Door Knocking

Today we had our first dose of trying to invite people to take Bible Studies. We took our little survey form and knocked on doors and asked people questions. It's funny, for the last two weeks our class has been practicing on each other, making up all kinds of sneaky situations and smart answers. No one asked me and my partner any of the sneaky questions, and we discovered that we had not done nearly enough practice on the ordinary inviting people to take Bible studies part. This week we are going to practice some more but without the sneaky questions, so that we get to feel comfortable with offering the Bible Studies.

The other thing I discovered is that it is way easier to be pushy with people I know when we are just playing/practicing. It's much harder to be pushy in real life - luckily my partner and I are both handicapped in the same way, so we get to learn to be more pushy together - rather than the pushy one taking over and doing what comes naturally.

It wasn't a total failure, we knocked on 92 of doors, gave away about 50 (all that we had) cards for free dvd's on Bible prophecy, lots of 'one-of read on your own' Bible study booklets and completed about 30 surveys. And we got 3 people to agree to do 'drop off' Bible studies with us, and one person to do a 'sit down' Bible study. So that is very awesome. Please everybody pray for our Bible study people, and for everybody else where we left material at their houses.

Specifically pray that at least 10 people send the form in requesting Bible Studies.

Two stories:

When we were dropped off in our territory, we had not even gotten to our first house when a lady comes marching up to us from another street and asks who we are and what we want and then proceeds to tell us to stay out of her street. After she had marched away we kind of looked at each other and decided that we would not be discouraged and continued with our planned course of action. We did go into her street, but not her house - it was pointed out to us by neighbours who had witnessed her interview with us. We left some cards on houses but that was all that happened on that street. The reason I tell this story is the contrast it was with our last house - 92 houses later. While we were waiting for someone to answer the door i was peering in the window and on the kitchen table were books like 'A man after God's own heart' and other obviously Christian books. So I was thinking that that was promising. A man came to the door and we did our whole survey and were just about to offer him Bible studies, when he said - actually I'm Adventist. I laughed and thanked him for the practice. It was kind of encouraging.

Generally I found the people were very nice, there were very few who were rude, even the ones who didn't do the survey were polite.

So all my lovely Christian friends please add all the people in my territory to your prayer lists, and all my lovely heathen friends, your already on my prayer list!!!  :-P

Over and Out

Cat

PS I only have lovely friends.

An Answered Prayer ... AKA I'm Not Going To Get Kicked Out!

Today a letter came to me from the US immigration people, they have approved my extension of stay until the 15th of December, which is 3 days after my ticket home!!!!!!! God is very good!!!!!!!! I was told it would take 4 - 5 months to process the application, and it has been done in just less than eight weeks. So now I don't have to worry about being kicked out of the country unceremoniously half way through the AFCOE course - or trying to go to Mexico and come back under the visa waiver program or some other skeem. Now I can just concentrate on growing in my walk with God and doing my assignments to the best of my ability!

Since I'm talking about answered prayers tonight I thought I would do a round up of how all the other things I prayed about have been provided.

Remember I said that I prayed for 6 things when I got my acceptance to come to AFCOE? If you don't here is the link http://catkween.blogspot.com/2010/07/watching-god-at-work.html

God only has half a prayer left to go, plus a new one I added recently. 

1. Immigration status sorted out - done!
2. Money for the fees and other associated expenses - God has provided half the money so far.
3. Clothes - done! I have got three black skirts, and a couple of new tops. I choose to make them all black because then they mix and match in with all my tops which already go with all my black trousers - call me a miser but I just don't want to spend a bunch of money on clothes I'm only going to be wearing for a few months - while I shrink out of them. And I got a good hair cut too, not the best I've ever had but considering she had to try to fix the damage made by the previous hair dresser she did a great job. I drew a picture of what my hairstyle is supposed to look like and took it with me, that helped. Yes I know I'm pedantic - but you love me anyway :-D
4. A mobile phone - done! the story of that is on this blog entry http://catkween.blogspot.com/2010/07/thought-control.html
5. Bedding, Linen, Towels, etc - done!
6. A hairdryer - done! http://catkween.blogspot.com/2010/07/answers-so-far.html

Now I have started praying for the use of a car, neither me nor my ministry partner have one, she is called Rebbecca and she is from Sweden, very young, lovely and quiet.

Today we learned how to write Bible studies, we were about 5 mins into the lesson and I realised that I may not be in the classroom anymore but I'm still writing lesson plans, just under another name. Then this afternoon we looked at writing sermons. Yet another name for a lesson plan. Guess I'm never going to get away from them, lol.

Random Miscellaneous Sundry Stuff

It is 10:30pm and I am not just awake I am wide awake. Not a situation that is entirely pleasing and unfortunately is entirely my own fault. I so should not have allowed myself to have that nap this afternoon - regardless of how tired I was then.

Now I am crouched over my computer in a darkened room with the screen carefully surrounded by pillows and typing very quietly - and slowly - in an attempt to not wake up my sleeping roommates. I see no need for them to share me sad fate. (LOL - a touch of melodrama never hurt anyone.)

So having explained all that, I am left wondering what to talk about on this lovely blog of mine, what would I like the whole world to know about tonight...

1. I had a lovely birthday!!! Thanks to all of you lovely lovely people who left wishes on my facebook or emailed me in the old fashioned manner! Way to make a girl feel loved!!! Now that I am officially one year away from being old I need all the love I can get.

2. For my Birthday treat I had a peanut butter smoothie. Sounds intriguing, tastes even better. A bunch of us took the opportunity to get off campus and go to Jamba Juice, which is like a NZ or Oz juice bar, but on steroids. I felt a bit sorry for the people working there when all of a sudden they had about 25 people pour into their tiny shop. Possibly at some future time 'speed smoothie making' will become an Olympic sport. These guys would definitely have a chance at a medal.

3. I have been thinking ... we each have to give a sermon and I have been thinking of building mine around the title "These Lies I Live By..." it is something I have been thinking about for a few weeks now. We all tell ourselves lies - and totally believe them to be true, things like "No one will ever love me", "I'm not good enough" and "I need xyz to be truly happy". We cling to these lies because at some time they have protected us from something that threatened majorly, and I think that to an extent they become idols to us. And, they are responsible for destroying us. Unless we are prepared to release these lies and replace them with truths from God's Word. But releasing is a painful process and we have to learn to trust God more than we trust the lies. Every time we release a lie and choose to live by the truth we take on a bit more of the character of Jesus.

Any thoughts on my thoughts? And I would also appreciate other suggestions of lies we tell ourselves...

I'm off to have another attempt to enter the world of dreams, I hope you all have a lovely day or night depending on what part of the world you are in.

Love and Hugs,

from Meeeeee

The First Week ...

So much to tell, and so little time to tell it in ....

Most important thing is .... DON'T FORGET IT'S MY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Drop me a line and tell me you love me!!!!!! <3

We had a big room shuffle on Friday, now I am rooming with two ladies called Flo and Carmine, Flo used to wrestle pigs and Carmine has spent many years teaching English in Korea and Japan. They are both a little older - was a bit worried that I would end up rooming with teenagers, maybe I'm selfish but I am soooo over that!

One thing that has totally amazed me this week is the number of people who have connections to people I know in NZ. I was talking to one of the men in the course and it turns out I taught his niece at LAC a few years ago, and another girl here is best friends with a girl I also taught. I meet the new chemistry professor for the College, she is good friends with one of my sisters good friends in Auckland. And then there are people with links back to BHHEC as well.

Lectures have continued to be interesting and thought provoking. Today we got our first set of assignments handed out and tomorrow I have my first quiz. (I was very industrious today and have already finished the first 3rd of the first assignment.)

On Sabbath afternoon we had our first knocking on door experience, after about the first 3 or four houses I figured out that you just hand the people the brochure while your introducing yourself, then even if they say they are not interested they've got the information.

Have a great day, I'm off to bed now so that I am ready for another day ...

The First Day

Yesterday (Sunday) was the first day of lectures. I really enjoyed them!

Arrived at Weimar on Friday at about 11:30. There was no one to meet me or show me where I was supposed to go. I ended up chatting to the head of house keeping for half an hour - she is very nice, and has a lot to say! Then I started knocking on office doors in the AFCOE building and managed to find a person who actually knew what was going on. (Erik Flikenger, who is the assistant director of the program.) He found out what my room number was and showed me where my dorm was - also acquired to  promised bedding and towels etc and the name tag - which is important because you don't get into meals without it!

My room mate is called Heather, she is very nice and also talks a lot. At Friday night vespers they were trying to figure out who had come from the furtherest away, I won (but I think that Norway might actually be further away than New Zealand) anyway I got to choose the next hymn, so I choose a Christmas Carol. Funny thing is that the next person who got to choose a hymn (the oldest person) also choose a Christmas Carol. I am not the only one who loves them and thinks we should sing them all year round!

First Impressions of Weimar;
1. Run down and untidy - but you can see that efforts are being made to repair and improve the place.
2. The bread is a little stale ...
3. Some of the people here are weird/intense - but I thought the people at BHHEC were weird when I arrived there too - and I came to love all of them, lol!
4. Lots of trees! and not just pine trees.
5. The lectures are very good!!!
6. I am missing the beans at breakfast, so far every breakfast has had porridge (oatmeal) I HATE oatmeal!!! With a PASSION!!!!!!! They also have other stuff, but I am missing my breakfast grains as well, am getting hungry before lunch time, will see how it goes for a couple more days and then see if I can find someone to talk too if nothing changes.

I like Sacramento - what I saw as I drove through on the Supper Shuttle (which is like a cross between a taxi and a bus), Sacramento strikes me as a cross between a New Zealand city and an Australian city, lots of trees!!!! including gum trees. All the grass is brown and dried, and things are a little untidy. But the houses seem more like the ones at home and lots of the houses have fences around their front yards. Still no grass verges between the footpath and the roads though.


Notes from one of My Lectures Yesterday:

The Sanctuary Prayer

When your prayer has structure you tend to be more able to keep on focus and not drift into random even sinful things.

1.       The entrance way; Psalms 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

·                    Begin with thanksgiving and praise.

·                    Thanksgiving is for what God has done.

·                     Praise is for who God is. (e.g. Look at God’s names, characteristics, singing,

2.       Alter of Sacrifice; 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

·                    Go through the Ten Commandments; have I done ______ this week...?

3.       Laver; Jesus says I am the living water, asking Jesus to give us a thirst for His righteousness. Ephesians 5:25 – we are made clean by the washing of the word.

4.       Table of Shew Bread; promises that are in God’s word that apply to my life, claim them. And look for the conditions of the promises and make sure I have met them.

5.       Seven Branched Candlestick; Holy Spirit and witnessing, ask for the Holy Spirit and for people to witness to.

                                                    

6.       Alter of Incense; praying for other people – intercession.

7.       Ark of the Covernant; ‘Be still and know that I am God’ stop talking, be quiet and listen.

Wind-wipers and Other Travelling Miracles

Have you ever wondered why they call them wind-wipers? It's not like you are wiping the wind with them ... should be called rain-wipers or water-wipers or liquid-wipers or some-thing-more-accurate-wipers.

The Wind-Wipers Story; 
I left BHHEC under a fairly clear sky, no immanent or threatening clouds to be seen. (Lydia I didn't get your weather warning until it was way too late!) 10 minutes down the road, once I was on the main road to Rapid City travelling at about 65 miles per hour, the clouds became both threatening and immanent, and then the sky fell on my head. One second there was no rain just some big grumbly clouds, the next rain so heavy I might as well have driven into a waterfall. Couldn't see a thing and the windwipers were NO help at all. Lydia had warned me that they did not work well, turns out that they were VERY intermittant. About once every 5 seconds they skipped across the windscreen missing most of the rain in their progress. Luckily there was no cars directly in front of me because looking through that windscreen was worse than when I have misplaced my glasses and am trying to find them in the haze.

I quickly realised that I was not going to be able to continue with the current state of affairs and prayed, reminding God that He had promised to supply all my needs and that right at that instant I needed to be able to see! And nothing changed. By this time I had slowed down to about 35 miles an hour but I was worried that someone coming up behind me would hit me, and I was worried that not being able to see I would run up the back of something else. So I pointed the car and what looked like it might be a clear green patch of road edge, hit the breaks, prayed, closed my eyes (I know, dumb, but I was a bit stressed) and pulled off the road. I came to a bumpy stop in what turned out to be a clear green patch so I didn't hit anything. I ended up a couple of meters off the road, and just as the engine stopped the wind-wipers sprang to life, rapidly traversing the windscreen in an orderly fashion, sweeping the rain from their path in efficient strokes.

I waited a few minutes to check that this would continue - and to settle my nerves - then I gingerly pulled back onto the highway and kept on with my journey. The wind-wipers worked perfectly as long as the rain continued, just as the rain slowed to a spatter the wind-wipers resumed their intermittent skipping action and within a minute the rain was entirely gone.

It did not resume until later that evening when I was just out of Buffelo next to a beautiful lake called De Smitt Lake, I passed a sign for a hotel on the edge of the lake, and then an accident with lots of flashing lights on the other side of the road, and then the rain came. This time God did not make the wind-wipers work, but i was the only car on the road so I slowed to a crawl went off the next off ramp and turned back to the hotel - which was only 1 mile away. Spent a comfortable night and had breakfast to the accompaniment of a very pleasant view.

The Hotel where I stayed, the dark blue ute type vehicle is what I was driving.

Some of the view at breakfast.













Deer:
I had been warned by many people to keep my eyes open for deer and sheep that were apparently liable to commit suicide by jumping out in front of luckless cars without warning at any given moment. I only saw one pair of deer and one stood motionless on the edge of the road and watched me drive by, the other ran away. Apparently that day was not a good day to die.

Other Drivers:
Thanks for all your prayers for safe driving, once I got off the freeway and onto a road that was not divided a car crossed the center line and was coming straight for me, I saw them coming and was able to take evasive actions and they managed to correct themselves before any damage was done.

Driving On The Wrong Side Of The Road:
I only ended up on the wrong side of the road three times! Once was in a car park so I don't think that really counts. The second time was on a back country road when I was trying to get back on the freeway after stopping to get Subway for tea, but there were no other cars on the road to witness my misdemeanor so I'm not sure that actually counts. Kind of like the tree falling in the forest scenario - if there is no one to witness the fall from grace ... did it really happen?? The third time was in a town, I turned into the wrong lane at an intersection, the occupants of an oncoming car pointed and waved wildly accompanied by looks of abject horror, this clued me into the fact that there was a problem. Which I immediately corrected. Apart from that everything was fine.


Big thanks for all the prayers about my safe driving and Praise God for keeping me safe!!