“Give God His glory by resting in Him, by trusting Him fully.”
– Andrew Murray
Hello friends,
See the conclusion of my Swedish placement in photos here!
(Just look toward the end of the album if you've already seen the first ones...)
It is impossible to believe that my placement in Sweden has drawn to a close and I am writing to you from my own little English garden-view room at college. The time has flown by, each minute more full than I can ever hope to describe. Everything about my month in Sweden played out so purposefully, from my long and frustrating journey to get there when every placement opportunity seemed to shut in on itself, to every precious person He put in my path during my time there… Our God is so much bigger, so much grander, and so much more attentive and loving than we imagine.
My Little Secondhand Church
My last weeks in Sweden saw many exciting things in the Secondhand Church , the tiny international, rag-tag congregation that met at the Secondhand on Wednesdays and Sundays.
* My second to last Sunday I preached, much to my dread, and even sang, much to my further embarrassment! Despite how awful it felt, I’m told it went fine, and God had another opportunity to prove Himself strong in my weaknesses. I shared a message of God’s unconditional love, teaching from Isaiah 43:1-7—a passage that He had been using greatly to speak to my heart. So it was intensely personal and deep and I really found myself struggling with lots of personal negativity about myself afterwards, (maybe a sort of inverted pride?) but God had much to teach me even through that, so in the end, it was a positive challenge that I imagine He’ll thrust me into again in some way in the future J
* When I first came to Rescue Mission, Amida, a Muslim man and his family had just moved to Göteborg and had found us friends at the Secondhand. He began joining us at Sunday services and cell group on Wednesday nights. Mike assured me that by the end of my month with them, Amida would have given his life to the Lord… Well, my second to last Wednesday night, he did just that, and everyone at cell group had the privilege of seeing him ushered into the kingdom of God !! When he came to my last cell group a week later he had changed his name to Joseph and was joyfully seeking the face of God. It was a beautiful thing to see. I met 3 Muslims turned Christians through working at the Secondhand, though 2 of them were Christians in secret for fear of murderous ‘friends’ and family who wouldn’t be so happy to hear they had found Christ as I was!
* My last week in the church God really spoiled me with attention. Firstly on the Sunday a guest pastor prayed over each of us in the congregation from God’s heart and He used this prayer of prophecy to assure me in particular of specific work He’s doing in different areas of my life, and to affirm me. It was very powerful as this stranger didn’t know me from Adam, but God knows these things in my heart better than I do. Then at the end of my last cell group meeting the night before I left Sweden , everyone there anointed me with oil and prayed for the ministry God will use my life for! It was very precious and I felt entirely spoiled by the amount of love and goodwill God was showering on me through the special people of my little Secondhand Church . Also very humbled and awed to think that God wants to equip each of us, even someone such as myself, to carry His heart with powerful effect—the purpose He can infuse our lives with, even mine, is just… mind-blowing!!
Surprised by Belonging
Though I’d been there before and went somewhat familiar with the Van Weiden family and my Göteborg surroundings, I could never have foreseen how well and how quickly I would fit there. In 4 short weeks I found myself entrenched in real and lifelong friendships with people from the Secondhand Church, and I melded into that beautiful Dutch/Irish family filled to the brim with little brothers J There were days about town with Terri-Anne and slumber parties are her house, coffees and evenings with Betty, understanding chats and walks under the stars with my lone compatriot Robin, parties with other young adults from the Secondhand’s sort of sister church, Smyrnashyrkan, where I was instantly taken in as one of that close-knit crowd, Lots of playing with Bionicles and Transformers with my “baby brother” Jesse, hugs, hugs, hugs, and more hugs from my “little brother” Micha, so many talks on faith with “Papa” Mike, and myriad giggles, talks, and tears with my lovely Brôna as I worked through some deep things God was bringing up in my life… God has been using all of these people and more to whisper to me of His unconditional love—a love I am still getting a handle on and may forever be surprised by.
Lessons, Lessons, and More Lessons
My mind and heart are still all abuzz with the many lessons God seemed keen to teach me through those people, those situations—the biggest one being confidence. Over and over again what He was impressing upon me is that it is not by might, not by power, [not by skill, training, talent, method, technique, or inclination] but only by His Spirit (Zech. 4:6 in living colour!). Pastor Mike is a great man who seems intimidated by nothing (except heights J) and living with and working with him meant those of us who are intimidated by everything have countless opportunities every day to “turn fear into faith’, as Hannah Hurnard once wrote. And all placement long, I was seeing His response to faith despite my fears and insecurities and issues. “Papa” Mike drew on so many analogies to his father/son relationship with his boys to describe much of God’s relationship to us and in so many ways I felt like I was understanding that tender Fatherly heart for the first time, and so living in a new kind of boldness of faith because of it. I felt a boldness to reach into the lives of the people around me and place a soothing hand over any brokenness to be found, or simply to extend a hand of friendship through walls that needed breaking down— and sometimes they were my own. It’s forever that simple touch of human vulnerability pointing to the God of all strength that makes all the difference in people’s lives.
“With His love, He will calm all your fears…”
-- Zeph. 3:17
Hej då to Sweden
This placement, like last year’s placement, had the distinct mark of being right in line with the will of a masterful God, who sees every one of our life stories from start to finish in a glance. I am left with the hopeful feeling that He has started some big things in this girl of His this month in Sweden that He will be lovingly carrying on to glorious completion (and that is very exciting!). For those of you who pray, Mike and Brona have stated in no uncertain terms that they would take me back any time for as long as they can have me... as have the people of the Secondhand church. Perhaps it's no coincidence that I have been praying about what to do after graduation for the past 3 years now :) Perhaps you could pray with me for God to make His best way known to me and then to prepare the way! Perhaps I'll be back in Sweden before too long-- perhaps not. Needing direction!
"If you need wisdom-- if you want to know what God wants you to do-- ask Him, and He will gladly tell you."-- James 1:5
Thank you so much for your support in prayer and giving and simply caring what He’s up to in the hearts of His people the world over and experiencing that through my eyes!
His (and yours) back in England,
Leah <><
p.s. Slideshow of Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=102dzu8o.9zwk0kjs&Uy=-vs9jnc&Ux=0
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Monday, 4 February 2008
A LONG Swedish Update #2
Dear All,
View photos of Sweden so far Here!
Sweden and The Sacred Romance of God…
The lovely crisp Scandinavian beauty of Göteborg is sweeping me up in itself again.
Coming back to Sweden for an extended period of time is a sort of coming home. It was Sweden where I remember God first really wooing me to trust Him in a radical way. I was 14 and came here on the good graces of an Aunt and Uncle spending a few years here for a job. Officially I came to be a help in the home and family, a bit of a youngish au pair; unofficially I came to learn a new side of God and His ways than I’d known before—chiefly how amazingly big and unlimited He is. Little did I know at the time that those 2 months would be the start of a lifelong love affair with Europe , with its people and cultures and histories, and the beginnings of a call into a life of ministry here.
So, He has brought me back full circle for this last of my college placements, into the arms of this beautiful port city, lifetimes older and more experienced and fully aware that all of those experiences began here 7 years ago when a lovely Aunt and Uncle and 3 little cousins invited a dreamy 8th grader over to their American home in Europe. Very young and quite fearful by nature, I discovered I had to throw myself on God again and again in hundreds of ways every day during those two fantastic months, and in so doing, I discovered He is more faithful, more attentive, more loving, more personal, and perhaps even wild about little old me, than I had realized was possible. I fell in love with Him then. And it has changed the course of my life.
“Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.” – Galatians 6:4 (The Message)
This Year’s Swedish Experience
This month’s experience makes me miss my Aunt and Uncle and Cousins as all of these familiar places hold memories of them for me! But ‘my family’ this time around, dear friends of my relatives in fact, is completely delightful. I feel happier in life just knowing people like this exist in the world! Their 4 boys make sure I get a completely sufficient amount of hugs each day, Mike doesn’t leave a minute lesson-less, and Brôna models for me the kind of wise, loving, and fabulously fun!, woman of God I would love to be. We delight now in keeping girly secrets from all the boys around us and she seems to sense when I most need a hug these days J
The Secondhand store is no ordinary charity shop, I assure you. People come simply to hang out in the special atmosphere of the place, drawn to the fragrance of Christ there whether they realize that’s what they like about it or not. My first day I had the delight of hearing a lovely old Norwegian man telling me stories in very difficult Swe-nglish over a cup of tea in the shop café, stopping in only for the company of the place, and this past week I had an extensive and amiable conversation (in perfect English!) about relationship with God with an Atheist professor from the local university!!
The volunteers too spend their days at the shop because of this atmosphere, and the dynamics are unlike any I have known before.
» Elin is a young Swedish agnostic who works there 4 days a week and isn’t afraid to tell people she doesn’t know what to think about God right now, opening up doors to dialogue about knowing Him (as she deals with a drug problem she keeps on the down-low).
» Demitri is a smiley old Bulgarian man who lives in a room at the back and does odd jobs like carpentry, cabinetry, and roofing. He has a testimony of Hollywood action film proportions and can tell you of God’s pursuit of His heart through a shipwreck, a near-death-experience in the Saharan desert, and 2 years in an Italian jail for a murder he didn’t commit. The man exudes Christ’s joy and his name for me is usually “angel” J
» Teri-Anne is a young mother from Singapore married to a Swede who spends long days helping at the shop simply because she enjoys the people so much. She communicates her faith with straightforward profundity to anyone who will listen, and feeds as many mouths at meal times as Mike musters up. She’s already become a lovely new friend and we marked the completion of my first week in Sweden by spending a day on the town together with her gorgeous 7-month-old boy in tow…
And those are just a few of the rag-tag group of volunteers God has drawn together to run this shop!
We have a cell group meeting there after closing time on Wednesdays. Mike is very purposeful about the church feeling like a family, and eating together is an important facet of that so we all share a meal and then share our lives. My first week we discussed Matthew chapters 1-4 and Mike explained the gospel to the Muslim family who joined us for the evening (!!!). Like I said before, the shop is a pivotal location for this group of Believers to be meeting because unbelievers can join in with such ease. It is a beautiful thing.
Sunday service has a small active membership of about 20ish people and sees upwards of 40 on a full day at the moment. The morning of my first Sunday here Mike announced at the breakfast table that it would be great if I could present my testimony in the service that day. Naturally, I panicked a bit and when it actually came time to stand up front and speak I had to grip the podium just to keep from falling over on shaky knees. Stage fright forces everything I mean to say straight from my thoughts and leaves me floundering for the right words. I felt appalling, but I’m told it made sense despite my wordless state and afterwards I got many (needed!) hugs and a strange man asked for my number (?!?), which I think is probably the weirdest reaction I’ve ever gotten after inflicting a bout of public-speaking on a room!
In a church this size it is impossible to get lost in a crowd, and getting lost in a crowd is something I tend to find rather comfortable! But I can appreciate what God is up to in bringing me into this body of believers where everyone has a part to play-- even if it means that I’ve spoken at my first week, led worship at my second, will be preaching at my third, and probably leading the Sunday School class at my fourth!!!
“It has been said, ‘Attempt something so big that without God’s help it will surely fail.’ In other words, we need to stretch beyond our comfort zones if we’re to discover the joy-filled reality of ‘quietly depending upon the Lord for his help, and not on our own skills’ (2 Cor. 1:12).” – Marlene Bagnull
Some Things He’s Up To in My Heart
There’s some poetic beauty in the fact that it was a Sunday in Sweden 7 years ago that God was coaxing me out of my shy and insecure shell by putting me up front and asking me to share as if I had something of value to give. I was 14 and my Auntie Melissa talked me into singing a duet with her up in front of the huge International Church they attended. Before this time, I wouldn’t even sing aloud in the car. It was a big, big deal in my young life and a tremendous step in following hard after a glorious God.
Insecurity has been getting the best of me again lately; an inability to trust God when He says I am infused with worth despite any and all short-comings and faults. I go blind to all strengths and gifts and suddenly find everything about myself now, then, and in the future a terrifically mortifying flaw. Putting my hopeless self in a position to be noticed is the LAST THING I would ever desire to do then, and so naturally it is exactly what must be done. Oh, the mysterious ways of this King Jesus… J So suddenly I’m here in a new place, new situation, with new people desperate to put my best foot forward but unsure about whether I have a “best foot” at all… Dire straights, people-- without His grace I am in dire straights! So He’s using this time of life to bring me into this biggest of my life struggles, to walk through its sources, face my giants, and come away with some enlightenment and healing so I can go on to serve Him better, fuller, truer. A broken vessel, yes, but one that doesn’t condemn itself for being so!
Sweden is a special place to me as it is one of the many places that an Almighty Sovereign God has stooped to confront a shocked-and-awed me at eye level. He uses it to whisper yet again of purposes He has for my life in its every nuance that I can only vaguely see. Passing through this fire the Lord is gently coaxing me into, I shall emerge from the other side more alive than I began… because I’ll be more fully His. And that end is worth everything it takes to get there.
So, I’m praying you’ll join me wherever our awesome God in His loving sovereignty has you. I’m praying you too will let Him challenge all your motives for your perspectives, probe all your wounds, and that you’ll listen to His call out of all your comfort zones. I’m simply struck by how much more He wants to do in all our lives than we let Him…
“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” -- Romans 5:1-2
Here’s to looking forward confidently and joyfully!
His (and yours) in Sweden ,
Leah <><
(Link to Photos again: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=102dzu8o.9zwk0kjs&Uy=-vs9jnc&Ux=0)
View photos of Sweden so far Here!
Sweden and The Sacred Romance of God…
The lovely crisp Scandinavian beauty of Göteborg is sweeping me up in itself again.
Coming back to Sweden for an extended period of time is a sort of coming home. It was Sweden where I remember God first really wooing me to trust Him in a radical way. I was 14 and came here on the good graces of an Aunt and Uncle spending a few years here for a job. Officially I came to be a help in the home and family, a bit of a youngish au pair; unofficially I came to learn a new side of God and His ways than I’d known before—chiefly how amazingly big and unlimited He is. Little did I know at the time that those 2 months would be the start of a lifelong love affair with Europe , with its people and cultures and histories, and the beginnings of a call into a life of ministry here.
So, He has brought me back full circle for this last of my college placements, into the arms of this beautiful port city, lifetimes older and more experienced and fully aware that all of those experiences began here 7 years ago when a lovely Aunt and Uncle and 3 little cousins invited a dreamy 8th grader over to their American home in Europe. Very young and quite fearful by nature, I discovered I had to throw myself on God again and again in hundreds of ways every day during those two fantastic months, and in so doing, I discovered He is more faithful, more attentive, more loving, more personal, and perhaps even wild about little old me, than I had realized was possible. I fell in love with Him then. And it has changed the course of my life.
“Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.” – Galatians 6:4 (The Message)
This Year’s Swedish Experience
This month’s experience makes me miss my Aunt and Uncle and Cousins as all of these familiar places hold memories of them for me! But ‘my family’ this time around, dear friends of my relatives in fact, is completely delightful. I feel happier in life just knowing people like this exist in the world! Their 4 boys make sure I get a completely sufficient amount of hugs each day, Mike doesn’t leave a minute lesson-less, and Brôna models for me the kind of wise, loving, and fabulously fun!, woman of God I would love to be. We delight now in keeping girly secrets from all the boys around us and she seems to sense when I most need a hug these days J
The Secondhand store is no ordinary charity shop, I assure you. People come simply to hang out in the special atmosphere of the place, drawn to the fragrance of Christ there whether they realize that’s what they like about it or not. My first day I had the delight of hearing a lovely old Norwegian man telling me stories in very difficult Swe-nglish over a cup of tea in the shop café, stopping in only for the company of the place, and this past week I had an extensive and amiable conversation (in perfect English!) about relationship with God with an Atheist professor from the local university!!
The volunteers too spend their days at the shop because of this atmosphere, and the dynamics are unlike any I have known before.
» Elin is a young Swedish agnostic who works there 4 days a week and isn’t afraid to tell people she doesn’t know what to think about God right now, opening up doors to dialogue about knowing Him (as she deals with a drug problem she keeps on the down-low).
» Demitri is a smiley old Bulgarian man who lives in a room at the back and does odd jobs like carpentry, cabinetry, and roofing. He has a testimony of Hollywood action film proportions and can tell you of God’s pursuit of His heart through a shipwreck, a near-death-experience in the Saharan desert, and 2 years in an Italian jail for a murder he didn’t commit. The man exudes Christ’s joy and his name for me is usually “angel” J
» Teri-Anne is a young mother from Singapore married to a Swede who spends long days helping at the shop simply because she enjoys the people so much. She communicates her faith with straightforward profundity to anyone who will listen, and feeds as many mouths at meal times as Mike musters up. She’s already become a lovely new friend and we marked the completion of my first week in Sweden by spending a day on the town together with her gorgeous 7-month-old boy in tow…
And those are just a few of the rag-tag group of volunteers God has drawn together to run this shop!
We have a cell group meeting there after closing time on Wednesdays. Mike is very purposeful about the church feeling like a family, and eating together is an important facet of that so we all share a meal and then share our lives. My first week we discussed Matthew chapters 1-4 and Mike explained the gospel to the Muslim family who joined us for the evening (!!!). Like I said before, the shop is a pivotal location for this group of Believers to be meeting because unbelievers can join in with such ease. It is a beautiful thing.
Sunday service has a small active membership of about 20ish people and sees upwards of 40 on a full day at the moment. The morning of my first Sunday here Mike announced at the breakfast table that it would be great if I could present my testimony in the service that day. Naturally, I panicked a bit and when it actually came time to stand up front and speak I had to grip the podium just to keep from falling over on shaky knees. Stage fright forces everything I mean to say straight from my thoughts and leaves me floundering for the right words. I felt appalling, but I’m told it made sense despite my wordless state and afterwards I got many (needed!) hugs and a strange man asked for my number (?!?), which I think is probably the weirdest reaction I’ve ever gotten after inflicting a bout of public-speaking on a room!
In a church this size it is impossible to get lost in a crowd, and getting lost in a crowd is something I tend to find rather comfortable! But I can appreciate what God is up to in bringing me into this body of believers where everyone has a part to play-- even if it means that I’ve spoken at my first week, led worship at my second, will be preaching at my third, and probably leading the Sunday School class at my fourth!!!
“It has been said, ‘Attempt something so big that without God’s help it will surely fail.’ In other words, we need to stretch beyond our comfort zones if we’re to discover the joy-filled reality of ‘quietly depending upon the Lord for his help, and not on our own skills’ (2 Cor. 1:12).” – Marlene Bagnull
Some Things He’s Up To in My Heart
There’s some poetic beauty in the fact that it was a Sunday in Sweden 7 years ago that God was coaxing me out of my shy and insecure shell by putting me up front and asking me to share as if I had something of value to give. I was 14 and my Auntie Melissa talked me into singing a duet with her up in front of the huge International Church they attended. Before this time, I wouldn’t even sing aloud in the car. It was a big, big deal in my young life and a tremendous step in following hard after a glorious God.
Insecurity has been getting the best of me again lately; an inability to trust God when He says I am infused with worth despite any and all short-comings and faults. I go blind to all strengths and gifts and suddenly find everything about myself now, then, and in the future a terrifically mortifying flaw. Putting my hopeless self in a position to be noticed is the LAST THING I would ever desire to do then, and so naturally it is exactly what must be done. Oh, the mysterious ways of this King Jesus… J So suddenly I’m here in a new place, new situation, with new people desperate to put my best foot forward but unsure about whether I have a “best foot” at all… Dire straights, people-- without His grace I am in dire straights! So He’s using this time of life to bring me into this biggest of my life struggles, to walk through its sources, face my giants, and come away with some enlightenment and healing so I can go on to serve Him better, fuller, truer. A broken vessel, yes, but one that doesn’t condemn itself for being so!
Sweden is a special place to me as it is one of the many places that an Almighty Sovereign God has stooped to confront a shocked-and-awed me at eye level. He uses it to whisper yet again of purposes He has for my life in its every nuance that I can only vaguely see. Passing through this fire the Lord is gently coaxing me into, I shall emerge from the other side more alive than I began… because I’ll be more fully His. And that end is worth everything it takes to get there.
So, I’m praying you’ll join me wherever our awesome God in His loving sovereignty has you. I’m praying you too will let Him challenge all your motives for your perspectives, probe all your wounds, and that you’ll listen to His call out of all your comfort zones. I’m simply struck by how much more He wants to do in all our lives than we let Him…
“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” -- Romans 5:1-2
Here’s to looking forward confidently and joyfully!
His (and yours) in Sweden ,
Leah <><
(Link to Photos again: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=102dzu8o.9zwk0kjs&Uy=-vs9jnc&Ux=0)
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Swedish Update #1
Hej Kompisar! (Hello Friends!)
And so the greatly-anticipated mystery placement commences and I write to you all from a bright and chilly Sweden!
On January 21st I was welcomed back to one of my favourite places in the world—Göteborg, Sweden! I’ve come to stay with and work with one of the loveliest families in the world, the Van Weidens. Mike is Dutch and Brōna is Irish and they’ve been living in Sweden for 10 years now with their 4 fantastic boys, aged 17, 15, 13, and 7. With two teenaged foster boys as well, it is a testosterone-packed house and Brōna needs a little feminine company :) So, what was a busy family of 8, with me makes 9 and I think it’s perfect!
Rescue Mission Sweden
Mike and Brōna run a ministry called Rescue Mission Sweden which translates practically into running a non-profit business in the city called Rescue Mission Secondhand. The Secondhand’s purpose is twofold. Firstly, it’s about making contact with people who need Jesus. It specifically provides work for people who are struggling to function in society such as addicts, especially those trying to get clean and work themselves out. And generally if they aren’t on that path before they come into the shop, after some time getting to know Mike and Brōna they often are :) God continually brings the right people to the shop at the right time and asks Mike and Brōna to be there to love on them and then watch Him change lives! I think this is very exciting.
Secondly, whatever profit is made by the shop goes to a Swedish-based organization called Barn i Nöd, translated Children in Distress, which provides homes for children in need across Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe.
Besides those two main purposes, the shop has also taken on the role of a church itself. It is an especially safe place for the previously ‘unchurched’ to interact with the body of Christ because it doesn’t come with the inherent threat of a proper religious building and instead fellowship and worship is very casual and at ease, letting people feel one of a family. Besides the service on Sunday held at the shop with anywhere between 10 and 40 attendees at the minute, there are bible studies and prayer meetings held throughout the week. God is moving in exciting ways through this unassuming shop, providing a safe place for people to meet who might otherwise never step foot in a Christian church, including most recently a Nigerian Muslim! Please remember to pray for the people God’s drawing into contact with Rescue Mission Sweden!
The object of my placement here in my thinking is most importantly to be a help and a blessing to Mike and Brōna. When I was praying frantically for God to provide me with a placement after so many placement options had fallen through and I was running out of time, He laid the Van Weidens heavily on my heart but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was terribly presumptuous of me to call them up and ask if I could come stay with them for a month! I saw from the get-go what a valuable experience it would be to shadow this missionary family as they are both foreigners serving in a European country (like me) and serving not with a structured organization, but simply (or not so simply!) following God wherever He moves and reaching out with His love in whatever capacity they have before them (potentially the kind of ministry I’ll do), and to top it off, they are raising a family and being foster parents (things I too would like to be able to do!). The experience seemed ideal for me, but could be a total inconvenience to them! So I prayed that if I called them it would be in answer to their needs as well. And as it turns out they’ve been praying for some help for awhile now! When I called, Brōna didn’t even have to consult Mike before she asked, “So, when can you be here?”
A Helping Hand and an Observant Heart
So, here I am to be a helping hand and an observant Heart. I’m going to be helping at the shop in the practical things involved in running a store as well as simply being a light to the customers and to the volunteers who are many of them getting clean from drugs and drawn to this Jesus we live for There’s also a coffee shop area that I’ll be helping in.
As far as the church goes, I’ll be helping with Sunday School, worship-leading, and Brōna would even like me to try to preach one Sunday! We’ll see about that one :) But after all, God seems fond of stretching me!
At home I live like one of the family. Jesse (7) and I are already fast friends and are collaborating on a small book just for fun, called “Oskar the Sea Monster,” written in English as opposed to most of his schoolwork done in Swedish J He and Micha (13) are my enduringly patient Swedish tutors. They are also showing me around the neighbourhood and today I took my first solo walk through the Swedish woods, which are full of moss-covered rocks and cliff-like stone hills. They look exactly like you’d imagine the Scandinavian trolls to live in and exploring them in the chilly air gave my little adventurous soul a thrill :)
An Invite to Sweden
I would love to invite all of you to Sweden this month :) Though physically it might be a bit difficult, you can make the trip by joining me in much-needed prayer and support!
Mike and Brōna make no profit through all the ways they spend themselves for the sake of the gospel and yet they didn’t even hesitate to take me in to their home! I’m praying that God will provide through your open hearts the money to cover all placement expenses plus to make a gift of money to the Van Weidens when I leave, as they expect to keep me as their guest! If God moves your heart to support my short term mission this year even a little, please send checks payable in my name to:
(address removed)
Additionally, we’re praying to find a good Sunday school curriculum (in English) for the Secondhand church (one for teens, one for children). If anyone has any leads for us or the means to provide us with this, please let me know!
As always, please keep joining me in prayer about the Holy Spirit’s work in this hurting world!
» Pray for everyone who enters the Secondhand that their hearts will be open and they’ll run out to meet our Father with His arms open wide to them!
» Pray for Rescue Mission Sweden and the vessels God’s using to pour Himself through here and that I might be a blessing to them!
» Personally, I would ask you to pray for my own courage and confidence as He places me in another different corner of the world for this month. May I trust Him without fear!
His (and yours!) in Sweden,
Leah
“All that matters is faith expressing itself through love.”
-- Galatians 5:6
And so the greatly-anticipated mystery placement commences and I write to you all from a bright and chilly Sweden!
On January 21st I was welcomed back to one of my favourite places in the world—Göteborg, Sweden! I’ve come to stay with and work with one of the loveliest families in the world, the Van Weidens. Mike is Dutch and Brōna is Irish and they’ve been living in Sweden for 10 years now with their 4 fantastic boys, aged 17, 15, 13, and 7. With two teenaged foster boys as well, it is a testosterone-packed house and Brōna needs a little feminine company :) So, what was a busy family of 8, with me makes 9 and I think it’s perfect!
Rescue Mission Sweden
Mike and Brōna run a ministry called Rescue Mission Sweden which translates practically into running a non-profit business in the city called Rescue Mission Secondhand. The Secondhand’s purpose is twofold. Firstly, it’s about making contact with people who need Jesus. It specifically provides work for people who are struggling to function in society such as addicts, especially those trying to get clean and work themselves out. And generally if they aren’t on that path before they come into the shop, after some time getting to know Mike and Brōna they often are :) God continually brings the right people to the shop at the right time and asks Mike and Brōna to be there to love on them and then watch Him change lives! I think this is very exciting.
Secondly, whatever profit is made by the shop goes to a Swedish-based organization called Barn i Nöd, translated Children in Distress, which provides homes for children in need across Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe.
Besides those two main purposes, the shop has also taken on the role of a church itself. It is an especially safe place for the previously ‘unchurched’ to interact with the body of Christ because it doesn’t come with the inherent threat of a proper religious building and instead fellowship and worship is very casual and at ease, letting people feel one of a family. Besides the service on Sunday held at the shop with anywhere between 10 and 40 attendees at the minute, there are bible studies and prayer meetings held throughout the week. God is moving in exciting ways through this unassuming shop, providing a safe place for people to meet who might otherwise never step foot in a Christian church, including most recently a Nigerian Muslim! Please remember to pray for the people God’s drawing into contact with Rescue Mission Sweden!
The object of my placement here in my thinking is most importantly to be a help and a blessing to Mike and Brōna. When I was praying frantically for God to provide me with a placement after so many placement options had fallen through and I was running out of time, He laid the Van Weidens heavily on my heart but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was terribly presumptuous of me to call them up and ask if I could come stay with them for a month! I saw from the get-go what a valuable experience it would be to shadow this missionary family as they are both foreigners serving in a European country (like me) and serving not with a structured organization, but simply (or not so simply!) following God wherever He moves and reaching out with His love in whatever capacity they have before them (potentially the kind of ministry I’ll do), and to top it off, they are raising a family and being foster parents (things I too would like to be able to do!). The experience seemed ideal for me, but could be a total inconvenience to them! So I prayed that if I called them it would be in answer to their needs as well. And as it turns out they’ve been praying for some help for awhile now! When I called, Brōna didn’t even have to consult Mike before she asked, “So, when can you be here?”
A Helping Hand and an Observant Heart
So, here I am to be a helping hand and an observant Heart. I’m going to be helping at the shop in the practical things involved in running a store as well as simply being a light to the customers and to the volunteers who are many of them getting clean from drugs and drawn to this Jesus we live for There’s also a coffee shop area that I’ll be helping in.
As far as the church goes, I’ll be helping with Sunday School, worship-leading, and Brōna would even like me to try to preach one Sunday! We’ll see about that one :) But after all, God seems fond of stretching me!
At home I live like one of the family. Jesse (7) and I are already fast friends and are collaborating on a small book just for fun, called “Oskar the Sea Monster,” written in English as opposed to most of his schoolwork done in Swedish J He and Micha (13) are my enduringly patient Swedish tutors. They are also showing me around the neighbourhood and today I took my first solo walk through the Swedish woods, which are full of moss-covered rocks and cliff-like stone hills. They look exactly like you’d imagine the Scandinavian trolls to live in and exploring them in the chilly air gave my little adventurous soul a thrill :)
An Invite to Sweden
I would love to invite all of you to Sweden this month :) Though physically it might be a bit difficult, you can make the trip by joining me in much-needed prayer and support!
Mike and Brōna make no profit through all the ways they spend themselves for the sake of the gospel and yet they didn’t even hesitate to take me in to their home! I’m praying that God will provide through your open hearts the money to cover all placement expenses plus to make a gift of money to the Van Weidens when I leave, as they expect to keep me as their guest! If God moves your heart to support my short term mission this year even a little, please send checks payable in my name to:
(address removed)
Additionally, we’re praying to find a good Sunday school curriculum (in English) for the Secondhand church (one for teens, one for children). If anyone has any leads for us or the means to provide us with this, please let me know!
As always, please keep joining me in prayer about the Holy Spirit’s work in this hurting world!
» Pray for everyone who enters the Secondhand that their hearts will be open and they’ll run out to meet our Father with His arms open wide to them!
» Pray for Rescue Mission Sweden and the vessels God’s using to pour Himself through here and that I might be a blessing to them!
» Personally, I would ask you to pray for my own courage and confidence as He places me in another different corner of the world for this month. May I trust Him without fear!
His (and yours!) in Sweden,
Leah
“All that matters is faith expressing itself through love.”
-- Galatians 5:6
Friday, 11 January 2008
The 40th Update
"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the bordeom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments and life itself is grace."
-- Frederick Buechner
Dear All,
(A Christmas Break picture gallery: Here)
It's hard to believe as I sit at my desk in my lovely little room at college that I have unexpectedly been to the States and back again in the past month. I am pleased to report that I got home for Christmas this year for the first time since moving to England 2 1/2 years ago!! It would have been my 3rd in a row spent away from my family and in the end they wouldn't stand for it :) So my parents and my little brother put forth the money to fly me back just in time to surprise my 3 other siblings! I assure you there were many gaping mouths and much squealing, which was a lot of fun. My 2 year old niece may have given the best reaction, though, when she ran and jumped into my arms, squeezed me around the neck and exclaimed, "Auntie, you're here! You're at my house! You're not in En'an (England)! Did you fly in an airplane across the ocean, Auntie? Auntie, you're here! You're here!" :) Perhaps needless to say, it has been a preciouspreciousprecious holiday season and it was hard to leave-- especially with my aforementioned 2 year old niece repeating over and over again throughout my 3 weeks in a suitably somber tone, "Neber, neber do bat to En'an, Auntie" (Never, never go back to England, Auntie).
So, I saw this pivotal new year in here in Minnesota with my very own lovely family, which was rather surreal. 2007 has been a strange, strange thing-- in many ways a story from a novel, not my life. It started during a visit by my parents and youngest brother to my beloved England, then onto a heartbreaking and beautiful 6 week mission placement in Romania after which I'll never be the same, the completion of my middle year of college, my last student-summer back in the states to nanny and spend as much time as possible with friends and family, including a new baby niece!, trying my hand at freelance writing (no luck yet but I'm hopeful as it's still early on), and the start (and ensuing stress!) of my final year of college back in the UK. Expanded horizons, new friends, new loves, new places, new homes of the heart, new families of the heart, deep deep friendships, the fading of others, love, heartbreak, despair and joyjoyjoy. Blessings without number, hurts beyond measure. Lessons started and still being learned. Dancing with the King on the heights as well as falling from grace and into the arms of apathy. 2007 proved a journey I'll never forget.
And now an epic 2008! This year I will graduate from college-- penniless, alone, and half-way around the world, with a heart for loving on His broken people in this broken world. I have little idea of what comes next, only that I'll probably continue to find His way for me in His ministry making my vagabond home here in Europe for now. Who knows where He'll take me or how He'll care for me or what He'll show me or how He'll shape me and use me. But I know that I have the choice of which eyes to see any situation through, and I want to choose His. I will not fear life this year. I will live it with all I have. Because time is precious, life is a gift, sometimes tears are more real than smiles, and He is meant to be this scary adventure that He is. I want all of Him, no matter what it takes-- at least I want to want that. It is a frightening thing to stare into the face of God and offer Him everything, knowing He is not safe by our small-minded standards. But because He is so good, it is a far more miserable thing not to. So... here's to 2008. A year of more of Him in all of our lives no matter the roads He must lead us down to get us there...
I so wish I could have touched base with everyone back in MN while I was home, especially since I truly don't know when the next time is that I'll be there. But instead I offer up my prayers for each of you reading this (whether in MN or anywhere else in the world you might be!) and holding me in yours.
I'll be in touch soon from this year's placement wherever it may end up being (I guess we'll all be surprised!). Until then, I pray you're seeking hard after a risen (alive, active, moving, loving, compassionate, forgiving, holy, scary, adventurous, delightful) King!
His,
Leah <><
"Until you have given yourself to Him you will not have a real self."-- C.S. Lewis
(The picture link again: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=102dzu8o.bmsx06k8&Uy=euz8a&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1)
-- Frederick Buechner
Dear All,
(A Christmas Break picture gallery: Here)
It's hard to believe as I sit at my desk in my lovely little room at college that I have unexpectedly been to the States and back again in the past month. I am pleased to report that I got home for Christmas this year for the first time since moving to England 2 1/2 years ago!! It would have been my 3rd in a row spent away from my family and in the end they wouldn't stand for it :) So my parents and my little brother put forth the money to fly me back just in time to surprise my 3 other siblings! I assure you there were many gaping mouths and much squealing, which was a lot of fun. My 2 year old niece may have given the best reaction, though, when she ran and jumped into my arms, squeezed me around the neck and exclaimed, "Auntie, you're here! You're at my house! You're not in En'an (England)! Did you fly in an airplane across the ocean, Auntie? Auntie, you're here! You're here!" :) Perhaps needless to say, it has been a preciouspreciousprecious holiday season and it was hard to leave-- especially with my aforementioned 2 year old niece repeating over and over again throughout my 3 weeks in a suitably somber tone, "Neber, neber do bat to En'an, Auntie" (Never, never go back to England, Auntie).
So, I saw this pivotal new year in here in Minnesota with my very own lovely family, which was rather surreal. 2007 has been a strange, strange thing-- in many ways a story from a novel, not my life. It started during a visit by my parents and youngest brother to my beloved England, then onto a heartbreaking and beautiful 6 week mission placement in Romania after which I'll never be the same, the completion of my middle year of college, my last student-summer back in the states to nanny and spend as much time as possible with friends and family, including a new baby niece!, trying my hand at freelance writing (no luck yet but I'm hopeful as it's still early on), and the start (and ensuing stress!) of my final year of college back in the UK. Expanded horizons, new friends, new loves, new places, new homes of the heart, new families of the heart, deep deep friendships, the fading of others, love, heartbreak, despair and joyjoyjoy. Blessings without number, hurts beyond measure. Lessons started and still being learned. Dancing with the King on the heights as well as falling from grace and into the arms of apathy. 2007 proved a journey I'll never forget.
And now an epic 2008! This year I will graduate from college-- penniless, alone, and half-way around the world, with a heart for loving on His broken people in this broken world. I have little idea of what comes next, only that I'll probably continue to find His way for me in His ministry making my vagabond home here in Europe for now. Who knows where He'll take me or how He'll care for me or what He'll show me or how He'll shape me and use me. But I know that I have the choice of which eyes to see any situation through, and I want to choose His. I will not fear life this year. I will live it with all I have. Because time is precious, life is a gift, sometimes tears are more real than smiles, and He is meant to be this scary adventure that He is. I want all of Him, no matter what it takes-- at least I want to want that. It is a frightening thing to stare into the face of God and offer Him everything, knowing He is not safe by our small-minded standards. But because He is so good, it is a far more miserable thing not to. So... here's to 2008. A year of more of Him in all of our lives no matter the roads He must lead us down to get us there...
I so wish I could have touched base with everyone back in MN while I was home, especially since I truly don't know when the next time is that I'll be there. But instead I offer up my prayers for each of you reading this (whether in MN or anywhere else in the world you might be!) and holding me in yours.
I'll be in touch soon from this year's placement wherever it may end up being (I guess we'll all be surprised!). Until then, I pray you're seeking hard after a risen (alive, active, moving, loving, compassionate, forgiving, holy, scary, adventurous, delightful) King!
His,
Leah <><
"Until you have given yourself to Him you will not have a real self."-- C.S. Lewis
(The picture link again: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=102dzu8o.bmsx06k8&Uy=euz8a&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1)
Saturday, 8 December 2007
A Letter From Leah #39
Hello again Everyone,
This is an attempt at giving these [monotonous?] updates a bit of a format, and hopefully a pinch of professionalism (since their content is generally anything but professional!)
The Shallows
So, what’s been happening in the life of Leah? Well, I’ve moved… to the library. Expectations are high and deadlines come swiftly this year, so most days as well as nights I can be found in the library which friends and I have affectionately called "The Brooks&Brooks&Leah Library" for the three of us who work there together most often. Somehow the essays, proposals, exegeses, analyses, and presentations keep printing out just in time.
What’s God up to in my heart these days? Lots and lots. God’s using this time of heavy schoolwork as an object lesson (when is He not doing so, after all?) for 1 Cor. 10:31, "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." He’s taken the concept right over—as "whatever you do" might suggest— and I’ve found even my cleaning duty this term (two community bathrooms!) is a chance to do something unto His glory. I suppose it harkens back to my old friend Brother Lawrence (A French monk from the 1500’s) and his "Practicing the Presence of God", as well as a new academic interest Thomas Traherne (an 18th century English mystic) and his "Centuries of Meditation" (both books and their writers come highly recommended by me!). I feel so keenly, as these two knew before me, that the very God of the universe lingers closer to me than my next breath. Surely that fact should influence my perspective of
every aspect of life…
The Deeps
It’s something that I’ve been pondering lately in my clearest moments, a bit breathless with wonder-- that ours is a God who draws near. I’m taking a philosophy course called Religious Experience where we’re studying peoples’ mystical experiences in all the various religions. I’m also taking a course on the Biblical book of Isaiah which may be the most beautiful (and harrowing) Old Testament expression of God’s passion towards His people that I know of. In a time when I’ve been walking down a rather lonely road of some intense personal struggles, I have been confronted again and again with the sheer hugeness of His love, a love so limitless that when I try to wrap my mind around it, I simply get lost there in my foolish little head. No other god, no other spiritual high of any religious experience compares. No other god is big enough to endure hundreds of years of rejection (by the people of Israel whom He wooed with wonder upon wonder) and still stoop in compassion for mankind in the New Testament only to be rejected again and killed. No other god is brave enough to make Himself vulnerable enough to love, and love, and love again a people, a person like me, who cannot possibly be as true to Him as He is to us. Even when the deepest rivers seem to sweep over and through me, He does not let them overcome me… because He walks right alongside, even carrying me in His arms (Isaiah 43:2, 63:9). Our God is the only god who draws that near.
I find the path I walk challenging. I find I don’t naturally suit the climate, don’t have quite the right shoes for the trail, and struggle to maintain my balance on the steep incline. Sometimes I feel overcome by a river of my own insecurities, weaknesses, and inadequacies. The deep, deep answer to all this, a truth that He’s written on my heart and has been rewriting afresh lately in His nearness is simply this: I am His.
I belong to the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, King. The Painter of the skies, the Sculptor of the land, the Setter of the stars, leans down to take my hand. He deems me in my meagerness more precious than words have been invented to describe, and the one He gives me is my only true identity, no matter how everything about life in this broken world will try to convince me different.
This is the defining characteristic of my life: I am His.
Being His endows me with splendour (Isa. 60:9) that I cannot seem to accept. It also gives me purpose I can only endeavor to live out in my blink-of-an-eye existence. It means I am His bond-servant, His hands and feet wherever I can reach and walk, His voice in my little sphere of influence. Incredible incredible responsibility; or perhaps a better description would be that it’s an incredible incredible privilege to belong to the very meaning of life; to Love itself, to Hope, to Joy, to peace, to strength, to glory, and every other defining characteristic of this God who loves in a language so intense I can hardly understand it. To fear anything at all in life seems very silly considering the company…
As Christians it’s very easy to get used to hearing all the stories and applying all the scripture and just getting on with it (especially at Christmas when it’s all around us and so familiar...). This year God’s express concern for my life is shaping out to be that I will actually understand the implications of belonging to Him and live out this truth in my life to the very core. It’s about trust and it translates into issues of self-esteem and confidence. I’m finding it hard to believe Him. I have believed so many false things about myself. This past term the heat has been turned up in such a way that I might all the more easily believe all the falsities. But YHWH God—this God who rescues, delivers, and redeems simply because that is Who He is— will woo us until we know, if we’ll live day to day with our eyes and ears open for Him.
My prayer for you is that you will seek to live with eyes wide open. You will see Him. He promises in Jeremiah to be found by all those who will seek Him with all their hearts. My prayer for my life is the same.
So, may we seek to truly know this Love this Christmas—to know it in such a way that it can seep into every crevice of our lives. He could deserve no less and whether we realize it or not, we could want no more…
Deep, deep Love,
Leah <><
p.s. Expect a more concrete and earthed update about Christmas and break and placement and all soon.
For Those Who Pray:
-- Please be praying that He opens up the doors for the perfect block placement for Jan/Feb and smoothes the road to get me there (finances, travel, accommodation, etc)
-- Please pray as God works in my heart, as it’s had a pretty rough term and He’s set me on a process toward some pretty serious healing there..
This is an attempt at giving these [monotonous?] updates a bit of a format, and hopefully a pinch of professionalism (since their content is generally anything but professional!)
The Shallows
So, what’s been happening in the life of Leah? Well, I’ve moved… to the library. Expectations are high and deadlines come swiftly this year, so most days as well as nights I can be found in the library which friends and I have affectionately called "The Brooks&Brooks&Leah Library" for the three of us who work there together most often. Somehow the essays, proposals, exegeses, analyses, and presentations keep printing out just in time.
What’s God up to in my heart these days? Lots and lots. God’s using this time of heavy schoolwork as an object lesson (when is He not doing so, after all?) for 1 Cor. 10:31, "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." He’s taken the concept right over—as "whatever you do" might suggest— and I’ve found even my cleaning duty this term (two community bathrooms!) is a chance to do something unto His glory. I suppose it harkens back to my old friend Brother Lawrence (A French monk from the 1500’s) and his "Practicing the Presence of God", as well as a new academic interest Thomas Traherne (an 18th century English mystic) and his "Centuries of Meditation" (both books and their writers come highly recommended by me!). I feel so keenly, as these two knew before me, that the very God of the universe lingers closer to me than my next breath. Surely that fact should influence my perspective of
every aspect of life…
The Deeps
It’s something that I’ve been pondering lately in my clearest moments, a bit breathless with wonder-- that ours is a God who draws near. I’m taking a philosophy course called Religious Experience where we’re studying peoples’ mystical experiences in all the various religions. I’m also taking a course on the Biblical book of Isaiah which may be the most beautiful (and harrowing) Old Testament expression of God’s passion towards His people that I know of. In a time when I’ve been walking down a rather lonely road of some intense personal struggles, I have been confronted again and again with the sheer hugeness of His love, a love so limitless that when I try to wrap my mind around it, I simply get lost there in my foolish little head. No other god, no other spiritual high of any religious experience compares. No other god is big enough to endure hundreds of years of rejection (by the people of Israel whom He wooed with wonder upon wonder) and still stoop in compassion for mankind in the New Testament only to be rejected again and killed. No other god is brave enough to make Himself vulnerable enough to love, and love, and love again a people, a person like me, who cannot possibly be as true to Him as He is to us. Even when the deepest rivers seem to sweep over and through me, He does not let them overcome me… because He walks right alongside, even carrying me in His arms (Isaiah 43:2, 63:9). Our God is the only god who draws that near.
I find the path I walk challenging. I find I don’t naturally suit the climate, don’t have quite the right shoes for the trail, and struggle to maintain my balance on the steep incline. Sometimes I feel overcome by a river of my own insecurities, weaknesses, and inadequacies. The deep, deep answer to all this, a truth that He’s written on my heart and has been rewriting afresh lately in His nearness is simply this: I am His.
I belong to the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, King. The Painter of the skies, the Sculptor of the land, the Setter of the stars, leans down to take my hand. He deems me in my meagerness more precious than words have been invented to describe, and the one He gives me is my only true identity, no matter how everything about life in this broken world will try to convince me different.
This is the defining characteristic of my life: I am His.
Being His endows me with splendour (Isa. 60:9) that I cannot seem to accept. It also gives me purpose I can only endeavor to live out in my blink-of-an-eye existence. It means I am His bond-servant, His hands and feet wherever I can reach and walk, His voice in my little sphere of influence. Incredible incredible responsibility; or perhaps a better description would be that it’s an incredible incredible privilege to belong to the very meaning of life; to Love itself, to Hope, to Joy, to peace, to strength, to glory, and every other defining characteristic of this God who loves in a language so intense I can hardly understand it. To fear anything at all in life seems very silly considering the company…
As Christians it’s very easy to get used to hearing all the stories and applying all the scripture and just getting on with it (especially at Christmas when it’s all around us and so familiar...). This year God’s express concern for my life is shaping out to be that I will actually understand the implications of belonging to Him and live out this truth in my life to the very core. It’s about trust and it translates into issues of self-esteem and confidence. I’m finding it hard to believe Him. I have believed so many false things about myself. This past term the heat has been turned up in such a way that I might all the more easily believe all the falsities. But YHWH God—this God who rescues, delivers, and redeems simply because that is Who He is— will woo us until we know, if we’ll live day to day with our eyes and ears open for Him.
My prayer for you is that you will seek to live with eyes wide open. You will see Him. He promises in Jeremiah to be found by all those who will seek Him with all their hearts. My prayer for my life is the same.
So, may we seek to truly know this Love this Christmas—to know it in such a way that it can seep into every crevice of our lives. He could deserve no less and whether we realize it or not, we could want no more…
Deep, deep Love,
Leah <><
p.s. Expect a more concrete and earthed update about Christmas and break and placement and all soon.
For Those Who Pray:
-- Please be praying that He opens up the doors for the perfect block placement for Jan/Feb and smoothes the road to get me there (finances, travel, accommodation, etc)
-- Please pray as God works in my heart, as it’s had a pretty rough term and He’s set me on a process toward some pretty serious healing there..
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Nice and Newsy
Dear All,
See the picture gallery of life back in England so far here!
Hurray! Second installment of news from England! I won't even comment on how I hope to make this quick because we all know how it ends up anyway by now, don't we? Nonetheless, I will promise to keep mostly to the practicalities and save most insights and passions for another mailing :)
I so love my college.
I cannot believe this is my third year here.I cannot believe how far He's brought me since showing up on the college doorstep an exhausted, frightened, and fragile, 19-year-old chock-full of hopes. As my darling cousin Emily said this summer as we discussed this call to Europe, "I blame it on the books!" He has so carefully drawn me to believe in His bigness-- a bigness that used to only seem to show itself in other peoples' stories. Suddenly I find He's written my life into a big story of His own. And I can only gaze up at Him with eyes wide-open and hold on tightly as He turns the pages!
It is such an incredible blessing to be able to look back and see how I've grown/am growing. And so far, no regrets. Sadnesses, obviously, at missing out on everything back home with the family I do so love. But no regrets. Suddenly Amy Carmichael's words ring true when she wrote, "You will regret nothing when you look back, except lack of faith or fortitude or love. You will never regret having thrown all to the winds in order to follow your Master and Lord." I am so thankful for how carefully He leads...
Classes
So, I have reached that mystical third year and somehow find myself a college senior! The classes, though led by the same profs (in England they are called "Tutors") have suddenly taken a huge step up in workload and expectations. I find myself often feeling very intimidated and not quite up to snuff. But also hopeful.
The studies I'm following this semester are:
Religious Experience with Rob Cook-- Analyzing the experiences of other religions and how they fit or don't fit within a Christian outlook. It is so very very interesting but also really demanding and Rob is the ultimate in intimidating academics so... I sort of sit there trembling every Tuesday morning hoping he doesn't ask me for any input! I think I'll quite enjoy writing the essays, though, because it fascinates me.
Isaiah with Derek Foster-- Exegeting the book of Isaiah. Wow... I've always known Isaiah was an incredible book but THIS incredible?? It just illustrates so profoundly the character of our God and that is an awesome thing to behold... For this particular class I must prepare a grand presentation on the theme of Justice and Poverty in Isaiah and I am quivering at the thought, believe me. But also drawn into the word of God and praying for strength and confidence! I despise presenting anything but it's all the more horrible when it's Derek doing the marking because the man is brilliance embodied and he's typically English in that he's keen on being critical!
and
Biblical Narrative with Richard Johnson-- Biblical narrative is great because it's basically teaching us to look at the books of the bible as you would any book of literature and as such to see what can be drawn out of it that you might otherwise miss. I loved studying English Lit. at Concordia so this is a particular treat for me! It's amazing to see how the word of God was constructed and laid out only reflects back on His sovereignty all the more...
Each class is a challenge because they always feel over my head-- even after two years of studying theology! But there are two sides to every coin and I have a twisted love/hate relationship with it all :)
Block Placement
I still haven't got one!
I've thought about taking up the offer of a Masters student I met here last year to go and help out a Children's Home in Hoima, Uganda which he was on the board of directors for-- and, who knows, God could still pull it all together-- but I feel somehow that I need to keep looking within Europe. I've spoken with some Italians here at college who are thinking about where they would send me in Italy! And I'm always hot on the trail of some ministry or another in Ireland. Of course, I could do a placement right here in England as well! Any experience within Europe is helpful, I think. Of course there's always Australia, Asia, South America, North America and even Antarctica if that's where He said to go :) So, we'll see. I'm praying, though, because my placement must take place in January and February and those two months will be upon me before I know it with hectic college life!! Any prayers you might offer for direction and for finance for this upcoming mystery placement would be more than greatly appreciated!
Everything Else
I don't know where the days go! But I love it.
I have a beautiful new prayer group-- just three of us; me, and my lovely English friends Amanda (from Sheppey in Kent) and Abbie (Milton Keynes, near London), who just got married this summer to my friend Paul! So far we've met three times but each time has been so full of catching one another up on our heart stories-- accompanied by copious amounts of tears and laughter, of course-- that we've only actually prayed together as a group once! I do miss my fabulous Leticia, Jenny, and Sarah of prayer-triplets-past at these times but feel confident that God wants to do just as much in this new triplet as he did in the past ones!
Two weekends now I've had the GREAT JOY of quick trips to Wales to visit "my Welsh family" in Ruthin!! Beth was a second year student here when I arrived in my first year and between her friendship and my "sisterhood" with her 16 year old daughter, they are a pretty special family to me. Over the summer, Beth graduated college and was married to the lovely Mike, so seeing them again was very very special after so much had happened. Do check out the photos because they are nestled in an outrageously beautiful part of the world.
I also visited a beach in North Devon with some Redcliffe friends last weekend so look out for those photos as well! God is forever using the sea to refresh my soul. For how much I love it it's hard to believe I was born in the very land-locked state of Minnesota :)
Last week was filled up by a WONDERFUL visit from one of my best friends who came back to England for his first time since leaving college after the first year! We had to do all the things we used to in the first year-- talked sitting up on the roof until the wee hours, played lots of Dave-and-Adriaan-4th-Edition-Uno (we even taught our rules to some of the new first years!), visited our lovely Gloucester Cathedral, played some pool (even though we're both pretty rubbish at it, right Adriaan?), worshipped late into the night with the guitar (he's prolific on it) and prayed through our long lists of things we're needing to bring before God together! We also spent a day and most of a night in Wales with our friend Dave who was also in the first year with us and our friend Anne who has a car and loves Wales so was delighted to take us (she even let me drive some of the way :))! I love the fact that one of my best friends in all the world is a Dutchman. How random is that? And he's about 10 feet tall (or so it seems from my meager 5'2") so God must really laugh when he sees us wandering around together in weeks like these :)
I think, though there's ALWAYS a trillion more things to say, I will have to send this out now so I can get back to work! But for those of you who are interested in keeping up with me, I like to get something out to you! Do expect to hear from me on "this side of the pond" again soon :)
Love in Him!
Leah <><
(link to Photo gallery)
"The eternal God is our hiding place;He carries us in His arms."
-- Deut. 33:27
See the picture gallery of life back in England so far here!
Hurray! Second installment of news from England! I won't even comment on how I hope to make this quick because we all know how it ends up anyway by now, don't we? Nonetheless, I will promise to keep mostly to the practicalities and save most insights and passions for another mailing :)
I so love my college.
I cannot believe this is my third year here.I cannot believe how far He's brought me since showing up on the college doorstep an exhausted, frightened, and fragile, 19-year-old chock-full of hopes. As my darling cousin Emily said this summer as we discussed this call to Europe, "I blame it on the books!" He has so carefully drawn me to believe in His bigness-- a bigness that used to only seem to show itself in other peoples' stories. Suddenly I find He's written my life into a big story of His own. And I can only gaze up at Him with eyes wide-open and hold on tightly as He turns the pages!
It is such an incredible blessing to be able to look back and see how I've grown/am growing. And so far, no regrets. Sadnesses, obviously, at missing out on everything back home with the family I do so love. But no regrets. Suddenly Amy Carmichael's words ring true when she wrote, "You will regret nothing when you look back, except lack of faith or fortitude or love. You will never regret having thrown all to the winds in order to follow your Master and Lord." I am so thankful for how carefully He leads...
Classes
So, I have reached that mystical third year and somehow find myself a college senior! The classes, though led by the same profs (in England they are called "Tutors") have suddenly taken a huge step up in workload and expectations. I find myself often feeling very intimidated and not quite up to snuff. But also hopeful.
The studies I'm following this semester are:
Religious Experience with Rob Cook-- Analyzing the experiences of other religions and how they fit or don't fit within a Christian outlook. It is so very very interesting but also really demanding and Rob is the ultimate in intimidating academics so... I sort of sit there trembling every Tuesday morning hoping he doesn't ask me for any input! I think I'll quite enjoy writing the essays, though, because it fascinates me.
Isaiah with Derek Foster-- Exegeting the book of Isaiah. Wow... I've always known Isaiah was an incredible book but THIS incredible?? It just illustrates so profoundly the character of our God and that is an awesome thing to behold... For this particular class I must prepare a grand presentation on the theme of Justice and Poverty in Isaiah and I am quivering at the thought, believe me. But also drawn into the word of God and praying for strength and confidence! I despise presenting anything but it's all the more horrible when it's Derek doing the marking because the man is brilliance embodied and he's typically English in that he's keen on being critical!
and
Biblical Narrative with Richard Johnson-- Biblical narrative is great because it's basically teaching us to look at the books of the bible as you would any book of literature and as such to see what can be drawn out of it that you might otherwise miss. I loved studying English Lit. at Concordia so this is a particular treat for me! It's amazing to see how the word of God was constructed and laid out only reflects back on His sovereignty all the more...
Each class is a challenge because they always feel over my head-- even after two years of studying theology! But there are two sides to every coin and I have a twisted love/hate relationship with it all :)
Block Placement
I still haven't got one!
I've thought about taking up the offer of a Masters student I met here last year to go and help out a Children's Home in Hoima, Uganda which he was on the board of directors for-- and, who knows, God could still pull it all together-- but I feel somehow that I need to keep looking within Europe. I've spoken with some Italians here at college who are thinking about where they would send me in Italy! And I'm always hot on the trail of some ministry or another in Ireland. Of course, I could do a placement right here in England as well! Any experience within Europe is helpful, I think. Of course there's always Australia, Asia, South America, North America and even Antarctica if that's where He said to go :) So, we'll see. I'm praying, though, because my placement must take place in January and February and those two months will be upon me before I know it with hectic college life!! Any prayers you might offer for direction and for finance for this upcoming mystery placement would be more than greatly appreciated!
Everything Else
I don't know where the days go! But I love it.
I have a beautiful new prayer group-- just three of us; me, and my lovely English friends Amanda (from Sheppey in Kent) and Abbie (Milton Keynes, near London), who just got married this summer to my friend Paul! So far we've met three times but each time has been so full of catching one another up on our heart stories-- accompanied by copious amounts of tears and laughter, of course-- that we've only actually prayed together as a group once! I do miss my fabulous Leticia, Jenny, and Sarah of prayer-triplets-past at these times but feel confident that God wants to do just as much in this new triplet as he did in the past ones!
Two weekends now I've had the GREAT JOY of quick trips to Wales to visit "my Welsh family" in Ruthin!! Beth was a second year student here when I arrived in my first year and between her friendship and my "sisterhood" with her 16 year old daughter, they are a pretty special family to me. Over the summer, Beth graduated college and was married to the lovely Mike, so seeing them again was very very special after so much had happened. Do check out the photos because they are nestled in an outrageously beautiful part of the world.
I also visited a beach in North Devon with some Redcliffe friends last weekend so look out for those photos as well! God is forever using the sea to refresh my soul. For how much I love it it's hard to believe I was born in the very land-locked state of Minnesota :)
Last week was filled up by a WONDERFUL visit from one of my best friends who came back to England for his first time since leaving college after the first year! We had to do all the things we used to in the first year-- talked sitting up on the roof until the wee hours, played lots of Dave-and-Adriaan-4th-Edition-Uno (we even taught our rules to some of the new first years!), visited our lovely Gloucester Cathedral, played some pool (even though we're both pretty rubbish at it, right Adriaan?), worshipped late into the night with the guitar (he's prolific on it) and prayed through our long lists of things we're needing to bring before God together! We also spent a day and most of a night in Wales with our friend Dave who was also in the first year with us and our friend Anne who has a car and loves Wales so was delighted to take us (she even let me drive some of the way :))! I love the fact that one of my best friends in all the world is a Dutchman. How random is that? And he's about 10 feet tall (or so it seems from my meager 5'2") so God must really laugh when he sees us wandering around together in weeks like these :)
I think, though there's ALWAYS a trillion more things to say, I will have to send this out now so I can get back to work! But for those of you who are interested in keeping up with me, I like to get something out to you! Do expect to hear from me on "this side of the pond" again soon :)
Love in Him!
Leah <><
(link to Photo gallery)
"The eternal God is our hiding place;He carries us in His arms."
-- Deut. 33:27
Friday, 14 September 2007
He's still the King of England
Dear All,
(See my summer picture gallery here!)
Here I am back in jolly olde England safe and sound looking out over the same stunning garden from the same antique bedroom window that I've looked out of for the past two years... and, as usual, I love it here! There were a few familiar faces when I arrived and so many warm, welcoming hugs-- My pastor Steve and his wife/my friend Debs were there to pick me up at the bus station! I cannot tell you how much to means to have loved ones there to greet me at the end of the line.
It was harder to leave this time than it has ever been-- even harder than the first year when I came over as a nineteen year old just graduating high school having never seen the place before and knowing not a soul! This will be the final year in my quest after my BA in Applied Theology! For many reasons I wasn't able to purchase a roundtrip ticket back to the States this year and I think the one-way ticket makes my family nervous :) Not that they have ever WANTED me to leave the country (thankfully :)), but in the years past they have never been quite so insistent that I reconsider! I found it torture to say goodbye to each of them-- but especially my nieces. Abby and Emily are so precious to this Auntie heart I can't even begin to describe.
My fondest answer to the "Are you crazy? Why don't you just stay?" remarks has been quite simply, "Take it up with God." (He doesn't seem to mind when I blame it on Him). But this time when someone came back with, "Yeah, but sometimes I don't know how much of it is God and how much of it is Leah" it cut me to the quick. At first I felt hurt. After all this time, that's what you think? I thought. But that night, my heart heavy with goodbyes and cloudy with new doubts, I tore into His Word and begged Him for clarity.
I do not want to do this if it is Leah and not God. It's too hard. Yes, I am living in Europe and befriending people from every nationality, I'm loving on orphans and writing about experiences I've only ever dreamed of-- and it's still not become normal to me. But it has not come without cost. And sometimes even now the cost seems too high to pay (and then I think of the expense of some of the others I've met here who leave behind wives and children on another continent in order to train for ministry, or the young families leaving every possible security to head out for the unknown chasing after a God who is anything but safe, yet o-so-good). Sometimes it all seems quite impossible, but then He keeps on opening the doors on impossible, as well as providing the grace to accomplish whatever it is laid out before me that I would never assume I could do. How do I know this is not a Leah thing? Well... if you know me, you might understand. Leah can't do this. Leah is too close to her family, too shy, too small, too young. But here's the thing, I serve a God who is deeper and wider and higher and bigger than I can even imagine. And that's what He reminded me of that night.
The verses that shone out at me that night before I left the States were in 2 Timothy. Read them and be encouraged as I am!!
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord... but join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life-- not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.
(2 Timothy 1:7-9)
I believe in a God who works His desires into ours, who gives us the desires of our hearts when we delight ourselves in Him. Sometimes I don't even know what those are (I am so torn between this draw to Europe and the ones I love back home...) but He does. The Lord knows those who are His (2 Tim 2:19).
As I flew over the Atlantic Tuesday night, aching from the seperation from having just left the ones I love so much and who so do not want me to leave, God seemed near in a way I haven't known for a while. As if holding my hand to reassure me (I find, being alone like this, I need alot of that) and show me that He is as much in this this year as He has been in the first two. He's not going to move on without letting me know-- and when He does, I'm going with Him!
So, there remains a draw on my heart to Europe that I still cannot explain, and I am in love with my college and am rather horrified at the thought of it all being over at the end of this school year! I'm praying about what's next for me, knowing I'll need to work for awhile to pay off tuition but thinking the work ought to take place in Europe. But I have a new-found confidence in Who He is and How He is and I know I am His to care for and as such, He'll show the way step-by-step and provide the means to make it happen!
I leave you at that for now. Rest assured more will come as classes start up and things pick up around here. These two days I've just been settling in, helping in the college nursery for the babies of the new students who are in orientation these days, and getting acclimated to the time zone again!
I cannot thank you enough for caring enough to read this. Knowing you're following this silly girl following her extraordinary God is pretty humbling and incredible :) You are blessings and I hold you up before the King as I send this. Be His.
Love,
Leah <><
p.s. A link to the Photo Gallery of my lovely summer at home!! The first few you've already been sent but I added on to it all summer so you'll find pics from our family trip to the Rockies, a reunion in Nebraska, the 3 outrageous kids I spent my summer with, some times with friends, another family reunion of sorts, and some of my last few days with the two most beautiful little girls God has ever crafted, a.k.a my nieces :)
(See my summer picture gallery here!)
Here I am back in jolly olde England safe and sound looking out over the same stunning garden from the same antique bedroom window that I've looked out of for the past two years... and, as usual, I love it here! There were a few familiar faces when I arrived and so many warm, welcoming hugs-- My pastor Steve and his wife/my friend Debs were there to pick me up at the bus station! I cannot tell you how much to means to have loved ones there to greet me at the end of the line.
It was harder to leave this time than it has ever been-- even harder than the first year when I came over as a nineteen year old just graduating high school having never seen the place before and knowing not a soul! This will be the final year in my quest after my BA in Applied Theology! For many reasons I wasn't able to purchase a roundtrip ticket back to the States this year and I think the one-way ticket makes my family nervous :) Not that they have ever WANTED me to leave the country (thankfully :)), but in the years past they have never been quite so insistent that I reconsider! I found it torture to say goodbye to each of them-- but especially my nieces. Abby and Emily are so precious to this Auntie heart I can't even begin to describe.
My fondest answer to the "Are you crazy? Why don't you just stay?" remarks has been quite simply, "Take it up with God." (He doesn't seem to mind when I blame it on Him). But this time when someone came back with, "Yeah, but sometimes I don't know how much of it is God and how much of it is Leah" it cut me to the quick. At first I felt hurt. After all this time, that's what you think? I thought. But that night, my heart heavy with goodbyes and cloudy with new doubts, I tore into His Word and begged Him for clarity.
I do not want to do this if it is Leah and not God. It's too hard. Yes, I am living in Europe and befriending people from every nationality, I'm loving on orphans and writing about experiences I've only ever dreamed of-- and it's still not become normal to me. But it has not come without cost. And sometimes even now the cost seems too high to pay (and then I think of the expense of some of the others I've met here who leave behind wives and children on another continent in order to train for ministry, or the young families leaving every possible security to head out for the unknown chasing after a God who is anything but safe, yet o-so-good). Sometimes it all seems quite impossible, but then He keeps on opening the doors on impossible, as well as providing the grace to accomplish whatever it is laid out before me that I would never assume I could do. How do I know this is not a Leah thing? Well... if you know me, you might understand. Leah can't do this. Leah is too close to her family, too shy, too small, too young. But here's the thing, I serve a God who is deeper and wider and higher and bigger than I can even imagine. And that's what He reminded me of that night.
The verses that shone out at me that night before I left the States were in 2 Timothy. Read them and be encouraged as I am!!
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord... but join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life-- not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.
(2 Timothy 1:7-9)
I believe in a God who works His desires into ours, who gives us the desires of our hearts when we delight ourselves in Him. Sometimes I don't even know what those are (I am so torn between this draw to Europe and the ones I love back home...) but He does. The Lord knows those who are His (2 Tim 2:19).
As I flew over the Atlantic Tuesday night, aching from the seperation from having just left the ones I love so much and who so do not want me to leave, God seemed near in a way I haven't known for a while. As if holding my hand to reassure me (I find, being alone like this, I need alot of that) and show me that He is as much in this this year as He has been in the first two. He's not going to move on without letting me know-- and when He does, I'm going with Him!
So, there remains a draw on my heart to Europe that I still cannot explain, and I am in love with my college and am rather horrified at the thought of it all being over at the end of this school year! I'm praying about what's next for me, knowing I'll need to work for awhile to pay off tuition but thinking the work ought to take place in Europe. But I have a new-found confidence in Who He is and How He is and I know I am His to care for and as such, He'll show the way step-by-step and provide the means to make it happen!
I leave you at that for now. Rest assured more will come as classes start up and things pick up around here. These two days I've just been settling in, helping in the college nursery for the babies of the new students who are in orientation these days, and getting acclimated to the time zone again!
I cannot thank you enough for caring enough to read this. Knowing you're following this silly girl following her extraordinary God is pretty humbling and incredible :) You are blessings and I hold you up before the King as I send this. Be His.
Love,
Leah <><
p.s. A link to the Photo Gallery of my lovely summer at home!! The first few you've already been sent but I added on to it all summer so you'll find pics from our family trip to the Rockies, a reunion in Nebraska, the 3 outrageous kids I spent my summer with, some times with friends, another family reunion of sorts, and some of my last few days with the two most beautiful little girls God has ever crafted, a.k.a my nieces :)
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