Coming home!

To my friends in the States, I'll be home next week until July 11. I'd love to meet for a cup of coffee, a meal or at the least a little conversation. I have lots of stories and pictures to share! But, don't be afraid, I will try not to bore you and I also want to hear your stories. I'll check my email while I'm home or you can contact me through my sister, Chris in Dearborn Heights. Or you could actually comment here (does anyone really read this blog?)

more changes, more prayer requested

It has just been announced that Commissioners Hasse and Christina Kjellgren have received farewell orders from their present appointment as Territorial leaders of the Sweden-Latvia Territory and will take up a new appointment as International Secretary for Europe on 1. November 2006.

New Territorial Leaders for Sweden-Latvia will be Lt. Col. Victor and Rosalyn Poke, Australian officers presently serving as Chief Secretary inthe UK Territory.

(We are also losing our current Chief Secretary, Royston Bartlett. He will be replaced with a Swedish officer, Kristina Frisk.)
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Henrik Andersen
Regional Commander
Pestisanas armija (The Salvation Army in Latvia)

Reflecting

Before it’s just a memory, I want to reflect on my experiences at the holiness conference. I had such a wonderful and blessed time, not just because it gave me a desperately needed break or because I met some great people. I also had some special moments with the Lord and was given some important words sometimes directly from the Lord and sometimes through others. It doesn’t seem to be one big revelation nor have I been given answers to my big questions, but there were significant moments. On the plane to Oslo I wrote this, “I want to be open and available this week for whatever…” and I tried to practice that throughout the conference.

The first night we paired up to ‘get acquainted’ with the delegates. I was with, Kjell, from Sweden who blessed me right away by saying he wants people to know him as someone who ‘wants to love Jesus more.’ Simple, but that’s it, isn’t it? During a half night of prayer, I asked Osmi from Finland, a beautiful retired officer, to pray with me. She had these words for me, ‘God’s gifts are complete.’ And I watched her often as we were praying. I was drawn to her lovely face because it glowed with joy and peace. I even wished I had a camera to try to capture that look. And I thought 2 things: 1. I want that!
2. When I’m retired will people see joy and peace or a grouchy, bitter, tired and lonely woman?

Our times of worship were one very powerful way the Lord spoke to me. During that same night of prayer these words were especially meaningful:

“Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of my salvation”
“There is none like you. No one else can touch my heart like you do.”

I have been reading Ephesians and these words stuck with me through the week. I used them when I led morning devotions. From chapter 1:7b-8a “the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us.” I felt like God was pouring grace on us (me) all week. We took a pilgrim walk one day. We were given directed prayer themes. I walked and prayed and wound up at the sea sitting on a big rock with my feet just inches from the water (it was too cold to be in it!) As I was praying, the words to the Chicago Staff Band chorus song came to me “He gives you peace like a river, washing away all your fears.” I had my eyes closed, listening to the gently lapping water and feeling God’s peace wash over me. With no warning I suddenly heard a big wave come crashing to shore and my feet were covered with the freezing cold water from the sea. I think God was teasing me and reminding me that He had control over the water and my life, too! I laughed with a few tears in my eyes. As I sat there I felt so filled up with the presence of God that I thought I would burst. Across the fjord was the city with factories and apartments – the world. I realized I needed that filling so that I could come back and face the world.

I had several helpful and precious conversations, many of them with the delegates from Denmark. (I think I’ve been unduly influenced by Henrik and Lisbeth!) We talked about the future (mine and theirs), about using spiritual gifts, about the Army and our place in it and much more. The Lord sent those people to me just when I needed them and directed our conversations. And I think maybe I was sent to them, as well. It’s great to be part of the body of Christ. From those conversations one of the most helpful and important and maybe even prophetic comments was, “You need to be yourself.” Interesting…

One of my personal highlights was teaching for a couple of hours about worship, personal and corporate. I struggled in my preparation because I wanted to be appropriate for these people and this conference. It all came together and I had so much fun! They listened and participated and it seemed to be relevant. Also, I received a lot of affirmation which is admittedly an ego thing, but I needed it. Finally, for tonight anyway – I received an insight into my relationship with God and what He means to me. He is my “Eternal Teacher.” He will never be done teaching me new things and I will definitely never be done learning.

Change in Latvia

http://www.fralsningsarmen.info/Parleport/home.nsf

It's in Swedish but it's important for Latvia. Our regional commanders, Henrik and Lisbeth Andersen, will be moving to a new appointment this fall. Coming to Latvia are Goran and Chris Larsen from Sweden.

Pray for Henrik and Lisbeth and their children, especially youngest Lukas. They have been here for 6 years and this will be a significant change for them. Pray for the Larsens as they adjust to us, new language and culture and the rest. Pray for Pestisanas Armija in Latvia as we prepare for new leaders and say goodbye to our friends and leaders.

Pictures from Norway

The view of Oslo from Jan Harald and Eli's house. Jan cuts a tree to make the view better.

Jaana - new friend from Finland

Sweden's night: 1. Who's the King of the Jungle (no idea why) 2. Johnny - training principal and magician
Some of the delegates enjoy the beautiful weather
On our way to a Pilgrim Walk

Visit to a CHOCOLATE farm! (Really!)
I love this little guy!

The sea

Christianity Cheat Sheet

http://holyoffice.livejournal.com/80073.html?page=1#comments

I don't mean to offend anyone with this (although if you take it too seriously I take no responsibility for your response.) This is a fun list of common Christian terms with definition for the secular world...and a little healthy perspective for the rest of us. Posted as a link at: http://www.thinkchristian.net

a week of holiness

I’m sitting at the airport in Oslo, Norway on my way home from the Nordic Brengle Holiness conference.  I was invited to be part of the leadership/teaching team.  It was an amazing week and I have lots of ideas and challenges to process.  Besides that, it was a really fun week and I have lots of stories to tell.  For this blog entry, I’m simply going to note some of the more inspiring or thought-provoking quotes from the week.  Later I’ll fill in some detail.  These quotes may be a bit hard to understand out of context, but if you read something that you’d like to respond to, please do.  As I said, I’m still trying to process what I should do with my mind and heart full of inspiration.  Most of the quotes are from our guest, Lyell Rader who has a beautiful and rich speaking style.  Others are noted.  All are related to holiness and life.  Here goes:

From Petter (Finnish training principal): “our first language is the language of our faith and our discipleship”

“All His.  All holy.”

from the Rader patriarch (father of Lyell, Paul, etc.) “Always assume grace.”  “Do not doubt in the dark what God has revealed in the light.”

Elaine Rader:  “Practice the discipline of alertness to God.  ‘eyes wide open’.”

“Ponder anew what the Almighty can do” but “bend my dreams to your will”

“Prayer is the breath of the soul.”  O. Hallesby

“Holiness is the flourishing of our humanity – in beauty, fruitfulness and wholeness.  In the secular world holiness has a connotation of ‘incense, hypocrisy and mold.’ Wrong assumption is that holiness is about spirituality.  We are about humanity – body, mind and spirit.”

Psalm 103 – Praise to a God who puts everything right.

Hemingway: “We are all broken.  We live by mending.  Grace is the glue.  Some are stronger in the broken places.”

“By our wounds we may heal.  “

“The healing work of God is carried on characteristically through a healing community.”  Dr. Herb Rader

about the healing of the 10 lepers in Luke 17: “Mercy incarnate hears the shout, covers the distance, mends the broken.”

Vocational holiness – we need to ‘develop a contemplative life adequate to our vocation.’ Eugene Peterson

The deer farm on a beautiful spring day

white deer - not native Latvians
reindeer - also not native
Veronika & Nikolai with our favorite deer

I feed and pet the deer (I prefer animals from a distance)


This one shows off
Marina brought the bread
Marina & Dana greet wild boar

A full brain!

Wow! I've been on brain overload most of this week. It's been an exhausting, challenging and rewarding week. Sunday evening we hosted 7 cadets and Herve Cachelin from Switzerland overnight. It was fun to take them to Old Riga, talk about shared experiences of training and cadet life and have a good Lido meal. Monday was a holiday but I was up and taking them to the airport at 7:30. My intent was to work all day but I just couldn't. I crashed for the first half of the day. Later on I worked for several hours on a writing assignment for Barefoot Ministries (www.barefootministries.com). They are a left over connection from my TYS days and I love keeping that relationship even in a small way. Tuesday morning I was up early preparing for our Leaders' Day. I gave a presentation about calling and candidates. I've been reading a great book, "The Call" by Os Guiness. It's one of the books that's been on my 'to read someday' shelf and I thought it would be good help for my work with candidates here. It turns out to be a good refresher for me to as I look at what God is calling me to and where. My term is up next summer and I have to make a decision in the fall (or sooner) so I need some help. If you are trying to find out where God is leading you for the first time or the hundredth, this book might help. I'll put some quotes up later. After a long but good day with our leaders, I came home to study for Doctrine and Homiletics (preaching class.) Four hours of studying (which really wasn't enough but was all I could do) and then to sleep so I could teach for six hours on Wednesday. The teaching was tough. Lots of misunderstandings in Doctrine class but we got through it. Homiletics is hard because we are learning how to study the Bible inductively. Several of the methods are hard for me to explain and demonstrate because I don't understand Latvian grammar. It's fun but sometimes frustrating. I could use Linda Himes' help! By last night I was brain dead. All I could do was watch a movie and think about what else I should do. Today was another holiday (Latvia has a lot of Independence days) and I took it as one. I went with Veronika, Dana and their parents, Marina and Nikolai to a deer park in the country. Dana's friend's family owns and runs it. It was so nice. We walked and fed the deer. Then we sat in the sun and talked and relaxed. I needed a stress free, enjoyable day and that's what we had. I'll post pictures later. Much more I could tell about this week, but I need to sleep and you've probably read enough!