It's been a total of five weeks since I first arrived here in Kona, and the amount of knowledge that I have learned and retained at YWAM through my discipleship training school has been more than I could have ever imagined. Each week, God is tearing down walls around my heart and bringing more freedom to, not only me, but my classmates as well. A very encouraging word that our class has been receiving ever since week one and has continued to shower over us since that time, has been that our class has been different in a good way than any other class before us. They see a lot of genuine joy in us and are very encouraged to see a lot of leaders within our class that has a lot of zeal and love to go out into the world, determined to make a difference and make His Name known.
Within the first few weeks of being here, our class has learned about the characteristics of God, the power of God, freedom through Jesus Christ, spiritual gifts, and relationships with each other and in our relationship with our future spouse. Every week I ask, "Lord, what do You have for me and what do you want me to learn?" and every week He seems to stretch me in a way that I didn't think was possible. Every time I think I've surrendered everything over to God, He just pulls more out of me and continues to grow me, which sounds as though I am upset by this, but, honestly, I'm so thankful God continues to show me more of something on my heart that I need to place down at His feet in total surrender. It has been hard at times, but God has been teaching me to go to Him first in everything, even when I feel like I need a person to validate me and my feelings at times.
The biggest lesson I'm learning and actually believing in my heart is that God is my best friend. I have said in the past that God is my best friend, but I don't think I actually meant it until this past week. Even though going through uncomfortable moments are like constant growing pains in my heart and soul, that's when God is most present and has most definitely become the first One I run to when I need someone to relieve me of the hurt or discomfort that's in my heart. Praise God for His never ending goodness in wanting to bring me closer to Him every single day. And, I will say, that after five weeks of being here with YWAM, I have never felt closer to Him than I do now.
I spent my birthday in Hawaii this past Friday! I have never felt so loved, lucky and blessed in my entire life! The day of my birthday was pretty low-key, but what was really my favorite part about Friday was that we met with our outreach team after lunch, and after we had our regular time together, a lot of my team members shared encouraging words about me and, honestly, you sometimes don't know the strengths or good qualities that you have until someone else shares about them. I was pleasantly surprised by the nice comments people made about me and this definitely made my birthday so special. The next day I went to the beach close by our campus and we saw dolphins swim near us at the pier! There were about a hundred out there and I had the amazing opportunity to go out and swim with them! They came near me and it was such an incredible sight to see part of God's beautiful creation swimming around and underneath you. It was the best gift God could have given me (besides having me here in Hawaii in the first place) and I have never felt more like a child, in awe of Him and believing even more that He exists.
I never would have expected that God would place me in Hawaii for my 25th birthday, or at all in my life! However, I know that God had this time planned out for me even before I was born, and even though I don't know what the second half of this year, or the rest of my life, will look like for me, I know that God has more adventures in store for me and I'm so excited to see where He leads me. Looking back on this past year, I've learned to lean and depend on God for everything. Through hardships, with finances, with friendships, with trials of many kinds, God has been my Rock and He's always there for me to let me know that everything will be okay. I pray for those reading that if you are ever going through a hard time, know that God has a good plan for you and He will lead you out of the storm. Just trust in Him and His timing. He has you in His hands.
For those praying for me, there seems to grow a little bit of tension at times between people, either in our rooms or in our class in general. I know this is an attack from the enemy because he doesn't want us to grow together, but wants to create division amongst us, because he knows that we are stronger as a unit and he doesn't want this at all! Please pray that we remember that we do all love each other and that we would always build each other up, encourage one another, and speak trees of life over people instead of trees of death. Also, to update everyone on where I am in the fundraising process, I have earned $3,111 out of the $5,395 left I have to raise for our time in outreach. This leaves me with $2,284 left to raise and, so, please pray that people will be moved to want to give to be a part of this journey and that God would multiply the giving so that I will be fully covered by the final deadline to pay the rest of this, which is February 28th. Once again, I ask for you to prayerfully consider giving, and if you feel lead to give, please click here. Thank you, again, to those who have given to me!
The wonderful thing about asking y'all to pray for me, specifically in this area when it comes to finances, is that I know that God will provide. He has already done so many miracles to provide for my friends who still had a lot of earn by the first deadline we had on February 1st. For example, one of my friends on my outreach team had $0 raised, even on that day, but by the end of that night, God provided $2,300 out of the $2,500 he needed to raise that day. That is just one of many awesome testimonies, but God is crazy awesome and we believe that if it is His will for us to go out on outreach and do His will by making disciples of all nations, He will always provide.
Thank you for your prayers and thank you for following along on my journey! I am so blessed by all of you and can't wait to share more in the next few weeks with you about how God is moving and working through YWAM and my class.
On the walk with you, Lydia
