****PILATES****

AKA GUYS' HONORING

Sneaky huh, to use a code name like that? Yeah, I know, we are so cool. So here's the deal... it has become a tradition in the school (which began with the boys) that the guys take a day to honor the girls and the girls take a day to honor the guys. One of the weeks of school is honor so it ties in, but our "Honor" week isn't til the end of school so I guess we'll learn after we practice. Anyway we girls have been having "Pilates" meetings to discuss our plans for how to honor the guys and today was the day to see everything fall into place. O WOW what the Holy Spirit all over that one because I don't know how the day could have gone much smoother! I love hosting parties/throwing parties/catering/event planning/whatever... so I'm used to stress and work and running around and all that. This had some running around (what kind of event would it be without that?) but the ridiculous stress was not there at all. It was actually a really odd feeling.

Here's the plan: Previously each girls' room was designated a guys' room to write prophetic words about and pray for. The words were put in green bottles ("message in a bottle") and placed in their rooms during the evening events. Saturday a bunch of girls baked cookies, cupcakes, and muffins for the day- yummy. Sunday evening we decorated the whole auditorium, the hallways, the guys' doors, and blacked out the windows so they couldn't see in. Oh yeah, and a couple girls and I changed the words to a song and made up a dance here too. Awesome. My room still had prophesying to do (so fun! it's getting easier too- my brain was not functioning but I was able to write words down in the flow. makes sense since I'm not speaking from my head anyway, right?), made it to bed ~3. TODAY>>> woke up way to early. Francis (cook) didn't start breakfast until 30 mins til we wanted to serve it, but he's experienced and knows what he's doing. Ladies cut fruit, set up tables, yada, yada, you know the drill. 

Breakfast at 10 went well minus having to bug Francis for more eggs for the bfast burritos. Spread included burritos, muffins, Starbucks coffee (this is a big deal- cafe coffee is not good), and a boat load of bread that we got from Italian bread factory across the street FOR FREE! FAVA! We did a bit of honoring and worship and then we sent them on a video scavengerhunt while we slipped into their rooms with glasses full of candies. The afternoon was chill and we served them tacos in the cafe before free time with popcorn and snowcones and XBox projected on the wall. A mini break came with outreach prep but ours included watching X Men over ice cream while Lizi and James chatted with each of us. After time picked up a bit with getting everything for dinner ready. Mission Impossible/Casino Royale is the theme with dice, poker chips, and cards on the tables, balloons everywhere and streamers of course. We asked them to dress nicely and we wore black, white, and red and served them steak, good veggies, potatoes and more bread (still have a truck load). I did plate up and it went really smoothly... so happy. Then there was a Mission Impossible game and then some performances by the girls over banana splits, cookies, and hot chocolate. To finish it off we watched a compiled video of some of the footage the guys took during the day.

IT WAS SUCH A GOOD DAY!!! I would love to do this all the time! The guys here Really are great and it's not just like one or two, every one of them is a great guy, upstanding, genuine, etc. People you want to hang around, good influences, etc. Honoring them has been a treat. Now I get to look forward to this Saturday when the boys are planning on honoring the girls, though honestly I would feel a lot more comfortable honoring someone else than being the one who's honored. That does not mean in any way that I would pass it up because I know it's going to be another amazing day for sure though...can't wait! 

Tis the Season to be Tired

Friday night was great! We met early in the House of Prayer for a pre-service soaking/prayer time where we filled each other up and got HS drunk. Because we were the ministry team for the evening we got to sit on the front rows and feel official. Some of the girls and I took the invitation to come to the front and worship where I was planning to dance around or something but when the guitarist first touched the strings Andrea and I pretty much fell on the floor. Hilarious (and this is a big deal b/c I used to never get affected like this so I'm really excited and the HS is fun and amazing and it's a blast to have fun with Him). We gave the words we had received before the meetings and got to pray for those who came up from prayer, and then we prayed for those who wanted more HS after the meeting. They also had about 10 baptisms which is always exciting, adding to the excitement that we had 4 of my classmates get baptized earlier that afternoon. SO GOOD! I love baptisms; they are so powerful and more than just symbolic and I find it joyous seeing others take part. I kinda wish I could do it again, ya know.

I got to put to new JesusCulture CD on my iTunes...wonderful! 

I tried to nap on Friday getting ready for the big night but it didn't really work all that much, but I tried to stay up as much as I could anyway. I stayed up for the 12-2 session taking a break to shower and such, and then the 2-4 session though there was a little cat nap during that one, and then I was going to leave but James came in and put on Passion of the Christ so I decided to stay for it even though my mind was not really functioning, I was tired, and my body fatigued. haha, am I back at Covenant? lol. I was able to keep my eyes open for the majority of it and it was good though there were parts where I was too tired to cry. So I finally made it to bed around 6:15 with Erin promising to wake me up at 8:20 so I could leave for outreach. Ouch.

Saturday: God was totally with me all day helping me to function and be effective. I didn't feel too drained or tired - all miraculous - and I had a great time at the World Life Expo downtown where we joined the Open Sky Cafe sharing Spiritual Readings and Healing Touches to whoever stopped by. The expo is all about new age stuff but since He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world nothing crappy could touch us. I felt really at peace event though there was a lot of shady stuff there and people who came to our booth could feel the bubble of peace as well. I got to head up my team of Peter, Philip, and myself and it was tons of fun; we saw lots of healings and prophesied over a bunch of people too. A few ladies asked about our church though we didn't advertise that sort of thing at all. Some were open. Some had huge blockages inhibiting our words to do much difference, but I take by faith that they are seeds.

That night I went to bed at 8:30. Much needed. This morning I still felt like I had been run over by a bus but BABES ran the whole service for the youth. Aside from one kid getting hurt in the game we tried to play all went well. :) Kristyn spoke on how to hear the voice of God and I followed it up by giving a blurb about the prophetic and then leading the kids through some activations. Fun. After the service SOM prophesied over whoever wanted to stick around. I was going to say that it was harder but the words came just my mind was not picking them up very quickly. Need to nap but now I'm off to focus (or attempt to) on tomorrow. Prayers of refreshing welcome.
Peace

Fun Stuff Ahead

Tonight is Team BABES' first time being a part of the ministry team for the Come Holy Spirit Meeting. This will be interesting because while I've gone to many of these meetings, I've never really paid attention to what's going on; I just go for the atmosphere. (PS I believe you can catch these meetings on Catchthefire.tv if you're interested) Mostly we'll share prophetic words/words of knowledge and pray for those who want/need it.

Even later tonight we will be having a 12-hour prayer/worship session. It's optional but sounds really good to me. It starts at midnight and goes til noon tomorrow. While I won't be able to go to the whole thing I hope to be there for most of it. And the best part is that it's in our building so I don't have to travel far. :)

Tomorrow Team BABES is going downtown in two groups to be a part of a New Age Expo. There is a booth called the Open Sky Cafe where we will give "Spiritual Readings" to anyone who stops by for a word. Our connections are with YWAM which is cool and I'm excited to see what God does in and through us. I'm on the morning shift so please be praying for me that I only speak the truth and that we are a light and that we fully walk in the authority that God has given us.

Sunday Team BABES is leading the whole youth meeting in the morning. We have a fun and prophetic time planned but we'll have to see what happens. The rest of the day will be spent wrapping up loose ends for Monday which I will have to tell you all about after it happens. ;-P And sometime this weekend I will have to start working on my next sermon on the topic of "Identity." yay.
Peace.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

~~** Note: This was written Thursday but because I finished typing it after midnight I was unable to post it. Lovely internet curfew.**~~

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Americans! I must say it really hasn't felt like a holiday considering that not many people here think of this day any different than any other. Not to say I'm not thankful....I have so much and I'm so blessed and I could offer thanks for forever. God is good. 

This week James Levesque (sp?) is here with us talking about Prophetic Evangelism. He is from Connecticut and a very dynamic speaker. He is 100% real and doesn't sugar coat anything, but rather is an in-your-face, yell-if-I-have-to kind of guy. The authority and authenticity that he carries has been refreshing to sit under and even when he's just talking Erin and I can feel the HS presence in the room and others have said the same. 

Tonight at CBN Erin told me that the pre-service prayer team had received words about increased joy, breakthrough, freedom, and restoration for the evening. Awesome. HS was already there and it just got better with the expectancy of what was going to happen. Worship was fantastic aka HS presence all over. There were some angel sightings and so we gathered where they were (I encourage you to check out the archive version on cbn.com under "spiritual gifts"). I didn't particularly feel anything while in the group so I moved around to other manifesting friends. Joy is contagious and so much fun. James got up to speak but I saw Erin and Kristyn off to the side having fun so I joined them and spent the rest of the service on the floor laughing and with spasms. We got kinda loud too. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM! The Spirit of the Lord is inside of me, therefore I have freedom within me, on me, or whatever other preposition you want to use. cool. Refreshing evening. It was just what I've been craving and needing.

After the drunk fest a group of us went out to Jack Astor's for a good-bye "dinner" for Lillian, my third roommate. She's an intern from Brazil and her last day is tomorrow. We'll definitely miss her and her bubbly personality. ...More later. Happy Holidays!
Peace.

Freedom from Freemasonry

Ummm....what to do on a free Saturday? An eight hour seminar complete with three hours of renouncing curses of the ancestors? Yes, please. Sign me up! haha yes, this is what I did all day, well, most of the day. CTF was putting on a Freedom from Freemasonry workshop/seminar and offered a significant discount to SOM'rs. Since Freemasonry is ridiculously popular even today and has its roots deeply planted in the English and American heritages I figured I should go. The sins of the fathers reap curses on the children up to the 10th generation when it comes to certain sins; that encompasses over 2000 people! Wow, I'm a-thinking that the likelihood that in a group of over 2000 people (speaking of my family here), mainly from the Motherland but also all over Europe, there is at least one who was a practicing Freemason. Scary thought is that most FMs don't truly understand the gravity of what they are practicing. At every level there are curses they vow upon themselves and either directly or indirectly upon their families as well. Yikes!

So we spent the morning learning more about the secret society and then the afternoon session was spent renouncing, repenting, and breaking off all curses, vows, and other nasty things that have come through our family lines. Seem superfluous or kooky? Well, most of the chronic conditions that people suffer with today (illness death and disease, poverty and money problems, marriage and relationship problems, and mental and emotional issues) most likely come from generational curses. This doesn't necessarily mean that it came from FM but these guys curse just about everything so it could be. I encourage you to check it out for your family and become educated about the issue. So many people consider such things harmless when they actually carry a lot of the demonic with them. Therefore, I proclaim freedom and the blood of Jesus on my house. Amen.

And for a less weighty issue for the day....I was sitting next to my friend Peter from Slovenia during the discussion today and he met a lovely lady in the group who was also from Slovenia. She was so nice and even offered to take several of the students out for lunch at the Asian buffet nearby. What a blessing! It was so nice to fellowship with her, and she is such a witness of the generosity of God. One thing she said during lunch also stuck out to me: instead of just blessing any establishment where you go, go one step further and release the anointing on it. If you are filled with the HS, you carry the anointing within you and therefore have the authority to release it on others, so do so! Again, the simple things confound the wise...
Peace.

Thursday = good day

So currently I am acting as a chat moderator for our weekly CBN broadcast. We run 7-9pm EST every Thursday and today I'm in the chatroom. Perhaps that means that I should not be typing up a new blog at the same time but.... :) Today has been quite fun. I was planning on running this morning but rolled over instead. No guilt. I did try to look decent today (meaning I didn't wear sweats and looked nice) but then I passed the auditorium which had a notice that said we would probably be getting sweaty during worship, sooooo I went back to my room and changed. Dale led worship; he doesn't play an instrument or sing and is our main sound guy. He played songs/mixed from his laptop and it was nuts...aka dance music the whole time...aka I spent 35 min going crazy...aka the way that worship is supposed to be! AWESOME! Guess I didn't need to go running this morning anyway.

This week we are looking into Church History with Gerry Plunkett. I've heard most of it before, but was really hoping to dive into the more recent revival movements. Hopefully we will get to that a good deal tomorrow. I do find it interesting how different groups got started and then how they transformed into something completely different. It's quite sad really what happens when people take moves of the Holy Spirit and then try to institutionalize it. It just doesn't work like that because soon you just have a spiritually dead legalistic group rather than a living moving Body of Christ. So, point of the story is stay alive! Always depend on the Holy Spirit; He is God after all.

Another highlight of the day was scrubbing the tiles on the wall in the kitchen during my Thursday afternoon duties. Hanging around the guys who were washing dishes made me miss my dear brother (shout out here. ha. Love you, Kyle!). Seriously, if the world was just inhabited by women, this would be an utterly depressing world. Guys make life interesting, help us females not take ourselves so seriously, and provide some humor. So today, ladies, appreciate the men around you in a new way and grant grace where it's needed. :)
Peace.

Kalamazoo!

This past weekend was fantastic. The ride to Kalamazoo was a bit long and the two hour delay at the border didn't quite help. There was a lengthy line on the bridge and then my van had to go inside because the non-North Americans hadn't been stamped for the US on their way into Canada. We stopped for a delicious and nutritious lunch at Wendy's and made it to the church (New Day Community Church) around 7pm for some HOMEMADE lasagna! So much better than the pan-bought kind. Andrea and I stayed with a lady Carrie and her daughter Heather because we had the car and were able to drive wherever we needed...such a blessing. (this whole weekend had God's favor all of it...it's so fun when you look for it/expect it because He doesn't disappoint) We stayed up late talking about all things creative and life: inspiring.

In the morning I got to take a walk through the woods in the backyard before breakfast. I love nature. Carrie spoiled us every morning with the utmost deliciousness and sent us on our way. Saturday we were at the Iglesia, the building where they hold young adult meetings on Sunday nights close to the college campus. We learned about how God had given it to them, and we prayed/prophesied over it. After, we cleaned up some of the neighborhood and then went to the top of the hill overlooking the city and prayed over it-so awesome. With a little down time we were able to go through "downtown" a bit and look through some shops before going back to the Iglesia for the community cook out. I tried very hard to be social and mingle...still not easy. :)

Sunday Olivia and I had the opportunity of preaching at New Day. I spoke in the first service about The Cross. The Holy Spirit was definitely with me, it went a lot better than I thought though I listened to the recording of it and I have a few speaking tendencies that could be worked out. lol. Olivia spoke on "Hearts of Stone" which was quite good as well and at the end of each service our team prayed for anyone who wanted it. Words are flowing a lot easier now which is exciting, thanks Daddy. This was probably one of the main highlights of the trip for me.

We were at the Iglesia again Sunday evening and HS was there noticeably even before worship started, which was powerful too. People got up to dance which we were told never happens and there was a sense of freedom or that God wanted to bring freedom to people's lives. Joe gave his testimony and we prayed for anyone afterward. The drive home Monday was long and rather uneventful. The DVD player in our van went out halfway through the movie which was upsetting to those in the back who could see it. There were ZERO cars on the bridge at the border and only about 4 cars at the check point and the guy just let us through! PTL x 100! So awesome! We made it back in time for dinner (not sure if that is a good or bad thing) and were happy to get out of the car. Wonderful weekend, can't wait to see what our full outreach holds! 
Peace.

Back to the Homeland!

Tomorrow Team BABES is hitting the road around 9:30 and heading for the border. I'm quite excited to go back to the States though it won't be home or anywhere I really know. We are going to Kalamazoo, MI for mini-outreach and will be there through Mon. I would love your prayers for safety, for the team (unity, good time, growth, etc.), and especially for Olivia and myself as we will be giving our sermons on Sunday morning to the congregation at New Day Community Church. Excited for the opportunity but nervous as well of course. I did finish writing it thankfully, but it needs a lot of practice in order for it to come off naturally.

Friday will be mostly driving with dinner at the church when we get in. Saturday we will be helping around the community, cleaning up the streets and such and then later hosting a bbq for the community as well. Sunday we will be at the church most of the day and we head back Monday. We will be staying with host families and I hope to be a blessing to them as well.
God bless!

Be Proud of Me, Mrs. Fields

I love/loved my high school; by far the best academic experience of my life. It taught me a lot, not just about the course material, but about study skills, time management, and limits (not just in the mathematical sense). It still holds true that these were the four years of my life where I survived on the least amount of sleep, was the most stressed, crammed the most activities and responsibilities into my life, and had made some of the best memories than any other time to date. Granted, I am only 22. Seeing as it was such a formidable time in my life, I sometimes find it hard to believe that the experience wasn’t yesterday but four years ago. Wow, time flies, but thankfully I can say I am not the same person I was four years ago. 

While at college I realized how much I was changing and here at SOM I find myself changing still; I hope to never get off this train. I think back to AP English with Mrs. Fields senior year, a class of mainly girls who were all a bit too concerned with the shape of the “inkblot on a paper.” We were all accused of being “eager beaver overachievers” and warned that we had our “wires wound a bit too tightly and better be careful because they were about to SNAP!” Boy, was she right though then I didn’t know any of other way of living.

Busy just comes so easy for me and is quite often a theme in my life so it doesn’t really come as any surprise that the word God has been telling me for several years now is “REST.” While I may not fully understand ‘rest’ I love it. The act of resting is absolutely amazing. Learning to understand that I don’t have to do anything in order to please God, I just have to be is quite liberating, a certain stress reliever. I used to always think of myself as an even-keel type of person, but there is such a difference in being chill on the outside and having a sense of peace and calm on the inside. 

Peace.

let's stretch

Today a group of seven of us went downtown for a bit of Power Evangelism. We define this as evangelism where we rely on the Holy Spirit prompting and what God is saying to us about and for other people as opposed to handing out tracts or yelling on a street corner. The first stop was Tim Horton's for a coffee and to see what God was saying and who He had words for. We split in two groups and headed off. My group (David, Philip, and me) headed to the Eaton Centre, the rather ritzy mall, and started looking for people that God highlighted to us to speak to. I was looking around but started having a problem: no one stood out because everyone was standing out to me. How was I supposed to pick who God wanted me to tell that God loved them when His heart and desire was for every one walking past me? I started being drawn in every direction and not knowing where to go. All the lostness and unsettledness of everyone was swirling around me and making me quite overwhelmed. I was becoming so aware of God's love for seriously everyone. We often hear or say that God loves everyone but when we see unsightly people we rarely believe it for them, but here I am seeing it is so.

I spoke to a girl on the escalator and then followed the guys. We spoke to a lady and David said God was opening up a job change in a couple weeks. She said she was a Christian too and that she was indeed changing jobs in two weeks! How cool. We were able to pray for her and then went into Sears where we talked to another couple who said they were Christians too. As we prayed for them we each gave a prophetic word which they said were all spot on, which was great since we had also had a few people that we approached who were less than willing to hear what we had to say.

We met up with the other group for a bit before setting out again. We tried a prophetic game with two guys but didn't get anything right and then tried to give a word to a woman who rejected it (I still believe that the word was right). Some were feeling a bit discouraged at this point. We made our way toward the poorer side of town where there is a mission and such. The guys gave a Tim's card to a guy simply as a blessing and then David asked some kids if he could join their bball game. That didn't work out but we were able to give them some cards too and found out they were Christians too. It was cool to see that giving them the cards was a blessing.

When we started heading back the other group got to tell us how they got to be a part of God healing a girl's leg. She had a severed ligament or something and after praying three times she was able to take off her brace and walk normally and even jump! God is awesome. 

Older Than We Thought

This Wednesday we had our second social and this time the theme was an "old person's social" so we were all to dress as old as possible. Each outreach team also had to put together a dance to perform...as old people. haha. Team Finland, which now has a name - Team BABES (Boys And Babes Evangelistic Society) - is pretty chill but we did put together a little something to Thriller. (Another team used part of the song too but it was a different part so it worked.) It was fun to do and especially fun to see the other dances. The SGL's dressed up fabulously though a bit disturbing.  Two were dressed as the nurses of "Halfway to Heaven Nursing Home" and the others were residents some sane and others not quite there. The best was Earl who walked around drooling the whole night in a bathrobe. So disgusting!

We students also got into the dress-up activities. I found the guys who dressed like old ladies to be the most hilarious. We even had a "Moses" and a Santa Claus.... I guess they could be the epitome of old. I tried to make wrinkles on my face but it didn't go so well; I kinda just looked dirty, but others got the jist. Many went to Value Village for costumes but I didn't feel like spending money for old clothes so I just wore a skirt and my roommate's sweater. Too bad I wasn't at home; I could've just raided Mom's closet! haha sry, Mom, your clothes really aren't that bad....anymore! :)


There were also games of course: 1. one team member is the hands for another whose hands are behind his back and feeds him pudding as fast as possible 2. one team member lays on the floor under a chair with his head sticking out with another standing on the chair with his arm extended at shoulder height; whichever team drops the most pudding in the mouth of the 'layer' the fastest wins....a bit messy (I definitely did NOT volunteer for this game) 3. BINGO! we won one round and won some candies. woot. Good times. Hopefully we'll at least have one more social before we go...wonder what that theme will be.