Haiiii! :)
Grab a cup of "joe" or some tasty tea and read along on my journey these past two weeks!
It's been such a whirlwind of the past two weeks or so! I've had such exciting adventures and been learning more about Urban Promise! Some of the things I've done are hiked the Chief mountain in Squamish! I've been able to cook yummy food for the house i'm living in! Ventured out into Vancouver and explored! Had orientation with different staff and learned more about what my specific job will look like here in Vancouver! I also had the wonderful chance to sneak away to Vancouver Island to rest up before I started camp this week! My time on the island was rejuvenating! Just what I needed! How the Father knows all of our needs and gives our hearts rest! I can't even begin to explain what a beautiful weekend it was catching up with friends and family. My heart was filled by the Father and I was drawn to thinking of how we all need rest. We get so busy and forget to just sit and take in the beauty around us. I woke up early both mornings this Saturday and Sunday. I took time for myself in the morning not feeling rushed and had a cup of coffee while relaxing and getting ready for the day. I tend to rush myself continually with last minute things and wake up just in time to run to the next activity I have planned. This weekend reminded me how important it is to take time especially in the morning before rushing out the door. I want to try to do this more and see how my days go with not starting off rushing myself. Just a thought and reflection as I had a beautiful weekend of much needed rest.
I've been experiencing community living these past two weeks or so. All of us interns live in a house minus two who are living around the corner. To paint a picture there are 7 girls and one guy who is the house manager. God bless the man for putting up with all us girls! He ensures that house chores are in order, manages scheduling and does website designing. The house we all live in is also the Urban Promise head office in Vancouver. Main floor is the kitchen and office and upstairs is where the rooms are. We each are given a meal (dinner) a week to cook for everyone (8 people)! Last week I made butter chicken with some good ol naan bread! To top it off for dessert I made a choco chocolate fudge brownie with gnache on top (a fudge like topping). I haven't really been cooking in the kitchen in a while, so it was so refreshing to be able to do my own thing and cook up a tasty meal! It's also nice to be cooked for other nights of the week by others who have their own twist on what their favorites are! I'm excited for more great meals!
A little bit about my Job/Internship:
A part of Urban Promises mission is to equip young leaders to lead and empower them to experience belonging and success! They do this very well as I've learned more things over the past little bit! Starting today is day camps for 6 weeks with the same kids. Kids that come to the day camps are anywhere from grade 1-6. There are street leaders who are grades 7 & 8 as well as highschool kids who are Senior street leaders. These two groups of street leaders are so key to running day camps! Urban Promises staff help lead and facilitate these leaders to step up and lead games, art, cooking and much more! As a staff my role is to speak into the lives of the streeleaders who are grades 7 & 8. I walk life along side of them encouraging them, loving on them, offering devotions, helping them with activities and having fun! I think to myself WOW, I get to do this sort of job! It seems to fun to be real! These streetleaders and as well as senior (highschool) streetleaders are so eager to do their very best and plan great activities for the kids! It's exciting to see and I look forward to see how the summer pans out!
Food for thought from meeeee to you!
Lately I've been pondering prayer. Thinking the significance of it and the power of it. Realizing I often put down the power prayer can have over our lives. I have a really neat story to share that got me thinking once again the significance of prayer in life should be this constant conversation with the Father. Although he knows our needs he wants us to speak them to him and talk to him so that He may know our voice. I have thought about buying a journal specifically for pray requests. So I can tangibly see my prayers written down instead of just thinking about things in my head. Anywho here is my story...
A few weeks ago I traveled downtown Toronto with my friend Erin. We went to a church called Vantage church which was super awesome and than we decided we wanted to get a snack afterward. We wanted fries and a coffee....random I know haha! So we went to get fries and than headed to Panera bread! YUMMM! We had good conversation with the workers about how they put all the calories right on their board you order from. We laughed and tried to find the LARGEST calorie meal....which was "homemade" macaroni and cheese! Something like 1200 calories if I recall right. After ordering our london fogs made by a kind gentleman we went upstairs to sit down and chat :) After good conversation for a while we decided we should hop back on the subway to head back home. As we were leaving a worker of Panera bread was handing out all their leftover baked goods for FREE!! Nothing like free stuff....i'm on it!! We took some cookies and pastry's with us as we headed out and thanked them. I thought to myself I'm definitely not going to eat all of this, but you know when things are free you just want it all even though you don;t need it? I kind of got over zealous about it! So I thought to myself I'm going to give it away to someone who may want it! I got on the bus to go towards the subway and kept thinking who was I going to give all these baked goods to. Me and Erin got off the bus towards the subway and as we were walking in to the subway station I prayed to the Father and said God please put someone in my path that I may bless them with these goodies! A short little prayer that I thought if He wants it to happen it's going to happen! About 2 minutes later I show the subway guy my transfer slip who is working and he looks at me and asks, "is that for me?" I thought he meant my transfer slip so I was confused for a minute. Than it clicked and I realized he was talking about the box of pastry's I had in my other hand. Than he smiled and laughed at me again and said "is that for me?" He was indeed partially joking but I at this point was like "YAAAAYYY ofcouse its for you! Take it :)!!!" I explained I got these things for free and I wanted to give them away to others! So after he got over that I wasn't joking in return he smiled, said thank you and took the box. I thought to myself how AWESOME! But it didn't dawn on me yet I had just prayed about running into someone I could give the pastry's away to! I got on the subway and than it clicked, I said to Erin WHOOOA I just prayed for God to put someone in front of my path to give the pastry's away and he did!! We thought it was super cool and talked about it for a moment as we rode the subway! I still had a bag of chocolate chip cookies with me that I still wanted to give away. A young boy about age 6 and his mother came onto the subway after a few stops. They sit down and I smiled at the young boy....I"ll try and describe this as unawkward as i can HAHA...this little boy was really funny! He started to move closer to me on the bench he was sitting on and put his hand on my knee and looked up at me and said hello with a smiling face. I couldn't help but laugh and think to myself is this 6 year old trying to flirt with me in an innocent funny way HAH. Needless to say as he had his hand on my knee as the whole car of subway people were starring as to what my reaction was going to be! Beside me Erin was already laughing her head off! Within a span of probably 3o seconds Erin laughed, I laughed and than the whole subway car laughed hysterically. His Mom noticed that her son had his hand on my knee and pulled him back saying you can't touch strangers like that (in a soft tone she spoke not mad). I told her oh it's ok no worries and laughed. A minute or two went by and he made his way slowly again closer to me and erin. He asked what our names were and told us his which was Monoah. He went to what I thought was to shake my hand but held it for a couple seconds longer than what a "normal" handshake was and so I laughed and started shaking his hand saying nice to meet you! After this funny scenario I asked his mom if I could give him the bag of chocolate chip cookies I had just gotten from Panera bread for free. She accepted them and Monoah was sure a happy boy to get some cookies! His mom was a gorgeous lady with really neat style! :)
In the end these two scenarios of the subway ticket man and the mom with her son on the subway was so heart warming! I prayed the Lord would put someone in my way to bless with the baked goods and he provided! If something as little as that is answered what else is God answering in our life? Some things we may not think he has provided but until later realize he has protected us. Our prayers can be as simple as. They don't have to be complex or in depth all the time. What I do know is that in the end God wants to hear our voice, he wants us to offer up our requests to Him.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6
How often are you faced with a situation and in your head your try EVERY avenue to figure it out yourself when all along the Father is saying come to me where your burden will be light and your yoke is easy. I constantly run into this scenario. In my own stubborn way I try with all my might and strength and not His to figure things out. This is a constant reminder to not rely on my own strength but HIS.
Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I am humbled by the words of our Father. He will give you rest, lean on him for he is so gentle, caring, compassionate and his love is not on condition. How is it that I do not turn to him more? Because I admit I am selfish and want to rely on my own ways. But He is my and our creator and I need to continually acknowledge that He knows me best in every thought, every action and every step I take in life.
Some prayers requests:
* I would find myself energized each morning as I wake up!
* Great things would happen within Urban promise and the Day camps they lead!
* That I would learn to trust God with my whole heart
* Leaders would be forming with gr.7-12 students helping lead these phenomenal day camps!
I trust this finds you well on a lovely summer day! Thanks for reading! Until next time!
Much Love,
Alivia
Below are some photos :)
Trying new food with Carissa! Purple taro steam bun/bean things...they were nawt bad :)
