Cuba, Sex and Prayer...

I just got home from an amazing week in Havana, Cuba. Cindy, one of my best friends, got married this past Wednesday to Joel, a cuban man. I met Cindy a little over a year ago at my church, she was a new Christian, totally excited about God and so hungry to grow in her faith... it was an instant connection when we met, her new found really authentic faith inspired me a lot.

With her desire to learn more about prayer, I gave her Red Moon Rising for her 30th birthday... she loved it and loved the idea of 24-7 Prayer. Cindy and I have spent A LOT of time together this past year and I'm soooo thankful that God placed her in my life- she has taught me heaps and has been an amazing friend. This past November, while organizing my first ever fundraiser, with a lot of her help, she told me that she felt her role right now was just to be my encourager (which she totally had been).... what a blessing. I said, “so you're kindof like my Barnabas” (who was the apostle Paul's encourager)... she wasn't sure who he was so she looked him up. As I've been travelling she's been writing me encouraging letters and signs off, “Love, Barny”. Cindy is amazing.

So all that to say, financially, it probably wasn't the wisest decision for me to go to Cuba to be part of her wedding, but what's $850 when someone so dear to me is getting married- it was worth every penny to be there on her special day.
Cindy knew that the small group of us attending her wedding didn't have a lot of money to spend so she searched around and recommended an affordable 3 star all inclusive. A 5 star in Cuba is a 3 star in Canada, so you could imagine... My friend Jenn came with me and we agreed that the only important thing is that there's a nice beach and NO bugs, like cockroaches, in our room... that would be the only thing we couldn't handle... We had a bug free week and amazing few days relaxing on the beach.

I was caught by surprise by a couple other things happening at the hotel though. We quickly discovered that this hotel was a hook up place for homosexuals and prostitution. Observing some of the men, it was obvious that they had never met before, probably met online, and had this random sexual incounter week. And the prostituion- wow... this was the part that enraged me. I almost did something stupid a few times... and if I wasn't in Cuba I'm pretty sure I would have been beaten up by a pimp... I guess I'm learning.

There was a 'chika' hanging around the hotel all week with this really awkward man. Jenn and I were friendly with her, I felt bad for the guy, he was pretty strange... The second to last night we were there two more older men joined him, one was wearing a wedding ring, all three of them brough prostitutes into the hotel that night. One of the animators at the hotel was the pimp and arranged it all, the last night we even watched him sneak the prostitutes in since there was a big 'higher end' group in that night... we saw it all and it made me sick. At dinner they sat at the table next to us and I can't even explain the anger that took over my body- serioiusly, I wanted to punch them, thought about dumping my water on them, throwing food in their face... I had wished they spoke english so I could tell them off. I was angry, to say the least... These girls were like 22 and they were like 65 and married! Then I felt bad being so angry telling myself that I need to chill out- someone at my table reminded me that “we should love them because Jesus does”, that was the last thing I wanted to hear but they were right... but I still had absolutely no love and felt even more guilty for being angry... In my attempt to cool down I went to get some dessert, which often helps! As I stood up to walk to the dessert table, I gave them all really dirty looks, which they didn't even notice because they were too busy undressing me with their eyes to even see my face- this obviously enraged me even more... really, I wanted to scream.

Then God in his mercy spoke to me at the dessert table, “Daria, it's ok to have 'rightious anger', that's my heart for justice that I've given you, but act wisely and in love”... Ha, oh yeah, God gets angry too when injustice is happening- I think He actually hates it more than I do - and his blood would probably boil like mine (and then it would forgive them!)- So what do I do now?? If I was in Canada I may have just walked over and turned their table (since Jesus did that!) instead of punching and trying to hurt them, but I didn't want to risk not making it back home... Sortof just kidding there... but in times like this is when I think we need to pray most. God has called us all to act justly and has put different things on our hearts to pray for and change and he just reminded me these past few days of one of the places he has called me to act justly and make a difference. He is teaching me though that I can't act in my own anger which is why I need to pray loads through this and he'll show me how I can make the biggest difference.

I've had a heart for the sex industry for years but have felt the need to wait before making a big move. This all just happened a few days ago, which for me was God telling me that I need to be praying more as he's opening my eyes to more. This morning at church my friend Sue gave me an article that was published on Friday in the Montreal Gazette about the sex inudstry. Its mind boggling for me to read some of this stuff: 70% of men in Japan and 39% of men in Spain say that they have paid for sex... and the stories... wow! God, what do I/we do to change this sick, abusive and fast growing industry?!? That's my prayer tonight....


Article link: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/dangerous+trade+women+children/1528341/story.html

MoveIn

This is amazing!!

Marrying prayer with community and mission is changing our cities, nation and world. God is doing an amazing thing through MoveIn.

Check this out:

MoveIn.to CONFERENCE

Friday May 8, 2009
Come early (6:30pm) for refreshments. A BIG night: worship, visioncasting, challenge, multimedia, free books, and amazing stories.

Saturday May 9, 2009
9am-5:30pm
For those considering “moving in.” Exploring the possibilities. Free. Speical guest speaker, break-out groups, pizza lunch, city wide target-neighborhood tours, life-redirecting connections... possibly one of the biggest days of your life.

QUESTIONS: contact@movein.to

MoveIn is something God is doing where praying teams of Christians are moving into some of the most broken neighbourhoods in Toronto and beyond.

We'll be praying 24-7 before, during and after the conference. I'll be there... hope to see you there too!

Www.movein.to

Toronto- Canada's Biggest City

lived in Toronto for a couple years during my under grad so it was great to be back and to connect more with what's going on in the city. I love how cross-cultural Toronto is, it actually has one of the highest populations of foreign born people in the world. I still remember the culture shock when I moved there, where I lived most people's first language wasn't English and I think that's the case in most of Toronto. I still remember studying by a ravine with my boyfriend at the time observing that not one person who walked/biked/roller-bladed by us spoke English... And I thought French was hard enough to keep up with! I really love and appreciate the cultural diversity in Toronto.

I had a really busy week and met tons of amazing people while I was there.

Matthew Gibbins (IVCF/Urbana 2009)- What a heart this man has. I spent a couple days with him and got to meet his wife as well who was also a delight. He introduced me many people. He's great at connecting people for Kingdom stuff with such a heart to see change in this emerging generation. It was a real joy to spend time getting to know him.

MoveIn: Matthew introduced me to the founder of MoveIn (www.movein.to). This new movement is amazing. The whole idea of marrying prayer with mission and community living is brilliant and changing our world, I think. They're having a conference in Toronto May 8-9.

Ruth Copland (IVCF national prayer director): Chris (our 24-7 team leader), Matthew, Ruth and I had a great lunch to discuss prayer on campuses and Urbana.

Lausanne Movement: Chris and I also met with the Canadian board of the Lausanne Movement, all about “the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world” (www.lausanne.org). They're planning Cape Town 2010- The third Lausanne congress on world evangelization. Really great organization... we shared our 24-7 vision and dream for Canada and asked them if we could help serve them in anyway.

Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC): I spent almost a full day at the EFC office in Toronto meeting with a number of great people. (www.evangelicalfellowship.ca)

On Wednesday I got to be part of an hour and half conference call with prayer leaders from across our nation. It was amazing to hear what's going on across Canada and the common call to cities. It was the first call they've done like this in a while but everyone felt like we need to continue this kind of communication to better pray for each other and hear God's heart for our nation. Amazing!

Before I came home I met with a couple girls about doing a prayer room at the MoveIn conference in May. There is 12 days of prayer in the works but 3 of them will actually be onsite happening 24-7. I believe so strongly in their vision and what they want to accomplish, it's a real joy to be able to support and work with them in this fast growing, incredible initiative.

Brantford- The CIty of God

This is coming a little late, it's been a busy week! I left Brantford on Sunday afternoon after an amazing 6 days. Freedom House, a downtown church in Brantford, started a week of 24-7 Prayer the day before I arrived. I took four 6am or 7am shifts that week, which by the end was exhausting but so needed in my life. One of my favourite parts of 24-7 prayer weeks is the way it challenges me and helps me discipline myself to pray more. After a few weeks of travelling, making that space in my life was just what I needed!

I spent the first half of the week with Dave and Krissy and the second half with Nicki and Steve... and all their kids! As you've probably already sensed from my birthday story, the people in Brantford were so welcoming and hospitable. On Sunday at church (my last day there) Dave did a little interview with me, they prayed for me and then took up a love offering- I totally didn't expect that. The people I'm meeting on this trip have certainly surpassed all my expectations.

Dave (24-7 Ontario team leader) and Brian (the pastor of Freedom House) are on our 24-7 Base team so I've had the chance to get to know them a bit better the past few months. I remember the first time they referred to Brantford as “The City of God”, I didn't understand what they meant, I had never been to Brantford before. I actually wondered if that's what the sign said as you drove into the city. Then we would always just refer to Brantford as 'The City of God” ... This is the story... About 10 years ago a number of people decided that they wanted to see their city transformed – they wanted to pray God's Kingdom down to Brantford. Most people I met when I was there would also refer to Brantford as the City of God. I love the way that belief and hope for change has spread! And God is transforming Brantford, no doubt!

Dave gave me tour the day I drove in, he showed me where their church used to be and a few different parts of downtown. The church still owns their run-down church building but was approved and has received funding to turn the church into low income housing. Now the church currently meets in a downtown mall, they actually have a coffee house store front- it's amazing! One part of downtown is super sketchy, it's on the main street and is basically just a large area of completely run down housing that the owner wont fix up. I think it was the city or university that recently bought the land and plan to build a big community centre. Maybe the people living there now could move into the churches low-income housing, that would be awesome. It's amazing to see how the city is changing, it's cleaning up, people are doing something about the problems (including the church). The churches also seem to be starting to work together. This prayer room was advertised to churches and even to the community in the news paper. They didn't want to make their prayer room a Freedom House thing, they wanted to serve the community by giving them a place to pray and praying for people. I learned a lot from the Freedom House community on urban ministry, they get it! They believe that God can transform their city and he is, it was amazing to see. Keep on Freedom House!

While in Brantford I also got to connect with a few other “24-7 Prayer people”. As wonderful as email is, meeting someone in person is so much better. The Wednesday afternoon Matt and Don from Hamilton came to Brantford to hang out with me and check out the prayer room. They just lead a week of prayer at their church which also went really well. On Friday Jim from Guelph came to Brantford too, Jim is leading his first week of non-stop prayer at the end of May.


This is a picture of the mall that the church is in (I spent many hours in that Williams):

My Birthday, Brock University and a New MacBook

My mom emailed me yesterday wondering if I was still alive because I hadn't blogged since April 1 – Sorry Mom! It's been busy... and I find when I'm with people making time to be on my computer is hard. I love living in the moment! The hard part now is that there is so much to tell that I don't even know where to start.

How about this, I'm writing my first blog on my new computer!! So it's true, when you ask you receive! We had our 24-7 Base team meeting on Saturday morning and Chris and Catherine showed up with a new Mac Book for me that was anonymously donated. Wow!! It only took 3 days... Man, God is good and so are anonymous donors! Thanks so much, it will go to good use.

Brantford was awesome, I'm going to write a blog all about Brantford next so stay tuned. They did a great job of making me feel loved on my birthday. When I got back to Dave and Krissy for dinner that night the kids had decorated the house with balloons, a big “Happy Birthday” sign, made me cards and a delicious chocolate cake. Then we went to the prayer room for their Wednesday night bible study/prayer meeting. At the end all the youth and kids came together in the room to pray and Dave announced it was my birthday. He had about 40 kids and youth pray over me, it was awesome. Then I went out to East side Mario's with a group of about 10. It was a great Birthday in Brantford.



On Friday night I went to the Brock Christian Fellowship year end banquet. I spoke there a couple months ago before they did their week of prayer so they invited me back for the banquet. It was awesome to walk into a church covered foyer with prayer room walls posted up all over. They did a one week prayer room both semesters this past year. Below is a picture of Sonia and I in front of one of the walls, the Brock prayer room was in Sonia's basement.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

So I decided today that I’m giving up and going home… this is all too hard… I’m homesick.

Just Kidding!! April fools! Haha. I am a little homesick but am having a great time meeting all kinds of people.

What is true is that I’m 26 today!! Woohoo!! It’s crazy to think about how much my life has changed in the past year, I cried last year, on my 25th birthday, because I knew I wasn’t where I wanted or supposed to be. I was living on my own, had a good job, had all kinds of things going for me… but it wasn’t God’s best for me. It’s been an incredibly transitional year, extremely difficult and trying at times BUT amazing. Turning 26 today, I can’t imagine being at a better place in life. I love it, what a joyful day.

As most of you know, I raise support to do what I do. I haven’t quite figured out the art of support raising yet and am no where close to being at my ‘full salary’ (If you’re good at it, I would love your help!) but God keeps providing for all my needs.

I have a pretty important need that I thought I would put out there on my birthday… So if you were going to buy me a cool shirt or some expensive lip gloss maybe you could do this instead!! OR if you’re interested in a really practical way of supporting me, this is a great one.

I need a new computer.

The one I use now is over 3 years old, I travelled with it and used it full time when I was in sales for 2 years, it has about an 18 second battery life, weights a million pounds, has sticky keys that sometimes don’t work and it crashed about a month ago (I lost a lot and didn’t have a computer for 6 days)… It’s just really on its last legs in life.

The thing with my job is that I could work from anywhere in Canada, as long as I have a computer with me. A large part of what I do is meeting with people and communicating online with people across Canada. If someone wants to start a prayer room in Canada or registers one I’m their first contact. I’ll help them with whatever they need help with and eventually get them in touch with people in their city/region, send out resources, try to create new ones, network, etc… So a computer, like most people these days, is a pretty important part of my job.

If this is something you’re interested in doing you could actually do it really easy online. Go to our website (www.24-7prayer.ca), click the donate button, follow the directions, and in the ‘special project’ section just write ‘Daria’s computer’. And yes, you will even get a tax receipt!

Thanks so much! Have a great April Fools day :)