Soap for Jesus

This week has been one of getting lost in God's presence and doing what I love most - reaching out and being there to support, encourage and lift people up in prayer together before the Lord. Next week will be one of doubt, despair, darkness and sadness surrounding, seeping, overpowering from all directions. Question is...will I give in? Will the darkness encompass and take over my soul, or will I let it drive me towards the Rock of Ages? Will I feed on Him and feast in Him and drown myself in Him and continue to struggle on to shine His life and His light out, or will I let go and give way piece by piece on what I believe and/or know to be true, and watch the darkness come in? Darkness always creeps in by the shadows. But light always follows the night. If I say, surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be(come) as night - (why!) even the darkness is not dark to Thee! And the night is as bright as the day! Psalm 139 God is so kind. So gentle...

I heard a heart-breaking story today, but one that's only too often repeated - how a girl lacks the emotional connection she needs with her father, and therefore becomes easy prey to guys who promise to love and cherish - and abuse that privilege and then abandon her. Yes, I know that children who are well-raised often fall by themselves through no fault of the parents. However, I'm just touching on the majority of people that I've witnessed. Young men are far more likely to become addicted to pornography and girlfriends to boost their insecure self-esteem and girls are far more likely to dress immodestly (not counting in the peer pressure, of course) and move into relationships with boyfriend after boyfriend, even giving up their virginity, if they lack the emotional family connection back home - and most importantly, the influence of their father. When a guy has a close emotional bond with his father, and when a girl has an open communication and connection line wit...

I was wondering what to post for my 20th birthday blog post. And...I'd like to share this. From my heart again. ;) "Janey, I'd like to ask prayer for healing for your eczema. Would that be okay?" Laura asked, keeping her arm around me. I nodded. "Sure, why not." My family didn't raise me to believe in commanding diseases to leave the body, but I understood that it was done still with the acknowledgement God may not choose to grant it, but the belief that until proved otherwise, He had. Laura caught the main guy's attention and asked him to pray. "Sure!" He moved over to me. Laura had slipped her arms around me again, and my remaining OYAN siblings moved in as a circle around me. "You be the point of contact." He placed his hand on Laura's shoulder and prayed for complete healing of my body. Then he placed on his hand on my head, commanding the eczema to leave my body in the Name of Jesus. What followed next w...

It is so hard to express what this week has meant to me, that I'm going to post up a blog post from a note on Facebook, written by my brother Miguel, and a link to another written by my twin sister, Kiehl. I know...cop-out. ;) Please, please read them. And for what is in my heart regarding OYAN? And when the Spirit of God is in so many of us in one heart, one mind and one goal...then let there be LIGHT. And there will be dynamite. #OYAN I had to laugh tonight when someone told me that OYAN's focus on "religion" was "a big flaw", and "undermined OYAN's value." Oh. My. Days. How can people be so blind...? How can they not see that we would never be so bonded if it weren't for the love of Christ? How can I express the frustration I feel as I remember that 1 hr 45 mins prayer meeting on the last night, and how God moved in and through and united and calmed us and gave us that vision for the future? From Heaven to Earth by Miguel Flor...

(As most of you know, I'm in Overland Park, Kansas, staying with the Noe family for the One Year Adventure Novel - OYAN - Workshop 2012. Today, June 23, is the day after the workshop ended.) Sarah Noe is wearing a very cool t-shirt. It has on the back "Live, Move, Be", and a Scripture reference in Acts. I likey. I'm struggling to find words to say what's in my heart, so for right now, I'm just going to type out the little speech thingie I gave last night just before the final session ended. I was shaking, writing this. I wrote it and struggled with words, and re-read to find out that it said a lot that struck the chords inside of me, but nothing that really seemed to say my deepest emotions. I debated backing out of reading it...and the only reason I wrote it was so I'd stand less chance of crying on stage. I prayed God would bless it and that it would be used to bless, but it felt totally inadequate and I wasn't expecting Him to. I know this...

Walking into 425 Squadron hot, flushed and with a headache at 7:55pm, furious because on my last parade night as a (nearly) 20 year old cadet, I had been searching at home for 30 minutes and couldn't find my beret, I had no idea my night was going to be so splendid. It really is my last parade night tonight - officially. My 3822a has been signed off - "This is to certify that Cadet Sian Jones has left 425 Squadron because of AGE LIMIT." However, I'm doing a final parade night tomorrow with the Squadron I began my cadet career with - 196 Squadron, my home Squadron - my heart's Squadron. Last night, in crumpled, oil-smeared, un-ironed uniform at CWO Horobin's Dacre Sword presentation, I thought back through all the time I had been in cadets, and everything I'd left undone. Was it worth it? A rank gained - and lost through transferral due to pressures from home plus a power struggle, never to be regained. A BTec begun - Public Services - never comple...