Joy explosion

Tonight was so radical. We had Home Group at Nathan's house and it started off with its usual slowness, everyone just catching up and the typical sports conversations, followed by some pretty passionate discussing of how good the rodeo burger is and why salt and vinegar Pringles are the best Pringles (I love how people can get so intense about such mundane things! It happened at Easter Camp as well, when our small group was hanging out in the tent and talking about breakfast cereals... "Cocopops" "OH MY GOSH YES!" "NO WAY! I HATE HOW THEY GO SOGGY AND THEY'RE WAAAYYY TOO SWEET. NUTRIGRAIN FOR THE WIN!"... It's interesting how we have such passionate conversations about things which when seriously considered, don't matter at all... like sport. I think I probably just lost my entire male population of readers with that.) So with such inspiring conversations as these to kick off the night, it was clear we were heading for something intense and spiritual!

After going around most of the circle, each person sharing about their experiences of Easter Camp, we chose to pray for our mate in need, just as he had to leave. I love praying with my mates. They have such a great susceptibility to the spirit, and prayer times can often become passionate and powerful times. This was one of those times, when some people crack up with laughter, when people get pictures, or perhaps you can't help but shake! After we'd prayed for the friend, Sam felt led to pray for discernment in worship leading for Ash, so we got right into it. It was so cool how we led from praying for that specific thing for Ash, to discernment in general for him, to discernment for all those in the worship teams, to discernment for all those involved in running the Windsor Park services, to just anything on our hearts, from humbling ourselves before God and having our pride destroyed, to being given dreams and directions, to getting uncomfortable and being able to trust God in any situation. It was such fantastic spirit led prayer, not at all forced. The stuff I crave for! That's what we were praying for Windsor about: that we'd be a church led by the spirit, where plans are made for a service or a worship set in accordance with where God is leading us, and then the plans on the night are torn apart by God and he leads us in a completely unforeseen, spontaneous direction! That we'd be a church that isn't about looking good, filling quotas, following the status quo, experiences or anything forced and dishonest, but one where we come to freely love and be loved by God and each other, with no restrictions. At Easter Camp, Mike Pilevachi talked about how the kingdom of heaven is like a Greek wedding party that has erupted into dancing and ecstatic joy, and how Christ is the bridegroom who comes to the edge of the dance floor to welcome us into the celebrations! He talked about how Christ's first miracle wasn't raising the dead or something dramatic like that, but he just turned water into wine. He's provided the wine for the party, he is the great host! He talked about the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had come upon 140 or so people in a room, overwhelming them, and how the first thing Peter said to the onlookers on was, 'Oh! Don't worry! We aren't drunk!' Living for God is living in freedom, and it's fun and mad! I want to see more of that overflowing joy I saw at Easter Camp and we tasted tonight. We want to see Windsor erupt with the joy of God, and to find freedom in being led by his spirit and not necessarily by a program! We want church to be about God, and not about Windsor Park or any of the leaders or anything but God. I'm excited to see this happen. We're excited!

And to think it had been a pretty dull day full of uncertainty and a bit of loneliness... I love how God can suddenly fill me with so much promise and hope for the future, even though I still have no idea what that holds.

First post from the flat!

We have internet! It has been a joyous evening of silent virtual interaction for us all! We are sitting in the lounge, glued to our screens for the first time in a month, occasionally mentioning things we see online. It's wonderful! Instead of sliding across to Pavis' side to watch a YouTube clip just now I got him to link it to me! Haha gold.

So priorities of course: my blog! So much has happened in the last month, too much to write in one blog without destroying you all with boredom... But I'll tell you a bit about a few key moments that have been pretty memorable...

Sam Pavis moved in as flat mate number 5! It's been great having him round. Not that these boys have replaced my family at all, but these fullas are so good to live with, how we all care about each others' days and want to be involved in each others' lives and want to contribute to the success of the flat. He's fit right in, cooking great meals and loving the cleaning jobs (he's easily replaced Ben 'Bertha' as the flat mum, but let's be honest, he lost that roll when he woke up one morning and drank a cup of sticky liquid that had sat out for the night and quite obviously had a long, rather thick line of ants running up into it. Rugged...

Speaking of rugged, I did my first solo tramping trip a couple of weeks ago! I was rostered off 2 days in a row from work so I took the opportunity to head into the Waitaks with my pack, boots and tent for a little adventure and extended quiet time. It was so good to get away from the busyness of life and just enjoy a walk in raw nature. Life has been incredibly busy lately, even though I'm only working 5-6hr days at the cafe, with activities on every night without fail (often two of them), plus getting things sorted at the flat and organising for various things I'm involved in, so this little getaway was pretty valuable to me. I'd always toyed with the idea of going alone into the wild, so I'm glad I manned up and did it. I actually found it all too short. Next time I'm keen for several days, to really get free of the noise of daily life and come to a place where I can think clearly and can listen to God without distraction. I'm still interested in doing Te Araroa later on this year, especially given my plans for the year are still so vague. Now that the internet and I are back together I will get to investigating this adventure!

This weekend I went to Easter Camp with the Windsor Park youth as a leader for Fuel. It was brilliant as always. God especially. It's such a great camp, and I love the 5 day length. It gives us such ample opportunity to really get to know the youth we live and go deep. It's also intense and exhausting! Every day I saw my boys getting more and more into it all, and into God. It was so special to be a part of it and to be able to share from my experiences and knowledge and lead them into their own relationships with Him. We had one boy give his life to Christ which I'm over the moon about. I'm so excited now to keep up the relationships we developed there, and take them further. Let the discipleship continue!

Otherwise, life continues as usual. I'm still working at the cafe, which I still enjoy most of the time. The people there are so great. The hockey season is underway, and though we've lost our first two games 3-1, we're competing well, especially given those are two of the usual top teams. It's mint being part of the team and seeing how we're improving all the time and keep determined to get up and win. Life Group, Home Group, 5pm and 6.30 church services all continue to take my time, but man do they all challenge and encourage me in my walk with Christ! I'm so lucky to be surrounded so wonderfully!

Life is very interesting, and intense. Sorry this has been a bit of a diary, probably not that interesting. I was try and keep these posts more perceptive and thoughtful than informative on my life, as that's pretty self serving I think. Just like a really long Facebook status. I will be posting more frequently I hope, too! Keeeeen!

I'll finish with this. I recently bought the CD.

The wheels on my car go round and round

I made the pesto chicken on oranged cous cous and ate it two nights in a row! It was fantastic. Well pleased with myself. I even made the pesto! Without a blender! I'll put a photo or two up soon. You will be so impressed. Perhaps.

I had a break this morning after a pretty hectic week and end. It was nice, just went for a good walk down past all the school kids trundling up to school (I found it interesting trying to pick the kids I think enjoy and excel at school and those who don't, based on the way they were walking)... down to the beach and along the walkway past all the middle aged folks doing their best to keep in peak physical form (I assume for no real reason other than keeping fit. I think it's dumb how we do that - go for runs just to keep fit. Play sport to get our exercise. I wish our lifestyles just meant that we were fit people, because we actually ran to work or our friends' houses or whatever we do... That's something I love about ole times, when you had to work to get places. Do some hard yards. Not really practical in this high paced society though is it...). I found a nice shaded bench and just sat there thinking, in a pretty tired and out of it kind of frame. I hadn't had... I should say, I hadn't made much time just for sitting and thinking and hearing God of late, so for a while it was just quite dazed and muddled thinking. Last night at church was a good reminder that I need to pursue my God more than I do. With so many things in this world vying for my attention, it's way too easy for me to let God be shut out. Sometimes I'm all ablaze and nothing else seems to matter, and then as soon as things get busy and I get caught up in it all, trying to gain control of it for myself, I make God take a back seat, and no doubt he gets frustrated with the new directions I take myself in. He knows my directional skills can be lacking. He's patient though. Not a backseat driver at all - but give him a chance, he'll take the wheel and take me somewhere extraordinary!

So this morning I was just wanting to come back to him. Put all the other schmuck aside. Give him back the wheel. It was nice just sitting there. I was thinking about direction a bit. Mine in particular. It's fairly vague at the moment, which is frustrating because it's been that way for a while. I work at a cafe which is great - I've been learning to make coffees and I'm much better with dishes nowadays, but it's not really a long term deal I don't think. I still appreciate good architecture (what I studied for the previous 3 years), and every now and then I get urges to design a great house, but beyond that it doesn't really have much of a hold on me at the moment. I really do enjoy writing and reading, but it's hard to see how a career could be made out of that? I don't know, none of that really matters. The thing I was thinking about most is about being in the motion. I often hear people saying they don't want to get stuck in the motions - they want to be out there and different and boundary pushing. I think that's great, but I also think that can stop us from moving. If we're always looking for the big thing to do, as perhaps I have been, it makes it pretty hard just to start. I think the whole world is 'stuck' in the motions. Autumn's upon us. Soon winter will be. Then there'll be spring and summer, and before you know it, autumn will have returned! And it will keep on returning. Waves will keep on crashing. Tides will come in and out. Flowers will bloom. Flowers will die. So will we... Everything is stuck in repetition. But isn't it beautiful and incredible? It is, and it's always on the go! These things can seem so mundane in comparison to a beautiful rainbow, or a rear bird that we happen to spot, or a pod of dolphins cruising by to awe us, but still they're so wonderful and vital to life. And so it's the same with me. I don't know my direction yet (maybe I'll run a book store/cafe?...), but so long as I keep moving, if I get into the motion and keep putting feet ahead, things will start to happen and those awesome things might come!

Schmeh.