You guessed it -
this week was Holy Spirit week and it was all about Holy Spirit not being a
myth or a wind or a feeling but an actual person and just a much part of God as
the Father or Jesus. The whole trinity thing still hurts my head when I think
about it too much but that’s the thing that makes God God, I guess: He’s
unfathomable, simply too big to be fully grasped, with Him, 1+1+1 can equal one
and once you’ve accepted that He’s actually really fun to ponder about.
So, Holy Spirit…
We started on Monday by talking about His fruit (Galatians 5) where our speaker – who was absolutely amazing and so encouraging – went into the deeper meanings of love, joy and peace. In this case, deeper meaning basically means only more good associations than we already have with these attributes. Love, for example, is about a strong, life-changing and EVERLASTING love. A love that doesn’t just go on for eternity but also started an eternity ago. You, yes, you personally, were LOVED from the beginning of the universe and will be LOVED long after the universe seizes to exist. You were thought of and cared for long before you were even conceived. So if love comes from being so deeply love, where does joy originate? Being enjoyed! You are being enjoyed. Isn’t that an encouraging sentence? It became quite the affirmation here last week :)
Then again, God’s peace is so much more than just the absence of violence. The Hebrew shalom is a word with a very broad spectrum and stands for just about every blessing you can think of. As our speaker put it, that true peace is peace in the midst of chaos, security in the midst of turmoil, the kind of peace that only comes with the presence of the Prince of Peace. It’s a peace that makes to trust, that brings healing, a peace worth looking for. The other fruits, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, I haven’t actually looked into yet, but I definitely will.
We started on Monday by talking about His fruit (Galatians 5) where our speaker – who was absolutely amazing and so encouraging – went into the deeper meanings of love, joy and peace. In this case, deeper meaning basically means only more good associations than we already have with these attributes. Love, for example, is about a strong, life-changing and EVERLASTING love. A love that doesn’t just go on for eternity but also started an eternity ago. You, yes, you personally, were LOVED from the beginning of the universe and will be LOVED long after the universe seizes to exist. You were thought of and cared for long before you were even conceived. So if love comes from being so deeply love, where does joy originate? Being enjoyed! You are being enjoyed. Isn’t that an encouraging sentence? It became quite the affirmation here last week :)
Then again, God’s peace is so much more than just the absence of violence. The Hebrew shalom is a word with a very broad spectrum and stands for just about every blessing you can think of. As our speaker put it, that true peace is peace in the midst of chaos, security in the midst of turmoil, the kind of peace that only comes with the presence of the Prince of Peace. It’s a peace that makes to trust, that brings healing, a peace worth looking for. The other fruits, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, I haven’t actually looked into yet, but I definitely will.
On Tuesday, we
had Outreach Prep (team culture and Vanuatu’s culture) in the morning, MedCom
stream about all kinds of disgusting (but interesting) skin diseases in the
afternoon and lectures at night on how Holy Spirit is the “with-us-ness” of God.
Before lectures, we got to experience some more of that sometimes crazy “with-us-ness”,
ourselves when a girl whose right leg was an inch shorter than the other got
prayed for and – no, I am not kidding – her leg just grew to be the same length right then and there! Honestly, I’m
starting to really look forward to a similarly crazy outreach...
On Wednesday and
Thursday, our speaker talked about the gifts of Holy Spirit, told us to figure
out our and each other’s gifts and I have to say: Both of those days were days
of incredible lectures, revelations but also conversations. Everyone here has so
much to say and I think this variety of input and opinions and backgrounds is
what I’m going to miss most once lecture phase is over (I don’t dare to talk
about it).
On Friday, the
last lecture was all about what Holy Spirit wants to be and do in our lives,
that He essentially is the power behind all we could do if we let Him. In the
afternoon, my awesome outreach team took a trip to the Mount to discuss current
information – I’ll be gone from April 5th until May 26th
– have dinner and ice cream together and tell one another how we were feeling
and what’s been going on in our lives. We had a very nice time and it made me
feel pretty confident about spending 7 weeks and 2 days of my live with these 8
people.
Yesterday, I had
a very random day but I ended up joining a team going outreach shopping and by
lunchtime I had almost all my outreach supplies so I guess you could call it
productive. In the afternoon we had a birthday bridal baby shower to celebrate
– with bible verses and blessings, a giant cake and a piñata – and the birthday
girl’s face was pure joy :D. Last night we watched the Lion King with everyone
singing (and talking) along and so it was the perfect free Saturday.
Today, I didn’t
go to church but spent 2 hours in the chapel with a podcast and my knitting
needles instead. It was a very relaxing and regenerating time and afterwards I
felt ready for an afternoon of journaling which turned into more theological
discussions and biblical questions; I love it! I started this post after dinner
and just returned from baking a raspberry crumble cheesecake for whanau time
tomorrow and it does look quite delicious. It better is, the preparation took
three hours…
On that note, I
better get more than three hours of sleep and say good night and good morning
now. Shalom and enjoy your week!
xx, Annika
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