Rosie in the Philappines

So Rosie as part of our Surprise me God experiment, decides to cheat and head to a third world country to see if she gets surprised by God, ok well, she was booked for the trip beforehand and I guess she doesn't really cheat at anything... and I have a bad case of jealousy about her being there and not me! She gave me the following to put up here!

I'm in the Philippines with eleven, 16 year old high school students. Today we went into the surrounding community and as we were leaving I prayed 'Surprise me God". I was so surprised because going into such poor neighbourhoods, I expected to feel sorry for the people and have my heart broken by their poverty. Instead I felt nothing of the sort. This surprised me. They were all so happy and friendly and I didn't really notice their lack of anything. But I did feel like we stood out because we have so much and are so often not happy at all.

I was also surprised at how amazing HOT and humid it is over here. I drank 6 litres of water today and still have a headache from dehydration. But our kids are doing amazing things here, stepping out of their comfort zone and really willing to do anything. I am so proud of them.

Time for bed after a very busy and back breaking day (we spent the afternoon digging out site works for our building in pure clay).

If you have any encouragement for Rosie or the high schoolers then make sure you leave a comment for them, I will make sure they get it! Thanks for the update Rosie!

Surprise!!!

It was a subtly surprising week for many people in our community! Every day at the moment we are simply beginning the day by saying to God 'Surprise Me', and then writing about it at the end of the day- and surprises did come.

These are just a few snippets of the variety of surprises that people encountered this week:

• Jeff discovered a miracle that had occurred in his childhood. His brother had jumped through a window, and did some serious damage to his arms, and even severed a nerve. In Jeff's university lecture he discovered that it was physically impossible for someone to regain full functioning in their hand after such an incident... and his brother is actively playing the piano with complete function in his hand. Jeff's university lecturer said it was a human impossibility. Who would have thought God was to surprise Jeff with stuff that already happened?

• James was sitting at the school he works at with a group of yr 2 students, and thought he would play a game called, 'Where is everyone from?'. As each student explained where they were from James was amazed as out 8 kids these were some of the children's countries of origin: Burma, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Slovakia, remote indigenous, local indigenous and Kenya. What an amazing point in history we live in with such global diversity all focused in one place!

• Jo was looked up on facebook by a friend from primary school.

• Adam experienced a few little surprises: 1) How prayer somehow directs his attention away from himself. 2) The joy I find it spending time quietly with my close friends 3) How much having a car enables you to do more during the day.

• Lee experienced the kind of surprises that we do not look for. In the space of the last two weeks she found out two of her three house mates are moving out... her surprise though was how she coped in the situation, that it did not shake her as it once would have. She was surprised as to how much God has transformed her and changed her over time. Her resilience surprised her!
  

Anyway these are just a few of the surprises happening in our community. I realise that many of them are not deep profound moments, but I think yesterday there was a sense that maybe God is already just doing so much around us, but we are not seeing it because are not taking time to look – surprise?

Please if you have any surprises you would like to share, email us to add to the collection

Much love

Surprise me God!

30 DAY SURPRISE ME EXPERIMENT

A man name Terry Esau wrote a book called 'Surprise Me'. It was a 30 day experiment where he started each day with three simple words, 'Surprise Me God'. In praying these words daily Terry thought 'what will happen? Will the heavens shake? Will nothing happen?'. Not only did he pray these three words to God daily, but Terry also wrote down his observations during the day, and he paid particular attention to how God surprised him during the day, and opened himself up to having his daily routine interrupted by surprises. In the routine of his everyday activities he wrote a journal, and strangely enough it became clear that surprises were happening all around him everyday.

After some of read Terry's book we have decided to embark on the same 30 day experiment together as a community. Where for 30 days we wake up everyday and pray 3 simple words to God, 'Surprise Me God'. During the day we will be looking for surprises, and then everyday write down what we observe and what runs through our heads. Each Sunday at our bible study we will have the chance to share our surprises with others and just see what happens.

Here is a brief snippet from an entry a wrote this week:

"I woke up not wanting to get up, and prayed to God 'Surprise Me'. As I prayed that words I thought 'what am I even looking for? What is a good surprise? What is a bad surprise? As my mind was asking these questions I noticed the heavy patter of rain outside, and I was surprised. Seriously it has not rained in so long here. Then I went to play golf with a friend, but it was still raining... but as I drove in my car I realised I have a great life. It does not get much better than playing golf and drinking coffee on a Monday morning with a friend. Maybe God is going to surprise me with the little stuff? Maybe the conservation I had with my friend this morning was life giving, maybe it encouraged him? Maybe it refreshed him? My first surprise was how much joy I find in the little things, maybe there are little gifts God has for me waiting to be opened each day?"

By no means is this a formula... but hopefully it gives you the general idea.

So anyone out there who it interested, just say to God, 'Surprise Me', the observe and engage with what happens. Grab a pen, or a keyboard, and start writing!

I look forward to hearing how God Surprises You!

Adam