Falling In Love..

Edinburgh, Scotland is quickly capturing my heart! So rich in culture, history, revival, martyrs and the black & white of reality.

They are some of the most friendly people I have ever met & they love to strike up a conversation everywhere. On the streets, on a train, on a bus - wherever! 

People from all over the world have converged on Edinburgh for The Fringe Festival. There is creativity on every corner  as you walk the cobblestone streets. We ourselves have performed multiple times on the streets during the Fringe, the people have been so open, hungry & receptive. It's been incredible.

I love the youth here, God has really given me a heart for them. Many have grown up in homes where they've never even thought about God. On Tuesday we were out on the streets just loving on them & bringing Jesus to them. 18 people gave their heart to the Lord! 

The gospel is so beautifully advancing all over the world! 

More to come!

Love from the field! 

HAPPY RESURRECTION SUNDAY!!

I Have really been challenged lately with the thought of giving Jesus my ALL, no matter what I'm doing, or where I am. What does being a servant, leader, disciple, missionary.. Daughter of God really look like?

I am called to raise up a generation that will not back down, be intimidated or swayed by the world. We are the generation that you cannot silence. We will cry for the outpouring of love and in pouring of the harvest!

Been getting rocked by the spoken words of this song today - may it challenge you and encourage you as well!


"Destroy" By: Worth Dying For

"We stand, we rise, we give our lives.

We stand, we rise, we give our lives.
[Spoken]

It began long ago, when darkness, through its deceit captured the hearts of the sons and daughters of light.
We looked for light but we found only darkness.
We searched for bright skies but walked in gloom.
We fumbled like the blind along the wall, feeling our way like people without eyes.
We were destined to fall, even in the brightest days.
We stumbled as if it were dark. Among the living, we were like the dead.
We looked for justice, but it never came.
We looked for rescue but it was far from us.
So He, Himself, stepped in to save us with his strong arm and justice to sustain Him.
He put on righteousness as armor, salvation His helmet.
He clothed Himself with the robe of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of divine passion.
He slipped out of his royal garments, left eternity to enter time, divinity to wrap himself in humanity.
The sea of glass, for the ocean of separation.
He left peace, and for the first time felt pain.
Because the very hands that held the stars were now sentenced to wear my scars.
It was love that purchased this traitor’s heart.
It's what the prophets spoke about when they envisioned light living in men once again.
For this reason, I AM LEGEND, predestined for greatness, built for the final hour.
I was born for this, with weapons in hand, armor in place.
I now march to the beat of a different drum. I will break through battle lines that have been drawn by discouragement and despair.
What more is left to be said?
Time has met its end. It's now or never. Collision with me, myself, and I.
You see my mission today is clear: to wake the dead. So let freedom's song rage.
You’re not abandoned. You're not alone.
Last day warriors arise from yesterday's ash and raise your fist with us.
We are the army that is charging upon the land. Defeat is no longer and option!
IT IS VICTORY.

Thousands.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...


So many people have asked me what it was like to be in Mozambique and Nepal, and while it's my joy to tell everyone and try to give them a glimpse of the intense beauty and love that I got to experience, sometimes I'm completely at a loss for words. (I know, crazy for me right?)
I had the thought today that showing you might be easier.  Then you can see with your own eyes what love without an agenda looks like...

Be inspired today - the Kingdom of God is at hand... Not only in third world countries, but right in the hearts and eyes of your next door neighbor, your brother or sister, your parents, your friends, your co-workers - As Mama Heidi always says, "LOVE THE ONE IN FRONT OF YOU!"
 

Painting the nails of a beautiful Mozambiquan Woman

Playing with a sweet boy who lived in the baby house on the Iris base.

Giving away stickers in the garbage dumps of Nepal on Christmas Morning!

What love looked like in jewelry class with the Mama's & their babies!

A new friend!

Preaching the gospel in the garbage dumps.

More to come!

Life in the field

What did today look like?

Well, today we went into Darpur, an area in Kathmandu full of old buddhist temples and people from all over the world searching for "enlightenment" and blessing from their gods.
We walked all around speaking in tongues and proclaiming the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus, and then sat on the steps of one of shivas temples and prayed for people who came and talked to us.
We got to live what love looked like as well and bought a little boy & girl Sprites and lunch. It was so fun!!
But it's not over yet...

Tonight we'll go & do street ministry!

And thats just my quick update from Nepal! Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon.. But for now, I hope that painted a small picture of the beauty of Nepal.

An African Thanksgiving!

"I'm Thankful for..." is normally a sentence you hear in America as you sit around the dinner table, waiting to devour the best meal of the year and be stuffed till you can't eat anymore.

This year I spent Thanksgiving in Africa, surrounded by Mozambiquans, Harvest School Students from around the World and of course my amazing sisters of House 8! Many international students had never celebrated Thanksgiving before and kept asking me what it was about - because of course, I kept wishing EVERYONE Happy Thanksgiving! It really made me stop and wonder- what is Thanksgiving really about??

Of course, I tried to explain about the Pilgrims coming to America and the Indians helping them, about sitting around a table with your family and the kinds of foods we eat, about being Thankful to God for all the good things He's given you...and yet somehow, this year those reasons didn't seem to suffice. (of course the last one always does! But I felt like the Lord wanted me to realize how much more it was then that.)

So here's my top 7 "I'm Thankful for.." list for the year 2011 -  (Because I could do a lot more then 7, and you'd be sitting here forever. lol!)

1:I'm thankful for this amazing opportunity to be serving, living and learning in Africa and soon Nepal in this season of my life.

2: I'm thankful for all of my family, friends and church back home - as well as all of my new Iris family here!

3: I'm thankful for the amazing meal we were blessed with last night - It was the biggest meal I'm sure some of these Mozambiquans have ever eaten- and I've never had so much meat on one plate in my life! - An oil company from South Africa blessed us and cooked enough food for our ENTIRE base (1000 people!) And it was a proper Thanksgiving meal - Turkey, Mashed potatoes with bacon in it, Ham, a hamburger, corn, a huge bread roll, a mango and of course.. PUMPKIN PIE! It was phenominal!

4: I'm thankful for the water turning back on after being off for 2 weeks! :) (You really learn to appreciate the important things here.)

5: For the Lords faithfulness in ALL transitions and seasons of my life this past year.

6:For all my new Mozambiquan friends and really learning through theirs and all of Iris' example what love TRULY looks like.

7: For the transformation work of Jesus Christ, being made more like Him and knowing that no matter where I am in the World, as long as I have Him I'm always home.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop there for now. These are just some of the simple things that I'm Thankful for this year - I'm not perfect and I have by no way arrived. But I'm pressing on towards the goal, and I'm so excited to see what Papa has ahead! My challenge for myself these next 2 weeks.. to DREAM BIG and never stop! I've always talked about it, but now I really want to do it.

As we enter the Christmas season I challenge you to do the same, don't just live a normal life - live BIG in the Kingdom of God. It doesn't matter if your in Africa, or Asia, or America or Europe.. Whether you have runnining water or not, electricity or not, money or not.. It's all about Kingdom culture. Live in it! You don't have to be called to the dirt or to the unreached to be used by God.. Just be you!

More to come soon!!

Into the Heart of a People..

3 weeks ago I got the opportunity to go into the heart of a Nation.. This weekend I got to go into the heart of a people. I went on what Iris call's "Drop Off"! Where they literally introduce us to a Mama or a widow, take you to her home and "drop" you and another student off to stay with her and her family for the weekend.


It was such an experience! Our whole approach was to go as little children, completely humbled and submerged into a whole new culture.

Our Mama was the sweetest little 61 year old woman who lived with her daughter and her daughters husband, as well as some other young guys living there. (Not quite sure how they were related, but it's like that a lot here.) She took SUCH good care of us. They completely openeed up their home to us on Thursday afternoon. Our Mama even gave us her bed to sleep in for the 2 nights we were there.

It was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had. Here was this beautiful family that opened up their hearts and home to us, without even knowing us, and then treated us like Queens the whole weekend, totaly blessing us even though they didn't have much. I came to serve and love, and ended up getting so blessed in return!

Thursday consisted of learning where everything was, going to meet the Chief ofthe village, who welcomed us in such a great way! and getting to know our Mama and her family better. The language barrier was really difficult! But thankfully the girl I was with knew a little bit more Portugues then I did and we were able to guess and figure things out sometimes. Charades becomes more than just a game when you don't know the language. haha!

Friday we sat with our Mama and her family, painted nails and spoke beauty over the women, got to pray for the Chief when he showed us this rash he had on his neck and arms. (WOW!) Went shopping in the village market, ate new kinds of fish and rice for lunch and dinner and just enjoyed some chill time just sitting and learning what it's like to live in this culture.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was on Friday when we went with our Mama to pray for a friend of hers who was crippled and blind in one eye. She was very poor and older and she had no family. You could totaly see the hopelessness all over her.. I really wanted to see her eye open and her feet straighten out, and still believe completely that the Lord will do it, but it was so sweet to watch the Spirit rise up within our Mama as she cried out in Makua for her friend, tears gently sliding down her cheeks. It was so beautiful to see the power and faith of our Mama's Spirit - though we could hardly communicate and ask our Mama questions, in that moment I felt like I truly saw her heart.

We returned the next morning to pray again - and I continued to pray for hope for her! As best as I could in Portugues I told her " Noush familia" - We are Your family.

She seemed to smile at that. It's one of those moments that I know that only Heaven will show the truth of what happend in her heart.

On Saturday morning we walked with our Mama back to the base, about 50 minutes. It was crazy to realize that she walks that all the time to come to Iris!

I left this weekend so humbled and thankful for this precious, sometimes stretching, always growing gift from the Father. I feel like I lived Matthew 5:3 this weekend "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

P.S - Sorry its taken me so long to send another update - Internet has been really hard to access lately! I'll try to send another soon. :) If I can't before Thanksgiving, HAVE AN AMAZING ONE! :)

Into the heart of a Nation

Its been 1 month since I left the cool breeze of fall behind in Ohio and ventured into the beautiful uknown of Mozambique, Africa. And this past weekend, I got a REAL taste of this beautiful country.


Last Thursday, October 20th - I joined a group mixed up of classmates from Harvest school and Mozambiquans, to travel by flat bed truck for 5 hrs deep into the heart of the bush of Africa to preach the Gospel! Bumpy, dusty roads were our constant companions, tents were our homes, and latrines (holes in the ground) were our bathrooms, and my joy? To preach the GOSPEL!

We finally arrived at our little village around 8:30pm, and by the grace and favor of God we were allowed by the village chief to stay, though unexpected. We quickly set up our tents by headlamps and flashlights, and then immediately set up for an outreach. Music, testimonys, lots of dancing, preaching and praying for the sick! It was amazing, and so worth the drive there! Although no one could understand me, as I prayed without a translator. I really believe the Holy Spirit was working and blessing the beautiful people of this village.

The next morning we had a childrens program, where I really learned how to go low and slow, as i played a game were I was literally crawling around in the dirt- but it was SO much fun!

I also got to experience my first mud floor church that morning. They had a church next to our campsite, we got to sing and worship with them, and then our Mozambiquan Pastors preached and encouraged the church.

My favorite part came later that afternoon, as we broke off into 2 teams and were walking house to house, talking to people and praying for the sick. I'll be honest, I was a little dissapointed at one point because I was staying closer to the back and praying since there was so many of us, i didn't want to overwhelm the people. When suddenly the Lord opened my eyes. In my dissapointment I had failed to recognize thar most of the village children were standing around me, playing with my hair, asking me my name, whatever small amount of communication we could accomplish.. and as I knelt down in the dirt- I began to speak life over the future generation of this village. Even though I knew they couldn't understand a word I was saying, I believe that they could truly see Jesus shining through me, and their spirits were receiving everything I was saying. Ah, it was such an amazing moment!

That night we showed the Jesus film, preached the gospel again and saw incredible healings! An older Muslim man who we had visited his home earlier that day, who had cateracts really bad in his eyes and a lot of body pain, was completely healed and now the whole village knows that he has given his life to Jesus! It was incredible! In all, around 50 people came to know Jesus!

Before leaving the next morning, we got buckets of water and were able to baptize the new christians, hug on new friends and leave with full, joyful hearts! I truly feel like I got to experience the book of Acts! It was a life changing weekend.

This past week of school has been incredible as well! The Lord has been doing so much in my life, teaching me a lot about dreaming big and walking in my identity in Jesus, as well as stirring up new dreams for the nations... more to come on that. :)

It has blessed my heart SO much to hear of all the good things going at home as well- like the "Go Conference" led by the amazing Lauren! and all the great things going on in Underground! The Kingdom is truly being released in the Earth!