New Addiction

Anyone who was around me last year, knew that I had a slight addiction to online tetris.
Well - THIS is my new tetris.

Sudoku online...oh man. Let the games begin.
(I might as well enjoy the rest of my reading week. Heeheehee. I am such a nerd.

Life Lessons #1

Since being on reading week and spending some time with people outside of the vacinity of the Downtown Eastside, I've caught myself saying several times: "One of the big lessons that I have learnt this year has been..."
So I thought that it might be wise to actually write down some of these big life lessons, to see, in hindsight, what God has been teaching me and bringing me through.

Big life lesson #1 - The Importance of Listening
Most Christians who are really excited about getting into mission, whatever that may look like, usually want the world to know what they know. Now this is not a bad thing in it of itself, and I would pressume it to be quite natural. When you are passionate about something, it's hard to keep it inside.
But what I've found is that the times I feel most like Jesus (allowing Him to live through me) is when I am simply listening. Christians are notorious for trying to push their ideals, morals, ways of life, and doctrine on others. When I came here at the beginning of the year, I wanted desperately to help people. To show them what to do, teach them what I know, share the gems of a successful life. How quickly God humbled me, and I am grateful for that.
Everyone has a story. Something to say. To share. We, as the body of Christ, need to be good listeners.
There's this great quote from Fight Club, that I'll have to paraphrase because I don't have the film with me, but essentially here's the gist - The two main characters are at 'group' for people with cancer (despite the fact that neither of them have cancer). When asked why they are there they said "When people think you're dying they really listen to you rather than waiting for their turn to talk".
If we believe that people are trapped in this culture of death - whether it be drugs, materialism, sex addictions, the culture of cool ... - we need to be really listening to them rather than just waiting for our turn to talk; our turn to give them the gospel shot, to bring them to the 'other side'.
So, in short, I've learnt the importance of listening.

These life lessons don't seem to be incredibly inventive. In fact, most of them seem pretty mundane, but the lesson lies in the practice of these lessons.

Grace to you,

God is in CONTROL

Thank the LORD that God is in control and not me.
Despite the many interesting events of this week, I acknowledge that God is in control. He is Sovereign. I love Him and He is mine. I am His. Praise the LORD!

That's all I'll say about that.
In other news.... We started our Reading Week and I am loving it. I went to Cariboo Hill yesterday morning - great service. God was stirring up His people and it was a beautiful thing. I got to pray with people I haven't prayed with before, and was blessed by new friends in my life.
I am staying with the Michel's for a bit (some family) and we had a bonfire last night. We were right by Frasier River. Gorgeous. I love the Michel's. They are so kind hearted and giving. Lord, Bless them!
I think we are going to hit the slopes at some point, which will be an adventure in itself.
It's nice to be able to get away a bit. I think I'll go back to the DTES with more of an appreciation of it and with a heart more ready to serve in any way that the Lord leads.

AND - My brother is getting married in less than two weeks. I can't believe it. Josh & Jenn, if you are reading this, I am so excited about the wedding. You are in my daily prayers.

I will speak more on what God is doing in my life, but I thought that I would dedicate a blog to more of a public update on my plans. Cheers guys,
Kir xox

I Refuse Death!

I thought it was about time to share what’s been happening in my life. Lately I’ve been going through some heavy stuff. Death is breathing down my neck. Everywhere I turn there is death. People were stabbed to death in my hotel the other week. People are overdosing literally next door. I can hear women being beaten, last night a man was shot in the head outside of our coffee bar. It was the first time that I’ve seen something like that – less than five feet away from me was a man bleeding to death.
We are surrounded by death (in my case it’s a bit more literal), but nevertheless it’s all around us.
Isaiah 25:8 says the Lord will swallow up death forever and wipe away all of our tears from our faces.
I cor 15:54c, 57 – Death is swallowed up by victory. God gives us victory through Jesus.
Ephesians 2:1 says that He has made us ALIVE, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
(Also check out Romans 6:9-10)

As I was reading these verses it hit me. I turned to Ephesians and read 4:1 – I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Eph 5:14 “Awake o sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you”. Walk in the light. Walk in life. CHOOSE LIFE.
I am pro life in every sense of the word and I urge you to choose life over death. Walk in victory not defeat!

Living in the downtown eastside, living in the Balmoral hotel, right next to a safe injection site where people are overdosing daily, I can get overwhelmed with death, or I can recognize that: I am the light of the world (Matt 5:14) and I am an expression of the LIFE of Christ (Colossians 3:4). In Romans 12 it says – do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.

Is not our mission clear? Do we really need to be beaten over the heads with this?
Let us be LIGHT, let us be LIFE, let us walk in a manner that’s worthy of the calling. We hear it preached a lot here that we need to be light in dark places; rightly so. We also need to be LIFE in DEAD places.

Choose today whom you serve – Life or Death???

(I wrote and saved this blog a few days ago, so there's more to come! God's revelation is still streaming in. Praise the Lord!)

Some pics :)

Give it up for Balmoral #1

So this is my squad. More pictures to come later of our great adventure to the beach :D
So that's Joe, yours truly, Roro and Matt. We have a lot of fun, and they have seen me cry on several occasions. Love you guys!!!

Simple thought, really

Sometimes I forget this...

What we do is not so that God will love us (or love us more) but is an attempt to show God that we love Him too.
God loved us first. He's already given us all the love we need and so much more. We just have to soak it in.

Again, to repeat for myself - We do what we do to show that we love HIM, not in some scheme to think that we can make Him love us more.

Sounds simple, but it's been mulling in my head for days...

Blessings

Don't worry, I am fine

I think I might have left some of you in a state of worry about my safety. I am fine. I don't really feel any fear whatsoever. I do feel like this hotel is under some serious attack though.
Please pray. Again, this is not out of fear. We all have roomates and we look out for each other. There was a pretty big "inccident" that happend yesterday morning on the fifth floor of our hotel. I don't want people freaking out (mom - don't freak out!) I am simply writting this so that you people reading can pray and intercede. God is moving and working strongly here. Pray for light to drive out darkness.
Light belongs in the darkness.
I would not move. I want to stay in this hotel this upcoming year. It's important that we are here. It breaks my heart to see the suffering all around.

Pray for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. That what happens here on earth would be a reflection of what is going on in the heavenly realm. Pray God's Kingdom here on earth.

Hopefully that's relieved some of your minds and redirected them from worry to PRAYER. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

PS As I am typing, there is a mouse right beside me... I am sure he/she says hi. Haha.

Up in smoke

Okay so tonight as I got off the elevator on my floor at the Balmoral Hotel I noticed something unusual. We always have very strange smells, so that wasn't so surprising as the clouds of smoke, particularily close to my room which is at the end of the hall. I asked my buddy Joe what the deal was - he didn't know. I call on John, who has been living in this hotel for 17 years.
He was a bit reluctant to tell me, but the students living here have built up a good raport with him so he soon told us what it was.
Some new guys were steaming crack. I don't even know what that means! He said the smell is crack and what I am inhaling is smoke from crack.
My room is right across from the bathroom. I am pretty much breathing in crack and there's nothing i can do about it. They are also smoking pot, but they do that constantly.
This situation is slightly amusing, yes, but also a bit scary. Without my permission I am probably getting secondary highs left right and centre.
Oh man, oh man. Life at the Balmoral...

For a mouse update - we've caught 5 in our room in the past two days. We started putting these sticky papers on the ground to catch them. Grossest moment - I put on my flip flops to go take a shower and there was a mouse stuck to the bottom of one of them....yuck!