I just posted the conclusion to the story of our trip to City Church International in Hong Kong over at the Rob Rufus blog, so I'm putting it up over here too, mostly just so it's here in my life journal...
Ok, I'm seriously late in posting this, but in my defense we've moved and had my sister's wedding so we've been a little busy. I left off just before the final meeting on Monday night with the Mills and Kaye Beyer.
We had a great worship time again, similar to Sunday night, and then Kaye got up to basically share her testimony. Her husband had died just 6 months before, and they had been in ministry together for something like 40 years, which is amazing! Some people had a difficult time hearing her as she was somewhat quiet and not at all dramatic, but this was one of my favorite parts of the conference. I love hearing testimonies and grew up reading biographies of famous men and women of God. She passed around some pictures of miraculous manifestations (such as some money with a note from God to her grand daughter on it) and was also wearing a huge ring with a beautiful green stone in it that God dropped at her feet. It was very sparkly, and green being my favorite colour I believe he should give me one too (though I'd probably have it set in a crown instead).
She shared about the joy that comes from knowing God in the midst of difficult times, and at the end invited people who lacked joy to come for prayer. She looked a bit shocked when nearly everyone came forward! . .(A lady sitting next to us from the church explained that depression is a serious problem in Hong Kong...) There were only a few of us still sitting in our seats, and soon we were busy moving chairs out of the way as many started falling to the floor. Kaye and Janet Mills moved around the room praying and laying hands on people in such a quiet and gently manner it was rather surprising the violent effects of their ministry! Josh was still manning the keyboard and singing, and we were happily taking it all in.
When Rob recovered and got up off the floor hehe, he started calling certain visiting people forward to be prayed for. He called some people from a church in China (I think?) up, and then he called us up. Janet was excited that we were church planting in Canada, asked us where and she answered that the Maritimes need churches. Neither Aaron or I remember another word she or Kaye said after that! She then very gently placed her hands on Aaron's face and he was out like a light, then she put her hands on my face and it was so glorious, God's loving joyful presence just wrapped me in light. I didn't fall or anything, I think was struggling to remain standing because I didn't want Janet to stop! Ahhh, but she did...
And then Rob was dealing with something demonic in someone and I was glad I didn't miss it. I had noticed earlier that someone was struggling with a demonic issue and hoped it would get dealt with, so I was intrigued to be able to be up close to see how Rob handled it. I always pay close attention whenever I'm close to someone experienced in casting out demons, which unfortunately doesn't happen very often. This is one area of ministry I'm dying to jump into more, and one thing I really have more than enough faith to make up for the lack of experience.
That night we stayed at the YWCA where the church met, and the next day a lady (Marika)from the church picked us up and drove us to nicer accommodations that she and her husband had arranged. She was so kind and generous and gave us lots of information about the city. That night we had quite an adventure getting lost with a taxi driver who spoke no English, due in large part to us being hungry at midnight for a real meal for most of the time we were there, 12 hour time difference! I think I won't get into that! Suffice it to say, God got us back to our room!
So Tuesday and Wednesday of our trip involved sightseeing and lots of walking. The weather was great, we went to the Peak (where we waved to the Mills and Kaye Beyer out the tram window!) and got to see all the great views. And we did lots of wandering around the shops and ate mysterious Chinese food.
On Thursday Marika picked us up again and took us over to the Rufus' house where we chatted with Rob and Glenda and then ate together with a few people from the worship team who were there early for the prayer meeting that night. The prayer meeting was really great and intense...and loud! There were lots of prophetic words and testimonies, and Rob asked Aaron and I to share a couple of things we'd shared with him as well, just some encouragement God had given us for the church. We got to meet even more people that night and everyone was so easy to talk to. If we weren't so obviously called to be planting a church here in Canada, I think it would be extremely tempting to move to Hong Kong! We then went back to Ryan and Kylie's house for the night as we were flying out early the next morning. We stayed up talking again, and the next morning as we stood by the taxi about to get in , I felt such a wave of sadness wash over me. I already missed them!
One little testimony here: We needed taxi money to get to the airport on Friday morning and I wasn't sure how much we'd need, I didn't think we had enough Hong Kong dollars left. We could have gone to a bank and gotten some more out but that would have been inconvenient and I didn't want to exchange more money than we needed, so I just asked God on Thursday to provide the money we needed. Well, at the prayer meeting, a lady from the church came up and slipped me some money, she said it should be enough for the taxi. Wow, God doesn't waste any time! As we were leaving, Rob and Glenda gave us money for the taxi as well, we told them we didn't need it anymore but they said to get a nice breakfast at the airport. It wasn't too long before Ryan and Kylie gave us some money for the taxi, also insisting we keep it when we told them we had more than enough! OK God, you've made your point, you're pretty generous, according to your riches in glory, not my need!
Anyway, we had a good flight back and safe trip home though it took me quite some time to readjust to the proper time zone. Thanks again to Dan for your faith and generosity and investing in kingdom building in Canada!
Showing posts with label Kylie Rufus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kylie Rufus. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Hong Kong Trip Part 2...
Here's what I posted over at the Rob Rufus Blog:
Well, I think I left off on the afternoon of Sunday...before the evening meeting with Joshua Mills...
Sunday night started out with woship, being led by Bonnie Rufus and a whole bunch of other worshippers from CCI. We sang many simple songs about the glory of God, including "The Glory Realm" by Ruth Heflin. It was very very good. I know, that's not very descriptive! The worship time was both powerful and intimate, and the presence of God was obvious. Now my memory is getting fuzzy, uh-oh!
I believe Joshua got up and took over at the piano once we were really getting lost in worship, he was singing songs (I think probably both songs he's written as well as prophetic/spontaneous songs) but at that point I was not completely aware of anyone else. I was deeply engaged with Jesus, having many heavenly imaginations run through my mind, I say heavenly because they seemed to be of me in heaven with Jesus. Sometimes words that Josh was singing would kind of float in and influence the direction of my thoughts. It was probably one of the more intimate experiences with God I've had in a corporate setting.
He also called out several words about people being healed of specific things, a couple of them we heard testimony of later that week at the prayer meeting. Then he spent some time teaching us about the glory realm. This was not preaching, but more a gentle but authoritative sharing of truth,wisdom, and God's word by the Spirit. More than anything, I would say it was extremely faith building, something of an impartation. He shared several amazing personal testimonies as well, including some of teleporting, but I'm not going to re-tell them here, you should listen yourself-- you won't be bored! He also took an offering of sorts and really blessed the church with the money, refusing to allow CCI to give any of it to him.
We then went home with Ryan and Kylie and stayed up too late talking again! We spent the morning hanging out with their family (somewhere along the line Aaron got his first taste of Veggiemite, which he wasn't exactly impressed with). I don't think there's any way to adequately describe how much we enjoyed getting to know Ryan and Kylie and their girls. Then Ryan dropped us off near a bank so we could exchange our money and wander around for a couple of hours. While in the bank, we saw Glenda and so we started chatting outside the bank. After a couple of minutes, Rob turned up and joined in.
We then started walking together to the point where we were going to part ways, and ended up standing in the street talking for probably 45 minutes. Finally, we left to look at a temple, and were taking pictures inside when Rob came in a couple of minutes later and asked if we'd like to eat lunch with him and Glenda. We graciously declined in favor of shopping-HAHAHA, I don't think so! We were of course thrilled and quite surprised! So we got to eat lunch with them, talking the ears off for another hour or two. This was definately one of the highlights of the whole trip for us, we got to share most of our testimony and thank them in person for making the message of grace available to so many people. And we talked about you too Dan! And shared some of Keith and Lydia's testimony as well, and probably some of you other people, you know who you are! All good things we said, don't worry.
All our friends want to know what Rob and Glenda are really like in person, so I guess I should give my impressions. I've given my impression of Glenda in the last post...so about Rob, he was less intense normally than when preaching hehe, which I think is for the best. They were very easy to talk with and very normal people, I think exactly what we would expect from listening to all the messages online. In other words, it would seem they are real people and don't bother faking it for church and ministry. I'm not sure of their impressions of us, but they seemed to like us well enough!
I don't think I mentioned this yet, but before we left, God kept telling me over and over 'they're going to love you' , meaning both me in particular and Aaron as well. That may sound strange, but in light of the fear of man problem I talked about, it was just God's kindness to me making sure I would thoroughly enjoy our time in Hong Kong and not be hindered from receiving all that God had for me there. Also, he kept showing me this glimpse of Rob laughing heartily at something I said, which I got to see in real life! I think I wrote on my own blog before leaving that I hoped they could handle me over there, it would seem that they can, and that makes me happy.
Anyway, Ryan had to hunt us down since we sort of forgot to meet him when we were supposed to...but he was very gracious about it.
Also, click HERE to see some pictures I put up on Facebook. Also, I'll put up a couple of video clips as soon as I can figure it out!
Next post, I'll continue with the evening meeting on Monday night with Joshua Mills and Kaye Beyer...
Well, I think I left off on the afternoon of Sunday...before the evening meeting with Joshua Mills...
Sunday night started out with woship, being led by Bonnie Rufus and a whole bunch of other worshippers from CCI. We sang many simple songs about the glory of God, including "The Glory Realm" by Ruth Heflin. It was very very good. I know, that's not very descriptive! The worship time was both powerful and intimate, and the presence of God was obvious. Now my memory is getting fuzzy, uh-oh!
I believe Joshua got up and took over at the piano once we were really getting lost in worship, he was singing songs (I think probably both songs he's written as well as prophetic/spontaneous songs) but at that point I was not completely aware of anyone else. I was deeply engaged with Jesus, having many heavenly imaginations run through my mind, I say heavenly because they seemed to be of me in heaven with Jesus. Sometimes words that Josh was singing would kind of float in and influence the direction of my thoughts. It was probably one of the more intimate experiences with God I've had in a corporate setting.
He also called out several words about people being healed of specific things, a couple of them we heard testimony of later that week at the prayer meeting. Then he spent some time teaching us about the glory realm. This was not preaching, but more a gentle but authoritative sharing of truth,wisdom, and God's word by the Spirit. More than anything, I would say it was extremely faith building, something of an impartation. He shared several amazing personal testimonies as well, including some of teleporting, but I'm not going to re-tell them here, you should listen yourself-- you won't be bored! He also took an offering of sorts and really blessed the church with the money, refusing to allow CCI to give any of it to him.
We then went home with Ryan and Kylie and stayed up too late talking again! We spent the morning hanging out with their family (somewhere along the line Aaron got his first taste of Veggiemite, which he wasn't exactly impressed with). I don't think there's any way to adequately describe how much we enjoyed getting to know Ryan and Kylie and their girls. Then Ryan dropped us off near a bank so we could exchange our money and wander around for a couple of hours. While in the bank, we saw Glenda and so we started chatting outside the bank. After a couple of minutes, Rob turned up and joined in.
We then started walking together to the point where we were going to part ways, and ended up standing in the street talking for probably 45 minutes. Finally, we left to look at a temple, and were taking pictures inside when Rob came in a couple of minutes later and asked if we'd like to eat lunch with him and Glenda. We graciously declined in favor of shopping-HAHAHA, I don't think so! We were of course thrilled and quite surprised! So we got to eat lunch with them, talking the ears off for another hour or two. This was definately one of the highlights of the whole trip for us, we got to share most of our testimony and thank them in person for making the message of grace available to so many people. And we talked about you too Dan! And shared some of Keith and Lydia's testimony as well, and probably some of you other people, you know who you are! All good things we said, don't worry.
All our friends want to know what Rob and Glenda are really like in person, so I guess I should give my impressions. I've given my impression of Glenda in the last post...so about Rob, he was less intense normally than when preaching hehe, which I think is for the best. They were very easy to talk with and very normal people, I think exactly what we would expect from listening to all the messages online. In other words, it would seem they are real people and don't bother faking it for church and ministry. I'm not sure of their impressions of us, but they seemed to like us well enough!
I don't think I mentioned this yet, but before we left, God kept telling me over and over 'they're going to love you' , meaning both me in particular and Aaron as well. That may sound strange, but in light of the fear of man problem I talked about, it was just God's kindness to me making sure I would thoroughly enjoy our time in Hong Kong and not be hindered from receiving all that God had for me there. Also, he kept showing me this glimpse of Rob laughing heartily at something I said, which I got to see in real life! I think I wrote on my own blog before leaving that I hoped they could handle me over there, it would seem that they can, and that makes me happy.
Anyway, Ryan had to hunt us down since we sort of forgot to meet him when we were supposed to...but he was very gracious about it.
Also, click HERE to see some pictures I put up on Facebook. Also, I'll put up a couple of video clips as soon as I can figure it out!
Next post, I'll continue with the evening meeting on Monday night with Joshua Mills and Kaye Beyer...
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Our Trip to Hong Kong, Part 1
This is a slightly edited version of what I've posted over at the Rob Rufus Blog. I'll be posting on both blogs pretty much the same things with slight alterations where appropriate...
I guess we've held everyone in suspense long enough. Well, my husband Aaron and I just got back a few days ago from visiting City Church International in Hong Kong, and we're slowly recovering from the 12 hour time difference and an extremely long trip in a relatively short space of time.
Our trip began on the morning of April 17th, when we set out by car with our 3 children to drive south for about 14 hours.
We met up with Aaron's parents in New Jersey and spent the night in a hotel there (on them) and set out from there without children for JFK airport in New York City. Everything went quite smoothly once we finally found a suitable place to park our car and we were flying out by late afternoon on a 16 hour flight over the icy north. We arrived on the following evening and after finally getting through customs/immigration and hunting down our luggage we headed out to be welcomed by Ryan Rufus, who had been waiting patiently. We all recognized each other right away, which was good haha, and then he drove us to their apartment where we stayed up talking with him and Kylie for a couple hours before getting some sleep.
We were at home right away, and fell in love with the Ryan and Kylie and their 3 beautiful daughters. It was such a great time being with people who have such a similar understanding of grace, and I guess it makes sense since we've been listening to MP3's from the website for more than a year and a half. We really felt like they were long lost friends, they were so easy to be with. They also have an amazing testimony of how God brought them out of legalistic religious control into the freedom of the Gospel of Grace! And I think Aaron appreciated Ryan's late night sugar stash as well...
In the morning we piled into the car with Kylie and the girls to head to church. It was so weird to walk into the room where they meet and start being introduced to people with familiar names and voices, having heard them pray, or give prophetic words, or sing, or testify at some point over the time we've been listening! I can honestly say we were just as excited to meet these people as anyone else, part of the reason we decided not to try for the Grace and Glory conference in Sydney. We were there for the prayer time before the service, and Glenda came over to welcome us just as prayer was starting.
I was not prepared for how beautiful she is in person! She's certainly pretty in pictures I've seen but in real life there is a dynamic godly beauty that I have always been taught to strive for in certain past legalistic contexts, but didn't actually exist there. I guess I've mostly seen weak counterfeits of this kind of beauty, the kind that leave you feeling condemned and ashamed of how far you are from the 'standard', so it was refreshing to meet a real woman, ha!, real women (yes, there are more of these lovely ladies in the church, they are not an exclusive elite set of superwomen!) living in the grace of God and glowing with the unfading glory of the New Covenant. It's funny what seemingly small things make big impressions on me!
During the prayer time, there were 2 prophetic words about canaries (I believe one is on the MP3 for that Sunday), which I only mention because we'd been telling Kylie the story of how my sister rescued a canary from the streets of Toronto a couple of years ago and still has him. It was a little amusing that canaries came up in the prayer time!
Rob came over and met us before things got started as well. To me, one of the most surprising things about the whole experience was my complete lack of fear or nervousness. Normally I would be shaky and sweaty at the thought of meeting so many new people, especially people I admire so much. In the past growing up in the church I always put men/women in leadership up on pedestals in some strange way, so I was encouraged that maybe finally I'm growing up, learning that there really really is no hierarchy in the church!
This really is a great answer to something I've been praying about for a long time, the fear of man I lived under for my whole life could be debilitating at times (a speech in school would have me crying for hours before or after, and I actually missed up to 40 school days a year during high school as I would make myself sick with worrying that my teachers hated me). Though God has been setting me free a little at a time over the past years, this message of grace has brought a freedom I didn't even know was possible. Strangely, I think this is one of the more significant things I'm walking away with from this whole experience. We even got up in front of the church to give a brief testimony of sorts, and I actually spoke a couple sentences as well, seriously, you can listen, my voice wasn't shaking, that's a miracle! But there's more!
(I like to call this "Rob Dylan")
Rob preached an amazing and intense prophetic message (There's a Flood of Glory Coming, transcribed by Dan over on the Rob Rufus Blog)complete with performance of a Bob Dylan song. We were sitting in the front row and it was almost too much for me at times, and I'm a pretty intense person myself. What I mean by too much is that I couldn't really take it all in at once, we still have to go back and listen to it again. So glad Dan transcribed it because I don't think I would even know where to begin with note taking! It was just so good to be there, though a bit like a dream, everything happened so fast. We got to meet a lot of great people afterward as well before heading back to Ryan and Kylie's.
TO BE CONTINUED....
To listen to the message click here and scroll down to April 13th
I guess we've held everyone in suspense long enough. Well, my husband Aaron and I just got back a few days ago from visiting City Church International in Hong Kong, and we're slowly recovering from the 12 hour time difference and an extremely long trip in a relatively short space of time.
Our trip began on the morning of April 17th, when we set out by car with our 3 children to drive south for about 14 hours.
We met up with Aaron's parents in New Jersey and spent the night in a hotel there (on them) and set out from there without children for JFK airport in New York City. Everything went quite smoothly once we finally found a suitable place to park our car and we were flying out by late afternoon on a 16 hour flight over the icy north. We arrived on the following evening and after finally getting through customs/immigration and hunting down our luggage we headed out to be welcomed by Ryan Rufus, who had been waiting patiently. We all recognized each other right away, which was good haha, and then he drove us to their apartment where we stayed up talking with him and Kylie for a couple hours before getting some sleep. We were at home right away, and fell in love with the Ryan and Kylie and their 3 beautiful daughters. It was such a great time being with people who have such a similar understanding of grace, and I guess it makes sense since we've been listening to MP3's from the website for more than a year and a half. We really felt like they were long lost friends, they were so easy to be with. They also have an amazing testimony of how God brought them out of legalistic religious control into the freedom of the Gospel of Grace! And I think Aaron appreciated Ryan's late night sugar stash as well...
In the morning we piled into the car with Kylie and the girls to head to church. It was so weird to walk into the room where they meet and start being introduced to people with familiar names and voices, having heard them pray, or give prophetic words, or sing, or testify at some point over the time we've been listening! I can honestly say we were just as excited to meet these people as anyone else, part of the reason we decided not to try for the Grace and Glory conference in Sydney. We were there for the prayer time before the service, and Glenda came over to welcome us just as prayer was starting.
I was not prepared for how beautiful she is in person! She's certainly pretty in pictures I've seen but in real life there is a dynamic godly beauty that I have always been taught to strive for in certain past legalistic contexts, but didn't actually exist there. I guess I've mostly seen weak counterfeits of this kind of beauty, the kind that leave you feeling condemned and ashamed of how far you are from the 'standard', so it was refreshing to meet a real woman, ha!, real women (yes, there are more of these lovely ladies in the church, they are not an exclusive elite set of superwomen!) living in the grace of God and glowing with the unfading glory of the New Covenant. It's funny what seemingly small things make big impressions on me!
During the prayer time, there were 2 prophetic words about canaries (I believe one is on the MP3 for that Sunday), which I only mention because we'd been telling Kylie the story of how my sister rescued a canary from the streets of Toronto a couple of years ago and still has him. It was a little amusing that canaries came up in the prayer time!
Rob came over and met us before things got started as well. To me, one of the most surprising things about the whole experience was my complete lack of fear or nervousness. Normally I would be shaky and sweaty at the thought of meeting so many new people, especially people I admire so much. In the past growing up in the church I always put men/women in leadership up on pedestals in some strange way, so I was encouraged that maybe finally I'm growing up, learning that there really really is no hierarchy in the church!
This really is a great answer to something I've been praying about for a long time, the fear of man I lived under for my whole life could be debilitating at times (a speech in school would have me crying for hours before or after, and I actually missed up to 40 school days a year during high school as I would make myself sick with worrying that my teachers hated me). Though God has been setting me free a little at a time over the past years, this message of grace has brought a freedom I didn't even know was possible. Strangely, I think this is one of the more significant things I'm walking away with from this whole experience. We even got up in front of the church to give a brief testimony of sorts, and I actually spoke a couple sentences as well, seriously, you can listen, my voice wasn't shaking, that's a miracle! But there's more!
(I like to call this "Rob Dylan")
Rob preached an amazing and intense prophetic message (There's a Flood of Glory Coming, transcribed by Dan over on the Rob Rufus Blog)complete with performance of a Bob Dylan song. We were sitting in the front row and it was almost too much for me at times, and I'm a pretty intense person myself. What I mean by too much is that I couldn't really take it all in at once, we still have to go back and listen to it again. So glad Dan transcribed it because I don't think I would even know where to begin with note taking! It was just so good to be there, though a bit like a dream, everything happened so fast. We got to meet a lot of great people afterward as well before heading back to Ryan and Kylie's.
TO BE CONTINUED....
To listen to the message click here and scroll down to April 13th
Monday, April 07, 2008
City Church International, Hong Kong !!!!!!!!!!!!
O.K., I've been sitting on this one for quite some time and I have to spill the beans now, with Dan's permission. We are leaving on Thursday for a very long trip, driving from Moncton to Newark NJ with our 3 kids (about 12 hrs driving),spending the night there with Aaron's parents who will be taking the kids to their place while we're gone, and then driving to JFK in New York City to fly out on Friday to arrive the following day in HONG KONG. That's right, I believe this will be my 3rd time on a plane... so you can see I haven't done much travelling, well, I've done a lot of driving!
Anyway, of course we'll be going to City Church International on Sunday morning, and Joshua and Janet Mills will be there on Sunday and Monday night. Then we'll hit a prayer meeting on Thursday night and have high hopes of getting to spend a little time with Rob and Glenda Rufus, and Ryan and Kylie Rufus, people who of course we've never met but have been listening to over the internet, talked to on the phone a little, and exchanged a few e-mails along the way. I hope they can handle me, ha! I'm hoping for many things actually!
If you recall I mentioned not too long ago that we don't really have any money so you're probably wondering how we can afford a trip like this. Maybe you're not wondering but I'm going to assume you are anyway. Well, we still don't , not to say God is not providing basics right now...Aaron's job is going well and sales are beginning to pick up, but we certainly don't have money for something like this!
So going back to the beginning, a few months ago Aaron and I had the following conversation (witnessed by my mother):
Julie: We haven't gone away without the kids for more than a few days since I was pregnant with Eva (our first child, now 7)
Aaron: Well we won't be going anywhere for a long time either
Julie: No, except Hong Kong
Aaron: We're not going to Hong Kong, we can't even afford a house. It's impossible (obviously in Aaron's defense he said this before the Invading the Impossible series...haha)
Julie: Well, you can stay here if you want but I'm going to Hong Kong this year.
Aaron: We don't have any money.
Julie: Well, I'm going into heaven and taking what I need, but I'm going this year whether you want to or not! ( notice the quiet gentle submissive spirit here, I said this very very impulsively without any thought whatsoever...)
Well, that's the general idea of how it happened anyway...Of course this was not a bad conversation, I can see how it might read as a fight or disagreement but it really wasn't. These conversations are not really unusual and neither of us thought much about it.
That night I couldn't sleep and I was annoyed and finally got up and went out to the computer to check my e-mail. To my great surprise, there was an e-mail from Dan (a very good friend of ours who we met through blogging, we've never actually met!) Now considering the timing of all this, I do not think this was a coincidence. Here's a bit of the e-mail:
That is just a little bit of it. I sat and read and re-read that e-mail crying, I couldn't believe it! There was no hope of sleeping after that! It was the beginning of corresponding back and forth figuring out what God was doing in all of this. Obviously, we didn't go to Australia for the Grace and Glory Conference in the end of March. For various reasons, we felt God had other plans. Long story short, we're going to Hong Kong instead, in just a few days!!!
Dan has been such a blessing to us, not just because of money, but because he's forever sending us encouraging words and prophecies and we are so aware of his prayers for us. He is a true brother and we know some day we'll actually get to meet him! It will be an amazing meeting for sure. He is so gifted in writing and editing material in a way that makes it accessible to many many people, and making it all available for free, he is definitely a gift from God to the church worldwide. We're so excited to watch the transformation the grace message has and is making in his life, he's truly a bold preacher of the Gospel. Thank-you thank-you Dan for being such an expression of God's grace and blessing to us! Thank-you thank-you God for your amazing lavish goodness to us!
I'm pretty excited at this point. I'll be taking pictures and notes (or Aaron will) and be sharing everything when I get back, if I don't have computer access there. Make sure to keep an eye on the Rob Rufus Grace and Glory blog as well. In theory I'm a contributor there though I've never posted yet, but this time I'll have to!
Please keep us in your prayers for a safe trip and for us to embrace God's will in everything that will be happening. I don't know if that's the best way to word that, but I think you understand what I'm trying to say. I really feel that God has promised us some significant things in all this and I can't even imagine how glorious the fulfillment of those promises might be!
Anyway, of course we'll be going to City Church International on Sunday morning, and Joshua and Janet Mills will be there on Sunday and Monday night. Then we'll hit a prayer meeting on Thursday night and have high hopes of getting to spend a little time with Rob and Glenda Rufus, and Ryan and Kylie Rufus, people who of course we've never met but have been listening to over the internet, talked to on the phone a little, and exchanged a few e-mails along the way. I hope they can handle me, ha! I'm hoping for many things actually!
If you recall I mentioned not too long ago that we don't really have any money so you're probably wondering how we can afford a trip like this. Maybe you're not wondering but I'm going to assume you are anyway. Well, we still don't , not to say God is not providing basics right now...Aaron's job is going well and sales are beginning to pick up, but we certainly don't have money for something like this!
So going back to the beginning, a few months ago Aaron and I had the following conversation (witnessed by my mother):
Julie: We haven't gone away without the kids for more than a few days since I was pregnant with Eva (our first child, now 7)
Aaron: Well we won't be going anywhere for a long time either
Julie: No, except Hong Kong
Aaron: We're not going to Hong Kong, we can't even afford a house. It's impossible (obviously in Aaron's defense he said this before the Invading the Impossible series...haha)
Julie: Well, you can stay here if you want but I'm going to Hong Kong this year.
Aaron: We don't have any money.
Julie: Well, I'm going into heaven and taking what I need, but I'm going this year whether you want to or not! ( notice the quiet gentle submissive spirit here, I said this very very impulsively without any thought whatsoever...)
Well, that's the general idea of how it happened anyway...Of course this was not a bad conversation, I can see how it might read as a fight or disagreement but it really wasn't. These conversations are not really unusual and neither of us thought much about it.
That night I couldn't sleep and I was annoyed and finally got up and went out to the computer to check my e-mail. To my great surprise, there was an e-mail from Dan (a very good friend of ours who we met through blogging, we've never actually met!) Now considering the timing of all this, I do not think this was a coincidence. Here's a bit of the e-mail:
...You may have noticed from the Rob Rufus website that the next "Glory and Grace Conference" has been announced! Alas, alas it is at the end of March and so far too soon for me to be able to make it.
Would you two be able to go for the week if it was not a question of money? Can you free up the time to make sure you are there?
This isn't to be a loan or anything like that. It's a gift. I want you to be at that conference so it can be your turn to receive the impartation of God's glory. I think it's essential beyond words for the spreading of the glory in Canada. You won't "owe" me anything ...
That is just a little bit of it. I sat and read and re-read that e-mail crying, I couldn't believe it! There was no hope of sleeping after that! It was the beginning of corresponding back and forth figuring out what God was doing in all of this. Obviously, we didn't go to Australia for the Grace and Glory Conference in the end of March. For various reasons, we felt God had other plans. Long story short, we're going to Hong Kong instead, in just a few days!!!
Dan has been such a blessing to us, not just because of money, but because he's forever sending us encouraging words and prophecies and we are so aware of his prayers for us. He is a true brother and we know some day we'll actually get to meet him! It will be an amazing meeting for sure. He is so gifted in writing and editing material in a way that makes it accessible to many many people, and making it all available for free, he is definitely a gift from God to the church worldwide. We're so excited to watch the transformation the grace message has and is making in his life, he's truly a bold preacher of the Gospel. Thank-you thank-you Dan for being such an expression of God's grace and blessing to us! Thank-you thank-you God for your amazing lavish goodness to us!
I'm pretty excited at this point. I'll be taking pictures and notes (or Aaron will) and be sharing everything when I get back, if I don't have computer access there. Make sure to keep an eye on the Rob Rufus Grace and Glory blog as well. In theory I'm a contributor there though I've never posted yet, but this time I'll have to!
Please keep us in your prayers for a safe trip and for us to embrace God's will in everything that will be happening. I don't know if that's the best way to word that, but I think you understand what I'm trying to say. I really feel that God has promised us some significant things in all this and I can't even imagine how glorious the fulfillment of those promises might be!
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