Despite the snow causing major delays in the arrival of the mail all across the UK my Christmas package arrived today. It was full of wonderful and lovely things including a "Bedtime Hug" from Origins. It is the most wonderful thing ever! A large wrap filled with Lavender, Chamomile, and Rosemary that you warm up in the microwave. I frequently have pain in my shoulders and this is going to be amazing as is it large enough to wrap over my neck and shoulders all at once with soothing heat and it smells A-mazing!!!!

the great trip (mid) west

A little peak at where I've been and what I've been up to for the last two weeks!

Iowa

Illinois

Michigan

on monday i had lunch here:

dear Jesus

I'm here, not to speak or ask, but to listen. Only to listen because I value what you have to say. But if you want to just come and listen too that's all right. That's all right because I value you.

I am, besides, the only one
Who can be bright without the sun.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

some very good advice

A couple years ago I spent several months listening to a teaching called "Living Your Destiny" by Graham Cooke on repeat. Really life changing stuff, let me tell you.

One thing he suggested was to write out prophetic words you have received in bullet form so it is easy to access them and to recognize themes that the Lord is speaking over you. This past weekend the stress of not knowing what my next step is caught up with me. I found it very helpful to read over the things the Lord has said about me. It was like giving my spirit a long, cool, refreshing drink of water.

Something that was especially relevant to the place I'm at was this one:

"You are standing in front of a big door with a doorknob too big for you to turn, but you try anyway. As you reach up, the door swings open on its own and you walk right through."

We recently had some visitors from the States by way of Tunisia who had a young son. We were talking about the sun going down and his dad asked him, "What's going to happen in the morning Riley?" And Riley said, "The sun will come up." "What does it mean when the sun comes up?" "That God is faithful."

Even though one of the main reasons the stress had caught up with me is physical weariness from the sun waking me up between 4:30 and 5:00am the last three weeks it is good to remember what that sunrise really means.

i don't really feel like doing an update

Sorry! I know one is overdue, I just can't be bothered (to use the British phrase). Here are a few somethings I do feel like sharing though:

1} I wore flip flops for the first time this year at Kairos on Monday the 21st of April.

2} Weather here is very unpredictable.

3} I made Rice Krispy Treats yesterday and discovered that marshmallows here come in pink and white and the pink ones are faintly flavoured. (Don't ask me what flavour they are though, I couldn't tell you.)

4} I love the Tate Modern. I spent a whole day there two Fridays ago now (I think) and had a lovely time. Looking forward to an exhibit by Cy Twombly in the summer. I had never heard of him before, but greatly enjoyed his pieces. He is both a painter and and sculptor. I was also inspired to write a children's story with watercolor illustrations after watching a short film there about ants carrying pieces of confetti after Carnivale.

5} I'm mostly listening to A Fine Frenzy these days. I especially love this lyric: "Like an apple on a tree, hiding out behind the leaves, I was difficult to reach, but you picked me. Like a shell upon the beach, just another pretty piece, I was difficult to see, but you picked me." And she has a beautiful voice. I'm also loving The Weepies.

6} I don't know what I'm doing when Transit ends in July, but am strangely at peace about that.

7} Got sunburned last Saturday walking along the river for several hours with Kirstin.

8} The Holy Spirit is breaking out in my church in Charlotte... It's strange watching videos about it online and wondering what's really happening.

9} I'm aching for more... More of Jesus, more life, more courage, more creativity... A fuller life.

10} Here are a few things I've loved this week from Ephesians:

"God can do anything you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or
request in your wildest dreams!"

"Thanksgiving is our dialect."

"Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of
drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over
everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master,
Jesus Christ."

I can hear your voice

whispering

As the sea roars

and splashes all around me

I can feel your soft

caress

As the sun warms my back

and the wind teases my hair

The cool, clear water

trapped

Between the rocks

Mirrors my smile

as you smile through the clouds

My soul is at rest in the

thundering

The sea-spray

sprinkles me with joy

I love it here

Because

I can hear you

a prophetic act

First I would like to make this disclaimer: I'm probably going to have a lot to say about Ireland for a while, bear with me cause I can't help it.

One of the murals I saw on the peace line had this scripture on it:

"For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to all of us. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." -Ephesians 2:14-18

I have taken a map of the city that was a pull out from a "what's happening" sort of magazine and written this in bold letters. As I looked it up I made this addition:

"In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." - verse 22

I just wanted to declare this in as many ways as possible. God's heart for the city.

Oh, and a little post script, If you click on the link to 24-7 Ireland there's an article by one of the guys I met, it's the one about St. Luke's on the Shankill, Belfast. I guess that's all for now...

does anybody have a testimony of grace?

Last week was this term's mission week. (Each term we have a week to get out of Guildford and do something "missional.") I was part of a group that went to a place in England called The Cotswold's. We stopped to pray as we were entering the valley we were visiting, asking the Lord for direction because we really didn't have any plans other than see what he wanted to do. Frances felt like we should get off the motorway and take the back roads and I had a word about seeking out old paths.

So Frances took the map and started navigating us away from the main roads. As we were looking for the right road we passed one called "Old Road" so we turned around and went down it. We decided to stop at this little old church to explore and pray a bit. While we were there a lady came in to do a lunch time prayer for Lent. We asked if we could join her and told her a bit of what we were doing.

She ended up asking us back to her house for tea and cake. While we were there she shared some of her story. She and her husband and a couple other families in the area had felt the Lord leading them to worship where they lived instead of traveling to bigger churches with more things happening in the spirit. So, for the last several years they had been attending this little Anglican church with ever dwindling numbers, praying for God to do something in their village.

She was so encouraged just to have us there, she said she had been praying for the Lord to do something just to show her that he was hearing their prayers. We prayed with her for a while before we left. It was really cool!

When we got back home I had a package waiting from my mom with all the stuff to do my taxes. (And some other fun stuff!) Over the summer I had used my credit cards to pay for Transit, trusting the Lord to provide the money to pay them off before I left. The money didn't come and I had whipped through my savings by January making payments on them. My parents aren't in a position to help me out and so I was planning to cash in some stock that was given to me when I quit my job to be able to make payments until the end of Transit. I was hoping my tax return would be enough to have a bit of spending money for the rest of the time, I was hoping for $500. When I did my taxes online my return came to almost $1400!!! Which should be enough to pay my credit cards through the end of Transit and have a bit of spending money too!

It's funny how difficult I make things sometimes. I worked really hard to stay in a place of peace and of trusting the Lord to provide, really, really hard. And then he did. And I felt a bit silly for all the effort I had to put into it! The lesson isn't quite over yet as I still don't know what is happening when Transit finishes (July 4th is our last day) and while the Lord provided enough to make payments for a while, I still have all that debt to pay off completely. Hopefully the trusting will be a bit easier this time!

PS, Pictures were taken but not by me, I'll post some when friends have put them on Facebook and I can steal them!

in heavenly peace

I've been thinking about peace this last wee while. So many Christmas songs are full of poetic lines expressing the beauty of the moment the Prince of Peace entered the chaos that is our world:

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Peace on earth, good will toward men

Now the reality of these songs sometimes seems a bit dodgy; we know Jesus wasn't really born in the middle of a snowstorm and the night was most likely full of noise. But I think there's something very important about the reality behind the imagery.

God had become man. The all-encompassing one had stepped into the finite product of his own creative word. And so whether or not the earth really did stand still in awe and recognition of that moment, whether or not Mary cried out with the pain of her labour, whether or not baby Jesus cried when the lowing cattle woke him up, the deep, dear silence of God Almighty broke into the piercing, anguished clatter of our world and everything changed in an instant.

Jesus, please come and be born in me today. Bring your peace into my hurriedness. Bring your stillness into my noise. Bring your calm into my anxiousness. Teach me how to rest in your heavenly peace...