Well, well, well...This is our last week of classes and the missionary evangelists Bro. and Sis. Showalter are here. We had great classes today. But, Bro. John Hopkins taught on "Using your gifts for His Glory" and what a move of God we had. He just went to class that session out with prayer and the power of God fell and it was a tremendous time in prayer. It was neat because in the middle of us just sobbing and crying he said "Okay, everybody, let's just be quiet and listen to what God has to say." I've never seen anybody do that in that sort of a setting and after we were quiet we had a tongues of interpretation and the power of God just fell and it was stronger than if we wouldn't have been quiet. I really honor those that are so sentitive that even while were were weeping and crying out to God he wanted us to be quiet and we did, and look what happened? I love that! Then Sis. Hopkins was our next teacher and she came in and instead of moving onto her lesson she had us sing "I want to live the way He wants me to live, I want to give until there's just no more to give, I want to love, love till there's just no more love, I could never, never out love the Lord". Amazing. But, we didn't stop and just wept again in awe of the presence of God so then she sang "Where He leads I will follow, Where He leads me I will follow, Where He leads me I will follow; I’ll go with Him, with Him, all the way."....What a thought....will we really go where He leads? Are we that broken before Him? Are we that in love with Him that no matter the cost we will go? These are the things I'm dealing with right now. Whatever He asks...am I really in love with Him enough to say yes? Lord, give us all that agape love for you that whatever you ask our answer will be yes...
Deep thought today...but I'm in deep thought here so I thought I'd share...love you all
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agape
6.20.2011
Nothing Less
What a weekend we have had!
We went to the park, an amazing park, on Saturday for Family Day at the Park which about 700 people were there and our group sang and it was great!
Sunday, was incredible! The last service was probably my favorite. Bro. Mike Tuttle preached on Ephesians 3:17-20 and Acts 3:1-6. That God does far more than our expectations. The Lame Man in Acts 3 was expecting money when he saw Peter and John walking up to him. We can just picture him imagining being carried home that night yelling out to everyone that today he got enought money for dinner! So, he was expecting a silver or gold coin...and when Peter said "Silver and Gold have I none..." I believe he didn't give up expecting but then he moved down to maybe a mite or a sheckel...but instead God healed him. He NEVER expected to walk home that night he was just expecting some money. But God goes beyond our knowledge. We can't imagine what God can do. So, we've always been taught to go to church expecting. But Bro. Tuttle said our expectations can actually limit our faith and limit what God does. If we pray for our highest expectancy that still isn't even imaginable to what God can really do. There is nothing higher than God so that means that God can even do more than He has ever done before...something to think about, eh? He said to leave or expectations at the door and just leave it to God. If we have an open mind to what can happen, anything can happen.
Ciao, for now! :)
We went to the park, an amazing park, on Saturday for Family Day at the Park which about 700 people were there and our group sang and it was great!
Sunday, was incredible! The last service was probably my favorite. Bro. Mike Tuttle preached on Ephesians 3:17-20 and Acts 3:1-6. That God does far more than our expectations. The Lame Man in Acts 3 was expecting money when he saw Peter and John walking up to him. We can just picture him imagining being carried home that night yelling out to everyone that today he got enought money for dinner! So, he was expecting a silver or gold coin...and when Peter said "Silver and Gold have I none..." I believe he didn't give up expecting but then he moved down to maybe a mite or a sheckel...but instead God healed him. He NEVER expected to walk home that night he was just expecting some money. But God goes beyond our knowledge. We can't imagine what God can do. So, we've always been taught to go to church expecting. But Bro. Tuttle said our expectations can actually limit our faith and limit what God does. If we pray for our highest expectancy that still isn't even imaginable to what God can really do. There is nothing higher than God so that means that God can even do more than He has ever done before...something to think about, eh? He said to leave or expectations at the door and just leave it to God. If we have an open mind to what can happen, anything can happen.
Ciao, for now! :)
6.17.2011
Shock & Awe
Hi Everybody! I am so sorry that I haven't updated in awhile. The internet was down and since we are missionaries we didn't complain and we just waited for it to get fixed! :) Becuase we get convicted when we complain! So, here are all my updates for the last few days:
1. Sunday. It was amazing! We have 4 services here on sunday because we have almost 800 in attendance and no building to hold everyone at once. There's a rule that you are only allowed to go to one service, however, the aimers are clearly allowed to go to all of them. Needless to say, it was a really long day! We have one english service because there is a large Philipino Community here...2 got the Holy Ghost and 1 got refilled after years of being astray! Praise God!
2. The training has been outstanding. This week we have Bro. & Sis. Howell and Bro. & Sis. Tuttle. Just some of the topics have been: Anointing for the Task (bro. Howell), Being a Servant (bro. Howell), The Wife of a Minister, My role as a minister's wife (Sis. Tuttle), Prayer Evangelism (Sis. Howell), The Biblical Way & The Master's Method (bro. Howell), God Seeks Intercessors (sis. Hopkins), Obeying the Will of God (Bro & Sis Tuttle). That is just classes from yesterday and today. So, you can only imagine the kind of people we are going to be when we return home! :) My personal favorite class out of the listed ones is probably The Biblical Way & The Master's Method. Bro. Howell talked about outreach and evangelism and I have some great ideas now for our outreach team. All of the classes go together like you can't have results of evangelism without it being preceeded by intercession. Sis. Hopkins talked about the reason we don't have results is because we wait until the day of to pray, when really we need to be interceeding weeks before the event. In reality, we need to be praying for our daily routines weeks in advance, even if there isn't a special event coming up. Bro. Tuttle, in Obeying the Will of God, talked about Romans 12:1-2 and how "conformed to this world" doesn't mean to backslide but it can mean just getting caught up in day-to-day living and forgetting the reason we're here: EVANGELISM. We can get so caught up in even our duties at the church that we forget to bring visitors. When Bro. Howell was a pastor in El Salvador the rule was if there were no visitors, there was no church, Which is so intense but so true, we aren't here to continually be feeding ourselves. We must reach out. He said it only happened once that when church was supposed to start and there were no visitors that he sent everyone home. Pretty crazy, but in the 20 years that they were in El Salvador over 100,000 people were baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost. I could go on and on about the classes but I'll move on!
3. Church last night was great! Bro. Tuttle preached about Grace & Mercy. He said that "Mercy is not getting what you do deserve, and Grace is getting what you don't deserve". I love that quote and he talked about buy the truth and sell it not. But, how do you buy Truth? By, Grace and Mercy. They give you the currency, or the means to buy it and Truth gives you conviction and conviction keeps you in Truth which gives you Salvation which puts you in Heaven. I posted a few clips from the service last night on my youtube channel. I want to write his whole message out but that I won't, haha! Then, altar call. Wow! I didn't even have to seek out anyone, an elderly lady came to me, grabbed my hand, and began to pray. The Lord told me to rebuke the depression that had weighed her down her whole life, plead the Blood over her, lay your hand on her head and release the Holy Ghost. So I did. She immediately began so sob. She began speaking in tongues for the first time...and didn't stop for like 1.5 hour! Then, there was a tongues and interpretation and it was "I am your God and I love you. I have given you the means that you need to buy whats neccesary(sp?), tonight. Buy the Truth and do not sell yourself to the world". Wow, right? Crazy. But God is reallly doing a work here and Spain is experiencing great revival! :) Miss you all!
1. Sunday. It was amazing! We have 4 services here on sunday because we have almost 800 in attendance and no building to hold everyone at once. There's a rule that you are only allowed to go to one service, however, the aimers are clearly allowed to go to all of them. Needless to say, it was a really long day! We have one english service because there is a large Philipino Community here...2 got the Holy Ghost and 1 got refilled after years of being astray! Praise God!
2. The training has been outstanding. This week we have Bro. & Sis. Howell and Bro. & Sis. Tuttle. Just some of the topics have been: Anointing for the Task (bro. Howell), Being a Servant (bro. Howell), The Wife of a Minister, My role as a minister's wife (Sis. Tuttle), Prayer Evangelism (Sis. Howell), The Biblical Way & The Master's Method (bro. Howell), God Seeks Intercessors (sis. Hopkins), Obeying the Will of God (Bro & Sis Tuttle). That is just classes from yesterday and today. So, you can only imagine the kind of people we are going to be when we return home! :) My personal favorite class out of the listed ones is probably The Biblical Way & The Master's Method. Bro. Howell talked about outreach and evangelism and I have some great ideas now for our outreach team. All of the classes go together like you can't have results of evangelism without it being preceeded by intercession. Sis. Hopkins talked about the reason we don't have results is because we wait until the day of to pray, when really we need to be interceeding weeks before the event. In reality, we need to be praying for our daily routines weeks in advance, even if there isn't a special event coming up. Bro. Tuttle, in Obeying the Will of God, talked about Romans 12:1-2 and how "conformed to this world" doesn't mean to backslide but it can mean just getting caught up in day-to-day living and forgetting the reason we're here: EVANGELISM. We can get so caught up in even our duties at the church that we forget to bring visitors. When Bro. Howell was a pastor in El Salvador the rule was if there were no visitors, there was no church, Which is so intense but so true, we aren't here to continually be feeding ourselves. We must reach out. He said it only happened once that when church was supposed to start and there were no visitors that he sent everyone home. Pretty crazy, but in the 20 years that they were in El Salvador over 100,000 people were baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost. I could go on and on about the classes but I'll move on!
3. Church last night was great! Bro. Tuttle preached about Grace & Mercy. He said that "Mercy is not getting what you do deserve, and Grace is getting what you don't deserve". I love that quote and he talked about buy the truth and sell it not. But, how do you buy Truth? By, Grace and Mercy. They give you the currency, or the means to buy it and Truth gives you conviction and conviction keeps you in Truth which gives you Salvation which puts you in Heaven. I posted a few clips from the service last night on my youtube channel. I want to write his whole message out but that I won't, haha! Then, altar call. Wow! I didn't even have to seek out anyone, an elderly lady came to me, grabbed my hand, and began to pray. The Lord told me to rebuke the depression that had weighed her down her whole life, plead the Blood over her, lay your hand on her head and release the Holy Ghost. So I did. She immediately began so sob. She began speaking in tongues for the first time...and didn't stop for like 1.5 hour! Then, there was a tongues and interpretation and it was "I am your God and I love you. I have given you the means that you need to buy whats neccesary(sp?), tonight. Buy the Truth and do not sell yourself to the world". Wow, right? Crazy. But God is reallly doing a work here and Spain is experiencing great revival! :) Miss you all!
6.11.2011
Definitely in Spain!!!
O man Im lovin it here!!!
So after getting off the plane we were ZONKED! 2 hours of sleep in 2 days! We are 9 hours ahead.
but I quickly got over it with a ton of sleep. There are 13 of us and yes I am the only single guy on the trip! its all good. The group is really cool!! (Ill put pics up tomorrow) Spain is like New York only hotter and older. We had our first service on thur. night it was amazing!!! A young girl got the Holy Ghost! first one! The altar call was like the Dominican the Spirit of God really moved and the people responded quicky to God! it reminded me again of the D.R.. Bro Sones its reallllllly cool-really down to earth! but knows how to get work done! As he puts it: revival is spelled WORK. Our class during the day for our training have been absolutly amazing! The Spirit of God really moved during the testimony of Bro Hopkins when he spoke on when he was called. God really touched us afterwards as we prayed-God just came into the room, He reminded us of His call on our lives. My roomate is Dominican which is really cool so we got to catch up as far a s the DR goes. Hes really cool-remindes me of Jordan a bit :) The men have been complete remolding of the Bible school where we are staying at so Ive been able to help with that! So you know u are not in America when a guy is sotering (soutering ??) pieces of metal together using a car battery charger...groung off the negative...take the positive with a piece of sotering on the end and touch the metal to creat a current to melt the sotering....definitely smart-definitely crazy-definitely in SPAIN!!! Love you all! Thank youso much for your prayers! God is doing a ton here! Alight until then, later!!!
So after getting off the plane we were ZONKED! 2 hours of sleep in 2 days! We are 9 hours ahead.
but I quickly got over it with a ton of sleep. There are 13 of us and yes I am the only single guy on the trip! its all good. The group is really cool!! (Ill put pics up tomorrow) Spain is like New York only hotter and older. We had our first service on thur. night it was amazing!!! A young girl got the Holy Ghost! first one! The altar call was like the Dominican the Spirit of God really moved and the people responded quicky to God! it reminded me again of the D.R.. Bro Sones its reallllllly cool-really down to earth! but knows how to get work done! As he puts it: revival is spelled WORK. Our class during the day for our training have been absolutly amazing! The Spirit of God really moved during the testimony of Bro Hopkins when he spoke on when he was called. God really touched us afterwards as we prayed-God just came into the room, He reminded us of His call on our lives. My roomate is Dominican which is really cool so we got to catch up as far a s the DR goes. Hes really cool-remindes me of Jordan a bit :) The men have been complete remolding of the Bible school where we are staying at so Ive been able to help with that! So you know u are not in America when a guy is sotering (soutering ??) pieces of metal together using a car battery charger...groung off the negative...take the positive with a piece of sotering on the end and touch the metal to creat a current to melt the sotering....definitely smart-definitely crazy-definitely in SPAIN!!! Love you all! Thank youso much for your prayers! God is doing a ton here! Alight until then, later!!!
Just A Quick Note!
First, I want to thank my mom, Em, Katie and Olive, Sam, Sarah, Mary and Jordan for completely making my day. Even though we are having a blast here and loving it, we still miss everyone. Being able to not only talk, but see you guys really did me good! :) I love you all!
Second, Madrid is really in for revival! We are seeing so many great things happening! Last night 3 or so prayed through and 1 was filled with the Holy Ghost. Our goal is 100 and I believe that we are going to see even more than that! I can't say enough about how great our group is. This group of young people, as a whole, I believe was chosen by God. We have only been here 5 days but already we can't imagine the group without one of us. Each person brings something different to the table and it is so great to see God blend each personality together and there be no dissention.
Thank you everyone for keeping in touch, it really mean a lot! :) Also, if our video blog doesn't ever work here you can go to youtube and my channel is alyxpeddle! You can watch our videos there! :)
Love you all!
Second, Madrid is really in for revival! We are seeing so many great things happening! Last night 3 or so prayed through and 1 was filled with the Holy Ghost. Our goal is 100 and I believe that we are going to see even more than that! I can't say enough about how great our group is. This group of young people, as a whole, I believe was chosen by God. We have only been here 5 days but already we can't imagine the group without one of us. Each person brings something different to the table and it is so great to see God blend each personality together and there be no dissention.
Thank you everyone for keeping in touch, it really mean a lot! :) Also, if our video blog doesn't ever work here you can go to youtube and my channel is alyxpeddle! You can watch our videos there! :)
Love you all!
6.09.2011
Culture Shocked Much?
We are in Madrid, Spain! We went from Saturday night in Portland to Tuesday night in Spain without sleeping...I literally fell asleep standing up. I wish I was exaggerating. If you speak English, you might as well be speaking in tongues. Seriously! It's crazy! We're being forced to talk in Spanish to everyone so we are all getting cute little accents, even when we're speaking English and it hasn't even been a week! Let's see, we currently don't have hot water so we are taking showers in the FREEZING water! We were complaining, but we got convicted and then had a 4 hour prayer meeting/Bible Study (11-3am, no joke) about Phil. 2:14-15...."Do all things without murmurings and disputings. That ye may be blameless in the midst of a crooked and preverse nation whereas ye shine as lights among the world..." That is our verse...we said thats our missionary verse and it gave us "chill bumps" as Natalie Alders says! We went to church our first night here. 1. they didn't translate 2. I was then awake for about 36 hours 3. they speak spanish 4. we do not. Needless to say, we have no idea what happened. But, I am so glad that is not the end of the story. God swept into that place and I cried, and cried. I have seriously never felt that before. I didn't understand a word that was being spoken but I felt the power in such a powerful, that when my eyes were closed I was back at home with my Awacks. It was the craziest thing. I've only been here a week but I am already falling in love with the people, the culture, the city and the country. Not to mention the 12 of us that are here, we connect so much and are all on the same page with God. I admit, I was kind of nervous...11 single girls + 1 boy doesn't normally = anything good lol. However, none of the girls are into Justin. Not that they don't like him but...you know what? I'm just gonna stop there before I get in trouble. Anyway, the girls are more into God than anything else and it shows in everything about them. God is so good and this trip has already been life changing and it's not even been a week...more to come! Love from Spain!
6.06.2011
Leave Full or Go Home
This is day one of our two month adventure. Last night, our last night at AWC until August. Our Pastor, Bro. Graves, preached about the importance of being full, and staying full. Whether he directed it to us on purpose or not it was perfect for Justin and I. He talked about the work of God does not replace time with God. As we venture out into a whole new place to do a whole new work this is something for all of us to remember. If we aren't full, we won't have anything to give to those in need. why are we on a mission trip? Our prayer for the beginning of our trip is to be not only mission minded, but so full of the Holy Ghost that we are literally overflowing to really turn our world "right side up" so to speak. After hearing this amazing message Justin, myself and all of our closest loved ones headed to the airport. It was a great time of tears for some, and laughs for others. Me? It was just a blur. Our flight was 5 long hours of a nice gentlement next to us enjoying his sleep immensely with the evidence of snoring. :-) Needless to say, we didn't sleep. Landing in Charlotte we sought out a good breakfast. Check! Rest. Check! Devotion. Check! Our devotion was taken from Matthew 26:41 about "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." The first statement was, "Dear friend, do not go out into the danger of the world without first praying." It went onto to say that temptation is always there to shorten your time in prayer and we have to be aware and "watch and pray" so that we will have the ability (with God) to withstand the temptation. Justin just said, "wow! this is exactly what we need!" It's amazing how God is blessing us already and we aren't even in Spain yet. We definitely miss our home but we know we exactly where we need to be for the summer! :)
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