This weekend, I had the awesome privilege of attending TheCall in DC, a 12-hour fast and solemn assembly for repentance and change in the nation of America.

Incredible.

The entire process of getting there was an act of God by far. By His grace and mercy, a group was leaving from Toronto (my new home) and my parents funded the trip for me without hesitation. Looking back I see why He wanted me there, but more of that later:-)

The drive there was approx. 10 hours in a little 15-passenger van...with 15 people! I instantly connected with them and felt like I knew the group for years! It was a good trip down with no hassles at the border and no accidents on the road. Praise God!!

When we arrived we headed to IHOP (house of pancakes, not prayer) and ate then headed to our hotel (which was very nice). Most everyone was tired and wanted to rest for a while, minus me. I was teeming with excitement and wanted to just go, go, go. Unfortunately the venue where the PreCall Gathering was at was a good hour away from the hotel and I didn't want to navigate Washington DC by myself. But I also couldn't stay in the hotel because of too much excitement.

I should probably note that a majority of my friends from IHOP (house of prayer) were also down there for the weekend participating in both the PreCall and TheCall. However, because I wasn't sure if I was heading down, I never let them know (plus I sorta wanted to surprise them!)

So, with nothing else to do, I texted one to see if they were available because I was in the city. This happened to be my old roomate and one of my favourite people in the world, Audra. We ended up hanging out for a couple hours which was soo great cus I've missed her an awful lot. It was as if no time had passed since we'd last seen each other which was fantabulous!

After hanging with her, I headed back to the hotel and our group was on its way to the PreCall gathering. We met some really great people on the bus ride there:-)

Anywho, when we arrived, I was able to sneak up on some more unsuspecting friends and it was a happy reunion. It was the same feeling of no time passing since I last saw them. I heart you ladies!

The service started with Matt's team leading us into a time of worship. This time was so good for my heart and it almost felt like a time of restoration for myself. Really refreshing.

Afterwards, Mike spoke on making a purity covenant. I've heard this message a few times over the past few months, but each time, it penetrates my heart a little more and stirs the stagnant waters that may have accumulated over the last little while.

On my other blog (soon to probably be old deleted blog haha) I had placed a small post regarding purity and had meant to post an entire series on the topic. I never did post the series simply because I'm still searching out the topic annd don't feel I could do it justice in a couple posts.

However, that message gripped my heart again; not just for me, but for the youth of America (and of course Canada). Since doing camp a few weeks ago, I've reignited my passion for youth; particularly teenagers age 12-16. They're being bombarded everyday, everywhere they go with immorality. You can't even turn on the TV at 2 in the afternoon without seeing an explosion of "sex sells" ads plastered all over the screen. Immorality is running rampant these days and it scares me to think of what it will be like in the years to come, because it'll only get worse.

But, Mike challenged everyone there to make the Purity Covenant. It's very easy to follow and it's great because you'll have an accountability partner, not to mention the grace of God, to help you along with it.

My hope is to see a large amount of people take on this covenant, or one like it and go against the grain of society. Could you imagine if millions of teenagers and young adults refused to let sexual immorality pervade their life anymore? What would it be like if this generation said no to sin and yes to a life of purity and holiness? What would happen to the generation birthed out of this one? I believe there would be a shift and a change in the world.

I for one will be someone striving for holiness in my life and going the opposite way.

But that's a nugget of what happened at the PreCall gathering. It was a definite propeller into TheCall the next day, but my thoughts on TheCall will be in the next post!

Blessings

I am currently in Washington DC for TheCall . I arrived yesterday morning and attend the Forerunner Gathering, a Pre-Call conference.

I'm getting ready to head out the door for The actual Call, so I have to keep this really brief but just letting those of you who are curious know that I made it in safely and have been having an incredible time. I will write a post about both the Pre-Call and TheCall when I arrive home tonight. Pictures unfortunately won't be up until I make it back to Toronto on Sunday.

In the meantime, partner with us at home and pray for a shift and a change in the nation of America and in the nation of Canada and across the world. You can watch a live webfeed of it via GodTV for free.


Blessings!

I'm currently in Ottawa right now, but I arrived in Toronto on Wednesday morning and so begins a new chapter in the journey.

Because nothing in my life lately has been without it's share of drama, I'll fill you in on how the few hours leading up to the plane ride and afterwards were dramatic and nearly traumatic! (warning, it's fairly lengthy).

Firstly, I didn't finish packing until Tuesday morning around 2am or so (I'm a procrastinator....I can admit it!). Anywho Tuesday was jam packed right up until I was leaving. I drove my parents to work in the morning, went shopping for a router for a family member, set up said router at their house with enough time left to drive over to my Dad's work and then head to the airport.

I assumed that since I checked in online and only needed to drop off my baggage, things would be fairly smooth...I sure was wrong! There was a line-up with the airline I was flying with that was a good half-hour long wait. I made it up to the counter after waiting and as soon as I arrived to check in the bags, the power went out throughout the entire airport! Everything was out of commission for roughly a half-hour.

The power came back on and things appeared to be looking up:-) The only set back was that my flight was delayed an hour, which wasn't that big of a deal. Security took a quite a bit of time to clear through(also not a big deal, I had an hour to kill...)

Finally we were boarding the plane and on our way! However, the power outage had made the computers unhappy and they decided to overbook the flight and put more than two people to a seat. So musical chairs was going on in the plane for a good 15 minutes or so. Once things were sorted out, we were on our way! At least that's what I thought...

Due to severe weather in Toronto, we were going to be delayed another 45 minutes. 45 minutes escalated to another hour. That hour escalated to another hour. After sitting on the grounded plane for 3 solid hours I decided it was time to take a bit of a break and head back into the airport (we had this option after the first hour or so). As I'm heading over the bridge into the airport, one of the security guards was heading to the plane and asked if I had all my stuff. "No I don't, just my ID and boarding pass. Why do I need all my stuff?" "They just confirmed that this flight has been cancelled, you will need to grab all your stuff and head back to the terminal."

Fantastic! It was hard enough saying good-bye once and leaving Winnipeg and now the flight was cancelled. Sparing all the little details, I (along with the other 100 passengers or so), stood in a scattered line for an hour as we were individually booked on different flights leaving at different times. I ended up on a flight the same night (thank God) and that one actually made it off the ground!

When we touched down in Toronto, we had to wait on the tarmac for a half-hour so we could get a gate. At this point it's roughly midnight and I had been at the airport and in planes since 2pm; all I wanted to do was go to my aunts and crash anywhere my tired body wanted to. But that wouldn't be as exciting as my bag being left in Winnipeg and me waiting for it to come around the carousel but it never coming. Along with 40 or more other people, I had to wait in line (again) to schedule a delivery for my bag. Touching down at midnight, I finally made it into the car around 1:10 or so and I was on my way.


That experience probably would have been a prime time to exercise the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle....unfortunately my head wasn't in that space and I was pretty frustrated. I took it as a learning experience and hopefully I keep my cool next time something like this happens!

It wasn't all that bad though. With all the spare time, I met a bunch of really cool people and they became my airplane friends. We complained together(lol) and talked about our future goals and what was taking us to Toronto. They all had awesome dreams/aspirations and good head's on their shoulders. Because the whole ordeal was rather comical, movie-like and ridiculous, we all had a good laugh about it, which made things better:-)

Anywho, I took my placement test at my school on Thursday morning, hung out with the family until this morning, and now I'm in Ottawa and they (Toronto family) are in Cuba! So this is just time to collect my thoughts and to get back on track before school starts. The chapter is just beginning and it's come in with a mighty bang. I speak Grace Grace to myself in hopes of this being another step in the right direction of living in His will for my life. I'll hopefully be blogging frequently (since I have no friends out here and it's just school and work for me haha!) I promised my friend Shane I'd have at least one monthly Geek Post, so if you see them, don't be alarmed.

I'm curious to see where I'll be heading in the next little while. However, I know that God knows and that He'll never stretch me beyond what I can handle.

Let the good times roll. Keep on keeping on!

Blessings!