Amazing visions of Community

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.  What does the worker gain from his toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil - this is the fight of God.  I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.  God does it so that men will revere him."  Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15

revere: to regard with respect tinged with AWE; venerate.  Dictionary.com

Well as i have been here, some amazing and incredible relationships have formed.  I would love to say life long, and i hope that they are, but with some conversations with a team mate of mine, we have realized and seen that relationships, just like everything else in life have a time and a place.  I can see some relationships at home forming into those life long friendships, i can see different type of friendships forming here but they all have their beautiful time and place.

Recently we have had a few people get sick both on our team and on a team in a bush village.  Within our team people have got viral meningitis, a migraine that took them out the entire day, and kidney stones.  The team out in the bush village may have appendicitis.

I say all of out troubles for you to pray for the safety and healing of out team and that we would continue to have good health until the end of this little Alaskan adventure.

I also mention this because over the Summer we have grown incredibly close as a team.  We all have grown in Christ and we have prayed for each other, shared our joys and our frustrations with each other.  We have shared praises and we have shared in Gods glory.  Because of all of this sharing and time together God has built a community with the 9 of us.  Yes Bud and Trula left back home because of some health issues with friends and now Jared is off and getting ready for college, Liberty, but God has grown us 9 together with a few others even and we have become a community.  Today i really realized it for the first time.  One of our team members is in the hospital for kidney stones and the news spread around the team pretty quickly.  One team member confirmed it with me and went to go find out which hospital she was in so he could just love on her and encourage her.  After getting off the phone with him, God opened my eyes to the beauty of the community that has formed.  It was so amazing to realize it, i loved it.   God has been growing this desire for community within my life and He is showing me the communities around me.  It was a pretty exciting times, i mean tears almost flowed.  GOD I STINKIN LOVE YOU!!! :)

Also the team that went to the bush village is gathering around their one sick team mate.  With experience, life and adventure, God brings people together to serve him and love others and be servants.

One last way community has been shown in my life is my desire to pray for others.  By talking to my friends and asking how i can pray for them, God has grown my prayer time tremendously but he has also given me the honor of loving my friends and acquaintances and even people i just meet randomly.  The beauty of prayer is unreal to me, i know i will never fully understand the impact, but i know that with prayer, lives can be changed.  I know that with prayer, blessings can happen.  I know that with prayer... hard and crushing lessons may be learned.  But something else that i learned is that "There is a time to be born and a time to die."  There is a time and place set up by God for everything.

So look around you my friends, notice the community and blessings that God is showing you, and do me a favor, re-read the verses up top, and meditate on this scripture and let God show you something amazing.  Tell me about it with a comment and hey even put a prayer request if you want, because know this you are loved and you will be prayed for.