I was at the Strandqvists' house the other day and discovered a book they had and borrowed it. Now I am chewing my way through it. It is a work book connected with a tape series that I really enjoyed a few years ago. I lent the tapes to someone and forget whom - too bad - but now I am enjoying the book. It is an old book by Mark Virkler called "Communion with God" and has good tips for becoming quiet enough to hear God speak. I need that big time! Often when I sit down to meet with God my mind gets invaded with thoughts of shopping lists, people to call, dinner plans, loads of laundry that need to be hung up to dry and other very important matters that make the world go under if they are postponed five minutes. Believe me, I need all the help I can get to learn to be still before God, and this book is good, although the woman on the cover looks like a bad joke from the eighties. It is a real work book, it even has quizzes and questionnaires so that you can find out what "worship style" you are, sort of like what the teachers always talk about with learning styles.

In it is this little poem that is so good that I just have to share it, a poem by Helen Mallicoat:

I was regretting the past and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking:
"My name is I Am."

He paused. I waited. He continued,

"When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard.
I am not there. My name is not I Was.

When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard.
I am not there. My name is not I Will Be.

When you live in this moment it is not hard. I am here.
My name is I Am"

Coming home from church full of excitement. Another great service, and it's always so unpredictable. Worship was great and it was my turn to do Children's church. After the Bible lesson I took my group outside to play with the new parachute I bought. But just then it started to rain. Yikes,I had planned to spend the last half hour outside, and now it rained. Where's Elijah when you need him? Fortunately I am good at improvising.

We have so many kids in childrens' church now that we have them split up into three groups. I had the middle ones, from Kindergarten to Second grade. Awesome fun. The new room we were allowed to use for the first time had a bunch of pillows in different colours. I stacked them up and asked the kids to think of a fairytale, and a bright girl immediately guessed that it was the Princess on the Pea. That led to new adventures: I laid down on the floor and played pea, the kids piled all the pillows on top of me and took turns being the princess. I couldn't see much, but my guess is that there was more than one princess at a time up there, because I could hardly breathe. Partly because the pillows were suffocating me and partly because I was laughing my guts out. The kids had fun. I had fun. And in grown-up church I think they had fun too, because some of the usually calm and collected ladies had just been at a conference where they had heard that they were lionesses and they were going crazy with excitement. The sermon I didn't hear, but I am sure it was great too.

I got home and logged on to Facebook and meant to update my status with a statement that my church is the best church in the whole world. Then I see status updates from all over the globe from friends who claim that they have just been to the best church in the whole world. It makes me grateful. Church, when it works as its builder intended, is a wonderful place. One newcomer to our church once exclaimed, after a service, through tears: "This is a place of grace". This was about three years ago and this man is now one of our leaders. Our church is growing a lot right now, and I just hope and pray that through these phases of growth we would hang on to that precious DNA and never let it go: I want Roskilde Vineyard to always be a place of grace. A place where children can laugh (with old ladies) and a place where docile declawed housecats can be changed into lions. I am so thankful that God is building His church, all over the world, a sometimes disheveled but yet precious masterpiece of living stones. He loves His bride and I am so thankful to be in a church where our services are a foretaste of the great Heavenly wedding to come. And based on Sunday evening's status updates, there are enclaves of joy and grace like that all over the world. "I like"