prayer por favor

Hey Mais, if you get this before Sunday, you can pray for me this Sunday at 10:00. I am sharing my testimony with the youth and could use all the prayer I can muster. I have half an hour and get really nervous about time constraints and stuff. So pray that the Spirit would be working through me and speaking to some of the kids there despite my nervousness.

Basically, I just wanted a reason to have a post more recent than the bee post.

love you sister,

A-reim

bee decimation.

Mais & Mand: 98
the bees: 0

and i don't even feel bad...

change.

To Maisie,
this is the new living room.
a very bible-study, friendly space with a touch of class.

The wooden, kitchen chairs look really dumb, but the couches are really comfy.

I'm going on a job hunt...

Today I gave my boss my 2 weeks notice. and it's not because I am tired of building fences... (I am actually quite enjoying my chisled arms and flat stomach!) There's just not enough people who want a new fence this time of year. Therefore, I am getting little to no hours on a daily basis. So, seeing as everyone but me is headed back to school, I should have a good chance at getting some sort of high school level job that I can work at with all my heart. I figured that I'd rather be working more hours at a worse rate, than no hours at a decent rate. Besides I am working for the LORD and not for men. I think God would be fine with me if I settled at McDonalds! (okay maybe not) But we'll see what the job hunt turns up!

ar

Nursing Prep.

I just went to the RCMP detatchment at Surrey City Hall, and you'll be relieved to know that I have no criminal record. Yay.

Other Summer Highlights

Wow, what's wrong with me? I've totally caught a blogging bug. I just can't think of anything to do besides update a bunch of imaginary people on my life. I guess it's because I have the day off and am trying VERY hard not to go shopping and spend the money I don't have on back-to-school clothes that I don't need yet... so I guess this is a more economic use of my time.

My sisters and I at Derby Reach before the fire ban.

Trilbs and I at Bard on the Beach. She took me to see Comedy of Errors for a Christmas present.

Maisie is now gone to school in Saskatchewan. I have no more wrestling partner...

Impact

So this year, I decided that I need to challenge myself in new ways. One of the ways that I would indeed be challenged, would be to volunteer as a youth sponsor for the grade 10-12 group at Willingdon. For me, the high school portion of my life was a defining time which shaped and solidified who I am, and who I will be for the rest of my life. I could have gone either way in my spiritual journey. I attribute that to the leaders that God graciously instituted over me to lead and guide me in the way I should go. Most of all, these leaders showed me Christ's love in so many different ways. My hope is that if I don't have the wisdom to answer all of the questions of the students this year, that I would be overflowing with His love and that that love would truly Impact them.
Last weekend we went away as a sponsor team to Shushwap to do some planning and bonding. Needless to say, it was an incredible time of spiritual refreshment, good food and great people. I felt sort of silly about worrying about it beforehand, because this group is so solid, focused and fun. I felt really welcomed and even very loved when I was one of the only ones to NOT get thrown into the lake!

Enjoying an incredible breakfast made by Mr. and Mrs. Reimer

We all got a chance to go out on the boat and do some wakeboarding (for some, face planting, belly flopping, crashing really hard)
Most of us ended up quite sore the next day, so we did some complimentary massages.

This was God's backdrop for my morning devotions. It was phenomenal!

true greatness

I was given a book last week, and as I have been reading it I am becoming more and more aware of the secret yet quite serious issue of pride in my life. The book is by C.J. Mahaney and it is called Humility: True Greatness. It really has got reflecting on it's contents.

This isn't going to be a book review or anything, because I definitley don't have anything profound to say about it. I am simply going to write out the things that I learned or that stuck out to me. When I write things down, and take the time to put together logical thoughts, I seem to be able to remember them for a longer period of time.

In the opening pages (or maybe it was even in the foreword) it mentions how most Christians want to be humble. Or at least want to be thought of as humble by other people... this was the first kind of shock to me as I can think of many times when I have done something only to hope that someone notices rather than doing it purely to bring glory to God. This essentially humbled me and made me realize how far I have yet to go before I can refer to myself as mature in my faith. Thankfully I serve a patient father who is waiting to see us grow each day. So I was convinced that this book was written for me within the first few pages.

According to Mahaney, "Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependance upon Him" (31). That sounds a lot more serious than I have ever convinced myself pride was. It sounds like something that needs to be rooted out of my life 100%. I think I was in the habit of tolerating a bit of pride because "I am only human, right?" However, when you refer to pride as taking the place of God and not giving him any credit for the good things in your life, it sounds pretty hideous. Proverbs 16:5 - "The LORD detests all the proud at heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished." Really a motivation for me to keep working on being humble.

Later in the book, Mahaney gives some practical steps that you can take to start you on the road to humility. One of these steps is keeping the cross at the front of your mind. It is important to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for all of us sinners. When you think about the pain and ridicule he bore for us, how can we possibly remain puffed up? He didn't deserve any of that. We do. I decided to watch The Passion of the Christ so as to visually remind myself of what he went through and it left me in tears. Remembering the cross will humble us.

He also makes a point about the words that come out of our mouths. Apparently we use up to 25,000 words in one day. Putting that next to the verse in Ephesians 4:29 - "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." He focuses on the "do not let any unwholesome talk" part of the verse. This, of course, meaning NONE. Not ANY. And then the "but ONLY" part, meaning there is to be nothing coming out of our mouths but wholesome talk. I guess I've never really thought of this verse in so much depth before, (I know it's not actually very deep, it is just taking it for what it says) but why should I only partially obey this command? This needs to be something that I am working at with a little more determination. I need to be using all 25,000 of my words to bring God glory, daily.

There is a multitude of other great stuff in this book but the one quote I thought summed up the whole book was on page 58 - It says "True greatness is attained only by emulating the Saviour's example- and made possible only by the Saviour's sacrifice." I can't become humble on my own. It's a big job. I need the Spirit to help me imitate Christ in everything I do. (<- this is true)

reflecting on the wonder of the cross,

ar

current happenings

Well, seeing as my job is a little more part time than I thought, I have more time to write about my life as of late. Two weeks ago my little sister graduated from high school, marking the end of a long line of Reimers at Fraser Valley Christian High School. Here we are at her grad. She's so beautiful and I can't believe she's all done now!! (ps. her dress was 12 bucks American)
This past weekend Trilby and I went up to Manning Park to do some backcountry camping around lightning lakes. Along with Katie, we enjoyed an incredible weekend of fellowship and marvelling at God's incredible handiwork. It was a short hike to 4 beautiful (but freezing cold) lakes.
And I think that's pretty much all I can think of for now...

Giving up.

Well I'm not ordinarily a quitter, but I just can't make myself stay faithful to a blog. So, for anyone who's ever read what I've written here, just stop. I am no longer going to pretend that I will update this with exciting news. I am done. Perhaps in some later, more eventful time in my life I will pick it back up and let people know. But as for now, that's all.

ar