long but it is pretty cool stuff that is going on!!!!

I really wish that I had the time and the energy to tell you all what has been going on the last couple of weeks. I also wish I had constant internet in order to update my blog more often. I will start by describing our days and then tell you what we have been learning about over the last couple of weeks. The Lord has come in like a huge tornado in my life and is turning everything around I don’t even know how to take it or what to do!! My head is spinning all sorts of ways but I love it. I have never been so close to Him before and it makes me feel wonderful!!

The days have been jam packed we wake up and breakfast is at 6:30 and only lasts thirty minutes, therefore, I do not normally end up going to breakfast! After breakfast we do one of four things; worship, intercession, diving into God’s word, of a mixture of all of these. From 9-12 we have our lecture. Each week we have a different speaker talking about a different subject. Last week we learned worldviews and about the kingdom of God, and this week we are talking about hearing God’s voice. I know it sounds like constant church but it is actually really interesting. It is teaching me so much without the religious part Christianity shining through. That is awesome. From 12-1 we have lunch then from 1-2:30 we go back for workshop, which normally is application of what we learned in lecture.  We then all go to our rooms and change for work duty, this is basically our daily chores we all are assigned different parts of campus and for two hours we work on our chores. Mine including cleaning classrooms and walkways of all leaves and laundry rooms. It is hard but I love the people I work with so they make It fun. Right when work duty ends we have dinner from 5-6:30. Normally we have something from 6-8 on most days that is worship, then on Wednesdays it is community outreach. During this I do something called a treasure hunt, and this is when you pray for God to show you someone or something who needs help and then in you go into downtown Kona and just start praying for them. It is really fulfilling and rewarding. So my days are jammed packed.

Before I go into what I am going to talk a little about intercession.  I love intercession it is my favorite part of the week. Intercession is when you pick a topic of hardship and you pray for God to intercede in whatever injustice is going on. Yesterday we had an intercession for sex trafficking in America. Today we had an intercession for the injustice toward Muslim women.  Both of these topics are so bad. So many of us try to block out the problems in this world, we focus on ourselves and not the issues at hand. What is going on in Islamic countries is tragic and my heart breaks for these young girls who are forced into marriages with old men and who are stoned because they got raped. If they get raped they are told it is because they seduced the men. Sex trafficking in America is another huge problem. The biggest thing that I remember is THESE ISSUES ARE NOT HOPELESS. As hopeless as these people may feel there is always hope in God. They do not know him though so we need to step in and pray that God helps what is going on. God wants us to pray for these people. Proverbs 31:8-9 says “SPEAK UP FOR THOSE WHO CAN NOT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES, FOR THE RIGHTS OF ALL WHO ARE DESTITUTE. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”  God tells us to intercede. Not just to pray for ourselves. It is one of the most powerful times of the week. God does amazing things when you are praying for others.

The first week we learned more about worldviews, God’s glory, and also the Kingdom.  Our speaker really knew what he was talking about and he made some really good points. It was really cool to learn how some of the other people in the world think and how it is contradictory to the way Christianity is. He also talked about the Glory of God.  He talked about how Glory  of God is reflected in everything. From a pretty sunset to music everything reflects the Glory of God. It is really sad how we all get so busy and we never have time to stop and really enjoy the Glory of God.  A good illustration of this is:    

GOD CREATES MAN                                      MANS CREATIVITY REFLECTS GODS GLORY

MAN DISCOVERS GOD’S WORLD                          MAN IMMITATES GOD   

Therefore everything we do reflects the glory of God. This is so good to remember because I most of the time we all do get caught up in work or school and all we have to do in order to bask in God’s glory is slow down and look around us.

                This week we started out by talking about hearing from God. They went around and asked about if and how we have ever heard from God. They got to me and I explained that I have never like clearly heard God talking to me that I could remember. There are people here that hear from him so clearly and that is awesome but I have never really had an experience like that, or at least not that I could remember. The next day we talked about quiet time and how important it is to REST in God. I heard this and did not comprehend the real meaning of resting in God. I have never just sat in God’s glory before and let him hold me. So we each got thirty minutes to have a quiet time with God. I went into with the mentality of “forget resting in God I am going to hear something from him clearly in the next thirty minutes” so I put on worship music and sat with my Bible.  For some reason I felt that God had put the book of Hebrews on my mind…..i was like “ok God I have never looked at this book and I don’t know why you want me to read Hebrews I have never even looked at that book before!! But whatever I will read it…so I opened my Bible and was like ok where am I going to start so I just looked down and decided that I would start at whatever line I first saw. Sure enough I looked down and the line I saw said; “Today when you hear my voice do not harden your heart in rebellion as you have in the past.” I was like no that line IS NOT for me that is dumb so I kept reading sure enough five verses down I ran across it again; “Today when you hear my voice do not harden your heart in rebellion as you have done in the past,” At this point I was so done I was like no this is not for me Lord give me something else, so I decided to turn the page and start over. So I turn the page and start reading and sure enough right there it says; “TODAY WHEN YOU HEAR MY VOICE DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEART IN REBELLION AS YOU HAVE DONE IN THE PAST.” I can’t believe it I HEARD FROM GOD not only that he has wanted to talk to me but I just have been blocking out his voice. THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE WANTS TO TALK TO ME!!!!! How amazing is that the most remarkable creative smartest person wants to talk to ME. The thought of him never ceases to amaze me. So then yesterday we had the most amazing speaker and he talked about how we all need to let go of whatever is holding onto us and just focus on God. He had  us all just stand around the room and worship God and stand in his glory and the staff came around and prayed for us. We all worshiped in our own way and for the first time I dropped to my knees and I RESTED IN GOD.  It was amazing my mind was only on him. I can’t believe how incredibly amazing he is.

                I know this is long and there is so much more I can’t even begin to talk about but otherwise Hawaii is beautiful  and my roomies are great!! I have never before enjoyed cold showers but everyone I take is cold because it is so hot here. I am getting used to the cockroaches that visit us at night who knew they could fly!! We were all super shocked when a lizard lying on one girls belly woke her up this morning but the bugs you get used to. I am not enjoying the food but I will get over that at least I have something to eat!! The chores are fun with the people I work with and I am just so blessed to be where I am in life right now.  I will try to be more regular with this ….. MUAH