So I've already started to fail at the weekly blog thing, I apologize! The past couple weeks have been crazy hectic in the best way possible I don't even know if I can find the words for all of it, so for now I'll give you guys a little snapshot...
The past two weeks we have covered Fear of the Lord, Repentance, and Holy Spirit. I was expecting it to be fairly low key, but as you read in my last blog entry, it was anything but. God showed up in a big way and broke a lot of chains, healed a lot of people of things both spiritual/emotional and physical. I received a lot of freedom both weeks. However the one that probably hit me the hardest was Holy Spirit week. There were days where we had ministry and I would actually wake up sore the next morning from either laughing or just being completely "zapped" by the Holy Spirit.
During this week (Holy Spirit week) I really had to give up a lot of control, which was awesome and so freeing! There was one day where we were asking the Holy Spirit to be with us and fill us and we were just giving "crap" to God and I actually had to lay down. It was pretty awesome until I realized I couldn't get up which was a little worrisome, but God was like "Wait watch this" and showed me a ton of stuff about myself again and how he was actually completely remaking me. I got super dizzy at one point and I was like "God what is up with this, I'm stuck to the floor and I feel like I'm spinning?!" He then showed me a really cool picture where he kind of zoomed out and I was laying on a potter's wheel. Essentially he was saying "you're currently a blob of wet clay that I'm working on, enjoy the ride". It was incredible! Not only to get pictures from Him but to hear His voice clearly and know what he was trying to show me.
We had a few more ministry times that week with our speaker Kristen, that dude really gets the Holy Spirit. Both of them I ended up on the floor and with one of them I actually felt like I got hit by a bolt of lightning (the nonlethal kind) and didn't necessarily get anything audible from God but just got to experience his presence and the Holy Spirit in a whole new way. The last ministry day we had was super intense for me. We were learning about Spiritual Gifts and then Kristen said that we were going to pray that God would reveal our gifts to us and show us other people's gifts. He went around and "read people's mail" for a while (Christianese for him saying things that he couldn't have possibly known about them) and then he had the staff come and pray for us. A wonderful woman named Elise prayed for me and she is a power house when it comes to prayer. At first I was a little confused with what she was saying because I felt like God highlighted 4 gifts to me about myself and she was listing literally all of them but the ones I was thinking of. I felt really selfish because I would love to have all the spiritual gifts but I didn't feel like I was allowed to, and so we just kept praying. God was working in me big time and then Kristen came and put his hand on my head and said "More God, give 'er all of 'em". I barely got the word "Floor" out of my mouth before I fell off my chair. Talk about firsts! I had an awesome group of girl pray for me for a while and I'm not even entirely sure what they specifically prayed for because I felt like I had stuck my finger in an electrical socket and was humming with energy. After I got up and thanked them I felt like I needed to burn off some excess energy so I went outside and paced around for however long while one of my friends laughed at me. God was pretty much like "See Kate, Great things happen when you stop putting the two of us in boxes!"
He revealed some really exciting things to me that I will probably cover in a future blog post since I am still in the midst of processing it all.
Then that weekend we were "base-bound" because of Cyclone Marcia, which thankfully was only a low pressure system by the time she hit Toowoomba. We had a great time watching movies and playing games, but when the restrictions were finally lifted, people were pretty excited to leave!
This week we are going to but covering Evangelism and then this weekend we will head to the Gold Coast for some fun at the beach and Dreamworld.
Prayer Requests: as always just pray for continued unity at the base and respect towards one another. I could personally use prayers for health (i've been feeling under the weather off and on for a while) and discernment as I process everything that happened last week and things that will happen this week. I also ask for continued prayers for finances not just for myself but for some of my friends that aren't paid off and for the base so that they can work on projects that they have planned without having to worry about the money. One finally thing would be prayer for our Building Approval that is this weekend (Feb 28). A government inspector will come in and assess if the property is up to code and this is really important so that we can start housing people in the log cabins by the main house as there are quire a few of them and most of them are either storage or vacant right now. The guy at the base (Jake) that is in charge of property maintenance and all that fun stuff is also our speaker for the week, so pray that he doesn't get too stressed and has lots of energy and protection for him and his family that they don't get worn out by all of the busyness of the week. That was a run on sentence, but praying without ceasing means no punctuation right? ;)
I love you all and think of home often, especially this weekend, I was a smidge homesick...shhhhh...
If you have any questions or want to know how to support me or other people here at the base, give me a shout.
Much love from Toowoomba,
Kate
Monday, February 23, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Outreach, Healing, Fear of the Lord
Oh my goodness guys!
I wrote on Sunday and was completely wiped out, but I HAD to write again to tell you about the past few days.
It has been truly insane and wonderful. Monday we kicked off our week of Fear of the Lord and Repentance. I was going into the week a little anxious because there was a lot of unknowns, and not really feeling up to being in lectures or anything. Good thing I toughed it out! Our teacher for the week Lael really let the spirit lead her in our lecture plans. Towards the end of our lecture for the day she dropped to her knees and was said "if you guys feel called to, just kneel and declare what you want God to do for you this week or revelations you have". Slowly every person in the room was getting in a "worshipful" position. The Spirit was so heavy in the room, and one by one people started making declarations and breaking lies off of themselves. Lael played worship music and just asked God to continue what he was doing in all of us. I completely broke down, I haven't had such a powerful God moment since my Dad was healed. God broke down a ton of walls that I had even realized I had put up. I have always struggled with anxiety and feeling like I wasn't good enough for _____. But God also revealed something to me that I didn't even realize I was believing. He showed me how I had sabotaged relationships in the past with people because I didn't believe that I was worthy of unconditional love. Right as this was happening the song "Through and Through" by United Pursuit came on and I was utterly breathless. God not only showed me that I AM worthy of unconditional love, but what exactly that felt like. It was pretty awesome!
Monday night we found out our outreach teams, so they brought us into the main house and we did a few games and then they blindfolded us and we had to make animal noises to find our teammates. After our teams were all together we went into team meetings for a bit. Team Fiji is the smallest outreach team, but that is only going to work to our advantage, I'm really excited to see how we are going to grow as a team and to see what will happen on outreach.
One thing that I have been working on in DTS is freedom in worship because I've always felt awkward with hand-raising or dancing. Tuesday morning I experienced just freedom in this that I was laughing. Holy laughter is way better and way more joyful than regular laughter in case you were wondering. I was dancing with my friends and jumping, and being all around foolish for God, which is the best! I'd never experienced that before and I have to say, I loved it! I finally felt like a Noorman in the spiritual sense (not everyone will understand what that means, but talk to megan or hannah and they can bring clarity). While my own emotional healing was awesome, it was just a drop in the bucket of what happened this morning.
My outreach teammate and all around nice guy, Tim dislocated his right shoulder playing volleyball last night and was in a sling and on pain meds. During worship one of the leaders felt like God really wanted to do healing in people in the room so we just started turning around and praying for anyone that had their hand up. I was lucky enough that God used me to heal my friend Jazz's knee which she sprained a few days ago. Tim received complete healing in his shoulder and took the sling off and started doing stretches. God is so good!
The story that really had me laughing and crying was of my Sweetheart of a friend Christa. We started praying for her during worship and God was just doing so much in her she was practically vibrating with energy. After a time we stopped so that we could start lecture, but when we took a break for morning tea a few people started praying for her again. Christa was diagnosed with INCURABLE Fibromyalgia (very rare in our age group) a few years ago. Well nothing is incurable to the Great Physician and Christa was COMPLETELY HEALED! We hugged and jumped in circles for a while. I mean this morning was the first time in two and a half years that she has been completely without pain. Praise God! I'm absolutely blown away guys, I mean come on, it's only week 3!
I also got to pray for our taxi driver today who is retiring in 6 months. When we got into the cab you could just feel how run down he was and after we talked to him and pray, you could feel how full of life and joy that cab was. God is so cool...
So that is just a snippit of what my past two days have been, and I am honestly so excited all the time I can only describe it as a Holy Spirit High, and guys I never want to come down!
Prayer requests!!!! With all of the great things that God is doing here, prayers are appreciated more than ever.
Please be praying that Christa feels continued healing and is able to receive all that God has to over her. Pray that her testimony is a key that unlocks people's heart to God. Pray for team unity and base unity as we continue to go through repentance week and humble ourselves. Please pray for continued financial blessings for everyone here. Open hearts, open minds, and open eyes to see opportunities that God is laying out for us. Also be praying for all of the staff members as they reapply for their visas and are preparing for Easterfest. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but just keep praying and worshipping!
Much love (and even more excitement) from Toowoomba,
Kate
I wrote on Sunday and was completely wiped out, but I HAD to write again to tell you about the past few days.
It has been truly insane and wonderful. Monday we kicked off our week of Fear of the Lord and Repentance. I was going into the week a little anxious because there was a lot of unknowns, and not really feeling up to being in lectures or anything. Good thing I toughed it out! Our teacher for the week Lael really let the spirit lead her in our lecture plans. Towards the end of our lecture for the day she dropped to her knees and was said "if you guys feel called to, just kneel and declare what you want God to do for you this week or revelations you have". Slowly every person in the room was getting in a "worshipful" position. The Spirit was so heavy in the room, and one by one people started making declarations and breaking lies off of themselves. Lael played worship music and just asked God to continue what he was doing in all of us. I completely broke down, I haven't had such a powerful God moment since my Dad was healed. God broke down a ton of walls that I had even realized I had put up. I have always struggled with anxiety and feeling like I wasn't good enough for _____. But God also revealed something to me that I didn't even realize I was believing. He showed me how I had sabotaged relationships in the past with people because I didn't believe that I was worthy of unconditional love. Right as this was happening the song "Through and Through" by United Pursuit came on and I was utterly breathless. God not only showed me that I AM worthy of unconditional love, but what exactly that felt like. It was pretty awesome!
Monday night we found out our outreach teams, so they brought us into the main house and we did a few games and then they blindfolded us and we had to make animal noises to find our teammates. After our teams were all together we went into team meetings for a bit. Team Fiji is the smallest outreach team, but that is only going to work to our advantage, I'm really excited to see how we are going to grow as a team and to see what will happen on outreach.
One thing that I have been working on in DTS is freedom in worship because I've always felt awkward with hand-raising or dancing. Tuesday morning I experienced just freedom in this that I was laughing. Holy laughter is way better and way more joyful than regular laughter in case you were wondering. I was dancing with my friends and jumping, and being all around foolish for God, which is the best! I'd never experienced that before and I have to say, I loved it! I finally felt like a Noorman in the spiritual sense (not everyone will understand what that means, but talk to megan or hannah and they can bring clarity). While my own emotional healing was awesome, it was just a drop in the bucket of what happened this morning.
My outreach teammate and all around nice guy, Tim dislocated his right shoulder playing volleyball last night and was in a sling and on pain meds. During worship one of the leaders felt like God really wanted to do healing in people in the room so we just started turning around and praying for anyone that had their hand up. I was lucky enough that God used me to heal my friend Jazz's knee which she sprained a few days ago. Tim received complete healing in his shoulder and took the sling off and started doing stretches. God is so good!
The story that really had me laughing and crying was of my Sweetheart of a friend Christa. We started praying for her during worship and God was just doing so much in her she was practically vibrating with energy. After a time we stopped so that we could start lecture, but when we took a break for morning tea a few people started praying for her again. Christa was diagnosed with INCURABLE Fibromyalgia (very rare in our age group) a few years ago. Well nothing is incurable to the Great Physician and Christa was COMPLETELY HEALED! We hugged and jumped in circles for a while. I mean this morning was the first time in two and a half years that she has been completely without pain. Praise God! I'm absolutely blown away guys, I mean come on, it's only week 3!
I also got to pray for our taxi driver today who is retiring in 6 months. When we got into the cab you could just feel how run down he was and after we talked to him and pray, you could feel how full of life and joy that cab was. God is so cool...
So that is just a snippit of what my past two days have been, and I am honestly so excited all the time I can only describe it as a Holy Spirit High, and guys I never want to come down!
Prayer requests!!!! With all of the great things that God is doing here, prayers are appreciated more than ever.
Please be praying that Christa feels continued healing and is able to receive all that God has to over her. Pray that her testimony is a key that unlocks people's heart to God. Pray for team unity and base unity as we continue to go through repentance week and humble ourselves. Please pray for continued financial blessings for everyone here. Open hearts, open minds, and open eyes to see opportunities that God is laying out for us. Also be praying for all of the staff members as they reapply for their visas and are preparing for Easterfest. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but just keep praying and worshipping!
Much love (and even more excitement) from Toowoomba,
Kate
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Weekend Update # 2 (post 4?)
Week Two is coming to a close and it has been a great one! The weather has been absolutely lovely, sunny and warm during the day and chilly at night and early morning. We had our first night lectures, which while super informative, are hard to stay awake through since you are ready to sleep by 8pm. We also had an amazing opportunity on Tuesday night. A Canadian Reggae band named Tasman Jude came to visit the base to play a few songs for us and the lead singer shared his testimony. It was great! The band has hung out with us a few times since then, whether in town or at the base playing volleyball and watching our Open Mic Night. Speaking of which, holy cow do we have a bunch of talented people here. There were so many original songs shared and they were all wonderful!
We also had the big reveal of what our outreach location options are on Thursday(Fiji, East Timor, Thailand, Cambodia), which was so exciting. A few of us already knew one or two things about it, either a leader that was going, or one of the countries we could choose form. After the presentation we were all given slips of paper to write down our top three choices after praying about it. We should find out our teams tomorrow.
I have been super tired this week, I think my jet lag has finally caught up to me, but it's all good because I've gotten to do a lot of people watching as a result. Friday night was our first night for local outreach! I went to a youth group of a local church with 3 other YWAMers and we had a blast! The students were so nice and took us in right away, and we played lots of fun games with them like dodgeball, card games, and something that involved plastic cups and ping pong balls and lots of running and screaming. I still don't know who won that game... We also got to listen to a talk about identity and worship with them, I hope to go back to visit at some point during DTS.
Weekends here are free days for us unless we have a school activity planned, so yesterday I went into town with Jeff, Becca, and a bunch of others for lunch and some shopping. It was so nice to explore the city and not just be in the mall like last time. There are some really cute shops that I can't wait to explore, but mostly I just enjoyed hanging out with people. Jeff, Becca, and I got some Chinese/Malaysian food for lunch before meeting up with the group and getting groceries. Then we went back to base and had open mic night and a volleyball game. Today has been an extra lazy day that involved finishing my homework and skyping with the Fam-Jam. Over all it has been a great week and I can't wait to see what next week hold. Our next topic is Fear of the Lord and Repentance, and they say that it is usually a pretty emotionally draining week, so we won't be having Friday night outreach per usual. In a few weeks we are taking a day trip to the Gold Coast to check out Dreamworld and the beach, which should be a lot of fun!
As for prayers, please just continue to pray for unity for the base and the Toowoomba community as a whole, God is doing a lot here and I can't wait to see how it all plays out. Also just for open hearts and open minds as we go into this next week so that people can share freely without feeling judged. I've said it a hundred times, but thank you all so much for your prayers and support, I love reading all your comments on my posts and pictures and hearing updates from home! ---Sorry this post might not make a ton of sense, I'm a little zombied out today :)
Much Love from Toowoomba,
Kate
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