Stories

A  story that has been on my mind these past few days. 

One from the villages and our trekking adventure. The first house that we went to, our guide, chris, and his wife have been visiting this family for over three years now. They have a deep relationship with the family and have shared several times with the whole family (their was a husband and wife and the son and his wife) about Jesus and the gospel. They have had many discussions with the daughter in law esp. about Jesus and have show them several videos about the story and life of Jesus. They also brought up audio tapes in the local language for the daughter in law that are the gospels on tape. She listen to them so much she broke her cassette player but went and had it fixed at a local village because she loved the tapes so much. She can not read, as most of the woman can't in the villages. We only spent one night there and found out while we were there that the daughter in law was barren. That she had been trying to have children since chris had met the family. Through some communicating with signs she let me and another girl on the team pray for her. While we were praying her mother in law came in and what I thought was amazing was the reaction of the mother in law. Although the daughter had shown much interested in Jesus, the parents didn't show any but once we were done praying the mother in law was moved to tears and had to leave the room. Even through communication barriers, and differences in religion the power of prayer and speaking the name of Jesus over that woman was felt in the souls of all of us. I think this is something that people cannot deny is the sense in their soul the truth that the name of Jesus holds. It is something that she obviously didn't understand or know much about, but she couldn't deny it, and she couldn't deny His presence in that place so much so that she was overwhelmed. 

I love that, I love that our God is so big that people don't have to know anything about Him to know His power and His love. It is something that inside of them that they yearn for, and that they are empty without. But when they get a taste of it they might not know what to do with it but they know it is something greater than they could ever imagine. 

Forgot Pic's

The Final Stretch

I made it home - Australia home that is. A long journey full of adventure. Leaving on June 21st taking an assortment of transportation that included taxi's, buses, trains, and a ferry we arrived in Spain for a short overnight break. That was the first 30 hours of our trip. The next 30 hours included three plain rides that landed us safely back in Oz. 

To sum up a two and a half month outreach in Morocco would be a ridiculously long blog so I will put a few stories and pictures up this week as I remember and look back at all the fun stuff God did. 

I think one of the biggest things that God taught me during this time, surprisingly, was how much He loved me, and how jealous He is of my attention and how much He just wants me to receive His love. Going into a country and having your focus on other people, I forgot that in order for me to love others I had to first let God love me. 1 John 4:19 We loved because He first loved us. 

It is amazing sometimes how hard it is to receive things. But the freedom their is to walk in with knowing that no matter what I have done, no matter what I do, everyday God loves me; everyday He delights in the fact that I am His. That is an amazing truth to live in.

So before the last week of being in Morocco five of the members of my team including me went on a trek through the Altas Mountains. It was hard, long, and eye opening to a new world. We trekked about ten miles a day through mountains with huge back packs on. Then we would stay in the villages we walked to at night. The villages were up on sides of mountains, with houses made out of mud and straw bricks. Most houses had a room that was covered in carpet and pillows. That is were we sat and ate and slept. The culture is so big on guests and being enormously hospitable. They served us a lot of tea (well sugar that had a hint of tea in it) and lots of bread. Yes ladies - it was very difficult for the girls on a entire carbs diet. haha. The whole time they feed you tons of food and the whole time it was meal time the only thing they would say to us was eat eat eat. You aren't eating enough - you will find no husband if you don't eat. haha, we were a bit to skinny for their taste. It was amazing to see the lives of the woman. They can work. My goodness, they work more than anyone I have ever seen. Regular daily tasks that we take for granted that takes them all day to do. They wake up at 5 every morning to make the dough for the bread that day if that tells you anything. No running water - we were lucky because they had just got electricity in the villages last year. Squatty potties - yea that is all I will say about that. We trekked for 5 days and didn't shower once. I wore the same pants for five days! I think it was the dirtiest I have ever been in my life! That a good enough visual for now, I will write more later - tons of good stories from that week. 

I am super excited to be back and miss home terribly! Love you all.

You are blessed to be a blessing.

One phase complete.

Well I finished our 11 weeks lecture phase. We ended with one last week on relationships that was amazing. We are all packing at the last minute and all smell like cleaner from last minute cleaning before we leave! 

I can not believe that this part of the adventure is over. Through many weeks of joy, tears, fun, not understanding God then understanding God, then breaking free of old stuff, then realizing new stuff God has for me, and all of the while building amazing friendships. I can't imagine what God has in store for my team to do these up and coming months. Already the team is being hit with curve balls from the enemy, which makes me more excited. You aren't going to get attack unless the enemy knows that you are going to be doing something big for God. If you don't meet the devil on your journey then maybe your not on God's journey. We are ready, weapons drawn, God in front leaving tomorrow! 

I continually miss people and love you guys all! New E-mail for the next couple of months so please write! ~ kalid@ywamwollongong.org

I won't be able to check the old e-mail or facebook so please use this one! 

You are blessed to be a blessing!!  

 

God speaks in unconventional ways.

Our last book assignment was about a book call A Tale of Three Kings. Um don't remember who wrote it. It is a great book, short, easy ready with tons of great points. 

It was the story of Saul, David and Absalom. It focused on David mainly and his reaction to things in his life like having to live with a crazy King Saul. The things that stuck out the most to me was David and how he handled the situations he was in. When David was young he lived with King Saul, who was crazy and used David for spear practiced most of the times. The picture portrayed an example of how you can have people in your life that seem to be awful and do things that make your life miserable like David. It brings up interesting points about if God is allowing you to be put in positions with people that are negative or is he pulling out inner Saul that is in you out. 

Here are some quotes from the book:

There is a vast difference between the outward clothing of the spirits power and the inner filling of the spirits life. 

God gives unworthy vessels power. Why? He sometimes gives unworthy vessels a greater portion of power so that others will eventually see the true state of internal nakedness within that individual.

 

- David was places in a position of being anointed by God and placed under the rule of a King that abused him and tried to kill him. David probably wondered a few times why God gave Saul power and why God put him under that power. 

David was caught in a very uncomfortable position, however he seemed to grasp a deep understanding of the unfolding drama in which he had been caught. He seemed to understand something that few of even the wisest men of his day understood. Something that in our day, when men are wiser still, even fewer understand.

God did not have but wanted very much to have men/women who would live in pain.

God wanted a broken vessel. 

David had such a fear of the Lord that he suffered, endured, and gave every part of himself to a king that eventually would drive him to a cave because he wanted to kill him. 

At first look you wonder why God didn't put a stop to Saul and why he let David live in such a harsh environment. God wasn't punishing David, he was preparing him. David had the fear of the Lord and was willing to be completely mutilated emotionally and spiritually by Saul because he knew that is where the Lord wanted him. David was willing to test his obedience and wait on the Lord. 

If you take a look at it and recognize that King Saul sought to destroy David but his only success was that he became the instrument of God to put to death the Saul who roamed about in the caverns of David's own soul. yes, David was virtually destroyed in the process but this had to be done otherwise the Saul in him would have survived.

Looking back and recognizing "Sauls" in my life made me realize that through these people that I thought were in my life to torment me where actually bringing out inner sauls in me that needed to die. I can see the times God was testing my obedience and the things in my life that were surfaced and died.  This death allowed me to be open to what God's real desires were for my life. I can say I am walking right now in what God wants me to be doing because of Sauls in my life and the results they had on my inner spirit! So next time you find yourself face to face with a Saul in your life, pray for God to get your through it, maybe even out of it, or maybe that you would just be open to letting the Lord come in and maybe show you an inner part of that Saul you have living in you and let God clean it out and replace it with a lovely gift from Him. 

Late Post!

Sorry this post has been a long time coming! I can't believe how time flies! I have many things on my heart that I have learned over the last few weeks but don't have enough room to write them all nor would you want to read a post that long! =) I think one of the biggest things that I feel like God wants me to share is about how he is with us every second of every day. We learned about destiny and calling one week and this is a huge topic as you can tell just by the title but to simplify it I really learned a lot about how much God picked each one of us, created and molded each one of us and is really with us every second of every day. (Isaiah 43) I think this is something we need to meditate on more. Really bring it into your life and take it to the extreme. God is with you when you wake up and think whatever you think when you first wake up and He is with you when you are trying to make decisions on what to eat for breakfast or lunch today. He is apart of it all! I often forget that. I often take that for granted and often don't harness that and use it. How much different would my life look if I truly walked in a relationship with Jesus that was me in connection with Him on every decision that I make throughout the day? I know I have taken this to the extreme but until you start to live out something then it never becomes part of your life. It never become part of your routines that you live every day and it never allows God the opportunity to impact your life and more importantly other peoples lives the way He so creatively wants to on a day to day basis. Sometimes I forget that God wants to love people every day, I think that I have to bring some huge gospel message and they have to be saved or else God isn't happy with my work. One that is the totally wrong assumption on how God views success (which could be a whole other topic of its own - maybe later! ) But two my God is a God of love, so it would make sense that He just wants us to love one another. I have to remind myself that my God created the universe and is more creative than I could ever imagine so He could use me in ways I never could imagine and I would be bold enough to say probably half of them would and will be in ways that are so small I wouldn't think twice about them. That if I allowed Him to lead my decisions throughout the day that amazing work could be done and I wouldn't even have preached a message, or sang a praise song, or maybe even prayed that day. God is really just been transforming my view of what praise to Him really entails. I really think we limit how we can praise God and the methods that we think He accepts as praise. God has also been repeatedly bringing up learning how to fear the Lord so I think that plays into this topic a lot. That also is a whole other topic that may need to come later. We only have internet til 11 so I have to post this now. I miss everyone and love everyone!

Funny Stories!!!

Hey Everyone! 

So I have some funny stories. We are in the midst of changing season from summer to fall. Sad day! With the change of seasons we are seeing more and more spiders and bugs! YUCK! So far we have had none in our room or bathroom until the other day! We had two in our bathroom! I am posting pictures of the Spider just so you know how gross they really are! =) I was walking into the stall to go to the bathroom and I walked like 10 inches away from it! I about died! Let's just say that spider didn't last long! Then we had one crawling around on the ceiling at 6 o'clock in the morning while we were trying to take showers! I woke up real fast! 

I went surfing again this past weekend for another unsuccessful attempted. It is a lot harder than you think. The waves were massive and I was a little unmotivated at 8 O'clock in the morning! But I will be good by the end of this trip!!! 

This past weekend we went to this town called Kiama. It is the town of the world's largest blow hole! It was stinking awesome and we climbed this cliff and took pictures on the top! Those are the pic's on here! It was so fun! We went over to one of the couples that staff on base for a BBQ! What a good weekend.

Other than that we just live normal. Lectures all day, chores in the afternoon, running or swimming at the beach as much as possible, and night time chill sessions! Missing everyone but learning so much! Love you all and will write more later!