Leaning Upon the Lord for our Strength

The Lord is mightly at work here this summer in Australia. Already, in the course of 2 weeks of evangelizing on campus, 5 people have come to know Christ! The stories are amazing; some people accepted Christ for the first time and some rededicated their lives to Christ. I can feel the Holy Spirit residing amongst our team. Thank you for your prayers. The prayers for salvation are being answered. Jesus’ light is being proclaimed upon these campuses. God’s Name is becoming famous. We, as His workmanship here in Australia, give all the glory to the Lord for these 5 people coming to Christ. The Lord has been working in and through us in ways that we couldn’t have imagined.

Even in my own times of sharing my faith, countless of times I see the Lord fill me with His Spirit. He gives me the words to speak and leads me to the people he wants me to talk to. I am so overjoyed to know that my God is taking care of me and guiding me to do His work.

Australia is hearing Christ’s Name, seeing His love, and accepting His gift of salvation. I am overwhelmed with how many people have came to Christ, with how many Gospel presentations are told each day, with how many spiritual conversations last for hours, and to see how the steps of faith my team takes to proclaim the Good News to the students in Australia.

Of course, there are hard times in ministry, and I can tell your our team is feeling them. Feeling of fatigue, exhaustion, and a stubborn heart are trying to keep us away from evangelizing. I know from my own experience that the Devil is using my exhaustion to keep me from wanting to go out sharing. These moments of weakness I pray to the Lord to be my strength. It is in these moments of an unwilling heart that I pray for the Lord to give me a new heart. A heart that breaks for the lost like His does. A heart that loves unconditionally likes His does. A heart that is willing to stretch thin to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It is in these moments that I am leaning upon the Lord to work in and through me for His Kingdom.

Please be praying for my team’s energy level. Evangelizing every day all day can become tiresome, so please pray that the Holy Spirit will give my team joy and energy to persevere. Pray for us all to fully depend on the Lord during these times of weakness. It is when we are leaning upon our own strength that we feel most weak. Pray that we turn our eyes to the Lord and His mighty power and love.

Continue to pray for the students at LaTrobe and RMIT Bundoora. Pray for more students to know Christ. Pray for the students that do know Christ to want to join Student Life and create a Christian community around them. Pray for those involved in Student Life that they would not feel overwhelmed, burdened or alone in their faith, but they would find their comfort and purpose in the Lord alone.

This weekend we are off on our Mid-Project Retreat. I cannot believe that it is already almost the middle of the project. I don’t want to leave so soon! It’s all going by so fast! The one good thing in this is that it is making me cherish each and every day that I am here, because I know from past experience that it goes by extremely quickly.

Thank you for reading this blog & for all your prayers :)

The Lord is SO GOOD!

I am going to apologize from the beginning if this blog post is kind of sporadic, but I am just so completely overwhelmed with how much the Lord is working and moving on this project so far. He has revealed himself in mighty ways and I am getting blessed beyond belief to experience His clear love for the lost. Also, I would like to apologize for not blogging as much. Life on project goes by so fast and with being a leader I feel like it goes by even faster. I rarely have downtime from ministry, but the Lord is working in my heart so much!

So here it goes :)

My team is THE BEST. I am so in love with our team dynamic. Every woman and man on this trip is so clearly walking and loving the Lord that it is so clearly shown in how we all interact. We have been blessed with so much unity, it's crazy! I am so encouraged by my team and leaders! The Lord has overwhelmed me lately in regards to how great my family is here. I am so grateful for my brothers and sisters in Christ!

This past week we had our first discipleship time, which was amazing! Like I touched on before, the Lord is teaching me to make Him my comfort. I have been meditating on some great verses that are creating peace within me. The Lord is blessing me with His Holy Spirit and I can feel it within me, producing unexplained joy, happiness, and peace. The Lord is making me more dependent on Him and less dependent upon myself and others. I am falling back in love with the Lord and I am LOVIN' IT! :)

As many of you know, I went on this project last summer. I actually went to the same campuses that we are on. But man, it hit me on Monday when I stepped on that LaTrobe campus. This is the campus that I had my first evangelistic experience. This is the campus where I have had my most challenging conversations. This is the campus that I have seen people come to Christ. This is the campus where I made lasting friendships. This is the campus that God has placed me at once again. AH, I can't put it into words how I felt, but I basically felt the Holy Spirit living inside of me. Stirring in me a heart for the lost once again. Breaking my heart for what breaks the Lord. Giving me a vision of missions. It feels so great to be back and to be back to do His work for the Kingdom.

So day one of evangelism on LaTrobe went so great! For the first talk, I prayed over Carly & Nina who had an amazing conversation with a girl Vee who expressed interest in meeting up again and potentially joining Student Life. After this conversation, Carly & I had a semi-difficult conversation with a girl named Monty. Her responses to the survey were short but we were still able to shed some light on Christianity. She didn't want to meet up another time, but I know that the Lord is working in her heart and I just pray that something I said resonated within her heart that night. The next conversation we had was with a girl named Maddy. She alluded to some background in Catholicism but she was still seeking for community in her faith. So then we were able to talk about Student Life and how great a community that is! She gave us her contact info and we are going to be following up with her about getting involved! :) And our final girl that we were able to talk to was the most encouraging.

The Lord clearly had this conversation divinely picked out because we randomly didn't talk to 3 other girls before her. We then approached a girl and asked to do a picture survey with her. At first, she seemed to be just plainly answering the questions, not really giving any vibes that she wanted to have a longer conversation of any sort. But then, we had her pick a picture that represented her spiritual life and she picked a picture of nature. At this time, the Holy Spirit made us all of a common ground of seeing God's glory clearly in nature. After having this in common, Kat was able to open up to us more. Towards the end of the survey she started as questions about us and her attitude and vibe completely changed. She was so joyful and happy and excited to be talking to us. She expressed great interest in meeting up again, hanging out, and potentially joining student life! This was such a great encouragement to Carly and I. We just walked away from that conversation with huge smiles that stretched across our whole face. We are hoping that we get to hangout with her soon and just show her the love of Christ!

So this leads into today! Our second day evangelizing. Again, I was placed on LaTrobe's campus but with different members of our team. I went with two people, Blake and Emily. So typically when we go in a group of three, two people talk and one person prays, so that we don't overwhelm the people we are talking to. So as Blake and Emily approached a group to do a survey, I went off and prayed for their conversation. I love praying over people's conversation, I feel like a prayer warrior, fighting off the evil spirits that are trying to enter into their interaction. During my prayers for them, I felt this tug on my heart from the Holy Spirit. He was telling me to just walk and talk to someone on my own. I was super nervous, but I follow the Spirit to guide me and to give me the courage to just talk to someone. As I walked, I sat next to a girl who was reading. After I prayed for a little, I started conversation with her, letting the Spirit take the rest, and He totally did! We got in a great conversation, just about fashion, college, life, etc. Then her friend came up and continued talking to me. It was natural and fun! I was enjoying getting to know them both so much! Then Blake and Emily came and found me and we all continued to talk for about an hour! They wanted to meet up again and hangout and I am so excited to show Christ's love and joy to them again as well!

After that great conversation, I went and visited my friends who own/work at a coffee house on campus. After that, Blake & Emily had another conversation that I prayed over. Just as we were walking to talk to more people, we were actually given the best surprise of the day. WE were outreached to! Four Muslim women were doing a survey outreach and asked if we would like to do it! Of course we said yes, and after the survey just sparked a great, respectful, fun and loving conversation. We talked about Islam and Christianity and it was not in an argumentative environment at all! Blake was asking a lot of great questions regarding their faith and it was such an amazing time being able to hear their responses. One of the girls, Nisa, was like "Blake, you think you have a lot of questions, I have so many for you guys!" They were so excited to hear that we are free every day to talk. They gave us all their contact info and are very excited to meet and talk about Islam and Christianity again. Blake, Emily & I are so excited as well to get to know them and be able to profess our passion for Christianity. Overall, today was such a spirit filled day! The Lord was so present today! I am so excited for the rest of our time here!

Evangelism Day 2

What I love about all of this is that these are just highlights of my stories. And that my stories are just highlights of my WHOLE team's stories. There were so many beautiful and amazing things that have happened on this trip, and it's only been two days of evangelizing! The Lord is doing mighty mighty works in Australia!!!!

Prayer Requests

• Pray for endurance for evangelism. It is so easy to get burnt out or tired even during the day, but pray that our team will push through those feelings and continue to see the need on the campuses that we are at. Pray that we will see the need and importance of what we are doing.
• Pray for a continued love, respect and unity amongst our team. Pray that we point one another to Christ. Pray for our individual walks with the Lord, that they would continue to seek the Lord for our comfort and strength.
• Pray for the campuses of LaTrobe Bundoora, RMIT Bundoora and RMIT Brunswick. These are the three campuses that we do evangelism on and all are in major need of prayer. Pray for those in Student Life (Cru) and those who do not know Christ.

First blog of the trip!

Hi loved ones!

This is the first post that I have done since briefing and sing arriving in Australia. To first catch you all up on briefing, it can be best characterized by “unforeseen stress.” I knew going into this leadership role that it would be difficult and stretching, but briefing definitely put it into a realistic perspective. However, this unforeseen stress was a direct result of me relying upon myself to accomplish all my tasks. During our leadership training, they described some characteristics. They asked if anyone was feeling stressed, anxious, worn out, etc. All of these would have directly reflected my heart. As the talk went on, the speaker than began to tell that these are all results of a person relying upon their self rather than the Lord. I was immediately woken up to the reality that I was not giving my work unto the Lord and that was why I was feeling instantly drained.

After that message and time of reflection, there were still many things to do, but the Lord had given me a new spirit, one filled with His Holy Spirit. This has been a concept that I have been learning about while being here and I’m so excited for the Lord to reveal to me more about the Holy Spirit. Already since that meeting, the Holy Spirit is giving me peace, joy, and assurance. I am still feeling drained and tired, but the Spirit is getting me through each decision and each day. The Lord is providing in mighty ways and it took me to stop relying upon myself to really see how the Lord can practically guide my work.

He blessed me with a smooth airport experience, safe travels, and has given me wonderful Cru staff and STINTers (1yr missionaries) that have helped immensely since we’ve arrived. God is filling me with His Spirit, because we both know that when I depend upon myself for this work, I instantly feel overwhelmed, which is not what God wants me to feel.

I am writing to you during my “Date Night with Jesus” which is an extended time on Tuesday nights that we get to spend solely with the Lord. I am loving this time because these are one of the few times I have to think about financials, planning, etc. Many of the free times that the students get are instead filled with planning and figuring out our money. God has quickly revealed to me the differences in this time of ministry as compared to my time last summer. I have grown in my walk from last summer, and the Lord is teaching me new things this time around.

Right now, he is teaching my what a servant’s heart looks like. How I as a leader always have to look after the concerns of my team before my own. Also, God is showing me that I am also a servant to Nate and Jenn who are the two leaders above me. God is filling me with His Spirit which then makes me be reliant upon Him in times of decisions, conflict, my selfish nature, etc. I am learning how to find comfort in the Lord and how to find strength in His power. The more I follow God’s will for my leadership position, the more He can show his wisdom and power to me. So yeah! The Lord is doing great things in my heart and walk with Him already, and it’s only the third day! Bless the Lord, oh my soul!

The practical breakdown of my last couple days have been this:

- Sunday July 15^th: Flying in around 8:30am, finally getting out of the airport around 10am, having a surprise friend of mine Ashlee visit me right when I got out of the terminal, traveling to the Space Hotel, going on a scavenger hunt in Melbourne, having dinner with my team, grocery shopping for the week, and making myself stay up until 9:30pm in order to break jet lag (:

- Monday July 16^th: Sleeping in (becausemy body needed it), having a cultural/evangelism training by the STINTers and an Aussie that is on Student Life (Cru) staff, going to Costco with the cook team, making dinner, having a great bible study with the women, and going to sleep early!

- Tuesday July 17^th: Waking up and having a great quiet time, enjoying a wonderful devo from one of our students, traveling to RMIT Bundoora to get a tour from one of the Aussies involved with Student Life (Cru) at the Uni, doing a prayer walk around the campus, seeing kangaroos (woo!), helping the cook team prepare dinner, having date with my man Jesus, and writing this blog to update all of you wonderful folk (: When I return to the hostel we get to have our first worship/prayer session. Boy I amexcited! Nothing better than worship and prayer!

Prayer Requests:

- Pray that our team continues to bond under the common love of Christ and that no one feels excluded or left out. Pray that our team individually focuses their time this summer on their personal relationship with the Lord and falls more and more deeply in love with God. Pray that our team will continue to be vulnerable with another, edifying, encouraging, helpful, and loving. Pray that we all get our joy from Christ and continue each day with the mindset that we are His workers!

- Pray for my strength and energy level. Pray that I lean upon the Lord throughout the day and not on my own energy. I can already see how this trip is going to be tiresome, but pray that I find rest in the Lord.

- Pray for the students that are already involved with Student Life on the campuses we are going to (RMIT Bundoora and LaTrobe Bundoora). The total number of students involved at these campuses combined is less than 15. This stat breaks my heart, but it wasn’t until I heard it from our guide’s mouth today during our campus tour. Knowing that our tour guide, Bec, joined Student Life when it was 4 people shows how much encouragement these students need. The movements at these campuses are so small, and it reminds me that we are not only here in Australia to seek the lost, but to also encourage, affirm, and help the already committed.

- This week we really want to focus on team bonding and creating friendships with the students involved with Student Life already. Pray that our event with them is successful and that our team would make great relationships with the students in the movement.

Thank you all for reading my blog & taking the time to read and pray about the things I mention. I cannot thank you enough for your support in my mission’s trip. I love you all!

Here's a picture of my wonderful team!