My Childhood

At a long and wonderful "let's skip class to go to Starbucks and drink a Venti-London Fog" coffee with Nicole, we got into a lot of serious talking. She's such a good friend. You all need a friend like Nicole (but you can't have her, she's MINE! lol). Anyway, the talk was very serious, and we got into childhood stuff.

This afternoon, I was thinking more and more about my childhood, and despite some of the awful stuff that happened, I had a lot of fun. Yeah I was teased a lot and it did a lot of damage, but I had a wonderful family. I just spent a lot of time being tortured by it. But it's in the past, and I think that God will show me how to heal, and is starting to prepare me for that. So that's very comforting. Anyways, after a moment of serious thought, I turned to thinking of the things I enjoyed about my childhood. And then I was reminded of a favorite cartoon: REN AND STIMPY! YES! So I've had the royal canadian kilted yaksmen song in my head ever since. Here's the lyrics:

Our country reeks of trees
Our yaks are really large
And they smell like rotting beefcarcasses
And we have to clean up after them
And our saddle soars are the best
We proudly wear woman's clothing
And searing sand blows up our skirts

And the buzzards, they soar overhead
And poisonous snakes will devour us whole
Our bones will bleach in the sun
And we will probably go to *thbppth*
And that is our great reward
For being the-uh Ro-yal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahhh, memories. I could do the 'log' song. But not today. It's about the royal canadian kilted yaksmen today!

My ABC's (stolen from bowflex)

A- Age of your first kiss: i think i was maybe 12...
B- Band you are listening to right now: Our Lady Peace
C- Crush: Senor Brett Ramsey
D- Drink you drank last: OJ for brunch in the caf
E- Easiest person to talk to: brett, nic, fishey
F- Favorite ice cream: ny cherry cheesecake
G- Gummy worms or gummy bears: worms
H- Height: 5'7"ish
I- Instruments: trumpet, guitar, bass, drums, a bit of piano, voice
J- Jelly Flavor: raspberry
K- Kids: i'd love some! but first i have to finish school and get married and all that jazz
L- Longest car/bus ride: 14 hours in a bus to wyoming.
M- Major issue: finishing school, brett's ufe exam, money, or lack thereof, finding brett a christmas pressie
N- Nicknames: Ter, tewwin, terbear, blue
O- One wish: to not have to worry about anything and have peace!
P- Phobia: hand puppets, heights
Q- Quote: "the loudest parting words are silence"
R- Reasons to smile: going to lloyd today, only a few weeks till xmas break, the snow is melting!
S- Shoe size: 7 to 8
T- Time you woke up today: 10:45
U- Unknown fact about me: i was teased horribly in elementary school. whenever i try to open up to anyone about it, they just laugh at me. i try to laugh too, but i'm really crying on the inside. wow, that was emo.
V- vegtables: carrots, beans, celery
W- Worst Habit: procrastinating, nail biting
X- Xmas gift you really want: money, sweat pants, g/c to la senza, the postsecret book, a nice knit vneck sweater (preferrably black or brown), starbucks gift card
Y-Your favorite drink: toffee nut latte from starbucks
Z-Zodiac sign: DO NOT ENTER!

My Thoughts

-I'm stealing this from Jana, but man, my room only gets clean when I'm proctrastinating! It's true. I'll exhaust every possible activity before doing homework. Once that's out of the way, the room gets cleaned. HA! Anyway, I have one more paper to write, and my week from Bible College assignment hell will be done! If I don't finish however, I can still take a 2 week extension :)

-You know it's winter when
..... you put the liner inside your jacket becuase it's too cold without it
..... you have to start plugging your car in overnight
..... you don't want to go to Tim's because it's too cold outside
..... you don't want to go to Starbucks because your car might not start

-I drove in the worst snowstorm ever. The roads were awful, and it was like driving in a pingpong ball going 50 for hours on end. The trip took SEVEN hours! At least I'm in one piece!

-I'm going to Lloydminster with the special group this weekend. I should call up grandma and see if she'd like to see us play. perhaps i shall stay there and we could do lunch or something.

-Regina trip! DECEMBER 4th!
AM: SOUTHSIDE PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, 41 Birchwood road. I have no idea when the service starts.

PM: AVONHURST PENTECOSTAL, 3200 Avonhurst drive. Service is at 6pm.

hope to see you there ;)

-I got ty's pressie picked out. now i just need to complete my shopping. only a couple more gifts to go. I need to get nicole's gift soon. I think she's achin to do the swap.

alright... later taters.

My Mental Anguish

I HATE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!!!

It's impossible to find things for people.

No one gives you hints! And I'm not creative enough to find something on my own!

Yes, I've had ideas, and please, censor your comments in case I actually go with one of them.

But do you ever get frustrated with what to buy for people?!?!?!?!?

ARGGGGGGGGGH!

My Heart Breaks.

This past week has been a really powerful one.

God's been pulling strings in my heart, and using every aspect of my life to kindle some sort of passion, or "Holy Discontent" as pastor Mike would put it.

It probably started last week when Pastor Brian Rutton and his wife, who are missionaries to Ethiopia and surrounding area came to preach in chapel. What a powerful one it was. They're experiencing miracles there. Like, Acts-types of miracles there. People are getting healed, whole villages are being restored. Why? Because people there are so passionate about God that they go to a town where they are surely to be killed to preach the gospel. They have no one to depend on but God alone. They fast and pray, and read the Word for a minimum of a month, until they hear the voice of God tell them what to do. And villages are being saved. Miracles are happening. Enemy tribes are being restored. This is powerful.

Did you know that in Ethiopia, in order for a church to be considered a church, they have to have over 200 committed members? Like, not just people with their membership card, and tithe their 10%, these are people who are willing to go to another town themselves and plant more and more churches. By that standard, there are almost zero churches in Saskatoon, there are almost zero churches in Brandon, there are almost zero churches in Virden.

Where's your committment at? It seems that committment is a four lettered word in the church these days. Most people I talk to agree that 80% of the work done in the church is done by 20% of the people.

For my Homiletics class, I have been asked to write a sermon manuscript and submit it for marking. Yikes. I'm a very new preacher, who is just learning the ropes. But I think that I've been quite inspired to read about our function as a body of Christ. It frustrates me to think that there are rival churches out there stealing each other's 'sheep'. Don't they know that all Christians belong to the same body, whether they be Pentecostal, Mennonite, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc?

Read 1 Corinthians Chapter 12:
⁴There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,^[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.^{[b] 11}All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by^[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²

WE ALL HAVE A FUNCTION IN THE CHURCH, AND ARE REQUIRED AS CHRISTIANS TO TAKE ON OUR ROLE, WHETHER BIG OR SMALL, IN THE SPOTLIGHT OR BEHIND THE SCENES, FOR ONE PURPOSE: GLORIFYING GOD!

I've heard sermons like these preached a zillion times. But my heart is finally starting to be broken.

Tuesday was our school's day of prayer. I chose to spend my day asking God for a passion: for the word, for prayer, for the lost, for the church. Holy crap, be careful what you ask for. Ever since that day, my heart has been breaking constantly for things that I'm hearing.

Today some cool people from Vanguard Ministries talked about a street ministry that they have begun. They tell me that nothing gets accomplished without prayer. They tell me that once you begin to walk in step with God, you'll learn about the things that break His heart, and yours will begin to break as well. Wow. I can't even put into words how moved I was by her message. I'm probably even missing some stuff that she said. But WOW.

I believe it was in September when Nic and I were watching a John Bevere DVD and he said that you are never unaffected by things. Either your heart gets harder, or it gets softer.

What does your heart look like today?

Are you functioning as a Christian for the purpose of glorifying God?

Do you have a passion, or Holy discontent that God has revealed to you?

Is your heart breaking for the lost around you?

Consider these thoughts.