:::MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

:)
Ahh... Christmas 2008! I can't believe its already here!
Its a pretty cold day here in Kyrgyzstan... it snowed a little this morning and then the temperature dropped quite a bit and froze everything.
Yesterday, on Christmas Eve, my outreach team got the opportunity to go to a Community Center celebration/assembly type thing for a ton of 8-14 year old students in public schools across Bishkek. They were having this talent show competition between schools, so there were about 100-150 little kids there total. Each school teamed up and played games against each other, and then they brought out their posters that they decorated for Christmas/New Years and presented them to us. My team had the job of judging which poster was best, it was a lot of fun!! Then after the judging, the assembly turned into something like a talent show of some sort... different little students went up and sang and danced and it was really awesome! Then, the coolest thing happened. My leader, Brandon, suggested we do our lifehouse skit in front of all the students... and they said we could!!! So, literally at the LAST minute, my team set up and did our lifehouse skit for all the students. It was a little rusty... as that was our first time doing it since we came to outreach, but oh my gosh it was amazing. It was so powerful! I was praying the whole time... I just felt so strong and secure doing it for these kids and being a witness of Jesus in a primarily Islamic Country!!! It was so incredible!!! God was so glorified through it... and it was one of the most powerful times yet so far on my outreach:) God is sooo great!

The last night, everybody went over to the guy's apartment and ate an awesome Christmas Eve dinner together, played games, watched soccer (random I know), talked, and then the girls and I contined our Alias addiction that we've created about a week ago... and watched three episodes in a row last night of season 1. :) All the girls ended up sleeping over at the guys apartment so that we could all wake up together, one big happy family, on Christmas morning!! And that we did.
We didn't go to bed until around 2 a.m. and then woke up around 10 a.m. this morning, where the awesome Swiss couple, Martin and Corina, had prepared an awesome french-toast, sausage, mandarin oranges, and cheese breakfast! It was delicious:) Then we played the White Elephant games... I won a bunch of gummy bears which were delicious:) Then, my leader Katie had each of us write a letter to Jesus, thanking Him for everything He'd done for us this past year, and that was SUCH a special time. I'm so so grateful!!!
Then after that, we were ready to open the stockings that we decorated for each other... (funny story: The guys decorated the girls stockings and vise versa, so my friend Will decorated my stocking and then they showed them to us last night as a surprise... and guess what he drew on it?? That's right. A USAFA plane, and a bomb, and more military AFA things in honor of my main man *smile*... haha it was so funny!!! I'm keeping that stocking forever.) so yes we wanted to open the stockings and also open the little presents that one of the long-termers here named Tony got for each of us... but before that, my leaders, Katie and Brandon got up and announced that they had a surprise...

They said that they contacted each one of our families during the DTS and had them send a Christmas gift to each one of us!!! They started handing out wrapped gifts to each one of us, each gift having something that our families put in there from home!! OH my gosh. I was SO shocked and excited and happy.... ahhh so many emotions!! As soon as they started handing out the boxes, I started crying lol. My box was BEAUTIFUL, it had a bunch of candy, playdough from my sister:), and a card that has those voice recorder things where each person in my family recorded a message for me!! It had a couple of awesome letters from my sister, a card from my family, money, and a bunch of just little trinkets that were all shoved inside this little gift box from home:) I couldn't believe it!!! A little peice of home on one of the most special family days of the year... ahh I'm about to cry right now just thinking about it... it was the most MOST incredible Christmas gift I've ever received. It was amazing. I would've been totally happy just getting the card with their voice-recordings on it.... lol its amazing. Needless to say I almost lost it, I was crying so hard. All of us were... (well, at least all the girls were.) I couldn't believe it! I just started bawling because I was so happy lol.

ITs amazing when you realize how much of a treasure something is when you don't have it there with you. I would've done anything to wake up with my family this Christmas, to wake up and serenade my parents with Christmas Carols before we head down to open presents. :) To make pineapple cookies and just to be with them.
I miss my family so much. I treasure them so much. This has been one of the most incredible Christmas' I've ever had, just because its been the most special and I've never realized before how much I treasure each person in my family. I hate that lessons like this are learned in this way... that is, "you don't know what you have until you lose it..." but still, its so true. I miss them sooo much!!!! I'm so grateful for them. I'm crying right now as I'm typing this... which is embarrassing in an internet cafe lol. But ahh... this has honestly been one of the most incredible days of my life. I love being here, but I'm SO looking forward to being home with them again and just having them near.

Mom and Dad, if your reading this, thank you SO much for your gift and card and for giving me a little peice of home even though I'm all the way on the other side of the world. You honestly changed my life and gave me the best Christmas Gift I could've ever asked for. I miss you guys so so much. I hope you have an amazing Christmas, and I CAN'T WAIT to be there for the next one!!! I LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH!!!!

To everyone else, I hope you have an amazing Christmas. Don't wait til' your family isn't there for you to treasure them.... take it from me. Family is amazing and God is even more amazing for creating them. Take full advantage of having them there... love them, spend time with them, make memories with them. Because you never know when they might not be there for Christmas one year... so treasure them while you can!!! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas, surrounded by people you love who love you back twice as much!!! Praise God for sending Jesus to save us and restore relationship with Him, I'm so grateful. I miss you all... and looking forward to next Christmas when we all an be together again:)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

::: Prayer Requests!!

- SAFETY!!! - A few nights ago, somebody tried to break into the guy's apartment. They walked back to their apartment after walking the girls home, and when they got their they couldn't open their door because something was jammed in it or something. There were scratches on the side of the wall by the lock and stuff so it looked like somebody tried to break it. They called the landlord and waited and slept in the stairwell for 2 hours in the cold until he showed up and then called the locksmith... ahh. Then last night we thought somebody tried to break into our apartment (the girls apartment) becasue one of the locks on the door was undone and one of the cabinets was broken off. It was scary and I was honestly raelly scared and scared to go to sleep last night... and on top of that walking around ont he sidewalks is really dangerous becasue the drivers here are INSANE! ... so just pray for safety and discernments as we walk around the streets every day. And pray for the casting out of fear and that none of us would be afraid.... that's important to not live in fear.


- HEALTH!!!! - Its cold here... a huge drastic difference from the humid gorgeous Hawaiian Islands. There is a lot of drowsiness due to the change of pace and jet-lag... so pray if you can for complete health and strength from the Lord... that's the only way we'll make it:)

So far its been an awesome adventure. We're getting used to the towns and the "Bizaars" (marketplaces) and the Beta Stores (grocery stores) and everything. :)

The people here are BEAUTIFUL... they're asian, with dark hair, but with like LIGHT GREEN/LIGHT BLUE eyes... its gorgeous!!
The locals here are very serious tho, you can tell they have come from a comm government because they walk around the streets and nobody smiles at each other... thus the Americans stick out like a sore-thumb. :) Its funny. But we're getting used to it.

I'm learning a little bit of Russian!! I've learned the whole Russian alphabet so far, and am practicing reading the signs on the stores and labels on things and such... its awesome!! I love learning a new language!!! :)

We met a lot of Kyrgyz University students a couple of days ago... they were SO cute and they practiced their english on us a lot. There would be like 6 students that came and surrounded each one of us and just bombarded us with questions... "Do you like America??" "Do you know Bred Peeet?" (Brad Pitt:) "You Singoo?" (Are you single:) "You come back to Kyrgyzstan yes? Bring your boyfren nestime yes?" :) They were so cute. I LOVED meeting them and getting to know them... that's been my favorite part of the trip so far and I'm looking forward to doing more stuff with them as the week goes on.

COOLEST STORY: The like VERY FIRST day we got here, we were walking around one of the Grocery stores and this random Kyrgyz man came up to this guy on my team named Will and he goes "Jesus loves you!!" ... it was COMPLETELY out of the blue!! Then he went up to this other girl on my team, my roommate Kelsey, and said "You loves Jesus yes? I love Jesus, Jesus loves you!!"
Reason why its such a cool story: You have no idea how dangerous that could be to say something like in a comm country... he had to know that we were Christians or something because the man just came up to us RANDOMLY and said that... SO dangerous but SO SO cool!! Its like Jesus was waiting for us here and Kyrgyzstan, and the first day we got here and were walking around, He was welcoming us and telling us He loves us:) That makes me so happy!

So yes. God is good. Thanks for your prayers and support... miss you guys! love you! :)

::: Hello from Biskek!

Hi!!! :) I've finally arrived!!
Wow this place is AMAZING!!! It's different, but I really like it. It's really gray and cold... no snow yet, but it's definitely like 35 degrees F, and the city looks like a city from the movie "The Pianist." Everything is gray... made out of cement... no skyscrapers but there are some pretty tall buildings. The flights really flew by.... (no pun intended...ha) and I slept pretty much most of the time. I watched 5 movies on the flight from L.A. to London... and that really made the time pass which I was grateful for. I met this nice man on the plane who lived in London but sometimes works in Bishkek and he told me a little bit about the town. He said we would probably see a lot of Americans because there's an Air Force Base that's RIGHT next to the airport and a lot of Americans use Bishkek as a passing point. We arrived on Friday, Dec. 5th at 3 a.m. and had Jerry come pick us up at the airport with his friend, a 20-something year old named Janish who helps with the ministry and another taxi and they drove us into the city and straight to the girls apartment on the 6th floor of this building... which is a really cute little place!!! It has a lot of cheap tile and lacy curtains and everything is kinda run down... honestly looks like an apartment from an old, scary movie or something, but as far as a living facility for outreach goes, I'm really really grateful!!! There are two bedrooms, one living room area, one bathtub that has no cold water, only STEAMING HOT water, which also makes showering difficult, and one teeny tiny kitchen. :) It's cute. I share a bed with Kelsey, the cute blonde girl from Texas. It's great fun!
The guys apartment is about a 5 minute walk away, which I haven't been to yet but I hear its pretty similar to ours. Gabriela, Jerry's wife, met us this morning at around 10 a.m. when they came and took our passports and gave us copies of them and our visas. Then we went to walk around the town... it was cold!!! I haven't worn a scarf or my black pea-coat in a long time... I kinda liked it actually:) She took our whole team and showed us around a little bit.... SO much gray. IT's crazy. Nobody looks at you or if they do and you smile at them, they just stare at you. There are a lot of cute little "babushka's" walking around.... which translates to "Grandma's." :) They're all bundled up in their scarves and big coats and its cute. People here are a lot more fashionable then I expected... I think all of us were surprised. All the girls walking around in cute coats and black boots and skinny jeans... its really weird and seems really out of place because they all look classy but then you look at the sidewalk they're walking on or the buildings around them and its so run-down and old and ugly.


Jerry and Gabriela are AMAZING!!! They have two kids... Elijah who's 7 and Helena who is 4. Elijah was in school today so we haven't met him yet, but Helena was walking around with us all morning and she is the CUTEST blonde, blue-eyed little girl!!! Gabriela is swiss, and she's been learning Russian since she's been here, so the crazy thing is at age 4... Helena is tri-lingual!! She speaks and understands English, Swiss, and Russian! It's crazy. Martin and Korina, (the swiss couple on my time) have really enjoyed being able to talk to her cuz she's so cute. Brandon, my team leader, is obsessed with her and plays around with her and makes her laugh and its hilarious to watch. Gabriela is one of the NICEST ladies I've ever met!! She's SO sweet, so real, is really down to earth, really fun, and SO excited to have us here. She's SO easy to get to know and talk to, I feel like I've known her forever, she is so sweet and I love her already.

We walked around downtown for about an hour then went to the mall to eat. The food is SOOOO good... a lot of breads and noodles and stuff but its really tasty and the meal we had was an extremely awesome introduction to Kyrgyz food. The drivers here are CRAZYWe walked around a little bit more, braving the cold, and then some of us came here to the Internet Cafe and some people went back to the girls apartment where we will meet later. There are two ministries... one called the Greenhouse Coffee Ministry which is just a coffee house that Jerry and Gabriela run, and the other is called One Thing and they do more things for kids and community. So tonight they're getting everybody together and we're watching Elf... ha I'm excited!!! Jerry and Gabriela are giving us some time to recover from our jet-lag, but everybody is trying to stay awake all day so we can get our systems a little more normal.

They are expecting snow in about two weeks... ahhh.... not really looking forward to it but I AM grateful so still have a white Christmas:) The girls are gonna try to get a Christmas tree and decorate our apartment and the boys apartment a little bit, ha I'm excited for that.

Anyways... ya. This place is awesome. I am 13 hours ahead of Colorado Springs... so right now it's 2:23 pm on December 5th. That time-change is crazy. The exchange rate is 39.5 SOM (which is their currency... SOM) to 1 US dollar. Not bad.
I miss you guys!!! I wish you all could be here with me, this place is beautiful and different and sad and cold, but I'm excited to work here and be with these Russian speaking Asian people (which is weird btw... Asians speaking Russian... throws you off.)
I hope you guys are all doing well!! I'll try to call as soon as I can. I love and miss you all:)

::IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!!!

HERE WE ARE!!!!

The last day of my lecture phase of my YWAM adventure.... :)

Today is the day I leave for outreach. I can't believe its actually here!!


A couple mornings ago, before the sun came up, my school said goodbye to the first outreach team that left on Nov 30th, the Cambodia team. It was such a sad, teary event... everybody was depressed lol.
Yesterday morning, we said goodbye to the Phillipines team... that was also a horrible way to start a day.

And right now, I'm sitting here on the Hospitality couch, and we just said goodbye to the Bangladesh Team, and that was also so so hard!!! :(
We don't leave until 2:45 this afternoon... so it's going to be here being on this YWAM base with just my team and some other base staff. :( So sad!!

But at the same time... there is excitement lingering in the air:) Every student is excited, nervous, anxious... every possible emotion!! Everything we've been training for, everything we've learned about God and people and serving and cultures and Nations and teamwork and evangelizing... finally gets put to good use!! We're getting off this little Christian Bubble here in Manoa Valley, Oahu, and finally getting a chance to go out to the Nations of the earth and SERVE people and LOVE people to death. Ahhhh, I honestly can't wait! :)

My team has been doing a lot of preparing... we've found out a lot of stuff about my outreach country that I want to share with you to keep as prayer points.

The biggest stronghold we've heard about in Kyrgyzstan is depression. Previously having a socialistic government, the Kyrgyz people have a very apathetic approach to life and many of them struggle with depression. Previous staff members that have lead teams there have told us that alll the buildings in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, are all gray and dull. There is absolutely NO color, no life, nothing. That makes me sad to think about... But my team is full of hilarious, joyful people and we're determined to battle the spiritual warfare of depression in the opposite spirit and be extremely joyful people instead!! :)

So if you could cover my team in prayer, that God would protect our hearts and emotions from getting dragged down with depression or anything of that sort, that would be amazing for sure!


Some ministries we'll be working with involve possibly teaching English in some elementary schools (which I'm SO excited about!!!), working in orphanages, working with street people and in homeless shelters, and, due to the fact that there are MANY musicians on my team, we might even get a chance to play music and evangelize in Pubs!! Ha I'm SUPER excited about that. :)


But the main ministry we'll be doing is Coffee Shop Ministry, which involves a lot of interaction with University Students in Bishkek. It's more "frienship evangelism," we're developing relationships with the students there and praying for opportunities to witness to them and love them to the Kingdom. I'm so excited because that's my favorite type of evangelism... I can't even wait!! :) So that's what we'll mainly be doing.

We're honestly going with the goal to serve the Long-term missionaries there. We want to serve them and be of assistance to them above anything else, so whatever that entails, we'll be doing. :)



Prayer Points:
- Pray for safety as we fly over there... we're taking a 10 hr. flight, getting off for an hour, and then hopping on 9 hour flight before we get there. That's a lot of flying, and a lot of world to cover:)
- Pray against the Spirit of depression and for spiritual and emotional protection against depression.
- Pray for opportunities to share the gospel... for God to prepare the hearts of students there and for the harvest to be ripe! :)
- Pray for team unity... that my team would get along and be united and close to one another.
- Pray for my team leaders, Brandon (21) and Katie (22), that God would give them wisdom and strength and discernment to lead our team in the best way possible.
- Pray for protection... there's a possibility that boys and girls will have to be split up in different apartments in different locations in the middle of the city... pray for safety and protection for both teams.
- Pray for strength that comes from God alone... many times its easy to slip into a culture shock or stress or anything like that, pray that we'd run through that culture shock phase and get right back into serving and loving people!!
- Pray for us to have FUN!!! We'll be in freezing temperatures, with a LOT of snow, but we'll be surrounded by BEAUTIFUL mountains... (a little taste of home I guess *smile*...) so I'm definitely excited for that!!
- For you prayer warriors out there, here are the names of everybody on my team: Brandon, Katie, Donny, Will, Philip, Daniel, Martin, Korina, Brittany, Katie, Kelsey, and Me. :)

THANK YOU SO MUCH all of you who've prayed for me, supported me, read my blogs and followed my journey. You all have blessed me so much and I'm SO GRATEFUL to have you in my life!! Next post... will be from a Colorado Girl in Kyrgyzstan! :)



PRAISE JESUS!!
Love you all!! :)

"Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works and PRAISE you're Father in Heaven!!" - Matthew
5:16

Also.... on a side note. My boyfriend and mom and sister were able to come visit me this weekend before I left for outreach!!! My mom and sister are still here but my boyfriend left on Sunday... he totally SURPRISED me!! I had NO idea he was coming, he TOTALLY surprised me and it was honestly probably the best thing that's happened to me in my life... (other than receiving the bouquet of 6 roses on our 5 month anniversary a week before...) :) So here are some pics from his visit. We drove up to North Shore, rented a MUSTANG, ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and hung out with my YWAM buddies:) It was an AMAZING weekend! I love him!!

- At Thanksgiving Dinner

- Our new ride... he was one happy man to say the least:)

- Us at Pipeline up on the North Shore!!! Beautiful! :)

- My mom, sister and I at Waikiki!!! :)

:::Little Tidbits

Here are little sayings and quotes I've gathered from just going back over my notes from the past 2 months... these are the things that stuck out most to me during my lectures::

- F.E.A.R - False Evidence Appearing Real
- Don't base stuff off emotions, base it on TRUTH.
- "If you wanna be a giant-killer, hang around giant-killers."
- Psalms 34:8 "Taste and see that God is good for YOURSELF."
- Be hungry and teachable... being teachable is out of humility.
- Do the little things in excellence - Luke 16:10.
- Get a glimpse of God's grace and go after Him with everything!
- Be GROUNDED in the word of God, be GROUNDED in truth.
- A lot of times we try to shape the Bible into what we want it to be, rather than let it shape us.
- Be 100% dependent upon hearing the voice of God.
- He is a personal God, ENGAGE in Him!
- Seek FIRST the Kingdom!
- Discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness.
- I have NOTHING outside the grace of God.
- How long do you prepare your body for getting ready for church, compared to preparing your heart to get ready for church?
- A Disciple of Christ allows God to change their way of thinking.
- Repentence is a way of life, as is humility.
- The Enemy tries to get you to be prideful because humility helps you overcome sins like lust, etc.
- Wherever there are massive/little amounts of evil, there is spiritual warfare!
- To DELIGHT in persecutions is to be humble, to desire humility, and desire to be like Christ.
- If it's God's will, it's God's bill.
- Humility is the willingness to be known for who you REALLY are.
- You have only one life to live, and only what is done for Christ will last.
- Love God, make Him known.
- God doesn't promise you an emotional rollercoaster of a relationship in the Bible. He's under no obligation to make you feel good. He's only under the obligation of His promises. That's the cost of discipleship. It's Spiritual Maturity. You read your Bible and obey because you are willing to follow Him.
- You can do anything God calls you to do because He'll give you the grace to do it.
- What do you REALLY believe?
- The issue isn't my feelings, the issue is my faith.
- Make your Bible your best friend.
- Cultivate your relationship and desire for the Lord.
- The Gospel is about how your life influences others rather than how its all about me.
- Heart of the Gospel Message: Come back home to what you were SUPPOSED to be!
- You read the Bible not as a handbook, but you read the Bible to get to KNOW THE AUTHOR!
- Humanity was never designed to have its heart broken; we were designed for Eden.
- Get out of the past and future and live the RIGHT NOW!
- Pray Desperately.
- Live with PASSION.
- Holiness is tested within relationships with other people, not in a hermit on the hill.
- We're spending so much time cleaning out our lives while people are dying in poverty.
- Light IMMEDIATELY stops the darkness.
- Connect the dots: The way I live has an impact on whats going on in the world!
- Pain and brokenness is the fruit of a fallen world.
- Our view of the Kingdom shouldn't be to just survive and exist.
- How often do I sit in judgment on God? (eg: "God, how can You be a good God when THIS bad thing happened in my life?")
- START at the place of, "God is good." When we start there, we filter our pain through that truth rather than filter God through our pain.
- God DOES justice, but He IS love!
- If Jesus IS who He said He is, nothing will ever be the same again. The way we spend money, spend our time, EVERYTHING. Who do you say that He is?

::: Pix Pix Pix

- Sunrise on the North Shore...



- My Roomie, Kelsey from Canada, and I loving Kona and the ocean on the Big Island!



- My two beautiful, FAVORITE roommates... (L) Kelsey from Canada, and (R) Malene (pronounced "Malayna") from Norway!! I LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!! Having these girls as my roommates is one of the BEST blessings I've received since I've been here in my DTS! They're amazing:)



- My friend Grace and I, making dinner for the whole base, about 75 people!! Grillin' it up:)



-At the airport in Kona... SO happy but SO sad because being here in front of this tatue made me think of my family!! Mom and Dad, remember all the pics we took in front of these hula statues?? Totally thought of you this whole time, Ha I miss you guys:)


- Me holding my favorite baby boy, Johnathan!! This was a friday night for the fall festival of a church I go to... it was so fun! He's precious:)


Kelsey, me, and Judith from Switzerland, all enjoying a lagoon in Kona!

OHANA NIGHT!!!
An "Awards" type night they held for my DTS, everybody dressed up and looked really really nice. It was a crazy fun silly time! :)



- My Kyrgyzstan team all dressed up and looking good for ohana night! :)


- My friend Katie Mac, from Canada, and I dressed up:)


- beautiful DTS girls!! :)



-- Me and Katie Miller, my female leader who's leading me to Kyrgyzstan, SHE'S FROM COLORADO SPRINGS TOO!!! :) I love her she's my favorite staff girl, she's amazing.

- Me at my favorite beach, Bellows beach!! :)

CAMPING TRIP!!!
North Shore of Hawaii... Waimea Bay and Pipeline!! :)

- Getting Baptized at North Shore!! :) By Katie, my Kyrgyzstan leader, and Chris Johnson, my base director who's AMAZING!

Me loving Pipeline... the surfing mecca of the world! :) Amazing!

- The Mill at Pipeline! :)


- My WHOLE DTS, after people got baptized!!! SO awesome:)

- Some girls trying to set up tents... haha I love these people:)

:::Catch Up

Gosh I haven't posted in forever. Partly because I've been learning so much that I don't even know where to start... and partly because I've been borderline distracted. ANYWAYS.

Here it is... the update:)
The past few weeks have been INcredible. We've had some of the MOST AMAZING speakers I've ever heard in my life.
A man named Andy Byrd came and spoke on Prayer and Intercession - ahhh... so epic.
Amy Sollars, a prophet from Alaska, came and spoke on the Holy Spirit the week after him - and my life is basically changed forever from it.

Wade Belt, a previous Honolulu DTS student and Staffer came and spoke on the Character Traits of God - also amazing. He's an awesome, adventurous guy!

And finally this past week, we've had a speaker named Art Collins from California speaking on Servanthood - so far its been amazing and I've definitely learned a lot about what Jesus thinks about a servant and what it means for the "last to be first," etc.

Right now tho, I'm gonna focus on two speakers... Andy Byrd and Amy Sollars.

*sigh*.... where to begin.

Well. Let me begin by saying that Andy and Amy are SO passionately in love with God and SO COMPLETELY led by the Holy Spirit. Andy is this crazy young red-headed 27 year old guy from Alaska that came and did his DTS in Maui several years ago, and now serves on leadership at the Kona base and speaks to several DTS's across the world and is SO passionate to see our generation rise up and take our place as deliverers!!! (Ahh.... such a long, drawn out idea that I'll explain to you one day when I get home)

Now for Amy Sollars. Ahhh... honestly this lady is intense and crazy and SO amazing. She's has an AMAZING testimony, growing up in the woods of Alaska and learning how to shoot and skin a bear by the time she was 9. She's a 28 year old passionate woman who grew up being very sensitive to the spiritual life. She was blessed with the gift of Prophesy... like to the max... and was even kicked out of churches and things because of how strong her gift is and because she was kind of immature with it at first... I mean she was literally able to prophesy over people and pastors and students and everything.

Its actually pretty hilarious to hear her stories... like one time when she was serving as a Youth Pastor, she went away for a week on a trip and while she was gone she had a dream about one of her students in her youth group. In her dream she saw the student at a party and drinking and messing around... so when she came back she asked him about it and she was right on!!! Stuff like this happened all the time to her... like before she knew how to properly use her gifts and things, she would go and prophesy over her high school friends stuff like "You see that girl over there? She likes you. And tomorrow, she's going to come up to you and talk to you after lunch. And you two will probably start dating in a couple months." Lo and behold... everything she said came true and they ended up dating a few months later!! I'm telling you, this lady was extreme to the max right ON with so much stuff... especially stuff in the lives on the students in my own DTS. Even in my life. Crazy stuff.

So ya. Amy and Andy both serve together on the Kona leadership team... they're both very good friends, both red-heads, both from Alaska. Both amazing in love with the King of Kings... its so inspirational.

Andy came and brought his family with him... his beautiful blonde petite wife named Holly, and two PRECIOUS kids - Asher (3) and Hadassah (1) - that I absolutely fell in LOVE with. Hadassah especially.... I couldn't let her go she was so so cute!!

Me and Amy Sollars!! :)

Andy Byrd and his little boy, Asher. Like father, like son! :)

Me, Hadassah, and Asher. Love these kids... ahh they're precious!

So ya. Love these people:)

Anyways. Been learning a lot. Been falling deeper and deeper in love with the King of Kings. Been learning so much about who I am in Christ and what it means to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit... a real, intimate, friendship/relationship which is what God is longing to have with us more than anything.
Its funny when you think about it... well actually probably more sad than funny... that the Holy Spirit is the least talked about thing in church today. Its sad because if you think about it, its the part of the trinity that we have WITH US today. God is the God of the Old Testament... Jesus was the main God of the New Testament, and the Holy Spirit is the "God" of today! Don't get me wrong... I know they are all one in the same. I know they're not separate, but it does talk about in the Bible where each one is today. God the Father is in Heaven, Jesus the Son is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, and the Holy Spirit is like the wind and lives among us and inside of us. The Holy Spirit is the POWER God... Jesus needed the Holy Spirit and the power that comes from Him to be raised from the dead, and its with the Holy Spirit that Jesus said we will do marvelous things and works greater than what Jesus Himself did... which is crazy to think about.

The Holy Spirit is the God of today... the one that lives inside of us. The same power that conquered the grave lives inside of us and is what leads us and guides us everyday!! I LOVE that! But the thing is that the Spirit freaks churches out and so its not talked about hardly at all. Which is so sad. The spirit is the POWER, it should be everything to us and we get scared of it and try to avoid it as much as possible. That kills me!


Amy came and talked a lot about the nine spiritual gifts taught in 1 Corinthians... she described a little bit of what they are and how to live them and obtain them. It says in the Bible to "Earnestly Desire Spiritual Gifts..." and I really think thats part of what it means to walk in the fullness of the Spirit. To walk in the fullness of the Spiritual gifts. That is, to walk in the power!! We have the power to heal, we have the power to prophesy, to speak in tongues, all of it! All it takes is for us to ask and receive and walk in out in Faith. I'm trying to do that more and more.
I think its easy to get discouraged, especially when it comes to the gift of Healing. Its so discouraging to pray for healing for someone and see them NOT get healed... ahh that used to kill me. But here's the thing. Andy and Amy explained that its really not about US, its about bringing glory to God's name. All He asks us to do is to obey and walk it out in faith. You might pray for 100 sick people before you see even ONE of them get healed... but the thing is that you DO it. You're strength in Him grows and your faith GROWS the more and more you walk in this.

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Every Friday Night we go out to downtown Waikiki and Hotel Street to evangelize. It's an awesome experience, and of course at first all of us students were really nervous to just approach random people and try to tell them about Jesus. I was SO nervous! But, after you break the ice and after you've had an experience talking to the first person, its really, really not as nerve-wracking. So the Friday after Andy Byrd came and spoke, students went again to downtown Waikiki... and watched God MOVE in powerful ways!!

So its Friday Night. The students are SO pumped after hearing Andy preach that week on intercession and a little bit about the power of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts... so they're ready to go.
They head down to this place in Waikiki called the "International Market Place," which is just a bunch of little markets and stores with little necklaces and touristy gifts all put together. In this marketplace, there is a psychic sitting there in her little booth and then another lady with taro cards. There are about three students that go and position themselves around the Psychics booth, and start praying against the dark spirits of power and start praying for
God's light to shine and for her to have no connection with the spirits that are giving her her power and psychic abilities. These three students start praying over her boothe, and sure enough, the psychic comes out a few minutes later.
Psychic: "What are you doing here?"
Nervous DTS Students: "Uhhh, just chilling here."
Psychic: "Are you with them?" (points to the taro card lady behind her.)
DTS Student: "No... just us."
The Psychic glares at them, nods, and walks back in her booth. The students see her reach for her phone and make a phone call. She called the cops on them!!! So sure enough, a cop comes up to them and starts talking to them.
Cop: "What are you doing here?"
Michael, a DTS student: "Just hanging out."
Cop: "Well I think you're doing more than that. The psychic lady called and said you are intervening with her work and you need to stop praying."
Michael: "Actually sir, according to the first amendment, I have a right to pray here."
Cop: "No sir, because right now you're actually loitering. You can only be here for 15 minutes and after that you must leave."
HA!!!!!!!!
The psychic couldn't finish her job and wasn't getting a clear reading because of the Holy Spirit power that was on the students as they were praying... that she had to call the cops and get them kicked out of the Marketplace!!! That's power right there!!! :)

Story #2: This staff guy named Duke came and was teamed up with another girl in our school named Autumn, and they were walking up and down the waikiki strip. They saw this man in a wheelchair that was cruising the strip with his wife, so they went up and started talking to him. They said they were Christians and part of an organization called Youth With A MIssion and asked if they could pray for him, and he totally welcomed the idea. So they prayed for healing for his legs and for complete restoration of his body, and after they were done praying.... nothing really happened. Nothing that was super obvious or phsyically noticeable, but the man and his wife thanked Duke and Autumn and were really grateful. Duke and Autumn asked if there was anything else they could pray for, and the man leaned in and said "What was that? I'm sorry, I have trouble hearing. I have completely lost hearing in my left ear." So Duke and Autumn of course offer to pray for healing in his hear, and he of course accepts it again. So they lay hands on his ear and start praying, and once they finished, Autumn asked the man if she could speak into the ear. She did... and mans face lit up!!! He was so excited because HE COULD HEAR NOW!!!!!!! :) :)

AMAZING!!!!
THAT'S the kind of God we serve. He LOVES the people He created, HE longs for us to walk in line with what He originally designed us for... the Garden of Eden. To live in paradise. We were never intended to have our hearts broken, we were never intended to experience divorce, hatred, sadness, war, any of that. But God is so good, and Jesus humbled Himself completely and came down to restore the relationship between a sinful man and a perfect God!!!
Then Jesus died on the cross to conquer Sin and Death, rose again on the third day, and left us here as His number one plan to spread the good news of Salvation and abundant life to every person. He didn't leave us powerless tho... He gave us His Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, that is our ultimate comforter, strength, power, our EVERYTHING. We need to learn as the church to walk in an intimate relationship with Him and be lead completely by Him daily.
Anyways... THATS what I've been learning lately.

It might be a little confusing because, basically... I've been learning so much that its hard for me to even begin somewhere in one specific spot. I'm gonna try to copy some of my notes into a blog and try to make more sense of this topic... and not leave you in so much confusion. lol.

God is GOOD. He's a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those people who trust in Him. He is TRUTH. He will never leave us or forsake us. He works ALL things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. He is ROCK. He is close to the broken-hearted. He is JEALOUS for my heart and my attention. His thoughts towards me are more than the sum of every grain of sand and every star in the sky. He is everlasting. He is outside of time. He knit me together in my mothers womb and knows the number of hair on my head. He's the God that created our freakishly Huge universe.... and by Him, for Him, through Him, and in Him, is EVERYTHING held together.
He's the KING of Love... and if everything in my life was taken away and I still had Him, that would be enough.
He's worthy of my life.
He died for me, so I live for Him. Its that simple.