EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS!!

Many of you who read my blog will know that I am in the process of preparing to go to Ukraine as a full-time missionary, focusing on ministering particularly to the needs of the orphans there.

I moved to BC in October to live with my parents while I am raising my support, and there have been many changes, some easier than others, but God is ALWAYS FAITHFUL!

I have some debts from the car that I left behind in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and so I have been prayerfully seeking a job that would enable me to take care of those financial obligations and set some savings aside as well. It has taken some time, but Praise the Lord, I have a full-time job starting on Monday! I will be working alongside another Christian and so I am praying for grace to bring Christ's light into that place.

Financial support is beginning to come in and I have a strong prayer team behind me...I also have had some contacts which I am trusting will lead to opportunities to share about this ministry that God has laid on my heart and that He is preparing me for. I am excited to see how God continues to surprise me with His provision and grace!!
    - DEC. 4 - I have an opportunity to share some photos from my trip this summer and about the ministry we were a part of.
    - DEC. 11 - I have been given time to share in the morning worship service about this ministry with the church family here in Ashcroft.

This is so NOT about me, and I am very grateful for the circumstances God has allowed to remind me of this. As long as I am obedient and completely trusting, I know that He will accomplish His good plans, and it is wonderful to know the peace of being in His perfect will.

GIVING THANKS...

   Just before I left Thunder Bay, a friend gave me a book to read...it's called ONE THOUSAND BLESSINGS, by Ann Voskamp. It is a different writing style than I am used to, so it took me a little while to get into the book, but once I did, the truths that it contained gave me a new perspective, or lens, to see life through, one that has completely changed the way I interact with day-to-day life.

   And just as she did, so I began a "One Thousand Blessings" dare of my own...to write down 1000 blessings -- even the things that might not at first glance seem like a blessing. I'm more than halfway there, and every day I find myself giving thanks for God's gracious hand in EVERYTHING.

   It really is a change in perspective, and it is the beginning of true joy -- to give thanks. I want to share with you just a few insights from the book that have impacted me and I hope that they speak to you in some way as well...

Is the height of my chara joy dependent on the depths of my eucharisteo thanks?

As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. Joy is always possible. The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be - unbelievably - possible! The only place we need see before we die is this place of seeing God, here and now.

Charis. Grace.

Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving.

Chara. Joy.

Sozo means salvation. It means true wellness, complete wholeness. To live sozo is to live the full life. Jesus came that we might live life to the full; He came to give us sozo. And when did the leper receive sozo - the saving to the full, whole life? When he returned and gave thanks.

Our very saving is associated with our gratitude. If our fall was the non-eucharisteo, the ingratitude, then salvation must be intimately related to eucharisteo, the giving of thanks. Jesus counts thanksgiving as integral in a faith that saves.

We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our Yes! to His grace. Thanksgiving - giving thanks in everything - prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ.

She quotes from Alexander Schememan:

"Now, in the Bible a name...reveals the very essence of a thing, or rather its essence as God's gift...To name a thing is to manifest the meaning and value God gave it, to know it as coming from God and to know its place and function within the cosmos created by God. To name a thing, in other words, is to bless God for it and in it."

And then she writes her own thoughts:

In naming that which is right before me, that which I'd otherwise miss, the invisible becomes visible. I name. And I know the face I face. God's! God is in the details; God is in the moment. God is in all that blurs by in a life - even hurts in a life.

This act of naming grace moments...moves beyond the shopping list variety of prayer and into the other side. And I see it now for what this really is, this dare to write down one thousand things I love. It really is a dare to name all the ways that God loves me. The true Love Dare. To move into His presence and listen to His love unending and know the grace uncontainable. This is the vault of the miracles.

Jesus embraces the not enough...He gives thanks...and there is more than enough! Eucharisteo always precedes the miracle. And who doesn't need a miracle like that every day? The real problem in life is never a lack of time. The real problem of life - in my life - is lack of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving creates abundance; and the miracle of multiplying happens when I give thanks - take the just one loaf, say it is enough, and give thanks - and He miraculously makes it more than enough.

Thank You, Lord, for Your blessings on me!!!