Raking leaves with God, Örebro

Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, and I have been slowly raking them up. Yesterday it was particularly windy, and I thought that I really need to get those leaves up. So, I put Jackie on the leash and went out. I started raking against the wind, only to have to re-rake the same leaves again. Then I decided to rake with the wind, allowing it to help me push the leaves into a pile instead of scattering them all over the place. Then I had a thought. God was helping me rake the leaves! He was blowing them together. When I tried to work against Him, my efforts were scattered in the wind, and I had to do it all over again! (and again and again!) How often do we forget to figure out what God's intention are and go into a project without his directions. The project might be right, but how we do it might be wrong! Out efforts are scattered in the wind, and nothing becomes of it. But when we listen to His voice, we see the direction we are to go. Suddenly the work becomes easy and light. The work load is "carried" by the Lord, and the job becomes fun, easier to manage and quickly completed!

This really spoke to my heart as I am getting a team together to do some evangelism this summer in Bulgaria with some of the youth. Things seem to have stalled a bit, and I couldn't seem to be making any progress. So, now I am stopping, waiting to hear and feel which direction to go in, and wait for the answer.

Last week, three youth and I went to a leaders conference in the south of Sweden, to Örebro (Penny Bridge). Traveling was an adventure! We took the car to the airport. Then we had to take a bus to the train station. Then we had to walk a little till we got to the church. We arrived late, and the evening session had already begun. We decided to take our things to the church we were going to sleep at, and call it a night. After a good nights snoring.. I mean sleep, we hit the day running. Three sessions and 2 large group gatherings in one day was a lot, added to the fact that we had to walk between churches to get where we were going- we were really tired by the evening. We all were really satisfied with the information we learned, and enjoyed sharing info - we all took different seminars. After the Sunday morning seminar, we had some time to kill, so we walked around Örebro a while, took some pix of the castle, and went to the train station. Our train was delayed. No problem, we had an hour and a half layover in Stockholm. It was delayed longer. And longer, and longer. Finally I realised we would not have any extra time in Stockholm, and we should get something to eat on the train. There was a Chinese restaurant across the street, so we went there and got a takeout meal, which we ate on the train. In Stockholm, we got bus tickets to take us to the airport, and arrived just as they opened the check in counter. Till we got to the gate, we had a half an hour to kill. We got drinks, something to eat, and relaxed a little. After the flight home, I delivered everyone home, went home myself and said hi to everyone. Then I went to bed! The next day, Katrina and I were going to Stockholm!! More about that later!

I have dinner guests coming tonight, so I need to get busy cleaning the house. Have a good one y'all!