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I have no words. I am so stoked! I know God is going to be doing amazing things all of the world but I am especially expectant for the crazy testimonies that are waiting for me and my team in the Philippines! There are a lot of different ministry oppurtunities there so we haven't quite nailed down exactly what we will be up to there. I know we will be going to many different parts of the island(s), but we will be teaming up with long term YWAM missionaries doing: bar ministry (mostly to the prostitutes and bartenders), prision ministry, orphange outreach, street work, disaster relief (from the strongest ever typhoon that ever hit back in 2013), Smokey Mountain (one of the worlds largest landfills where people actually live), as well as trekking to unreached villages in the rice terraces! It is gonna be wild!
And who will I be leading with???
One of my closest friends, Elijah!!! We actually both went on outreach to Amsterdam last year so I am STOKED to be co-leading this wild outreach to the Philippines with him! He is an amazing man of God who has such a joyful heart and a longing to see people encounter the heart of Jesus! I can't wait to lead with him!
And who is on my team???
Eight of the most joy filled, wild, fiery-eyed revivalist that I've met!!! Their names are Benaja, Christian, Hannah B, Anna Grace, Donald, Moriah, and Hannah C! I can already tell they all are radical servants and have hearts of worship...what more do you need?! I can't wait to see how we grow and unify as a family.
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// DAILY LIFE UPDATE \\
I can hardly believe that our school has already been through TWO whole weeks of lecture!! The Lord has been exceeding every expectation and more with this school. We as staff knew it would be a wild bunch, but man, these students from all over the world have blew everything out of the water! The first week was about Intimacy with God taught by Taylor Stutts and Andy Byrd. We were all left mind blown about how simple the Gospel is and that everything we do stems from our realtionship with our Heavenly Father!
Andy, one of the founders of Fire and Fragrance, spoke mainly on whole-hearted Christianity. What would it look like if we as Christians read the Bible, and then did what it says? Now, that might be a question that makes you uncomfortable or defensive, but really think about it. How easy is it to get stuck in a cycle of going through the motions? How often do we work towards goals that we believe will make us successful or that will please our peers and families? I know fore me, it was super easy. But as Andy began to provoke us with these questions, He began to explain how whole-hearted Christianity is the only Christianity! We were made for a relationship with Jesus and intimacy is the way to express that whole-hearted Christianity! As a school, we vowed to be all in! To be consecrated and set apart in our pursuit of the Father's heart! We understand that being all in is the only way we can live life, and life to the fullest (John 10:10)! I was so encouraged as Andy came back with stories from nations in the Himalayas about how him and his team trekked up to unreached villages where they would make relationships with the leaders of the villages and give them the Bible. As the leaders began to read the Gospel, they saw that Jesus laid hands on the sick and they were healed, so they began going into their own villages to lay hands on the sick and see healings break out!!! It is incredible to realize that it is really as simple as reading the word and then living it out. That is what it means to live out whole-hearted Christianity!
YWAM's founders, Loren and Darlene Cunningham, have recently recieved a mandate from the Lord to end Bible poverty. This means that we believe everyone has a right to recieve the gospel in their language! That can be accomplished through Bible distribution (which the Philippines team is planning on doing as well) but it also means to end Bible poverty-mindset in the more western nations! That means that even though we have Bibles available to us, we tend to perfer a trained teacher to explain the Bible rather than to read it for ourselves! But we its amazing that the author of the Bible lives inside of us so we can recieve interpretation as we read!
Week Two was called Pure Heart week and was taught by the amazing Tom and Donna Cole. This week is such a crucial week for our students. Tom and Donna's ministry is one of inner healing and freedom. They teach on how our mother's and father's have such a massive impact on who we are and how we grow up - and no matter how good the parents are, there are bound to be wounds from that. They also teach on true feminity and masculinity; what it means and what does it look like to be men and women of Jesus Christ! As you can assume, this is a pretty emotional week as we allow the Holy Spirit to bring up the hurt that we tend to push down, back to the surface and pull out the roots of all the pain so we can recieve healing from Jesus. This week goes deep to the root issuses that we have that usually hinder the way we look at God. Even though it is an emotional week, it is probably one of my favorites because I get to see students open their hearts to Jesus, recieve healing by the power of the Holy Spirit, and then by the end of the week, each student has SO much more freedom and years of bondage and wieght lifted off their shoulders! It is truly incredible! I am privelged to be apart of the ministry team and provide support for the students as they go thourgh this week. There was so much joy as we celebrated breakthrough at the end of week two!!!
Now, we are going to head into a wild week called Freedom week taught by the wonderful, Brian Brent!!! This week focuses in our identity as a child of God and the freedom of walking in our identity! I am full of expectation for what is ahead!!!