In The Beginning

It's the beginning and I don't even know where to start!

Today we had our first day of classes and discovered there are 5 young adults in our Commission group from Steinbach! Needless to say, we were not surprised to find out that they attend Southland!! There are about 60 people in our group and I would guess that almost half of them are from Asia. The "Asian Invasion" is so large that they provide in class translation in Korean via wireless headsets.

The girls enrolled in their kids programs and the twins are currently the only 2 kids in the 2-5 yr old class. There are other kids registered but they have not arrived as of yet. We are hoping that there will at least be a few other students for them to make friends with. I guess it's another blessing of having a twin sister - you are ensured you will always have at least 1 friend!

Right now I am just finishing my daily 4 hour prayer room time (8pm - Midnight) and Rhonda will be doing hers daily from 6 am - 10 am. We have classes every day from noon until 3 pm at which time the girls are in their own classes.

We also bought a pay-as-you-go phone today and will be activating it tomorrow. I will email everyone our number as soon as I know what it is. (If you don't get an email it means we don't want to hear from you....just joking! Please leave a comment on the blog if we forget to email the number to you and we will get it to you right away.)

Beyond the practicality of classes, schedules and logistics, today I was struck by the reality that our lives have forever be changed by embarking on this journey. We have visited here many times and have always come away with new insights and blessings, and we knew that this would be life changing, but today there was a profound realization in my heart that EVERYTHING is about to be re-established in our hearts and minds. For a long time I have believed that one can not look upon the face of Jesus and NOT be changed - and that is what we are being called to do, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months. How can we ever be the same?!

Tonight as I was reading the Word, I was drawn into Song of Songs 6:5 - "Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me." (NIV).

Those are the words spoken by the Holy Spirit to me! Below is the extent of my entire journal entry for today:

I have come
To ravish the heart of the uncreated God
By setting my eyes upon my Beloved

That's it. That's all.

I can render to complete mush the heart of the uncreated God simply by looking His way. He must REALLY think I (You) are something special!!

I have to go, but we are very excited about the coming days and look forward to sharing whatever details we can put into words with you.

Jon