One day at a time

I Made it back to this home of mine, out in the deep blue. Its been a week or so and it has been so refreshing. I truly believe that being home for those 2 months re-directed my focus and shifted some of my thinking. Being back on campus definitely feels different but it is good. Although I have been blessed with such an amazing crew to be working with, the sole purpose and focus of being here is to be serving and bring glory to Jesus. It is easy to loose sight of that but everyday I want to living out the first commandment. Loving God with all of my heart, my mind, my soul, and strength. I want that to be at the forefront, walking it out not just knowing it and proclaiming but LIVING it! So here is a glimpse of what my week looks like. My schedule will adjust a little since it has only been a week. Monday through Friday I will be investing my time in student services which is writing letters of acceptance and answering any questions incoming students may have.

Monday we have campus wide worship that is always amazing.
Wednesday- Awaken staff get together to have a Daniel Study using International House of Prayer DVDS http://store.ihop.org/store/product/12118/Daniel-%28DVD-Set%29/
Thursday nights we have Ohana gatherings where we have corparate worship and the Message or topic varies each week.
Fridays I have lunch and meetings with the crew I work with in Student Services.
Sundays Awaken staff have started to meet together and have church. We worship and someone brings a word as well as going through the Truth Project with Focus on the Family (follow link to check it out http://www.thetruthproject.org/ )

I also may be working in the Prayer Room. Ill keep you updated.

On somewhat a different note. Id like to share a friends vision that he is about to walk out. I am so excited for this and fully support what hes doing. He wrote up an outline of what this vision looks like... its a bit long but its worth it. So please read check it out. Keep him and his team in prayer and if you want to be involved in anyway, let me know and Ill set you up.

Seattle House of Prayer

History

A vision was given to Alex Graves in September of 2010. It consists of a map of Seattle covered in dots that represent houses of prayer. Above each house were open heavens, and the glory of God came down, and His light spread, connecting the houses and transformed Seattle from a city of darkness to a city of light.

Vision

A community of believers loving the Lord and seeing the city of Seattle transformed by this love.

Mission

Implementing houses of prayer that cultivate authentic community*, centered around the presence of God and leading to revival* and reformation* in Seattle.  "Love God, love people, love Seattle."

    ▪       Core values

                ⁃     Ministering to the heart of the Lord

            ⁃         Authentic community

            ⁃         Missional lifestyle

Goals and Action

    ▪       Goals

            To see the power of God influencing the 7 spheres of society: 1) home 2) church 3) government and politics 4) business and economy 5) science and technology 6) media 7) arts, entertainment, and sports

    ▪       Actions

                        1) Living as a community, participating in group and individual studies, and inviting in speakers for various teachings. Begin with praying and worshipping for 2-4 hours a day and move toward 24 hours per day

                        2) Move into heavy involvement in community (first focus is on neighbors...then move outward)

                        3) As people join and develop vision we expand and grow by adding more SHOPs

Three Forms of SHOP

            1) Community Houses: Homes with prayer rooms

            2) Prayer Rooms: rooms set apart all over the community, can be in office buildings, churches, warehouses, homes

            3) Coffee Shops: each has a prayer room connected to it

Facets for Missionaries at the SHOP

Everyone is called to be a full time missionary but this encompasses many fields, including a call to:

            1) full time work in the coffee ministry for the SHOP

            2) full time vocational ministry

            3) living as part of the community and influencing other spheres (business, education, law, government...etc)

Additionally, each individual is encouraged to engage with their interests, whether this be in the arts, sports, food...etc and use these as open doors to connect with others in the community

Strategies for Transformation

Coffee Shops/Coffee Roasting

    ▪       Stems from a devotion to the Lord and a devotion to excellent coffee

            ▪           "Public living room" -the coffee shop is a place where people can talk, connect, read and hangout

            ▪           Has a spirit of ease, friendliness and familiarity

            ▪           Serves as a place of encounter with the Lord

                ▪       cultivate the Lord's presence through burns in the prayer room

Neighborhood/Community Outreach

            -Knowing all of our neighbors names and inviting them to dinner

            -Babysit for neighbors or offer to help with yard work

            -Help college students in the area move into their housing systems (go as teams, wear t-shirts bearing the SHOP name)

Covering the City (in scripture and prayer)

            -Using chalk to write scriptures on university campuses, sidewalks, buildings...etc.

            - Praying and worshipping in strategic locations including: Compline, hospitals, morgues,  (aka "Releasing the Sound")

Small Scale Outreach (weekly)

            -Treasure Hunts: asking the Lord to reveal to the team an individual to be prayed for and then finding and praying/talking with them

            -Life Sieges: team positioning themselves outside abortion clinics and courthouses; covering mouths with red tape labeled "life," and praying for an end to abortion (this includes the Band Prayer*)

                        -partner with Bound for Life

            -Purity Sieges: targeting areas of impurity (sex shops, strip joints, Center for Sex positive Culture), dressed in white, with white blindfold with "purity" written across it in covenant that your eyes see no impure thing

Large Scale Outreach

            -evangelistic push

            -arena size events to bring churches together

Unification of the Body of Christ

            -Seeking reconciliation among denominations (Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox believers) and enacting the John 17:21 cry*

            -Praying for the church to come back in the fullness of Truth

                -Keeping reconciliation talks between various pastors and denominational leaders open to the public

            -In regards to apostasy: take a strong stance against it- calling heresy for what it is (willingness to engage these churches but not sanction)

                -Recognizing that some areas we must all agree (who Jesus is and what He stands for...etc) and the rest we put aside (opinion does not matter)

Para-Church Unity

     -Partnering with the following para-churches to work alongside on another and complete short-term missions together

            -Young Life

            -YWAM

            -Salvation Army

            -Burn 24/7

            -IHOP

                       

Church Planting/College Ministry

            -Planting small, multipliable churches for college students

            -Using prophetic evangelism and healing ministries for impact

            -Targeting Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University, and University of Washington

Global Outreach

            -Send teams out world-wide for short term missions

Discipleship

            -Members of SHOP spending time with those growing in the Lord: encouraging, praying for, and training them up in the Word

Mapping

            -Mapping areas SHOP has impacted and areas still needing impact, including: churches, ministries, and places of darkness

Shabbot/Community Dinner

            -Weekly dinner for members of household and outsiders designed to encourage rest and fellowship

Key Terms

Authentic Community: A community operating under the principal of the second commandment; putting the needs and dreams of others first. Also a willingness to confront and work through issues that arise in a healthy way...and with ice

Revival: multitudes saved and coming back to the knowledge of God cream.  

Reformation: changing  society to operate under a biblical understanding

Band Prayer: Jesus I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation, God end abortion and send revival to america

John 17:21: That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Much more to come. May God be pouring into your life and that you will encounter him in a way that drives you to deeper commitment and intimacy with him!

Mud on my Face!!!

Do you ever have those days... where you just feel DIRTY??!!? UGH and you just want to get home so you can take a shower! Especially after a day where you worked in the garden and your COVERED in MUD! It  might feel kinda fun at first... the mud is all wet and then slowly dries and begins to crack... a few more hours go by and that fun feeling is long gone! You think to yourself... "I am just so ready to get this junk off of me!!" You wipe off as much as you can but it just doesn't do the job. You are desperate for that SHOWER!

Well, this is how I have felt for a while now. My failures and my faults in my face seem to be mud stuck on my face. I am so imperfect! There is no good in me. And mind you I am not just saying that because I am supposed to say it. Its the Christian thing to say. NO, I really mean it!! I have been overwhelmed with how I fall daily...multiple times a DAY! God has been revealing so much to me, not to torture me but so that I might grow. I think for a while I have been ignorant of some of my flaws...so therefore they just remain. Its humbling. I don't even have a chance to boast at how "AMAZING" I am because I see how I fall. I am coming to the end of myself all over again. I am in desperate need of change... I am in desperate need of JESUS. You know... I have known this....its not like this light bulb went on and I suddenly realized. No, I ve known that basic, but the reality always stays the same no matter how much time passes. I will ALWAYS still NEED Jesus. My thinking might get turned a bit...where I think hmm... He said hes making me into the likeness of him and maybe I wont need him as much as I did before... Hah EEEEHH wrong answer. For that  very reason I will need Jesus all the MORE! I am desperate for that SHOWER. I want to be clean... I want him to change me from the inside out!! JESUS COME!!! Ive finally come to that realization.. that no one... NOT ONE person can change me. NOT one HUMAN can save me. ONLY JESUS. I can cry on someones shoulder time after time... I can wipe off the mud as much as I can, but nothing.... no... NOTHING but the Blood OF JESUS can wash away my filth. That one shower will not last me a life time. I have to take showers everyday... I need to stay in the river.

Hes changing my character with each passing day and I am grateful. The only good in me is because of Jesus. He is the only reason why I do what I do. I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for him I am so beyond grateful. 

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self; created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-23

Heaven Pespective.... wheres your focus?

I have been home a little over a month now. Although I haven't had a whole lot to do, God has been teaching me quite a bit. This is a time of resting and a refocusing. Its easy to seek the Lord when there is excitement in the air and busy bees all around. Motivating I would say ,but when times just aren't as crazy, it seems harder to just sit with Jesus. He is teaching me that its even more important to seek Him in the midst of what seems to be mundane. The only reason why the mundane can become glorious is because of HIM.

Foucus and Strength are a few words that my next season can be defined by. I am staying home until early to mid February for my brothers wedding and then returning back to YWAM Kona. There I will be serving on campus. Being involved with the prayer room in some shape or form and possibly in student services, where I will help incoming students with visas and things of the sort. I am looking forward to be growing within community and preparing for our upcoming DTS in July!

The Lord has been speaking to me a lot about focus. Where ever your eyes are set, your heart tends to follow. My focus isn't always where it should be. I want heavens perspective. I want to be looking into His eyes of fire. It requires of me to settle all of my thoughts, calming of my soul, and to just rest in who He is. To be fully satisfied in God, where there is no other activity that is more fulfilling than walking and abiding in God. He promised it and I desire to take a hold of that promise.

What if we all started believing that we were seated in heavenly places? What were our lives look like? Our thought life... where would they go? Our hearts would always know whats true and  would believe it because we are surrounded by his TRUE glory! Hmm... Our struggles would seem so small...that is where most of our struggles start... our mind...our thoughts...those lies Satan feeds us we choose to so easily believe... they become strongholds and now guess what? Darn we're bound! AH I dont want to be there... HELL in my mind! I want HIS eternal Glory to fill my mind...His peace... His love...His joy... What do you think he really thinks about...? REALLY? His thoughts about you? His thoughts about me? His thoughts about that flower that he made? He said we could have the mind of Christ. We aren't fully there yet, Hes renewing it, conforming it to be in His likeness. Jesus take me there. Everyday.

                                                  
Well I feel stirred and alive after getting all that out. Hope you do to! God fill our minds with your glory. Burn away everything that is not of you. May every who reads this be filled with your presence!

Prayer-

• I may walk in the fullness of Jesus, his life and joy in abunance
• I would be intentional with everyday, always knowing what is on Gods heart and walking in obiedience
• Breakthrough in prayer and intimacy with Jesus
• Breakthrough for deeper lifelong friendships
• Provision with Finances- praying for $1000 in monthly support

Jesus is FaithFULL

Well... where do I even start....this blog update is long over due that is for sure...Outreach is now said and done. Christmas has come and gone. And 2011 has now begun... oh boy... and Jesus somehow ALWAYS stays the same in the midst of it ALL! I want to share so many stories but at the same time there's too much to share! Hmm...Our trip to India was nothing short of Gods favor being poured over us and those along side of us as well. We were able to see over one hundred villagers accept Jesus into their lives and as well shared testimonies and the gospel with over  a thousand. I honestly feel so privileged... we are called to share HIS message with others but we can never force anyone. I have never seen, first handed, so many people so hungry to receive Jesus before in MY entire LIFE! Through this all I must say I have learned A LOT! This trip was amazing but certainly NOT a bed of roses. It had its thorns too. God is using it to shape and mold me. I am thankful. I don't like  it  being in the midst of it; I actually hate being in the furnace but who doesn't? But I will never run away from my King. He is worthy of it. All of it.

As of right now I am home with family. Celebrated Christmas, New Years, and my birthday with them. It is nice to rest and just be at times.. although I find it hard to just sit... I get real antsy. I had initially thought I would be home for about 2 weeks but now will be staying for my brothers wedding in early February. I have time to support and lift up my family. Connecting with those whom I haven't seen in a very long time. In the mean time I miss my Awaken Family dearly... And whats next for you, you might be asking...? Well the plan as of right now is to head back to Kona and continue staffing on campus until April, which I will then will be heading to Los Angeles for a ministry and impartation time there The month of May is still uncertain for me but come June we will be getting ready for round 2 of the AWAKEN DTS! As I have committed being a part of this ministry for at least 2 years. I feel so honored and blessed to be able to be doing what I am doing. I wouldn't change it for anything! My vision is to see believers radically fall in love with Jesus and run in whole hearted surrender as they go out  and share about who Jesus is and what he has done. As I desire to do the same.
If you would like to support me and the vision he has given me, you can go to the paypal button and easily donate there. Please keep me in your prayers as well. For the righteous mans prayers are powerful and effective. I am poor and needy without my King.

If you have any questions at all please email me or give me a ring. I will gladly share with you. Thanks again for all that have kept me in your prayers and supported me financially.

As I sit...

First off I want to thank you so much for your prayers. They really are moving things and I am so grateful that your praying. THANK YOU! Most of my blogs or updates or emails are being written through my iPod and sometimes it has a mind of its own in correcting my wording and I don't catch it until its too late... so thanks for hainging in there when the wording gets a little confusing.

In the past week or so I have had an infection on my leg from a boil, at least that is what the doctor said. It has been a very humbling experience. For the first week I discovered my infection, I could not stand because the pain was so unbearable and my hearing would start to fade... I was often asked the question by doctors "Do you have diabetes?" Every time this made me worry... actually more than worry...more like freak out because diabetes runs in my family and I pray that I will never get it.  I had gone to 4 doctors and 2 hospitals and had my antibiotics changed on me more that I can remember.  My leg after 4 or 5 days finally started to drain with puss... too graphic for you??? Well it was nasty and very very painful. One doctor had stuck something in my leg to help it drain... and no numbing agent there... what an experience... I could not really get dressed without help... I realized how hard it is for me to need help from others. Humbling... definitely! I am learning a lot. I have been so grateful for this family we are staying with. They have taken such great care of me. They have changed my bandage for me, served in every way possible, and kept me in prayer! I am finally getting better but the last hospital visit I was commanded strict bed rest, no walking! So yesterday, my team left back for Mumbai while I stay here in  Wardha with one of my teammates until Friday so I can rest and heal.

We have been so blessed to stay here and be a part of this ministry DinBandhu (friend of the poor).  This past week we were able to be a part of a pastors conference where we got to worship and pray with them. Honestly I just feel humbled to be doing all that we are doing.  Our team really desires the fullness of what God has...but as I meditate on this... I am faced with the reality that the fullness comes with a cost. I want to be willing. I want us to be willing. This is a lifestyle not just a season. We have about a month left here in India and I want to finish strong. We then will be headed back to the states.

Please continue to pray for health and protection over us. Pray that we will grab a hold of all that God has for us. Pray for provision as well... I still need monthly supporters and I am continuing with this non profit ministry for the next 2 years.Thank again for all your prayers and support. I honestly cannot do this with out you. I have more and more of a deeper revelation of what the body of Christ looks like with each passing day. We need each other. So Thanks Family!

A letter to myself and any whom may listen

Here we are. All meals made for us everyday. We walk around the home and suddenly I feel like I'm queen. Open those double doors, take one step, there you will be on a balcony that overlooks beautiful country side. Water buffalo, cows, goats, dogs... Here I am in India! Go up top and watch the sunset; it takes my breath away every time. God why do you love me so much!? I am but poor and needy but this is the life you allow for me... We are beyond blessed! I have never seen so many people recieve Jesus first handedly in my life. It's a season of the harvest and it's not even because we are good presenterst or powerful leaders of the faith...it's only because of Jesus. I want my heart to stir more.
To never stop burning with excitement about what what He is doing inand through me!
I want my mind to always have heaven perspective. I want walk out everything that groans in the deepest part of my soul! I long to see a generation rise up with no compromise, that are marked by his Holiness. Our team has been battling sickness off and on for over a week now. I currently am fighting off an infection on my leg and taking antibiotics. For those of you listening please pray for protection and immeadiate obedience to his voice. We need all the covering we can. I've realized how much prayer moves things in the heavenlies. We have so much authoirty in what we say. Pray that we will be over taken by His overwhelming joy that NO circuimstance can get in our way!!! God created me to have much joy but somehow Satan sneakly steals it from me! We have victory! We Win!

Trains...taxis...chaos... love it

We are here in India its been a little over a week. Internet is not easy access for us. Its been amazing and I cant believe that I get to live this life. We are all so extremely blessed!!  We leave tomorrow for a 10 hr or so train ride to central India where we will be staying for the next month and then return to mumbai. I am currently getting over a cold, crazy I got sick first week... We are staying in a house no one lives in. No running water so bucket showers every day and you constantly feel sticky from the humidity but I love it. I don't enjoy being sticky but I feel like a queen. Last week, we had the priviledge to be a part of a youth festival.