Valentine's Day was last week. In the last few years I have noticed Australia making a bigger deal out of it than ever before. I think Australia tends to permanently borrow other country's special days or celebratory holidays. That's probably because we are so 'young' as a nation and we just want to have more days off work, or reasons to waste money on cards and chocolates. Am I saying Aussie's are lazy, Hallmark card-loving gluttons? Perhaps.
Anyway, we were not prepared for the Valentine's day extravaganza here in the U.S. I have found you can gauge the level of community support for a cause/holiday/occasion here by the size of the display of appropriate products at Walmart. Valentine's was no exception. Everywhere was red and pink with shiny helium balloons professing undying love (for one day at least). Rows and rows of cards for every person you can think of; mother, brother, cousin, uncle, grandma, teacher, pastor. It was amazing. I mean ask yourself Australians, who amongst you would present your sibling with a Valentine's card? Maybe for a joke, accompanied by a nipple cripple or wedgie for good measure. Oh no, not here. It is serious business. Our boys (reception and pre-school) were asked to bring a valentine for each of their class mates and also some love-esq treats for a class party. Having no idea of the Valentine's day etiquette, we went on down to Walmart and wandered the aisles of love trying to find the right thing to buy. We ended up with a packet of Cars 2 valentines, boxed conveniently in a Cars 2 'mailbox', in preparation for all the valentines the boys were going to receive in return. This really should have alerted me to the serious nature of the valentines giving ritual. Sam and Lachie enjoyed writing everyone's name in the little card and were pumped for their class parties. Sam took a packet of heart shaped marshmallows. Lachie took red grapes.
I don't think anyone of us realised what the day was going to hold. Especially Lach, who was calling it Ballentine's Day.
During the day, I went to the 'store' to get a few things and I was amazed that the customer ahead of me in the line wished the checkout lady a 'Happy Valentine's Day' to which she replied. 'Oh and also to you!' It felt like it should have been Easter or Christmas. An American friend of mine said 'at least we balance out our love of death during Halloween with our love of love on Valentine's'. So true. It was very strange though. I guess I always viewed Valentine's Day to be for couples. As in you wish your spouse, girl friend, boy friend etc a 'Happy Valentine's Day', not the lady down at the shops!!
Upon collecting the boys from school on Valentine's day, I had one of those dreaded moments in parenting when you realise you sent your child into a situation slightly under-prepared. Both Sam and Lachie hopped in the car holding a paper bag full of candy, little toys, trinkets and cards. Most valentine's cards had a little something attached to it. Some had a lot. Some cards were 3D, some were pop-up and others were made with materials found only in a craft shop. It was eye-opening to say the least. Lachie even had a home-made cookie in a bag with a ribbon. WHAT???? I was kicking myself I hadn't taken more notice when reading 'The Babysitter's Club' and 'Sweet Valley High' books in my pre-teen years. Oh well, the kids loved the candy and now we know for next year to step up the level of participation.
All this being said, we were very impressed with the atmosphere of love and honour for every child at Bethel Christian School. The day focused on God's love for all people, His Goodness and His affection for us. Prior to Valentine's Day, Sam was given a paper heart to decorate for a student and their family in his class. It was wonderful to be able to write words of affirmation from one family to another. Once again, we were impressed with the atmosphere of love and honour at this wonderful school. Although Valentine's day was much bigger than we'd anticipated, I know my kids came away from it feeling cared for and appreciated for who they are.
Ben and I were blessed to be able to go out to a movie and dinner for our Valentine's day celebrations. We enjoyed our time alone together and loved the buzzing atmosphere of the busy Italian restaurant we went to. The waiter even gave me a red rose. It was a great night. I felt blessed to be loved not only by my amazing husband but by an outrageously good God who calls me His 'Beloved' everyday of my life. Everyday is Valentine's day with the Lord.
We've had a big week. It's been busy, yes, but it was also big in other ways.
Randy Clark was in town running a Healing and Impartation school (pretty much just a conference with 'doing' bits) with Bill Johnson. As a BSSM student, Ben was invited to attend free of charge and I was able to go to 2 of the evening sessions.
Randy is a healing evangelist and in fact unintentionally started what is now known as the 'Toronto Blessing'. I know many of you may freak out about that. Back in 1994, in a normal everyday meeting, Randy simply invited Holy Spirit to come and He came! Yeah, some people did some weird stuff but no one I have ever spoken to that went to Toronto during that intense time of renewal came away unchanged or uneffected by God. In fact it still continues today.
Anyway, Randy and Bill were teaching on healing and everyday there were many people healed of all kinds of things. On the last night there were over 200 people healed. That's a good night at church. Metal disappeared, cartilage grew, backs were straightened, headaches went and skin conditions were healed in the name of Jesus. There was so much going on it was amazing. It was intense too as some of the time the people who were ok were praying for those with the need. Sometimes nothing happened. That can be crushing both for the one in pain and the one praying. In all things though, it was reiterated to me this week that I have a responsibility to pray because I believe that God is Good and in a good mood. I believe that when Jesus died, He died not only for our salvation but also for our freedom from all oppression, including sickness and pain. So I will pray.
Tuesday saw the Lord provide for us in new and exciting ways. We needed money and He came through for us. What a loving Daddy we have. When He promised in His word that he would provide for all His kids, He wasn't kidding. It was amazing to really know He has our needs sorted.
This week I volunteered in the Bethel Christian School lunchroom. Oh my, it was loud. I was crossing off the names for the hot lunches and I had fun chatting to the kids and freaking them out with my weird accent. The whole 'lunchroom' thing was new to me and yet again, I felt as though I had climbed into my TV back in Australia.
It was also raining most of the week. Like really really raining. It was sort of nice being all cosy inside while it poured down outside but the kids were going a bit stir-crazy by Friday. A lot of snow fell on the mountains around Redding which is a treat to see. Sam managed to get very wet each day at school. Probably because he chose not to wear his rain jacket a lot of the time. Apparently he 'likes the rain'. I have my suspicions that it is all a clever ploy to get me to buy him an umbrella.
Its been quite a while since my last post and it feels as though a lot has happened. Although, when I really think about what events have occurred, its just everyday life stuff. Birthdays, Christmas, visitors, holidays; these are all things that everyone has going on across the globe. It's this fact that sometimes stalls my blogging. Can I make the 'everyday' interesting enough to post?
Anyway, I shall press on.
December 1st was our 10th Wedding Anniversary. It seems to have passed rather quickly, I guess that's a good sign? I never would have thought we'd be living in California when we said our vows 10 years ago. We were very blessed by Ben's revival group and were given money to spend out at a lovely restaurant for dinner and they even pitched in and bought me a beautiful necklace. We were both very touched by the generosity of fellow students, whom we know are also living pretty close to the wire financially. The culture of giving is amazing here. The offering each Sunday is one of my favourite parts of the service. Can you believe that?
My parents came and stayed with us for 3.5 weeks over Christmas and in fact left just yesterday. Sam cried all the way home from the airport after declaring 'I didn't want them to ever leave!'. We enjoyed trips to the library and the shops together. Grandma was dishing out the tictacs like nobodies business and Grandad played more games of 'this little piggy' than I'm sure he thought possible. My washing pile not only got under control but disappeared as Mum worked her magic. My sink was the cleanest its been since we moved in. I have a suspicion she also cleaned the bathroom before she left.......
It was wonderful to have them here for Christmas. Present time was the usual heady mix of fun and craziness that comes with having kids. Lego was built and sometimes Grandad even let Sam have a turn. Haha! New jumpers were forced over existing one's in order to model the upgrade and new pajamas were also on show immediately. We ate turkey and stuffing and too much chocolate. It was a great day.
I forgot to mention that in the week before Christmas, Ben made a quick trip to Australia for the wedding of some very close friends of ours. I was pretty sad that I couldn't make it as well but as my Dad would say 'dem's the breaks, kid'. Ben returned late afternoon Christmas Eve. When we arrived to pick him up from the airport, there was quite a crowd of people waiting for the plane. Something was going on. As we waited, a bunch of older gentlemen formed a guard of honour, each holding the US flag. Right next to me, waited a woman about my age holding a toddler. She was looking anxiously towards the arrival doors and started to shake and cry when she saw her husband, a returned soldier walk across the tarmac. It was a very special moment and I felt so honoured to be there. As the couple were reunited, I heard the soldier say to his little boy, 'Hi fella! I'm your Daddy'. Needless to say, I was reminded of how blessed we were to be getting Ben back after just a week away.
A sad consequence of Ben being away was that he missed Sam's 6th birthday. It was also Sam's class Christmas party at school so the boy was in party heaven. I went in and dropped off some cupcakes and sang 'happy birthday' with his class. His teacher, the lovely Miss Brown, also asked a few kids to pray for him and bless him on his special day. It was just another moment in which I was so very thankful for Bethel and it's culture of Love.
The day before Mum and Dad left, we drove up to Mt Shasta to see the snow and go tobogganing. Many happy memories were created, the best being watching Mum and Dad come down together on a toboggan. Oh I haven't laughed that hard in ages. The boys had a blast and were climbing higher and higher up the slope the more confident they became. Hannah hated it until about 10 mins before we had to leave, then chucked a fit because it was over. *sigh*
All in all, things are travelling pretty smoothly. Ben and the kids go back to school on Monday and I think I am ready to get back into some routine, although don't ask me at 6am Monday morning.
We pray that as you step into 2012, you would know and encounter the immense Love of God for you. His total Goodness and the Hope that comes from knowing Him. There is always More.
So the 24th of November was our very first Thanksgiving. It was a strange day for us Aussies, as it sort of felt like Christmas, without the presents. But then it was quite cold and rainy so it wasn't Christmas weather as we know it. The closest thing we could liken it to was a big family gathering for a special occasion like a birthday or something. Apparently we got the whole Thanksgiving experience right though cause we all ate a lot and finished the evening sitting at home with the top button of our pants undone for greater comfort.
We were invited to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Tooley family, whom we met at a conference in Sydney almost 2 years ago. It has been wonderful to be able to share this journey with them as they too packed up their home and family and made the move to Redding. They really are our extended family and we're so blessed by them on many levels.
They are incredibly generous people, both in terms of resources and being generous with their family time. This being said, in addition to our family of 5, there were approximately 20 other people at the Thanksgiving meal! It was a wonderful afternoon. Its so fun when strangers become family and friends.
Before all the festivities started though, I ran in the Turkey Trot. As I previously mentioned, it was a cold and rainy morning. I felt a little hesitant to get out in it and run 6 miles. I had registered, paid my money and got the sweatshirt (which I wear with pride!) so I had to do it!
We bundled up the kids and drove to the starting area near the Sacramento River in Redding. There were probably a couple of thousand people milling around, looking cold and shivering in tiny running shorts and singlets. They were handing out bagels and coffee, which seemed a little strange but whatever.
Eventually it came time to start and so I farewelled the family and jogged away up the River trail and back again in about 57 mins. Crossing the finish line was the best bit and seeing the kids cheer me on was pretty special.
The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. It's the biggest shopping day in America each year apparently. It could be likened to the Boxing Day sales in Australia but on steroids. Some shops open at midnight on the 24th, others open through out the early hours of the 25th. I decided I wanted to experience this shopping phenomenon so I rested on the couch until 11:30pm and headed down to one of the department stores in Redding. I only needed to buy a quilt, as we didn't have one, so I foolishly thought I'd be in and out in a matter of minutes. Well, I was shocked to arrive and see a line of people wrapping all the way around the store waiting for the doors to open at Midnight. It was crazy! And this was happening at multiple shops around town. The vibe outside was cut-throat and some women almost came to blows over a line dispute. I was a little scared!
Midnight ticked over and the doors swung open. People rushed in, mad for bargains. I waited until the back of the queue came past and joined on the end, hence successfully avoiding getting my face smashed in for jumping the line of irate shoppers.
Well it took me about 1 min to locate the quilts, choose one and make my way to the check outs. It was here that I waited for 40mins just to make my purchase. It was horrible! I went to Target after that and the same thing happened. By about 3am I was so over it and I don't think I'll bother again next year. The eternal question remains: how far does one go for a good bargain?
A couple days after Thanksgiving we finally managed to get out of Redding and do something 'touristy'. We took a trip up to Burney Falls, about an hour away. We drove through a few towns that looked a little like movie sets and kept our heads down in case of stray bullets.
The falls themselves were amazing and nothing like we'd ever seen before. It was a lovely sunny day but cold and wet down in the valley with the river and the waterfall. The kids had a great time as we walked a mile loop around the area as Ben and I were kept on our toes keeping the little ones from falling down the hillside and into the freezing water. Being of good stock, they were too stubborn to accept help from either of us so we resorted to a herding sheep/netball defence style of protection. We made it back to the car safely and stopped off at McDonalds for lunch on the way home. Unfortunately I think the Happy Meal eclipsed the natural beauty of the falls and as we were praying that night, there was a lot of thanks to the Lord for lunch.
So Ben, it's finally time to man up and try and contribute to the Wilson family blog.
I apologise in advance to all the sincere fans of my beautiful wife and her blog entries, I realize the standard that she offers and what I am about to dish up (as my new American friends would say) "Ain't even in the same ball park."
I know I have offered very little/nothing to this blog so far, but a month or more ago now I sat down and spent a whole night writing an incredible blog entry only to press the wrong button at the critical moment when trying to save it and watch it all disappear never to return. Computers and I have very much a love hate relationship!!! And it has taken me this long to get over the devastation and try and have another crack, so here we go!!
I don't really know how to put all of my recent experiences into a blog entry. Jo is so amazing at these blog entries and has done a great job filling you guys in on lots of the stuff that is going on in everyday life. But she can't really fill you in with what is happening with me and my school experience so I will try and cover that. First thing that needs to mentioned is the shock the whole thing has been to my system. Firstly my classroom is chock full of over 900 people. I have come from not having another person in over 900 acres, to 900 people in one room. AAARRGGHH!! I have found at times that I just need to find a quiet place by myself outside or even just go to the toilet to get some space to think and regroup. Its not that I am not enjoying the fellowship and the business and craziness of this school. I am, it just takes a lot out of me each day.
I found it hard at the start of school to really connect with people, you might have a decent conversation with someone one day, and honestly not see them again for a week because of the amount of people and the extreme nature of the work load and schedule at school. There is not really much opportunity for hanging out and getting to know people, which I struggled with at the start. But once I realized that realistically I was only probably going to ever meet maybe half of the people in my class and only make half decent relationship with about 10% of them it made me relax and just let God do the divine setups with the people that He wanted me connected with. I took the pressure off of myself.
After a few weeks we got split up into smaller groups of around 60 people called revival groups. I love the lingo around this place. We have a revival group pastor with around 5-6 interns that help out and we meet together as a revival group once a week for 1.5 hours. I wish it was more, it really is an awesome time and have made stronger connections from this group. And then again out of that we were split up into small groups of 5-6. Which again has helped form even deeper friendships, and we also meet once a week for an hour and a half.
Over the last month or so I have begun to make some quite deep friendships with people in school. Most of these relationships are with other Australians that I have met here. It is so exciting to see the quality of the Australian contingent that is over here this year. I have had two people in random conversations say to me, "what is it about all you Australians? You are all so mature and ready for action". To which I say "Amen!".
Some of the people I am connecting with I honestly feel it is an honour to just meet them let alone start to do life with. I really feel like there are people here who are going to be positioned in the next decade to shape and shake our nation and the nations of the world for the Kingdom of God. And I can already call many of them my friends. Thank you Jesus. We truly are so blessed to be having this experience. Thankyou so much to you all for contributing either with prayer or financially. I can never repay you for the way you are blessing us.
The other thing that has been incredibly hard to get used to has been the workload. I knew that we would be busy but don't think I realized that it would be this busy. Obviously I am at school during the day, and then I have 2-3 hours of homework a day, maybe only 1-1.5 hours a day on a weekend. Probably doesn't seem much to those at school or at uni but for me it has been a big shock, because I haven't had any homework to do for a long time. This last week I have been staying up to around 1:30am ish most nights trying to get all my assignments done on time. But then those of you with kids will know that the kids don't show you any mercy the next morning, they still get up incredibly early especially when we have to get the kids to school by 7:45am every morning.
It does help that the homework is awesome, very challenging in that it leaves you nowhere to hide. That is probably the best way to describe this whole experience. Imagine the intensity of the best camp/conference you have ever been on and do that most days of every week for months on end. Every little hang up or wrong piece of thinking etc gets revealed in the intensity of His Presence and the quality of the teaching. So it has been an amazing few months, but it has been quite traumatic and emotional if I am honest. Think how much you grow and develop in that camp/conference setting well I really feel that I have grown and matured probably about a normal year of my christian experience in two months. Don't think I am exaggerating either. I am getting some of the best teachers from all around the world every day, we worship for at least an hour every day at school, and I am hanging out with some of the hungriest people on the planet every day. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize that it's not a dream. The scariest thing for me is becoming complacent with what is happening in my life right now. Although it's far from normal, it is my normal now and it's easy to just go through the motions and I see plenty of fellow students doing that now and I am desperate not to do that. If you could keep praying for all of us, I would really appreciate it. We have been under plenty of attacks since we have been here, so would really appreciate your prayer covering.
There are just so many opportunities around this place. It's incredible to think that this church only seats around 950 in it's auditorium but employs over 600 staff. That might give you an idea of the enormity of activity around this joint, it's incredible. So it's a matter of picking and choosing, stewarding your time wisely, which we are walking the fine line of quite well I think. Don't want to over do it, but at the same time the opportunities at our door stop are once in a life time, and so we want to take as many of these opportunities as are appropriate to us and our situation. Which means that most mornings Jo and I are not in the same house, with Jo going to as many things as she can and obviously I am out the rest of the day at school. It is really good to see Jo joining small groups and getting some good connections with some awesome women of God, and trying new things and stretching herself. She is working hard in her fitness group in which she is the star pupil, and get's special exercises from the instructor because she works far harder than any other of them. Good to see my hard work with her has paid off when she used to be soft. HAHA!! Just jokes darling, it's more like she said the other day once you have pushed out 3 children pushing through 30 seconds more pain is nothing. That's my girl. So proud of my wife. She is the fittest she has ever been and is truly an inspiration with the shape she is in, having had three children. She has run the 6 mile journey back from school quite regularly and is doing a Thanksgiving run in a week or so called quite amusingly "The Turkey Trot." Which is a six mile "fun" run. And she has found out about a 10 mile event in January which I know she is really keen to do, and knowing her she will dominate it. For those of you that don't know 10 miles is 16 kilometres. What a woman!!
Part of the whole school experience is the opportunity is to go on a missions trip. There were honestly hundreds of options, it's quite staggering to see the effect and reach that Bethel Church is having not only here in the U.S. but in the World. There were multiple trip opportunities to every continent (except poor old antartica) of the Earth.
Now I think Jo mentioned the missions trip in her last blog entry. There have been a few developments since then. I had the opportunity to pick a top five list from the hundreds of trips offered. There was a wide variety of prices and locations. I tried to pick a mix of these, according to where I felt the Spirit was leading me. Before the trips came up on line I was telling people how I was so keen to go to Argentina or Brazil, and felt a strong desire to go to South America and always have. Especially reading over many years about the massive revivals that have been going on down there for 20 plus years with millions coming to Christ it has always had a strong pull upon my heart. When the trip options came out, Brazil and Argentina weren't even options and I really didn't feel the strongest pull towards the other South American options listed. So I wrote down 5 completely different trips with some really cheap ones, some mid range and one quite expensive trip. Quite a few friends of mine didn't even get accepted in any of their top 5 choices but I got accepted to South Africa which was my number 1 choice so I was happy and excited to be going.
One of the revival group pastors (a fellow Aussie) and I have established quite a good friendship and he has been really encouraging and sowing into my life which I really appreciate. Shortly after being accepted into the South Africa trip, he put an update on his facebook page saying that he was now officially taking a team to Argentina. So I wrote something like, "sounds awesome mate, will be an awesome trip". He messaged me straight away and said he wanted me on his team and was more than happy to try and organize moving me out of the other trip if I was interested. I was so excited. It is an expensive trip, being around $3000 and a big decision to make. I really wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing so I took a week or so to make my decision, but I really felt strongly that God wanted me on that trip hence why I was singled out to be on the trip. I knew that this part of the world had been on my heart for many years, and I felt His Presence on me when I read about the trip and felt my spirit get excited. You know how it's hard to describe, but you know when you know. That's how I felt. And this revival group pastor has gone around and assembled an awesome team, many of which I was friends with and impressed with already. As for the financial side of things, I really felt God say to me, "it's My will so it's My bill". So I trusted him and signed up.
During the trip, we will be going to a church in Buenos Aires, which has 25,000 members or something ridiculous like that.
I know this is long already but I think it's important to give you guys some insight in to what I am going to be doing and give you an idea what you will be sowing into if you choose to support me in any way.
The pastor of this massive Argentinian church came and ministered to us in our school earlier in the year through an interpreter. It was the most impactful session on me personally so far. We saw some videos of him preaching to massive football stadiums in Argentina completely full of people.
The story of his church is that he had grown it too about 1000 through 10 years of hard work and smart techniques and good leadership rather than any relying on God's power. And he knew it and started to get incredibly hungry crying out night and day for his country, for revival to come. For more anointing to flow through him in ministry to get more breakthrough in reaching the lost of his city, for signs and wonders to break out in his church to attract the lost and broken. He got an impartation from someone (who I can't remember) by the laying on of hands at a big conference in the USA and didn't feel any different. But his first service back at his church he was up the front and he noticed something that needed dealing with over in one of the corners of the church and he was trying to get the ushers attention at the back of the church by waving his hand in the direction of the issue. And one whole half of the church falls down under the power of the Holy Spirit as he was waving his hand. He was more shocked than anyone. This was back in 1991-2, before email and the internet. Between that Sunday service and the following Tuesday prayer meeting, the congregation multiplied, through word of mouth, so much so that they had to hire a 6000 seat football stadium for the prayer meeting. And so from then on it has just grown and grown.
During the trip, we are going in for a weekend of services and then going out with 500 hundred others from this church on their biggest outreach of the year into the poorest parts of the city with food, love, clothing, blankets, and power encounters with Jesus. Followed by another weekend of meetings before going home. We are also going to have the honour of just our small team of 20 or so getting to have and impartation with this guy. Sounds amazing, I can't wait. An amazing opportunity, to meet someone who has been a big part of revival in his country, city and church for 20 years, and sit and chat with him and glean information and insights how to carry something that significant back in Australia, well that's what I am believing for any way!!!
If you are interested in sowing in to this amazing trip, then just click on the link on the side of this blog and follow the links. All donations can be totally anonymous if you prefer. I absolutely hate asking for money so this hurts my feelings but the Bible says, "You do not have because you do not ask." James 4:2. I feel like it's good for my character, and something that we as Christians need to get better at - being honest when we need help and asking for it. Having said that, we have received some generous gifts from people already and we'd love to say a massive 'Thank You!' and pray that God would bless you abundantly in return.
One last thing to talk about before I finally finish this blogging marathon. You might have seen the video I posted on facebook if not have a look at the video above.This video was taken at last Sunday night's service here at Bethel Church in Redding California.
What to make of this unexplainable cloud of a sparkly, glitter like substance just seemingly exploding in mid air. Well variations of this have happened 5 times since August and 3 times in the last few weeks. I think I posted another one a few weeks ago. All I can say I can understand if it is extremely hard for your brain to understand and you are doubting. I think I would too if I hadn't been standing in the midst of it for over half an hour on two occasions. And even then it took me a while to make the connections in my brain - heart - spirit that this was God!
Is anyone seeking signs over Jesus in this church? Absolutely, 100% NO. The first time it happened it was in the middle of ministry time at the end of a conference, and it seemed to correlate to the worship of the people. Everything stopped, and people just started cheering to begin with sure. But then spent the next hour singing 'Holy, Holy Holy', simply worshipping Jesus and as we did, the cloud would swell and increase it was incredible to see. In absolute midair with nothing around it. (Video does it no justice) The next time it was in worship time, and then the last one was in the middle of the sermon. I heard it was happening a few weeks ago so I said to myself I have got to go and see this for myself so I drove up there and got myself wedged in right beside a big crowd on the stage and had this gold like substance swirling all around me. Then I had the most bizarre thing ever happen to me. This glory cloud started coming seemingly straight out of the wall two metres in front of me straight into my face for around 15 minutes. I even went and checked the wall. It is a solid wall. This cloud is like a wave of specks, I could feel them and people were just covered in a gold like substance in their hair and on their clothes, it was so strange. It did look like streamers on the video but in reality, they were tiny little flecks and there were just so many of them it made it look like and AFL grandfinal celebration. HAHA! We were just singing a song that goes, "open up the floodgates of heaven, let it rain, let it rain, open up the floodgates of heaven". And it just kept coming, there was such a sense of awe and the healthy fear of God was in the room it was amazing.
Okay can I explain it? Absolutely not. Do I have too? There are obvious biblical examples of similar things happening in the OT, but I don't feel like I have to be justifying what I saw and experienced with my own body. I like to think that anyone who knows me knows that I am not going to over dramatize something. But at the same time it was incredibly dramatic. If God can lead a nation by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, I am not so sure what all the fuss is about really. Do I have all the answers no, but I choose to press in as a believer and live up to that name - BELIEVER. I will finish with a quote from one of my aussie mates about the issue on his facebook update.
"I was there! I have friends who wondered at the relevance of this. They ask, "How is this helping the starving in Africa?"
I don't know how, or why. But this is my response. I will celebrate whatever God is doing, and not question Him about what He's not doing. Ps 115:3 "God is in Heaven. He does whatever He pleases."
That's not meant to be harsh but it is the truth. Who do we really think we are that we get to decide what God can and can't do?
Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of this ramble. Thankfully Jo can come back and rescue this next time! But hopefully that gives you all a bit better idea of what my life looks like as a student now. If not at least it makes me feel as though I have tried, and I can stop feeling guilty that I haven't even told anyone how school has been going and I have been doing it for 2 months,and I can just go back to doing enormous amounts of homework instead.
Love to you all and might see some of you pretty soon as I am flying back to Adelaide in late December for a week for the wedding of the decade.
Ok, so I was a little premature in proclaiming that the rainy season had begun. Since I wrote the last post, the weather has been sunny and pleasant. Apparently un-seasonally so.
People are gearing up for Halloween, which is a little yucky. I'm not sure what the attraction is about having a life-size grim-reaper in your front yard and fake spider webs stretched across the door. I really don't get it.
Accompanying the gruesome decor are pumpkins. Big, orange pumpkins everywhere! People are selling them on the roadside, as well as in the supermarkets. The boys have each had a field trip to the local pumpkin farm with school and have (unfortunately) come home with a pumpkin of their own. I just don't know what to do with them to be honest. Currently they are rotting in the back yard. I'm uncertain that this is the intended purpose.
Pumpkins aside, things are busy and interesting in our family at the moment. Last week I attended the Open Heavens conference at church after miraculously snagging two tickets very last minute. It had been sold out for weeks and I just happened to come across a lady wanting to sell her tickets on Craigslist. Moments before seeing the ad I had been venting to Ben about feeling a little trapped at home and wondering if I was ever going to get a chance to be involved in something outside of the everyday stuff of mothering. Ben didn't have school due to the conference being on so he was able to have the kids while I went and got fed spiritually and worshiped so hard I lost my voice. It was a wonderful few days. I gave the other ticket to a fellow BSSM wife and stay at home mum. Yay!
Also, last Sunday I started a prophetic art class. Hmm, I bet that's got some of you thinking. Now I'm no artist but since being here I have realised that I feel truly alive when I am creating something. So when I saw the notice in the church bulletin, I felt as though I should explore this new thing I had discovered about myself. When I say 'prophetic art' it just means art that carries a message from God. Art that is Holy Spirit inspired, for the purpose of building up the church as a whole and individuals too. Testimonies were given about pieces of art that had brought both physical and spiritual healing. One young man bravely got up and told the class that up until late last year, he had been severely depressed and into self-harm. He somehow went to Bethel and while the worship was happening, one of the artists (they usually have people painting whilst worship is on) painted the word HOPE. After the service, he went up to the painting, stood before it, read it and was healed. Amazing. I'm looking forward to getting into whatever it is that the Lord has for me in this new arena.
Hannah has started a Suzuki music class on Friday mornings. She is enjoying singing and bashing the xylophone and dancing around with coloured scarves with all the other toddlers. Its so fun to watch her enthralled by a new instrument and see her try and do the actions to the songs. She happily gets up from my lap and waddles over to the teacher for her turn on the drum or whatever. It brings me great joy to see her stepping into her independence and taking the chances offered to her.
Lachie is enjoying pre-school and today told me randomly 'God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all!' It was a great moment. We pray that the truth of that verse (1 John 1v5) is forever etched in his heart. He is loving learning the alphabet and gets pretty excited when he recognises the letters he has learnt when we are out and about. Also, thanks to Dora the Explorer, Lachie also counts to 3 in Spanish and will often pipe up with a random Spanish word for something. As his parents, this is both irritating and amusing.
Overall, life is indeed sunny. Although we are busy, we are full, life is full and it is a good feeling. We are being filled with things that we are passionate about, that we have a heart for so it is not a drag or an inconvenience to get to whatever is on the calendar. These are happy times.
P.S. here is a short video of Sam doing what his class does each morning: THE PLEDGE
So yesterday it started to rain in Redding. The shift from extreme summer heat to cold, wet winter has literally happened over night and 'Fall' has been somewhat bypassed. Redding locals tell us that once it starts raining, it pretty much doesn't really stop for a few months. Great news. I'd sort of like to find a balance between extreme weather patterns for my own sanity but we'll work with what we've got. The boys have relished being dressed in winter gear and were very excited to be able to wear raincoats to school. I wonder how long that will last?
Last week Ben went to Chico, a town about 1.5hrs away, with his Revival Group (60ish people) for a 3 day retreat. By all accounts it was a great time of getting to know each other and building relationships. Ben and a bunch of other guys prayed for a man and saw his leg grow out to match his other one. Incredible. This sort of thing is common place among the students as they are so hungry for more of the Lord and willing to give whatever it takes to press in and get it. Watch the clip of it here. God is Healer!
While Ben was growing legs in Jesus' name, I was holding down the fort at home. The time went quickly and I was happy knowing that Ben was where he should be. Its always hard parenting solo but at the moment I'm totally cool with working with Ben to make sure we both get as much out of our time here as possible. Ben actually sent me flowers while he was away with a note of thanks for all my efforts with the kids. The delivery came at just the right time, I'd had a bit of a rough afternoon and to be completely honest had just spent the last minute or so silently punching the couch in frustration. Yeah, how's that for a look into real life! Anyway, my phone rang and it was the flower guy. My heart was immediately softened as I felt not only Ben's love but also God's love for me. Of course it brought me to tears and I repented of my couch bashing. Haha!
This evening Ben and I have been looking at all the options available for his mission trip in March next year. He needs to apply for his top 5 preferences and he is so far struggling to narrow it down to that many! Every trip would be completely amazing. There are options all over the U.S., Mexico, South America, Africa, Europe and Canada. He feels led to apply for a trip to Honduras and Nicaragua. It's purpose is to reach out to the people that live on the rubbish dumps. They would be taking food and clothing to give them as well as just heaps and heaps of God's love. We watched this clip from a previous trip and were bawling our eyes out. Have a look here and prepare to be moved.
The cost of every mission trip is the responsibility of the student. This trip will cost $2400 USD. It's not factored into the tuition fees for BSSM so we need to raise that amount in order to send Ben there. We believe that God has got it covered and so Ben's applied in faith that the funds will come in. We'd love it if you would like to bless Ben financially for this trip. If you feel led to do so, click here. Thanks so much in advance, lets bring some Hope and Love to a forgotten people group.
In finishing, I just wanted to say how grateful we are to be here, living out our dream. We couldn't survive without the financial aid of so many people. Every time I get to the check out at the supermarket I thank Jesus for providing the cash. Not just enough to survive, but to thrive. Our God is the God of abundant blessing, and He's pouring it out through so many of you (and your wallets!), so thankyou thankyou thankyou!
