I can't believe it's been three months that I've been here! It's just so crazy!
My DTS lecture phase has been incredible. I've faced many challenges but it's been so good to work through them. I have been learning so much about God and just how beautiful, soft and gentle He is..it's been blowing me away...how even when He brings conviction, He also brings on the proper encouragement to continue to grow. I love His incredible concistancy. How He will never change. Never leave, never fail, never forget, never break a promise, never stop chasing after me, never stop loving me. That's been blowing my mind...our God is great.
God has been showing me more and more who I am in Him which has been amazing. Just learning even what my passions really are, what I really love to do are becoming more and more alive. My love for missions, the nations, friends, worship, intercession and even a new one...evangelism has been growing more and more. He is helping me see how His Joy can be my strength if I choose it. He's been showing me the little crazy toddler that's in me that's become extremely well known to the 40+ girls that are with me haha. I love community. I love living with a bunch of young girls that love God..that are seeking Him with everything. Even when most of us have nothing in common, He's the One that's driving us together. I love being like crazy little kids with them creating imaginary games, random dance parties, building forts and such. Love it so much.
So many more things have been going on that I just feel could not fit into a blogpost. BUT, for now, in just ONE MORE WEEK I'm going on outreach! I'll be leaving on Friday for Singapore for about 3 days, then off to Bangladesh for 4 weeks, then off to Croydon, London for 7 weeks. It's all pretty crazy. So be praying for me and my team. That our focus will be to make Jesus known in the nations. That our teams will have unity with eachother and with the ministries there. That we will be obedient to what God is telling us to do and to our authorities. Pray for our saftey, the Joy of the Lord to be our strength, and for our lives just to be living testimonies of who Jesus is.
Thank you all so much for everything you've done. You are all incredible and I love you so much! I would write more but my computer is about to die ha. I'll write more soon.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
evangelism
The word evangelism used to give me the chills like nothing else. I would be absolutely terrified anytime anyone even brought it up. Until last week.
It was a Saturday and I was walking home from a coffee shop with two of my friends, Maddie and Danielle. As we were walking home, a man on the street started asking for us..."Hey guys, could you just stop and listen to me for a second?" said the man sitting on a ledge on the street. We all stopped and turned around to hear what it was he wanted. We were a little afraid to approach at first, but we ended up just going up to him and letting him tell us his story. He's an American that's just been going through a really hard time..his family fell apart, he just got in a bike wreck a few days before and was really wrecked up. While he was laying unconscious on the street after his wreck, someone came and stole his passport, all of his money, and other forms of ID. He was broken. Completely. With no hope. Just trying to get back home to Texas.
After the story, we just asked him if we could just each individually pray for him. "Of course! I need all the help I can get!" said Reed. He went on to explain he wasn't religious at all, but he did believe there must be a God out there somewhere. So we just went for it and started praying for him...I don't even remember what each of us were saying but the Holy Spirit just came in and gave us such a love and compassion for this man. Such joy filled each of us as we continued to pray for this mid forties man. He started crying really heavily as we kept praying, and afterwards he just sat there tearing up and just embarrassed saying, "you guys really hit a spot". From there, I don't even know what all we said but we knew it wasn't us. The Holy Spirit spoke through us as we shared the gospel and answered all of his questions about God. We prayed for him two more times (the whole time he was crying so we kept giving him tissues) each time he opened up more and more.
He kept on asking, "why are you still here?" All we could say was, because Jesus loves you...so we love you too. "why are you being so nice? why do you care? why do you keep offering me things?" he'd ask, and all we could say was because we're trying to live like Jesus. He loves His children..we are all His children, and so we want to show His love to everyone.
After praying for him two more times, we gave him a Bible and some cash. He just completely broke down at that point, so confused why we've just spent over an hour just sharing Jesus with him and listening to his story. He just kept crying and hugging us and asking us how he could pray to God, and when he was ready, to accept Jesus into his heart.
The experience was absolutely incredible. I want this story to completely give God all the glory. He did everything. I have such fear of man, I definitely couldn't have done this on my own. None of us could. God just set the divine appointment, and we just obeyed.
People are open all over the place just waiting for someone to take some time to listen and love them. And when you love them with the small amount of God's furious love that we can capture, He can do incredible things through us. Please be encouraged to spread God's gospel to the world. If God can use little old me, He can use you to..all you have to do is say yes.
It was a Saturday and I was walking home from a coffee shop with two of my friends, Maddie and Danielle. As we were walking home, a man on the street started asking for us..."Hey guys, could you just stop and listen to me for a second?" said the man sitting on a ledge on the street. We all stopped and turned around to hear what it was he wanted. We were a little afraid to approach at first, but we ended up just going up to him and letting him tell us his story. He's an American that's just been going through a really hard time..his family fell apart, he just got in a bike wreck a few days before and was really wrecked up. While he was laying unconscious on the street after his wreck, someone came and stole his passport, all of his money, and other forms of ID. He was broken. Completely. With no hope. Just trying to get back home to Texas.
After the story, we just asked him if we could just each individually pray for him. "Of course! I need all the help I can get!" said Reed. He went on to explain he wasn't religious at all, but he did believe there must be a God out there somewhere. So we just went for it and started praying for him...I don't even remember what each of us were saying but the Holy Spirit just came in and gave us such a love and compassion for this man. Such joy filled each of us as we continued to pray for this mid forties man. He started crying really heavily as we kept praying, and afterwards he just sat there tearing up and just embarrassed saying, "you guys really hit a spot". From there, I don't even know what all we said but we knew it wasn't us. The Holy Spirit spoke through us as we shared the gospel and answered all of his questions about God. We prayed for him two more times (the whole time he was crying so we kept giving him tissues) each time he opened up more and more.
He kept on asking, "why are you still here?" All we could say was, because Jesus loves you...so we love you too. "why are you being so nice? why do you care? why do you keep offering me things?" he'd ask, and all we could say was because we're trying to live like Jesus. He loves His children..we are all His children, and so we want to show His love to everyone.
After praying for him two more times, we gave him a Bible and some cash. He just completely broke down at that point, so confused why we've just spent over an hour just sharing Jesus with him and listening to his story. He just kept crying and hugging us and asking us how he could pray to God, and when he was ready, to accept Jesus into his heart.
The experience was absolutely incredible. I want this story to completely give God all the glory. He did everything. I have such fear of man, I definitely couldn't have done this on my own. None of us could. God just set the divine appointment, and we just obeyed.
People are open all over the place just waiting for someone to take some time to listen and love them. And when you love them with the small amount of God's furious love that we can capture, He can do incredible things through us. Please be encouraged to spread God's gospel to the world. If God can use little old me, He can use you to..all you have to do is say yes.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Week 6
So...here it is...it's been six weeks since I've moved to Australia. Crazy!!
What's even better is, now I have a phone!!! Booo ya! (thanks Mat) So I've been able to actually call some of my favorite people in the world and laugh, cry, you name it while talking to them from across the world. So. Good.
So many things have been happening so quickly that it's hard to really keep everyone updated. The past couple of weeks have been pretty intense..Loads of tears gushing out, plenty of challenging application days and incredible times with Jesus.
I've really just been coming to the reality that I have to be ALL IN for Jesus. To give absolutely everything to Jesus. To let Him be the one to sit on the throne of my life and to let Him take my broken heart, and give me a heart transplant. It's so amazing that He has so much grace to even want to do that. It's been quite the adventure to say the least.
I'm loving it here in Australia, and as the clothing stores are starting to set out their fall clothes, we finally found out that I'm going to Bangladesh!! At the end of March or early April, we'll be heading up there with a group of a bout 17 or 18 of us. Then we're splitting up to two different groups to go spread the gospel. Other teams are going to Nepal, the Philippines and Cambodia.
So many other things to say...in the end though, God is good. He's been challenging me like crazy and in the very best ways as He's drawing me closer and closer into His arms.
I love you all SO much and thank you for answering your phone calls :)
whit
What's even better is, now I have a phone!!! Booo ya! (thanks Mat) So I've been able to actually call some of my favorite people in the world and laugh, cry, you name it while talking to them from across the world. So. Good.
So many things have been happening so quickly that it's hard to really keep everyone updated. The past couple of weeks have been pretty intense..Loads of tears gushing out, plenty of challenging application days and incredible times with Jesus.
I've really just been coming to the reality that I have to be ALL IN for Jesus. To give absolutely everything to Jesus. To let Him be the one to sit on the throne of my life and to let Him take my broken heart, and give me a heart transplant. It's so amazing that He has so much grace to even want to do that. It's been quite the adventure to say the least.
I'm loving it here in Australia, and as the clothing stores are starting to set out their fall clothes, we finally found out that I'm going to Bangladesh!! At the end of March or early April, we'll be heading up there with a group of a bout 17 or 18 of us. Then we're splitting up to two different groups to go spread the gospel. Other teams are going to Nepal, the Philippines and Cambodia.
So many other things to say...in the end though, God is good. He's been challenging me like crazy and in the very best ways as He's drawing me closer and closer into His arms.
I love you all SO much and thank you for answering your phone calls :)
whit
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Been so long
I haven't written on here in sooo long!!! AHH!! Sorry to all. The days have been getting more and more busy as we go on. So nice. Plus on most days we don't have internet, explaining why you don't hear from me very often...sorry!
So many things have been going on that I seriously couldn't even begin to catch up. Tonight however, we ended up getting the 52ish of us all together to watch Tangled. Then somehow we broke into a giant pillow fight. Minus the fact that there were many guys there with us, it was a pretty girly night.
Last Friday was our Forgiveness and Repentance day of application. We all gathered in our classroom, and took turns praying to God asking for forgivness and forgiving. We were sitting in the front of the classroom, with Quenton on our left and our one on one's to the right. After we prayed and said what needed to be said, they both prayed over us. Then the class would just encourage and give words of encouragement if felt, as we would go spend some time at the cross and nail our prayers on the cross. Incredibly, the day was fantastic and so freeing. Most of us I know came not feeling well, so sick, so sleepy, and hurting. By the end of our time of repentance/forgiving, we were all filled with energy and on fire. Such an incredible atmosphere. And so not judgemental at all. We were just all pouring it out.....everything out..being completely open with eachother. Now there's such a closeness and respect for eachother that wasn't there before but it just continues to blossom as we all are becoming more and more real with eachother and drawing nearer with God.
I have SO many things to say...and I know I keep saying that I'll fill in..I just don't have enough time!! Sorry!! But, if you don't hear from me before the weekend, we're all going to the outback to go camping!!! SO EXCITED...been looking forward to this for awhile now!
Alrighty,
till next time.
whit
So many things have been going on that I seriously couldn't even begin to catch up. Tonight however, we ended up getting the 52ish of us all together to watch Tangled. Then somehow we broke into a giant pillow fight. Minus the fact that there were many guys there with us, it was a pretty girly night.
Last Friday was our Forgiveness and Repentance day of application. We all gathered in our classroom, and took turns praying to God asking for forgivness and forgiving. We were sitting in the front of the classroom, with Quenton on our left and our one on one's to the right. After we prayed and said what needed to be said, they both prayed over us. Then the class would just encourage and give words of encouragement if felt, as we would go spend some time at the cross and nail our prayers on the cross. Incredibly, the day was fantastic and so freeing. Most of us I know came not feeling well, so sick, so sleepy, and hurting. By the end of our time of repentance/forgiving, we were all filled with energy and on fire. Such an incredible atmosphere. And so not judgemental at all. We were just all pouring it out.....everything out..being completely open with eachother. Now there's such a closeness and respect for eachother that wasn't there before but it just continues to blossom as we all are becoming more and more real with eachother and drawing nearer with God.
I have SO many things to say...and I know I keep saying that I'll fill in..I just don't have enough time!! Sorry!! But, if you don't hear from me before the weekend, we're all going to the outback to go camping!!! SO EXCITED...been looking forward to this for awhile now!
Alrighty,
till next time.
whit
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Happy Australia Day!!
This week has been pretty crazy...loads of convictions, lots to process and encouragement. So many things have been happening that I don't feel like I could explain it all but all I can say is it's been so incredibly good.
This week we have been having lectures on Forgiveness and Repentance. The speaker was Shirly Brownhill which is the director of the whole YWAM base. An amazing woman with incredible encouragement and just an incredible heart for God.
I'll go into a deeper discription of what all has been going on and what she's been speaking on a little later. First though, I have to tell you about yesturday. I had an amazing quiet time and really felt like God was really speaking to me through the Word which was all very encouraging. After our morning chores we had worship. Incredible worship. Here we only have one worship leader just singing and playing a guitar. I think I'm actually really liking that simple form of worship more so than a full band.
Anywho, I asked one of my leaders, Christie for prayer...after she was praying for me I could just really feel God's presence in a new way and the worship really started feeling more real than ever before. It only took until the next song started playing, "love came down and rescued me, love came down and set me free, I am Yours, I am forever Yours" that I broke down and fell on my knees just in amazement of what Jesus has done for us all.
As I was setting there on the floor crying, my DTS leader, Quenton, came up to me and asked if he could pray for me...of course!! God was really speaking through him yesterday. It was so good. God was just speaking things into my life and really encouraging me with where I am and everything. Quenton eventually then gave me a scripture and really encouraged me in a certain area which was all pretty awesome. Maybe I can go into more detail later, but for now I'll just say that it was just the encouragement I needed. God gave me encouragement and strength, and made me so excited for what all He's going to continue to do.
ok...i'm really getting distracted...since it's Australia day, we're all going down to the river dressed up as "Aussies" as most do and we're going to go watch some fireworks!! Yahoo...
PRAYER REQUEST-- Tomorrow we're having a time of repentance as a whole yp...we're all pretty nervous..so just be praying for us all to have deep repentance and to be set free from all the forgiveness and sin issues.
Continue to be praying for the base as well as we might be starting to move in these next couple of weeks!!!
For me, pray for Boldness and Courage to come up within me....not to be afraid, but to be myself, the person God created me to be.
I love you all...so much. Hope you're doing great!!! Thinking of you always!!
This week we have been having lectures on Forgiveness and Repentance. The speaker was Shirly Brownhill which is the director of the whole YWAM base. An amazing woman with incredible encouragement and just an incredible heart for God.
I'll go into a deeper discription of what all has been going on and what she's been speaking on a little later. First though, I have to tell you about yesturday. I had an amazing quiet time and really felt like God was really speaking to me through the Word which was all very encouraging. After our morning chores we had worship. Incredible worship. Here we only have one worship leader just singing and playing a guitar. I think I'm actually really liking that simple form of worship more so than a full band.
Anywho, I asked one of my leaders, Christie for prayer...after she was praying for me I could just really feel God's presence in a new way and the worship really started feeling more real than ever before. It only took until the next song started playing, "love came down and rescued me, love came down and set me free, I am Yours, I am forever Yours" that I broke down and fell on my knees just in amazement of what Jesus has done for us all.
As I was setting there on the floor crying, my DTS leader, Quenton, came up to me and asked if he could pray for me...of course!! God was really speaking through him yesterday. It was so good. God was just speaking things into my life and really encouraging me with where I am and everything. Quenton eventually then gave me a scripture and really encouraged me in a certain area which was all pretty awesome. Maybe I can go into more detail later, but for now I'll just say that it was just the encouragement I needed. God gave me encouragement and strength, and made me so excited for what all He's going to continue to do.
ok...i'm really getting distracted...since it's Australia day, we're all going down to the river dressed up as "Aussies" as most do and we're going to go watch some fireworks!! Yahoo...
PRAYER REQUEST-- Tomorrow we're having a time of repentance as a whole yp...we're all pretty nervous..so just be praying for us all to have deep repentance and to be set free from all the forgiveness and sin issues.
Continue to be praying for the base as well as we might be starting to move in these next couple of weeks!!!
For me, pray for Boldness and Courage to come up within me....not to be afraid, but to be myself, the person God created me to be.
I love you all...so much. Hope you're doing great!!! Thinking of you always!!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
friends
I wouldn't exactly say I'm homesick...but I do really miss the people back home right now. I miss our random adventures and juice runs, chilling at home on the couches with the folks, the 5 billion missed calls, and even the annoying voicemails a certain "someone" would keep leaving me throughout the day ;)
The tiniest things remind me of people back home. Apples are everywhere...reminding me of course, of my best friend/sister...Katie. And I don't even know what day it is, but I know It's time for Katie's Birthday to get a rollin.....shaved your head yet Katie?!?
I really miss our long drives and our conversations about God that would last forever....how you guys would totally challenge me every day....to the point where I was sooo frustrated at you at times, but I loved you that much more for bringing out the truth in me..challening me.
I really can see how God has blessed me with each one of you. I'm so thankful. I'm thankful for parents that taught me how to fear God, for best friends that aren't ever afraid of getting in my face to correct me, and for so much more. I guess I just want you to know that you are loved. Greatly. So skype me sometime :)
on other news, we as a school were praying all night for the new base on Friday night. From 12AM-9AM. I took the slot from 8-9. It was pretty amazing though because I just got to look back and see what all God has done....even though I wasn't here for the most of it, I was still able to see incredible things that God has done for this base. I recently found out that YWAM litterally has no income. I thought that some of my school fees or something would go towards the base, but none of it does. They make it as cheep as possible and have no income whatsoever. Amazingly though, God provided them with the funds to raise up an incredible new base worth millions.
During work duties one day, Salah, my boss, wanted me to go help on the new base. It ended up being absolutely incredible because I...for no reason at all...got to go carry a stick of all things up onto the second floor of the new base. Some of the staff haven't even gotten to see it yet!! But for whatever reason they had to get that stick up there, I got the job done. And the inside of the base is incredible! It's soo beautiful and huge. I couldn't believe it.
Anyways, I've been hearing bits and pieces to the story of how the base is coming together, and it's incredible to see how God has been providing seriously everything. But the base is still not done. So...here's where you come in....with some prayer!! Please be praying for the base, the workers, the leaders, for some energy and encouragement, for the relationships between YWAM and the companies they're working with and for YWAM Perth as a whole. Whenever ya can :) Thanks so much!! Miss you dearly..
The tiniest things remind me of people back home. Apples are everywhere...reminding me of course, of my best friend/sister...Katie. And I don't even know what day it is, but I know It's time for Katie's Birthday to get a rollin.....shaved your head yet Katie?!?
I really miss our long drives and our conversations about God that would last forever....how you guys would totally challenge me every day....to the point where I was sooo frustrated at you at times, but I loved you that much more for bringing out the truth in me..challening me.
I really can see how God has blessed me with each one of you. I'm so thankful. I'm thankful for parents that taught me how to fear God, for best friends that aren't ever afraid of getting in my face to correct me, and for so much more. I guess I just want you to know that you are loved. Greatly. So skype me sometime :)
on other news, we as a school were praying all night for the new base on Friday night. From 12AM-9AM. I took the slot from 8-9. It was pretty amazing though because I just got to look back and see what all God has done....even though I wasn't here for the most of it, I was still able to see incredible things that God has done for this base. I recently found out that YWAM litterally has no income. I thought that some of my school fees or something would go towards the base, but none of it does. They make it as cheep as possible and have no income whatsoever. Amazingly though, God provided them with the funds to raise up an incredible new base worth millions.
During work duties one day, Salah, my boss, wanted me to go help on the new base. It ended up being absolutely incredible because I...for no reason at all...got to go carry a stick of all things up onto the second floor of the new base. Some of the staff haven't even gotten to see it yet!! But for whatever reason they had to get that stick up there, I got the job done. And the inside of the base is incredible! It's soo beautiful and huge. I couldn't believe it.
Anyways, I've been hearing bits and pieces to the story of how the base is coming together, and it's incredible to see how God has been providing seriously everything. But the base is still not done. So...here's where you come in....with some prayer!! Please be praying for the base, the workers, the leaders, for some energy and encouragement, for the relationships between YWAM and the companies they're working with and for YWAM Perth as a whole. Whenever ya can :) Thanks so much!! Miss you dearly..
Friday, January 20, 2012
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