Lots of Topics!

Skype saves lives. I was so happy to talk with my family and friends on saturday! Whoever invented skype is a genius. Anyways, thursday and friday were jam packed with lectures and activities and I want to talk about each of them! Thursday’s lecture jumped from hearing God’s voice, making decisions and facing our fears. When hearing from God, one of the biggest mistakes is comparing ourself to other people (regarding how they hear from God). I do this all the time, and I never knew it was a stronghold! God is very personal and speaks to each person in a way He knows we’ll hear Him. How mean and cruel would it be if He spoke to us knowing we wouldn’t be able to hear Him? That is not His nature. Dan told a funny story about wanting to get scripture from God (He doesn’t usually get scripture) so He felt that God said Obadiah verse nine, go ahead, look it up! Did you do it? I’m sure you can tell that it was not from God, just his human mind wanting to try and speak for Him. I was laughing so hard! Dan is such a funny person, and I heard his books are just as funny as he is in person, so I suggest reading them! The next topic was on making decision, and trust me, my ears were wide open because making important decisions are hard for me. He didn’t talk long about it but a few points I got were: 

• Include God in all my decisions, even the simple ones! Then it becomes easier to discern His “opinion” from others
• What would Jesus do?
• Analyzing a past decision often leads nowhere, there is no point worrying about “what could’ve been” because it didn’t happen. We are commanded to give our all, so why would we look back on something we have no control over? God is in control.
• If peace and joy are not the result of a decision, it is the wrong one. However, other emotions can be involved as well. For example, I had to make a tough decision to stop running track my junior year and I was so devastated, I love it! But I knew that God had other plans, which is where the joy and peace came in. It is okay to have other emotions, but joy and peace should be the strongest.
• At the end of the day, when you have strived after God and need to make a choice but He hasn’t spoken super clear yet, trust His character above all else, and do something. Dan told a story about a friend who has a calling for missions that he got at a younger age but to this day has not gone to the mission field because God “hasn’t told him where yet.” We must not waste our entire life waiting for exact confirmation because the opportunity will pass.

The next topic was on fear and I loved this one! Fear is directly related to our image that God is too small, this invites fear into our lives and it takes up the place where God should reign in us. So, fear is also an invitation to run to God. He wants to prove Himself faithful because He isn’t too small. Some fears we listed were:

• the unknown
• failing
• human opinion
• being misunderstood
• being helpless

God does not want us to be fearful, how can we be used if we are scared? So when facing our fears we need to be aware of them by asking God to show us when we are caught in them so we can turn and give the fear to God, He will remain strong when we can not.

Friday was an amazing day. I woke up in prayer, smiling and laughing all morning, I had no idea why! Then worship came. We poured everything we had into worship that morning, God’s presence was so strong! Joy laughter and warmth filled the tent and in the middle of a song, “Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me” the electricity goes out buttt there wasn’t even a second of hesitation in our worship! Our voices grew stronger, the praises louder and the love deeper, it was amazing. We didn’t need music, just a reason to sing. Oh man, I wish each of you were there to experience it. Lecture was filled with funny stories from Dan Bauman, a good end to a week full of deep topics I thought. During the second lecture his friend came from outreach in Amsterdam to talk with us about God’s love for us. It was very encouraging, he was only twenty years old. It was so cool to see that sort of passion and devotion from such a young guy, we need more like him! We prayed for each other, that we would gain deeper revelation of God’s love for us and then we were done for the week! That afternoon I went to the cafe with a few girls and we worked on our journals, talked about life and just laughed. It was a wonderful afternoon, followed by a weird evening haha. We played some phase 10 and at 9:30 decided it would be fun to go get some pizza in town, so a few of us did. On our way out we ran into Dan and his friend so we were able to say our goodbyes and a girl with them happened to be going into town, yes for not having to walk through the dark forest! 

Saturday a group went into Dresden, a town around an hour away that is full of shopping and things to do! It sort of reminded me of New York (from what I’ve  seen in movies) and Prague mixed together, city but beautiful buildings. I went there with a mission: Find healthy food, buy a jacket, and find starbucks so I can use the free internet. And I accomplished all three things, plus more! We saw a beautiful church, took lots of pictures and Dianna and I found a cute little coffee shop and hung out in there. On the train ride back we were exhausted but had some good conversations about outreach and what God is doing in our lives, I love the opportunities I have being here.

Well it is a new week and our speaker this week is the father of Jessica, one of our staff members and I am so ready, mostly because we’re back inside! No more cold tent, finally. I am not sure what the topic is but I know it will be challenging! I did find out last night that the father of Stephanie (the girl who went home last week to see her dad) died yesterday, so if ya’ll could pray for her that would be amazing! She is such a strong girl who loves God deeply, but this must be tough. We were sad to see her leave but at least now we can pray for her, thank you so much!