oh, my life...

So I do this thing where I plan my life. And I think that God just laughs at me most of the time. Probably he's just wondering if I'm ever going to learn that when I make plans, he has other plans.

This time, I'm not really sure yet. I have been planning on returning to college this fall, but right now I'm just not sure that is where God is calling me to go.

I'm still praying about it, but I think that maybe God is leading me to join staff here with YWAM. I'm still praying about it, because it's a *huge* step. I would have to raise at least $650 of monthly support. Honestly, that scares the crap out of me. But if that's what God is telling me to do, I should probably do it. :)

So... I'm praying. If you would pray too, I would appreciate it! :)

Love!

Justine

Back from Houston!

Houston was awesome! I always love doing ministry there... this past group of kids were really great, and it was awesome to see God working in their lives while they were here.

As you may have seen on facebook, Joel and I are no longer dating. We both decided that it was the most loving and wise thing to seek God separately, because we're not sure if our future plans necessarily line up anymore. But we are still really good friends, and we are both at peace about it. :)

i'll post pictures of outreach later... :)

Don't worry, I'm still alive! :)

I survived two weeks of SST! It was so awesome and crazy and draining and.... just really good. I absolutely loved the group of kids that we got to work with, and I had a blast teaching the Clincher drama as well.

We spent one week here in Texas, where the students had classes three times a day, ministry prep time, intercession, worship, obstacle course time, and lake time. The schedule was packed! We were up at 7am and in bed by 11pm. crazy, crazy, crazy. :)

Then we packed into 15-passenger vans and headed up to Chicago. 20 hours later, we moved all of our stuff into the church we would call home for the next 7 days. :) The ministry in Chicago was focused around praying and interceeding, so we were really able to interact one-on-one with the people there. We were able to offer prayer to people walking past in the business district, write/draw encouraging messages and scripture on the sidewalk in parksa and pick up trash, pray for people on the public transportation systems, hand out hotdogs in a park, play soccer with Napali immigrants, and learn about Islam and Krishna consciousness (to better understand the people we were ministering to, and why they are drawn to other religions). It was a really great experience!
The craziest thing about Chicago was that I was in charge of food for the week. I planned meals, purchased the food, prepared it, cleaned it up, etc. I also had to teach a bunch of teenagers how to cook and clean... harder than it sounds, i promise :)

and yes. i survived :)

This week we have some time off... a few maintanence projects in the village. Next week is prep week, and the week after that, we start all over again with classes. Our outreach this time will be to Houston, which I am *so* looking forward to!!!

Thanks for reading! keep in touch!

Justine

Me and Meganne getting antsy waiting for the train... :)

Newsletters!! :)

My newsletters have finally come back from the copy place! :) I'm a little sad, because they're a little darker than I would have liked, but they'll accomplish their purpose :)
This is how they start:

Hello Friends!

That's the important part. I wanted you to see the picture... because that's really the only part that didn't turn out so good. :)

Anyway, today is the last lecture day! :(
It's been so good, I don't want it to be over yet! But today was the best day, by far! We had my favorite teacher!!! Her name is Heather, and she's just a really energetic speaker, and she knows a lot about historic Jewish culture.
And!!!
This afternoon, the one and only Joel will be teaching! Because his school is all about the Bible, and teaching. So he will be coming to teach my school :)

It's gonna be good! 
And to top it all off, we're having a Dwell night (worship service) tonight!
Hope you're having as wonderful of a day as I am! :)

So close!

So close to the end of my School of Evangelism! It's so crazy... I don't feel like I've been here for very long, but at the same time, I feel like I've been here forever. But definitely not long enough to almost be done!

So many thoughts...
It'll be nice to be home.
I will miss all of my incredible friends.
I'm excited to go back to college.
I would love to stay here and learn some more!
I'm excited to play on Kuyper's volleyball team.
I have had so much fun playing sand volleyball and soccer here every Saturday....
I really do miss my family!!!

It's going to be really good to be home, but I have learned so much from these amazing people! I really have appreciated the deep friendships and the openness and honesty we've all shared. It's been awesome. Wouldn't trade it for the world. :)

Anyway, this is the last week of lecture. Next Monday we will be starting to prepare for SST's (the high school summer "camp" programs..... they are basically very mini-DTS's (the first school I went through: Discipleship Training School) with a week of lecture and a week of outreach). I'm so excited!! :)
Please be praying that God will speak to students to come this summer and step out in faith to raise the support to be here this summer. He wants to change their lives! :)

Oh! I got a really awesome package from my parents! :)
I'll post pictures as soon as I can! :)

A small prayer with consequences...

It's a funny thing. when you ask God to humble you... he'll do it. sometimes by putting you in a community living setting. Sometimes by putting you under authority that gives you a curfew. sometimes by having you clean toilets.

And sometimes, by doing all of these things at once. :)
But the cool thing is, if you ask for it, you can't really complain when it happens :D

But you know what! God is faithful, he wants my highest good. So i know that if I'm scrubbing toilets, i'm serving him, blessing his heart, and learning humility. :)

Psalm 113:7-9
"He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy fromt he ash heap, to make them sit with prices, with the prices of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!"

My daily work duty: cleaning the girl's dorm bathrooms

My small group leader's baby shower! :)

Baked goods I helped package for a fundraiser for our school :)

Urban Missions Week!!

Happy May everyone! :)

Our school just got back from a week in Chicago, Illinois! Our focus for lecture this week was Urban culture and how to share Jesus with people in cities, so we packed up into three, 15-passenger vans and drove 16 hours to Chicago. It was such a cool experience!

I've been to Chicago before, but I had no idea there was such cultural diversity clustered throughout the city! There are literally complete cultural centers every few blocks... you can be walking along in a Pakistani district (they all speak the language, dress the same, have their cultural shops and restaurants), and cross the street into an Israeli district. The street names change and everything!

Needless to say, we got to eat a lot of really good ethnic food, and talk with some really neat people.

One day we went downtown and were just asking the people walking by if we could pray for them. We were rejected numerous times, but we were able to pray for over 300 people in just one hour! Imagine how many people were encouraged that day! :) I was able to pray for healing in a woman's back, recovery from a cancer operation for someone's sister, healing for a man's wife from crohn's disease, several court case rulings, the security guards of the plaza we were walking around in, and many other awesome people.

We also visited a nursing home in the city and met some precious little old people who were really lonely. Most of them were from India and had moved here to be closer to their children, but their children didn't visit them anymore. It was so hard to leave them! :( But we got to sing to them, pray for them, and hear about their lives. One little old lady told me to call her Nani (the word for Grandmother in her language) and asked me to sit and watch her soap operas with her :) they were all in another language, so she explained them to me. It was precious!

Our last day in the city, we visited the a "temple"? of krishna consciousness and a muslim mosque... The point of this time was to examine both religions and try to see what attracted people to them, and what they were clearly missing that Christianity addressed. It was a very eye-opening time for me, and really made me fall more in love with God, because of his love and his greatness... no other god compares! :)

Some awesome quotes from this week's teaching with Brad Stanley:
- " The enemy doesn't waste his time with things that aren't a threat to him...Where is he working overtime to steal, kill, and destroy, and what treasure is buried there that he's working against?"
- "It's more important to understand the redemptive gift of a place than the spiritual strongholds... We shouldn't be out chasing the devil and fixing things after he's made a mess. We should be taking hold of God's purposes and helping cities to realize their giftings as a city."

All in all, this was a really neat week! We were engaging in hands-on, applicable-to-the-moment learning, and going out to bless a beautiful city. I would love to do ministry in Chicago again sometime, and I might actually get the chance to lead the summer camp outreach there this summer for my outreach as an SST Staff person. :)

As always, thank you for being interested in my life! Love you :)

 Photo taken at "the bean"... by Kaitlin G.

My mohawk! :) Taken by Jake M.

Chicago at night! Taken by Meganne S.

The Krisna Conscious place taken by Meganne S.

 

Pizza at Lou Malnati's! Taken by Kaitlin G.