departure

it's 9:31 pm and i leave with my class in the morning for two weeks of stateside outreach. we meet together to load the vans at 5:00 am, pack lunches and pray and then head out at 6:00. we'll drive ALL day and spend the night at a ywam base in nashville. then another day of being sardines in a moving vehicle before we get to washington dc. we'll spend a week there interceding for our country, leaders, judicial system, abortion laws, etc. taking our cues from Isaiah 62:6, "on your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves ..." we'll be splitting our team up throughout the week to cover 24/7 prayer shifts, around the clock prayer watches. God has been speaking some very specific words of revival to His church and it is our desire to meet with Him in prayer to invite Him to breath fresh fire into america. i'd invite you to join us as we pray for God's purposes to be accomplished and new revelation to be brought to His people of His heart and mind for revival in america.

after that week we'll be heading to chicago for a week of urban outreach, learning about the various cultures and religions right around us. we'll be visiting temples, mosques and other places of worship, learning about the spiritual strongholds in our cities and spending time in intercession. we'll be practicing how to be sensitive to what's happening in the spiritual realm so that we can be more effective in spiritual warfare, as we pray for our communities.

i'm really looking forward to heading back north again for a little while, as the midwest is caribou-land (coffee) and i've been missing it dreadfully. the small things in life are usually the most missed when absent.

after two weeks of stateside outreach ..... whoohoo - ROMANIA!! i can hardly contain my excitement to finally be going to this country i've been praying about for a couple of years. our departure date is september 30 and we'll be overseas until november 5. your prayers are always so appreciated as my team prepares to go. i hope to post again when i have more specific prayer requests to pass along. thank you for reading, caring and praying.

another prayer point is my fundraising for romania. my tuition is now paid, but i still have yet to cover all my expenses for romania. i still need about $2250 to go. so if any of you would pray about whether or not God would have you support me with a a one-time gift i would be very appreciative. thank you for praying! - erika

scavenger hunt

the school of evangelism girls did a scavenger hunt for small group. good times. we needed a pic by an unlucky piece of roadkill. a has-been, as it were. this one happened to be a skunk, which kindly left some of its aroma as something by which to be remembered.

our school leader is from canada. here we were required to pay homage to the stone that graces the front of his home.

one final group shot with stu, our "fireman".

ashleigh and erika

lovely ladies!

amy and shekinah

leading worship at church

the romania girls

(back row) jenni, erika, ashleigh, karen alyssa
(front row) jessica, stacy, vania

our team (led by stacy and vania) heads to romania september 30 and will be in the city of cluj-napoca for five weeks. your prayers would be much appreciated by all of us as we prepare to go. we'll be ministering in a variety of ways ... homeless and well to do, children and elderly, village dwellers and urbanites ... and flexibility will be critical. pray for perseverance, compassion, spiritual sensitivity, creativity, strength, physical protection, good health and that we'll represent Christ accurately, modeling His love and compassion as He did. pray for finances to come through for each of us and that the details and logistics of our trip will come together in a timely manner. thanks for your prayers!

melting

so our air is out. the wing of our dorm where my bedroom happens to be lost a/c a couple of days ago. the temp in my bedroom reads 93.

the lobby area (where the air still blessedly works) for the last couple of nights has played host to one, giant, slumber party of girls.

they promise us they'll have it fixed today. my fingers are crossed.

dorm clean-up

one saturday a month the base has a clean-up day. the three of us had garbage can duty. what fun. rewarding, if nothing else. helps keep the possums away!

ashleigh and erika

hanging out at the park!

destination unknown

so finally, after weeks of waiting, our ywam soe (school of evangelism) class now knows our teams/destinations for outreach. it has been an exercise of patience, being held in suspense this long. normally we find out by the third week of class. we are now in our sixth. arggg. but the agony is over.

the options of romania, india and washington dc were presented in class this morning and we were given 10 minutes to pray about it and see what God said. God spoke and the teams were finalized. i am on the romania team, which happens to be an all girls team of seven, including our leader. nice. very nice. two of my three current roomies are also on my team, which will be mucho grando fun.

our whole class leaves september 14 for a week in washington dc where we'll be doing lots of intercession at the capitol and supreme court steps and prayer walking around the city. then we head to chicago for a week of classes in mapping out spiritual strongholds of a city. we'll visit various places of worship throughout the city (mosques, temples, churches, etc) and learn what the prominent spiritual influences of the area are. should be challenging and fun, learning to be more sensitive to the spiritual realm and praying for the light of truth to enter these dark places.

then we head to our various outreach destinations (me, to romania :) for five weeks of ministry. the romania team will be based out of the city of cluj-napoca, which is in the northwestern part of the country. we'll be helping with building renovations at the ywam base there, hanging out at dumps to minister to the homeless kids there, helping out at Living Alternatives (a home for unwed mothers), prayer walking and working their ywam staff conference, among many other things.

now our teams will be able to meet together to pray and focus in on what it is that God has in store for us while we're on outreach. it's all so exciting!! i love this stuff. good times.

snow cone tongues!

fourth of july celebration with ywam girls. nothing like a cool tasty beverage on a hot summer night.

?

what's a bored, sweaty, procrastinating-from-homework, mid-20's aged girl supposed to do when she's craving ice cream at 9:00 at night? quickly rid herself of all defenses and succumb to the inner urge. but first, take a quick walk to ease her guilty conscience .... and then .... shamelessly indulge.

pillows and popsicles …

my list of thank you’s to God includes Caribou coffee, toothbrushes, Brazilian flip-flops, smiles & kisses, sun & rain, the smell of cut grass, falling snow, slushies, blankets, graham crackers and milk, fans, blank paper, empty cups waiting to be filled with lots of tasty possibilities, full gas tanks, fingernails & eyelashes, Pedro the Lion, sun-ripened oranges, fall colors, Frank Lloyd Wright, hot springs, fjords, pickled herring, Christmas & lefse, Carola, the Bible, wiggling toes, subtle winks, trash bags & toilet paper, clean water, C.S. Lewis, testimonies, friends, friends’ kids, friends’ kids antics, kissing owies, dripping icicles, fireplaces, wrestling brothers, off-key singing & bad hair days, MN State Fair mini-donuts & cheese curds, Lake Harriet & Summit Ave, raw cookie dough, a relationship with Jesus …

seasons and the glory of nature

i can’t help my affections for nature as it is God’s own stamp of workmanship and mastery … the testimony of His care and attention to detail. the complexity and interdependence of nature and eco-systems reminds me of His ability to work all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. when i walk in the woodlands i hear His contented sighs of delight and approval floating on the winds and i see the twinkle of enjoyment in His eye as it bounces off the leaves. as i spend time enjoying the beauty of nature i see more of His nature, His character, His heart and His mind … nature cries aloud and testifies to His glory!

i cannot see breath-taking, fiery colors of Fall without feeling the sweet breath of His whispers on my face, telling me the secrets of His architecture and design and His tender, sweet words of love for me …

then there’s the quiet, calming falling of snow on the frozen earth, mesmerizing me into a cocoon of peace and rest … hibernating in His affections, snuggling into His tenderness, keeping warm together in the passions of His love …

the slow, sure rising of the sun … His invitation to me to walk with Him another day … a tender Lover promising me His companionship and friendship, extending His hands to me as He promises His surety and constancy …

the eager freshness of spring … bubbly laughter of melting creeks, a sleepy earth stretching and awakening to a new season … hints of warm whispers on the breeze, murmurs of new life on the move … melting snow turning from drips to torrential rivers, washing out the old and ushering in the new … rumors whispered through the treetops of fresh beginnings and new seasons… opportunity to live again and learn lessons of growth, entering new stages of understanding and revelation … a watering and nourishing of the soul for the works He is equipping me to do …

the heat and intensity of summer … vibrant colors … what once was dead is now alive, thriving in the nourishment of the dirt, once frozen as earthen stone … a season of discipline and growth under the intense and watchful eye of the sun … a season of hard work before the rest of winter and the peaceful slumber it brings …

and a new cycle begins … similar to ones before but waiting to tell its own story. each season bringing new tales waiting to be told, of doubt and faithfulness, pain and ecstasy, death and life. one life dying so another, better one may take its place.

nature. the truth of God’s character as told through the most unsuspecting storytellers -- flowers and leaves, dirt and rocks, waterfalls and creeks, mountains and mole hills, shooting stars and lightning, rain and snow, sun and moon and you and me.

i can’t help my affections for nature …

word of the day

besmirch (transitive verb) = to sully, soil

so ... we just found out where we'll be going for stateside outreach. we leave september 14 for a week in chicago and then we'll head to washington d.c. for a week! we're all very excited to see the capitol (some for the first time) and i'm really excited to be in the midwest for a while again. i've missed it. texas is nice, but it's not the northland! :) after our two weeks in the states we'll head to our various foreign outreach destinations on october 5. after a month overseas we return to texas for debriefing week and then head home! i should be back in minnesota november 14. good times. until then, lakeville can await the return of the caribou coffee fiend.

silence

sometimes it’s a good thing, signifying contentment. other times it forewarns of a storm brewing. as people grow in various relationships they learn to decipher the different kinds of silence and how to respond.

but how do i react when it seems God has stopped talking? when His silence is deafening? i’ve slowly begun to realize that it’s possible to be at that place where His silence is no longer threatening but a sign of true intimacy. it’s been said that a sign of true friendship is when silence between two people ceases to be awkward. how much truer should this be in my relationship with God? when it seems like He's not speaking to me do i panic, questioning my salvation, fearing that just maybe He doesn't love me as much as He used to? oh, to be in a place where i can be so confident in my standing with Him that I can rest in Him, even when He's quiet. there’s a place of learning that this silence isn't always a bad thing but a different dimension of relationship. when silence is scary it proves lack of faith. doubt and fear begin to be the roadside signs where there is shallow understanding of real love.

in retrospect i'm grateful for those seasons of silence I’ve walked through. the lessons learned have been so valuable. but if i'm completely honest with myself they were scary times. i wondered if i was "spiritual" enough to hear from Him. i doubted His love for me. i questioned His faithfulness. i challenged His character.

and i don't want to wonder ever again. this life was never meant to be wandered through but walked with faith and confidence. we know that our salvation was God's initiative towards us out of His deep and agonizing passion for us, an affection that never fades with time or circumstance. such a mystery. such a beauty.

should i not trust His intimate affections? should i not press in even harder through the silence? even when married couples have seasons of quiet and sparks get doused momentarily, their love remains constant. silence does not alter a state of existence. similarly, God’s character and intentions for me are constant and pure, even when He’s quiet in His love. sometimes His silence is the best expression of His tenderness.

insecurity breeds dominance.

God rarely calls us to a location but to a people.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “I call upon Him in prayer. Often He might reply (I think He does reply) ‘But you have been evading Me for hours.’”

I often wonder what it is that He wishes to whisper to us in those quite moments that we so often manage to completely miss. It reminds me too, that He often moves and arranges pieces of our lives in such a way so as to make our lives quiet enough to listen to Him. Would we pay attention otherwise?

sometimes our first prayer is, “God, that i would see You clearly …” yet, i wonder that our prayer shouldn’t first be, “God, that i would learn to walk daily in immediate obedience.” and it is often there that we begin to see Him more clearly.