Week...who even knows...But i do know that WE SERVE A BIG GOD!

HEY!
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U
can i just start off my saying that i TOTALLY MISS YOU ALL LIKE CRAZY and wish you all could be here to experience the things that i am experiencing!
God is so faithful and this week i was able to experience a wee bit of his BEAUTY!
This week was a LOT LOT LOT more chill which was so needed after the craziness of sonshine week! But tuesday i had the opportunity to go with Sharon and Melvin to Melvin's biblestudy/prayer group that he has. What the group is a friends and family who wanted to support melvin when he went to Mozambique almost 4 years ago. So they met the frist tuesday of every month to pray....GUYS PRAYER IS SO IMPORTANT! That is something we have done SO much of!
So melvin asked me to share my heart and bring a verse to share with the group. It was great to be around people who are equally passionate about missions! I shared a little bit about who i am and what i am doing with my life right now and then i talked about Isaiah 55 again and it is funny because Daddy, you gave me ISAIAH 55:11 when i was in south africa a year ago but it is NOW impacting my life which is such a testimony for that verse which tells us that GOD'S WORD DOES NOT COME BACK VOID! and i praise him for that! So after i talked we spent the next hour in prayer for Mozambique, for all of the missionaries we knew that are in this world! It was so humbling to get prayed for too. I love how i am so willing to pray for others but then when it comes to me i feel like my prayer requests are "important" or "major" enough...ya know...but it has been good for me to GET OVER MY SELF and ask for help and let others bless me...
Then on wednesday morning we woke up early and meet the heartbeat team at 8 in the morning to go on a prayer walk around the Portglenone Forest. It was a beautiful crisp morning and in stead of sitting in a room praying(and potentially falling asleep hehe) we walked and prayed for their trip to Mozambique! It is funny because i feel like i am going to Mozambique now lol...who knows...maybe someday i will! But the forest was BEAUTIFUL! The middle of the forest has a the River Bann running through it and O MY WORD i wanted to jump in and have dad circle around the boat and do a wakeboard run on the PERFECT GLASS WATER! lol
So after an hour of prayer in the forest we went back to the WB and had another prayer time with the whole WB staff...We discussed a lot about sonshine week...pro's and con's and what could happen differently and better...and they were then talking about why was then not a total revival of the town...why were lives not being changed LEFT AND RIGHT because so much preparation and TONS of prayer went into this week. But again acknowledging that God is in control and that his ways are not our ways and his plans are SOOOOOOOOOOOO much better then ours and that his timing is PERFECT and we just have to wait on him!
Waiting on him in something that right now i am struggling with...i know that i am probably not the only one who is thinking this right now but ok so many people went around this world and saw GOD MOVING this summer...
so what are we going to do with that
you cannot have encounter with God like we all have and NOT be changed by it...
but what change needs to happen?
How are we going to make APU a place that fears God and that pleases God and a place where RADICAL, CrAZY, but faithful little things happen for God?
How do we take the ways we have seen God work, the excitement we have in our hearts back to our Churches and not let that fire be extinguished!
It was so OBVIOUS that i was meant to be here this summer and i am so sad that my time is coming to a close here but now i am wrestling with the idea of WHAT DO I DO NOW!?!?!?!
I have seen such passion and such excitement in Christians that they can't help but tell everyone they know about it...why is that not the case for us at home...where is the difference....
we shouldn't have to TELL people we are christians...they should take one look at us and the things we are doing for them and for Jesus and KNOW that "wow these guys have something different...what is motivating their unselfish and impartial love"
WE PRAISE A RISEN SAVIOR...HE BROUGHT US FROM DEATH TO LIFE...WE CAN HAVE COMMUNION AND FRIENDSHIP WITH THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE...we need to start acting like it...we need to have a CONTAGIOUS faith...
so if you could be praying for me to figure out how God wants me to respond to him. and you as my friends and family PLEASE hold me accountable to NOT fall back into complacency!
ok i will get off the pulpit now...
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U
so on Wednesday afternoon it was BEAUTIFUL so after being in meetings all day Ricky, Rebekah and i went to Newferry which is another side of the River Bann and relaxed a little down time! It was lovely! Then on wednesday night we went to the prayer meeting at GP!
why dont we have more prayer meetings....
THis week we sang some worship songs and then we had to go and find someone we didn't know and pray with them! So the first guy i prayed with was Michael and He was a lovely and it was great to get encouragement from him and be prayed for by someone who loves God wholeheartedly and then i prayed and while i was praying he started speaking in tongues and it was such a great holy spirit moment and you could feel God's presence in that place! He started then talking about tongues and how God has given him the gift but has also given him the gift of interpretation...GUYS GOD IS BIG AND WE CANNOT WRAP OUR HEADS AROUND HIM NO MATTER HOW HARD WE TRY! it is just great to see a new and amazing aspect of God...
Then i prayed with Ian who is a young guy who wants to go to Uni(college) for media... Great to see a young guy who wants to take God into his workplace!
After the hour of prayer we then sang again and then we FELLOWSHIPPED! Green Pastures has such a welcoming atmosphere and the people there are so lovely and filled with the spirit!
O MY WORD BUT FUNNY STORY! so ricky, rebekah and i were eating our lunch at the People's park in Ballymena and we had just sat down and were enjoying the beautiful day when BAM we felt something wet hit us...A BIRD HAD POOPED ON US! we were all sitting on different sides of the table but we ALLL got hit with it! It was so funny! just thought i would share!
Also this week i had the chance to go up to a wee down called Downhill and go up a mountain and look over the coast of Northern Ireland...look onto Scotland...and see the beautiful forests and country side! I was in awe of the peace that i was overwhelmed with! It is crazy to think though that while i am looking at such a peaceful scene...that our brothers and sisters around this world are in such distress are being tortured for their faith...the people who are in sudan, india, china, afganistan and are seeing such chaos and turmoil...but the God we serve is in each place and can offer us peace even when around us their seems to be no hope! We just have to trust in him! Not saying that the turmoil and madness will stop...but the peace that our Father gives passes understanding!
On Saturday it was July 12! The 12 starts the night before with BONFIRES...there are bonfires in each village and they are SUPER SUPER BIG i took a picture and i will put it up soon of what they look like...but it is sad because it is a place for the young people to come and hang out--but they hang out and drink and do drugs at the bonfire...so again a negative connotation to the bonfire.....Since I missed the 4th of july for USA i had to so something patriotic so i got to participate in a wee bit of Northern Irish pride! It was a lovely day and i went with Lisa and Lavina(girls from GP) up to Ballyclare to watch the bands (each town has an Orange order which then makes a drum and flute or accordion or bagpipe marching band) so in the morning each Orange order marches in their own town then gets on a bus to the main march in the specific town and then marches there...then listens to a Political/Religious speaker then marches back to the bus and goes home and marches again in their town (after a visit to a pub or two). The girls i was with were not 100% supportive of the events that went on during that day because much of it is protestant pride and a bashing of the catholics! So we did not participate in much of the day...but it was a wonderful time to see what it was like on the 12th of July! There is still a lot of drama between these groups and when you add a whole day of drinking onto that things get ugly! But the girls i was with know where NOT to go so we avoided that!
Sunday morning went to GP in the morning for hte Frost time and it just so great to be with believers! And now i have transitioned from Jo and Mark in Ahoghill back to Sharon and Melvin in Antrim...so i take the GP bus to church! It is such a ministry because people WHO dont have cars or can't drive can get to church!
(we should thinking about how we can get people to church......)
and then on sunday night Richard Fleck or just FLECK preached about Paul and Silas being freed from Prison in Acts 16:16
PLEASE CHECK IT OUT!
16Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
19When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."

22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"

29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.
Guys i have to go!
But i love you all and i praying for you and can't wait to see you!
Thanks for all the prayers and emails and comments!
GOD IS FAITHFUL!
IN HIS GRIP,
megan

Prayer:
~My brother Ryan is having surgery on the 17th so if you could be praying that it will go smoothly and as pain free as possible!
~That i will be able to figure out how to respond to God and apply what i have learned at home
~For all of the people who are on mission trips throughout this world in Ghana, Iraq, Nigeria, Nepal, China, Mexico...

Praises
~That i have been able to see his beautiful creation and get closer with him!
~That i am being challenged to think about life in a way that i have not before!
~That i have such a wonderful friends and family and are supporting me! and that i even get this opportunity! I am so incredible grateful!
~Next week i get the chance to go down to the Rebupilc of Ireland to work with OMS--more details coming soon!--