I'm officially going to Panama! I am accepted, and pending that we have a full team of at least 2 girls and 2 boys we're good to go. I have a huge grin needless to say! PANAMA... wow!

Yesterday in the mail I recieved the letter I had written to myself at debrief in Panama. It was so cool to read, haha after I had gotten over the initial confusion of why the address was written in my handwriting. It was awesome just to be reminded of a lot of cool things that had happened both within our team but also in my own heart. I'm totally still growing from where I was and too was so encouraged to see that I hadn't fallen further away from where I was when I was in Panama. Just good stuff! I'm just getting excited to go! On the up side of things it won't be cold there.. I'll miss the snow, but not the temperature.... :)

Brrrrrr......!

The weather is intensely cold right now... like -40 with the wind chill... nutty I'm saying but oh well! Other than that, I recieved a personality test to do for my STINT application today in the mail and its cool because it's one more step to get closer to actually going! Finals are on there way, as is Christmas and Winter Conference, needless to say I'm looking forward to both... and being done my second last semester of school!

So... I applied to convocate in June today... craziness!

Alrighty... so the Lions won the Grey Cup yesterday haha right and that was awesome. Just wanted though to post a quick note. My application is being processed for STINT right now and it feels really godo to have it in and everything. God just keeps revealing his heart to me about Panama and more about who I am and why my heart is wired the way it is. I'm starting a time of prayer and fasting today which I think will be craziness but I really want to learn to be dependent on God and learn to hear his heart. So we'll see how it goes anyways! Christmas is coming up fast too which is awesome and it'll also mean I'm down to four months of school! More to come as always...

Okay, so this totally doesnt look like it, and I have no idea what kind of grin that is on my face (I was kinda excited...!) but that is my STINT application which I dropped off at the Campus for Christ headquarters in BC this weekend! Rock on!

K guys, just read this one...

I was just looking at some pictures for this summer and trying to think about what to say tommorrow to encourage people to consider going to Panama this spring or summer on project. My heart is already there, I can't even get back to work on my paper because it honestly just aches to get back there and back to work. There is such a harvest waiting, just waiting if we are faithful and willing to go. Even simply rethinking why we're going down has totally solidified my committment to going back for STINT. My heart is already there. I know that in a tonne of ways its so hard to explain what going on in my life. But what I do know is this. As a part of the STINT team, God calls me to head down and further his kingdom, fulfill the Great Comission to the utter outmosts of my ability. I want to see relationships restores and passion reignited in the Christians that are there. I want to see people understand the crucial difference between religion and a personal and living relationship with our Heavenly Father. I want to see people become passionate about who they are in Christ and to walk in that daily, making an impact on their Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of their world. Its really not about me at all. Its about God and his heart for the lost. If I can only catch a piece of that, to get that passion and desire in my heart to reach the lost God is going to do huge things. I know and believe with all my heart that his plans are good and so good for me. They're better than everything I know or ever will know.

Scratch one of the list of things to do before I graduate... I finally painted "The Rock!" Spray paint all over my frozen fingers.. but so worth it!

So.. just remembered something really cool! Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham) is doing whats called "A Festival of Hope" in Panama City this Febrauary!!! Thats so cool! A festival of hope is basically a 2-3 day festival with bands and the presentation of the gospel to thousands of people over the time period. I thought it was so cool to see how God is totally working in Latin America right now, the harvest is plentiful, we just need to go down and work it!

Monday morning and here at school for 8am prayer. Looks like no one else made it so I put some tunes on and am going to write down some thoughts and prayers for this time.

Father God I thank you so much for this time, that even though its just you and me.

Haha Amy and Zoe just showed up, it was the C-train. I was right on the transit note anyways. But posting this really quick because I was looking as this passage last night and it was super good.

Psalm 16:5-8 (the message) "My choice is you, first and only. And now I find I'm your choice! You set me up with a houtse and yard. And then you made me a heir! The wise counsel God gives me when I am awake us confirmed by my sleeping heart. Day and night I'll stick with God. I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go."

This week is going to be nutty with outreach and midterms but I just really ask that as you say in Psalm 62 that you would "lead me to the rock that is higher than I," to the special place of refuge that you have for me, that I would take time this week and be still, knowing you are God.

Just wanted to post an excerpt from an email I got this morning.... because its good...

"I do pray you have a good weekend. May you have eyes to see and ears to hear what God is up to. May you treat time as a gift and not a possession. Your life is to be purposeful not purpose-driven. Yes we all need good time management skills but not the kind that make us grumpy and anxious but aware of the chaos and messiness of life, the delights and the despair, the breakdowns and the breakthroughs. The laughter and the tears. May you live full, rich lives. As Eugene Peterson writes in his rendering of Proverbs 11:24: The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.May you give yourselves generously first to God and I pray that you will seek other's blessing as well and that in the midst of that you will be blessed. I am thankful to Mark Buchanan and his book The Rest of God for challenging me with these thoughts. "

Just found out yesterday too that our STINT team continues to grow! I was praying for more women because the whole 3-4 guys plus me thing wasn't looking good. But I got an email from a friend of mine I was in Panama with last summer and she has decided to come on STINT. I'm so excited, she's awesome!! So yep, its been cool to see how God is putting together an amazing team for next year. Just people I've totally connected with already this summer, which makes it easier to fathom being away from my family and everything "normal". Just knowing I have people on the team that I trust and can relate too makes everything a little easier!

Just found out Switchfoot is releasing an album in December... party on!


Yep thats all I have for now, thought I'd share the love...

Alrighty, 4 midterms done and 1 to go. Our massive outreach for C4C is this week and its been so cool to see how God is clearing up details for the lectures and mobilizing the students in the ministry to raise the awareness of the whole thing. I was chatting with one of "my girls" during out discipleship time yesterday about time management. Looking back, its been so cool to see how God has totally worked in my life to help me utilize my time the best I can. I remember in my first year God spoke to me and asked, "are you being faithful with your time?" It was an awesome reminder that we have limited time and we need to glorify God with it. Also thinking a lot about the love that Christ has for us. Romans 8:38ish talks about that. I was thinking how cool that is that nothing can seperate us from this love, even when I screw up and make mistakes. There's that verse that talks about "Christs love compells us" (I'll find it eventually) and made the connection. Nothing that I do seperates me from his love and therefore I'm compelled to share with my friends, participate in our outreaches and seek to walk in his will and glorify him with my actions. So a couple of random thoughts but its been good.. life is good, and above all, God is good!

Hey,

So its been another crazy week, middle of midterms, but at the same some really cool things have been going on. We (Campus for Christ) are bringing in a guest lecturer named Michael Horner for a series of lectures in November. I'm in charge of booking rooms and it was not looking good at all. There were new rooms at all that would work for the lecture and the lady at the university I was working with was honestly hard to work with. I realized this weekend though that too often I walk in defeat. I kept trying and trying to get rooms booked but expecting that nothing was going to come from it. Sunday at church I was reminded that Gods already got us covered, he's already won the war, or whatever battle we are fighting. Monday morning I called the room booking lady and ran into another brick wall it seemed. But, God is totally faithful she emailed saying there were three rooms available for out lecture, and one that is going to work beautifully. Its so cool to see that God is totally taking care of us. He has huge plans for my campus, I know this to be true and sometimes I just need to claim the massive victories that Christ has already won. More later.. gotta run!

Alrighty... so thoughts. Its been a crazy week and I haven't had any time to work on my application, although its constantly been on my heart and mind. Work has been absolutley nutty, I apparently picked one of the busiest restaurants in the city and therefore the nights are getting later as I'm up studying. Through all of it though its been really cool to see how God is continually giving me patience and strength as I go about the day and totally blessing me with some awesome conversations. Totally encouraging! Our ladies leadership discipleship group has been reading a book called "the discipline of grace," (by jerry bridges) and its been such as good reminder that on bad days (and even on the good ones) we are never beyond the reach and never beyond the need of Gods grace. I know thats true in my life for sure!

Alright, so the pile of papers that is my STINT application is printed and ready to be filled out. Lots of questions so the whole task is daunting, but I'm ready to get rolling and mail the whole thing out by November 1. Seems like its a lot of time, but I know I need it with everything else going on! I'm excited though for sure!

Here we go again!

October has come and its crazy that September has come and gone already! Panama project was amazing and things still remind me of there all the time, the people and the places. Something happened (actually a lot of things happened) in my heart and I've made my decision to apply to go on STINT next year in Panama City. What that means exactly is that I want to go back and invest in the ministy, by lending manpower and support for a period of 10-12 months. Details still need to be worked out, I still need to actually pull together my massive application and get that rolling. I feel like something was left unfinished when I came home and it took my a while to pinpoint thats what I was feeling. So I want to go back!

Hey-oh!

Okay so our second night of showing the Jesus film got rained out... Boo hey! But in the same way it was alright because we got to meet the church people and a bunch of people from the community and we are going back there Saturday night so I am excited. We have showed the Jesus film for kids 12 times in the last couple of days in local schools so other than the lack of sleep it was awesome! We woke up this morning to an absolutely beautiful day with a gorgeous blue sky, so we´re praying the rain stays off till at least 11 o clock tonight. Tonight we´re showing in the community we´re staying in so I´m excited to get out and invite the people we´ve been seeing, or have been seeing us every day. Also, 2 of the students I´ve been discipling over the last month are among a group of 6 students that are coming to join us on the film tonight so it´ll be awesome to see them sharing their faith with others. All in all its going to be awesome! Thanks so much for all your prayers, the best things you can do is pray, and pray it doesnt rain!

Luv you! Lins :)

Alrighty... so R&R has ended but it was amazing! We headed out to an extinct volcano and took over an absolutely beautiful hotel which was awesome. Saturday morning we literally climbed a mountain. The tour guide named Mario that took us actually worked on the Survivor Panama crew so apparently he´s pretty famous. But the view was amazing once we finally got there.

Sunday night our team transported back to an area of Panama city and showed our first round of Jesus film showing. I got to share my testimony sunday night at the showing and it was really cool to be a part of that. The kids were adorable and we taught them "duck, duck, goose" although in spanish goose doesn´t translate so it was duck, duck, chicken, "pato, pato, pollo." We´re all being billeted out to families in the area and Laura, one of the Panamanian students and I are staying with an older gentleman named Luis and his mother. They´re a riot and because I don´t speak a tonne of Spanish we´re having fun figuring things out, oh, and the shower has one temperature, cold... but at least it wakes me up in the morning.

There were some problems with the scheduling for our team and we actually don´t have more showings of the film until Thursday night. So yesterday we struggled with feelings of uselessness, but God is good and we´re going to a school to show the Jesus film to students and then to a prayer meeting at night. I am so looking forward to the showings of the film this weekend. Whats really cool is that we have 12 Panamanian students joining us throughout the week. A lot of them our people we saw come to Christ on the campus cycle and they´re now taking the step of faith and coming to share their testimonies and their faith at the shows. So keep praying for us as we push forward until the end. Gods answering prayers though, as Mark (one of our team members) was really sick but now he´s rejoined us, and I was actually able to get some sleep last night, which was such a blessing!

I love you all as always and will see you all so soon!