Let's get juicy!

More and more people are getting acquainted with juicing. And that is a good thing!
Lots of people wonder, but hey what is the difference between a juice and a smoothie?

To explain it in the simplest way: a juice is only the extracted juice from fruit and veggies and a smoothie is a drink that has been made from the whole fruit and/or veggies. Except for the heart of the fruit and sometimes also the skin, like a pineapple.

A much heard remark re juicing is that juice does not contain any fiber. Whilst that is not true, it is correct that juice contains less fiber than a smoothie. Juice is replete with soluble fiber, such as pectins, which are great for the colon. However, fiber is not nutritious.

You are not missing out on important vitamins, amino acids and/or minerals. Fiber is like a broom for your colon. So yes, it is very important to get fiber into your body! But that doesn't mean that smoothies are better than juices. Both are great. Both are good for you. Both have their value.

One of the benefits of a juice is that it can be absorbed directly by your cells. Your body doesn't need to do any work to extract juice from the fruit or veggie. Your juicer already did that work for you. In this way your body gets fed directly with vitamins, minerals and/or amino acids. That does not mean, by the way, that you should 'just' swallow your juice in a split second, although that is so tempting to do, because it tastes sooooo good!

No, you should chew your juice!
Chew my juice?!
Yup....

Just look at babies. Look at how they keep every bite or sip in their mouth for a bit before they swallow. We tend to stuff the food and/or drink quickly down their sweet little throats, but actually they are doing a great job by keeping their food/drink in their food for a little while before swallowing it.

The digestive system does not start somewhere down there, but it starts in your mouth! And if you do not chew well, whether it is your food or drink, you skip an important step. When you do chew well enzymes are released in your mouth and they make for your body to digest your food in the best possible way. This also helps your body to send the right signals so that you are (better) aware of when you have had enough.

Okay, enough about chewing. Let's get juicy!

If you are interested in the benefits of juicing and you want to learn more about it, then I would want to recommend books by Norman Walker. This pioneer in juicing and raw food has written quite a few books. And although they tend to get a bit technical at times, it is all explained in easy to understand language. Norman Walker is one of my heroes. I appreciate his efforts to share his knowledge and wisdom with the world so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

It is not hard to figure out that I love health. It's my passion and I also feel it is part of my calling in life. I love to inspire people to embrace a lifestyle that makes them whole. In the biggest sense of the word: body, soul and spirit. I am a strong believer that these three parts are intertwined and should be treated as one, although they are three different parts. You can juice all you want and eat lots of raw food every day, but if you hold grudges and carry bitterness in your heart, you are not really walking the path of health in this life.... We need to be whole to be healthy.

A question I get asked frequently is what would be really good to start with if someone wants to change their lifestyle a bit to get more healthy.
When it comes to nutrition I tend to say: start every day with a super green juice!

With 'super' I do not mean that your drink needs to be immensely green, although you cannot escape that fact when you want to make a green juice. But I mean that it needs to contain superfood. Superfood may carry this title when it contains a variation of at least 14 types of vitamins, minerals and/or amino acids.

Adding spirulina or wheatgrass to your juice will make your juice an incredible source of pure bliss and health. You should make sure it has no more than 1/3 fruits (use as a base apple, pear or pineapple) and a minimum of 2/3 dark (leafy) green veggies.

To your health.

"Out of the mouth of little children...

...and infants, You have ordained strength because of Your enemies, that You might still the enemy and the avenger." (Psalm 8:2; Matt 21:16)

What a joy that God chooses to use whoever He wants and wishes.

It is vitally important to stay away from offense in order to see the works of His hands. It doesn't always quite look like as we might expect, want or hope for.

I am amazed at the words that proceed from the lips of children. They say profound things in the midst of being playful and needing discipline for actions in order to help them to live a life that flows from wisdom and understanding.

When I was in Redding, CA, I had the privilege of being invited to come to the Christian School to be prophesied over by the 7th graders. About 20 children sat in front of me and one for one they would tell me what they heard, saw and felt God said to them about me.

It was amazing that most of the words formed a story all together of what God was telling me. What I particularly enjoyed was that so many children saw a waterfall. Just the day before I wrote a short post called 'The Phillips Blessing' and I shared how I loved visiting the Niagara Falls and the joy and freedom it brought to stand under the waterfall.

I love how God tells us that He knows everything about us. How He uses things in our daily lives to communicate to us. He is such a good God.

To hear prophetic words proceed from the lips of children is most encouraging.
It is pure and undefiled. They don't try to add anything to what they hear, see and/or feel. They just tell you how it comes and if they don't know what it means they don't even bother trying to explain it.

When we came to an end of prophesying, one girl asked the teacher if they could do a round of 'words of affirmation'. One for one they would get the recorder (all the words get recorded so that you can listen to the words later on again, which is great as I am a firm believer we should carefully record the prophetic words we receive in life and read them on a regular basis so that we become secure in who God tells us we are and what we are called to do. In this way the enemy gets silenced and the voice of God becomes clearer and louder in our daily lives). Each child would say one word to strengthen you.

It was such a wonderful experience. It gives your soul and spirit a great boast of encouragement, strength and comfort. The gift of prophecy helps us to grow in the Lord. You feel kissed by God. (1 Cor 14:3)

Glorious

To know Jesus is to know Life.

To know Life is to experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Once we grow in and through our relationship with the Living Spirit of Christ we also grow in all these attributes I sum up as knowing Life, which ultimately refers to knowing Jesus: the author and perfecter of our faith.

All things exist in and through Him. Jesus is the faithful One.

He alone deserves all the praise, glory and honor.

One powerful way to exalt Him is through the art of music and song.
Putting words together through song to find a way to express best Who He is will not only make us worship Him, it also deepens our understanding of Him.

Oftentimes I've thought how I would love for there to be a place (I am not referring to one place) where we could go to at any given time of the day or night where continuous expression of worship would be happening. A place where you can join in at any given time. A place where His name is exalted at all times.

When I went to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City I found such a place.

Every moment prayers are lifted up through song and music. Literally 24/7.

I would sit 6 to 8 hours a day there reading Scripture, pray, journal and listen.

That maybe sounds like a lot of hours, but honestly I could have sat there even longer.

I had to remind myself that I was on a 82 day journey and needed my energy and sleep in order to stay healthy and rested =)

All anointing (a special grace, blessing or extreme unction) belongs to God.
However, in His mercy and goodness, He chooses to pour out His anointing on us.
I'm the last person to advocate that we aren't all able to walk in great measures of His anointing, however I do believe that according to our spiritual make up and the way He has made us with our unique calling we will have naturally certain aspects where we will operate in stronger.

I'm not sure how everything works and operates in the spiritual world, however I do know that when we receive a prophet in the name of a prophet we will receive a prophets reward (which are eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying). And so whenever we position ourselves in a way to acknowledge the unique calling on someone's life we can benefit from the anointing (grace) that is operating in their lives, and actually experience the same grace they have to do certain things.

When I was at IHOP I experienced an unusual love to read Scripture and to pray and to know Jesus more. Mike Bickle (founder IHOP) has given his life to the calling of God on his life, which is to set up a house of prayer that continues till the end of times, to fast and pray, to study the Scriptures diligently and teach His people. I was aware of the fact that I was tapping into the anointing that operates in Mike's life.

What a rich blessing to receive an impartation (= a passing on of what someone carries. To transmit) that gives you an even deeper desire to devour Scripture, to pray and to know Jesus more.

I spent a week at IHOP and honestly I wished I could have stayed for a few months.

I'll be back =)

NYC

And off to New York City I went...

Wow. Wow. Wow.
What a city!

Everywhere you look there is some sort of activity going on.
The title 'The city that never sleeps' is definitely appropriate.

Grand Central is a main train station on 42nd Street.
Just seeing the outside and inside of the building is a pleasure to your eyes.
A big piece of art!

I cycled Central Park. I loved it.
Wherever you go there is something happening; people are rapping, dancing, watching a movie, attending a concert, chatting, being romantic with their lover, going for a bike road, a walk, a horse ride and so the list goes on.

In the afternoon I visited Ground Zero.
Currently they are re-building this area.
There is also a memorial that you can visit.

At 6:30 I boarded a boat that would take me on a Twilight Tour. The sun sets while you are on the water and all the lights are on and you can see New York City in all its glory from the waterside. The boat ride took 1,5 hours. On our way back we came close to the Statue of Liberty and then we set sail to the shores again.

New York's attitude is quite different from that of Sunny California!

The Phillips Blessing

After a great time with my new found friends in the UK I headed off to New York, Rochester.

To be more specific, to visit my sweet and beautiful (inside and outside) friend Chelsea Phillips.

Being a guest at their house felt more like being a daughter to their family.
The love and hospitality that was shown was beautiful.
I loved every moment of my stay!

Chelsea and I visited the Niagara Falls.

Honestly, that day we felt probably like the hottest women around.
We had these amazing flip flops on our feet (you better start feeling jealous!) and not to mention our raincoats.

TOO HOT.

Really.

In order to give some more of a visual idea of our dress that day I've added a picture. But remember, it is only to look at once :)

The Niagara Falls were so fun to visit! We stood under this waterfall and got pretty wet right there :)
It was such a joyful and freeing experience to stand under a waterfall!

So, if you ever need some joy and freedom go and visit the Falls. It will do you good.

Phillips Family: 'A thousand thank you's for blessing me in the way you did!'

Celebrate Good Times!

The older I get the more I understand that there is one thing that is important in life; it is relationships.

Life is about family. I like to put it this way (with the highest respect, of course!) -> God is a Family Man. And He truly is. He is into people. He is into love. He is into restoration. He is into wholeness. He is into healing. He is all about Life. He is into family.

I try to open myself up to the people I meet in life. One of the things I try to keep in front of me is this: Who are you? Who are you to God? Who should you be to me? (Not who do I think you are, but instead who are you to God and therefor to me = key)

In Turkey me and my friend, Corine, met four people on our trip to Ephesus. Beautiful people. I fell in love with them.

The Story of how we met:

Early, I mean around 6AM (Is anyone awake around that hour?! Hello??) we are sitting in this tiny bus on our way to a touring bus, picking up people from hotel to hotel. Eventually we get to this one hotel and a guy is standing outside with a shirt on that reads 'Let's Go!' A little later another guy comes standing next to him. However it didn't seem they were making their way to the bus. All of a sudden the guy who stood next to the 'Let's Go!' guy walks off. So I thought 'Well, maybe they are not on this tour and are we waiting for other people'. (However, I wondered what on earth are they doing there + why would you be awake around this hour if you don't need to go somewhere?!) The guy who walked off came walking back with a plastic bag with some plastic bottles of water in it. 'Hmm, maybe they are on our bus?' But no movement. At all... Then a tall guy and girl are coming out of the hotel and the four of them start walking toward the bus. They are on our bus...

I cracked up laughing. This one guy is wearing a shirt with 'Let's Go!' written on it, however it took them ages to get to the bus (I mean a minimum of 5 minutes if not 10).

So off we go.

In the evening we officially met the 'Let's Go!' guy and the 'Water bottle' guy; Aaron and Serhan. We had fun together and I liked them a lot.

The next day we also got to meet Halil and Esmeralda. I liked them a lot as well!

As we are talking I discover they are from the UK. Better, from London! And where was I about to go on my first stop on my 82 day journey?! -> London.

WE NEED TO MEET UP!!

We all agreed on that plan.

In meantime we stayed connected through Facebook (Where would we be without Facebook? Thank God for Facebook! I think He likes it too!!).

A knock on my hotelroom door. I opened. I screamed. We hugged. We hang out. We had an amazing time. We drank tea. We ate stroopwafels (amazing Dutch cookies, ideal for bribing people). We made tons of pictures. And then the moment came we had to say goodbye. Sad face.

BUT we will be friends. Now and in the future.

Halil, Es and Serhan 'Thank you for an amazing evening. Thank you for your friendship!'

Here we go!

Last week it all of a sudden hit me.

I AM GOING AWAY FOR THREE MONTHS! Arghhh!

Breathe in, breathe out.

You might think 'But lady friend, haven't you traveled the world?!'

Yes I have. However, I have never traveled three months from nation to nation.
Which is truly quite a different thing than packing your suitcase and move to a nation to plan to stay there for quite some time.

But... Although I wondered for a moment what the heck on earth I was about to do, soon things started to ease and I thought 'Ah well, God is with me. He knows where we are going and I am going to enjoy my trip to the max.'

So yesterday, Friday September 30, I turned 32. A beautiful age, I may say :)
And today I celebrated the day of my birth with family and friends in a lovely overly sunny Holland. After hugging and kissing and saying goodbye's it was time to start putting my things into my suitcase.

Proud factor -> I packed my suitcase in an hour or so and I am fully ready to go.

I just love God. And how He orchestrates my life (true true, sometimes I am wondering why things go as they go and why we need to go through what we need to go through and lalalala). However, right now I feel blessed beyond words (literally, because I wouldn't know how to express the blessed emotions my heart currently experiences!).

Tomorrow evening I am meeting up with four new made friends in London. When I was in Turkey just about 6 weeks ago, me and my friend met some people on a trip to Ephesus. We connected and clicked. Well, tomorrow I'll see them again! Happy!

Itinerary for this week:

Sunday October 2: Amsterdam to London
Monday October 3: London to New York State, Rochester
Thursday October 6: New York State, Rochester to New York City
Saturday October 8: New York City to Kansas City