A funny moment

EMP is this morning, so alarm is set early.

6 am rolls around and I'm having trouble getting out of bed.

Until... I hear the sound of violent puking.
I jump out of bed and run to the bathroom.
Noone is there.
Phew.

I go back to my room. I realize it's coming for our neighbor's house. And it sounds like an older man.

So, I to Erin's room.

"Erin, do you hear that man puking?"

Erin responds, "I hear that every morning."

Turns out... He pukes (OR coughs?)... every morning.

Life on Crosby Rd. Living the dream.

Alyssa comes to family night!

Last night Alyssa came to family night!  It was such a blessing to have her with us! For me, it was especially fun to have 2 worlds colliding.  Alyssa often hears about life in the d-house, and the d-house often hears about my friendship with Alyssa.  So, to have the two sharing life together was really special for me! I loved that the girls got a taste of the incredible woman that Alyssa is! She gave a teaching on Joy in Suffering. It was SO good. So.good.   It was so raw, so genuine, and so practical.  I have found that often, when someone gives a great sermon or teaching, that during it, your emotions are high-- you are feeling stirred, challenged, convicted and eager to bring change to your life.  But the next day,  and weeks to come, the initial emotions wear off...and you have to choose to commit yourself to the word that was taught to you, and really apply it and fight for those truths to become your reality.  So hence this blog post: A commitment to let her teaching mold me and move me forward in Jesus.
One major aspect that I am coming out of Alyssa's teaching with is the importance of sowing.  Specifically, she challenged us that it is the seasons where things are going well and you don't necessarily feel like you are desperately depending on the Lord, that you must sow into your spirit and press into Jesus.  She highlighted 4 specific areas to sow into: thankfulness, community, surrender and truth.  The deeper you sow into these things in joyous seasons, the more you will reap in seasons of trial or suffering.  I feel stirred to really press into Jesus more than ever in this season, knowing that what I sow now, I will reap later.

I am so thankful that Alyssa took the time to come into our house!  She has become such a dear friend to me and it was incredible to receive her impartation of spiritual wisdom and supernatural joy!

Love our church!

A Brand Spanking Not-So-New Semester!

So it's been a while since we've written. But not to worry, there is a lot happening here on 54 Crosby rd!! This semester has brought new levels of friendship between the six of us, and I for one feel so blessed to be walking with these girls. I feel like I can be myself at all times, with people who completely understand me and want to see me grow into who God has destined me to be! We have seen the glory of God in our lives, his faithfulness, his peace, his joy, and his grace this semester, and it just keeps coming. Anyways, lots has happened since Thanksgiving that I could write about, but I'll focus on a few of the many happenings of this semester:

Outreach at the Mods:
One of our faithgroup attenders felt the desire to head a new form of outreach at BC. This was seconded by some other people who felt the same gentle stirring of the Spirit, and so one Sunday a few of us decided to walk down to the Mods--where some seniors live and often host parties--with cleaning supplies with the intent of cleaning their bathrooms. It was amazing how much God used us to bless and love people. In the first Mod, before I joined the crew doing outreach, they met Brian and his roommates. They welcomed us in to clean their bathrooms. The awesome thing about doing this kind of outreach is that we could have some people cleaning the bathrooms while others conversed with the people who lived there. Brian had torn his ACL, and he let us pray for healing. After we prayed, he started moving it and testing it out, and said it felt better; we believe in faith that God moved mightily and healed his leg! The last house we cleaned that day, we found girls who were hungry to hear the truth. They let us pray and ask God to tell us what He loved about them, and a few of them almost started crying as they heard how deeply and uniquely God loved and knew them. One of them even said "it's so cool that you can hear from God like that!" We are trying to make this type of outreach a regular practice; who doesn't want their bathroom cleaned for free by kind strangers?? Jesus washed feet, lowering Himself even unto death for us! Why would we not serve others the same way?

World Mandate:
We had some amazing breakthrough for our house and for our section during this year's World Mandate Conference. World Mandate is our church movement's annual Missions Conference. We met this year at Bentley's Conference Center. There were three amazing speakers who spoke deep truths into deep places of our spirits, there were worship times that brought overflowing joy and life, there were friends from near and far that share the same passion, and of course the Lord of All pierced every heart with his furious love! It was amazing and challenging to see how our church leaders live to love God and serve others. It was incredible to be reawakened to what God is doing here and now. And it was life-changing to see how we are all a part of it! Colby Lehman spoke about his experiences being a church-planter overseas, Joe Ewen shared about his encounter with the Holy Spirit that led him into the gift of prophesy, and Larry Kreider talked about how the local church is central to seeing people's lives changed. The joy of the Lord was so prominent the whole weekend, resulting in a few spontaneous dance parties :) Overall, I think the 6 of us girls all came away with deeper places of SECURITY in who we are called to be. That weekend was pivotal for me, as I am starting to see the faithful hand of God in this season of my life as He fulfills prophetic calls on my life, transforms my perspective, and gives me vision and purpose. One example of this: someone had prayed over me about half a year ago that I would be a person with Christ's eyes of compassion. Well, at this conference, I felt the Lord say that He was giving me His eyes. My eyes started to quiver (yes, it was very strange), and I felt like He was fulfilling this word; I received what He had to give! It was awesome, and, well...supernatural. Others of my roommates encountered the Lord's confirmation in mighty ways as well. We had such a large turnout of BC students, and I think it was definitely unifying for our section as we all begin to carry the vision of changing the world...starting now!

A short little testimony from my day to encourage you guys: In one of my large science classes we use something called an iClicker to answer class participation questions that are interspersed throughout the lecture. Well, I really need to do well in this class, and my iClicker has not been working. I knew the batteries weren't low and I didn't want to buy a new one because they are expensive. So a question came up today and I was bummed because it was not working for the third class in a row. I frustratedly asked God to fix my iClicker, but nothing happened, and I was getting more and more frustrated at this little inconvenience. But then I had a thought; a simple reality that God was showing me how to practically live out. The thought was "why am I begging God? He has already graciously given me authority to see change happen around me, and I am acting as if this is something I have not yet received." As my mindset changed, I watched the light on my iClicker flicker on. It was incredible how such a little thing shows the VASTNESS of the person of the Holy Spirit. Because we have been washed clean by Him, we are "coheirs with Christ" and are already "seated in the heavenly realms" with Him (Romans 8:17, Ephesians 2:6).

Hope you are encouraged!

With so much love!
Beccah

Thankfulness

On August 30, 2011 before moving into this home, I was faced with my first challenge of living in this D-House... learning to be thankful. With Lauren's gentle encouragement to be thankful in all of the little, I moved into this home, and I can say for sure that these last three months have been more than just a blessing; sometimes I can't believe that this is actually real life. God has definitely been teaching me to be thankful as I live with these 5 beautiful and loving roommates, and it's been an awesome journey.

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Post-grad life has definitely not looked like what I had thought it would look like a year ago. First of all, I thought I would be living in Spain by now (and that's a whole different story). But at least I thought I would graduate BC, have a full-time job, and just live the typical every day life. No, my life does not look like that right now (wait, but I did graduate from BC), and it was difficult to deal with during my first few weeks of living in this house. I was disappointed and discouraged, and had a hard time managing all of the free time I had because my internship was only part-time. But during all of these discouraging moments, I had my sweet roommates who would leave me encouraging notes in my room or the bathroom mirror, or would just stop what they were doing to pray for me on the spot. Because of all the sacrificial love that my roommates have shared with me, there was no room for discouragement in my life.

Beccah. She brings so much joy into my life. She really knows how to make someone feel loved with her amazing hugs and sweet smile. Something I am learning from her is to not complain even when things don't seem to be going right; she sure is a joyful woman!

Diane. She loves me and she shows it all the time. DK calls me the little baby, but I love it when she plays that role too. It's all about the little things. I love having our korean food dinners together, and I think it's super cute when she asks me to sing her to sleep or blow dry her hair.

Erin. I don't think I've met another person who is as great of a listener as Erin is. She listens with her heart, and she remembers things about people. I value the many conversations we've shared, and I've learned incredible amounts from her. She is a woman of compassion, and her love is loud.

Kathy. My sweet roommate up in the attic. I love waking up to her worshipping on the guitar in the morning, and I love hearing about her stories with her students at pre-prac. She is one who understands me without having to explain myself all the time, and she teaches me to relax and just enjoy.

Lauren. Roommate, friend, sister and discipler. Is it even possible to play all of those roles? Well she does, and she does it well. There is always something to learn from Lauren, and I have grown immensely because of the way she has loved me, encouraged me, and prayed for me. She's also super gifted in making our house look all pretty so I am thankful for that.

Do I have the most wonderful roommates ever? YES :)

FAMILY NIGHT: DINNER & CHRISTMAS TREE SHOPPING & DECORATING THE HOME

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

For family night tonight, Diane cooked us a lovely Korean food dinner. I walked into the home after coming back from the gym to the delightful smell of her cooking, and yes it tasted as good as it smelled. There was so much laughter and joy at the table tonight as we shared in conversation and listened to Christmas carols. Because we are all so busy in our different ways, it's so hard to get all of us to eat together, and so I am thankful for our family nights that bring us together one night of the week to talk about our highs and lows of the day and to just enjoy each other's company :)

Thank you Diane for cooking this week, you've blessed our tummies!

These are all of my roommates in Lauren's car, super excited to go Christmas tree shopping!

So all six of us are pretty indecisive haha, so it took us a while to figure out which tree we wanted. But after much thought and consideration, we finally decided on this lovely tree that DK is posing next to. Isn't she beautiful? Diane, not the tree haha. Okay fine, the tree too.

And the decorating begins!

mmhmm, we had tons of fun with decorating our house, and ourselves HAHA

And then we had a little too much fun with the camera...

hahaha YES I love these girls so much!

So in conclusion, I am so thankful to be living in this house with these girls. It would be such a hard and long journey of faith if I didn't have these sweet friends, and so I am thankful for the way they love me and walk with me through it all. Thank you, and love you.

JOINT FAMILY NIGHT

Here are fun pics from our joint family night with the boyz d-house....

It was a fun evening!  With delicious food, including Eric's banging pot pie!!  And the quickest game of Mafia ever.  One of my favorite moments was def the dance off... especially Evan's salsa and Hannah's booty shakin.

Thanks guys for an awesome evening!

Snapshots of life!

A few moments in the life of the d-house gals this last week...

For the last few years, my Friday mornings have been filled with one thing: Prayer. Not just prayer. But early morning prayer.  7 am, to be exact. Although I realize most of the working world is used to getting up that early, 7am is quite painfully early for a college student.  But, every Friday, the BC section gathers to call out for our campus in prayer.  This past Friday, several of the girls from our house rose early in the AM to head to EMP.  It had gotten really chilly the night before, and so everyone bundled up and grabbed a warm cup of coffee for EMP... here's Erin and Beccah walking down Comm Ave.  What a sight...



Another snapshot.  I woke up this morning and headed to the Grace Nest for my time with the Lord.  Here's proof that Diane had a late night...



Coffee. Pepsi. Snacks. and work sprawled out over the table.

A funny moment from family night last night.  Erin began to share about a sermon she had listened to this weekend that had really challenged her.  "So, I was listening to this sermon this weekend called the unoffendable heart about living in community..."
Beccah interrupts, "Oh my gosh, I'm so convicted!!"
The rest of us look at Beccah.
"Convicted?.... She hasn't shared anything yet..."
"Just the title of it, Unoffendable heart, is convicting."

A funny moment, but also so challenging! I love the way these girls press into Jesus and the way they are sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit! AMEN!

Women who crave more of Jesus!

One of the most encouraging things about the house so far is the maturity and hunger of my roommates before the Lord.  It's become a very routine thing to see a roommate camped out in the Grace Nest with their headphones on and Bible out.  I've been especially encouraged by our family nights!  This past week, I felt like God gave me the words Thankfulness and Repentance.  So, we started off with a time of thankfulness, by singing some worship songs.  We moved into a time of listening to a spoken/spontaneous word from an old World Mandate CD about thankfulness.  We then spend several minutes journaling out things we were thankful for.    Afterwards, inspired by the book of James, we had a time of repenting and confessing before Jesus and each other.    I mean, imagine being one of these girls.. you've got homework and tests, ministry, work, and the craziness of life buzzing in the back of your mind. It's a MONDAY afterall.. and LJ tells you to go into a time of repentance.  I think about my immaturity the first year of the D-house... I don't doubt that I would have rolled my eyes and thought to myself that I didn't have anything to repent for.... But not these girls... These are humble, teachable and sold out women for Jesus!  It was challenging and moving to hear these girls cry out to God in humility.  Tears were shed as they confessed their need for God.  I was sprawled out on the floor, when I realized my roommates had gathered around each other to pray.  It was so moved by the way each girl began crying out for one another.    The girls prayed over each other and heard words from the Lord, prophesying and speak life into the hurting places.    Our time of repentance took about twice as long as I expected/planned... but you can plan an outpouring of the Spirit!

I am continually encouraged by these girls faith! I think about Diane and Beccah, who've chosen to live off campus their senior year, when all their friends are together on campus.  They've chosen the narrow road, but Jesus is so faithful and worth it- I know He's delighted in the way they've positioned themselves before God.  I think of Hannah, who chose to put Jesus and community above the choice of being financial stability.  She is a woman of faith.  I think about Erin and how she is balancing school work, working and pre-prac on top of ministry, yet still takes the time to serve and love me;  I feel so covered by her and she takes time to love on the person in front of her.  Despite early mornings, she still lives a life marked by joy.  I think of Kathy, who would drop anything for anyone who had a need.  She's got so  much going on in her own walk with Jesus and finishing up grad school, but takes time for her friends.  She is a woman who perseveres in God even when it's hard or doesn't make sense.

I love these girls. I am blessed!!