The week after Holy week

He has risen!!

I have always loved Easter time. The remembrance of our Savior's sacrifice and His love for us always gets me. I also love the way that it brings the church together as a body of believers. In the Three Towns, each night in the Holy week is marked by a different church holding a service. Members of all different congregations gather together to worship that Lord. On Sunday morning, a group from all of the churches met on top of the main hill in town and worshiped the Lord before regular services began. What a remind it was to me, that no matter where I go there is the body of Christ. I can always find a home among believers.

Talking about a home among believers, a few weeks ago I got the lovely opportunity to travel to Belfast, N. Ireland for District Assembly. Dr. J.K. Warrick was there. It was so good to hear a familiar voice :) One of the sermons that was preached during this weekend was by Jim Richie, the pastor in Perth, about prayer. He offered up challenging words to the preachers about our prayer lives and encouraged us to seek steadfast after the Lord's heart. It reminded me of a passage out of Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. John states, "
                "And after years of hearing the heart-cry of women, I am convinced beyond a doubt of  this:God wants to be loved. He wants to be a priority to someone. How could we have missed this? From cover to cover, from beginning to end, the cry of God's heart is, "Why won't you choose Me?" It is amazing to me how humble, how vulnerable God is on this point. "You will . . . find me," says the Lord, "when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). In other words, "Look for me, pursue me -- I want you to pursue me." Amazing. As Tozer says, "God waits to be wanted.”


What an honor, after looking back on the sacrifice that  we all just celebrated, that we have been chosen by God to desire to be with Him and to choose God. As I look around the community that I have been placed in and I see all of the hurting people around me, I ponder what changes could happen through our churches and within the communities if we would chase after God. What would happen if we allowed ourselves to be changed and fully accept the grace that God has offered us? What would our communities look like if we spent time with God? Would they finally see that something is difference about us? Would we have joy that would shine out despite our circumstances? I'm not fully sure what would happen, but I do know that something would be different if we were to chase after Him like He chases after us.

It has been a while

Hey Everybody,

Sorry that I have been rubbish at posting on this blog. I'm not much of a writer so I had to give myself a good kick in the pants to get onboard with blogging again.

A lot has happened between now and the last time that I gave a blog update. I just celebrated my first month anniversary of living in Scotland last tuesday. It was a good time due to the fact that there was a pastor gathering where we all worshiped and prayed for one another. After that I was able to pursuade Geoff to taking me to the mall to get some Starbucks. It was lovely to have good conversations and good coffee to celebrate being here.

As a part of my time here, I get the opportunity to be involved in multiple different ministries. One that I am very excited to be involved in is the youth group. I have enjoyed the last few Sunday of getting to get to know all of the teens and play wacky games with them. In true Thompson fashion, I have become the person that the teens are determined to beat at every game. This last wednesday, I was reminded of all the times that I gathered my friends together to team against my mum as all of the kids teamed up to beat me. Then they celebrated when they did. It is definitely one of the highlights of my week.

I am also really enjoying getting to know the other ladies and gents in the community. On Mondays I get to go to zumba with two other ladies and it is full of laughter and sharing of life. On Tuesday nights, I am a part of the church bible study. Thursday nights I am a part of the community choir and hang out with one of my newly made friends. Fridays are often full of coffee dates with other ladies in the the church and it is a time to share stories about our lives and how God has moved through our lives. It is definitely nice to have the time to share life over a cuppa :)

One of the interesting aspects of living in a forgein context is how much you get to know yourself. I'm definitely learning where some of my boundaries of how far I can push myself. I'm also having to face the fact that I am absolutely rubbish at self-discipline. Mornings are the worst and I often find myself running out of time in the morning because I layed in bed too long. I thought that since I was so good at a schedule in college that those skills would translate over to being on my own, but it is totally different when you have so much freedom in your schedule. Anywhos, I am loving (and hating) the process of discovering and flexing my adult muscles. 

From this point on I am going to try my best to update this blog more often (at the min. once every two tweeks but hopefully more). Feel free to facebook me :) I would love to share on a deeper level things that I am learning and experieces I am having.

All the best,

Brianna 

Its Finally Come!!

I've finally made it to Scotland!! Well, technically I've been here for a week (sorry about the late update) but my time here has begun. It was definitely a crazy journey here with many bumps in the road ranging from lost luggage to having to buy new tickets. I'm pretty sure I experience all the troubling things about airports in one trip. But! I am here and that is what matters. 

My first week has been quite a busy one. My first full day in Ardrossan was spent at an awesome prayer conference in Irvine where the district pastors met to pray over their lives and their ministries. Over the next few days I tried to get over jet jag, which is not an easy task, but it did invovle loads of tea and Scottish shortbread which makes up for all the sleepiness. I eventually made it out of the house to explore the town in which I got lost. Go figure haha. My sense of direction is miserable but I got to see some sites that I probably wouldn't have without that experience. It is a pretty town which lots of sites see and explore, one of which is the Irish sea with the Isle of Arran only a short distance away.  The benefits of where my home is that it is right on the sea. So as long as I can find the sea, I can find home.

I and 15 other ladies spent the end of this week at a Ladies retreat. Pastors and Pastor's wives from around the district gathered in Kinross, Scotland for a weekend away and a time to fellowship with each other and the Lord. Isabelle, from the N. Ireland district, was there speaking about the Lord being our Shepherd and oh how I needed to hear that message. She spoke of how the sheep in a flock could only find rest if they trusted their Shepherd to keep them safe. The sheep, being distracted animals, often also find themselves in trouble from not paying attention and it is the shepherd that guides them back. The sheep are safe with their shepherd. The perfect thing to hear after all the change, the new, the unknown. I am safe with my Shepherd. What a message to grasp! He guides me and knows all that His has planned for me during my time here, and that is such an encouraging thing to know. 

I am safe, I can rest, the Lord will restore.

"The Lord is my shephard, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul..." -Psalm 23 

Thoughts from Starbucks

     As I sit in the Starbucks somewhere in Kansas City, slaving over my schoolwork, it is continually hitting me that I am going to Scotland. Every time a new wave of shock flows over me, I become so eager to just BE there already, and at the same time, I feel completely unprepared for what is ahead of me. Don't get me wrong, I will love it there and I'm sure that I will adjust just great, but there is just something in knowing that I am going to another country that always is catching me off-guard. A blessing though is that I am not sitting at this Starbucks alone. I'm with a group of fantastic human beings who are embarking on the same journey I am on with similar feelings. What a wonderful thing to know that I am not alone. God has continually provided for me thus far and is continuing to provide for me through placing these lovely people on my path. I am incredibly grateful for the new work that God is doing through all of us and the preparation He is doing to equip us for the journey ahead.

Eph 2:10 For we are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

 

What a journey

What a journey this has been! There has been tears and so many blessings; I can't hardly believe how close  I am to being in Ardrossan. Fundraising has definitely been an interesting endeavor considering I have never been good at it, but I have the best supporters in the world! Man, I have been blessed. Because of how awesome everyone has been, I only have about 3,000 dollars left before I am fully funded. How awesome it would be to be fully funded before I head out!

If you haven't given yet, please consider giving a one time donation or being a partner with me monthly.

Love you all!

Blesssings :)

First blog post!

Hi Friends,

Thanks for coming and checking out my blog. I have never done this before so it will be a learning experience for all of us as I figure out what I'm doing. I will be posting more once I am at Scotland. My first fundraiser is located under the Prayer Tree tab and there are full details there. I'm excited to be sharing this experience with all of you!!

Just a preview of Ardrossan

Can't wait to be back where there are mountains!