Its odd to think that it has already been ten weeks here in Hawaii. So weird to think that not too long ago, I was sitting in a classroom with sixty some people I had never met before that had come from all over the world all for one purpose, to learn to use the gifts that God has given them and to use it to his glory. But thats not the only thing we have learned. We've learned to be vulnerable with each other, to love one another in brotherly and sisterly love. Learned how to tell a story about an individual that is not from our own culture through a photograph, to submit our own plans for the future to God and offer it freely so that he may show us what great things he had planned out for us before time began, and to have compassion for someone we have never met who is living in difficult living situations that is inhuman and unjust. Looking back, I have learned much, much more than I have taken notes of, and I take A LOT of notes. Each speaker played an important role in my life and always made me see things in a different perspective. Made me want to be someone who changes something for the better. This whole experience has really changed me. I can see it in myself, see it through other people that I've met here on campus, and soon to be through my friends and family back home. But I am not done being transformed yet! I still have three more months left! But this time, in a new country with a smaller amount of people. South Africa, here I come!!
In my Outreach team we have six girls and one guy, Erika, Cammie, Sarah G., Sarah M., Madalyn, Caleb, and myself. BUT! Our team has been blessed with another male to join our team! Welcome Graham Stewart! Graham is thee sweetest, most interesting individual you'll ever met. He is a young nineteen year old man who desires deeply after God's heart and its so amazing to be a person to champion him on in that. He makes our group complete and I'm pretty sure Caleb is absolutely stoked to have another guy on the team to hang out with for the next two months.
These next couple of weeks are going to be killer. Not only because we will be further learning about our skills and what more we can do with them, but also knowing that in a week and a half, a lot of us will be leaving for our Outreaches! Its so sad to think that we will all be separated after we've grown so close and live in all different directions of the globe. But what cheers us all up is knowing that we are all doing the work of the Lord all over the world!! I cannot wait to hear everyone's stories once we all return. With that, I'd like to share that from the $2,675 that I needed for outreach, I now only owe $1,300!! PTL! (Praise the Lord) Thank you so much for your thoughts, prayers, and donations for those of you who did. It means so much to me that you helped.
As you can see I still am in need of $1,300 before I leave in THIRTEEN DAYS!! Woah! That came up quick.. So please, if you feel led from the Lord to donate, please don't delay. The sooner, the better! Thank you all so much for keeping up with my blogs and what I've been up to over Facebook. When I receive more info on South Africa, I will let all of you know. Again, thank you for everything. Please keep my team in your prayers.
Love you all dearly.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Awake My Soul
Its been a while once again but I can assure you all who have been reading my blogs that you will understand why it has been so long since my past update. A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of having the father of one of my staff leaders speak about the Father Heart of God. Bob Hamp is everything you would expect to see when you think of a father. A kind smile, a welcoming face, a compassionate look in his eyes, and a gentle spirit. He has hair to match his enormous amounts of wisdom and is truly a man desiring to become more and more like God in a fatherly way. During this week, Bob mentioned some great points that my friend Sarah and I liked to call, "Facebook statuses", because each thing he would say, would hit us like a ton of bricks because of the revelation it would have to it the more we thought about it. A few examples of were these, "God trusts you more than you think", "God gave you the will to choose him as a source of life". Boom!! What?! God gave me the option to choose him instead of living my own life of misery? Seems an easy choice to make but everyday we sometimes choose to live our own lives without him. Sad but true. Also! Don't ever take a nice long hug for granted. Have you ever hugged someone for a good 5 or 10 minutes? If you haven't, then you need to find the net person you see and ask them if you could hug them. A hug is so incredibly powerful. At the end of this week, my roommate and I both decided that we wanted to get baptized. Long story short, my roommate and I were sitting in a church sermon and we both had a revelation about being baptized because we couldn't remember when we really chose to do it to proclaim our love and our commitment to follow the Lord God the rest of our lives. So on May 11th, 2012, I was baptized in the Pacific Ocean on the shores of Hawaii by my amazing school leader, Jonathan Zerkle.
Being baptized was the best thing that I have ever done. One way to describe what the meaning of being baptized was is best decried by my dear friend Cammie Bullock. She said, "Being baptized is our way to respond back to what Jesus Christ did on the cross. An act of his proposal of dying for us. The only thing we can do to correctly respond back to him is to live our lives for him. Accept his proposal". So thats what I did. I said yes to spending eternity with the one who created me out of dust. The one who died for my sins and desires nothing more than to have me love him back for as long as I am on this earth. Week five: Amazing.
One way to describe week six: Wow. This week was called Revival week. Our speaker, Andy Byrd, spoke to us about the revival of the heart that needs to happen in every Christian. Then he drew a cycle that better explained what he was sharing. For each Christian, there needs to be a revival of the heart. From the revival of the heart comes the reformation of the lifestyle. When that happens, things start to change. When that one individual changes, they influence others. Through that individual and those people that were influenced, a community may change. From the community, a city. A city, a state. A state, a nation. It all starts from that one individual that things start to change. It may not happen in their life time but it will take its place in history, the reformation of the world. A Global Awakening. One thing that stayed with me through out the week of lectures from Andy was this, The biggest injustice is that God crated man out of dust, breathed his breath into him and man turning away from him. Holy cow! That definitely made me think a little bit. How could we do that to the one who made us out of nothing?! God so graciously made me so that I would love him every moment of my life, yet I turn away and say that I am more important. I can take care of myself. I can do it alone. When in reality, theres no possible way I could. Thankfully, God has grace over me and his mercies are renewed every morning so that I can always turn back to him.
Week Seven: Devastating. This week was a big wake up call to what is not known about abortion. This week was about biblical world views. Heres a crazy statistic on what rocked my world. Did you know that there are 200 million girls missing from our generation. Two Hundred Million Girls. All because of abortion. One reason for this is because of the Chinese culture. There is an underground trend that families that only want boys as their first child so that they're name is carried on and they can help support the family by working. This injustice is called Gendercide. So if the woman in the family has a baby girl instead of the desired boy, they either leave the baby girl in the hospital for it to be taken to an adoption agency or the take it and kill the newborn and forget it ever was born and the family keeps trying however many times to get that one son. But China isn't the only place where this tragedy happens. It also takes place in India. These two are the only places that have a major affect on the nation that are known but who knows how many more children are not living on this earth because of selfish desires. A way to help stop this from happening is to start in our own country. Everyday there are thousands of babies being aborted because the mother simply doesn't want the baby. The only possible way to prevent this is to spread awareness. Tell others about how much affect this is taking in our nation and how much of an injustice it is to take a life that doesn't even have a fighting chance to say anything. Great things start off small and through the years, things will change. All it takes is one individual.
These past few weeks have been killer simple because of all the information I have been getting from all the speakers, but it has been amazing to learn all these things. I can see now that I am better being prepared for my Outreach, which is only FIVE weeks away!! I still cannot believe that I will be living and serving in South Africa with seven other close friends that I consider family.
Prayer Requests!!
1. That those in my group, including myself, receive more than enough money to be able to pay the rest of our Outreach fees.
2. Safety while we are in South Africa. Theres major spiritual warfare going on over there and we only ask that you pray that we are mentally and spiritually prepared for whats to come.
3. Guidance from God.
4.That he brings those people that need help to us and that we are prepared to lead them to Him.
Also, I am still in need of $3,000 for the rest of my Outreach fees and I only have a week to raise it. But I know that my God is bigger than money and that he will provide for everything. This verse spoke to me so personally.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
Isaiah 6:8
God asked and I answered. Money will not stop me from going to South Africa and teaching the word of
God. He will get me there.
If you would like to donate anything please contact me ASAP at cpayala21@yahoo.com. I will talk to you more in detail how you can donate.
Thanks so much for reading and your prayers. Love you all very much.
Blessings!
Enjoy!
Being baptized was the best thing that I have ever done. One way to describe what the meaning of being baptized was is best decried by my dear friend Cammie Bullock. She said, "Being baptized is our way to respond back to what Jesus Christ did on the cross. An act of his proposal of dying for us. The only thing we can do to correctly respond back to him is to live our lives for him. Accept his proposal". So thats what I did. I said yes to spending eternity with the one who created me out of dust. The one who died for my sins and desires nothing more than to have me love him back for as long as I am on this earth. Week five: Amazing.
One way to describe week six: Wow. This week was called Revival week. Our speaker, Andy Byrd, spoke to us about the revival of the heart that needs to happen in every Christian. Then he drew a cycle that better explained what he was sharing. For each Christian, there needs to be a revival of the heart. From the revival of the heart comes the reformation of the lifestyle. When that happens, things start to change. When that one individual changes, they influence others. Through that individual and those people that were influenced, a community may change. From the community, a city. A city, a state. A state, a nation. It all starts from that one individual that things start to change. It may not happen in their life time but it will take its place in history, the reformation of the world. A Global Awakening. One thing that stayed with me through out the week of lectures from Andy was this, The biggest injustice is that God crated man out of dust, breathed his breath into him and man turning away from him. Holy cow! That definitely made me think a little bit. How could we do that to the one who made us out of nothing?! God so graciously made me so that I would love him every moment of my life, yet I turn away and say that I am more important. I can take care of myself. I can do it alone. When in reality, theres no possible way I could. Thankfully, God has grace over me and his mercies are renewed every morning so that I can always turn back to him.
Week Seven: Devastating. This week was a big wake up call to what is not known about abortion. This week was about biblical world views. Heres a crazy statistic on what rocked my world. Did you know that there are 200 million girls missing from our generation. Two Hundred Million Girls. All because of abortion. One reason for this is because of the Chinese culture. There is an underground trend that families that only want boys as their first child so that they're name is carried on and they can help support the family by working. This injustice is called Gendercide. So if the woman in the family has a baby girl instead of the desired boy, they either leave the baby girl in the hospital for it to be taken to an adoption agency or the take it and kill the newborn and forget it ever was born and the family keeps trying however many times to get that one son. But China isn't the only place where this tragedy happens. It also takes place in India. These two are the only places that have a major affect on the nation that are known but who knows how many more children are not living on this earth because of selfish desires. A way to help stop this from happening is to start in our own country. Everyday there are thousands of babies being aborted because the mother simply doesn't want the baby. The only possible way to prevent this is to spread awareness. Tell others about how much affect this is taking in our nation and how much of an injustice it is to take a life that doesn't even have a fighting chance to say anything. Great things start off small and through the years, things will change. All it takes is one individual.
These past few weeks have been killer simple because of all the information I have been getting from all the speakers, but it has been amazing to learn all these things. I can see now that I am better being prepared for my Outreach, which is only FIVE weeks away!! I still cannot believe that I will be living and serving in South Africa with seven other close friends that I consider family.
Prayer Requests!!
1. That those in my group, including myself, receive more than enough money to be able to pay the rest of our Outreach fees.
2. Safety while we are in South Africa. Theres major spiritual warfare going on over there and we only ask that you pray that we are mentally and spiritually prepared for whats to come.
3. Guidance from God.
4.That he brings those people that need help to us and that we are prepared to lead them to Him.
Also, I am still in need of $3,000 for the rest of my Outreach fees and I only have a week to raise it. But I know that my God is bigger than money and that he will provide for everything. This verse spoke to me so personally.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
Isaiah 6:8
God asked and I answered. Money will not stop me from going to South Africa and teaching the word of
God. He will get me there.
If you would like to donate anything please contact me ASAP at cpayala21@yahoo.com. I will talk to you more in detail how you can donate.
Thanks so much for reading and your prayers. Love you all very much.
Blessings!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Say What?!
First, I want to apologize to all of you who have been trying to keep up with what all I've been doing here in Hawaii. It's been so hectic and crazy busy with so many radical things happening, even from day one, my group and I could tell that this year of PhotogenX DTS is going be INSANE.
To start off, I would just like to share that I have the most incredible roommates ever. I really could not ask for a more culturally diverse group of girls to live with. There's eight of us in one room including myself and we all get a long so great together. There are two girls from Korea, one from California, one from Indiana, one from Oregon, one from Arizona, and one from Chicago. It only took me about a couple hours of living with these girls that I felt at home and at peace. It felt natural, comfortable. As if I knew these girls for years, but it has only been a few days. Now, two weeks already today!!
The past week has been so draining; mentally, physically, and spiritually.. but in the best way possible. My schedule is full of God filled events such as a worship session early in the morning after a 6am breakfast, three hour lectures from crazy good speakers who have all been involved in YWAM for at least three or four years, media lectures about how to be a 'voice for the voiceless' though a photograph, having set aside times for intercessions (praying against unjust situations in the world such as child prostitution, sex trafficking, abortion, and so many others), and having missionary nights. Our PhotogenX group spends a few hours in our prayer room here on campus and pray for people within our group to encourage and build up spiritually. Our days here on campus are set up to be sort of hectic to help us get in the habit of not fitting God into our lives but scheduling our lives around God's plans he made for each of us. That way, later down the road when DTS is over, we have the good habit of asking God what he has planned out for us each morning when we wake up. The whole goal is to learn to not put God in a little box and put him up in a shelf and only take it out to only ask him for things we need or to have him take care of difficult situations when we cant do it our selves. To be honest, I didn't know how this would go during the first couple of days of being here only because we were so busy doing things such as ministry night, corporate worship with all of the Kona campus and work duties each day. But by the fourth or fifth day, I was able to get the swing of things and learn to adapt to my new schedule, which I enjoy doing.
Last Friday was just about the coolest days ever so far. I found out where I was being sent to on Outreach!! We had about eight options to 'choose' from. I say this because it really wasn't our choice to choose but God's. For me, it was an easy to figure out where I was suppose to go. I have always had a heart for Africa. Always, always, always. Specifically South Africa. Around this time last year, God showed me in a dream what I was going to do with my life one year later. The dream went a little something like this.
I was in a hot, dry area. There was a slight breeze in the air, enough to cool me down but ever so slightly. I looked down at my hands and saw that I was holding a beautiful Canon camera, not sure what one but it definitely wasn't one that I had already owned. I then looked all around me and noticed a small group of people with cameras as well who I seemed to know only because they were so friendly to me but never saw faces. All of sudden there were a large group of little African children surrounding me with the biggest of smiles on their faces and I could help but smile and laugh myself and photographing their sweet faces.
I woke up.
Never had I ever had a dream that was so vivid and seemed so real. Right then, I knew that I was soon to be going on a missions trip to Africa. Fast forward one year exactly from that day and here I am, living in Hawaii with numerous people from around the world. At the end of a normal day of lectures, one of the leaders of my PhotogenX group said they wanted to show us something on their computer. She played a video announcing our locations for Outreach. Greece, South Sudan/ Uganda, UK, Burma/ Thailand, India, China, Jordan, andddd South Africa. Boom. No hesitation. No second thoughts. I was going to South Africa.
So now that I know where I'm going, its been hard to comprehend that I will actually be going there and that my dream that God gave me one year ago will be coming true!! Its so surreal!! Then the logistics come. I don't know yet how much exactly the entirety of my trip will cost but I do know that by May 4th, I need to have a deposit of $2,500 to cover the transportation costs. At the moment, I currently have $1,100, so I'm half way there. But because I don't know the exact cost, I need more donations to reach the entire cost of my trip. I know I was meant to come here to Hawaii and to develop my faith and grow more passionately in love with God. With that, I know that everything that I learn here while living in Hawaii and learning more to love others as my brothers and sister, I know that I'm meant share that with those around the world, specifically to those children in South Africa where I was called to minister. Please help me in fulfilling the plans that God had made out for me even before I was born. In John 14: 18, It says this, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." I don't want to support a child living in poverty in another country while I continue living my own life and only be reminded of that lost child when I receive a monthly letter in the mail about their activity. I want to go to them. I want to physically be there and show them the love that God has shown to me. I want to live with them and be radically changed mind and spirit by their own way of living so that I can better understand what needs to be done to help them survive their terrible situation. I want to be a servant of Jesus Christ.
Thank you so much for reading my blog and again, I apologize for the long wait in notifying all of you on what I have been up to. I try will make sure that there will be a new post every week to let you know more in detail about what God has been doing in my life and others around me.
To contact me directly for anything, you can email me at cpayala21@yahoo.com or shoot me a text at 805-558-6350, with your name and anything else you'd like to say. I will gladly respond right away. If you'd like to donate, you can mail checks to my home address at 17 E. Cedar Ln. Priest River, ID. 83856.
Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers. I love you all and can't wait to see what else God wants to blow my mind with!
Blessings!
To start off, I would just like to share that I have the most incredible roommates ever. I really could not ask for a more culturally diverse group of girls to live with. There's eight of us in one room including myself and we all get a long so great together. There are two girls from Korea, one from California, one from Indiana, one from Oregon, one from Arizona, and one from Chicago. It only took me about a couple hours of living with these girls that I felt at home and at peace. It felt natural, comfortable. As if I knew these girls for years, but it has only been a few days. Now, two weeks already today!!
The past week has been so draining; mentally, physically, and spiritually.. but in the best way possible. My schedule is full of God filled events such as a worship session early in the morning after a 6am breakfast, three hour lectures from crazy good speakers who have all been involved in YWAM for at least three or four years, media lectures about how to be a 'voice for the voiceless' though a photograph, having set aside times for intercessions (praying against unjust situations in the world such as child prostitution, sex trafficking, abortion, and so many others), and having missionary nights. Our PhotogenX group spends a few hours in our prayer room here on campus and pray for people within our group to encourage and build up spiritually. Our days here on campus are set up to be sort of hectic to help us get in the habit of not fitting God into our lives but scheduling our lives around God's plans he made for each of us. That way, later down the road when DTS is over, we have the good habit of asking God what he has planned out for us each morning when we wake up. The whole goal is to learn to not put God in a little box and put him up in a shelf and only take it out to only ask him for things we need or to have him take care of difficult situations when we cant do it our selves. To be honest, I didn't know how this would go during the first couple of days of being here only because we were so busy doing things such as ministry night, corporate worship with all of the Kona campus and work duties each day. But by the fourth or fifth day, I was able to get the swing of things and learn to adapt to my new schedule, which I enjoy doing.
Last Friday was just about the coolest days ever so far. I found out where I was being sent to on Outreach!! We had about eight options to 'choose' from. I say this because it really wasn't our choice to choose but God's. For me, it was an easy to figure out where I was suppose to go. I have always had a heart for Africa. Always, always, always. Specifically South Africa. Around this time last year, God showed me in a dream what I was going to do with my life one year later. The dream went a little something like this.
I was in a hot, dry area. There was a slight breeze in the air, enough to cool me down but ever so slightly. I looked down at my hands and saw that I was holding a beautiful Canon camera, not sure what one but it definitely wasn't one that I had already owned. I then looked all around me and noticed a small group of people with cameras as well who I seemed to know only because they were so friendly to me but never saw faces. All of sudden there were a large group of little African children surrounding me with the biggest of smiles on their faces and I could help but smile and laugh myself and photographing their sweet faces.
I woke up.
Never had I ever had a dream that was so vivid and seemed so real. Right then, I knew that I was soon to be going on a missions trip to Africa. Fast forward one year exactly from that day and here I am, living in Hawaii with numerous people from around the world. At the end of a normal day of lectures, one of the leaders of my PhotogenX group said they wanted to show us something on their computer. She played a video announcing our locations for Outreach. Greece, South Sudan/ Uganda, UK, Burma/ Thailand, India, China, Jordan, andddd South Africa. Boom. No hesitation. No second thoughts. I was going to South Africa.
Say hello to my South Africa team! (left to right)
Erika (leader), Madalyn, Sarah M., Kali, Sarah G., myself, Cammie, and not pictured is our only man who will protect us from all danger, Caleb!
Thank you so much for reading my blog and again, I apologize for the long wait in notifying all of you on what I have been up to. I try will make sure that there will be a new post every week to let you know more in detail about what God has been doing in my life and others around me.
To contact me directly for anything, you can email me at cpayala21@yahoo.com or shoot me a text at 805-558-6350, with your name and anything else you'd like to say. I will gladly respond right away. If you'd like to donate, you can mail checks to my home address at 17 E. Cedar Ln. Priest River, ID. 83856.
Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers. I love you all and can't wait to see what else God wants to blow my mind with!
Blessings!
Friday, April 6, 2012
Day One
I am overwhelmed by the beauty of this island. I have been to Hawaii once before but fairly remember it. Everything here is just so different from what I'm use to at home. Just knowing that your on the island gives you a sense of relaxation and peace. I've meet what seems like a thousand people already and honestly its been easy to remember their names, Ellie, Campbell, Holly, Erika, Monica, Jose, Ryan, Jonathan, Mandy, Tiffany, Ashley, Madalyn, Emily 1, 2, and 3, Grace, Jaclyn, Sunkyung, so on and so on. So many incredible, beautiful people with such a heart for God. YWAM is an organization that really focuses on having everyone being part of their family, and once I got off that shuttle from the airport with my two new friends, Mandy and Emily, I felt so at home and comfortable with all these hundreds of people. Its funny to be here after months of facebook stalking everyone and knowing just about who that person is and now to finally see them face to face. A lot of the girls agreed with me. Its been pretty incredible getting to know all these people personally from all around the world, all with the same burning passion for God and a desire to grow more and more deeper in love with Him. Its only been day one of my six month adventure and I cannot wait what else there is in store for me and my everyone here on this campus.
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!
Love you all!!
This is a photo I took this morning around 7am. Love it here!
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!
Love you all!!
This is a photo I took this morning around 7am. Love it here!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Holy Miracle!
You've probably heard one of those stories about a crazy miracle happen in someones life, right? Either through a friend sharing about a someone they know or even someone close to you in your family. But has it ever happened to you personally? I was one of those individuals who had heard of many stories about incredible things happening in other peoples lives but I never really thought that it has ever happened to me, until three days ago when I was on a drive back home from doing errands.
Early in the morning, I thought it would be nice to hit up Starbucks, enjoy a nice warm caramel macchiato, and finish up the book I was currently reading, Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I had read the book before but there's always something new that just clicks or you understand more the second time around. This time, I took up a challenge that was requested by the author. There is only one place in the bible where God invites His people to test him. Malachi 3:10, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that here may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, 'says the Lord of hosts, 'if I will not open for you the window of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows'". From this verse God was telling his people to give more than they could manage, give everything they had so that He could show them that for giving willingly, He would bless them immensely. So then here was my chance to test God. Right at that moment, I asked God to show me something crazy, radical, a miracle. I decided that I would tithe the money I had saved up from babysitting the past couple of weeks and then wait and see what God does with it. Later that day, I went on my business and did a few errands to prepare for my trip to Hawaii. While I was gone, my pastors wife called and asked me if I would come over their house for a few minutes to pick something up. So, in the early evening, I went over their house and they handed me an envelope. They said they were proud of me for wanting to spend my time serving the Lord and learning more about him through my trip and wanted to help me out a bit with the finances. They sold a few things from their home and decided to give me the money from what they sold to me for my school. I was thankful for their act of kindness and love for the Lord and really couldn't believe that they had done this for me. The only thing they asked of me in return was pictures of the beaches and maybe a few sea shells. This family is such a blessing to me and a number of people. They are prime examples of selfless giving and are an inspiration for myself and others that no matter what you have or what your situation is, you can bless another person with either money, giving of food, or even just a genuine smile. Once I returned home, I opened the envelope and found that they had given me $1,050!! "Holy Miracle"!! I said and began to cry. What an incredible blessing and what a way for God to prove to me that he is all powerful and that he loves me.
God is ready all the time to bless us, we just have to submit to him and ask for it. There's no need to doubt, no need to wonder. He has me taken care of and knows what I need in the time that I need it. He is my father, my provider and my first love. He will never let me down.
As the days seem to pass by faster, my time here at home gets short and my life changing experience quickly approaches. I have FIFTEEN days left until April 5th and I am still in need of funds. Most of you have received my letter and may have felt in your heart to donate. I am so incredibly thankful for that, but had the return envelope sent back to you, do not worry. There was a complication with the post office with receiving my mail, but has been handled and fixed. So if you still feel lead to give, you may do so and resend your donation to the same mailing address. It will be received and I will send a thank you card in return.
Again, thank you so much for your prayers and donations. I will be sure to continue to updating you all on my adventure with photographs and posts on this blog. Love you all very much!
Early in the morning, I thought it would be nice to hit up Starbucks, enjoy a nice warm caramel macchiato, and finish up the book I was currently reading, Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I had read the book before but there's always something new that just clicks or you understand more the second time around. This time, I took up a challenge that was requested by the author. There is only one place in the bible where God invites His people to test him. Malachi 3:10, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that here may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, 'says the Lord of hosts, 'if I will not open for you the window of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows'". From this verse God was telling his people to give more than they could manage, give everything they had so that He could show them that for giving willingly, He would bless them immensely. So then here was my chance to test God. Right at that moment, I asked God to show me something crazy, radical, a miracle. I decided that I would tithe the money I had saved up from babysitting the past couple of weeks and then wait and see what God does with it. Later that day, I went on my business and did a few errands to prepare for my trip to Hawaii. While I was gone, my pastors wife called and asked me if I would come over their house for a few minutes to pick something up. So, in the early evening, I went over their house and they handed me an envelope. They said they were proud of me for wanting to spend my time serving the Lord and learning more about him through my trip and wanted to help me out a bit with the finances. They sold a few things from their home and decided to give me the money from what they sold to me for my school. I was thankful for their act of kindness and love for the Lord and really couldn't believe that they had done this for me. The only thing they asked of me in return was pictures of the beaches and maybe a few sea shells. This family is such a blessing to me and a number of people. They are prime examples of selfless giving and are an inspiration for myself and others that no matter what you have or what your situation is, you can bless another person with either money, giving of food, or even just a genuine smile. Once I returned home, I opened the envelope and found that they had given me $1,050!! "Holy Miracle"!! I said and began to cry. What an incredible blessing and what a way for God to prove to me that he is all powerful and that he loves me.
God is ready all the time to bless us, we just have to submit to him and ask for it. There's no need to doubt, no need to wonder. He has me taken care of and knows what I need in the time that I need it. He is my father, my provider and my first love. He will never let me down.
As the days seem to pass by faster, my time here at home gets short and my life changing experience quickly approaches. I have FIFTEEN days left until April 5th and I am still in need of funds. Most of you have received my letter and may have felt in your heart to donate. I am so incredibly thankful for that, but had the return envelope sent back to you, do not worry. There was a complication with the post office with receiving my mail, but has been handled and fixed. So if you still feel lead to give, you may do so and resend your donation to the same mailing address. It will be received and I will send a thank you card in return.
Again, thank you so much for your prayers and donations. I will be sure to continue to updating you all on my adventure with photographs and posts on this blog. Love you all very much!
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