I was just looking back on my notes from the lectures this week, and I found a note that says, "Don't forget the soldier story!!!" It's such a beautifully heartbreaking story, and so I simply must share it with you.
There once were two boys who were closer than if they had been blood. They had sleepovers every week until they were in junior high, and the sleepovers turned into all nighters through their high school years. Girls came between them here and there, but their friendship only strengthened through the fights and hardships.
After receiving their diplomas, the young men immediately signed themselves up for the army. After boot camp, the friends were sent off to different bases, but they kept in touch as often as possible. Whenever they were assigned to the same place, they celebrated like there would be no tomorrow.
You know when you are such good friends with someone that you can just give them a look and they know what you are thinking? Well these guys were those kind of friends, and it saved their lives for a moment.
One day while under fire, one man gave the other a look from yards away that meant "Jump in the ditch when I do" (how that was communicated through the eyes I can't say, but I can say that they must have known each other extremely well). They both jumped in the ditch, and were followed by a shower of bullets that turned the opposite side of the ditch into Swiss cheese.
All they could do was look at each other through the smoke and laugh in relief. Suddenly, a hand grenade was thrown into the ditch directly between the two of them. Time seemed to stand still as they looked at each other one last time, the vhs's of their lives playing in fast-forward each in their own minds. All at once they came back to reality, and one man winked at the other before throwing himself on top of the grenade... Which proceeded to detonate through his body.
His friend was found in the ditch hours later, still in the same position he had been since hurling himself into safety at his comrade's cue, covered in the remains of the man who saved his life. He was carried out on a stretcher as he was in shock, and did not stop crying for days.
His friend's mother took him in, because his mother had died years ago, and she had just lost her only son. The man went into a deep depression over the loss of his friend, and was constantly haunted by that wink. The wink that said "I love you enough to die for you, and here I go." would not cease tormenting his mind. Would he have done the same?
Eventually his depression led to disillusionment and lack of sensitivity. He finally realized this when one day after struggling with a question in his head for hours, he walked into the kitchen and said to his new mother, "How could I know if he actually ever loved me?". In one swift movement she whipped around and furiously took hold of his shirt collar, pulled him down to her face and screamed "WHAT MORE COULD HE HAVE DONE FOR YOU?!?!?!?!!!"
What more indeed?
Only one other thing He could have done, and He did it. He did not remain dead, but loved us so much that He could not bear the thought of being separated from us by the grave. Not only did He die, but He came back to life in order to spend it for the rest of eternity with us. An eternity that starts here.
Selah.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Waterboarding for Jesus
Puppets, henna, photography, and pouring water into the snoring mouths of homeless people are just a few of the very effective evangelism tactics employed by our extremely creative students.
Friday night we took the DTS out in front of the Bellagio fountains to spread the love of Jesus among the spectators.
One team headed away from the fountains to talk to people in front of the Miracle Mile, and were approached by a girl handing out cards for nightclubs. They explained that they were out there to share Jesus, and asked the girl if they could pray for her. She asked them to pray for her daughter, who has been sick for over 4 years without diagnosis. As soon as they finished praying for her, a man who was also handing out cards came up to them and asked for prayer for his health as he has type 2 diabetes.
Another team was trying talk with people watching the fountain show, but everyone was too entranced with the water to hold a conversation. Finally they came upon a homeless man who was sleeping on the sidewalk, and they felt God urging them to talk to him. They both tried waking him up to no avail, and finally one of them decided to pour water into his mouth (definitely not an evangelism tool that I would recommend). He awoke to two girls standing over him asking if he was alright, likely bewildered and confused by what had just happened. He was very friendly, and they talked to him for a while when they noticed that his foot was badly injured. One girl went and got a bottle of water, and they proceeded to wash his foot and pray for healing. The man was so touched by the love of Christ in them that he started bawling. They prayed again with him, and he told them that he knew that God must have sent them to him because he had previously assumed that his foot was a trial from God, but this experience was reassurance that his pain was not God's will.
My friend Sami and I sat on the sidewalk with a "FREE HENNA" sign, and immediately two girls sat down with us to have their henna done. I am generally pretty shy when it comes to talking to people, so I did the henna while Sami did the talking. Both of the girls were agnostic, and were very open to having a deep conversation about God's love for them. They both seemed intrigued by what she told them of His character and their identity as His creation, and had never heard about God's love before. A couple of guys sat down with us next, one was Mormon, the other was Atheist. We ended up having a pretty deep conversation about how intricately God made us with the Mormon guy, and though it didn't seem outwardly to go anywhere, we can now pray for those specific guys.
These are just a few of the stories from Friday night, but I just had to share them with you guys :)
I can't wait to see what God does next.
-May God be your strength
Friday night we took the DTS out in front of the Bellagio fountains to spread the love of Jesus among the spectators.
One team headed away from the fountains to talk to people in front of the Miracle Mile, and were approached by a girl handing out cards for nightclubs. They explained that they were out there to share Jesus, and asked the girl if they could pray for her. She asked them to pray for her daughter, who has been sick for over 4 years without diagnosis. As soon as they finished praying for her, a man who was also handing out cards came up to them and asked for prayer for his health as he has type 2 diabetes.
Another team was trying talk with people watching the fountain show, but everyone was too entranced with the water to hold a conversation. Finally they came upon a homeless man who was sleeping on the sidewalk, and they felt God urging them to talk to him. They both tried waking him up to no avail, and finally one of them decided to pour water into his mouth (definitely not an evangelism tool that I would recommend). He awoke to two girls standing over him asking if he was alright, likely bewildered and confused by what had just happened. He was very friendly, and they talked to him for a while when they noticed that his foot was badly injured. One girl went and got a bottle of water, and they proceeded to wash his foot and pray for healing. The man was so touched by the love of Christ in them that he started bawling. They prayed again with him, and he told them that he knew that God must have sent them to him because he had previously assumed that his foot was a trial from God, but this experience was reassurance that his pain was not God's will.
My friend Sami and I sat on the sidewalk with a "FREE HENNA" sign, and immediately two girls sat down with us to have their henna done. I am generally pretty shy when it comes to talking to people, so I did the henna while Sami did the talking. Both of the girls were agnostic, and were very open to having a deep conversation about God's love for them. They both seemed intrigued by what she told them of His character and their identity as His creation, and had never heard about God's love before. A couple of guys sat down with us next, one was Mormon, the other was Atheist. We ended up having a pretty deep conversation about how intricately God made us with the Mormon guy, and though it didn't seem outwardly to go anywhere, we can now pray for those specific guys.
These are just a few of the stories from Friday night, but I just had to share them with you guys :)
I can't wait to see what God does next.
-May God be your strength
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The More I Seek You
Just the other day during a beautiful worship and prayer time, God's voice moved in my soul like the whisper of a thousand war horses (1 Kings 19:12- check out the original language for this, SO powerful) through this song by Kari Jobe:
I wanna sit at your feet
drink from the cup in your hand.
Lay back against you and breathe,
feel your heart beat
This love is so deep,
it's more than I can stand.
I melt in your peace, it's overwhelming
The more i seek you,
the more i find you.
The more i find you,
the more I love you
It's such a beautiful song, fitting for such a beautiful God.
Also, my friend Joanna showed me this powerful message on the intricacy of God's creation and His overwhelmingly immense love for us. I haven't had time to listen to the whole thing at once yet, but I highly recommend it. It's giving me a newfound awe, respect, and deep love for both the Creator and His creation.
Download it here!
http://media.ihop.org.s3.amazo
Let me know what you think of it.
Love you tons, be blessed <3
-God is my strength
I wanna sit at your feet
drink from the cup in your hand.
Lay back against you and breathe,
feel your heart beat
This love is so deep,
it's more than I can stand.
I melt in your peace, it's overwhelming
The more i seek you,
the more i find you.
The more i find you,
the more I love you
It's such a beautiful song, fitting for such a beautiful God.
Also, my friend Joanna showed me this powerful message on the intricacy of God's creation and His overwhelmingly immense love for us. I haven't had time to listen to the whole thing at once yet, but I highly recommend it. It's giving me a newfound awe, respect, and deep love for both the Creator and His creation.
Download it here!
http://media.ihop.org.s3.amazo
Let me know what you think of it.
Love you tons, be blessed <3
-God is my strength
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Always Learning
A fresh blog is a beautiful thing. The only conundrum now... What to write?
Why don't we start with introductions. Hi. My name is Gabrielle, but it used to be Emily. Most people actually still call me Emily, but I'm not at all offended. I love Jesus more than anyone or anything else in the world, but I love a lot of other people too. And India. Oh hey, if you ever find a heart just sitting on the streets somewhere in India, let me know will you? I think I left mine there.
About the name, a couple months ago I started a study on Daniel, and one of the first points was the significance of a name. It talked about how King Neb changed the names of Daniel, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah to names that honored Baal instead of God. In the rest of the book, Daniel is still referred to by his Hebrew name, but the other men accept the pagan names. Which TOTALLY reminded me of how I was named. God gave my mom the name Gabrielle for me. My grandma didn't want her name me Gabrielle because she was afraid everyone would call me Gabby. So. My mom named me Emily instead. I started praying about changing my name back to Gabrielle, which means "God is my strength" and "woman of God". When I mentioned to my grandma that I wanted to change it back, she thought it was a great idea! Which I found strange because it had previously been a subject of conflict in our family. So when she approved I knew it was God moving her heart to accept the name He meant for me. As soon as I got home from a recent visit to her house I changed my name on facebook, but not legally.
So that's one cool thing God's done in my life recently. Another cool thing, is that He's called me to staff The Abolitionist DTS here in Las Vegas at the YWAM base! I moved onto the base on the 31st of July, spent a week in staff training, and the school began on August 8th!
Already God had been teaching me new things in this role of leadership, such as sometimes having to be the bad guy, but always being the one others can go to with problems without fear of becoming the victim of gossip. I've always sort of lived that go-to person role, but being the rule enforcer is certainly new to me. I have so much to learn in that area.
Other than turning into a meany, I've been so inspired by the students of this school who are so very passionately pursuing close relationship with God. This group of people is just so driven in the area of justice and God's heart for the oppressed... I'm beginning to think that my heart needs to step its' game!
A few people have asked me why I chose to do this school, so I guess this might be an appropriate place to answer such a question. Originally I had planned to go back to India sometime in June and spend the rest of the summer in a village of Chennai with some of the most amazing people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. But God being God, He had a different plan for me during this season. I first heard about human trafficking when a brother of mine posted a link on Facebook about a fundraiser he was doing with Love146. If you've never heard of them, I encourage you to look them up at www.love146.org and see what they're all about. After watching the videos on their website, I couldn't recall a time in my entire life that I had cried so hard or had my heart so broken. I joined the fundraiser myself, and researched more about human trafficking.
Soon afterwards, some friends at the YWAM Las Vegas base told me about a school that God had put on their hearts to run... The abolitionist DTS. I thought that was great and all, but there was no way I was going to staff a DTS. Later that year (last year) I went to Colorado to attend a friend's wedding, when my friend Andie took me to her church, New Life, for a youth night kind of thing. We didn't end up going to the youth event, but instead we went to an artifact night hosted by iEmpathize. Another fantastic organization fighting the human slave trade. I knew after that night that I could not just do nothing with this heart that God had given me for the voiceless, so I decided to staff the abolitionist DTS.
Quite a few other 'God things' happened that made all the details fall into place, and now here I am. Not really sure at the moment what I'm doing, but I'm actively making myself available for God to use to give hope to the hopeless and discipling more young people in their relationships with God.
I have so much more to say, but for now I bid you goodnight. God bless you, and may He be your strength.
Why don't we start with introductions. Hi. My name is Gabrielle, but it used to be Emily. Most people actually still call me Emily, but I'm not at all offended. I love Jesus more than anyone or anything else in the world, but I love a lot of other people too. And India. Oh hey, if you ever find a heart just sitting on the streets somewhere in India, let me know will you? I think I left mine there.
About the name, a couple months ago I started a study on Daniel, and one of the first points was the significance of a name. It talked about how King Neb changed the names of Daniel, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah to names that honored Baal instead of God. In the rest of the book, Daniel is still referred to by his Hebrew name, but the other men accept the pagan names. Which TOTALLY reminded me of how I was named. God gave my mom the name Gabrielle for me. My grandma didn't want her name me Gabrielle because she was afraid everyone would call me Gabby. So. My mom named me Emily instead. I started praying about changing my name back to Gabrielle, which means "God is my strength" and "woman of God". When I mentioned to my grandma that I wanted to change it back, she thought it was a great idea! Which I found strange because it had previously been a subject of conflict in our family. So when she approved I knew it was God moving her heart to accept the name He meant for me. As soon as I got home from a recent visit to her house I changed my name on facebook, but not legally.
So that's one cool thing God's done in my life recently. Another cool thing, is that He's called me to staff The Abolitionist DTS here in Las Vegas at the YWAM base! I moved onto the base on the 31st of July, spent a week in staff training, and the school began on August 8th!
Already God had been teaching me new things in this role of leadership, such as sometimes having to be the bad guy, but always being the one others can go to with problems without fear of becoming the victim of gossip. I've always sort of lived that go-to person role, but being the rule enforcer is certainly new to me. I have so much to learn in that area.
Other than turning into a meany, I've been so inspired by the students of this school who are so very passionately pursuing close relationship with God. This group of people is just so driven in the area of justice and God's heart for the oppressed... I'm beginning to think that my heart needs to step its' game!
A few people have asked me why I chose to do this school, so I guess this might be an appropriate place to answer such a question. Originally I had planned to go back to India sometime in June and spend the rest of the summer in a village of Chennai with some of the most amazing people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. But God being God, He had a different plan for me during this season. I first heard about human trafficking when a brother of mine posted a link on Facebook about a fundraiser he was doing with Love146. If you've never heard of them, I encourage you to look them up at www.love146.org and see what they're all about. After watching the videos on their website, I couldn't recall a time in my entire life that I had cried so hard or had my heart so broken. I joined the fundraiser myself, and researched more about human trafficking.
Soon afterwards, some friends at the YWAM Las Vegas base told me about a school that God had put on their hearts to run... The abolitionist DTS. I thought that was great and all, but there was no way I was going to staff a DTS. Later that year (last year) I went to Colorado to attend a friend's wedding, when my friend Andie took me to her church, New Life, for a youth night kind of thing. We didn't end up going to the youth event, but instead we went to an artifact night hosted by iEmpathize. Another fantastic organization fighting the human slave trade. I knew after that night that I could not just do nothing with this heart that God had given me for the voiceless, so I decided to staff the abolitionist DTS.
Quite a few other 'God things' happened that made all the details fall into place, and now here I am. Not really sure at the moment what I'm doing, but I'm actively making myself available for God to use to give hope to the hopeless and discipling more young people in their relationships with God.
I have so much more to say, but for now I bid you goodnight. God bless you, and may He be your strength.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)