A glimpse of His heart

Hello everyone!

Wow! I cannot believe how fast this last month has gone! It has been such a packed month, filled with so much freedom, growing in the Lord, studying, and planning toward outreach! The weeks went by so fast and I haven't had a chance to get a blog post up until now.

If I was to go through every teacher, you would be here for days haha so I'm just going to highlight the things God has been doing in my life. One of them would be breaking the fear of rejection. This is more related to being scared to pray in front of people for what they would say or getting up on the mic to pray during out intercession times, or talking in front of our outreach group. I would do all these things but I felt like I had so much more to give and something was holding me back. So one of our speakers Brian Brennt had us get into twos and pray for each other and for another pair for the thing they both felt they needed prayer for. The person I was partnered with felt the same thing, so we were able to pray for breakthrough for each other! :D Brian also said that a big part of getting freedom is that we need to speak it out for ourselves and say "I do not a fear of rejection, I have things to talk about, God does speak through me, etc." That was when I think it really broke off. So yes, I do have a quieter personality,but why would I not take every opportunity I have to talk with my Father? and talk about Him in groups? Ahh God is doing so much in me and I am so grateful to Him.

One of the main things that has been put on my heart this last month is the issue of sex trafficking. I may have mentioned it a little before, but seriously, this month I believe God has marked my heart in a different way. We had this amazing woman of God, Susi Childers come and speak to us. She is a professional photographer who captures injustices of woman and children across the world. (http://www.photogenx.net/info_bio_susi.htm) She started the DTS called Voice for the Voiceless here on campus. Her stories are amazing and God completely gripped my heart, mostly with the issue of sex trafficking, but also other injustices that she talked about. I literally cried for 2 hours straight the day she talked. It was like the time when the lady talked about orphans and adoption. I felt literal pain in my heart as I heard the stories of girls around the world. This has been intensified even more as I read more into the issue, hear Susi talk a few more times, and read a book the DTS has put together about sex trafficking. It seriously seems to be jumping out at me from every direction. We even went to an art exhibit from our art students last night and they had painted pictures of injustices and they were a few about sex trafficking and then some articles about it. I don't think people really understand how big of an issue it really is, and in America too. Hundreds of thousand are getting trafficked every year. So, I'm not sure how God wants me to work in this field, but I definitely want to do something to help end sex trafficking. I will be praying about how this looks but I know I cannot just look this over since it has been on my heart so much. The main thing is honestly to reach them with the Gospel! To get them out of being trafficked and tell them about Jesus! Salvation is the most important thing you can give someone. The issue is that many of the girls choose to be in prostitution as a means of income or because they have been abused as a child and feel this is how their body is supposed to be used. The girls need to know they have a destiny in Jesus Christ. He has a plan for them and they have their own special identities in HIM. I will be praying about how all this looks, but yeah everyone pray, pray for the ending of this injustice and for ways to help the girls in it. Pray for people to fight for them.

Its quite hard to transition from that into something else, but this week I was able to have my friend Priya come and visit me for 5 days ! :D we went cliff jumping and to black sands beach with my outreach team and then to one of the nicer beaches in our area on Sunday! It was so nice to catch up with her before I go to outreach ! ( ah 4 more days!) On Monday, Zach, Priya, and I went with some of our f&f family to evangelize in the community and we were able to talk to quite a few people on the streets. Many of them were drunk but I am praying that there was a seed planted in each person that was prayed for and told about the Gospel. (We were also able to share the Gospel with someone who gave us a ride back from the beach on Sunday! God is good!! )

Then on Tuesday we went to an abortion clinic and played worship, then did a LIFE siege in  front of it. For those of you who haven't heard of this, you put red tape with the word LIFE in sharpie on it, on your mouth, and then cry out and pray silent prayers for the ending of abortion. It is meant to be symbolic for the lives in the womb who cannot speak out for themselves. We are being a voice for the voiceless. God put a verse on my heart this week. Proverbs 31: 8, "Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die." I was so surprised to see that verse because I have read Proverbs 31 many times but I haven't noticed it before. God highlighted it though and this is exactly what we want to do. Be a voice for those who cannot speak. (Voice for the Voiceless! ) We were focusing on prayer against Obama's new healthcare plan called Obamacare. It is going to the Supreme Court on Monday for three days. If it passes, that will mean that we, as tax payers, will be financing free contraceptives that abort children in the womb. This needs to be stopped. Pray hard church! God loves each and every child that is formed in the womb. The Bible says that God knew us before He formed us in the womb. He has a plan for each child that is sadly aborted. This is a modern day holocaust guys and we are praying and believing that God will end it in our lifetime. God we plead the blood of Jesus over our sins and the sins of our nation! Partner with God's heart as we pray against Obamacare and against abortion!

The days are passing so fast now and I cannot believe that I will be in Japan on Thursday! WOW. God has been so faithful and provided for our team so much! We are all covered financially and God has given us a house to stay in when we are in Tokyo! Praise HIM! We were going to be staying in hostels, which would of meant not being together, which we would have been fine with, but this is such an answer to prayer that we can all be together and grow together as we seek to bring Gods kingdom to Japan! I have such a wonderful team with wonderful leaders and I am so excited to be getting to know each one of my team mates and growing together and pushing each other to tell people about our amazing Father. Of course, I am also wanting the days to slow down some because in just 4 days I will be saying goodbye to Zachariah for just over 2 months. We probably won't have much contact either. I know it is going to be good for us though and that God has such amazing plans for each of us in Turkey and Japan. Pray for protection for Zachariah and to get him back safely to me! haha. I will miss him a lot. It has seriously been such a blessing having him here. Growing together in the Lord and with each other has been wonderful and will continue to be! He is such a man of God, seeking for truth and God's heart on everything. He pushes me closer to the Lord and to step out in faith (going down to evangelize... :] ). We also have so much fun together every day! (: Thank You Jesus for him!!

Anyways so the first three weeks in Japan will be working in Sendai with Samaritan's Purse, working on tsunami relief. Then we will be heading back to Japan for the rest of our time! I am so excited and so ready for God to use us to bring His love and joy to the nation! I started learning some Japanese yesterday.. so much fun ! haha

I miss you all so much and love you guys! Zachariah is coming back to town for a few hours on Wednesday so any of you who can should go say hi ! :)  Thank you for your support and prayers! They are treasured. I am not sure how often I will be able to post blogs while on outreach but I will whenever I can!

Deepening my Faith and Passion

Hey Everyone!

I am so excited to write about this week! It has been so amazing! Praise God, He deserves ALL the glory! Seriously, I can't believe how much God has been doing these last six weeks (SIX, Its going by fast now!). I forgot to say in my last blog post how Charles Stock last week spoke words of knowledge over every person last Wednesday. He asked us each our names and God gave him a word about us. He told me he saw purity all over me which is awesome because this is what everyone has been speaking over me since I came here.. AHH thank You Lord for Your mercy and forgiveness and making me NEW! I have such a desire to be pure for the Lord so I am so grateful that He is doing that in me. Then he said that God is going to give me clarity that is going to be diamond like... very clear clarity..So that is awesome, and that is so true. God is starting to bring clarity to different areas of my life and it is so exciting!I'm sure there will be more by the time DTS is over since it is still February. (:

This week was Prayer week with Corey Stark from IHOP. Every morning, Corey taught us to minister to God before we did anything else. So we would all stand up and corporately just praise and worship our Wonderful Father. This was one of my favorite things we did because it gives God the glory first before we ever start our lecture and just invites Him to have the center of our class time and do whatever He wants!

I think it was Tuesday that Corey asked people to stand up if they thought they had the fear of man and wanted it to be broken. I stood up and he had people pray for everyone that did. I really believe that God is breaking, if He hasn't yet, broken off the fear of man from me! On Wednesday, our outreach team prayed outside the prayer room for healing over our team because almost all of us felt symptoms of sickness or are on antibiotics, etc. Then my outreach team leader said we could go rest since each of us were so drained and we were trying to get everyone better. I felt so tired so I was excited to go nap a bit before work duty, However God had other plans for me ;) haha. I really felt God telling me I needed to go to Prayer Room time anyways. So I just went to the upstairs balcony and told myself I will just sit in and just soak up time with the Lord up there since I was so tired. When I came in, everyone was laying on the floor on the lower level and were being filled up with the Lord. It was so awesome.. and then the prayer room leader for the day switched gears and said we were going to pray about children today. I shot up and ran downstairs to go intercede with everyone. I was like, okay God now I know why You wanted me to be here so much haha. It was so cool, God is really awakening passion and desire in my to see children raised up to love the Lord and be taught about things that older people are taught about. Corey was talking about how he had taught some children about the Trinity and these kids were getting it! Amy talked in week two about children getting dreams and prophecies from the Lord, and speaking in tongues from a young age. Seriously! God DOES speak to children from a young age and I think that we sometimes overlook that n put children in a class where they do a craft n listen to a story which is good too, I am not putting down children's ministries that are out there.However, God is causing me to dream big, He is putting so much vision in me to see the children be the example to the older people of ministering in the Spirit and talking to their Father, God has given me the verse Matthew 19:14 for this. "But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven."  God spoke to me clearly on this verse during one of my devotion times and has just been speaking more to me on it each week. He is saying children do not need a watered down version of Himself. He can teach the children everything we are learning. He showed me that we sometimes limit what children can understand and push kids away when Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as THEM. In Mark 10:15 Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."

I feel like sometimes we "forbid" the children to come to Jesus. Not literally saying no you can't go to Him, but I think we restrain what our children can really know and understand about the Lord. We must encourage them to go to HIM, to pray to Him themselves. Yesterday, we had someone named Donna Jordan come and talk to us. She is such a woman of faith and I will talk more about that in a bit but she told a story of how her children had wanted ice cream and asked their mother for it. However, they didn't have much money at all so their mother told them to ask the Lord themselves if they could have ice cream. So they did and a a few days later they all received letters in the mail with a dollar and a note saying "this is for ice cream"! Guys, God cares about the children! He really does, and He speaks through them! Donna also spoke about I think it was her children or maybe her grandchildren who told her about Heaven and about seeing Angels. We talk about childlike faith. Children have so much faith and the Lord does speak through them and show them things. AHHH I could go on about this subject for so long. Sorry I went a lil off topic for a while there ! :D.... So back to prayer time. God reminded me of Matthew 19:14 and we were praying on the mic. Seriously before I was so scared to pray on the mic, but now after God has broken off my fear of man, I look at it like, why would I not want to pray to my Father? It is just talking to Him and engaging in His heart. I'm talking to Him not the people around me , so what does it matter about what they may think about what I am saying to Him! hehe. Anyways, God also gave me a picture of a very valuable pearl and how beautiful it is. He told me that He sees the children as beautiful and valuable and that we need to pray and break off the things that children may get told at school, and may be put down by their friends. So I prayed that the children would really come to KNOW that their value is found in the Lord and that He sees them as BEAUTIFUL. Oh Lord, I love You. Seriously, God has given me so much passion and excitement on this subject as you can probably tell! (: God has just brought me through other things this week too that have broken the fear in me. I'm so stoked!

Monday night at ministry night, two ladies prayed for me and were speaking so many things into my life that were so awesome and I am seeing some of them come to pass already! The Lord is so faithful! I won't go into it because this blog post is already getting pretty lengthy and I feel like I'm overflowing with things to write about!

Yesterday (Friday) we had Andy Byrd come and talk to us for an hour. I love himm! His passion and love for the Lord and for the Word inspires me so much. He was talking about running with him and YWAM  in the future after DTS. We were mostly talking about the School of the Circuit Rider. Check it out http://thecircuitrider.com/ :D It's a two week training school that focuses on the application of missions.. training you to evangelize. In the words of Andy Byrd, "the circuit riders is like trying to wrap your lips around a fire hydrant.." haha... Zachariah and I are praying about doing one this summer either in London, Los Angeles, or possibly Kansas City. So if you guys could pray for more clarity and for God to show us which one He wants us to go to, that would be awesome! After the training, there is a one or two week, depending on where you go, outreach that is optional but highly encouraged to live out what you just learnt in the lecture phase. Also you do NOT have to have done a DTS with YWAM in order to do the circuit riders! So any of you who have graduated high school should pray about doing this! :D Andy and most of our leaders will be heading them up! I am so excited !!!

After Andy, we had Donna Jordan who is nicknamed "ninja grandma"! She is AWESOME :D Okay so here goes part 2 of God working so crazily in my life this week. I am certain that God used her to speak directly to me in the things I was working through, though I am sure that He worked in many others lives through her too! ... So something I have been struggling with and needing to work through is having faith in the Lord and not worrying about the future and how He is going to provide, etc. I really needed to have that seed of faith dropped into me by the Lord that if I am doing His will that He will provide. It has been spoken over my life and I strongly believe that the Lord has called me (and Zachariah) to live a live of faith, relying on Him.. I don't really know what that looks like yet, but the women at Monday night ministry said that God has many things for me that are going to require a lot of faith and that He is going to use me in things that will need lots of faith. They said that God is going to instill that intense faith in me that I am going to need in order to do these things! So this is all very exciting! I really don't know for sure what this is going to look like yet, but God is starting to bring clarity to me and to Zachariah about our future and our calling together. It is so exciting to see God knitting our hearts, passions, and desires together and bringing up previous things that He has put on Zachariah's heart before (I'm pretty sure he will elaborate on this in his blog (: ) AHH seriously God is so good and faithful the way He brings people together. :D

Anyways, so basically Donna's whole message was based on having faith in the Lord. The first thing that she talked about though was listening to God and obeying Him and asking Him if He wants you to do certain things. He wants to walk in friendship with us. He wants us to live by faith in Him, not relying on ourselves. "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written,"The just shall live by faith."Romans 1:17 I just received a revelation that when you are doing God's will, He IS going to provide for you. It goes back to Matthew 6: 31-33. "Therefore do not worry, saying What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." God knows we need some things in order to live. We need to eat and drink and we need to have things to wear. He will provide for us. All we need to do is seek His kingdom and His righteousness! If we are doing His will, all the things we need will be added to us. Also the story I told earlier about the ice cream hit me so hard. God provided money for the children for ice cream. That wasn't even a necessity, but God even cares for those little extras that we enjoy because He delights in us. I seriously sat there and tears were coming down my face. Like I didn't even feel like I was crying. The tears were just coming down and I felt such incredible peace. The gentle touch of the Lord on my life was so transforming. So many things are coming together in my heart right now. Also remembering reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and how God originally used that book to speak to me about living a life of faith. I NEVER want to get to that place where I am secure by myself. God does call some to have money and then they can bless others or sow into God's kingdom with their money. I'm not saying it is bad to have that, I just really feel God calling us out to a life of faith and dependence on Him for provision. He may provide through a  job and that's great (: It's just being open to whatever He has for us and not striving or worrying, but just seeking Him above all else. The Bible says in Matthew 6:19-21 (I LOVE MATTHEW 6, ITS AWESOME :P) "Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." My desire and I know Zachariah's desire too is for us to store up treasures in Heaven and not treasure things on earth. We will trust God for our needs but not focus on things that don't matter in eternity!! We really do not want to rely on false securities, but on being secure in the will of the Lord!

So... this ended up being a pretty long blog haha without even going into detail on the lectures that Corey did. They were amazing though and he gave us quite a few notes to go over so I still need to process everything before I can put it in writing. Basically, he was talking about living a life of prayer and gave us some tools to use during intercession in the prayer room. He talked about us being priests and kings before the Lord and how our roles as priests are to raise incense and prayer to the Lord continually. I will probably elaborate more on the things he shared at some point when I have had a chance to go over them with the Lord :) I am really learning to walk and talk with God more and it is really exciting hearing Him speak back and give me visions and scripture! :D

I have a couple of prayer requests... please intercede on behalf of our campus since there is ALOT of sickness going around and God told out leader Taylor that it is a spiritual attack from the enemy..So for that and then also for finances for Zach for outreach and for clarity on future things for us both :)

Love all you guys and miss you so much!!!!<3

In the presence of my Father

Hello Everybody!

So the end of Pure Heart week went by really well! The last day we wrote down all the people we needed to forgive or the things that have happened to us that we need to forgive and we ripped it up in lots of pieces and threw them by the big wooden cross that we have. It was really releasing and a great end to all the inner healing that we did that week. I love Tom and Donna so much and we were able to bless them as a DTS with some money for personal dates :] They are such laid down lovers and servants and also great  role models!

The weekend was pretty relaxing. Zach and I  went with our friends JR and Ashley to watch courageous at Calvary Chapel Kona on the Friday. It touched us very much and I think more for me this time than the first time we watched it. On Saturday we went to Jamba Juice and Taco Bell and Hawaiian BBQ... (: nice n healthy I know.. aha the joys of the weekend ;] .. Then we came back and did some reading. Sunday we went to the pier beach just downtown and hung out with friends n tried to read.. I have given up on the idea that I can get a tan..  I guess I'm just one of those people that will stay white (: lol  Anyways, not important....

Last week was a really up and down week for me. I got spiritually attacked a few times which I haven't really experienced before! Monday during ministry night, I felt so disconnected from the Lord and all these thoughts starting going through my head of things in my past and all these things I had done wrong. I tried to tell them to go away and it helped some, but I still felt so distracted! Then we started praying for each other and I felt a really big release and at that point something switched...I felt the Lord saying to me that I needed to spend more time with Him and needed to fast the next day. This was the first time I have heard the Lord specifically say that to me, so I was really excited to do that. So Tuesday I went into the prayer time at lunch and had such an amazing time with the Lord that lead into such a great prayer time for Obama and his family's salvation. Suddenly we were interrupted by the news that our campus was on fire so we started interceding fore the fire to be stopped. Thankfully, the fire didn't do any damage to campus but just burned up the field behind it. Praise God for our protection! It looked like it could come in at one point! Thursday I felt super sick and was not going to go into the prayer room, but I decided I would and honestly it was THE BEST prayer time I have had since I came to YWAM. Thank You Jesus! We were praying for a revelation of God's holiness and I saw a picture of His throne room. There was the sea of glass in front of the throne and trees. Everything seemed so bright and clean and shiny. I looked down at myself and it seemed as though my clothes were so dull and dirty compared to God's perfection. I started crying so much as I received the new revelation of how Holy my Father is and how unworthy I am to be in His presence, yet He wants to be with me! It is so amazing! It was kind of like the experience that Isaiah had in Isaiah 6 when He said Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. When we come into the presence of God, we see how insignificant we are and how dirty we are compared to GOD! It was a crazy, yet amazing experience, one that I am sure I will not forget!

Friday starting at 7pm until Saturday at 7pm we had a 24 hour BURN, with prayer and worship in the prayer room, nonstop for 24 hours! What a privilege to be spending so much time with our ABBA! :D woohoo! I wanted to stay up the whole time but only managed until about 4 in the morning before I needed some sleep time! Then I went back in around 9 30am.. It was crazy how fast the time seemed to go. I am so so blessed to be able to have a prayer room set aside for worship and intercession with the Lord! It is so wonderful! The 24 hour burn really changed the atmosphere on campus and we could feel The Holy Spirit meeting us in a new way! Also on Saturday my outreach JAPAN team did some team building exercises which were really fun! They taught us how to be a better team when we go on outreach and how to solve conflicts and such! ...Sunday Zach played with John Dyer for his set in the prayer room while I did some research on Japanese festivals for my outreach team project, before skyping with my big sister :D. Then we went downtown to get some Scandinavian ice. (super hardcore snow cones, they are awesome :D) I had some team video planning in the afternoon and then we had our angels and mortals revealing party in the evening! (we had angels and mortals this week where we blessed someone each day with a gift or message or both ;]) So the weekend was very fun and full of time with the Lord! AMAZING! Thank YOU LORD!

Zach, Mitch, and I are all currently sitting in the cafe doing blog posts and such and thinking over our lectures today which I will talk about on my next post hopefully at the end of this week! It's quite relaxing :D

Heart work

Hello wonderful friends and family !

I totally thought I had done a post last week but, turns out I never did it.. so I have quite a lot to write yet again. Im just going to do a general post on what the Lord has been doing so I don't give you a super long      post to have to read!

Honestly guys I really don't know where to begin. It is week 4  now and so much has happened I really can't process it all.. I am still working on that! :D So we had Holy Spirit week with Amy Sollars.. That was awesome... She is carrying so much power that the Lord has given to her.. She has a super involved story so I won't go into it, but she is a "seer" so she can see angels a lot of times and actually saw them in the room when we were worshiping in the prayer room :)  It was cool because she talked about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and how you can be baptized with the Holy Spirit without receiving the gift of tongues... which is good because many people don't teach that... but she did pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the majority of our family received the gift of tongues! It was sooo exciting.. then she talked about the different gifts and we had lots of ministry times :D ... it was a great week!

Last week was corporate week so every DTS was together and we had Darlene Cunningham and Heidi Baker talk. It was good.. Heidi works with children in Mozambique.. and has experienced many miracles such as ears being healed! She is a wonderful woman with lots of fruit.. some of the methods in how she talked and things she did, I didn't agree with, but Darlene challenged us to not judge the message or the messenger if we don't agree with the method so yeah, Jesus loves her and her ministry glorifies the Lord and she loves HIM :D Thursday though is where God spoke to my heart..........

.... So Thursdays are our big YWAM gatherings and this week we had a lady called Morgan come and talk to us. She did a DTS when she was 18 and God put sex trafficking on her heart. He gave her a dream to make a movie/documentary  about it and so she got a team together to do it. Then last year she did a big tour of the United States, showing the movie, and talking to people about the Lord. My heart got so burdened for the girls. 1 in 4 girls have been sexually abused before the age of 18. 100,000 girls get sex trafficked every year. Seriously God has put this issue on my heart. These girls, they have no one who can show them they are loved so they turn to the pimps for love and protection, which isn't real protection or love because they are forced to have sex with many guys... AHHH my heart cries out for them. God is speaking to me about doing something and getting involved in stopping sex trafficking.. but still need to get clarity on this! All I know is that it won't leave my mind. Day and night... thinking about how the girls need love, they need the Lord, they need a safe place. Pray for the end of sex trafficking!!! It is not on Gods heart at all. His heart breaks for the injustice the girls face. wow..

At the weekend, Zachariah had to deal with bed bug issues yet again.. and finally got moved to another room. So it was a pretty chill day, reading and stuff and went to lunch with some friends ! Its quite nice to slow down on the weekends :D.... then Sunday was Zach's birthday so we went to the beach which was so much fun!!! the waves were awesome and big and the water was clear and warm .. and it was just lovely:D so blessed to be in Hawaii!!! :D then we came home and Zach skyped with his dad and matt! yay then we went out for dinner with some friends and one of our close friends Jessica decorated the restaurant for his birthday which was fun :D and we had cake and balloons.. :)

Okay so this week. wowowowow. Pure Heart week. INTENSE!!!! I am so drained in a good way. The Lord is working on me so much, lots and lots of crying.. we've gotten used to having sore eyes all day haha.. we've been working through an inner healing thing that our leaders Tom and Donna have and its AWESOME. so much freedom!!!! Then yesterday at break Zach and Jessica and I were talking about adopting kids and how there are so many kids in the foster system in America and how they need to be adopted. If every third church adopted a child then there would be no more orphans in America.. isn't that crazy? We talked about how the Lord commands us to take care of orphans. Honesty the church isnt doing its job!!! The church needs to wake up and see how many kids are living without a family to love and cherish them. This was NOT God's plan. His design was for every child to be in a loving family where they are nurtured in the Lord and LOVED! Then we went to the prayer room session and the worship leader for this week's wife, Kinsey talked about THE EXACT THING we had been talking about.. down to the last detail. We all looked at each other in disbelief. My heart broke yet again. Tears rolled down my tears for like 25 minutes, non stop. I already have such a heart for kids and orphans since I was like 12.. but this was different. I really felt Gods heart breaking.. and mine broke for them too. Wow. We did intercession for the church to wake up to our role for caring for orphans. Kinsey talked about the kids aging out of the system and then they are really easy targets for sex trafficking. It just brought all of what God has been speaking to me about together. ITS CRAZY!

So God is doing crazy stuff in me and im so stoked to see things coming more clear and just letting God work!!!!! :D so stoked for everything!!!! woooooo i love you guys and miss you!!! :D skype me ! and pray for financial stuff for Zach please :D


      

Love Revelation

Hello everyone!

'Im so sorry it has taken so long for the next update! So much has happened this week and I also took the week off from facebook just to focus so that's why there were no more updates on there either! okay so .. lets see, so it was over a week ago when I last wrote anything!

At the weekend we walked down to the pier beach about 20 minutes from our base and swam and sunbathed a little bit. Then we went with some friends and found a little mexican place hidden in a side alley.. ! It was quite yummy.. but didn't quite meet chipotle standards ! haha.. Then we  talked with our friends Dustin, Katy, and Mitch at a little coffee shop downtown before going to look around the town n the market area. There is a church downtown that was the first church ever on the island! We went to their 11am service on Sunday ! Then the rest of the day was pretty chill, our leaders put on a Circus for us in the Ohana court. It was so much fun! Just bonding with our DTS family and after we got into groups and and shared our testimonies. God has done so much in people. Its so wonderful!

Then Sunday we decided to go to Calvary Chapel which is a 10 minute walk from the base .. They only had a 9 am service so that worked out well because we were meeting our friends at the 11 am service at the first church downtown! They were both really good.. ! The 11 am service was traditional because I guess their more contemporary service was at 9am so we got the whole hymn book service. It was really interesting to see! God is so good.. Zach has been talking about how Christians need all these things to be able to worship the Lord like having the music right or whatever and I've been really convicted about just worshipping Jesus. He is worthy of our worship WHEREVER we are. It doesnt matter if we feel like it or if we get an emotional experience out of it. Its all about HIM! so it was really awesome to experience how a traditional service is like, but still see that the people are totally engaged and worshipping the Lord. After church we went and ate our picnic lunch (we pick up lunch at breakfast on the weekends. sandwiches, chips and fruit :] ) in a park by the ocean. WOW we are so blessed to be here its crazy! It's so beautiful!! In the evening we did a crossfit workout with Katy and ohmygoodness! I hurt so bad! It is SO intense. For those of you who don't know what crossfit is, its a certain way of exercising where you don't have much of a break.. you just go on to the next exercise .. and it counts down so 100 squats 90 lunges 80 sit ups.. etc. I was seriously sore for four days after that. It felt so good though haha. When we were done, JR and Ashley, a couple from our DTS put a note on facebook to pray in the Ohana court for our DTS and whatever God leads.. so about 20 of us met up and prayed for the school and then we started having each person get in the middle of the circle and being prayed for or prophesied over or whatever the Lord was speaking to us about. It was such an amazing time! I am really experiencing hearing Gods voice for the first time! Its so amazing! I was receiving words n verses and pictures for people and they were being confirmed by others. Like I was praying for one of the girls and I saw a picture of a flower n I was like whaat thats so random I dont know what that means so I waited before I shared it. Then someone else said I have a picture of a flower but I dont know what it means.. So I said me too! haha was so crazy but I felt that God was just saying that He loves her sweetness.. God is so amazing!!!! ahhhh! I'm so privileged to be with these people. I cant believe I am here! Thank You God!

Alright so now for the week. Get ready haha. I am still so amazed that so much has happened in just one week! It has been so so awesome !  This week we had one of our main leaders, and the man who started Fire and Fragrance , Andy Byrd. He is on fire! wow he is carrying the anointing of the Lord. He started off by challenging us to look at people and think the best about them, not judging them right away but having the attitude of being their greatest supporter. He said to instantly think about who God has made them to be and try to bring that out in them. The focus of Monday was from the verse in Matthew 4: 18-20 " And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." They immediately left their nets and followed Him."
Think about that for a second. They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Andy asked the question, will you follow Him no matter what the cost? Will you say yes to Him not knowing where that is going to take you or not understanding where you are going or what you will be doing? Our culture has so many questions and want understanding. However these fishermen left their nets(their careers) and their families without asking questions. What FAITH! I am so convicted. I need for faith and trust! It was enough to them to just follow Him. Lets follow Him without seeing miracles first. Then Andy talked about how Noah had heard that he was supposed to build a boat and the Bible says he built it for 100 years!!! What amazing faith. He followed the Lords plan for so many years without seeing any rain or floodwater. Imagine the mocking he must have gotten from the people. He had no encouraging prophetic words to keep him going. Sometimes we rely on so many words and confirmations instead of just following Jesus, and what He has said. Wow! I am seeing so much more into these things that the Bible talks about. Its like the Bible is being opened up to me in a new light. I am so excited! It's all about following The Man, Jesus! Jesus is worthy of that. Following Him isn't based on our worthiness. He is worthy!! God doesn't promise us understanding, but He does promise us peace beyond understanding ! So this was just day one.. CRAZY HUH? We also received really exciting news.. in the afternoon session, we would be finding out our outreach location opportunities! :O already!! .. so we went and had lunch and then came back to find out. The choices were 1.Japan 2.East Coast USA 3. Honolulu 4. Turkey 5. China/N.Korea 6. Nepal 7. Cambodia 8. Amsterdam 9. Berlin/Poland 10. Mozambique 11. South Africa ........... Then they gave us 10 minutes to go off by ourselves and pray about where the Lord wants us to go. We had to put our first choice and our second choice. Couples were allowed to pray together.. Me and Zach didnt know what to do and they told us we couldn't talk to anyone about our choices. So we each went off and prayed. I immediately felt that Japan was right, it was so scary though. the whole time I was thinking about what if Zach n I dont pick the same ones! But I surrendered it .. and then I was deabating between Mozambique and the USA. I actually put down Mozambique as second but then I changed it to the USA because I'm really getting a heart for just sharing the Gospel. I want to become more confident and passionate about that area. I thought if we were going to the USA theres probably more of that because its English and stuff wheres others may be more mercy stuff which is GREAT too. but yeah 10 minutes is a short time and thats how my mind works lol. So they told us we would find out hopefully before the next week where we were going but that it usually takes a long time to sort everyone and switch people around, especially since there are over 100 of us... and then the waiting began.. we thought about it later and we decided we were going to talk to Taylor one of our leaders  the next day about if we should have prayed about it together so that we went on the right one...

... but then, the next day (Tuesday) they told us that we had been the easiest group of people they had ever had to sort out into outreach teams and that they were already done and God had really spoken and placed us in the right ones. They said all of us had gotten our first or second choice. My heart dropped for a second... I guess we werent going to talk to Taylor. I became so anxious! But then we had class and it was awesome.. I dont think I am going to give you a full explanation of every day this week because that would just take too long so I will just tell you about the main stuff I received from it.. and I think I',m going to do a blog every second or third day just so its more frequent and not so much for you guys to take in in ONE day! :D But , alot of the focus of this week was really knowing Gods love in our lives and that He really does love us so  so much! We had ministry times just breaking off hurts and I did lots of crying! I really didn't know I was so starved for the Lord's love. I have been taking it in in big gulps and its just been totally wrecking me in a good way! We have times of prayer for two hours in the afternoon, They are really focused times of worship and intercesiion! I love these times somuch! I am loving having intimacy and growing in intimacy with the Lord! One of the times this week God put Burma on one of the girls hearts and we prayed so hard for God to just reign in that place and the next day we saw on the news that after 63 years of war, there was a ceasefire! WOW GOD! That is so amazing isn't it!?PRAISE GOD. Anyway so one of these times in think it was Tuesday,  we were praying for a new revelation of Gods love on us and I was just broken, tears running alot aha just the fact that God doesnt see me as worthless, He doesnt want to use me. He adores me. I got a picture of Jesus just holding my hand next to me and never letting go and Him looking into my eyes with so much kindess I couldnt handle it. I was overwhelmed by His love. Completely. Whenever I worship I normally picture myself worshipping at God's throne with His glory all around like jewels(basically the picture from Revelation)  and when i was prayed for it was like I was no longer just away from the throne worshipping, I was sitting on His lap and He was hugging me and looking at me with so much love. I have never felt such a strong revelation of his love! AHHHH. There was more ministry times about receiving His love and every time He just broke me down and took away all the walls, and went into every empty space in my heart. I made Him the center noone else.

Another thing that really stood out to me was that Andy talked about not missing the opportunity to worship Jesus in our trials.. We will never have the chance again to bring Him glory and be joyful in strife. In eternity there will be no pain, no suffering. So now is our chance! It hit me so hard especially with what was about to happen....

So some of you may have seen Zach's post about praying for us about YWAM.. Well heres the story. So we get back to class and they call the leaders of the outreach teaams and then the teams members that will be there... they call USA n I hold my breath.. but I wasn't called., So immediately I knew.. I'm going to Japan. That made me really excited for a second but then my heart started beating fast as I was going to find out where Zach was going. They called a country and I heard Zach's name. My heart dropped. I know that shouldnt have been the response. God has a plan for where He wants Zach to be but I just never really thought about the possibility of doing our outreaches in different places I guess. I didnt even know what country it was. I asked someone and they said Turkey. I was like TURKEY? whaaat.. Turkey is also going to Iraq I think.. Wow... so I made myself not cry though I knew I was going to soon. and put a smile on my face when they called my name for Japan. I really was SOOO EXCITED. It was just hard. I love my team and its going to be wonderful to see what God does in and through us!!! .. We prayed together and then I called me family .. the tears wouldnt hold back any longer. I hadn't even talked to Zach yet and his team took a while to finish talking and praying. I cried for about half an hour. I was happy for him, but just the thought of being apart for two months just ahh i dont even know haha hes my best friend next to Jesus. anyways so he gets out of the meeting and we talk about it and cry some but God is just so good, we were going to pray about it that night and talk to Taylor about maybe going to the same one which im guessing is why Zach put that post on facebook. However we both feel that God has put us in the right locations and on the right teams. Yes we are sad and it will be hard, but I think its going to be really good for us and for our relationship with the Lord and with each other. SO excited to see HIS PLANS! :D JAPAN! YEEEAHHH. im going to try and learn some Japanese before I go.. so we shall see how that goes!

The rest of the week was so awesome, we had Taylor talk too! He talked about his testimony and it really impacted me.. so many wonderful things that God is doing! :D We started work duty. I clean up 5 classrooms and the outside with 6 others. Its really easy and the cool thing is that Ive been able to have some really good conversations with people already! God is teaching us to do everything heartily for Him and just to have a servant heart. WORK DUTY IS A BLESSING :D

Yesterday we chilled at the base and did washing and cleaned the room a lil and we had to finish Genesis or read more of it anyways.. its supposed to be done today. I LOVE READING THE BIBLE. Its coming alive to me so much its so exciting! I'm getting new things from it too :) Then we went to lunch with JR and Ashley . They took us to Bubba Gump. SO BLESSED! It was yummy:D I had popcorn shrimp... a lovely location too, right on the coast. They are such a wonderful couple and I can really see the Lord working in them. Wonderful new friends :D .... read more in the afternoon and then went to pray and do worship with some of the team.... then went to the prayer room and went to bed about 1am! quite a late night but I just love being in the presence of the Lord and Its such an honor and blessing to have a prayer room to do devotions in. Today I'm just doing this blog post, then me and Zach are going to do our own lil church thing n do worship n read maybe.. we were quite tired this morning from our late night.. but church isnt in a building right!? (: later I am going to the beach with some of my roomates. Im excited! We are all sitting on our laptops, talking to each other on facebook and updating the world on our life here at KONA! I miss you alll and love you lots and lots! SKYPEWITH MEE! .. alright my next post will be a lot sooner than this one was, sorry again!

Praying for you guys, God bless!!! <3

Revival Culture

Hey all!

Wow so much has happened today I want to write it all down so I don't forget anything! I probably won't be writing every night normally, but today I wanted to give a quick update...

Today we got to experience our first taste of DTS schedule ! I woke up for 6:45 am breakfast of cereal and toast and fruit.. We had papaya! yummm.. reminds me of my South African roots! Then we went to the flagpoles to give our cultural gifts to our leaders. Everyone was asked to bring something that represented the culture they were from or where they were born to give to the locals! I decided to bring something from my South African birthplace, so i brought some homemade African bracelets and a small carved lion.

We then went to the Ohana Court which is the big area where everyone gathers and also where our Fire and Fragrance meets for lectures since we are the biggest DTS on campus! The leaders introduced the staff leaders and we gave our gifts to the local hawaiians. We got to hear Darlene Cunningham speak too! (wife of and founder with Loren Cunningham of YWAM) We then had an INCREDIBLE time of worship. It was awesome. I'm so excited!!! and then we split off into our separate DTS groups. We had the founder of our DTS, Andy Byrd, talk to us about our DTS and I became so so excited about what is going to happen! He talked about how in a culture there are certain things than are accepted and expected by the people in it. For instance in South Korea, they are very hospitable and that is normal for their culture. Andy and the other leaders were praying and felt the Lord tell them about a Jesus Culture that we are supposed to have. There are 5 aspects to it... Just Jesus, Faith, Holiness, Thankfulness, and Discipleship. I know there are going to be things on this DTS that are going to be super hard for me, just because they are completely out of my comfort zone, but I know God is going to do awesome things in all of us and I am just totally open to everything He wants to do in me!

We then had a small break so i took the opportunity to take a nap! I'm still quite tired from not getting much sleep the night before last! After that was a yummy hawaiian bbq dinner before heading to our special Luau night! We were privileged to see some hula dancers and a man who was eating fire and juggling with sticks that had fire on it! crazy!! .... Then Loren Cunningham spoke! It was such an honor to hear him speak, I was stoked! :D

Lastly, Zach and I took the shuttle with some other F&F friends to Walmart to get some small things we needed. So now I am sitting in my room and talking with my room mates while writing this blog! I am enjoying being here so much! Zach and I both feel like we have been here longer than just a couple days! We've met so many people, I'm not sure how many names I can remember and I know we are going to have some great friends and conversations.. I'm excited to grow with the girls in my room and just see all the things that God has for us!

What I've really been talking to God about today is just a desire for more of Him and just for Him to break down any walls I have that are keeping me from experiencing Him to the fullest. Its already been a bit hard, coming into a new place with people you don't know and just having to push out of comfort zones and talk to people and make new friends! I'm so thankful and blessed that I have Zachariah with me :D It's fun to be experiencing and growing together! Its a great experience and I'm so so excited to see whats going to happen next.. We're pretty much free all day tomorrow so I think we're going to hit the beach with some friends [: YAY! love you all! We're praying for you guys, keep us in your prayers!

Goodnight from Kona! <3

The first day of many :]

Hello my wonderful friends and family ! 

Zach and I arrived in Kona, Hawaii safely today! I am so excited for what God is going to do. Just walking around and listening to people talking, just seeing the love of the Lord and desire for more of Him in people's hearts. I can already tell there are going to be challenges to go through but I'm up for it :D 

It's very hot and humid ! I stepped off the plane and the warm air hit me ! I love it though and am so blessed to be in such a wonderful place with such a nice climate! I made friends with some people and have met 5 of my 7 roomies! :D so excited! 

I'm excited to spend time with the Lord tonight, its been a long and tiring, but exciting day and I just want to focus on Him! This is all ultimately for Him and being better equipped to serve Him and help fulfill the Great Commission! 

Please pray that there would be unity in our dorm room and that we would all grow to be very close friends! So far there is someone from Denmark, from Atlanta, and from Brazil! and I have met others from New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and England! The many cultures represented here are amazing and its going to be so interesting finding more out about each person! Pray for connections and strong friendships for me with other women and for Zach with other men :] we miss you already and can hardly believe we are here for 5 months! wow God has been IS so faithful! I love you Jesus :D 

I will update as soon as I can so keep checking back :] 

Lovve you guys!