Mary

“God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus. He will be great, be called ‘Son of the Highest.’ The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; He will rule Jacob’s house forever—no end, ever, to his kingdom.”

She knew the beginning

and the end of sorts…

…and that was it.

No other recorded details

Not fully knowing the impact child would make

No guidelines

No instructions

Just a random angel’s words:

“God’s getting you up the duff, and the baby’s going to be a superstar.”

When curveballs rage

Dark tunnel ahead

Where do you go?

Where do you head?

How do you parent the Son of God??

Do you make Him do chores??

Do you make Him do homework??

If He falls over and bangs his head on the coffee table,

do you just let Him heal Himself??

Starting line up

End point in sight

But what of the hurdles that lay inbetween?

Bread on both sides

Filling unsure

But we can rely

That sandwich taste will be sweet

Trust divine

Complete reliance

Clichéd words that must be found true in this

Stress

Spirit guiding through the mud

Bring my heart to carefully notice

The things that would remain unobserved otherwise.

For nothing is by chance.

We live by faith, not by fate.

Taking heart of smallest and largest

All building from a ponder

To pave a way through

Born is certain for you read these words.

Death awaits us all,

Our time of judgment will come.

But what of the center?

What of this life?

What of my daily grind?

Which steps do I take?

I know so little

But of this I am sure

Of the hand of Father

Providence upon our lives

Plans to prosper

Plans of grace

Plans of trouble

Struggle of a journey

Destination in the daily

Embracing right now

None of us have arrived,

Desperate striving to untangle

the messy strings

that make up our

this so called life.

Take care of each thread between

The dawn and the dark

For who knows what a pull

A tug of string

Will unravel. 

Tambourine

I finally got my chance to be part of the worship team on Saturday during the Pais commissioning service. And it wasn’t with a tambourine [someone else had that :O)].

I was on stage.

Holding a microphone.

That was working.

During worship.

My role?

There were no plug-ins for the acoustic guitars, so I had to hold the microphone by one of them so the audience could hear the music.

The audience couldn’t see me because I was hidden behind the Pais:Ghana banner that was on stage.

The past three days have been a flurry of manic activity and really understanding TIA – This is Africa. It is fast-paced yet slow; it is post-modern yet pre-modern; it is expensive yet cheap.

On Friday, it was our last day of “classroom style” Foundational Training [from Monday we will be doing a week of practical preaching and ministry writing work]. Saturday was our commissioning service and Steve and I were invited to speak at one of the Pais partnering churches youth leaders training sessions. Today, we arrived at church at 7am and left at 2.30pm.

What I am LOVING about Ghana is the worship.

The loud, exciting, passionate, joyful expression of people praising God.

Today at church there was a dance troupe of tambourine-clad older ladies rocking it out in a choreographed routine.

Some of the apprentices joined some Ghanaians in what looked like a Christian version of the Macarena.

The “Children’s Day” presentation involved three boys and a girl break dancing and rapping, as well as a massive group dance to Mary Mary.

And I am LOVING prayer times.

Just how passionate and excited people are about something that so many see as a painful obligation. How rich and deep their belief in Father God answering them is.

The Reverend at Royalhouse Chapel today spoke about how the apprentices from difference countries would go back changed after a year being with them.

I feel changed after a week….only three days left :O(

Treat

This was our treat last night.

A bottle of orange Fanta,

a packet of shortbread biscuits,

and the Kingdom of Heaven movie on the projector screen in the upstairs lounge.

As we passed the crate of drink and box of cookies round the circled group of apprentices, everyone whooped and hollered with joy and clapped.

A week ago I would have scoffed at this as a treat. If Steve came home from the grocery store with this, I would have sent him back for a large bag sour patch kids, a crate of vitamin water, and a big bag of the special kettlecorn popcorn I like that comes in a red bag.

So much of my perspective is changing. So many of the things I felt were essential are being diminished.

While most of us watched the first half of the movies in the upper living room, downstairs we heard the all to familiar intro to the Kingdom Principles series [familiar because we have heard it so many times in the last week/years but also because it is taken from the Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack!].

A small group of apprentices and support staff who had missed parts of the series for various reasons were gathered around a laptop watching ‘Use it or Lose it’. As we came down the stairs at the movies they were still involved in a deep discussion of the material that began after the 50-minute teaching had finished.  

So I guess treats are dependent upon two things:

one, what you are used to in everyday non-treat life

and

two, what you are hungry for.