Psalm 84

How lovely is your dwelling place, 
O Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, 
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.


Even the sparrow has found home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young--
a place near your alter,
  O Lord Almight, my King and my 
          God
Blessed are those who dwell in your 
   house;
      they are ever praising you.


Blessed are those whose strength is in
you,
who have set their hearts on
pilgramage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the Autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength.
till each appears before God in Zion.


Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almight;
listen to me, O God of Jacob.
Look upon our shield, O God;
look with favor on your anointed one.


Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the
house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.


O LORD Almighty,
blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Sour Uji...Oh the things that unite people Part 2

Alright here is another post so that you can continue getting to know these amazing students

Kristen- This trip was hard on her, she is very close to her family and so to be so far away from them was very difficult for her, but on this trip she learn to lean on the Father and he would bring her through. It was incredible to see her fall more deeply in love with the Lord during this time

Emily- Oh Emily she was a  heart, this is a girl that is pure heart. God broke Emily's heart on this trip, this sounds like a bad thing but it was a beautiful sight to see. God broke Emily's heart for what broke his and because of this she overcame so much fear and saw her earnest prayers answered when a woman who was paralyzed walked.

Allison- Oh my this girl! She came in so distrustful and almost quiet. Yet thats not who she is, she is a loyal friend with a heart of gold. God spoke to Allison about how she is a leader, it was great!

Sour Uji...Oh the things that unite people

I found myself thinking of my Kenya team a lot recently, they were amazing everything I could have asked for in my first team. I often felt guilty because I was so blessed by these individuals they made my job so easy. So today I was to introduce you to them. We will go oldest to youngest...

Jesse- Started the trip as one person and ended the trip someone else. God radically transformed him on this trip. This is a man full of wisdom, who has a tender heart but would not stand down from a fight to protect a child from harm.

Matt- Is from Kentucky, so he speaks kind of funny sometimes. This is a man full of authority and passion for his Saviour. Matt started out the trip kind of shy and afraid of speaking in front of people. He ended the trip by preaching multiple times to people of varying ages, God transformed him from a quiet boy to an authoritative man. It was a blessing to watch.

Well this is rather long, so I will carry this on tomorrow

Some things that have been been keeping me going...

Alright well these past couple of months have been overwhelming, between school, work, family stuff and ever longing to serve those around the world, they have been hard and sometimes it would have been far to easy to ask why God. But God is good and He never leaves me, here are some of the things though that He has used to give me a boost
Some New Cory Asbury
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o3mMsmbIbQ

A New find in Jon Thurlow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPAiKzrXSM&feature=related

One more from OneThing....by David Brymer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZP39Y_Z6a8&feature=related

An oldie but goody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=301S7NgAkLs

These are just a few songs that Jesus has used to inspire me when Satan has tried to derail me and so I thought I would share them

Job

I am not sure you knew this but I have been reading through the Bible since July 2010, it has been 16 months and I am only in Job. Sometimes in the past year and a bit I have been so frustrated by the fact that I felt as if I had made no progress on reading through the Bible, it was so frustrating to look forward and see how much I had to read, or look bad and see how little I had read. But now I am have reached Job, this was a book that I was dreading, whenever I read it before it was because I felt like I should just so I could say I had read it like a good Christian. 

But when was the last time any of you have sat down and read job, not just reading it to finish it but to just soak in God's word. Job is powerful, I mean it starts out with God bragging about Job 'Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”' (Job 1:8 NIV) God is bragging about Job like a proud father brags about his children. So God tells Satan that he believes in Job and Satan can test him, he can take everything about the man, but not harm Job himself. Still Job doesn't turn away from God he remains faithful, so then Satan challenges God again “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. ⁵ But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 2:4), so God relents again trusting Job to remain faithful, his only condition is that Satan cannot kill Job. Again Satan goes and strikes Job with illness that causes him to be covered in soars all over his body. Still Job does not curse God instead he says "...Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10)

Job is special, lets be honest most people (and by most I mean most likely everyone) does not have everything taken away from us including our health, family, homes, everything and act like Job. Job grieves yes, but he hasn't sinned yet, blaming God for this, Job has not stopped worshiping.

I love that verse "...Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" God does not promise us that our lives are going to be filled with happiness, God does not promise that our lives are going to be easy. Actually its the opposite we can look throughout the Bible, both old and new testaments and find that the peoples lives who followed God where in fact not easy at all. We will find that they are constantly being attacked whether verbally or physically because they are different and people don't like different. 

If we are going to be different, if we are going to follow God we should accept the good AND the bad, the hard, the messy, the scary, everything. This life is about so much more then happiness. 

My life began....again...Part 2

If you have ever met me you will know that I am a someone who is shy around people I don't know well, this stems from the fact that I don't trust easily. I don't trust the people who I first meet because I am instantly thinking, what if they don't like me, what if they hurt me, because of these thoughts that are going through my head I stay silent in hopes that I can fade into the background. When God started to break off my fear He did it in tangible ways, He gave me joy that overwhelmed my fear to the point where I was able to  be who I am. Which is opinionated, talks to much, outgoing, adventurous, loves to laugh, and sometimes just a little crazy. I forgot to be silent and instead yearned to get to know my team, I wanted to know their names, their stories, joys, hurts, everything, so I asked questions. I was assertive, I was anything but the wallflower that I should have wanted to be.

The team of shy people dance

We are being set free right here

Its funny because on the second day of training camp they asked the students to ask the Lord what He wanted to tell them about our teams. The training team each team to know what God was calling our teams into, so the students specifically were told to ask him for specific words. It was amazing because so many of them got the word freedom.  God wanted to give us freedom from all the lies, fears, brokenness, hurt, all the things that were holding us back from Him. Freedom was poured out from the Lord on to my team and it started in me and spread, the Lord set every person on my team free. Even more so though my team was going to be used to bring freedom to many they met on the field and even off later when they got home.

I don't know if you can see but you can actually see the changes starting. The smiles get bigger

I will write more about this later but let me tell you this signifies a lot of freedom for my team.

These first to two blogs where about how God set me free and next I will tell you about how he set the rest free. It is story that brings me such great joy that I literally dance and weep because my heart is so full of gratitude and love for the Lord who decided to love us so much. This trip taught me so much about the Love our Abba has for us. Our Abba sent Jesus (His son) to earth to set us free, I lived in a cage for far to long the door has been open and ocassionally I would step back in when I started to wander from my God. No more. Freedom is mine, it was paid for with a price and I want to take my free gift and run with it.

My life began....again...

I struggle with writing about my team because how do I even begin, so maybe I will restart and start at the beginning...

The Banner welcoming my team to training camp

It was another hot humid day in Georgia they day my participants came, the leaders had been already been in Georgia for three days preparing our hearts and minds so that we would be ready to lead our teams. It was a time of refreshing community, we were poured into, encouraged, loved, nothing could have prepared us better for what was coming.

However refreshing and wonderful time together as leaders was it was always tinged with just a little bit of anxiousness because we could not wait for our new families to arrive, we felt ready, it was time.

June 15 was almost as good as Christmas morning with everyone getting up with the knowledge and anticipation that today was the day. The students would all be here tonight, by tonight we could say goodbye to personal space, sleep, carefree days for a month. It was something we were all willing to do with joy in our hearts.

Haleigh and Miranda on the Bus on the way to AIM from the aiport

They arrived just as we knew they would some were scared, some tearful, some with seemingly no fear, they were there standing around and you could just see in their eyes that they were terrified. They wanted to be loved, accepted and just so afraid that they wouldn't find it within their team. The funny thing is that up until that moment I fought the very same fears. I was afraid that my team wouldn't like me, that my co-leaders would be sad that they had to have me on their team. But in that moment of seeing my first participant I didn't care, something in me changed. God spoke to me, He told me that everything would be alright, I would be loved just as much as I already loved my team. That no matter through the hard times Abba loved me.

Ashley and Jesse on the bus from the Airport

In that moment I felt like I was really starting to get a new understanding of that Love.  In that moment that I saw Haleigh (she was the first one I saw), I knew I loved her with my whole heart that she would be there for life. I also knew this love that I had for her wasn't something that I would be capable without Christ giving it to me and if God could just implant this type of Love in me, how much better His love was for me was. How much stronger and all encompassing it was overwhelming and I could feel no fear, it was gone in a moment, Love overcame it.

My team and their 'things' at training camp

To Be Continue...

PS. I am still not fully funded, in the next post I will post the exact number but it is still over $1000 please be praying that I would remain faithful in this time to the fact that God always provides.