Resolutions & Reflections: JOIN ME!

Kimberly's doing her annual reflections & resolutions. Join me!!

ONLINE:

http://charminfullbloom.blogspot.com

it's where I've put my answers! Post a comment with yours!

or if you're on facebook, copy your reflections to the wall of the event 

(you don't have to be here in Singapore to do it!):

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=41561327621&ref=nf

or send me the link to somewhere else you put them!

LIVE:

talk about them over dinner with your friends, family or small group!

REFLECTIONS:
In 2008 

I learned to…
I grew most in…
Another way I saw myself growing was…
One of my best adventures was…
I saw/knew God was doing something when…
A real gift from God was…
Something I really enjoyed doing more of was…
One of the happiest memories of 2008 I’d like to freeze in my mind…
I was really brave when…
A Scripture passage that meant a lot to me was…
I’m still trying to learn what God wants to teach me through this hard experience…
The best word of advice or encouragement I can remember is…
One thing I’m looking forward to in 2009 is…

"Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, 

to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, 

whether or not you would keep his commands."

from the 5th book of the Bible, the Old Testament which is Ancient Jewish History,

Deuteronomy 8:2

"But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. 

They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. 

They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. 

But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. 

Therefore you did not desert them,.." 

Also from the Old Testament Nehemiah 9:16-17

RESOLUTIONS
I use post it notes to brainstorm the resolutions. It is my way of saying, "they're just ideas, so if you don't do them, you don't have to feel guilty about it." When we do this in a group, after sharing some of the reflections above, we take a break to individually do the brainstorming, then come back together to share a few. It's fun because we find that some of us have the same goal, and realize that we can do it together. I have 6 categories for brainstorming resolutions:

• Physical
  
• Spiritual
  
• Service
  
• Important Relationships
  
• Professional/Intellectual
  
• Adventure/Risk
  

May you have a wonderful new year, blessed by God the Father, Jesus the Christ the one who "became flesh and dwelt among us" and the indwelling Holy Spirit. GOD. A Trinity who leads and guides and loves you and me, if we just stop arguing with him and let him be God!

In this new year, join us in praying for wisdom in leading & serving both in and outside our family.

Thank God with us for his hand in building CRM in Singapore and our many opportunities to invest our lives in others.

More next month on that!

Praying you'll know God's goodness, blessing and joy in 2009!

The Creasmans

I hope we have your current mailing address:

Please let me know if you don't receive a postcard from us with this message on the back! 

We'll send you one for Chinese New Year! it's just around the corner!

JOIN ME! Reflections & Resolutions

I love this week between Christmas & New Years. I look over those resolutions from last year and realize:

After 5 years of making the SAME resolution, I took a dance class in January, and when it was over took another one. Not just one, but TWO dance classes...and performed in a dance recital where I was featured! HA (see me dancing to ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST uploaded to youtube!) I'm looking into what my options are now that I'm back in Asia and getting chubbier and stiff again...

I taught music two times a week in Cameron's school which was on the list, but a big focus of my spring in 2008 I didn't even make the resolution for: taking vocal jazz lessons and singing in a jazz ensemble or a jazz club!

I didn't get completely on top of organizing my mailing lists, or go through all the old photos with my mom and dad, or start podcasting, or cut out coffee, but i did cut out the sugar, and go to Africa and Austria and a 5 star hotel in San Francisco (all for ministry trips!)!

I also survived the packing/sorting/moving/goodbyes and hellos of settling back again to Singapore again after our year in Pasadena!

The HUGE thing is I finally came to terms with, was the resolution to BELIEVE THAT GOD IS GOOD NO MATTER WHAT. After years of wrestling over my skepticism and lack of a heartfelt conviction that God is good and loving and has me here, now, for His good purposes (I needed more than a belief because of what the Bible says, or knowing it's what I should ascribe to as a Christian). I've finally come to a place where in my deep heart I can trust that he is loving, no matter what the circumstances in my life, or in anyone's life in this messed up world. He grieves deeply over the brokenness in this world, yet he chooses to wait to restore Eden. He is Sovereign and all powerful, his Kingdom will come. From the looks of it, we're not anywhere near it; a time described in the Bible as when "every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." But God has his own good reasons for waiting and holding back his judgement. When bad things happen, he is not malicious or out to get us. He allows but abhors all the many evils in this world - many of which are due to the freedom he gave humankind to freely worship and follow him...or not. For me to fight him over these issues is pointless. It's a SIN of presumption. I presumed that I know better than HIM! The Eternal God of the universe had me live here, and now, in this generation, with the passions and personality I have, for his purposes, I can stop being upset by it all, and stop questioning his judgement, and get to work!

Many prayers, conversations, books, and even some wonderful words directly from God himself worked together for this resolution to be fulfilled, but reading THE SHACK this past fall was like frosting on the cake.

Yeah! Reflection is so good! Though I've recently had the blues over this move & resettling, looking over the list from the WHOLE of last year I'm reminded of God's favour. It's been a GOOD year!

A number of years ago, with 5 young and beautiful Singaporean theatre friends, I started these reflections and Post it note Resolutions. Last January I had the sweet privilege of sharing the exercise with old friends in California. It's really rewarding to reflect and look over the past years and see what's been accomplished, then look ahead with a sense of expectation.

May you have a wonderful new year, blessed by God the Father, Jesus the Christ the one who "became flesh and dwelt among us" and the indwelling Holy Spirit. GOD. A Trinity who leads and guides and loves you and me, if we just stop arguing with him and let him be God!

As the Ruin Falls, CS Lewis

As the Ruin Falls

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you. I never had a selfless thought since I was born. I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through: I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn. Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek, I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin: I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek-- But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin. Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack. I see the chasm. And everything you are was making My heart into a bridge by which I might get back From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking. For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains You give me are more precious than all other gains.  C S Lewis  (When asked : HOW ARE YOU THESE DAYS? an old school friend Peter Svensk forwarded this to me as his update on himself. Pretty much sums it up for me too.)

A Remarkable Christmas Memory

December 1997. 8 weeks into our 2 years living as language students in China I found myself being asked to teach conversational English in a government university (well, they're all government universities there!). The original teacher had fallen ill and I was asked to take over some of his classes. They agreed to let me teach anything I wanted just to cover the classes for them. So, there I was, in communist China, the drab dingy hospital green walls, still using black boards, and a classroom full of fascinated young people, teaching my first lesson for my series: holiday traditions of the west. I stood there teaching about the original Christmas story and the words to Away in a Manger thinking, "I can't believe it." I marveled. "Communists are paying me to teach this when it wouldn't even be allowed in USA."

Ministry Update: A Refresher Course for Ministry Mentors

Dear Friends, 

A week ago we sent out a specific time related request regarding Jim's FACILITATOR REFRESHER COURSE. We spent a day away, a two hour drive north in Malaysia. It was a significant rallying opportunity for leaders in the ministry of CRM in Singapore.

Thank you for standing by us, for partnering with us, for your encouragement and support over the years as we've seen this ministry develop and grow.

The Creasmans

RIGHT: Cameron turned 12 today, 

Jim preached on Destiny, and 

Sally Wuu was visiting from Shanghai.

Here's Jim's brief report if you've not seen it yet:

Thank you for your prayers for us last Sunday and Monday.  I felt them, and the participants felt them.  I kept telling the Lord I would not be satisfied with a great training course unless there was a sense that he was there ministering to people.  After the four sessions, I kept having participants come up to me saying God had spoken to them about an area in their lives dealing with the issues of destiny and boundaries that I was teaching on.  I know God was deepening them and inspiring them.  There was also great connection as everybody felt a sense of comraderie and learning together.  I felt like prayers were greatly answered in those three aspects, especially.

The harder part that is yet to be seen is the mobilizing them - working together to mentor others.  CRM Singapore has ambitious plans to start 9 new mentoring networks in 2009, and several of these facilitators have volunteered to lead those groups.  It is demanding work, and I am praying that the rest will also agree to help lead new groups throughout the year.  I want all of them applying what they are learning through investing in others.

I also sensed affirmation from God through the participants of my calling to do more teaching like this.  Besides my primary work of facilitating mentoring small groups and personally coaching Christian leaders, I need to find avenues to impart important lessons about character formation, spiritual renewal, and leadership development.

Here are some quotes from emails I received in the hours afterward, and a few pictures below. 

You can also view more photos online at www.flickr.com/photos/crms/

"Enjoyed it immensely and was a blessing in my journey...."

"God said that he is with me right in the midst of the transition I am in. More so, he is drawing me closer to him and is sovereign in working out his purposes in my life."

"Thanks for the opportunity to spend the weekend with the CRM band of warriors! It was indeed a refreshing and timely for me personally."

"God has revealed to me during the retreat that I need to have confidence that He will see me through this transition. Trust Him and come out from all this, stronger for there is no “shame” being a servant leader!"

"I was blessed to have a wonderful time at the retreat. Seeing so many participants and friends there affirmed me of what we are doing is relevant and needed."

"The fellowship was fantastic, the teaching uplifting, and more important, I gathered strength from the Lord and after hearing from some of the other participants their own struggles, that God will always be with us! Thank you, the blessings cannot be counted."

The Humiliation of Still Getting My Act Together

Wrote this a couple weeks ago, just getting it up now...

It's rather humiliating to be months at trying to get my act together and not having a good excuse for not functioning up to par. (a GOOD excuse would be like a terminal illness or something other than "I'm just tired after moving so much, I don't have a car and don't know my way around the neighborhood yet, plus...I'm not used to physical labor in tropical heat") 

 

Anyway, we'll get through this. God has allowed me to be this way. I was thinking a few weeks ago that when I was in my super-got-it-all-together-30's in California, I was EFFICIENT and GIFTED. But I was not EMPATHETIC. My experiences of weakness, being LAME. DISORGANIZED and WIMPY has made me much more sensitive. There was great room for improvement in my sensitivity, so I believe that's part of why I'm in the current situation!

The Lord keeps reminding me that I'm a perfectionist who wants Eden (Heaven) NOW. I may not be doing everything well, but we'll survive no, we'll get through this season. PLUS I'm in constant communion with the Lord in prayer, the students, both at TCA and at ICS have loved what they're learning and experiencing even if I've felt unprepared and behind in planning. The Creasman boys are happy. No one's ready to fire me from any of my roles (yet!..though I have resigned from being a 6th grade room mom!). 

I may be humiliated, but I'm submitted to this season of weakness to let God do what he needs to do in me. With me. Suffering produces perseverance, Perseverance character and character HOPE. Hope is coming.

I'm still getting to do some things that I love at least some of the time and find time every week to spend time with people I have come to love here, and even making some new friends along the way too.

If you can relate...I hope you'll take heart in your current situation! These seasons never last forever...