Sunshine, Dancing, and Revelations

It was officially 20 days ago that I was packing up my last minute things and getting the rest of the details together before I was heading for the airport, to get on a plane that would eventually bring me here! (Like that run-on?) What a journey it has been so far. It has seemed that I have spent a life-time here, for it doesn’t seem possible to have learned, grown, and been stretched so much physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in just 20 days time. Also, how I feel so at home here in this city and at Stanely house and how quickly we girls have bonded in my room and with the staff of the DTS. Such a blessing. I almost feel guilty for getting to partake of such a rich experience… almost.
Hmmm….to fill you in these last 7 days since I last posted something. Well, lets start with where I left off. Katherine finished up her lecture on Thursday, A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y incredible!! What a blessing it was to get fed by her God-given wisdom, experiences, and insights! She taught on the Character and Nature of God and truly beautiful! What a multi-dimensional God we love and worship! Our poor human minds can’t fully grasp ALL of His dimensions, but He has blessed us with His Word and our hearts and souls to be able to munch and process and slightly fathom His greatness! : ) One of the great ways that she put it was that God is a god of Love….we all of course have heard this….but then of out of that love stem His other Characteristics: His faithfulness, His grace, His joy, His creativity, His Justice….the list goes on, but see on how these are attributes of His love…..because He loves you, He is faithful. Because He loves the poor and the broken hearted His Justice will follow thru in His timing. All of these attributes of His Love apply to every single person. I love that God is an emotional God, He has the pureness of all emotions. So whenever we think that our hearts might break and that surely God cannot understand that, think again. He does feel it, but magnify that times infinity, for He is such a HUGE, MASSIVE God…He has to be if He created the Universe with such magnitude….that He then feels things deeply. These are just thoughts that I’ve been pondering that have helped and are going to continue to help me to put things in a better perspective. To have the balance of knowing that God is so massive and in control, yet so very intimate and personal to know the very thoughts on my heart and mind!! News flash….He knows you to, deeply and thoroughly, better than you know yourself. I find this scary and comforting all at the same time. Well, I could keep going onto all the other things that lecture got me thinking on, but it would take too long and my pathetic words would not do my heart or mind justice of all that is whirling in there! : )
So, onto events! : ) Last Friday was a full day. We had to have our doctors check-up, so we now are officially “covered” under the UK healthcare system, since we are 6month residents! Cool-beans. : ) We had to have our weight, height, blood-pressure, and waist-size recorded and forms filled out of past medical history and what we are allergic to! Fun! Wasn’t bad at all really. Then we had house clean….which takes about four hours with all 15 of us working on it, it is fun and gives us all a sense of ownership and pride in keeping the house in excellent condition. I also have kitchen duty that day with two staff girls so we get lunch ready. And then every Friday afternoon will involve an outreach/event of some kind. Last week was P.I.G….. “Paisley Is Great”….where we take a portable BBQ to the town center war memorial and hand out free sausages for three hours or until they are all gone….which I guess we do about 300-400 sausages. We interacted with a variety of people: young-old, street-roamers, prostitutes, businessmen, druggies, young moms and dads, teens, rich and poor. When asked why we were doing this, we just said that some of have lived here for awhile and some of us just moved here and we think that Paisley is great and beautiful and we want to help pass on reminder, so we figured we’d hand out sausages as a way to bright up there day! This is huge, though it doesn’t sound like it, but the people here have this mentality that nothing is good here, that it is a horrible place to live and they feel stuck and trapped. So, we are just trying to work and present in the opposite spirit, because truly Paisley is great, it is scenically beautiful, the people are beautiful, and the city is beautiful! (Every Wednesday, we all fast breakfast and lunch and pray specifically for the city and people of Paisley, and then we break it at dinner time, I urge you to join us and not necessarily for Paisley….which you can….but perhaps for your home city….every city has a unique oppressive spirit/stronghold to it…perhaps pray for God to reveal what that is to you….just a thought! And it doesn’t have to be food….it could be your phone, computer, or something that is of importance to you that would be good to remove for a couple hours in order to show your willingness to do what it takes and seek God’s face without distraction…though sometimes I think a growling stomach can be pretty distracting…lol…as right now my stomach is letting out a huge rumble)
Anywho….then some of us…me be one…took the girl to the Nazarene Church that has allowed us to use it for the group that we call “Create” which I think I explained before, it is not a “church” youth group. It is more of a group run by Christ followers and have invited kids from junior high age to late teens to come and have a safe-non-alcohol/drug free environment. Once a month we have a bunch of the kids who have bands and/or are a one man/woman show and perform and we have a continuous flow of band concerts for about 3 ½ to 4 hours. The Gospel is never preached in words…unless asked…but it is in our actions. We are just there for the kids (there were about 140-150), relationships form quickly, for they are hungry and thirsty for attention and to interact with us because they see the difference and not just because we don’t smoke/drink/or do drugs nor do we allow, but they sense the spirit of the thing. So, great work is being done. Then the third Fridays of every month called “iCreate" where we do other more smaller scale things ….about 40 kids show up….and they have had different workshops….like one week they had them over to Stanely house to bake cupcakes and decorate them, or they had a workshop on painting…..get the theme….creating things…..arts…..last Friday it was making hemp bracelets, but we also had a BBQ. All the events are a suggested (1pound donation and we ask for them to sign in, but other than that they get funding from a variety of churches and I think some from the government….not sure on that one) So, yes I helped with the BBQ element and just getting to know some of the kids more. It was neat to see how some of these kids had recognized me from the week before and they will come and talk to you just to hear your “American” accent, which they think is so cool! Sometimes it gets tricky to understand what they are saying because of their thick brogue, in combination with them mumbling and talking fast! So, I’ve been praying that God would give me a supernatural ability to hear and understand them without me have to constantly asking them to repeat what they just said! So, yes, I love it. It is a fantastic outreach and community involvement and getting to work with the youth! I may be helping with some theatre workshops in the future….they would love to get to a point that we have something every Friday night, but at this point it is the two Fridays out of the month.
Saturday was a HUGE bbq for all of YWAM Scotland so we had about 80-100 people here. Fun! : ) The weather was and has been incredible this whole last week, with lots of sunshine…I have a nice tan now! : ) Sunday, I had church in our special “Narnia” room which is a small room behind a cupboard/closet that you have to walk through to get into, and it is nice and blissfully quiet. It was Geoffrey’s birthday (He is one of the leaders, “Staffing” the DTS) and so we had home-made Susi…which was INCREDIBLE…surprisingly….and then we had a Scottish Ceilidh….which OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Words cannot express the absolute joy and pure fun it was to dance Scottish folk dances for 2 hours!! (My legs are still sore) It is like a-line dancing- twist-to-a-Jane-Austen-type dance, all danced to Scottish-fold music where there is someone who calls out the moves! SUCH FUN!!!! Then we also did swing dancing. Let me tell you it was a fun party! : ) We thankfully will get to have a couple more Ceilidh’s (Pronounced like “Kaylee”) for different events and then of course graduation in November. I definitely have Scottish blood in me.
Then this whole week has been excellent. On Monday nights, we have what we call “Express” where we have some teaching time, but primarily it is where we will have been instructed to preparing something either a testimony or a teaching or a preaching on a particular topic or on whatever we feel God is leading us to teach on. This last time we were supposed to choose a Characteristic of God and either use it in a testimony or a teaching thing. And only three of us were going to go either by volunteering our selves or by having a our number rolled by dice. I volunteered to go first…since the week before I was last….so I figured why not. It went well….the group gives helpful advice and feedback on what worked or what didn’t! I did it on God’s Faithfulness. : ) This is so we all can have these in our back pocket so when we are on our different outreaches we all can have something ready and have a variety of material to choose from! : ) As much as I don’t like having to do it, I do like having to do it…if you know what I mean. God has been definitely stretching me in this area and teaching me a lot about myself!
We just had our last day of lecture for the week, on Biblical Worldviews. It was AWESOME! WOW!! I won’t try and describe all that I have learned, but it was powerful stuff, for the heart and mind! The man who taught reminded me so much of you Aaron, (my brother), from his mannerism, to the way he talked, to his endless resource of knowledge on crazy, random, yet useful facts, and his humor and his passion of God’s Word and the desire to pass on his knowledge! It was great….though it has made me miss you a ton!!! : ( Something to share from this teaching is, go back to His Word, read it all. Ponder it. I hope you realize on how God desires us to be His that is His cry. I also love on how even when Adam and Eve were trying to hide their nakedness from Him and what they had done and how He was grieved at knowing what had happened and then what it was going to cause that He still took time to clothe them and tell them how too make them! I just shake my head in wonder at the realization of how this small thing, is actually such a HUGE thing, how often God takes time in the midst of a not so wonderful situation and is so caring and so focused on being tender with us stupid humans! The real thought though for you and I to ponder is to think on our families. Think of the past history and lineage of your family, perhaps you know the last 100years family tree or perhaps the last 500 years, either way their lives/stories have helped to shape and affect how our stories start. This is the case for God’s Word, this is a chance for us to read all of humanities story and how the relationship of God and man have been in constant tension…due to our disobedience….but then on how Jesus comes to earth and rectifies this….but then there is a blank spot….between 3 John and the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation tells us how it is going to end, but we are currently in the midst of what is happening between 3 John and Revelation. Thankfully, God has given us His Word to help teach us how then to live out this “blank” section of the story, or rather the story that is being lived out now. The question is what is your role in this Story...are you going to be just a person who reads along with it or who enters in the story and immerses itself in the fellow characters and events? I know I’m not doing any of this justice….there were 12 hours of lecture and I’m trying to pick and choose what to share and then the parts that I choose aren’t coming as smoothly or clearly as I would like, but hopefully I’ve given you something to think about as I’m thinking about it, as well as a multitude of other things!
Up and Coming…..we leave for our 62mile trek this Friday! We will hike it and camp it in 4 days time and then be on the Holy Island of Lindis Farne for four days having three days of lecture on Motivational Gifts and then a day of Solitude/silence. It is an island that you can walk on….depending on the tide…so you have to time it just right in order to get on or off of it. It is an ancient monastery, founded by……. “The Holy Island of Lindisfarne In 635AD St. Aidan came from Iona and chose to found his monastery on Lindisfarne. The Christian message flourished here and spread throughout the world. However Holy Island is not only a centre of pilgrimage. Its tranquility, spirituality and scenic beauty attracts a multitude of visitors to its shores every year. Undoubtedly, it is the jewel in the crown of Northumbria.” (http://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/) So pray for safe trekking and traveling and good weather!! We have been blessed with incredible weather this last week or so and would love for it to continue! : )
So, I think perhaps that this blog is long enough, but hopefully enjoyable! : ) So, the things to be praying for is our safety on our trek that we leave for this Friday and then for clarity on where to go for our two month outreach! I will touch base with you all again when I get back after our 8 days away….feel free to write me during that time! I love having emails or post in my inbox! : )Also, let me know of any prayer request that I and/or my team can pray for you about.
Love you lots and lots everybody! Thanks for your prayers as always! : )

Count the Joy!

Lectures officially started this week. This consist of four hours, three days a week. And they(meaning the Staff) has arranged for a speaker to come in and teach us students. This week the topic is Character/Nature of God. WOW! Today was only the first day and I had already about 10 pages of notes….granted I do have a small journal, but truly it was so stimulating and mind engrossing that the four hours flew by! Katherine, the lecturer for this week, is originally from South Africa, she and her husband have been with YWAM for 37 years! She just got her doctorate. She is truly wonderful, she actually reminds me of Julie Andrews, her voice and her serene and humble countenance. God has truly blessed her with wisdom and insight and she has definitely experienced a great deal to have worked through so much and reached such a deep state in her walk with God. Though I’m sure you would be thrilled with me sharing ALL of my notes from the first day, (hear the sarcasm ;)so I will share one of the major thoughts that I was inspired/challenged by.
God loves to take delight in us, this I kind of knew, but didn’t approach it the way I’m going to now. Tonight, before going to bed, think on the things that you did that perhaps brought joy to Him. Just think. “How have I brought Joy to Him today?” It can be one, it can be several things. So, instead of thinking on all the things that I did wrong, or shouldn’t have said, or thought, or didn’t do…..which is good to do in the morning and repent and ask for His grace and strength and be filled more with His Holy Spirit in you than you and your humanness….but instead at night take the time to dwell on the joyous things that brought your Savior, your Creator pleasure and delight! Perhaps it was singing a song to a child or singing to Him? Or saying thank you to one who rendered you a service, or you took the time to make your spouse/or sibling/or roommate a sack lunch, or stopping and telling your family member that you love them and that more importantly that God loves them, or telling someone how beautiful they look today, or taking time and being creative, or even taking care of the body that God gave you by exercising or eating well, or by walking outside and taking time out of your day and being content in the midst of God’s creation, or taking time and being still before Him, or spending time conversing with your Heavenly Daddy and being eager to discover who He is, or if it is writing a kind word or email, or checking on a friend in the midst of your busy schedule, or making someone their favorite meal just because, or perhaps you’ve been pressing in Him and seeking His will or being open to have Him do His work in you no matter what He then asks or calls you to do! Whatever it is take time tonight and the next few nights to do this. Then hopefully it will be a continuous thing. This is one of the things that I had a revelation on today, Miss Katherine, had us do this exercise the first of the lecture and I was floored to think that we should/could do this, but how absolutely necessary this can be in our healthy growth in our relationship and interaction with God. As Katherine put it that you can develop ministry and/opportunities of it when you dwell on the things/actions that you do that bring Him joy because you are then able to develop those gifting in which to use them for Him! You are seeking out ways to bring Him joy! So, count out those joyous moments. I hope that this brings you something to think on and bring you encouragement.

First Full Week!

Hello!! From, currently sunny Paisley, Scotland! WOW!! I am blessed. Can I just start by saying, once again thank you for all your prayers! What a rich and beautiful experience and privilege to be living here at the Stanley House.
I have only been here a total of 9 days, but it feels much longer! A good kind of longer, I feel at home. The Manor that I’m living in was built in the mid/late 1800s. It is gigantic! There are currently 22 people total here, 7 of which are children all under the age of 12! SUCH FUN!!! It is a wonderful community of people to get to dwell with! There are actually 6 people doing the Discipleship Training School (DTS): 5 girls (4 American, 1 British: Kelsi, Cerina, Beka, and Sarah[from England]) and then 1 guy (Corbin) (He and his wife (Stacy) and four boys moved here from the states). I am the oldest of the girls; we get along all so very well! All five of us share a room. It has been good! The rest that live here are the staff, student staff, and interns.

I have gotten somewhat adjusted to the time change, the trick is trying to get my mind to turn off before midnight. The sun doesn’t set fully until 11:30ish so that took a little bit more time to get adjusted and then it rises around 4:00 in the morning! Craziness.

This whole past week has been orientation, getting into the slight rhythm of things and getting the training of how the household is run and how we are apart of it all. We have an incredible schedule! (Our week long trek is in just two weeks! We will be camping the whole time; Google St. Cuthbert’s Way and that is the one that we are going to be doing!)They have it all laid out for us, the whole six months, and have the days broken down, within the days they have hour blocks of what is when and where and what reading is due! It is great. There is daily “Connect” time where we have 7:30am-8:30am to have our quiet time not in our room . Then “Office”, which is where we all gather and have worship , group liturgy prayer (we have these old Celtic prayers that we recite three times a day: once in the morning, one at lunch, and one at dinner: they are three different prayers), and open prayer! Then after office, we will either have lecture, which will be a couple times a week. If it isn’t lecture then it till be blocks of intercession or creative worship or group house projects or reflect time or cleaning house or community outreach projects or setting up for Create or book discussion times or film and theology class or group hiking or group workout (which is two times a week) or testimony/teaching prep class, or whatever and these thing are spread throughout the day and evening. We typically have Sunday off or if not it is then we get Saturday!

Yesterday, Saturday, we did a group hike. It was incredible. We definitely slept well, last night. I’ve posted some pictures on Facebook; the hill overlooks Loch Lomond. We were blessed with incredible weather as well. Today we went to a great church that some of the staff goes to, I love going to church in other countries, because it helps to remind you that God is indeed all knowing, all seeing, and He is everywhere and for everyone! What an AMAZING God we serve, my hope and prayer that I will continually grow faithful as His follower.

This coming week is going to be the first week of lecture, it is on the Character/Nature of God. I’m stoked. We are also having several times where we are praying together as well as separately for where we are going to go on out two month outreach. So, be praying that God would speak clearly and concisely to each one of us and that we’d be ready to go wherever He desires! We had a group intercession time on it last week and it was really cool to hear and see what God was saying.
There are of course so many things to tell you that would take so much, so if you have any questions or whatever fell free to write me. I will try and update my blog every Sunday, and perhaps even more whenever I get a chance.

May this week be filled with blessing. May you readily know that His Hand is upon and His grace is indeed sufficient in and for all things. Take time this week and be still in the mighty and calming Presence of our Creator, God, Friend, and Daddy. Love you all and let me know if you ever need me to pray for you! Thank you for your prayers.

End of the One Chapter and the start of another...

Well, the chapter of Preparation is coming to an end and the next chapter starts tomorrow! I depart from Nashville at 5:55pm and head to Chicago, then from there to London and then onto Glasgow! I can’t believe that after all the prayer, all the paper work, all the hours of work, and all the dreaming and talking that the time has actually arrived. Thank you to everyone of you who has helped me get here! The Grace of God and His faithfulness and your faithfulness to the Holy Spirit’s leading have been such a blessing to me! I do not know what I would have done without it!

I’m starting the actual process of packing up my things and getting all the last minute details in order and then off I go. I am bound for Scotland with my heart ready, nervous, excited and open to whatever God has in store for me!