10.21.07

i love this prayer team. you guys are awesome. whether you are
actively running through these requests each day or lifting them up as
the holy spirit prompts you or just keeping us in your heart and
letting jesus intercede through that keeping, i appreciate it!

i have a few cool God moments i will share with you tonight that are
personal to me. okay, did i share with you that i couldn't find my
testimony i had written out and might get called on to share this
morning in church? so i really needed to find it. well, of course (as
some of you predicted, i'm sure) God had different plans. i'd been
struggling with 'how do i relate to the people here, in communication,
in emotion, in connection' and to need to rewrite my story to share
really forced me to think through these issues. what parts would i
share and how. after a good conversation with our team leader (jennie)
i remembered it all boiled down to the emotion of it. some emtions
that connect for me are: we all feel alone at times, we all need to
know we're loved unconditionally, that God will never leave or forsake
us. that He calls us to go and preach the good news to all the world
and he will be with us.

alright, i'm gonna let you in on one step deeper, just because God's
so cool and i want to shout about it :) last night i emailed my
roomate and a few friends to see if one of them could do a search by
my desk where i think i left it, and then email it to me. if they were
able to do it, it woudl be in my inbox when i woke up this morning.
otherwise i'd have to write one. which meant pressing into God and His
heart for the people i've now started to meet. i suspected He may want
me to do this, but i was going to hold out and see if He provided the
lost testimony this morning through email. i almost felt guilty as i
woke up this morning thinking maybe i shouldn't even check my email,
jsut rewrite it. but do you think i had that much self-discipline not
to even check? would you? not me. so here's where god steps in and
helps...

wanna know how?

the electricity went off this morning in the house! i could not get on
the internet. never mind the shower, etc. but i knew. i knew. so i
made a commitment in my heart that i would rewrite that testimony and
not look in my email for it, then i prayed together with sharon and we
asked God to give us the power back. after we prayed i went straight
to my room, to my knees, and started writing that thing. guess what
had happened by the time i finished? yup, fan started blowing nicely
on me :) and i got to shower :) and praise God!!

second fun thing today: i had a very nice conversation with one of the
CRI staff that lives here, she is the nurse. she is from IOWA. near
where my grandparents live and so we talked about shopping at the
cedar rapids mall for school clothes, being in 4-H, goign to fairs and
eating corn dogs. farm stuff. i can't even get that kind of connection
in chicago. it was just lovely :)

last little joy i'll share is from tonight's group "hi/low" time. we
all shared then closed with praying randomly for each other. i was the
last one and instead of praying janine sang a song over me...

i have a maker.
he formed my heart.
before even time began
my life was in His hands.

He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
and hears me when i call.

special to me because of these secrets that i had in my heart from
today: (1) i prayed this morning about the electricity to come on and
he heard me, and (2) i did have some tears fall today as i took some
quiet time after a nap to read through ephesians 4:1-5:21. no reason,
God is just good. all the time. God is good. and He has plans for me.
for you too.

rest in that tonight, my friends. He is watching over you and i bet
He's tugging at your heart about something...

much love,
jen