Fiji Final Update!

God has been so faithful in everything that I have been able to be a part of this year from doing a two month road trip across the USA to being an assistant leader in the Awaken DTS and leading an outreach team to the islands of Fiji! What an adventure. God truly is worthy of our praise!

I apologize for the lack of updates on this past trip. We were a very mobile outreach team traveling all over the island of Viti Levu and usually in a location without internet or even electricity. What an adventure though! Seeing SALVATION, HEALING and DELIVERANCE as well as so much more. We worked mostly doing door to door in settlements and villages as well as nightly church services mainly in the AOG church. I know the first thing that comes to mind is an uncomfortable visit from the Mormons, but in Fiji where the culture is very much wanting you to come and "have some tea". They almost expect you to come if your a visitor. This was a very challenging ministry at first for us but after seeing so many people encounter the love of God it became more about being faithful with what God gave us.

We were very blessed to have one of our students be a very skilled photographer and make an amazing outreach video for us which goes over each location we went to with testimonies, pictures and videos. There is a short version which is about 10 minutes and a long version which is in two parts and is about 19 minutes. Below the link to both. Please know that your prayer and support was a huge part of this outreach happening! Thank you so much! God bless!

Here is the link to the long version. Make sure you watch both parts!

Fiji outreach (Long Version)

Here is the link to the short version.

Fiji outreach video (Short Version)

Bring Hope to Fiji

At this point I am still in need of $1500 to go to Fiji. Please pray about how you can help be a part of taking the love of Christ to the people of Fiji.

If you would like to donate you can visit the support information tab

God wants a family

After six weeks of this DTS I have seen so many breakthroughs in the lives of the students. They are so hungry for God and are stepping out of their comfort zones like I have never seen before. This group is simply blowing my mind with how they are laying down their lives to pursue what God has for them. I can honestly say that I am having to keep up with this group in running after Jesus.

This past week we had a speaker cancel on us last minute so we really had no idea what we were going to do. We got together and God started to bring some very interesting ideas to mind. The first day we had Andrew York speak who is our school leader. He shared an amazing message about the presence of God and how it must come before we seek out His plans. Most of the big church mentality is that if we get a really good plan and we can gather a lot of people than God's presence will come. What usually ends up happening is that we get amazing facilities with a good amount of people and there is such a lack of love and genuine fellowship. If we go after the presence of God, He will begin to create families and from that place he will release dreams and visions for what He wants us to do! This isn't just an idea; this is exactly what we have experienced in these past two years in this discipleship training school.

After that day we sent the students out on what we call a "Faith Journey". We basically sent them out in their outreach teams and had them pray about what to do for the day. With little to no structure they left the base and went all around the island. One of the many testimonies from the day was from a girl on my Fiji outreach team who was granted a free ride on a helicopter around the island that normally costs $500. She was even able to pray for someone’s healing through the intercom that everyone can hear through! The main thing I saw God do that day was solidify in the student’s hearts that it's not about what they can do for God but about them enjoying Him and moving from that place of knowing how much they are loved.

On Wednesday morning we split up the guys and the girls and had what we call "Men of Glory" and "Women of Glory". This was a preaching class us staff had been involved in before the school had started and changed my life forever. What we do is pick a simple topic for the group to come up with about a 3 minute message on and each person gets up and shares. More than having a good clean biblical sound message it is about people letting out their passion for Jesus and being set free from fear of man and passivity! I have never seen such a passionate and free bunch of men before in my life! The best part of this is seeing so many men be so brave and vulnerable in front of each other and letting loose the crazy passion for Jesus that is bottled up inside waiting to burst forth!

For the rest of the week we decided to do a 50 hour "Burn" which is basically nonstop around the clock prayer and worship. We had all the staff and students sign up for different hours day and night to be in the prayer room. This was such a good time for us all to seek God and ask for everything that He has for us. We ended this burn with a corporate set that ended with crazy dancing and chanting!

The next night we invited all of the students up to the house that six other guys and I are living at and we had a big family cookout. About 100 of us filled the house and the backyard. This was exactly how we felt like God wanted us to finish this week as a family celebrating the life that Jesus gave us!

"Revelation brings a Crisis"

I have now been in Kona, Hawaii for three weeks and have gone through so much transformation! Yes I have completed a discipleship training school and staffed one last year but I am beginning to understand when our staff trainer Jeremy West says “be a disciple first always”. A discipleship training school (DTS) is something you can graduate from, but you never graduate from being a disciple. The past few weeks have been some of the hardest times in my short Christian walk, but it has been my choice to continue to engage myself with the heart of God that has changed me. In plain words I can't rely on my own experiential knowledge but to always be teachable and pliable by God.

During staff training the past two weeks the one quote that has been stuck in my head has been “revelation brings a crisis”. The idea is that when there is true revelation from God there should be some kind of crisis that provokes me to seek or desire a change. This should then hopefully bring me to seek Jesus Christ for the grace that I need to walk in it. It’s really the same as “revelation requires a response” but I never thought about the fact that when I start feeling like I’m having some kind of life crisis that it could actually be God’s love. In no way am I saying that God kills people to teach us or that he makes us suffer so that we realize we need Him. I’m saying that there might be heart issues or mindsets that we have and when we are pursuing God His light actually shines on us revealing the hidden things.

I had one especially hard week where I felt like all of my junk was rising to the surface. This was where I had to consider the fact that maybe God wants to do a work in my life. One day I felt so rebellious and didn’t want to do anything during worship or focus on God. I didn’t want to open my mouth or do anything. Later that day one of the other staff asked me how I was doing and I simply responded “bad”. She didn’t try to do anything other than simply pray for me and it was so encouraging! I know that God doesn’t want us to walk these things out by ourselves and that he desires for us to have loving friendships that can simply pray for each other and see breakthrough.

I have simply experienced a passion for Jesus and a constant choice to engage Gods heart, no matter how I feel. I have had to press through some of the driest days where I don’t “feel His presence” and had to just trust that He was with me. This is so necessary in a place where ministry is 24/7 and I usually don’t “feel” like I can minister to others. I have to hold on to the truth that it’s worth it! When God is glorified through other people finding out who they are in Him than we continue to see more and more of who He is!

18 more days until over 100 students come to have their lives radically changed!!!

New Update!

Update of the last few months

I recently spent two months traveling across the United States with a group of 5 friends that I work with in the Discipleship Training School. We visited different ministries and leaders of the ministries to gain perspective of what they see God doing in our nation and in our generation. It was an amazing eye opening time of seeing so many different parts of the church operating in exactly what God created them to be. There is so much diversity in the church and it is so beautiful to see a certain part working exactly as it should. Sometimes we would go from one place to another and it seemed like they saying complete opposite things, but it really took us to a deeper level of seeking the Lord and in the end we really saw that most of what they were saying was the same but communicated differently. I could see the love of God in so many different ministries and began to understand how I had to break some of the boxes I was putting Him in.

We also saw how God was revealing Himself to us in our small community of 6 throughout the trip. We had amazing times together as we spent endless hours driving over 13,000 miles in our 1998 Dodge conversion van. We really learned how to love each other and this only increased the presence of God in our group. God has been putting 1John 4:11-12 on my heart and revealing to me how much it connects to what He is doing in my life and in our group.

^"11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us."

I have never seen God and known His love as much as I had on that trip and it wasn’t in the church building or listening to the preacher, it was with my friends as we would seek the Lord and love one another. This is simply the first two commandments of loving God and loving your neighbor. It was a deep revelation of how God really brought His love to a full “expression”, or “perfection” as we began to love each other. We had even seen a few peoples lives completely transformed and redirected back to God because of how they saw God in our lives! That was the most effortless evangelism I've ever been involved in.

My next steps

I will be heading back to Kona, Hawaii at the end of the month to work in another Discipleship Training School. I am completing my second year of my two year commitment and should be expecting anywhere from 70 to 100 students. The first phase of the school is three months of lecture where we have a different speaker each week talk about different topics about God like “the Father heart of God” or “The Holy Spirit”. During time we have close one on one discipleship and small group times with the students. The second phase is a three month outreach where I will most likely be taking a team to Southeast Asia to serve in different churches and ministries.

This is a service based ministry and I am committing my next seven months to this school. This school had a major impact in my life as most of you know and I have such a desire to see others have the same freedom and revelation that comes with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This school also has a major impact on the nations that we go to. Whether it’s serving long term missions or working with local native churches, we are able to see amazing fruit and this brings so much perspective to our students as well.

Your Part

Please consider how you might be able to partner with me in this next seven months either in financial or prayer support. Both areas are major areas that I depend on others for.

Prayer support

Please consider taking time each day or even once a week to pray for me as well as other staff and students. There is a constant battle going on and as we begin to tear down the works of the enemy in our lives and go after all that God has for us there will be heavy opposition from the enemy.

Financial support

I am dependent on financial support to be able to serve in this school since it is a volunteer program. Please pray about making a donation or even becoming a monthly supporter. Check out my support page for more info.

Love Amplified

Enjoy my first video update! Only took me 25 tries!

Texas to Northern California

We are now in the last couple weeks of our trip and have made it all the way up to Redding, California to visit Bethel Church for the weekend. We had such an amazing time in Texas, stopping in Waco and visiting the Antioch church which reaches out to the Baylor university and community college campuses by setting up discipleship houses and other training programs. The church also plants other church communities like this around the world and wants to plant one in all of the 50 states. Us guys were able to stay at one of these discipleship houses for a night and spend some time talking to the guys there. One of the guys had heard about what the Antioch church was doing and moved out to go to school there for a deeper relationship with Jesus and for the community that is created there. I was amazed at the discipleship that was going on here and vision to go beyond just surviving as a college student.

Next we headed down to San Antonio, Texas to visit a church that was hosting Todd Bentley for a few days of healing ministry. I know there is controversy over him doing ministry and his history, but he spent some time humbling himself and is back to working in his calling and God is still moving through his ministry so we decided to check it out. One of the hardest things being there was choosing not to judge and not even focus on him but to keep my eyes on Jesus and to see what God is doing. It was incredible how many people where healed and how they were able to keep the focus on God and continue to give glory to God.

We are now up in Redding, California visiting Bethel Church for the weekend and I am blown away by how awesome this place is! We arrived on Friday and attended that nights service and met up with some friends that were there. On Saturday we were able to go to the "Healing Room" where they have people come sign up to be prayed for. We where able to go in and see how it worked and it was nothing liked I expected. Instead of sadness and heaviness there was such a spirit of joy in the rooms and an expectancy for people to be healed. At the end we where able to stay with the staff as they circled around and shared testimonies. For almost a half hour they shared story after story of people that had awesome miracles and healing happen that day! If you would like to check out some of the testimonies you can click HERE to go to their testimony page.

We now have about nine days left on this trip and will be heading down to Sacramento and
Los Angeles. We should be meeting a few more people on the way but we will be taking some time to do some serious processing of all that the Lord has shown us.

Please pray that we make it through the rest of this trip as safe as we have and that we continue to stay open and available for whatever God has for us.

Check out our team page for more details and pictures!!! http://www.awakennations.com/

"By wisdom a house is built"

Family fun day in the Rockies

We are now on week seven of our trip across the USA and are being completely blown away by the goodness of the Lord in so many ways. We have stayed at a lot of different houses, slept in a lot of different beds and met a lot of amazing people who love Jesus and have blessed us beyond belief. We don't even know most of these people and they are taking steps of faith to allow 6 crazy missionaries sleep in their house. I know that these people are sacrificing a lot to house us and make us meals. Each and every stop we have been able to share testimonies and life with the ones housing us and also receive from them. I am seeing so much how God loves relationship. We have only stayed in hotels a few times which have been huge blessing and very restful but I have to say that I have loved every house that we have stayed at no matter the sleeping conditions. There truly is more value in the relationships that we have had than a comfortable hotel room.

One evening we were in Denver, Colorado and were praying for some of our YWAM friends after a dinner when a drunken man and his wife came up to us and he asked us for prayer and food. We were definitely more than happy to do that for them and since we had received so much these past weeks it definitely felt like time to do some pouring out. We spent time talking to them and praying with them. This man was so desperate for Jesus. He got down on his knees and cried out to Jesus for help with his drinking problem. These people were truly broken before the Lord and crying out for a savior and I know that He met them there in that moment. We don’t know where they are or what they are up to right now but we continue to pray for them and hope that they will continue to seek Jesus and be healed of every addiction.

We have met so many amazing people including some of the most influential ministry leaders in the world and have heard some of the most mind blowing wisdom and revelation but I have to say that the things I know we will remember and grow most from are the times together as a family. We have traveled thousands of miles together, had many conversations, prayed many prayers, laughed more than acceptable at times and have walked through major breakthrough together. We have been walking together with Jesus and I know that there is so much wisdom that will come out of those simple moments that we don’t always think to be important. We have to grow in wisdom to contain any amount of knowledge that we receive on this trip. The verse that has been coming to my mind a lot is Proverbs 24:3-4

“By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.”

My desire isn’t to walk out of this experience with a really big head, but to have inspiration for a really nice house.

Simple Thoughts about Community

This is a picture of our team down in Greenville, South Carolina with my dear friend Ian Finlay on the far right. He was one of my first friends in YWAM and became a brother despite our distance and going separate ways. It was such a privilege to get to see him for a short period of time and it was definitely worth it. We try to pray about every decision we make on this trip as a team and some of our stops have been specifically to visit friends/fellow YWAM brothers and sisters. Being able to encourage them and pray for them as well as receive from them is only creating a deeper friendship and connection that is able to last no matter what the distance is.

I am seeing how there are different levels of community and that they are all valuable. I would define community as a unified body that shares common interests. Would my friends that I rarely see but still have a connection to be considered part of my community? I would say yes and it is very important to build into those relationships. I would like to be way more connected to my friends and family than I am now but I am learning and seeing how valuable these relationships are. I am seeing how much God wants friendship with us and for us to have friendship with each other. Building stronger relationships can only create deeper stronger unity which in the end is better for everyone.

These are obviously very simple observations that I am stating and I in no way consider myself an expert in community. I only desire to learn about community and see the desire of so many people to have community become a reality rather than a hopeless discouraging effort. My prayer is that God will stir my heart and the hearts of others to value friendship and go deeper together. Then community wont be something that we have to create, but will be what God creates out of our love for one another.

Please pray:
-For us to be available these next few days as we take time to process. I am expecting there to be some time to just go out and do ministry. We are heading to Memphis today and will be staying right next to a park where we should be able to meet some people.
-For us to be able to process what we have learned so far and allow God to do in our hearts what He wants. We have listened to so many influential peoples wisdom and definitely some time to see what God has been saying to us.

Check out http://www.awakennations.com/ for more details on the trip and pictures!!!! It's worth the visit!!!!

Family Roots

Chris Little's house in Fayetville N.C.

On my journey I have been challenged, encouraged, and blown away by some of these amazing men and women of God. The amount of wisdom that these people carry is just amazing. I have never heard the simplest truths become so deep and powerful. I am seeing this amazing God that we serve in a new light. At times I just couldn't take any more information and I would get overwhelmed or frustrated, but I started getting before God and asking Him what He wanted to speak to me. I have never had such a clear view on God and His love like this and I started to open my heart more and more to His love in areas that I never even thought of.

We were able to meet with a man named Matt Peterson yesterday in Winston Salem, North Caroline. Matt is a former school leader at Morning Star ministries in Charlotte N.C. and now pastors a church. He shared a lot with us yesterday, but the one thing that struck a chord in my heart was what he shared about the "Parable of the Lost Son"(Luke 15:11-31). Matt pointed out about how the son's expectation in coming back to his father’s house was so work as a slave and be fed. What actually ended up happening was his father welcomed him in, dressed him in a robe, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet so that they could have a party! He had a wrong perspective about what His father was like.

I wonder how much of my perspective of what God had for me has been filtered through what I think I deserve or what lies I believe about who God is? I have been launched into a revelation of what it is to have my mind renewed. I have never had so much hope, joy, peace and excitement about what God has for me!

We are spending a few days in Charleston, S.C. to rest, pray and just enjoy family time together. I have been blessed with such an amazing group of people to live life with right now. I realize how important it is to have community to challenge, hold accountable, encourage and love each other. These are foundational things that I want more than anything in ministry. I see how important it is to have deep roots that can support the abundant fruit that we desire.

Prayer Requests:
That we continue to seek God for direction and be obedient.
That doors would open to the right people for us to meet.
That we would be open and available for God to put people in pour path to minister to.

The first steps

After a week of this pilgrimage we are finally settled down in Washington D.C. where I hope to catch up on what God has been showing and teaching me through many amazing ministry leaders. We spent our first four days in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Justice house of prayer where a lot of young people around my age and older gather to cry out to God for injustices like abortion and also for a revival in the many college campuses in the area like Harvard. One thing I never knew about Harvard was that it was founded to train ministers. Now it is far from its original purpose and is highly affected by humanism. We were also able to meet a friend of ours named Eunice who attends Harvard and holds a weekday morning prayer group with about 7 other students. These groups hope to see the Kingdom of God established and see leaders come out of Harvard that will be able to truly change the world.

We were then launched off to New Jersey where we visited the Resting House of Prayer where we were welcomed in like family. As soon as we arrived they sat us down and fed us and then let us rest until the next day. I loved seeing such an awesome group that loved Jesus and wanted to do ministry together. They were such a great example of being family in the body of Christ. They love serving the Lord and their heart is to bring healing and restoration into peoples lives in the community. I believe that this is the kind of community that everyone desires and it’s good to see it that its possible.

Next we took a trip to Lancaster P.A. where we spent a few days with a man named Corey Martin. He is an awesome man of God who truly loves telling people about Jesus like I’ve never seen before. Corey is a pastor of a church and also does a lot in the community as well as works a few jobs. I have never seen someone so passionate about sharing the gospel before. I was able to go with Corey and Chris Little to a drug and alcohol rehab meeting that Corey does ministry at. The age group was between 18 and 21 so it was a little intimidating for Chris and I to share, but Corey was so unashamed about confessing the love of Christ and didn’t hold back. Chris and I mentioned what we did in Hawaii at the Discipleship Training School and two of the guys were showing a lot of interest. They more expressed their desire to just go to Hawaii but I could tell that they hungered for a chance to have their lives changed.

Next we left Lancaster and drove to a town called Coatesville P.A. where we met up with a man named Jamie Galloway. He is a young pastor who had such a perspective on the Kingdom of Heaven that shook us up and challenged us more than anything yet. I could see how his teaching was shared in such a sincere way, but language and lack of time got in the way of a lot of understanding. I can see how instances like this this split up so many churches and denominations in the body of Christ. I am still trying the process the giant load of information that he gave us in the short time we were with him.

I now sit here in Washington D.C. wanting to process everything but overwhelmed at the thought of traveling for two months. With the Supreme Court across the street and having just read about the Heartbeat Bill I am faced with the reality that there are problems in this world that are bigger than me and my understanding, but the creator of the universe knows every day of my life. I just want to know Jesus!

"Ask where the good way is, and walk in it."

Sometimes making a choice in life is like entering a giant knotted highway (as seen above). We enter in and we have no idea how long it will take, how frustrating it will be, or where we will end up. My commitment to follow Jesus at times feels this, but as soon as I focus my eyes back on Jesus I am filled with peace and Joy. The decisions I make are so much more than Geographical steps, but they are choosing every day to acknowledge God in everything I do; choosing every day to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength; and receiving His love before trying any of this.

It has been an amazing time of rest being home and it seems so soon but I will be leaving for Boston February 3rd. I will be traveling across the United States with some of my friends/co-staff to seek perspective of what God is doing in America and to learn from different pastors/ministry leaders. I have an amazing opportunity ahead of me and I am excited to see how these steps of faith draw me deeper into a relationship with God and with others.

We have a van, an itinerary, and plane tickets to get to Boston, but we are going to be depending on God to provide in allotting of ways. This is a big test for me and I'm sure for others. A lot of what I wanted to grow in this year was simply faith. I don't always realize what I ask for until I am required to walk in it and believing that what I asked for has been or will be given at the right time. These steps have drawn me lower and lower to a place of constant prayer for God’s presence. It's when I stop everything and seek God that I truly have peace in knowing how awesome He is.

I want to embrace the simplicity of just walking with God and communicating with Him. I recently read in a magazine about Intimacy with God. It talked about how we are made in God’s image so that we can relate to Him. I might be way behind on this understanding, but I always thought it just meant that we looked like him, but I started to understand how much he wants to communicate with us, verbally, non-verbally, or any way that we are known to communicate that we don't even realize.

We don't have to leave it up to the experts or our pastor to talk to God. He created us all to relate to Him!

Finishing strong.

Our last ministry location was in Chiang Mai, Thailand at a restoration home called "Abba House". This was such an amazing ministry that we were able to partner with for ten days and see some life changing moves of God. We worked with a group of men who were saved through the prison ministry that Abba house does in the Chiang Mai prison. We also worked with a larger group of girls that were saved out of all sorts of different situation such like trafficking or abuse.

From our kitchen sink, Northern Thailand's largest mountain was placed in perfect view. Every night the sunset was placed right at the peak of the mountain. We were staying in brand new buildings with nice beds and hot showers. I felt such a peace of how we were ending this trip. I could start to look back and see how God's presence was there this whole time. How beyond my struggles and my failures, God was in control and working.

We were able to do allot of work with the men and women there. We even went with them into the Chiang Mai prison got to see around 200 men give their lives to Jesus! A few days into our time with Abba house we were notified that we would be spending our last two days with the ministry three hours away in a hill tribe called the "Lahu". We spent the one day traveling to the village, spending time playing with the kids and eating meals with the people. Our second day which was our last day of ministry ended up being a Sunday which involved having 4 church services and an additional 2 services since we were going to be there. We started at six in the morning and didn't end until nine at night!

We arrived back in Bangkok and headed straight to an Island for debrief. It was a big transition from a cold hill tribe village where we slept on a concrete floor and put on most of our cloths to keep warm, to arriving on an island by speedboat and laying on the beach in the warm sun. Looking back I experienced so much of Gods presence in all of my different circumstances. Whether in Hawaii, Cambodia or Thailand I was given the strength and love that I desired from God.

"11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:11-13