Along the River Bank by Susan L.

  Tonight is my first worship team rehearsal. It has me rather nervous and anxious. It's a typical response when a new adventure begins. It was the same the first time I went to the Writer's Nest. Talk about terrified!
  I was a copious journal writer in the beginning of my walk with the Lord. Pages and pages of written prayer helped me find my voice. With the group's tender encouragements, belief in this gift continues to cement itself into my soul.
  The blog has taken the journal's role over. I can't tell you how much my reader's comments mean to me. Every single one is an encouragement and an honour in knowing the Lord is using this gift.
  It took about a year or so after a friend invited me to the writer's group before I actually went. She had heard me read my testimony when I was baptized and had approached me afterwards telling me I was a writer. I had laboured over that written piece for months but still had doubts about it. Why is it we have such a hard time accepting praise? I shrugged off her compliment and enthusiastic invitation to join the Nest but seeds had been planted and fertilized by her encouraging words.
 The journaling evolved into some poetry and creative writing as I explored and celebrated my Christian life. The moment I was able to confess before the Lord that something I'd written was good, He released me to go to the Writer's Nest. And so that particular and incredibly amazing journey began when I climbed out of the Black River onto solid ground.
   The emotional response won't stop me going to the rehearsal. It might be easier, safer to stay on the River, but without getting out, there's no way of exploring unknown lands and the opportunities they hold. Besides, I always have my just-in-case-of-emergency pills. Better yet, the Lord is with me in this new and exciting venture.
  "So I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey." Ex 3:8