I have officially made it back to Huntington Beach, CA and have been settling into new rhythms here as there is grace to do so. The life of a missionary is far from mundane, a constant change of pace, but I am beyond honored to be able serve and give my life to serving my generation, but above all, serving Jesus.
In the last month I have had the opportunity of serving with “The Send” which was a stadium gathering committed to activating the church to “live sent” and commission every member of the church to all spheres of society – so that together we can fulfill the great commission! It was truly a glorious week to be with the body of Christ from all of the country and share in loving Jesus and making his name known!
1300 people decided they wanted to dedicate a week to reaching and loving Kansas City with the message of the gospel through 298 different outreach locations. Ever had a giant family get together and you meet family members you’ve never met before but you know that you are related to them by blood? That is exactly how this week felt, one giant family get together. Our family get together consisted of spending our mornings worshipping in a large tent, dancing, yelling at the top of our lungs, or maybe even shedding a few tear drops – while always shedding drops of sweat (the humidity in Kansas is no joke). We would then listen to a practical teaching on learning to preach the gospel to one another, how to pray for healing for sick and injured, and so much more. But then we would go and DO IT, all 1300 of us would go and love and serve the people of Kansas City. As you can imagine, there were few parts of Kansas City that didn’t get served or reached. In fact, I ran into people after this week of outreach that immediately knew I was associated with the “Christians from the tent” because they had been so touched by the people they had talked to that week.
I had the great opportunity to serve this week by helping organize, encourage, and empower three different ministries into teams to do evangelism and serving the city! I was absolutely blown away by their boldness and compassion for lost. Most days they couldn’t wait to get out on the streets, and would stay out longer than the time span we gave them. They just went wild. I am so stirred by their faith and love for Jesus. I do want to share a couple of testimonies so you can get a glimpse into this week.
This testimony is from one of the students from YWAM Orlando named Chloe.
“Today I got to talk to a woman named Aileen. As we started conversation with her, I asked her if she knew God. She shared that she did, but proceeded to shared that she felt God had made a mistake for not stopping her step daughter and granddaughter from being murdered in their own home. The murder took place in her home, and the man who murdered Aileen’s step daughter and granddaughter made the father pour gasoline everywhere and then set the house on fire. She shared how she felt as though God made a mistake that day, because how could he allow such evil to take place and not stop it. She shared how she has held on to bitterness, anger, and bitterness towards the man who committed this murder, and that she could not come to terms with forgiving him. She said, ‘I would rather go to hell than forgive this man.” As I asked her more, she shared that nothing would ever convince her to change her mind. But after the gospel was shared and the crowd was asked to respond to making Jesus Lord, Aileen raised her hand. I went over to talk with I asked what her raising her hand met and she goes well I believe God‘s with me but it doesn’t hurt ever do that in remind him. I then went in to asking if I could share a piece of my testimony with her, and I shared that I forgiven people for they had done to me and what they did to my family. I told her that you can still have hurt and forgive. That forgiving is a choice that she can make, and that she can cross him out of her book. The atmosphere literally shifted. She believed what I said, and I asked if she would repeat a prayer after me and she said “yes.” We walked through her repenting for harboring unforgiveness, accepting forgiveness from God for that, then forgiving the man that killed her babies and releasing him from her book. She opened her eyes and looked like a new person. I asked how she felt, and she said she felt God’s presence like a gush of wind and cold air. She shared how she had never experienced so much peace before and that no other conversation has helped her feel this way before, she felt FREE.”
I am going to attach a video of the next one because I simply just would not do it justice if I tried to summarize it. I would highly encourage you to watch, as it exemplifies to the intentionality of our God and the way that he pursues us! SNEAK PEAK: Saved – Filled – Sent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l31rfut1g6I&feature=youtu.be
Isn’t God’s love CRAZY? I hope that this encouraged you.
After returning to Huntington Beach, I was able to be apart of a call center that followed up with every person who registered for the stadium gathering and personally asked them what God was asking them to take action in, and how we could provide any resource, time of prayer, or commission to go and do what the Lord placed on their heart. Our team alone made 19,000 calls to individuals and we were daily encouraged by the conversations we had with young and old responding to the call to take action and see the world met with the love of Jesus with their unique “YES” of obedience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr3QTxErGGM
Be encouraged God is working in mighty ways throughout the whole body of Christ. He is stirring a true compassion and love within hearts to say that we cannot turn a blind eye to the unreached nations, we cannot turn away from the orphan and foster children, we cannot trust that someone else will preach the gospel to the person in the grocery store – we want to be the ones because that is God’s heart for HIS children that he is longing to be back in relationship with.
As a ministry there are lots of things ahead, the summer’s in Circuit Riders is dedicated to training. That means that for the next 3 months Circuit Riders will be hosting 10 day leadership training schools for middle & high school students + college students & young adults. These trainings will be held in Huntington Beach, CA – Dallas, TX – Kona, HA -Nairobi, Kenya , Germany, England, and Cairo, Egypt. The number of students who are applying to be trained through these training camps, is sky rocketing to numbers that Circuit Riders has never seen before. We believe that as a ministry we are called to train and equip this generation to be the leaders that God has called them to be in whatever sphere/mission field they are called too. We feel that we are to give everything to serve and empowering these young adults and middle & high school students – because they will be those commissioned to nations!
I plan to staff at the schools in Huntington Beach, Dallas, and Cairo, Egypt and I am so very excited to pour into leaders or dare I say revivalists?
Prayer points:
- Pray for favor with open doors in the nations. It is so evident that God has open the door wide for us to be in these new nations, but we want to continue to reach areas that are untouchable.
- Pray for the young adults and teens who will be giving 10 days to being trained to go back to their high school campuses and college campuses consumed by the love of God and burdened to see the lost saved. Pray for life changing encounters with his love that lead to radical surrender and willingness to go where God calls.
- Personal praise: I feel that God is positioning me right where he wants me in Circuit Riders. It is an incredible characteristic of God to seek and save the lost, and to empower the young leader, so it feels like a great honor to call this my full time job. To follow his heart and plans to reach college campuses of America. Not only that he is intentional with the community that I get to call family in Circuit Rider, but also with the opportunity to be apart of the church here in California is so beautiful and FUN!
- Personal request: that I find the church body that God is calling me to! I am praying for connections and confirmations to be exactly where he wants me!
- More personal note: I am deeply desiring to know the Bible in a deeper way, to be able know it frontwards and backwards and grow in the knowledge of God. So I am asking would you pray for revelation and understanding for me in my connection with God!
Please feel free to reach out with any prayer requests that you have, I want to partner with you in prayer always!
