Sunday 29 August 2010

Motel.

I haven't even mentioned anything about Mozambique yet. Admittedly, I've been avoiding technology as far as possible since returning- two hours of chasing up student finance and university timetables has reminded me why. I could spend my life behind a screen trying to keep my head above a growing pile of to-dos. But I love people quite a bit more. This is something Moz taught me. People are the focus. Love is the key.

G-d, save us from our good intentions.
What you meant to be organic we’ve refined into an engine.
We call it progress, but we forget that even water is poison if we breathe it.

Just how much can we love when we’re spread so thin... spread so thin?
Just how much can we love when we’re spread so thin?

Where are the naked prophets? Where are their harlot wives?
How can the Spirit move when His body parts don’t coincide?
These times are complicated so we compartmentalize,
there are few burdens shared just seldom intersecting lives...

Satan came and offered up the kingdom whole,
Messiah refused, then took it man by man.
Pharisees thought he would topple the empires,
but He changed the world by caring for men, not the systems they create.

Temples for the temples? Systems for the Spirit?
We became the temples, so let’s build each other.
Could we hear the Spirit if we just lived simpler?

Everybody go and grab your neighbors! Let’s all sink our roots and see a harvest!
Nobody alive has all the answers, but Abba bears the load when love is hard!


What to write about! I'm not going to give a blow by blow account. If you want stories or details, by all means ask me because God showed up big time and I could talk for hours of the power and love of His that we were privy to in just 2 weeks in East Africa. My word. What I will say is that my God heals. My God speaks. My God raises the dead. My God loves.

The team I went out with were indescribably wonderful, and it was a privilege, I thought especially for me, to be with them. Each had such different skills and experiences, but we all love Jesus and want to see more of Him, and that was enough to make it work. I can't put into words how grateful I am for the opportunity.

When we were on the plane home, a man in front of us turned and said, "You have the happy bouncy look of people returning from a mission trip". This excited me, that a stranger could glean from our tired exteriors that we'd been in the presence and movement of God. I hoped that we'd glow in the UK, that people would ask us why, that we'd tell them that like Moses on Sinai, we'd been hanging with God and His glory was stuck to us, changing us. When I eventually got back to Nottingham, my mum picked me up. We had coffee, and she asked what we'd been doing. I did the whole, "well, stayed at the orphanage, loved the kids, did some dramas, helped with the feeding, gave out worm medicine..." all to smiles and nods. "Then we went to a village and prayed with some people and this deaf boy we prayed for got to hear and a mute guy we prayed for started shouting hallelujah..." Face of stone, like a blind had been turned inside. My brother laughed. Mum went to busy herself in the kitchen. On 3 hours sleep in 40 hours I went out to church where people would get excited and grin at what I was so amazed by. (Though for fun I threw a final story at mum on the way out of how we'd met a guy who was raised from the dead and subsequently forgave his murderer). Giggles. But yes. Sad, in some ways, because my family doesn't believe what I've seen. Beautiful, in a way because I appreciate my church family so much more than I ever have before now. Most importantly, I am not going to shut up about this- I'm not standing on a soap box (I don't know what a soap box is...whether it has anything to do with real soap or not)...but if someone asks me what I did over the summer, I'm telling them and I'm telling them straight.

"For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." acts 4:20

"You have done many miraculous things, O LORD my God. You have made many wonderful plans for us. No one compares to you! I will tell others about your miracles, which are more than I can count."



Not even attempting to do an overall commentary on Moz, or the summer, or Momentum...things'll filter through in time I'm sure. What I can say is that never in my life have I felt so different after a period of six weeks. Thank you.

Saturday 21 August 2010

Refine.

He saw it burn but not away. He saw no ash but felt the heat on his face.
If there was ever any hope that we could stand on our own,
it was crushed by what he saw on that mountain...

The glory of the latter house is much greater than the former one,
and it was never in the structure but the Builder himself,
and nothing will remain forever if it’s not made new again...

I remember that not every rain stops falling down when the earth is nourished.
I can see now that not every flame is kept steady burning till the wood is ash....

I’m not gonna make it if You don’t remake me. No, I won’t ever make it unless You remake me.

I’ll carry Grace like a flame. Only You could refine. Perfect! Perfect!
Find in me the things to stay. Burn us bright but not away... bright but not away.

I’ll carry Grace like a flame. Only You could refine. Perfect! Perfect!
Strip away all that remains. Burn us bright but not away... bright but not away.