Monday, July 30, 2007

Phase Two complete

Hooray for me!!

Today I finished what I am calling "Phase Two" of my Jeremiah study which means I have now outlined verse by verse the whole book (I then summarize the verses in a paragraph) and made comments, added bible verses and my own thoughts to every paragraph, well I think. Now I will be going over all of it. But needless to say I am very excited that I have finished outlining and my initial personal study. Bring on the commentaries!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

same colour same country?

Here's another great quote

Aren't Australia and New Zealand the same place, they are both purple on the risk board?

getting relationally whole again

Every track of fire in the night we have a two day seminar on "relational wholeness" or some might say "inner healing". This week was the week we had the seminar which was really good, it is the eighth time I have gone as I missed one of the seminars because I was in NZ. Speaking with my interns the teaching and ministry times have really helped them and has led to some great conversations about our skewed views of God. It's wonderful seeing the Lord break in on people's hearts and people being free on the inside.

It's wonderful but also very tiring and my introverted little self is thankfully alone tonight curling up on the couch reading "He who wept" a novel about Jeremiah. This scene will seem very similar to my family. I really like being alone and I like being okay with being an introvert, there is a lot of freedom when you understand that you want to be by yourself not because you don't like people but that you get energy by being by yourself, so to function best alone time is needed.

Which explains why I spend my Sabbath by myself, lately the only exception is my other introverted friend who I sometimes go for a walk with. I guess I just like being with myself!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Change is in air.....

I'm sure I would have mentioned that IHOP is going through a time where change is becoming a very common thing. In my own little life I have yet another change to inform people of.

I am now a Ministry Assistant for fire in the night. I am still core leading but am now also serving as an "MA". Basically I, with 2 other women help out the female core leaders with situations when they are not sure what to do, or just regular living as an intercessory missionary stuff. Because as core leaders we do pour ourselves out for our interns we also need people pouring into us and helping us keep perspective.

I'm excited about this change, what I like the most is when I looked around the room at my first MA meeting I was looking at a small group of 5 people who I really like and look forward to spending more time with in this context

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Of summer and Luke

I have two thoughts right now that are totally unrelated!

As I was walking today and outside at various times of the day I have to confess I was very very hot. Here's the thing, in the middle of summer it's hard to remember that 6 months ago I was having to carefully walk in snow, in fact it's hard to almost remember what that's like. I am very thankful to the Lord for revealing air conditioning to someone, he's pretty smart like that, of course as we approach very last days I have a feeling air conditioning is not going to be a top priority!

Secondly. I really like Luke, as I've been plugging along with my outlining (34 chapters to go!) as first I was not looking forward to Luke because it's really long but now I love it It's such a wonderful gospel because Luke has all these little details, like about Jesus' prayer life and just little comments that are amusing. Today Leah (my fitn co leader) and I had our apartment hang out time watching the gospel of John. I like it because Jesus smiled a lot and was happy, because I think Jesus was joyful while he was on the earth, because he likes himself, and he loves to reveal the Father to people, so I think that Jesus liked being with us, if he didn't then why would he die so he can be with us forever. In saying that I know that there is also the great mystery that the creator would bow so low to become part of creation - become a man forever. But it was the Father's pleasure to have his fullness dwell in bodily form.

those are my random thoughts for the day, soon I will write about Luke 23 - I'll keep you posted!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

"I've gotten up early for lesser reasons"

This is what I said to Sada when she asked me to prayer lead for the 2pm last week, this little phrase came in handy this weekend. Firstly the solemn assembly, the aim was to get there at noon with my room mate Amanda, neither of our alarms went off which meant I knocked on her door at 12:15pm and we were there by 12:45, not bad I think. The Solemn assembly was wonderful, it was great praying in a focussed way with a bunch of people.

I think one of our problems in getting up was that though we planned a hang out time we proceeded to talk until 8am, I will take responsibility for that because I started it with asking Amanda about a verse in James and what she thought. Amanda is one of my favorite people to talk to about the bible because she cares about the truth more than being "right".

Anyway, that was early day number one, after going to bed at 5:30am I got up again at 8:45am to go to the FCF service. The leader of the night watch was giving a message on the night watch and asked those who were willing to come, so we did. IT was a lot of fun and I cried (at both services) after this Amanda and I went and had lunch then a nice 3 hour nap before the second service, which was a little groundhog day like because I was going to the same building in the same clothes, with the same person to hear the same message. BUT it was so good remembering the importance of the night watch in the hour that we live in. What impacted me the most was actually Shelly's short exhortation that Jesus, the judge wants friends in the night, those that would weep with him, I think the other highlight was Stuart declaring Psalm 134 over us, pretty intense.

As I said I had not much sleep for lesser reasons than supporting my leadership and listening to a message about the night watch.

And a practical note - a short nap is better than nothing and drink lots of water!!!!
Wendy

Friday, July 6, 2007

The national holiday that came and went

Most people know that the 4th of July is a day the United States celebrate independence. I have to confess that this year all it meant for me was a I saw a few fireworks on the way to a class and that they collect the trash a day late.

This week and been very full with orientation for fire in the night, but more than that I've been working a lot on making the most of every hour of the day, which I've found is very tiring but it feels so good! I did two out of the ordinary things this week, one being I sung for a 6am team, they only had two singers, it was fun to "just sing" as usually I'm playing as well, they are fortunate that when I was asked my heart was feeling alive and I was having a "thank you Jesus that I am here" moment! Secondly I prayer led for a 2pm team which I enjoyed greatly. But do not fear! Though some of my actions could indicate otherwise I am not planning on moving onto days. I want to do the night watch until the end, by the grace of God.

Another cool little thing of the week, my interns and I were talking about bible stuff, just talking about verses, they were asking questions and that night when the leader of the night watch spoke he mentioned so many of the verses we had talked about there is no way you could call it a coincidence! It was really fun.

that's my week in a nutshell!

Sunday, July 1, 2007

It's been a while

This week has been very full so writing for my blog has not been on my priority list so much! But it's my Sabbath so I have a little time to catch up.

Our new interns arrived yesterday, I get to lead with my friend Leah which I am excited about. We have five women in our apartment and I am looking forward to getting to know them. Orientation is always a little overwhelming because we give A LOT of information in a short amount of time.

Today I have been thinking again about how thankful I am to be here. I remember when I would be cleaning my house back home and day dream about a place where there would be 24/7 prayer and worship, now I belong to one! Now I'm on memory lane. I also remember when our church did a all night prayer meeting, by the time we got to the end of the night there were maybe 6-8 people left, the leader said he felt there was something significant about that, maybe that was where I first got a glimpse of being able to minister before the Lord in a continual manner.

I am also becoming thankful for the focus that is coming to the night watch, with the global prayer teams. These teams sit in the first four rows. It's amazing sitting close to your friends and praying together, I really do like it.

So I'm thankful to the Lord for his kindness - the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places!