Its A Miracle!!!/Closer Then We Think

Friday, June 27, 2008

Its A Miracle!!!

I have not always been the best sleeper, but ever since my teens years when I can sleep I SLEEP! Its been nothing for me in the past to sleep in until 2 in the afternoon.....or later lol
This has been one of my concerns when it comes to LT becuase its a very disciplined structured environment and there aint no sleepin' till 2 in the afternoon! So I decided about a month ago that even if it killed me I was going to start getting up by 8am every day. And at the same time I started to pray for strength in this discipline, because I really truly wanted to be done with my bad sleeping habits. The first couple weeks was hard, and I although I had alot of help from the Lord, I knew that it had to be my decision to get up.

Starting into the 3rd and 4th week I started to wake up more regularly always at the same time. And admittingly, I would try to go back to sleep but I couldnt. No matter how hard I tried I couldnt go back to sleep....and deep down I was happy about that.

That was about 6 weeks ago, and still without fail I wake up every morning and actually WANT to get out of bed!!

Now, I have been waking up every morning at 8am. I was thinking to myself the other day that when I get to LT I will be able to adjust pretty easily to getting up an hour earlier, because regular weekday wake up time is 7am....and then it occured to me that Branson is an hour behind Matheson......so I already am in the perfect shedule that I need to be!

I think its amazing how the Lord is preparing me in so many ways for this year that He has called me to. It may seem silly to other people, but the Lord knows my heart and knew it was a concern, so He helped me and prepared me even more then I asked Him to. My faith has increased alot in the last several months as I have seen the ways He has worked and prepared my heart...He is such a great God!! and I am so excited to see and experience the things that He still has planned.....I couldnt sleep even if I wanted to!! :)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Closer Then We Think

This is a very exciting time for my little teeny hometown of Matheson. A missionary team consisting of 2 people from Romania, one from Bulgaria and one who is from Iroquouis Falls (a town close to Matheson) have come to minister, be ministered to and join together with the saints here to intercede for our town. This is amazing to me because (1) I have always had the mindset that the western world goes to the eastern world as missionaries.....and I suppose at one time that was true, but all we have to do is look around and we can see that we are less of Christian nation then we were 100 years ago...I am thankful that this "boxed" mindset of mine has been broken.....and (2) of all places they came to Matheson! This place is small...like no stoplights, everything closes down by 6pm small lol. But God in his awesome soveriegnty sent missionaries from across the world! AWESOME!

For the couple weeks they are here, they will be responsible for most of the services and last night we had a bible study. There were a couple things said that stirred my excitement about LeadTime. Renaud, the leader of the team and the one who is from Iroquois Falls, shared an example from scripture where Paul has several people on his team with him that are from different nations. When Renaud was planning this trip he felt that the team members would be from different nations. On their team they have 3 countries represented. He spoke of how there is a special confirmation of God's work when we have the opportunity to come together with other nations in worship, prayer and hear testimony from others. Its amazing when we can relate to someone so intimately because of their relationship with Jesus, even though they live in such a different culture.

Months ago when I first inquired about my visa with LeadTime Amy told me that it was the year of the "internationals." LeadTime has only ever had students from the states and this year there are 3 students from other countries. There is me :), Dorothy from Uganda and one other student that I am not sure who it is or where they come from lol. I was very excited when I heard this, and when I heard Renaud speak last night with such an excitement about God bringing together different cultures, it got me kind of stirred up and even more excited! But I am not even sure that either of the other international students are going to be on the campus I will be on! I hope so though, it would be a really neat experience.

The other thing that stirred my heart was a scripture he shared about Paul. The bible says that for a time Paul stayed in a certain place to make tents because he had that trade ( I need to find it cuz I missed the reference lol). But basically the idea behind the scripture was that Paul took time to work likely providing some of his needs to travel and share the gospel. At that moment I felt very connected to Paul, and the Word was very real. When I was in Sarnia I worked but I didnt work with the intent of using my money to minister. It was a means of survival, mental health, all those reasons that healthy people work, excluding the purpose of ministry. And that was ok for that season, but now I am working with a different goal in mind. The purpose of my effort, the whole reason I am working where I am now is to prepare for the ministry that God has called me to.......just like we are so closely connected with our brothers and sisters all the way across the world who have a different culture and a different way of life, we are so closely connected with even those that were here 2000 years or so ago......its so evident that we all serve the same Lord and have the same purpose in mind....even though some people make tents and some people are social workers