Remote Island Christmas?!

Merry Christmas friends,
Looks like I may have Christmas on Losap Island.  My Chuukese grandma,Mama Rose, is from one of the smallest outer islands of this state,Losap.  I have been praying about how and when to go to as many outerislands as I can to share the love of Jesus in the more isolated and remote islands.  And last week some people here invited us to come toLosap and also to a neighboring island, Piis (pronounced Peace), whichis where a bunch of my friends in Pohnpei are from.  So we startedpraying about when we can go.Last week one of Rose's relatives who we had been praying for in thehospital, passed away.  He is from Piis, so they will take a ship outto that island December 18th to have a funeral.  Mama Rose and I areplanning to travel with them and stay in Piis a few days, then go toLosap for probably several weeks or a month until another boat canbring us back to the main island of Chuuk.  Rose went to every home onthe island to share about Jesus several years ago, and wants to dothat again.  She said that last time, only one person, wanted to befilled with the Holy Spirit, Nesu, and she is the one I met here lastweek who invited us to come.  So my partner in the gospel and I arelooking forward to and praying for this next adventure.Please pray with us for Piis and Losap!Meanwhile a woman's back was healed yesterday, she went from barelywalking with a limp and pain, to smiling, glowing and walkingnormally, and having us pray for others in her family!  Come on God!I'm really praying for opportunities to love on unsuspecting peoplehere and also to encourage and empower the believers here to hear fromGod's heart and perspective and pray in faith for Kingdomtransformation in their land.  Also heading to the laundrymat againthis afternoon, so you never know what might happen there!  hahahaI love you and Bless you guys,Andrea

Sweet Pohnpei Moments

It was such a sweet Pohnpeian experience this morning walking with Zoe(Welsh) and Darlene(Pohnpeian) and being invited over for breakfast egg salad sandwiches and tituhs (fried banana donuts) by some people we didn't know Utleen and Anderson.  So easy to become friends in Pohnpei. 

Wow, here I am Lord.  In Pohnpei.  You brought me here.  I've been here a month and I still can't believe it.  You brought me to an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to teach me about humility, honor, what it means to serve, boldness in preaching the gospel, character and discipline, hospitality. 

And I remember sitting with Darlene and Una last night at dinner, and Darlene brought over a huge water jug to fill my waterbottle for me.  So sweet, she demonstrates to me what it looks like in Romans 12:13 to "show genuine affection for each other, and to take delight in honoring one another, and to never be lazy but work hard serving the Lord."  wow.

I learned how to clean and scale and gut fish and cook them or cover them with lime juice and eat them raw (sashimi).  And snorkeled over some beautiful reefs and spearfished at night.  I caught one small fish, but I was so proud.  But swimming at night by flashlight was amazing all by itself.  With little glowing bubbles all around.

We had another outdoor outreach in the city park.  And after dancing and drama and a short message, tons of people came up to accept Jesus and then they prayed for themselves to be healed if they needed it and were filled with the Holy Spirit.  My friend Una's mom was instantly healed from back issues that she has had 3 surgeries for and still had a lot of pain and limited range of motion in her whole body.  And she was so excited moving all around and saying, "I feel God, I feel God!".   Everywhere we go on outreaches, we make friends so fast and people just really want Jesus!  The harvest is so ripe in these islands, God is really moving and the people are so hungry, the gospel is so simple, and its such good news.  I am really looking forward to being a part of this revival even in some of the islands that have more oppressed cultures and some who have never heard of Jesus.

We had a guest speaker from the Philippines this week, Hiriam Pangilinan, who has been experiencing revival and healings and signs and wonders and deliverances and lots of new believers in his local church for years.  He taught us a lot about principles of a revival that will be sustained until the end and not burn out like the ones through out history.  And he taught a lot about deliverance, which was so good to hear from an eastern world perspective and someone who has had tons of experience with it since thats where I'll be for a while.  Super helpful tools.  

I will miss this island, two weeks till graduation and heading to another state far away in Micronesia, Yap, and to some islands that haven't heard the gospel yet. Jesus is breaking in :)

Village of Peace :)

A few stories and moments from my last few weeks in Pohnpei, Micronesia:

  My team went to stay 2 nights at the Village of Peace last weekend.  A family of Christians there had really been crying out for renewal and encouragement and revival in their community, and invited us to come stay with them.  It was like being at a family reunion, tons of kids running around and playing with us, volleyball, tons of cousins, and food.  They really wanted to honor us, because they felt that the more they honored us, the more they honored God and they wanted every blessing he had for them.  They cooked every meal for us, and played the ukelele and sang while we ate, and the kids came into the house where we were sleeping early in the morning and played and sang songs all day long with us.  They even roasted a pig for us one night, which is a food reserved to show honor for very special occasions here.  The weekend started out with awkward silences between us, but by the end we were all crying and hugging and making plans to visit each other again, and we washed the feet of the representatives of their families and they gave us each a traditional dress.  

 We had worship services in the yard in the evenings and went in small groups to visit houses nearby in the day time.  Each family that we prayed with, asked for more love, either personally or for their family and marriage, and for their community to be unified again with more love.  It was such a sweet time.  Several people were healed of heart conditions, blindness and deafness.  And some delivered as they received prayers for impartation of joy.  And we were all encouraged in the Lord together.  

  A friend shared a testimony of a teenager being raised from the dead in an American hospital in the name of Jesus.  One of the cousins of our friends who were hosting us in the village, had died a few days before and was to have a funeral the next day. That evening some of us felt to go to the morgue to ask the husband if we could pray for his wife to be resurrected.  It was the middle of the night when we arrived, and he was sleeping in his car in the parking lot of the hospital/morgue.  So we got to visit with him, and he apologized saying that he didn't want us to pray for her because she had had so much peace with dying, and had time to make peace with everyone, and he didn't want her to come back to life if she might have a sudden death next time and not have a chance to make peace.  So we honored his request, and my friend gave him a donut (which she had brought to give the woman if she came back to life hungry) and encouraged him to remember to eat.  His eyes got so wide and surprised with this simple act of compassion.  He said, "how did you know I haven't been eating?"  She said, "well, you're grieving, a lot of people don't eat when they are grieving."  It was the most practical and matter of fact, simple gesture of empathy and encouragement.  And it opened the door for us to pray for him, and for his 5 year old son.  And he felt the presence of God so much while we prayed with him that he invited us to come back and share more, he and a drunk friend who was awake in the parking lot.  So we just got to share more of the love of God and invitation to know him more.  Meanwhile the others who had come to pray, went into the emergency room and prayed with people there and saw healing and had amazing God encounters in a woman's hospital room.  It was the craziest faith building middle of the night hospital ministry I've ever been a part of.  And we got so close to our Pohnpeian hosts who were driving with us!  What a crazy Jesus kind of night.  

  

   Growing in obedience-  While we were praying for one man to be healed, I saw in my imagination, Jesus washing his feet.  Which is one of the ways I ask God to speak to me, especially when people need healing, I ask for him to show me what he is doing, so that I can do that to release his kingdom on earth.  But I have been entertaining the enemies ideas that my part in a group is not necessary or significant, and so I ignored the Lord in that moment.  I didn't do what he showed me to do.  So even though we prayed for the man, I knew in my heart that I had been disobedient to the Lord, and really wonder what he wanted to release through that.  So I just repented and asked him to show me any other lies I had been believing that had made room in my heart to disobey in that moment.  Wow, so he also showed me that sometimes I am looking for him to show up in such unusual and different ways, or visions, that I missed him when he was speaking through the simple act of foot washing.  I thought I was just making it up, because its not original, its been done before.  But hello, if it was powerful enough for Jesus to do it, obviously it can be a powerful thing when God is doing it!  And wow, I want to listen to the gentle whisper and recognize that that is my King speaking!  So yeah, I just wanted to share this part of my journey, so that I can share the next story when God redeems it and I learn to be obedient next time, and you will know that it came through a process :)

Arrows, Coal, Spears, Scrolls- I cannot even express the work God has been doing in my heart and the commissioning that is being confirmed here. God is showing me his hand in fulfilling dreams he put in my heart from a young girl, and prophetic words from 7 years ago that are being birthed in my life for such a time as this!

  

Micronesia - Gospel is Good News!

It is beautiful here, even more than I imagined.  And getting to know many crazy lovers of Jesus. My group has had this weekend to "explore the island"  so we went to some waterfalls and the legendary ruins of this island.  One of the waterfalls, I got to jump off, and it was the highest jump I've ever had, and super fun.

The RUINS: 

     We visited the historical ruins here on Pohnpei  this weekend.  It has a really intense history.  It was an 18 kilometer city that was built about 800ish years ago, by sorcerers.  They used their sorcery to fly in giant stones (too heavy and large to have come on any ship of that time).  To build the city and did human sacrifice, and were a huge stronghold of fear and control in the island.  The filmmakers of Ghosts, came to film an episode there and were killed by demons there.   Jesse and other believers had come to pray and cleanse the land with the blood of Jesus, and its quite peaceful there now.  Now I am reading a book about the spiritual history of Hawaii and other Polynesian Islands, "God of Light, God of Darkness"  by Daniel Kikawa.  And I am soo humbled to discover the way that God has been working all along through the culture and history of peoples that I have never heard of or known.  And to see how good and faithful he is.  And what good news Jesus is.  The freedom of the gospel is incredible.  The love of God is soo good, so powerful.  I am so humbled by the way I am discovering him in the Pohnpeians here.  

The Gospel is Good News:

    This morning I was also really convicted to repent of a lie that I have believed for a long time:  "That the gospel is hard to accept, that its not really that good of news, that people won't usually want to hear it or believe it or have their lives transformed by it".  I am finding that in this time and season in the world, actually that is the rare exception, that people will hear and not respond.  The norm is that they will believe when they hear and see the gospel, because it really is good news!  And Love is really powerful.  That lie has discouraged me and made me hesitant and timid to share in many opportunities.  And I have judged people's hearts that they were hard, when really God was likely already there, calling them to himself.

     This shift in my mindest was confirmed today by a jog down the road and my jogging friend just started up a conversation with the local woman walking on her way to work, and it was so evident in her eyes and countenance that she was hungry for that good news.  And then a friend shared this verse for the school, 

Isaiah 55:5 "You also will command nations you do not know, and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey, because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious."

This weekend:

  My group will be gone hiking for a mountain survival weekend.  The group that went last weekend had amazing stories challenges and of God healing one guy immediately of (what sounded to me like altitude sickness, or severe dehydration and vomiting).  So... we are pretty excited about a slightly shorter, amazing challenging weekend of hiking.  And this morning Jessie and Tanya shared a story with us of them visiting a hard to reach, unreached mountain village in Nepal, and the crazy dangerous bus ride and hike, and then how a woman was healed of the cancer she was dying from and her whole family and doctor became believers in Jesus.  And many other people in those villages.  Jesus is worth the pain, he is worth the risk.  He is beautiful!  He is great news!

One of the Pohnpeian students here with us, broke his finger playing volleyball last week, then another student prayed for him immediately and he was healed and felt something like electricity going through his body.  And of course a lot of heart healing is happening for all of us, because thats what God does...

Praying for more and more of God.

Really love. Not just pretend to love.

God I want to see your Kingdom Come through my life!  Use me.  Release your Kingdom through me.  Wherever you want me to go, for whatever purpose you have.  Use me to bring your Kingdom in the land of the living.  I want to see your Kingdom come.  I want to see people meet their King.  I want to be used for your purposes.  I want to be willing God, to be a sacrifice, to be a sacrifice of love, like you.  I want to love like you.  I want to be so overwhelmed and obsessed by your love and the joy of intimately relating to you, that I am willing to suffer any cost that those in front of me can know you.  I want to see the joy set before me as you see it.  I want to know that joy more, that I would count it all joy to give my life away in the process.  

I want to be willing to give my life away today, not just in the future, in some lofty idealized time or situation.  I want to consider my life today as not my own.  To consider my life as yours.  Already yours.  That it doesn't belong to me.  And if you want to spend it on any one person in front of me, then that is your choice.  My life is yours and you can do whatever you want.  You are my King.  You are the King of my life, the King of my heart.  I don't want to be begrudging of love or stingy with things, or gifts, or time.  I repent of all the so many times that I have been withholding and held back from loving people the way that you meant for me to.  I want to trust you in deeper ways, that I am free to love.  I am free to give and to spend my life, to waste my life on love.  

I want to really love.  Not just pretend to love.

Psalm 103:13-

"The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.  

For he remembers we are only dust.  

Our days are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.  

The wind blows, and we are gone-- as though we had never been here.  

But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him.  

His salvation extends to the children's children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments!  

The Lord has made the heavens his throne; from there he rules over everything.  

Praise the Lord, you angels who serve him and do his will!  ( I want to be one who serves you and does your will.  I want to be one who waits for and clings to your very words and notions for direction to act.)

Praise the Lord, everything he has created, everything in all his Kingdom.  

Let all that I am praise the Lord."

God I want to respond not just to your voice, but to the inclinations of your heart.  To the tiniest whisper and the look in your eyes.  I want to be moved by you.  I want to be aware of your Spirit moving in me.  Like the creatures and the wheels, I want to move with your Spirit.  I want to be moved by you.  Where you go, send me, bring me with you God.  I want to be with you, and move with you and do what you do. 

He is With Me in the Migration!

He leads us beside awesome waters :)

Well, I am at the coffee shop to journal, and without a pen.  So probably this will be a blog, hahaha.  I guess if I bother to type it I may as well share it.  

I'm so touched by the kindness of God to speak to us.  His voice is just so kind to lead.  He loves us so much.  And I love the journey with him.  I love the mysterious way he reveals himself all the time.  After teaching about 4 times in Brazil about "hearing God", I think I am really starting to believe that he speaks to me all the time.  

I have really been encouraged by friends testimonies of all the different ways that God speaks to them.  He reminds us of his love in secret personalized code just for us.  haha.  For one he reminds through frequent sitings of ladybugs, for one its cardinals, for one its emotional breakdowns on mountaintops in various countries, for some its reoccurring numbers that we see everywhere with some kind of significance, a reminder, and encouragement.  Whatever it is, its this constant whisper, "I am with you always. I will never leave you. I AM with you."  

I am on a journey with the Lord.  I am watching for him and listening for him in the ordinary, everyday.

A few days ago, I was riding the train/bus from my friends in Fort Worth to my family in Allen.  It was my first time to be making the transfer at night at the bus stop in Dallas.  Things get a little interesting at night in public transportation in Dallas.  So I am standing there, and I notice the big number 121 lit up on the train.  And I notice it in that way, that I know is the Lord wanting me to pay attention.  So later I looked up Psalm 121, its all about the protection of the Lord. 

Ps 121:7,8 

The LORD will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

     the LORD will watch over your coming and going

     both now and forevermore.

Thank you God.  His promises are so sweet, especially when he whispers them to us and lets us know its real for us.  He is so personal.

Commissioned with love by the children Brazil

I went out of town visiting friends for the past 3 weeks.  And I felt that the Lord was going to give me some specific direction for the next steps for my life.  And I felt that it would be really fun and honoring to ask my parents to ask him for specific words about my next steps and wherever I go.  So I did.  

And this morning, one of the things God showed my mom was this revelation about how the Lord leads birds in their migration and seasons and they listen to him and follow.

Jeremiah 8:7

Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration….

And the Sunday before I left Brazil 6 weeks ago, I had been really touched by a friend prophesying over me that I was like a bird in migration, who would come and go in the right seasons…

Thank you Jesus for confirmations.  And for speaking to us as a body.  Thank you that we prophesy in part and we get to share our parts and see more of the picture.  Thank you God for speaking.  And that you are always with me!  The great I AM.

Welcomed with Mangoes!

So it was really fun to have an opportunity to adventure with God yesterday to a place where we didn't know anyone or what to expect, and to just ask him to do what he wanted to do and to connect us with whoever he wanted to.  We went to a small community on a mountainside about 30 minutes outside of Fortaleza.  They were listed on the website as an unreached people group so we went to investigate :)  A man who gave us directions at the gas station in the town nearby said, "watch out for the arrows."  Which was funny except he didn't smile or laugh when he said it... but thank God, he was joking.  The people we met were very hospitable to us.  We weren't totally sure if it was ok to enter, so we just kept asking people on the side of the road as we went, "are we there yet, is this it, how do we get there, and is it ok to drive in further to visit...".  

When we arrived, we saw a church building, and were surprised!  Weren't expecting that.  The church has about 30 members, 20 from one family, and the rest from outside the reservation.  Its planning to close soon.  A lady was there cleaning and let us come in to tell us about the community.  

Then she introduced us to a 76 year old woman, Deuzete, who had an amazing conversion story and a mango orchard :)  She had lived there her whole life.  And about 15 years ago, was dying of throat and lung cancer and tuberculosis.  Her daughter tried to convince her to come to church to get prayer, but she said, "No, I hate believers!".  But she was healed, and now her whole family are believers.  And she is fearless.  She took anointing oil and prayed around a big tree where the village preforms rituals, one day before they were going to have rituals there.  And then they were all mad at her because they couldn't connect with spirits there!  But she said, "If my God is for me, who can be against me."

She showed us around her property and we picked 5 sacks full of mangos and other Brazilian fruits that I can't spell.  And she said, next time you come you can put your tents here, and we will have so much more to give you.  She was excited that for the first time a group of missionaries might come to her community.

They told us where the chief's house was so we went to meet him.  His wife, Luisa, welcomed us in immediately.  And talked to us, mostly looking at the ground, telling us about their community.  She and the chief, Daniel, don't really have an active faith.  They both claimed to believe in God in a general sort of way.  Their native religious leader just practices macumba now. (which is an african witchcraft/ idol worship which is common in Brazil)  And she was crying because thats not even native, nor the drugs that people have brought in.  Really it sounds as if they have sort of lost their identity.  And that their is almost no witness of the living God and real relationship with him there. 

We prayed with the chief before we left, for rain so that they can plant their crops (its been a super dry year in this state).  And he welcomed us to come back anytime.  

So we will pray for heaven's strategy for these people!  And can't wait to see how God wants to introduce himself.  It seems so crazy to have this little group, that no one has really gone to, right by a huge city full of many believers and all kinds of religion.  Like this tiny little forgotten people.  But they are not forgotten!  The light of the world is coming to them.

It was a simple and wonderful beginning.  A door cracked open...  What a blessing to participate.  Love will flood that place.  Thanks for praying for us!

Andrea

Fighting Terrorism - One Hug at a Time

We had a missions training weekend camp here a few weeks ago.  God brought some amazing Brazilian young people and youth who are really hungry for more of God in their lives, and we got to really encourage them in their dreaming with God.  It was a wonderful time of worshipping together and sharing our experiences and dreams and passion for adventuring with God.  I got to teach on hearing the voice of God, and we did some games to practice and stir up the gifts of God in each of us.  Then we took the bus to the beach for a treasure hunt :)

I decide to take a little notepad of paintings with me, in case I felt to give some art away.  Our enthusiastic friend Alyson, was talking with a young man for a long time, trying to excite him for a different life, with a God of love and joy.  While I watched them talking from a distance, I felt to give him a picture and took it to him and shared a word of encouragement with him, and smiled and blessed him and gave him a hug, and while I was talking with him noticed the tattoos on his arm:  the twin towers and a portrait of Osama Bin Ladin.   He seemed so touched by my simple gesture of blessing him, and his countenance seemed so surprised, and really affected.  It wasn't until the next day that I realized why he had been so surprised, and that he had tried to apologize for his tattoos.  I am clearly American.  And his arm clearly stated that he at some point in his life thought it was cool to hate Americans.  Little did he know, it was my greatest pleasure, and the most fun I had all day.  My favorite people to love, are those who aren't expecting it!  Because I think that is how Jesus loves, part of what is so good about his love, is that its so unreasonable and unexpected.

Neighborhood Stories

One of my favorite things to do in Fortaleza is visiting people in the community.  IRIS has a House of Prayer there that we rent from one of the old drug dealers.  He doesn't live in the community anymore, I think for fear of his life from rival drug dealers.  A couple months ago, someone burned down all his other properties, but they left our House of Prayer alone - they know that we are using it to bless the community and represent mercy and grace in that place.  God has given us so much favor and protection.  I never feel afraid there at all.  Of course I always walk around with friends, but still, our level of protection is ridiculous.

Last week at soup night, Ned and Herb sat outside the house of prayer on the sidewalk, praying with one of the neighbors and preaching the gospel to him.  He was very sick with Tuberculosis and thought that he was about to die, so he really was open to hearing about Jesus.  They prayed for him and promised to come by and check on him and share with him more when we are visit again.  Last week Ned and I saw him in the street, looking strong and healthy and with a bright shiny face and a big smile.  I couldn't believe it!  (But Ned just told me as I am writing this that he got sick again and Andrew took him to the hospital for care last week)

Rosie - One of my favorite women to hug and pray for there.  She has a really soft heart and soaks up love when she can get it.  She has two daughters and is really addicted to drugs, and begs and used to sell her body most of the time for food for her kids and herself and to take care of her addiction.  But everytime I see her she smiles and cries everytime I hug her.  One day I walked across the railroad bridge into the community to meet my friends there, and she walked up behind me without me seeing her and gave me a hug.  I would have thought it would startle me, since I hadn't seen who it was, but by the feel of her hug, I knew immediately that whoever it was, they loved me and had my best interest at heart.  It really was so welcoming!

Marcia - She is one of the most joyful people I have met in the community, she became a Christian last year, and got free of her drug addiction too!  Now she is a testimony to her family and neighbors of the power of Christ living in her.  She is really hungry for more encouragement and discipleship and I am hoping that God will show us more clearly how to help those who are hungry to grow up in him.

Thanks for praying for us and with us!  More of you Lord!!