A long time coming

Happy holidays! I hope Thanksgiving was dreamy and your Christmas tunes are pumping and all of the things are covered in the most beautiful blanket of snow. (I know my Kansas people are covered!) I have many a thing to fill you in on!

Lectures over the last several weeks have been incredible. The week of the 13th our guest speaker, Stevie Lujan spoke on individual calling and destiny. We only had him for two days because most of our school left to go to Awakening Australia on the 15th, but those two days had so much impact! He taught based on Tim Costello's definition of calling, "Calling is where your joy and the world's pain meet." Calling is never static, is always being discovered, and is way more simple than what we make it out to be!

What do you love?

What makes you happy?

How could you use that to meet people who are hurting with the gospel?

Awakening Australia was a beautiful experience. Thirty-six of our forty-person school went along with several other YWAM staff. We sang, we learned, we heard stupid-famous Christians speak (and sing) and through it all I learned that I am not an obligation to the Lord. He chooses me. He wants to hang out with me. The God that breathes out stars likes me! I've been a Christian since I was four. That's 19 years of worshiping a "God" I didn't really know likes me. That was a lesson which was a long time coming. (Ha. Blog title.)

Here's a summary of Awakening-

It was an incredible three days. I'm so thankful I got to go.

My time here in Australia has been so good. The best way I can explain the last (nearly) 2 months is to say that I feel like a whole new human. I'm convicted consistently and am learning how to keep moving forward when it's overwhelming and I'm actually spending time in my Bible again. I've made friends from all over the world, including the eight girls I live with. They're a joy and a half, let me tell ya. Here. You can see their beautiful faces. I wish you could see their beautiful hearts, too, but that can't be captured.

This past week, our speaker, Chris Adams, taught us more about what it means to fear the Lord. Chris took a subject that's often hard to understand and made it easy to grasp and doable in everyday life.

Did you know that to "fear God" means to love Him and hate sin? I had no idea a simple concept like this would be so transforming. Also, I mentioned it earlier, but God EXHALES STARS. (Psalm 33:7) That's REMARKABLE. If God is big enough to exhale stars, then why would I ever think that He isn't big enough to handle my crap? He's so much bigger than I thought! My mind turns to mush every time I think about it. I've attached a video done by Louie Giglio below which was used in our teaching. Please take the time to watch it. It's changed my life.

Oh, also, Stevie Lujan is a very gifted singer-songwriter. Check him out on Spotify and the other musical platforms. He's got a big heart for Jesus and an ear for sweet tunes.

Thanks so much for spending this time with me today! Check back soon for OUTREACH INFORMATION!!!