Releasing dance.

My sweet friend, Robin is a dancer out west. She allows the Lord to use this precious gift to touch hearts, including, and most importantly, His own. I know He looks at Robin with such delight. And so do I. This sister has had a great impact on my life, perhaps more than she knows. I still remember the first time we met (or thereabouts). She lived down the hall from me in college and during freshmen new student week walked down the hall, saw me wearing a “WWJD” bracelet and asked if I was a Christian. I shared that I was and we went to a Christian fellowships picnic, then got involved in some groups on campus. We led a Bible study together our sophomore year. I was a baby, and she walked along side me during a time when I didn’t really know what the heck I was doing, or how to walk with the Lord.

My senior year of college, Robin attended some crazy conference called The Call (I think ;o) ) And came back with this passion for prayer, with this love for a Lord that was intimate with His people, and could be known beyond the academia that seemed to surround me. She somehow talked me into praying at 6am in the mornings together…which I don’t think lasted that long, because I was a wimp and liked to sleep in. But I still remember sitting on my bed and listening to some worship music called “Harp and Bowl” and thinking…this is really amazing…where has this been? I remember her talking about pictures that God had shared with her mom, and how the Lord could speak through dreams, and stuff about speaking in tongues….all things that I guess I had sectioned off in my mind as , “that’s just not how God usually works.” He works through neat packaged little programs, right? Formulaic Bible studies. Normal stuff. And He does, of course. But I was hungry for more. I was hungry to encounter the God who split the seas, who healed the leper, who walked on water, who loved like a bridegroom and a father. And whether she knows it completely or not, Robin began to open a door for me to encounter this Living God, who broke the barriers of my imagination, who broke out of my box, and captivated my life.

I have since had the pleasure of reconnecting with my lovely Robin over the years – we ran into each other at IHOP and I was thankful to have the chance to tell her “Thank you” for sharing what God had been doing in her life that senior year, and how it had blessed me.

Be blessed by this sister as she shares her love for the Lord through dance. I love you, Robin.

Updates…

I recently updated my “About me” page and my “Support me” page. You are invited to take a gander at both, if you like. I would encourage anyone who is interested in supporting me or reading about supporting me to also check out my “About me” page as I have taken a little time to flesh out more of a vision for where I feel the Lord is taking me in the future! Blessings!

First fruit.

Somedays you just know it was God that showed up.

I usually go to Melissa’s class and help out for a few hours on Wednesdays. I enjoy doing dramatic readings of the Chronicles of Narnia, helping kids with math, and grading papes. I was praying this morning that God would show me his goodness and prayed generically for my time at the school.

I walked in and began helping a group of 5th graders attempt to work as a team to summarize a chapter of Shiloh. They were loud, defiant, and really struggling to work as a team. Melissa had some words with them and for the last two minutes they did a pretty good job. Melissa walked the kids down to gym and I just started praying for things to change in the class, that there would be quiet where there was noise, peace and order instead of chaos, that the Holy Spirit would come. Earlier in the morning Stacy and Melissa had been praying for God to make a specific breakthrough in the classroom.

So the class returns and Melissa hands out a reading on the celebration of Chanuka. The class begins to read the worksheet together with Melissa while I’m grading some papers. They chat about the Menorah and what it symbolises when one of the students asks if the Jewish people believe in God. Melissa explains that they do believe in God. Another student asks if they believe in Jesus, and thus begins a 20 minute conversation about Jesus in our very own local public school.

The kids just began to ask question after question about why the Jewish people didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah and why did they whip Jesus in that Passion movie. They begin to share stories of what they know of Jesus from a time at church or a movie they saw, and Melissa and I can’t stop looking at each other in amazement. What just happened here? God just showed up.

As the bell rings for packing up time, the conversations about Jesus continue in the classroom. One of the inquisitive boys walks over and I tell him that he asks really good questions. We have a brief conversation trying to help him understand why the Jewish people didn’t believe in Jesus – the old testament – the prophecies – the waiting for a King that came as a carpenter- the religious leaders fearing a loss of power. He seemed to understand a little bit more. One of the unreal things about the whole event was the atmosphere in the room was actually -quiet. The children were engaged or quietly working on the worksheet. The questions were free flowing. There was order, peace, quiet, and a specific breakthrough!

As the kids were packing up to go one of the girls walked upto me and handed me an orange. The Lord just spoke to me, “See, Sara. Do you see the fruit?” God is hearing our prayers, He is moving for His glory, for His inheritance.

Melissa and I proceeded to do a happy dance once the kids had left and prayed in praise to quite literally a fantastic move of God in our little town.

All praise to the King.

Later that evening two of the boys from her class venture over to our computer lab and end up attending The Refuge, our youth Bible study, Heather and Stacy lead. Just awesome.