There's no place like home for the holidays...

Once again it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. My only excuse is that it’s been crazy busy since I got back from Thanksgiving. =) Right now I’m sitting in the St. Louis Airport, waiting for my flight back to Portland. (with a small stop in Phoenix) I found a pretty sweet place to chill for the next hour as I wait to board. Laptop plug-in and all! The only downside is that this stool is TOO tall for me and my legs can’t reach the ground =( AND there’s someone sitting RIGHT in front of me….pretty sure we’ve made awkward eye contact at least fifteen times in the last five minutes. *gulp*

It sure has been an amazing couple of weeks though. God has done some amazing things!

I THOUGHT that going home for Thanksgiving would give me clarity about whether or not I’m supposed to stay in the Lou after year team. However: that did not happen. =) I will say that I for sure HAVE fallen more in love with this place and the people here in the last 3 weeks. But…no decision as of yet.

I’m ok with that though. The last few weeks have just been so packed full of God and His faithfulness. I’m not really all that worried about it. I know that HE knows my need to plan things…and I really feel like He’s gonna let me know…when I need to know. =) And probably not a minute sooner. =) (or later)

I guess to sum it all up, right now, I’m just…..chill. =) I was stressing….quite a lot. (typical of me) But in the last few weeks, God has LAVISHED his love me in a way I haven’t felt before. Let’s talk about it, shall we? Alrighty then =)

So…my Birthday was last Wednesday. The big 21. I’ve been looking forward to this for years and I was a LITTLE disappointed when I found out that I wouldn’t be in Oregon for it because Paula, Nancy and I have had this grand plan for a LONG time. BUT God corrected my attitude, showing me once again that HE placed me here at this moment for a reason.

The night before my birthday, Seth and Shannon suggested that I stay up till Midnight. =) BRILLIANT idea. =) They stayed awake with me, playing cards….playing more cards….then playing cards again. I really don’t think they know how much that meant to me. (well…if they’re reading this, I guess they do now) Anyways, that’s just like something that I would do back home with Gina or Nancy. And THIS is one of the things that God has been speaking to me about lately. I’ve suddenly felt like I can be my 100% ridiculous self around all these people here BECAUSE He’s placed me here and BECAUSE He knows what He’s doing! I guess that part of me was afraid of not fitting in…and another part of me was afraid of fitting in too much and wanting to stay.

SO…back to the birthday…we stayed up till Midnight, went and bought champagne. Yum. =) The next day I was supposed to be at the building until 4 and then head to Union, MO for our weekly youth group. We were having a Christmas party there that night. Renee and Samantha surprised me with kolaches. If you don’t know what those are, you have not lived. They are heavenly. For real.  So, they brought lunch not only for me but for the whole office! Everyone in the office hid in the lobby…behind pillars, behind garbage cans….And when II entered the room, they yelled surprise. Err wait, maybe I yelled surprise? Haha… =) Lunch was delicious. Amie, Dillon, Ryan, Josiah, & Jason had gone to Target the night before and bought me 21 gifts! =) AND a pile of cards signed by a bunch of different people. Yes, I definitely felt loved. =)

SO…I thought the party was over…and I was thoroughly surprised…and happy. HOWEVER, I was wrong. =) Samantha and Renee surprised me with a scavenger hunt all across the building! To find 21 items! AND….what’s even cooler than that is that most of the items were cool things that they had heard me mention at some point that I liked. Things like, the purple bag of skittles, a COLORING book with Crayola crayons, hand sanitizer, office supplies, a red spatula, and much much more. THEN we ended the hunt with the last clue, leading me to the roof of the building (where I’ve always wanted to go) AND I GOT TO RING THE BELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =) It was pretty amazing.

Then we had the Christmas party in Union, it was blast. Exhausting, but fun. =) I think the kids liked it which was important.

This ended my birthday DAY….only to be followed by a family birthday night the next night in the Hein household. This ALSO was a blast. =) Seth and Shannon got me this awesome St. Louis coffee mug. =)

The next day we had “Year team Christmas” =) We exchanged gifts…it was pretty cool. =) Josiah had my name. He got me the St. Louis starbucks mug that I’ve been wanting since I got here. AND a cd! (Sidenote: I just love those boys. More in the last few weeks than every before. I feel like we’ve really bonded!)

Hmm…what else. I’ve started a notebook (thank you Dillon for the idea) with all of the prophecies that people speak over me…and words that God gives me. It’s been really helpful to look back over them and see all the promises that God has given to me. =) You should do the same. =)

Alright….time to take a quick restroom break and come back here to board my flight. This really has been a delightful way to pass the time. =)

Love love love you all. =)

Brit

Long time no see...

Dude! It feels like it's been forever since I've blogged.
Shame on me. =)

So...let's see.....since I last blogged, lots has happened. We'll just hit the highlights. =)

I went home for Thanksgiving and surprised everyone. THAT was a blast! I laid in bed every night for weeks thinking of different ways that I could show up and blow peoples' minds. =) It was pretty fun. I ended up not doing any of the things that I had planned. But all of the surprises were definitely successful!

A few nights before I left we were having a prayer night and God spoke through a few different people about me being a messenger to my church when I went back home. And I was so encouraged and excited to see what God wanted me to share.

I got the chance to hang out with a lot of people at our church Thanksgiving and tell them about some of the things that God was doing in my life. I also got the chance to share a little bit in church. (After I sat down I thought of like 5 more things I would have liked to share....oh well.)

But one of the hugest things was the way that God revealed to me exactly what it is that I need to pray for regarding the River Center. I see areas that need work, that I didn't see before. Because I was so wrapped up in what I was doing when I was still living there and everything was just "normal." But now that I've been away for awhile, and come back, I see things that God wants to do. Things that He wants to grow us in. And it's Exciting!!!

It was kind of a weird feeling to be home and around all these people that I've known my whole life. I guess I just wasn't sure what to expect because I've grown and changed so much in the last 3 months and I feel like everyone at home hasn't really seen that process so I was afraid that I would just be treated like the "old me." God did work on my heart and showed me that I didn't need to be afraid of that. And it was actually not nearly as weird as I had thought it would be. Although, my last night at home was a little bit emotional.

I didn't want to leave.
And I didn't want to stay.

After a LONG day of travel, I made it back to St. Louis. Had a rough night that night. Really stressing about what God wants me to do at the end of this year. And for some reason, it TOTALLY stresses me out to know that half of my possessions are in Oregon and half of them are in St. Louis. Not really sure why. But it does. =)

Had a little bit of a rough week back. Had an issue from the past come back up and I found myself realizing that I didn't actually remember a time when I had actually presented this particular issue to God. I guess, because I had felt like it was SO disgusting, SO wrong and SO much of a distraction, that I didn't even WANT to bother praying about it. Because that would mean I would have to think about it. God of course corrected this attitude in me a few days later....

Saturday morning we had a prophetic seminar at Jubilee. It was incredible! God spoke to so many people! And I learned so much! Amie had a word for me about the exact issue that I had dealt with that week. She said that she saw a picture of a door that was rusted shut. And I was TRYING to open it, but I wasn't strong enough. But that God wanted to actually restore this door and make it usable again. He wanted to show me the things behind this door that had been locked away and blocked off for so long.

This word of course related exactly to what God had been speaking to me that week! And actually one of the things that I had been praying for was that the prophecies that God had given to me when I was young would STILL be fulfilled! I felt like I had been praying into them when I was younger and first received them, but then as I got older and my relationship with God kinda went south, I locked them away and almost felt like I would never be able to access them. I KNOW that those thoughts aren't from God and the word from Amie really encouraged me to keep praying and believing that God still wants to do those things in my life!

Which leads me to my next point.... Tonight we had a random prayer/worship night at Daniel & Jason's house. I was just sitting, praying, thinking about things. And for some reason when I opened my eyes to look around, I caught Elijah's eye and I KNEW that he had a word for me. But...as the night went on.....he never said anything. Till we were kinda done...(or so I thought) And he said, "actually...I have something to share with Brittney" And I was like "I knew it!" =)

He said that God wanted to remind me that I don't need to worry about what is going to happen after this year. God has already prepared the way. These dreams that I've been having, God wants to fulfill. God wants to tell me to sing out. God gifted me in that area, he's given me a new song to sing to him, a song that no one has heard before, that's what He's created me to do.

What's amazing about this is that THIS is the exact thing that I've been praying for. As a little girl I had words spoken over me about the gift of prophetic worship. And I've seen glimpses of it....I've experienced it in small ways but I've gotta be honest, it scares me! It is NOT easy to just sing out when i don't know ahead of time the words that I'm going to sing!

Along with that, Caris had a word for me that I was a caterpillar and God wanted to remind me that he was going to turn me into a beautiful butterfly...when she started saying that, Dillon, Josiah and I started cracking up laughing/crying. She has no idea about "the caterpillar thing" =)

God is so Good. He has spoken to me about literally every one of the things that I've been struggling with and praying about this week. You can't TELL me that He's not faithful!

Tomorrow is my day off, but I'm kinda feeling like trying to get a little sleep. =)

Love and miss you all!
See you on the 21st!