Chopped Lettuce

I have a feeling this will be a processing post...pardon my rambling.

Figures it would be 11:11PM as I start to write this. Does transition ever end? I don't think so.

I feel like this whole past month has been full of processing and yet nothing really seems to be resolved. Ministry school or mainstream academia, I think February/March brings a universal lull; it feels like the epitome of being in between. It's not that there hasn't been progress, but when you're on the ground, whacking through a jungle of decisions and theological revelations it's hard to tell you've gotten anywhere when your rear-view mirror just looks like chopped lettuce.

Some of that chopped lettuce is worth mentioning though, for example:

1. I've been volunteering nearly weekly to pray in the Bethel Healing Rooms for the last month and have experienced great breakthrough in praying for healing! I have so much fun praying with a different team every week, getting words of knowledge about people's conditions and being able to prophesy into their lives. It's so amazing to experience how God works and loves His people. This has been a significant growth experience for me and a confidence-builder in my own prayers. I'm getting to a place of radical expectancy for God to heal what I pray for. General testimonies include, pain leaving people's bodies, increased mobility, God encounters, a leg growing out, hearing improved and an amazing creative miracle of a guy's thumb knuckle bone growing in from where it had been crushed years ago in an accident! So cool!

2. I continue to meet weekly with my small group and genuinely enjoy their company, encouragement and insight into my life and God. I treasure times of quality community.

3. My family came to visit me (minus Josh) at the end of February into March. We attended the prophetic conference and all stayed in my little apartment together! It was some good, cozy family time, and it felt like we were all on vacation. I had been anticipating them coming for so long, it was hard to have them leave and adjust back to regular life, but I'm thankful that we're so close that we do genuinely miss each other and love it when we're together! It was a huge blessing to share my life here with them and introduce them to many of my friends as well.

4. Our BSSM first year class moved buildings from the sanctuary at Bethel to the Civic Center in Redding which is most recently operated by a non-profit created "underneath" Bethel Church and we basically rent the building as our school four days a week. This is an amazing opportunity for Bethel to build relationship with and bless the city of Redding. It's cool to be apart of such a significant transition in seeing God's kingdom expand - a positive spin get ring the class that gets to help work out all the kinks of a new meeting space! :)

5. Just a couple of weeks ago I met my neighbor Juan. I was on my way back from taking out the garbage when we struck up a conversation and I ended up sharing with him about ministry school and my relationship with Jesus. He kept acknowledging how happy and alive I was and I kept telling him that it was God. At the end of our little chat I asked him if he would be interested in coming to church with me that night and he said he would like that! So Juan followed me to church that night, I answered many questions about the Christian faith and Bethel, and he just went right with the flow of everything! By the end of the evening I found myself explaining what a fire tunnel is (a prayer tunnel of blessing and increase) and then asked him straight out if he wanted to have his own relationship with Jesus like we had been talking about. Long story short, he said yes, I prayed with him and Juan accepted Jesus into his life! Afterward, we went through the fire tunnel and he commented, "There's a lot of energy in there!" I smiled and said, "Yes, that's the presence of God!" Haha. (This story is AMAZING with more details and much better told in person than in writing, but I had to at least mention it in brief!!)

Now, just as I've adjusted back into the school and homework routine, there are only about 10 days until I leave on my mission trip to New Zealand and Tahiti! This officially hit me today as we had a team meeting and finally got some specifics on what our trip is going to look like. Last year at this time I was leading Bethel Choir through the Midwest on tour and now I get to be along for the ride as I travel across the world on my first international mission trip! The last time I was out of the country I was on England Term in 2009 - a trip that was the reason I ever started writing this blog and largely the reason why I'm in BSSM today! I love full circles...even when there are moments when it looks like chopped lettuce.

(More reflections and details to come regarding my mission trip in future posts!)