Week 2

Somebody pinch me! Has it seriously only been 2 weeks? God has been doing so many amazing things, that all our days here seem to be blending together. It feels like we have been here at least a month. Our days are getting filled up fast and we are beginning to wonder where the time is going!

This week has been full. And when I say full, I mean full! We have honestly been blown away as the Lord is redefining the word outreach...outreach isn't just 3 months of ministering to people, but the Lord is cultivating in us a "kingdom culture". A day in and day out lifestyle of pursuing Jesus and loving people.

We have been set up. What I mean by that is God has made this so easy for us! Doors have literally been opening up right before our eyes! Our team is growing closer together and coming more alive everyday! Gifts that we didn't even know that each other had are coming out! Everyone is so sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is saying, which as a team we have been thankful for because this has kept us from moving into striving, where we could literally burn out and never want to do ministry ever again. We love being here! We love what we get to do everyday!!

Week 2 has really established what we will be doing here for the remaining of our time... of course we are flexible and eagerly jump to where the Holy Spirit is guiding. For now Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 am till 1pm we get to go to this low income facility called Bishop Manor and play with the children. There are upwards to 600 units in this facility. It feels like little Mexico when you walk in, and a lot of them only speak Spanish. We are so thankful for Rami as her first language is Spanish!! The other portion of people that live there are from Cambodia. It's like we are in this whole other country going there. It's a reality check really as these are just simple people that don't have much. The parents love that we are there and want us to teach more about the Bible. Some of the parents have been a bit stand offish but have really come out to be with us as the week has gone on. These people are so hungry. The children are amazing! The lady that runs the children's program is truly a hero in the faith. She came in a couple years back when gangs and drugs were a very dominant factor at Bishop Manor, and cleaned up this abandoned building and turned it into an after school program and a church on Sunday mornings. She is amazing and it has been super fun working along side her. We all enjoy very much teaching the kids Bible stories, coloring with them, having water balloon fights, and swimming with them in the pool. Day two the children beat us there and were all sitting at tables waiting patiently for us ready to tell us their memory verse! I think this is our favorite part of the day!!

At the end of last week we were at Newsong Church in Irvine working with the worship leader getting the prayer room cleaned out, getting it ready for this Friday's first night of "Soak", which will be a night of healing, ministry, worship, and evangelism. Soak will take place every Friday night. There is a lot of expectation and hope for what the Lord will do on these nights. After our ministry time at Bishop Manor we will spend our afternoons in the prayer room, which is good because we have definitely missed prayer room time in Kona.

Tuesday evenings we attend "Xealot" at the pastor's home where we stay. This is a great time of fellowship with other "mutants". The pastor has a great view on what it feels like to be a Christian. Basically our weaknesses, or what makes us not fit into society are our strengths, or our "super powers". These super powers give us authority to speak into people lives who have gone through, or are currently going through where we have come from. This is a very fun evening where about 25 of us are here until 10:30pm talking with one another and praying for each other. On these nights we have met key leaders that have asked us to partner with them either with prayer or actually helping in there ministry. When I say God has made it easy for us I am telling you the truth. We meet incredible people with such genuine hearts and the Lord opens doors for ministry.

One amazing Lady we met at Xealot invited us to walk through the streets of Santa Ana on Saturday morning. We brought water to the homeless and our hearts began to break. The Lord is really giving us eyes to see these needy people. God is showing us what it means "what you have done to the least of these you have done it to me". A heavy reality... but can we do it? Look long enough into the eyes of the least of these and you will see Jesus. We will be going every Saturday in hopes to comfort and bring more clean water for them to drink. It seems like we could never meet their tangible needs. We are fully reliant on Jesus to show us how to love them and help them.

Thursday night we were invited to have dinner with the pastor and a business man who owns a hotel in Irvine. He shared with us his vision for his hotel and invited us to come pray through it and asked us to host a venue. We stayed there over the weekend and are super excited for what God will do. We will share more about this venue later as we are getting more vision for it. But it will most likely be in about 4 weeks.

We have had another amazing week here. We are falling in love more and more with the Holy Spirit. We are becoming more of a family. We are cultivating a kingdom culture. We love the little children. This is outreach... this is true life.

Week 1

We are blown away by God's faithfulness! His provision for us has been more than we ever expected. We didn't even have housing as of 20 minutes before we got in the van to go to the airport. God has exceeded our expectations! We are staying with a wonderful family who have taken us all in like we were their own kids. What a mighty God we serve! The Lord has opened many doors for ministry here and we are praying into which contacts are on the Lord's heart. We have been on prayer walks in the city, been on prayer teams at an amazing church in town, done treasure hunts in the markets and outdoor malls. The Lord has poured out on so many people that we have prayed for. We are already moving into a lot of what the Lord has spoken over our team. We have grown so much and grown closer together and its only been 3 days.

Tonight we were put to a challenge... or really a "faith journey". Our leaders gave me (Erin) the keys to our van and sent me and the other 4 girls into the city to see what God would do.... We were given a list of things that we needed to see happen before we came home. ie.. preach the gospel, see the sick healed, give words of encouragement, buy someone coffee, and encourage young people to consider YWAM (youth with a mission) as their next adventure in their own life.

We ventured out with great hope that God would do something cool. Not knowing where to go, we asked God to speak. We were kinda chill at first as we weren't really sure where to go. But in God's faithfulness yet again we found ourselves cruising down I-5 southbound with our hearts pounding a bit. We didn't know where we would end up... but God did.

We parked near a hospital and what we found out later was a mall. Nali and I went towards the hospital and Rami, Rosi, and Jamie went towards the buildings off in the distance. Nali and I got to pray for an older Muslim women from Turkey who was eating her supper in the cafeteria, as her husband had been admitted and was resting on another floor. She was so blessed and encouraged as we sat and listened to her story. She had so much peace after we prayed. We were fired up and went on our way looking for someone else to minister to.

While we were at the hospital. The other girls were talking to people at a mall, which none of us knew was there. While Rami and Jamie were each talking to a couple people Rosi noticed a girl about 19 or so on a bench and began to talk to her. This girl was so hungry and open to receive truth. Rosi prayed for her and then the girl left. Nali and I called to see where the girls were and went to go find them to regroup.

We didn't find them right away and began walking toward the mall. We got to the mall and it had closed. We saw a girl on a bench and began to talk to her. Nali and I began to share with her what we were doing and she told us that she just talked to a girl who had prayed for her and was so thankful for the words of encouragement. Rosi had planted seeds. This girl shared with us that just last night that her mom prayed that God would give her a sign for what she was to do with her life. She was convinced that God was speaking to her. She told us the things that Rosi had spoken over her as was wiping the tears from her face. She told us of her addiction to heroin and how she wanted to be free from this addiction. She told us of the abuse that she had undergone as a child, and how she was recently kicked out of her house.

Nali and I were convinced that God wanted to free her and heal her of this addiction to heroin. She repented and poured out her heart before the Lord. By this point the other girls came over as we were praying for her and they joined in. The Lord spoke more over her and we truly believe that God healed her, not only from this addiction but from many other things. We encouraged her to consider doing a DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM. We really think that she will.

We asked her for her contact information. She told us her name. I paused. Her last name was familiar, so I asked if she was related to this author guy I had read about. She told us that it was her grandfather. I freaked out! Her grandfather was responsible for the salvation of my dad. It was an amazing moment. Everyone was excited! I called my dad on speaker and told him what God just did and who we were praying for and he began to cry and laugh at the same time. My dad was encouraged. We all were! We waited with her until her mom came to pick her up. We were so pumped!

Something happened in our hearts during this time. I first noticed it as I was watching the girls as they were ministering to our friend on the bench. Our team had begun to come alive! Everyone's eyes were so bright. They all spoke with such conviction. And as we were walking back to the van it happened just like Kellye and Lizzie said it would... Joy broke out! We had begun to praise God like never before. We were so stoked to get back to share how cool our journey was and what the Lord did. It was so fun to see the expression on Kellye and Lizzie's faces. We celebrated what God did! It was awesome! Praise Him! Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we are hanging out with our adopted family and our new friend. We are so excited to see more of what God is going to do in her life!!! Our faith journey was a success. Not that it's over we will just continue tomorrow where the Holy Spirit left off today.

Beautiful Fire

Together we sit and gaze at the brightness of your face

Transformed in your presence you’re the Ancient of Days

Beautiful Fire we get drenched in your grace

Beautiful Fire we get lost in this place

Beautiful Beloved, you divinely intervened

Beautifully wrecked our lives for all eternity

We represent the women, any, every, and all

To see her feminine heart restored, we are committed to this call

The Lord goes before us, hemmed in on every side

In faith we go as we watch Him revive His bride

Our hearts are wrecked for the voiceless, the hopeless

We crave the presence of Jesus and the unleashing of justice

Only He can satisfy and redeem the heart and the mind

He will make the lame to walk and give sight to the blind

We are convinced of His love and His mighty power to save

Because He set us free of our rot by the Son that he gave

Together we go, together we fight

We walk through the streets in the dark, dark of night

Looking and listening for the destitute, the contrite

As we lock eyes with the broken we recognize our Christ

We will be arriving in LA on June 30^th and will be there for 7 weeks. On August 15^th we depart for NY and will be there until September 16. We are excited and expectant for God to move.