Stories, ER visits, and Saturday sunshine :]

Well you guys...last week was another rollarcoaster ride with Jesus.
But it was good. =] Not quite the California screamer or whatever its called...
no not quite that fun. More like the Wild Thing at enchanted village...full of twists and turns that leave your neck aching and your head throbbing afterwards. ha!
For the past two weeks it seems like everybody and on base has been sick!
Sick with flus, colds, african diseases, etc. haha. Last week me and all of my housemates were sick the whole week, we ended up taking my roomie Jamie to the ER Tuesday night (she's been really sick sense she got back from Africa)...it was a crazy week. But amongst the cloud of sickness and spiritual warfare God definitely had His love and mercy shine through.
I was blessed Wednesday through Friday with the opportunity to sit in on the dts lecture. The speakers this week were 2 guys, Lyn and Ed from a ministry called One Story. What they did was they taught us how to story tell in relevant ways within the context of missions. The whole lecture was totally interactive. We got into the dts outreach groups every day and had "simple church" together. There were a couple different aspects to the week. The obvious thing we did was tell stories. The guys would split us up into our outreach teams and tell us a story from the Bible. We were not allowed to read the stories they were telling; we were only allowed to listen to them tell it orally. They did this so we would gain insight on how we would have to share the content of the Bible and even the gospel message in unreached areas that do not even have a Bible in their language (or a written language at all). It really opened our eyes to the realities of sharing the Bible throughout the world in ways we had not previously thought of. Another realization that came was that it was simple, fun, and easy for us to remember what happened in the stories after we heard them be told a couple of times. This encouraged us to start diving into Bible stores with confidence instead of intimidation.

Another huge part of the week that Ed and Lynn brought to us this week was the concept of "simple church." They explained to us thatall we need to do church is worship, prayer, fellowship, and teaching from the Bible. It is that easy! We practiced this every day they were here. The day before, we would volunteer to lead certain times of the meeting. That night we would prepare whatever we said we would, whether it be a song for worship or a teaching out of the Bible or anything else. The next day, we would simply participate in church together. It was so refreshing to do! All of us absolutely loved it. We were all able to participate and make it a group effort while also being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and having the freedom to be flexible.

That was really the best part of the week for me because ever since the fall God has been laying the concept of simple church thick on my heart. So being able to in a sense "practice" simple church and physically do it was huge for me. It was a tremendous blessing! And being able to actually do it gave me alot more confidence to walk out what God is calling me to do! It was awesome :]

Sunshiney days comin my way

Man, it's crazy to think that another week has passed and we
are finally in the month of March! Time fllllyysss!
Today a few different things stick out in my mind...
-only a month left of internship
-only a month till TESOL
-only a month till the dts leaves for outreach
-spring is almost here
-less than a month till Jacob's dts starts
ohhhh boy...so much on my mind! I really want to take hold
of what God has for me this month, whatever that may be...
Oh and by the way..
URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: My best friend and roomie Jamie has been really sick
sense she got back from Sudan. Everything from a kidney infection, fevers, vomiting,
an ovarian cyst and 2 cysts in her uterus have plagued her with pain this past week.
She's had to go to the ER a few times now with fevers ranging up to 104 degrees. She is seeing a specialist this week as the doctors seem to have discovered she has a disease they can't pinpoint. She could REALLY use your prayers and encourgements!!!

Now last week was busy, but a lot of fun. We hosted an injustice themed
conference here at the base called "Engage". We had lots of other YWAMers
come from other bases, including two other dts'. We put on our Experiencing
Injustice program, and the Night of Missions program. Both went really well and the
students has an incredible response! Tons of them realized that God is calling them to missions and to the unreached and I had the awesome privilege of getting to talk to quite a few of them and pray over them! It was an amazingly spirit filled night.
It was sooo refreshing to have the eyes of my heart redirected off of myself and onto God's. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the everyday stuff we all deal with, with the unknown, and with everything going on in our own little bubbles. But God once again opened my eyes to the reality of His biggness, and to the reality of what it means to live a life worthy of the calling of Christ. It's NOT about me. It's all about Him. Oh! that I would grab hold of this truth everyday of my life!!! If we all did...what a wonderful world this would be...

God is good, life is good

Well, sense my last blog not a TON of stuff has happened, besides my daily internship studies. Because these past few weeks have felt like they were leading up to today.
My outreach team came back this morning! And the other 2 teams come this afternoon!
And I am ridiculously excited about it to say the least =]
As you know, my team and I have been apart for two months now, and I have
missed them tremendously. It was such a happy reunion meeting them at the airport
this morning. They have already shared so many stories, and now I get to actually see how much God has changed their lives! It is truly is a beautiful thing to see people be ruined for the ordinary. I love it!
This week I will be sitting in on the students debrief time, which I'm really excited for. We will also be having a graduation for them, I will be leading base intercession, going to a party at one of the students houses, AND having a friend from my dts fly in from out of town! So this will be a very busy week, but a VERY good week. I've been waiting for this time for months!!!
As always it is such a huge blessing to be here.
God has been showing me that this is exactly where He wants me to be.
Even if I wanna be overseas right now, He wants me here.
And there is nothing better than being in the center of His will.
Even if it doesn't always make sense to me.
I'm excited to see the fruits of God's work through me in the lives of the students
this week. This is the time for them where they really make the decision as to what they will do with what they have seen and experienced. Will they fully devote their lives to the call of God? Or will they go back to living the lives they have always lived?
This is a really important time in the lives of these students and I am so blessed and privilged to be apart of it!
Thank you so much for all your thoughts, prayers, love, and support.
I mean it from the bottom of my heart when I say I am sooo blessed to have you all
in my life. May the Lord bless you and keep you in His loving faithful arms!
You are in my prayers!!!
LoveloveLoVe- Kristina

"Truely letting Him make all things new"

Hello hello hello everyone!
It has been a really long time sense I've blogged.
But once again God has turned a new page and I'm in a new season
of life. it's time to start blogging again! My plan is to blog once a week, and than once a month I will send out a "newsletter" to those of you who signed up for the mailing list.

ANYWAYS.....life is going really good=]
It's good being back in Salem. Although this time around is totally and completely different from the past few times.
Right now I'm mostly just working in the "Pro Rev" office everyday. during the first part of the day I usually do stuff for them. Like this week I did a few really cool things. On thursday my fellow intern Charity and I led base intercession for Thailand/Burma/Tibet. It went really well!!! Then today we set up a Thailand themed snack break for the DTS. Anyways, thats what the first part of most days will involve is doing various things like that. Then in the afternoons Charity and I have a specfic area of study everyday for the country we will be going to longterm. So one day we will focus on country history, another day will be country religion, another will be an introduction to language learning, or support raising, etc. So far we are having an excellant time. I am learning ALOT. A whole lot about my country and a whole lot about the Western Christian worldview and how it effects other cultures as our worldviews collide, and what it means to have the a biblical worldview rather than a "western christan worldview". So far the internship has been really beneficial and it's only been a week!

It's also been really fun being on staff now. I share a really nice house with 3 other girls and a really awesome master bedroom with one of my bestfriends, Caiti. We have really been having a blast so far. It's also exciting to be out of the "dorm scene". I definitely feel more "grown up" and independent now. So thats pretty exciting as well.

But above all of this, Jesus keeps bringing to mind that it is all just sprinkles. When I was in the hospital in Bangkok, as I mentioned in my last blog, God kept impressing his terrific worth on my heart. That He wanted, and I really wanted to come to the place where I could honestly say that Jesus is more than enough for me. Where I count EVERYTHING as a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of KNOWING Him. Where everything is just rubbish. I felt like I truely came to that point when I was there. I've never felt more close to God than I did when I was going in for surgery. And now, being here in comfortable America, it's honestly not as easy. It is truely become a daily sacrifice of praise to count everything as rubbish, to give him my everything, especially my wants, desires, expectations, and dreams. But the more I struggle to give things up and live my life with open hands and an open heart, the more I realize that he is infinitely worthy all the time, not matter what. He is SO abundently good all the time. He really is all I need. He is the cake, the substance of my life, and for Him to be "more than enough" I decided that means he would have to be the frosting as well. Jesus is the frosting AND the cake. And everything else is just extra sprinkles on top.....like I said, it's a daily struggle and a sacrifice to let go of myself and come to this point everyday. Many times I fail. But thats where I am right now, and I know God will be faithful to draw me closer to himself . As I pursue Him, He is already pursuing me. Hallelujah. <3

WHAT an awesome year=]

It is my hope and in my prayers that all of you are having a wonderful new year as we have entered 2010! I’m really excited to see what the Lord is going to do in all of our lives in this next year, any year spent with the God of the universe is guaranteed to be an incredible adventure! And 2009 was definitely a huge one for me.

As most of you know, I started off 2009 attending a Youth With A Mission Discipleship Training School, from there went overseas for the first time. God took me on an incredible adventure to Southeast Asia, then the summer after I got back, showing me His calling on my life to have me go back to serve Him in M******. I went back to YWAM Salem, OR in the fall, took a basic leadership course, and then had the privilege of going back to M******! And little did I know, God had more crazy plans up His sleeves. While doing ministry in M******, I had started to experience horrible abdominal pain. After lying in bed for a few days I went to the hospital, found out I had an ovarian cyst, and flew to Bangkok, Thailand for emergency surgery the next day. Everything in Bangkok went incredibly well! The Lord was with me through it all and took the very best care of me. It was an absolutely incredible time spent with God, learning to trust Him with my life, learning how to love Him more, and even better learning more of His incredible love for me. God had been showing me how He truly is more than enough for me, He is all I need, and how ridiculously good He always is. After all was done with the surgery the doctors found that I had a 14cm by 11cm cyst. They had to remove both the cyst and the ovary, but surgery went really well and there were no complications. Also recovery has gone incredibly well and very fast! Praise God!

The past 2 weeks I have been back home here in Kent, Washington. But next Monday, the 25^th I will be going back to the Salem YWAM base. I am officially on staff now with YWAM, and I am really looking forward to what God has next! As soon as I get back to Salem I’m going to be doing a three month internship that will help prepare me for going long term someday to M*******. It’s going to be really beneficial. Every day I will be focusing on a different topic, but during this internship I will have focuses on support raising, learning about the history of M*******, learning about Buddhism(the main religion), having a biblical perspective on missions, an introduction to language learning, and quite a lot more. It should be an exciting 3 months! I will also be helping out and serving in the hospitality department on the base and in the frontier missions department on the base.

As you can see, God has really transformed my life this past year, and brought me into so many new depths of intimacy with Him. It is such a wonderful blessing and a privilege to serve the King of Kings! I also want to thank you for all of your powerful prayers, love, encouragements, financial support, and for being in my life! I am truly blessed to have you all as my friends.

Here are some specific things you could be praying for in the next few months, it would be a great blessing to me to have these things lifted up to the Lord:

1. Continued protection for my outreach team that I had to leave in Thailand. Protection from the enemy, a safe trip, and that they would grow closer to the Lord and have a huge impact on the people they minister to.

2. A safe trip back down to Salem, and a renewed physical strength for that day as I am still recovering.

3. That I would just be with God in everything I do rather that striving to get stuff done on my own. Especially during this whole internship, that I would just be with God every day. And that above all else I would get to know Him more through this.

Thank you so much for your continued love, support, and prayers! You are always in my thoughts and prayers and I hope and pray the following verse over all of you….

“The Lord your God wins victory over victory and He is always with you. He celebrates and sings because of you, and He will refresh your life with His love.” Zep. 3:17

Love, Kristina

"Truely letting Him make all things new"

Hello hello hello everyone!

It has been a really long time sense I've blogged.

But once again God has turned a new page and I'm in a new season

of life. it's time to start blogging again! My plan is to blog once a week, and than once a month I will send out a "newsletter" to those of you who signed up for the mailing list.

ANYWAYS.....life is going really good=]

It's good being back in Salem. Although this time around is totally and completely different from the past few times.

Right now I'm mostly just working in the "Pro Rev" office everyday. during the first part of the day I usually do stuff for them. Like this week I did a few really cool things. On thursday my fellow intern Charity and I led base intercession for Thailand/Burma/Tibet. It went really well!!! Then today we set up a Thailand themed snack break for the DTS. Anyways, thats what the first part of most days will involve is doing various things like that. Then in the afternoons Charity and I have a specfic area of study everyday for the country we will be going to longterm. So one day we will focus on country history, another day will be country religion, another will be an introduction to language learning, or support raising, etc. So far we are having an excellant time. I am learning ALOT. A whole lot about my country and a whole lot about the Western Christian worldview and how it effects other cultures as our worldviews collide, and what it means to have the a biblical worldview rather than a "western christan worldview". So far the internship has been really beneficial and it's only been a week!

It's also been really fun being on staff now. I share a really nice house with 3 other girls and a really awesome master bedroom with one of my bestfriends, Caiti. We have really been having a blast so far. It's also exciting to be out of the "dorm scene". I definitely feel more "grown up" and independent now. So thats pretty exciting as well.

But above all of this, Jesus keeps bringing to mind that it is all just sprinkles. When I was in the hospital in Bangkok, as I mentioned in my last blog, God kept impressing his terrific worth on my heart. That He wanted, and I really wanted to come to the place where I could honestly say that Jesus is more than enough for me. Where I count EVERYTHING as a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of KNOWING Him. Where everything is just rubbish. I felt like I truely came to that point when I was there. I've never felt more close to God than I did when I was going in for surgery. And now, being here in comfortable America, it's honestly not as easy. It is truely become a daily sacrifice of praise to count everything as rubbish, to give him my everything, especially my wants, desires, expectations, and dreams. But the more I struggle to give things up and live my life with open hands and an open heart, the more I realize that he is infinitely worthy all the time, not matter what. He is SO abundently good all the time. He really is all I need. He is the cake, the substance of my life, and for Him to be "more than enough" I decided that means he would have to be the frosting as well. Jesus is the frosting AND the cake. And everything else is just extra sprinkles on top.....like I said, it's a daily struggle and a sacrifice to let go of myself and come to this point everyday. Many times I fail. But thats where I am right now, and I know God will be faithful to draw me closer to himself . As I pursue Him, He is already pursuing me. Hallelujah. <3