Vuleka Trust

I arrived in Durban on Saturday 12th July.  It was already dark and I was picked up at the airport by Alfred who introduced himself as the property manager of Vuleka.  We got into this old van and off we went, it was pitch black, I couldn't see a thing and had no idea where we were going!!  After about an hours drive, and climbing many hills we arrived.  I was duly dispatched to my new room for the next week, given a cup of tea and that was me!!  This was all a little overwhelming, but after a good nights sleep....I woke to find that I had arrived in Thousand Hills...which made sense of all the hills the night before!

My time at Vuleka became mostly about rest, relaxation and restoration as I developed a bad cold and an awful cough.  Resting is the sun with my 2 new fur-riends, Libby and Bella.

Libby, who will do anything for food!

Bella, who likes to lounge around

There was no programme happening the week I was there due to funding issues, however, I did get involved in other ways.  A group of students from the previous Youth Training Programme came in for a day to see how they were progressing with employment or with university applications.  They are also involved in a community awareness project in their areas.  Each group was working on creating a vegetable garden in a primary school or a creche, to provide fresh nutritious food for the children and a small income from selling extra produce.  I was also shown a recycling project which people could get involved with.  This was making click boxes made out of coca-cola bottles.  People can come along, learn how to make them out of recyclable materials and then sell them to gain a small income.  I love my African themed one.

I had the chance to visit a local government run Secondary School which was in a dire state and sadly indicative of many in townships across the country.

I also visited the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust, a fantastic initiative began by Hillcrest Methodist Church to try and begin to address a huge need in the community.  It has a hospice facility, a feeding programme, second hand clothes, a white elephant shop, quite a large garden nursery and a craft shop.  The craft shop stocks many fantastic beaded and products made from recycled materials.  These are all made by people affected by Hiv/AIDS and provides them with a small income.  

The HACT wall of remembrance

I had a great 10 days at Vuleka, well looked after by Mary Robinson, the Director of Vuleka, whose husband Rev Andrew Robinson, interestingly did a pulpit swap with Rev Colin Duncan a few years back!

Another Big Adventure

This time next week I will be on my way to South Africa.  Another Big African Adventure which I am really looking forward to.  I am spending July and August there and so I thought I would pull out the blog once more to keep everyone updated with what I'm up to.

The opportunity came through the Methodist World Development and Relief Committee, of which I am a member, and which works very closely with Christian Aid.  I was offered the chance to go along as a representative of WDRC along with a couple of other denominational church leaders.  We will have the chance to visit some of the projects which Christian Aid support in South Africa, aome of which WDRF support.  This trip lasts for 10 days, so I figured if I'm going as far as South Africa I might as well make it worth while.  So i took the opportunity to make it a placement for my ministerial formation, so along with my tutor and the WDRC officer I put together a placement, which involves, helping at a youth residential run by the Vuleka Trust.  I will then spend some time at Phakamisa a ministry of the Pinetown Methodist Church.  Some details are still to be put in place which can be a little frustrating and stressful but TIA (that is Africa) something which I am going to have to get used to once more!!

So I am looking forward to this next adventure to another beautiful African country, but most of all I am excited to see what surprises God has up His sleeve this time, and what work he is doing in the people I will be visiting with.  So if you want to keep up to date with what I'm doing keep and eye out here and on Facebook and I will try to keep them updated with my big adventure.

sacrifice and relationship

I've been doing some Old Testament research for my dissertation and came across this passage about sacrifice in Ancient Israel and its importance in relationship.  Not something i've ever really thought about before...

Sacrifice – in many ways sacrifice is simply assumed by the biblical texts as the way of being in relationship with God. That is the relationship between God and the people of God is the basis for making sense of sacrifice, rather than the reverse.


Sacrifice does not create the relationship; rather sacrifice maintains or strengthens the already existing relationship. When humans perceive the relationship as torn or broken, sacrifice serves as evidence of the human desire to repair and restore it.

There is rarely the sense of appeasement of an angry deity through sacrifice in the biblical texts; rather, sacrifice serves as concrete evidence of human acknowledgement of the ruptured relationship and of the desire for restoration. In theological-speak, restoration of the divine-human relationship is atonement, to highlight the purpose of bringing the relationship back into equilibrium.

(C) Marty E. Stevens Theological Themes of the Old Testament

I personally think it's so easy to take for granted our relationship with God, is it too simplified to say he's not angry, but just disappointed with us, I think there must be times he gets angry when he looks down on his perfect creation and see's what humanity is doing to it.  Yet he does want us to come back into relationship with him when we mess it up.  But we dont have to go to the temple to perform a sacrificial rite.  The Ultimate sacrifice has been made on our behalf through Christ our atoner, we just have to reacknowledge that and humbly come before God asking his forgiveness to repair and restore and ruptured relationships with him.

What a merciful and gracious God we have.

Lent 2012

This year over lent I'm following the BRF devotional lent book once more and this year it has been written by Andrew Watson and follows the Israelites journey through the wilderness.  There are many wonderful insights in it and I would like to share one from todays reading which has been thinking about the name of God...I AM WHO I AM...something which I find particularly powerful.

That story of Yahweh's faithfulness and Israel's failings is our story, too, as we humbly take our place in God's great history of salvation.  Many further chapters of that history have been lived and published:  the stories of Joshua and Samuel, of David and the Prophets, of Jesus' incarnation, life, death and resurrection, of the Spirit who prompts us to cry out 'Abba, Father', and of the Church that bears his name, each chapter better fleshing out the person of the great I AM in the face of human courage or human fallibility.  Yet there is always more to come...
(pg69, Andrew Watson)

What is there still to come in each of our stories...that's the exciting bit, we don't know, but we can be sure that God does and will always remain faithful, guiding us, leading us along our journey.  No doubt there will be surprises along the way andthe destination may not be what we expected but it'll be a fun, interesting and exciting journey none the less.

Working out Salvation

So I'm working on an assignment that feels never ending at the minute but I came across this wee quote...

Those who know that God will one day wipe away all tears will not accept with resignation the tears of those who suffer and are oppressed now.  Anyone who knows that one day there will be no more disease can and must actively anticipate the conquest of disease in individuals and society now.  And anyone who believes that the enemy of God and humans will be vanquished will already oppose him now in his machinations in family and society.  For all of this has to do with salvation.


David Bosch, Transforming Mission

How's your heart doing today?

The Prodigal Son is one of those well known parables that it can be very easy to read without looking for anything new in it as you think you know the story and its interpretations so well.  But today i've been given a little bit more of an insight into the older brother...the one who was left behind and feels so left out.

The character of the older brother seems to be a direct reply to the Pharisees and scribes, in response to whose criticism Jesus told the three lost-and-found stories.  The older brother is the upstanding but critical Pharisee who not only knew the religious rules but actually kept them all.  in our context, the older brother is the upright, devoutly religious person, the respected yet resentful churchgoer.  He is the ultimate insider someone who controls the committee meetings, holds the keys, keeps the books, reads the lesson, leads the intercessions.  But in the story it turns out that he is not inside at all, but outside, because even though we may live on the property, a cold heart removes us from God's presence into a darkness of our own making.  No matter how perfectly we keep our religion, it's our heart that places us inside or outside God's presence.

Maggi Dawn


This certainly made me think  -  How's your heart doing today??

Physical or Spiritual?

Today is my first full day fast this Lent.  I decided to fast a full day once a week and it's been going ok...so far!  But todays devotional reading was particulary appropriate!


...life is about more than physical appetites and desires...

...One of the purposes of the Lenten fast is to remind us daily that we are physical creatures and live a physical existence.  In a society that is both over indulgent and excessively body conscious, perhaps one of the challenges of Lent is to befriend our own bodies and find a good balance between taking care of ourselves and simply living comfortably in our own skins.  At the same time, Lent reminds us that we are more than mere animals: we have spiritual and moral capabilities.  We are governed not only by our appetites and needs but also by our will and our imagination.

Maggi Dawn

I'm not so sure about that last line about our will and imagination - are we governed by them in a spiritual sense just as our bodies can be governed by physical desires, and is one or the other easier to contain or control...now that's certainly something to think on!

But what do I need to do?

I'm trying to follow a devotional book throughout Lent to Easter Sunday, so any points that I find particularly thought provoking will most likely end up on here and will hopefully get you thinking too.....


Fasting in the Christian tradition is essentially about recognising that there's nothing we can do to improve ourselves...

In the end, Lent is about denying ourselves some of the essentials of everyday life in order to focus on the reality that we depend upon God for life itself...

If our Lenten fast is understood well, it will relieve us of the need to try harder, achieve more, feel more worthy.  It will ground us in the firm and unshakeable knowledge that we are human - we are but dust, and to dust we shall return - but that to be human is enough, under the loving gaze of God...

Maggi Dawn

Lent 2011

My prayer for this Lent...

Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
For all the benefits thou hast won for me,
For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me,
O most merciful, redeemer, Friend, and Brother,
May I know thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
And follow thee more nearly,
Day by day.

St Richard of Chichester



Lent begins with a challenge to clear out the mental and spiritual clutter and so discover how to live life to the full...

Maggi Dawn

Essentials of Christian Faith

In my random reading toady I came across the "Wesleyan Essentials of Christian Faith" which were adopted by the World Methodist Council in 1996, under discussion as to whether there was in fact an overriding Methodist Doctrine or Theology because John Wesley never actually produced an official set of doctrines.

Anyway...the one that really struck me was...

We serve the world in the name of God, believing that our commitment comes to life in our actions, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's so easy to fall back in to the way of thinking that everything we do is done in our strength, when really it's not!  We may be the hands and feet that give physical identity to what we do but then we have to sit back and let the Spirit work, for it is in that moment alone that the power of God is felt as he works 'supernaturally' through our 'natural' actions.

What a privilege to be that vessel.

Is it all in a name?

Paul never took a course in missions. He never sat in on a committee meeting. He never read a book on church growth. He was just inspired by the Holy Spirit and punch-drunk on the love that makes the impossible possible: salvation.

The message is gripping: Show a man his failures without Jesus and the result will be found in the roadside gutter. Give a man religion without reminding him of his filth, and the result will be arrogance in a three-piece suit. But get the two in the same heart-get sin to meet Saviour and Saviour to meet sin-and the result just mght be another Pharisee turned preacher who sets the world on fire.

(c) Max Lucado The Applause of Heaven

The Summit

...What may happen in the next few minutes borders on the holy.

The quietness will slow my pulse, the silence will open my ears, and something sacred will happen.

The soft slap of sandaled feet will break the stillness, a pierced hand will extend a quiet invitation and I will follow.

I wish I could say it happens every night; it doesn't. Some nights he asks and I don't listen. Other nights he asks and I just don't go. But some nights I hear his poetic whisper, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened..." and I follow. I leave behind the budgets, bills and deadlines and walk the narrow trail up the mountain with him.

You've been there. You've escaped the sandy foundations of the vally and ascended his grand outcropping of granite. You've turned your back on the noise and sought his voice.. You've stepped away from the masses and followed the Master as he led you up the winding path to the summit.

His summit. Clean air. Clear view. Crisp breeze. The roar of the marketplace is down there, and the perspective of the peak is up here.

Gently your guide invites you to sit on the rock above the tree line and look out with him at the ancient peaks that will never arode. "What is necessary is still what is sure." he confides. "just remember:
You'll go nowhere tomorrow that I haven't already been.
Truth will still triumph.
Death will still die.
The victory is yours.
And delight in one decision away - seize it."

The sacred summit. A place of permanence in a world of transition.

Think about the people in your world. Can't you tell the ones who have been to his mountain? Oh, their problems aren't any different. And their challenges are just as severe. But there is a stubborn peace that enshrines them. A confidence that life isn't toppled by unmet budgets or rerouted airplanes. A serenity that softens the corners of their lips. A contagious delight sparkling in their eyes.

And in their hearts reigns a fortresslike confidence that the valley can be endured, even enjoyed, because the mountain is only a decision away.


(C) Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven.

Be still and.....wait!!!

This picture pretty much sums up today!!!

It seems that God has brought me back to Ghana to try and teach me the same thing all over again that he tried to teach me before....Be Still!

Today i learnt something new about James, he doesn't like having free time on his hands as he just doesn't know what to do with it...he always has to be doing something. So yes there has been a lot of sitting around today and sometimes we just have to wait. God's timing is always perfect...as are His ways. But dont get me wrong its not like we did nothing!! We had a wee trip to the Accra Mall and once more i couldnt help but be astounded that somewhere like that exists in the middle of Accra!! It has always been a shock for me to walk back out into the heat and smells of Ghana having walked through the mall as it just seems so out of place.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed that we werent going to be staying in the Guest House that we usually stay in when in Accra (yes i like what i know) but it turns out that God was working out His perfect ways, as we truly believe we were guided to this Guest House so that we could meet another person who is staying here and has good contacts in and knowledge of the import/export business here in Ghana. So while we were sitting around today he was at work getting information and making contacts for us which may prove to be extremely useful in trying to have the container released.

So we may have another day of waiting ahead of us...but we will try to Be Still and Wait upon the Lord. As those who wait upon the Lord will be made strong.

Blessings :)

Good Friday Reflections

On friday evening the Seymour Street prayer room was opened for 24 hours of prayer by a time of prayer and praise led by SNASS. So I thought I would share here my reflection on Good Friday that I shared there having read John 19...

Why is Good Friday called Good Friday? I would be surprised if most people haven't thought about that at some stage or other.

There is no more humiliating death than crucifixion - hanging practically naked, stripped of all covering, stripped of all human dignity, strung up high against the skyline just outside the city walls, exposed for all to see.

It was a terrible death that was excruciatingly painful and long drawn out causing absolute agony before slowly suffocating.

Then Jesus died - releasing his spirit.

But what happened then?

There is a line in the song 'The Wonder of your Cross' by Robin Mark that says...

"Were heaven's praises silent in those hours of darkness?
Your Holy Spirit brooding round that empty throne?"

These lines catch me everytime I hear or sing that song...was there quiet in heaven, was there mourning after Christ had died and descended into hell or were they preparing for a celebration because as the song goes on to say...

"Until the declaration 'He is RIsen', You are Risen Jesus,
He is not dead, behold He lives for evermore."

And that is our hope, because of that painful and excruciating death that was experienced in our place we can know and have the peace of Christ, the peace that passes all understanding in the knowledge that we too will share in the celebrations in heaven as we receive eternal life.

Are you there God...it's me??

I haven't written here in ages and lots has been happening in life with church, college now that im living in Koinonia House and various other things. But i feel the time has come after the past weekend.

We had a Lay Witness Weekend in Seymour Street with a team of 15 fantastic people who came to share with us as a church family. If im honest I was really excited about the weekend, i've had a few struggles over the past couple of weeks, so I was really excited about what God was going to do in our church and in our lives individually. But I was a little let down...the meal on Friday night was great and i believe I was sitting beside the person i was meant to as we had wonderful conversation about things that were on both of our hearts but I left the event feeling a little...empty!! I was really disappointed that God hadn't shown up for me, why when I was so open and excited to receive was I leaving with such a disappointed empty feeling. Or maybe I wasn't as open as I had thought and God had shown up but I just didnt recognise it?!

Saturday came and I went to one of the coffee mornings, a wonderful time of fellowship, friendship and sharing with an awesome and powerful testimony shared very openly with the group and yet i was still asking, "God where are you in this? Why can't I hear what you are saying to me?"

If im honest once more, I was reluctant to go again on the Saturday evening but through the persuasion and encouragement of a good and caring friend I went. After all, how could I expect God to move and give if I wasnt there and open to receive. Again it was an enjoyable time of fellowship and sharing with the Witnesses who very openly shared their story of their walk with God. But once more I couldnt understand why God was being so silent to me. After being so excited and so expectant.

It wasnt until the Sunday that I 'woke up'...during the service on Sunday morning i had such a sense of God's presence and a real sense of being told 'I am with you and I will be there the entire way'

This continued into the evening service which was a true blessing...so many people shared an encouraging testimony/story of what they had received from the weekend. I also received an image of what our church was part of...during one of the first songs we sang during worship "The Splendour of the King", I had an image of our church standing in front of the throne of God which was blazing with light, shining golden and we were joining with hundreds of other people from everywhere alongside Angels and Archangels, all the hosts of heaven in bringing praise and glory to our Father and God. It was a humbling and amazing image and a very special insight into how we as a fellowship are part of the bigger picture of God's fellowship.

So after struggling to find God in what was happening He made it very clear to me that He was there all along. If anything I was depending to much on my emotions and feelings to know that right from the start. Sometimes we just need to relax and know....

All I Want is You...

I love the song 'All I Want is You' by Bellefire (yes I know, before anyone says it is an original U2 song I just happen to prefer the other version!!)

Anyway I was listening to it tonight as i was walking round Hillsborough and one of the verses just totally caught me off guard, as if I was listening to it for the first time...or with fresh ears maybe!!

You say you'll give me
A highway with no one on it
Treasure just to look upon it
All the riches in the night

You say you'll give me
Eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest

But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you

Not being a huge U2 fan I don't know it there's any kind of story behind the song. But it just really struck me that this could be a song, sung by a child of God to their Heavenly Father and reminded me of a conversation I had with a very wise and Godly man when I was in Sri Lanka this summer. God wants to give us so so much, He wants to provide for us, heal us, love us and fill our lives with the goodness and great abundance of heaven.

We can complicate that and make it so difficult sometimes. We make so many promises right through life...at baptism, marriage vows, at acceptance into membership, dedication services and for Methodists in our annual covenant service and Im sure there are many others...but what do those words and promises mean if we dont seek that abundance that God wants to bless us with, if we don't seek the glory of Christ...ALL we should want is Him and His glory but yet we will receive so much more if that is all we seek.

Retreat...

Last week I took out time once more to go and 'chill' up in Newcastle. Time alone with me, my thoughts and I...and of course my God. Once more I loved driving through the Mournes...I even took a wee walk up Butter Mountain...not quite reaching the top, even though it was just within reach!! Surveying the beautiful mountain scenery around me. I definitely think this is where God does some of His thinking and planning. Walking in the cool of the evening through the Mournes :)


I also did some more star gazing...when it wasnt raining...lying out in the garden staring up at the bright, clear night sky. I could do that for hours and never lose the awe and majesty of it all. And my time there was rewarded with lots of shooting stars. The first being the most spectacular, it just burst across the sky seeming like it was on fire just above me...awesome =]

Then there was the tree I spoke about the last time, as I watched the leaves appear in front of me in the warm Spring sunshine. It was now fully covered in thick green leaves and 'helicopters' ready to fall in the fast approaching Autumn. Makes you wonder why they go to all that bother...all that effort for the leaves to come out...then in a couple of short months they will be strewn across the ground withered and brown. But that's the cycle that tree's go through...blossoming life and then what can so often look like a barren death in the cold hard winter...but no...deep down in the heart of the tree that blossoming life is waiting and preparing to burst forth once more. So often our lives can feel like that...a barren wasteland, a desert but deep down if we search for it in our hearts and in our souls that blossoming life and spirit that God has placed within us is waiting to burst forth, with lots of help from Him...no matter what season it is!!

Surrender...

I had a wonderful experience of worship today.

I think Diyonus, the college caretaker is a little concerned about me being on my own, especially as Derek has now returned to England leaving me in the apartment on my own. So this morning in extremely broken English he asked me if i would like to go to church with him...at least at the time I assumed that was what he was asking!! So i agreed as i had no other arrangements made.

So we set off for a church that I had kind of gathered was pretty close by and it was indeed only a short walk from C.T.S. The sign out the front told me that it was a Dutch Reformed Church of Sri Lanka and that the English service began at 9.00am and that was the service that Diyonus had very thoughtfully brought me for. We went into the grounds and he introduced me to a few people and in chatting we discovered that this week the English service and the Sinhalese service had actually been switched as the English congregation were having an Alpha thanksgiving service. I decided that this was the perfect chance then for me to experience a Sinhalese worship service and tild Diyonus that i would stay for this service rather than come back for the English. So he introduced me briefly to the minister who was preparing to start, then took me to a house that was in the grounds ringing the bell numerous times until someone came to the door. A man cam out and Diyonus introduced me, I assumed this was another minister of the church as each different language congregation appear to thave their own pastor. It turned out in the midst of conversation that he was in fact the President of the Dutch Reformed Church!

So i was guided in to the church and Diyonus tried to get me to sit in one of the front pews but no the Methodist in me kicked in and I headed for the back sitting under a very welcome and cooling fan. Sadly as the service began the electricity cut out, the fans stopped and there was a little reorganisation as song books had to be found because they couldnt use the OHP! It was a wonderful service with A time of lively worship led by 2 young men from the congregation, backed up by a small band consisiting of a piano, guitar, drums and bongo drums. There was then what i could only assume was a time of confession and testimony when many people - all women it has to be said, stood up and spoke briefly.

The pastor, Rev Faber then brought the message, speaking on Hebrews 11:13-16, how we are strangers on this planet and our real home is the one prepared for us in Heaven. He very thoughtfully threw in a few English phrases for my benefit (very like some Sinhalese TV programmes when every now and again you quite randomly catch an English phrase...very amusing!!) to try and summarise his points. I did however catch that he spoke about Michael Jackson at one point, not quite sure how that fit in to what he was saying!! Halfway through I was very grateful when the electricity kicked in once more as it was really starting to get very hot in that little church - even with the slight breeze coming in the door!

All in all it was a wonderful act of worship with lively praise and from what i could tell of the way the preaching was delivered very passionate and so despite the language difference and not always understanding what was happening or being said I could most definitely feel God's presence amongst His people in that little church. For me that is what truly matters God's presence with us ministering to His children in the way they need most. During the service there was one word that kept coming back to me and that was 'surrender'. Surrendering ourselves...myself...to God's moving around me and within me. Letting Him minister to me where i need it most, it may not even be something that I know needs dealt with but He does. So i must surrender myself to Him, make myself vulnerable to His power working and healing within me and make myself available to what He asks of me...no matter what.

Saturday morning shopping...

I feel like such a westerner this morning!!!

A lovely couple called Lallita and Chris took me out this morning. Lallita works in the library here at C.T.S. and was worried that I wasn't leaving the college so offered to take me out today. So I asked her to take me to ODEL which is a big western style department store selling all sorts of things from clothes to books and dvd's, homewares and souvenirs. It was nice just to wander around for a while to see what was on offer and it was full of white people who were clearly tourists.

They then took me to a food court at a local supermarket which had a huge range of food from Asian, to Western, which included Italian and British, and Australian!! Having this opportunity I went for something British!! So a burger and fries it was :) I then felt i could not turn down the offer to try a traditional Sri Lankan dessert - curds and honey, assured that it was just like yogurt. So when it arrived i gave it a go and it was actually not too bad just like a natural yogurt smothered in honey, it was then that Lallita told me it was no normal curds, from a normal cow but rather they were from a Buffalo!! Well sure its something different!! We had some very good conversation over lunch which ranged from their children and grand children to religious issues, thoughts on church and the much debated anti-conversion bill.

So all in all its been a lovely morning with some lovely people...now to relax and enjoy the rest of my saturday afternoon :)

What's your pill??

Sometimes it can be very easy to feel just like P!nk in her song, ‘like a pill’...

I think I’ll get outta here... Where I can run just as fast as I can,
To the middle of nowhere to the middle of my frustrated fears
and I swear you’re just like a pill
stead of making me better you keep making me ill...

There can be so many things that we want to avoid. Things that we don’t want to deal with or don’t want to face up to. Or else we look for the answers in the wrong places and what we think is our ‘pill’ is in fact doing us so much more harm than we can ever imagine. Then we just drop it all and run...anywhere...as far as we can, try to escape, leave it all behind and hope it just disappears.

But there are 2 things we cannot run away from. The first is our own mind, as much as we try to blank it out or where you run to those things will always be there in your mind, it goes with you wherever you go. The second is God. There is no where we can go in all of creation to hide from God, no rock we can hide under that He will not find us...He created it and knows every inch of all creation and He knows every part of us. Including our mind!

So if we are going to run...it should be to God. Only He can satisfy...

No one but You Lord can satisfy the longing in my heart, Nothing I do Lord can take the place of drawing near to You. Only You can fill my deepest longing,
Only You can breath in me new life,
Only You can fill my heart with laughter,
Only You can answer my hearts cry,
Only You...

Father I love You, come satisfy the longing in my heart,
Fill me, overwhelm me, until I know Your love deep in my heart. I long for You, I yearn for You and I’m calling out, I’m crying out for You.

(c) Andy Park

Cry out to Him and let Him come to us as He wants to, let Him fill us with cleansing living waters as He fulfills our every need, our every longing...nothing can take the place of what He can do in our life...if we just let Him in, surrender what we cannot control to His mighty love and grace.