Our teaching this week was about God's calling on individual lives. Our speaker described discovering our calling like the putting together of a jigsaw puzzle--many times God shows you one piece at a time and as you walk it out the whole picture becomes clear. This week was great for me because God confirmed a lot that was in my heart already about going to India and reaching the unreached with the Gospel. God used this week to help me see that His vision is in my heart; I am excited to be preparing for it and living it.

God reminded me this week of His sovereignty. Every now and then I go through times when I dont want to move for fear of failure, but this week the Lord reminded me that He is sovereign. Our speaker said that basically we can expect to fail--but God is bigger than our failures. I can trust the Lord that He will guide and direct me. I can also trust that He will correct me. This is surprisingly comforting :)

It has been a full week at YWAM Louisville! This week our speaker was Donna MacGowan--who (with her husband, Mark) was my DTS Director at YWAM Denver. It was awesome having a teacher that I knew so well. The subject was Biblical Counseling. I loved it because it not only applies to helping us minister to others but it was incredibly helpful in the working out of my own salvation. God used the teaching to remind me and reveal to me again how He desires complete restoration in people. He is not simply satisfied with one being saved, but is interested in making them whole as well. The Lord was so good to me this week by showing me different things within me that He wants to heal and restore. God is so good.

We has the opportunity this week to "practice" doing ministry on each other--we got to share with each other about something we wanted prayer for and walk through the process of leading someone to the Lord and allowing Him to bring revelation and restoration in their lives. Through this exercise I realized how little I knew about counseling others. It was amazing though--to see how the Lord spoke to people and worked in the midst of my weakness. Once again--God is so good.

It was hard for me this week--I find myself being so reluctant to go through the process of restoration. I want it to just be done. But God is always so patient and gentle with me--never giving me more than I can handle. God is so good!

This week at YWAM Louisville we spent a lot of time learning about our personalities and what our natural strengths and tendencies are when interacting with people or completing a task. It was good for me to learn more about who I am and to think about how others are different and how we can walk in greater humility as we honor each other and consider our differences in personality.

God has been revealing Himself to me this week through His word and again through the study of missions in Pathways. He is revealing Himself as a God who desires the praise of the nations. I knew this before but it has been so good to see it revealed in the Scriptures systematically.

God has shown me a lot about myself this week--about fears that I am holding on to and areas where I am not trusting Him. He has gently put these things before me as He shows me more and more how He desires for me to be whole and fully trusting Him.

Early in the week God was revealing these things as He provided people around me to lift me up and support me. I woke up tuesday morning and felt light and joyful. I hadnt realized how heavy i had been. perhaps even from before I left india. God has been so gracious to me in providing such amazing friends that are praying for me.

Another week has gone by at YWAM Louisville...Last week we listened to a series of lectures about Effective Personal Ministry. It was a good teaching concentrating on the fact that ministry is service--meeting people's needs through the strength and power of the Holy Spirit. We also talked a lot about Paul's life and how he really lived out his teaching. It is actually kind of difficult for me to sit in class and learn about ministry. I want to be out in the world doing it; so it was somewhat of a struggle this week for me to engage during class. But God is faithful and always provides His grace even in small things like paying attention to lectures :) I am reminded often that this is a time of preparation and I want to make the most of it.

We also started a study on missions through a teaching called Pathways. It is a collection of articles on various topics but this week we read about how God from the very beginning has been a missional God. One that spoke to me particularly was from Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper. Piper talks about how the purpose of missions is worship and that "missions exist because worship does not."

Piper says, "The ultimate foundation for our passion to see God glorified is his own passion to be glorified. God is central and supreme in His own affections...God is not an idolater...With all His heart and soul and strength and mind, He delights in the glory of His manifold perfections. the most passionate heart for God in all the universe is God's heart... Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God's delight in being God...The gospel demand that flows from such a God to the nations is an eminently shareable, doable demand, mainly to rejoice and be glad in God."

This thought was a new thought for me--that God is by nature missional. He desires to share Himself. For us we start to see this at creation and it continues through His covenant with Abraham, David and ultimately through Christ.

God is showing me more and more that He has put His heart for the nations into my own. I am realizing how deeply I desire to be a part of God redeeming peoples from every tribe, tongue and nation to gather around His throne in worship. I already knew this a bit but the longing is deeper than i knew. i will go, but not yet...(and for the time being--let us bring His kingdom in America as it is in Heaven)

"Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!" Psalm 96:3


"