I've recently been handed a challenge. Now, I've been talking about this being a year in which I would be challenged to love like Jesus, but I'm beginning to see more what that really means. It can be quite easy to love someone who is easy to love. Someone who treats me well, agrees with me on the important issues, if not on everything, and shares a similar sense of humor.
But what about the people who aren't so easy to love?
The people who hurt me, abuse me, use me, look down upon me. The people who disagree with me on all of the important issues and in my opinion could use a good dose of humor. They too, are to be loved. And not just in general, but by me.
I have recently been going through various situations in which I've had to again and again choose to forgive and not to hold on to offense. I've had to be nice to people I haven't wanted to, and maintain relationships with people I'd rather not.
The icing on the cake of insult added to injury happened to me the other day, but I slapped a smile on my face, did the work I needed to do, and waited until a more appropriate time to process what had happened with the friend who was with me. Later that evening during a time of worship she gave me a word she had for me, that now that I had seen the hearts of men, was I still willing to love them?
Good question.
Was I? Am I?
I have to be. I have to be. When I went through healing because of issues of race and slavery my first year in Poland, I told my missions partner I had no choice but to forgive because what God has planned for me is more important than being proven right, having people apologize to me, etc etc. The same holds true in this situation.
Me and God have a good thing going and I'm not going to mess it up by letting bitterness take root in my heart.
I'm calling myself out on my tendency to withdraw and cultivate distance between me and people who I feel have hurt me. I've been using boundaries as an excuse to put up walls, and that should never be my aim. So now I am making a concerted effort to tear down those walls and remain open to God's guidance.
If this is resonating with you send me a message and we can encourage each other as we take this journey together!
Monday, January 26, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Albania Testimonies
Hey folks!
In this post I just wanted to share some impressions that various people had of the time I recently spent in Albania with a few other "musicianaries".
Being a radio show host made me more keen on getting at the least a few quick interviews with people, and though there were many technical difficulties and "fluke" accidents that made me lose a lot of recording work, some of it still survived. I'll share some of that with you here. For more recordings, including some of our worship sets, you can go to www.goodwordshow.com and go to either our GoodWord Podcast or Worship Sets page.
Play Music - Share Audio - Albania-Arminda's Interview
Play Music - Download Audio - Albania-Dan's Saturday Worsh...
Music File Hosting - Free Audio - Albania-Dan's Week's End Tak...
In this post I just wanted to share some impressions that various people had of the time I recently spent in Albania with a few other "musicianaries".
Being a radio show host made me more keen on getting at the least a few quick interviews with people, and though there were many technical difficulties and "fluke" accidents that made me lose a lot of recording work, some of it still survived. I'll share some of that with you here. For more recordings, including some of our worship sets, you can go to www.goodwordshow.com and go to either our GoodWord Podcast or Worship Sets page.
Play Music - Share Audio - Albania-Arminda's Interview
Play Music - Download Audio - Albania-Dan's Saturday Worsh...
Music File Hosting - Free Audio - Albania-Dan's Week's End Tak...
Monday, January 19, 2015
Albania in January
Happy New Year everyone!
I have not started this year with some crazy 365 posts a year challenge.
This year is all about seeking and moving in the heart of God. It is indeed a year for a faith journey.
The Good Word Radio Show is going swimmingly, and it airs every Saturday 3-5PM EST on the Gag Order Network. Now that I and my co-host have a good rhythm going with that and our Tuesday night 7-9PM set at the Justice House of Prayer here in Boston, there's space for even more fun.
This January saw me on my first international trip of the year. My friend Bjorni --from Albania-- convinced me, Dan(iel) from the UK, Jean from the Ivory Coast (traveling in from Milan), and Noah from Montana (traveling in from Milan), to come on a somewhat nebulously described week in Tirana, Albania's capital city. A week in Albania for what I thought was worship and encouragement of the local church turned into a live album/video recording and 36 hours of prayer and worship. Jean, Bjorni, Noah, Dan and I led most of the worship for those 36 hours. After having just recorded a live album with multiple takes.
Exhaustion is too inadequate of a word.
All the same, this trip was important and so worth it.
The album is to encourage the global church, and we're sure this is a good one. While recording the power went out twice, the sound engineer's computer shut down three times, during which he almost lost about 7 hours of recording, and some of us musicians and the videographers were getting frustrated with the pace of recording at the beginning.
The friends who came to the recording session rallied and we joined in prayer. Every single issue was overcome, and I was in awe of the people who stayed with us all day, despite about five of them having to take medical school and engineering exams that they hadn't finished studying for the next day. They even stayed for the extra recording of a song/video idea my friend had, and hugged and encouraged me to keep going for it. (By this time Grumpy "I'm still jet-lagged and I need to be alone because I'm an introvert and have been around 35 people all day" Allegra was ready to rip someone to shreds, regardless of witnesses.)
Friday evening we went to the prayer room and lo and behold, some of the same people met us there to make sure everything was set up, and then stayed just as many hours as us if not more in the room, praying and worshiping with more passion than I've seen in far too long.
The passion radar was so off that some of us assumed no one would be present for the 1-6 AM prayer sets. Wrong. Throughout the entire 36 hours almost every seat was taken, and for the opening people had to stand and sit on the floor for lack of chairs. Glory to God! It was amazing! The worship and prayer continued to pour out and I was humbled and inspired all at once.
I was hugged, prayed over, prophesied over, encouraged, and given a notebook for songwriting when the last set was over, and I held a girl as she cried because our team was leaving. I'm still responding to messages and accepting friend requests on Facebook, some from people I had met 7 months ago on my last trip to Albania.
I think it's now time for me to take my work as a missionary to a new level. I almost couldn't make this trip because of finances. I have never been comfortable asking for help unless there was some kind of trade-off, or the need was "legitimate". I think, deep down, what looks like traipsing about Europe with friends didn't seem to fit the mark, never mind that there are real sacrifices that have happened to do this work. However, this trip to Albania has opened my eyes to the fact that it's not about me. It's about hungry peoples crying out to a God who is ready to fill them, and I can get to be a part of that answer.
Therefore, reader, please consider sponsoring me as a missionary!
You can donate to European Faith Missions :
European Faith Missions
PO Box 1975
Paris TX 75461 USA
with the note that the donation is for Allegra Fletcher (ex. EFM-AF), and you can leave the donation general or make it more specific by sponsoring some of my traveling expenses as I speak to churches across the U.S. about the importance of Europe as a missions field, and go to Europe myself on missions trips.
You can also help me by providing items I need, such as a mini projector I can travel with and a laptop that would allow me to project the EFM powerpoints and continue to work on the music aspect of what I do.
Any and all donations made or items purchased for my work in missions are tax deductible according to law.
Feel free to email me at afletcher@europeanfaithmissions.com if you have any questions or prayer requests.
Here are some pics from Albania!
Here's Dan on filming/recording day! He's an incredible and prophetic singer-songwriter/worshiper who Bjorni, Jean and I met in Poland.
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Meet Besnik, our fabulous sound engineer/featured pianist/percussionist!
Meet Jean, one of the good friends I met during my time in Milan. Really fun to worship with, and incredibly wise!
Meet Noah. I also met him in Milan but it was around the time I was leaving. He got to know Bjorni and Jean much better and he and Jean still lead worship together at MiHOP, the Milan House of Prayer.
Here we are together on the second to last song for the project.
Last song!
Or so I thought. It's right about this moment some women rallied to encourage me as we did the final impromptu high energy worship song/video.
1st of 36 hours of worship!
I have not started this year with some crazy 365 posts a year challenge.
This year is all about seeking and moving in the heart of God. It is indeed a year for a faith journey.
The Good Word Radio Show is going swimmingly, and it airs every Saturday 3-5PM EST on the Gag Order Network. Now that I and my co-host have a good rhythm going with that and our Tuesday night 7-9PM set at the Justice House of Prayer here in Boston, there's space for even more fun.
This January saw me on my first international trip of the year. My friend Bjorni --from Albania-- convinced me, Dan(iel) from the UK, Jean from the Ivory Coast (traveling in from Milan), and Noah from Montana (traveling in from Milan), to come on a somewhat nebulously described week in Tirana, Albania's capital city. A week in Albania for what I thought was worship and encouragement of the local church turned into a live album/video recording and 36 hours of prayer and worship. Jean, Bjorni, Noah, Dan and I led most of the worship for those 36 hours. After having just recorded a live album with multiple takes.
Exhaustion is too inadequate of a word.
All the same, this trip was important and so worth it.
The album is to encourage the global church, and we're sure this is a good one. While recording the power went out twice, the sound engineer's computer shut down three times, during which he almost lost about 7 hours of recording, and some of us musicians and the videographers were getting frustrated with the pace of recording at the beginning.
The friends who came to the recording session rallied and we joined in prayer. Every single issue was overcome, and I was in awe of the people who stayed with us all day, despite about five of them having to take medical school and engineering exams that they hadn't finished studying for the next day. They even stayed for the extra recording of a song/video idea my friend had, and hugged and encouraged me to keep going for it. (By this time Grumpy "I'm still jet-lagged and I need to be alone because I'm an introvert and have been around 35 people all day" Allegra was ready to rip someone to shreds, regardless of witnesses.)
Friday evening we went to the prayer room and lo and behold, some of the same people met us there to make sure everything was set up, and then stayed just as many hours as us if not more in the room, praying and worshiping with more passion than I've seen in far too long.
The passion radar was so off that some of us assumed no one would be present for the 1-6 AM prayer sets. Wrong. Throughout the entire 36 hours almost every seat was taken, and for the opening people had to stand and sit on the floor for lack of chairs. Glory to God! It was amazing! The worship and prayer continued to pour out and I was humbled and inspired all at once.
I was hugged, prayed over, prophesied over, encouraged, and given a notebook for songwriting when the last set was over, and I held a girl as she cried because our team was leaving. I'm still responding to messages and accepting friend requests on Facebook, some from people I had met 7 months ago on my last trip to Albania.
I think it's now time for me to take my work as a missionary to a new level. I almost couldn't make this trip because of finances. I have never been comfortable asking for help unless there was some kind of trade-off, or the need was "legitimate". I think, deep down, what looks like traipsing about Europe with friends didn't seem to fit the mark, never mind that there are real sacrifices that have happened to do this work. However, this trip to Albania has opened my eyes to the fact that it's not about me. It's about hungry peoples crying out to a God who is ready to fill them, and I can get to be a part of that answer.
Therefore, reader, please consider sponsoring me as a missionary!
You can donate to European Faith Missions :
European Faith Missions
PO Box 1975
Paris TX 75461 USA
with the note that the donation is for Allegra Fletcher (ex. EFM-AF), and you can leave the donation general or make it more specific by sponsoring some of my traveling expenses as I speak to churches across the U.S. about the importance of Europe as a missions field, and go to Europe myself on missions trips.
You can also help me by providing items I need, such as a mini projector I can travel with and a laptop that would allow me to project the EFM powerpoints and continue to work on the music aspect of what I do.
Any and all donations made or items purchased for my work in missions are tax deductible according to law.
Feel free to email me at afletcher@europeanfaithmissions.com if you have any questions or prayer requests.
Here are some pics from Albania!
Bjorni, Jean, Dan, Noah and I have decided to call ourselves All Together for this project, which we have named "Bright Light: The Living Room Sessions". The living room part is optional, but it was a fun reminder that we were in Bjorni's living room, which we literally pulled apart. His mother is incredibly patient!
Here's Dan on filming/recording day! He's an incredible and prophetic singer-songwriter/worshiper who Bjorni, Jean and I met in Poland.Meet Besnik, our fabulous sound engineer/featured pianist/percussionist!Meet Jean, one of the good friends I met during my time in Milan. Really fun to worship with, and incredibly wise!
Here's Bjorni, the man who brought this whole thing together. He's another one of the friends I made in Milan.
Meet Noah. I also met him in Milan but it was around the time I was leaving. He got to know Bjorni and Jean much better and he and Jean still lead worship together at MiHOP, the Milan House of Prayer.Here we are together on the second to last song for the project.Last song!Or so I thought. It's right about this moment some women rallied to encourage me as we did the final impromptu high energy worship song/video.
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