Dschool was here.

We said goodbye to our first team on Monday.
That means only 4 more left. 
I'm not liking that. 

This fits so well. 

Check out our intern blog that Sydney writes. 

It was a great trip.  It was like a big family reunion too.  Because I helped with Dschool this year I felt like each member of that team was family. It didn’t matter who you got pair with for ministry because you wanted to be around them all, all the time.

One particular evening when we went out to the city to canvas for Unbound, I was paired with three others. Our goal was to talk to businesses and have them hang a poster up that says “Not in My City”. Unbound is a organization that works with raising awareness and stopping human trafficking. Check it out here and find out more about them.  Anyways, this evening came after a few evenings where I felt like a very small piece of the puzzle and not very instrumental in ministry.  (I am not a go up to a person and start talking to them type, so street ministry pushes and stretches me) So this night with a clear task laid before us I was feeling like I could be a part of this, I could succeed. Compared to how I felt other nights in ministry.  So with my team we finally found our section of town that we were to talk to the businesses about. All evening out joke was three Americans and a Mexican enter China town on an Italian holiday in Italy...   

All Jokes aside God showed up and make me feel so loved by him. It was our third or forth business. Clearly in Chinatown we were running into a communication difficulty with not knowing Chinese. So two of my team went into a Chinese Restaurant and I started praying like I had every other time. This time my prayer was along the lines of “Lord let them look at the poster and even if they don’t understand, let them point to a space on the wall and say this is empty you can hang it here.”  Not 5 seconds after I prayed that, an employee came out and pointed to a blank spot on the wall for our team to hang up the poster.  I just started to laugh and thank God for answering my prayer.  For days before I doubted so much if I was even making a difference. Doubted if my prayers made a difference. And here He was showing me that “Yes I do hear your prayers”. For the rest of the evening it happened almost just like that. I prayed for what I would like to see, and my Lord answered my prayers. By the time Dinner time came I felt so loved and so seen by God that no one could have convinced me otherwise. 


This is just one story of so many from this past week.  Each evening there were stories of healings of praying for and talking about Jesus with Muslims who normally wouldn’t. The Lord is moving here and he is using us interns and the Short-term teams to do it. 

It is such a privilege to be a part of what is happening here. Its going to be hard to go home in a few months.

Here are a few pictures of our week with Dschool.

Before ministry in the Piazza.

Connie (One of my Omaha Roommates and Friends) on top of one of Etna's craters

Picnic after hiking and praying on top of Etna.

A beautiful off day in a beautiful town full of tourists.

I'm not perfect. I fail sometimes.

So that is hard for me to admit, especially to myself.

 I want to do things correct and right the first time I do them. Many things do come easy to me so I expect everything to. But they don't. There are days at work that the the cupcakes I bake come out of the oven too big or too small. Sometimes the cakes overflow and cause a big mess. Sometimes I say the wrong words. Sometimes I forget things or add numbers wrong or I forget to brush my teeth. Or I don't do my homework right. Or I don't speak up when I should. Even the things I'm good at I struggle to see that I am good at it. I just expect to fail at things because I can't do them perfect.

So I'm reading my Discipleship homework tonight, a few chapters from the book Living Gods Word, and I read:

"Because we live int he overlap between this age and the age to come, we will experience victories as well as struggles until Jesus returns. [one example given is] - We experience God's forgiveness, BUT we still sin and will never be perfect in this life."

Bam. Right there, the very thing that I hold over myself is not even possible. It's way to high of a bar to expect myself to get to. That goal is too high. Too perfect. A little later on that same page I read:

"God takes time to accomplish his work in our lives. He will continue to work until Christ returns (see Phil 1:6). We will always be growing and maturing in this life, but we will not be morally perfect and sinless until Christ returns."

So while its good to try to be better, perfect may not be a good goal. Where is the Freedom in that? Where is the Grace? The Hope? If we are not to be perfect till Christ comes back, then accomplishing that goal before He returns takes away His reason to return.

"Discipleship is the lifelong process of learning how to be like Jesus in every aspect of life"

Keyword here being LIFELONG. So it takes a while to be like Him. Its not something anyone can "perfect" in a day. A week. A couple years. Its a journey that takes our whole lives. And not till the end when we are with Him are we PERFECT.

So I need to take the pressure off myself. I need to enjoy this journey. Take time to sit and relax. Take time to laugh and enjoy. To learn from Him who knows it all. Who is the example and who is working in me to make me more like Him.

He likes me!

Last night for Dschool we watched a movie or listened to a sermon whichever. It was Chris Gore talking about living on this side of the cross. Meaning the new covenant.

 He talked about Living Grace vs. living the Law. 

If you are living the law then you are working FOR favor, love, victory. Where as if you are living Grace then you are working FROM favor, love, victory. For you already have them. You don't have to strive to acquire them. Jesus did that when he died on the cross. The Law (which is impossible for humans to fulfill) was fulfilled by Him.

There were two lines in the movie that stood out to me. One was:

He [God/Jesus] doesn't just love me, He likes me.

If you know me somewhat well you may have heard me say that I am called to love everyone. So when there is someone who I especially love I usually tell them I like them. So to think that is how God feels about me, it hit me. We think the same. I haven't really heard anyone else say that that way before besides me. It was cool.

The other...

I love Him, because He loves me. 

In this statement it shows that He did the loving first and because of him loving me, I love him.  His love for me is not conditional. It is not based on how much I love him. Which in view of many relationships I have had, this is how I have viewed how relationships are.

I want to carry these truth in my heart. I want them to change the way I see my and Gods relationship. I want to love Him because He love me not so that He will love me. I want to feel confident that He loves me each and everyday. To truly know that He wants to love me and chooses to be with me. Which he does.

The Greatest story

In class tonight we read a story and I want to share that story with you.

Its a story about God, the Most High God.

He created everything. He made the sky and the oceans. He made the birds, deer, lions and whales. He created man and woman. They had the most perfect relationship with God. They lived without fear or worry.

But, the enemy, a fallen angel who was consumed with power and pride, tricked woman and her husband into breaking the one rule with God. This caused Man and Woman to not be able to have a relationship with God. See God is pure and holy and man sinned. Man could no longer be around the Most High God.

But God still loved them so he gave them commandments to follow. But, they weren’t good at that. Eventually those were not followed. To make them right with God again God allowed Blood sacrifices to make things right. But, after a time everyone did sacrifices because that is what needs to be done but didn’t have the correct heart with it. It just became a thing to do.

Because of this Jesus came to earth.

While on earth Jesus preformed many miracles. He fed many with little. He raised a friend from the dead. He calmed storms, and healed the sick. He had power over all.

He never sinned. He was perfect.

God made the ultimate blood sacrifice, his son. Jesus died for everyone and their sins.

Now man can have a relationship with God again. We all have run away from God but he welcomes us back with open arms and a party.

He wants a relationship with us. He has done everything he has done to have just that. He allowed his son to die so that he can spend time, teach, encourage, and just be with us. So that we can feel his love, his hope and his grace. This is the greatest story to be a part of. This is a story that will change your life.