Fun times

This was a very full week! We only had three days of class because of American Thanksgiving. Our speaker Dan Baumann was amazing and had so many crazy incredible stories – I learned so much from him! The depth and intimacy of his relationship with Jesus is so evident in the way that he lives his life! So inspiring!

The rest of my week has involved lots of fun times with my team and my whole DTS so I wanted to share that with you and show you some pictures!

On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving! We had a big yummy dinner and then later went over to one of our DTS staff Sean’s house for dessert and an outdoor movie. We were planning on watching the movie Elf…so me and my roomies decided to dress up as elves! We even had special elf names on our hats (check out this website to find our what YOUR elf name is: http://www.jokesunlimited.com/christmas_elf_name.php)!

Me and my roomies waiting in the long line for our Thanksgiving dinner

Roomies dressed up as elves!

Hawaiian sunset on Thanksgiving

On Friday my Thailand team went to another part of the island for the night! We stayed in a cabin at a retreat centre. It was so nice and homey! We spent lots of time relaxing and just getting to know each other better. There was lots of laughing – we have a fun team! We danced together, ate lots of food, shared embarrassing stories, and celebrated Catherine's birthday!

Thailand team!

Team dance party - we will definitely be having more of these!

On Saturday, our team went to Pololu Valley. We hiked down to the beach and played around for a while. It is SO beautiful there! It was definitely worth the hike...

Pololu Valley - the view before we hiked to the beach down there

Me and Marissa

Our team at Pololu Valley

I feel so blessed to be a part of this amazing team - we have so much fun together! I leave for Thailand in 2 weeks and I can't wait to spend 3 months there with these incredible women.

Prayer requests:

- This week is the celebration of the 50th anniversary of YWAM - pray that everything will go smoothly. It's gonna be a big celebration of God's faithfulness with lots of people coming from all over the world!

- That our team's visas would come and that all of the other preparations for our trip would come together.

- For all of the finances to come in for everyone in my DTS!

- For continued growth in my relationship with Jesus - that I would be open to receiving all that He has for me and that I would be willing to step into whatever He calls me to in each day.

Thank you!!!

LIVE!

Over the past little while, I’ve been meditating on LIFE! What does it mean to be alive in Christ? I keep reading Ephesians 2:1-10 and there is such a huge contrast between who we were before knowing Christ and who we are now as followers of Jesus. It’s amazing!

Who were we before knowing Jesus? Who were we apart from Christ?

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Dead. Lost. Overcome with sin. Defeated. Hopeless. Lonely. Sick. Deceived. This is life without Christ. This is who we were. We were dead.

BUT our amazing, gracious, merciful, loving, compassionate God did something incredible and now we are alive!

“Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:4-10)

Wow! Pretty awesome, right? Here’s the thing though…I think that sometimes we forget about all this. We forget that we have been made ALIVE with Christ. We forget that we have been RAISED UP with Christ. We forget that we are SEATED WITH CHRIST in the heavenly realms. We forget about GRACE!

Too often, I don’t embrace the love, grace, victory, and life that Jesus has already given me. But God has been revealing LIFE to me and I want to fully embrace this real, full, abundant life. God has a plan and a purpose for my life. I want my life to be wholly about following Jesus - wherever, whenever, whatever, no matter what the cost. I just want to know Him more. I want to continually be amazed by His incredible love and grace. He is so good!

“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” (John 10:10)

LIVE! Live abundantly! Live fully! LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!

Pictures!!

I realized that I haven't posted ANY pictures yet. This is mostly because I hardly ever take pictures. I've been trying to take more...OK, that's not true, I haven't been trying that hard. It's just not really my thing. I love looking at other people's pictures and I figure that I can just get theirs later anyways.

But I do have some pictures to share so that you can have a little peek into my life in Hawaii. Enjoy!

Beautiful ocean

Me and my roommate Becca

The Ironman competition happened in one of the first weeks that we got here and our DTS volunteered as security. We also headed out in the morning to check out the start of the race - you can see the swimmers in the water here.

Me and some of the girls from my DTS at the Ironman (Rebecca, Becca, Mary, me)

Palm trees!!!

Me and Becca like to go to a coffee farm called Kona Joe's on the weekend. Here she is with her free coffee sample...mmmm...

The view from Kona Joe's

Some of the flowers here remind me of Botswana so here are a few pictures - these are for my dad because he loves plants!

A Hawaiian sunset

I'll try to post some more pictures sometime soon!

Revelation

“God, I feel quite apathetic.”

This is what I wrote in my journal on Monday morning. I wasn’t really looking forward to the week. I didn’t want to feel apathetic but that’s how I was feeling. I prayed that He would revive me and renew me.

And guess what? He did!

“Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” – Jeremiah 33:3

On Monday nights, there is ministry night in the prayer room here. Anyone can come and there is worship and prayer and we just see where God leads. That night, we were specifically praying for a revelation of God’s love.

“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” – Ephesians 3:17-19

It was an amazing time of worship and prayer and God was revealing lots of little things to me throughout the night. But it wasn’t until I was walking back to my room that He brought it all together for me.

As I was thinking and processing, God began to reveal so much to me about His incredible love and His worthiness of my praise! I found a spot to sit down and just started journaling everything that came to mind.

I find it difficult to receive God’s love and grace and forgiveness because I am a perfectionist and tend to be very critical of myself. So often I focus on the past and on the mistakes I’ve made rather than looking to Jesus and accepting that I am forgiven. I believe lies instead of the truth of who I am in Christ. God really called me on this and showed me how it hurts Him when I don’t believe and receive His love and grace.

God reminded me of who I am in light of who He is. I love this quote by John Stott. He talks about the importance of reminding ourselves of who we are in Christ and believing this truth:

‘We should constantly be reminding ourselves who we are. We need to learn to talk to ourselves, and ask ourselves questions: “Don’t you know? Don’t you know the meaning of your conversion and baptism? Don’t you know that you have been united to Christ in His death and resurrection? Don’t you know that you have been enslaved to God and have committed yourself to His obedience? Don’t you know these things? Don’t you know who you are?” We must go on pressing ourselves with such questions, until we reply to ourselves: “Yes, I do know who I am, a new person in Christ, and by the grace of God I shall live accordingly.”’

God spoke to me about my identity and amazed me with how big His love is! His love is so deep and wide and real and He wants me to receive that love. He’s not holding it back – I’m the one who has been unwilling to fully receive it because I have been so focused on myself and my unworthiness. He wants me to experience His love, to amaze me with His love! When I chose to follow Jesus, there was rejoicing in heaven, there was a party! (Luke 15) That’s how much He loves us. He delights in me! He wants me to draw near to Him and to enjoy His presence.

And as I experienced God’s love, I was so overwhelmed with how worthy He is of our praise and worship! There is no one like Him!

“I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it… Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me? Or is there any other Rock? I know of none." – Isaiah 44:6-8

Nothing compares to Jesus! There is nothing on earth or in heaven that will satisfy us other than Him. He is so worthy! How could we not worship Him?

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." – Revelation 5:12-13 (read this whole chapter!)

There is so much more that God revealed to me that night and now I am trying to live it out day to day, moment by moment. Receiving His love and giving Him all the glory and honour and praise! I am realizing more and more that intimacy, loving God, is the most important thing. This comes first: knowing Him, worshipping Him, receiving His amazing love (Luke 10:27).

Out of receiving this revelation of His love and worthiness to be praised, God has been filling me with love for others. God loves all of us so much! In feeling His love for me, I have realized that He loves each person just as much as He loves me. As I pray for Thailand, I am deeply aware and moved by His love for the people of Thailand. They are so precious and valuable to Him and He longs for them to know Him intimately. Pray with me for Thailand!

Thank you for taking the time to read some of what God has been teaching me and revealing to me! Thank you for your prayer and financial support!

Also, some students from my DTS have been doing interviews with our speakers and have made a youtube channel. Here is the link if you want to hear more about what I've been learning: http://www.youtube.com/user/JusticeDTS2010.