Pigs, Prayers, and Visas

Now that school is in full swing, we have been constantly in motion. We have been

• praising Jesus
• singing
• walking up and down the volcano our campus is built on
• praying
• literally hearing the voice of God 
• *I'm just gonna let you know at this point that my life is being radically changed 
• eating
• sleeping
• talking
• dreaming crazy amazing dreams
• meeting new people
• making new friends
• interceding for loved ones and for missionaries around the world
• watching God answer my heart's desires
• sweating
• taking notes
• learning how to live
• getting seriously excited for the next thing God is going to do

Usually not all at the same time, but occasionally many at once :) You definitely don't want to hear how hoarse my voice is at the moment. I actually took the day off to stay away from large groups of people to let my sad little vocal chords rest for a wee bit. 

The guys honor Jeff and his love of triathlons and spandex by shaving their legs and wearing spandex.
Truly, this is honoring your brother. *smh*

Jeff Reid spoke on the theme of "Walking with Jesus" this week. He is a missionary with his wife and two boys in Cape Town, South Africa and is a man marked by the zeal of his Heavenly Father. I was definitely challenged and encouraged from his messages. Jeff really focused on getting us out of our comfort zones to exhort one another, in the process giving each one of us a renewed sense of security and confidence of who we are in Christ because of His unfathomable love for each one of us. To summarize a few points I learned this week (without the help of my notes tonight):

• Worshiping God has nothing to do with what I'm feeling. I worship my heavenly Father simply because He is deserving of my praise.
• The Trinity. This one is really deep, so prepare yourself:
•  God sent Jesus to the world so Jesus could prepare the way for the Holy Spirit. When we seek guidance from the Holy Spirit, He teaches us to be like Jesus who did everything His Father told Him to. They always act in accordance with the Word of God.
• Our job as Christians is to read the word, and respond with immediate obedience (ie: praise and thanksgiving.)
• Lastly, pray OUT LOUD. Every prayer recorded in the Bible was prayed aloud. There is power in the very name of Jesus.

Learning about something called IMOs

Wednesday we have "electoral" class time. Jonathan will be doing an intense study of the Bible, and I chose to go the farming route a) because I know NOTHING about farming and b) so what if I might wanna grow something in my yard one day? I'll learn how! The campus has a brilliant farm set up  that is on the cutting edge of farming technology. The ideas that are forming here are bringing our world closer to ending world hunger. They have come up with a technique to turn even a desert into a blooming crop field. The farm is complete with chickens, sheep, goats, fish (that help fertilize the farm) and pigs (that eat the scraps from our meals and save the school $30k a year on waste removal)It's nuts, and I'm psyched to learn all I can.

The pigs, in all their glory

 Something that we will be doing weekly, is going into the town to meet people, build relationships, and share the love of Jesus. This is something that comes difficult to most American Christians. Telling strangers about the gospel. But when Jonathan and I met a (homeless) man enslaved in alcoholism wanting so badly to be free, it seemed like the most logical thing in the world to share how he could be free. The Holy Spirit gave me such a passion for this man to earnestly show him mercy and love and show him the way to Jesus. When we parted ways, he thanked us genuinely for our encouragement and walked away in tears saying he would think about it.

Wednesday night, Kona Outreach recap time

Thursday in class, Jeff had our DTS (CommTrans) visit another class (Compassion) to pray blessings over them. There is nothing like being in a small space with 200 young people praying their hearts out to ask God for blessing over their brothers and sisters. So beautiful.

We have officially begun the process of traveling to India by.... applying for our visas! Yay! It takes months for them to process, so we needed to start on this as early as possible.

This panorama is extra funky because when people move  it distorts the image. But nevertheless... here we are :)

 This was certainly a challenging week for Jonathan and I as we both have been battling head and chest colds. Please pray for our healing. We know that the enemy is not happy about us being here, so we weren't surprised when most of our class has come down with the same thing. But, our God is greater and truly a joy to serve. We are looking forward to a new week of classes and a new speaker for "corporate week" when all schools will meet together for the messages throughout the week.

Thank you for your love and prayers! Upwards and onwards!