19 July 2011

After breakfast we gathered in the worship room. Mel came in with a bag full of interesting objects (a pig in a tutu, a carving of a bird, interesting bottles, a toy plane, a Russian hat; to name a few!). The assignment was to choose an object, and then write about it – whatever came to mind. We were told to write flat-out for half an hour. If we felt like we couldn’t write any more about one object, we could pick another and carry on writing. It was just to get the creative juices going! I found it rather relaxing too, which was great! Then Mel, Jonny and the rest of the staff came back in, and we found out what we were about to do next. We made a huge circle, and we were each going to get the chance to step out into the circle, and sing out a song by ourselves to the Lord. There are some of us who have never sung before, and others who have sung lots. But there’s a big difference between singing on stage, and singing out an honest, heartfelt song to the Lord in front of others! We were all pretty petrified!

So we started out just singing together, getting into God’s presence, worshipping Him. Jonathan said that we were creating a kind of whirlwind together, and that as we each took a turn to step out into the middle, we would be carried by those winds. So... we did it! It took me a while to work up the nerve, so I waited quite a while. But eventually I went for it too. It was such an amazingly liberating feeling! There were tears again, but they were good tears! I only remember pieces of what I sang... but the part that stands out the most was, “You can use my voice, You can use my voice – but that’s not why You gave it to me. You just enjoy it when I sing...” God was dealing with a whole lot of wrong ideas I had about why I have a voice, and what it’s meant for. We started just after 11am, and we were there until just after 3! I think some of the most exciting ones were the people who thought they couldn’t sing – in whom God released new voices and new songs. VERY cool! :o) We had a rather late lunch after all that, and then did some cleaning of the farm. Natural rhythms of life; swirling in the glory, and then scrubbing the floors :o)

After supper we met with our small groups – so as usual we headed off to the Burbach’s house. I’m so glad to be in this small group, nothing beats being in a house for a meeting like that! We split up into guys and girls again, and had some great conversations about what God was saying and doing. It was also really good to be able to process the song moment from this morning out loud with other people. We ended the evening by making a Twix pie, which we’re going to have together after lunch tomorrow :o)