I feel a bit like tumbleweed.
Can't settle, always moving.
Changing, gathering, growing.
Well this was going to be just a poem, but I'm not really feeling the poetry wave right now, so I'm just gonna write some. So yeah. Tumbleweed. My life. I'm back in Waco and while I am enjoying it, I feel out of place. I don't really get it. I mean, maybe it's the whole being gone a semester when so much happened and so many people I loved transitioned out of college so I feel a bit like a newbie even though clearly I'm not. I wasn't in contact as easily and even when I was back in the States for the summer, I still didn't have Texas contact very much. But let's be real, I know Baylor. But I feel like everything I don't anymore. This is one of those moments where I'm like oh yeah, well God's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow so shoot, even though I feel like I'm just floating around in all the weird feelings, I've still got God who's always been the same whether I'm in Scotland, having the greatest summer of my life, or back in the Wack. I can hold onto Him and trust Him to bring me foundation. Consistency? I'm not really sure; all I know is that I'm a mix of all sorts of feelings about anything and everything going on in my life right now, so ask me how I'm feeling and anything could really go. Because I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm upset, I'm excited, I'm scared, I'm frustrated, I'm wishful.
So much has happened in myself since I was last in Waco and so much has happened in Waco since I was here too. It's like I've grown, and now my clothes don't fit? Is that a weird metaphor? Maybe, but it kind of works. Like the things I'm used to are still here, they're just not the same. I'm kind of tired of change. I thrive on sameness, routine, whatever you want to call it. So the fact that I feel uprooted is hard. Being back in the States after Scotland is hard. Being back in Waco after an amazing summer is hard. But I'll get back into the swing of things eventually, I can only pray. I've gotten used to always meeting new people and being in new situations for the longest time; I feel like that's all my life is and while it's got its pluses [shout out Scottish/study abroad friends, SpringHill buds!], I'm stuck in a rut of missing it all when I'm back to what I called my second home, but it doesn't feel that way. I'm trying to live in the now, but it's hard when I'm not comfortable with it all yet again and everything I held so close is so many miles away. What is this? I sound so weird right now. I don't even know if that's really what it is...it just kinda came out like that? But I'm too lazy to try to think of a better way to describe it.
Well, if there's one thing I'm missing that isn't a person or whatever, it's definitely the UK/European educational system. I've got to go do a bunch of homework and study for a big quiz...and wake my napping roommate. Ha.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
study abroad videos
I should probably post this on my study abroad blog, but that's gone into hiatus so no one's going to read it anymore and I'm really only posting these videos for those of you who read my blog and maybe don't get on facebook or have one at all, but would enjoy these videos! Also, the second one got removed because I don't have copyright to technically use the songs I did in it so that's a bummer. Hope it is still okay to try to put it on here. I'm not trying to break copyright; I just want to have a cool video!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
springhill lovin' had me a blast
Time certainly flies when you're having fun. This summer is pretty much over and I'm in shock at how quickly it went. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was driving to Seymour with a future coworker I barely knew, and now I know so many more people and every time we're together it is the best! I remember being overwhelmed going to training knowing no one, but now here I am finished with Week 8 and thus, my summer with SpringHill, and all those unfamiliar faces are the faces of good friends. I love looking back and seeing that change. I remember in training, they talked about how by week 5 or 6 you have everything down and you barely even need your curriculum book...I didn't think that'd ever come...but it's so true! I still use it, but I pretty much know the stories like the back of my hand and I love it. Our memory verse this summer has been Jeremiah 29:11-13 and believe me, I can recite it on a dime complete with motions, yet it has only been in the last week or so that I've really thought about what it says. It's such a promise-filled few verses and a great reminder for the future and all. I am constantly reminded of how I need to seek God and seek Him wholeheartedly to really find Him. I know He has a great plan for me, but hey, sometimes we all forget when things get crazy...He's not going to harm us! His plan will prosper us; His plan gives us hope! Oh what a beautiful thing.
I can't begin to tell you how thankful I have been for this summer. I knew from the minute I got off the phone after my interview, that I was supposed to work for SpringHill and I am ever so thankful that things didn't end up working out with another camp that I had wanted to work for maybe a little more at the start. I say it a lot but, I'll say it again, the Indy Day Camps team is the best. I love every one so much. It's going to be weird going back to school and 'normal' life without them. I have been so blessed by the encouragement my teammates give me and how challenged we are to grow in our faith daily. I needed that this summer for sure.
Going through SpringHill withdrawal. It's weird not being at the next site setting up Eurobungy, unpacking the trailer and finding out who my co for the week is. I'm done. I can sleep in Monday morning. I might even miss having dance parties every morning. Not seeing the people I've seen pretty much every day for the past 9 weeks is going to take some getting used to. Honestly though, saying goodbye on Friday wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Maybe I'm just weird and don't get emotional over goodbyes...but that's not true because the week before when it was only like 4 people leaving, I was on the verge of tears. Maybe it was because I knew I still had one more week and this week, almost everyone was done with camp so it wasn't like I was still working or missing out on as much? Who knows, but it creeps me out a little that I wasn't sadder. Maybe it just hasn't hit me; I'm not really a crier though, and I am missing everyone.
My prayer for myself as I will soon be heading back to Texas for school is that I won't forget everything I learned this summer; I want to be able to apply the things I applied to myself this summer to my school life...like constantly relying on God for strength, trying to step out of my comfort zone, also that I will be able to keep in touch with friends from the summer too! I don't want these friendships to just be short-lived, so many of these people I met mean so much to me and I can only pray that our friendships are meant to last!
I know this summer will be one that I won't forget and I am so blessed by it. Let's end this post with some fun photos of the summer, sure?
I can't begin to tell you how thankful I have been for this summer. I knew from the minute I got off the phone after my interview, that I was supposed to work for SpringHill and I am ever so thankful that things didn't end up working out with another camp that I had wanted to work for maybe a little more at the start. I say it a lot but, I'll say it again, the Indy Day Camps team is the best. I love every one so much. It's going to be weird going back to school and 'normal' life without them. I have been so blessed by the encouragement my teammates give me and how challenged we are to grow in our faith daily. I needed that this summer for sure.
Going through SpringHill withdrawal. It's weird not being at the next site setting up Eurobungy, unpacking the trailer and finding out who my co for the week is. I'm done. I can sleep in Monday morning. I might even miss having dance parties every morning. Not seeing the people I've seen pretty much every day for the past 9 weeks is going to take some getting used to. Honestly though, saying goodbye on Friday wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Maybe I'm just weird and don't get emotional over goodbyes...but that's not true because the week before when it was only like 4 people leaving, I was on the verge of tears. Maybe it was because I knew I still had one more week and this week, almost everyone was done with camp so it wasn't like I was still working or missing out on as much? Who knows, but it creeps me out a little that I wasn't sadder. Maybe it just hasn't hit me; I'm not really a crier though, and I am missing everyone.
My prayer for myself as I will soon be heading back to Texas for school is that I won't forget everything I learned this summer; I want to be able to apply the things I applied to myself this summer to my school life...like constantly relying on God for strength, trying to step out of my comfort zone, also that I will be able to keep in touch with friends from the summer too! I don't want these friendships to just be short-lived, so many of these people I met mean so much to me and I can only pray that our friendships are meant to last!
I know this summer will be one that I won't forget and I am so blessed by it. Let's end this post with some fun photos of the summer, sure?
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| Week 1 |
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| hi-ad team minus steph |
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| Michigan Smith skit |
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| rock wall pros |
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| awesome area! |
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
internal processor
this is more for me because i need a quick write and my mind is spinning, but also for whoever actually reads this and knows me to some extent.
Just some things that are rolling through my mind right now. Today I guess was a really stressful day or something, because tonight as I was alone driving to Carmel, getting lost and hitting a breaking point to where I was feeling so overwhelmed/frustrated that I kept missing my turns and that traffic was bad, I found myself in tears. It was at that point that I was reminded of how glad I was to be going to Bible study because I'm Jesus deficient right now, even though I'm working at a camp that is all about Jesus. I also was reminded how I need my alone time and apparently I'd hit that point where I needed it bad, so also not completely pumped to be going to hang out with lots of people. I love my team, don't get me wrong at all, but I haven't had a lot of decompression time and the kids this week, even though they are smaller numbers, can be hard to handle. I don't even know where I'm going with this anymore.
Another thing, I know God loves me and I know that I'll never be able to comprehend it, but sometimes I forget or something. We read Luke 15:1-10 tonight and there's so much in there. Lost people, giving 100%, a loving God, found people. A lot of the time I think, I'm not living in that joy of knowing that I am loved no matter what and I am saved by grace and should be excited to share that with others. I think a lot of the time I get caught up in myself or distractions or worry about what others will think or that I'm not good enough, but I pray that I won't forget my value in God and I will be filled with a sense of urgency to go out and find those people who need God. Also, I'm not a huge expresser of emotion so even if I am really excited or something, I am not always good at effectively displaying it. I think another thing is that I'm not much of a sayer, I listen and am more to myself processing as opposed to hashing it out with others. Sometimes I'm down with that, but I'm horrible at articulating what I'm thinking so mostly I just sit and people look at me and I feel awkward never talking, but I don't know what to say or how to say it or someone else says what I was thinking so I'm like...yeahhh. Sigh, it's just frustrating to me and it's probably frustrating to other people that I'm not a talker, because I feel like that's the only way to get to know people more and I feel like I can't talk to anyone in real life well enough for them to really know me and I hate it. I don't want to dwell on this too long because I know again, God has a plan and a purpose for my life being how it is. There's a lot more I'm thinking about, but I need to get to sleep soon so I'm not crabby, I think that was part of it too tonight; I was tired and hot and that makes me crabby and easily frustrated. But again, so much of tonight has got me thinking about seeking the lost, applying myself to helping others find God, being reminded of God's great love for me, trying to figure out how I can be found by God, getting uncomfortable for Jesus...boy oh boy.
Just give me more Jesus.
Prayer:
1. Mentioned earlier, for a constant reminder of who I am in Christ, loved, valued, worth it...be content with who/how I am.
2. That I will be filled with excitement and urgency for sharing the good news of God with others.
3. Help me to be able to share more with other people and make those deeper connections with teammates and even our campers this week too since it is a smaller week.
4. Patience.
5. Quality alone time. Hey just remembered tomorrow is solo time in the morning..although I was semi-excited for another small morning meeting...
I think that's it and I hope this makes some sense, even in writing sometimes I can't articulate my thoughts very well. Sigh. It's all good. Thanks for reading.
Just some things that are rolling through my mind right now. Today I guess was a really stressful day or something, because tonight as I was alone driving to Carmel, getting lost and hitting a breaking point to where I was feeling so overwhelmed/frustrated that I kept missing my turns and that traffic was bad, I found myself in tears. It was at that point that I was reminded of how glad I was to be going to Bible study because I'm Jesus deficient right now, even though I'm working at a camp that is all about Jesus. I also was reminded how I need my alone time and apparently I'd hit that point where I needed it bad, so also not completely pumped to be going to hang out with lots of people. I love my team, don't get me wrong at all, but I haven't had a lot of decompression time and the kids this week, even though they are smaller numbers, can be hard to handle. I don't even know where I'm going with this anymore.
Another thing, I know God loves me and I know that I'll never be able to comprehend it, but sometimes I forget or something. We read Luke 15:1-10 tonight and there's so much in there. Lost people, giving 100%, a loving God, found people. A lot of the time I think, I'm not living in that joy of knowing that I am loved no matter what and I am saved by grace and should be excited to share that with others. I think a lot of the time I get caught up in myself or distractions or worry about what others will think or that I'm not good enough, but I pray that I won't forget my value in God and I will be filled with a sense of urgency to go out and find those people who need God. Also, I'm not a huge expresser of emotion so even if I am really excited or something, I am not always good at effectively displaying it. I think another thing is that I'm not much of a sayer, I listen and am more to myself processing as opposed to hashing it out with others. Sometimes I'm down with that, but I'm horrible at articulating what I'm thinking so mostly I just sit and people look at me and I feel awkward never talking, but I don't know what to say or how to say it or someone else says what I was thinking so I'm like...yeahhh. Sigh, it's just frustrating to me and it's probably frustrating to other people that I'm not a talker, because I feel like that's the only way to get to know people more and I feel like I can't talk to anyone in real life well enough for them to really know me and I hate it. I don't want to dwell on this too long because I know again, God has a plan and a purpose for my life being how it is. There's a lot more I'm thinking about, but I need to get to sleep soon so I'm not crabby, I think that was part of it too tonight; I was tired and hot and that makes me crabby and easily frustrated. But again, so much of tonight has got me thinking about seeking the lost, applying myself to helping others find God, being reminded of God's great love for me, trying to figure out how I can be found by God, getting uncomfortable for Jesus...boy oh boy.
Just give me more Jesus.
Prayer:
1. Mentioned earlier, for a constant reminder of who I am in Christ, loved, valued, worth it...be content with who/how I am.
2. That I will be filled with excitement and urgency for sharing the good news of God with others.
3. Help me to be able to share more with other people and make those deeper connections with teammates and even our campers this week too since it is a smaller week.
4. Patience.
5. Quality alone time. Hey just remembered tomorrow is solo time in the morning..although I was semi-excited for another small morning meeting...
I think that's it and I hope this makes some sense, even in writing sometimes I can't articulate my thoughts very well. Sigh. It's all good. Thanks for reading.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
look everybody, look who's back again!
So I still have to close my Scotland blog, but I don't have my journal with me that has what I want to end it with, so I'm bringing back this blog since it's been forever since I've blogged and I don't want to lose it. I want my blog to stay alive! Hopefully people will still be reading this. Ha.
Anyways, since being back from Scotland, things have been crazy. I only had 4 days at home until I headed down to Seymour, IN for training for working with SpringHill Day Camps- Indy Team! I was apprehensive about it at the start just because I was going in knowing no one or totally what I was getting myself into and not having that much time to process study abroad. I still feel like I haven't found closure on study abroad because I haven't had much time to really sit and take time to write my thoughts. I did a little before I left for Seymour, but didn't have time to finish or get it on my blog so when I'm home again, I will hopefully finish it!
This is week 3 of day camps and so far, I'm really loving it. Last week was a rough week for me on the camper front. My campers were hard to deal with in many ways, but I made it through and am so blessed to have a team that looks out for each other. I'm realizing how every week is entirely different even if we are doing the same curriculum and the same activities; the campers and how everything flows is a little different at each location so I have to continually reminding myself that it's not going to be rainbows and butterflies every week and I have to rely on God. I can't do this on my own.
I know some people probably don't know exactly what I'm doing this summer, and I don't want to get super into it so I'll try to give a short synopsis. Basically we do day camp at different churches or schools every week; if you know SpringHill, we bring that experience the best we can to a day camp setting. We have flying squirrel and other high adventure activities as well as the classics like water and archery and tie dye. We have small groups and the big thing with SpringHill is how we incorporate faith and fun in everything we do. So we don't keep the Jesus stuff to just large group or small groups, but after everything we do we debrief it and try to have the kids make connections to the Bible stories we read or just God in general. It's great. I think that's one of the really neat things about SpringHill. I'm also as I said earlier, so blessed by this team. Everyone is amazing. Being in Scotland and not super connected into any church or with Christians was hard, especially since at Baylor I've got a great community of support. So coming back and basically going straight into camp with God at the core is nice. We have different areas that we do morning meetings and are the people we are partnered with throughout the summer and my group's pretty legit. It's actually not really been complete ever, but it's cool. Also, we have set-up and tear-down teams and I got placed on the high adventure team. At first I thought that was going to be horrible to be perfectly honest because high ad is really complex and is like all the really intense activities. But praise Jesus, it's not horrible at all. Some days it is frustrating because things don't work right or whatever, but the people on the team are legitimately some of my favorite people. I know they always say you shouldn't pick favorite campers, but no one said anything about picking favorite other counselors or whatever. Haha. But really, I'm in love with our whole Indy Day Camp team. Everyone is so encouraging and so much fun. Sometimes it is hard for me because I'm definitely an introvert and being around people constantly and having to be full of energy wears on me. I relish my alone time, which thankfully does exist even if it is in small doses.
To end this, I'd love to leave you with some prayer requests:
1. First, that I will remember to rely on God and to find my strength in Him and not myself and to look to Him to be filled up each day.
2. For this coming week, that I will work well with my co-counselor and that our kids will be better than the kids I had last week.
3. That the friendships I am forming will deepen into lasting relationships, not just for the summer.
4. That I won't let Satan bring me down in feeling like I'm not a good enough counselor or anything like that. That I will remember I am loved and valued by God and comparing myself to others isn't productive.
Thanks lovely readers!
Anyways, since being back from Scotland, things have been crazy. I only had 4 days at home until I headed down to Seymour, IN for training for working with SpringHill Day Camps- Indy Team! I was apprehensive about it at the start just because I was going in knowing no one or totally what I was getting myself into and not having that much time to process study abroad. I still feel like I haven't found closure on study abroad because I haven't had much time to really sit and take time to write my thoughts. I did a little before I left for Seymour, but didn't have time to finish or get it on my blog so when I'm home again, I will hopefully finish it!
This is week 3 of day camps and so far, I'm really loving it. Last week was a rough week for me on the camper front. My campers were hard to deal with in many ways, but I made it through and am so blessed to have a team that looks out for each other. I'm realizing how every week is entirely different even if we are doing the same curriculum and the same activities; the campers and how everything flows is a little different at each location so I have to continually reminding myself that it's not going to be rainbows and butterflies every week and I have to rely on God. I can't do this on my own.
I know some people probably don't know exactly what I'm doing this summer, and I don't want to get super into it so I'll try to give a short synopsis. Basically we do day camp at different churches or schools every week; if you know SpringHill, we bring that experience the best we can to a day camp setting. We have flying squirrel and other high adventure activities as well as the classics like water and archery and tie dye. We have small groups and the big thing with SpringHill is how we incorporate faith and fun in everything we do. So we don't keep the Jesus stuff to just large group or small groups, but after everything we do we debrief it and try to have the kids make connections to the Bible stories we read or just God in general. It's great. I think that's one of the really neat things about SpringHill. I'm also as I said earlier, so blessed by this team. Everyone is amazing. Being in Scotland and not super connected into any church or with Christians was hard, especially since at Baylor I've got a great community of support. So coming back and basically going straight into camp with God at the core is nice. We have different areas that we do morning meetings and are the people we are partnered with throughout the summer and my group's pretty legit. It's actually not really been complete ever, but it's cool. Also, we have set-up and tear-down teams and I got placed on the high adventure team. At first I thought that was going to be horrible to be perfectly honest because high ad is really complex and is like all the really intense activities. But praise Jesus, it's not horrible at all. Some days it is frustrating because things don't work right or whatever, but the people on the team are legitimately some of my favorite people. I know they always say you shouldn't pick favorite campers, but no one said anything about picking favorite other counselors or whatever. Haha. But really, I'm in love with our whole Indy Day Camp team. Everyone is so encouraging and so much fun. Sometimes it is hard for me because I'm definitely an introvert and being around people constantly and having to be full of energy wears on me. I relish my alone time, which thankfully does exist even if it is in small doses.
To end this, I'd love to leave you with some prayer requests:
1. First, that I will remember to rely on God and to find my strength in Him and not myself and to look to Him to be filled up each day.
2. For this coming week, that I will work well with my co-counselor and that our kids will be better than the kids I had last week.
3. That the friendships I am forming will deepen into lasting relationships, not just for the summer.
4. That I won't let Satan bring me down in feeling like I'm not a good enough counselor or anything like that. That I will remember I am loved and valued by God and comparing myself to others isn't productive.
Thanks lovely readers!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
important news!
Hey friends, readers, whoever,
As some of you probably know, I'm studying abroad this coming semester in Edinburgh, Scotland! I am going to make a separate blog for my study abroad adventures. Please add it to your favorites or whatever if you're interested in reading about my experiences across the pond!
http://bagpipebeth.blogspot.com/
yeah. this blog will be on hiatus while i'm abroad. so go to bagpipe beth! =)
As some of you probably know, I'm studying abroad this coming semester in Edinburgh, Scotland! I am going to make a separate blog for my study abroad adventures. Please add it to your favorites or whatever if you're interested in reading about my experiences across the pond!
http://bagpipebeth.blogspot.com/
yeah. this blog will be on hiatus while i'm abroad. so go to bagpipe beth! =)
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
we've got to rise up
this is probably going to be a work in progress blog. like i'm starting it at 11:09 pm on January 3rd but it probably won't get posted till later because I'll have more to add to it.
so let's start by saying that sometimes i really hate technology but now is not one of those times. some generous people made it possible for the Passion 2012 conference to be streamed live from Atlanta so people all over the world can experience it too! Last night I watched David Crowder* Band's last performance as a full band. I may have gotten a little emotional but it was fantastic albeit the abrupt ending because the stream stopped and then they did an encore which the stream wasn't restarted for. meh. Then today I watched part of the first session live. Then I watched the last session live which was amazing. It was my first time hearing Francis Chan speak and let me tell you. That man is filled with passion for Jesus and the Word. He has been blessed. He is so powerful, yet what he speaks is so simple. Beautiful. After that ended I decided to watch the middle session of today that I missed. I didn't watch it straight through; I skipped some singing stuff but once Christine Caine started speaking I watched to the end. And that's where my title of this post comes from. Matt Redman and some others wrote this song called "27 Million" the number of slaves that exist TODAY in the world. It is going to be released to secular radio in the UK and US and eventually Australia. I can't wait to see how God moves in the world through that song. The chorus is "We've got to rise up..." oops sorry I don't remember it anymore. Just you wait till spring when it kicks off on the radio and BE MOVED.
It's now Wednesday afternoon. Just finished watching the afternoon session. I watched the morning session too. This is the life. I love getting to experience Passion to some extent from home. Obviously it isn't exactly the same, missing out on the community groups and such, but it's pretty dang good. You get the worship, the speakers, the emotions. It's awesome.
The hardest part for me though is how I feel so much and I want to be able to do things, to make a difference, to help stop human trafficking [that's a lot of the focus of this conference this year], but there's only so much I can do. Christine Caine said something this afternoon that encouraged me to not lose heart. PRAYER. People, it works! She said it's something we all can do. Don't discount what a difference it makes. She went on to share this story: I don't remember when exactly it was, maybe it was legitimately 3 days ago? Anyways, we're gonna go for it. So someone felt like the girls of the "-stan" nations needed some real prayer. This person posted on their twitter "Pray for the girls of the -stan nations." People prayed. 3 days pass and there comes word to A21? [that's Christine's organization created to bring restoration and freedom to girls caught in sex trafficking] that 11 girls from Uzbekistan were freed in northern Greece. That apparently never happens and was a huge deal. The girls share their part of the story. They said that 3 days earlier they had been praying to Allah to get them out of the hellhole they were in. They'd been praying that for a year. Then they remembered someone who had told them about this God of Europe who they remembered his name was Jesus..so they prayed to Jesus something like "If you're really real, get us out of here!" and then 3 days later they are freed! PRAYER WORKS. that's really what I'm getting at here. If you feel like you can't do anything, just pray. It's miracle bringing. It's encouraging when you feel overwhelmed by everything and want to make a difference. You can! Pray. AH! I love it.
Also, please check out www.slaveryfootprint.org and find out how many slaves are working for you. That sounds awful, but it's true. Everything you've eaten, bought, what you're wearing was most likely made possible because of a slave. It's a little hard to take in, but we can change it! The creators of the site are creating resources and this app and ways we can share with the stores etc to bring awareness and to make a change in the industry so less things are slave-created, more slaves can be freed, and what we consume as a world will not be made by someone in slavery. Share your footprint with others so more people can jump on board and things can change!
I don't want to be a part of the stragglers who do nothing, who hide out but say "Yes! We did it!" when great things happen. I want to be like Jonathan and his weapon bearer who went and took on the army of Philistines because they knew God was with them. If I'm not a Jonathan then I want to be a part of the second group who sees those few going and then they support and help out the few to bring about the ultimate outcome of freedom or whatever movement. (Check out 1 Samuel 14 if you want to read the thing straight from the Word of God!)
I realize this blog is very choppy, but I'm hoping someone will get something out of this. There's a lot to take in, maybe you should just check out http://live.268generation.com/all-sessions/ and get a dose of Jesus for yourself!
so let's start by saying that sometimes i really hate technology but now is not one of those times. some generous people made it possible for the Passion 2012 conference to be streamed live from Atlanta so people all over the world can experience it too! Last night I watched David Crowder* Band's last performance as a full band. I may have gotten a little emotional but it was fantastic albeit the abrupt ending because the stream stopped and then they did an encore which the stream wasn't restarted for. meh. Then today I watched part of the first session live. Then I watched the last session live which was amazing. It was my first time hearing Francis Chan speak and let me tell you. That man is filled with passion for Jesus and the Word. He has been blessed. He is so powerful, yet what he speaks is so simple. Beautiful. After that ended I decided to watch the middle session of today that I missed. I didn't watch it straight through; I skipped some singing stuff but once Christine Caine started speaking I watched to the end. And that's where my title of this post comes from. Matt Redman and some others wrote this song called "27 Million" the number of slaves that exist TODAY in the world. It is going to be released to secular radio in the UK and US and eventually Australia. I can't wait to see how God moves in the world through that song. The chorus is "We've got to rise up..." oops sorry I don't remember it anymore. Just you wait till spring when it kicks off on the radio and BE MOVED.
It's now Wednesday afternoon. Just finished watching the afternoon session. I watched the morning session too. This is the life. I love getting to experience Passion to some extent from home. Obviously it isn't exactly the same, missing out on the community groups and such, but it's pretty dang good. You get the worship, the speakers, the emotions. It's awesome.
The hardest part for me though is how I feel so much and I want to be able to do things, to make a difference, to help stop human trafficking [that's a lot of the focus of this conference this year], but there's only so much I can do. Christine Caine said something this afternoon that encouraged me to not lose heart. PRAYER. People, it works! She said it's something we all can do. Don't discount what a difference it makes. She went on to share this story: I don't remember when exactly it was, maybe it was legitimately 3 days ago? Anyways, we're gonna go for it. So someone felt like the girls of the "-stan" nations needed some real prayer. This person posted on their twitter "Pray for the girls of the -stan nations." People prayed. 3 days pass and there comes word to A21? [that's Christine's organization created to bring restoration and freedom to girls caught in sex trafficking] that 11 girls from Uzbekistan were freed in northern Greece. That apparently never happens and was a huge deal. The girls share their part of the story. They said that 3 days earlier they had been praying to Allah to get them out of the hellhole they were in. They'd been praying that for a year. Then they remembered someone who had told them about this God of Europe who they remembered his name was Jesus..so they prayed to Jesus something like "If you're really real, get us out of here!" and then 3 days later they are freed! PRAYER WORKS. that's really what I'm getting at here. If you feel like you can't do anything, just pray. It's miracle bringing. It's encouraging when you feel overwhelmed by everything and want to make a difference. You can! Pray. AH! I love it.
Also, please check out www.slaveryfootprint.org and find out how many slaves are working for you. That sounds awful, but it's true. Everything you've eaten, bought, what you're wearing was most likely made possible because of a slave. It's a little hard to take in, but we can change it! The creators of the site are creating resources and this app and ways we can share with the stores etc to bring awareness and to make a change in the industry so less things are slave-created, more slaves can be freed, and what we consume as a world will not be made by someone in slavery. Share your footprint with others so more people can jump on board and things can change!
I don't want to be a part of the stragglers who do nothing, who hide out but say "Yes! We did it!" when great things happen. I want to be like Jonathan and his weapon bearer who went and took on the army of Philistines because they knew God was with them. If I'm not a Jonathan then I want to be a part of the second group who sees those few going and then they support and help out the few to bring about the ultimate outcome of freedom or whatever movement. (Check out 1 Samuel 14 if you want to read the thing straight from the Word of God!)
I realize this blog is very choppy, but I'm hoping someone will get something out of this. There's a lot to take in, maybe you should just check out http://live.268generation.com/all-sessions/ and get a dose of Jesus for yourself!
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