AMAZING WEATHER

Dear friends,

This morning, I was leaving home for work and the sky was pretty gloomy, the ground wet. I was praying to God that the sunshine would come out by the afternoon so that VCF could have our picnic event, since we cannot book a room yet. By afternoon, the skies cleared and it became hot... and then, a shower came with the sky looking dark again... I was like, God, please! I thought you were gonna give us sunshine!

But lo and behold, just like Niroshan from Alpha said, the sun came back out again, just for me. The rain only lasted for a little while, and VCF had an awesome picnic :-) Sometimes God just likes to give me a test of faith like that to keep me relying on Him and trusting in Him... this shows that prayers do get heard, and sometimes you just have to keep praying.

I'm writing in the middle of the night right now, a bit tired but I'm extremely glad: VCF had the best first official day ever in my university career (people got to know each other a lot more over our picnic dinner), and I got a whole load of Urbana stuff done.

And the other highlight of the day was that one of the SC OUT (formerly LGBTQ at UTSC) coordinators started talking to me about Alpha and how he was interested in bringing more SC OUT people to these kinds of discussions and events. I was so happy, honestly, I just felt that God really gave me a sign that I did the right thing two years ago. That the passion in my heart for reaching out to the gay community was definitely God-given, and that from our relationship between Christian fellowship and SC OUT, we have become mutually supportive and growing closer and closer every year. My hope and prayer is that this will continue on for generations to come, just no more judgment or condemnation, just pure love and it is through love that God's message can be heard to those who have been hurt by false messages of hate.

I honestly feel so glad today, I just want to stay up all night and thank God. Honestly, I am so blessed because I know God and I know so many awesome people in my life. Suffering and trials may come, but like the poet William Yeats wrote:

CRAZY JANE TALKS WITH THE BISHOP

I MET the Bishop on the road
And much said he and I.
'Those breasts are flat and fallen now,
Those veins must soon be dry;
Live in a heavenly mansion,
Not in some foul sty.'
'Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul,' I cried.
'My friends are gone, but that's a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned in bodily lowliness
And in the heart's pride.

'A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.'

--William Butler Yeats

IF you are not a poetry fan, the basic storyline of this poem is that a "crazy lady" meets a bishop (a religious leader) and the bishop tells her she is old and better think about getting herself into heaven rather than some foul sty. But Crazy Jane says that she believes there is no heaven without hell, and there is no fairness without foulness. Love blooms out of knowing what crap is, and you won't know what it means to be whole unless you have felt empty before.

How does this relate to what I was sharing before? Well, sometimes being religious just turns people away, but when you plant yourself in crap maybe you would learn what it means to really Love. And sometimes Christianity focuses too much on going into heaven. Like Bryan from SC OUT shared, Jesus emphasizes actually a lot on how to live your life NOW, rather than focusing on heaven.

I will explain more another day, but just one last thing... if you read this, could you please comment? I just need to know if the comment box works, and also to see if anyone reads this blog anyways :P Maybe it is too new for people to know it exists...

Take care,

Love from Martine