He fills me with love so I can overflow!

Love is a powerful word, that transcends languages, religions, workplaces and schools, there is not an environment that has not been touched by love. Love is bigger than we can imagine.

This year our lives are going to look a lot different. I am publishing my first children's story, called Carry Me to Kinshasa. It is the story of our adoption and the journey we have been on. It is also the year that we pray our children come home.

Lately we have been considering the love of God. We have been in a sermon series at our church that has had me thinking. The main message is how much God loves us. Ultimately I think as christians we all know that but do we really understand the depth of it? Are we really able to take that love and process it? If we do process it what does that look like? And if God really loves me as much as the bible says He does, then why I am not so full I am bursting and people are being touched by overflow?

So what if we took Matthew 9 and the verse about few workers and a full harvest. So often it is used as missions verse, but missions is about love and the harvest is showing, sharing, sowing and serving up God's love to others. What if we not only talked and walked the the walk but drew others to us, instead of preaching the gospel to the nations, sharing love daily?
Now I am all for going into all the nations so I don't not need to defend that here but honestly, this was an appeal from the Lord. An appeal that was seconded all over the bible, another in John 13: 34-35 says ....if you love one another, showing love to one another, not just to the easy to love, but to all.

I hope people can identify me by my walk and my talk, someone who encourages and loves their friends, someone who allows me into their dark places to let the light shine. I want to be known as a seeker of more of His love, as one who can be counted on to share His love.

I want to be known as one addicted to learning, teaching, sharing, so addicted I cannot live without it.
I know love is universal, I know love can melt even the hardest heart,  can heal wounds from broken hearts, tame wild hearts, encourage timid hearts, calm anxious hearts, settle aggravated hearts, forgive guilty hearts, sweeten bitter hearts, because the bible says LOVE never fails. It never fails, when everyone else may have given up on someone, God still LOVES and continues to work in the hearts of His children.
What a magnificent, wondrous image that is. No matter how we are, what we have walked through, where we are going, He still loves us enough to shine through and allow us to glow with His love. Why?

It is because He wants us to love abundantly, love forever, put our time and energy into something that will always be a success, it will never fail.


So this week I am going to get comfortable with His love. I am going to tell myself often certainly out loud several times at day, in my car, or at home, and during the day to myself. Not that I want o hie His love, but I also do not want people to think I am nut bar either? Yelling "God Loves Me" through the tim Hortons drive through window, but it would be fun.

This week that is my challenge, next week I will harness the blessings, and start giving away what I have.

A great year to be a writer and final blog of 2011

It has been another year of blog posts, 47 this year and over 5200 readers. That is cool. Some posts that came to me in the night and some that when I sat down to write, morphed into something completely different. I love to write and this year will symbolize the year that I became an author.  I have signed my first book deal. It is a children's story and it too morphed from the original idea but I have dreamed of writing a children story for about 5 years; this from a kid who never passed English in high school. So where is the difference, where is the change, what was the shift? It all happened with life experience and the encouragement from my husband.  For years when I was looking for a career change, he encouraged me to pursue writing, he encouraged me to spend time locked away, banging away at the computer keyboard with the relentless spell check for the part of me that didn't pass English 12.
The story is due to be out in the spring of 2012, and is called Carry me to Kinshasa. It is the story of our adoption journey and the love a mother can have for children living half way around the world, that she has never met. It is the story of her friends and family and what they were prepared to do to carry her to Kinshasa as she walked in her heart the 13808 kilometres from home to Africa.  If you are at all interested in the trek or the journey you can check out www.carryme.ca  From there you can read more and read the progress and you can also follow what we are up to. For Life Happens I will continue to write but life is going to change one day in 2012 and so I know time to write will be a gift, rare and treasured.
I am thankful for all the readers that have read this blog and if you are thinking I have fallen off the face of the planet, check out the other site and see if I am still up to something.

My favorite blog of the year would be a Super Size in January... a small tidbit.. This weekend our Pastor,  Scott Gaglardi, preached about our burdens and not the daily grind that feels like a burden, but the burdens that God has given you, that you can't escape, the kind that you cannot possibly do on your steam, the burdens that require, planning, prayer, resources, and a big dose of humility, the ones that seem like mountains. WHY... because without these burdens we cannot see our faith in action, we cannot see His control over the physical, when we reach out to Him in the spiritual, and we can't share the story of His glory.
I totally get the entire concept, but today while talking to Kelsey, we were both relenting to the facts of why some days the practical side of going, money, time and commitment seem like it over takes the faith side. Are we willing to sit and do nothing and wait upon the Lord to move in our finances or our time frame, or are we willing to look at how we can make it happen. Which brings me to the second part of that, if we waiting looks like we are doing nothing, are we really stepping out? Is we waiting look like a person that says "yes" when this happens or that happens, then I will be able to ...fill in the blank. It could be go to Africa, it could be go to bible college, it could be serving at soup kitchen , it could be raising funds for programs that work in addiction counselling. Either way you cut it, we live in a world of me, instant gratification and self serving attitudes., not in a world of faith, we are a "sure thing" culture.
This is not about raising money, or asking people to commit to anything, it is about asking are you wondering where the "supersize" miracles are? I am. I pray that there will be a day when mission fields have waiting lists, where ministries that feed the poor, have to rotate volunteers to make room for everyone, and a day when we don't doubt in our heads and follow the faith of our hearts. A day when practical isn't our first response. What is God calling you to....


God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded. Romans 11 v 29 The Message.


Yep I love this blog post....

So for this year I say Praise to God for He has shown us the full warranty, He has shown us that practical is his business and our business begins with faith.....

Blessings to you and your family for 2012. I can't wait to see all that He has planned for us in 2012...well the wait for the ride is long, it is going to be worth it....C

Carry Me to Kinshasa

 what does jesus walking on water,  the drc and dr suess have in common check it out...

Checking out we are moving right along 669 kms into the open ocean this week....check it out Carry Me to Kinshasa