Dedicated to Acacia

On Saturday I was very upse in saying my farewells to Acacia who has been with us since October. Over the last 6 months (although she was away for music sometimes) I enjoyed every last minute of our time together. Cace is one of those awesome people who will tell you the truth but does it in a way that is not condemning. She is a mentor and a true friend. We would hang out with each other and play cards watch cheesy romance movies and fight warfare along side each other. She would never admit how amazing she is but you can tell by the impact she has had on me and the rest of the community here.

Last Thursday we threw her a 'surprise' party to let her know how much we appreciate her and love her. We got to bless her up with some gifts to remind her of us and we also got to pray with her. It was just beautiful to see the love between Cace and our community here. Cace is a real blessing and our friendship will last.

I love you my sister.

The Lord's protection

This morning I woke up really early by choice (I'm scared too don't worry) because I wanted to sort some things out before classes started. I was starting to walk over to the community house and the Lord showed me how much protection he is given me.

I don't think I should say what happened specifically but lets just say that it could have ended badly for me and some other people who live near me but thankful God had convinced me to get up (I had contemplated going back to sleep) and I was able to pray for God's covering and protection during the situation. I also got to walk some of the kids to school to make sure they got there ok.

I thank you God that you have sent your angels to protect us and are using us here in mighty ways. Praise the Lord

A good surprise

Last night I was very blessed to have a phone call from a very special someone from back home. Narelle called me and in all honesty, I cried. It was so awesome to hear a friendly voice that could tell me of somethings happening back home that totally put my mind at rest. I'm so blessed to have a friend like Relle. She is a might warrior bride who is fully lead by Holy Spirit and is an amazing inspiration to all female Christians.

Love you muchly Relle!!!!!

HYPOCRISY!!!

The dictionary defines a hypocrite as:
'a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.'

God has been talking to me a lot about hypocrites lately and it's really scary how we can read about in the word of God but kinda skip over it because they think they know it already and I'll admit I've been guilty of doing it to.

I'm not going to try to fix people or tell them what to do if I still struggle with it to unless we are working on it together and are holding each other accountable.

But I think this scripture really sums it up.

Matthew 7:2-4 says
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

I don't want to be a hypocrite and I'm choosing to become aware of it. Will you?

Dates

Now as you all know as part of being at the war college here I'm not allowed to date for a year. Well last night I went on a date!!!!

Now that I've grabbed your attention I want to share about my lovely little date with DD. She's 2 years old and I'm her best friend. She won't talk to anyone else or even talk to me if other people are around but when she is with me one on one I can't get her to shut up (but I never want her to be silent anyway. She has such a cute voice.)

So last night around 7 I went over to DD's house and ask if I could take her home for dinner. We had pizza, ice cream and many chocolate eggs. I thought that she would not sleep last night because she was so hyper from all the sugar. But she fell asleep in my arms half way through a conversation. It was so cute. I carried her home and but her to bed.

But what I wanted to tell you about is the tears that came out of me when I was just talking to her because I realised that in 4 weeks I'll be going off to summer placement then after that I'll be around here for only 2 weeks, so really I have 6 weeks left with this little princess of mine. I was hugging her and she looked up at me and did her little smile giggle thing that first softened me and I just started crying. I prayed over her and spoke words of life into her which no one has probably ever done to her before. I know that she won't remember me by this time next year or even that moment but I always will and I'll always be praying for her and my heart and my eyes will always be crying for her.

I love my little DD.

Rahab's a whore?

When ever I hear of anyone talk about Rahab they generally say "Rahab the prostitute" but why can't they just call her Rahab. It's not like it's such a common name that you have to differentiate between the immense amounts of Rahab's that are over taking the Bible.

Ok but to be fair I can sort of understand why people always remember her as a prostitute when she is introduced to us in Joshua 2:1
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

But lets remember for the good that she did. She realised that the God of Joshua was 'The Only True God' she helped the two spies from Shittim by hiding them before the King of Jericho. She went against her culture and home for God so in my books she's a hero. She then later hooks up with Salmon and they have Boaz who later leads to Jesus. (Matthew 1) So I say get off her back, cut her some slack. We all have pasts that are considered to be messy in the eyes of others and the whole 'those who have committed no sin can cast the first stone' and 'before you try to remove the twig from someones eye, remove the log from your own'

Rahab should be remembered for more than just being a little whore but for what she did after being saved.

Oil

Yesterday I found out that I am truly a part of the community here by a simple act of kindness by one of the families that lives to doors down from us. Let's start at the beginning.

Yesterday was LC's birthday and we make the kids birthday cakes here so they know that they are loved and that we're glad that they are alive (and that we remembered is a big thing for them too.) So I was going to bake his cake only to realize that we were out of oil. So I was going to walk down to the food loin (a store that's about 2 miles each way) and it was drizzling rain so I wasn't exactly looking forward to my walk until Kevin started to ride his bike next to me asking where I was going and if he could come. Of course I said yes because I love to have company on those kinds of walks.

Then he was asking what I needed to get. I told him some oil for LC's cake and he said he had some at this house that we could have so I wouldn't have to walk in the rain. So he brought over the oil and helped me bake a birthday cake for LC (although I think he only wanted to help bake so he could have the extra batter in the mixing bowl.)

I just felt so loved by him giving me oil. It sounds weird I know but it's the little things like that that make a huge difference to me.

Girls have power

I've been reading a lot about women in the Bible and I'm even writing a book about it now. I know that there are a lot of books out there already but this one is going to have a study guide and have it written in an easy to read way to youth can understand it better.

So I wanted to give kind a back ground as to some of what I've been meditating on and what God's been telling me about these women. And I'll write about one a week for the next four weeks.

In the genealogy of Jesus found in Chapter 1 of Matthew there are 16 verses that give names of descendants from Abraham through to Jesus Christ, and if you haven't noticed most of the names recorded are all males with the exception of 4. Those are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba (Uriah's wife). All of which have had people claim their unrighteousness but what I see is they way God used these women (no matter what their circumstances may have been) to be women that are warriors, ezers (which is Hebrew for strong helper) and how women were and are significant in the eyes of God.

So Tamar. Poor old Tamar who is only remembered as dressing herself as a prostitute so that she may trick Judah into sleeping with her. But I'm about to defend her case. You can find Tamar's story in Genesis 38 if you want more than what I'm giving.

Tamar was first married to Er (who is the first born child of Judah) and this was no happy marriage. She would not have chosen her partner because of old Jewish customs where the Fathers decided on who you married to benefit the family. Also in verse 7 it says " But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the Lord's sight;" He was so wicked that "the Lord put him to death".

So now Tamar is a widow and without child. I know that this sounds really wrong in our society today put in the old Jewish culture it was normal and expected for Er's brother (Onan) to take her as a wife and lie with her so she may have a baby to carry on Er's name. Onan how ever "knew the offspring would not be his" which would mean that his inheritance would be cut drastically from 2/3 of his Fathers land to 1/4. So he made it seem like he was fulfilling his duty as Er's brother but was actually spilling himself on the ground. This would have been horrific for Tamar. She was just trying to produce a son for for dead husband and so Onan would just get his jollies but not fulfill the laws.

Then God comes along and strikes him down to for his wickedness. Judah sends Tamar back to her Father and tells her that he will summon her back when his last son Shelah has become a man to fulfill his duty.

Judah's wife dies and then intends not to give his last son to Tamar who is just doing what she is supposed to. On his way to shear his sheep at Timnah, Tamar took off her widow's clothes, and but on a veil so that she would not be recognised by Judah. They end up sleep together and he gives this prostitute his staff and his seal and cord (which symbolises his authority and his family line.)

Judah finds out that Tamar is pregnant by means of prostitution and orders her to be killed by fire. She walks out with a staff and a cord and seal. She says "I am pregnant by the man who owns these."

Judah's reaction is with the words "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah."

Tamar later gives birth to twins Perez and Zerah and Perez carries on the line that leads to Jesus Christ.

Judah realised that he did the dirty on Tamar and even says that"she is more righteous than I" She was doing what God had told her culture to do and this woman faith carried on the blood line. Praise God that she was an ezer.

Why?

I am feeling a little discouraged really. There are to boys in the hood that I have put so much effort into (especially in the last month and a half) and the past couple of days they have been off. Not with me but with the other leaders and I know that they are usually so much better than that and they have been trying to fight some other kids in the neighbourhood. It's probably because there is stuff going on at home but I just wish that the other people around here could see the side that they show me but they are to scared to open themselves up to to many people.

It's weird how I can put on an act of being overly to nice in front of others but they try to be rough in front of others but we all do it as a defense mechanism. That's probably why they can be themselves with me because we do the same thing

Transforming heart

Some of you may know from previous blogs that I have befriended some human trafficked women and I had been really scared for one in particular since I had not seen her since I heard about one of the other girls getting murdered. I'm really really really close to this girl and having her disappear for a few weeks is worrying but yesterday she showed up. She came up to me hugged me and we both started crying. She had been arrested for 3 weeks for selling herself.

It was so awesome to see her again. She told me that she is trying to get her life back together now because God has told her to. She is trying to get clean and she is now using only $20 worth of crack as apposed to $500-$600 worth. She has called her Mum (has spoken to her in 2 years) and is going to move back to her home to take care of her children when she is fully clean.

God is so amazing. I never forced the gospel on her or anything and God used gentleness, friendship and love guide her to him. Praise God