Category Archives: Life in Pics

Songbird.

Standard

Our week in Kelowna. The Collins Clan drove down to Omak, Washington and drove back over the Canadian border within 24 hours. With one purpose – to renew our visa.

A couple of hours, lots of questions and obstacles overcome.

We were granted 3 more years. Our adventure continues!

A friend of our Hope Centre is having twins and before she heads off to Vancouver to deliver her babes – we threw her a baby shower. Love to bless!

IMG_1353

IMG_1357

We held a day of service on Thursday with Heritage Christian School Grade 8′s who served the church with great hearts and attitude. It wasn’t all hard work though, when our youth and children’s department get involved so do water guns, cotton candy machines and slurpees. Thank you again Heritage.

We hit the skate park with Josiah and Bella. Heart in mouth – need knee pads.

IMG_1464

IMG_1484

The fair came to town. Oh yes it’s ‘Maydays’ which brings excitement to our home. As the twins were doing there own fair thing. We took the little people and to Josiah’s delight he was allowed on the ‘scary’ rides which he took on without fear.

IMG_1505

Bella and Josiah on the ‘stomach left somewhere in the sky ride.’

With my Friday Faves done, you don’t mind if I squeeze in a five minute Friday do you? Ah good.

The word for this week is ‘Song’. There are so many paths I’d like to travel down with this word. But I have 5 minutes and I’m heading down a muddy path to find a song.

START.

They call it a dawn chorus. It’s more like a rock opera outside my window every morning, and it begins at 4am. Our lives are surrounded by songs. This week I reminisced as I listened to songs from my teens. Then I cried as I listened to one particular song as I thought of my Dad’s funeral service, then remembered it was actually from Mom’s wedding. Tears soon turned to laughter.  I’m sure there’s a song attached to every month of my life. I love music.

Then…

I meet you with no song. Friends who’ve lost their song.

Who cry out as David did in Psalm 40. I waited…I’m waiting patiently, expectantly for the Lord.

How long Lord?

You cry out in your waiting and veiled silence.

How long?

Patience, while positive, isn’t pretty.

Singing from pits echoes your own voice as you strive to hear another.

Steve Bell wrote this piece last weekend. An image of freedom, and the often painful road we need to take to reach it.

‘Today I freed a songbird who was trapped in our garage

And flapped against the pane that rendered freedom a mirage

I had to further terrorise the frantic feathered beast

Who could not know that capture was the terms of her release.’

Psalm 40 continues…

‘At last he looked; finally he listened.

He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud.

He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip.

He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God.

More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.’

Whether you are in the pits, or on the rock – here’s a truth to absorb.

For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty saviour. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” Zephaniah 3:17

The Hebrew word used here to describe how Father sings is ‘rinnah’. It means to express a ringing cry, a loud shout, a proclamation of extreme joy and an expression of gladness.

Wow!

Praying you a hear His song over you this weekend,

Love, Michelle xoxo

STOP

Five Minute Friday

Rainbow Falls

Standard

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard” Psalm 19

IMG_1165

Our view.

Phil and I have just returned from a few days at the beautiful Harrison Hot Springs. Phil spoke at the ‘Pastor and Spouse retreat’ with 250 from our BCMB family. We got to meet and hang out with some brilliant pastors, church planters and ministers, and felt very welcome. It was great to see how the conference really look after and care for their pastors.

We also got to hang out with some of our staff team, which we loved of course!

One of my highlights was renting a boat with our crew for an hour and heading out onto Harrison Lake. After half an hour we came across ‘Rainbow Falls.’

IMG_1173

We disembarked our Glastron and looked for adventure.

IMG_1179

We walked the well worn path into the Northern rain forest. Enormous trees chopped down decades ago to make way for explorers. Mist and sunlight drifted through the trees and ferns. We marveled at the life filled scene which appeared to be set on Instagram  Xpro II. As our magical path turned a corner, it was easy to imagine the Sasquatch right at home, lounging on a cushion of moss.

IMG_1184

Instead, we faced a different giant. Rainbow Falls. The deafening waterfall cascaded, pushing and heaving, forced into the river below.

IMG_1187

We were drawn to the moment. That deep response we feel in our soul? It has to be a deep stirring of spiritual awe for the Creator, God.

Making Himself known. 

Creation singing His story. 

Have you known that response?

In Psalm 42, David asks questions of himself, his soul – his evident depression. He understands the intensity of the imagery of the waterfall before him as wave upon wave figuratively pounds upon him, cascading over his soul, pushing him deeper.

At this point of tumultuous torrents, the Psalmist acknowledges that deep calls to deep. We can know the deeper we go down, that God meets us, having known deeper still.

The Hebrew word for deep is “tehowm,” which refers to a deep place, an abyss (an immeasurable deep chasm, depth, or void). The Hebrew word for calls is “qara” which means to call unto, to summon, to invite.

The Strong’s concordance says that “qara” also conveys the idea of someone accosting you by boldly and aggressively calling you to come closer and meet.

Deep calls to deep.

Our depths are quickened to life. And we hear the whisper. I am here.

A couple of final thoughts on my waterfall musings… The closer I got, the power of the waterfall reverberated and the area took on new life.

There is a richness that is produced when we hit the depths and it’s not just about you, when we can bring forth riches from the depths of our inner life, we will find that other lives will be deeply affected.

The closer we got we caught glimpses of rainbows. Sometimes just momentarily. We needed to be in the right position to catch that glimpse.

IMG_1181

The rainbow? It’s there…

As you know, I am a rainbow chaser. I challenge you to look out for rainbows this week, sometimes it’s simply about altering our perspective.

Be encouraged!

Love, Michelle xoxo

Friday Faves: My Cloud

Standard

photo

Yes, it’s Friday Faves my weekly mashup. (Click on the highlighted words to link!)

Interesting articles:

Why Marcus Mumford’s take on the “Christian” label doesn’t hold up. In Relevant magazine here

The not-so-perfect pastors family, thoughts by a couple of PK’s in Christianity today.

Six reasons young Christians leave the church. Do you agree with this?

Fave podcast:

Brene Brown on Oprah. I love Brene and her message. Feel free to make yourself a cuppa click here and watch the interview. Very liberating.

Here is a free book I’ve downloaded but not read yet by Hugh Halter.

I’m reading a dialogue feast for my course: On Beauty by Zadie Smith, various screenplays inc.Waiting for Godot, Ernest Hemingway’s Short Story Collection and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

I’ve had my head (and camera) in the clouds this week.

IMG_0887

“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way…”

IMG_0898

“If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth…” Ecclesiastes 3:11      Wesley says ‘Learn the practice of liberality from the clouds; which when they are filled with water, do not hoard it up, but plentifully pour it forth for the refreshment both of the fruitful field and the barren wilderness’.

IMG_0886

Receive refreshing. Be refreshing.

IMG_0910

In this time of need look up and know ‘every good and perfect gift is from above’.

IMG_0882

Emily and Phil climbed Black Mountain on the first day of spring.

photo

 

Brochure-Disc-NEW-for-Web_I

Passed his Masters in Applied Theology!

Brilliant news, so proud of my man. 

Keep looking up,

Love, Michelle xoxo

Friday Faves: New things.

Standard

It’s new…It’s Friday Faves!

A mash up of my faves of the week. Photos, snippets, books, quotes etc – you get the idea. Hopefully, there will be something for everyone. Particularly for those friends and family who, for the most part haven’t a clue what I am writing about.

photo

I started my new module. Focusing on dialogue, script and screenplay. Loving the subject and having the actors staying with us this week – bonus!

IMG_1492
Josiah learned to ski!

IMG_0855

I tried snowshoeing  (accompanied by the famous DR)

IMG_1490

Phil – When in Canada!

Loved Searchlight’s show ‘Chariot’. Their idea of using church based actors worked brilliantly – particularly with our talented bunch at Willow Park.

577827_10151523424382110_1250224155_n

Love this pic from the show. Check out more of Chad’s work at ChadPerryPhotography

IMG_0858

And…as the Big White cloud cleared.

images

A new cloud appeared. 

Praying. 

Isaiah 43:19

See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.

Enjoy your weekend!

Love, Michelle xoxo

 

Handiwork.

Standard

IMG_0523

We are in the UK. Family and friends in abundance, catching up on lives and stories of losses and victories. Life.

Overwhelming? Yes. Love it? More. Missing Kelowna? Of course…

Tonight my thoughts linger in Worcester cathedral.

IMG_0564

I knew I would meet Jesus there. How could I not?

The art mesmerizing.

Wood brought to life.

IMG_0558

Glass made vibrant.

By the hands of those who loved, were gifted and gave.

IMG_0531

Iron, copper, gold. intricately forged.

Inspired by the Artist.

IMG_0556_2

We remembered…

IMG_0541

And in the midst of awe we stopped and heard the words.

‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again’.

The Collins clan with rustling shopping bags and phones pinging.

Settled and hushed awhile.

We returned from our diversions and forgot about the tensions.

And knelt down together and held out our hands to receive communion.

The ultimate meal. The love feast.

It was in this moment as I looked along the row of our twelve hands and among the bitten grubby nails, chipped nail varnish and wedding rings I saw life waiting to receive His life.

Our hands. Remembering His pierced.

Our hands. Saying yes.

Our hands.

Hidden in His.

Food for thought? Hope so…

Love,

Michelle in England xo

Retreat – Surrender

Standard

I was given the gift of 48 hours of solitude last weekend.
48 hours of a simple life – closed door praying, listening, reading and writing.

No Internet. No social media.

I have to admit I was slightly nervous. It’s so easy for me to hide in busyness, my identity in my non stop mom-wife life.

Within my retreat hills I found a thin place. Not only as a result of frugal feasting, but a place where the things of heaven are easily touched.

A synesthesia of solitude I will hold onto for dear life.

Vastness, wild and symmetry all woven together.

I’m desperate for everyone to realize this gift.

You would never be the same.You would seek until you found…and He can be found, because hidden treasure is your promise.

The glitter of gold on a murky bed. The energy seam within dusty coal.

It requires intention, listening, waiting – lingering longer and drawing away.

Walking slower and further than you thought, yes, just around that bend, over that hilltop.

Catching the movement of water, sitting in a tree.

Listening.

One of the books I devoured was ‘A Holy Wild’ by Mark Buchanan.
He says this about exuberant creation ‘You couldn’t name it all in a lifetime. You would have to plunder dictionaries in twelve languages to describe adequately one square foot of it. All this God makes for the sheer joy of making things. Most of it for His eyes only and then He goes off and makes something else’

There is much more I could write out of the experience because I believe it is so crucial to life.
But I’d like to live in that place a while first, where Sabbath becomes the heart not just a day.

For now here are my pics.
Enjoy the story.

‘If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with gettingso you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met’. Matthew 6:30.

Michelle xoxo

Two’s Company

Standard

Vancouver from my hotel.

We found ourselves in several crowds this weekend.

A 420 festival. Coldplay in concert. Heidi Baker speaking.

One was a gift. One I chose to attend. One we attended unintentionally.

I’ll let you work out which.

I love Vancouver. Loved it more wandering around it with my man.

We ran Stanley Park.

Strolled in the dark.

Lingered over sidewalk drinks.

Photo: Mine

Then broke over Hastings – life on the brink.

Photo: Mine

We decided to spend Friday afternoon outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Robson Square, grabbing ourselves a table in a prime viewing spot we were ready with notebook and camera to watch the world go by. Until, it seemed the world wasn’t going by anymore – in fact, the world had stopped.

Photo: Mine

Photo: Mine

Crowds gathered and a vaguely familiar aroma filled the air.

Yes – Phil and I found ourselves in the clouds of the annual Vancouver 420 pot-smoking rally.

The crowd grew to thousands as bands and speakers fought for their cause.

We walked home through the crowd.

Saturday evening and we entered another crowd for a night of brilliance at the Coldplay concert. Simply awesome. Emily asked me what people ‘our age’ do at a Coldplay concert. As she wasn’t with us she’ll never know…but you can be sure she would have been embarrassed.

Photo: Mine

Photo: Mine

Photo: Mine

We walked home through the crowd.

We joined another crowd Saturday afternoon. The Collins crowd. Ready to lavish love that a little absence increases.

I stepped into a wild crowd on Saturday night – this time to hear Heidi Baker speak. An amazing missionary who lives in Mozambique with her husband Rolland.  They run a wonderful ministry – orphanages, feeding programs, bible schools, well drilling, health clinics.

The Bakers share God’s love and what His love in action looks like.

She has over a thousand staff. She has thousands calling her Mama. Surrounded by crowds day after day.

A night of wonderful worship and testimonies, and for me the overriding message was intimacy.

Face to face intimacy with God.

Cheek to cheek closeness.

And out of that…you can face your crowds.

Photo: Mine

Photo: Mine

Jesus loved the crowds. He also loved intimacy.

Try and find some face to face time this week.

He is waiting.