Hello everyone. Just a quick update to let you know that my flat was broken into last Wednesday. Sue and I were not home as it was the middle of the day, but were both quite shaken-up when we arrived home in the evening.
Several items were stolen, including my laptop, eye glasses, two rings that my mom had given me, Sue’s digital camera, Sue’s clarinet which she has had since she was nine and has sentimental value, as well as some other smaller items. I think we are both doing pretty well. It’s a bit traumatic to think that someone was going through your stuff – both of our rooms were a mess. They broke in through the back gate… actually bent up a metal gate and kicked our door in. I will put pics up at some point in time of that. I am currently at the church, and will probably not be wonderful in keeping up with emails and such as I am house-sitting (an amazing house with a great alarm system and have use of their ’94 Camry!) for someone who doesn’t have Internet access. Sue does have a laptop, so I can keep up with that while I am at home.
One absolutely amazing thing is that my stuff is covered under my mom’s homeowners insurance since that is my permanent residence… such a blessing! My mother has been absolutely amazing and has already gone and picked out new eye glasses for me and will be shipping them over this week. Thank you so much!!!
I am overall doing well. I met with our church counselor on Friday and she walked me through some of the feelings and stuff that I would go through and am going through, and I am meeting with her again on Tuesday. It was so good to talk about it. It’s funny because it is quite normal here for stuff like this to happen, so when I was talking to friends here about it they would make comments like, “When that happened to me…” or “Last week when my dad was hijacked…” or “When I got mugged….”. After speaking with people I kind of thought that I was making this a bigger deal than it was, but when I woke up on Friday I came to the conclusion that it was a big deal and it’s okay for me to be emotional about it.
People here have been absolutely amazing… very encouraging and Sue and I even had some people stay with us in the flat for a few days. I am so blessed to be surrounded by this amazing community here and am so thankful for it.
Love you all.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Prison Ministry
Wow. The service at prison this morning was amazing. I spoke to Stephanie last Thursday, who leads this ministry and these services, and she had been out of town for about six weeks. She mentioned to me that she really wanted to go to Jubilee this Sunday (today), since she hadn’t been there in so long, and so I told her that she could do that and I would be fine leading the meeting in the prison.
I’ve know that I was going to talk, but it was so amazing getting to organize the meeting and lead it. I asked three other people to go in with me. Sean led worship. Luke shared his testimony. And Laura did a rap that she had written. We really all led the meeting together.
God showed up. It was so powerful. I loved it… I so feel in my element with I am doing women’s work and women’s ministry and women’s prison work. I love to show women God’s unconditional love. I love for them to know that God is for us and that our lives our in His hands. Maybe it’s because I’ve struggled with this and I am a woman through and through… emotional and craziness and all… and I know what it’s like to be consumed by our thinking and wrapped up in our thought lives.
The service was amazing. God was in every part of it. I felt like I struggled a bit with my talk, but God came through. What did I talk about? I talked about waiting on God through our circumstances… the importance of the body of Christ… the importance of what we feed our minds… the importance of waiting on Him and in His presence. The theme being focusing on Him through life and ways which we can do that.
I actually had such a hard time in knowing what to talk about. I felt like God was leading me to speak on being fully devoted to Him in body and in Spirit… and I did in a way, just not where I thought that talk would go. I even had everything typed out yesterday, went to Jubilee to print it out and practiced it there. Then, last night, I had new ideas and things that I felt would be good to share… thinking that God was redirecting my talk. So, I sat down, and almost started over. I text messaged one of the guys, Luke, thinking that he may have a printer at his house… so, I redid it last night, went over it this morning, and emailed it to Luke. He printed it out and gave it to me as we left for the prison.
After I had spoken, we had about 20 minutes of ministry time. It was amazing. The women were coming up to Laura and me asking for prayer for different things that they were struggling with. Laura even had the opportunity to pray with one of the ladies to recommit her life to God. The woman were coming one after the other. As we would pray with one, the next one would come right up.
Can I tell you how much I love serving with the body? It is such an amazing way to get to know each other and to love Him together… God is amazing. This was the first time that Sean, Luke and Laura had been in a prison. It’s not an easy thing to see. In speaking with them afterwards, Laura mentioned that it wasn’t what she expected. These women were normal… we can have normal conversations with them… it’s hard to imagine what they could have done to be in a prison. I remember thinking that same thing just a few months ago when I first went to Pollsmoor.
Wow. I love watching God work. I love it when He shows up. I love it when He leads. I just love Him.
I’ve know that I was going to talk, but it was so amazing getting to organize the meeting and lead it. I asked three other people to go in with me. Sean led worship. Luke shared his testimony. And Laura did a rap that she had written. We really all led the meeting together.
God showed up. It was so powerful. I loved it… I so feel in my element with I am doing women’s work and women’s ministry and women’s prison work. I love to show women God’s unconditional love. I love for them to know that God is for us and that our lives our in His hands. Maybe it’s because I’ve struggled with this and I am a woman through and through… emotional and craziness and all… and I know what it’s like to be consumed by our thinking and wrapped up in our thought lives.
The service was amazing. God was in every part of it. I felt like I struggled a bit with my talk, but God came through. What did I talk about? I talked about waiting on God through our circumstances… the importance of the body of Christ… the importance of what we feed our minds… the importance of waiting on Him and in His presence. The theme being focusing on Him through life and ways which we can do that.
I actually had such a hard time in knowing what to talk about. I felt like God was leading me to speak on being fully devoted to Him in body and in Spirit… and I did in a way, just not where I thought that talk would go. I even had everything typed out yesterday, went to Jubilee to print it out and practiced it there. Then, last night, I had new ideas and things that I felt would be good to share… thinking that God was redirecting my talk. So, I sat down, and almost started over. I text messaged one of the guys, Luke, thinking that he may have a printer at his house… so, I redid it last night, went over it this morning, and emailed it to Luke. He printed it out and gave it to me as we left for the prison.
After I had spoken, we had about 20 minutes of ministry time. It was amazing. The women were coming up to Laura and me asking for prayer for different things that they were struggling with. Laura even had the opportunity to pray with one of the ladies to recommit her life to God. The woman were coming one after the other. As we would pray with one, the next one would come right up.
Can I tell you how much I love serving with the body? It is such an amazing way to get to know each other and to love Him together… God is amazing. This was the first time that Sean, Luke and Laura had been in a prison. It’s not an easy thing to see. In speaking with them afterwards, Laura mentioned that it wasn’t what she expected. These women were normal… we can have normal conversations with them… it’s hard to imagine what they could have done to be in a prison. I remember thinking that same thing just a few months ago when I first went to Pollsmoor.
Wow. I love watching God work. I love it when He shows up. I love it when He leads. I just love Him.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Happy 4th of July!
Hello everyone. It’s always hard to know how to title these entries and where to start. I have had a good week. I moved last weekend, and am really liking my apartment. I plan to take pictures soon and put them on the website. It has been great making it like home here. I have borrowed some picture frames and put pictures up of my family and friends back home – it makes me miss all of you more, but I love having them up to look at. God has blessed Sue and me so much in this apartment. He has provided all that we need and more.
Winter camp for the youth group was good. It was very chilled and relaxed, which was actually quite nice. As most of you know, I am a perfectionist and like sticking to a schedule, but it was so great to not be so consumed with this. I did a lot of the admin for it, which I enjoyed… was pretty unorganized because I only had about a week to organize, but it all came together okay… just a reminder that God’s in control. ☺ I had the opportunity to talk to a few of the girls who were really touched and I could see God working in them in different areas of their lives. It is such a blessing and excitement that some of these girls are opening up to me and wanting encouragement.
One of the pastor’s here, Alastair, asked me to come and share with his life group on Wednesday. He asked that I share about America and a little of my testimony. I was quite excited that it was the 4th of July… so I began by sharing what the 4th is in the states and what we generally do… and also shared what mom and Maggie were doing. I really didn’t know what exactly to talk about or what they would want to know, so I just opened it up for questions to see what they would be interested in. It was so amazing. I shared about my family, Christian Fellowship, Granny’s House and friends and about some of my upbringing and testimony. I love it when we don’t plan a lot and God always comes through. They wanted to spend some time at the end praying for me, for Christian Fellowship and for America. One particularly powerful time was when they asked me to name the pastor’s of Christian Fellowship and we prayed for each of you by name. It was incredible…. and made me miss you guys!
Speaking about not planning a lot and seeing God come through… I am speaking at the prison this Sunday. I have been working on this more this morning and plan to spend some time today doing this. I feel like I know the general topic God wants me to speak on, but am having a hard time with the specifics. Please pray that God leads this and directs me where to go. Please pray that the power of God meets with us and that He brings the ladies there that He desires.
On a personal note, I have been sleeping much better. God is continually teaching me total and absolute surrender to Him. I was reading Practicing His Presence yesterday afternoon, and came across this quote:
“Moment by moment I’m kept in His love, moment by moment I’ve life from above;; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, Moment by moment, oh Lord, I am Thine.”
Sounds like a good place to end. I love you all so very much.
Winter camp for the youth group was good. It was very chilled and relaxed, which was actually quite nice. As most of you know, I am a perfectionist and like sticking to a schedule, but it was so great to not be so consumed with this. I did a lot of the admin for it, which I enjoyed… was pretty unorganized because I only had about a week to organize, but it all came together okay… just a reminder that God’s in control. ☺ I had the opportunity to talk to a few of the girls who were really touched and I could see God working in them in different areas of their lives. It is such a blessing and excitement that some of these girls are opening up to me and wanting encouragement.
One of the pastor’s here, Alastair, asked me to come and share with his life group on Wednesday. He asked that I share about America and a little of my testimony. I was quite excited that it was the 4th of July… so I began by sharing what the 4th is in the states and what we generally do… and also shared what mom and Maggie were doing. I really didn’t know what exactly to talk about or what they would want to know, so I just opened it up for questions to see what they would be interested in. It was so amazing. I shared about my family, Christian Fellowship, Granny’s House and friends and about some of my upbringing and testimony. I love it when we don’t plan a lot and God always comes through. They wanted to spend some time at the end praying for me, for Christian Fellowship and for America. One particularly powerful time was when they asked me to name the pastor’s of Christian Fellowship and we prayed for each of you by name. It was incredible…. and made me miss you guys!
Speaking about not planning a lot and seeing God come through… I am speaking at the prison this Sunday. I have been working on this more this morning and plan to spend some time today doing this. I feel like I know the general topic God wants me to speak on, but am having a hard time with the specifics. Please pray that God leads this and directs me where to go. Please pray that the power of God meets with us and that He brings the ladies there that He desires.
On a personal note, I have been sleeping much better. God is continually teaching me total and absolute surrender to Him. I was reading Practicing His Presence yesterday afternoon, and came across this quote:
“Moment by moment I’m kept in His love, moment by moment I’ve life from above;; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, Moment by moment, oh Lord, I am Thine.”
Sounds like a good place to end. I love you all so very much.
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