2 June 2011

We started today with breakfast (which included bagels and cream cheese – hello America!) all together as a family, and then at 10ish we dove into the most ridiculously great time of extended worship. One of the highlights was Melissa sharing a picture she had of Jesus walking up to each of us, taking out our little water-balloon shaped hearts, and stretching a stretching them, making them bigger, increasing our capacity for Him. The worship time had that kind of rhythm to it... you could feel worship swelling as our hearts were stretched, and then receding a little – just before we thought our hearts would explode! We went from that into a time of Jonathan and Melissa talking about the values of the farm – the things that they hold dear. They were setting some boundaries, and giving some guidelines for living in community. Most simply – this is our home for the next while. We need to love it, respect it, look after it. Everyone needs to pull their weight, and do what needs to be done. They also spoke about some of the surprises that are coming up. They have planned every day down to the last detail – they’ve structured it so that God can come and break through that structure and take over wherever He wants to. SO COOL!

After lunch, we had another surprise session! We were all in the worship room, and one of the staff, Jessie, started us off on a “History” session. She handed out massive journals to each of us, with our names on them, and inside an encouragement about how important out lives’ stories are to Jesus. It says that because Jesus says our lives are precious, we must make sure that we treasure our lives – even the moments that don’t seem all that exciting. Every bit is precious. So these journals are for us to record this 18Inch journey, and then everything that comes after that too.

“If this book turns into a means of proving yourself, it will belong to those whom you created it for. Let Jesus inspire each page. Sew thankfulness into each vision. You are about to step into the best part of your journey yet. Savour it. Let Jesus literally love the hell out of you! He will if you let Him. And then you will release your life, your heaven-filled life, into these pages. You and Him can look at them forever. Do not be afraid to stumble at first, do not be afraid to love what you like. Do not shy away from new things,  and don’t let go of your vision to adopt someone else’s. Always listen – you WILL find your rhythm: may you preserve it long after this school.”

 

Then Jessie spoke briefly about the difference between “baggage” and “luggage”. Baggage is stuff that we pick up along the course of our lives – through hurts, difficulties, disappointments, our own sin etc. But luggage is the stuff we choose – the stuff we can ask God to pack for our journey with Him – the dreams and desires He’s already placed in us. So we had to start off our new journals with a list of all our baggage, which we are leaving behind, and a list of the luggage we would like to take with. We wrote these lists whilst listening to some beautiful Sigur Ros (did I say how much I love these people?!). And then  - SURPRISE – we had to read out our two lists. I don’t remember EVER feeling so nervous and insecure! It was a life-changing experience though; making yourself so vulnerable to people you’ve only just met! And trusting that they will forget the baggage you’ve laid down, but remember (and help you fight for and carry) the luggage you’re picking up! Even the staff members made themselves vulnerable and shared. And then afte each of us had shared, we had to go outside the room to find a treasure that had been prepared for us. Weeks ago, a few staff members had scoured North Carolina for beautiful suitcases – which they’d then painted, and put specific pictures on for each of us. And it was CRAZY how accurate each picture was! One of my pieces of “luggage” was trusting God with a family of my own one day, and another was choosing to be childlike with God again... and my suitcase has a picture of some kiddies in a playground! Ha ha! Heart re-exploded :o)

And there’s still supper and more worship to come today... wheeeeeeeeeeee!