All in April

It has been a wonderful month!  Between watching the world around me green up and come to life I have been enjoying so many fun times with friends.

This was a bingo birthday night with the SWAT ladies.  Delicious turkey dinner followed by a Bingo game with prizes galore!  I just LOVE these incredible women.

Then there was the BOWL of HOPE evening with some lovely ladies where we enjoyed delicious THAI soup in some beautiful pottery bowls that we got to take home.  Raising money for fresh water supplies in Thailand.

And dinner and communion at Celia's place.  Very sweet time of prayer with some very lovely people.  

I was given the opportunity to tell some cool stories from the book of Luke to a class at school.  When I stopped and asked if they wanted more the answer was a resounding YES!!  Such a great audience!

The teacher is phenomenal and said she'd like to have me back to speak again!

And then there's Moose with his professionally done hair looking like a rock star around the house.  

A Brian Doerksen concert for the Charis women at Bottega which was really great.  The food and fellowship on a Saturday morning.  Helping me to adjust to life without my YWAM community.

Beautiful Lisa

I adore her.  

And these women?  LOVE!

Easter Beauty.  Patrice dyed the eggs using natural colours.  So very lovely in the morning sun.

My audience on Easter Sunday evening.  I recited "Section 9", the Resurrection Story from Luke 24 for a second time.

And I put on a little Easter Egg hunt for the boys which was most enjoyed by the oldest one by the looks of things.  I couldn't believe how excited he was by his Kinder Surprise. 

Back in Rhythm

It's been good to be home.
Back at work and church and settling into familiar routines.
I must admit that I have felt restless though - hearing of the adventures of others together on outreach and wishing my time with my group had been longer.  I wonder about the restlessness.

I have not felt this restless in my job since I have started doing this work.
Just wondering what that is all about...

BUT there is truly so much to be grateful for here and I am so thankful to have such a wonderful home, family and friends to return to!
It' especially lovely having winter over and gone and Spring here in all it's glory.
Leaves popping out, tulips are blooming, and all sorts of trees in the city are bursting into colourful blossoms!!

Sunshine, Rain, Wind - a blustery beautiful Spring.

Today is Easter Sunday and I had the privilege of sharing the resurrection story at church (aka "Section 9") after a yummy pancake breakfast.  It felt so good to sit with my church family and to tell the story.

This has also been a time of hard things in a way.
Returning to things that I would rather run away from.  But God helps us to do hard things.

I had to have what I thought would be a difficult meeting so I had been getting prayer for it.  The day before the meeting I was driving up in our area and I was near a friend's home.  On a whim I called her and dropped in for prayer - something I've never done.  Her brother in law was there doing yard work and he said he had never prayed for anyone before, but he was game!  He is a former, biker, gun- toting drinking, fighting sort of fellow that had a conversion later in life.  But what a sweet and beautiful lover of Jesus.

His prayers were profound and infused with the prophetic and words of knowledge.  Pretty good for a first time out loud prayer - haha!  I left with great courage and the knowledge that God would show up.

And He did.
I was able to do the hard thing, but with love.
It was my desire to speak the truth in love and to stay true to my Word, even though it could potentially be costly for me.

So I am so grateful for God's great goodness.
Doing things that I don't know about, behind the scenes, and looking after all involved.

Apparently a kind and loving letter that I had felt to send while I was still in Hawaii was received with a very open heart and it's effects could end up being very positive in the spiritual realm if I can just stay under God's covering and keep doing the hard things with great love.

Only possible with and through and in Jesus.
So glad that "in HIM I live and move and have my being"!

Happy to be Home

I arrived home last Friday morning after a long night of sitting in the airport and on planes. The flight was delayed in Kona so I found some people and said a bit of Luke to them.  They didn't react with complete joy and excitement so I stopped and fell asleep for a bit leaning on my carry on luggage.

It was wonderful to have Sara, Patrice and Gayle waiting at the airport to welcome me with flowers and a sign.
Ahhh, I am blessed with the most amazing people in my life.

And I have been most delighted to be home.
The freedom and joy I am experiencing with my car and my accessible home is multiplied a thousand times over due to the limitations I felt while in Hawaii.

Oh I am so grateful to God for my friends and my life here in Kelowna that works for me.  The time in Hawaii was amazing and rich and rewarding, but the  obstacles truly felt HUGE and LIMITING.  (the ones I wrote about repeatedly….don't want to mention them AGAIN)

So I was back at work this morning - greeted with another welcome bouquet!!
The sun is shining and the sky is blue.
Spring has sprung and I am happy to be home.

A Hammock!

Had an amazing day at the ocean with my classmates and I got to lay in a hammock and look up at the blue sky and green leaves.
BEST DAY IN HAWAII!

One of my sweet classmates Peter, who feels like a son to me, has been a superstar for me out here.  He lifts me up like it's no big deal and pops in and out of cars making my life so much easier!  (After Rafael left for Brazil, Peter took over)  And then he popped me into a HAMMOCK!  And I felt so happy and comfy in there.  

Here we are side by side enjoying the beautiful scenery.  And below is a picture of my other "adopted" son Anthony playing his guitar in the hammock. 

 We had such a nice day just visiting on the beach and it was so great for me to not be on sand, but on the grass where I could move about more easily.

This crowd of people?  All superstars - I can hardly believe God allowed me to be in a class with so many incredibly amazing and wonderful people.  I love them all so very much.

And I played a little bit of Ukelele since I was on the beach in Hawaii and everything.  Anthony has been so lovely to teach me how to figure out chords and to play a little. 

He has become a very dear friend and it has amazed me that these young men genuinely seem to like being with me.  They have blessed me in ways I couldn't have imagined and the love I felt here through the body of Christ has overwhelmed me. 

Somehow all my lonely days at the campus melted away as I was able to be with my classmates and enjoy the sweet camaraderie that has developed between us as we have learned a little bit of Luke…

And the day ended with dinner at Lava Java with Anita and some Go Center Friends.  We all prayed together afterwards and when they prayed for me I literally felt like I was cocooned in love.  My spasms continued as they prayed for healing, but nothing really mattered because God showed up and His love overwhelmed me. 

The Love of God carries me.  

Restoring God's Honor

We were invited to Vae and Julie's house for supper the other night and I had a great visit with Vae - a big, handsome, loving Samoan man who serves God with all his heart along with his wife in full time missions.

He was commenting on my presentation the other night at the Ohana Court.  The time when I felt like I was maybe a bit over the top and bigger than life in presenting some Luke. (Mary & Martha etc.)

When he saw me up there reciting the Word of God, he said he heard God say  "Karen has restored my dignity and my honour in front of the brethren.  The enemy's fight is to destroy my dignity and my honour and the fame of my name in front of all the nations and Karen has restored that and therefore I win the battle tonight.  I have already won, but I win the battle in front of all these crowds.  The enemy will never accuse me that I am an unjust God."

I was deeply touched by these words.
So encouraged and amazed that it matters on a bigger level than I ever thought.
The fact that I came back here to the place where my life was turned upside down and inside out as a result of being hit by a drunk driver, without accusing God and I am sitting and loving Him from this chair is significant.

So often, what we're about is so much bigger than we can imagine and small acts of obedience add up and matter in a big way to God.

I'm grateful that God has allowed me the privilege of coming back here, even with all the difficulties I've faced here physically, and even with the struggle I've had fighting off the lies of the enemy concerning my life, and of testifying to His goodness.

Just little old me, broken and in a wheelchair with a crooked back.
A cracked vessel holding an incredibly precious treasure…
The Spirit of the Living God lives in me and helps me to restore honour to my Father's Name.

Hawaii Escapades

Ah, the joy of having access to a car and to get off the "compound" to go on adventures!

It's been so hard to be here in Hawaii and to hear of everyone else's road trips, volcano runs,  snorkelling,  dolphin swims etc. while I stay on the base and have the occasional "wheel" into town.  I hate to sound ungrateful, as it is such a privilege to be here in Hawaii, but sometimes I can get to feeling a title sorry for myself and then I have to repent again.  Good thing Anita and I have been having communion on a fairly regular basis!!

So I have been so happy to see some sights and to experience a wee bit more of the Kona Coast before I head home.  Today we went to the City of Refuge and to a beach near by.  While Patrice and Anita were "beaching" I found some local Hawaiians and presented some of Luke to them.  Ha!  A captive audience.

We went to a Japanese Coffee farm that had a beautiful garden and an infinity pool

We saw very cute little pineapples growing, about 5 inches tall. 

And we were terribly excited about the huge lemons that we could pick for free.  We like putting them in our smoothies in the morning.  

We found these wonderful safari hats to keep the sun off our faces.  Too bad they're not purple with flowers!

We even made it up to Mauna Kea to watch the sunset, but alas we were stuck in a cloud so things were a little foggy!  It was refreshing to feel the cold air though!

I am so grateful for the fun and change of scenery.  Even though I really should be spending lots of time preparing for my "Luke" presentation in two days!  Ah well, I'll get through it and hopefully remember enough to make up an hour so I can pass!


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I am inserting a letter here that I sent home during March ... kind of an encapsulated version of my time away.

Dearly Loved Family & Friends,

ALOHA from the sunny Big Island of Hawaii!  I feel safe saying that to you all now that I know the sun is shining more consistently and things are warming up back home as well!  So excited for all of you to be experiencing Spring Weather (well, most of you…) after a very long, cold winter.

I just wanted to give you a last peek into our lives here at YWAM since we're on the home stretch with only 2 weeks left to go.

The Word by Heart course I have been taking has been a huge blessing for me on so many levels.  I found out I CAN DO IT!!  I can memorize huge portions of scripture by the grace of God and with a whole lot of effort!  But the work involved has been so very worth it.  The word of God has come to life for me in so many amazing & wonderful ways. Often I am brought to tears as I repeat the lines and realize afresh the beauty of the stories and character of Jesus, and the power of the Gospel.  And I know I am still only scratching the surface!  We memorized a very "modified" gospel of Luke, as the whole book would have taken so much longer to memorize and about 3 hours to present.  I think it now takes me about an hour and 15 minutes to recite the modified version.  Which is what I am now preparing to do for an audience.

Next Tuesday is my final presentation and I have invited the Gerber's & the Hromek's to be my audience along with my instructors and anyone else that comes by.  We will be sitting under a large Banyan Tree around a table and I will be going right through the whole life of Christ from his birth to his resurrection!  Wouldn't it be fun if you could all join us?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to share a portion of Luke in front of hundreds of people at the Ohana Court and it was so much fun!  The lights were so bright that I couldn't see anyone clearly so I felt so much freedom to use silly accents, wild hand motions and loads of passion to tell the stories.

Patrice has been continuing to enjoy her work in the kitchen  and she gets down to the beach often with her European friends and goes on all kinds of exciting adventures with them.  One of her highlights was swimming with the spinner dolphins when she was just paddling around down at the local beach one afternoon.  She put on a snorkel & mask and was able to see them swim around her and she could even hear the clicking and squeaking sounds they made.

This afternoon Anita, Patrice and I are all going up to Mauna Kea (to see the SNOW!) and to watch the sunset from up there.  We have rented a car so that I can go on a few adventures while I'm here as well.  Anita has been a wonderful room mate for me.  We laugh ALOT together as we work through our various learning experiences all and as we deal with all the noise that surrounds us here in the Go Center.   We have learned to utilize ear plugs, eye shields and pillows over our heads when necessary to cope.  Cars and mopeds and huge trucks going by our front window, singing coming from different directions, parties outside our room, prayer & worship meetings at 6:00 am (Patrice's group) at the fountains outside our front window, random doors slamming, babies crying, and construction going on in the room right next to ours!  There's nothing quite like life in community!

I have had the privilege of being in a class of the most amazing people.  Ages 19-70 and about 13 different nationalities.  From Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, New Zealand, Holland, Norway, Germany, China, Mexico, Brazil, USA, CANADA….   These are people that I have fallen in love with and it has been such a joy to get to know them over these last 3 months.

Patrice and I will be HOME at the end of March and Anita is going on to do an outreach with her Medical DTS to Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) to work with the Refugees and then to Israel to work with Holocaust Victims.

I look forward to seeing you and send you all lots of LOVE!!
Shalom!

Ohana Court ETC

Amazing times here in Hawaii.
I'm still LOVING waking to the beautiful birdsongs outside our window and seeing the bright blue ocean and sky and green palms and colourful flowers as I am wheeled down the hill to my classroom every morning.

This week was a mixture - the best of times and the worst of times, so to speak.
I was preparing to do a presentation in front of the Ohana Court (read - LARGE AUDIENCE) and I was dealing with migraines all while trying to memorize the last section of Luke.

The last section has been FUN to memorize because it's the birth and baptism of Jesus and I must say that the story has never been quite so alive and amazing to me.  I just LOVE this style of memorizing as it forces a beautiful form of meditation.  The repetitions of the lines turn into this layered understanding that becomes multidimensional and powerful.

So, in the midst of everything, the presentation at Ohana Court went WELL!  I was able to wear a mic that left my hands free to do all the expressive stuff that makes the words come alive.  And the lights were so incredibly BRIGHT that I couldn't see faces so I was in my own little world enjoying doing accents and bringing life to the words in Luke 13 and 17.  The story of Mary and Martha, the ASK & RECEIVE teaching, and the rich greedy farmer story.  My sweet German classmate Suse followed me with the teaching about the Ravens and flowers of the field and teaching about NO NEED TO WORRY!  Amen to that.

Even Loren Cunningham drove by me today and called out encouragement to me!  Such a blessing to hear that from him.  I didn't know he was going to be in the audience.  Other people have been very affirming as well which is super encouraging, because there is something very vulnerable about putting yourself out there with so much energy and passion as you present the WORD.

And I was challenged this week through our times of class intercession as Suse Childer's shared the work of Voice for the Voiceless, and her specific most recent journey to Congo where she saw the pressing need for help, food, ministry, encouragement amongst the dear Congolese and Pygmy people.  I was brought to tears as I saw their poverty and beauty and I thought about my extravagant life and focus on strengthening my own financial security.  Oh Jesus, keep my heart soft and remind me often of the poor.  Help me to be wise and generous.

I understood in a fresh way the call and vision of YWAM to reach the unreached people groups and to bring encouragement and hope to places by sending teams and help, even just for short time periods. It really does make a difference.

I've been challenged and blessed and filled and encouraged here.

So, gratefulness fills my heart to Jesus as I finish this race.  He has been my help through it all and I am amazed to see what is possible when you "roll out" in faith.