"I am doing a new thing...will you not be aware of it..." Isaish 43:19

So, as most of you have figured out by now, my life in the past 2 months has taken a big turn in direction. I had been hell-bent on coming home to Nova Scotia (after 5 long years...) and dispite the offer given to me by the U of A Navs, I was not interested in sticking around Edmonton for another year :) I managed to play my ignorance card for most of the year and pass off even praying about what the Lord might have me do, for no other reason than that I didn't want to give Him an opportunity to tell me to do anything other than "go home." Well, one Sunday I went out for lunch with Paul Tan (UofA Navs staff guy) and Simon (a visiting England Navs staff), and in typical Navigator fashion Simon was asking some very sincere and throught provoking questions about my future heart for fulltime missions in Africa and what that would "look like." I could answer a lot of his questions cause I had thought about many of them before...but, by the end of lunch I was feeling a great need to go for a "walk and talk" with the Lord! The Holy Spirit was moving in my heart and showing me just how un-ready and lacking in conviction and vision I was--not the best way to head into a life of Kingdom Service! During this walk and talk the Lord was just showing me that I needed to BE in a place where I could be poured into and developed so that I could be that much more effective and useful to Him when He finally unfolds the ministry that He has for me down the road...and even now. As I thought about this I realized that at home in NS, the people available to trian and develop me for ministry were few (well, there are lots of people, but, those people have other focuses-the church, the youth, jobs...)...but here in Edmonton, there were 3 people just waiting for me to say "hey, do you think that I could stay and learn from you guys...be trained and equiped in Ministry?" Are you Kidding me!? That's THE purpose of the Navs ministry! "Ok God, You win...I'll stay" :) He'd given me some verses a few days before, and they'd only really made sense in that moment. Isaiah 43: 18-21 (you'll have to look 'em up!) says "I am doing a new thing...will you not be aware of it..." And this was Just the Beginning of the "New thing"...
(Next few Blog entries will be about the Navs conference a few weeks ago...they are the next steps in the Lord's new thing in my life...and by the way, I decided to obey the Lord-as if I had a choice!- and stay in Edmonton for further equiping in ministry until December...or longer if that is what He wants for me...I'll keep you posted :)

How the West is Won...Somewhere Else West 2006

So I decided that I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and go out of chronological order if I'm ever going to fill you all in on my life! I was trying to wait until I could scan some England and San Francisco Pictures...but that is just taking forever and I don't want to be 3 events behind!! So, I have lots of pics from this Navigator's conference from the first week in May, so I figured, I'd get going...at least on that! :)

So the Conference is called the Title of this blog entry (it's too long to type out again), and it was held in southern Alberta in Cypres Hills. It includes all the campus Navigators groups in the West, there were over 100 people there, and it was really great! The theme was "Western/Country" as I'm sure you are realizing as you look at the Picture of the facility...looks like something out of an old western movie huh? Anyway, we had a speaker from England and his wife-Rod and Helen Green-who were just wonderful. Helen on more than one occasion was such a blessing to me in converstaion, speaking truth into my life and just being used of by the Lord. Rod spoke on Daniel that whole week and it was really good--made for some really wonderful discussion in our small groups!

There were lots of things going on...workshops, the speaker and worships times, sports, horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking, free time in the afternoons to just hang out with people, small group times (there were 8 girls in my group, plus Kathy Blacklock that was our Staff person), a hot tub, 9 baptisims, a barn dance,--oh, and a freak snow storm for 2 days!--... it was a really jam packed week! Fabulous people to get to know (and you know me...I'm not too social!!). I can also tell you without a doubt in my mind that it was the most exhausted I've ever been in my WHOLE life...emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. It was rediculous! God was at MAJOR work in me...pointing out things that needed fixing, issues that I was unaware of (some that I was aware of) that I needed freedom from, learning things about who He is and what that means for me in our relationship, being challenged and encouraged by the people arround me...You know that phrase in Psalm that seems to be repeated quite often..."The hand of the Lord is heavy upon me..."--Well, that is how I felt the WHOLE time! It is both exhaustingly horrible and wonderful all at the same time. Hard to explain. I'd like to tell you some of these things that He's been showing me (IF I can...it is hard to put into words, and I'm still trying to figure it out too!!)...