What a group! What a GOD!

So ... this MORNING-PERSON, INTROVERT-TO-THE-CORE person (Sherri) just came back to our bedroom at 11:30 p.m. because the Spirit of God is working among us.  And in case you didn't know it, when the Spirit of God is working it just isn't polite to walk away!
We had an intensely powerful, challenging and introspective day of sessions discussing and learning about our organization and what it means to associate with it.  In the process our own fears and doubts, hopes and dreams, strengths and challenges were coaxed from their neatly tucked away boxes and then examined, diagnosed and healed or buried.
Some things I learned today:
Our organization folk (people of God) are real people ... and that's more than okay, because now we can be, too!  No pretense, just grace.  They have real lives, real stories, real struggles, real battles, real victories.  They love God with consuming passion.  They love each other and the purpose to which they are called.  Those who came this weekend, as Neal and I did, came to Discover ... what am I to hear, what direction am I to go.
While friendly, the first evening was cordial and intentional.  Today, day 2, began in a similar vein with a little more ready smile and a little less stumbling over names. After the intense time already mentioned our dinner was delicious and restful, enjoyed along with probing questions and telling discussions around several tables.  A long and open evening paved the way for the Holy Spirit to work in and among His children, and did He!  Whether conversation between a duo, a walk in the beautiful spring Colorado day, or a group in the sunroom ~ it was an evening of  divine appointments which meandered like a crystal stream through questions and answers, challenge and introspection, laughter and tears, prayer and proclamation.
I love this delightful staff and amazing group of workers who created an environment where those on the Discovery adventure were pampered, fed, loved, and tended.  Above all we were safe to explore: our selves, each other, the Organization, the call, our faith and our God.
It ended for some in an exhausted, early call to sleep.  For several others there was a wild game that built trust and brought tears of laughter.  As the numbers dwindled another divine appointment took place around the kitchen counter as we laughed, joked, shared from the heart and then had the privilege to hear the testimony of one participant's miraculous deliverance from a very dangerous environment, and how God imparted a faith into this beautiful young woman that allows her to believe Him and what His word says.  How glorious then to gather around and pray for her anointing and continued healing as she continues the wondrous journey of faith.
Tomorrow morning will be another powerful time during which our faithful God continues a process and this leg of our journey.  We'll walk it together tomorrow, leaving reluctantly, now as brothers and sisters of the heart as well as the faith.
Neal made a semblance of a decision, elicited through lots of coaxing during a sometimes gregarious, often deeply spiritual, conversation among a group five participants.  I guess the Holy Spirit will continue to speak and continue to reveal; meanwhile I'll CHOOSE (and it wasn't easy early this evening) to wait patiently.  Our God is Sovereign and my heart is thrilling at the amazing stories we are watching play out, and yet to be written, among His people!

Something Old, Something New ... Something Borrowed, Something Blue ...

OLD Friends to pray with ... Ivy Pratt, Neal and Sherri praying together again!
NEW Friends to pray with ... Doug and Ginny ... visiting what is an ~
OLD facility to someone else, soon to be the ~
NEW Facility for organization's Headquarters!  What a privilege to walk through ~
OLD rooms, now sprinkled with sheetrock dust, sockets and fixtures hanging from the ceiling like dry autumn foliage, naked cement floors anticipating their ~
NEW covering (just like creation longing to be clothed!) ...
And here, just behind the entrance lobby, is where the ~
NEW prayer room will be ... a small room, not much larger than a closet, it will be a place to come away into the Presence of the ANCIENT OF DAYS.  We've invited the Holy Spirit to anoint this place, to call His people to worship and praise Him here, to come together to petition for the Nations here, in this place!  May Your Name be hallowed IN THIS PLACE!.
This tiny room will truly be a place of warfare, of birth, of praise and worship and petition.  May it be that this place will be a sanctified closet where You meet with your people, so that untold millions come to salvation in Christ, to the glory of Your Name!

Prayer can seem frightening, intimidating ... boring?  Yet we know from the Word that through Jesus we literally enter into the inner sanctuary, into His very Presence!  We often do so with BORROWED words ~ His own words, straight from Scripture, because we pray back to Him what He already wants to do!  Prayer is a magnificent and mighty endeavor ... yet so sublimely simple.  Not easy, just simple ...
That joyous assignment complete we continue on our journey, blessed by the vivid BLUE sky of Colorado and glorious, sunny warmth of this spring day.  And our hearts swell with gratitude and praise that we are His Servants!
"Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a NEW creature; the OLD things passed away; behold, NEW things have come"  2 Cor. 5:17  Yes, Lord Jesus!

Where ... and when ... does the journey begin?

Will it begin this weekend when we meet with a group at our organization's Headquarters to determine options?  Did it begin last January 1 when we both said, "Let's go!"?  Or was it after Rob went to heaven and we realized he didn't need us HERE any longer?
How many intersections do we encounter, how many junctions do we cross to determine the start, stop or even mid-point of a journey?  As we dream and ponder, talk and plan, seek and pray we become even more sure of the absolute truth of God's word ~ "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord ..."  He is Sovereign, He created us for a purpose ~ for works which He prepared in advance.  So we are both saying, "Speak, Lord; Your servants listen."
In retrospect, remembering the adage, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life", it occurs to me that this is just a new leg in a very long journey to one final destination. Each side trip has been necessary.  Sometimes the way was long and hard, the stay laborious, filled with valuable lessons. Other times the path was just fun and beautiful, scattered like blossoms in the wind with laughter, love, marriages, births, holidays and festive family times.
This weekend will be one of Discovery at Headquarters?.  Where will summer find us?  Or Christmas time?  I know Who knows and am willing to trust Him!  With, I might add, incredible anticipation and excitement!
Ready ... set ...