The sun is blinding my eyes here I’m sat in my living room in Norway, it’s winter and so the sun is low in the sky and in a few hours it’ll be dark. Oh, I miss summer! I’m listening to the IHOP-KC webstream and trying to put together a presentation about Brazil for a group for the elderly in one of the local churches here. It’s a strange coming together of two seasons in life. The prayer room blasting: “there is no-one like You in the heavens or on the earth... Jesus you’re beautiful”, while I’m trying to go back down memory lane both in my mind and heart to the 7 years I spent in Brazil. It’s been so long (I left Brazil in 2007), yet when I start looking at photos and reading old newsletters it feels so recent, or even like I’m still in the middle of it.
One thing I realise is that I’m not a natural teacher (I do know that I can share and pass on stuff, which I guess is what teaching is, but that’s not what I mean) because it’s taking me ages to get started on this presentation and it always takes me a long time to figure out how to present things. Writing is by far my preferred means of communication, which is why it takes longer to organise a presentation because I tend to write what I want to say first.
So here I am sat, trying to figure out where to start. I had an idea of focusing in on the grandmothers, who are in my opinion some of the hidden heroes of Brazilian society. I so many of the families I worked with, grandma was the pillar, the one who could be depended on and who raised most of the children. And since I’ll be sharing with the grandparent generation, I figured maybe it would be a good way to approach the matter. Now I just need to find out how to weave in some facts about who I am, where I worked, who I worked with, and most importantly, the heart of God for both the families but also the kids I worked with. And find some good photos to use among the hundreds of photos taken. It all sounds pretty straightforward as I write it here, but I have 7 years of stories to tell. In 7 years you get to know a lot of people, and in my case, a lot of grandmothers, whose story is worthy of telling.
And then I can’t get past what these past 2 and bit years working as and intercessory missionary has done with how I even view what I used to do, and how I don’t want just young people to get that intercession is the key, but also the older generations. And so I’m trying to figure out how I can maybe bring some of that into it also. I want to use this opportunity to present God’s heart and hopefully see this group catch it and bring it into the place of partnering with God in prayer.
It’s a lot to get done in 30 minute time slot, but I hope that it will be more than a nice presentation about a “tragic situation” in Brazil or another “nice missionary work”. But we’ll see. I’ll do my best and share as well I can, and then I guess I have to leave it to God and them to see what they do with it after.
And then there’s the next step almost confirmed but not quite (still need an ok from the base). I’m hoping to do a 6 week seminar in Amsterdam at the YWAM base there, called “the global sex trade and the Christian response”. When I saw it and realised it started mid-February and prayed about it, I feel it’s a right “next step”. I was already wanting to go see the work with injustice and prayer in Amsterdam, and I this is a great opportunity to not only see that, but also get to know the people a bit better and get a feel of the YWAM base and the city and see how God leads me.
I’m excited and also glad to know the next step. At least I know what I’ll be doing till the start of April. That’s more then I knew a few weeks ago.
In the month till then I am keeping busy, but not too busy... I think. I am really trying to value this slower, quieter time as my life seems to get busy very quickly, and then I look back and wonder why I was stressing about having less to do. Last week out of the blue the interpreting agency I worked with a few years ago rang me up to see if I could take a job interpreting from Portuguese to Norwegian. I had forgotten I was still in their system so I was a bit surprised, but it was great to work a bit and also use my Portuguese (which gets a bit rusty if it’s not used). I’m also popping to England for a quick visit to some friends and hope to visit the London House of Prayer while I’m there, and then the first week and a bit of February I’ll be back up at the House of Prayer here in Norway to spend some time learning and inputting into the team there.
As I write this I realise that’s quite a lot of stuff for a month. And then I move again, at least for a little while, to Amsterdam.
It’s an exciting season to be in. Challenging as I am having to step out of my comfort zone a lot and will be meeting lots of new people (which for an introvert like myself is very tiring), but exciting coz it makes me lean on Jesus more. And that is what I long for most at the end of the day. To be found leaning on Him at all times with all my life.
Well, I’d better stop procrastinating and get back to my presentation. The webstream is now in the midst of passionate intercession for the ending of human trafficking in Juarez, Mexico- “we cry out, God set them free”. I guess in a strange way my life can’t be separated into different compartments, but it is all connected. Crying out to a loving God who hates injustice. All injustice; be it human trafficking in Mexico, or the plight of the grandmothers in Brazil.
One thing I realise is that I’m not a natural teacher (I do know that I can share and pass on stuff, which I guess is what teaching is, but that’s not what I mean) because it’s taking me ages to get started on this presentation and it always takes me a long time to figure out how to present things. Writing is by far my preferred means of communication, which is why it takes longer to organise a presentation because I tend to write what I want to say first.
So here I am sat, trying to figure out where to start. I had an idea of focusing in on the grandmothers, who are in my opinion some of the hidden heroes of Brazilian society. I so many of the families I worked with, grandma was the pillar, the one who could be depended on and who raised most of the children. And since I’ll be sharing with the grandparent generation, I figured maybe it would be a good way to approach the matter. Now I just need to find out how to weave in some facts about who I am, where I worked, who I worked with, and most importantly, the heart of God for both the families but also the kids I worked with. And find some good photos to use among the hundreds of photos taken. It all sounds pretty straightforward as I write it here, but I have 7 years of stories to tell. In 7 years you get to know a lot of people, and in my case, a lot of grandmothers, whose story is worthy of telling.
And then I can’t get past what these past 2 and bit years working as and intercessory missionary has done with how I even view what I used to do, and how I don’t want just young people to get that intercession is the key, but also the older generations. And so I’m trying to figure out how I can maybe bring some of that into it also. I want to use this opportunity to present God’s heart and hopefully see this group catch it and bring it into the place of partnering with God in prayer.
It’s a lot to get done in 30 minute time slot, but I hope that it will be more than a nice presentation about a “tragic situation” in Brazil or another “nice missionary work”. But we’ll see. I’ll do my best and share as well I can, and then I guess I have to leave it to God and them to see what they do with it after.
And then there’s the next step almost confirmed but not quite (still need an ok from the base). I’m hoping to do a 6 week seminar in Amsterdam at the YWAM base there, called “the global sex trade and the Christian response”. When I saw it and realised it started mid-February and prayed about it, I feel it’s a right “next step”. I was already wanting to go see the work with injustice and prayer in Amsterdam, and I this is a great opportunity to not only see that, but also get to know the people a bit better and get a feel of the YWAM base and the city and see how God leads me.
I’m excited and also glad to know the next step. At least I know what I’ll be doing till the start of April. That’s more then I knew a few weeks ago.
In the month till then I am keeping busy, but not too busy... I think. I am really trying to value this slower, quieter time as my life seems to get busy very quickly, and then I look back and wonder why I was stressing about having less to do. Last week out of the blue the interpreting agency I worked with a few years ago rang me up to see if I could take a job interpreting from Portuguese to Norwegian. I had forgotten I was still in their system so I was a bit surprised, but it was great to work a bit and also use my Portuguese (which gets a bit rusty if it’s not used). I’m also popping to England for a quick visit to some friends and hope to visit the London House of Prayer while I’m there, and then the first week and a bit of February I’ll be back up at the House of Prayer here in Norway to spend some time learning and inputting into the team there.
As I write this I realise that’s quite a lot of stuff for a month. And then I move again, at least for a little while, to Amsterdam.
It’s an exciting season to be in. Challenging as I am having to step out of my comfort zone a lot and will be meeting lots of new people (which for an introvert like myself is very tiring), but exciting coz it makes me lean on Jesus more. And that is what I long for most at the end of the day. To be found leaning on Him at all times with all my life.
Well, I’d better stop procrastinating and get back to my presentation. The webstream is now in the midst of passionate intercession for the ending of human trafficking in Juarez, Mexico- “we cry out, God set them free”. I guess in a strange way my life can’t be separated into different compartments, but it is all connected. Crying out to a loving God who hates injustice. All injustice; be it human trafficking in Mexico, or the plight of the grandmothers in Brazil.