rent is due on the first of each month. over the weekend i was looking at my budget and realized that i didn't have the money to make rent (if that tells you anything about how i manage my finances, pray for me!) well, i felt God telling me not to freak out. so i didn't. but i had no idea how i was going to explain to my roomate that i couldn't make my half of the rent... even though somehow i had a feeling that wasn't going to happen.
let me back up just a little to say that while i was in india i was not on vacation. i was on unpaid leave from work... i.e. i wasn't bringing in my normal paycheck. so when i got back i still had bills to pay.
back to a few days ago. so far i had been doing fine since i got back, and then somehow payday and the day rent was due were just a little too far apart. i had two checks from friends who had sent me money (God is good) to help with living expenses when i got back. i hadn't cashed them yet and was kind of saving them. so i thanked God for those and endorsed them.
then, i started randomly cleaning out my planner... and i find another check! a friend of my parents had made it out before my trip and not knowing who to make it out to, left the pay to the order of line blank... cha-ching! i endorsed that one too! by this time my faith was totally strengthened that God would take care of it, even though i still needed a little more. so i went to bed and the next morning (the day i had to pay it) my mom called and said that i had gotten a check in the mail and did i want her to deposit it in my account! um...let me see YES!
wow! so i had all the money i needed within less than 24 hours. isn't God amazing?? He told me not to worry about it... and look what He did! A Father who takes care of me and watches my back even when i don't know it needs watching. He can do that for you too! He is always faithful.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
hindi
i can type my blog in hindi! look! ई कैन टाईप मय ब्लोग इन हिंदी! लुक!
isn't that crazy? i should translate this entire blog.... just kidding
just in case you didn't know, hindi is the language of india
isn't that crazy? i should translate this entire blog.... just kidding
just in case you didn't know, hindi is the language of india
Monday, April 16, 2007
England, India, etc
I stumbled across this letter that I never sent. It is an update from my trip to England last year and what would have been a support letter for my trip to India... I thought I would include it here for those with plenty of time on their hands. ;)
"Dear Friend
I write to tell you of the many things God has done since last summer when you prayed and helped make it possible for me to go and minister to youth in England. Thank you so much. God did so many fantastic things and there are many praise reports!
I apologize that it has taken me such a long time to put it all down on paper. This is in part because I hit the ground running when I got home. I moved out of my parent’s house and into a new apartment in Dallas less than two weeks after I returned, which I thought would be a breeze. Little did I know the packing that awaited me after 10 years in the same room. The last part of high school, all of college and the first few years of my adult life were tightly crammed into every last inch of my shelves, drawers and closet. Why I kept all that stuff, I have no idea. The best part of it all was that the movers were late and my dad, two brothers and three friends had to carry all of my boxes and furniture up three flights of stairs in the heat of a harsh Texas summer. I have to admit I felt guilty watching them sweat to death as I pranced around in the air conditioning and told them where to put things. Sometimes you just don’t know how blessed you really are to have a loving family that pulls together and supports you. Of course, I’m sure the fact that they were so happy to see me finally move out of the house had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Needless to say, I barely had time to process all that I saw and learned on the trip. I was so overwhelmed with new bills, buying groceries and learning to live with a roommate that it seemed only a few weeks flew by before I realized that it had been months since I had been back from England. Not to mention, many new doors had opened up for me in media ministry and I was working the equivalent of two jobs, in addition to trying to keep up with my previous commitments in the areas of youth and prayer ministry.
For lack of a better word, this last season of my life has been a whirlwind. But God in His generous kindness has continued to keep my feet planted in Him, even though at times He has had to rein me in quite forcefully - and I am grateful to Him for it.
Ehem, so anyway, this is not a blog, it is an update letter so…..
First, let me say that it is such a privilege to go to another country with the sole purpose of serving Jesus. In my opinion, it’s the only way to travel.
As we did with Ireland, our team prepared spiritually for the trip to England by praying that God would show us His perspective on the spiritual state of things there and give us a correct vision of what our role would be to play. During one of the prayer times for the trip, a woman in our church who is from New Zealand shared with us what she believed the Lord had laid on her heart about our trip. She said, “England is a land of deep [spiritual] roots. [As you go] remember that there have been many moves of God in England [referring to the various spiritual awakenings recorded in history]. It is a great privilege [for you] to go and call the roots back. [God] is calling [England] back to Himself.” Then she read a passage of Scripture from Job 14:7-10 which says,
“For there is hope for a tree, if it cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant.”
Job 14:7-10 NKJV
From this we determined that our goal on the trip would be to bring “the scent of water” with us to England, a fresh passion and the life of God that would cause those we came in contact with to awake and thirst for the water of Life. This insight proved to be more true than we realized at the time. We had heard that England – along with the rest of Europe – had become “post Christian,” meaning it had survived the Christian era and become a society in which Christian faith and belief are considered things of the past. We had no idea what this really meant until we observed it firsthand.
When we arrived, our host church gave us a brief history lesson. Apparently, toward the end of WWII, Christianity came under open intimidation and scrutiny in English society. Tolerance became the norm and Christian influence began to wane. In the words of our host church, “The Church started letting the world tell them how to be Christian.” If you stop right there, you can easily see that this in itself is a preposterous idea. How can the spiritually dead give any advice on living a new life in Christ? They can only advise on how to properly conduct oneself in a manner appropriate among the spiritually dead. So why then, would any thinking person listen to them? The sad part is that the majority of the Church did listen. And therefore, Christianity was all but wiped out in open society. Churches are considered places to go for christenings, weddings and funerals, only regularly attended by those in their eighties and above. A whole generation has grown up in a spiritual vacuum, with most people forty and under having never heard the Gospel. Christianity is one of many religions children learn about in school, alongside Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and others.
In one of the schools we visited, there were posters about the many religions of the world on the walls in one of the classrooms. I was shocked to see the lifeless depiction of Christianity in one of the posters. While many of the other posters showed religious ceremonies with bright colors and pictures of celebrations, the one explaining the Christian faith showed the brown drab inside of an old church and an old priest administering the sacraments to a couple getting married. They all looked very pious. As I stared at it I thought, No teenager in their right mind would be even remotely interested in such a somber looking scene – I’m a Christian and it bores me!
The truth is, most of the young people in the schools we visited had never heard the whole story about Jesus. Oh, they may have heard the Name – but only as they have heard the name of Mohammed, or Buddha. They have not heard that there is a God who loves them, Who sent His Son to come and die for all the wrong things they have done and that they can be completely forgiven.
As I spoke to one girl after an evangelistic outreach one evening, she stared at me wide-eyed as I explained this to her. It hit her so hard that I could see her eyes filling up and could tell that she was swallowing hard desperately trying to fight back the tears. It was so beautiful that it almost broke my heart. I have never in my life seen someone so visibly impacted by the truth of the Gospel. It proves to me that the Gospel is so true and it strikes such a chord in the human heart, that when the Holy Spirit is revealing Jesus to someone you don’t have to say a lot. You don’t have to run to your apologetics book to prove that God created the world in six days and you don’t have to be a great preacher. You just have to open your mouth and tell someone the plain truth of what you know, and though it may sound simple to you, it will come to them with such a power that it will evoke something inside them that they never knew existed.
With many of the English people, we saw an intense hunger covered by a fierce reservation. They wanted to hear what we had to say, and yet many of them stopped short of the “evangelical” commitment that we wanted them to make. Part of it was that we were Americans telling them something that they didn’t know, which although novel, was a little hard on the ego. Another part of it was that this information was literally so new to them that you could tell many of them needed time to process it and take it all in. Finding out that there is a hell and you deserve to go there is a hard thing to swallow.
One of the major differences in the evangelical way of the English church versus our American mindset, is that in America we tend to be driven by the “big.” Big events, big numbers, big moments, big emotion, big everything. We often equate “big” with success. In a conversation with a youth worker named Jaya, a young woman close to my age from our host church, she shared with me her personal paradigm for evangelism, which I think parallels closely the larger approach in the English church. She said that she looks for “big” in the small things. That miraculous things happen in the moments we might easily overlook, and that any move against the “norm” is revolutionary. This literally blew my mind. I sat there speechless and totally humbled. Out of all the big crowds that followed Jesus and the big things that happened during His ministry, He never failed to draw attention to the widow who put in two mites, the sparrow that falls to the ground, the small Zaccheus who climbed a tree, or every “jot and tittle” of the Law. God sees grandeur in the small things, and so many times we miss what He is doing because we only want to see the outcome that we have dreamed up larger than life in our heads.
There is more that I could share about our trip – that we organized youth events, did dramas, survived on next to no sleep, sang with children, danced in goofy superhero costumes, and fell absolutely in love with the Brits, or I could tell you how I got to preach on the last night to a roomful of young people who had never heard the Gospel – but the main thing that I would like to share with you here is my heart. What was put into my heart during this trip, I hope that I have been able to share with you in some small way. A glimpse of the English people, of what God is doing there and how He is doing it. They are such precious people, their hearts are open and capable of deep resonance with the Gospel. Please pray for them.
And please take heed to their situation. Our nation now stands in the place they once stood. Will we allow the world to tell us how to be Christians? If we do, then our great-grandchildren may grow up without ever hearing the Gospel.
The Mission Continues…
Well, it seems that I have acquired a taste for travel. The funny part of this story is that I came back from Northern Ireland a year and a half ago with an incredible desire to go to India… Northern Ireland of all places, was where I first tried Indian cuisine – and loved it! I thought, Wow, this food is really good…Indian people must be really cool. God uses the funniest things sometimes. So, when I came back to Dallas, I scouted out some Indian restaurants and even learned to cook a few curry dishes. So when Elaine, my friend and mentor, said, “I’m planning a trip to India – and you’re going with me!” I was like, “Let’s go!”
Elaine leads a prayer gathering on Thursday nights called Eagles. The goal of the prayer meetings is to pray for the nations of the world and to provide prayer coverage for missionaries and pastors in different locations. At the beginning of each meeting, we set out maps and go through a list of prayer requests that Elaine has received throughout the week. It is very fun, and it causes the nations of the world to come closer to home as we pray for specific needs and people. It’s helped a lot with my geography skills, too!
Our mission to India will be one of prayer. We are going in order to set up a prayer room at a Christian conference center in Siliguri, West Bengal in the northeast part of India near Tibet. We will bring maps and various materials on prayer, as well as banners and other visual aids to help decorate the prayer room. Elaine will conduct teachings on prayer and we will spend a lot of time prayer walking the campus and local areas near the conference center. Several local pastors who have learned that we are coming have already asked that we come and pray around their church grounds. Our main focus will be to pray for God’s purposes to come about in the land of India, in addition to praying specifically for the needs of the local pastors and ministries in West Bengal.
I am very excited about this trip. I know that God has some incredible things in store. One of my personal goals for the trip is that God would open my heart even more to the nations and give me a greater vision of what He is doing, including how He wants to build His kingdom across the world and what I can do to be a bigger part of that. I would also like to receive a greater heart for the Indian people, specifically for the women of India.
If you would again join me in prayer for this exciting opportunity, I would be so thankful. I felt your prayers in England so strongly and I know that God was giving our team a special measure of grace and protection in response to your prayer coverage. Please consider becoming a part of my prayer team as I venture across the world even further this time.
If you would like to contribute financially, please make checks payable to Eagles World Intercessory Network. The total cost of the trip is _________. Please pray that the Lord will give our team creative ideas and ways to fundraise. In addition to our own travel expenses, we are also bringing all of the maps and prayer materials as a gift to the believers in Siliguri.
A story comes to mind that I feel I must share with you in closing: When I was a little girl, my mom used to read many books to me. Being the parents that they were, my mom and dad made sure that all of the information I took in as a child included solid Christian examples for my little young mind to absorb. One of my favorite books was called “Around the World In My Red Balloon.” It was a book about children with a giant red hot air balloon who would travel to different places all over the world and meet children of different countries. The children with the red balloon would learn about the lands and cultures of the places they would visit such as the islands, South America and Asia. I remember that there were many bright pictures in the book with children in all different types of native dress. At the very end of the book on the last page, the children with the red balloon said that before they would leave each place, they would tell the other children about God’s love. That page showed a bunch of happy faces from all the different nations, waving goodbye to the children in the red balloon. I always loved that part at the end. I think about that book now and I think about the simple excitement and joy I felt as a child at the thought of sharing God’s love with people so far away.
I want to encourage you to plant seeds in the hearts of the children in your life – seeds of the love of Jesus and the joy of sharing His love with others. It can become so complicated to us, but really it’s very simple. Who knows what God will do with that seed that you plant. I wonder how many other children read that same book and caught a vision for missions…
With joy,
Tabitha "
It's funny that this letter mentions the Red Balloon. I think that was the first time I had thought about it in years. Upon returning home, my friends at work had decorated my desk with red balloons and a welcome back card... seems the theme is catching on.
Not knowing about the book, someone near and dear was praying for me before I left for India and they said, "I see that it's like you are going there in a balloon, a balloon of God's presence. You are in His presence and you will carry His presence to the people." Upon which I gasped and told her about the developing theme...and about how I had been praying about what it meant. Spooky? No. It's God. Don't put Him in a box. He does what He wants. and He can ride in a balloon or be a balloon or make me a balloon, whatever, I don't care... I just want God. the real God, the Living Alive not stuck in a religious moth ball God. the One Who still speaks today.... don't you?
"Dear Friend
I write to tell you of the many things God has done since last summer when you prayed and helped make it possible for me to go and minister to youth in England. Thank you so much. God did so many fantastic things and there are many praise reports!
I apologize that it has taken me such a long time to put it all down on paper. This is in part because I hit the ground running when I got home. I moved out of my parent’s house and into a new apartment in Dallas less than two weeks after I returned, which I thought would be a breeze. Little did I know the packing that awaited me after 10 years in the same room. The last part of high school, all of college and the first few years of my adult life were tightly crammed into every last inch of my shelves, drawers and closet. Why I kept all that stuff, I have no idea. The best part of it all was that the movers were late and my dad, two brothers and three friends had to carry all of my boxes and furniture up three flights of stairs in the heat of a harsh Texas summer. I have to admit I felt guilty watching them sweat to death as I pranced around in the air conditioning and told them where to put things. Sometimes you just don’t know how blessed you really are to have a loving family that pulls together and supports you. Of course, I’m sure the fact that they were so happy to see me finally move out of the house had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Needless to say, I barely had time to process all that I saw and learned on the trip. I was so overwhelmed with new bills, buying groceries and learning to live with a roommate that it seemed only a few weeks flew by before I realized that it had been months since I had been back from England. Not to mention, many new doors had opened up for me in media ministry and I was working the equivalent of two jobs, in addition to trying to keep up with my previous commitments in the areas of youth and prayer ministry.
For lack of a better word, this last season of my life has been a whirlwind. But God in His generous kindness has continued to keep my feet planted in Him, even though at times He has had to rein me in quite forcefully - and I am grateful to Him for it.
Ehem, so anyway, this is not a blog, it is an update letter so…..
First, let me say that it is such a privilege to go to another country with the sole purpose of serving Jesus. In my opinion, it’s the only way to travel.
As we did with Ireland, our team prepared spiritually for the trip to England by praying that God would show us His perspective on the spiritual state of things there and give us a correct vision of what our role would be to play. During one of the prayer times for the trip, a woman in our church who is from New Zealand shared with us what she believed the Lord had laid on her heart about our trip. She said, “England is a land of deep [spiritual] roots. [As you go] remember that there have been many moves of God in England [referring to the various spiritual awakenings recorded in history]. It is a great privilege [for you] to go and call the roots back. [God] is calling [England] back to Himself.” Then she read a passage of Scripture from Job 14:7-10 which says,
“For there is hope for a tree, if it cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant.”
Job 14:7-10 NKJV
From this we determined that our goal on the trip would be to bring “the scent of water” with us to England, a fresh passion and the life of God that would cause those we came in contact with to awake and thirst for the water of Life. This insight proved to be more true than we realized at the time. We had heard that England – along with the rest of Europe – had become “post Christian,” meaning it had survived the Christian era and become a society in which Christian faith and belief are considered things of the past. We had no idea what this really meant until we observed it firsthand.
When we arrived, our host church gave us a brief history lesson. Apparently, toward the end of WWII, Christianity came under open intimidation and scrutiny in English society. Tolerance became the norm and Christian influence began to wane. In the words of our host church, “The Church started letting the world tell them how to be Christian.” If you stop right there, you can easily see that this in itself is a preposterous idea. How can the spiritually dead give any advice on living a new life in Christ? They can only advise on how to properly conduct oneself in a manner appropriate among the spiritually dead. So why then, would any thinking person listen to them? The sad part is that the majority of the Church did listen. And therefore, Christianity was all but wiped out in open society. Churches are considered places to go for christenings, weddings and funerals, only regularly attended by those in their eighties and above. A whole generation has grown up in a spiritual vacuum, with most people forty and under having never heard the Gospel. Christianity is one of many religions children learn about in school, alongside Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and others.
In one of the schools we visited, there were posters about the many religions of the world on the walls in one of the classrooms. I was shocked to see the lifeless depiction of Christianity in one of the posters. While many of the other posters showed religious ceremonies with bright colors and pictures of celebrations, the one explaining the Christian faith showed the brown drab inside of an old church and an old priest administering the sacraments to a couple getting married. They all looked very pious. As I stared at it I thought, No teenager in their right mind would be even remotely interested in such a somber looking scene – I’m a Christian and it bores me!
The truth is, most of the young people in the schools we visited had never heard the whole story about Jesus. Oh, they may have heard the Name – but only as they have heard the name of Mohammed, or Buddha. They have not heard that there is a God who loves them, Who sent His Son to come and die for all the wrong things they have done and that they can be completely forgiven.
As I spoke to one girl after an evangelistic outreach one evening, she stared at me wide-eyed as I explained this to her. It hit her so hard that I could see her eyes filling up and could tell that she was swallowing hard desperately trying to fight back the tears. It was so beautiful that it almost broke my heart. I have never in my life seen someone so visibly impacted by the truth of the Gospel. It proves to me that the Gospel is so true and it strikes such a chord in the human heart, that when the Holy Spirit is revealing Jesus to someone you don’t have to say a lot. You don’t have to run to your apologetics book to prove that God created the world in six days and you don’t have to be a great preacher. You just have to open your mouth and tell someone the plain truth of what you know, and though it may sound simple to you, it will come to them with such a power that it will evoke something inside them that they never knew existed.
With many of the English people, we saw an intense hunger covered by a fierce reservation. They wanted to hear what we had to say, and yet many of them stopped short of the “evangelical” commitment that we wanted them to make. Part of it was that we were Americans telling them something that they didn’t know, which although novel, was a little hard on the ego. Another part of it was that this information was literally so new to them that you could tell many of them needed time to process it and take it all in. Finding out that there is a hell and you deserve to go there is a hard thing to swallow.
One of the major differences in the evangelical way of the English church versus our American mindset, is that in America we tend to be driven by the “big.” Big events, big numbers, big moments, big emotion, big everything. We often equate “big” with success. In a conversation with a youth worker named Jaya, a young woman close to my age from our host church, she shared with me her personal paradigm for evangelism, which I think parallels closely the larger approach in the English church. She said that she looks for “big” in the small things. That miraculous things happen in the moments we might easily overlook, and that any move against the “norm” is revolutionary. This literally blew my mind. I sat there speechless and totally humbled. Out of all the big crowds that followed Jesus and the big things that happened during His ministry, He never failed to draw attention to the widow who put in two mites, the sparrow that falls to the ground, the small Zaccheus who climbed a tree, or every “jot and tittle” of the Law. God sees grandeur in the small things, and so many times we miss what He is doing because we only want to see the outcome that we have dreamed up larger than life in our heads.
There is more that I could share about our trip – that we organized youth events, did dramas, survived on next to no sleep, sang with children, danced in goofy superhero costumes, and fell absolutely in love with the Brits, or I could tell you how I got to preach on the last night to a roomful of young people who had never heard the Gospel – but the main thing that I would like to share with you here is my heart. What was put into my heart during this trip, I hope that I have been able to share with you in some small way. A glimpse of the English people, of what God is doing there and how He is doing it. They are such precious people, their hearts are open and capable of deep resonance with the Gospel. Please pray for them.
And please take heed to their situation. Our nation now stands in the place they once stood. Will we allow the world to tell us how to be Christians? If we do, then our great-grandchildren may grow up without ever hearing the Gospel.
The Mission Continues…
Well, it seems that I have acquired a taste for travel. The funny part of this story is that I came back from Northern Ireland a year and a half ago with an incredible desire to go to India… Northern Ireland of all places, was where I first tried Indian cuisine – and loved it! I thought, Wow, this food is really good…Indian people must be really cool. God uses the funniest things sometimes. So, when I came back to Dallas, I scouted out some Indian restaurants and even learned to cook a few curry dishes. So when Elaine, my friend and mentor, said, “I’m planning a trip to India – and you’re going with me!” I was like, “Let’s go!”
Elaine leads a prayer gathering on Thursday nights called Eagles. The goal of the prayer meetings is to pray for the nations of the world and to provide prayer coverage for missionaries and pastors in different locations. At the beginning of each meeting, we set out maps and go through a list of prayer requests that Elaine has received throughout the week. It is very fun, and it causes the nations of the world to come closer to home as we pray for specific needs and people. It’s helped a lot with my geography skills, too!
Our mission to India will be one of prayer. We are going in order to set up a prayer room at a Christian conference center in Siliguri, West Bengal in the northeast part of India near Tibet. We will bring maps and various materials on prayer, as well as banners and other visual aids to help decorate the prayer room. Elaine will conduct teachings on prayer and we will spend a lot of time prayer walking the campus and local areas near the conference center. Several local pastors who have learned that we are coming have already asked that we come and pray around their church grounds. Our main focus will be to pray for God’s purposes to come about in the land of India, in addition to praying specifically for the needs of the local pastors and ministries in West Bengal.
I am very excited about this trip. I know that God has some incredible things in store. One of my personal goals for the trip is that God would open my heart even more to the nations and give me a greater vision of what He is doing, including how He wants to build His kingdom across the world and what I can do to be a bigger part of that. I would also like to receive a greater heart for the Indian people, specifically for the women of India.
If you would again join me in prayer for this exciting opportunity, I would be so thankful. I felt your prayers in England so strongly and I know that God was giving our team a special measure of grace and protection in response to your prayer coverage. Please consider becoming a part of my prayer team as I venture across the world even further this time.
If you would like to contribute financially, please make checks payable to Eagles World Intercessory Network. The total cost of the trip is _________. Please pray that the Lord will give our team creative ideas and ways to fundraise. In addition to our own travel expenses, we are also bringing all of the maps and prayer materials as a gift to the believers in Siliguri.
A story comes to mind that I feel I must share with you in closing: When I was a little girl, my mom used to read many books to me. Being the parents that they were, my mom and dad made sure that all of the information I took in as a child included solid Christian examples for my little young mind to absorb. One of my favorite books was called “Around the World In My Red Balloon.” It was a book about children with a giant red hot air balloon who would travel to different places all over the world and meet children of different countries. The children with the red balloon would learn about the lands and cultures of the places they would visit such as the islands, South America and Asia. I remember that there were many bright pictures in the book with children in all different types of native dress. At the very end of the book on the last page, the children with the red balloon said that before they would leave each place, they would tell the other children about God’s love. That page showed a bunch of happy faces from all the different nations, waving goodbye to the children in the red balloon. I always loved that part at the end. I think about that book now and I think about the simple excitement and joy I felt as a child at the thought of sharing God’s love with people so far away.
I want to encourage you to plant seeds in the hearts of the children in your life – seeds of the love of Jesus and the joy of sharing His love with others. It can become so complicated to us, but really it’s very simple. Who knows what God will do with that seed that you plant. I wonder how many other children read that same book and caught a vision for missions…
With joy,
Tabitha "
It's funny that this letter mentions the Red Balloon. I think that was the first time I had thought about it in years. Upon returning home, my friends at work had decorated my desk with red balloons and a welcome back card... seems the theme is catching on.
Not knowing about the book, someone near and dear was praying for me before I left for India and they said, "I see that it's like you are going there in a balloon, a balloon of God's presence. You are in His presence and you will carry His presence to the people." Upon which I gasped and told her about the developing theme...and about how I had been praying about what it meant. Spooky? No. It's God. Don't put Him in a box. He does what He wants. and He can ride in a balloon or be a balloon or make me a balloon, whatever, I don't care... I just want God. the real God, the Living Alive not stuck in a religious moth ball God. the One Who still speaks today.... don't you?
Sunday, April 8, 2007
...not that you wanted to know this but...
i'm not feeling so good. everything i eat seems to give my stomach a whirl. it's off and on and is mostly determined by whether i eat or not. my mom and dad say i should visit the doc... so i guess i will. it's sunday now and this has been going on for several days since we got back. i ate indian food pretty much every meal, i love indian food and i could not resist! i have a feeling it was either our last meal in the airport or one of the meals on the plane... too much information, sorry!
i have been meaning to update my blog since i got back, but i have been working and have not had a chance to get to the computer. and now that i am finally at the computer, i don't have my journal! for now i will just mention a few things.
one, i think i may have convinced my brother to come with me to india next time. so many times while i was there, i was thinking "my brother has to come here, he has to see this." so we'll see what God does there.
two, thank you so much to all of you who prayed for me while i was gone. please pray that God will clear up whatever leftover sickness i am having.
three. culture shock was killer. i felt like i left my heart in india. i was not happy to be back. i hated all of the controlled environments, the lines in the roads, the hyper organized systems, and most of all, the spirits i felt. i was coming from a place where we were super-sensitive to the spiritual environment around us, and i have to tell the truth. there are spirits here. they are sneaky. they are so sneaky. i felt them the moment our plane landed. they want to control and they do. there are means of control that they use - money, religion, image. we think of other countries as having territorial spirits. but we are so oblivious to the ones that rule over our own neighborhoods. even when i say this you are probably like, "oh yeah we know about those things." really? then what are you doing about it? i am so struck with the fact that we are to declare war against the principalities. we are not to live like everyone else and let them so subtly make us complacent.
Jesus turned over tables in the temple. He was violent. i'm ready to see some violence against the things we have put up with for so long. we have church and there is no presence of God and we are ok with that. we act like if we feel a little goosebumps then that is what we came for. i want JESUS. what does that look like? i don't know. all i know is i'm tired of the status quo. i am so tired of the religion that lulls us to sleep so that we continually miss the power of God. even the name of JESUS has been cloaked with religion in people's minds.
the JESUS i saw in india is not the jesus that i have seen in so many religious corners of this area. i have to tell you, i am so tired of it. i am exhausted, i feel no patience anymore.
God awaken us! Deliver us! and let us know Your true power and presence in this generation.
i have been meaning to update my blog since i got back, but i have been working and have not had a chance to get to the computer. and now that i am finally at the computer, i don't have my journal! for now i will just mention a few things.
one, i think i may have convinced my brother to come with me to india next time. so many times while i was there, i was thinking "my brother has to come here, he has to see this." so we'll see what God does there.
two, thank you so much to all of you who prayed for me while i was gone. please pray that God will clear up whatever leftover sickness i am having.
three. culture shock was killer. i felt like i left my heart in india. i was not happy to be back. i hated all of the controlled environments, the lines in the roads, the hyper organized systems, and most of all, the spirits i felt. i was coming from a place where we were super-sensitive to the spiritual environment around us, and i have to tell the truth. there are spirits here. they are sneaky. they are so sneaky. i felt them the moment our plane landed. they want to control and they do. there are means of control that they use - money, religion, image. we think of other countries as having territorial spirits. but we are so oblivious to the ones that rule over our own neighborhoods. even when i say this you are probably like, "oh yeah we know about those things." really? then what are you doing about it? i am so struck with the fact that we are to declare war against the principalities. we are not to live like everyone else and let them so subtly make us complacent.
Jesus turned over tables in the temple. He was violent. i'm ready to see some violence against the things we have put up with for so long. we have church and there is no presence of God and we are ok with that. we act like if we feel a little goosebumps then that is what we came for. i want JESUS. what does that look like? i don't know. all i know is i'm tired of the status quo. i am so tired of the religion that lulls us to sleep so that we continually miss the power of God. even the name of JESUS has been cloaked with religion in people's minds.
the JESUS i saw in india is not the jesus that i have seen in so many religious corners of this area. i have to tell you, i am so tired of it. i am exhausted, i feel no patience anymore.
God awaken us! Deliver us! and let us know Your true power and presence in this generation.
Friday, March 30, 2007
here i am in darjeeling... drinking tea
ever heard of darjeeling tea? i've had alot of it in the past two days.
i am in upper northeast india on the border of nepal. today we visited an awesome church in milik, (no, not milk.) outside of darjeeling. we drove through tea gardens at about 6,000 feet elevation. beautiful mountains covered with green tea bushes in perfect lines around the mountain. the border of india and nepal is watched very closely by the indian government, because terrorist groups will cross into the indian jungle to hide.
it seems like we have been all over northeast india. we arrived on sunday after 14 hours in the air. i sat by this really sweet young man named sanju (Lord I pray that you would reveal Yourself to him and his entire family and that they would be saved.) we talked for hours and i asked him so many questions about indian culture and history. we watched a bollywood flick and i have to admit i really loved it. it seems so cheesy at first because they dance and sing and everything is so over the top. but then the plot thickens and by the end i was so into it.
so this is how you say hello in nepalese - it sounds like "je-me-se" and this is how you say thank you - sounds like "dan-ya-bat."
i love these people. they are so beautiful. their children can break your heart with one look of their big brown eyes.
so on sunday, we had two services. one in the afternoon and one in the evening. people were getting set free and falling out in the Spirit. and boy did we get acqainted with some of the bondage here - there is lots. witchcraft and generational curses abound. the idolatry and demon worship has ruled for thousands of years.
but God is moving and things will not stay that way. they are already changing.
then on monday we dedicated the prayer room and brought out the maps and banners to be hung on the wall. our trip leader taught on prayer and then we went around the entire facility praying over each room. we had a powerful time, and it was only just the beginning. we had another service that night even more powerful than the first day, and many people were set free from demons. i saw some things i have never witnessed before.
on tuesday we traveled to kalimpong and check in to a beautiful hotel overlooking the himalayas. breathtaking. that night we went to a very alive and growing church to minister. the pastor of that church has such a heart for the city and his wife is an intercessor. God has revealed the territorial spirits to him and so he understands the spiritual dynamics of what is going on in the city. he seemed to know where every church is located and where there are no churches. the service was very powerful. our trip leader preached and then called on our team to pray for people. it was intense. when there is a language barrier, you must totally rely on the Holy Spirit to give you discernement as to what is going on in people's lives.
the next day we went up into the mountains. we took our host - an incredible man of God and an apostle in his own right - the pastor with a heart for the city, the pastor's daughter - an awesome girl who leads praise and worship, two young people from that church, and then of course our team. we had some incredible breakthrough and the fact that the local pastor came with us was very strategic. let's just say the devil is coming down in that region, and the dragon took some serious injuries. praise God! pray for the region of the world that is called southeast asia. pray for revival! bhutan, bangladesh, nepal, burma, india and the rest. pray for the power of God to fall and the Gospel to be spread across the land and received.
after our trip to the mountains we went by our host's spiritual mother's home to pray for her. we had an incredible time of prayer for her as we saw what a faithful and devoted intercessor and lover of Jesus she is. while we were there, a young girl came down the stairs. she was strikingly beautiful - as many are here - and she seemed to want to avoid us. the second i saw here my heart just went out to her so strongly. as we were beginning to leave, our host asked for all of the young girls in the home to come down stairs so that we could pray for them. he asked me specifically to pray for them. i was so excited to pray for them, and for this girl especially because i felt that God was after her heart and yet she was being pulled by the world. i prayed that they would follow Christ and give their lives to Him, and that they would walk in purity and be used of God in their generation. as we left and headed toward the car, the girl chased after me to say thank you. i held her hand and asked her name so that i could pray for her. she told me her name and i told her that the second i saw her i thought "God can use that girl." i encouraged her to just go for God and not allow the devil to trip her up. she started crying and told me that she was leaving for college in the big city of calcutta the next day. i told her to be strong and pray and ask God to send her others who are walking with Him to encourage her and stand with her and that He would. i also told her - because she is so beautiful - to watch out for any young men who would try to deceive her. i told her that God has ONE man for her and to save herself for him, and until that time to give her heart to God and that he would fill her heart more than any man ever could. i know that this was a divine appointment. i just had that one moment to talk with her. so i took hold of it with all my heart and said whatever God gave me to say. it's crazy how God can do stuff like that. just let you meet someone out of the blue and let you connect with them and speak into their life and fill you with such a passion and a love for them in an instant.
praise God. okay what else. so that night we had another incredible service at the church in kalimpong and God gave me the privilege of speaking to the youth in the service. i had five minutes to address the youth. oh boy was i excited about that. the youth are in the service with everyone else, so before our trip leader came up to speak, the pastor introduced me and i shared out of ephesians where it says that God can do imeasurably more than we asked or think. i told them that beofre i gave my life to Jesus Christ I thought that living for Him would be boring, that He would take away my good time. but the reality was, when I finally decided to follow Christ, He made my life more exciting and adventurous than it had ever been before, mentioning the fact that i never thought i would be standing there in india talking to them. i told them that if they would give their lives completely to Jesus Christ, He would take them places they never thought they would go. i also encouraged them to prepare to be used by God in their city. and i challenged them to go out and tell the other young people in their city. i got pretty choked up at that point.
there are so many young people in this area. we drove through the streets during the time that they were all getting out of school and i thought my heart would jump out of my chest. when we go into churches, usually about half are people who appear to be under the age of 25. it is very exciting to see what God is doing. there is much more to do.
we prayed for like very single young person in the church that night. even little little guys maybe 5th grade or so. so cute! they need so much. they need identity. they need to grasp hold of their destiny and purpose in God. Oh please pray for them. many of them had deep deep hurts in their hearts and have seen too much, more than any person should ever see. pray for God to sweep over the young people! He is already beginning to do that. the pastor's daughter told me that a worship movement began here in 1997. the young people began to sing and write music prophetically and God has released something new in the worship through this music and through dance. it's very exciting.
so i am in an internet cafe right now and we are about to go have dinner. one last thing i will say. the western influence here is staggering and at times sickening. i saw a boy with an eminem shirt on today. all of the junk and the media is here. they play our music everywhere. God forgive us. we go to india and bring back eastern mysticism to our culture and then we send them some lude media. agh. disgusting. pray that God will use the media to break open new avenues of revival and cleansing in the culture. praise God! i believe He will do it.
ok, that is all. i miss you - well not really - and i love you - that is true. i'm not sure if i will come home or not. i guess you will find out eh?
please keep praying for us. we still have much ministry and prayer adventure left.
i am in upper northeast india on the border of nepal. today we visited an awesome church in milik, (no, not milk.) outside of darjeeling. we drove through tea gardens at about 6,000 feet elevation. beautiful mountains covered with green tea bushes in perfect lines around the mountain. the border of india and nepal is watched very closely by the indian government, because terrorist groups will cross into the indian jungle to hide.
it seems like we have been all over northeast india. we arrived on sunday after 14 hours in the air. i sat by this really sweet young man named sanju (Lord I pray that you would reveal Yourself to him and his entire family and that they would be saved.) we talked for hours and i asked him so many questions about indian culture and history. we watched a bollywood flick and i have to admit i really loved it. it seems so cheesy at first because they dance and sing and everything is so over the top. but then the plot thickens and by the end i was so into it.
so this is how you say hello in nepalese - it sounds like "je-me-se" and this is how you say thank you - sounds like "dan-ya-bat."
i love these people. they are so beautiful. their children can break your heart with one look of their big brown eyes.
so on sunday, we had two services. one in the afternoon and one in the evening. people were getting set free and falling out in the Spirit. and boy did we get acqainted with some of the bondage here - there is lots. witchcraft and generational curses abound. the idolatry and demon worship has ruled for thousands of years.
but God is moving and things will not stay that way. they are already changing.
then on monday we dedicated the prayer room and brought out the maps and banners to be hung on the wall. our trip leader taught on prayer and then we went around the entire facility praying over each room. we had a powerful time, and it was only just the beginning. we had another service that night even more powerful than the first day, and many people were set free from demons. i saw some things i have never witnessed before.
on tuesday we traveled to kalimpong and check in to a beautiful hotel overlooking the himalayas. breathtaking. that night we went to a very alive and growing church to minister. the pastor of that church has such a heart for the city and his wife is an intercessor. God has revealed the territorial spirits to him and so he understands the spiritual dynamics of what is going on in the city. he seemed to know where every church is located and where there are no churches. the service was very powerful. our trip leader preached and then called on our team to pray for people. it was intense. when there is a language barrier, you must totally rely on the Holy Spirit to give you discernement as to what is going on in people's lives.
the next day we went up into the mountains. we took our host - an incredible man of God and an apostle in his own right - the pastor with a heart for the city, the pastor's daughter - an awesome girl who leads praise and worship, two young people from that church, and then of course our team. we had some incredible breakthrough and the fact that the local pastor came with us was very strategic. let's just say the devil is coming down in that region, and the dragon took some serious injuries. praise God! pray for the region of the world that is called southeast asia. pray for revival! bhutan, bangladesh, nepal, burma, india and the rest. pray for the power of God to fall and the Gospel to be spread across the land and received.
after our trip to the mountains we went by our host's spiritual mother's home to pray for her. we had an incredible time of prayer for her as we saw what a faithful and devoted intercessor and lover of Jesus she is. while we were there, a young girl came down the stairs. she was strikingly beautiful - as many are here - and she seemed to want to avoid us. the second i saw here my heart just went out to her so strongly. as we were beginning to leave, our host asked for all of the young girls in the home to come down stairs so that we could pray for them. he asked me specifically to pray for them. i was so excited to pray for them, and for this girl especially because i felt that God was after her heart and yet she was being pulled by the world. i prayed that they would follow Christ and give their lives to Him, and that they would walk in purity and be used of God in their generation. as we left and headed toward the car, the girl chased after me to say thank you. i held her hand and asked her name so that i could pray for her. she told me her name and i told her that the second i saw her i thought "God can use that girl." i encouraged her to just go for God and not allow the devil to trip her up. she started crying and told me that she was leaving for college in the big city of calcutta the next day. i told her to be strong and pray and ask God to send her others who are walking with Him to encourage her and stand with her and that He would. i also told her - because she is so beautiful - to watch out for any young men who would try to deceive her. i told her that God has ONE man for her and to save herself for him, and until that time to give her heart to God and that he would fill her heart more than any man ever could. i know that this was a divine appointment. i just had that one moment to talk with her. so i took hold of it with all my heart and said whatever God gave me to say. it's crazy how God can do stuff like that. just let you meet someone out of the blue and let you connect with them and speak into their life and fill you with such a passion and a love for them in an instant.
praise God. okay what else. so that night we had another incredible service at the church in kalimpong and God gave me the privilege of speaking to the youth in the service. i had five minutes to address the youth. oh boy was i excited about that. the youth are in the service with everyone else, so before our trip leader came up to speak, the pastor introduced me and i shared out of ephesians where it says that God can do imeasurably more than we asked or think. i told them that beofre i gave my life to Jesus Christ I thought that living for Him would be boring, that He would take away my good time. but the reality was, when I finally decided to follow Christ, He made my life more exciting and adventurous than it had ever been before, mentioning the fact that i never thought i would be standing there in india talking to them. i told them that if they would give their lives completely to Jesus Christ, He would take them places they never thought they would go. i also encouraged them to prepare to be used by God in their city. and i challenged them to go out and tell the other young people in their city. i got pretty choked up at that point.
there are so many young people in this area. we drove through the streets during the time that they were all getting out of school and i thought my heart would jump out of my chest. when we go into churches, usually about half are people who appear to be under the age of 25. it is very exciting to see what God is doing. there is much more to do.
we prayed for like very single young person in the church that night. even little little guys maybe 5th grade or so. so cute! they need so much. they need identity. they need to grasp hold of their destiny and purpose in God. Oh please pray for them. many of them had deep deep hurts in their hearts and have seen too much, more than any person should ever see. pray for God to sweep over the young people! He is already beginning to do that. the pastor's daughter told me that a worship movement began here in 1997. the young people began to sing and write music prophetically and God has released something new in the worship through this music and through dance. it's very exciting.
so i am in an internet cafe right now and we are about to go have dinner. one last thing i will say. the western influence here is staggering and at times sickening. i saw a boy with an eminem shirt on today. all of the junk and the media is here. they play our music everywhere. God forgive us. we go to india and bring back eastern mysticism to our culture and then we send them some lude media. agh. disgusting. pray that God will use the media to break open new avenues of revival and cleansing in the culture. praise God! i believe He will do it.
ok, that is all. i miss you - well not really - and i love you - that is true. i'm not sure if i will come home or not. i guess you will find out eh?
please keep praying for us. we still have much ministry and prayer adventure left.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
ehem.
this is my new blog... do you like it? i'm so excited... i created this blog to chronicle my trip to india and i named it after a book that my mom used to read to me when i was a little girl. it's a story about children who travel all over the world in a red hot air balloon telling other children about Jesus. they meet all sorts of children and at the end of the book there is a picture of the children waving goodbbye from their balloon and there are many children waving back smiling from all over the world. i love that book. i remember the joy and the excitment that would thrill my heart as my mother would read through the brightly colored pages. telling people in other parts of the world about Jesus...! what could be better? so i dedicate this blog to that childhood inspiration... and to the joy of sharing the love of my friend Jesus with the precious people all over the world.
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