Off Again...

I saw this coffee cup at Ross’s yesterday and had to buy it. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

This is exactly what the Lord has been speaking to me lately. While I was praying about what exactly He wanted me to do this spring while I had time off from nursing studies, I found there were so many passions in my heart and many ways to pursue them. I wanted to keep serving those in my community, grow in closer relationships in the body of Christ, keep growing with my family, pursue experience as a Nursing Assistant, and grow in living a life of intercession.

I love multitasking. I don’t always do it well, as my family could tell you, but my mind is often running one step ahead of where I’m at. While this is a wonderful thing to learn to do, I believe the word the Lord has for me over the next few months is “one thing.” I believe He wants me to lay aside many of the other distractions and press into Him just doing that “one thing.”

“One thing I have desired of the LORD.
This is what I will seek.
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.”
Psalm 27

This has led me to the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City for a 10-week internship. I am looking forward to setting aside these 10 weeks of my life to dig deeper into studying the Bible and spending time in prayer. Please keep me in prayer during this time that I will wholeheartedly jump into everything the Lord has for me and dig wells of discipline in my life that Jesus can use to pour out rivers of His living water.

Isaiah 61 Team in Baja Mexico!

Foundation for His Ministry is a mission that began in the 60s. I was blessed to go down there for the third time with my family and volunteer for a week, this time with a group of 22 people. I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few of the things we did last week...

The mission has a huge macadamia nut orchard which helps with their costs. Groups that come in help sort the cracked nuts. Yum!


















Arlene, Me, Eden, and Christine














Enjoyed making new friends. Arlene had been a nurse in Kenya for 20 years. I really enjoyed the chance to get to know her, as well as a few other nurses who work down there.














This is Beth playing with the children after children's outreach. The countryside was beautiful!














Spending time with all these sisters was such a blessing!

Dichotomous Keys

Well I'm swamped in Microbiology right now. Next week we are going to begin doing unknown bacteria. We will each be given two tubes of bacteria. One will be gram positive and one will be gram negative (basically a simple difference of the anatomy of the bacteria's cell wall.) We will need figure out not only which is positive and negative, but which exact species of bacteria each on is based on a series of tests we have been conducting over the past three weeks. In order to do this, we had to make what is called a Dichotomous Key. A couple years ago when I was in another class I stumbled upon Gliffy.com, a website built for making flowcharts, floorplans, and organizational charts. It's a lot of fun to work with! Here is the dichotomous key I just designed.

Pioneer by Nancy Honeytree

This song is a beautiful heart cry of pilgrim who is learning, like me, to walk by faith, resting in the Father's love. Sometimes the trek is lonely. Nancy Honeytree wrote songs during the Jesus Movement in California. Last year someone played it at a huge gathering of believers at the state capital. I ran across it again lately and thought I would share it.

Stepping Out

I want to share with you all a neat experience I had last weekend. The Lord had laid it on a friend’s heart a few months ago to begin visiting people at a very run-down apartment complex near her home. She and another sister began to bring bags of groceries to several of the families at the end of the month and offering to pray with people. In our prayer meeting we have been pressing in for the people there. Many of them are alcoholics, unemployed, and really need Jesus.

Last weekend something came up and one of the girls wasn’t going to be able to go as planned so they asked me if I was available. I agreed, and the next morning spent some time praying and just asking God if there was anything specific I needed to know or prepare my heart for. I honestly just wanted to feel God’s heart for these people and get excited about ministering to them. But as I prayed, the only thing God spoke to me was, “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”

Over the summer as I read and talked through the book of Matthew with the other volunteers at YWAM SF, one of the things that kept jumping out to me was how often Jesus said to his disciples, “O you of little faith.” It comes up at least four times in Matthew. I realized how often I think I need a fresh, new word from the Lord before I can get excited about obedience. Sometimes we just need to go for it. He has already commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. He has already given us all authority. He has already asked us to share our bread with the hungry, to share our coat with him who doesn’t have one, and to pray for the sick. Do I always need a new revelation before stepping out?

So that morning as I prayed, I sensed the Lord just speaking to me to go in sheer, practical obedience, expecting Him to just work through us and give us what we needed as we went. After assembling the bags my friend and I spent some time praying and worshipping. I shared the word the Lord spoke to me that morning, and was so happy when she told me the Lord had spoken to her exactly the same thing!

So we went, and I can’t tell you the sweet thrill of getting out of the car on this swelteringly hot summer day, walking up to these apartments, and offering these people some groceries and getting to just talk and love them. They were all so grateful to receive the groceries, and most were eager to have us pray for other needs as well. Hearts were so open to us and to the love of Jesus.

I want to continue to press into prayer and ask the Father to reveal more of His heart to me for people around me. Yet I also want to remember to simply be faithful because He has already spoken so many things to us throughout our lives and simply through the Bible. We can step out in simple obedience, knowing that He has prepared good works for us from the foundation of the world. And I firmly believe that as we begin to step out in faith, the Lord will continue to direct us and guide our steps.

Baptisms

Since I've been here in San Francisco we've had two baptisms! Totally awesome. Praising Jesus for the obedience of these precious friends.

These first pictures are of my sweet roommate Tessa. She had been wanting to be baptized for awhile, and asked to do it here with all of us. We all went out to Ocean Beach on a Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful couple of hours of worshipping, baptizing Tess, playing on the beach, getting wet, and praying over our friend.



David's baptism was in the backyard here, which also opens into Boedekker Park. David is a wonderful, tenderhearted young man who has decided to follow Jesus with all his heart. It was a blessing to be there that day. We all enjoyed a hot dog lunch after David was baptized by his pastor Evans. The backyard was decorated in chalk with verses and encouragements for David.

360

Many days I walk into the dining room here at the YWAM base and am greeted with a warm smile from Derek. He is a sweet older man who brings so much joy to this place. He's always cooking up something in the kitchen or chatting with someone. He is one of the students in the 360 program here. 360 is a discipleship program run YWAM SF. It is a three month program for men and woman on the street who need relationship and accountability. The name 360 represents a full circle. The purpose of the program is to bring discipleship into every area of the student's life. It is not only Bible studies and prayer, it encompasses serving others practically, learning to live in community relationships, and the staff are able to help the students with many other life skills such as CPR training and filling out job applications. It is a three-month program, though many choose to continue on longer. Please keep this ministry in your prayers as they really need more staff and resources.

360° 2.0 from YWAM SF on Vimeo.

I've really enjoyed spending time with some of the students in the program. Currently there are six. They are around the base every day and help out a lot with afternoon events and are generally part of the "family" here. Some of them live on the street, some in shelters around here. The director of the program really pours out a lot on his students and is looking forward to seeing the Lord bring more people to help with this program.