Friends!
WOW! My heart is just beaming right now with love! It is Thursday, May 26th and I'm in the prayer room here at the University of Nations (YWAM base) in Kona, Hawaii. I have been on base almost 7 weeks and in less than a month, eleven of us will leave for the Philippines (others from my group are going to Kenya, Brazil, LA/NY) for almost 3 months to reach out to the people! Oh the freedom and love of Jesus we will be taking! I'm almost halfway through this journey, and I can whole heartedly say that the message God gave me about one year ago, that my "Favorite Part" was coming up... if this is what He meant, AMEN! This time here is ....!!! I can't even put into words how wonderful the time with God here in the Call2All DTS has been! I've spent some time reflecting recently about how awesome God is! And I will keep chasing Jesus!
As you read this if you have any tug on your heart to do something like this check out www.uofnkona.edu and the DTS section! There is a call2all next April you can join!!! And check out www.ywam.org too! There are bases all around the world. And I'm telling you 6 months of you life, it is well worth it, seriously the best choice I've ever made!
If someone would have told me a year ago that I would be living in Hawaii for 6 months I would have laughed, out loud, a lot... but seriously I am! God called me, I obeyed with my house, God gave me a voluntary way to leave my job for a time and so much more... and I currently live in Hawaii! In community, with roommates that I adore, going to class with 36 people from 9 different countries, I have work duty each day that I enjoy, and and I'm being filled up with a love inside of me that is like a waterfall that flows out to others!
I can't wait to share more about the amazing truths we are learning here! It is so good, I wish I could plug my brain in here and download it all! But it goes so deep into my heart that I can't wait to show all of you! God hears us when we share with Him, and He wants to speak to us! He wants to share with us the plans He has for us in life, and those plans are like us giving up pennies to receive dollars from Him. He has taken some deep hurts in my life that Satan has been using to hold me back from the dreams God has for me, and the Lord has broken those chains! He is like a great surgeon who goes in and removes the junk and sews you up that you never see it again. there may be slight pain at first but it can be healed, really healed! EEEEK :)
Love you all! Thank you to all of you who have been praying, those who partner with me and for all those who have shown me love my whole life! You've been Jesus' hands and feet to me! :)
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Favorite Quotes from Kona, IA
The speakers we have week are such a blessing! Here are some of my favorite quotes from them that I want to remind myself of... feel free to use them!!! :)
-God's love is like getting a suntan, you can't work harder for it, you just go into the sun!
-We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
-A dream pursued consciously or unconciously will be the most likely prediction of the future.
-God's love is like getting a suntan, you can't work harder for it, you just go into the sun!
-We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
-A dream pursued consciously or unconciously will be the most likely prediction of the future.
Friday, May 6, 2011
from Kona, Hawaii... Miss Independent?
WOW, I've been here a month! I can't believe it! The time has flown, and each week is truly amazing and challenging!
I want to share with you how God just totally wrecked me and met me this week... I'd been doing well for the most part, learning, building great relationships with others here, etc. but I was still struggling with not feeling as connected to God as I had in the past and not understanding why I couldn't emotionally grasp some things, that I so wanted to not let hinder me. I tried new things, went more to the prayer room, and out of sheer frustration, told Him I'd pray and worship until it was time!
A couple weeks ago I had been walking by a beautiful tree with white and yellow flowers. Many fall to the ground each night and wither quickly. As I stared at these seemingly tossed away portions, God spoke to my heart. He said that He loves the tree so much that he yearns for it to flower and be beautiful, but when the time comes to let old things go, to do so, in order to bud and gain new beauty to share. Huh... wow God... I'd not thought of it like that... I remember asking God, what is it that I must let go, that you are putting on my heart? Show me! (God always answers when it is for His ways)...
On Wednesday & Thursday this week my class spent a great amount of time in prayer as the first half of all our outreach payments (and any left overs from lecture) had to be paid for in order to buy plane tickets. With all those left to pay, including myself, our total need was over $40,000. I felt helpless. In my life, the last 7 years specifically, I've been the giver! I've been blessed to share so much with individuals and organizations, and I've tried to obey when God asked that I give. But now... I was in need, and I, for the first time that I could remember... I couldn't fix it! With my house for sale, needing a certain amount to cover it monthly, bills coming in higher than I remember, and an amount needed for outreach, I started to tell God that what He was doing was wrong. That if my house was sold months ago, I could have helped so many more people! I realize this was silly to tell God my way was better but in my mind it was all I could grasp at. Thursday afternoon I felt so helpless, a flood of tears came out of me with a feeling I hadn't known since a little girl... what was it??? And then the answer...Dependence. I had no choice at all, but to be totally dependent on God. In a strange way it was a wonderful feeling... I had no other choice, and that is what we are supposed to do... be dependent on God, right? And I found that over the years I had lost that... but now it was back!
Later Thursday night, worship was filled with so much more freedom! And after the service, one of our leader's asked us to pray for a biblical studies' student and God's voice was so clear, just as I'd felt it in the past! And as I walked away that night, by myself, God continued to speak into me as I leaned into the dependence on Him, trusting Him that He'd provide and show me what I needed to do... and as I walked a single flower laid on the sidewalk... white with a touch of yellow in the center, fresh enough that it must have fallen only hours before.
This morning, Friday, as we went to class and worshiped together my mind started wandering into all the areas I could "make things happen with the finances needed" and I had to force myself to stop them. Then as we took a pause in worship, our leader said let's see the list of how much we owe and flipped the white board around... what would the 40,000 be now, that had gone to 30,000 only the day before??? The answer = 0. Jesus Paid it All. Yes, somehow through all the wonderful givings that people gave to me and others and through prayer someone gave the remainder of this half of the outreach funds... and it was all taken care of, none left, that's it! I couldn't believe it. I stood there in shock. The truth is last night I had a dream of a checkbook end line showing a 0 and I thought it was a nightmare of my funds coming true... but nope, God had it all under control. He is in charge. To say the worship after was awesome is an understatement.
I'm so glad God calls us to be dependent on Him. He wants to give us good gifts and to have us simply love Him. I can't wait to see what God will do with us as His hands and feet here in Kona and in the Philippines at the end of June. Just a few thousand dollars left to raise for the last bit of the trip! Thanks to all who have obeyed and chosen to be a part of this with me! :)
I want to share with you how God just totally wrecked me and met me this week... I'd been doing well for the most part, learning, building great relationships with others here, etc. but I was still struggling with not feeling as connected to God as I had in the past and not understanding why I couldn't emotionally grasp some things, that I so wanted to not let hinder me. I tried new things, went more to the prayer room, and out of sheer frustration, told Him I'd pray and worship until it was time!
A couple weeks ago I had been walking by a beautiful tree with white and yellow flowers. Many fall to the ground each night and wither quickly. As I stared at these seemingly tossed away portions, God spoke to my heart. He said that He loves the tree so much that he yearns for it to flower and be beautiful, but when the time comes to let old things go, to do so, in order to bud and gain new beauty to share. Huh... wow God... I'd not thought of it like that... I remember asking God, what is it that I must let go, that you are putting on my heart? Show me! (God always answers when it is for His ways)...
On Wednesday & Thursday this week my class spent a great amount of time in prayer as the first half of all our outreach payments (and any left overs from lecture) had to be paid for in order to buy plane tickets. With all those left to pay, including myself, our total need was over $40,000. I felt helpless. In my life, the last 7 years specifically, I've been the giver! I've been blessed to share so much with individuals and organizations, and I've tried to obey when God asked that I give. But now... I was in need, and I, for the first time that I could remember... I couldn't fix it! With my house for sale, needing a certain amount to cover it monthly, bills coming in higher than I remember, and an amount needed for outreach, I started to tell God that what He was doing was wrong. That if my house was sold months ago, I could have helped so many more people! I realize this was silly to tell God my way was better but in my mind it was all I could grasp at. Thursday afternoon I felt so helpless, a flood of tears came out of me with a feeling I hadn't known since a little girl... what was it??? And then the answer...Dependence. I had no choice at all, but to be totally dependent on God. In a strange way it was a wonderful feeling... I had no other choice, and that is what we are supposed to do... be dependent on God, right? And I found that over the years I had lost that... but now it was back!
Later Thursday night, worship was filled with so much more freedom! And after the service, one of our leader's asked us to pray for a biblical studies' student and God's voice was so clear, just as I'd felt it in the past! And as I walked away that night, by myself, God continued to speak into me as I leaned into the dependence on Him, trusting Him that He'd provide and show me what I needed to do... and as I walked a single flower laid on the sidewalk... white with a touch of yellow in the center, fresh enough that it must have fallen only hours before.
This morning, Friday, as we went to class and worshiped together my mind started wandering into all the areas I could "make things happen with the finances needed" and I had to force myself to stop them. Then as we took a pause in worship, our leader said let's see the list of how much we owe and flipped the white board around... what would the 40,000 be now, that had gone to 30,000 only the day before??? The answer = 0. Jesus Paid it All. Yes, somehow through all the wonderful givings that people gave to me and others and through prayer someone gave the remainder of this half of the outreach funds... and it was all taken care of, none left, that's it! I couldn't believe it. I stood there in shock. The truth is last night I had a dream of a checkbook end line showing a 0 and I thought it was a nightmare of my funds coming true... but nope, God had it all under control. He is in charge. To say the worship after was awesome is an understatement.
I'm so glad God calls us to be dependent on Him. He wants to give us good gifts and to have us simply love Him. I can't wait to see what God will do with us as His hands and feet here in Kona and in the Philippines at the end of June. Just a few thousand dollars left to raise for the last bit of the trip! Thanks to all who have obeyed and chosen to be a part of this with me! :)
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