Flushing Michigan

So I have decided that this week instead of trying to relay what God is doing, I'm just going to let you read what the people of these churches have written! God is living and active and below are some letters of testimonies of how God is working!

So hear some of our fellow believers testimonies of God's grace in their lives!

God has made an amazing impact in my life this week. Sunday night when I “filled” my cup with things other than God, it really made me think how these earthly things are so temporary. I nagged at my husband about things, which caused a problem in my marriage. I went to my friends to gripe about my husband, which caused a problem in my marriage as well. At the end of a stressful day, I turned to a glass of wine, then another, and yet another which turned into a bottle, which caused problems in my marriage. One week ago I can tell you that I didn’t know if my marriage would last. Today I can tell you that God had done a complete turn around and we are growing in God’s Word together. All I need is GOD!

There is more peace in my heart and our home. I truly have revived my spiritual life. I had gotten so critical and judgmental against fellow Christians at church. I really haven’t enjoyed church for a long time. I go because of the kids. Now, I have committed to authentic Christianity without hypocrisy and told the kids they had to hold me accountable to be authentic and not hypocritical. I pledge allegiance and faith to my Lord.

I have learned things about God that I have not heard elsewhere – calling sin by its name, for one. I have a lot to work on, with Jesus’ help I shall get there. I have to devote my time to God more each day.

He encouraged me, refreshed me, and nourished me. He affirmed me and what He has placed on my heart. The words that came were refreshment to a dry soul, a soul that needed to be refreshed. I needed to hear “be real.” Watch people serve, experience people love. It has been a good four days. I hope it isn’t just a four day vacation, but something that will lead to transformation.

Those testimonies are a product of your faithful prayer for this ministry! It is so humbling after a conference to sit on the bus, traveling to the next church and read those letters, knowing that God has allowed me to have a part in restoration with HIS children! God is awesome you guys, He is so good and He chooses to use us, and through that sustains us and blesses us!
Last week I had the opportunity to share my families story with a hurting couple who had been through a very similar situation and I was blown away. I was amazed that such hurt in my life could encourage others in such a real way! I just cried with them, empathized with them and will continue to pray for them! God is faithful and He has a reason and purpose for all things, the good, the bad and the ugly . . . you never know! Never discount your life story because someone might need to hear it! I am growing leaps and bounds in my transparency with fellow believers, realizing that I am not alone. God has surrounded us with a support system, the body of Christ! Praise the Lord that we are not in this journey of life on our own! HE will not take you where HE cannot sustain you!

Berrien Center, MI

Well we have completed our first THIRST conference, it began Sunday, September 11th and ended last night, September 14th. It was awesome to finally see everything put together and to get a feel for how things should be working. It was so good to meet so many people and make connections, to encourage people and be encouraged. God worked in Berrien Center Bible Church in awesome ways. We were able to see relationships restored, accountability established, and a unity among generations revived. I wish I could bring all of you along to all the churches, so that you could have the opportunity to see God work in such real and awesome ways. I am humbled by the fact that God has allowed me to be used by HIM. We serve an amazing God!

It has been quite a transition, living out of a suitcase, getting a new “family” and traveling every week, then spending my days and evenings at a church. I liked to think of myself as adaptable but this lifestyle has given the word adaptable a whole new meaning. My host family has been wonderful and I could not have asked for better people to help me adjust to my first week on the road.

I’m still working on my lessons for the kids, this week they went will but there is always room for improvement. The kids were so well behaved and very entertaining. I have to tell you all a funny story, some of you may think its gross BUT you will most likely still laugh anyway : )

So as I was teaching my lesson last night, during a very “dramatic” part this one little kid just let the loudest, smelliest fart rip. It was awful, all the kids started laughing then, I though for sure the other teachers in the room were going to pass out b/c of the smell. And the farts just kept on coming one kid after another, it was then we decided our kids club was no longer called happy heart city . . . It had become, happy fart city. It was bad, really bad!

This week we are in Flushing, Michigan and I am ready and waiting to watch God move in big ways. Pray for the church, Mayfair Bible Church, that God would use our team to accomplish his plan for the people here.

Hope this song encourages you!

If faith can move the mountains
Let the mountains move
We come with expectation
Waiting here for You, waiting here for You

You're the Lord of all creation
And still You know my heart
The Author of Salvation
You've loved us from the start

Waiting here for You
With our hands lifted high in praise
And it's You we adore
Singing Alleluia

You are everything You've promised
Your faithfulness is true
And we're desperate for Your presence
All we need is You

Pray BIG!

It is a cool beautiful Michigan morning as I sit here and type out exactly what I want to share with you all! We still have yet to be on the road which is hard well, the sleeping in has been really nice and for those of you that really “know me” having my morning coffee in peace has also been a very positive aspect haha! It has been good to have extra time to spend with the Lord but it has also given me too much time to think and analyze life. For the girls reading, you know exactly what I mean haha! When life is coming at you crazy fast and you know decisions are coming and you try to manipulate in your mind how to stop them or slow them down or change them. Its exhausting, so here I sit letting it all go . . . Knowing that my God is so much more powerful that my simple human mind, with its simple human answers. SO my prayer has changed from God show me my future haha to God show me what you have for me TODAY, and give me the grace to accomplish it. I’m not going to say its easy and sometimes its just the dumb situations that after I respond I realize “man that was my moment to really glorify God and I blew it” I read this in my devotions this morning and it hit the nail right on the head “PAUSE . . . Before responding to people or situations, giving God’s spirit space to act through you, hasty words and actions leave no room for a Christ-like response,” Convicting isn’t it.

Now moving on . . . So this past weekend we did have the opportunity to minister in a church about an hour and half away from camp. I had the privilege to teach for the first time since being here and it felt so good. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it, that was the longest stretch in the last 5 years that I had gone without teaching on a regular basis. It just gave me a new confidence and inspiration to keep pressing on to see the purpose and have a glimpse of all that God can do. This Friday we leave and head out for our first 4 day Thirst conference, please pray, pray for revival, for spiritual renewal. It doesn’t take anyone special to recognize our nations need for spiritual awakening, but it does take special people to pray for it.

The pictures at the top are of when our team went to the sand dunes on lake Michigan . . . So much fun! We had a blast!

We Serve a Faithful God!

As I was doing my quiet time this morning I was reminded again of God’s amazing faithfulness. In our simple human minds we limit God and therefore limit ourselves. I was reading through the story of Gideon and where he started with God at the mill, then he tested God with the fleece and through all of that he eventually led an army through Gods power to victory in the most uncommon way. After reading that I was reminded of how God can do seemingly common things in uncommon ways with the most untrained people. I stand humbled recognizing that I am the most untrained person that God could have ever wanted to use. Yet here I am trying my best to be obedient to the spirit of God and doing my best to serve God with all of my heart. That is a challenge to myself and an encouragement to all of you, don’t ever discount yourself, allow God to move and work in and through you to do the uncommon! If your journey and walk with the Lord doesn’t excite you check your heart and make sure your being all that God could ever want you to be! HE wants to use you, so get excited!

Now a little bit of what has been going on here at camp, we have been doing more training and two of the teams are leaving tomorrow for their first summit. So please be in prayer for them as their begin their journey this year. For those of you that are not extremely familiar with the ministry here is a website that can help you understand what we are doing a little better! Also included is our schedule for the year.

http://www.lifeaction.org/conferences/

Please be in prayer for all of the road teams and their heart and mission for revival! I wish you all could have been there last weekend for the 40th anniversary celebration of the ministry. It was so encouraging to see a ministry who’s heart is still beating for the revival of this nation. God has been so faithful to this ministry and has blessed it in so many amazing ways! It was awesome to look back on what God has done but also to look towards the vision for the future of Life Action! God is so faithful!

My team, the white team, will be at a church this Sunday, September 4th so please be in prayer for our ministry there on Sunday. Then we have another week at camp before we hit the road a week from Friday! Which even then we will only be traveling like 15 miles for our first church but we will be away from camp and officially on the road : ) I am so excited to watch God move in my own heart, in the hearts of my team and in the hearts of the people in the churches that we minister in! It is also my hope and prayer that as you read what I write that it encourages you and speaks to your own heart! We serve a BIG and AWESOME God . . . So be excited for what God is doing!

The Start of Something New

Hey everyone, well, meet my family for the next year: ) The pictures on the right are the people on my team, I'm sure these won't be the last pictures you see of all of us haha! Anyway, so happy to be sharing with you what God has been up to! I’m not gonna lie, its been hard adjusting to a curfew and a strict schedule. Word of Life was wonderful life training : ) I never dreamed it would be so hard for me to adjust back into such a structured schedule haha! But I am learning so much about being flexible and patient. My prayer/goals for myself this next year is to become more teachable and more of a servant. These two things do not always come naturally to me, (those of you who know me fairly well are probably saying amen to that haha) so by the grace of God I am praying that He will be my help in working on those things. I know that He will work on those two things and so much more throughout this coming year haha! So as you pray for me I would love it and appreciate it so much if you would pray about that for me!

So, today was the first time we were able to be together as a team ministering in a church. It went really well, everything seemed to go very smoothly. It was great to finally see a little bit of what I actually signed up to do for the next year haha! I am slowly beginning to put together all the pieces of everything that takes place, and to be honest I am pretty amazed. If you could see how 19 people travel and pack and melt into wherever they are placed. I know it is just the start of something so awesome. I am really excited to go into the churches and interact with the people. To encourage, reach out to and interact with them.

So far during my time here I have had the opportunity to meet and spend time with so many wonderful people. One, among many is a women a lot of you may “know” at least through her writing and speaking! Last week all of us girls here at camp had the amazing opportunity to get together with Nancy Leigh DeMoss to hear her testimony and have a question and answer time with her! It was one of those times when you hear things that you have heard all of your life, but all of the sudden it clicks! She gave such wonderful advice about being single, about having a consistent quiet time, and just drawing closer the Lord. As well as recognizing that Jesus Christ is Lord over our lives. During her time with us she also talked about complete surrender to the Lord, we need to recognize that what the Lord says . . . Goes : ) So many times I feel like I fight God on things, well at least negotiate haha! I know what He is asking and I do my best to avoid it. But as long as I realize that God is Lord over my life there will be no struggle. I desire to be committed to complete surrender!

Thank you all so much for taking time to read and pray. Thank you to those of you who have sent me texts and written to me on face book. God is using you all in incredible ways in my life and I am so thankful for you care, concern and interest in my life and what God is doing through Life Action. Please don’t stop praying, you all are playing a vital role in this ministry that God has called me to be a part of!

Praise the Lord for HE is Good!

So a little more than a week has passed since being here and it was been a whirlwind. We had what is called revival week, which is a week of spiritual growth for the staff and traveling teams of Life Action. For me it was a week of healing and growth. God has been teaching me so much about forgiveness, love and immediate obedience to the prompting of the Hold Spirit. In order for God to work in and through us we have to be ready to act, to move, to step out in faith and obedience trusting that God will work in and through us despite our sin. So often we limit the power of God and His Spirit, but in all reality I believe God would use us so much more if we would exercise faith believing in the powerful God that we serve! This past week I felt so very lonely being in a new place with people I don’t know and yet I felt so near to God. I feel like God and I are on the same page now and it is so liberating and freeing when you follow through with what God is asking you to do!

We still have a few more weeks of training and then the traveling begins! It has been such a blessing to be fed through wonderful speakers and the word of God but I am ready to get out there and start using what I have learned. So pray that I have the patience I need to finish up the few weeks of training. That God will continue to provide the finances necessary to pay my bills, and pray that God will grant unity among my team! Praise the Lord for HE is good : )

For your nearness Lord I hunger

So I have been here for about well . . . three days, and I'm not gonna lie it has been challenging. Yesterday was the first day without tears in a while, so praise the Lord for that : ) It has been hard to adjust and figure out what is going on and learn the "life action way" of doing things. The camp is beautiful and the people have been so great! Friday as I was getting so completely overwhelmed, had a terrible headache and was crying like a crazy person God placed a blessing in my life. One of the girls in my cabin just came up to me and hugged me and prayed with me and really just encouraged me in such an awesome way. Since I have been here I have just been praying that God would provide a friend for me, and last night my brother gave me some insight, he said "Em, ya know maybe you should be looking for ppl. that you can be a blessing to instead of waiting for someone to bless you" and you know he was very right. So I am asking that you all would pray that I could be a blessing to the people around me. That I would love these people that God has blessed me with, that I would embrace this ministry and run with it. I struggle daily with the very recent pain of what has happened with my family. I know that I may never understand, that I may never know why, but that I may hopefully learn from it and carry that wisdom with me to each church and each home that I enter into this next year as I travel. I am called to love, I am called to pursue Christ with my life, my prayer is that I daily fall more in love with the Lord. He is it, He is the only one that can give me the strength, healing, restoration, hope and peace.

This is a song that has really ministered to me these past few days . . .

For your nearness Lord I hunger
For your nearness Lord I wait
Hold me ever closer Father
Such a love I can't escape

For your nearness I am hoping
For your nearness Lord I long
Have no need of any other
I have found where I belong
Yes, I have found where I belong

So draw me nearer Lord
Never let me go
Closer to your heart
Draw me nearer Lord
Draw me nearer Lord

In your nearness there is healing
What was broken now made whole
Restoration in it's fullness
Lasting hope for all who come

In your nearness I take shelter
Where you are is where I'm home
I have need of only one thing
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
To be here before your throne
To be here before you throne

So draw me nearer Lord
Never let me go
Closer to your heart
Draw me nearer Lord

So draw me nearer Lord
Never let me go
Closer to your heart
Draw me nearer Lord
Draw me nearer Lord

And keep me here, keep me here
There's nowhere else I rather be
So keep me here, keep me here
There's nowhere else I rather be
There's nowhere else I rather be

So draw me nearer Lord
Never let me go
Closer to your heart
Draw me nearer Lord
Draw me nearer Lord
Draw me nearer my Lord