Condo where Michael and his grandma will be staying

You are on the corner top floor. The one with the top balcony. The university is across the street behind the condos. The ocean is across the street in the front of the condos.

Top floor again and Mike is near the pool.

Sitting area beside pool.
This is the condo where Michael and his grandma will be staying for ten days this Friday. Thought I would post some pictures to give them something to look forward to.

We survived another earthquake 5.0!!!

Thank you Jesus that this earthquake happened once again when families were together and it was daylight!! 9:20 a.m. we were sitting with everyone having the most amazing American Thanksgiving breakfast when we heard "the rumbling noise" and than the shaking happened. We took one look at each other and than ran from underneath the wooden canopy out to open air. There's been little aftershocks since then. The experts on earthquakes told us after the last quake there wouldn't be another one for ten years. So much for that theory. The whole island felt this one. It's the strangest feeling because it's not the typical shaking you would think happens. It feels like the pressure is from under the ground coming up. This week all the summer classes came back here for debriefing from their outreaches. Now they can say they were here for a earthquake. We had been telling them what it was like. On Tuesday night they shared about their trips. Teams went to Brazil, Fiji, Solomon Islands, France, Japan, and Guatemala. They had amazing stories to tell including miracles. God certainly is moving in all the nations trying to populate heaven. Yesterday we had the most amazing teaching on the last book in the bible named Revelations. It's a revelation that God gave to the disciple John in regard to the return of Jesus and what the Holy City will look like. Our teacher had spent a week by herself to be with Jesus and he led her to this book in the bible. Near the end of her week with him she saw a vision of a magnificent white horse with steam pouring out from it's nostrils, pacing back and forth. She inquired of God what this horse was doing. He answered her back saying the horse was waiting for the command from God to go. This will be the last battle between good (Jesus) and evil (Satan). But the horse can't go yet because God is waiting for everyone on planet earth to have the opportunity to respond to his love for them. It's like a father looking for all his lost children. He won't leave until he finds each one. So, the horse waits. John tells us of his vision; "Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses." Revelation 19:11-14 I don't know if you realize this but this is the second time God had me quote this scripture to you on my blogsite. Don't take this lightly. Out of his love for you, he is trying to get your attention.
We are closer to this event than ever before in history. We all feel it here. The church is in a time of intimacy with Jesus like never before. All the Christian songs being written now speak of being intimate with Jesus. This is God's heart right now for us. He wants us to know him as intimately as he knows each one of us. The time for playing church is over. The bridegroom is looking for his bride. Today was another indicator God is shaking whatever will be shaken. He is trying to shake us out of our complacency. This teacher was telling us the night before the last earthquake she couldn't sleep so she started reading her bible and God led her to this verse; "See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise:"Once again I will not shake only the earth, but the heavens also. This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe." Hebrews 12:25-28

In conclusion, if you are a believer stop living for your own pleasures and prepare to meet your bridegroom. If you are a non-believer, say I do to the one who wants to know you intimately and will give you life for evermore.

The Fellowship of the Believers, grab a coffee this is a long one :)

Afer Jesus was murdered and came back to life, and I mean literally came back to life, he revisited the disciples (I tried to find how many days it was but couldn't) he loved on them some more, performed more miracles and re-affirmed them. I'm reading it as I type this and wowzers! I can only imagine (sounds like a song, ha!) what it must have been like when he made his dramatic exit. My bible says a cloud hid him from their sight as he was taken up before their very eyes. They were once again losing their Jesus! I never really thought of this until now. It's like being so in love with someone but knowing the person has to leave for the good of others and so the will of the Father can be accomplished. John 16:7 Now that's real love. As they were looking up two dudes dressed in white (men from glad, ha!) suddenly stood beside them. They said, "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:11 Nobody knows when this will happen but it will. The last words of Jesus to the disciples before this exit are, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jersualem (Wasaga Beach), and in all Judea (Ontario), and Samaria (Canada) and to the ends of the earth (China in my case)." So, they wait for this power to come, and it does, you can read about it in chapter 2 in Acts. They receive this new power which is still God only in the form of the Holy Spirit. This is one part of the Trinity. The Trinity is the name for all three parts that make up God. Maelyn had the best teaching here on it. Her class took a hard boiled egg which is made up of three parts; the yolk, the white and shell. All three parts make up the entire egg. The Holy Spirit is very real. We cannot see it with our eyes but we we can experience it's power. I liken it to the wind, we cannot see actual wind but we experience it's power. The roles of the Holy Spirit is many; of counsellor, teacher, comforter, convicts us of the guilt of our sin (if you feel guilty about something the Holy Spirit is working on you; John 16:8), and it draws you to God (John 6:44). If it seems everywhere you turn you are running into Christians, or crying and not knowing why when you hear a song about God, or even find yourself wondering if the stuff Sharon is writing could be true, than the Holy Spirit is working on you; drawing you to the one who created you in your mother's womb. Anyway, back to the disciples, Jesus left them so the Holy Spirit could empower them. They now can do even greater things than Jesus did! (if you are a believer reading this that means you and me as well, wowzers!) When I sat down to type this post I didn't have all the above in mind, so the Holy Spirit is drawing someone to God. Hey, how cool is this! A practical application right before us. What I intended on writing was in regard to the establishment of the church and the new believers living together in community, after the Holy Spirit came, found in Acts 2:41-47. The disciple Peter (now this is the same guy when Jesus was on his way to be murdered, acted like he never knew him; I loved the way Mel had Jesus look at Peter in the Passion of the Christ movie during this spot) after receiving the Holy Spirit's power was able to preach in such a way that 3,000 people became believers during one alter call! An alter call is a time during a church service where people are given the opportunity to repent of their sins (remember Eve ate the apple out of disobedience to God because the serpent tricked her thus sin ie, gossip, pride, unbelief,etc, entered you and me which separates us from God) and come into a relationship with God. Let me just say that you don't need to be in church to say this prayer. I wasn't when I prayed it. I want to remind you again there is no way you can earn this relationship with God. Alot of people in church think by going to church it makes them a Christian. Let me pose the question to you; if you go to a rock concert does that make you a rock star? No, you are a spectator. Just like going to church does not make you a Christian you are just a spectator until you have a personal relationship with God. Another way of looking at it is, I can date Mike but until I marry him I will never be his bride. Alot of people are dating Jesus but until they marry him they will never become the bride of Christ. Wow, that was profound! Speaking of dating Jesus, let me sidetrack for a moment and tell you of an amazing thing that happened to a divorced mom in our class. Us couples went out on a date so the divorced mom asked Jesus to take her on a date. She felt him tell her to go to Walmart (remember by now we have learned how to hear his voice), he bought her a $3.00 high back lawn chair, remember we are all broke here, he takes her to a beach where they can be alone, he sits her on this chair and tells her she is his queen sitting on her throne and creates the most amazing sunset for the two of them to enjoy together, it doesn't end here, he than takes her shopping which we all know men hate, but not her Jesus, he buys her a pair of beautiful sandals marked down that she can afford but on the price tag he includes a bible verse that tell her he loves her! Are you crying!!!! The next day she shared this date in front of the entire campus and we all cried. This is how Jesus wants to love each one of us. Anyway, back to my original post. Where was I? Oh yea, the first church has 3,000 new believers. "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing meals, and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity - all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved." I have always wondered what that would look like, have you? Living here at the University of the Nations I am finally experiencing it. Each person has the same living arrangements. Our homes all look the same. We don't have any fancy furniture, or expensive pictures on the walls. Thank goodness because all that stuff we waste our energy on working to buy, so we can appear to be better off than the Jones's next door, but really only gets us further in debt on the credit card, all breaks when God allows an earthquake to shake us up. So our homes here are just for sleeping in, taking showers, typing long emails, etc. The real fellowship goes on outside when eveyone gathers to play games from the newborn right up to the grandparents. All cultures, all ages, laughing together, enjoying each other. There is always something going on here. Last night everyone gathered together for a costume dance party. Laughter could be heard over the whole campus. Yesterday I was too tired to go to class in the morning after coming back from Hilo. All our clothes were dirty so if we wanted clean underwear, laundry had to be done. But when lunch time came there was a knock at my door and 20 people walked in with their lunches! They missed me and wanted to be with me. So we all spread out on the bed, floor and table. Before they left they prayed for Mike and me because we have become their family. I love them as if they were my own children. I love the Korean culture cuz if you are sitting together for a meal they eat off each others plate. They share whatever they have with you. It may not be much, but to them no one goes without. Life is to be shared. We played a game throughout the week in Hilo. It was so meaningful. Each one of us picked another person's name out of a hat and became a secret angel to that person. On the last day the angels were revealed. The most touching account was the night we all went to the show. Remember we are all broke because we just bought our plane tickets to China, so one of the guys stayed home and secretly put his money for the show into the person he was the angel for. This is what it looks like when believers share everything they have. Life is meant to be shared, it's not a competition. There is a bumper sticker that says, "whoever has the most toys at the end wins". Who ever created that bumper sticker must be a very lonely person who was trying to buy happiness in things. He didn't get it. Maelyn wrote on the wall back in Hilo that God is love. Everything flows out of that. God is love and true happiness comes out of that relationship with him and flows into life. It's not found in accumulating wealth, toys, getting to the top. It's free. It's name is Jesus. He gave up his life so you could find your life. I thank you Jesus for I have truly found my life!

Pictures from Hilo trip

Christmas in Hawaii
Sushi for supper on the way home
At the volcano. (If you want to view all my pictures and posts click on any month at right side of page.)
This town Waimea has the oldest horse ranch in the States. Brenda, these pictures are for you!
Waimea is one hour north of Kona at higher elevation so it is much cooler in temperature. The town has a Texan feel to it as the stop sign shows!
Another picture on the wall inside the shopping mall.
Outside the mall.
Maelyn painted these words in the sunday school room we painted for the Hilo church.
This is at the volcano. It's a tunnel underground made from hardened lava.
The entrance into the lava tunnel.

The week in Hilo

Teaching the preschoolers a new song. This is the church where we stayed in Hilo. The girl with the flowers in the van is our leader to China. We love you Hannah! The flowers are at the Farmer's Market. The picture with the guys sleeping is the rock climbing room. The picture with the nice couches is were the girls slept.

Crazy poses

• We had the waterfalls coming out of his nose, ears and mouth. Makes for a fun shot.
  We posed them for a Hallmark greeting card. Cute eh!
  This was a tricky pose because we had to shoot fast.
  Super heroes!
  Help us we can't hold on!
  They said help us. Oops we lost one!
  Jumping for joy

These are the people I'm going to spend two months in China with!

Loving people, loving God here in Hilo

We are on our lunch break here in Hilo. We have been staying at a church called the Lighthouse which is the name of my church back home. We are staying in the upstairs of a building attached to the sanctuary. This is the most used church I have ever seen. In the daytime there is an amazing preschool being run. We have been serving in all the classes just loving on the kids. We painted a classroom for the church. One of our team painted scripture on the wall. I'll post a picture when I get back to campus. We were in charge of the chapel service for the kids. We did an improve skit on David and Goliath. Had the older kids laughing and the two year olds crying. Taught them a new song too. We've been having team building times together. It's been good to get to know each other before we get to China. I love my team. We are growing close to each other. Mike and I led devotions and felt led to proclaim a blessing over each youth and encourage them in the potential we see in their lives. We ended it with prayer for each one of them. It was such a privilege to serve them in this way. They even knelt before us. So sweet! The girls got to make home made cards for the Saturday night church service. They like to give welcome cards to new people with a Starbucks gift certificates inside.It was such an honour to be able to bless this new church being started. EVeryone of us love what they are doing to reach this age group of 20 to 30 year olds that tend to get overlooked. It was fun letting our creative juices flow stamping the cards. Maelyn and I have been sleeping with the girls in a big room they use for a lounge. She's loving it being with the girls having pyjama parties every night. Mike has been sleeping with the guys in a room that is used for rock climbing. We have the use of the entire upstairs. The pastor has his office up here. The youth group decorated it for him. It's a crazy room. There is a huge room up here with a pool table, air hockey and screen projector. This room is used every night for something. One night was hula dance lessons. We learned how to hula to a Christmas song . It's the most awesome way to worship God because hula tells a story. I have never seen such sacrificial giving as I have the last seven weeks here. I don't know if you know this but everyone at youth with a mission is a volunteer. So that means no one gets paid. People have given up two years, or five months or in some cases their entire life to invest in others. From the chef in the kitchen who prepares meals for 400, to the office secretaries, to the maintainence guys, to the teachers. Each one pays a fee towards the upkeep of the campus. i can't find the words to tell you how that makes me feel. To think that staff is paying out of their pockets to invest in my life. Their reward is to be a part of changed lives for
God throughout the nations. It's so opposite to the way the world functions out of selfishness. Some of them are young enough to be my children but so mature in Jesus that it humbles me to be in their presence.

We have a favourite song we sing here. Hillsong recorded this past July. I'll see if I can find the words.
God is mighty to save!

Hangin in Hilo

Just hangin in Hilo waiting for supper. We've had a great time so far. Went to a relevant type church service Saturday night. It is the church that one of our speakers is starting. He is targeting the college students in this town. He rents out an elk lodge. It's so much work setting everything up but well worth it. They turn the bar into a cappachino bar and sitting area. I'll put pictures up on the weekend. They have tons of candles everywhere. It was so awesome to see church done in a way that appeals to the 20 and 30 age group. They showed the trailer to the movie "Stranger than Fiction" and spoke of the message of Jesus in it. So we all went to the show last night and saw it. Michael, if you are reading this you will like the movie. Will Farrel does a good job in it. Today we were tourists. Got some crazy pictures. You can imagine the photo ops with 19 crazy people. Oh just got called for supper

May history repeat itself

This Saturday my team is leaving to go to the other side of the island to Hilo for six days to help out with a church over there. I volunteered to research the history of the town. Boy, did I ever find some interesting facts. Back in 1840 Hilo had the largest Protestant church in the world! It was larger than Spurgeons'. 13,000 people were in the first church. Talk about a mega church. 70% of the town were Believers. The town grew in size from 1,000 to 10,000 because people wanted to be closer to the church to learn about God. I became so curious to find out what brought this about. Hence, the story begins; A farmer's son named Titus Coan, educated at a military school, became a school teacher. He taught in a Prison school in 1828 and introduced 2000 inmates to Jesus. He goes to seminary for two years and than gets married. The newly weds go to the big island of Hawaii , to a small town named Hilo as missionaries. It takes him two years to learn the language. He starts out on foot to meet every person on the island and tell them about the love of God. He takes a notepad with him and writes down everything about each person he meets. Love is the driving force behind him; he loved God, loved his wife and loved people. There had been a Great Awakening Revival 20 years prior to this but now there was to be another outpouring of God's spirit only this time to the island of Hawaii. Are you curious like I was to find out what prompted this next revival? Grab a coffee and get comfortable.
Marks of the Hawaii Revival: 1.Whole hearted Prayer. People would go to the school house before the light of day and pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Earnest, humble, perservering , wrestling in prayer. Children prayed and weeped. The style of prayer was unique in it's day and would be for today as well, but guess what, this is how they pray at ywam! The prayer was united, spoken out loud, and done individually. This is how the Koreans pray. It has to be a beautiful sound to God. No wonder Korea has the largest church today. During class here we will here the birds singing all at once, but over top of each other. It's enough to stop the teaching until they stop. God spoke to me that this is how we sound to him, yet he hears each prayer as if ours was the only voice. These people back in Hilo would intercede over what the Holy Spirit had impressed on their hearts to pray. Very scriptural;"The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." James 5:16
2. Genuine Repentance. This is so much on God's heart for people today and always has been. This is not merely being convicted of sin. A person can be convicted but never change their heart nor activity. Genuine repentance is where you are repulsed by your sin and burdened to be rid of it. People back then would be down on the floor wailing and weeping before God over their sin. God loves this because only then can he pour out his love and destroy the strongholds that hold us captive. Do you have anything in your life that repulses you and you want free from? We cannot receive freedom from self-help or positive thinking. We cannot earn freedom or strive for it. Sheer human will cannot bring lasting change. We cannot wish away our bondage. We must have a spiritual transaction!
3.Hunger for the word of life. People became so hungry for the bible. It was printed in their language. Croan would send people out from his church, two by two, to teach around the island because people were so hungry to learn.
4.Generosity. Even though they were poor they gave according to their ability. One would bring to church a pile of wood for fuel to share, one a little salt, one a potatoe, one a cabbage, the old and feeble and children who had nothing gathered grass to cover soil. People gave of their time to built churches everywhere from scratch. People had concern for others, to hear the word which motivated them to reach out and bring others to church.
5. Work of the Holy Spirit ws recognized by everyone. People realized this was a supernatural power outside of them responsible for all this stuff going on. "It is not by force, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord." Zechariah 4:6
But what happened that it's not going on today, I pondered? The answer: Other religious expressions came to the island after this revival. With the rise of the sugar industry came workers from China and Japan bringing their beliefs and customs. The gold rush in California caused lifestyle change. The shifting of peoples minds from concern of their souls to that of secular matters. Political changes brought confusion and hardened hearts to the gospel. Coan, the missionary became a dying breed, others didn't have the same committment for the lost. By 1870 the American mission closed it's doors leaving the work to the national church. There was a need for men of vision without that the church settled into the task of simply maintaining the work. Help from missionaries' children who still lived in the islands was disappointing as far as the preaching of the gospel, since most chose to go into business and politics. But let's fast forward to the year 2006, God is raising up a generation of vision. For without vision people perish. The youth of today want authenticity. They don't want hypocrisy. They are looking for the real deal. Once again, God is raising up teachers, preachers, evanglists, and intercessors that have a heart for the next generation. To see them set free from the lies being fed them from the media. Our team has the privilege to be a small part in this.
"...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 AMEN!

The aftermath of sin

More truth has been revealed about the evangelist in the news. I want us to look at how our lives parallel this. It is so easy to stand in judgement, call him a hypocrite and tell ourselves "yup, they're all a bunch of hypocrites. But let's ask God to reveal his heart to us about the whole thing, shall we? This sin had this man imprisoned (ask any addict trying to break free and they will tell you). No matter what he tried he couldn't seem to find the way out. In my last post we looked at King David. Here was a guy who since he was little did what pleased God. Remember the story of David and Goliath? This is the same David all grown up. So how does one start out on the right track and than end up on the wrong side. It starts out slowly. David got lazy and stayed home when he should have been at work. One day after his afternoon nap, he took a walk on the rooftop and glanced at a hot woman taking a bath. Instead of turning away from that first look, he allowed lust to enter his mind. Instead of being out on the battlefield with his men, he had now entered the battlefield of his mind. Any guy reading this knows what I am talking about. You are wired so that you can't help but notice that beautiful woman when she walks into the room. Or if you are checking your emails you can't help but notice that hot chick in the top corner of the screen while signing into hotmail. It takes discipline to not act on that first tempation. It's much easier to deal with a temptation in the start than after it takes on a life of it's own. Anyway, back to David on the roof, he gets one of his messengers to bring this Bathsheba fox to him and has sex. With what seems to be typical with a one night stand, she gets pregnant. So now this man of God has gotten himself in a real pickle. So out of pride (which is totally not the character of God but sure is of the evil one) he comes up with this plan to have her husband sleep with her so it looks like it's his baby. But this scheme blows up in David's face. He gets the guy back from the battlefield but the guy is so faithful to David he sleeps outside the palace entrance. David even tries to wine and dine the guy to no avail. So now he resorts to having the poor guy set up to be on the front lines where the battle is fiercest, where he is killed. (making David now a murderer) This true account of David makes todays' news sound tame, doesn't it? Word comes back about his buddy and David appears insensitive. David had become callous to his own sin. The only way he could cover up his first sin (adultery) was to sin again, and soon he no longer felt guilty for what he had done. Feelings are not reliable guides for determining right and wrong. Deliberate, repeated sinning had dulled David's sensitivity to God's laws and others' rights. Don't you find, the more you try to cover up a sin, the more insensitive you become toward it and it just becomes this vicious cycle of lies to cover up the whole mess. Don't become hardened to sin as David (and the evangelist today) did. God in his amazing love for each one of us, doesn't leave us in our imprisonment. It's out of his love for us that he arranges for our secret lives to be brought out of hiding and into the light of forgiveness and the place where we can receive help. With that comes a sense of relief because now we don't have to live with the guilt of knowing we are a phony. David's heart had become so hardened that God had to use the prophet Nathan to open his understanding of the severity of the sins. Nathan told David a story about two men. One was rich and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one lamb he had bought. It was his favourite pet. The rich dude had a friend come over for a meal. Instead of killing one of his own animals he put the poor man's pet on the barbie. David was furious. "As surely as the Lord lives," he vowed, "any man who would do such a thing deserves to die!" Nathan turns to David and says, "You are that man!" David finally gets it and feels the pain God felt about the whole thing. We need to get to the place where we see the heartache our sin causes God and others. As long as it stays secret it will eat us up but when it comes to the light, that is where God can begin the healing process. I really believe that the evangelist will finally come to the place where true healing can begin now. Yes, there was serious consequences to David's sin. Murder was a constant threat in his family, his household rebelled against him, his wives were given to another in public view, his first child by Bathsheba died. When God forgives us and restores our relationship with him, he doesn't eliminate all the consequences of our wrongdoing. We may be tempted to say, "If this is wrong, I can always apologize to God," but we must remember that we may set into motion events with irreversible consequences. Like David, the evangelist lost alot and in the process hurt alot of people. But I believe the freedom this man will now come into and the personal revelation of really experiencing God's love will be worth it all. God does not want us to be slaves to our sins cuz than Jesus' death would have no meaning. Jesus died for all our past, present and future sins. So, don't let pride hinder you from being set free!

Get on the horse

In the news today we hear of a big name evangelist getting caught. He is no different than you and I only his sin draws media attention. Can you imagine if Entertainment Tonight got access to your thought life? Somehow the world has put Christians on a pedastil that we are exempt from sin. We still face the same temptations as everyone else, in fact the same as Jesus did. How we overcome them depends on how much time we have spent being in the presence of God. We have been studying the importance of solitude. In today's crazy busy world we have very little time for true solitude. The generation being raised today finds it even harder than the last one. They have a ton of things to keep their attention distracted ie, ipods, video games, internet, text messages. It's hard for these kids to be alone with their thoughts. It's painful because than they have to look at their hurts so it's easier to drown them out. But God wants to quiet our souls and give us rest. When he exposes secret sins, such as this evangelist, he does it out of love. He's not looking down his nose at any of us. To him drug use, pornography, adultery are the same as unbelief, pride, rebellion. God's heart is to forgive sinners, which we all are. The ground at the cross is level. King David says it the best. Here is a man after God's own heart. Yet he sinned. For those of you who don't know; David had an affair with his best friend's wife, even got her pregnant and than had the husband killed thinking he wouldn't be found out. But God saw it, no sin is done in secret. Here is what David writes to us after God forgave him: Oh what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, "I will confess my rebellion to the Lord." And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgement.

God told me today that he wants us to minister from our broken-ness not our busi-ness. He is raising up an army to battle against the evil forces with freedom that is won from turning our brokeness over to him. You maybe feeling that God could never love you because you aren't worthy of his love. You know the secret sins you have been hiding from the world and you tell yourself you aren't worthy of a Holy God. But you are so wrong. For one thing they aren't hidden from him and yet he still longs to love you. He gave me this illustration today: it would be like if Mike walked into Maelyn's orphanage and said I'm here to take you home and give you a family that will love you but she wouldn't allow herself to believe it (unbelief), tells herself she isn't worthy to be loved and refuses to come with us and chooses to stay there. She would miss out on knowing the love of a father and family. God told me that this is what it is like for him. He comes to each one of us, through Jesus dying on the cross for our past, present and future sins. But we reject his love because of our unbelief, or pride, or secret sins. We had a time yesterday in class where we individually acknowledged aloud that Jesus is Lord of our life. We were to walk over to this huge wooden cross in our tent. People were running to it and shouting at the top of their lungs that Jesus is Lord. Others were at the foot of it sobbing. But some couldn't do it. They sat in their seats refusing the decision. One girl had a word from God found in Revelations (the last book of the bible) Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse standing there. Its rider was named Faithul and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses.
This will be the final showdown between God and the evil force on earth. God is raising up that army, it is comprised of broken, sinful people that have come to him to receive his love and forgiveness. It is the repentant evangelist, the drug addict, the porn addict, the prostitute, the mom who baked brownies but gossiped about everyone in town; the ground is level at the cross.

My heart broke yesterday for the few in class that wouldn't make the decision. I wanted to shout to them "Get on the horse! Don't let us leave you behind!" Allow me to shout at you right now "Don't let pride, unbelief, resentment, unforgiveness, hardened heart, the excuse of christian hypocrites, or whatever it is stop you from climbing up on that horse with me. Please get on, don't let us leave you behind! Hell is being left behind.

Halloween in Hawaii

We went to a Halloween party at the Solid Rock church we've been going to. The theme of the party was Candyland-Jesus is just too sweet. Everything was free; hotdogs, cotton candy, shaved ice, door prizes, candy,face painting, to name a few. The inside of the church was decorated as Candyland, the boardgame. Because the weather was warm the costumes were awesome! It was like going to a fair with games and loud music. It was such a nice way for the church to give the community something fun and for free.

We found out that we are going to China for sure. We leave December 15th for nine weeks. There are three teams with around nine people on each team. Some of the things we will be doing is working with children, teaching english, going to orphanges, building friendships, etc. That's about all I can say because of the government. We also have a team going to Thailand, the other Hawaii islands and Guam in Micronesia.