Kona Updates

Hello friends!

Kona is hot, as usual, and amazing, as usual! My 3 weeks back here have been awesome and beautiful. I have been blessed beyond belief with an amazing community, Awaken. It is impossible not to grow when you are surrounded by 20-something people who believe in, encourage, and challenge you to run after God. We were immersed in staff-training just days after I arrived. Our days were filled with lectures, meetings, prayer times, and office work to get the students accepted. We have also found out our outreach locations which I will be announcing in about a month! Be assured though, I am very excited about the country I am going to :) 


My heart has already been challenged and I've learned so much, even though I have been back for less than a month. Community is one of the best things, even if it makes all the junk in our hearts surface. In community, God lets things that He wants to work on in our hearts bubble right up to the surface for everyone to see. Not fun. But it happens because He trusts those with whom I am around. And I do too. I trust them even if they see the crabbiest, wildest, or most emotional side of me. I learn more and more everyday that God is more concerned with my heart, our intimacy, and my identity than He is with my comfort. He did not place me on this earth to be comfortable, but to grow, to trust and love Him more and more everyday. 


I am so glad that I am learning this lesson. It instills even more in me that this life is not about me and what I want, but about His plan to bring His glory to earth, even though I know He loves me more than words can ever attempt to express. It still blows my mind that the God of this ENTIRE UNIVERSE cares more about me and my wellbeing than anything else and that He wants me to know Him. Know Him. Wild! 


We are only 11 days away from the awaken students arriving and we are all sooooo excited! Each year it gets better and better and I can not wait to see what this year will hold :) Please join my in praying for ...

• The Awaken 2012 students!
• Unity of the school and for the Lord to move how He wants!
• Financial provision! I am currently raising $3,000 for this year which will go towards my living costs and outreach fees. If you feel led to donate, please click the donate button to the top right. 

Thank you all so much! Your support in prayer and financial means the world to me. Much Love!

European Nuggets

As promised, here are some of the nuggets I learned, things I experienced, and changes in my heart that occurred over the course of the Europe Faith Journey!

God taught me about some of my spiritual giftings on the trip, the main one being discernment of spirits (1st Corinthians 12:10). I did not know how sensitive I was to the spiritual strongholds of the land until I embarked on this journey. Each time we entered into a new country, a wave of insecurities would crash upon me, insecurities I thought I had conquered. One second I would be fine, completely myself. Then we would walk into a room of people and I would feel self-hatred, fear, doubt, anxiety, whatever others in the room were experiencing. Kaylea has the same gift and would feel the same things I did. It took us one very long month of being on a spiritual roller coaster to figure out that it wasn't us feeling these things. It was something else. We were feeling the strongholds in the land that satan had sent to grip people. The Lord started to reveal to us that the stuff we had been feeling weren't our own struggles, but those that others had. This brought us so much peace because we were free from all of it and no longer had to come under it! Through the discernment we would be able to pick up what people were feeling, call it out of them, release the opposite, and help  them to overcome these strongholds in their lives. If someone would be feeling self-hatred, we would tell them that it was the enemy, pray with them, and release the truth that they were beautiful. It was a tough lesson to learn, but so thankful that I did! It is a gift, not a curse!

For the past year, a prayer that I have often prayed is that God would grow me in character. To become a Proverbs 31 woman, to honor God and those around me with all I have. Day in and day out, my character was challenged for 3 months. Little habits that I had my whole life were brought to my attention by the Spirit, habits that were dishonoring others, unbeknownst to me, such as interrupting people when speaking, or being a few minutes late. Even if others did not care or even notice, I knew that I was not honoring their voice or their time and was convicted. I wish I could say that once I became I aware these habits, they broke quickly. THEY DIDN'T. They stuck to me like glue! Its an ongoing process, but God is sharpening my character so I can bring Him more glory!

One last thing that greatly impacted is that everyone's story has meaning, depth, a purpose. The most clean of testimonies will effect people. Jesus lived a perfect pure life, yet his testimony has shaken generations for thousands of years. Although I have not had crazy, disastrously hard times, God still used my story to reach others. While we were in Sweden, I met a girl named Anna, who the Hanson's knew from their DTS outreach 2 years before. We hung out with her for the evening, just walking around and chatting. She is not a believer, but was asking questions. I told her my entire testimony, not realizing the effect it had on her. She said it was bittersweet for her to hear. Sweet because she was happy for me, bitter because I had what she wanted. God uses my tiny little life to effect others. He can use yours too.

There is so much more, but it would take days and days to tell. God did so much on the trip, through us and in each of us. Even though it has ended, I am still taking things away from it. I am still shocked that it is over, and so thankful that it happened. What a beautiful and wonderful God we serve!

I am in Kona as of right now. LOVING IT! Staff training is going well and students will be arriving in about 3 weeks. Please be praying for the school as we get ready for it!

Much love, Kristi