Paper Planes

Hey ya'll!

I'm sorry I have not written in awhile; things have been super busy here being that we are getting ready to go to Colombia in two weeks! We have been working on dramas, skits, songs to perform, and having a lot of prayer times to intercede for Colombia.
This week we had Colleen Milstein come and speak to us about our worldviews. At first, I was not looking forward to learning about worldview because I was certian that mine was as christian as it needed to be(Silly me :) ). However, I was greatly mistaken, Colleen brought out SO many amazing points and insight that I had never thought about. Colleen is from South Africa, and is currently living in Switzerland working with the YWAM base there. Her passion to see change in the world is truly inspiring. Here are a few quotes from Colleen:

"We Love Jesus sincerely, and we believe he is real, but we keep him in our pocket and do not know how to relate him to everyday life."

"Nowadays, Christians live in a christian "ghetto" and we have lost our relevence to society"

"We see Jesus as Lord of the church, but we don't see Jesus as Lord of ALL."

"In today's society, we have so many options of what we are to do with our lives that those options feed a fear of commitment."

"The question isn't "can I do it?", but "Am I willing to do it?"

"Any place in your worldview that you have not consiencely examined and changed to match a biblical worldview is probably conforming to the world's way of thinking." Ex. ROMANS 12:2

"How much of our christianity in the U.S. is merely a "culteral package" rather than a REAL realationship?"

"Geographic location is not the problem with Christianity, I can change geographic location and be no more of a light to non-believers than I was back where I first started."

I hope ya'll enjoyed these quotes. The quotes were just a tidbit of all that Colleen shared with us. We learned that so much of what we count as truth is simply what the world has been telling us is truth. I would like to challenge you all to go back to the Word, and really examine your beliefs on education, family, government, science and technology, and other world topics to make sure that they line up with what the Bible says.

As the time is drawing closer to Colombia, I have a rough itinerary of what we will be doing while in Colombia:

April 6th: Fly out to Houston Texas and from there we will fly out to Colombia (cheaper then flying straight out of Portland)

April 7th to May 10th: we will be at the YWAM base in Cartagena working and serving the base and city anyway that we can.

May 10th- through duration of our time in Colombia: Our group will again split and half will go to Bogota to work with slum ministries, and the other half will be going to Baranquilla (which is where I will be going) to live with families there and create a kid's camp.

* this schedule is subject to change due to change in God's desire for what we are to do while in Colombia, we are also looking at going to an island and doing some church planting, but we are still praying about that. We don't want to go so many places that we are not effective, but also we want to reach whoever God wants us to.

Thanks SO much everyone for your prayers and support, I am thrilled to pieces at how generous all of you have been! My trip is pretty much paid for, and that makes me so proud of that southern hospitality that I have bragged to everyone here about! I always talk about how loving and giving my church familiy is, and I pray for you guys a lot! I know God is doing amazing things back in Greenwood! I am so excited to come back home and see all of you!
Again, thanks again, and God bless!
-Hali

Pura Vida

Hey guys, sorry it has been so long, it has been an intense couple of weeks!
This week we were blessed to have Jerry Praetzel come and speak to us about healing and forgiveness. Not only did he give us some amazing new concepts and ensight; he also gave us an opportunity to confess past sins, and forgive past sins done against us. This was done in a very sensative and safe environment, before we did confess sins and forgave, we were in prayer and asking the Holy Spirit to convince us of what we needed to share. Also, we recieved a lot of teaching beforehand...I am explaining because I do not want it to come across like a chaotic time of sliming eachother with past sins.
Here are a few things that Jerry taught us:

"What sins we bury from the past, we don't bury dead, we bury those sins alive"

"God will not bring past sins up in your life that he will not redeem and take care of"

"God is more committed to you than things that come out of you, and he will do whatever it takes to get to you."

"You are are a LOUSY redeemer, give people in your life, and past and present sins to God: The Ultimate Redeemer"

"The enemy is not after just pain, it is what he wants you to become as a result of pain that he is after"

"Forgiveness means this person is no longer going to pay a price for what they have done to me"

"The blood of Jesus only covers, what I uncover"- I think I might have said this one before...but it is SO true!

This was just a little bit of what we learned about this week. We all went through a LOT of healing through confessing our sins, and really getting rid of the denial of those specific sin's effect on our lives. I'm sorry if some of this doesn't make sense, I am really tired right now! I love all of you, and I hope you are doing amazing!
-Hali