Happy Love Day!

Tonight has been the best Valentine's Day of my life! Not that I've ever celebrated it before, being single and all, but tonight was amazing! God, You are so cool! You are LOVE! You made this love day so wonderful!

This year I thought....hey, why not celebrate singleness. Singleness has been a theme for my wonderful friend Christina and I these last few weeks. We want to love it, celebrate it and learn so much about ourselves and about God while we are single. Heck, why not?!?! Chris and I had decided to go on a date with money we got from baby-sitting for some awesome friends of ours a few weeks ago. Our original plan was to hit up a cafe, go for a walk and chat about life, love and other mysteries (sorry, that was awful). We both wanted to do something creative and super fun but nothing out of the ordinary was popping into our heads until.....

....We decided to buy a dozen roses with our baby-sittin' money and give them away! I love buying flowers to give them away to people. I used to do that when I lived in Steinbach a few years ago. The first time I believe I was in grade 10 and I dragged my friend Lindsay along with me....we randomly knocked on strangers doors, offered them a flower and asked them if we could pray for them. Actually, I don't think we asked everyone if we could pray for them....only those who were receptive to taking the flowers. Anyway, Chris and I headed over to Superstore and picked up the flowers and began our journey....

We prayed for God to direct us to specific people, places and that His divine Will would be done. As I was praying that God would soften our hearts and the hearts of those we would meet (etc.), Christina had the brilliant idea of going to the Riverview Hospital (I believe, or it's an old folks home?) She was a student nurse on that ward and that definitely gave us our in!

We made our way up to the third floor, flowers in hand, praying for God's grace to allow us to do this and make an impact. Chris told the nurses there that she was a student nurse on the ward a few months back and asked if it would be okay if we would hand out flowers to some of the palliative residents. YES! We were allowed! It was great! These people were old, coming to the end of this life and so receptive and thankful to our pitiful gift of a dying rose. It was beautiful! This one couple was having a sleepover! The wife was sick and the husband decided to spend the night...she called him her caretaker! It was so cute to see! Man, some of those patients were on their last breath, it seemed. I just pray that they know the love of Jesus!

At one point, I asked a woman if we could pray for healing for her. She said that she had a pretty crappy day because she was sick and her response to prayer was, "no, I'm okay I already took some meds for that". (not a direct quote. I can't actually remember the words she used right now but it was funny!) What to say then....."Um..kay. I'll keep you in my prayers then" : )

From there we got back into her Civic and headed towards Ellice Avenue. We were looking for the destitute and lonely to bless. Instead we found a Laundromat. Okay, I have a weird obsession with having a photo shoot in a Laundromat! I have wanted to do this for a few years now and tonight was the night! Christina and I took advantage of the practically empty room, besides the washers and dryers! How flippin' fun! We got some great pics! (Maybe Chris will post them on her blog....I'm going to get her to teach me how so stay tuned. There maybe some soon!) It was fantastic!

I really wanted to show the love of Jesus to the prostitutes tonight. There is something so sad about prostitution and the cheapening of love (physical love, in this case) and if God could use a simple rose to show these women how much He loves them then my day would be made! So, we headed over to Main and Sutherland. We got out of the car and met a woman (who was on the job at the time but came across our path) whom we got to give a flower to. She was thankful but distracted because she wasn't looking for two ladies to give her a flower - but she did seem thankful! It was so great being able to bless someone, leave and continue to pray for them. It was just so great!

We headed off again, making our rounds of the city! We stopped in at an "Insta-loans" branch thing on Broadway to give the lonely girl that was working a rose. She had the greatest reaction! She said that was the sweetest thing EVER. Lord, bless her! That made my day, too! This was on our way to drop in on Office night at Starbucks. It was great to see everyone, plus we got to pray for Maria in Starbucks. How bliss is freedom. I want to take advantage and live out this freedom I have in Jesus everyday!

After, Christina and I went out for coffee at Starbucks on Pembina and I had the privilege of chatting with my wonderful, single friend! God, thank you for Christina! Lord, you have an amazing man out there for her who is going to bless her and be so in love with You. They're going to be an awesome, God-loving team for You! But until that time, I just pray that You would bless the socks of Christina! Lord, continue the work that You have started in her and bring it to completion. She has such a genuine heart of love and of searching after You. Bless my single sista-friend!

That was my awesome Love Day celebration! Instead of celebrating my non-existent relationship with a guy, I got to celebrate the greatest love of them all - the Love of my dear Savior! Jesus, You are beautiful and Your love is not fleeting - it never ends and I don't comprehend it! Thank you, Father, for putting this desire in me to go out and celebrate Your love. I love finding out what makes me come alive! I definitely come alive in You and by loving people with and through You! Feel free, actually please, love Your children through me. Please teach me how to love with Your unconditional love. Here I am, Lord. Send me! Amen.