Aloha!

Wow! Where do I start?

Honestly, the past almost two weeks since I have arrived in Kona have felt like a month, and yet, at the same time, I can't believe it's already been that long!

My days are long, but they are filled with such amazing teachings and wonderful moments with Jesus that they go by really quickly. We have worship a lot throughout the week, as well as spontaneous nights of worship that our staff or fellow students put on because they just wanted all of us to come together again to give God praise and glory.

If there's one thing that I am so incredibly impressed by, it's my fellow students. Although I don't know everyone's stories, I am in awe of the people here whose sole desire is to chase after Jesus, especially the men! It encourages my heart so much to see young men in the faith hungry to know more of God and hungry to read His Word, but also to see them respect and encourage others around them to strive after God as well. It's really an incredibly beautiful sight to see and it gives my heart hope for the next generation of men that they will build up through their families to chase after Jesus with a hunger like theirs.

Every day I get to start my day with either worship or having practical training to prepare us for our outreach in sharing the gospel with those we will meet. This morning was especially sweet as we had our first corporate intercessory prayer time where all we did was spend an hour in praying for a specific nation. It was such a wonderful time.

Later in our mornings, we then have our guest speakers for our class share their testimonies and share lessons about God's character that I am, honestly, in complete awe every time I hear them speak. You can see how much they love God and how much they love us also in wanting us to soak in the Scripture. Their deepest desire is that we learn more about God and for us to love Him more and surrender more to Him so we can have a deeper relationship with Him. I cannot believe the goodness of the Father in all that He is teaching me, and I feel as though I'm doing you a little bit of an injustice in not being able to articulate everything into words with what He is doing! It is absolutely too much for me to be able to compress into one newsletter, that I feel like I definitely need to update you once a week instead of twice a month to share with you all that God is doing in my life and those around me.

Before I end this newsletter, I definitely have one exciting announcement that I thought I wasn't going to be able to share until a month or so into our schooling - MY OUTREACH LOCATION!!

Our first weekend, our leaders shared the different locations that were available for us to go on our outreach and we were given 24 hours to meditate on those locations and pray and see if God would put a specific place on our hearts that we felt called to go. I was very sick that first weekend with bad allergies to the point that I felt as though I couldn't focus on staying still before the Lord to hear His voice in this decision making process. So I called my dear friend, Jessica, through my home church in San Antonio (Crossbridge Community Church) who's helping me with the fundraising process throughout my time here, and asked her to pray over me and to see if God gave her a specific location to mind for me through the options I gave her.

She told me that the first image in her head that popped up was a vision of me loving on the children of the Philippines and told me that she felt as though this is where God wanted me to go for outreach. So I put that down as my number one choice (we select up to three choices in a survey of places we felt were placed on our hearts from God to go out for outreach), and after a week of the leaders meditating and praying where each student should go, we found out this past Friday our outreach locations and which team we would serve on. I am happy to say that the Lord answered and did choose for me to go to the Philippines!! I will be embarking with a team of 15 people to go to the Philippines and we leave on March 28th

I am beyond excited to see what God is going to do with my team in the Philippines and where He will have us go. I know that the Lord has a lot of good things in store for all of us, as well as a lot of growth, which I am most excited about. I want the Lord to break down all walls and barriers around my heart and make me more like Him.

My biggest prayer right now is that the Lord will bring our team closer together and that we will be united as a family, instead of a body of individuals on the same team. I would love your prayers alongside me for this, as I truly believe that we can do mighty works in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to make His Name known among the nations.

I would also love your prayers still for fundraising! I want to apologize if some of you have read my guest blog post for Living Revelations that said I was fully funded. I meant to say that I was fully funded for the schooling portion only. I am sorry if I gave the wrong impression but am thankful for your grace in all of this!

Here's an update on my fundraising, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! So far, I have raised a total of $5730 out of the $9400 that I will need to raise. I have finished paying off the first $4000 that was for the Discipleship Training School program for my first three months here in Kona, Hawaii the day that I arrived on the island. The other $1730 is out of the total $5400 that I need to raise for the outreach portion! Praise God!! By January 28th I will need to raise an additional $770 to pay the first half that is due for outreach. I trust and believe that God will provide as I have seen Him do this already countless times for not only me but also for my fellow students as well. It is absolutely nuts how God provides in sometimes the craziest ways! So I would love for your prayers that God would place it on the hearts of my friends, family and strangers to give financially. I do not ask the money for myself, but for God and I have great comfort knowing that the money that is being donated is going towards making God's Name known throughout the nations and that I can play a part in this.

If you were one of the people who has given to me, I want to say a HUGE thank you! The money that you give goes straight to the school and for this mission. I do not see a penny of it and I want to thank you for trusting God with your tithe for my discipleship training school program and mission trip. I am so beyond grateful for you and for your love and support throughout this time. If you feel lead to give, you can click here to give online through my church website where you can receive a tax deductible when you make a donation. If you would like to write a check, please make it out to "Crossbridge Community Church" and write under the Memo line "YWAM - Lydia Benedict". The address for you to send your checks to is 25700 Overlook Parkway, San Antonio, TX 78260.

For those of you who are giving through intercessory prayer, thank you so much! I am so honored to have you on my team praying for me and alongside me as I go throughout these next few months. I've seen prayer work and this is a huge comfort to me knowing that I have friends from all over praying for me and for the people that we will be sharing the Gospel with as well.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you and I hope I can do you justice by sharing as many God stories and experiences throughout my time here as possible, knowing that YOU are the reason I am here and am able to do what God has called me to do.

On the walk with you,

Lydia Benedict