our photo shoot. After we finished, we all went out for Mexican food and my husband and I had an incredible talk with Ed Traut. This world renowned prophet really ministered to us one on one, and interpreted some dreams my husband had that have since totally changed the course of our life. God had a divine appointment set up for us. Thank God we didn’t miss it because we had taken offense! Also, He wants me just trust him knowing that everything works out for the good of those who trust him.

Robert & Melissa Castro are team leaders in sound design for WYSIWYG. Robert has done sound design for “The Roman Trilogy” and has worked on the development of the Sarah DSD location recorder, and H. Ghost (WYSIWYG’s wave field synthesis theatrical sound system).