Awe and wonder dancing

This is the video of my friend Sharon dancing. She has NO formal training in ballet, but God healed her back and caused her to dance in freedom.

This week has surpassed my understanding of time, I feel like I have been down here for either one day or one month. Because I used to live in surrey and know a fair amount of people from the area, it has been incredible just to connect with so many people. I sometimes forget the impact of what I am doing, or more so the impact of what God is doing around me, and meeting with so many people causes me to share the stories of success surrounding the last few months. Seeing people set free from depression, relieved of physical and emotional pain. Knowing that God’s desire is for an intense loving and compassionate relationship with all of us.

I can’t even begin to explain the encouragement it has been to me to be able to share some of the insignificant details (in comparison to the greatness of Jesus) of what has been going on in my life. And that wasn’t even the purpose of coming down to the lower mainland. The purpose was to help people.

The first way that I had wanted to do this was through an organization called Nightshift (www.nighshiftministries.org). I came to surrey with no agenda and as a result I was completely open to helping wherever I was needed. This can often be a precarious situation, because you are likely to end up doing something that you don’t really want to do. But the main task that I felt I needed to do was to pray. So that’s one of the things I did. I spent the week in almost a constant state of prayer. Whether I was driving in traffic, scraping tinting off windows at the new nightshift center, or just literally praying. I have prayed for a long time, but as I continue to pray, it seems as the experience seems to grow and deepen because this was the deepest and most intense experience in all my life’s prayers. I felt God closer to me than I ever have before. It was like I was walking shoulder and shoulder with him, and as I prayed and walked into new and sometimes familiar situations it was like He would stop me and point out what HE saw.

As I prayed I felt that God was hearing my prayers as a conversation, that I was understanding His heart for me and the world around me (or all of us for that matter) in a new way. When I prayed for people, I watched as He ministered through me and penetrated the layers of humanity that surround us all by His Spirit. I came away feeling utterly in awe and with a new understanding of my Almighty Creator God. I still don’t understand why He chose me and wants to use me, I only know that He does.

It didn’t seem to matter where I went this last week, I found that I was speaking God’s truth into the situation around me. And where people were willing there was a profound change. I can’t even begin to explain this, because I don’t even understand it.

I spent time serving on the streets of surrey where I witnessed people being transformed by the power of God acting through people willing to demonstrate His Love. But then I also witnessed crowds of people who had been stripped of the little humanity they had as they gathered together in broad daylight to trade and sell drugs and attempt to find a new high. What a contrast to the love that I felt immersed in all week by my Loving Saviour.

I went to my former College, where I met people eager to see God’s passion birthed in the people around them so that lives can be transformed by the power of Jesus’ humility. I prayed with people and watched as God taught them new things about His character and grace in their lives.

Then in a fitting end, I spent 2 1/2 days at a campus ministry retreat where students from across BC came to share their desire and passion for God to change the world and culture around them. I was moved to tears as I watched a Father worship God with freedom and Joy although he had lost his oldest son (22 Yrs) one month prior in a car accident. I was overcome with emotion as the students began to pray to the indescribable God that they serve. I was moved with pure and utter Joy as I watched these same students begin to praise God with their own words and sing simple songs of love to their Saviour, Creator, and Father.

This week I watched as ‘heaven met earth with a sloppy wet kiss‘ and was moved, overcome, and amazed as I understood a small part of the heart of God.

Right now, I’m writing to the cyber world via my Parent’s house in Duncan, BC. I made the trip down yesterday after dropping a friend off at the ferry in Nanaimo. It is nice to have a break, last week was a whirlwind. The church helped out with the canada day celebrations, so in the morning I was up at 8:00 getting ready to flip pancakes, then at 10:00 it was off to put together a float for the church, then the parade, then a brief break, then we had a community barbeque at which we fed about 200 people. It was lots of fun.

We finished the night off by getting together to watch the Movie ‘the burbs’. And let me say, it was quite the cultural experience. I’ve never watched the movie before and I was watching it with people who had watched the movie hundreds of times. So rather than having an instant replay, I had an instant preview of what was to come in the movie. This was because the people on either side of me were on the edge of their seat with expectation of what the next line was in the movie.

The most exciting part of the day was when I got to go for a ride on a Coast Guard zodiac. I had always dreamed of riding on one and seeing how fast it could go. It was an absolutely thrilling experience, so as a result, I just had to film it with my camera.

Check out the video on youTube here: Canada Coast Guard Ride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gXh83hNnWw

Nerds UNITE!