elijahs birthday

so... te aroha is flippin sweet. amazing, if not awesome. having done our third day with the kids, i can fully say i kind of really enjoy kids, which is nice to know considering my former fear of under 10-ers. i just like teenagers better! but wee ones are pretty sweet too. its pretty exhausting but really we only see them for 3 hours a day, so i have absolutely no complaining to do. i think 2 weeks is the perfect amount of time, cuz its to a point where i'll miss them when i leave, but any longer i'd be sick of them. so that's good!

but the youth here... oh my goodness. they are such a good group.. monday night we had a prayer meeting, and this was just a normal prayer meeting for the leaders, but i was stirred beyond what i've ever been stirred before, and i really really felt the presence of God (which is rare for me, so when i do, its a big deal.) and even had a little suedo-vision to share with the leaders... all leading to revival which has been the story of this church's last year. visions upon visions of revival.. they are gonna change this town. we were just praying for tuesday night! which also was not a disappointment.. after a few items we split up the guys and girls and had an encouragement night. i was nervous because i didn't know any of the youth, so for us it was like a prophesy night... first off, the guys were already so amazing and supportive of each other (and SO mature in their faith) and aware of how the spirit moves and everything awesome, it made it so easy to feel comfortable around them. second, DUDE prophesy works! i knew mebe 2 of the 12ish guys, but God gave me something to say for every one of them that came up into the hot seat for encouragement. it wasn't like a huge revelation for them, but i could tell what they were like and it was always confirmed by what other people (who really knew them well) said about them.. i don't even know if i had any impact on any of their lives, but God showed me that he can speak to me and through me and allow me to see the hearts of people. at least in that situation... flip it was so fun.

other'n that, loving my team, loving my journey, getting so pumped to travel the south island. just booked my plane tickets. listening to my favorite music, and watching some pablo francisco. he's dirty as but he's so funny.... cripes...

and 'Jesus for president' is absolutely filling me with holy fire. my eyes burn for the future just thinking about my position in life... i'm so glad to be a part of truth.... revolution.. genuine love.. shane claiborne an chris haw do good.