Recap #5 (China): Installment 2

While in Beijing I spent a number of days reading through Psalm 139. It is a favorite of many people, and I am no exception. However, as I read through it this time, I felt that God would speak to me or bring some revelation every few verses. I would then meditate on that section and pray it over myself and my life. I had some really special times with God while reading through this Psalm. I have shared some of my journal excerpts. I also developed a worship soundtrack of sorts for my time in Psalm 139, so I have interwoven the songs into this post.

"O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me."

Examine your heart. What do you see? What does God see?

God, I want to have a pure and clean heart that strives to be like you. I ask that you forgive me and cleanse my heart of all these burdensome iniquities. I thank you and praise you for being a God who doesn't leave me the same person. You desire to change me, shape me, mold me, more into your likeness. You are so good to me, Father. I am so undeserving of it. I want you to continue to hone and refine my heart to look more and more like yours. Make my heart so beautiful.

Lead me in your ways, Lord. Help me to turn from my ways and the ways of the world; to  leave them behind without another backward glance.


"You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away."


Lord, help me to have my thoughts fixed upon you. I pray that my desire for you would be so great that I can never get enough of you.

"You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do."

You are everywhere. I need to be everywhere with you. Make me more aware of your presence. Give me a greater desire for that wonderful presence. I pray that every morning I would wake up early burning with excitement to spend time with  you.

"You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord."

I pray that you would be the filter between my mind and mouth. Teach me when to keep my mouth closed. Help me to speak only life and love to others. Build me to be an encourager.

"If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me."

You are with me anywhere I go, whether I feel you there or not. You are omnipresent. No matter what place I'm in or what season of life I'm in, you are still God, and I have a reason to sing and worship you.

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mothers womb."

You know me inside and out. You are the Great Physician because you know exactly how my body works. You know me completely; every single detail. As humans we long to be known and understood, and you know us and understand us better than anyone ever will, and even better than we know or understand ourselves!  You are amazing, God.

"Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous- how well I know it."

Only my God could create humans so complex and unique. You are so creative. Your works are all beautiful, magnificent, and perfect.

"You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb."

Even before I entered the world, you still watched over and cared about my life. Your tender care is so intimate to watch us even in our mother's womb, where we are still secluded from the world. Your love cannot be fathomed.

"You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."

God, you already know my whole life. You have gone before me and prepared it for me. Nothing is unexpected to you, nor is it too big for you to handle. Every hurt, every joy--you already know they are coming, and you will stand at my side through them all. Thank you for being a God who takes care of every detail, but also wants to live them out with me.

The more my eyes are opened to see God more clearly and understand more completely who he is and what his character is, the more I will fall on my knees in worship.

God wants to speak to our hearts through the Scriptures. We just need to take the time to listen as we read. Meditate and pray through the Word and allow them to flood our lives with love, peace, and encouragement.

Recap #4 (China): Installment 1

This is going to be the first of two update installments for China. This installment will be about our team's experiences and adventures, and the next one will be about my personal lessons and things that God was speaking to my heart during our time in China. So stay tuned for the next part...

Our time in China was divided into two parts. First we spent a number of days in Beijing, mostly sight-seeing and hanging out. Then we traveled to Xi'an, where we met up with some other fellow YWAMers. China was much more fun than I expected, and I was surprised to find myself sad to leave!

In Beijing we had the opportunity to take in many of the famous sights of China, which was pretty amazing. I had the chance to visit the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, and the Olympic stadium. The team had a pretty fun time being tourists for a few days!

The streets of China

We ate with chopsticks for nearly every meal

Heath, my cutie of a boyfriend

ATW team at the Temple of Heaven

Cuties! Tiska, Maria, and Lydia

Tiananmen Square

Chair lift up to the Great Wall

Great Wall of China!

Maria and Sarah on the way down from the Wall

The Bird's Nest at the Olympic stadium

Tiska, Josh, Heath, and I at the Olympic stadium

In Xi'an, we had a few classes to help finish up our lecture phase and we were able to engage in a few different ministry opportunities as well. Our team went to a couple different orphanages and also attended English Corners, where Chinese people come to hang out and socialize with native English speakers in an effort to practice and improve their conversational English. 

One of the orphanages we went to was a home of sorts for children with disabilities. There were two different women who had devoted their lives to taking care of this handful of children. It was such an amazing testament to the faith of these women to believe God to provide for them and these children and to give them the strength, patience, and grace needed to work so hard every single day and to love on these kids. 

We stayed with a few different families living in China and working to share God's love there. This was my favorite part of our time there. I was able to stay with our speaker/teacher and his family, and what an amazing blessing they were. He and his wife welcomed me and the other two girls staying there (Maria and Lydia) into their home as if we were really a part of their family. I also loved being able to hang out and play with their two young sons. Spending time in a home and with small kids was such a comfort after being away from home and on the road for so long. Maria, Lydia, and I also spent a lot of time just hanging out with them and having great conversations about God, faith, life, and all of our questions. It was definitely enriching, enlightening, and thought-provoking. 

At the orphanage in Xi'an

Craft time!

The girls on our team (plus Joshua Diego)

This is the team's update video after our time in China, to fill you in on what I missed:

Recap #3 (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong was short-lived for us. We only spent a couple days there. It was a time for us to learn about and prepare for entering Chinese culture, as China was our next destination and the culture and lack of acceptance of Christianity would be an entirely new experience for all of us. We needed to be ready for what was coming!

Our trip to Hong Kong was a memorable one for me. We had a 12 or 13 or 14 hour (I can't remember exactly...it was long, I know that) red-eye flight. I think I might have slept a total of an hour on the whole flight! It was rough, but the cool thing was that God really spoke to me during that flight. I had an extended time of prayer for my friends and family, which was pretty meaningful. As I prayed for my family members, God showed me how blessed I am to have such a loving, supportive, and just plain wonderful family. My heart was filled with gratitude for the amazing parents I have. They have sincere and caring hearts, and selflessly love me and my two sisters. My parents put everything they have into loving us, providing for us, and teaching us about life. And my two sisters are so unique and different from me. It's pretty comical. But I know that they have this amazing capacity to care for others that simply astounds me. I know that if and when I stop to take the time to appreciate my family and the amazing qualities they possess, there is much that I can learn from them. I hope to be able to love them well and be grateful for them each and every day. God has blessed me abundantly!

While in Hong Kong we stayed at the YWAM base, where we were warmly welcomed by the staff. It was interesting to see how different their base was from the Denver base, and to embrace the wide-reach and great diversity of YWAM. Pretty cool! In addition to our China preparation, we were able to engage in some prayer walks and even attended a Nepali church service as part of our ministry time in Hong Kong. Our team also got to do some sight-seeing and be tourists for a day, which was pretty fun! We were able to walk around downtown for a bit, then we rode this tram up a hill/mountain to the top of the city. The view was absolutely breath-taking!

Downtown Hong Kong

The tram ride to the top of the city!

 Christina and I on the tram

View from the top!

Hong Kong

Posing at the top 

The girls on the team stop for bubble tea--typical.

Ministry with kids from the Nepali church. Craft time!

Some other quick insights from my time with God while in Hong Kong:

"'I would love to treat you as my own children! I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land--the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling me "Father," and I wanted you never to turn from me.'"   (Jeremiah 3:19)

God's heart for us is so beautiful it's baffling. He desires us so much. He longs for intimate relationship with us, and he tell us that in his Word. He doesn't hold back from us; he is completely selfless in his love for us. He always wants to show us how much he loves us, even if we aren't faithful to show him our love for him. 

He just wants us to run to him. No matter if we have never run to him before, or if we have put him off for months or years, he just wants us to turn to him. He forgives and forgets the time when we weren't running after him and allowing him to lift us up in his warm and loving embrace. All he cares is that we do come. What a wonderful Father we have.

"'My wayward children,' says the Lord, 'come back to me and I will heal your wayward hearts.'"   (Jeremiah 3:22)

Recap #2 (Mexico)

So, our official Around the World (ATW) outreach began in Veracruz, Mexico. It was a great place to begin, because we were able to see many people accept Christ for the first time during our ministry times, and that provided us with a lot of excitement and encouragement for all of our destinations ahead. 

Our ministry times in Mexico looked very similar in each place we went. We would perform dances, puppets, dramas, and someone would share a personal testimony and present the gospel. Then we would typically have an altar call and invite people up for any prayer needs. (I even shared the gospel during one of our ministry times!) Our team did this sort of ministry in parks, schools, at a hospital, and in a couple extremely impoverished villages. And we often sweated our brains out during our ministry times, because Mexico was stinkin' hot! Needless to say, AC was our best friend.

Many people encountered God and his immense love, power, and grace, and his kingdom was advanced in a great way. We also say a number of people healed, and I was able to be a part of praying over a few people who were healed. God really worked miracles in Mexico, and it was really powerful to witness!

A few ministry highlights:

• Sarah and I prayed for a man with back, neck, shoulder, and head pain, and he was healed. Our God is a God of miracles!
• The mother of one of our translators shared a testimony about her mother, who was a devout Catholic. She fought often with her mother about her beliefs, but her mother encountered God and gave her life to Christ. Praise God for transformed lives!
• In one of the impoverished villages we visited, I was sitting next to an adorable little girl. She was a bit shy and would always look away whenever I smiled at her. The girl's mother, who was a believer, was sitting behind me, and during one of the dramas she told her daughter (in Spanish) to look at the angels. The mom explained to the daughter that it was the glory of God (gloria de Dios). The little girl watched the angels, then looked at me with a huge smile on her face, all her shyness gone. And even though this girl was only about four years old, I could tell that she understood. As I looked at this little girl smiling at me, God spoke to my heart that he had great plans for that little girl and she was going to be someone special and do great things for him. It was amazing to see God's hand on such a young girl in such a powerful way.

For me personally, Mexico was an experience of learning how to really pour my everything into ministry times, even if it was uncomfortable or undesirable for me to do so. It was a process of learning to get over myself and focus on the real purpose: loving others and sharing the gospel with them--to see transformed lives! It is a lesson I think that will continue to learn throughout my life and there will be times where I am very successful and times when I fail miserably. But if I continue to rely on God's grace and fix my eyes on what is really important, he will help me and grow me in obedience and boldness.

I often prayed these verses over myself during our time in Mexico:

"I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ's return."    (Philippians 1:9-10)

"For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die."    (Philippians 1:20)

This is our first outreach update video, which summarizes our time in Mexico:

Some photos of our time in Mexico:

Praying over people after a church service

Performing puppets at one of the schools

Students at one of the schools we visited

"Forgiveness" drama

With some students at a preschool and elementary we visited

Watching puppets with children in one of the impoverished villages

Our team after one of our ministry times

"Fix You" drama

Our team with some of our local contacts