Beyond Suffering 2

6/5/13

 

We started the morning with another devotion from Joni's book and sang a few worship songs. Joni came in to talk to us on healing she gave a few of her own stories, but one of the things she said was that in the mornings she wakes up and would do anything to not get out of bed and go through the strenuous pattern of tasks she does everyday before work. She says that many times she says "Father can I just please borrow your smile and good attitude for the day?" And also "I can't do quadriplegia today, but I can do all things through you." This really struck me because many times I wake up thinking I really don't know if I can take this test or just wake up in a not very good mood, but Joni has these struggles everyday and continues to put on a smile. She said I wake up every morning desperate for Jesus. Those words are something I am striving for, waking up everyday desperate for Jesus. 

 

After this we got to meet Joni and spend a little time talking. 

 

When we hear church we automatically think of the building, well at least I do, but the church is so much more. We were given a large piece of paper and asked to illustrate the word 'church'. This is what my group came up with

We decided that a church is not a building at all, it is the community in the building and what they do and how they serve others. Also, wrote GOD in the background because all though we may not see him he is always present in every decision and action the church has or does. We also added the Bible, cross, prayer, singing, and food because these are all the things a church will do to worship and praise our Father. There are other aspects to this picture, but one of the most important we found was that we wanted the picture to be messy because a church should be messy. A messy church means a church that is getting their hands dirty to work with others and also we left some space to represent that every church has room to grow.