heart desires are more than just flesh.

How perfect is this? There's a ministry in BANGKOK, THAILAND called NIGHTLIGHTS that ministers to girls exiting the life of sexual exploitation....you think maybe I'm supposed to go there some day? Praise the Lord for people who are dedicated to seeing His word and will accomplished on earth.

http://www.nightlightbangkok.com/

....for those who didn't know, or don't remember, I've been wanting to go to Thailand someday to work with prostituted persons there, and children, and fight for girls' freedom. Street Combat last year with prostitutes was called 'Night Lights'...and now I find a ministry that's already doing all that IN Thailand, carrying the same tag, and doing it all for Jesus! So cool!

BOWLATHON TEAM NAMES

Thursday was our Bowlathon, and every team came up with a name. I polled the people in the place, and came out with the top two favorite team names. Now it's your turn to place your vote. Here they are (in no particular order):

1) the Canadians
2) the Lemon Party
3) Buffalo Tile
4) the Fuscia Monkeys
5) Center of Attention
6) Stick Men
7) Team Platinum
8) Cheetos
9) Strike Outs
10) Space Cadets

Where did everyone go??

Mary leaves today for Vancouver. Brandon and Dave will be eating mac&cheese and hotdogs this week!

Doug & Deb go on Vacation today. No one knows where Chris will be between work, his car, and his cell phone. Joel will either be at the family store, at the corps playing Halo, or at the Burr House making ice cream creations, and in everything, as we've come to know, he'll be praying through it all.

Denise leaves for Ontario Friday. Pray for her witness with her family, and for her mom.

Bert, Sean and Erica leave Friday for camp. They'll be playing all summer. Ryan's already there, then off to the military. Pray for them.

Sam and Charlene left already. They're enjoying the Virginia sun, soaking up the rays, and dirty diapers.
As for the rest of us...

Hooray for VBS planning at the corps....and sermon prep.
Drama and Film camp with Charlie this afternoon. You should come!
Party tonight at the corps. We're hanging out with the camp people before they head out. (*cough, cough, Bert and Sean!)
the Bowlathon is tomorrow. People actually gave me money to go bowling! Sweet deal! We're raising moneys for PowerHouse. The Drama and Film club is connected with that, as are our Monday trips (this week we went to Fort Knox, and saw a state park with a private lighthouse and a bell tower that wasn't really a tower at all!), our Sunday camp outs (at Paul Bunyan campground...they have a pool!), and random sleepovers through the summer.
Freedom Fridays continues....come to the corps and pray with me. There are girls being sold into sex slavery younger than your kid sister or my niece. I can't believe that there are actually men out there who would be so twisted to want to pay money to sleep with a child, but it's a huge 'business' out there. Disgusting.
Friday night is Powerhouse, as always. I already told you about that, and most of you already know what it is and come and hang out. Pray for the kids that come, and for Charlie.
Pray for people to come to cell, too. Tuesday nights. my place. Except this week. Burr house. We're calling it bring a friend & food night...it'll be good times! Jesus will be there. He's always there. Have you seen Him yet?

Shameless Plug..

I am joining the Weekend to End Breast Cancer!
It's a 60km walk over two days, and I'm trying to raise $2000 before September 7th.
If you'd like to support me, simply print out a donation form from www.endcancer.ca. or check out my personal site (once I've figured out how to get to it myself!) Thanks, friends!
...oh, and I preach this Sunday. Pray for me. Believe it or not, I don't really like to talk in public.

Where does all the money go?

Joel has been blogging on the Army and our spending, which has got me thinking about a bunch of things. Here's what I commented, since it ended up being pretty lengthy:

The Salvation Army pays my paycheck, which pays my rent, and my car, and my groceries, etc etc. I tithe my 10%, and sponsor two children (a very new development, as I'm seriously disorganized when it comes to money). I buy stuff for the corps, and we have an account that covers movie nights or helps out if we want to go bowling or whatnot...this is a change for me, because I grew up in a corps where most kids could afford putting in some cash for youth group activities. Sometimes I'll treat people to coffee or lunch, or something like a birthday present, but then I get comfortable with the corps paying for stuff and figure "maybe this present should be from the teen group, and not from me" but the corps is already paying for me to live here, so what I spend and how I spend it is already coming out of the Army. But that stinks. How can I as a soldier feel comfortable skimming money from the pot for little personal bonuses like birthday presents and lunches that if I were working somewhere else I'd be paying out of pocket? As it is already, I get free lunches here any day I want to because of the soup kitchen. Even for the people we 'help' with our free meals and free gifts, most of them don't even need it. I have a friend who found herself a way to get a free wheelchair, even though she can walk fine on her own....so much waste.

On the other hand, I have a friend who's trying to live on her own now. For the past few years she has been supported by her boyfriend who's house she lives in. Now, as she's trying to find a way to make ends meet on a part-time job, she's being told she doesn't qualify for assistance because she works more than 20 hours a week.

But if she quit working all together, she could get on welfare, have some kind of medical coverage called "Maine-Care", and get food stamps. So, the way the system works here, it's better to sit on your butt and have the government pay your way through life, than try to work to make a living....

I've met so many people over this year who would be totally capable of working simple jobs, but they would be cut off of the government services for doing it. What are we teaching people? Seriously.

For the record, I don't make the corps pay for gifts I give, or lunches I pay for people. The thought has crossed my mind, from time to time, though. (I hope this doesn't sound like a 'look at me, look how great I am' kind of blog, because in all reality, I want to be held accountable for my spending, and I think I should be. As should every soldier, officer, and government official. How much money do YOU spend on yourself versus what you spend on others? Is there any place you could free up more money for the LORD and His work? But in everything you do, do it ALL to the Glory of God.)

Storm the Forts of Darkness...

Joel started singing Storm the Forts of Darkness this morning, and it brought back memories...good times, good times.

Heather just posted the other day on being a threat...not a threat to people, but a threat to Satan's kingdom. It's a good post. check it out! ("Are You a Threat? June 13, 2006")

oh, and we all went to Great Skates last night, and I busted my thumb. But I got to play CyberQuest with Herbie and Sean and Tyler, and a little bit of Halo with Brandon and Joel, and went around the rink a few times with Sam and Emily, so all in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day!

some days I feel like a bear caught in a bear trap

It's wierd having people to talk to about your spiritual life, sometimes.
You get so used to using a computer screen or a text message to get your thoughts across, or fighting alone (even though that's a lie because we're never alone, although sometimes we forget to remember that)...that when someone asks you "How ARE you?" you feel like there's this big block to actually speaking out how you are....not that you don't know how you are, but you wonder whether you should actually come out with the truth of your state of mind on any given day....or, you know that they'll want to give you an answer that you don't want to hear, so you'd rather not say anything at all.

So here goes...today I am....fidgety.
I don't know why, yet, but I'll ask Jesus.
If you see me today, ask me if I asked Him, yet.
It'll be like an accountability thing.
I probably won't like it, but maybe after the bajillionth person asks me, maybe we will have gotten somewhere.

The fight in Bangor.

this is my morning mental conversation:

It's MORNING!!! Wakey wakey, rora.

-No, I don't wanna.

But there's things to do and people to see today.

-So what. I like my bed.

Your car needs a check-up, and you need to pay your phone bill, and clean the house and Denise is already awake and probably needs a ride somewhere, and I thought Clarice would have called by now, and what about your friend Lisa from Curves? Don't you want to see her today and maybe pray with her this time? Oh, and don't forget to pay that ticket of yours, you silly doof, how could you forget it in your bag without mailing it....

-Right. This is why I like my bed.

So you're just not going to deal with anything now? How about one thing...

-FINE!!! one thing. PAY-TIXX. They're supposed to be open already. Phone number, here we go- JUNK. Today they're not open until 2pm. Must be a Maine thing. Now, I have to remember not to forget to call them again

Like how you forgot to call and actually book the party you were planning?

- Yes, don't remind me. I already feel dumb enough as it is. And Mary didn't call back yet, so she still probably doesn't know, and Deb already knows, but....

Maybe if you were more organized like Denise you'd keep your life together

- Now, don't do that. I know what you're doing.

What? What seems to be the problem? Haven't you been wanting to be more like her? More like Deb? More like Heather? More like everyone else you hear about? Seriously, Aurora. What have you actually DONE lately, besides drive people around and sing and eat? What are you actually accomplishing, here, really?

- SHUT UP!! I WILL NOT keep comparing myself to everyone else around me. I WILL NOT keep sitting in the middle of confusing lists of things that need to be done, and trying to live up to the expectations of what I think other people think of me. I know that God has FIT ME for what He's asked of me, and He's called me here for a reason. Satan, GET OUT OF MY HEAD in the name of JESUS CHRIST!!! You are a liar, a thief and a robber, and I will NOT bow to your lies today or any other day.

ahh....I'm melting, I'm melting...

- PTEWWY! (*SPITS* in Comparison's face) and HA! (*STOMPS* on Expectations' head)

And it's only 11am...

Don't stay stuck in the bear trap

Living in community is not as easy as it seems sometimes. We live in a world that pushes us to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self-supporting. Learning to rely on others seems at times like failure, but it shouldn't be. Why hog all the responsibility to one person? Like they're untouchable or something? That's what being the BODY of Christ is, yes/no? PRAYING for eachother, SPENDING TIME with eachother, ENCOURAGING eachother, keeping eachother ACCOUNTABLE...that one gets touchy at times, but it's the only way to keep growing closer, because it's bringing on a new level of closeness and intimacy that is often uncomfortable. But then I think about the story of a bear caught in a bear trap....

A man walks by and notices a bear caught in this huge claw-like trap, and it's tearing into the bears' flesh. The bear is trying desparately to pull and struggle to get free, but is simply making the trap close tighter and tear away more flesh. Pretty soon the bear gives up the struggle because it's easier and much less painful to deal with the steady pain of something wrong rather than making it worse. The man looks at the defeated beast and cries out for it. He knows the only way to release the trap is for the animal to stand on it with all it's weight...the trouble is, will the bear trust the man, or wait defeated for the hunter to finish the job?

Sometimes we get caught up in our own junk, and get tired of struggling a seemingly useless battle, and we give up. Then a Friend comes along, let's call him Jesus, with a way to get free, but we don't want to listen to it, because we're too busy with being hurt and wounded to hear. So He brings along another friend, this time someone more like us, who has been through similar pain, but doesn't seem to be as troubled any more. They show us their scars, proof of their pain, but also proof of their healing, and they tell us about this man Jesus who helped them get free, too. So now we see that healing is possible, and we know the One who will help us get there, but do we go to Him? What do you do?

Today's been kind of crazy....lots of things going around in my head, most of them good! Just found a bunch of things that had been lost for a few days, making them late (checkbook, an old bill, another old bill payment, some articles and phone numbers I'd been looking for, among other things!)....hmmm....maybe it's time to get organized! But then, where would I be without my chaos to surround me??
No worries.

Sang "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL" today. I think it's going to be my theme song for the week.