Good News!

I am marveled by the fact that I have been in New Zealand for exactly over one month now! I’m not in freezing cold America; but in sunny, warm, and overwhelmingly beautiful New Zealand. It’s incredible how God cares about my heart’s desires and the more I seek Him the more I find fulfillment in Him. Through that, I also notice the small gifts that He loves to give to us! One desire of my heart was to have a secluded place from all of my comforts with nothing on my to-do list, except to grow in him! Now, my full time job is to wake up every morning to fall more in love with Him. I have the privilege of doing this with nearly 100 other people that have the same desires! I’ve become so secure in the fact that I am God’s daughter, what an honor! I’ve been awakened to the fact that the Holy Spirit, and all of His power, is in me…somehow?! Why have I been so fearful to share the greatest news of all? I’ve realized that I was more worried about my own reputation and fear of rejection from others than the souls of my Father’s children. Ouch! And the fact that what I have and live out really isn’t good news if I only go to church once or twice a week and still struggle constantly with ‘problems’. Who would want that life? I would wake up, have a bad hair day, and let it determine how I felt about myself or even let it determine how my entire day was going to be. Who am I? Enough is enough!! I have the living God within me! That is why I now get up in the morning to proclaim that it is His day and I welcome Him to use me. I wasn’t living in the fullness of His salvation. He died to free me from all of my junk. I was living as if my Dad is a wimp! As if he couldn’t use me to proclaim His good news! He created me….there is no doubt that He is using me! (Just a tiny bit of Revelation that I’ve had)

Also, for those who don’t know yet, my outreach location has been determined! A team consisting of 17 of us are traveling to Singapore and the Philippines! We will be following up on the Impact World Tour that is also involved with YWAM. They do huge events that lead hundreds to Christ in a day and we will go to help disciple and to be open books in those countries! More details are to come, but what I do know is the cost! The grand total is $3500! That’s an amazing price considering that we will be in two countries with many flights, all of our lodging, transportation, gas, and food will be covered for the entire two months with just this amount of money! God is so good! My first deposit of $1500 is due in 4 days! The remainder of $2000 is due in April. For those led to invest financially in this specific part of my trip, I thank you for being obedient! God promises to bless those who steward His money well especially those investing in His Kingdom work! Without you guys, I don’t see my being here very possible! Words are so cheap when it comes to trying to express my gratitude for each of you!

Again , Thank you for those who have already supported to get me here and to keep me fed! It’s been an incredible first month!

Thank you for supporting me also by the many amounts of prayers to my Father on my behalf! It’s been a life changing experience that I am eager to share with each of you when I return!

Until then,

He is worthy of it all!

Much love!!!

Love is in the air...brotherly love that is!

I know this is super late.....better late than never I guess!

This year is my first year spending Valentine’s day away from home. I thought is was going to be entirely depressing and crappy with me being away from the people I love, but boy oh boy was I wrong. This time, I was glad to be wrong!

Our day started with a lovely breakfast with my small group of girls. It consist of three amazing staff girls and 6 of us students. We drank Hot chocolate and of course chocolate was on the main menu for our gathering. We sat at a pic-nic table under a nice shade tree and shared stories through a game.

We picked a handful of M&M’s and each color had a specific question, so we went around and answered the questions. They were of course good girl talk such as what is your idea of your perfect date. For any wonderers of my answer, I am such a laid back girl, and enjoy walks down the beach, or PJ and movie nights with a nice bowl of ice cream with hard shell poured on top. But, for a really nice date it would be neat to have a new outfit waiting on my bed with a note for me to get dressed and to be ready for a night out. We would eat mind blowing delicious food, we would go somewhere with some type of music involved for the night and ending with some place quiet to hang out and chat, probably somewhere outside looking at the stars. We also talked about our favorite chocolates, mine are milk chocolate Lindt and Resees!  We also chatted about what we are missing from home and some struggles we are facing while here. It’s kind of obvious, but I miss my family and close friends a ton! I didn’t realize how I took for granted going to the grocery store with my mom or all of us being musical in my brothers room. I miss long chats where time goes by so fast with Katie. I miss getting routine Menchie’s with Stephanie. I also miss lunch dates or chats on Amber’s bed. The list goes on and on but I’m so thankful for memories! Some of the struggles I have had so far is seeing other people’s gifts take off when I seem that God has been silent to me. I know in due time He will work amazingly in me. There is one particular guy that has caught my eye, but no need for too many details! I’m thankful that dating is not allowed and that as the weeks have gone on I see him as more of a brother and see Jesus as most important. To go back to our pic-nic, We also listed all of the amazing things that God sees us as! We loved recognizing that embracing our feminine hearts is so honoring to God and how he created us to be! After our small group, I then had some free time. Some girls took off to town without me so I ending up hanging out with three cool guys named Earvin, Greg, and Daniel.  These guys are the three that are most like brothers to me! They were telling me how they were hungry, so I showed them some love by making them each a bowl of noodles and shared my last three glass bottled cokes with them. They were so sweet calling me an angel and made me a bouquet of flowers with the vase being a glass coke bottle! Shortly after that we had a session then at the end of our session all of us girls were asked to stand up at the front and each guy walked up and gave each of us girls a flower and gave us a hug. They then proceeded in reading some verses and encouraging us and honoring us as their sisters. It doesn’t stop there, at dinner all of the girls got to go first, which is such a big deal because we often run out of food towards the end of the line. Then after dinner we were served dessert by the guys. I was also surprised by my small group leader with a sweet note and with two huge bars of my favorite chocolate! The first being Lindt milk chocolate and the second being Whitakers milk chocolate made here in New Zealand!

My heart was overflowing and overwhelmed with my new family here!

God totally knows the desires of my heart, even while I’m in New Zealand! :)