Who said anything about safe?

Tonight is my first graveyard shift at the mission… I finally get to use the internet for personal reasons.  Wish I had pictures to go along with the updates, but I haven’t been taking any lately.

REFUGE:
Chances are that we’ll move into the Refuge in less than six weeks. The previous date was set for January 2009. Either way, we’re making ourselves more comfortable in that sweet ol’ building across the street. I love the dedication and heart of the people already setting up their rooms - especially the corner room. If you don’t already know, the room has been set up with an A/C unit and is pretty much available for 24/7 prayer. We’ve been meeting there the last couple of weeks writing our prayer needs on the large chalkboard wall. Check out the “lookout” room. It’s a real beauty and inspiration.

As for my room, it’s looking better. My two roomies got all the sporadically placed boxes and bags and neatly piled it into the closet that used to hold the toilet. Bathroom walls got painted and the kitchen sink was installed complete with running water. I don’t know what’s really left to be done, but we nabbed two couches from the first floor to make it feel more like home. The living room is waiting for a paint job, so that’ll most likely be done in the next couple of weeks.

The team from California got so much done: texturing the walls and gutting out the old air ducts. They also discovered a random hallway that connects the two living sections. Another great group from Hera came out and did a lot of work in the surrounding area.

MISSION:
As for community: Loving it.

This past Tuesday’s meal started out awkward for me because someone kind of started it out by asking me “personal” questions - where I would immediately respond, “I don’t know” because I looked up to realize that everybody was waiting for my answer…that not being the usual situation because we’d normally have several conversations going on at once.

They respected my reaction and didn’t press on, but I realized that the very thing that I desired was community. To be communicative, open and honest with one another… and I wasn’t doing it very well.

I had another chance to be open when we started up another conversation about not getting any sleep the previous night. They asked reasons why- again, the attention turned to me. My face felt hot. I stammered- whispered to the girl next to me, “it’s bad… erm (hesitation) … ” and she simply said, “should we talk about it later?” I quickly agreed. Avoided my chance again to be transparent even though I knew that I had to talk about it.

The night went on, and I was looking for ways to bring the topic back up because I could definitely sense God leading me to.

Next thing I knew, one guy started talking about the very thing that was going on with me, so I didn’t even have to find that opportunity to speak - it was simply natural for me to speak at that moment.

The interesting thing about it was the way he started speaking: “It feels like to me that…” He had no idea that anybody would even speak up because he looked so unsure of himself.

After listening to me speak, he was so thrilled to hear that he wasn’t just saying something totally random. It was all so exciting to me how prophetic it was. (*) Of course that lead to everybody else opening up, being totally vulnerable and sharing what was truly going on as the Spirit lead.

A touching move of the living Spirit of God in our lives. I think it’s been a long time that I’ve experienced a natural flow of conversation with a big group like that. I’ve been too awkward in my speech and conduct lately, so (yay!) thank you Jesus.

(*) The awesome thing about all this is that he is learning more and more about the holy spirit. I got to witness him the other day having a conversation with an older lady at the mission about the third man, and he simply could not stop with all the questions. We’re all learning to be sensitive to our beloved Shepherd’s voice!