Outreach

To go on outreach, or not to go on outreach... that is the question.

Normally when you take a course through YWAM the automatic conclusion is a field assessment  (aka outreach, a mission trip.)  The purpose is to apply all that you have just learned and accomplished in your lecture phase in the mission field.  It is not an easy accomplishment.  It is not for the purpose of 'visiting another country' or 'bringing back souvenirs.'  It is to see all that God wants to accomplish in that place through your team, and yourself in a land where, most likely, the inhabitants have not been given the privileged freedom that we have to hear or experience 'religion' in any ol' way we please or don't please.  I have been so blessed over the years to experience these trips to foreign lands, and it is amazing what God does.  I have memories and stories of ripples in lives changed because he chose to use a little gal from Modesto, California.  He is truly able to do all things ;)
My course, the Chronological Study of Biblical Studies is rare in many ways but one is that the outreach is not required.  It is optional.  My intention right off the bat was not to go- if it's not required, that is money I can put towards my next course...and let's face it... I don't have that money.  I have always known, that if I had the money, I would go.  Of course, I would go.  There is nothing that compares to sharing genuine love and truth with those who are so hurting.  To seeing God accomplish healing and transformation before your eyes.  Don't get me wrong, I know guys that do that every week right down town on 9th Street in Modesto- and it is an absolute battlefield and mission calling.  This week, our leaders started talking about our outreach.  Introducing us to the idea and what we do on an SBS (school of Biblical studies) outreach.  They were saying how historically they have gone to other countries and taught pastors how to study the bible so that they can go back to their villages and study themselves and teach.  They have been to China and locked down for two weeks to teach these warriors, these secret men of God, so they can go back to their underground churches and lead, teach, and sow into lives.  The concept of being a part of that is... beyond what I can type here.  This is it. This is what I'm talking about.  This is what I have left home, my family, my animals, my job, my...life...for.  To build a new one- to learn, grow, and GO.  Ordinary people with an ordinary tool doing extraordinary things!!!
Tonight several of my classmates all got together after working all week to prepare for a fundraiser for a few students in our class that have yet to reach their student fees for this quarter. If they don't get the money by tomorrow afternoon, they have to go home.   I keep thinking, next quarter that could be me.  I don't have all my fees.  The quarter after that I have no money for at all.  It is strange and terribly uncomfortable for someone with a 'work' mentality to be called to something that requires gifts and financial support from others.  It is- painful sometimes.  To speak with those who have done it for umpteen years here, they have wise words and stories of faith.  I know I will get there, but being raised by the parents I have- and rightly so- that you work, its tough.  You earn it.  Even culturally our identities are bound by 'so, what do you do?' and how much we earn.  If we aren't working or producing something we aren't valid.  Well.  Nothing could be more valid than bringing new life to those who have lost all hope.  Nothing could be more valid than schooling to be equipped for such a calling.  Nothing could ever compare to taking the word of God to an underground pastor who has no other way of learning.
I know you are waiting for it... that moment where I tell you how much I need and how much I want YOU to give.  It's not going to happen.  It's just not.  What I will tell you is all I can tell you.
I am committed.
I am committed to doing absolutely everything God calls me to do.  I am committed to stepping out in any uncomfortable way.  I am committed to completing this course, to continuing to struggle and press in.  To going where others don't want to and talking to those others won't.
See, God knows this about me.  He knows I am just full of piss and vinegar enough to do it, too.  I can't do it without Him.  Without  His strength, His guidance, and, of course, His provision.  He knows that if He tells me to jump... I will do it.  He knows that if He shows me a path, I will walk in it.  I might complain a bit, I might hem and haw for a few, but I WILL DO IT.  Oh, the discomfort.  The tears.  The warfare.
But it will  happen.
So, what I AM asking of you... is to pray.  So often we say, 'oh, I'm praying for you!'  But seriously.  PLEASE.  Make an intentional 5 minutes a day to pray for me.  Write it on your fridge, on your mirror, on a post it note at your desk.  Please.  5 minutes is an eternity to sit still and pray for some people.  That is a true sacrifice that I do not take lightly.  Please pray for God to make a way, where there seems to be no way.  To rouse the hearts and minds of all who are called to support me financially.  That they would know clearly that they are to support me.  Their help will weigh in eternity.  Their part in this journey will be priceless. Some are called to Go, and some are not.  Some are called to earn and give.  We are all called, it is just a matter of what that looks like and if we will answer the call.
There will come a day where I am absolutely black and white with an amount that is necessary for this or that.  But right now... I ask you to pray.  To begin to believe with me, that God, who has absolutely without any doubt called me, will show who, how, and when He will accomplish all He has for us.
I ask this most sincerely, with love.


For the sake of my mother, whom I know will lovingly give me crap it I don't  tell you how to support me at this juncture I will say... that you can send a tax deductible gift care of Soul Harvest Worship Center 1545 Bay Meadows Dr. Modesto, Ca 95350 (please do not write my name on the check but include a note) or give thru paypal on their website at http://www.soulharvestwc.org/missions/   This money will go directly from my church to the University of the Nations for school fees.  Any personal gifts can be addressed to me at University of the Nations #273
75-5851 Kuakini Hwy
Kailua Kona, HI 96740

OKAY, MA?!! :) (Actually she is my greatest supporter in spirit and otherwise.)