Reflections after a Vineyard Summer Camp

The first day back home after our annual Vineyard Summer Camp in Sweden is always a day of unpacking, doing laundry and reflection. It is strangely quiet around here and the lingering warm fuzzies of sweet fellowship are slowly fading, although it is nice to sleep in my own bed and eat some greens instead of the camp hamburgers. I was so blessed but also stretched and provoked by Sunny Gilbert, Alan Scott and Christy Wimber, who visited our camp this year. Alan and Christy both talked so fast that I need to hear their excellent teaching again. Most of the sessions are already available at http://www.youtube.com/user/vineyardnorden thanks to Jørgen Bjerke from Oslo Vineyard.

Bill Johnson says that if there is a gap between what you believe to be true and what you experience in real life it creates frustration and/or hunger for more. I try to focus on the hunger for more, because I know all the promises of the harvest are available to me and I stretch out and press on. Once every few months I do muster up the courage to pray for a neighbor on non-Christian friend and then brag about it afterwards, whereas Alan's whole church is engaged in day-to-day encounters with people, showing them God's love on an on-going basis. Causeway Coast Vineyard in Ireland is having a real impact on their city and not just keeping the blessings within the four church walls. I feel like I need to have my old dusty phariseic brain blasted by the Holy Spirit so that I can see all this and walk in it more. I find it hard to grasp it, I guess that is why I need what they call the renewing of the mind.

I run a Bed & Breakfast and have spent this hot morning cleaning rooms while contemplating and praying, trying to reflect and discern what the Lord wants to do in our church during this new season where we are without a Pastor. We have a great leadership team where we experience unity and hunger for more and we also have many people in our church who have great but different ideas of how we can fine-tune and upgrade this wonderful messy diverse cluster of people that God calls His church. I am determined to do more outreach and invite more people in, that is one thing that is clear on my heart. Yesterday someone said to me: "Why make the service so seeker-friendly, no seekers are coming anyway" and I have been thinking about that. Actually I was praying about it while making the beds and David yelled up the stairs to ask me what I was doing. "I am getting rooms ready" I answered. "Is anybody coming today?" he asked. "Not that I know of, but it is high season and I want to be prepared". Immediately the Lord dropped the scripture into my heart about being ready in season and out of season. It became so alive in my spirit that the Lord wants us to do in the church what I naturally do in my Bed & Breakfast. It is high season, it is a season of harvest. We want to go out and we want our church to be a place where newcomers can feel welcome and embraced by the Most High God. Even if right now it looks like nobody is coming I want to live in the expectation that the kingdom is breaking through. It is at hand, right in our context. Not just in Redding or in Ireland, but right in Roskilde where I shop and work and live my life. I want to stay on the harvester, I do not want to jump off the harvester to chase mice. Lord, continue to stretch me so that I don't limit you, but expect that you want to do great things right here in our town.

God is in my garden

The first week of July our town is always buzzing. Roskilde doubles in population and I stay home from the office to sell showers in my basement to young people attending our famous music festival. I have worked like crazy all Spring translating testimonies for the new Metal Bible, which is also being released at this year's Festival where the main music theme is Metal. A team of fiery evangelists led by great friends of mine, Roul and Birgitta Åkesson, are walking around handing out Bibles at the Festival parameters. Dax from our church is part of the team and he reports to me daily (read: turns up for lunch) because I am dog-sitting the dog that he is looking after for a week. (The poor dog has been sublet and might end up with an attachment disorder, but that is a different story). I really wanted to join this evangelism team and have fond memories of a few years ago when our whole church was out there with the same group, doing Servant Evangelism and giving away Bibles also. Now I have to stay put, this is the busiest week of the year in my Bed & Breakfast. This week only I am selling basement showers to dusty, friendly young people. Some of them return each summer and call me their Festival Mom. I make a sweet dollar at it, selling coffee and muffins and set up a make-up mirror and cell phone charging panel in my shed. They love my flush toilet. And I give them the New Testament text tucked in between colorful testimonies, one of them my own. Hardly any of my guests turn down this gift, they like the personal twist of my story in it. A guy who showered here yesterday and got a Bible then had read my story in his tent last night and had questions when he turned up today. We have lots of conversations about faith while they sit around and wait for the shower. "Have you ever received a sign?" asked a young man today and I explained to him how God is very much part of my life every day, intervening in big and little things. "For example an amazing thing happened just yesterday" I told him. And now I am going to tell you too, because it really was an amazing turn of events that only God could have orchestrated.

Dax came for lunch yesterday and was sharing excitedly about all the young people that they had shared with and prayed for. He had been teamed up with someone from another local church who shared his passion for spreading the good news. And I told him that this other local church is really reaching people. "For example that traffic cop on that TV series, do you know who that is?" "Yes, he lives in my suburb." "Well he got saved at that church a while back and is now a Christian". It was just a quick comment in a long conversation over lunch and Dax headed back for another round in the field.

An hour later he called me, all panicky. "There are big strong Festival bouncers here, all of a sudden they are saying we are not allowed to stand here, we need a permit. At first one guy came and I told him I was not the leader of this outreach, but I was sure the leader had his permits in order. A little while three big strong menacing guards came and told us to pack up and get a move on quickly. And we are all shook up because they were so angry. Can you call the county and find out how we get a permit?". I did some phoning around and kept getting redirected till I finally spoke to the right lady. Except she was not really that right, she was also menacing and hostile and did not want any group to do any outreach of any sort. "But they are not setting up a table, they are just pulling a small trolley around, handing out free stuff". "They are not allowed to be anywhere in town, the streets get too congested". She only got more irritated when I mentioned that we had been allowed other years, so finally I hung up and phoned Dax and told him that we need a miracle because we are hitting closed doors. Dax prayed in the street, I prayed in my garden. And all of a sudden a police car rolled by Dax and in it sat Vlado, the Christian policeman that I had just told Dax about over lunch. Vlado rolled down his window and yelled "Keep up the good work" and Dax told him about their new problem. "You are very much allowed to be here" said Vlado, "and if anyone gives you any trouble, just give them this". He gave Dax his business card. And the team kept sharing their faith and their Bibles yesterday and today and did not get any more flack. An amazing story of God making a way where there was no way. A lunch conversation turned into a miracle. Yet another fingerprint of God in my life that I could share with a young man between showers today.

Because God is in my garden.