ON GOA TIME

It has been over three weeks since my last blog.  I apologise for this but in my attempt to guide the young people into a lifestyle of respect for time and punctuality, I myself have fallen into the Goan time culture!

It feels like a lifetime since Christmas, but the remains of the New Year spirit and hopes are filling and fuelling activities here in Goa.  The 31st Night program at church went so well, other than a dodgy sound technician and a few technical difficulties with the stage curtains! The young people performed a skit about living under law and living in Christ's love, reflecting the freedom and transformation that accepting the love of Christ into your life can bring.  They wrote the skit themselves and it was very moving.  After watching them rehearse it well over 500 times, I myself was brought to tears through the conviction and depth with which they performed. One of the many moments that I have experienced recently in which I am overwhelmed by God's work in the lives of these Young People.

After midnight, we headed down to the jetty and then the beach in the bus (which I got to drive, quite possibly the highlight of my 2010 so far!) with all the young people.  It was so far from my experiences of New Years in the past but celebrating New Years with a real joy and hope for the year to come, rather than a simple excuse to throw a party was incredible.

The weeks after have been a bit hectic and I have spent much time in prayer and with the youth leaders.  We have felt that 2010 for the youth is about waiting on God and soaking up his love and presence, before going out to allow His love to overflow into the lives of others.  There is a great sense of expectancy among the church and the young people, that 2010 will be a year where God's love rules in the lives of everyone. 

Something that has really spoken to me recently has been the truth of God's provision and His timing.  In the last two weeks people have spoken about God creating the earth and everything in it, before he created man, therefore creating everything we needed, before we were even formed into being.  This is something that has spoken to me, that I have known many times, and known to be true many times in my life.  God has always provided everything I need, but I live by the theory that He WILL provide, and not in the truth that He has already provided.  It has and always will be this way. 

Please pray that this year will be a year of transformation in the lives of the young people, that they are able to love others deeply and that they too would truly learn what it is to be loved unconditionally by God.

Every blessing,
Soph x