Check below for two new posts! God's laid it on my heart to share the events of this past week, and a few other things as well.

This whole week has been quite amazing, and it's hard to pull one thing from the other, so bear with me...

Monday night at our weekly meeting, it was announced that whoever chooses could participate this week in a fast. Reasons and lengths of fasts are up to us individually, and the fast breaks on Saturday. I'd fasted before, for a day, and it had been a very positive experience, so I was definitely excited. Fasting is something that I had initially had some trepidation over - the idea of voluntarily starving oneself... I couldn't see the connection to God. However, fasting that one day back in the spring really opened my eyes to how much I don't depend on God for, thank God for, seek God for... So when the fast was announced this week, I was excited. Because as you may have noticed, I've beed a bit muddled. There's a lot going on, and it's easy to get distracted by ministry, and fun times, and people, and just unimportant little things that devour time and energy. Fasting, in this case, was an opportunity to get back to God. To fully depend on God, and to seek Him clearly and individedly. So my fast started Monday night, and my original intention had been to go without food until Friday - a huge commitment, and not an attempt to be 'super-faster' so much as to really stretch my faith and devotion... but dietary concerns arose on tuesday night, and so I made the decision to eat the evening meal after 5:00 pm. Still painful, but not nearly as harmful.

I'm excited to hear everyone's stories at the end of the fast, of how they heard from God, or how they connected with Him. Tuesday and Wednesday i ended up having conversations with my coworkers about my faith, and I had no one to thank but God. It was so apparent the need to depend on Him, especially on tuesday as my head was throbbing and swimming. Despite being physically empty during my workday, I feel more and more filled up by God, and more and more ready to pray and thank Him. Dinner, or eating, has grown so much more special, more a cause for thanksgiving than before. Not to say that you have to fast to have a relationship with God, but it's definitely biblical and I would recommend it if you're able. I'll write some more thoughts on this later this weekend, after the fast breaks. (Breakfast on Sunday will be a blessed event, that's for sure! ;))

Tuesday night was a coffee house outreach, where DRIME did their first performance - it was powerful, that's for sure. After the dramas, which featured Jesus's ministry, life and death, we talked with the members of the audience about what they'd just seen. Ekua and I talked to two lovely Chinese students, Connie and Mei, who amazingly understood everything perfectly, and asked really excellent questions about Jesus was, and what it took to become a child of God. I got their phone numbers and email addresses, and hopefully we can meet up sometime and talk more about what they think about everything.

I'd mention more, but I've run out of time - there's a DRIME meeting, which I scheduled, right now! Much love, everyone. I think of you and pray for you often!

To continue the previous post, the rest of the afternoon of the barbeque was just beautiful. Olga and I met with a young couple who had happened upon free food and friendly faces, and decided to stop in. Both of them seemed to have been 'roughed up', I guess, by life. The young man, despite being nice enough, never seemed to get the breaks he thought he deserved. People are quick to judge and too slow to offer a helping hand, and you could see the shell hardening around him as he spoke. Not to put too dramatic a touch on the conversation, but you could see him becoming defensive about how life isn't fair, and how he ought to be able to live the way he wanted to, to be able to have a comfortable home and car, etc. As with many of my experiences here in Halifax, the fact that I have a warm home and bed, and a cupboard and fridge full of food, friends who care for me and parents who support me, seems altogether more of a blessing than it ever has. How much more I would thank God for those things, and more, when I met Robbie only moments later.

It would have been easy to write Robbie off and leave him to his own devices. When I first saw him, he was sitting on the church steps, hugging himself. Crusted blood clung to his nose and fingers, and his right eye was swollen and red. The barbeque was just around the corner, but he seemed to be lingering. When I invited him in, he appeared not to understand me at first, and then mumbled something not quite intelligable, jerking his head erratically. My heart went out to him. There are many homeless on the streets of downtown Halifax, and many more living around the poverty line, for various reasons. This man needed more than a barbeque, but after some patient persistence, we managed to bring him a hotdog and some juice. Over the course of the afternoon, I sat and talked with Robbie. I'm not sure what endeared him to me - logically, I should have been frightened or off-put by some of his behavior, but something told me that he needed someone who was patient, needed to know I wasn't going to run away. As we sat on the steps, I read to him from the bible that Christopher, the youth pastor gave him. What amazing time... Robbie knew so many of the psalms by heart, and it was an obvious that God has been a great comfort to him, even in his current situation. As we sat and read, he muttered that his bible had been taken when he was beaten up by 'those punks' (that explained the blood and the swollen eye). Never quite looking me in the eye, he would say, "Read Psalm 40." And then he would start reciting... "I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry..." And I would pick up and he would fall silent as I read. His love for God, his faith, was incredible. It was an indescribable afternoon. I'm not sure if he'll remember it, sadly. He seems to be an alcoholic - he carried with him a bottle of 'listerine' that he confessed was filled with whisky, and every now and then he would take a long swig, despite our pleas to give it to us and to drink something better. In amidst the rambling conversation and reading from the Word, I caught snippets of what his life had been like. At some point or another, we must wonder how the people on the street got to be where they are, what sort of evils had befallen them, or what sort of trouble they had gotten themselves into. My afternoon with Robbie seemed to be God's way of saying, "This, too, is a human life, and I love him just as dearly as I love you." Thinking of Robbie now still brings tears to my eyes. There is so much hurt in this city, and so few who would risk themselves to help...

1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.

2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

4 Blessed is the man
who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods. ^[a]

5 Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.

6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but my ears you have pierced ^[b] , ^[c] ;
burnt offerings and sin offerings
you did not require.

7 Then I said, "Here I am, I have come—
it is written about me in the scroll. ^[d]

8 I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart."

9 I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips,
as you know, O LORD.

10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal your love and your truth
from the great assembly.

11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD;
may your love and your truth always protect me.

12 For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.

13 Be pleased, O LORD, to save me;
O LORD, come quickly to help me.

14 May all who seek to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.

15 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
be appalled at their own shame.

16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
"The LORD be exalted!"

17 Yet I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.

Lord, give the city of Halifax a new song...