It's crazy to think we have only been here for 3 weeks now... In some ways the time has flown, but so much has happened, and this place is already feeling like home.
The last couple of weeks of school have been mostly orientation and hearing the values, customs and expectations of the school. We have had the privilege of hearing Bill and Kris a few times, and even Mrs Johnson (legend). It has actually been pretty mind blowing, and hard not to be more than a little in awe of these total giants!
For our church services, we have been allocated the Twin View location, so we aren't ever at Bethel for that ( so you won't see us on tv!) but they video link in to the main speaker in the mornings and the evenings have been a 3-4 hours worship session! The worship here is so heavy! I think we sang only one whole song in the last meeting we went to that lasted almost 4 hours! We really have been led into new realms of worsihp by the worship teams here.
One thing which is really cool about this place is they are really clear about who they are and what they stand for. They release people to be all of who they are, yet clearly communicate the culture that they have chosen to cultivate here. It is so intentional, and protective of their church and city, but ultimately totally freeing. Love it.
We have alreayd been challenged by loads! One thing is by their spirit of generosity - the way of breaking a poverty spirit. That you should give out of a place of honour and thankfullness, not just someone else's need or your own excess... I guess it is easy to think that we will be generous when we have enough cash to splash, but live fairly tight-fisted in the mean time! So we are learning to live in the balance of that.
They also have a very strong culture of honour, and they ask all guys to open doors for the ladies, to give up their seat if they need to etc! It means Josh now opens the door for me, which I actually quite like (except that he has to wait for all the ladies to go through, so I am always losing him in a crowd!)
We are going on retreat tomorrow to a YWAM base in Chico, which should be a really great opportunity to get to know a few peeps a bit better! Our Revival Group has about 60 people in it, so still don't know everyone yet! I am pretty shocking with names and faces so I'm so glad we have to wear name badges! In our first RG meeting, the first 'getting to know you' game was putting all the name badges in together, everyone picking out one, and then asking God to tell us whose badge we had! No pressure...! Crazily enough, I actually got mine right! Oh yeah.
We got prophesied over at school today, which was really cool. They were bang on for both of us and reall exciting!
Gonna go now - it is so hot here, I am melting in front of the screen! 39 degrees c yesterday!
Have loved seeing the pics of the Jesus Culture tours. Banning said there is a new breed of revivalist coming out of the UK at the mo! C'mon!
Big love,
Josh and Em xx
No comments:
Post a Comment