Lessons in God's Provision :)

In DTS, it is not at all uncommon to have worship at least one night a week, however last night, our worship looked a little bit different. We were told to spend the afternoon asking God if there was anything He wanted us to give away and then bring it with us that evening so as to spend the evening worshiping God by giving! 

As I prayed, God brought a few of my fellow classmates to mind who hadn't yet raised all their support for being here so I brought a few financial gifts for them, but He also brought my guitar to mind- and THAT I was not quite as ready to give up. So I pushed the thought aside and headed off to worship night with my checks in hand and my guitar safely in my room. 

When I got there, the leader opened by saying: "If any of you forgot anything in your room, feel free to go get it at any point during the night". Needless to say, that got me squirming! I was becoming increasingly convinced that God wanted me to give up my precious guitar and was in the middle of deciding whether or not to be obedient when my friend, Jesse called me into the middle of the circle to receive a gift from him. I had no idea what to expect but was completely blown away when he left the room and returned with his beautiful, hand-crafted guitar in hand. I knew firsthand what an incredible sacrifice it was and all I could do was stand there speechless :) As soon as the joy of receiving such a priceless gift subsided, I was incredibly humbled as I realized that the guitar which God had told me to give away was still sitting in my room. How could I have not believed that God wouldn't have some sort of plan for me? He knew how much I love guitar and music and He already had a replacement picked out for me- He just wanted me to be obedient.

Bashfully, I ran up to my room and got my guitar, then confessed to the group how God had told me to give my guitar away, I had dutifully ignored Him, He had blessed me with an even nicer guitar nonetheless and I was now finally being obedient. Better late than never right? 

Throughout the rest of the night, I watched as people sacrificed things of great monetary and sentimental value and God faithfully blessed them with even greater gifts in return. In addition to my guitar, I received two pairs of nice shoes, a bracelet and a skirt. This night will hopefully remain engrained in my memory for awhile as a reminder of God's amazing provision. He is so faithful to take what little we have to give, multiply it, and give it right back to you, blessing all kinds of people along the way. If He calls you to give, you can trust that it is absolutely the best thing you could be doing with your possessions :)  

Turns out, His timing was perfect as usual for teaching me this lesson, as I found out today the cost for my outreach to Haiti. Because our team is so small, the cost is significantly more than I expected (considering it is being divided amongst a smaller group of people, and we can't get group rates as a general rule with a team of 7). The total cost will be $3500. At the moment, I have about $2500. So now, I get to experience God's provision as He brings in the remaining $1000 between now and the time I leave in a month :) 

Please pray and ask  God if He might be calling you to be a part of this provision. If so, please make any checks out to YWAM and mail them to 11141 Osborne St. Lake View Terrace CA 91342 with a note attached indicating that they are for me. 

Either way, stay tuned for the continuation of the amazing story of how God in His infinite imagination, meets all my needs :) 

Weeks 5 and 6: Biblical worldview and Justice week

The last two weeks really went hand in hand. During the first, Colleen challenged us to tackle the major questions that shape our Worldview (such as "What is real?", "Can we know?", "What is the purpose for living?") from a Biblical perspective.

This led in to Justice week led by Christel. On Monday, we took part in different stations and skits that helped us experience some of the injustices in the world today, including; sex trafficking, child soldiers, the persecution of christians, the poor working conditions for children in sweat shops, and the lack of access to clean drinking water.

These guys, role-played terrorists, kidnapped us, threw us in the back of a van,  blindfolded and turned us into child soldiers. Some of us were forced to "kill" our fellow children. It was very real and quite frightening. To think of children as young as 3 or 4 years old having to go through this was heart-breaking.

Throughout the rest of the week, we learned about God's heart for justice, as well as some practical ways we can be getting involved. There are several organizations working hard at the various aspects of injustice all throughout the world, such as: 

*Not For Sale: http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

*Project AK-47: https://projectak47.com/index.aspx (This one was started by a guy from the church I've been attending. He had some amazing stories about how God is working! He truly does stand up for the widows and orphans!)

On Friday, we went into Hollywood and did some flash-mob type things (everyone froze in a dramatic pose for 5 minutes on the walk of fame) to draw attention and raise awareness about the issue of sex-trafficking. As people stopped and asked questions, they were handed flyers with statistics and website URLs for more information on the subject and what can be done about it. As a member of the Media Track, I was able to film the people posing, the bystanders reactions as well as some interviews with people during and after the event. We will be working on putting together a video about this "Freeze Project". Stay tuned! :) 

Fun times :)

Went to see the Tonight Show with Jay Leno :) We got box seats and I  came away with some free awesome fuzzy socks as memerobilia. To see what I was seeing live last Wednsday, go to: 

http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/wednesday-february-16-2011/1295633/. If you look closely, when Jay comes out at the very beginning, you can see me standing up in the very middle, wearing a black and white scarf :) But you'll have to look reaaally closely...

As a part of the Media track, I've gotten the opportunity to capture several pretty amazing moments, one of which took place last Friday on Hollywood boulevard. The students in my DTS did some flash mob type stuff to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking. We turned lots of heads and were able to spread the news about this growing problem. 

A fun hike... If it weren't for the smog, you wouldn't even know this is LA!

Australia Day!!

LA by night :) 

A trip to Anaheim- we didn't even have to go in to Disneyland to enjoy ourselves :) We walked around Downtown Disney and soaked up the magic while watching the fireworks, listening to free live music, and eating yummy food.... 

Week Four: Identity/ the Father Heart of God

It doesn't take a clairevoyant to predict that this weeks' topics of Identity and the Father Heart of God might be tear-jerkers. And suffice it to say, our two amazing speakers, Dan Sneed and Dave G., weren't bashful about bringing on the tears.

Our first speaker, Dan, spoke on Identity and Self-image. He explained that identity is who we in fact are; the way God sees us; reality. Self-image on the other hand, is the way we perceive ourselves and can be a completely different thing indeed from who we truly are. He spoke on how, through Christ, we have a new identity: God now sees us as His adopted children, holy and blameless, covered in the blood of Jesus. To put it shockingly, we are the same in His eyes as His Son! Unfortunately, our self-image just can't grasp that because everything we see, everything we hear, everything that God tells us passes through a filter that we ourselves have created, a filter built on one or two foundational lies. These lies are usually set in place as young children and are buried so deep that we are no way aware of them! They can only be revealed by the work of the Holy Spirit and  even then, take years of healing to bleed out. At Dan's urging, I prayed that the Holy Spirit would reveal any foundational lies that I have been believing, and over the course of the last week, He has done exactly that.

Our second speaker, Dave, took over on Thursday and spoke on the Father Heart of God. He explained that  because of these foundational lies that form a base for a skewed filter through which we view the world, we have developed a wrong perception of God the Father. As a result, we can't relate to God the Father in the way we wants us to- as his trusting little children. So on Friday, Dave took us through a tearful, re-parenting process as the Holy Spirit moved around the room, revealing to each person the things that were keeping us from crawling into Papa God's lap and delighting in Him. I wish I could say that my foundational lie has no stronghold in my life anymore, that I am completely healed and in perfect harmony with my heavenly Father, but that just wouldn't be true. I am however, allowing the beautiful, painful, healing process to begin. I am convinced that God has some amazing things in store for me over the course of the rest of this school and outreach! I am excited to continue this adventure deeper into Him :)