The students are here and they have hit the ground running! God showed up in amazing ways this first week. We have over 80 students in the school, and none of them are holding back, they are just going for it! It has been so encouraging to see and it boosts me forward in my own faith. Last Saturday we had a party for them just to hang out and get to know each other. It was fun to see them all get to know each other, but the best part was that the Lord just showed up. Day 2, and we ended a party with an amazing worship sessions where you could tangibly feel God's love.

Yesterday, we announce outreach teams, ahhh! Myself and the incredible Chris Little will be leading 10 fabulous, rad, amazing students to Cambodia in september. We feel the joy of the Lord all over our team, and I am SOOOOOOO excited to see how He is going to use us while we are there.

God has been doing such a deep work in me, I can not even fully express it in words, which can be so frustrating. It is so deep that my mind can not even fully understand what is going on. All I know is that it is a good thing, slowly anchoring my faith deeper and deeper in Him. Some day my mind will catchup to what is going on in my soul, but until then, I am just learning to rest and trust in Him.

Please continue to pray for the outpouring of God's love and grace on our class as we head into our first week of lectures. God is going to do so much with this class, and I am so excited to see where we will all be in just 6 months :)

Love you all,

Kristi

Sorry, y'all, for the lack of updating! Life back on the big island has been crazy busy, yet so so so good. Here are a few things that have been going on...

Our Awaken staff family is growing and going strong. We spent the earlier half of this week at the YWAM Makapala retreat on the north side of the island together. The time we spent in prayer, worship, sharing testimonies, and just having fun brought us closer together and to the Lord.

Makapala Sunset

I have prayed for passion for Jesus for so long, and I am finally receiving what I have asked for. And now that it is here, I don't know what to do with myself. When the Lord places you in a group of people passionately pursuing God, He is going to bring stuff up in your life that He wants you to work on because you are with people that He trusts to help you walk it out. Some nasty junk in my heart came bubbling up to the surface the last couple of weeks that I had been pushing down for quite some time now. It's ugly and gross and icky and I didn't want to see it, so I shoved it down deep so no one, not even myself, could see it. But it's still there. I know it, and God sees it. He has called me to a higher standard, to be refined like the gold, and to do that, He needs to pull all that stuff to the surface to wipe it away. I am so grateful for all that He has done in my life, especially in the last year. The supernatural desire I have to just know Him is being filled, which in effect, causes me to want even more of God. And I am not going to stop seeking Him above all else.

11 days....

A week from Thursday, about 100 Awaken DTS, and 300 Circuit Riders (click here for Circuit Rider info) will be arriving on base with a hunger for Jesus. This summer is going to be a major outpouring of the Spirit, revelations of Jesus, and heart connections with the Father. I can only imagine all that He is going to do this summer...

Please be praying for

• Staff as we continue to grow and prepare for the students
• The school and that all the Lord wants to do will be fulfilled
• Finances- I will need about $2,500 for outreach [location will be announced mid July :)]

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" 2nd Corinthians 3:17-18

Israel

We have made it back to Kona after our very successful trip to Israel! Although we were in the Holy Land for only 2 full weeks, the Lord opened many doors, blessed us in ways we could not have thought of, and taught me a few good (and well needed) points in such a short time.

Intercession: The power of intercessory prayer was brought up many times while on this trip. I once believed that intercession (prayer on the behalf of others) was just a simple act of us telling God what we believe He wants. While that is true, He showed me that intercession is not just praying for others to God, it is literally standing up to Satan and telling him that we will no longer put up with what he is doing. Walking around the old city, praying in our hearts, was kicking satan in the face because we willingly went to an area of great deception to pray for those who do not believe.

View of Mount Zion, where the Old City is

Reality: I mentioned it in the last blog, but the raw reality of Jesus hits hard while walking where He once walked. All the fluff that has been built up in my mind has now been replaced with images of where He lived, walked, died and rose. He once again reiterated in me that faith is not a feeling. He did not die for me to get a warm fuzzy feeling, he died to save me from my own sin. To hold on to the knowledge that what He did for us 2,000 years ago, even though we will never be able to fully grasp it, is faith.

Jesus' Empty Tomb

On the first day of walking around the old city of Jerusalem, an anticipation rolled over me. The lyrics to Misty Edward's song "people get ready" resonated with in me. "He's not a baby in a manger anymore, He's not a broken man on the cross, He didn't stay in the grave, and He's not staying in heaven forever." It has been promised in the Word that He WILL come back someday. We are to be ready, and not assume it will happen after our life time. We are to be fighting for the lost. We are to be standing in the gap, interceding, for those who have not heard. He will come like a thief in the night, and I do not want to be sleeping and miss His call.

Mount of Olives behind me, where Jesus will return to

The Team: We had an amazing team of 4 that joy was consistently flowing out of. This was a glory team that only God could have thought of. I am so thankful for these 2 ladies and 1 fella that the Lord has me travel with :)

Sam, Shawna, myself, and Chantal at the Dead Sea

What's Next: Most of the Awaken crew is now back in Kona and the rest will be trickling in over the next week. We will begin staff training tomorrow. I am so excited for what the Lord has us as staff, a school, and a campus for the rest of this year. It will be quite the adventure :)

We have been in Israel for more than a week now, totally basking in the blessings of the Lord. We stayed in Tel Aviv for the first week and made our way to Jerusalem 2 days ago. So much has happened in my heart since entering this nation, especially since being in Jerusalem.

The reality of Jesus is right in front of me. We are staying in a house across the way from Mount Zion and Mount of Olives. The very place where the greatest act of love in all of history is a 30 minute walk away. To walk where Jesus walked, to look up and see the same piece of sky that Jesus once gazed at, to touch the gateway that Jesus entered through all those years ago is so surreal. And mind blowing. All at once.

Up until this point, I had sort of "fantasized" Jesus, the man himself and his life. I knew the truth if who He was and what He has done, but I had made him some distant character who lived in a magical place called Jerusalem. I expected a light hearted, fluffy feeling while being in his homeland. What I got instead was the crushing, beautiful reality of Jesus the LIVING man. What my head already knew as "fact" crossed the territory into my heart. The resounding knowledge of what was done here. The guilt and sins of every person who lived, is living, and ever will live has been wiped away in this very place. The realness of Jesus is not a feeling. The realness of Jesus is that he once walked on this earth, died for us, rose from the dead, and now sits with the Father, waiting to take his bride home.

"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" Colossians 2:13-15.

The place that this happened is a real place. The people who nailed him to the cross were real people. The man who died is a real man. This man longs to know his children. He calls to us, day and night, reaching out to us. Take His hand, let Him lead you. He never lets go.