Blessed to be a Blessing

So as some may know my next step is to continue on as a full time missionary with YWAM Herrnhut. . . Details to be sorted out ;) A big part of choosing to be a full time missionary is living a lifestyle that is completely dependent on God providing finances through supporters and other crazy miracles here and there. Some people see this as a huge daunting task and not something to look forward to. While it can be seen as crazy and an awful thing I personally get really excited about it! YWAM believes in every missionary raising their own personal support instead of corporately raising support and then getting a check every month from the top down like the majority of missions organizations do today. I am totally for the personal fund raising because it gives God so much room to show up and allows me to invite my family, friends and even strangers to be a part of what God is doing in me and through me. I get to invite people to be a part of amazing stories of God’s provision! God created us for relationship! Vertical and Horizontal! Relationship with Him (Vertical) and relationship with those around us (horizontal). Get it? It looks like a cross ;) Alright, moving on from cheesy illustrations.

I always wondered why the heck I was blessed with so many awesome people that loved me through out my life. And I am convinced that it is this very reason. To invite everyone to be a part of bringing God’s kingdom to this earth! Whether it is through people supporting me with encouragement, prayer or finances! We get to be a team working for His glory! I love it! I always wish that everyone could experience all the places and stories I am blessed with and this is a way that not only can I invite others to play a part, but to own it! It gets me excited to give others the opportunity to say “hey, I helped bring joy or freedom to that girl in the Thailand red light district and that little boy in the slums!” because really, in my eyes everyone who offered a helping hand or two cents to me getting to Discipleship Training School in Germany in the first place has the right to say that!

Our Father loves people! And He loves partnering with people! If I have learned one thing in my school it is that our God is aching to give things to us according to His will! All blessings and revelations are in His hands , but He chooses to use US to take action to release it on this earth! Be it finances, prayer, joy, freedom etc. Through people taking action my Father released His provision in crazy ways for me to go to Germany, Spain, Thailand, Finland and to buy a vanilla chai latte when I was having a rough day! haha Agh, so beautiful! And it is my Father’s character to be faithful! Which He has very much done these last few months that I have been in the School Of Intercessory Prayer, both in big and small ways!

(Check THIS out if you care to have an idea of how excited I get when it comes to chai lattes!)

Moving on. . . 

I am giddy to share a couple of examples with ya!

The first situation: After DTS I decided to come home and raise funds to return back to Germany to be a part of the School Of Intercessory Prayer. This meant I was looking at raising $3000 in 6 weeks or so for the flight, lecture fees and other costs. RIDICULOUS right?! Well obviously I am sitting in Germany as a student of SOIP writing this =) GO GOD! Through working and donations I was able to pay for my flight and part of my school fees. In this time a good friend of mine, Betsy, who is a photographer and who also inspired me to do YWAM in the first place said she would like to donate to me by offering a limited amount of photo sessions to contribute to my school fees! People! Photographing and editing is way more work than most people understand. This was an insane offer! I was blown away. This is her career. How she pays for food, gas, rent etc. Who am I to be sacrificed for like that, ya know?

I had an expected number in my head of what my friend would donate and I expected to come up $200 or so short of completely paying off all my fees, but when I looked into my account I found that through Betsy God provided the difference of fees and then some! It was such a beautiful thing to be a part of! Please check out one of the Betsy's work HERE. Your eyes will be very happy!

The second situation is a testimony of a friend I was blessed by. Not only does God come through with the big things, but He also takes joy in providing the small things.

Background info: I love running, but I made the mistake of forgetting my worn running shoes in Germany while on my three week outreach in Finland so I chose to use a pair of shoes my Spanish friend blessed me with to take a run in, although they are far from running shoes. haha Then being the social media lover that I am I shared my adventure wearing my "Spanish shoes" on Instagram. READ ON! 

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I love to travel, so I have been glued to Allie's Instagram and blog since she left for YWAM in Herrnhut, Germany. Her pictures are incredible and make me want to spend time at every place she photographs. This is an important point to this story so keep my addiction to her social media in mind, but I guess the beginning of this story for me started in a work in my heart that God was uprooting. 

I have never thought of myself as a selfish person and have tired to put others before myself whenever I can. It is my approach to this behavior that had to be dealt with. I was living by the golden rule. "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." I was placing value on the fact of how my actions would provoke a response in their words or their actions towards me. First, God showed me, with new eyes, the verse: Colossians 3:23
 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. 
I had always thought of this verse as the things you do to achieve things or for gain. I like many of us do, in many cases, was bending the scripture to fit my needs. Saying "Yes Lord I will work hard on this (test, project, house chore) so that you will bless the result!" But I had ignored the facet of working hard in His name to make much of Him through blessing others purely for them to know Him. 

Second, during the same day as this epiphany, I watched a video from about a boy who had just passed away at the age of 17 from terminal cancer. It was a twenty minute documentary you can check out HERE.  It is a documentary done by Soul Pancake, who I regularly watch, that I just stumbled upon. Zach's story is incredible but his heart for other's in his most desperate times rocked me to tears and to search inside myself for this kind of love and passion for others. Zach said something in that video I will now forever hold on to. To bless others in the way that brings them joy. 

So with that, I prayed that night that God would provide an outright path for me to without a doubt know that I would be bringing someone joy. The next morning I got on Instagram to see what adventures Allie had experienced while I was sleeping in the states. And she posted this picture. 

"Spanish Shoes"

With the hash tag #needshoes and #gottarun. Now, if you don't believe that, that was God fulfilling a prayer in me, you're crazy, but I knew without a doubt the joy that Allie received while running was the opportunity God laid before me to provide her with new real running shoes. I was blown away by my God's immediacy to answer my prayer and so excited to step out in faith to bless my new friend. But the truth is that God did a work in my heart far greater than joy it brought me when Allie started freaking out that I wanted to buy her shoes. After stumbling through the German Nike website and getting the shoes delivered to Allie, He showed me what He meant through His son Jesus. I was given life to rejoice and have a fullness of joy beyond all understanding through all of eternity, because of the beautiful sacrifice of God's love in giving up His son. I don't pretend that the tennis shoes I gave Allie were some great sacrifice, but I can imagine a world where we all step out in faith to bring someone else joy, purely for their joy. Our world would then truly know the love of Christ. Ask God to provide you an opportunity and you surely will not be disappointed."

-Jo

I can’t say how much I love how He works! How He puts the finest details together to make His will happen. On my run I said a short prayer that God would provide me with a new pair of running shoes or finances for some and the next morning I hear from Jo! Every time I lace up my shoes I am reminded of His love, provision and faithfulness. And just how stinkin cool He is! I pray that not only will He continue to bless me with awesome stories of His provision, but even more so will bless relationships with people I love and build their faith in our Father as a good one who loves giving.  Really He does. We only have to be available, have a little faith and take action.

“Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”  -Matthew 7:9-11