Josh and I are experiencing some of that 'normal life' here in the quaint and beautiful province of Prince Edward Island. We've decided to spend some time here to get reconnected with our family, friends and our home church 'FaithWorks Centre'. Although for me, since I've only spent weeks at a time on the island, I'm really getting connected for the first time. Our focus right now is pouring into our home church and learning about the importance of belonging to a local church. We're also excited about some ministry opportunites that are in the works. We feel that this year is going to be challenging because we love the foreign field where the gospel doesn't have as many opportunities as it does here. But with that being said, we're convinced that this year is a crucial one for us in our walk with God and in our servanthood, and one that might even involve some correspondence to eventually obtain a Masters degree.
Just a couple of days ago Josh and I moved into our one bedroom unit at the Sunny King Motel in Cornwall which is just 10 minutes outside of Charlottetown. Josh's family has been more than gracious in their donations of houseware items so that we were able to settle into our new place easily. After living out of suit cases and sharing accommodations with others, there is something extra special about a little place we could call our own. As I walk around our small, cozy apartment I feel all the more that this is a new season. New seasons bring both excitement and uncertainty, but our hearts can rest knowing that God is a good Father and He is faithful, and His plans for us are good.
Josh is beginning to do homecare and I'm still on the job hunt. I had an interview at Tim Hortons that seemed promising but I lost the open position for 'baker' to someone transferring from another store. Today I applied at Robin's Donuts which is just across the street from us, and also at Sam's Family Restaurant and and Save Easy grocery store. Subway is also on my list as soon as I could print out the application for it- maybe I'll be a sandwich artist!
As I think about the 18 months that Josh and I have husband and wife, it's all been an adventure with some pretty amazing lessons, and I anticipate this year to be filled with more lessons, more opportunities and more people to encourage and help. I've become much more grateful for the spiritual covering of a home church and I think that Josh and I are going to learn much from being able to play a more active role in our home church and spend more time with our church family.

I think as Christians we can tend to put our concern of being relatable above the power that we have as carriers of God's glory. I think it's very good and beneficial to be able to relate with unbelievers. I just think it's sad and backwards when for example, a Christian who has never gotten drunk or experimented with drugs, feels that this is a detriment to them in their effectiveness of preaching the gospel to someone. 
We know that God greatly uses the testimony of one who has dabbled in the world whethey they were a Christian and were enticed back into the world by sin, or whether a person became a Christian after a life of much sin.  As powerful as these testimonies are, I think the greatest testimony is the person who has clung to Jesus and has been steadfast in their relationship with God, staying far away from sin because nothing could compare to God's love for them. And perhaps that person who has stayed far away from sin could be naive and not understand some of the world's humour, but is this really a bad thing? We are to be dead to the world and alive to Christ (Romans 6:11). We cannot be dead to both or alive to both. If we are alive to the world, then we are dead to Christ. Perhaps being dead to world does mean some naivity, but I would rather be naive then to know sin far too well.  
We certainly don't want to be in a Christian bubble where we don't know what's happening in the world. When Paul spoke to the Athenians in Acts 17:28, we could see that he was knowledgeable about their influences, and he when he spoke to them about God he supported his statement by quoting one of their poets. It's very worthwhile to broaden our perpective and become knowledgeable about why people don't believe in God, even just by reading books by atheists and seeing where they're coming from. There is no need however, for us to have walked down the same broken roads of an unbeliever in order to bring the presence of God to them.
 At the risk of stating the obvious, I want to point out that none of us were born believers. We all once had hearts that were twisted in sin .It is only by the sheer grace of God that we can have a relationship with Him and not rot away in sin, and this realization alone gives us the perception into anyone who does not know Jesus, because no matter what avenue of sin the person has taken, it is all rooted in the same problem: a heart void of Jesus. We could all relate to people just by this but even so, I would much rather know so much more the joy of being saved and be able to relate about the new life in Christ that someone is stepping into, because I too have been transformed by Jesus, rather than know from experience about their past relationship with Satan.
Jesus never sinned, yet he spent so much time hanging out with sinners and shaking their world with the love of God. Jesus needed no past experience as a tax collector for Matthew to follow Him. Jesus had no stories of partying and addictions to share with the people who came to Him, yet He didn't need any. He had the raw love of God and the Holy enticement of entering into the kingdom of light. 
 Let's not feel that we need to get things or do things for the sole purpose of being able to relate to people. God has called us to be very different from the world.We are to stand out as His people of purity and holiness who have been transformed by a living saviour. We are a peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9)and God has given us the grace to be something the world has never seen before .
We carry a love that is far greater than any natural ability to relate to someone. I think the greatest sign and wonder in the world is love. I believe that when we surrender ourselves to God, there are no limits to how He will use us to bring His presence to people.


But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 2 Cor 2:14(NASB)

       Josh and I spent a refreshing 5 days in Sihanoukville; a province of Cambodia located on the gulf of Thailand, known for its laid-back feel and sandy beaches. We hopped around to different cheap guest houses for the first couple of days and then finally settled in at Thida’s Inn for $8/night. I think it was the free wifi and excellent pizza that lured us in. It also didn't hurt that it was only 3 minutes away from the beach.
     We went to the beach every afternoon where we would wade in the warm water and relax with a fruit shake I’d have to say my favourite times were when we would return to the beach to watch the sunset. What is not to love about sitting so close to the water, hearing the crash of the waves while watching a gorgeous orange sunset with the love of your life? Sometimes we would stay into the evening and partake in a delicious $3 barbecue from one of the many cheap restaurants along the beach.
      It was an awesome little vacation where we just relaxed and enjoyed each other. We know that we will soon be very busy and getting away to the beach was in our estimation, very worthwhile.
     When we returned to Phnom Penh we had another culinary experience that might have even been more fun than the beach barbecue. We went to a small, hole-in-the-wall kind of restaurant which served authentic Indian food. For $3 we each received rice, 3 bowls of sauces (chicken masala, vegetable masala, and chicken tikka) plate of chopped vegetables, naan bread, and a fruit salad. It was good thing that we hadn’t eaten all day. There was so much food being brought out to us that I actually felt kind of uneasy about it. We ate what we could and it was delicious. I was also more than a little excited to try some authentic chai tea.
     It’s evident that Josh and I are entering a new season in our lives. The last month has brought quite a bit of change but in the midst of uncertainties about the future, there is also an excitement for what God has in store.
      I am glad when I think about how God’s plans are good. We only see our present situation but God can already see the end. We can trust God to lead us into the good works that He has already prepared for us.

     I was listening to a sermon by Rolland Baker (IRIS Ministries) and he was speaking about how crucial it is to rest. He was talking about how on those nights where everyone is on the floor having Holy Ghost time, that a lot of people who are on the outside looking in are concerned about what the results are of such an experience. I was surprised when Rolland shared that he is more interested in the experience than the results. He reiterated that he is more interested in a person feeling what it's like to be loved on by God. Between laughs he quoted John Wesley "Rush isn't of the devil, it is the devil."
      This sermon really touched me because for me the Christian life has always equaled 'action, action, action, and do something now and every day!' As I continued listening to the ministering of Rolland, I began thinking about how easy it has been for me to just rush and not take time to rest. 
I used to not understand the idea of ministers taking vacations, until I actually started doing ministry and realized how taking time to rest and refresh can be crucial to your spiritual health, relationship with God, and your ministry. Now, I think vacations are very good as long as you're not taking 'a vacation away from God' of course.
I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself and rush and try to multi-task. That can be good when you're working the Tim Hortons drive-thru but in the course of every day life, it can just be plain stressful and the mistakes made can be costly. I've been a micro-manager and an over-thinker, and I'm not sure that those qualities have actually been beneficial to me or anyone around me.
     I've decided to take a deep breath and enjoy Jesus. The deepest desire of my heart is to serve Him and live a life full of service, but I don't want my charity to others to be fueled by my concern to get things done. I don't want to act just out of good intention, but by His conviction. I want my actions to be a fruit of the intimacy that I have with God, or else I feel that they are just dead works produced by my own desperate efforts. I want so much to just enjoy Jesus and see what happens. I want to lay down at His feet, seek His face and be led by Him.


If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NASV)

     For a few days last week Cambodia was experiencing weather that's uncharacteristic for January. The mornings were actually cold (around 20C) and the rain was keeping many students from venturing the streets to attend the English classes. I was actually wearing my Roots sweatshirt in the mornings and drinking a hot tea while teaching English. The Cambodian teachers laughed at me and claimed that I was becoming Khmer because I was feeling cold easily the way that they do. 
     Now the weather has returned to normal and the departure of the rain falls has left that sweet 'after the rain' smell that reminds me of the Calgon body spray that I used to buy before they discontinued it. That smell of summer lingers in the air, producing a sense of cabin fever and an excitement for what is to come.
     Two missionaries Geoffrey and Jessica have arrived from Los Angeles, and they'll be here serving for several months. It's awesome to hang out with them. We've been going through the book of Romans together each night after dinner, and I feel a relief in the sense of community that our fellowship brings. We also hit up Pizza World's 2 for 1 pizza on Tuesday which is always a great idea.
      My English class, being the highest level, continues to be small. Lately I've had only 2 or 3 students come which is quite the contrast from the lower level classes with are packing in about 40 students. I enjoy this opportunity though, because 2 of the students who come are new Christians and one of them is not a Christian but is considering about Jesus, so we have some really good discussions.
      I've just been praying that I don't over look even the smallest opportunities that God so graciously gives to me, because really they are not small.

Josh and I bond with the new missionaries Jessica and Geoffrey over some incarnational insect eating, except Jessica and Josh just watched and laughed..and incarnation felt kinda squishy.

       Something that has especially been lacking in my walk with God has been prayer. Even though I’ve known that prayer is good and important, it was just something that I’d usually forget to do. Just recently I began to realize how much I do need to be a woman of prayer.

     The greatest men of God in history; the revivalists, reformers, saints, etc were also men of prayer and stressed prayer as being crucial to their walk with God and their ministry. Even more so, Jesus prayed to God. You would think that if someone didn’t need to pray it would have been God incarnated, but even He prayed to His Father and taught the disciples how to pray. There is simply no getting around how important prayer is.

     So I’ve been enjoying some great times of prayer while sitting at my desk, writing on the white board when I’m teaching, cooking, sitting in church, walking, playing with the children, etc. God has opened my heart to the preciousness of all day communion with Him. It is so incredible that the king of the universe is my father and that He wants to spend all day conversing with me. I find that the more that I pray the more thankfulness and praise for what God has done and who He is, just wells up inside of me.

            When it all comes down to it: prayer is talking to God. We can pray about every small thing because all of those small things make up our life. He is our Father and He cares. I was praying at my desk for one of my students and I felt impressed to pray that she would be thinking about God even as she is riding her bike that day. I was surprised and excited when I talked to her that evening and she told me that she was riding her bike home from school when she began to just think about God. It’s such a simple example but I felt like God was showing me how He really does honor our prayers when they reflect His heart.

     I was watching the documentary ‘Finger of God’ and I was really inspired and convicted when Heidi Baker said that to her praying is like breathing. I’ve asked God to put it on my heart to pray more and more, and that talking with Him would become as natural and imperative as breathing. I don’t want to just tell people that I’ll pray for them or that I am praying for them just as a sort of Christian formality. I want prayer to be something that I feel I cannot live without doing.

 Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NASB)



     
             

    
 

This is the text from a sermon on Psalm 23 which I preached on a Sunday morning at New Life in Christ Church.