To know God and make Him known.

Wow. what a week.
This past week was Ozark's spring break, and lemme tell ya, it was something else. I went with a group of kids to Dallas Texas to do an outreach to the city.

God was there.

He was there in everything we did. There were moments that some of us were so overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit that we couldn't help but weep. Thinking about it makes my heart beat fast and gives me butterflies. Let me just share a few stories.

Thursday we went with Hilltop Church to some apartments to knock on doors and ask if we could pray. Maddi and Tyler went to a door and knocked, and a woman with a 1 year old child opened the door. This woman had been living with a man for two years and had had a child with him. Little did she know that he had had AIDS since 2001, and had been hiding it from her. She asked for healing, not only her body, but her heart. Can you imagine the opportunity God gave us to minister to her?

On friday we went to inner-city Dallas to hand out water bottles and ask if we could pray with people. As we were heading over to set our waterbottle-filled coolers next to a lamppost, a woman caught our attention. She was sitting in a power wheelchair waiting for her bus. We had not said anything to her, when she said, "Y'all are here to talk about Jesus, huh?" We looked at each other like, woah, how does this woman know what we're here for? "I can tell," she said, "Y'all are shining with Jesus."
WOAH. Isn't that like the one thing every Christian wants to hear?? A woman who had never seen us before knows just by looking at us that we were Christians. That's an honor to me. "I can tell you're gonna feed me some goooooood food. the best kinda food. food for the soul."

These are just two of the incredible stories from our outreach that I experienced. We also got to fellowship and minister to the Burmese refugees staying in Dallas: the Karen people. I have never experienced a more loving, compassionate, beautiful people. They shone in a way that makes me want to do this for the rest of my life. I had the opportunity to play with the kids while we taught English classes to the adults/teens. It was just a really eye opening time for me, to see kids so full of love for each other, and for me. They had only just met me and they latched on in a way most kids don't do. It was different than anything I've felt while working with kids.

My last story is one that isn't my own, but is one of my favorite examples of the week of how compassionate and personal our God is. Caleb, a boy in our team, spoke about how it seemed scary to think about hearing God's voice. He felt like it would be a terrifying experience to hear our creator, and I really couldn't agree more, haha. He has trouble sleeping in unfamiliar rooms, and so one night he woke up very early in the morning. Suddenly he heard Tyler Combs (another boy in our team) say "Caleb." Caleb sat up and looked at Tyler, who was asleep. At this point, Caleb felt a little worried and lay back down. "I'm here," Tyler's voice said to him. Caleb immediately prayed that God would let him go back to sleep and stop hearing voices, as it would be SLIGHTLY terrifying to hear voices talking to you in the middle of the night. Haha. So the next day Caleb was sitting in the basement of the Church we were staying in, and heard Joseph's voice say "Caleb." Caleb looked at Joseph, and said "What?" Joseph looked at him like he was crazy and said "I didn't say anything." It was then that Caleb realized something. God was using voices that Caleb was familiar with to speak to him, because being the great God that he is, he knew that Caleb was afraid of hearing God's voice. Some of you may think, Oh, no Caleb was just hearing things. But if you were on this trip and had seen God work the way he did, I think you might think a little differently. I believe whole heartedly that God was using more familiar voices to speak to Caleb. I've seen what He can do, and I believe that this was God.

This week was life changing. I have cried, laughed (A LOT), come to a lot of realizations, and begun to see what God has in mind for my future. I've decided that after high school, I will most likely be doing a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With a Mission (YWAM). I think that God is calling me to be a missionary for him. Wherever that takes me, I'm not sure of. But of one thing I am sure: I am absolutely head over heels in love with my savior Jesus Christ. He has set all of our hearts on fire, and I can't wait to see how he works through all of us. We've decided as a group to begin an outreach type thing to our community. We know that God's opened a door that satan will try to close, but we're committed and ready for our Jesus to do His work.


"We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul- not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us." - Colossians 1:9-12

"Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don't let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity." - 1 Timothy 4:11-12

"I can't impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don't ever quit. You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food- catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on the truth and chase mirages. But you- keep your eye on what you're doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God's servant." - 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Keep the word moving, guys. God's coming back soon. Be ready. Allow God to use you to make others ready.

And after all, if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us?