Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Books, Hammocks, Percussion and Bug Spray









*my good friend and little bro Drew training me how to use my new ENO hammock*

(I think the Lord is going to teach me some lessons in this thing)


So I prayed that the Lord would bless me with specific books to bring and read during this trip, and I am ecstatic about the one I have started as well as the few others I will be bringing and meditating on. The book I just started is by John Sandford, and it is called Healing the Nations. John and Paula Sandford received a vision from the Lord for their ministry and life, and were told to write 7 specific books. The first five related to their inner healing prayer ministry "Elijah House," and the other two have to do with bringing healing to a macro level and less introspective. After about two years of learning more and more about EH, and being set free in ways that have changed my life, I am so excited to learn about how to heal a nation, and not just myself! I love what John says in the Introduction:

"Each of the first five books, which have been written and published, concern the maturation and sanctification of individual Christians. The last two books present a departure from individual (perhaps even self-centered) concerns to corporate, altruistic, others-minded service to the Lord, to mankind and to earth. These call for forgetting about one's self and one's own sanctification and laying down one's life for others. The earlier five books direct our gaze inward, then outward. This new book and the next call us to look inward only when we find our flesh interfering, and then merely enough to get the flesh out of the way. Those who come looking for something for themselves had better put this book and its sequel down until they are ready to serve others unmindful of their own needs . . . "

I love that because of how amazing and intense personal inner healing can be, but it is easy to get so into the process of dying to one's self that you look for ways to be sanctified and transformed - it can become distracting and even heavy, but the process is what is important to know, for when it is time to deal with sin that comes up, but I am thrilled to learn more about applying myself to the larger body and standing in the gap for a hurting world.

Anyway, the other books I am bringing are: Humility, The Journey Toward Holiness - by Andrew Murray, and The Inner Voice of Love, by Henri J.M. Nouwen. I'm sure I will also bring my favorite books The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis, and The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, but we will see :) The books I brought came to me in very interesting ways, one through stumbling upon, one through revelation, and one as a gift from a wise world traveler who happened to come through Athens.

As I continue to prepare for this trip here is what I am up to externally:

  • I am in the process of purchasing/gathering a Djembe Drum, maracas and a tambourine so we can party all the way down and back (and lead worship of course) - Tati will be on the Gee-tar, while I will be focusing mainly on my voice and obviously the percussion just mentioned
  • I have dyed my hair dark brown, in order to remove any target of attention that being blonde may have put on me

  • I am learning how to download and operate iMovie, so that I can create HD movies from this trip and put music to them and do the whole splicing editing thing (last resort I email them to my friend Phil and see if he will do/fix them for me) *I can't WAIT to make videos of baptisms and healings and miracles and everything else
  • I am in the process of purchasing either an Iphone or an Ipod touch, and being able to skype/face time while I am out of the country - so send me your skype name!
  • I need to find the strongest bug spray possible (have you SEEN the bugs in S.America?)
you just go ahead and see for yourself :    
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Arthropods/Belize/Highlights/index.html      aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

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