Wow! how time has just flown by. many of you that i have been in Kona Hawaii for the past month. i am involved in the Leadership Track here and it keeps me extremely busy, so i am sorry for the delay. The Leadership Track has stretched me far beyond what i ever would have expected but also has grown me so much closer to the heart of God just by intentionally pressing in and seeking His heart. a lot of you ask what are you doing? well heres some of my schedule.
Monday: 8-9am Corporate Worship. 9-12 Practical Service. (I work in the DTS Office. so i call students and interview them and help them out with anything hey need.)12-1 lunch. 1-3 prayer room. 3-? Girls Group. 6:30-9 Ministry Night.
Tuesday: 9-12 work. 12-1 lunch. 1-3 prayer room. 3-5 Staff meeting (every other week). 6- BBQ /Dessert Night.
Wednesday: 8-9am Contending Hour. 9-12 Training. 12-1 Lunch. 1-5 Community Outreach.(I do sunday school so I have outreach on sunday mornings while everyone else has outreach that day).
Thursday: 9-12 Work. 12-1 lunch. 1-3 prayer room. 5:30 Fire Starters(church for the kids for Thursday Night gathering).
Friday: 9-12 Work. 12-1 lunch. 1-3 Prayer Room.
We have to do a priestly hour 3 times a week as well and they have to be done 12-1 or 3-4. Priestly hour is basically time alone with God. Not a corporate time but time of intentionally getting closer to Jesus and reading his word. through this schedule God has so set my gaze on his eyes and while it sounds like a lot and very busy with homework or just the schedule. I am not exhausted and i find myself being excited about going to the prayer room and doing work. I want to know the depths of God's heart and the most intimate places. He has so stirred my spirit and has given me such a hunger to really chase after him with all that i have and set every other thing aside.
we have homework every week, it is memorization of the word and book reports. We are memorizing sermon on the mount and it has given me a new appreciation for the bible and helping understand it and really get into it and understand what he is saying through it. Jesus has begun to grow me in places that i have always struggled in through intentional time with Him and really pressing in. We are such a community that is centered around Jesus its almost unreal.
Now it's not all just work...last weekend we went on a retreat. A retreat to just relax, with no agenda, and really get to know each other better. we went to Makapala, YWAM has a retreat base up there. It is beautiful up there and about 10-15 degrees cooler there so that was awesome. man did God show up. we had such great time and just really built relationship again. we played games together and cooked together and did worship together. God seriously is moving and showing me who i am in him. while i was there i got to talk to my friend Sarah and she helped me see what god was doing inside me. that he was stretching and growing me. not stretching me like a athlete stretches their muscles but stretching me like a pair of stretchy pants, they get bigger so more can be put inside. Jesus has so begun to shift my heart. he has made me more confident in who i am in him and to use him as my crutch not to lean onto the affirmations of people but to listen to what he has to say about me. he began to work on this while i was at home and showing me his father heart but here he has really made me comfortable in my skin and that people will either like me or not, but i am going to be myself no matter what. also god is teaching me how to be vulnerable. and not in a over dramatic way of never being okay but in a way that i can let people in and yeah sometimes people throw my heart on the ground but he picks it up and repairs it. not by putting a band aid on it but by really cleaning out the wound and teaching me forgive. i have come to a realization that anger is not an emotion. that it is a cover-up of a deeper emotion. we use it because we don't way to say we are hurt or frustrated, so we say we are angry. well god has shown me that the things that i have said i am angry about, i am not angry i am really hurt by. but really teaching me to walk out in forgiveness and giving me a heart for what happened and an understanding.
jesus is awesome isn't he.
he has put the most incredible women around me, that lift me up and see what a Godly friendship is. to go to God first and then each other second. to constantly lift each other up in prayer. i am so thankful for the people in my life and the parents i have, who continue to encourage me. to give me wisdom and GODLY advice. i am really in the process of learning god's love for me and finding my comfort in him.
The other night i had a hard night and was overwhelmed with lots of different emotions and i asked jesus to give me something in his word to tell me what he thinks about the situation and what i am supposed to do. he gave me psalm 86, the title of it is Great Is Your Steadfast Love. it is all about finding your comfort in jesus and when we cry out to him he hears us. that he has love for us no matter what. god has stirred my heart and really started aligning my mind with what he has done in my heart and really starting to give me understanding. he continues to speak and continues to meet me in the place i am in. i feel like sometimes he goes 99% and all i have to do is go the 1. and that he meets me in my brokenness. he gives us the chance to choose him in that. and even when we don't choose him he still meets us. but what an hour it is to choose him in our brokenness and suffering. last august, during DTS, Andy Byrd said something i will never forget,"we only have this life to choose him in our pain, sorrow, sickness, insecurities, and brokenness". we have the choice to choose him and what an honor it is. i want to choose jesus every time. so i have begun my radical pursuit of his heart and will never stop.
So thank you to my supporters because i would not be here if it wasn't for your prayers and believing Jesus enough in me to finically support me to go down his works.
"Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for i am poor and needy. preserve my life, for i am Godly; save your servant, who trusts in you-you are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do i cry all the day. Gladden the should of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do i lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, and good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, o Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. in the day of my trouble i call upon you, for you answer me. there is none like you amount the gods, O Lord, nor are there any workalike yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things;you alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that i may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. i give thanks to you, O Lord my God with my whole heart, and i will glorify your name forever. for great is your steadfast love towards me; you have delivered my soul form the depths of Sheol. O God, insolent men have risen ip against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. but you, O Lord,are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. turn to me and be gracious to me; give me your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant. Show me a sign of your favor, and those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me. " Psalm 86. ESV
If you feel led to support, you can go to my ALL ME page and it has all my contact info there. thanks.
In His Name,
Sarah
Makapala, Northwest Shore of the island
Packing for 9 months
the girls
praying for the continent of Africa by standing on it
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