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The IT team is starting to head home ~ which will leave Liddy on her own.  Lots of changes happening just now.  Update here.

Insatiable Curiosity.

Inside every introvert an extrovert lurks.

I knew before I began that the one area I would really struggle with would be the street witness.  I'm not convinced it's biblical.  I'm not convinced it's ethical.  I have issues with the whole concept, but particularly that it almost never involves discipleship & very rarely even addresses the issue of repentance.  Christ told us to count the cost & I believe the decision to follow Christ should be a carefully considered, thoughtful response ~ & so I get in a tizz.  I have no peace.  Rhema teaches [& I believe because that is my experience] that when we are walking in the Spirit we will have a peace about the situation.  So every time we go out I am unhappy in my Spirit.

This time I told the Lord I was going to park my butt & if there was anyone the Lord wanted me to speak to He would have to bring them to me because otherwise it was just not going to happen.  And the Lord, as He does, went, OK, problem child, I will give you what you are comfortable with.

Now those who know me very well know 2 things about me:

1. I am super reserved

2. My doppleganger is a rampant extrovert.

Yep. That's me, a contradiction in terms.  The woman who finds it just about impossible to approach strangers to share the gospel had no problems at all dragging her partner over to the banjo players serenading Queen Street Mall & belting out Amazing Grace with her.  We attracted a small crowd & a wider circle of curious bystanders [& I think our friends did very well out of our interest, enthusiasim, & curiosity! ☺]  I think the singing lessons are paying off ~ or Jesus just put His spirit on me so I stayed on key & in tune!

I love buskers.  I almost always toss coins in their hat because I just love their courage & that they bring this amazing joy into public spaces & I will always chat to them because I think anyone who has that much guts is just super amazing  & I am always curious about why they do it & how long they've practised ~ all that sort of thing & people, generally, are really happy to share about what they love.  I didn't even think about it.  We were just chatting & singing [& taking pics] & when we turned around there were all these people who were happily listening to gospel.

I do well with a little weird.  My partner does well with a little weird.  Lots of people came back with amazing testimonies but we were the only two literally singing & dancing in the streets.  Being considered among the quiet reserved people that was at least as surprising as anything else that happened today.  Don't tell me that the Lord hasn't got a well developed sense of humour!  I wonder how weird it will get next time round?  What do you reckon?

My singing voice is somewhere between a drunken apology and a plumbing problem. ~ Colin Firth

We do have interesting weeks round here!

This week started with Kirby.  I could hear him mewling all along the verandah, calling to me.  Once he arrived at the verandah door he deposited a completely unharmed Pitta into my hands.  He'd carried it home as gently as any bird dog because he knows his mum likes birds!!!

This is what runs round my yard all night going Tok. Tok. Tok.  They have brilliant plumage, which is unusual for a ground dweller, which this is.  When I got home from school Kirby was at it again, only this time it was a Monster Mouse ~ quite dead. Ick.  I'm happy to know our Pitta population is still alive & well & that Kirby is graceful enough not to knock them off in secret!

Meanwhile the eisteddfod fell upon us with a vengeance.  Dimitri was adjudicating ~ & just as well.  My cousin, Marie, did the weekend [which we weren't involved in] & no doubt if the usual family greeting of shrieks across a crowded room, full speed ahead, wrap arms around each other & hug & talk much too fast had occurred we'd have been accused of nepotism!  Instead we were almost decorous.  Almost.  Things are always interesting with Star.  There was that moment Star & Dave stared at each other across the piano because Dave was waiting for Star & Star thought Dave was meant to play her note!  Indeed.  Or even more thrilling, the way Star's voice cracked in her jazz piece.  Sounded like a pistol shot then complete silence as her voice completely disappeared.  I knew she'd be way more careful 2nd time round ~ & she was.  So funny.  Luckily Star has a very well developed sense of humour & is unfazed by these things & even found my referencing her as My Little Cracker terribly funny.

This is the first time we've done one of these, Star being the way she is about any sort of examination, so it was sort of a mixed bag.  Some of the kids were very good indeed.  Others were...well, out of charity let's just say there was plenty of room for improvement.  Star at least had the advantage of being performance hardened, if not so used to soloing so despite ongoing difficulties with her voice [though it is much improved!] she was pretty blase. 

And yes, she actually did very well.  She got a third place in the restricted section & an encouragement award for her jazz.  As always she got lots of compliments on the tone of her voice & her lyrical presentation as well as suggestions for sustaining her  troublesome upper register.  Alison should be very happy.  Her singers placed in all sections & their stage presentation was excellent. 

Meanwhile Dino & I have been slogging away at assignments &  Marlow has taken to having Morning Meltdowns just before I walk out the door.  Never a dull moment.

Swallowing the Big Fish.

But Jonah ran away from the Lord... Jonah 1:3

Remember Jonah?  He's the chappie who had an encounter with a very large fish.  My mind doesn't even quibble about that, you know, however unlikely it may be.  Nope.  Like the Red Queen I am perfectly capable of believing as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast.  Jonah living inside a big fish?  Hot, definitely.  Smelly, undoubtably.  Unlikely, improbable, but not impossible.

What has always arrested my attention in this story is one simple fact:  Jonah ran away from the Lord.

No big deal you might think.  People are running away from the Lord every day.

Um, yeah, that's true.  There is one small difference though; Jonah had the Holy Spirit.

Now when I first came to the Lord I believed as I was taught, that I recieved the Holy Spirit by faith.  There was just one small problem with this; nothing much changed.  I had no victory in my life.  I had no assurance.  I had no intimacy with God.  Everything I read in scripture contradicted this.  Scripture says that the Holy Spirit brings victory. [For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. 1John5:4]  Scripture says that we can be assured that we are who we claim to be in Christ [how that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; even as ye know what manner of men we shewed ourselves toward you for your sake. 1 Thessalonians 1:5] Scripture assures us that No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you  John15:15

Either the word of God is true or it is not.  I am not very good at trying to make the scriptures say what they don't when the plain meaning is so very plain, so power means power; intimacy means intimacy; assurance means nothing else but the witness & testimony of the Holy Spirit ~ so if I had been sealed by faith unto the day of redemption where was my assurance?  My intimacy with God?  His power in me?

I am perfectly capable of making something exquisitly simple into an inedible mountain so I muddled round & I muddled round reading & reading what others had to say about experiencing God but the actual experience eluded me.  Oh, I got glimpses.  It was enough to spark my appetite, renew my flagging enthusiasm, to cause me to press on in my search for the God of Abraham, & Isaac & Jacob, the God who paraded through the Israelie camp as a pillar of fire by night, & who's shekinah filled the holy of holies.

And gradually, bit by bit, little by little I came to know God ~ & His Spirit resided within me in power & glory.  Which brings me to Jonah, who lived at a time when most people did not have the indwelling of God's spirit in their lives ~ so he was incredibly blessed.  If I have learnt nothing else about the Spirit of God I have learnt that He is impossible to resist.  One way or another once the Spirit gets in my ear I have no peace if I ignore Him. 

 I know what it is to have an annointing rest upon me, to hear the very words of God speak through me.  I know how it feels to have the weight of the Spirit direct me in areas the Lord wants addressed.  I have had the Spirit so overwhelm me I have begged the Lord to step away because I cannot stand under the weight.  I know His love.  His compassion.  His hatred of unrighteousness.  I have sensed His presence directing me.  He has upheld me in times of grief & annointed me with joy when I should weep.  He has shown me His ways in dreams & visions.  I have heard His voice.  It is not, What was Jonah thinking?  It is more, How on earth did he manage to do that?!

And so my conclusion is that Jonah did not recieve the Holy Spirit in the same way that we do, that He did not recieve the Spirit in the fullness of Christ, In Christ's power & glory, & so, in his pride, was able to resist the very clear directive of the Lord to head into Ninevah & warn the people of coming destruction if they did not repent.

  I get Jonah's reluctance.  The Assyrians were a pretty awful lot.  Remember the worship of Ishtar & Bel originated here & their atrocites in warfare leave nothing to the imagination.  Now here's the interesting thing.  Every Old Testement prophet & a number of the kings were blessed with some measure of the Holy Spirit.  How many of the prophets were miserable at being called?  At what they were asked to preach?  How many were afraid, or timid?  Contrast that with the New Testament when the Holy Spirit was poured out in the victory that Christ had won.  Paul boasts of having recieved 5 times the 40 lashes minus one.  Or Peter, who was so concerned for the safety of his own skin that he denied Jesus 3 times, yet under the power of the Holy Spirit, when it came to his own death, announced he was not worthy to be crucified as his Lord was & so was crucified upside down.

Yet if what Jesus says is true we should expect to see texactly that, even today. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.



Could it possibly be that the church has held a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof?  And that power is the Holy Spirit.  Now don't mistake me.  One of the things the Holy Spirit does is seal us, telling the whole spiritual world that we now belong to Christ, but it is not all the Spirit does.  He enables us to live the Christ~life.  To do what Jesus did.  And what did Jesus do?  He preached.  He taught. He healed.  And He told us to go & do likewise.

So speak to me about how the power of the Holy Spirit manifests in your life.  How do you understand the third person of the trinity?

The Christian is the world's bible.  Some need revising! ~ Dwight Moody.


I am chronically incapable of the Single Eye.  Distractable, that's what I am.  Not all my fault.  This week we had a most interesting car issue ~ which entailed always parking on a slope in case we had to clutch start it ~ & rehearsals for the local eisteddfod, where Star is performing 4 pieces only the Star is battling a throat infection, which makes for an interesting sound. 

We toddled off dutifully on Thursday evening to our rehearsal with Dave.  We love Dave & Dave loves us.  He's one of the most brilliant pianists around but like the rest of us he needs to pay the bills so is accompanying for AVAE for the eisteddfod.  He's also a lovely, lovely Christian & their music is super wonderful too. Have a listen.

I have two assignments that I have no time to do & to top it off the school Dean has had her eye on me for something from the first moment she clapped eyes on me & I am trying to squeeze time to help out in an admin task that shouldn't be too much of a stretch for me.  It's research type stuff & as a rule I can do that with my eyes shut so...here's hoping.  Meanwhile I have to train the Star to take over some of the paperwork at this end.  I'm sure she is thrilled....

Marlow has taken to sleeping on top of me, ousting Kirby who spends his nights yowling around the house.  I hope its just the very full moon at present because this is not an endearing habit!

I need to talk to all you lovely people but meanwhile, blessings on you all!

Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left; two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left.~ Matthew 24:40 ~ 41

I have all sorts of stuff I want to talk about ~ & that the Lord wants me to talk about with you ~ most of which will have to wait as I have assignments & a child to deal with but some things just can't wait.  They are that important.  If school is doing nothing else it is forcing me to apply some logic to what I know.

So what do I know?  I know the Lord's return is imminent.  I discussed some of what He has shown me here.  I keep saying, & I will continue to say it, the Lord is calling His people to prepare, to be ready, He is at the very gates.  Expect him at any moment of any day.

I know not everyone believes in the rapture: there are very good, very strong reasons for believing this will be the case but the simpliest in my view is this: For the sake of one righteous man [Lot] Zoar was spared from the wrath of God.  Therefore while the church remains to plead & interceed on behalf of the world the full wrath of God on the unrighteous will not & cannot fall.  Remove that & there is nothing to with~hold God's judgement!  Nothing!

I hope shortly to be able to discuss all this more fully & reference you the relevant bible passages but the short form is this:  The reinstantment of the state of Israel heralded the beginning of the end of the Age.  That the state of Israel rose from the ashes 2000 after it's last destruction is mind~blowing.  If you read the relevant passages carefully you see that those who see the reinstatement of Israel in the land  are also the last generation of the Church Age.  There are things that have to happen to bring all Israel to salvation; one of those is the end of the Church Age & God's full attention reverting back to Israel because all of Israel will be saved.  Mind you, by then there will have been terrible destruction because the forces of evil are even now massing against Israel ~ which is just one reason why we are asked to pray for the Peace of Israel.

The other thing that comes immediatly to mind is the time frame.  We are told we won't know the day or the hour of Christ's return for us.  It is hidden in God & only He knows.  This is really only possible prior to the tribulation because as soon as that temple goes up in Jerusalem you are in Daniel's  "70 weeks" & those amongst us with mathamatical brains are able to count that down to almost the very hour!  No, not me.  The maths make my brain whirr wildly & all the springs sprung a leak.

Pray as you have never prayed before: that you are truly sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption; that you have forgiven those who need forgiveness; for the lost & unsaved; for the harvest; for workers to bring in the harvest; for your own families & friends.  The time is shorter than we think ~ & growing shorter with every passing day.  Time is nearly up.  We need to be about the Lord's work ~ & only His.  Everything else is straw that will go up in flames.

The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard." – William Burns

Excerpts from Lib's last newsletter.  Blogger won't allow me access to my own Chile page ~ & I don't have time to stuff around ~  so it's up here this time round.

Travelling South.

2 weeks, two churches, team time and few days to relax. Oh, please don't let me forget the huge amounts of time spent in buses traveling! That sums up our time in the south. We spent the week­ends, Fri-Mon working with churches. Anything we could help with we did. That included sharing sermons, testimonies, songs, drama's and doing a whole church program inside of the church. It also included evangel­ism. So much drama, so many messages, conversations, tracks and being open to whatever God had in store.  One afternoon, in the first village we visited, we were asked to pre­pare a street evangelism program. Drama's were on the menu. Each drama, evangelistic, has a short message included to share after­wards. We were headed towards a local park to share these dra-

please Lord let us go home, this is pointless and I don't want to be soaking wet." One foot in front of the other. It's all it needed as we went door to door inviting people to join as in the park square. The lad I was with had a blue wig on. Quite entertaining. He is fearless when it comes to talking with strangers and sharing about Jesus with them. It's quite a privilege to be a witness to it. Soon it was time for us to meet back up in the park.

Drizzle, drizzle... Jacket, wet. Pants bottom, wet.  People, nearly zero.  Then we started praying.  In pairs.  In groups. Together uniting in power of the Holy Spirit. Not another moment in the world could replace the feeling of family, the family of Christ that I felt and witnessed. Before long we were ready. It was time. Time to act, time to share of Christ.


Then I saw it. As the motions of the bus drama came to life bodies appeared in house doorways. They stood at a distance but unnervingly engaged. Totally engaged through the drama, through the message. I wasn't here to serve my desires. I wasn't there to be comfortable. I was there to serve and to share. To share of the hope that rests in me.

So while I was in the south of Chile I found courage. I found the courage to ask a leader of mine to start teaching me how to play the guitar. It was an amaz­ing blessing and privilege to have her sit down with me one after­noon. We sat as I terribly began trying to strum a rhythm while at the same time trying to find the chords. She was very patient with me and was completely able to work within the odd ways that I learn. Today I can strum a rhythm and can play at least 5 chords comfortably. I'm hopeful that I can learn enough to play it in the children's home. It's an aspiration anyway...

Maybe, just maybe, their will be room to start a sports ministry. This could also mean that it'll be a part of the children's ministry. I am hopeful that I can combine two passions, that of sports and working with children. It would be amazing to use sport to connectwith these children and to work inside the realms of sport to show them their value inside of Christ.:)


In a matter of 6 weeks the Intensive Training will come to an end. It will be time to say goodbye, time to reminisce of our time together, the beauty of it, the toughness of it, how it'll never be again but mostly the shaping and moulding God has done. Praise his name!!!

PRAYER POINTS

• The 1 year visa application (still needs to begin)

• The transition stage as I.T leaves and I move into the G.A program.

• The development of relationships inside but also outside of the OM Chile team.

• The developing sports ministry

• Learning Spanish

• Those who were touched by the messages of Christ we shared in the south.

• The children, particularly of Sion but also of el Arca.

• Second cultural experience. I will spend it inside the children's home

PRAISE POINTS


• My visa was renewed
• The work and evangelism outreach opportunities we had in the south of
• I've been given my job description for the remaining time I have in Chile after the I.T program finishe
• The Holy Spirit's impact and guidance.

• The challenges and triumphs when working with children at social risk

• Being a part of a secondary training for the children's ministry.

Some moments in life just leave  me speechless.

Monday.  Monday Star & I had a photo shoot in at St Stephens instead of our regular choir rehearsal.  I left it up to Star to figure out our parking arrangements.  Star swore that if we parked in the street we would get towed away so I reluctantly let her park our car in the closest parking lot ~ which said, in very small print, that it was open till 10pm.  At 9.o2pm we arrived to pick up our car.  The steel roller door was down & the place was locked up tight! 

The pair of us stared at the door gob~smacked!  My brain started firing on all cylinders something along these lines: Even if we can get a train or bus immediately  we will never make the last boat; I have no money for accomodation in the middle of town; We can't sleep in the car because the car is locked behind a steel roller door; Dino & I need to leave the jetty by 7.30am.

While I was still trying to dig myself out of denial enough to figure out what to do a long string of trucks & utes began piling up in an irate line & all these burly blokes in stubbies & singlets & bright green fluro shirts climbed out, whipped out mobiles & very shortly informed us that the place would be open shortly.

When the door started rolling up Star & I bolted for our car.  If the worst came to the worst at least we would have somewhere to sleep! 

And people wonder why I hate Bribane so much! Huh!

Meanwhile both cats have taken to sleeping on top of me at night. I am pinned to the bed by Kirby sprawled across my chest & Marlow sprawled across my legs.  Every time I move double~barrelled deep rumbling purrs erupt around me.  Yep, the cats are something else around here.