End of Lecture...

This lovely girl on my school took tons of video and put together a little show of some of the lecture phase. Thought you guys would enjoy it.

We are all packed up and ready to go. We leave tomorrow and are all so excited. I am so excited to go out and build relationships, find Jesus in these places and people. I am learning more and more about my relationship with Jesus. I guess for most of the time growing up, I viewed church and God as a bunch of rules. A look and way of acting. I had no concept of relationship with God, how to have it. I still struggle sometimes not falling into "the part" and really pressing into learning and wrestling with my relationship with God. I love it, and I love wrestling or having to seek out God because after all the hard times, after all the confusion, and after all the questions I have peace. I have love and hope and usually feel closer to God afterwards. So it is almost like the pain or discomfort of not knowing everything in this relationship grows me.. haha go figure. So some days are harder than others but all end with the same thought, I love you God and I know that you love me, so the rest will be settled later. More often than not the answer to my question or my lack of feeling God's presence seems to be met. He is never far and always hears my cried, even when I feel like He doesn't.

Well I guess all this is spurred on by the fact that we are leaving tomorrow to travel down an unexpected road of life, death, and desperation. I wanted to walk into this journey remembering God's character. The love, grace, mercy, compassionate, just God that I serve in the midst of whatever lies ahead. If you think about it or as you read this you can send up some prayers for the team and me. Travel, safety, baggage, and hearts of those we meet. We are expecting divine appointments and lives to be changed by Jesus. Oh I am excited!

You are blessed to be a blessing.

God's Kindness...

I have been learning a lot in the last couple of weeks. God has been kindly, gently leading me back to having more fear of the Lord. Away from my motivation of wanting to gain a bunch of head knowledge. I sometimes get very wrapped up in finding out as much as I can about topics, about truth and have recently come to the revelation through this weeks speaker that I was gaining a bunch of head knowledge that I could spit out but that I had no understanding of God and was not walking in wisdom with any of it. I love that God is gentle in His nature to bring us back in line with Him, and He knows that my hearts intentions were to know more of Him to share with others, but in the process I stopped seeking after Him to know more of Him and started leaning on my ability to find out what other people had to say about God. I think He is probably the best to describe and tell me about himself huh. So after some repenting, I have refocused prayers, and time spent in His word.

This past weekend was fun. My school and I went camping. It was cold and rainy but so much fun. We only stayed one night but I must say I was pretty proud of 40 something girls (with a few husbands) putting together tents, cooking over fires, building fires, and some even endured the cold and jumped in the lake. I was not one of those people just in case you were wondering. I think I walked around with several layers on for the majority of the time. Haha.

So I have been encouraged by God to start playing the piano again. I used to play when I was younger, but quit many years ago.. like 10-12 years ago. The base that I am on has a piano that they let students play on. After finding out two of the girls in my team play, and after much debate with God on the issue I decided to give it a go. I was hooked after the first time playing. It sounded awful and I actually don't remember anything from when I was younger but I loved it. It was like releasing a passion that I have had but was to afraid to let out. It was freeing, exciting, and just made my days more joyful when I would play. I still am not good and still not even really playing a song yet but am loving this new way to express creativity that God gave me. It took a lot for me to get over my fear of failing and fear of man because of my lack of ability. But I know that God enjoys my tinker and clanks.. haha... I even got a cheap little keyboard that I am going to be able to take to Tanzania with me, so the practicing will continue. And don't worry, I am able to plug in my headphones so my team doesn't have to endure the sounds that I produce. haha....

God is good. Well we are getting ready to head out in 8 days to Tanzania. I will write more about our fun awaiting us later.

You are blessed to be a blessing.

The time is now....

This weekend was full of prayer push, e-mails, and phone calls. We (my school and I) were fighting a very hard battle against the enemy (who doesn't want to see our team go on outreach). I would be scared if I were him! haha. Anyways, turns out that a family that is waiting for support money - there internet was, for some reason, not working all weekend (huh) and they didn't receive all the e-mails that had been sent all weekend long saying people wanted to support them. This is just one of the exciting stories that our team experienced this past week. I have just seen first hand what it means to stand in faith, knowing God spoke words for this family to go on outreach but not seeing the physical results yet.

SO.... we still needed money coming into this week...

Today at 1:00 pm my team needed to buy airline tickets. If we didn't buy them today, the price would go up. God's timing is never wrong. At 5 minutes til one o'clock today my leader was finishing up the math on all the donations, plus money we as a school had raised to announce that we had all of our money!!!

Praise God. He is so faithful and amazing. I can't express how amazing this time has been drawing near to Him and seeking after His ways to see this money come in and standing on His words that it would come in!! Oh it was a great time of screaming and singing and dancing! It was so much fun!

Anyways, thank you for all your prayers and support. I loved taking you on this journey of God's faithful.

So I only have 14 more days here in Perth, and then we head out to Tanzania!! I am so excited. It is this overwhelming feelings of joy, nervousness, excitement, feeling fully ready to deliver a baby, then re-thinking maybe I am not so ready.. haha... I am ready, and don't worry, I will be fully supervised on my first couple of catches! =)

Love you all!

You are bless to be a blessing.

News update...

We need prayer!!! God is so amazing and good. We have seen amazing things happen in these last few days. We had our feast after a night of worship, prayer, Bible reading, and so much fun dancing around and worshiping God. We have seen so much come in and God's provision is just overwhelming. We as a school still need 10,000 dollars and have seen 220,000 dollars provided!! So I ask please send up some prayers for the birth attendant school in perth. We are fighting to keep communication lines open. It seems like we have had many problems with the internet, getting a hold of people, and hearing back from people.

One of the verses God gave our school for the year is Isaiah 40:3-5.

³ A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.^{⁴ Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. ⁵ And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."}

So I really believe that we are making the way for the Lord. We are doing the work that He has laid before us, making straight a path in the wilderness. I love this imagery because the ground is rough and rugged. It is hard work to make them straight and making level mountains and hills.. I am not even going into how much work that would be. But this is the preparation that needs to be done so the Lord can come, and move and for His glory to be revealed. So this is what my school and I have been doing. We are fighting, praying, worshiping, and taking actions in seeking out people who want to give into making way for the Lord's glory. The glory of the Lord will be revealed and will come, we want to be ready to see it come in full force. I am so excited to be apart of this journey!

You are blessed to be a blessing.

More News...

Okay.. Today is the day our money is due! God has spoken words about a celebration that will be happening tonight! We are in full faith and starting to build our tent for meeting for the celebration (we are literally building a tent). This whole concept comes from the jewish celebration feast of Tabernacles. I am soo excited! We are needing 29,000 dollars!! God has provided 201,000 dollars!!! We are in full push in prayer and contacts and I just want to keep giving anybody the opportunity that wants to jump on board in seeing this miracle happen. I gave the website in my last post, but all your have to do is go to that website and make a payment of however much God is putting on your heart. No amount is to small for God to multiple!! One of our leaders has been collecting money off the street, because God has been putting loose change in her path. So she added a collection of 5 dollars and some change to our fund of money!

this is an exciting day and I want you all to be apart of it! God is not only using this time for people to invest into His kingdom but to really invest in our unity of our group. People are not only donating money but God is prompting them to donate clothes to bless everyone and tonight we are donating food for our celebration! God is big and creative. One thing I am learning from the amazing women around me is not to just ask God about money but ask God about blessing people in whatever creative ways you can imagine. Don't ask God should I bless, but take a step of faith and start working on a blessing - whether that is some cookies, an encouraging note, some clothes for someone, oh my goodness there are endless possibilities! But step into the act! Don't wait for the answer to bless, we are all called to bless. This is just a huge new revelation for me, like as I write I am understanding more and more! Learn to ask God different questions. He has called us to bless, to move in faith. So don't wait for Him to tell you to move, move and wait because He is going to come in full force behind you and magnify your blessing to others and to you!!

Will write more soon about our celebration!!!!!!!!

You are blessed to be a blessing!!!

Excitement...

Well... First let me tell everyone today is my BIRTHDAY!!!! YAH.... I am 23 years old and just loving today! It is amazing to look back and see how far God has taken me in one year, and now I am getting pumped for the year ahead. He has already spoken such amazing things for this next year, I am blown away by His love and faithfulness in my life.

So I want to update you guys on my teams money situations. We have been moving into action and praying. God is soo good and we have already seen 180,000 dollars (roughly) come in and we are still in need 50,000 dollars (roughly) (sorry I didn't write down the exact figures). Everyday we are continuously seeing more and more of God's provision and his amazing creativity in how He provides. I want to share that if anyone feels lead to give, and feels like God is putting an amount on your heart to contribute to this vision God has to see Midwives taken into the nations, then please e-mail me. Or if you would like, you can just go on YWAM Perth's website and pay online towards the BAS. (Birth Attendant School). https://www.ywamperth.org.au/007/payonline.asp

This is the website.. you can just say that it is for the BAS outreach in the details section of the payment plan.

This is an amazing opportunity to contribute to God's kingdom. We will be effecting four different nations this year with a large group of about 30+ people. So pray about the amount to contribute and lets see nations changed together! Thanks for all your support! Love you guys!

You are blessed to be a blessing!

An update of God's amazement....

Hey guys!

I am so excited to be including you all on this journey of finances with my team and me. The numbers are falling so rapidly! I wrote down our totals this mornings and then this afternoon had to change them again!! Ah God is good!! Okay so our total amount has come down to needing 59,717.40 dollars. God has provided 170, 980.35 dollars!!!

The exciting part of all of it, is the journey that God takes you on. It is not about the money (God is so much bigger than a few dollar figures), it is about learning what God wants you to learn, growing closer to Him. Our base got a scripture from Acts 2: 42-47

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The key message I think here is that they lived in community, and they gave within their community until everyone had enough. This is a amazing lesson to be learned. Living here on base in Perth, we are in community. Their are people young, old, families, singles. But we all live in one area (blocks wide but within walking distance), eat all together in one room, worship, pray all together. We are a community, a family. My school prays everyday for finances during lunch. This week we felt God draw us towards the scriptures about Jesus feeding the thousands with just a few fish and some loaves of bread. How He gave thanks, and it multiplied to feed thousands. Our base sent out three teams this week to several different nations. Two of the teams did not have all the money that they needed to go. God spoke to my school about gathering together all the extra resources within our school ( our few fishes and loaves) to pray over and give to our extended family; these members of our community who were in need. We prayed, took up an offering, and ended up with 890 dollars!! That in itself was a miracle. So then we prayed that God would multiple that number. We let the money sit in our room that night because we took the collection during the evening. The next morning, after the final count it had multiplied to 1,412.50 dollars!!!! GOD is sooo amazing!! I don't know who added extra money, or how much of it God just made appear but it was such a blessing to live out this scripture in Acts. To give the extra resources we had to bless our community, so that every one in the community would have enough!! Isn't it amazing to think, what if we lived out this guideline that God sets up - in families, communities. What would it do in countries ?? Perhaps end the millions dying of malnutrition while other countries suffer from being obese, or the millions dying of preventable diseases while other countries are fully vaccinated....

The hope comes when we live this out in our own home, then in our community (church, extended family ect.), then after being an example - seeing people follow this lifestyle and then you see it lived out in countries. Start with small things, but start... these actions move mountains.

You are blessed to be a blessing.