Kingdom

Well, I'm back again! And this time, I can moonwalk.

You may ask, "How is that possible?"

Well, you're wrong. I can moonwalk.

Over here at Hillsong, we just finished up Colour Conference, which is a women's conference all about empowering women of the church with purpose and the plans that God has for them. As a man, I have the privilege of serving all of the delagates during the week. I was rostered onto the carpark team, which means that I was able to helpfully guide any drivers into their parking spots. As a member of the carpark team, I was privileged to be one of the first and last people to make contact with delegates as they entered and left the conference. I was the first and last impression that delegates had of the conference. Hillsong is really great at teaching the purpose behind the service. Before I actually served in carpark, I had no idea how important the team actually is. I think it's pretty easy to mistakenly think that "Amount of Time on Platform" = "Importance of Role in Church", but if there was nobody outside directing traffic, welcoming people into the building, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. people would never enter the building ready to receive the Word of God from the platform.

Yesterday, I was once again able to talk to the genius couple from Iran. Farshad still hasn't been able to find a job in the mining industry. I can't even imagine how frustrating it must be to spend 10 years getting a Ph.D. and be unable to get a job in a really growing industry simply because your nationality is questionable. As a connect group, we've been praying for favor from companies. I was also able to talk to him about how they use air cannons to create waves underwater and measure the seismic response of the earth to determine if there is oil in the ground. Absolutely fascinating. Elmira invited me back to the hospital on Tuesday to help her out in the reasearch. She said that they're starting to do tissue sampling to make conclusions about some of the surgeries. I don't really know what that entails, but I'm excited. I have Tuesday off of school anyway.

This past Sunday, I was able to get out to some Northern Sydney beaches and do some real surfing. It was a relatively calm day with only 6 foot swells, but as a beginner I was totally fine with that. I wasn't able to actually stand up on the surf-board, but that will come with time. I really want to get out and surf quite a bit more with the time that I have left here. Although 6 foot waves don't really sound that impressive, I found out quite quickly that a 6 foot wall of water can be pretty painful. I'm pretty sure that I realigned my spine during a particularly painful crash.

For a short stint in March, I got it into my head to be a vegetarian. After a couple weeks, I figured out that all I had done was replace my meat intake with chocolate, completely elimenating any benefits. I'm once again back to eating bacon. I've also decided not to illegally download anything from the internet anymore and I have opened up about half of my hard drive by deleting illegal things. Since that time, I've become more creative in my songwriting and have taken a strong liking to Sufjan Stevens. I'm currently trying to stop biting my fingernails.

The greatest revelation that God has given to me came through the book "Suprised By Hope", by N.T. Wright. The entire book is all about the hope that God has given to us through the resurrection of his son, Jesus, and what that means for our life right now. N.T. Wright explains simply that if we are Christians, we are also part of the Kingdom of God here on earth. If we are part of the Kingdom of God, we also are given the power of the Kingdom and the authority that comes from Jesus, the risen king. Our mission is to declare that the Kingdom of God is here and to prove that with the power that comes from the King. How crazy is that? It has absolutely changed the way that I walk around to know that I am constantly armed with the power of the holy spirit to heal the sick, raise the dead, and perform miracles in conjunction with the message that the Kingdom of God is here and available to all.

I hope that you take this same revelation with you into Easter and beyond and celebrate the mission and power that Jesus has graced us with in his resurrection.