Community Swirl

Today is my fourth day in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And I love it. Not so much Harrisburg itself. It looks quite a bit like Salinas with a lot of dark green plants and all the buildings are brick or old wood. Maybe I just haven't seen enough of the city yet..

Our house is beautiful. They call it the 333 House. Apparently there is a super legit story behind it, that I will get to hear about in one of the classes this coming week. Anyway, it is about 3 stories high. There are two kitchens with 3 sinks. Two fridges and a mini fridge with milk and creamer for coffee. We have a little dining area with probably 10 square tables...4 seats to a table. This house is over 100 years old. It was previously owned by another missions group, and I guess, before then it was owned by some guy who had slaves quarters to have lots of children, but wound up infertile...Something like that. Anyway, there are 17 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. The second floor has all the girls, with 4-6 people per room. We also have a room for a  married couple who have joined us. :) We all live together, girls, guys, and staff. It's wonderful. We eat together, cook together, clean together, pray together. We encourage each other. Lift up each other. Already it feels like home...without my family, friends, or puppies ( :-P ). But there is something so lovely about in constant community with people like me. People who just want to love Jesus. That is the best.

Our daily routine is still forming, but Friday was so much fun! We had breakfast, went to the church for class, coffee break, more class, lunch, Target run, free time, dinner, and then we had the Fire and Fragrance Kick-Off service with Sean Feucht for worship. That was wonderful! Then Chad and Julie Dedmon from Bethel dropped some wisdom, prophetic words, and such...Then there were the healings. 

Remember that car accident I told you about? (If not, you can read about that here.) Well, since then I had been having neck pain and I had been taking muscle relaxers because my neck was so tight. On top of that, my heart was really hurt from the struggle of, "God, this whole thing sucks. I know You're here somewhere, but I honestly feel like I've been forgotten...even just a little bit." So I was struggling a lot with that. Anyway, so Chad is on the mic, and he says, "Is there someone here who has been in a car accident and has pain in their back or neck? But you were in a car accident. A car accident." I began to cry and, anyway, my neck feels perfectly fine! Thank you, Jesus :) 

One of the girls in our DTS (Discipleship Training School) had her leg grow out, which is always awesome -- having that happened to myself over a year and a half ago. A couple of our people also received arches, which is awesome too! God was just showing up like that :) He enjoys it. We enjoy it. We enjoy Him. He enjoys us. It's a circle. A wonderful, wonderful circle.

The church that has opened its doors to us, seems to be magnificent. Their base is extremely large. Their coffee shop is called Shabba Java. I like that. Their pastor is a super Holy Spirit man. He loves the Spirit. So do we. We love him. He loves us. We all love Jesus together. Awesome stuff.

We have the weekends off, and some of the crew went to America for Jesus yesterday in Philly. Today we went to church and the atmosphere was very Bethel-ish. I enjoyed it. Even the decor reminded me of Bethel. Not to mention they played Bethel Music/Bethel Live ("This Is What You Do" anyone??). Long story short, I now LOVE this church.

Oh! I wanted to tell you about my roommates. They are....what are the words....God definitely knew He was doing something by putting us together. We are all still adjusting, but already we are so close. We hang out. We talk. We laugh. We shop together on the Target runs. We share. We pray together and for each other. 

My mind is stuck in wrapping itself around the type of community I have just joined. Like I'm a sponge that has absorbed so much, but I am still processing. Totally okay. It's happened before. And when I start to grasp the concept of it all....its wonderful. That is all I can say. I think I need to find new adjectives.

ITS ALL CRAZY SWIRL.

That's really the only way to describe it. Crazy swirl. Not that many, if any, of you know what swirl means. I can't even define it. I just know....it's one of those things.

Anyway...well, I am super excited to see what God is going to birth out of this because I honestly have no idea. But I think that is okay because it leaves me open to however He wants to do what He wants to do. It keeps me from getting an idea in my head of the way I want Him to do whatever, and allows me to open to whatever He would like. I like that thought.

Even though it feels like I have been here a million years already, I love it. So many people from all over the U.S. (We only have one foreigner and she is from Australia!) coming together. Good stuff, man.

Okay guys well...now that I've shared a little bit... I love you all! Let Jesus love you in special ways today or night!

Xoxo,

Cheryl