Debrief part 1 (week 6) Guatemala

Hello Everyone

Hello and thank you for your patience in me getting these stories and updates to you!

Life Update

We are finishing out our time in Guatemala with an all squad debrief in Antigua.  We rented a hotel and had two weeks of rest, processing, teaching, growing and preparing for Romania. I worked through a lot of personal growth and grew a lot in knowledge over those weeks. Lots of hard and challenging obstacles and great moments of peace and love.

What’s God doing in Debrief?

It was very abrupt change and I process best alone, so finding time to work out feelings was a challenge.

Thursday I got up early and we had a morning session by Madison on the power of testimonies. It’s encouragement for both believers and non-believers; it helps us remember, it helps us build faith in the church, and helps us evangelize affective. Then I had signed up for a 1 on 1 with Lucas and we walked up to the cross and had a great chat and a lovely time. After dinner all the teams shared testimonies of what God had been doing where they were at and it was so encouraging to hear. God is clearly moving through us here.

Friday I took a morning walk after breakfast and when we got back Alayna did our morning session on The character, names, and attributes of God. We talked about: How you view God is your foundation of your walk with God, so if your thoughts and morals are off, your view of God is probably off, To know God you have to spend with Him and it will build trust too, We were created for intimacy with God, His names (Elohim, Yhweh, Abba, Lord…etc), and to check to see if we have a right view of God. Then after lunch we did a session with Perry on Hearing the voice of God. The main points were: God is present and speaking (we looked up 24 of the MANY time the Bible said “And the Lord said”), God will speak to us differently because our relationships are personal, God will use you as He made you and empower you to go beyond, God is patient and knows us, He knows everything that we will do and you can’t mess up His plan, We build trust through listening to Him and stepping out in faith. We prayed for all the people in the group who wanted to be able to hear Him more and something crazy cool happened! I had a vision while my friend Ryann was being prayed for of a dark evil thing hiding behind her head with its fingers through her head and into her brain and I knew that she would not know it was there and would think it was herself when it was not, so I started to pray but neither her nor I could pray it away. She was still being prayed for and right when in the prayer she said “Jesus wants to walk over to you and give you a kiss on the forehead”, Jesus walked over in my vision, kissed her head, and gently started removing the fingers one by one. And so after everyone was done being prayed for I went and told her what I saw and she gave me a hug. Story’s nit done yet! So she goes and finds the lady who interprets dreams and visions and she tells it to her and is that night delivered from the spirit of mind control and I was still awake when she finished her meeting and she runs over and tells me everything and is so excited and running around. She says her mind for the first time feels peaceful and not full of the chaos and noise from before and she was just so excited I never thought she would ever get to sleep. It was so cool that God let me be a part of such an amazing moment!

Saturday the morning session was with Joy. We talked about: We each hold a unique peice of God so we have unique personalities and gifts, God is singing over us and thinking good of us all the time and it sustains us, we have to choose for ourselves to follow God and what He has for us, Gifts can be generational, steward you gifts well and have no fear of failure, Having grace and mercy with eachother and we pursue unity and community and God’s strength in our weaknesses. I had a 1 on 1 with Lucas again and this time we walked to the market and it was very stress free and fun and we had a wonderful all squad dinner together. Then Lucas did a session on ATL (ask the Lord) where we ask God who he wants us to talk to and where He wants us to go, then we follow where He says. We talked about: 1 Kings 18: 19-38, and Dan 3: 8-30, when God showed up for His people when they trusted Him and fully relied on Him, and then Hebrews 11 about faith carring the power of grace God gives us to change things in the physical world. That night Emma was going stop taking Melatonin for the first time in a very very long time. It usually is what helps her actually sleep, but God told her to stop and so she was a bit nervous but wanted to listen to Him, so I prayed for her, that she would not need it, that she would sleep well and I 100% thought He was gonna help her and we said goodnight. Also Ryan said her clear and peaceful mind was still present! I went to sleep early ish this night because I wanted to walk to the cross to watch the sunrise.

Sunday I got up at 5 to walk with a friend to the cross. We talked of our struggles and worries and encouraged eachother. When I got back Emma was up and when I asked she said she had slept well and I was very excited and happy to hear it! Morning session was with I don’t know who and we talked about releasing control to God and trusting Him. Then we had a teaching with Joy on spiritual warfare. We talked about: Spiritual warfare being a clash of the “Kingdom of Darkness” and the “Kingdom of light”, You are called to love God with ALL your heart, You can’t reason your way to knowing God, we are all novices before God so come to Him with childlike faith, Kindom of Darkness(KoD) let’s you feel control but brings destruction but the Kindom of Light (KoL) let’s you be at peace in the mystery and leads to life, we are spiritual beings and can’t serve two “masters”, The Holy Spirit connects us safely to the spiritual realm, Grace is divine empowermentand we access it through faith so our faith allows the natural wold to alter, Humility is needed to access God’s grace, Put on the armor of God daily, Let God be strong in your weaknesses and empower you in your strengths, humility gives us access to God through faith by grace, ignorance does not take you out of the war, build eachother up in Christ, God gives us authority and it grows when we are pursuing Him through realtionship (prayer, fasting, Bible reading, etc), Our battle is to bring God’s will to the natural realm, we discussed quantum physics (particles, vibrations, dimensions, popping the quiff), God is changing the world through us, be obedient in humility. Then I had 3 meetings that day. 1 with Alayna to talk about life. 1 with Maddison talking about the ways God talks to us, and 1 with Perry and we talked about marriage and the roles in it Biblically. Then the night session Perry taught on tithing. We talked about: Everything belongs to God, verses on tithing, It is to advance God’s kingdom, Bringing a tithe not giving a tithe, the economy of the kingdom is of sowing and reaping. Then we had a squad dinner and it was both beautiful and delicious.

Monday had a session with Maddison on Living counter culturally. We talked about: The beatitudes, an “upside down” kingdom with caring for others first, our intimacy with God being reflected in our hearts minds and actions. Then a session with Joy about managing disappointment. We talked about: reacting to life vs responding to God, You have to have your identity in God, 3 lies that steal your joy 1. I have to do everything well 2. Everything has to go my way 3. Everybody needs to treat me “right”  and the rebuttals 1. Accept your weaknesses so you can avoid pride and have humility 2. Life her is not promised to do that or be pleasent but is abundant and we will have what we need, your closeness with God changes you to see things His way 3. Don’t let your joy be in othe people, Gods abundace of good thoughts of you are what matters, our feelings are unreliable but God always is, it is not within your power or ability to make people treat you right but it is your responsibility to love them as God has loved you. And how to break lies: break our agreement with them, address root issues, bring it to God, pray, repent, expect and rest. Then we had a worship session that night and I processed through Ephesians 3:14-21.

Tuesday gets its own post.

Fundraising Update

At this point I was stil in the sixties for my % raised but the focus of my life at that poing was 100% turned to learning and growing in God and I knew I needed to be giving more attention to this but did not at that time.

Spiritual Update

I was having a great time chasing after God through the teachings and knowledge and was trying to apply them to my life as best I could. I was just starting to recognize the places in my life that I had made agreements or had not surrendered in, but the teaching were helping me grow in Christ on the daily and I loved learning and having challenging and clarifying conversations while I processed all the information I was being given. Tuesday threw a wrench into everythingand made the areas of needed growth and unaddressed hurt so much more evident.

Prayers

At this point I would have asked for more clarity from God and I still would like that so pease be praying for me in the

Also please be praying for my team as they are always learning and growing as well

Answered Prayers

I was doing well in health and mentality so I appreciate all prayers for my well-being. God has been very faithful

Thank you

Thank you so much for your gifts and prayers at that point in my life. I am convinced the race would look much different without your prayers love and support. You are all blessings.