So after about half an hour of listening to some good music (on my 512MB mp3 player – I need to arrive in ipod, for reals!), I began to write about a pile of logs on the back of a truck. They just stood out to me for some reason... I’m not done with it yet, will have to make time to finish that! Excitement was building the whole van ride, cause we still didn’t know where we were going – but we were still completely unprepared for the ridiculous amazingness of our actual destination! We are staying in an exquisite lodge called Apple Hill, in Moravian Falls. It is a huuuuuuge place, and it’s so wonderful for the whole family to be staying together under one roof! There’s a basement, ground floor and upper floor, and large lounge areas in the basement (which is where we gathered to hear Joel’s story) and on the ground floor. There’s a piano, and a porch on either side of the lodge; one overlooking a horse paddock and hills dotted with apple trees. And we’re in Moravian Falls! The Moravians were an amazing movement of people. They’re worth reading up about! They had a prayer vigil that lasted a hundred years! And an incredible missions movement was born out of that. When they first bought this massive piece of land, they deeded it to “Jesus Christ” :o) Many men and women of faith have lived here, and had encounters with God. This place is what is called a “thin place” – a place where heaven and earth easily intersect. Apparently it’s the second most angelically visited place on the earth at the moment...(?) When the couple who own the lodge first moved out here, he frequently saw a man dressed in a pilgrim outfit (like the Moravians wore). In fact, their neighbours once asked them why they were dressing up in pilgrim outfits, when they had done no such thing! 
Another super exciting thing about today (as if it could GET any more exciting!) is that we got to meet and hear from Don Potter. What an amazing man! We met in a beautiful 8-sided worship room that he and a few other carpenters (who also happened to be worship leaders) built. They built it in 2000, and it’s at 2000 feet! There’s a spot right in the centre of the room that, if you stand there and sing, amplifies your voice (just in your own ears) in a crazy way! Lots of fun! He speaks so simply, but with such authority born out of a life lived in deep intimacy with Jesus, some highlights:
· God is not afraid to contentiously fight me, it’s ok for me to voice my doubts and fears. He wins every fight He gets into anyway! He will take charge.
· When we are worrying about the future, we aren’t engaging God in the present. He is the “I AM”.
· God is what people like about music (whoa, this hit me hard! Every time someone hears music they like, it’s God – since music comes straight from him anyway!). Music doesn’t need to be redeemed, because God never lost His grip on it, it has always belonged to Him! (I suppose it’s just that sometimes the artists need to be redeemed ;oP ) The anointing is on the listener, not the person playing music – God opens our ears to hear, He changes our ears.
· God wants to be known my His voice. I shouldn’t try to judge who He is or what His character is like by what goes right or wrong in my life. He wants to be known for Himself, outside of what my situation or experiences dictate.
· Blessing in my ministry (blessing in any form) is NOT fruit. Blessing is not necessarily a sign that you are doing the right thing, or that you’re in God’s will. What lives beyond you, and beyond who you are, is fruit.
· There is a difference between anointing and activation of that anointing. “The Holy Spirit IS (present tense) upon me, I have BEEN (past tense) anointed to...” This is important, because it is possible to minister out of your anointing, without it being fully empowered by the Holy Spirit. This will cause you to burn out, like running out of oil. We need to minister out of the Holy spirit, in His power.
· Jesus healed people and raised the dead through “dunamis”, which is translated in our bibles as “power”. But it should more correctly be translated as “character” or “moral excellence”. he had perfect moral character because He was God. When we pray for the sick, it is not our power or our own “moral excellence” that has any affect – but Jesus (and His perfect character) within us. God is dealing with our character.
· God has NO MEMORY of my sin! He is not suspicious of me – He trusts me!
· I was with God before the world began. I live now in a state of constant remembering. I agreed to live this life, to look like I look. I am remembering everything I have always loved about Him, and I am remembering myself – who I was always meant to be. I am “remembering” myself back into relationship with Him, like Adam in the garden.
· As a worship leader, it is imperative to cultivate times of intimacy in private. It is difficult to have truly intimate times when you are leading others in – so you have to have been there before. When you are leading people in, you are acting as the head – and “God kisses the head, but has intimacy with the body”. (Don speaks more about this in his book “Facing the Wall” – God took him out of leading worship for a season, so that he could learn to sing for God alone in a private place.)After our time with Don, we came home and had cake in celebration of Chris’ birthday. We had to whisper the happy birthday song to him, because the Helser kids (Cadence and Haven) were already sleeping! It made it tricky not to laugh uproariously!
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