Surfing...

Hello all,

I hope everyone is doing well. I have had a crazy couple of weeks it has been good, but I think I need to do better at scheduling, haha, maybe arriving from Morocco at 3am and picking up my parents at 6am was not such a good idea, you know in hindsight…

Ok, well let’s start with the IJM sermon I gave. Still 2 weeks later I am feeling the effects of this service. I don’t know if this is a speaker thing or if really was that powerful of a service, but now I know what means to be emptied. After the service I literally felt as though I had nothing inside of me, this was a first and, also, was much unexpected on my part.

The trip to Morocco helped a lot in refueling me, but I am still reflecting on how to handle being emptied on a regular basis. I know I have heard a lot about empting your self before God. I would like to hear about refilling your self, because that is equally hard. This has also helped me reflect on my life and how I live. I remember reading a book that talked about having good margins in your life. When trouble, strife, the stuff of life comes do you have enough reserve to handle it all? Its almost like a bank account, do you have enough in savings for when you car breaks, or you break, or when something unexpected happens. I am reflecting on how to best manage the margin in my life, because now is a tornado like time.

This past week our pastor Kevin announced that he and his family would be moving back to Minnesota. I knew this was coming, so it wasn’t a huge surprise, but that mixed in with a lot of other things are making my reserves very low. I always find it funny how I seem to fight between staying safe and risking it all. It is almost like swimming in the ocean. You go out a little and play in the water and that is nice. Then you go further and discover the joy of waves, for better or worse. After you first experiences with a big wave you get a little freaked out and have a choice. Do I go out there again and risk getting slammed into the sand, while playing or do I go back in the shallow water and just enjoy myself?

Well, if you decide to go back out, you hit a point where you can see the waves coming and time your self to body surf on them. There are also times where you see the waves coming and even though you know they are there you didn’t account for how big they are and well, slam, slam, slam. Haha, I say this from personal experience. Not to be overly dramatic, but this is where I am. I saw some waves coming, IJM, Kevin’s announcement, my leaving in a month, but I didn’t account for how big these waves are and now I am heading up on the shore deciding if I should go back in? I have always loved body surfing…

Prayer request:
1) Discernment, specifically as things move forward in my life, there are a lot of decisions to make and I need to be very wise about what I decide.
2) Health, I need to remain healthy and this requires so much attention as you all know, food, exercise, sleep, prayer, study pray I would be diligent and steady
3) Praise, for the church here they are amazing people and have been so loving and helpful to me I would not have asked for a better church for my internship.
4) Pray for Crossroads as they morn the loss of their pastor Kevin, and pray for direction for the church as they continue to bless people.