Exodus 14:14

Water

In Estonia I became aware of the fact that I take water for granted. Here, it is abundant. There are water fountains pretty much everywhere and water is free in restaurants. In Estonia, water is available but not without a price. At restaurants it is not free and they do not believe in free refills. I have never felt so deprived of water in my life. At one restaurant, for example, a glass of water was 200 kroons whereas milk was 100 kroons and coke was 15o kroons. A coke was less money than water? It just did not make sense to me. I found myself more thirsty for water than I have ever been. Coke became my Estonian water.. I drank more coke the 13 days I was gone than I probably have in the past 3 years combined. I am not a big soda fan. Another reason Coke was better there was because it was usually in glass bottles. Something about the glass bottle makes it so much better.
So, I was thinking about all of this last night and thinking about how thirsty I was for water and I began thinking about how I had been thirstier for something else. For God's presence, for Him to unveil His truths, for Him to show me Something Beautiful, and for Him to reveal His love in a way I was yet to experience. In both my personal trip journal and here, on my blog, I asked God for challenges and challenge me He did. Not to boast, but I rose to the challenges... well, let me put it in a better way: I forced myself to rise to the challenges to allow Him to quench my thirst for once. He quenched the thirst I had and brought about a newer and stronger thirst. I enjoy this thirst though. I am excited about it because it is one that has never been aroused in me before. Its a thirst in the deepest depths of my heart. Then I had another realization. I have taken HIS thirst for granted. Spiritual resources and people of faith are also abundant here, in comparison to Estonia. It is more common to be believe in God here than it is in Estonia, a place where less than one percent of the people believe in God. I have taken these things for granted and allowed myself to remain thirsty for small things when those thirsts could have been quenched a while back. So the question I have inside of my head and the one I am going to present to you is: Why be thirsty when we can choose to allow God to drench us in His love? Especially when a newer and greater thirst will be revealed afterwards; one that the Lord is always willing to delightfully satisfy?

Just a thought.

"Oh Come ON!"

"After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.
And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word
of God Boldly."

Acts 4:31

This happened in Estonia. Exactly the way it is written in the bible. It was the night of the labyrinth. Our small groups went through the labyrinth and afterwards we, as leader, were supposed to be available in the main session room for them. Many of the students came through the labyrinth broken and hurting. We sat down with a lot of them individually and they spilled their hearts out to us, in turn, breaking us. After talking to them we PRAYED over and with them. That night, the main session room WAS SHAKEN. Kids were FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. Dead serious, like I have never witnessed before. Rejoicing, praising, worshipping, crying, convulsing, etc. And the campers SPOKE BOLDLY. That's right, not us, but the campers. It was insane; awesomely insane. Incredible. Campers that we weren't even sure if they were Christians started pouring out gospel and encouragement and healing over not only the other campers, but over us and the interns. GLORY FEST is what we call it. Now, after reading this verse I am struck with amazement. It was like we experienced part of the bible word for word from that verse. I am stunned. The verse fits perfectly, as you can now agree with since it has been explained. I hope you are in awe too.

Meet Juudit

If you could imagine what an angel looks like what the angel look like? Well, the American team is convinced that Juudit looks like an angel. She is gorgeous, loves God, and innocent. If you had a better idea of what an angel looks like let me know but we are all convinced this is it.

Its Offical

While I was in Estonia God overtook my heart with feeling for the country. He tenderly started pushing a calling of possible interning over there for the whole summer next year and confirmed it in multiple ways before I left. After talking to my parents tonight it is official. Next summer I am returning to Eesti to intern alongside my new brothers in Christ, Innar and Andrus. It will cost $4,000 to go but I am not worried about collecting the money because God will provide and there are ten long months to collect it. I am going to do whatever I have to to earn this money. Babysit, work for my dad, possibly get a new job, send support letters, and do a couple of fundraisers throughout the year. If you are reading this and feel led to donate money let me know. If you want a letter or info about fundraisers let me know. If you are willing to pray for it... please get started, you dont have to let me know if you dont want to. ha.

Anyways, I am struggling with being back. When I say that Estonia has a portion of my heart dont take it lightly. My heart is broken for Estonia, yet joy is brought to me through thinking of my trip and new found friendships. There are things that have just been started over there and God is going to be doing some big things in the future. The kids at our camp are the future of the country. God has chosen some kids with big hearts so Estonia better watch out. Gosh, I am ready to be back. God is good. And as Sam Cole has taught me, "God does not need me. He doesnt need me at all but, he WANTS me."

Lightening

I will never look at thunderstorms the same way. They reveal the power of God and the beauty of his power. Tuesday night these pictures were taken during the storm. The Americans were worshipping and when we returned to the main session room all of the lights were off with all of the people at camp admiring the storm. It was the night Henri became a believer. The night he realized he had been saved. He was shock when God gave me the privilege of revealing this to him. God wanted Henri in His army and He got him that night. As I said, the room was pitch black. All I could see of Henri during this talk was his face when lightening lit up the sky allowing small portions of light to stream through the windows. His facial expressions went from neutral to joyful. I have never been so flooded with emotion than this specific moment, and the week in Estonia altogether. My God IS greater. My God IS stronger. My God IS like NO other.

Something Beautiful

We arrived back in Atlanta yesterday around 4:30. Chickfila was on my mind so after saying goodbye to the most incredible team ever, my mom took me to dinner at Chickfila. We ate at the one back in Kennesaw so that Kimmie, my roomie, could meet up with us as well.

Last night I tried to stay awake but ended up falling asleep before 10 only to awake this morning at 6 am. I couldn't go back to sleep because my body still wanted to function on Estonian time. It was between one and two there. So I got on facebook to see who was up there. I got to talk to a few of the guys which made me miss them an enormous amount. Anyways, after that I took a bath, started laundry(in the washer and dryer kimmie surprised me with), and then headed to Chickfila.

I am currently at chickfila. Yes, I have been here twice since 4 pm yesterday, a little pathetic, I know. So I just ate not one, but two breakfast meals. NOM NOM YUM. haha camp joke. There is free wifi here so I brought along my computer to upload pictures and just chillax. Wifi is everywhere Estonia and for the most part it is always free. Its even on there buses. Everything is going to remind me of Estonia for a while.

The trip went by entirely too fast. This post is not about anything specific but to let you know that Estonia posts are going to continue. Small details and experiences I remember. If you read my blog while I was gone you know I wanted God to challenge me while I was there and challenge me he did. There will be some posts about that. About what I learned about myself. Some might just be pictures reminiscing. I wish I was there right now with Triinu, Juudit, Kim, Markus, Martin, Henry, and many others.

The song Something Beautiful by Need to Breathe was on of my two favorites throughout the trip. The other being Our God, originally sung by Christ Tomlin. The reasons for the second song will be another post entirely so lets get back to Something Beautiful:

Estonia is my Something Beautiful.
Triinu is a specific Something Beautiful God blessed me with while being there.

Ma armastan sind, Eesti.
You have a large portion of my heart.
God drowned me in Himself while I was there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en45u0POegQ