Wow! God's plan was way different, way better, than the plan I had going in to Morocco! My group went into our Outreach with 10 members, planning on staying five weeks in Morocco followed by traveling the sex trafficking route north to Amsterdam to debrief with our entire Justice class. Our plans did not quite stay the same.
We started off in Morocco traveling to six main cities: Casa Blanca, Marrakech, Tan Tan, Raat, Fes, and Tangier. The second and fourth week of Outreach we also visited the smaller Moroccan families and villages on our Sahara desert and Atlas Mountain Treks. Our second month, as we were planning on and preparing for our journey up through Europe, we learned that God had a different idea for our group. In order for our entire team to be able to go to Europe, three of our teammates (from Jamaica, India, and Vanuatu) needed to apply for and be approved for European Visas. When we got to Rabat on our fifth week, our struggle began. We ended up working with three different embassies and consulates, many missionary workers’ help, paperwork and visa photos from each country, invitation letters from YWAM bases in Germany, Amsterdam, and Spain, endless long days of waiting in anticipation and prayer; and to sum everything up, we took three extra weeks in Rabat to learn that God wanted to keep us in this Muslim country to learn to sincerely love it: these people, this culture, the lifestyle, and yes, even the religion. It was very challenging and at times frustrating, but once those three weeks were over, we were denied visas, and we just ran out of time to get them, we knew we had to totally surrender our plans and seek God’s direction and will for us 100%.
God totally opened so many doors in Rabat because we had to spend a significant amount of time there. Relationships were built with so many locals, best friendships were formed. Support, encouragement and help were able to be offered to missionary workers. A love was formed for the country. Fasting of my team members for people of high importance, like the king. Being offered a visit to one of the ‘Muslim Only’ Mosque and being able to proclaim the name of Jesus in such a place. We attended the biggest Music festival of all of Morocco, maybe even all of Africa, and were able to show the love of God to the people there. We did things that we would not have had the opportunity to do if we left the country when planned. God is so good with his timing and planning. I would not have left the country as in love with it and satisfied with this Outreach as I did staying three extra weeks.
Some of the many things God taught me or spoke to me during Outreach:
-read the Old Testament small prophets and finding out the situation in Israel at that time was similar to the current situation in Morocco
-Read through the Gospels
-Be ready to share personal testimonies or devotionals
-Surrender my Rights!!! And to be conscious about my selfishness and to stop
-Step back and let the guys of our group lead and step forward and be supportive of that
-Felt the injustices of Moroccans, especially the women!
-Learn to fall in love with God through his scripture even when he was silent in speaking to me
-I was in Morocco to be a major support, encourager, and refreshment to the missionary workers
-My plans are never as good as His!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
love feast and goodbye!!
Well, I guess this is the last post I have here in Kona! It is hard to imagine that three months just FLEW by and I am out of here in less than two days!
This past weekend our Justice class had a dinner called the Love Feast and our leaders celebrated us graduating from DTS by bring us to a very nice hotel in Kona and had a brunch waiting there for us! So we all dressed up real nice and went there on Saturday morning and had the best meal ever: REAL FOOD! Not the cafeteria food we normally have! It was so much fun and everyone ate until they were stuffed! We even smuggled some cereal for the outreach trip! Afterward we had the entire morning and afternoon to hang out on the hotel's beach, pool, or where ever we wanted! Some girls had fun taking pictures around the hotel and others swam in the pool. It was so much fun and we were spoiled so much, but what an accomplishment to have completed our DTS.
As for this week, we have been just doing outreach preparation: packing, cleaning, stripping down our classroom, and saying final goodbyes! It has actually been really hard because some of these people I am not going to see ever again in my life. Hopefully God is good and we all are able to meet up again in heaven someday! But for now it is sad.
Tomorrow morning at 10am I have to have all my stuff packed that I am keeping in storage here in Kona while I am on outreach, and I'm going to be living out of my outreach bag for the next two days! But we have final dorm cleaning and make sure we have everything for our outreach and finally, say goodbye!
I just wanted to thank you guys for being so faithful and reading my blog. Through the good times and bad, you have been so supportive and I cannot thank you guys enough for all your prayers and support! God has deeply blessed me through you guys! Thank you a million times over! I'll try my hardest to keep up once in a while during my outreach if I have access to an internet cafe, but I can't make any promises! Either way, I'll be seeing you all after June 2!
God Bless you all and HAZAK!
kelsi
This past weekend our Justice class had a dinner called the Love Feast and our leaders celebrated us graduating from DTS by bring us to a very nice hotel in Kona and had a brunch waiting there for us! So we all dressed up real nice and went there on Saturday morning and had the best meal ever: REAL FOOD! Not the cafeteria food we normally have! It was so much fun and everyone ate until they were stuffed! We even smuggled some cereal for the outreach trip! Afterward we had the entire morning and afternoon to hang out on the hotel's beach, pool, or where ever we wanted! Some girls had fun taking pictures around the hotel and others swam in the pool. It was so much fun and we were spoiled so much, but what an accomplishment to have completed our DTS.
As for this week, we have been just doing outreach preparation: packing, cleaning, stripping down our classroom, and saying final goodbyes! It has actually been really hard because some of these people I am not going to see ever again in my life. Hopefully God is good and we all are able to meet up again in heaven someday! But for now it is sad.
Tomorrow morning at 10am I have to have all my stuff packed that I am keeping in storage here in Kona while I am on outreach, and I'm going to be living out of my outreach bag for the next two days! But we have final dorm cleaning and make sure we have everything for our outreach and finally, say goodbye!
I just wanted to thank you guys for being so faithful and reading my blog. Through the good times and bad, you have been so supportive and I cannot thank you guys enough for all your prayers and support! God has deeply blessed me through you guys! Thank you a million times over! I'll try my hardest to keep up once in a while during my outreach if I have access to an internet cafe, but I can't make any promises! Either way, I'll be seeing you all after June 2!
God Bless you all and HAZAK!
kelsi
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Saying Goodbye
Wow, things are winding down, and this is going to be one of the last posts here in Kona! I'll see what I can do when I'm in Africa, but I'll try my best to keep in contact with you guys!
Let me tell you about this past week to start things off. Monday morning my Justice class went off on a camping trip together to a place called the light house near Pololu'u Valley on the North side of the island. We got there and set up camp and ate lunch. We then ventured off in our outreach groups with 2 tarps and a few ropes. We had to build our tent or home for the night out of those supplies. What an adventure. I'd have to say that our tent was pretty good looking after it was all done! I'm glad because of our team's skills because that means that we will be well off for outreach as well! Once we got our things settled we went off to do some team building games. I felt like they were the kind of games we played at friendship games in middle school. But they really grew our teams together. They got us frustrated with each other, which was a good thing in this case. We pointed out our strengths and weaknesses and those were good things to find out for when we spend two whole months together as a team! What a long afternoon though after playing those games. I laid down in our home before dinner, but I could not stay there for long. Our leaders were building a fire to have a barbecue! It was probably the best meal yet since I have been here, besides in a restaurant! We grilled steaks, chicken, and huge baked potatoes! It was delicious! After dinner we stayed around the fire and walked around to the water. We ended up seeing whales, at least 7 of them in the ocean playing around! How cool! We continued to converse around the fire. Roasting marshmallows, playing games, staying warm by the fire and more. It was true camping because after the sun went down there was not much to do and everyone got really tired. By 9:30 everyone started heading to bed. That night we fought off bugs, huge centipedes, and a predicted flash flood. It only rained in the morning right before we woke up, but we had a great fortress to protect us! That morning we wrapped things up by eating breakfast, playing a few more games, packing up, and heading out!
This week has been a little different because of camping and that it is our last week before we head out. I have been starting to think about packing again, but this time it is going to be different because I have to pack twice; one bag for outreach, and one bag for storing my stuff here. It is so weird to think that I am leaving this place and might not see some of these people again my entire life! Coming here I really did not think that it would be extremely hard to leave this place. Kona has become my home for the past three months and I've made so many great friendships that leaving here is reminding me of how hard it was to leave three months ago!
Please pray for me that I can prepare for outreach in time. Mentally and physically. Also for all the goodbyes we have to say to each other. It is going to be a crazy next week, but I am very anxious to go to Africa!
Thanks for all your prayers and support for my family and I after hearing the news about my Grandma! You guys are awesome and please continue to pray for healing for her. God is the great healer and I have no doubt that he can heal my Grandma too!
I will try to blog one more time before I head out as well! But for now, God Bless!
Let me tell you about this past week to start things off. Monday morning my Justice class went off on a camping trip together to a place called the light house near Pololu'u Valley on the North side of the island. We got there and set up camp and ate lunch. We then ventured off in our outreach groups with 2 tarps and a few ropes. We had to build our tent or home for the night out of those supplies. What an adventure. I'd have to say that our tent was pretty good looking after it was all done! I'm glad because of our team's skills because that means that we will be well off for outreach as well! Once we got our things settled we went off to do some team building games. I felt like they were the kind of games we played at friendship games in middle school. But they really grew our teams together. They got us frustrated with each other, which was a good thing in this case. We pointed out our strengths and weaknesses and those were good things to find out for when we spend two whole months together as a team! What a long afternoon though after playing those games. I laid down in our home before dinner, but I could not stay there for long. Our leaders were building a fire to have a barbecue! It was probably the best meal yet since I have been here, besides in a restaurant! We grilled steaks, chicken, and huge baked potatoes! It was delicious! After dinner we stayed around the fire and walked around to the water. We ended up seeing whales, at least 7 of them in the ocean playing around! How cool! We continued to converse around the fire. Roasting marshmallows, playing games, staying warm by the fire and more. It was true camping because after the sun went down there was not much to do and everyone got really tired. By 9:30 everyone started heading to bed. That night we fought off bugs, huge centipedes, and a predicted flash flood. It only rained in the morning right before we woke up, but we had a great fortress to protect us! That morning we wrapped things up by eating breakfast, playing a few more games, packing up, and heading out!
This week has been a little different because of camping and that it is our last week before we head out. I have been starting to think about packing again, but this time it is going to be different because I have to pack twice; one bag for outreach, and one bag for storing my stuff here. It is so weird to think that I am leaving this place and might not see some of these people again my entire life! Coming here I really did not think that it would be extremely hard to leave this place. Kona has become my home for the past three months and I've made so many great friendships that leaving here is reminding me of how hard it was to leave three months ago!
Please pray for me that I can prepare for outreach in time. Mentally and physically. Also for all the goodbyes we have to say to each other. It is going to be a crazy next week, but I am very anxious to go to Africa!
Thanks for all your prayers and support for my family and I after hearing the news about my Grandma! You guys are awesome and please continue to pray for healing for her. God is the great healer and I have no doubt that he can heal my Grandma too!
I will try to blog one more time before I head out as well! But for now, God Bless!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Cliff Jumping and birthdays!
I'm so sorry guys, this post is LONG overdue! So much has happened I don't even know where to start! My schedule has been crazy, I've been fighting a sinus infection, families are visiting, my time here is coming to a close, and I've left you hanging! Sorry about everything, but I'll try to highlight my last two weeks here for you!
One event since then that happened was my birthday! It was one of the best days here yet! I spent the day at a beach called Mile 88 with some of my best friends here! It was exactly the way I would have ever dreamed of spending a birthday in Hawai'i. Lying out in the sun at the most beautiful beach in the world! That night, a huge group of people got together and dressed up for dinner and dessert! Being away from home I didn't think that I would have that good of a day but God totally blessed me with such amazing friends to make my birthday away from home the best I could ever imagine!
That same week our school had a speaker come in and speak to the Justice students and staff. His name was Penni Patu and he totally blessed us all and wrote each person in our class a word from God. I thought that I would share it with you guys because it blessed me so much! God has revealed himself to me so much during my time here and one verse that he has blessed me with is Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart! Penni prayed for each person before he even met us and asked God to give him a bible verse and a word for each person. Penni had everyone's' all typed up nice before he even got here on Monday morning. I was one of the last people to get theirs on Friday morning, but God gave him a verse for me, and guess what it happened to be:
Psalm 37:3-7
Kelsi my princess and my daughter that I created to look like me. I have called you to be a woman that will walk without fear of man but the fear of me. My daughter, give me your time so that I can continue to tell you what I desire for you and your future. I have a great plan for your future. All you have to do is to ask me for it and believe me to help you fulfill that for you. You are a beautiful daughter of mine, and I am so proud to be your father. I love you my daughter, do you hear me saying that I love you. My daughter do you believe that I really love you? Don't say that you cannot do the things that I will ask of you to do because I have given you the power to do anything in my name and it will be done. My daughter I love you so much that my hands are still open for you to come to any time you need me. Be the light of my will to this world my daughter and not let that light be hidden. I love you my daughter very much. Continue to trust me for your life.
This past weekend was also a story to tell. I went with my school and toured around the island! First we went to a place called south point, which is the most southern part of Hawai'i and America. Here we went cliff jumping! Some of us jumped off of 50 foot cliffs! It was raining the whole trip and chilly, but if I'm only at this place once in my time here, then why not jump! After, we went to a black sands beach and took pictures in the rain. It was a short stop until we drove off again and headed to Hilo. Once we got there we went to the famous, Ken's house of pancakes! They had such great breakfast and all kinds of food. We walked back out of the restaurant there to get back to our cars in a flooded, 5" of water, parking lot. Since the weather was not the nicest so we did not get to do all of the things we wanted to, but it was such a bonding and unifying trip with our class! I had so much fun!
To wrap things up, I just want to ask a prayer request of you guys. This week has been extremely hard since Tuesday morning. I found out that my Grandma Wolters has been diagnosed with Leukemia. It has been so hard to be away from home, my family, and especially my mom and grandma after hearing this news. I have been quite distracted since this news and it has been hard for me to get much out of our last corporate week here. I request that you guys pray for my grandma, for healing because I truly believe that God can and will heal her of this cancer. For my family back home, because I can't be there to hold them and pray with them and just be with them. And finally, for me here! The devil is at work in my family and he does not like to see the good that God has done with my time here, in my family, and in our relationships with God. He is scared and is trying everything he can to make the Kingdom of God NOT come to earth and to tear us apart. WRONG! It's not happening, and God has already been growing us stronger. But still, please be in prayers for us all!
Thank you guys so much! I'll try to be better with this blog and updating. But until next time, God Bless!
Kelsi
One event since then that happened was my birthday! It was one of the best days here yet! I spent the day at a beach called Mile 88 with some of my best friends here! It was exactly the way I would have ever dreamed of spending a birthday in Hawai'i. Lying out in the sun at the most beautiful beach in the world! That night, a huge group of people got together and dressed up for dinner and dessert! Being away from home I didn't think that I would have that good of a day but God totally blessed me with such amazing friends to make my birthday away from home the best I could ever imagine!
That same week our school had a speaker come in and speak to the Justice students and staff. His name was Penni Patu and he totally blessed us all and wrote each person in our class a word from God. I thought that I would share it with you guys because it blessed me so much! God has revealed himself to me so much during my time here and one verse that he has blessed me with is Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart! Penni prayed for each person before he even met us and asked God to give him a bible verse and a word for each person. Penni had everyone's' all typed up nice before he even got here on Monday morning. I was one of the last people to get theirs on Friday morning, but God gave him a verse for me, and guess what it happened to be:
Psalm 37:3-7
Kelsi my princess and my daughter that I created to look like me. I have called you to be a woman that will walk without fear of man but the fear of me. My daughter, give me your time so that I can continue to tell you what I desire for you and your future. I have a great plan for your future. All you have to do is to ask me for it and believe me to help you fulfill that for you. You are a beautiful daughter of mine, and I am so proud to be your father. I love you my daughter, do you hear me saying that I love you. My daughter do you believe that I really love you? Don't say that you cannot do the things that I will ask of you to do because I have given you the power to do anything in my name and it will be done. My daughter I love you so much that my hands are still open for you to come to any time you need me. Be the light of my will to this world my daughter and not let that light be hidden. I love you my daughter very much. Continue to trust me for your life.
This past weekend was also a story to tell. I went with my school and toured around the island! First we went to a place called south point, which is the most southern part of Hawai'i and America. Here we went cliff jumping! Some of us jumped off of 50 foot cliffs! It was raining the whole trip and chilly, but if I'm only at this place once in my time here, then why not jump! After, we went to a black sands beach and took pictures in the rain. It was a short stop until we drove off again and headed to Hilo. Once we got there we went to the famous, Ken's house of pancakes! They had such great breakfast and all kinds of food. We walked back out of the restaurant there to get back to our cars in a flooded, 5" of water, parking lot. Since the weather was not the nicest so we did not get to do all of the things we wanted to, but it was such a bonding and unifying trip with our class! I had so much fun!
To wrap things up, I just want to ask a prayer request of you guys. This week has been extremely hard since Tuesday morning. I found out that my Grandma Wolters has been diagnosed with Leukemia. It has been so hard to be away from home, my family, and especially my mom and grandma after hearing this news. I have been quite distracted since this news and it has been hard for me to get much out of our last corporate week here. I request that you guys pray for my grandma, for healing because I truly believe that God can and will heal her of this cancer. For my family back home, because I can't be there to hold them and pray with them and just be with them. And finally, for me here! The devil is at work in my family and he does not like to see the good that God has done with my time here, in my family, and in our relationships with God. He is scared and is trying everything he can to make the Kingdom of God NOT come to earth and to tear us apart. WRONG! It's not happening, and God has already been growing us stronger. But still, please be in prayers for us all!
Thank you guys so much! I'll try to be better with this blog and updating. But until next time, God Bless!
Kelsi
Monday, February 23, 2009
We Must Be Doing Something Right!
To clarify from my last post about Kris' message from last week, I'm not saying that whatever he said was truth. My point was that he made some really good words of truth. But he also said some things that were questionable. Kris said himself that we need to question if we believe what he says is truth. He even went to the point where at lunch time (noon) he spend another HALF HOUR answering questions that we had about the words he said. So I'm not saying that the things that I wrote about him were truth. He just made us question what we really believe. It was such a growing week because of that!
This weekend I went to a place that is famous to the natives here called Waipio Valley. This valley was one of the seven valleys that Hawaii has, and must I say that God is incredibly majestic and beautiful. His power is incomprehensible. We took a hike down the steepest hill in Hawaii, and maybe even America, down to the valley. Then we took a 1.5 mile hike into the valley to our prize at the end: a gorgeous waterfall! I have hiked many times in my life, and this hike has definitely been the toughest. It was a trail that does not have a set in path, so we were rock climbing and slipping through mud to get to the end. There were many places where we had to wade through the water to our necks up stream with our packs above our heads just to get to another area were we could continue. It was pretty intense, must I say! About half way there I slipped on a wet rock wearing not the best traction shoes. I just watched my leg swell up and just had to bite it the rest of the hike. We ate lunch at the waterfall and it was FREEZING! After swimming in the water by the falls and through the waterfall, and the temperature being like 10-15 degrees colder, we all felt sick! But starting back, we warmed up quickly. The hike back was so much shorter, at least it felt like it. And now days later I am still suffering not being in shape and sore in the weirdest places on my body!
Sunday happened to be one of my best friend, Kaycee's birthday and we went out in the afternoon to Childrens beach to learn how to surf. Our professional teacher, Luke :) gave us a lesson on the beach, and since it was Kaycee's birthday she went out and tried to catch some waves. She was out for a while and didn't seem to catch much. When she and Luke came back in, they said it really was not worth me going out to try because there was no surf anymore! Instead we took a rain check and I just went out on the board and paddled around. But soon I'll learn soon!
This week we have the most amazing speaker for our Justice class ever! He is Samoan and now a local in Hawaii. He is talking about the father heart of God. He took his daughter in and they greeted us all with leis and the daughter danced a Hawaiian hula dance! He highly favors his children, and it was really cool to see on the first day how God is going to work in us this week! Can't wait!
After my day today I have realized that the devil is trying to do some crazy, awful work here on base. We must be doing something right because there have been so many attacks of distractions and temptations recently. I mean, even to the point here where there has been talk about people giving questioning if they made the right decision by coming here thinking that it might be better to just go home before outreach. How awful can the devil twist our minds to think in certain ways! Please pray that those who are struggling with this are able to receive a revelation of who God is and to put the devil in his place!
Finally, please continue to keep me and the rest of the people here on base in your prayers as we diligently seek out God's will with our lives after outreach.
Thank you all so much and God Bless!
This weekend I went to a place that is famous to the natives here called Waipio Valley. This valley was one of the seven valleys that Hawaii has, and must I say that God is incredibly majestic and beautiful. His power is incomprehensible. We took a hike down the steepest hill in Hawaii, and maybe even America, down to the valley. Then we took a 1.5 mile hike into the valley to our prize at the end: a gorgeous waterfall! I have hiked many times in my life, and this hike has definitely been the toughest. It was a trail that does not have a set in path, so we were rock climbing and slipping through mud to get to the end. There were many places where we had to wade through the water to our necks up stream with our packs above our heads just to get to another area were we could continue. It was pretty intense, must I say! About half way there I slipped on a wet rock wearing not the best traction shoes. I just watched my leg swell up and just had to bite it the rest of the hike. We ate lunch at the waterfall and it was FREEZING! After swimming in the water by the falls and through the waterfall, and the temperature being like 10-15 degrees colder, we all felt sick! But starting back, we warmed up quickly. The hike back was so much shorter, at least it felt like it. And now days later I am still suffering not being in shape and sore in the weirdest places on my body!
Sunday happened to be one of my best friend, Kaycee's birthday and we went out in the afternoon to Childrens beach to learn how to surf. Our professional teacher, Luke :) gave us a lesson on the beach, and since it was Kaycee's birthday she went out and tried to catch some waves. She was out for a while and didn't seem to catch much. When she and Luke came back in, they said it really was not worth me going out to try because there was no surf anymore! Instead we took a rain check and I just went out on the board and paddled around. But soon I'll learn soon!
This week we have the most amazing speaker for our Justice class ever! He is Samoan and now a local in Hawaii. He is talking about the father heart of God. He took his daughter in and they greeted us all with leis and the daughter danced a Hawaiian hula dance! He highly favors his children, and it was really cool to see on the first day how God is going to work in us this week! Can't wait!
After my day today I have realized that the devil is trying to do some crazy, awful work here on base. We must be doing something right because there have been so many attacks of distractions and temptations recently. I mean, even to the point here where there has been talk about people giving questioning if they made the right decision by coming here thinking that it might be better to just go home before outreach. How awful can the devil twist our minds to think in certain ways! Please pray that those who are struggling with this are able to receive a revelation of who God is and to put the devil in his place!
Finally, please continue to keep me and the rest of the people here on base in your prayers as we diligently seek out God's will with our lives after outreach.
Thank you all so much and God Bless!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
A Banging Prayer Room and a Cockroach
To catch you guys up since the last time that I wrote, I’ll try to let you know a little bit about my week last week and along with the update for this week!
We had our second out of three Corporate Weeks last week. Kris Vallentin came to Kona to speak about our Identity in Christ. Corporate Weeks are so meaningful and influential on my spiritual life because every DTS school is all together in community learning, praising, and praying for the same reason in one room! It is very cool to be able to grow deeper in my relationship with God with the help of every one of my close friends here. My roommates, other friends in different classes, leaders, worship directors, we are all in the same lecture and worship the entire week!
Kris talked a bit about Identity, but each day it was so different, and so challenging to my faith at the same time. As my leader said, we have to take a bite of a very boney piece of meat. Chew it up a lot, and spit out all the bones or bad parts, things that we don't believe are true or things that contradict what our personal beliefs are. Kris was a bit unclear about some of his teachings, which challenged me a lot, but he had so many GREAT things to say! Some totally new revelations that I have never thought about before. For example, the fact that when we choose to follow God for the rest of our lives means we receive grace and mercy, but it does not mean that we go on sinning. We still make mistakes, but it is not being one of his followers if we keep committing our same sin over and over again. I really didn't get the meaning of this until Kris said that he does not sin. I was like, 'wow, that's a bold statement.' I still don't know if I totally agree with that, but once he explained it, it made more sense. He said that once he made this commitment, he said that God's followers don't have the right to go on sinning. Sinning to him means that we do something wrong on purpose, we know that we are doing something wrong and still do it anyways. In 1 Peter 4 it talks about how we do not go on sinning and doing our same earthly desires when we truly want to live for him. I do believe that God's followers still make mistakes. But here it says that we are not to go on doing our same sins if we truly want to live for him.
Kris and his wife Kathy also taught of the gifts of the Spirit. They emphasized on prophesying to others and they said that that is the most common gift from God. We were taught was it is, how we act out prophesying, what it feels like, and we then were forced to practice it. What a great way to be challenged to get out of my comfort zone! It was very awkward at first. But we had to pair up with someone we didn't know and then ask God for a word of knowledge, a true fact or picture from God about the other person’s life. It was so cool to be able to try that out. Getting something relevant to my partner's life and watching others as well. And making mistakes too! Then we asked God to give us a prophecy for the other person. This was a bit harder, even though it might have not happen yet, it was hard to hear God on a more meaningful word about the other person's future! But it was still cool to try and learn!
Not much new this weekend. Just went to visit a new beach. Went to Jamba Juice for the first time in my life, and loved it! Tried out stand up paddle surfing. Swam with a sea turtle. And other fun things!
This week we have a speaker for our Justice school from India. Coming out on such a high from last week, it is hard to sit in class during a four hour lecture understanding and being engaged the entire time. What he has to say is awesome! But I believe that our class is not growing in unity as much this week, like we all wish we would! Hopefully our class will be able to grow so much in this last half of DTS so that during our outreach we don't need to build that bond. We can start off going in as a unified family.
Tuesday night there was an all night prayer session in our Prayer Room here on campus. Apparently God was waking people up from their sleep to go into the prayer room. There was constant prayer, praise, worship, prophecy, and more going on all night! That room was banging! I wish you all could come here and hear what it is like being in my dorm, a ways away from this building, but still being able to hear when there is people jamming out in the prayer room! You can almost tell what song they are singing and it is totally amazing! This was going on all night long! There were a few people who pulled all nighters. And the funny thing is, God gives us all extra energy the next day when we spend that time not sleeping, but worshiping him! In the morning when there was the Fire and Fragrance school worshiping during breakfast, I joined after my work duty. It was so much fun! We had another outreach group in there and there were families, kids, and the regular F&F School! So much fun to sing at the top of my lungs, dancing, and just have fun praising God with these little kids! Makes for a great start to my day!
Last night, my roommates and I had our first encounter with a cockroach in our dorm room! We've heard random screams other rooms during this quarter when others had cockroaches in their dorms. When I heard those screams, I said to myself, 'If we ever had one in our room, I wouldn't be that scared and I'd be tough and just kill the thing.' But our room is the cleanest dorm room of all, and we got blessed with having this nasty bug in our room. Of course there was extremely freaked out and screams came whaling from our room!! We spent a half hour looking for this bug. Of course I was determined to kill it because it kept crawling by MY BED! So, shoe in hand, I went for it. It took a good few whacks, but finally! We defeated the bug!
What a night! Hope that you guys are all doing well! Thank you again for everything. One prayer request if you could keep me in mind. It has been really heavy on my heart what God's plan is for my life after outreach. I've always had a plan in my head, but I've learned that I am not living this life for myself. I needed to lay it down for God. And now, I've come to realize that my plan is never as good as God's. So if you could pray that he reveals to me what it is that he wants from me after outreach. I would greatly appreciate that! Thanks guys, you're amazing!
God Bless and Hazak!
We had our second out of three Corporate Weeks last week. Kris Vallentin came to Kona to speak about our Identity in Christ. Corporate Weeks are so meaningful and influential on my spiritual life because every DTS school is all together in community learning, praising, and praying for the same reason in one room! It is very cool to be able to grow deeper in my relationship with God with the help of every one of my close friends here. My roommates, other friends in different classes, leaders, worship directors, we are all in the same lecture and worship the entire week!
Kris talked a bit about Identity, but each day it was so different, and so challenging to my faith at the same time. As my leader said, we have to take a bite of a very boney piece of meat. Chew it up a lot, and spit out all the bones or bad parts, things that we don't believe are true or things that contradict what our personal beliefs are. Kris was a bit unclear about some of his teachings, which challenged me a lot, but he had so many GREAT things to say! Some totally new revelations that I have never thought about before. For example, the fact that when we choose to follow God for the rest of our lives means we receive grace and mercy, but it does not mean that we go on sinning. We still make mistakes, but it is not being one of his followers if we keep committing our same sin over and over again. I really didn't get the meaning of this until Kris said that he does not sin. I was like, 'wow, that's a bold statement.' I still don't know if I totally agree with that, but once he explained it, it made more sense. He said that once he made this commitment, he said that God's followers don't have the right to go on sinning. Sinning to him means that we do something wrong on purpose, we know that we are doing something wrong and still do it anyways. In 1 Peter 4 it talks about how we do not go on sinning and doing our same earthly desires when we truly want to live for him. I do believe that God's followers still make mistakes. But here it says that we are not to go on doing our same sins if we truly want to live for him.
Kris and his wife Kathy also taught of the gifts of the Spirit. They emphasized on prophesying to others and they said that that is the most common gift from God. We were taught was it is, how we act out prophesying, what it feels like, and we then were forced to practice it. What a great way to be challenged to get out of my comfort zone! It was very awkward at first. But we had to pair up with someone we didn't know and then ask God for a word of knowledge, a true fact or picture from God about the other person’s life. It was so cool to be able to try that out. Getting something relevant to my partner's life and watching others as well. And making mistakes too! Then we asked God to give us a prophecy for the other person. This was a bit harder, even though it might have not happen yet, it was hard to hear God on a more meaningful word about the other person's future! But it was still cool to try and learn!
Not much new this weekend. Just went to visit a new beach. Went to Jamba Juice for the first time in my life, and loved it! Tried out stand up paddle surfing. Swam with a sea turtle. And other fun things!
This week we have a speaker for our Justice school from India. Coming out on such a high from last week, it is hard to sit in class during a four hour lecture understanding and being engaged the entire time. What he has to say is awesome! But I believe that our class is not growing in unity as much this week, like we all wish we would! Hopefully our class will be able to grow so much in this last half of DTS so that during our outreach we don't need to build that bond. We can start off going in as a unified family.
Tuesday night there was an all night prayer session in our Prayer Room here on campus. Apparently God was waking people up from their sleep to go into the prayer room. There was constant prayer, praise, worship, prophecy, and more going on all night! That room was banging! I wish you all could come here and hear what it is like being in my dorm, a ways away from this building, but still being able to hear when there is people jamming out in the prayer room! You can almost tell what song they are singing and it is totally amazing! This was going on all night long! There were a few people who pulled all nighters. And the funny thing is, God gives us all extra energy the next day when we spend that time not sleeping, but worshiping him! In the morning when there was the Fire and Fragrance school worshiping during breakfast, I joined after my work duty. It was so much fun! We had another outreach group in there and there were families, kids, and the regular F&F School! So much fun to sing at the top of my lungs, dancing, and just have fun praising God with these little kids! Makes for a great start to my day!
Last night, my roommates and I had our first encounter with a cockroach in our dorm room! We've heard random screams other rooms during this quarter when others had cockroaches in their dorms. When I heard those screams, I said to myself, 'If we ever had one in our room, I wouldn't be that scared and I'd be tough and just kill the thing.' But our room is the cleanest dorm room of all, and we got blessed with having this nasty bug in our room. Of course there was extremely freaked out and screams came whaling from our room!! We spent a half hour looking for this bug. Of course I was determined to kill it because it kept crawling by MY BED! So, shoe in hand, I went for it. It took a good few whacks, but finally! We defeated the bug!
What a night! Hope that you guys are all doing well! Thank you again for everything. One prayer request if you could keep me in mind. It has been really heavy on my heart what God's plan is for my life after outreach. I've always had a plan in my head, but I've learned that I am not living this life for myself. I needed to lay it down for God. And now, I've come to realize that my plan is never as good as God's. So if you could pray that he reveals to me what it is that he wants from me after outreach. I would greatly appreciate that! Thanks guys, you're amazing!
God Bless and Hazak!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Revelation
Where to begin, but to say that God is good! All the time! I don't know if I could even record all the countless times that He has blessed me throughout being here and especially these last couple of weeks! I cannot believe that we are half way done with our DTS here! We're on week six and at the end of March, my group will be on our way to Morocco! Along with others going to many other nations around the world! It's kind of crazy to be thinking about, how much potential we have to change the world! There's roughly around 500 students and staff in DTS alone that are going out to be a light to the nations!
I'm so excited to experience so many different cultures while i'm there! Morocco is the majority of our stay, but my leader said he wanted to hit up as many countries as we can along the way and on our travels back to Amsterdam for our class' debriefing time. I cannot imagine how many people we'll get to come into contact with to be able to share our story with!
Back to the classroom.... We have been meeting together with all the DTS classes together in our big Ohana Court auditorium this week for Corporate week again. We have had a speaker that is really challenging me in what i believe, how to take a stand, and how to question others' views and beliefs as well.
I got a few new revelations lately that i thought i'd share with you guys. I got a revelation how God totally is against Gossip. Now, you may say, 'yeah, yeah we've known that all along' but i really didn't realize how much it means to me in everyday life! Like how many times i catch myself doing it without intention! There has been random little attacks by the devil to tear apart our Justice class, and gossip has been a huge problem that has been separating the unity of our group. Please keep us all in your prayers that we can continue to grow together in unity. Especially our outreach groups. It would be so cool to be able to already have a strong solid foundation with each other and the Lord before we go on our outreaches instead of having to start that in april!
The second revelation I got was giving up my longing for a husband someday. I feel as if God is revealing to me that he himself is enough for me to live. He should have all my desires and intimacy. Not some boy. Don't get me wrong, I truly desire to have a husband someday, but God is teaching me here how to lay down that desire so that i can be intimate with him first and then once i do surrender that to him, he will allow a man to come into my life. It's hard to be here, around so many Christian men of God, and know that they are not the ones that need my affection. It is God who desires my heart. Especially being so close to Valentines day, God is revealing his love he has for me, and i am learning how to accept that and fall in love with him at the same time!
Now, to expand on my last post.... i would like to hear if any of you guys went to see the movie taken in theaters yet? I know that some of my friends have, just wondering what you thought of it or if you guys got any new revelations about this injustice. Please let me know, and if it is heavy on your heart as it is on mine, feel free to contact me and i'd love to discuss it! since this is exactly what i will be targeting on my outreach!
Also, please keep me updated on your lives. If you have anything that I could pray for you for, please let me know! I'd be delighted to!
Thanks,
HAZAK!
I'm so excited to experience so many different cultures while i'm there! Morocco is the majority of our stay, but my leader said he wanted to hit up as many countries as we can along the way and on our travels back to Amsterdam for our class' debriefing time. I cannot imagine how many people we'll get to come into contact with to be able to share our story with!
Back to the classroom.... We have been meeting together with all the DTS classes together in our big Ohana Court auditorium this week for Corporate week again. We have had a speaker that is really challenging me in what i believe, how to take a stand, and how to question others' views and beliefs as well.
I got a few new revelations lately that i thought i'd share with you guys. I got a revelation how God totally is against Gossip. Now, you may say, 'yeah, yeah we've known that all along' but i really didn't realize how much it means to me in everyday life! Like how many times i catch myself doing it without intention! There has been random little attacks by the devil to tear apart our Justice class, and gossip has been a huge problem that has been separating the unity of our group. Please keep us all in your prayers that we can continue to grow together in unity. Especially our outreach groups. It would be so cool to be able to already have a strong solid foundation with each other and the Lord before we go on our outreaches instead of having to start that in april!
The second revelation I got was giving up my longing for a husband someday. I feel as if God is revealing to me that he himself is enough for me to live. He should have all my desires and intimacy. Not some boy. Don't get me wrong, I truly desire to have a husband someday, but God is teaching me here how to lay down that desire so that i can be intimate with him first and then once i do surrender that to him, he will allow a man to come into my life. It's hard to be here, around so many Christian men of God, and know that they are not the ones that need my affection. It is God who desires my heart. Especially being so close to Valentines day, God is revealing his love he has for me, and i am learning how to accept that and fall in love with him at the same time!
Now, to expand on my last post.... i would like to hear if any of you guys went to see the movie taken in theaters yet? I know that some of my friends have, just wondering what you thought of it or if you guys got any new revelations about this injustice. Please let me know, and if it is heavy on your heart as it is on mine, feel free to contact me and i'd love to discuss it! since this is exactly what i will be targeting on my outreach!
Also, please keep me updated on your lives. If you have anything that I could pray for you for, please let me know! I'd be delighted to!
Thanks,
HAZAK!
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