God is working – part 1

These last 4 weeks have been soo busy it’s been hard to find an minute or two to sit down and write this…but the time is here! And there’s so much to tell!!

Let’s starts where I left off last time, the second weekend of June was our relaxation retreat up in the mountains in Kananaskis at a wilderness camp called Blue Bronna. It’s a Christian camp up in the mountains with no electricity, running water or heat…and it was cooold up in them mountains! We spent the weekend learning from the word with a couple who work for one of Power to Change’s umbrella organizations (like Campus for Christ is) called Leader Impact which seeks to build up business leaders to effectively share their faith in their workplaces….which is our main goal this summer. We also spent a lot of time enjoying God’s great and beautiful creation, from sitting around the campfire singing praises to God as the stars shone above to horse-backing riding in the majestic mountains that rose high above us on all sides- it was a much needed rest and time to re-connect with God and remember the reason we all came to Calgary in the first place- to glorify God by knowing Him more and making Him known to others.

This was also the last weekend the staff members were here with us in Calgary. They passed on their roles, words of encouragement and any leftovers in their fridges and cupboards. So now we are entirely student run which is definitely a stretching experience for all. The staff have all gone home to rest and prepare for September when we all return to campus.

Work is going well, some days are still very trying, but God is teaching me how to depend on Him and persevere through it. Jackie (the other girl on project who works at the daycare) and I have had so many opportunities to hang out with our one co-worker Natalie…praise the Lord! It’s so neat to see a relationship forming between us and see her opening up to us more and more. One night we went to see the second Narnia movie and afterwards we starting talking about the Biblical imagery and got into a full blown discussion about the existence of God and why there’s evil in the word. God was definitely working through us as many “arguments” she had we were able to give her a biblical truth and she was often speechless and lost in thought afterwards…it was neat to see God working on her heart during those times. Since then we’ve hung out once and sometimes even twice a week, going shopping, out for dinner etc, God hasn’t come up a lot during those times, but I’m trusting he is still working in her heart and using our actions to be a witness to her if not our words. God is growing a deep love for her within my heart- I know it’s God because at the beginning of the summer I was slightly afraid of her cool and hardened exterior- but now I’m able to see past that, into her internal where there is so much hurt and dissatisfaction- I long for her to know Jesus the way I do and for her to experience life to the fullest. I’m praying a big God-sized prayer that by the end of my time here I will have the opportunity to share the Gospel with Natalie and she will come to saving faith…won’t you pray with me??

The Jesus Loves You ministry we’ve been helping out with has been going great. God’s been teaching me a lot there as well. One of the things we’ve been focusing on is just loving those women and children the way God does. But, in order to do that we must first be able to see and love ourselves the way God does. It’s been amazing to look into His word to see just how very much He loves us and really understand what Jesus’ death should mean to us. That is, that through His death God sees us as whole- like His son Jesus- not lacking in any way! Isn’t it funny how one of the biggest lies we listen to is that we’ll never be good enough to be used by God- it’s the easiest way Satan can make us complacent and have little or no impact for God’s kingdom- When in fact God promises the exact opposite (see Hebrews10:14, Philippians 4:19, Acts 1:8 and Ephesians 1:19-20) – that through Him we’re made whole and can be used by Him to impact eternity!! Exciting or what?!?!

More to come very soon!