So, at Teen Mania, we have these things called LTE's, or Life Transforming Events. This past weekend, from Thursday until Sunday at 8AM, we fasted & from Thursday night at 10PM until 8 AM sunday, we also took a vow of silence. The fasting LTE's are some of my favorite events that we have here. We had one in the fall, and just finished our spring one today.
I went into the first fasting LTE expectant that all of the things that we'd been told to focus on would be revealed to us. Which they were, but I left it feeling kind of like I had been deprived of the larger issues of learning more about the different characteristics of God. SO, this fasting LTE, I went into it praying about a few different things, but mainly focusing on spending time with God as my top priority as opposed to focusing so hard on hearing my life mission statement or something like that.
One of the things that I was praying about was what I should do after my undergrad HA year. I had the options of staying as a CA (core advisor) or school of worship GI (graduate intern), or coming back to Salida and starting college & moving on from there. So I prayed about it, and neither of those options are where I'm heading next. I WILL be back in Salida for a little while after the internship, but God has now laid it on my heart to be an intercessory missionary at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO. I will also be developing my skills as a worship leader more for this as well. More development of that to come at a later date... If you want to check it out, the URL is http://www.ihop.org .
I also prayed about where God wanted me to go on a mission trip this summer. There were three countries that were on my heart until the fasting LTE. These countries were Uganda, Haiti, and India. I went to the massive wall map in the Global Expeditions building, and prayed. I asked God to show me which country he had for me to minister to this year, and He led me to India. So, I will be gathering some information shortly, and letting everybody at home know what is going on with India this summer.
But anyways.... The main point of this blog. What did God show me during the fasting LTE?
Well, earlier in the year, I was told that God was going to give me revelation of the end-times bride/bridegroom paradigm of Christianity. I wasn't sure when to expect it, so when it came, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had always though of God as more of a father type figure, but as I came to realize that weekend, God has so many more aspects than just that one. After all, we do consider Him to be the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but I had never thought of Him as God the bridegroom. It's like a completely different aspect of the love that God has for us. It also takes on new meaning if you read through some of the historic Jewish wedding traditions as well. The correlations between these traditions and the end-times prophecies in Revelations are amazing, and definitely something that I'm looking forward to pursuing more and more in the future.
So that was pretty much just an awesome weekend, and if you haven't done anything like that before, I definitely encourage it. Fasting is definitely something that I will do for the rest of my life now, and it is something that has taken on a particularly interesting role in my life with the 'church as the bride' paradigm.
If you want to hear more, or have questions, then definitely leave a comment, or feel free to facebook me or email me.
Have a blessed day!!!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
HA
HONOR ACADEMY
The Honor Academy is a place that I have come to absolutely love with all of my heart. God has grown me so much, and I completely love what the ministry does and how we affect people all around the world and around the nation.
The first part of my life at the Honor Academy was a very training intensive time where we pretty much did a ‘world detox’. We limited our access to the outside world all week and took extra doses of God every other hour or so. The only way that I can describe this place is as a spiritual green house. Because of our constant 24/7 immersion in God, we experience incredible growth in every area of our lives. God has blessed me in so many ways and has revealed gifts that I never knew that I had until now AND he’s taught me how to use them for his glory.
All of the classes and leadership that I have, have been incredibly beneficial to me, and one of my most favorite parts of this ministry is my ministry placement (job). For the first semester, I worked as a promotional representative that called youth leaders about taking their groups on missions trips. I made an average of about 76 calls a day + or -. Now I’ve been switched over to be what they call an ‘encouragement representative’, and basically what I do is … well, everything after the application, so I’m doing tons of paperwork, helping out the youth pastors with getting all of their students applied, dealing with money issues & finances for the teams, and so on. It’s great and I love the fact that I am able to help get so many people on the missions field so that they can have such a paradigm shifting experience that they will never see the world the same way… at least that’s how my mission trip effected me, so I can only pray that God will deliver that to all of my missionaries, and I know He’s faithful .My MP team is called dependant, and our verse is John 15:5. God has used this to grow me so much this year. I constantly have to remind myself about relying fully on God and letting myself and my desires go 100%. Everybody at my workplace has definitely had an impact on my life because we are all so incredibly different & we all have something different to bring to the table, but God brought us all together because we all had a hidden passion to get people out on the mission field, and through that, we have become united and through the power of Jesus, we have become strong.
One of the big parts of the HA is the part that becomes like your family for the year. These structures are called your Core. A core consists of a Core Advisor, and anywhere from 6-18 guys. They have a core name and a core verse and core values & things like that. My core name was Untamed, & my first CA’s (Core Advisor) name was Chase,he left after Christmas break due to personal decisions. Our core verse was Hebrews 11: 33-40 & the whole idea of the core was just to live ‘untamed’ and do what we believe to be right in the light of eternity due to the beliefs that we receive by becoming followers of Jesus Christ. I’ll write another reflection blog dedicated to that. Now, due to some changes that occurred, my brothers & I are in a new core called Brotherhood. My new CA's name is Chris Johnson, and I'm super stoked to get to know him & the other guys so much more throughout our remainging 7 months here. In addition to our core, we also have a sister core (or two in our case) which have the same composition as our cores, and together we make a family core. So now, instead of only having one sister like I usually do at home, I am now one of 20-30 people haha.
Some of the most unique things that have grown me in so many ways are called LTE’s (Life Transforming Events). These events are just that, Life transforming. Some of the ones that we have experienced so far are ESOAL (youtube it), the Fasting LTE, and the Men’s LTE. These have had a lot of influence in the way we are molded and shaped. ESOAL especially was something that wrecked my life, body and spirit. All I can really say about this one is that it is exactly what it stands for, an Emotionally Stretching Oppurtunity of A Lifetime. Pretty much the whole idea of it though, is to die to yourself and be able to find joy in all situations. Another one that was definitely life-altering was the fasting LTE. We fasted from Thursday morning all the way ‘til Sunday morning, we also took a vow of silence from 10PM Thursday until we broke fast at 8 on Sunday morning. During this time, we just prayed and worshipped for the whole weekend. God revealed so much about my life and the path that I’m meant to take during that time. We also had a worship leader from the International House of Prayer share some teachings with us. His name was Blaise Forret (Spelling? It sounds like Blaze foray).
In conclusion, from everything that I’ve listed above (which is just a small taste of what we really do on a daily basis) there is an incredible amount of growth and development in so many different ways. It’s a great blessing & I’m so excited to embark on a new experience for 2010. It’s still the same internship, but everything has been switched up again, AND I’ve joined the School of Worship program as well so that I can develop my musical skill and worship leader ability as well as my normal leadership ability. This is definitely going to be a huge step for me in developing the future that God has set aside for me to be a part of. His plans are coming to fruition in so many different and amazing ways that I never would have thought of in a million years.
The Honor Academy is a place that I have come to absolutely love with all of my heart. God has grown me so much, and I completely love what the ministry does and how we affect people all around the world and around the nation.
The first part of my life at the Honor Academy was a very training intensive time where we pretty much did a ‘world detox’. We limited our access to the outside world all week and took extra doses of God every other hour or so. The only way that I can describe this place is as a spiritual green house. Because of our constant 24/7 immersion in God, we experience incredible growth in every area of our lives. God has blessed me in so many ways and has revealed gifts that I never knew that I had until now AND he’s taught me how to use them for his glory.
All of the classes and leadership that I have, have been incredibly beneficial to me, and one of my most favorite parts of this ministry is my ministry placement (job). For the first semester, I worked as a promotional representative that called youth leaders about taking their groups on missions trips. I made an average of about 76 calls a day + or -. Now I’ve been switched over to be what they call an ‘encouragement representative’, and basically what I do is … well, everything after the application, so I’m doing tons of paperwork, helping out the youth pastors with getting all of their students applied, dealing with money issues & finances for the teams, and so on. It’s great and I love the fact that I am able to help get so many people on the missions field so that they can have such a paradigm shifting experience that they will never see the world the same way… at least that’s how my mission trip effected me, so I can only pray that God will deliver that to all of my missionaries, and I know He’s faithful .My MP team is called dependant, and our verse is John 15:5. God has used this to grow me so much this year. I constantly have to remind myself about relying fully on God and letting myself and my desires go 100%. Everybody at my workplace has definitely had an impact on my life because we are all so incredibly different & we all have something different to bring to the table, but God brought us all together because we all had a hidden passion to get people out on the mission field, and through that, we have become united and through the power of Jesus, we have become strong.
One of the big parts of the HA is the part that becomes like your family for the year. These structures are called your Core. A core consists of a Core Advisor, and anywhere from 6-18 guys. They have a core name and a core verse and core values & things like that. My core name was Untamed, & my first CA’s (Core Advisor) name was Chase,he left after Christmas break due to personal decisions. Our core verse was Hebrews 11: 33-40 & the whole idea of the core was just to live ‘untamed’ and do what we believe to be right in the light of eternity due to the beliefs that we receive by becoming followers of Jesus Christ. I’ll write another reflection blog dedicated to that. Now, due to some changes that occurred, my brothers & I are in a new core called Brotherhood. My new CA's name is Chris Johnson, and I'm super stoked to get to know him & the other guys so much more throughout our remainging 7 months here. In addition to our core, we also have a sister core (or two in our case) which have the same composition as our cores, and together we make a family core. So now, instead of only having one sister like I usually do at home, I am now one of 20-30 people haha.
Some of the most unique things that have grown me in so many ways are called LTE’s (Life Transforming Events). These events are just that, Life transforming. Some of the ones that we have experienced so far are ESOAL (youtube it), the Fasting LTE, and the Men’s LTE. These have had a lot of influence in the way we are molded and shaped. ESOAL especially was something that wrecked my life, body and spirit. All I can really say about this one is that it is exactly what it stands for, an Emotionally Stretching Oppurtunity of A Lifetime. Pretty much the whole idea of it though, is to die to yourself and be able to find joy in all situations. Another one that was definitely life-altering was the fasting LTE. We fasted from Thursday morning all the way ‘til Sunday morning, we also took a vow of silence from 10PM Thursday until we broke fast at 8 on Sunday morning. During this time, we just prayed and worshipped for the whole weekend. God revealed so much about my life and the path that I’m meant to take during that time. We also had a worship leader from the International House of Prayer share some teachings with us. His name was Blaise Forret (Spelling? It sounds like Blaze foray).
In conclusion, from everything that I’ve listed above (which is just a small taste of what we really do on a daily basis) there is an incredible amount of growth and development in so many different ways. It’s a great blessing & I’m so excited to embark on a new experience for 2010. It’s still the same internship, but everything has been switched up again, AND I’ve joined the School of Worship program as well so that I can develop my musical skill and worship leader ability as well as my normal leadership ability. This is definitely going to be a huge step for me in developing the future that God has set aside for me to be a part of. His plans are coming to fruition in so many different and amazing ways that I never would have thought of in a million years.
Panama
As you may remember, the very first step in my voyage away from home as I was graduating from High School was my mission trip to Panama with Global Expeditions, which many of you probably remember receiving a letter from me about requesting your support financially. I was extremely blessed in just about every way possible concerning my trip. I’ll give you a little bit of a summary of what we did while we were there, and then I’ll elaborate on some of the most impacting things that happened to me while we were there.
During my trip to Panama, I was put into a team of 24 students under the direction of two of the best team leaders IN THE WORLD as far as I’m concerned. Their names were Waikiki and Ana. Within this group of 24 students, I served as a ‘Missionary Advisor’ and was in charge of two awesome men of God named Martin and Colton. Our team also decided on a name for ourselves during one of our first meetings as a team, this name was “Team Contact”. We chose the name based on our desire to be able to make contact with the natives in a positive way and also make an amazing impact on their lives regarding the subject of Jesus Christ.
As Team Contact, we traveled to Panama to begin making an impact in these peoples’ lives. This unreached people group that we had our hearts and our prayers set on reaching was a tribe of people called the Kuna Indians. While the children of the areas stole our hearts, God broke our hearts for the Kuna people during all of the preparations we had made, but what God had in store for them, and us, was completely above and beyond anything that we could ever imagine.
We had the privilege of going to two extremely different environments of Panama, but despite the differences there were also many cultural and traditional obstacles that we would have to overcome as we fought for the souls of these people.
The first village trip that we took was to our island of Soledad Mandinga.
After a grueling boat ride that lasted for HOURS on the choppy waters in the Caribbean off of the east coast of Panama, we arrived upon an extremely small island. As our motor boats drew near to the cement dock, we all readied ourselves to start making our first impressions on the natives and began praying over everything that we would be doing over the next week. We hadn’t even been on the island for five minutes when we got our first assignment. Waikiki had talked to our translator & come upon some information that said that the Kuna people on the island were in the middle of a project in which their main objective was to haul sand from one side of the island to the opposite end in buckets to make their volleyball court more comfortable and fun to play on. After a couple hours of moving all of this sand in the grueling Central American summer heat, we finally got a chance to rest & get to know the natives a little bit. This place was an amazingly beautiful island in the middle of the ocean off of the east coast of panama, but the primitive conditions made it more brutal than a trip to the beach haha. We quickly learned how to take ‘bucket showers’ and use a ‘squatty’ when we needed to use the bathroom. Unfortunately the presence of the squatty made it impossible for us to swim in the ocean, if you know what I mean.
One of the biggest things that God worked on me the most towards the end of our first village trip and through the rest of the whole trip to Panama was the use of Idols that the Kuna people still worked with. For me, at first it was difficult to understand the whole concept of idol worship, especially in terms of modern times. They used the idols to guard them from the demons that the gods would send to attack them in various ways . They would also perform interesting pagan healing techniques and stuff that for us would be difficult to understand. I really struggled with this in particular, just because I didn’t understand why they would still cling to their old traditions even though they had seen the glory and magnificence of our God during the time that we were there. God worked on me a lot though, consequently leading me to start casting away idols that were present in my life. He gave me an understanding that just because I hadn’t had any carved images that I worshipped, I still had some of my same old idols that would take up all of my time and my focus, and that I needed to get rid of those. God definitely weeded those out of my life when I was in Panama and when I entered the Honor Academy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)