Praise Da Lord!

The lighthouse we put a roof on and painted and constructed a wall around...

Doulas- the way up is down

Jay-Jay and I

Corton Tonji and I



I went to a new church this morning called New City Fellowship. It is a multi-cultural church in downtown Chattanooga. They opened the service with a speech by Martin Luther King Jr.

The worship was incredible, not just people standing in pews singing like they wished they were still in bed (which has definatly been me on occasion), but people pouring their hearts out just as they were, some broken, some rejoicing, some searching, some tired, but all genuine. For me the attitude of my heart was one in awe of the God I have recently been coexisting with lately. In no way have I been turning my back on him or ignoring him, but today I was reawakened to the Savior who is worthy of clinging to, and turning to, and chasing after, and learning from. I was reminded that my Savior meets me where I am and brings me the things that I didn't even know I was searching for. I was reminded what the body of Christ looks like, a bunch of random unique people with different perspectives, different looks, different walks of life, and different experiences united under their shared creator and lover of their soul. It was a church that made me proud to be a part of that body. I am pretty sure I have found a church home, or a least a home in the body of Christ whether that is the location I will call my church home or not.

What made the service so impactful this morning was the "Carribbean Medley" that was sang at the beginning. They sang songs I had long forgotten but quickly remembered. They were songs of Jamaica, the place where I felt like I woke up clothed in the blood of Christ, and a heart filled with the love of Christ, and my ears filled with the music of the angels. In no way did the songs they led us in sound like Jamaica, but I heard Jamiaca when they sang. I felt Jamaica as I swayed to the music. And when I say Jamaica, I don't mean the tourist Jamiaca, or even the poverty-stricken Jamiaca where I spent a week of my life, but the spirit of Jamaica which is both the spirit of God and the presence of Satan all wrapped up in one. This may sound like craziness to you, ones who did not expereince what I did, but I am doing my best to help you understand. There you could breathe in the spirit of the Lord, untainted by wealth and commerical corruption and hustle and bustle. But you could also smell Satan in the air and see it in the eyes of Rastafarian men carrying machetties and chanting in tongues. There was tangible and visible spiritual warfare, yet it was very obvious to me and all of the people who went on the mission trip with me which side was winning. The devil was fighting a losing battle. There is just as much spiritual warfare going on here in America, it is just unseen. Here Satan doesn't need demons to posess people... he just tries to distract us from the beauty of the world and our savior by convincing us that the things of this world are beautiful. Or as the pastor said this morning... gets us putting on gold-painted fake jewlry that leaves rust on our wrists and rings that shimmer but aren't the real thing. We look for instant gratification and end up settling for sloppy seconds that are so unfathomably less satisfying than what would come if we waited on the Lord's timing. How easily we get tangled in the trappings of the devil and drag around the unneccesary weight of our unnoticed sin.

"I've got my mind made up and I won't turn back

Because I want to see my Jesus someday...

Born, born, born again

Thank God I'm born again

Born of the water, and the spirit, and the blood

Thank God I'm born again...

Me, I will not suffa

I will not beg for bread

The Lord is my pro-vi-y-da

I will not beg for bread..."

The message was very moving. The preacher talked about the parable of the man who found a valuable treasure in another man's field. Instead of taking the treasure he had discovered for himself without telling the owner he covered it back up and went home to his family and sold everything he owned to buy all of the land. He didn't keep anything from his former life. If he had held on to anything he used to own, he might not have had enough money to buy the land, but he decided that the treasure was worth giving up everything for. Jesus said that is like the kingdom of heaven. It requires a willingness to sacrifice it all for the treasure that we find in Christ Jesus.

"Lord, You are more precious than silver. Lord, You are more costly than gold. Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds. And nothing I desire compares with you..." That was the last thing I heard in the service today and that is all I have to say about that. :)