Two places at once

This morning I am reminded of how much the Lord Loves me. I have been in Australia exactly a month today. Weird that it happens to be my birthday. First things first, let me start out by saying my birthday has been one I will remember forever! I started my morning on an amazing beach learning how to surf.. now who gets to do that? The Lord is so good to me! My amazing best friends threw the best surprise skype party in the entire world!Everyone here in Australia made my day so special and the love I felt around me was so overwhelming and on top of everything else I get to spend the morning (well your late afternoon) talking to my family! If that is not an amazing birthday then I don't know what is? Its not everyday that you can be two ages at one time. I can now say that I have experienced being 22 and 21 at the same time. I'm not going to lie it blows my mind that it is even possible to be on the opposite side of the world serving the same God that I serve back home. Let me say I want to tell you every single detail of everything the Lord is doing in my life, but lets be honest it would take me probably until the day I come home to write out what I have learned in the span of this month, but I will do my best to hit some key things I am learning, Lets just say we serve a God so big that I literally wake up every morning thinking one way and go to bed thinking another way. Can we talk about being transformed by the renewing of our minds? I would have to say I am in renewing minds boot camp! Like I mentioned in my previous blog our lecture a week ago was on the Father heart of God and this week we just finished up the Fear of the Lord. These were two heavy subjects that have turned my world upside down and have completely changed my relationship with the Lord. The Father heart of God was both extremely difficult but so freeing. I was able to hear things is such a different way and look at the Lord through different lenses. The majority of Father heart of God was about healing and us to be healed and set free from the baggage that weighs us down. This healing process was not a fun time, but I would rather take the the hard to get to the freeing, it is so worth it! The Lord has begun a healing process in me and victory is insight! Which brings me to this past week and the Fear of the Lord. if I could describe this week in one word it would be WOW or in a few... What just happened? Our God is so big he is so mighty and Loves us so much! He is power! I am still trying to process this week out, but it has been amazing and eye opening. We are coming to the end of week 4 and I have already seen the Lord is ways I have never seen or experienced before. I am so excited to see what the next few weeks have in store. This week I will be finding out which outreach I will be going on. Please pray for that and also for strength as well to get through the jammed packed days and for rest on the days I do have off. I am so grateful for each one of you and can not wait to share what the Lord is doing, it changes and builds every second. The Lord is building a house out of the finest bricks! This week we are learning about the Holy Spirit, pray for a cleared mind to learn and soak everything in! I will be updating you soon on!

Ups and Downs

I know many of you have been waiting to hear how I am doing and how it has been these first few weeks I have been in Australia. Thank you for being patient with me as I have been getting adjusted to things here. I can honestly say that these last few weeks have been some of the hardest days I have ever struggled through. The enemy has been in full blown attack since I arrived. I was struck with such great fear and anxiety that I had never felt before and the fears that were already there were amplified. The Lord has had me on the operating table for a few weeks stretching and pulling things out that have been so hard and uncomfortable that I have wanted to throw in the towel several times. I thought I knew brokenness but oh was I wrong! The Lord has taught me a lot in the past few weeks and has really made it hard for me to relay on anything except Him for my strength and comfort. There is so much culture that I have been exposed to and am learning a lot about how each of them work. (Culture shock would probably be an understatement) My mind has been blown pretty much every second of the day and I have to constantly trust that the Lord is going to keep my mind from exploding with so many new and different ways others live. I am very grateful for the freedom and privileges we have in the states that no one else in the world has. My view of the Lord has been expanded in ways I never thought possible and am blown away with how big the Lord is! When I wrote my first blog I ended with we are about to find out how big the Lord is, and now looking back I was not prepared for how big the Lord is and it completely blows my mind! My days are jammed packed and really don’t have much time to rest or sleep and am pretty exhausted by the end of each day. I do have 2 days off which are much needed, but the week is very long. I would appreciate it if you could pray for rest and strength to get through each day that would be appreciated. Thank you for your prayers for homesickness I can feel each one of them. It has gotten better, but it is still a daily struggle. I am so grateful for such an amazing family and friends at home and could not do this without each and every one of you! I found out my outreach locations a bit early which are Tahiti/ Vanuatu, Indonesia/ Papua New Guinea, and Mexico. I am able to choose any of these locations and am praying through which one. Another way you could pray for me is for clarity and confidence in where the Lord wants me to go. This week I am learning about the heart of our father and am anxious to see what I learn. Thank you for all of your prayers and will be talking to you soon!