Return of the King

Dear Gentle Reader,

It’s been a long while since my last entry. The reason for my lack of postage is because the GAP year has been so busy that any free time is usually allocated to sleeping or skyping family.  I just wanted to quickly share about this week and how God has really worked with me.  During this GAP year, I have found it really difficult to hear from the Lord in a personal way and just have not felt his presence much (even though this GAP year and my house life is catered to give me more opportunities to pray and study scripture).  My struggle with my relationship with the Lord has changed through an alteration in perspective.  The start of this change occurred during last Saturday’s (a little over a week ago), ABLD at Chelsea.  ABLD stands for All Brothers’ Lord’s Day.  Brothers from the Servants of the Word (and their guests) gather together from different parts of Michigan to participate in a Lord’s Day celebration. 

For those who don’t know, the Lord’s Day Celebration is a ceremony that occurs Saturday evening that is a way prepare us for Sunday a holy day for Christians.  The Lord’s Day or LD includes elements of prayer, worship, a shared meal and fellowship. 

After the worship, I heard a talk given by Brother(a).  He spoke on attending to the foundations.  By attending to the foundations, it would make it easier to secure victory in the struggles and conflicts that we face in life.  Initially, I had a pretty hard time relating to this talk.  It didn’t really stick in my head or hold much weight on my heart. 

A couple of days later, Brother(b) told me that during the next Lord’s day, we would all spend some time discussing what we learning during last week’s talk.  I began to somewhat panic and worry because I really didn’t have anything to say.  I started to think about it a bit and couldn’t stop thinking about a talk that I received a while back about staying connected to the Lord – John 15, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  This talk spoke about being connected to the Lord in prayer and scripture.  These two things were the fundamental elements necessary for staying connected to the Lord.  I began to think to myself, ‘this has been a season in my life where I have spent the most time with the Lord in scripture and prayer yet I haven’t been able to hear him clearly and I haven’t really felt his guidance in my life.  The solution to this problem was finally given to me last Friday during the PPPM – Pan Peninsular Pray Meeting.  UCO chapters from all over Michigan gathered together to worship and hear a talk.  Friday’s talk was given by Brother (c) he spoke on changing our perspective of God as an idea to God as a person.  This sermon really cut to my heart and I really felt that the Lord was telling me to change the approach to our relationship.  So often, I tired to analyze God as this distant God with several of his traditional attributes; omnipotence, omniscience, immortality, infinitude, etc.  I guess that’s what philosophy has done to me in a way.  It has made me try to understand him as an idea or concept that I can explain to people.  The talk was a wake up call for one of the reasons why Jesus came an died for us; he died that we may have relationship with God.  He is a person yet I was not relating to him as a person.  I had been relating to him as a distant God only really present in my life during times of worship or service.  He is a person who is always with me but he was a person who was made present only during the times that I wanted to have him there.  He was never acknowledged during my normal activities of life and I in a way lost my personal relationship with him. 

Praise him for working himself back into my life.  Praise him for sending Brothers (a), (b), ^ (c)!   Nehemiah 8, the Joy of the Lord is my strength.  Thank you for restoring that joy! Praise Him (hand motion)!

Mamonluk 

...Clever girl...[just before the raptor attack]

Today I had my first experience of volunteering for a program called Asaph.  Asaph is a program hosted by the Work of Christ Community in Lansing.  The group meets after-school a couple of times a week to help kids with their homework and spends time fellowshipping with them.  It was really awesome trying out this service because  of its similarity to some volunteer work that I did in Vancouver with my friend Sarah.
Ms. Munk decided she would try to teach the kids how to play a song on the recorder.  15 elementary school kids... Each with a recorder = Not a good idea.  Every few seconds, I would experience at least one recorder firing off a painful sound.  I have to head off to a neighbour's house for a dinner.  This should be good.

Dinner was better than good.  It was actually the best dinner I had since starting my GAP year.  The meal started with a strawberry salad and ended with a huge supply of beef ready to be fondued! This was the first time I've ever seen or heard of the idea. Everyone must try this! Best idea ever!

Currently listening to an Appeal Release Rough mix video by Chelsea's Tail.  I can't wait for the EP to be released.

Good Night and Blessings!

-Mamonduck

Woohoo! My guitar just arrived here on Monday.  Thank God it's here in one piece.  My dad shipped _____ (any name suggestions for my acoustic would be appreciated) to me through Federal Express.  I was stoked to have it sent here but at the same time worried because of the way that some employees treat the cargo.  I used to work at FedEx and was informed that fragile is just another word with little to no meaning.  The guitar arrived without any damage to our front door and I was so excited that I ran down the stairs like a little boy on Christmas.  Now that I have my guitar, PM and I can form our 90's R^B cover band.
Adjustment to my service here has been really good.  The first week was spent learning new tasks and jobs and this week things are really getting easier.
I have a goal to be around 180lbs by the time I get back to Vancouver.  I have a feeling that this goal is looking pretty realistic.  Pat (one of the guys living with me) and I decided that we'd workout together during my GAP year.  We're blessed to have some equipment down in the basement! Finally I'm re-motivated again.
Yesterday we also had our first outreach event of the year.  A few of us went to MSU to talk to random people about Jesus and UCO.  Alex, Scott and I were in one group together while Nicole and Audrey were paired up.  The girls made awesome progress yesterday. They talked with several people and even passed out all their info flyers.  During our time our on campus, the of us guys were only able to 4 guys.  The last guy we talked to conversed with us about his opinion of Christianity for 40 mins.
Anyways, I have a meeting with Biggles now.

Good day to you!