Wednesday, August 31, 2016

YWAM in our Hearts...

I feel like I have missed so many blogging opportunities!! What can I say? Busy seasons, babies born, moving a half a dozen times, traveling in missions..Life happened! ... and one day all these stories and blogs can probably be compiled, Lord willing, into a book of our life in missions and how good God has been in the process of the journey!

It was about 3-4 years ago that we first started making contact with the base in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. We hadn't decided on which DTS to join, as there are dozens to choose from. Although, there are only a few that accommodate families, because most are geared for young people. That made it easier for us to decide. After connecting with the leader of the Crossroads DTS, we felt a pull and peace with that particular school. It was for a more mature crowd, singles 25 and older, and families. The leaders have stayed in touch with us and have been there to pray for us and give us all the details we needed to make our decision plus encouraged us with their testimony of raising 5 kids in YWAM.

Waiting on the Lord to show us the path to take was a process. We had debt! We couldn't just up and leave with that hanging over our heads! There would be no rest on the mission field, serving full-time if we had that to worry about. We knew that working hard to get the debts paid off would have to come first. Sometimes following your dreams means doing the hard stuff first and getting it out of the way! So, that's exactly what we did! We also worked missions into our schedule and lived within a means to make that possible. It took several years of focus and prayer and trusting God to move on our behalf. He has been ever so faithful. The hard stuff doesn't just disappear when we give our lives over to Jesus. Sometimes the hard stuff becomes even more magnified as God wants to prune those unpleasant things from our lives. We then can be more free to be a blessing in God's Kingdom and give a better representation of Him.

We hope to encourage others to do the same! Start with writing down your dreams and goals! Habakkuk 2:2-4
 Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
“Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith.

Journal, post it on the fridge, proclaim it, pray over it! Write down that vision! It will give you purpose in work, in prayer, in relating to those with like-mindedness. God will stretch you to fulfill it, He will grow your faith! Endurance will be your mainstay. Keep your eye on that goal!

Without a vision the people perish. Proverbs 29:18

And Paul writes in Philippians 3:12-14...
I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

These verses encourage me that as long as I am keeping Jesus as my final and daily prize, I will no fail but I will soar on wings of faith! 

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