Points for Prayer!

So, I'm off to Sweden in the morning and I wanted to give anyone out there who prayers a few immediate prayer points!!!



My thoughts are all a bit messy at this minute. It's nearly 2am and it's been a busy few days of trying to say good goodbyes and pack well. My Dutch friend Mim was in the country on a visit and it's the last time I'll see her before she heads off to serve long-term in China and the whole concept of that has just hardly sunk in yet. My mind isn't really too prepared for Sweden yet, but I'm sure once I'm there I'll be really caught up into His great purpose and feel really alive in it all. But more on that soon!!

Please pray that I won't have any hitches at the airport tomorrow. Stansted is a particularly hostile airport, in my experience, and Ryanair is VERY rigid on luggage weight and all. Please pray that both my check-in and carry-on luggage will fall into the right weight!! Oh, and keep on praying about the computer, of course. I think we have a lead as to how to fix it a bit, but it's not for sure and I can't afford it to be costly!!

And that's another thing you might bring before God for me--- please pray that finances will come in for this time in Sweden. I'm afraid the little I have left will just run out and that's scary!! But I'd really like too not have to beg outright for financial support this trip. So far one person has already asked where they can send some support for my short-term work in Sweden to-- hurray!!! Please pray that God will stir up other hearts of the people who follow my journey in mission. He knows what's needed to do this...

Ooh, can you also pray that I pick up on the language quite supernaturally? I always start to learn bits and pieces whenever I'm in a foreign country for awhile and Sweden I've been to a few times so it's vaguely familiar, but as far as actually comprehending it, I have a long way to go. Most people can speak English so I do alright, but it would be really nice to be able to read signs a bit better and if I could actually understand what people say to me before they realize I'm English-speaking, that would be great! I'd love to be able to meet the people where they're at and speak their own language, but I'm not going to be too hopeful in 2 months! Languages don't come naturally to me. But you might bring it before Him anyway and see what He does!


Finally, please will you be praying for me that throughout these 2 months God is at work opening the doors for me to get a visa to work in England? Or opening the doors to go straight into mission (possibly with ECM or GEM) in Ireland... or somewhere else? Mike and Brona have already invited me to stay and work with them in Sweden for a year but even that would take fundraising and somehow I just feel like it would be sort of delaying the inevitable--- but we'll just have to wait and see what God does... Please pray for me, though! I get so easily discouraged.


Thank you!!! I'll let you know I arrived safely as soon as I get to some internet access :)

A Dedication Day

I'd like to introduce you all to my new, gorgeous, little godson, Alex!

Yesterday at my last week of church at Kendal Road Baptist , I became a 'godmother'-- in the baptist tradition here I believe 'sponsor' is the preferred term for it-- to a darling little English/Peruvian boy that I've babysat, along with his older brother and sister, off and on these past 3 years. His parents were at Redcliffe in my first and second years, and their family has a heart for South America (where his daddy is from!) and hope to move there for mission within the next few years! They are a special family and Caroline and Julio have two very beautiful hearts and have been blessings to me and my life in England.

It was a real honour to be asked to be a part of Alex's life like this; to commit to praying for him and the development of his faith throughout his life, and to pray for his parents who have dedicated themselves to bringing Him up in the Lord. My and the Robles family's paths will be parting, but this links us together in prayer for life, and I think that is a beautiful thing! I'm really blessed that they chose me for it...

And that God has surrounded me with friends all across Europe who have become like a great big extended family to me.

He is faithful and He is enough....

Oh Computers....

I need prayer.... for my computer!!

It's acting extremely sick and somedays I can't use it at all but my anti-virus software isn't picking anything up. I even had my pastor who used to work in computer look at it and he spent hours on it and yet it's still having problems on-again-off-again.

The thing is, my laptop is my main form of communication with everyone back home and now that I'm off to Sweden next week it will also be my communication with everyone here in England! And besides that, it's key to me as a writer.

Please will you pray with me that God in His mercy will heal my laptop? Or provide another, but without losing all the information that I keep on this one?

Thank you!!! You're prayers are more invaluable to me than you know...
p.s. While you're at it, you might pray for a graceful transition from England to Sweden, but more on that later :)

A prayer of my heart inspired by Jeremiah 32:38-41:

"They will be my people and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul."

Lord, make me your own, Your very own, and be my God.

Give me a singleness of heart and action that narrows down my every desire until it is only You I focus on, only You I long for, and only You I live to please-- for the good of my life and for the good of generations of lives to come.

Lord, make a covenant between You and I that can never end, committing my heart to You as much as Yours is committed to me-- and within the security of that covenant show me that everything that comes in or out of my life is Your good for me, because You are goodness itself and can never stop doing good.

Inspire me to truly know You, and to trust You, so that I will never turn away to any lesser loves.

Rejoice in doing me good, Abba, and plant me confidently and securely in the land You have for me to serve You in, living out Your heart and living out Your soul.

Seasons of Life

It's been a strange summer at the centre of an odd season in my life... I suppose I've struggled to write because I am still so very much entrenched in processing it all.

I've completed college! I've never not been a student and it's hardly sank in that it's actually over. By the grace of God, I did well academically and achieved my B.A. Hons in Applied Theology in good standing (a 2:1, for any English readers!) and I'm very pleased because it wasn't an easy feat and I didn't necessarily expect to come out with that high of a mark. So, praise God!

You'll recall from the last update that after graduation I promptly went off gallavanting around the UK with my lovely Mom and her two lovely friends who came over for my graduation! Then I had a little get together at the beach in Cornwall with friends I'd just graduated with 2 weeks before. Reality didn't really close in until after those busy (and beautiful) weeks.

So, I'll attempt to catch you up on my summer since then!!

A Home and a Family

I've been based this summer here in Gloucester with "my lovely English family"-- The Austin-Sparkses. Steve and Debs have been my church leaders and friends these 3 years and when they heard my predicament of not knowing what comes next but needing to remain in Europe until all doors close, they took me in. They have been more than room and board to me, though, as I've fumbled my way through the transition out of a tough year and hard goodbyes, and into an uncertain future. It's not an easy thing for a fully-functioning family to suddenly take on a whole new and different person into their system of doing things, but they have been so gracious and I have been so grateful. I've pretty much officially adopted Bex and Megan as the little sisters I never had. Meg has been especially close and has demanded that I live here with them forever... so we try to avoid the fact that my 2 1/2 months with them is nearly up!

A Job to Stay Afloat

The hunt for a summer job was FRUSTRATING!! I ended up applying to places I never would have expected to and still couldn't get a job! I take comfort in the fact that it wasn't just me, and friends all over England were having the same problem, but it was really discouraging in a time that was already full of emotional upheaval. At the beginning of August I finally got signed on with a temp agency to attempt to keep up with a few of the summer's expenses until I leave the country mid-Sept. Praise God!! The shifts I can most readily get are at a gorgeous, expensive old hotel in the Cotswold village just outside of Gloucester called Upton-St.-Leonards. By car it's about 15 minutes from where I'm staying, but I'm doing life on foot these days which makes my commute (a combination of buses and walking) a little over 2 hours each way!! God being the good God He is, saw that this might be a rather discouraging side of the job for me so He made sure that the long walks just happen to be in the stunning Cotswold countryside-- which is my favourite region of England. Somehow I can have just gotten off a grueling 5 hour cleaning shift and look toward the prospect of a long walk to the bus stop with a smile because my romantic heart thrills at the thought of tredding across the perfect picture of land known as the Cotswolds. I just come home in such surroundings...

A Gift from God Wrapped up in a "Holiday"

"No two of us are alike, each one stands alone before God. Your valley may be a darkness where you have nothing but your duty to guide you, no voice, no thrill, but just steady, plodding duty; or it may be a deep agonizing dejection at the realization of your unfitness and uncleanness and insufficiency. Let God put you on His wheel and whirl you as He likes, and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly in accordance with the vision He gave you. Don’t lose heart in the process."
– Oswald Chambers, So Send I You

I've felt very overwhelmed this summer as I transition from college which has been such a supportive family for me since living in Europe. I've felt a bit lost and alone in a great big world, knowing so distinctly my life is meant to be out here and not at home with my own loving family, yet feeling a bit of a waif here as well as I wait on Him for my next step. I've been deeply pondering my place in mission and ministry and constantly battling my feelings of inadequacy. I've been attempting to emerge from a long season of discouragement.

A turning point for me this summer came in the package of a holiday (what Americans would call a "vacation") in the Netherlands. 2 weeks travelling about to see friends in the Netherlands and then Wales was really just what the doctor ordered to gain a bit of encouragement and perspective! I booked an overnight bus (because it was cheapest!) from England to the Netherlands for the end of July (which meant driving through 4 countries one way!) and just relished the experience from start to finish. I just found myself utterly spellbound by God's extravagant attention to me. It's like He just kept on laying out before me circumstances to simply delight me heart. One thing after another.

A few highlights:

• On the bus ride over I ended up crossing the English channel on a ferry at midnight, the stars glinting down and reflecting off the pitch black water. I sat out on the deck for hours in the open air with a cup of coffee and a kind young man having intellectual conversation about our passions-- his being ecology and sustainable living and mine being God and pointing people to His love. He was fascinating. He was a 26-year-old Englishman living on an organic farm in the Netherlands. His house was a Mongolian tent in a field. After I inquired into the ins and outs of his life, it being so foreign to me, he began to ask me about my faith and what I meant by "mission". He was disillusioned with the church and Christianity. He explained to me his agnostic views on God and his "faith" in Astrology. It was interesting to me how things he would describe as disproving God, systems of the way the universe works, simply strengthened for me the fact of God, as the very designer and maintainer of those systems. The interaction completely energized my spirit as we communicated with and listened to one another, learning from one another. My heart just felt like, "Yes. This is what mission in Europe looks like." I won't be forgetting that night crossing the channel, or my 3 hours conversing with an interesting, searching, God-appointed man called Jack and the passion it stirred up in me again for living out Christ's heart in Europe...

• Adriaan met me the next morning in Utrecht when my bus pulled in and we were off to spend the first few days at his family's home in the southern province of Limburg. It was beautiful. We took long walks through the countryside for ice cream cones, spent hours one night around a fire in the backyard with his lovely family, and spent a day taking in the Limburg tourist sights, like Drielandenpunt-- the place at the very bottom of the Netherlands where 3 countries meet: The Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium! I thought it was so great to be standing with one foot in Germany and the other in The Netherlands :)

(Adriaan, his little brother Otto-Jan, and his friend Guido in the beautiful Limburg town of Valkenburg)

• We met up for a day with another friend from my first year, the lovely Henk, in Delft, a beautiful Dutch city I'd always wanted to visit since studying the artist Vermeer in Art History! It is always so encouraging to get together with these friends because no matter how long it's been since we've last seen one another, we just reconnect. And the united passion for world mission aligns my focus aright somehow...

(The Dutchmen and I taking in the city of Delft)

• Another day Adriaan and I hitch-hiked to The Hague on the coast! It was SUCH an adventure! I've kind of always wanted to have the experience and we were running low on cash and The Netherlands has such a kind of "anything goes" culture that it's not at all an unusual way to get around, and I was with a guy for protection! We were picked up 4 times and met 4 people with completely different life stories and we were in our element :) And we made it all the way to the beach!!

• 
  Next I met up with another Dutch friend, Mirjam, and my English friends Polly and Amanda came in from the UK and we had a little reunion in the Netherlands-- our first time seeing one another since graduation! You might remember these ladies as my "Hug Club" :) They are my own precious little sisterhood and our days gallavanting about the Netherlands were good ones full of laughter, tears, sharing, praising, and HUGS! There is just something indescribably right about the kind of relationships where you can just relax into one another, knowing that you are loved without exception... These girls are that space for me, a tangible expression of the heart of God for us.

They threw me a surprise birthday party since we were all apart on the actual day!

We went canoing down one of the Netherlands famed canals

We visited a hundreds of years old working windmill

We met up with some more Dutch friends from Redcliffe

And we spent a day meandering around the great city of Amsterdam

• My holiday was finished up with a lovely weekend in Wales for "my little Welsh sister" Paris' surprise birthday party :) Beth, who studied at Redcliffe my first and second years, and the kids constitute my Welsh family and I love escaping to their beautiful little village in North Wales every time I get the chance!

Beth took me to Liverpool since I'd never been! This is us on the ferry.

Somehow, in getting out into mainland Europe again, and back into the arms of friends who know everything and love me anyway, I felt really empowered and my passion for Europe and call to work in this part of the world was strengthened. I may not know how or what or when or why, but He does. And that's enough for me...

"The great motive and inspiration of service is not that God has saved and sanctified me, or healed me; all that is a fact, but the great motive of service is the realization that every bit of my life that is of value I owe to the Redemption; therefore I am a bond-slave of Jesus. I realize with joy that I cannot live my own life; I am a debtor to Christ, and as such I can only realize the fulfillment of His purposes in my life. To realize this sense of spiritual honour means I am spoilt for this age, for this life, spoilt from every standpoint but this one, that I can disciple men and women to the Lord Jesus."
-- Oswald Chambers, So Send I You

Winding Down

So as my student visa comes to its end, my time in England (at this point, anyway-- but more on that later...) is coming to a close!

The wedding I was staying in the UK to be involved in has come and gone-- a beautiful celebration of the love and commitment of my two friends Lizzie and Neil. Love them! I drove up with some other LOVELY married friends whom I just graduated with, Abbie and Paul, and so got to spend a few days with them at their home in Salisbury catching up and saying goodbyes...

The week of helping out my church at a youth event called Soul Survivor has come and gone-- we were camping and the weather was atrocious but the kids got so much out of it. And so did I as I stood amongst 11,000 young Europeans worshipping God! Thousands of young people came to Christ in the 3 weeks Soul Survivor ran. This is an event that God works through mightily every summer and it was really a sort of honour to be involved with the awesome Kendal Road Baptist Youth Group-- despite living in mud up to mid-calf for the week :)

These days my heart is constantly saying its goodbyes to my time in England since I still don't know when/if/how I'll be back. Whatever faces and places my eyes take in, my heart is simultaneously kissing farewell. My beloved cathedral, the ivy growing up the brick fences, the Gloucester skyline from a particular angle on a walk into town, and the myriad of lovely people who have found homes in my heart... I know the God who calls equips and He will provide every strength of spirit to cover any seemingly impossible change He takes me through. But it all feels very tender to the touch...

Life Beyond the Summer

So, I'm off to Sweden from September 18th to November 12th in 2 weeks time!! My missionary friends there and the church plant and charity I worked with last January and February have faithfully reminded me they await my return and so I'm headed back for 2 more months of "on-the-job" training of mission in Europe :) I will write in more detail about my return to Sweden soon, but in the meantime, please pray again for funds to keep me those 2 months there!

Seasons of Life

Summer is beginning to turn over into Autumn in England. The days are growing shorter and more and more chilly and schools everywhere are starting back up again. My summer in England is quickly drawing to a close, and who knows what Autumn in Sweden will bring with it! My funny season of brokenness, healing, and ambiguity isn't over yet but I'm in a constant state of flux, a constant state of growth-- in relationships with both God and the people in my life. And I'm hopeful.

"My grace is sufficient for you, because power is made perfect in weakness."
-- 2 Corinthians 12:9

So here's to waiting on God through the seasons...

Love,
Leah

For full albums of photos covering much more than was said here, see:

Summer in England Photos
Holiday in The Netherlands and Wales Photos

The Blog Experiment

Sometimes I can be very mysterious without even trying-- like when I go MONTHS without updating the lovely people all around the world who have been interested in God's work in and through my life! Oh dear. Sorry about that. I think I may have become as tired of writing the mass emails as you have become in reading them. But you still need to know what's happening in this crazy life and I still want to tell you! Enter: the Blog Experiment.

Perhaps you will prefer the sporatic mass emails landing in your inbox to the visiting of this blog from time to time on your own initiative (I'll still email now and again when there's an important update you should know of!). I imagine the updates here may be more frequent, shorter, and possibly more detailed than the periodic emails trying to describe months of heart, soul, and body activity! Please just be in touch whether through comments here or emails at the usual address and let me know if you're happy with the amount of information you're receiving in following this missionary girl's crazy journey!

As ever, thank you so much for sticking by me throughout the ins and outs of this strange kind of life in His hands! You are more important to me than you know for simply caring to take an interest.

I've uploaded all the past prayer letters from when I first moved to England to now and they can be found at the dates on which they were first sent. There's plenty of updating to come on what this funny English summer has held since college graduation in June so stay tuned! Until then--

His (and yours),
Leah

Graduation, Travels, Camping, and Transitions!!

"We forget that the accumulations of knowledge and the holding of convictions must finally result in the application of that knowledge and those convictions to life itself."
-- Jane Addams


Dear All,

So much has happened between now and the last time I wrote that I really haven't the words to explain it all!! So, instead I shall employ a few pictures to help, since, as you know, they're each worth a thousand words :)


My College Graduation
Graduation Slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=102dzu8o.4atmj8r4&x=0&y=zdwv46&localeid=en_US

Firstly, on June 7th, 2008, I stood on the podium of a beautiful old Anglican church and received my B.A. Hons in Applied Theology, alongside the friends who have become family these years in Europe. It was a very emotional and intense day and I still can't believe this marks the end of my life at Redcliffe. But it was a beautiful celebration for us all as well, and my Mom came all the way over from Park Rapids, Minnesota to be there with me! And she brought along her two lovely friends Joyce and Lucy so I had the pleasure of sharing my Redcliffe with all of them as we picnicked with my friends in the Redcliffe garden that afternoon after the ceremony. Have a look for yourself at some of what the day held!


2 Weeks Travelling the UK with Mom and her friends!
Slideshow of Mom's Visit: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=102dzu8o.b64otvcg&x=0&y=-fcpw7y&localeid=en_US

To mark this momentous occasion in my life and to have some time with my mom and her friends (which doesn't happen much these days of living abroad!), the 4 of us set off for 2 weeks staying in various places around the UK! Some of my fabulous friends had us over for meals and fun as we went, and we stayed in some fantastic parts of the country, like the picturesque Cotswold region, the green loveliness of North Wales, the dramatic Lake District, and, of course, London! Mom rented a car and drove us all over kingdom come and with Lucy and Joyce in the backseat, there was never a dull moment!! I loved being able to show off my England to people from back home and to see them interact with my friends over here was priceless. It was the experience of a lifetime and such a precious way to transition out of college...


Camping on the Cornish Coast to Celebrate Graduating!
Camping in Cornwall Slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=102dzu8o.8zn8wgr4&x=0&y=lbvmdp&localeid=en_US

At the end of my two weeks with Mom and co., I hurried straight off to meet up with some friends I'd just graduated with (and one who hasn't graduated yet but whom we made an honorary third year for the duration of this camping trip :)) and head to Cornwall!!! We'd been planning a beach trip throughout the college year but found our 3rd year alot busier and heavier than we'd fully imagined and the trip had to be pushed off and off and off until 2 weeks AFTER graduation :) But it was a dream. We all met up in Salisbury where Abbie and Paul are living now and then spent 2 nights camping on the coast of the famed county of Cornwall-- a part of England I had always wanted to go and only just finally got to! These people have been very very important friends in my life and to have a little celebration of our own upon completing these 3 years together was very fitting. These photos especially, with their sea and sunsets and these precious people, speak thousands of words-- don't miss them!


Now?

Now I'm back in Gloucester living with Steve and Debs and their daughters (my vicar's family) and searching for summer jobs while planning out next steps. The plan is to be here til September; the hope is to take a position as a nanny, hopefully in Ireland, starting in January, and to spend the interim working with and learning from my missionary friends in Sweden again for a few months before hopefully coming home for the holidays to see my family and sort out new visas and such!

So, it's all a grand transition at the moment and I would appreciate all the prayers I can get as I seek God for the right direction for my next steps. I'm also needing Him desperately as I process all that my life at college has been, and all that He might want to do with it. It's easy to grow very discouraged in light of this huge end, but I'm aware that this new beginning has infinite potential if I follow Him closely enough.

Please pray as He girds up my faith and my heart for this new stage of journeying toward Him!! I fight off a feeling of being lost, lonely, little Leah as I wonder at my purpose now without a clear aim to head toward. I have a tumultuous head full of thoughts on mission in the traditional definition but feel that the step right in front of me may mean doing mission in a slightly less conventional way-- namely, working as I sort it all out and test out a possible country for long-term mission work. Maybe I'm just afraid of fundraising mission support!!! At any rate, this is a time in my life to seek out His heart for me and my purpose in it. I pray that I will grow so attuned to His heartbeat that my own will beat to its time...

Much much love to you from a recent college graduate learning to trust an unsafe-but-good God while practically homeless :)
Love,
Leah

"But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars."
-- Emerson