Monday, February 10, 2014
My previous post was a short story I wrote based on my first couple weeks here - the journey I went through with God in that time, and some pictures he gave to me during an intense time of forgiveness and breakthrough.
And now, for the announcement of our outreach locations!!
We will be spending the first two weeks of outreach in BATTAMBANG, CAMBODIA. Then we will be coming back for a week to SOMEWHERE IN THAILAND that is close to our current location. Then we will be splitting into our Music DTS and Children at Risk DTS groups. For four weeks, Music will go to Kolkata, and CAR will be going to DARJEELING, INDIA (think northern India, up in the mountains!). Then, all together again, we will go to SOMEWHERE IN MALAYSIA. We are so excited to be traveling to so many different places!
This has been a pretty intense week. With a topic like Intercession and Spiritual Warfare, though, I guess that's to be expected. (Ok, I know I say every week is intense, but this week was more of a struggle for me.)
Something that really stuck out to me this week was the importance and the power of prayer. God wants a personal relationship with us, so of course he wants us to talk to him. Prayer is a two-way conversation. Communication is how relationships work. But it's more than just talking with God. Intercession is so important. When we intercede for something or someone, what we're doing is "standing in the gap". We bring God and the problem together. We advocate to God for that situation. And our prayers do hold real power. Sometimes a simple prayer is all that's needed for God to release his power on earth and cause really big things to happen.
Something really cool happened with intercession this week. Our "intercession day" is Thursday - all of ARK comes together for a little while in the morning to pray. Our focus this week was Thailand, and specifically Bangkok and the community we go into. We spent the morning praying that God would "open the gates" - that there would be opportunities for us to do great things for God and that his love would be shown to the people of Thailand.
ARK has had their eye on this one building in the community to purchase as a community center to run programs and school there. Up until now, they didn't even know who owned the building or who they could talk to find out - nothing. On Friday, we were supposed to have our youth night in the community, but when our team got there we found out there had been some miscommunication and all the kids had gone to another program at a different church. It was suggested that we drive by the building to pray over it. As we drive up to it, we see a man there burning brush in front of the building. Our leader was able to talk to him and find out that it is owned by the government, and while it's not for sale, we could see about renting it. We asked if we could walk around the building (to pray over it). There was this one open-air staircase that led up to the roof, so we got to look in through the grimy windows on our way up to the roof. We could see all around the building - it was right in the middle of everything.
Just yesterday we had been praying for open doors and a light in the community, and now here we were, standing on top of the building we want for a community center and talking to a man who has some solid information for us. It was an amazing answer to prayer, and we can't wait to see what God will continue to do with it, as we continue to pray.
I did mention that this week was a struggle. The spiritual warfare part of the week was full of information - not overloading, just very in depth. Really talking about spiritual warfare goes so much farther than we are used to as Christians just sitting at home. Sometimes it is so frustrating to see how little we know and are taught. My four weeks here have already taught me so much and turned my view of Christianity upside down. Let me tell you, we are doing it wrong. In so many ways. We are stuck on the beginner stuff and need to go deeper, and we need people who are willing and able to take us deeper. And our focus is all wrong. Christianity is not about getting everything right. We screw up. People sin. All people. That is not something to hide or be ashamed of. What does need to happen is that we need to look past the faults to the person who just needs unconditional love. That is how things change. Judgement and condemnation only serve to make things worse. Judging and condemning is not our job. We are called to love.
Getting off my soapbox now, and back on track to where I was originally headed... This week was a struggle. We talked about the unseen world (God, Satan, angels, demons) and how there is a constant battle going on around us, and in us. We talked about the issues we can allow in our lives that make it easier for the devil to really screw us up. A topic that applies to me kept coming up in class. It was something I knew about and had kind of come to an agreement of sorts with God before. And then all of a sudden it kept getting thrown at me last week, and I was not impressed. So I was having some very serious discussions with God, waiting to hear from him. It was hard for me to hear from him this week. So I was just super emotional all week, wrestling with God. That is exhausting.
It turns out that my issue wasn't that I needed to give something up, I just needed an attitude check. Again. God reminded me that surrender means putting him first and giving everything over to his control - not giving everything up in life. I just need to remember that God is in control and I can't do anything by myself.
This weekend was really cool! On Saturday afternoon, our ARK director invited us over to his outdoor salt water pool. Yeah, it was awesome. That night, most of us went to downtown Bangkok (DOWNTOWN BANGKOK! WE FINALLY MADE IT!) for church. The church was right in the midst of all these massage parlors ("massage parlors"?). It was a super cute little hole in the wall, very cozy, with pillows to sit on and hipster decor. The worship was great and the service was so relaxed. Some of us went down to a little market after for some snacks. It was so fun just getting to see some of downtown! The mysterious, elusive downtown! I love the lights of the city.
On Sunday night, some of us went to an operatic gala! It was so amazing! The conductor has written 10 operas of his own (they performed some excerpts from his newest production), as well as some books - yeah, he's super talented. The orchestra was great. There were some really talented opera singers, some Young Soloists and the cutest little 9 year old boy who was so talented! It was a really incredible experience, going to the opera in Thailand.
All in all, it was another great week in Thailand. :)
Prayer Requests
health - people keep getting sick; I'm still struggling with the whole weird hungry thing
sleep - I wake up around 3-6 times a night, during my very restless sleep, which makes for a sucky, unrestful sleep. Every. Night.
strength and faith to surrender my life to God
My previous post was a short story I wrote based on my first couple weeks here - the journey I went through with God in that time, and some pictures he gave to me during an intense time of forgiveness and breakthrough.
And now, for the announcement of our outreach locations!!
We will be spending the first two weeks of outreach in BATTAMBANG, CAMBODIA. Then we will be coming back for a week to SOMEWHERE IN THAILAND that is close to our current location. Then we will be splitting into our Music DTS and Children at Risk DTS groups. For four weeks, Music will go to Kolkata, and CAR will be going to DARJEELING, INDIA (think northern India, up in the mountains!). Then, all together again, we will go to SOMEWHERE IN MALAYSIA. We are so excited to be traveling to so many different places!
This has been a pretty intense week. With a topic like Intercession and Spiritual Warfare, though, I guess that's to be expected. (Ok, I know I say every week is intense, but this week was more of a struggle for me.)
Something that really stuck out to me this week was the importance and the power of prayer. God wants a personal relationship with us, so of course he wants us to talk to him. Prayer is a two-way conversation. Communication is how relationships work. But it's more than just talking with God. Intercession is so important. When we intercede for something or someone, what we're doing is "standing in the gap". We bring God and the problem together. We advocate to God for that situation. And our prayers do hold real power. Sometimes a simple prayer is all that's needed for God to release his power on earth and cause really big things to happen.
Something really cool happened with intercession this week. Our "intercession day" is Thursday - all of ARK comes together for a little while in the morning to pray. Our focus this week was Thailand, and specifically Bangkok and the community we go into. We spent the morning praying that God would "open the gates" - that there would be opportunities for us to do great things for God and that his love would be shown to the people of Thailand.
ARK has had their eye on this one building in the community to purchase as a community center to run programs and school there. Up until now, they didn't even know who owned the building or who they could talk to find out - nothing. On Friday, we were supposed to have our youth night in the community, but when our team got there we found out there had been some miscommunication and all the kids had gone to another program at a different church. It was suggested that we drive by the building to pray over it. As we drive up to it, we see a man there burning brush in front of the building. Our leader was able to talk to him and find out that it is owned by the government, and while it's not for sale, we could see about renting it. We asked if we could walk around the building (to pray over it). There was this one open-air staircase that led up to the roof, so we got to look in through the grimy windows on our way up to the roof. We could see all around the building - it was right in the middle of everything.
Just yesterday we had been praying for open doors and a light in the community, and now here we were, standing on top of the building we want for a community center and talking to a man who has some solid information for us. It was an amazing answer to prayer, and we can't wait to see what God will continue to do with it, as we continue to pray.
I did mention that this week was a struggle. The spiritual warfare part of the week was full of information - not overloading, just very in depth. Really talking about spiritual warfare goes so much farther than we are used to as Christians just sitting at home. Sometimes it is so frustrating to see how little we know and are taught. My four weeks here have already taught me so much and turned my view of Christianity upside down. Let me tell you, we are doing it wrong. In so many ways. We are stuck on the beginner stuff and need to go deeper, and we need people who are willing and able to take us deeper. And our focus is all wrong. Christianity is not about getting everything right. We screw up. People sin. All people. That is not something to hide or be ashamed of. What does need to happen is that we need to look past the faults to the person who just needs unconditional love. That is how things change. Judgement and condemnation only serve to make things worse. Judging and condemning is not our job. We are called to love.
Getting off my soapbox now, and back on track to where I was originally headed... This week was a struggle. We talked about the unseen world (God, Satan, angels, demons) and how there is a constant battle going on around us, and in us. We talked about the issues we can allow in our lives that make it easier for the devil to really screw us up. A topic that applies to me kept coming up in class. It was something I knew about and had kind of come to an agreement of sorts with God before. And then all of a sudden it kept getting thrown at me last week, and I was not impressed. So I was having some very serious discussions with God, waiting to hear from him. It was hard for me to hear from him this week. So I was just super emotional all week, wrestling with God. That is exhausting.
It turns out that my issue wasn't that I needed to give something up, I just needed an attitude check. Again. God reminded me that surrender means putting him first and giving everything over to his control - not giving everything up in life. I just need to remember that God is in control and I can't do anything by myself.
This weekend was really cool! On Saturday afternoon, our ARK director invited us over to his outdoor salt water pool. Yeah, it was awesome. That night, most of us went to downtown Bangkok (DOWNTOWN BANGKOK! WE FINALLY MADE IT!) for church. The church was right in the midst of all these massage parlors ("massage parlors"?). It was a super cute little hole in the wall, very cozy, with pillows to sit on and hipster decor. The worship was great and the service was so relaxed. Some of us went down to a little market after for some snacks. It was so fun just getting to see some of downtown! The mysterious, elusive downtown! I love the lights of the city.
On Sunday night, some of us went to an operatic gala! It was so amazing! The conductor has written 10 operas of his own (they performed some excerpts from his newest production), as well as some books - yeah, he's super talented. The orchestra was great. There were some really talented opera singers, some Young Soloists and the cutest little 9 year old boy who was so talented! It was a really incredible experience, going to the opera in Thailand.
All in all, it was another great week in Thailand. :)
Prayer Requests
health - people keep getting sick; I'm still struggling with the whole weird hungry thing
sleep - I wake up around 3-6 times a night, during my very restless sleep, which makes for a sucky, unrestful sleep. Every. Night.
strength and faith to surrender my life to God
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