Soup

Time here is different than time at home. Here, it is evasive, it's strangely irrelevant and it's almost frustrating sometimes. It seems to go right over my head. The more time I spend here, the less time I feel I have been here. Does that make sense? I can close my eyes and see separate moments - ones that changes my life and ones that didn't - and I can close my eyes and see a blur of my own realities.
I think that life is a bit like soup. Moments are like the different ingredients, each tasty in their own right and usually nutritious. When you immerse them in water, and add a little seasoning, their flavours begin to blend. The longer you let it stew, the more the ingredients fuse together. Soon, while you remember what you put in, you can't necessarily taste the ingredients in the same way that you originally could. Their flavours combine, and turn into soup. Everything is still separately tasty and nutritious, but this....
This soup is delicious.

Give Him an Inch and He'll Take a Mile

About two weeks ago, we found out that our outreach costs will be about 4000 dollars. And so, my goal became to raise 4000 dollars. I was confronted with a big gap in my faith: the practical reliance on God for my worldly needs. Since I got here, I have heard dozens of stories about God providing students with thousands of dollars in the most outrageous ways, but I never really pictured myself in their shoes. Those stories were great, but they weren't for me. So I decided to start small.

For those of you who don't know this, I get fairly attached to my pens. At the start of my DTS I had this really great steadler ink pen that I loved. However, three weeks in, I lost that pen. So, I asked God to give me a new one. This was actually pretty meaningful because I really feel that God has given me a gift for writing since I got here... I have been writing texts and songs and a lot of poetry.

A few days after I made my request, I had the opportunity to buy a great pen. I was almost at the cash when I decided that buying it wasn't what I was meant to do. I put the pen back and chose to wait on God, even if it meant that I would have to keep taking my notes with a regular ball point pen. Later that day, someone handed me $500 towards my outreach fees.

Two days passed and I still had not recieved my pen. I was telling my friend Sez about it when she offered me a pen that she had upstairs. Sez said "Natalie, I have a thousanzend pens upstairs. You can just have one." And I told her no, that God will give me one so she didn't need to. At this point, I'm sure that people thought I was being a little bit ridiculous, but I really felt like this is what I was meant to do. So, later on that day, someone handed me a hugely generous $1000 dollars for outreach to cambodia. This was the same person who had donated the first time. (If you read this... Thank you. Your generosity blesses me more than you know!)

So miracles do happen. In just a matter of days, I have gone from needing $4000 to needing $2500 all because of one person's incredibly giving heart and because of my teeny step of faith. There will always be a faith gap: you just need to throw yourself into it, expecting the very best, and fearing nothing.

What a Wonderful World

I have been here for five weeks now, and they have all been incredible. It feels like just a few days ago that I was running around montreal packing up all my things, and hanging out with the wednesday (or is that thursday?) worshippers. I have made friends here who are from all sorts of places. We all have different styles and REALLY different ways of speaking, but we all have one thing in common: our heart for God and for the Nations. God has turned this into a really sweet family, a home away from home.

This coming week, we're going up to an old bible college campus called Tahlee for our National Leaders meeting and for our lectures on Spiritual Warfare. Apparently, it's got heaps of kangaroos with their little joeys in their pouches...Plus, The other group was up there this week and they saw and TOUCHED a 7-foot long python.

I'm not making this up. We're sleeping in tents up there, so please pray for me.

So far, We have had lectures on The Holy Spirit, The Father Heart of God, The Fear of the Lord, The Bible, and Hearing God's Voice.
We go on prayer walks around brothels every friday afternoon.
We're well into planning our outreach to cambodia,
We have intercession about three times a week on things around the world that really matter,
and we worship together regularly.
I'm being filled to the brim with passion for God and for His people and for relationships... and when I feel like there is nothing more to learn, God blows my mind AGAIN and I remember that I still have anouther 7 weeks of lectures to go before outreach, which will probably also blow my mind.

My Faith is being grown and stretched in ways that I can't describe in words. What I am gaining is knowledge that is not of the mind, but of the heart. It's not even that God is starting to speak to me... It's that now I am paying attention, and it's amazing.

God wants to speak to every single one of us.
He wants to love on us.
He wants to ROMANCE us ladies
He wants to tell his Sons that he is SO RIDICULOUSLY PROUD of them.
He wants to give us these incredible gifts,
and He wants to give us PURPOSE.

And all we have to do is turn around and pay attention.

The people you are surrounding yourself with have this huge power the change the way you are looking at your life, and what you are focusing. You've got to find people who inspire you to walk with God, because when you do, it will change your life. You will find freedom in persuing God like you can't even imagine.

Biblical Truth

"It is no surprise that we have so many misconceptions about the book that have have never read."

I used to think that the bible was a little irrelevant, and a lot out-dated. But this week Jonathan Spainhour spoke and showed me otherwise. It is a book filled with promises of love and hope and purpose. It is a book of heroes who strove for peace and for justice in society, who were prepared to die for what they believed in. Who in this world could do without a hero like that? Who in this world is above the need for love and for purpose? The Bible is loaded with timeless truths that have meaning in our lives today.

So we read it. We wrestle with it. And we apply it, because it's all true. And we find love, purpose, and meaning in our lives.

"The Man of God" by Natalie Richards

This is a man of God:
He is a knight and you are his king.
He is kneeling before you
The bells of the battle he's ready to ring.

For the glory of your name,
He is prepared to serve.
He will go where you ask;
He'll go without reserve.

He will stand in the gap
for those that you love.
He will answer your call,
And he will rise above.

He is annointed
And he is equipped.
His heart and his life
He is ready to give.

You have for him
A plan and a way.
From your unending love
He can never stray.

You will carry him
And you will hold his hand.
It is to this son of yours
That you will deliver the land.

Without you
His life has no meaning,
But he is covered by the blood
of the Creator of things.

You have brought him to a place
Where he is made new.
He will go. He will run.
He'll seek nothing but You.