This morning I woke up with God telling me its time to Find Your Voice.  That this is a season of finding my voice.  And I knew exactly what He meant.  A year ago at the Awakening conference Mike and Patti prayed over us and I just remember Mike trying to get me to just let go and talk and speak out the words that God was giving me.  He was like release, let it go.  And I was full of fear.  I was.  But that last month in Berlin God had Benny V and Kim H pray over me and I felt a huge release. 

This year 2010 when I returned home and wanted all these things I learned to be in Michigan.   I wanted to take off running and when I prayed God's reply was this year is about His timing and for me to be patient and wait.  Well about half way through the year when I was in Arizona on the Apache reservation (oh course on a mountain....good things always happen on mountains, haha) I realized wow I am horrible at being patient and waiting.  Sometime that summer I called one of my teammates Renee and told her about what God had said and she laughed saying Yeah you are not good at being patient! Totally awesome to have your teammates in your life after the race to just tell you the truth!! I love it!

But this morning I awoke from a dream of worshiping God and being woken up when I fell out in the spirit to God speaking to me.  Wow....that does sound epic.  But I know there is so much more and that everything you all have seen in me so far is just apart of the journey He has me on.  But today something changed and I am now on this journey to find my voice.  Oh and to worship my King....singing to Him just makes me so happy. 

Thanks for reading.  I love you guys or ya'll like my southerners like to say it!

In Arizona I am helping another ministry called Rock Ministries in the mountains with the Apache people. They are leading mission's teams from different churches. This past week we had a family mission's team from Indiana, Florida and Virginia. Actually it was my first time on a Native American Reservation so I was in the same boat as many of the people who came on this trip! Definitely a new experience being in the desert especially when someone showed me some scorpions they found in the church!!! I was like we don't have those in Michigan! Haha, they were so casual about it around here too! 

Well, the team that came had a combination of kids club (vacation bible school) and work projects. I was put in charge the exterior painting crew for one house. Since I was not sure how to do that I delegated some responsibility to another leader who had done it in the past! But I definitely had a chance to get on the ladder and paint the trim of the house. When we started painting the house I really got to know the family and their daughter Kate. We hit it off right away talking about sports, mainly basketball. In fact that first day I think the majority of my time was spent talking to Kate and talking to all the neighbors. It was good to make relationships and share God with them. I am really excited about making a deeper friendship with Kate and seeing her grow in her relationship with God. (picture is our staff up here)

As for the team I got to pray for them a lot and make some honest and deep relationships with them. I was really happy that they were just open to me praying for them and challenging them. One of the guys had trouble sleeping and I got to pray over him. The next few days he kept coming back to me saying that he had incredible sleep. I was able to talk to a lot of the adults about trusting God with their time and circumstances. I really feel like I was able to challenge them in their faith. I wanted them to realize that when we are living everyday with God and surrendering to Him we are constantly living in transformation.   That there are not really spiritual highs, I guess, but everyday in regular life we have opportunities to dive deeper with God. I challenged some of them to prayfully walk that out. For them to pray into existence whatever they desired from God. For example, that meant praying into existence quiet times with God or divine interventions with people throughout their day. We got to see a lot of them really grow in their relationship with God. By the end of their time here they had a ton of testimonies about what God had done.

This next week I will be with the staff's family in California until next week when we travel back to the reservation for Hoops On The Rez and the skater group!

Our ministry was to go around with the pastor to all the people who were in the previous church and encourage them to go to the new one. We went with the pastor from house to house motivating the people to learn about Gods word. No matter how many doors I go to it is still challenging for me to just take time and listen to God and do what the Holy Spirit directs me to do. As Americans we are normally taught that there is a certain way to evangelize and certain steps that you need to follow but when you are in a foreign land that does not necessarily apply. The ministry happens when you walk as a disciple:

"And proclaim as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay."

Matthew 10:7-8

Letting go and letting God work is what needs to happen. Having the wisdom to sit back and to allow God to speak to you during the awkward silence is typically very foreign to many Americans. There were many moments when we would go to a house and sit there in a circle unsure of what to say to this person. Even though several thoughts would flow through our heads like "Alright do I preach the gospel, do I pray, God what are you saying? Is that a rooster next to her chair?" A lot of times I have just learned to start asking relational questions. How is your family? Who lives in this house? But no matter what there are definitely awkward moments of silence or of uncertainty of what to say. And I apologize to the Holy Spirit for all those awkward moments that I just started speaking about something random because I panicked and was unsure of what to talk about. Praise God that He knows our hearts. 

Being in the Dominican was definitely a time of listening to Him. Remembering that no matter how many countries I have been to He is still the one leading me. And I need to humble myself and listen to His voice in all circumstances. 

As for learning about leading teams that week I realized that the logistical leadership is just not for me. I more so prefer to work as a support staff for the leaders. More so I discovered that I need to develop my ability to teach people about God and to grow in confidence in my leadership. 

About 7 months ago our team began our journey to Lesotho, Africa.  Lesotho is a country that is located in South Africa in the mountains.  When I was there I had a thought that God wanted me to write a letter to any future missionaries that would go to Mount Moorosi.  To be honest I thought it was kind of a fleeting thought but I still wanted to write it, so I did.  I wrote about what we did there and some of the strongholds and some contacts we found and left my email in case someone came across it. I left  it with the people who housed us. 

Well a few days ago I received an email from some missionaries in South Africa who recently visited Lesotho.  They told me that upon their visits a local there gave them my hand written letter!! They said they are planning on building a church there for that specific community.  That church will also function as school during the week.  They told me that they were so encouraged by the letter and that it further confirmed where God was sending them!

Wow God is so good!  I am so glad that we were able to pray and prepare that place for these missionaries to come.  

Before I left for this trip two woman in my intercession group prayed over me and I had a vision of two hearts. The hearts were mirror images of one another. For the first few days of my trip I continued to ask God what it meant. I was thinking that it meant that Christ wants to reflect his heart with Haiti, for them to be one with His heart and one with His passions.

As our days went on there we prayed over several places. We began each morning with our alone time with God, then worship in our group, then prayer, and then went out into the city. I really enjoyed praying over the 3 government buildings that were destroyed during the earthquake. The three buildings were the Presidential Palace, Justice, and Legislation buildings. It was phenomenal to pray over them. Definitely my favorite day! While we were there we just heard about how corrupt the government was and I was able to pray for a new foundation for these buildings. A foundation built on God's justice and His righteousness! When I was praying for the Legislation building I had this thought of another building being there and it actually reminded me of a small college. My prayers took a turn to pray for college students and young people to be inspired to change their nation, that they would grow up to be people who fight for the poor and for justice. I felt honored to be there and pray for a foundation on God's truth.

 

Pastor Dan also told us about the girl that was walking around with us, Jesula. When the earthquake happened the other house mother ran away and 18-year old Jesula stepped up and took car of the 46 orphans for 10 days until Pastor Kelly could arrive on site. During that time she did this the community around them stole all of their food yet Jesula was able to keep the orphan girls safe. This girl is incredible...think about what you were doing at 18. She is truly a hero. Here is Seth's blog with the full story:

http://www.sethbarnes.com/?filename=18-yearold-a-mother-to-45-orphans

Our prayer team praying over Jesula!

The first night I arrived in Port-Au-Prince we went straight to Pastor Christian's house and met Lanny and Geftay. That night our conversation unfolded from our testimonies to a pretty much a bible study. Lanny and Geftay were preaching to us. And it was so cool because sometimes you think oh I am just arriving a this house but most of the time God has His own plan. I do not think anyone thought we are about to have divine appointment. We were just talking about God and when a group of people do that and English is being translated into Creole and Creole into English it is such an amazing thing to see. Seeing all 8 people on the porch talking in different languages and from different background yet all rejoicing in the goodness of God is an heavenly sight. Lanny would say something about John the Baptist and then Geftay would talk about God's voice and then Lanny would say "Wow that's good I need to write that down." Then Geftay would translate everything for Pastor Christian and his wife Jula and she would be clapping and filled with unrelenting joy! The Holy Spirit was moving and we just arrived!

As I prayed for Haiti I kept hearing God tell me to pray for water not fire. Every time I heard anything about water I paid close attention. When Geftay was talking he talked about Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine. He pointed out that wine was the best wine and the most tasty. And he continued to speak truth over me about how God is going to transform me into wine. Papa Lanny was like "listen to him, God is changing you." They really helped me piece together the water prayers I have been having for Haiti. I feel like God is going to change the land with His living water. And just imagine that water turning into beautiful tasty wine. The best wine ever. God is creating a New Haiti. I love being reminded of the first miracle Jesus did since it just showed God's power in such a simple way. It is time for a tasty wine, a new Haiti to arise out of the rubble.

"This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him." John 2:11

During our time here we were able to attend a few churches and one of those was International Christian Assembly.  I was incredibly excited to be able to go to an Assembly church since those are the ones I typically go to at home!  I really thanked God for it because I know that He is slowly reintroducing to home back in the states and getting me ready for reentering the US. 

Also just being in church was awesome in itself.  A lot of times when we are doing ministry our team does not get to just go to a service and relax and be filled.  We are generally helping put on a service so it was really nice to just sit back and enjoy. 

While I was sitting in one of the services I heard the pastor announce the first meeting of the youth program that they are starting!  I was thrilled and showed up to the first youth meeting the following week.  I was able to meet with the young couples that were heading it up and pray for them and help them out with one of the meetings.  For one meeting I planned an activity that would help them begin to share about their relationship with God with their new family.  I used a bunch of photos from an outreach tool that Campus Crusade for Christ uses called Soularium.  There are several pictures and I had everyone point out the one that they felt described their relationship with God and share with the group.  It was cool because they all had different insight no matter which photo they picked.  This youth group got me excited; they are a phenomenal bunch of young adults who are going to impact the world!!

Working with them made me a 100 times more excited about coming home and working with our youth group at Eaton Rapids Assembly of God!! I am excited to come work with you all!! (Miss you guys!)