Fun in the Philippines: Part One

My heart is overflowing with the events of the last several weeks. I recently returned from a mission’s trip with around 40 other radical revivalists to the Philippines. I fell in love with both the Filipino people and the ministry team I had the honor and privilege of traveling and ministering with. One of the first things I noticed about the Filipino people is that they are full of warmth and love. In fact, they are so generous with their hospitality that I found myself feeling like I was being treated like royalty! The Filipino’s captured the heart of honor and love in their hospitality and for that I’m so grateful.

I must also tell you how wonderful the ministry team I served with is! They are all filled with so much joy that the entire trip felt like a big party – even when we were so tired be it from jet lag or long ministry days.  It didn’t matter what was going on, our days were filled with laughter. In fact, whenever something went completely different than we planned, we chose to laugh at it. That’s what happens when you get a group of people together who are crazy in love with Jesus and filled with His presence. And since God is in a good mood and He resides in us, it seems fitting that laughter be our first instinct don’t you think? The unity among our team was extraordinary and such a blessing!

I watched each team member daily love extravagantly whether it be loving fellow team members or loving the Filipino people. I realized this pure love that was flowing out of them wasn’t from a place of strife. Rather it is the essence of who they are because God resides in each of them. It came easily and from hearts filled with purity and overflowing with love. One of my biggest takeaways from this trip is simply this: love never fails. My own heart actually received inner healing as I received love from my team members.  And as a result of their love, God’s grace, and perfect timing, I believe I blossomed and the full fragrance within me was able to be released as I ministered.  When the atmosphere is charged with honor, love, respect, freedom, kindness, and patience, one can’t help but have the best drawn out of them. It’s an atmosphere I want to carry with me wherever I go. I am forever marked by the love I experienced from my team members whom I now call dear friends. I believe it’s safe to say so were the Filipino’s we had the privilege of ministering to.

There are so many testimonies I can share with you from this trip it’s hard to know where to begin! Or yestimonies as we call them in my weekly outreach Sidewalk Sunday School.  A yestimony is something good God does that we say yes to so He can do it again! So as I share these stories with you, know that they can all be repeated in your own life if you’re in need of a similar miracle. Nothing is impossible with God!

One of the first opportunities we had to minister was at a Church So Blessed Conference. Our team leaders had asked us to ask God for some words of knowledge about what He wanted to heal during the service and then to draw a picture of the body part that we received a word of knowledge about. I hadn’t really received many words of knowledge before this trip as it was a rather new gift of the Spirit for me.  But it’s really simple. You just ask God about what He’s healing and He shows you. Sometimes you see a picture of it, other times it’s an impression, and some people actually sense pain or even heat in their body that wasn’t there before so they know it’s a word of knowledge for someone else. Another way is to simply scan the body in your mind’s eye and see what God hi-lights as you scan.

So I saw a picture of a jaw in my mind and drew that. After we drew our pictures, we announced them to the congregation and had anyone who needed healing for that particular problem come forward. But we didn’t pray for them the way you would typically think of praying. That is something I love about prayer language – it just doesn’t fit into a little box! Believe it or not, English isn’t God’s first language. :) So instead of praying in English, we placed our artwork on the body part that needed healing (if appropriate) and then laughed over it for about thirty seconds or so.  And we saw many people be healed from various ailments! There were too many to count. I had a line of people come up for prayer for their jaws and I saw God heal several of them simply by putting the artwork on their jaw and laughing!

One of my favorite memories of this day was when I had the impression that someone had a problem with their chin. I however discredited this word of knowledge and quickly thought I was simply making it up. In my mind it sounded ridiculous so I talked myself out of it. Boy was I wrong! God was setting me up for a lesson though. I was shocked when I heard my teammate Anna call out that her word of knowledge -  that someone had something wrong with their chin. No one responded right away. Kevin Dedmon who was leading the service received more words of knowledge about this person. He began to say that the chin injury was accident related. It took a while for the young woman to come forward. It turns out she had a scar on her chin and when she was a little girl she had been abused and thrown around. Often times her hair would be pulled so hard that her head was very sensitive and she was unable to pull her hair back in any way. After she received prayer, God healed the sensitivity in her head and she was able to pull her hair back into a pony tail! It didn’t stop there though. She also had physical repercussions on the top of her head from being thrown around. I’m not sure if it was an indentation or if it was a bump on the top of her head, but after prayer, her head shape was back to normal! She then said she wanted to be taller. It’s common for us at Bethel to pray for someone who has one leg longer than the other one and we’ll see their back come into alignment and their one leg grow to the length of the other. This young woman didn’t have any problem with one leg being longer than the other…she just wanted to be taller. So a few people on our team prayed for her and a few days later one of our team members received a text saying that she had grown two inches since we had prayed for her! I love how God cares for the desires of our hearts! This whole situation taught me that I do hear clearly from God, and to not second guess things – even when it sounds crazy in my own mind. To think – God did all of these things for this young woman and it all began with a simple word of knowledge about a chin!

Later in the day, during this same conference, we all had an opportunity to teach a workshop on our chosen topic. I helped teach the SOZO workshop. SOZO means saved, healed, and delivered and the purpose of SOZO is to connect you with God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. There are several tools to help this process along and that was what we were teaching. Often times forgiveness is one of the key tools used during SOZO. While the focus on SOZO is inner healing, it’s not uncommon to see physical healings take place simply because of forgiveness and emotional healing taking place. After the session was over, I was approached by a young woman who wanted me to pray for her. After talking with her for a bit, I learned that she felt like her relationship with God was disconnected because she had given herself to her boyfriend, and she was feeling ashamed and guilty. So I led her through a prayer to receive forgiveness from God and also a prayer of forgiving herself. As we prayed, shame and guilt could stay no longer because Jesus paid for that on the cross! In fact, she mentioned that when we were praying she saw a picture in her mind of the cross and then she saw God come and embrace her. Their connection had been restored! Praise God! That’s what SOZO is all about. I also remembered that God loves to restore his children’s virginity so we asked God to do that so that when the day comes for her to celebrate unity with her husband; all will be redeemed and restored. There have been many testimonies of how God has done that for others – I’m trusting He’ll do the same for this precious young woman.

Another hi-light from this day was getting to hang out with the kids and paint their faces! They were precious and it was wonderful to get to love on them and tell them so! One little girl stole my heart. She sat down for me to paint a flower on her face and before I knew it she was speaking encouraging words over me! I thought – wait a minute – I’m the one who’s here to speak encouraging words over you! But that’s how the body of Christ works, right? We get to encourage one another – it’s a two way street of giving and receiving. What a beautiful gift! We talked for quite a while and exchanged drawings with each other.  I told her I would treasure her drawing always and she responded that her heart would be broken if she ever lost my drawing. What a precious girl!

There are more stories to come! But for now, I’ll let you ponder these. God did so much it’s hard to capture it all. But I’m going to do my best to share as many hi-lights as I can. To be continued…

My Year of Reading in Redding

3,167 – That’s the number of pages I’ve been assigned to read over the course of this school year! And that doesn’t include what I’ve been reading on my own. I find it quite funny that as a child I didn’t really enjoy reading. But thankfully, my Mom gave me mandatory reading time during one of my summer breaks. Out of that (and being introduced to some Grace Livingston Hill novels) my love for reading grew. I think it’s at an all time high this year, and I’m quite thankful to have the time to soak in such amazing information. Yes – this picture is a good representation of how I’m spending my time these days!

So, I thought I’d share with you a glimpse of what’s on my bookshelves in case you’re looking for a good read or are particularly curious about a specific topic I’m studying at school. I’ve listed books below that I’ve been reading for school, books I’m currently reading or soon will be reading for school, and books I’ve read for fun. I’ll give you some brief info about each book as well since the title of a book isn’t always enough to capture the contents.

Books I’ve Read for School

When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson – This book captures the heartbeat of Bethel Church and is written by the Senior Leader of both the church and school. In short, Bill presents a foundation of why it’s in our spiritual DNA to have an appetite for God to show up in the impossibilities that surround us and how we can stand in our God–given authority to release the power we’ve been given from on high into the circumstances of life. 

The World Aflame by Rick Joyner - This was a fascinating read about the Welsh Revival in the early 1900s. It contains great examples to follow in future revivals and also great lessons to learn from for the future. It’s an important reminder of and a call to being prepared for revival and building our foundation on Jesus Christ alone.

30 Days to Understanding Your Bible by Max Anders – This is a great interactive book that gives you a wonderful overview of the Bible including key Bible characters, places, and events in chronological order. It only takes about 15 minutes of your time each day to read a chapter and participate in the fill-in-the-blank activities that are designed to help you retain the information you’re learning. The author has a great sense of humor which is always a bonus.

A Practical Guide to Evangelism – Supernaturally by Chris Overstreet – I really enjoyed reading this book. The author serves as the outreach pastor at Bethel and joins us once a week during school to empower, motivate, and teach us prior to our weekly outreach events.  If you’re looking for an easy, fast, and practical read on supernatural evangelism – this book is for you!

Supernatural Ways of Royalty by Kris Vallotton – One of the key takeaways from this year at Bethel is stepping into my true identity as a child of the King of Kings – a royal heir to the eternal Kingdom of God – and living out of that. This book helps reveal your royal identity and inheritance as a child of the King. I recommend everyone reads this, ponders the contents, and embraces their God given royalty. The end of the book includes a Prince and Pauper test so you can see better how you view yourself. We took the test at the beginning of the year and will take it again at the end to see how much has changed. Kris also has the test available on his website: www.kvministries.com

Basic Training for the Supernatural Ways of Royalty Workbook by Kris Vallotton – It’s well worth the investment to purchase this companion workbook should you choose to read Supernatural Ways of Royalty. It allows you to take your processing a step further with thought provoking questions that will lead you into deeper revelations of the truth.

Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry by Kris Vallotton – I must say it is a complete joy, honor and privilege to have the authors of these books teach us the contents in person! Kris and his wife Kathy are the senior associate leaders at Bethel. Kris teaches us once a week as long as he’s not out of town (he travels a lot speaking around the world). I loved this workbook because it helped demystify the prophetic ministry for me. Between this book and Kris’s teaching, I have a much better understanding of the prophetic ministry that is for the comfort and encouragement and exhortation of the body. If you’ve had burning questions about prophecy, this is a good place to start learning more.

Experiencing the Father’s Embrace by Jack Frost - Jack’s heart in this book was to partner with God in His plan for restoration of the family. He shares how God’s desire is to see the hearts of fathers and mothers to turn back to their children and for love and intimacy to flourish between husbands and wives. A key part to this coming to fruition is through each of us personally experiencing a more intimate relationship with Father God. So Jack does a good job of revealing the love of God for each of us and pinpoints areas that may be hindering us from experiencing the Father’s loving and comforting embrace. If you’re still struggling from any kind of father wound or family wound for that matter, this is a great book to help you process through that pain and receive healing and reconciliation.

Happy Intercessor by Beni Johnson – I think this book might be my favorite of all of the books we’ve been assigned to read. Perhaps that’s because I have a heart for Intercession and it’s also a very friendly read. I found the contents to bring about freedom for me with the discovery at a new heart level that joy and intercession go hand in hand. This book has been helpful in so many ways – but one particular thing that stands out to me is that when I finish praying for someone, I can release the burden of that concern to Jesus because He already carried it to the cross. So good! Beni Johnson is Bill Johnson’s wife. She is an amazing spiritual mother of this house (Bethel Church), and I always enjoy sitting under her teaching.

Moral Revolution: The Naked Truth About Sexual Purity by Kris Vallotton and Jason Vallotton – One of the amazing qualities of Kris Vallotton is his ability to directly address hard topics as a father who cares deeply enough to tell you the truth – even when it’s difficult to do so. In this book, Kris and Jason manage to give everyone the freedom to celebrate virginity as well as restore covenant love. It’s a much needed message in our sex driven culture. Whatever your relational status (married, single, divorced, etc.)  – it’s worth your time in reading because chances are you can utilize the contents of the book to positively impact the lives around you if nothing else. In fact, one of my fellow students stood up during class this week and thanked Kris for writing it because this student actually lead someone to Christ simply by sharing the contents of this book over Christmas break!

Books I’m Currently Reading or will be Reading Soon for School

The Hayford Bible Handbook by Jack Hayford – This book is massive! We are using it as a resource and companion to our daily Bible reading so I won’t completely read it by the end of this year – but it will certainly serve as a great resource for years to come.

Grasping God’s Word by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays – This book is actually our text book for our Bible class (in addition to the Bible of course).  It’s a great resource for understanding how the Bible was compiled, how to make observations and ask questions while studying the Bible and how to utilize all that information to bring about interpretation and application for our lives.

Culture of Honor by Danny Silk – One of the main things that marks Bethel as a Kingdom culture is it’s culture of honor. For that very reason, it’s a place many people receive healing from past leadership wounds. And it’s also a place that attracts God’s Presence and His supernatural power because of the culture of honor that is stewarded there. So far, this book has helped me understand the fivefold ministry (pastor, teacher, evangelist, prophet, and apostle) and how they are meant to operate together. Danny Silk has a background in counseling and currently serves as a Family Life and Leadership Pastor. The principles he shares in this book regarding restoring relationships are phenomenal!

God’s Generals by Roberts Liardon – I just received this book and look forward to reading about the history of revivalist who have paved the way for revival today.

Church History Made Easy by Timothy Jones – I’ve not received this title yet – but according to Amazon, it’s a fantastic book that summarizes the most important events in Christian history from the time of Jesus to today in 12 easy chapters. J

Strengthen Yourself in the Lord by Bill Johnson – This book was actually the first book I read by Bill Johnson. I remember having amazing content on how to encourage yourself when things are looking down through thanksgiving. There’s also great wisdom for how to stay connected to your God given destiny. I’m looking forward to reading it again after having sat under Bill’s teaching for a year.

Books I Read for Fun Recently

Hinds’ Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard - What a great book that captures Romans 5:3-5 so beautifully - "but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." I could easily relate to this allegory and the lessons Hannah Hurnard presented so well throughout her book. It's a story that speaks hope and life into anyone battling with fear.

His Advent Still His Greatest Gift by Rebekah Freelan - This book was written by my dear friend, Bekah . I've had the joy of reading her daily blog postings so when Advent began this year I was so excited to read her delightful book. It captures the essence of Advent - focusing on and delighting in God's Presence - the greatest gift of all time! I love how she got into Biblical character's minds and imagined what they might be thinking as they encountered Jesus. It's a thought provoking devotional that can be read any time of the year and one that easily makes the Bible come alive!

Blessed Child and A Man Called Blessed by Ted Dekker and Bill Bright - This was the second time reading these two novels and the books were better than I remembered! They are well written, have an important message about the Kingdom of God and His power woven into a beautiful story that includes love, adventure, and God's goodness. I believe these novels are my favorite novels to date.

The Ultimate Treasure Hunt by Kevin Dedmon – This is a great tool for believers who are hungry to witness to others about the goodness and power of God through supernatural means and demonstration, through supernatural encounters. The book gives you an outline on how to create your own treasure map and then how to present the good message and the goodness of God to those your encounter – the treasure. It’s about sharing the Good News of the Kingdom to every kind of person – people who are just waiting to be discovered. Those who desperately need a real encounter with God in order to meet the overwhelming needs of their lives.  Kevin Dedmon is one of the leaders on my Philippines missions trip so I’m sure this is one of the many ways we’ll be ministering.

Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath – I first learned about StrengthsFinder through my housemate, Sarah Wind. All second year Bethel students are required to read it and take the online test (an access code to take the test is included in the book) to determine what you’re top five strengths are. The idea is to capitalize and invest in your strengths – to focus on what’s right with yourself rather than what’s wrong. It’s more of a resource book that will be used many times over your lifetime providing insights on what to act on given your strengths and how to work with others given their unique strength make up. I just took the test and these are my top five: responsibility, learner, discipline, empathy, and relator. What a great thing to know since I’ll be heading into a job searching season probably within the next six months or so.

So there you have it – a glimpse of what I’ve been reading, am reading currently, and will be reading soon! How about you? Do you have any recommendations of books based on what you’ve been reading lately?

Exciting News! I’m going to the Philippines!

I’m so excited to have an opportunity to participate in sharing the Kingdom of God with the Filipino people next March! In October,  I was given a list of almost 60 missions trips that Bethel students will be taking next spring and asked to sign up for my top five choices. As I read the descriptions of each one and prayed for the Lord’s guidance, I really felt God was highlighting the Philippines for me. It was confirmed when I was accepted as one of the 40 students going on this trip. I'm anticipating God to show up in big ways during our time with the Filipino people! 

The heart and passion here at Bethel International is to raise up a generation of world changers that will be known for their reckless abandonment to see that Jesus is Lord in all the nations. As Bethel has been building relationships with various regions around the world, they’ve been committed to raising up influencers in these nations so that they can begin to run with the inheritance God has given them to transform their own nation. All of Bethel School of Supernatural  Ministry Trips are partnered with Bethel International’s vision for transforming nations. I’m thrilled that this is Bethel’s heart as one of my passions is also for transformation.

I’m very excited to have Kevin and Theresa Dedmon as team leaders along with Matt and Lindsay Coil.  I’ve enjoyed sitting under both Kevin and Theresa’s teaching in two of my classes so I’m excited to continue to learn from them in the coming months. I’ve had only a few interactions with Matt and Lindsay Coil but each encounter with them has been amazing. They are very familiar with the Philippines as Lindsay is from there originally and Matt was a missionary there for a season. Lindsay is super administrative and has given us a binder of information regarding our trip (a girl after my own heart!). I so appreciate her efforts to make this trip go smoothly!

We will have a variety of opportunities to show God’s love while in the Philippines.  The best way to paint a picture for you of what we’ll be doing while we’re there is to simply share the description Bethel shared with us when we were selecting the trips that interested us:

Miracles, signs and wonders are breaking out in the Philippines which will harvest all of Asia. We have seen government officials, city dumps and churches radically touched in the last two years we have gone. Now it’s time for exponential growth! Be a part of a team that will awaken Filipinos to who God truly is through supernatural healing, joy, signs and wonders, and kingdom creativity throughout the land. Our mission is to set the hearts of the Filipino people on fire with the LOVE of Jesus and release them to the nations! There will be conferences, open air crusades, ministry to the poor, governmental leaders and people of influence. We are strategically setting up places where you can be activated in major cities within the Philippines where there is a hunger for the supernatural and Bethel’s DNA. If you have a heart for supernatural revival and want to be activated to touch all different types of people through preaching, signs and wonders, dance, art, drama, worship and celebration - this is the trip for you! Kevin and Theresa Dedmon will be leading along with Matt and Lindsay Coil. Let’s see God save a nation in one mission’s team! If you are hungry for adventure and passionate about transformation - this is the trip for you!

As you can see – it’s going to be an exciting journey to be a part of! I’m really looking forward to sharing with you how God’s love is spread during our time in the Philippines once I return! Right now, I’m looking for partners – those of you who are interested in partnering with me through prayer support and/or financial gifts.

I need to raise $2,700 to cover my cost of the trip. All of the funds are due by February 21^st. If you’d like to give a gift of any amount (every little bit makes a big impact!) to help make this journey possible for me, you can do so by donating via this link. Your investment is well worth the return – reaching a nation with God’s Word and His love and seeing lives transformed as a result! I’m so grateful for whatever you can give!

I also treasure and appreciate your prayer support. I'm reminded of the importance of prayer from a recent discovery. You see, I learned something very fascinating about the Redwood trees while on my trip to the west coast couple months ago. These trees are the tallest trees found on the earth so you would think they would have really deep roots to anchor them in the ground, right? After all, they are along the west coast and get the brunt of some mighty storms. But the truth is that their roots are actually pretty shallow. So what holds them up on a daily basis let alone during mighty storms? It’s the fact that their roots go wide and interlock with the roots of the other Redwood trees. The connection with other trees helps them keep standing! Isn’t that amazing? It’s a great picture of what we all need – community and connection. What would it look like if these roots signified our prayers for each other? Not only could we keep standing as we do our daily lives, we can withstand the mightiest of storms. What do you say? Will you partner with me in prayer? If you’d like a detailed list of how you can be praying for me leading up to this trip and during it, connect with me, and I’ll send it your way! And how can I interlock my prayer roots with yours? Please let me know how I can partner with you in prayer. Together, we’ll storm the gates of heaven and stand stronger as we see God answer our prayers!