It has been 5 weeks since the students arrived in Queenstown for their DTS! And let me tell you, IT HAS BEEN SO FUN!!! Below is a picture of our beautiful school of 32 students and 10 staff looking over the glorious city of Queenstown, New Zealand. I have some AMAZING stories for you guys, so let me take a moment to TESTIFY about the GOODNESS OF GOD!
One of my students was born with a clubfoot. This has caused one of her legs to be longer than the other one. She has had many surgeries throughout her life to fix this issue and to try and solve some of the complications that come with it. Her knees and hips pop out of place daily and her back is always in severe pain. This medical condition has caused her much agony over the years, but she has been contending in prayer for her healing. Last week, we had lectures on the topic of The Holy Spirit. In the first session, she was sitting in her chair and had a vision of her feet dancing around with a man. The Lord brought her back to a memory she had when she was dancing around but was incredibly insecure because of the way her feet and legs looked. He completely rewrote the memory in the vision she was having and redeemed her hurt right then and there. The Lord spoke to her during this vision and told her to look down at her legs. She opened her eyes and literally saw her leg grow out in front of her as she was sitting in her chair. HER LEG GREW OUT AND WAS NOW EVEN WITH HER OTHER LEG! HER FOOT WAS COMPLETELY HEALED! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!! She stood up and her hip popped back into place and she was just undone by the love of the Father.
Another one of our students has had incredible back pain for the last couple of years. She was a cheerleader in high school and had always wanted to go to college to cheer. One day during worship, my friend and I felt led to go pray for her to be healed. We had no idea that she had any back pain, but we prayed over her anyway. Afterwards, she told us that her back was completely healed and we didn’t even know we were praying for her back! Ever since that day a couple weeks ago, she hasn’t had any back pain! COME ON!!! BUT WAIT! There's more! A student from Taiwan also got healed of a wrist injury she has had for three years! AND a student from Canada sprained his ankle last week and got healed a couple of days later! God is A HEALER! YAY!
During Holy Spirit week, we did a lot of ministry after lectures on our own time. The students are so hungry for God and to know Him. Every night last week they asked the leaders to gather around and teach them about the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, praying in tongues, and being baptized in the Holy Spirit. IT WAS SO AWESOME. In one of the boys’ small groups, they did a ministry night of baptizing the students in the Holy Spirit. One of the students got completely delivered from demonic oppression and actually physically threw up when He encountered the holiness of God. He experienced FREEDOM for the first time and stepped into a new boldness and joy that he had never experienced before. It was AMAZING! I had never seen anything like that yet, but I was so encouraged that JESUS CHRIST DIED SO THAT WE COULD BE FREE! HALLELUJAH HE IS GOOD!
I have been keeping very busy these past couple of weeks. It is crazy to me that we are heading into week 6 of DTS already! Time is flying by. I have been working with Blaise (my coleader) to plan our Extreme Outreach throughout the bush of Papua New Guinea. I have also continued leading worship and have been really stepping out of my comfort zone to sing boldly. I am leading a small group (they are in the picture above!) and I have absolutely loving connecting with the girls. I have had the opportunity to join the Evangelism Leadership Team here, which is so where my heart is! It has been awesome organizing opportunities for the students to step out and tell Queenstown about the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our school is full of evangelists who are passionate about making God known even before they leave for outreach!
I live in a house with 24 other girls and it is a BLAST! Here is a picture of a little corner in my room! I room with two girls (from Texas and Arkansas) and they have been an answer to prayer for me. I LOVE THEM and living with them is a joy.
I live in a house with 24 other girls and it is a BLAST! Here is a picture of a little corner in my room! I room with two girls (from Texas and Arkansas) and they have been an answer to prayer for me. I LOVE THEM and living with them is a joy.
When I first moved to Queenstown, the Lord told me to write down a list of what I was sacrificing to be here. I was confused at first because being a missionary here has been my dream for a while now. I was surprised that the Lord asked me to make a list of what I was sacrificing because being here didn’t really feel like a sacrifice to me. My list ended up being really long. The lord reminded me that I was sacrificing way more than I thought to be here. Some of the things I wrote down on the list was, “I am sacrificing knowing my mom and dad in this season, sitting around the dinner table with my family, coming home to mom making dinner and the sound of dad’s music when he’s in the shower, looking at Sarah from across the coffee table and hearing her heart poured out, and experiencing the process of Sarah becoming who she is alongside her.” Man, I could just cry right now thinking about how thankful I am for my family. I haven’t had much free time at all, but when I do get a couple of minutes I love to catch up with them. I really do miss them an incredible amount, but the Lord is teaching me how to cultivate a culture of family here. Below is a picture of my family and I having a nice Skype date through three different timezones!