we still have a few geese in the pond

This has been a bit of an emotional week for me. Everything is fine, just sometimes I feel more in either direction on the spectrum on emotions. I have super joyous feelings and in contrast some hard to handle down time.

I've been reading in Acts as Jon and I are part of this church plant. I wanted to see the early church again, how it began, etc. Something that really struck me about these first 18 chapters so far has been the honesty that they have with one another. We only really see this perspective from Luke looking at Paul and friends, but they all have such strong conviction in their actions. They don't hide what they feel is right and wrong and they just say whatever needs to be said.

At the end of chaper 18 they tell this story about Apollos speaking truth to the people, but he only knew part of the story. Apollos only knew of Christ up until the baptism of John. The best part of this story though is that Priscilla and Aquila hear him and they tell him the further story of Christ at this point. This man Apollos doesn't freak out and say that they are wrong or they have made him look foolish, etc. He holds on to this truth and then the chapter further goes on to say that the church encouraged him and that Apollos helped the church as well. He put away his pride and insistence that he was right for the gospel and was rewarded for that.

This story has given me a lot to think about the past few days. It's a good reminder to me to be open to other's guidance, but to also not be afraid to put my thoughts and feelings out. I feel the greatest blessing can come from being open to one another and the truth of Christ.

So far I have been remarkably blessed by the people at Missio Dei (our church planting group). For example the other week Paul, our head pastor, passed out a flyer that had at the top "Prayer and Picket" and asked us to dialog on this. The flyer was inviting Christians to come and picket Planned Parenthood... oh and pray. Pretty much we all came out unanimously saying that this "demonstration" of faith was so negative that none of us could really support it. This demonstration was showing hate and not love or alternatives to these girls who are making these decisions. The flyer was not giving any other options to these women who obviously feel that they don't have any. They were just going to stand out in front of a building and show their disgust for the actions that could be taking place on the inside. So we are all trying to figure out a way to even partner with Planned Parenthood to try and help these women. We can't stop them from abortion, but we can try to give a listening ear or some guidance to encourage them to keep the children.

I just really appreciate the way this group of people try to take their beliefs and make them stand for positive and productive things in society rather than just tearing it down. This is a longer post and a little more opinionated than usual. So, sorry if you prefer the short blurbs...I'm sure they will make more occurences in the future.

Stay warm, with love,

kim