Prayer Week

To be honest, I don't even know where to start when I think about prayer week. Basically we didn't have lectures much, instead we were given a 2 hour prayer slot each day with small group where you would pray at the church for the alloted time. It ran all night and you could go to any additional prayer slots that you wanted. So it was pretty crazy! Many people pulled all nighters, I didn't stay up all night but I definately spent a lot of time praying. We had a prayer room as I mentioned before where you could meet and there was paper and felts and pencil crayons, and lots of boards put up on the walls to write on. It was an amazing week. I don't know if I have ever specifically set aside a 2 hour block to just pray before and I didn't really know what to expect. The first night we ended up praying a lot for the western world and the state of the church. I was absolutely amazed at how fast the two hours went by. It was a great experience and I couldn't wait to keep going. The second night we prayed for healing for various issues within our group. While we were praying I had this thought that we should go outside and just pray in the rain. I didn't say anything at first but then later after a girl said something about healing rain, I was like I think we have to do this. I knew that it was storming out because I could hear the thunder, but when we went outside... there was no rain. So I was like okay maybe this wasn't a good idea after all, but we stayed outside anyways and just prayed and sang worship songs. The lightening was absolutely amazing, the best I have ever seen in my life! Just as one girl was saying how epic the sky was we all looked at the exact same spot at the same time and God really put on a show for us. It was crazy cool lightening all across the sky... It was unbelievable! So we kept singing various worship songs outside and by then end there was definately rain and we were drenched! It was just a really cool night, there is something special about worshiping outside in creation. The power of the storm just reminded how powerful and mighty God really is!

The rest of the week was really good as well, but much harder. The last three days ended up being much more personal and I feel like I learned a lot about myself and God. I know that I want to know God so much more and move to that deeper level, but I was unsure of how to do that. So that is pretty much what I have been praying about this last while. I have had to do some really hard things, including giving some stuff away that I really fought against. I have definately learned that God will answer your prayers. If you ask God to push you to go deeper, He will do that and it won't necessarily be easy. In fact, it can be one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. I am definately starting to feel better though... I am glad that God is stretching me and moving me out of my comfort zone. Another good thing that has come out of this is that I feel like I hearing God more clearly now which is awesome! Right now I am doing our evangelism week and this is continuing, but I won't go into that very much until the week is over.

Outreach update: So it looks like Madagasscar is off the table as far as outreach in concerned. It is just too expensive to get there. We already had to pay $2500 for flights and it would be at least an additional $800 per person. So we will probably just stay in Mozambique and South Africa. I am not really that disappointed because I know that we will end up where God wants us and that may not be Madagasscar. Well that is all that I can really think of for now, I will try not to make the next blog so late! (Sorry mom...)

Relationships and Fraser Island

I have to say that this last week has been pretty eventful, especially due to your trip to Fraser Island for the weekend. But I will get to that shortly... first a quick blurb on relationships week. A couple taught the week and they were super cool! They covered a lot of stuff including communication, dating, family relationships, personality and conflict resolution. I actually learned a lot about myself this week which was good. I recognized areas of my life where I need to trust God more and so I have done a lot of praying. The couple who lead the lectures actually shared how they met and it was an absolutely amazing story! It is way too long to try and retell so sorry if you are curious... :) That is pretty much all I have to say about that...

So on Friday, Destiny Rescue came in and did a presentation. For those who don't know this is an organization that focuses on rescuing girls that are in the sex slave trade. They then put the girls in homes and give them education as well as vocational training. These girls that they rescue are all children from about age 4-17. Again I will say that these girls were forced into sex trafficing! This is something that we have learned a lot about... and I will be doing a blog on this topic later going into more detail about what I have learned and what it means for me. If anyone is interested just google human trafficing and I am sure you will find a lot of information as this is a massive issue today. In case you didn't know... there have never been more slaves in the world than there are now! Anyways, I don't want to go into too much depth now, but I will say that this issue is heavy on my heart. So needless to say, I loved the presentation! It was very informative and sad, but so encouraging at the same time. The orgainzation has only been around 8 years or so and it was started by the brother of the presenter. It is amazing what one man can do with God. Now Destiny Rescue has houses in Thailand, Cambodia, Mozambique, India and one other country I beleive. They also do prevention work as well. Anyways we are actually working with Destiny Rescue for a few weeks in Mozambique and I am soooo excited! I don't know what we will all be doing with them, but I know it will be amazing!

So now Fraser Island. Where to begin?? It was beautiful weather and a crazy adventure... no tour bus this time! We had four vehicles that we rented to drive on the island and it was insane. We got stuck before we even got on the ferry that takes you over to the island! So much of the first day was spent pushing vehicles out of the sand... which was very hot I must add. We had two minor accidents... but nothing that bad, just a few scrapes and small dents. Anyways I have to say that it was amazing to finally get to Lake Mackenzie! We were all hot and filthy and it felt amazing to swim in the water. Of course we had to do some more pushing after that... but it wasn't as bad as before. We camped at the Central Station campsite which was an adventure. We set up our tents and then cooked dinner. We had to boil a ton of water because we didn't bring enough and you arn't supposed to drink any of the water on the island. So I was very thirsty when I woke up this morning. (I have to say sleeping on the ground made even the YWAM beds sound comfortable and that is saying something because they suck) We drove through one of the resorts on the island on our way to the ship wreck and we stopped for some water and ice cream. It was much needed! So we checked out the ship wreck and then went to Eli Creek and hung out there until it was time to leave. The drive down the beach was absolutely beautiful! So overall I enjoyed my time on Fraser the second time around but it was much different. This trip was a bit rougher, but full of a lot of laughs and good times.... even though much of it was spent pushing the vehicles. Oh and on the way home to the base on the vans broke down. I don't know what happened...actually I don't even know if the people who stayed with it are even back yet. So... hopefully they got home without too many problems. So basically I think that covers the highlights of the week. Next week is prayer week and I am pretty excited. We each have a two hour prayer slot each day with a small group of people. I think it will be amazing, but I will have to let you know later!

Spiritul Warfare and Jewish Roots

WOW... I don't even know where to start! This week was very intense, but totally amazing. The lectures were awesome! I was pretty excited to learn about spiritual warfare because I haven't had much teaching about that before. The first day we covered the topic of angels and demons. We talked about the differnt kinds of angels: warrior, messenger and worshipping. We learned about the fallen angels and how Satan tries to wage war against us. He tries to bind us in sin and silence us. He makes us feel like we are the only ones struggling with something and then fills us with shame. These are feelings that I have felt before, and this week really encouraged me to believe that it doesn't have to be that way. The good news is that Satan has already been defeated by the cross and through Jesus we have authority over him. On wednesday night we did some worship and then decided to wage some spiritual warfare ourselves. If there were areas in our lives where we were struggling you could go up and share with the group and then we all prayed for them. It was actually a very powerful night. I love that the people here are so open and that there is no judgement so that everyone felt comfortable sharing what was on their heart.

The last two days of lectures this week were on Jewish Roots. Initially I was thinking...okay so are we going to talk about Old Testimant traditions and celebrations or something.... well I was very wrong. The speaker, was so knowledgable in that area and they were some of my favorite lectures. He talked about how we should look at the Jewish people as our older brother. God entered into a covenant with Isreal and that is still being honoured today. Through Jesus and the spread of the gospel, Christians are now fellow -heirs. Romans 11:11 shows that because Isreal didn't beleive in Jesus, it made it possible for the gentiles to receive salvation. Verse 8 states that God blinded them and I believe that He did that so the rest of the nations could receive the gospel, otherwise it would have remained a strictly Jewish thing. The good news is that God will remove that blinding and they will realize the truth about Jesus. Even today, this is happening as it has never happened before, mostly in part due to the severe persecution that the Jews have suffered at the hands of the church.

This is what the second day was mostly about, it was a history lesson on anti-semitism and the church. To be honest I was overwhelmed. I had no idea that it had been so bad over the centuries and it made me feel sick! The holocaust is only one example of how this has happened. I had heard a lot of the stories before, but when they were all told together it really made me understand how the Jewish peoples have suffered. The most intersting thing was how the speaker related this to the decline and restoration of the church. Over the years the chruch lost its Jewish roots, then gifts of the spirit, moves on the spirit and then the authority of the word. This was during the middle ages. Then by about the 16th century we started to gain these thigs back starting with the word being restored. This happened at the same time that Jewish people were flooding back to their homeland (Isreal) for the first time in centuries. Anyways we have gained all those things back now and I think that really says something about where we are in God's plan. There was another verse we were talking about, but I actually can't find it now so sorry, but it says something along the lines that after all nations of the earth hear the gospel, Jesus will return. So anyways if anyone has heard of the 10-40 window of unreached people groups. That is the main area that has left be reached. Anyways we are rapidly approaching that time, whether it be in our lifetime, or our childrens'. Regardless of what you believe about this idea... because i know it freaks a lot of people out... it should motivate you to make sure that you are right with God. For me it makes me see how important it is to serve God during this life and not worry about how much money I can make or if I can buy a car or house or anything like that. So... I hope this wasn't too confusing, but it is so hard to write everything down in a way that makes sense. My point was that this was a good week and I learned a lot about how it is important to remember our Jewish roots. God made a covenant with Isreal and as beleivers we have been adopted into the covenant!