Things I like & have realized....

-JESUS!!!
-My family!
-the fact that my family and I are spending the weekend at a hotel eating, sleeping, swimming, sitting in the hot tub, relaxing and enjoying each other's company (Merry be-lated Christmas present from our mom to us kids)
-the fact that I'm wearing inexpensive clothing. My pants: $10.00 My shirt: $8.00 My sweater: $4.99. It's a small but delightful thought.
-I get off work in 34 minutes
-I'm thankful for my life
-I'm not nearly thankful enough
-I had a dream in which I was having a conversation with someone and said, "I LOVE my life! I love what I do!" ("what I do" meaning the House of Prayer)
-I have had greater revelation this past week of why I pray for this generation:
1. Many of the teens and young adults in this city deal with depression and suicidal tendencies.
2. Many are addicted to tobacco, alchohol, sex & drugs.
3. There are more cases of child abuse/violence in families than I would have thought.
-These are just a few of the reasons of why I pray. There are so many good things about this generation. I cling to God's promises.
-It will be a beautiful thing to have night and day prayer in Winnipeg. That is one of my desires.

At work today I was in the back testing a hearing aid and I usually say, "check, check, test 1, 2, 3" ... well today it all came out in tongues. I didn't even realize that I wasn't speaking english until a few words had already come out of my mouth! Well, who said tongues can't be someone's first language? Do you think that everyone's "tongue" language will be the universal language in the Millenial Kingdom?

....just a thought....

"Mom's the word"

Tonight I begin a strech of a few days of being a nanny. I'm hanging out with a cool 15 year old girl while her parents are away on vacation. I'm quite excited. I think it will be fun & interesting.

While "Mom's" the word, hot would describe the wheels I get to use until Friday night. I LOVE having a car to use! I'm living in dream-land and pretending that this (approx. $30 thousand) baby is all mine!

Off I go!!

Sick Day

Yesterday Kristi, Shane and I made a spontaneous trip to Mitchell to visit our mom, brother and the foster babes. It was so great to enjoy a spontaneous "road trip" with Starbuck's lattes in the cupholders, knowing the we got to squeeze some really cute kids as soon as we got to mom's house. However, I woke up that morning feeling a little delerious and ended up getting quite sick while in Mitchell. I hate the flu. I don't do well with being sick.

My mom's foster kids crack me up! They are a riot. The 3 year old and the 11 year old continually burst into laughter when Shane says, "Stephanie make fish? Stephanie make Donkey? Stephanie make babies? LOBSTER!" These kids are hilarious. One day my mom phoned me and said that they were saying "Stephanie make Donkey" to each other for about 10 minutes and after 3 year old said it, they would burst out laughing. Then the eleven year old would say, "Stephanie make fish" and they'd burst out laughing. It's good to know that my name can bring such weird joy to such cute kids!

When I got home around 7 pm last night my wonderful roommates promptly put me to bed with a hot pack, a barf bucket, some water and some drugs. I think I was in bed for a total of 15 hours straight. I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better which is good.

Well, I'm going to nurse myself back to health!
Have a great day, everyone!

Emergency Room

I just spent the last 4ish hours at the ER. One of my friends dislocated her shoulder and needed a lift to the hospital. The wait was insane! She got taken "in" almost right away - meaning she was allowed to wait in the back on a hospital bed for about 3.5 hours instead of in the actual waiting room. (I was in the waiting room) I was amazed to see the amount of people in the Emergency on a Monday night.

In my mad dash out of the house to pick her up, I completely forgot to bring any reading material (Bible, journal, etc) at all. I spent the first bit of the wait praying and THANKING God for my health. It's incredible how much I take my health for granted. Then I started chatting. It's so funny how I sometimes seem to act so much like my mother. She can start up a conversation with anyone, anywhere.

People I met (and people to pray for):
-Young boy (17ish) with heart problem. Was tired of the wait and left without seeing anyone.
-Young woman with blood clot in her lung.
-Cute couple with a beautiful baby girl. Dad looked very sick. Wasn't sure what it was.
...and many others.

Not only did I realize how thankful I am for my health (and how much more thankful I need to be!) but I also don't know if I could work in a hospital. I've always been somewhat interested in the medical field but being there made me kind of sad. I wanted to sit down and pray for everyone sitting in that waiting room. No more pain, no more sorrows...not just physical healing but emotional, as well. There was so much fear, sadness, anger and loneliness.

It was fun to be able to help her out. This was our second adventure to the ER in the last 2 years or so on account of her shoulder...we've decided not to make this a tradition. So after a few hours of waiting, praying, thinking, thanking, chatting, praying and waiting... I took my druggy friend to her home. I pray for complete healing of her shoulder. Amen.

Now it's time to be thankful for my health and hit the hay.
Kudos to all of you who work in the hospital. I'm so proud of you and thank you on behalf of everyone at St. B today. Thanks Kristi, Christina, Roman..and many others!

Hello, I'm Stephanie and I'm your new PIANO teacher!?!

So I was fiddling on the piano this evening trying to learn a new song when we got a knock on our door. Annie and Marcia answered it to find our upstairs neighbour and her son. She asked for me and then asked me to teach her youngest son piano! Haa haa. How great is that! I told her that I didn't know how to play piano well enough to teach but one of my other roomies might. After we said we'd think about it and they left, I ran upstairs to their house and gave them the trusty piano sheets that Yvonne provided at our "run-down" piano lesson a few months ago (thank you, Yvonne!). So, he's now going to learn the sheets, which chord is what, etc. and hopefully he'll be coming over in the next few weeks, even if it's just to look at the piano and know which keys are where. I'm so honoured, surprised and excited. I'm amazed at how happy I am about this. The thought of teaching someone how to play an instrument really excites me, even though I'm not qualified. (I'll teach him as much as I know and hopefully he can learn from there...)

I'm happy to know that my piano playing doesn't actually scare people away...

...Let's just see if they come around asking for voice lessons ; )

onething or nothing

I choose onething over nothing and that is a good thing.

The onething conference was a good, stretching, difficult and a well-worth-it experience for me.

My cry this weekend was to become lovesick. I so desire to be lovesick to the point of being ruined for anything less. Even in the pain of desire, I want to long. Even in the ache of hunger, I want to be only satisfied in Him. I don't want this just to be my cry for today or tomorrow - but for 50, 70 years from now. I want to live a life of longing for the Son of Man and a life of encounter with Him.

The first day was the best day for me. God confirmed different things in my heart and revealed to me in a greater measure what He is calling me to. I don't fully understand it yet but I say yes to Him. Mostly, I felt a greater call to intercession. If I want to know Him, I need to spend time with Him in the secret place. Intercession is a place of aligning my heart with His heart. It's hearing what's on His heart and praying it back to Him. Full agreement and partnership. It astounds me that the Uncreated God who sits enthroned in glory wants to partner with weak humans. Thank you Jesus for making this possible!

The weekend was filled with encounter, confirmation, major sleep deprivation, lack of food and 12,000 - 15,000 people worshipping God. So wonderful and so difficult all at the same time!

I am so excited to be back home in Winnipeg. Yes, in Kansas City the weather was so mild that we were walking around in short sleeves and some even went as far was wearing shorts and sandals...and when I got home there was a foot of snow and it was actual winter weather... but I'm still so excited to be here. I missed my sister, Shane, Shaun and family so much, the people at Sanctuary, and my home. I love it here!

Welcome to 2007.
My desire is to fall more and more in love with Jesus by revelation of who He is.
To be faithful in what He's calling me to.
To know this love that passes knowledge.
To love others the way that I love myself, which only comes from knowing the love of God.

Thank you for all your prayers over this past weekend!