**********Please Scroll down to view Prayers, Sermon Links, Song Links, Poetry & Questions Meant to be Thought Provoking.**********

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Letter


Greetings,

                Hello!! The Season of Fall is always a beautiful time of year, as the colours of changing leaves create picture perfect views and the air is crisp. Something is changing in my life as well and is just around the corner and it is SO exciting. I’ll bring you up to speed on the happenings in my life over the past year and then I will tell you about this opportunity before me.

I’m currently working at Fraserway Rv, as a detailer, in Abbotsford, BC. I have been utilizing my camera; my mom gave me, as I have fallen in love with photography, a gift I was given through the storm, to focus on the beauty that surrounds me through all the seasons of life. I continue to live with my son Anthony and Mother Mary. My Daughter Teresa has moved to Calgary. I am attending Northview Community Church. It has been a fruitful year as I have been blessed to share what God has been doing in my life, through his mercy and grace. We all have incredible opportunities to influence others for the Lord and I pray that God uses me in the lives of those in my path.

I belong to a Pastorate Group through Northview that has a global mission emphasis and has been with an organization called Global Shore Opportunities. Mission statement is to raise up disciples in Canada and Guatemala.

Global Shore is a non-profit mission organization that works in Guatemala. Throughout the year, they offer short term missions trips, giving opportunity to Canadians to partner with their initiatives down south. It has been on my heart for several months now to be involved in international missions and I believe the Lord has led me to go on this trip.

I’ll be joining with others in my pastorate and we will be heading down to Guatemala from Feb. 23/13 to March 8/13. Global Shore is active in a small community called Tizate, just outside of Antigua. There they run a Christian school staffed by the local people and they are also involved in on-going construction, children’s ministry and outreach.

In Tizate, our team will be staying in the ministry facility which was recently renovated from the old school to create a safe environment for visiting mission teams. We will also be involved in daily Spanish classes to help build communication with the locals as quickly as possible. The mission is also heavily involved with the local Spanish church called El Calvario and we anticipate tremendous growth and opportunities to encourage and partner in ministry with our Guatemalan brothers and sisters in Christ.

For the trip I will need to raise $1 800.00 ($900.00 by Dec. 15th and the rest by Jan 10th). This Amount not only covers all associated costs for the team to be there, but also leaves several hundred dollars left over to bless the organization and to help with their ongoing need for funding.

I am so thrilled at this opportunity that the Lord has opened up for me. I am excited to grow in the Lord and serve in Guatemala. If you are at all interested in supporting me in this way, I’d be so thankful! (Please find attached to this letter a donor information page if you wish to make a donation, so that you can receive a tax receipt.)

Prayer is also such a tremendous tool and I would covet your prayers for the team and for myself as we desire to be used by the Lord in this time.

Donor Information Page :( Please Put "Nichola- Anne Bennett-Criss" where it says "Note", so they know where to direct the funds. Thank you!)

http://www.globalshore.org/donate/missions-participant/

Please also take a look at the Sponsorship Program that Global Shore has for their students http://www.globalshore.org/home/sponsorships-2/

Thank you for being a part of the Journey God is taking me on,
Nicki B

Sunday, November 4, 2012

The Move, But We Weren't The Only Ones Moving

Well I finally have my computer back after the movers put it on the truck before I could grab the bin and move it myself. We moved to our new place on Thursday, Oct. 25.

I took the week of the move off so that we could get everything ready for the movers coming. I found though this time was not going to have room for much packing as I found myself learning what a Yo-yo felt like as I was being sent in several directions and none of which were being at home. I never realized before all the details that have to be taken care of with the sale of a home, this is the first time I was included fully in this process, between signing papers, lawyers and all the other small details like remembering to change your address every where. I had my dear friend tell me to ask my Pastorate if they could help me with the clean up of our old place after everything was moved out as it was ok to ask for help and I didn't need to do this alone, so I fired off an email. I think God is teaching me humility.

Amongst the move I also had to apply for my passport as it was under a time limit for needing the info for a missions trip that I will be attending to Guatemala at the end of February, beginning of March. I found myself going with a dear lady I am getting to know from my Pastorate the Tuesday before we moved. I went to pay for my passport, as I had stashed away some money from my check, but this wonderful lady said she would pay for it and I should keep the money I had saved. I was so blessed by her kindness and generosity.

I had told the dear lady that I most likely would not be attending the Pastorate as I still had so much to do. We talked about the plan for clean up of the house and she said she would discuss it with the Pastorate and arrange everything, what a blessing and a weight of my shoulders.

I soon would come to the realization that we weren't able to meet the deadline of packing and my mom finally agreed to allowing the help to come that she had been turning away. I found though now that she was allowing me to get help it wasn't that easy. I don't have a problem to accept help when offered, but asking for help still doesn't come easy, as I didn't know how to ask. I have always been raised that asking for help is a sign of weakness. I now know it is an act of great strength and courage, as anyone can go it alone but it takes a strong courageous person to ask for help when they need it. I was finding that I wasn't that strong. I cowardly dropped a hint on Facebook that my mom was opening the door to having help come in and that I now didn't know how to ask, another dear lady I am getting to know from my Pastorate replied and said she would put the word out.

Night came, and the dear lady came with her husband, they asked me where they could help and my mind drew a blank.  I think this is the main reason I don't ask for help because of the fear of this question as I have no experience and no idea what to say. I knew we needed help but knowing how to receive it and direct it was quite foreign to me. Mom had said she needed no help upstairs so I directed them to the downstairs and showed them what was left to do. We would soon find out we didn't have enough boxes and it was to late to get anymore. My dear friend and her husband would show up and they knew the couple from my Pastorate, making it easier.

We ended up getting a storage unit earlier in the day as we knew the sorting stage of the move was over and needed to get packing and have it done ASAP, so the husbands loaded up their vehicles and our Grand Caravan with the seats out. We headed to the storage unit with it all as the girls continued to pack with my mom, then we all called it a night.

Moving day came and the movers arrived and we were not finished packing as we ran out of boxes. We also started with a big pile of boxes and stuff I would take in the van and the movers were suppose to leave, but communication had failed somewhere and one of the movers without us noticing started to move those boxes and mom finally gave up and said they could move it all. I was thankful as the night before I had dislocated my shoulder lifting myself up onto the kitchen counter and was in massive pain.

I had to leave before the movers were done, as I had to drop the two dogs off at the groomers as my mom figured that was the best way to deal with them through the move. I also needed to meet with the Realtor to pick up the keys for the new place, at the new place.. When I was finished with the Realtor I received a call from my mom saying the movers were just leaving and that they had left one room for me to move, a room that had been switched from me to the movers and now back to me. I have to say I was disappointed as I still was hurting but  I knew it would only be one load for the mini van.

The movers unloaded the truck into the condo leaving us with boxes and bins stacked to the ceiling leaving us with a three foot path to walk, as it was a parent that we would be living in a storage unit until we could get unpacked.

I headed back to the old place to meet up with the Pastorate members that were kind enough to volunteer their time to help clean up the old place. As I arrived, My cell phone rang it was the wonderful lady who had helped me with my passport and she had also helped me get more boxes. She asked me if I had cleaning supplies or if she would need to bring some and did I have a vacuum left behind. I asked if I could call her back as I had not had a chance to go into the house to see what I was left.

I unlocked the house and walked in and I could have never seen what was coming as I came to the quick realization that the movers had not taken everything and I only had to noon the following day to have it all out and I had no clue how I could ever do this by myself. I had never felt so alone, abandoned and overwhelmed as I did in that moment, as I faced the impossible.

Fighting back the tears I phoned the lady back and told her that I had the cleaning stuff but I didn't know how we would be able to clean and explained to her what I had just walked into. I was devastated, hurt and now angry that I could be thought so little of by the ones who were suppose to love me, how could they. I phoned up my friend to vent as I knew if I didn't I was heading down a emotional slippery slope of self pity.

The lady showed up and I was still crying inside and it was flowing outwardly even though I was trying to hold it in. She hugged me and told me it was going to be alright and gave me the assurance that I was not alone. I asked if it would be ok when we went on the Guatemala trip if I just stayed. Unfortunately she said that was why we had visas so we would come back. I was just kidding even though it wasn't a bad idea at that moment in time.

Before I knew it, the street in front of our old place was covered in vehicles on both sides and I was surrounded by the love of my sisters and brothers in Christ. One even brought a van and a trailer. I was being asked in every direction for guidance and I couldn't give it I was so overwhelmed by it all that I just couldn't hold a simple thought anymore.

All of a sudden, My brother and his three girls appeared. I told my brother what had happened and how all these people were from my church. My brother was moved by the support our family was given. He couldn't stop talking about it, as we had experiences with churches in the past that were quite hypocritical, they would preach one thing but their actions spoke much louder in the other direction. As my brother put it they didn't practice what they preached, this is why my family had walked away from our faith many years ago. I was now listening to an answer to prayer as my brother said because of what he was witnessing, a church that actually practiced what they preached he would bring his daughters to our church. What an answer to prayer!!

I can remember not to long ago after my Nana past away my brother telling me I spent to much time at this church and was telling me all the things wrong about it. I almost fell when I heard him speak now and it was almost like all that I was facing now really didn't matter, because what was most important was hearing my brother say " He would bring the girls to church..."

My brother couldn't stop talking about what my sisters and brothers in Christ had done and he shared it with my mom and told her he was wanting to bring the girls to my church. I stepped out after he was gone and asked my mom," If my brother and the girls were going to come to church did this mean she would?" I have to say I was stunned by her response because she had been so hurt by the church of the past when we lived in Maple Ridge as when my Dad got sick the church walked away when she needed their help the most and she had always been there if someone needed help, this was a deep wound that caused a deep scar in her heart, but now! She said, " She was already considering it..."

I now knew that God had orchestrated every piece of the circumstances of our move to move a mountain in the lives of my family, to show them the love he has for them. My friend had said "isn't it interesting that it was the church that drove my family away and God used the church to bring them back..."



There are no words to describe the impact that all those who came out to help, my family and I, had made . I am so grateful for all of them, God truly blessed me when he brought them all into my life.

When I walked into the old place and saw the mountain that I was facing. I felt so abandoned, hurt  and alone, I cried out one more time to my Savior and he answered with all of them, as they became his hands and his feet and shown his light so bright in my families and my lives. I had never experienced such love and compassion as I did that night, but I was not the only one as they also impacted my brother  and his girls lives as well and this had a ripple effect as my mom now thinks about coming to church.

I saw a mountain that night and God moved it farther than I could ever of imagined through the generosity, kindness and the compassion they all showed through this. I know what was faced none of them had signed up for but through their servant hearts God moved several mountains that day and I will never be able to Thank God and them enough!!

If you want to have a relationship with God, like I do please follow this link You Can Know God Now it will help you start. I pray you are listening to that knock on your heart from the one who loves you far beyond your understanding!

Father you are greater than anyone can describe, you have a purpose for everything and everyone far beyond our understanding. Your love for us was so great you gave your only son's life to save us from our sin a love far beyond our understanding. Father please soften the hearts of all those who read this to know you better and if they don't have a relationship with you to hear you knocking at the door to their hearts, so they may start one. I also ask if they are not in that place yet to except what you have done for them give them an unquenchable thirst to investigate what you are all about so they can find you. I so thank you for all that you have done in my families and my life and what you are continuing to do. In Jesus Precious Name Amen.