Speaking Blitz!

As of last night we have officially been in Texas for a week. Wow! God is already doing so much. We've been having great responses at all of the schools and churches we've gone to and God has also been doing some amazing stuff just within our team. And, to my surprise, I actually like Texas! I never expected that but it's actually really nice.
People always ask me what exactly blitz is so I'm going to try to explain it. On Blitz, we go to different churches and schools and we present opportunities for teens to get more involved with missions and stuff. But really, the heart of what we're doing is to encourage teens to get to know God better and to make him known. Like I said, we provide opportunities for them to do that but we're not about promoting ourselves, we're about promoting God. We do this through dramas, videos, and testimonies and then after the program, we just spread ourselves into the crowd and get to know people.
So far, we've spoken at 6 different schools and churches.We even got through the back door and spoke at a public school! This was definitely a God thing seeing as the principal didn't know we were coming but we got to speak anyways. We've had the opportunity to talk and pray with a ton of students and we have several who have committed to coming to Royal Servants and Kairos. It is so cool to witness God at work and to see how he uses our stories to change these students lives. It's also cool because each one of us students has to give our testimony at some point in time and a lot of our testimonies had to do with Royal Servants or Kairos but God has been having each one of us change them so that the focus is now on him. Speaking of which, I'm giving my testimony tomorrow at a christian school so please be praying for me. I'm actually pretty excited about it because I am one of the ones who had to change it (twice actually) and I really believe that I had to change it for a reason because there's going to be someone in the audience who needs to hear what I have to say. It should be good.
You can also be praying for me because lately I've been having a lot of anxiety attacks. This isn't normal for me. I mean, I've had them before but it was maybe one every couple of months. But on blitz, I've already had like four or five and we've only been here a week. One day I even had two. I'm not completely sure why it's happening but it is so please be praying for that because it's really hard to do my job and talk to people when I'm freaking out.
Other than that though, Blitz is going really well. If you want, you can check out http://www.reignministries.org/topic/kairos-discipleship-school/ and you can read more specifically about what we've been doing as well as what the Georgia team is doing. Our class was big enough this year that we were able to split into two groups, one to Texas and one to Georgia/Tennessee/Alabama. My team has 14 people- Drew, Kaymi, Tony, Phoebe, Dean, Chad, Jason, Leandra, Acacia, Lindsay Lair, Megan, Kate, Cindy, and me. I love our team! We've been getting a lot closer to each other and it's great!
So anyways, that's pretty much it for now. Please keep praying for me, my team, the Georgia team, and everyone we're speaking to. Thanks!
~Emily

Best week ever

It's been over a month since I last wrote. Sorry about that. I've just been busy and when I wasn't busy, I had a crazy amount of stuff to think about because God has been messing up my mind with everything he is. But finally, here I am. I think I'm going to start with this week and work backwards.

This week was just incredible! Our speaker was Doug Easterday and he talked more about the father heart of God. This topic has been coming up A LOT in Kairos and even outside of Kairos and I know that for me it's because I needed (and maybe still need) to hear it. So Doug came and talked and God has been using a lot of things he said to just rock my world. Everything he said has been great but since I can't fit 5 days of teaching into a blog, I'll just share a few points that really stuck out to me. Some of them are pretty minor but they hit me hard so we'll just go with it.
First of all, God is blessed when I experience joy. Like a father, he likes to see his children happy and that's not only a blessing to me but to him as well. So I got to thinking about this and I realized, when I don't let myself be happy or experience joy, I'm not only making myself miserable, I'm withholding a blessing from God! That is NOT something I want to do!
Another thing I realized is that since God wants to bring me joy, it's ok for me to ask for things I want. I've never really thought I was "allowed" to pray for things that I just wanted but didn't need. I mean, God has so many more important things to do so even if I asked, he wouldn't answer anyways. That's a distorted image of God! I'm not saying that if I asked for a pony or something it would just suddenly appear or that God's going to spoil me. I'm just saying that it brings him pleasure to see me joyful so he wants to give me what I want and IT'S OK TO ASK! Whether he gives it to me or not, that's up to him, but it's certainly not going to hurt to ask.
One of the bigger realizations I had seems pretty basic but I think it's something we often overlook. We can't focus solely on Jesus. Ok, just hear me out. Jesus is absolutely crucial to us in our faith. I mean, without him there would be nothing. BUT that's not the whole picture. A lot of times, I think we focus just on Jesus or just on the Spirit or maybe both but, even though we acknowledge his existence, we kind of overlook the father. What I'm saying is, Jesus is just a portion. We also need to know the father in order to experience the fullness of God.
Anyways, if I keep explaining more points this is going to get really long so I'm going to move on. Later in the week, I had some more huge revelations about restoration and the weight of the burdens I'm carrying and where God was in the midst of my pain. It was just wonderful. On Friday, we ended the week with a session on forgiveness. We learned what it was and wasn't and then we spent over two hours in prayer doing it. We started going through a list forgiving all sorts of people and then forgiving God (not that he needed it, it was more removing the blame from him), and then forgiving ourselves. It was powerful and freeing in a lot of ways. The week was so great!
On Saturday, after some intense games of foam hockey, I went to IHOP(prayer) and I spent a few hours just resting with my Abba. It was so comforting and much needed after a great but exhausting week. Sunday was pretty uneventful. I spent it memorizing my testimony for speaking blitz (we leave Friday!!!). Today, we were supposed to present them to the class but it finally snowed in Kansas so we had a snow day!!! It turned out to be really great. I got to hang out with my fam-jam (my host family) which hasn't really happened since I got back from Christmas break. It was a lot of fun to just play in the snow with the girls and just relax.

Ok, so I said I'd start with this week and work backwards but I may have lied. . . This took longer to write than I expected and I'm tired now. But I'll try my best to write more later in the week and give those updates. So that's all for now. Bye!

More than just good.

So this past week in Kairos has been utterly exhausting but really great at the same time. God's been doing a lot of cool stuff this week.

On Monday, we had a day off of class and had a Not-Sunday Funday instead. So in the morning, we went to International House of Prayer and had some sweet God time. I really like it there. I mean, it's just a building and there's nothing really special about it but I just love how you can go in this room and pray with hundreds of other believers. I don't know, it's just powerful I guess. So I really enjoyed that, especially when we got into some intercession because that is something I'm beginning to love. Anyways, after IHOP, we had a scavenger hunt which was tons of fun and it was a great way to kind of ease back into things after being on break for Thanksgiving.

Tuesday really wasn't all that exciting but we had small groups and talked about a lot of really interesting stuff. I've been thinking a lot lately about my motives for things. Why do I want to be a Christian? Why do I want the Holy Spirit? etc. Anyways, I was able to talk through some of that stuff and just process it a bit. To end small group, we prayed and one of the things we prayed for was for me to experience joy.

Ok, now here comes the cool part. Ready? Wednesday. I woke up and I decided to wear my new rainboots and I got to class and I was just smiley and happy and I wanted to skip. So I did. Now at first, I was just blaming the rainboots because how could you not want to skip in those but seriously, this wasn't just normal happiness, this was joy. Answer to prayer? I think yes.

Wednesday was off to a good start. Now, every Wednesday, we have a time of intercession. As I've gotten better at it, I've learned to love it and appreciate it more. I mean, it fascinates and amazes me to think that I can pray and make a difference in random people's lives. That means there are probably other random people out there making a difference in my life. Whoa! Cool, right? But back to the story. So we had intercession and God was just speaking to me. This has never really happened. Every once in a while I might get a little idea or something that I think might be God but this wasn't like that. I didn't hear an audible voice or anything, it was all still in my mind, but it was definitely God. The first thing that came to my mind was Pakistani children. Random. But then the verse Matthew 19:14 popped in my head. I had absolutely no clue what this verse said but I looked it up and it was Jesus saying "Let the little children come to me. . ." Whoa. Then we started sharing in our group and before I said anything Taylor starts talking about how the song Jesus loves the little children was stuck in her head. Double whoa. So we prayed over all of that and a lot of other stuff. I had this very clear vision, I guess you'd call it, of a girl that needed prayer. There's more to it then that but I'm going to leave out the details. It was so incredible to take some of my new found joy and be able to pray it out onto other people. Does that make sense? I hope so.

In the midst of all this praying, Tony makes a comment about how his brother had prayed for him for two years before Tony had ever become a believer. His brother never shared the gospel with him, I'm guessing because Tony already "knew" it, but he never gave up praying. Now, Tony is an amazing man of God and a man of prayer. So this got me thinking. I have several people in my life who I had kind of given up on. I mean, they know the gospel in their heads but they're hardened against it so if I were to try to share it with them, it would most likely just harden them more and make the situation worse. I always thought there was nothing more I could really do. But, I can pray. As of now, I have 4 specific people who I am constantly praying for and I'm not going to let up until they come to Christ. I'm not going to list names up here but if you guys could join me in praying for J, G, S, and H that would be greatly appreciated. Pray that God would reveal to them His value and that He would make the things of this world that they are pursuing seem worthless (because they are). Pray that God would hit them over the head, if necessary, and just show them His love, His worth, His greatness, and His reality. This whole concept that I can actually make a difference in their lives and affect their destiny leaves me feeling empowered. This is why I am starting to love intercession.

Thursday, the joy and the prayer continued. Nothing else super exciting.

Friday, I went out to lunch with Megan and Kevin to talk about how the concepts in Romans 6 and Romans 7 fit together. It was a really good talk and it brought up a lot of new perspectives and ideas and applications to my own life that I had never considered before. After that, we (all of Kairos) had to go and help out for the Desperation Conference at Life Church on Fri. and Sat. Desperation is from New Life Church in Colorado Springs. They have a sweet band that we worshipped with and then the pastor came in and spoke in a few different sessions on worship and prayer and stuff. That's what I did all day today too. It was great, especially the music, but man, I am exhausted! Seriously, I'm just done. Hopefully tomorrow will be restful because I definitely need some rest before more class on Monday.

This week was more than just good. I am so thankful for that. Please pray that the joy and everything continues on because I like it a lot! Anyways though, there's more I could say but I'll say it another time because as I said, I'm exhausted. So good-bye.

A (not so) brief summary

So I've now been at Kairos for, I don't know, 4 weeks now(?) and I realized that I haven't had any updates since week 1 so here we go. . .
Everything is still going good. I'm starting to get comfortable with my host family which is nice. On Thursday I get to go to Kylee's 2nd grade program. I'm pretty excited :) It's been fun being a big sister for the first time.

As far as class goes we're learning a lot. Actually, that's probably the understatement of the century! We're learning a ton! I've already gone through an entire notebook if that tells you anything. We've had a few different speakers come in and they're all fantastic! Our second week, Steve Sizemore came in to teach on all sorts of spiritual foundations such as grace, discipleship, and humility. I really liked his definition of humility. Humility is choosing to be known for who I really am, nothing more or less. Humility is based in the truth while pride is based in lies. I don't know, it was really interesting and the whole week impacted me a lot.
The next week, Ollie Olson came in to teach on the bible. This guy knows his stuff! He pretty much has the entire bible memorized. We spent a lot of class time simply asking him questions that we had and he would give us thorough answers that were widely supported by scripture. We talked about things like a woman's role in the church, end times and the antichrist, how people in the Old Testament were saved, the roles of angels, dinosaurs, and so much more! Plus, he taught us ways to really study scripture for all that it's worth. This was a great week to really help solidify my faith by starting to understand some of the questions that I've had for years.
Last week on Monday and Tuesday, Kevin (he's the leader of Kairos- I don't remember if I've talked about him yet) taught on freedom. He talked about Romans 6 and that once we become Christians we no longer have a sin nature. This totally goes against everything I've ever been taught but as far as I can tell, it's true. The bible supports it. I definitely want to look into it more though. But anyways, since we don't have a sin nature, we don't have to sin anymore. We still can sin because it is our choice but we are no longer under the control of sin. We are free to choose to obey every time.This is crazy and hard but it's possible. Think about it, Jesus did it. Jesus didn't have to obey. He wasn't just programmed not to sin. He made a constant choice to obey His father and to not sin. So we can too. In other words, you can be as free as you want to be. Wow. I don't know, this blew my mind a little bit.
We also talked about the importance of confession not only to God but also to other Christians. This is not something I like at all but it's something that God has really been confronting me on lately. Along with confession, we talked about community and prayer. One of the points that stuck out to me a lot is that if you're struggling with sin, the worst thing you can do is isolate yourself. Yeah, I need work on that one. . .
Anyways, I really liked the talks on freedom. They challenged me, a lot, but it's in a good way, you know?

So on Wednesday, we headed out on girls and guys retreats. The girls went back up to the camp where we did orientation but no ropes course this time. We did however play football and  grunt like men. Just saying. The retreat was actually really good. We spent some time talking about the book we had been reading (Set-Apart Femininity) which turned out way better than I expected. I didn't really like the book at all but God gave me a new perspective on it which was very much needed. We also did something called the mercy seat. Basically, you go up and sit in a chair in front of everyone and confess whatever needs to be confessed. Now, I was thoroughly uncomfortable with this. I don't do that, ever. But God got me up there and I was able to at least get some stuff out in the open. It was hard and there were a lot of tears but it was good. I'm not suddenly "cured" from my sin or anything but it was just really nice to not have to hide it anymore. And now it's like, when I'm struggling with it, I can tell someone, because it's not a secret. It was a really good night!
So yeah, the rest of the retreat wasn't too exciting and neither was my weekend. Yesterday and today in class we watched videos of Dean Sherman teaching on relationships. This covers things like attraction, sex, friendships, homosexuality, breaking up, etc. It covers a lot! But it's really good! (I know, I really need to get more adjectives to describe stuff. Sorry.) I've been finding a lot of direct applications to my life, not just for romantic relationships, but for all relationships.
So there you go. I'm thinking that maybe I should update more so these don't get so long. Anyways though, that's what's happening here. But now, I need to go to bed. Bye.

Emily

Some pictures



This is my small group (minus our leader Lydia).
 From L to R it's me, Leandra, Jessica, and Megan.



I found some corn. . .





This is part of the high ropes course we did.





Getting ready to go up.







More of the ropes course.



So far, so good. . .

So it's official, I am a Kairosian! Exciting, huh? I got to Kansas on Saturday. I ended up having to take my mom's car because my parents didn't trust mine. Not the ideal situation but I got here and I'm safe. So we had orientation on Mon. and Tues. and it was pretty great. On Mon. we did the low ropes course which was a ton of fun and it did it's job at bringing us together as a team. Then Tuesday we did the high ropes course. I was super excited and I couldn't wait but when you get up there, it's a lot scarier than on the ground! But, I did it. To get down we had to go on the zip line. Now, I love zip lines, but I haven't had the best experiences on them. So I'm getting ready to jump and I'm freaking out thinking that I'm going to hit the tree at the end but finally I jump. Ouch!!! I didn't hit the tree but I did get some pretty bad rope burn on my hands. Yeah, zip lines are not my thing :\

Anyways, we started class on Wednesday. Wow, we learn a lot really quickly. On wed. we talked about worship. There were a lot of cool things that I took away but one of the biggest was just the definition of worship. Worship is giving God all of our affection. Think about that, all. Not 95%. Crazy, isn't it? That's something I think we all need to work on. I know I definitely do.

On Thurs. our talk was about "everything". We talked about living as true disciples to Christ which involves being radically obedient. It was really interesting. Today we talked about passion and then intercessory prayer. I've never really heard of intercessory prayer before so I had no idea what it was let alone how to do it. Basically, it's asking God to reveal what's on his heart to be prayed for and then praying for those things. We went and practiced it in groups. It was kind of weird and awkward since I've never done it before but it was really cool. We had 4 groups and after we finished praying, we came and looked at what God had revealed to each group. A lot of them matched up and this was weird because we were all in different rooms so there's no way people could have heard each other. In other words, there was no doubt that God was involved. It was really cool and I'm excited to practice it some more.

So as you can see, classes are going pretty good. I like my host family a lot too! My 7 year old Kylee is super cute! She draws me pictures all the time and when I first got here she drew me a treasure map to my room. Adorable! And the 2 year old Kaylen is pretty stinkin' cute too! For the first couple of days she wasn't really sure about me but she's kind of opening up now and she even started saying my name today- Eminy.Yep, I like them so far. And it hasn't been too terribly awkward yet.

So that's pretty much it. Kairos is good! I still don't really know what God's going to do in me here or what to expect and I'm still a little scared for what's coming but so far, it's good.

Almost there

I leave for Kairos in 4 days. 4 DAYS!!! That's so soon! Right now life is just kind of chaotic in preparation for it and there's a lot of stuff I need prayer for. Here's how you can be praying:

• So far I have $2080 raised (praise God!) but I need a minimum of $3000 by Sunday. Pray for finances to come in.
• My car broke down Sunday so pray for it to be fixed and for it to be safe because I need it in order to get down to Kansas.
• Pray for strength for me as I have a lot to get done this week such as writing a paper, finishing college applications, packing, ect.
• Pray for my mom as she adjusts to having an empty house. She's not looking forward to it.
• Pray for me as well as my host family as we adjust to living with each other.
• Finally, pray for God to break down all the barriers I've put up and just take me and make me who He wants me to be. This one scares me a little bit (or a lot a bit) but I know it's necessary.

Thanks for any prayers! They are much appreciated!

          So, obviously since I don't actually get to Kansas until Saturday I don't have a whole lot to update you on. Like I said up in the prayer requests, life is very hectic right now. It's only now hitting me that I'm going to be living in Kansas in less than a week! As I get closer the excitement is going down and the nerves are going up. I know it's going to be great but still, it's finally here and that's a scary concept.
          I found out who my host family is. Their names are Geoff and Amy and they have two little girls that are 7 and 2. I talked to them a little bit and that helped to calm a lot of fear because they seem pretty great. You know, I've always wanted little siblings so this should be fun. And they have a dog and it's a big one! That is super exctiting. So yeah, I think it'll be good.