agosto 30, 2003
lowdown on the week....
- new member added to the family....our slightly-depressed fighting fish called fynn... AKA fishy-bob.
- the weather is shit! we could see our breath the other day and it's AUGUST!!!! not impressed.
- 7 DJ's, a handful of break dancers, 1 very rude man, and 2 prayer rooms later we've realised that Festival Manchester has come and nearly gone and we are left with not much energy, and a greater desire to destroy the christian sub-culture and go to where god is present, moving, and obviously relevant...outside the four walls of church...or in this case the security fence in heaton park.
- festival mode has meant one too many rendezvous with the chippy truck. must go to the gym.
- found out it's very hard to find fire-proof fabric...an essential tool in the making of a 'low cost ambient environment'...AKA prayer room.
- once again my canadian status has earned me a few discounts...very handy when living by faith. definitly recommend taking on foreign status if thinking about quitting your job to bum for God.
- celebrated my fouth anniversary of living in this crazy country.
- had curry at 1 in the afternoon the other day..an all time record. i can see now why people go for curry in the EVENING. kinda puts you out of commission for the rest of the day.
- new member added to the family....our slightly-depressed fighting fish called fynn... AKA fishy-bob.
- the weather is shit! we could see our breath the other day and it's AUGUST!!!! not impressed.
- 7 DJ's, a handful of break dancers, 1 very rude man, and 2 prayer rooms later we've realised that Festival Manchester has come and nearly gone and we are left with not much energy, and a greater desire to destroy the christian sub-culture and go to where god is present, moving, and obviously relevant...outside the four walls of church...or in this case the security fence in heaton park.
- festival mode has meant one too many rendezvous with the chippy truck. must go to the gym.
- found out it's very hard to find fire-proof fabric...an essential tool in the making of a 'low cost ambient environment'...AKA prayer room.
- once again my canadian status has earned me a few discounts...very handy when living by faith. definitly recommend taking on foreign status if thinking about quitting your job to bum for God.
- celebrated my fouth anniversary of living in this crazy country.
- had curry at 1 in the afternoon the other day..an all time record. i can see now why people go for curry in the EVENING. kinda puts you out of commission for the rest of the day.
agosto 19, 2003
had one of those days today where you wake up and think you have an idea about how the day might go and then it turns out totally different. not always a bad thing. in this case definitly not. ended up being totally pampered by my housemate resa. we went into town, went to a few of our favourite shops, ate pizza, had a frappicino and decided we wanted to buy a fish. random...
so found a wicked fishbowl in 'muji' only to realise that the whole time i've lived in this city i've never come across a pet store. so we proceeded to stop random people and ask them if they had any idea where we could buy a fish. everybody laughed at us. can't figure out why?! whats so freakin hilarious about buying a fish?
finally found a place (in my favourite area of town... the northern quarter has earned yet another gold star!) but it was closed. so present fish status is fishbowl 1 - fish 0. but we're working on that.
so found a wicked fishbowl in 'muji' only to realise that the whole time i've lived in this city i've never come across a pet store. so we proceeded to stop random people and ask them if they had any idea where we could buy a fish. everybody laughed at us. can't figure out why?! whats so freakin hilarious about buying a fish?
finally found a place (in my favourite area of town... the northern quarter has earned yet another gold star!) but it was closed. so present fish status is fishbowl 1 - fish 0. but we're working on that.
agosto 18, 2003
agosto 17, 2003
well... here i am finally with some space and time to collect my thoughts on the chile experience. i have a journal full of what God said and did, my experiences, adventures and stories of the people i met. it's amost overwhelming. it was one of those trips that impacted my life more than i could imagine. i knew it would be significant and that it was happening at the perfect time in my life. so i guess i went with an open heart and no plan...just waiting to see what God would do and say. i have to say that this is by far the best way to approach what life has to throw at you. cause you absorb, learn and change so much. having just said that i had no plan, i WAS aware that there were specific things that God and i would chat about and specific things that i would have to hear and learn.
the night before i left a bunch of my friends gathered in my house to pray for me... send me off so to speak. we have a little habit of doing this when one of us goes off on an adventure. a way of supporting each other, and covering each other. in a crazy way you leave taking a part of the community and those people with you. i suppose thats what church and community is all about. that would have to be one of the things i learnt a lot about while i was away in chile. i knew i was there on behalf of my community back in manchester. they (along with my parents) played a HUGE part in getting me there and i felt like what i was learning and experiencing i had a responsibility to bring back with me and 'report'. but i also felt like while i was moving forward due to all that i was experiencing in chile, equally things back in manchester were moving forward and that the two halves needed to come back together to make the whole thing make sense. they were linked somehow and needed each other. sounds confusing but really makes me look at church with more admiration cause we are a body that only functions well when we give of ourselves and our experiences.
there seemed to be a purpose to me being out there. well there were many purposes, another one was the fact that i was able to really bless claudia in her role in chile. she totally lives by faith and has totally given her whole life to chasing after God in her beautiful country and seeing people fall in love with jesus. and she was totally broke and with the money that i was given to be there i was able to bless her and pay for her and i to have a holiday in the south of the country together. she really needed it and couldn't have afforded it otherwise. so in a way all those here and in canada who made it possible for me to be there also blessed chile. thats whats its all about.
another purpose for me being there this summer was to deepen my friendship with claudia and continue in networking globally. building friendships around the world, encouraging each other, sharing stories, and life experiences, praying together and pushing each other further on in this journey. i want my life to be FULL of these type of adventures and so for me to be off doing what i love the most (travelling, dreaming, soaking in god's beauty, making stories, pilgrimage and networking) i was high.
i also went with the purpse of having a holiday and i did although i was exhausted when i got back because of the language barrier. i've come back with a fresh drive to learn spanish this year. god's been kinda putting it on my mind for about a year already...so this was the push that i needed to go for it.
and lastly i went to chile with no expectations other than that of wanting to hear from god and sort a few things personally out between me and him. it's a process but my time in chile was an excellent excelleration. (sp?)
some of the things that were prayed over me before i left that really helped to set the tone for my travels were...
*pack light (spiritually and practically)
*to be a time of mission and rest
*sophie had a picture of me standing on one foot leaning against a sign which had many different arrows on it pointing to different countries. i had a backpack on adn i was ready to go whenever and wherever. wicked!
*this was a time for me to learn to fly
*time of intimacy
*hightened senses
*time of faith, faith adventure
*this was meant to be an adventure with god
*i've come to the end of myself and this is a new time of me AND him
*letting go of control
*seeking the hidden things
*time of leaving behind that which i don't want to carry anymore and that which i don't want to be a part of me anymore and dig into that which i want to be.
*time of getting my house in order
*time to get perspective and truth on friendships
* "been to the depths and now was a chance for god to go with me and take me to the heights"
*this will have impact on the rest of the community
*learning to trust and not fear
*new day
*shedding off doing things my own way cause i think its better
*wanna be real but don't wanna lose you in my search. my search needs to begin with you.
on the train on the way down to london to catch my outgoing flight i wrote this.... "i feel peace and contentment rising up within me. no more control of my life and future. only me and god. no more of the same frustrations. the word salvation made my heart skip a beat today."
and so started my adventure in south america. as my housemate matt said to me, "a peace in the questions, a purpose in the adventure" so true.
the night before i left a bunch of my friends gathered in my house to pray for me... send me off so to speak. we have a little habit of doing this when one of us goes off on an adventure. a way of supporting each other, and covering each other. in a crazy way you leave taking a part of the community and those people with you. i suppose thats what church and community is all about. that would have to be one of the things i learnt a lot about while i was away in chile. i knew i was there on behalf of my community back in manchester. they (along with my parents) played a HUGE part in getting me there and i felt like what i was learning and experiencing i had a responsibility to bring back with me and 'report'. but i also felt like while i was moving forward due to all that i was experiencing in chile, equally things back in manchester were moving forward and that the two halves needed to come back together to make the whole thing make sense. they were linked somehow and needed each other. sounds confusing but really makes me look at church with more admiration cause we are a body that only functions well when we give of ourselves and our experiences.
there seemed to be a purpose to me being out there. well there were many purposes, another one was the fact that i was able to really bless claudia in her role in chile. she totally lives by faith and has totally given her whole life to chasing after God in her beautiful country and seeing people fall in love with jesus. and she was totally broke and with the money that i was given to be there i was able to bless her and pay for her and i to have a holiday in the south of the country together. she really needed it and couldn't have afforded it otherwise. so in a way all those here and in canada who made it possible for me to be there also blessed chile. thats whats its all about.
another purpose for me being there this summer was to deepen my friendship with claudia and continue in networking globally. building friendships around the world, encouraging each other, sharing stories, and life experiences, praying together and pushing each other further on in this journey. i want my life to be FULL of these type of adventures and so for me to be off doing what i love the most (travelling, dreaming, soaking in god's beauty, making stories, pilgrimage and networking) i was high.
i also went with the purpse of having a holiday and i did although i was exhausted when i got back because of the language barrier. i've come back with a fresh drive to learn spanish this year. god's been kinda putting it on my mind for about a year already...so this was the push that i needed to go for it.
and lastly i went to chile with no expectations other than that of wanting to hear from god and sort a few things personally out between me and him. it's a process but my time in chile was an excellent excelleration. (sp?)
some of the things that were prayed over me before i left that really helped to set the tone for my travels were...
*pack light (spiritually and practically)
*to be a time of mission and rest
*sophie had a picture of me standing on one foot leaning against a sign which had many different arrows on it pointing to different countries. i had a backpack on adn i was ready to go whenever and wherever. wicked!
*this was a time for me to learn to fly
*time of intimacy
*hightened senses
*time of faith, faith adventure
*this was meant to be an adventure with god
*i've come to the end of myself and this is a new time of me AND him
*letting go of control
*seeking the hidden things
*time of leaving behind that which i don't want to carry anymore and that which i don't want to be a part of me anymore and dig into that which i want to be.
*time of getting my house in order
*time to get perspective and truth on friendships
* "been to the depths and now was a chance for god to go with me and take me to the heights"
*this will have impact on the rest of the community
*learning to trust and not fear
*new day
*shedding off doing things my own way cause i think its better
*wanna be real but don't wanna lose you in my search. my search needs to begin with you.
on the train on the way down to london to catch my outgoing flight i wrote this.... "i feel peace and contentment rising up within me. no more control of my life and future. only me and god. no more of the same frustrations. the word salvation made my heart skip a beat today."
and so started my adventure in south america. as my housemate matt said to me, "a peace in the questions, a purpose in the adventure" so true.
agosto 11, 2003
having a crazy week of 24-7Prayer here in Manchester as well as trying to recover from jetlag, meet up with friends, process everyting that happened in chile, and get to grips with a rapidly changing Boiler Room. having fun tho and in good spirits. plan on blogging some of my journals from my travels in the next couple of days. time is a little tricky tho at the moment. so hang in there...
agosto 01, 2003
i have just come back from the middle o f nowhere! and it was amazing. but yet again i am pressed for time so a more in depth update will come later. for now...heres a little blurb...
took a 10 hour bus ride from santiago to villarika which is a beautiful little village at the base of a volcano. then another 3 hour bus ride into the mountains to liquine. spent 4 days with the mapoocha tribe sitting in hot springs and chatting to god by th river. now we are on out way back to santiago where the youth have booked me for saturday night. they ar going to tak me dancing and teach me how to salsa. very excited.
i{m doing great and god is talkingn to me a lot. mainly cause that was the point of this whole trip.
missing people a lot, and journlling a lot. totally understand kevin costner in dancing with wolves. i journal cause it understand my language. thts why i{m praying to much too.
i guess god had to take me away from enlgish to get me to really focus on him.
funny...
gotta run, but i{m going great and am home in a week. more details later.
oz
took a 10 hour bus ride from santiago to villarika which is a beautiful little village at the base of a volcano. then another 3 hour bus ride into the mountains to liquine. spent 4 days with the mapoocha tribe sitting in hot springs and chatting to god by th river. now we are on out way back to santiago where the youth have booked me for saturday night. they ar going to tak me dancing and teach me how to salsa. very excited.
i{m doing great and god is talkingn to me a lot. mainly cause that was the point of this whole trip.
missing people a lot, and journlling a lot. totally understand kevin costner in dancing with wolves. i journal cause it understand my language. thts why i{m praying to much too.
i guess god had to take me away from enlgish to get me to really focus on him.
funny...
gotta run, but i{m going great and am home in a week. more details later.
oz
