TWINS!!!

On Friday we went to the doctor for an ultrasound and to hopefully find out the gender of our new baby.  After a few minutes of looking, the tech asked us if we could see what she is seeing.  We both looked but had no idea what she meant.  After a moment, she said, "I see two babies in there."  Heidi and I had both thought a couple months ago that we were having twins but the doctor at that appointment was sure that there was only one baby.  What a shock.  Twin boys.  It is rare for people get to 20 weeks before they find out about twins.  We are incredibly excited but a little scared at the same time.  Wow.

There they are!

Mouthpiece

This post is a long time coming, but here it is, so that's what matters.

For the past 7+ years, Tim and I have been blessed by a great prophetic ministry called Harold Eatmon Ministries International (HEMI).  We have had the privilege of attending 3 sessions of School of the Prophets and have learned SO much about how God works through prophetic gifting in biblical ways.  The last school we attended was early this year and it was pretty sweet.

Towards the end of our sessions on Saturday afternoon, we moved into a time of activation, a time to "practice" what we learned in a safe and orderly environment.  So far the activations all weekend had been pretty painless, not too scary, just a chance for everyone who wanted to to offer themselves to the Lord to be used prophetically to bless another.  It was very cool to see people experience the joy of being used by God to prophetically speak truth and encouragement to one another.

Well, the last activation was definitely a little scarier than the others b/c we even didn't know what it was when they asked for a few volunteers.  You should know that I don't like being "up front" (ever, never ever, no matter what), but I also knew in my spirit that God was asking me to make myself available to Him, to raise my hand and volunteer.  I think the exact words He used were, "If I want to use you as My mouthpiece, who are you to say no?"  To that I said, okey-doke, and my hand went up.  I knew if I volunteered, I would be chosen, and sure enough, my hand went up and Joe called me up front.  They had set up 8 chairs on the stage, in two rows, facing each other.  I sat down and waited as the other chairs in my row were filled up.  Then came the blindfolds....

They blindfolded us and then silently chose 4 people to sit across from us.  We were to prophecy over the person sitting in the chair directly in front of us.  If we felt confident enough in the gender of the individual, we could include that in our word for them.  Well, I will give you one guess as to who got to go first.  You guess it, me.

Joe handed me the microphone and told me to take my time.  I would like to insert that there were probably at least 100 ppl in the room - yikes.  At least I couldn't see them!  I would also like to say that this is an anointed ministry and dozens of very anointed, very prophetic people were there that weekend.  And they were all praying for me, all praying that God would give me a powerful word for the person in front of me, for their benefit and for mine, that I could be blessed by the opportunity to be used of God in this way.  So really,  there was such a powerful anointing present that anyone could have prophecied in that setting!

I won't bore you with the gory details of the word I got, but I will tell you that the experience was amazing.  God gave me a specific and detailed word for the man of God that was seated before me and I pretty much wept through the delivery b/c of how moved I was at the Lord's heart for this man.

After the 4 of us in my row had all given a word, we were able to take off our blindfolds and see who we had ministered to.  To top it all off, the person sitting in front of me was my brother!!!  Wow.  There are no words.  Amazing.  God showed up and I was blessed to be there and be a mouthpiece for Him.    

Me and my "little" bro, the man of God.

snip, snip

I have had very long hair for over 10 years.  The last time my hair was short was in ninth grade, 17 years ago.  Yesterday afternoon, I chopped it all off!  Well, most of it.  I was really rather nervous about it, but I am really happy with how it turned out.  I normally cut my hair myself, but this special occasion called for a professional.  

Here's me, a happy customer, leaving the salon.

Damon, at Belli Capelli, in Adover, did a great job.  I even hugged him afterwards :)

He was so great.

It was time for a change and I think this counts as a change.  It's a bit shorter in the back, angled to the front and longer on the left side, so fun!

Here's all the hair they cut off for Locks of Love.  It was a little scary for me once I heard the first "clip" and knew there was no going back, but it was totally worth it.

So the back story on this big change is that about a month ago I just felt like it was time for a change.  I love tattoos, but since I'm pregnant, that was out.  I told Tim I wanted to cut my hair and he wasn't so sure about it.  The more thought I gave it though, the more it felt right.  God has done such a dramatic transformational work in our lives in the last 2 years and has truly shifted our thinking in so many ways that I wanted to make a shift that was outwardly obvious.  Not necessarily for others to see, but just to be an outward symbol of all God has done in this season on the inside.  I have been changed by our experience and it was time for me to look a little different on the outside as well.  So there you go.  I'm usually not really into symbolism, but this felt right.  And it enabled me to help out a great organization that makes wigs for children with cancer.  How can you go wrong?!  So while I happy about how my hair looks, I am even happier about what it means to me:  God is transforming me for His glory from the inside out!

New Job

In May of this year, I accepted a job at Volunteers of America and I was certainly grateful for the work and the income.  During the last few months I continued to look for another job because the VOA job did not pay all that much.  Last week I accepted a job offer from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI).  My position title is Member Specialist and it would take too long to describe my responsibilities so I'm not going to right now.  The office is located in the International Market Square, which is just to the west of downtown Minneapolis about a half mile.  It is a good location and now we can move out of the in-law's house.  I am excited for this opportunity and grateful to the Lord for providing it.

On another note, today marks seven years that Heidi and I have known each other.  I was nervous when we met but she was nice and gave me another chance.  It's been the best seven years of my life.  Love you, baby.

the Dream

I don't often get dreams that mean anything, but a few weeks ago, I had a pretty cool one.  It came the night that I was feeling so discouraged that I basically cried myself to sleep in despair.  I'm sure part of it was all the extra hormones from being pregnant, but Tim and I were feeling fairly discouraged about our duplex at the time.

In my dream, Tim and I had just picked up a huge load of fresh food from a local farm and were dropping it off to be stored.  We were leaving it at a friend's place until it ran out, keeping it in a space like a root cellar. We unloaded everything and the food completely filled up the entire space.  Throughout the Fall, as we would return to get a load each week, the amount of food never diminished.  The space was always as full as it had been the first time, just brimming with fresh, unspoiled food.  We started giving it away and sharing it with others to use it up and it never ran out all winter long.  

On the surface, this was obviously a deeply encouraging dream about God’s ability and desire to multiple resources and to bless His people with abundance.  Especially since my sister in law and I had been praying recently for God to multiply our resources.  

As I prayed about this dream, God showed me a few things.  He reminded me that He is a God of multiplication, abundance, and restoration and that His idea of restoration looks far different from our idea.  (Restoration is the theme for our church for 2010.)  When I used to think about what restoration meant for me this year, I would think about God restoring Tim into a good job, about the restoration of relationships that have faded with distance, or the restoration of a dream for a new ministry.  All I thought about was God restoring the things that Tim and I used to have.  

But His idea of restoration includes so much more!  Rather than merely restoring to us the things we used to possess, He showed me that He desires to restore us to His promises, His covenants with us.  All of them!  It’s not about restoring pieces of our lives, it’s about restoring into our lives everything that He offers us in His Word.  Every promise in it’s fullness.

He desires to fill our store house (or root cellars :) with salvation, with healing, with calling and with new ministries, with provision and abundance, and with the manifestation of every single one of His covenant promises with us.  It’s time to broaden our scope and ask with faith for the restoration of big things!

This has really encouraged me and I hope it does the same for you.