People often ask me what it was like to grow up on a farm. I would like to dedicate this post to five favorite or memorable things of my childhood in the country.

Here goes.

1) you can see the stars, and much to my mother’s chagrin i would often go for walks down our gravel road at night. maybe not the safest option, but definitely fun. i always felt so small and surrounded by God. also i used to imagine that the night was just a cloak and the stars were just the light of heaven peeking through rips punched into the cloak. So it didn’t feel dark at all.

2) countless hours of imagination. as you can tell from 1) i spent a lot of time dreaming. i used to mow the lawn on a riding lawn mower (we had a lot of lawn). While mowing i often wondered how far i would get on a riding lawn mower…..if i just drove off one day. how far could i get on a tank of gas? could i travel across canada? how could i winterize it? these are the questions that ran through my ten year old mind.

3) although i loved going for walks at night and would claim to be unafraid of that kind of dark, there were other kinds of dark that scared me. one being the barn that i had to feed the cats in every night. have you ever seen multiple cat eyes on various levels of equipment in the pitch black? so it just looks like floating eyes? yeah, you tell me you wouldn’t drop the food bucket and run for your life.

4) driving to the city was a big to do. every saturday morning we would go to piano lessons at yamaha on dakota street and pizza hut for lunch. i even got to order soda. i loved it. i loved it because it was always something to look forward to….we didn’t take it for granted. treats were treats.

5) family vacation. we took a few weeks off every summer to go camping. but our camping was not just a tent and a fire pit. nor was it a fifth wheel. it was like a combo. my dad is a master craftsman so he built, yes built, a trailer out of wood to pull behind the car with all of our camping gear. our camping gear was a full size sleeping tent, a screen tent, propane elements, thermarests (the cadillac of air mattresses) a portable toilet with a curtain around it, and a mini fridge. i also think this was the time in my life when i learned how to sleep through anything. everyone would wake up in the morning all bleary eyed and frustrated with the cows, trains, party-ers next door and i hadn’t heard a thing.

i’m straying now….this isn’t so much about childhood in the country as it is just about my childhood.

either way it was a magnificent time in life that fostered imagination, anticipation, and multiplication. well maybe not so much multiplication. it was just the third word with ‘ation’ that came to mind.

have a wonderful day!!

The other day I was standing in the Superstore bathroom aisle for fifteen minutes contemplating which shower curtain hooks to buy for our apartment when it dawned on me again – a major change is on its way. On January 16 2011 I will become Mrs. Jacob Cook. Has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it? My husband to be is a wonderful man whose adoration for me is only second to His love for Jesus and I get to be his partner in crime for life.

In the midst of wedding/moving/career planning I was brought back to a very important point today. It’s exceedingly simple. Almost too simple. Here it is.

God has never not been faithful to me. In 26 years, He has proven it over and over. He has never dropped me, has never left me, has never been surprised by my actions or thrown off by my reactions. As I was driving home with tears streaming down my face all I could do was say it over an over. You have never not been faithful. You will always continue to be faithful. You’ve got me.

Sometimes life change is planned. Sometimes it’s written down on long lists. Sometimes it’s fought and sometimes it’s embraced with joy and anticipation. Sometimes it’s jarring. Either way we’re all in some process of it because everything on this earth is subject to change. This is why I take such great comfort, find such freedom and joy, rest in such peace in the revelation of God’s constant faithfulness. It’s one thing that will never change. His faithfulness has always been and always will be an eternally deep well for me to discover as I go deeper every day.

LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago….Isaiah 25:1


Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures….Psalm 119:90


I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself….Psalm 89:2

for older blogs to catch up with the Amanda of 2009 and earlier, click HERE. it was fun re-reading some of them and remembering those times. kind of like scanning through an old journal…

Hey all!!! Welcome to my new site, masterfully presented by the rad guys at FABRIC CREATIVE (check them out at http://www.fabriccreative.com/) They are awesome.

This is the place you’ll be able to find out what’s going on in my life and the lives of those around me. If you want to contact me personally, fire off an email to amanda@amandafalk.com. That is me.

Without further ado, I’m going to launch right into the latest and greatest news….there will be much more coming but this is kind of a summary of the last month…..

I just returned to Canada after four weeks down in Redding California at a place called ‘Bethel’. They run a school there for a bunch of musicians, artists, and dancers who want to use their giftings as expressions of the love God has for all people. In the midst of the music which made us more aware of the powerful Presence of God every morning I would be standing next to people from South Africa, Sweden, Australia, America, Canada, Ireland, England, and the list goes on. 370 people after the Presence of God. 370 different cultures, backgrounds, nationalities, 370 representations of the creative genius of God, diverse personalities and opinions, longing to express the creativity they possess right back to Him. 370 spirits, souls, bodies, all on their personal quests to love and be loved. All compelled by love, His love. 370 different dreamers, visionaries, anointed and gifted, but most importantly worshipers. (1. see below terminology)

It may seem small now, but those 370 people got lit on fire with something that is way too important to pass off as just a cozy church time experience.

And some may dwindle, some may walk away, but there will be those from this school whose fire has only begun. And it’s beginning to spread, licking up the brittle branches that lay in the wake of it.

Because when we encounter the Presence of God (2. see below), the LOVE OF GOD, in the form of HEARING HIM, SEEING HIM, FEELING HIM, KNOWING HIM, and KNOWING WE ARE LOVED BY HIM it consumes us, it fills us, and then it begins to affect everything and everyone we meet. Although it’s that simple, i find myself constantly learning something new about it and sometimes missing it completely, and then sometimes running full force into the middle of it. Nevertheless, it’s not His love that changes, it’s my perspective that does. His love is constant, mine is trying to learn how to be. And it’s in an encounter with the Presence of God that we discover the gravity of His love.

1.) ‘worship, worshipers, worshiping’ the word worship in the dictionary means to love, admire, or respect somebody or something greatly and perhaps excessively or unquestioningly. So when I talk about worshiping the Lord, it means just that. And the way we can begin to truly worship Him in that way is by realizing that He loved and loves us unquestioningly and excessively first. This can happen at any time of day, on any day of the week, at home, in the car, on the plane, with your kids, with your husband, watching a movie, in a church or a prison, at a ball game or a grocery store, anywhere a person goes on any street at any time. It does not require a minister, a band, or a song. It only requires a moment of having faith to believe that the love you hoped for but had almost given up on exists and could be wrapped up in the One Who is the Presence of the Love of God, Christ Jesus.

2.) I talk about ‘The Presence of God’. I will be referring to it as just that, because I believe we’re in a time when people want to KNOW and be KNOWN by a GOD WHO IS INTENSELY PERSONAL. We are not after more information ABOUT Him, as if He is someone of human celebrity status, meant to be talked about and reported on but not known on a first name basis. Rather we are after the PURSUIT of HIM as He is, by NAME. Because that’s the way He says He knows us. Isaiah 43.

So today I’m daring you to pray this prayer over yourself today and then watch and see what happens….because God wants His love to be known. It’s what He created us for.

‘Lord Jesus, You are who You say You are, I need You to be what I need You to be today. Would You show me a picture, a vision of Your love for me, the way I need to understand it? Through Your Spirit would You show me?’

……wait for it.

Peace.

A.