"What cha doooin'?"

You might be interested in what I'm doing with the next couple of months of my life. I think it's fun, you might too, I dunno. 

SO! Starting right about now, I'm the Summer Program Intern at Echo Lake Bible Camp. I'm taking over for our previous super awesome program director for this summer as he moves on to a different Bible Camp on Pender Island. Pretty neat. I'll be starting with some rental groups in June and then onto full blown regular camp season in July and August. I'm excited! Super excited!! God's going to do something crazy at Echo Lake this summer. I can feel it. Smells like revival. Also smells like sweat, sunscreen and bug spray. Mmmm. (Shameless promotion: http://elbc.ca/ )

I need your prayer for that, folks! Pray that I would have creativity, confidence, and Christ-likeness. (Three Cs, see how I did that? Alliteration helps remembering. I really want you to remember to pray for me this summer.) Also, let's proclaim God as provider. This is his camp. He will do things when he wants, how he wants, using the people he wants. And his way is always perfect. (Proclaim Perfect Provider. I did it again.) 

THEN! In September I will be going to the urban-middle class city of Guadalajara, Mexico on an 8 month internship with the Evangelical Mennonite Conference's Ascend Internship Program. I will be serving alongside of six experienced long term missionaries and doing things such as children and youth ministry, leading Bible Studies, discipleship, friendship evangelism, student ministry, and recreational involvements. Language learning and cultural adaptation will also be central to my internship, as will intercession. It's going to be a Jesus fiesta. (Shameless promotion:

http://www.emconference.ca/ministries/mexgdl/about/)

I need your prayer for that too, folks! Pray that I would be a learner and a light. Once again proclaim God as the Perfect Provider. Pray that I would get the financial support I need to actually be able to go (If you'd like to support me, send me an email or message me on the Facebook). Pray that God would blow my preconceptions of what missions looks like. Pray that I would have a broken and humble heart. 

AND THAT'S ALL I KNOW! 

All I know is that God is doing something on this earth. He's building his perfect kingdom using imperfect people like me. He's saving people from brokenness and restoring them to wholeness. He's showing us how to be more human because of his grace. Let's not just do something great together, let's be something great together. Because that's all God wants us to be. He just wants us to be his. That is peace. 

*High fives for Jesus!*  

*Shalom in the home!*

*Blessings!*

 

But our Lives as Well

1 Thessalonians 2:6-8

We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you.

Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.

But our lives as well. What does this mean?

I think sometimes it's easier to share the gospel and simply tell someone that God loves them than it is to share the messiness of our lives with them. I think that what Paul is getting at here is that it takes love to let someone into our lives enough to actually see gospel grace being played out in every day life. To love at all is to be vulnerable as C.S. Lewis said, and what could be more vulnerable that sharing our lives as well with the people we share the gospel with. And Paul does this with delight. He's humble. He's not looking for glory and acknowledgement, he's just trying to love these people like Jesus does. 

But our lives as well. How do we do this?

Maybe we need to meet up for coffee with that person in the back row at church. Maybe we need to say hello to the person sitting on a bench on the street day after day. Maybe we need to buy a kid some ice cream when they ask for a pack of smokes. Maybe we need to cry with our best friends. Maybe we need to laugh with a stranger. 

We need to give up our lives for these people. We need to give up everything for these people who have heard "Jesus loves you" from the mouths of dozens but have never really felt that love in action. We need to let our hearts break. We need to recognize our brokenness and then we need to love with our lives. And we can't do this unless God's in this. 

Not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. 

Because we loved you so much.

Done like Dinner

I am finally done my second year of post-secondary education, first year of college.

Winner, winner chicken dinner.

Things I've learned:

1. Do random fun things with fun people.
Some of my best memories of this year have been saying yes to weekend concerts with no guarantee of actually getting tickets, playing hide-and-seek-tag at 1am, and going on late night star gazing adventures. It's good to have a game plan, but sometimes you've got to throw away the clip board and just do it. Random things are the best things. Random things give me life.

2. Play outside.
God made the outdoors!! Let's play in it! Life's so depressing indoors and there are trees and mountains that are waiting to be climbed! Also, studying improves 10000% after a good dose of mountain air.

3. Study hard.
Even if it's a class that you really hate if you dig really, really, really deep they'll be something that strikes you as interesting. Learning is hard, but learning is important, therefore, learning is fun. Learning is also what I am called to do at this particular moment of my life so I need to do it at 100%.

4. Love.
Every. Single. Human. Needs. Love. No questions. That is our mission outside and inside Bible school. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love till you can't breathe without loving, love without doubt, love without question, love without hesitation, love without judgement, love without thinking. Love until it becomes your very existence. Love until people can't look at you without feeling the love of God spilling out of you. Love everyone all the time.

5. Say yes.
As mentioned earlier, saying yes leads to adventure! Saying yes also leads to ice cream! Saying yes leads you beyond your zone of comfort, also known as "the comfort zone."
Say yes, be a winner.

6. Say no.
Sometimes, you can't be a winner because there's a thing called responsibility. And responsibility says "No, I need to study." Saying no also helps to balance the most important things in life and forces you to set priorities, which are important so you don't lose your head.
Say no, keep your head.

7. Don't say maybe so.
Indecision will get you nowhere in life. Be bold! Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Also, being indecisive is no help to the people planning crazy random things and need to know how many crazy random people will be accompanying them.

8. Trust God.
This year was a leap of faith. I didn't know if it was going to work out. Last August I almost cancelled and got a job so I could travel and do more stuff. But I just had this gut feeling that God wanted me in school. And I think I was right. I'm not saying that God wouldn't  have used travel to teach me really important things and lead me to really important people, but this year just felt right. Something clicked. And it worked. I was challenged and encouraged in the best ways possible. I got a taste of that abundant life Jesus talks about in John 10:10. And it's beautiful. Just reach out to God and let him lead you in his ways. They're good. His burden is easy and his yoke is light.
It's going to be ok.

So that's it. That is what I have learned. I'd say it's been a pretty successful year.

On Colors and Life.

Have you ever asked a seven year old girl what her favorite color is? I have. The results are astounding. Ask a boy and he'll give you a pretty predictable answer. He'll either like blue, orange, or red, or he'll just shrug. But ask a girl and-

She might first answer the question by asking another question: "Is rainbow a color?"  Her second answer will be highly dependant on how you answer her first question. If you answer no, then she will proceed to strategically order all the colors of the rainbow from best to worst. If you say yes, rainbow will probably be in her top five favorite colors. Just say yes. Rainbow is a color, and sparkles is a color too when you're seven.

After this she'll find every shade of any color and tell you all about it. She'll probably run around the room trying to find things to give you a good example of that tealish-blueish-purplish-not-like-that-shirt-but-like-that-blanket color. Then after all this is finished and you have a good list of ten colors (colors is used as an abstract term here), she'll search her funny little seven year old head for her list and just as you're about to ask her if she wants to play outside, she'll say, "WAIT. Did I say pinkish-purple was my third favorite color? That's not right, purplish-pink is my third favorite color. Pinkish-purple is my fourth favorite color. And I think that sparkles is my third favorite color, rainbow is my second and black is my first favorite."

Asking a seven year old girl what her favorite color is going deep into the mysterious ocean of time and space itself. I would reserve a whole afternoon for that question maybe. It wouldn't even be a waste of time though. After all, if you had to pick between sparkles and rainbows...

What I've come to realize these past two months of college is that everyone becomes a seven year old girl when they are faced with the question of what they are going to do after college.

I've been asked this question by students and adults alike. Every time I hesitate. Sometimes I say things like "Oh, I think I'll work on the downtown eastside" or "I think I'll teach English overseas." Sometimes I'll plunge into the pool of honesty and simply respond, "I don't know."

And that's the thing you guys. I don't know. Sometimes I think I know, just like the seven year old girl thinks that pinkish-purple is her third favorite color, but then I'll search my funny little head and change my mind again.

And I've talked to other people too. Nobody really knows what they're doing. To some degree we're all faking it a little bit.

Or at least I hope so. I hope that we don't have everything figured out. If we did, I think we'd be in a whole lot of trouble. If we did, I don't think that there'd be any room left for grace.

People, we're allowed to be clueless.
We're allowed to ask if rainbow is a color.
We're allowed to change our minds.

What God has been teaching me over and over again is to pursue what you are passionate about. Jesus said that the greatest commandment, the thing that we're supposed to do above everything else is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." How do we do this? "The second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39).

Do what you love. Do it at 110%. Use it to love God. Love God by loving everyone.

JUST LOVE, OK?

God isn't going to have a plan for my life that only involves doing things that I hate. Yes, there will be trials and sufferings, in fact that is what I am promised. But, God gave me gifts to use and enjoy for his glory.

If you love something, you should pursue it, and if you're on the wrong path, you'll start to hate it and start to love something else.

We should love each other with our whole lives because we are created in the image of God, and until we see Jesus face to face, we're the closest thing to the full image of God that it gets. And whenever we love each other, our fellow human being, created in the image of God, we love God (Matthew 25:40).

What am I going to do with my life?

Honestly, I don't know.

But if I know anything, it is that because God loves me and has given me life to the full, I need to love people.

So I'm just going to love, ok?

And that will be my life.

A Happy Confusion

Sometimes, it's best to not know what's happening.

Sometimes, it's just best to know that something good is happening.

Sometimes, you have all the pieces to the puzzle, but you just can't seem to put them together. And that's ok because sometimes, each piece is beautiful individually and you can put them all together later.

One day, they will be put together into a single, incredible masterpiece.

But for now we should just enjoy
                                                  each
                                                         little
                                                               puzzle
                                                                        piece
as they are, with patience and hope for the coming masterpiece.

POEMS PEOPLE, POEMS!

So today I went to Chapters and bought the most lovely of all lovely books. It's called Good Poems for Hard Times Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor. I'm only on page 34 and I'm calling it the best purchase of the year. This is one of those books that I would want my future husband to read to me in the morning at breakfast, or that I would read my children before bed. This is one of those books that I would want to read after gardening and having dirt all over my hands and knees and sitting on the kitchen floor with a large glass of cold sweet tea as the late afternoon sun shines through the window onto me. This is one of those books.

Poems people, poems!

Poems to me are each their own 50 different stories into a simple, little page of letters. You initially read it, and get the basic gist of what the author is trying to tell you. A happy little moral or something to think about. If you wanted, you could stop there and still live a beautiful life. But a good poem will have just one line, or maybe even one word that throws you off. So you re-read it. What does the author mean by all this? Then suddenly, the entire thing opens up to you and you realize that that initial, happy little moral is so much more and every, single word that was constructed on the page is for a purpose: To reveal something to you about your own life, to help you get through difficulty or to celebrate joy with you. And there are so many more things to learn.

Every single word on that page has a purpose.

And the way I see it, every person is a poem.

There's the initial reading. The happy little character, in a happy little world. And you could stop there, shake them by the hand and go on your way living your beautiful life. But then there's something that throws you off. That one thing they said, that one thing that they did. And so you "re-read" them. You look deeper, you ask them questions. What does The Author mean by all this? And you realize that the initial happy little character is so much deeper and complex. Every single one of their experiences was constructed on their page of life for a purpose: To reveal something to you about your own life, to help you get through difficulty or to celebrate joy with you. And there are so many more things to learn.

Every single person has a purpose.

The only difference between a person and a poem is that you can be a part of the person. You can be one of the words on their page. You can be part of the purpose. You can take them by the hand and re-read their own poem to them. You can help them find their purpose. And they can have the same impact on you.

And that is perhaps the most intriguing, most mysterious thing to me in the entire world.

Poems, people, poems.