Macedonia!!!

We made it to Macedonia! After over 24 hours of traveling by train and bus we made it to the beautiful city of Kratovo, Macedonia in the North Eastern part of the country. I love it! And I am excited to see how God will use my team here. We will be working with YWAMers who are planting a church here, the first Christian church in this city. It is an awesome work and there is a lot of opportunity to encourage people in this place. We will be sharing testimonies, doing dramas and dances, reaching out to the youth by hanging out with them and playing music with them. Practically we will probably be painting a bridge in the town and cleaning up garbabge as well. May we be a blessing to all we meet!

Thank you for your prayers! More info to come later!

The Baptism

This was one of the most special moments of my life. Who would have known that something with only 4 hours of planning would be so amazing and powerful?! All of the students and many of the staff gathered together in the living room of one of the couples where we had one of the best church experiences that I have had in a long time. Bob shared about baptism from Jesus' example and after that the four of us students getting baptized shared why we felt led to do this. Three of us had been baptized as young children and wanted to make the stand again as an adult. For me, the realization of recieving Jesus' righteousness in place of my sin, hit me so hard that I wanted to recieve that in all its fullness through the symbol of baptism.

When Bob took my hands and said "are you willing from today forward, to renounce the world, the flesh, the devil and all the works of darkness, and walk in newness of life? Are you willig to give and recieve council from godly people that you respect?" it was as if I was saying my vows to get married. And actually that was exactly the kind of thing that I was doing! I had such a revelation of how I was chosing Jesus again, taking his name and identity through identifying with his death and rising again to life as I went in and out of the water. It was awesome! One of the most beautiful experiences of my life, even if it was in a bathroom, in someone's bath tub :)

These past months have been a huge growing experience and blessing for me. Tough times, fun times and powerful times. Thank you Lord for drawing me nearer to your heart!



Next up....MACEDONIA!!!

The end of the lecture phase has come!

The past three months we have had some amazing teachers visit us at our school in Cluj, Romania. In the first picture is Graham Powell, a New Zealander coming to us from Canada and bringing with him his testimony of deliverance from strongholds. During the week that Graham was teaching I experienced some deliverence myself from certain fears. It was a powerful week and I learned so much about how to fight the spiritual battles that we find ourselves in every day, that we many times don't realize.



In the picture to your left is Bob a Menonite Pastor from Pennsylvia. God used him to communicate the heart ministry and has resparked my interest in the Old Testament and in Jewish tradition as it points to Jesus. Bob is such a wise guy! Also through his teaching God revealed to me some amazing things about grace and how I can't work to maintain my salvation. Jesus died for my past sins, the sins I commit today and the ones I will commit tomorrow. Such AMAZING grace! Its hard to explain without writing a novel, but God really touched me through Bob's words, so much so that me and some other students decided that we wanted Bob to baptize us--that night!

A week with the ladies

Last week we had a very special experience spending time with some very special ladies. The girls from my DTS all went together to a village outside of Bucharest. There we visited a home for young ladies from age 22-26, who had all grown up in orphanages and had either ended up on the streets or without any other place to go.

We spent time talking with the girls, getting to know them, cutting hair, painting nails and sharing our lives and our faith with them. My eyes were openned to the need among girls like these, especially with discipleship, encouragement in finding vocations, and in support in every area.