Today marks my 500th post.
Today is also one of my greatest friend's birthdays...Tasha Chooi.
It is a bit of a longer read, but it is worth it, I assure you.
Plus there's a video I want you to watch at the end.

When I get hopeless, I remind myself of people like Tasha, and I find hope.

I met Tasha when she was like 12, but we began our friendship about three years after that. After a messy breakup and moving out on her own, Tash was left hurting and broken. I won't put out details, but I'm sure if you asked she would love to tell you her testimony. When I moved to Victoria I met a very sweet and fun girl, but I also met someone who had been damaged. We became friends right away and I cannot explain in words the love I have for her. I was in Victoria for my summer assignment with The War College (see http://www.thewarcollege.com/) and moved back to Vancouver. The plan wasn't to come back to Victoria, but 9 months later there I was. I came back to a Tasha who had given up. Who was hurting so bad you could see it all over her. She tried to put a smile on, and looked beautiful doing it, but if you knew Tash, you knew she was hurting. Over the next few months I saw Tasha fall hard. She kept falling and falling and I kept loving her and loving her. At times I thought she was going to die, and I would cry out to the Lord to rescue her, but it seemed the more I did that the further she went. Addictions began to rule her life, and I joined in with the Father weeping bitterly for her return. Six months later, after an attempt to reunite with her dad failed, she found herself homeless and more broken then ever. This is when she moved in with me. Those were some of the best days of my life, and some of the hardest and most trying too. Our friendship was on the rocks. Addiction, lying and rebellion were Tasha's masters. It hurt so bad watching the enemy grab her, and hold her and lure her away. Things got pretty bad and we had to ask her to leave. I still don't know if this was for the best. I thought our friendship was over for sure and it grieved me so much. That lasted a week.

No matter how much I prayed, how much people tried to help her, she was so entangled in the enemy's lies and schemes, I honestly lost all hope she would ever return to Christ. I wrote a song for Tasha. It is based on the parable of the Prodigal Son. Maybe I'll even record it and post it as a gift for Tash, for now check out the lyrics.

She was with him, and asked may I go.
He said yes, but take my blessing with you.
So off she went on her own and treated his gift like dirt.
Now she is out there lost and is so hurt.

The Father says, I'll welcome you, so come to me.

She is so far away so far away is she.
She is so far away so far away.

The Father says, I welcome you, come to me.

He sees her in the distance and begins to prepare.
He gets out his finest wine and sets her place.
He puts on his finest robe and he waits.

The Father says, I welcome you, so come to me.

As she approaches he runs to her.
He wraps his arms around her neck and his tears wet her hair.

The Father says, I've welcomed you, please stay with me.

When I wrote this song, Tasha was in the second verse. Hurt, lost, alone, scared and so far away. The final verses were sung prophetically for her. (I don't want to give away the punch line of this post, but I think it's safe to assume it has a happy ending. I now rejoice that Tasha's life more reflects the last verse of the above song.)

Around this time I hit a pretty hard rock bottom in my life. Long story short (and I don't want to take Tasha's thunder away either) things got pretty bad for me that I had to quit my job and move back to surround myself with community.

July 1st 2007 marks the day I moved. Praise God it doesn't mark the day Tasha and I stopped being friends. I still consider Tasha one of my closest friends and I am blessed beyond measure in that. The next year and a half Tasha went through many more trials. More messy relationships, more moving, more rejection. I longed to be with Tasha holding her close, but distance separated us this time.

Like I said, I had lost a lot of hope in Tasha returning to Christ. I don't mean that to sound terrible. The entire time I still loved Tasha, I still prayed for her, I still trusted the Lord to save her but I couldn't see it.

Yet now, Tasha continues to surprise me with her ever increasing wisdom and ever increasing faith. She has abandoned many idols in her life. She is running forward into the arms of Christ. Now when I talk to her she always talks about how good God has been to her, how she is getting freer daily. She is being discipled by fabulous people. She is Highpoint Corps music directer. Tasha brings me great joy and great hope. When days look bad, and when I see people I love fall down over and over, I remind myself of people like Tasha and my hope is restored.

Tasha writes for the Highpoint blog, http://www.pointful.ca/, every Friday. This is her most resent post - and I encourage you to read it as it highlights her testimony a bit and has a pretty encouraging bio at the bottom.

Just in case you don't read it, but I encourage you to, I've attached a video to my blog as she has on hers. It is the gospel in choreodrama form. It brings me to tears every time I watch it...which is a pretty frequent thing for me these days, because I frequent Tasha's blog. This is a very long blog as it is, so I'm not going to preach or whatever about the clip, I'll do that in a couple days. But please watch it. And please, please, please, if you identify yourself with Tasha's story or the girl in the video keep running to Christ. Keep pressing you in. He is longing for you to come home.




Happy Birthday Tasha!