"Come to Me"

The last week has been a very full week.  We had our 48 hour silent retreat.  This was a time to listen to God's voice and hear what He had to say to us.  It was a time of rest and restoration.  We were allowed our Bibles, journals, and that's about it.  It was a powerful retreat for all of us and we all received word from God in various ways.  Throughout the retreat I felt Him calling to me, all the passages I read were an invitation to come to Him.  I have been memorizing Isaiah 55 and it spoke to me, especially the parts of it that say "Come to me all who are thirsty.  Come to the waters, you who have no money, come buy and eat.  Come buy wine and milk, without money and without cost...Listen, listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.  Give ear and come to me, hear me that your soul may live!"  On the silent retreat He called to me and I came.  He restored my soul and made me alive again.  Taking time for silence with God, to pray, listen to His voice and to read His Word is such a gift.  I know as well as anyone that life gets busy and it is hard to take the time out of our days to just be in the presence of God.  But I would encourage you to make it happen. Be intentional and He will be faithful to meet with you!  Even being at a place like the Mark Centre that is designed to be a place to meet with God, life gets busy.  The schedule gets full and the days go by quickly.  No matter where we are, what we are doing, who we are with, we need to be intentional in our relationship with God.  Please pray that I will be intentional and continue to hear His voice and take time out of my days to spend with God. 

So that is what the end of my last week looked like.  And now the moment you have all been waiting for ... on Tuesday they announced the teams and where we will be going.  I am going to Portugal!  My team is Joanna (who is our team leader), Rebecca, Brittany, Kenny, Justin, and myself.  It is an awesome team and I believe that God will bless us as we serve Him and the people of Portugal.  I feel such a peace about the place that I am going to and that God is already stirring my heart with a passion for the people!  Thank you all for your prayers as the teams and locations were discerned.  God is good and there is much peace within our group as a whole about where we are going and who we are going with.  May the name of the Lord be praised!