Life on Outreach: YWAM DTS 2018/19 Japan Part One.

I have been home from my DTS (Discipleship Training School) for 8 months now and thought it was more than about time to share my experiences from the 10 week outreach mission phase, considering I have been home longer than the full time I was away. Just a quick refresher, I did a 6 month discipleship training school in Asia. My 3 month training and lecture phase was done in South Korea, where if you check my previous posts, we learned more about God and His heart through amazing and inspiring teachers. Then after the lecture phase, we ventured to 2 other nations to put into practice all we had learned so that we could apply it to our lives and grow in the calling that God has placed on us.

For outreach, we traveled to two countries, Japan and the Philippines. What a life changing experience. I hope that these personal experiences encourage you to enquire of God what His heart for your life is and how best you can serve Him in whatever He calls you to and in any season.

Japan:

My full outreach team consisted of 11 people including myself. By this time, because we had spent everyday of the last 3 months together, they were like my family. Our time in Japan lasted 6 weeks during which our team split into two smaller outreach teams so we could serve on different islands. My small team included our outreach leader Ayumi, staff member Somi, my roommate Jana and one of the teenage boys Gyubin. We were the worship and intercession team as we went to a couple of islands that YWAM teams had not been to before. We laid prayer foundations and researched the islands for future teams.

Okinawa – Japan: First island

Our full team of 11 arrived in Okinawa on 13 December 2018. We were picked up from the airport and driven to the YWAM base. After a long morning of getting the final things packed, flying for 3-4 hours and waiting at the airport for another 2 hours, I was completely spent. I tried to stay awake to check out my new surroundings as I was in a new country. But my exhaustion won over and I fell asleep during the drive to the base. Okinawa is an island between Taiwan and mainland Japan. The people are quiet and friendly. On our first full day in Okinawa, we had combined worship with the staff of the base. It was trilingual (Japanese, Korean and English) and it was beautiful. In my journal on 14 December I had written, “I feel that God has given me a heart for Asian cultures, languages and people”. Since being back in New Zealand, I definitely feel called to go back one day. I am just waiting for when God gives me the go ahead, but for now I am learning to grow in every situation and challenge placed before me.

Our first ministry in Okinawa was serving at the Global Festival at the local university. A couple of our friends from the South Korea base, lived in Japan and one of them was studying here. Another YWAM outreach team joined us in serving and they were from NEW ZEALAND! I was in charge of creating a Christmas storyboard. We had three boards for this. On one, I wrote the Christmas story, on the second, someone else had drawn a picture of the nativity and on the third, we kept a blank black board to resemble the night sky which people could write their names on a gold star cutout and stick it on. We met many people and shared the true meaning of Christmas. Our team had a spot reserved for us to perform during the festival. We performed our traditional Korean fan dance which we had spent weeks rehearsing during lectures. The audience loved it. After only spending a couple of days in Okinawa this time, we had to soon prepare for our teams to split up and move on to the next islands.

 

 

Heart finale of fan dance (not in Okinawa, in Okinoerabu)

Christmas Story Board

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoron – Japan: Second island

On the 17 December, we had to leave at the Okinawa base 7:45am to catch our ferry to take us to the next island. Just a bit of context for this next statement, I am a short (4 ft 10), not particularly strong girl who was still recovering from spraining my ankle twice. I was incredibly pleased with myself when I successfully, with a backpack on, carried my 15kg suitcase in one hand and my pillow wrapped in my jacket in the other, up the gangway to the ferry ALL BY MYSELF!!! Serious strength gains goals there!!! I had looked at them before climbing and said out loud “God please allow me the strength to do this”. Pretty sure I was pep talking myself and grunting as I hauled the suitcase up but praise God I did it!!

The ferry ride was something I had never experienced before. I usually get terribly seasick so I was not looking forward to the ride. I had taken motion sickness medication beforehand and that really helped. The only thing I needed to focus on was trying to stay upright with the constant rolling of the sea. The thing I love the most about the ferry rides in Japan is that there are rooms below deck where there are mattresses, pillows and blankets set up so that people can rest during the ride. I spent A LOT of time resting to keep the seasickness at bay. After sleeping for a while, I found my other teammates on the top deck of the ferry. Again, this was something I had not experienced, being on the top deck of a boat on the open sea. This was such an amazing opportunity. It was incredibly windy up there so I acquired a new hairstyle. From this ferry ride, our team of 11 would split into our smaller teams and serve on different islands.

The island my team started on was Yoron. Yoron is a very small island ( we walked the length of it in 2 and a half hours) that has no Christian church and is on the Joshua Project list of unreached people groups. My team spent 5 days on Yoron. During this time we meditated on God’s word, interceeded and worshiped together daily. Our motel “mother” drove us to the highest point in Yoron to show us the island. You could see the end of the island on all sides. After this, she dropped us off at a beach and we worshiped there for a couple of hours. While we were there, we met up with a missions team from a church who had come from Okinawa on the same ferry as us. There were doing the same thing as us on the island, praying and worshiping to lay spiritual foundations for other missionaries and outreach teams. We visited the learning centre to research about the island’s history and traditions. The island’s main religion is Shintoism which is the practice of believing in many gods and worshiping mountains, rivers, trees etc as deities. While on this island we had the opportunity to sing the one Japanese worship song we knew at this time (Jesus I’m in love with you =Iesu aishimasu), to 4 people and bless them with sharing the love and peace that Jesus offers.

Beautiful beach on Yoron, group jumping photo.

Ferry ticket

On the top deck of the ferry, so windy!!!

Such a beautiful (and windy) day for a ferry ride.

Shadow selfies with Hamin on the ferry.

Traditional style rooms at the motel, sleeping on the floor. Such an awesome experience!

Exploring the coastline on our day off.

We found a little beach and dipped our feet in, turns out it was the East China Sea!!!

 

Saying goodbye to our lovely motel “mother”. The coloured streamers symbolise the journey and the connection between us.

 

Tokunoshima – Japan: Third island

Tokunoshima is another small island but much larger than Yoron. Bull fighting is extremely popular on the island. Many people take part in betting on the fights. There are only 2 Christian churches with no pastors. They have pastors come from another island once a month. The rest of the time, they have skype sermons. We attended both of these churches while we were there. In one church there were 2 other people attending besides us and the church leader. After the service they were astoundingly hospitable and hosted us for lunch. We sang Iesu Aishimasu (Jesus I’m in love with you) and they sang along with us. The second church had one other attendee besides us and the leaders. We did a bible study and prayed together. We were in Tokunoshima over Christmas Eve and Christmas day. On Christmas eve, we prepared 7 gift bags to take and bless people with. We wrote Bible verses and words of encouragement in cards, and added some sweet and savoury snacks. We decided to walk door to door and offer the gifts to those that we met. We had the opportunity to speak with a lovely lady who loved Korean dramas so she was extremely happy to speak with our team. Gyubin prayed for healing for her eyes before we left. The last people we saw suggested that we walk further up the hill to where they keep their 10 cows. So we walked up the road and onto some farmland where we found these cows. They weren’t the black and white cows we have in New Zealand, but these were massive brown cows. On Christmas day, after our own gift giving and cake for breakfast (love cake for breakfast) we prepared another Christmas story board and some Japanese bibles to take to the airport and do Christmas day worship and ministry there. We worshiped outside the airport. There were no flights due in but we had faith that God had led us there to minister to someone. Just like the story in the bible (Mark 5:1-20) when Jesus crossed the lake for 1 person. Even if we were only at the airport for one person, we would remain faithful to the calling. The security guard there was watching us from afar at first but slowly started getting closer as he observed us. He spoke with Ayumi (from Japan) and we explained that we had come to the airport to spread the true message of Christmas and show the love and peace that Jesus offers. He had never heard the Christmas story, so using our story boards, we shared this with him. I shared the message in English and Ayumi translated. We offered to pray for him. He gladly accepted. He thanked us for making this Christmas special for him. We gifted him a bible and explained to him how God speaks to us through His word. He gladly accepted and told us to come back to Tokunoshima again.

The resting rooms below deck on the ferry. These became my go-to when we took the ferry!

Trying to get a photo of the views with Gyubin photo bombing. So cheeky!!

Views from a lookout on Tokunoshima. Such a beautiful coastline!

The lovely letters and gifts on Christmas Day. It made being away from home over Christmas a lot easier.

My time on Yoron and Tokunoshima, made me realise just how much we actually need Jesus in our lives. If I had done these things (including the things I have not had time nor space to mention here) in my own strength and enthusiasm, I would have burnt out. Spending time in the bible daily has strengthened my relationship with Jesus. He has challenged me in my faith. He has challenged my way of thinking and has equipped me for doing His work. Worshiping and praying daily, prepared my heart for the people I would meet and for the ways God would have me trust in Him and step out in faith.

I hope that through reading this, the Lord touches your heart to pray for these islands and for what is happening in the hearts of those that we met. I also pray that you would be encouraged to seek the heart of God daily through His word and prayer.

This post only covers half of my time in Japan and there are PLENTY more stories to tell. In a following post I will tell of my time in Okinoerabu and Okinawa (we went back there) But for now, enjoy these stories. I hope you are encourage, inspired and blessed.

Many Blessings

Princess Warrior Maid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life In South Korea: YWAM DTS: Weeks 7-11

The last five weeks have been packed full of amazing lectures, words from God and breakthroughs!!

– Kingdom of God

I found this topic so interesting. We focused on how to live in the Kingdom of God while still on Earth. At face value it looks like a strange and hard to grasp concept. The way I understood it was that when Jesus was on Earth, He preached that the Kingdom of God had come. Because He is the Prince of Heaven, wherever He goes, the Kingdom goes with Him. Same as when a monarch visits other countries here. Their flag goes with them. By accepting Jesus into our lives, we carry the Kingdom with us because wherever Jesus is, there the Kingdom of God is. Its about making a full commitment to Jesus and walking as His ambassador on Earth. Ron taught us a helpful declaration. The Kingdom of God is in this place because the Kingdom of God is in me. Because I am here, God’s Kingdom is here. Where God’s Kingdom is, Jesus is Lord. This is a great declaration to use in spiritual warfare and to start the day.

– Lordship

During this week we focused on what it looked like to live with Jesus as Lord of our lives. We learned about passivity and how in God’s eyes it is a sin. When you don’t live out your faith in accordance with the Word and just sit back for a “easy life”, that is disobedience and therefore a sin. We repented from passive behaviours that we recognised in our lives and made declarations of what God wanted out new identity to be, in place of passivity. God told me that I will be passionate, strong and bold like a lion and I will bring joy and freedom. At the end of this week we burned things in our lives, such as attitudes or items, that were obstacles stopping us from fully committing to Jesus. I burned some jewelry that had become a symbol of vanity and pride for me. I chose to forgive people who had hurt and manipulated me. I burned attitudes and habits that I no longer wanted to be a part of me.

– Spiritual Warfare and Prayer

This was another impacting week led by a kiwi!! The topic covered a variety of subjects. I enjoyed hearing about spiritual gifts and about the spiritual realm (Heaven and angels etc) During a prayer session one morning, Josh went around praying for everyone. When He got to me he said that God has given me eyes to see. 2 Kings 6:17 That I would be stronger in the seeing gifts. Words of wisdom, words of knowledge and discernment of spirits. I have always been quite sensitive to spiritual things and have been perceptive about people and their heart conditions for a while. But since Josh spoke this over me, it was a like an opening of my eyes and I have felt and seen so much more.

– Mission and Vision

During this week there were a lot of one liner words of wisdom that spoke to me. If we don’t have any difficulties in our life, we tend not to be close to God. I love the story about the missionary John Wesley. He was always being persecuted for his work. At one point he had gone 3 days without anything happening. He got down on his knees and said “God, am I not close to you? Have I done something wrong because no one has done anything to me for 3 days. Do you still love me?” After he had said this, a man who recognised him threw a rock at him that just missed his head. He got up “Thank you God for loving me!” Being hated, mocked and persecuted was a part of his everyday life as a Christian. I found this both alarming and encouraging!

– Outreach Prep

The last 3 days we had lectures preparing us for outreach. Myungsook taught us from her experiences. I was greatly encouraged by her strength and determination. She is so focused on her relationship with God and so sensitive to the workings of the Holy Spirit. Her stories of the work she has done with other teams on outreach has inspired me. I am looking forward to the adventures and opportunities I will have on outreach over the next 10 weeks.

I leave with my team tomorrow morning for Japan. We would appreciate prayers as we go.

I hope you have enjoyed my updates. Unfortunately I will have no access to technology for 10 weeks but I will have heaps of stories when I get back!!

Many Blessings

Princess Warrior Maid

Life in South Korea: Adjustments

I thought in this post I would share some of the cultural and general differences between New Zealand and South Korea that I have had to adjust to. This post is NOT intended in any way to make fun of or criticise Korean culture because I absolutely love it here and love the people. This is all about MY experiences and thoughts with different situations.

Right Not Left:

In New Zealand, we drive on the left hand side of the road with the driver on the right, just for a bit of context. On my first day here, I was picked up from Busan airport. I was talking with Michelle, who was the staff member who came with our driver Ilwoo. We were having having a conversation about how she got involved as staff for this DTS when I just happened to look out the front window of the car as we turned a corner. When Lo and behold there was no one in the drivers seat and we were on the wrong side of the road!! My heart leaped and I grabbed onto the armrest of my seat. Fortunately this panic only lasted a moment before I saw the steering wheel with driver attached on the other side of the car. I didn’t scream or say anything thank goodness but I expressed my panic to Michelle who laughed. 8 weeks in and I am more used to it now but turning right around a corner still makes my heart jump as I feel I am about to collide with oncoming traffic.

Chopsticks:

I have used chopsticks before at home for the odd meal. But I have never used them for every meal! For the first couple of weeks my hands would start to cramp up and I would constantly be adjusting how they sit in my hand. During our third week, we had a family outing. At lunch, we were given a knife and fork to eat with. After using chopsticks for 3 weeks it felt so foreign to use a knife and fork so I switched out for a pair of chopsticks instead! Progress! Since then, I have eaten a whole chicken with a spoon and chopsticks and eaten cake with chopsticks!! I am going to take some time to adjust at home to eat with a knife and fork again after 6 months in Asia.

Cleaning:

Now I don’t know if this is how people clean bathrooms in general in Korea or if it is just where we are. We have daily work duties in our schedule. When I was being shown how to clean the bathrooms, Michelle took a bucket, filled it with water and then proceeded to tell me that I had to splash everything with water. Toilet, sink and mirror. I remember thinking, “I have to what now?” I had heard right though, I had to splash everything with water, clean it and then rinse with a bucket of water. It was a foreign concept to me and I felt a little odd doing it at first. But 9 weeks in and I am little concerned that when I get home, the bathroom may end up flooded and not able to drain because of my new cleaning habits. Pray for my family guys!!! 😂

Greetings:

Greeting people has been another challenge I have faced. On Gadeok island especially, everyone greets each other with a bow while saying “Annyeonhaseyo” (hello). I loved this when we first arrived and felt so Korean while doing it. I loved when the grandmas I greeted would say “Yebbuda” (beautiful). About 4 weeks in I was feeling over it (not over being called beautiful 😉). I was confused and started to question, “Do I greet everyone or just those that acknowledge or see me?” “How soon do I greet when approaching them?” I wanted to go back to when I would avoid eye contact with everyone and not acknowledge anyone on the street unless I knew them. I prayed about it and a few days later I was feeling much better about it. It still gets me confused a little bit as to when to greet and how long I continue greeting people like that after knowing them. Its quite the dilemma guys!! 😂

So here is a small collection of stories of some of things I have had to adjust to while being in South Korea. They may seem like little things but when they are all going on at the same time and my brain is being reprogrammed to a new way of doing things, it can be overwhelming.

I am appreciative for the prayers and support I have received! If you could please keep my team in your prayers as we prepare to go on outreach NEXT WEEK!!!! We will start in Japan and then The Philippines. New cultures and new adventures.

Thank you!

Many Blessings

Princess Warrior Maid

Life in South Korea: YWAM DTS: Weeks 1-6

Its hard to believe that I have been in South Korea for 8 weeks on my YWAM DTS already! I apologise for leaving it so long to post, so you get a nice long juicy post this time! Yay! I will share about the first 6 weeks of lectures here.

God is amazing!! Its been a great time of growth for all students on the DTS. There are 7 students including myself and 4 staff members. We would all appreciate your prayers as we continue to prepare for outreach which is in 3 weeks. We will be going to Japan for 6 weeks and The Philippines for 4 weeks.

Note: Featured image is my team and I on my birthday.

Students:

– Yejin (married Sungha with one daughter, Yena) From Korea

– Sungha (married to Yejin with one daughter, Yena) From Korea

– Jana (one of my amazing roommates whom I love dearly!) From Germany but lives in the UK.

– Elle (my other amazing roommate who I love dearly) From Wales

– Gyubin (one of my Korean brothers who causes trouble but always makes me laugh) From Korea

– Hamin (another of my Korean brothers and youngest in the group. He also gives me a hard time but always ready for a laugh)

Staff:

– Jinny (School leader)

– Ayumi (My one on one mentor)

– Somi (Translates lectures into Korean and is amazing!!)

– Michelle (Is a Korean raised in Canada and has been speaking Korean for 4 years so she translates into English sometimes)

So these are the people I have spent the last 8 weeks with. It was so helpful when we all clicked as a team right from the beginning. They have become family to me and I love them all dearly. But I will stop being so sentimental now and share some experiences from the lectures.

Lectures:

I will summarise what I have been learning in the lectures so far:

– Worship and Evangelism

I am created to worship. Whether I worship God or idolise material possessions or people, it is how I have been created. It is how everyone has been created. God has created us with free will. So we can choose to accept Him or not. I choose to accept Him and because of His great love for me, I worship Him. Evangelism has no benefit for me at all. The reason I want to evangelise and tell others of Jesus’ love is because I love Him and I want others to experience the amazing, true love that He offers.

– Hearing God’s Voice

At the beginning of the week we were asked to write down one thing we wanted to hear from God during this week of lectures. I wrote down that I wanted to hear a calling to my purpose or a clue to it. I had forgotten this by the end of the week. On the last day we had a guest speaker, Sue, who was sitting behind me. Unbeknownst to me, she had been praying for me and God had given her some words that He wanted her to tell me. By pure God-incidence, we were paired up for an activity. Her words from God were – Small woman, big heart. Giant slayer (yeah man) Practical sense and wisdom. Listening ear to God and people. Wells, have seen and known some springs of living water but there is so much more. Bearing in mind that we hadn’t talked much at all and had only met a few days before.

I asked God what He thinks of me. The answer surprised me. Faithful. Loved. Beautiful. Mother to many. Protector. Visionary. City on a Hill. Strong. If you have an expectant heart, God will speak to you if you ask Him to.

– Character and Nature of God

Dan Baumann took this week of lectures. He has an incredible testimony. He was kept in prison in Iran for 9 weeks with 2 death sentences for being a christian and a missionary. He wrote a book called Cell 58 about his experience. I was greatly encouraged by his experiences, which he shared many to display that God is always in control. God is good. Bad things happen, and in his life there were no shortages, but God is always there. He was constantly reminded through all his trials to look to God and receive His love rather than focus on what is happening in life. The only way to focus on God’s love is to know Him. The only way you can truly know someone is by spending time building a relationship with them. So I was challenged in my daily life to spend time with God by myself so that I can know the fullness of His love for me.

– Plumbline

Plumbline was an intense week looking at why I am the way I am and what makes me think the things I do. It encouraged me to look deep into myself and look at areas such as rejection, fear and circumstances in my past that have affected the way I think or behave now. We were challenged to dig deep and be honest. My life, through things people have done and said to me, has been affected by depression, elation and deflation (constant ups and downs) guilt and insecurities. On the last day of lectures we had a prayer release session where all the lies that been spoken over my life were broken. I begun the process of forgiving someone who I was resentful towards for what they had done to me. I started a new life in a sense free from the lies and on the road to healing.

– Freedom in Christ

Freedom in Christ was another challenging but helpful week. This week looked at bondages and strongholds in our lives caused by things such as oppression, rejection, immorality and racism. Our mind is an incredible thing and can either work in our favour or against us. The things people say to us, the things we read or watch can affect us and create strongholds that can lead to fear, mental illness and even physical ailments. On the last day of lectures we had a prayer session where our lecturer, David (who by the way is fellow kiwi, whoop whoop for NZ) prayed through each of the different area of strongholds and we would respond. The areas I was most affected by were rejection, immorality, fear and nightmares. The way I was affected was by a manifestation of an evil spirit of that particular bondage. My manifestation involved, sobbing, wailing, ripping a tissue (so savage) and moving the table back and forth. This happens when the evil spirit does not want to leave but when using the name of Jesus as mentioned in James 4:7 every demon/evil spirit has to flee. And that is what happened. I think in another post I will share about the spiritual attack and nightmare I had the night before this lecture. (So intense)

– Father Heart of God

During this week, my heart was opened more to the reality that Jesus was actually with me day to day. Our lecturer Elijah, who is amazing, gave us an exercise to do. We think of a memory that we are grateful for, or that was a thankful time for us. We write down what we were thankful about for that memory. Then we wait for God to respond to us. Sometimes He talks and sometimes He just gives us a feeling of peace and contentment. We then ask Jesus where He was in the memory. In my memories, Jesus was always right beside me, watching me with a loving smile. Its during this week that saw a whole new side to the love He has for me. He told me that He wants to dance with me and that He will teach me to dance. He is the most genuine person in my life and I am so grateful for all He has been teaching me. On the last day, Elijah prophesied and prayed for each of us. While praying for me, he said that he saw me as a mother. I will be a mother to nations. (Sound familiar? This is what God spoke to me during week 2.) I had not told him of this but here he was confirming what God had spoken to me 4 weeks earlier.

So this is what the first 6 weeks have taught me and I am still learning and growing. It has been an amazing journey with many challenges but nothing worth doing, is ever easy. Thank you for reading. I will hopefully (no promises) post about some of the social events and free time activities soon. 😊

Many Blessings

Princess Warrior Maid

Samoa, The Experience: Final Part

This post is going to focus on more on a couple of the lighthearted and somewhat funny events that happened during our time in Samoa. I hope I can paint an accurate picture of these events and that you will laugh with me not at me (maybe at little bit at me).

A tale of two centipedes.

While the power was still out after the cyclone, I had to venture to the bathroom in the dark one night. In the cubicle, I looked down at the ground and I could make out a black “thing” scuttling towards my feet. Well needless to say, I got out of there as quickly as I could. At first I thought I had overreacted because the cover on the strap on my jandal had become a bit loose so it must have been that. I wish it was. I turned to look back to where I had been 5 seconds before and caught sight of a thick, black, possibly 30 centimetre centipede!!!! I was horrified. Possibly one of the scariest encounters with a bug in my life!!

Not actual one I saw, no way I was sticking around long enough to take a picture. But creepy right?

I practically ran back to my fale to tell the other girls what had happened. We were all sitting on the floor and as I am trying to describe what the centipede looked like, one of the girls from my team said, “Was it like that?” A smaller brown centipede scuttled its way into our room!! Really??!! We all screamed (okay pretty sure it was just me) and moved to our beds as quickly as we could. The centipede scuttled under one of the beds. The fijian girl we were staying with, had to carefully move the bags from under the bed so we (she) could get rid of it. I don’t know what she planned on doing. I was already writing my will in my head. Once she had moved a couple of bags, it got scared (how dare it) and dashed through a small gap between the wall and floor to under the fale. Thank goodness. After that we were all very reluctant to step foot on the ground again. I remember asking our roommate if centipedes can climb and would we be safe. I noticed she paused before answering and said that we should be fine but to just make sure our mosquito nets were completely tucked in to our mattresses. But she didn’t tell me whether they climb or not… I think I already knew the answer but I wouldn’t have minded if she lied to make me feel better. 😂 The next morning we all carefully checked the ground before getting out of bed and opened our bags extremely cautiously. I hope I never cross a centipede in my life again! Two in one night is more than enough!!

Over the Edge

Lookout just above waterfalls

Gorgeous garden at lookout

On one of our last days with YWAM Samoa, we decided to spend the afternoon at some waterfalls called The Sliding Rocks. They are natural waterslides, at your own risk of course. I am not someone who is very adventurous so I knew from the start that it might pose a challenge. The waterfall we were at started with a small slide into a basin where you then sit up on a ledge and slide down a bigger waterfall. (Scary right!!??) My team mates made it down the slides no problem, however I took a bit of convincing. This did not seem fun to me. After 10 minutes of trying to convince myself to do it, an american tourist offered to slide with me because I was getting nowhere. He sat next to me and counted us down before we both took the plunge.

Not the one we went down but it is similar in size to the first plunge into the basin.

Even though it was only about 2 meters into the first basin, that was the scariest thing I have done in my life. The tourist then told me that I should go the next one alone because he nearly crashed into me down the first one. I told him to go first and then slowly pulled myself onto the ledge. It was then I realised I had been wrong with my thoughts before, sitting on this ledge about to slide down a waterfall was the scariest thing I have done. I looked for any other way down to where my friends were but the only “safe” way down was the waterfall! (Gulp) I took a deep breath and pushed off and slid down which half way through the slide it turned into a free fall as the rocks only went part way down. I was shaking and gasping for breath as I came up for air. It was the most crazy and scary thing I had done. But hey, I did it!! And you know what, I climbed up and did it again. It was a day of conquering fears, realising that I am far more capable of things than I thought I was, and it was also a day of fun with many happy memories!!

After I conquered the falls!!

There are so many more stories and memories from my time spent in Samoa but the ones I have shared have shaped me the most and left lasting impressions on my life. In 3 weeks time I head to South Korea for a discipleship training school with YWAM. I will be away from home for 6 months!! My short term discipleship training school with church has helped me prepare and helped me grow more in myself. As I head overseas for a longer period of time, I now know that I am capable of so much more than I give myself credit for. I know that God is ALWAYS with me and He has me in His hands.

I hope you have enjoyed my very long drawn out series (really sorry about that. Bad time management) on my discipleship training school and mission outreach. I hope it encourages you to reach out and trust in God wherever He leads you!!

Many Blessings

Princess Warrior Maid

Samoa, The Experience: Part One

I have decided that because I had far too many amazing experiences and opportunities in Samoa that it would be too long for my post so I will split it up into a few parts. This part will focus on some of the outreach and ministry opportunities we had.

Hospital Outreach:

On our second day in Samoa, one of the girls in our group got a message from someone back in New Zealand that there was a man in the hospital in Samoa that needed her blood type. This was a great opportunity to be a blessing and do some ministry at the hospital. We rode on the back of a pick up truck part of the way (which is extremely common over there) before catching a bus the rest of the way. After arriving at the hospital we split into two groups. One group would go to find the patient that needed blood and the other group would do some outreach outside the hospital. I felt led to go with the group to find the patient. I don’t think I can recall a time where I have felt so strongly the pull of the Holy Spirit. I didn’t want this to pass me by.

After going to a couple of wards asking for the patient (we had a name…. we weren’t just asking for a random patient who needed blood. Just FYI) we found the right ward and room. The man had his grandson with him. They were extremely hospitable and grateful. We had the opportunity to pray with them and in turn they were a blessing to us.

Buses in Samoa

Buses in Samoa. Love them!!

Buses in Samoa

This was just the beginning of our hospital adventure. We then had to find the blood donation place. (Blood bank????) We must have walked around for 15 minutes or so before we found where we had to be. The two other ladies with me were giving blood and I felt I needed to as well. So I filled the form in and patiently waited my turn. It was then that it dawned on me, “Sarah, what are you doing? You haven’t eaten for a couple of hours. How are you going to do this?” I have had a couple of bad experiences giving blood because I can get dizzy and feel faint easily. So this started to stress me a little bit. I started praying “God, you better know what you are doing here. Please just let me not get sick or faint! I am taking a huge step here and trusting that I am hearing you correctly.” (I thankfully had found a lolly from the airplane in my bag so I now had some sugar in me) About 2 minutes later a girl and her brother walked in and filled in a form to give blood. I was reading my Bible in the waiting room when I felt led to ask the girl if she had given blood before. She hadn’t. She was 16 years old. Her sister had been in hospital for 3 days after a miscarriage and had lost 1 1/2 litres of blood. She wanted to give blood for her sister. My whole world felt like it had been put into perspective. I can’t put it into words but my life from that point was never the same. This is what God wanted me here for. To confirm that I could do this and so I could I encourage and pray for her and her family.

My stomach and Cyclone Gita:

On Friday the 9th of February, our 4th day in Samoa, the amazing, delicious and different food we were having started to disagree with my stomach. I am someone who loves food and loves to try new flavours so I was in my element with the (majority of the) food we were eating. While my tastebuds were loving it, my stomach was not! Lets just say that by 3pm, I was making multiple stops to the bathroom. (Too much info??) This week my team had been to a couple of services at the National Prayer House for Prayer Week. However because I was sick, I was unable to go and this was the last night of it. I stayed behind with one of the girls from my team who was also sick. We took care of each other while the others were away. The next few hours consisted of finding a plastic bag to be sick in, multiple trips to the bathroom together for our own reasons and encouraging one another. It was hard to be sick so far away from home. It was a very wet and windy night as well so it wasn’t that convenient making trips to the bathroom as it was about a 30 meter walk in the rain through wet grass in jandals. When the others got back from the prayer meeting at 11pm, I was feeling worse and pretty miserable. I had to get myself a bucket to put by my bed “just in case”. At 12:30 I had to get up to go the bathroom to be sick. Such an eventful night. You would think/hope that it finishes there right? Nope. 5 minutes after being back in bed the power went out. My sleep from then was very broken. It was still raining and windy and miserable! One of the girls we were staying with had tried to board up some of the windows in the fale because the wind and rain were so intense, I think rain had started coming in. Finally at 3:45am I was woken up with a torch being shone in my face and was told “Sarah you need to get up. Pack a bag with some clothes, your valuables and your pillow. We need to get out of here now.” We had 10 minutes (if that) to put a bag together and get into the van that would take us to a safer building on base. So by 4am we had been evacuated to the library with an hour before the cyclone hit its worst. The next 4 hours were filled with much prayer, singing and a little bit of crying (Me. I was pretty shaken up) There were 6 of us staying in the library overnight. I only slept from 7-8am. It was a rough, loud, wet and windy night. A huge tree had fallen on and destroyed the kitchen/dining area. But despite the traumatic night and intense storm, everyone seemed in good spirits. The staff and students on base all pitched in and started to clear the base up of fallen branches and a group of guys worked on cutting up the tree that fallen on the dining area. All over base you could hear the joyful shouts of triumph when they had cut down trees and cleared branches away.

The dining room before the cyclone

The fallen tree (left)

The dining room after the cyclone

I greatly admire the people there and the fact that despite what had happened, there was no complaining or sitting back till something happened. They were proactive and it was all a great adventure for them and us. That experience taught me that no matter the circumstances, be joyful, be thankful and find the adventure and lessons in life.

I think of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for Christ Jesus in you.”

I hope you enjoyed this not so wee post about a couple of my experiences in Samoa on mission outreach. Please keep posted for more stories.

Many Blessings

Princess-Warrior Maid

DTS and Samoa: The Lecture Phase

This gallery contains 4 photos.

“I thought I would take the time to share some stories and some of the thoughts I had during the trip” Continue reading →

A Full Life.. . Full of Life…. Life Filled…. Wait What??

A life lived to the fullest…..

This statement can conjure up several ideas of what a life lived to the fullest could look like. For some its having all the latest gadgets and gizmos. For others its hitting all the cool hangouts and parties every weekend. And still for others its reading an entire library worth of books. While these things can give us satisfaction and fulfillment for a time, they do not have a lasting effect. There are always new and improved versions of the latest technology, therefore there is the struggle to get the fastest phone with the most memory capable of being submerged in up to 10 metres of water and still survive. Hitting up all the parties can leave you with memory loss, a wicked migraine and a sense of regret the next day. Reading an entire library worth of books can……. wait, I see no down side to this. That sounds like an amazing life. But while reading is a great hobby, and can stretch your mind, it is far to easy to get caught up in the fictional world and lose sight on reality. (Which I am guilty of)

I have felt challenged lately to take a good look at my life and ask myself, “Am I really living a full life? Apart from me, does anyone else benefit from the life I am living?” Up until the last few months, I had been self centered in my view on Gods plan for my life. I would tell him what I wanted, where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. If I did ask him to lead me where he wanted, I didn’t allow a lot of room in my plans for His plans, so really, my words were empty. I believe that at the time, I really did want to do what God had in store for me but I didn’t know how to let go of my dreams to fully allow His bigger and better plans to take root in my heart.

This process of letting go of my own dreams to allow Him to move has been a long and painful journey. Don’t misunderstand me, God didn’t want me to give up my dreams because He is a cruel God and doesn’t want good things for my life. My dreams had become more important than living for him. So I needed to let go and trust that He had a far bigger plan than I could imagine. I possibly mentioned in another post how ever since I was very young, I wanted to get married and have children. Apart from becoming a famous actress, that was the life I had imagined for myself. Early last year I had a tantrum and told God I wasn’t happy with how life was going for me. You have to watch out when you say things like that because God is a father and sometimes needs to discipline just like an earthly father would. He had two different people speak into my life. One who knew me and one who did not. I remember telling one of my best friends that all I wanted was to get married and have children, that it wasn’t much I was asking for and shouldn’t God be able to do that. Her reply has completely changed my point of view on the subject. She said “Maybe God wants something more for your life.”

Looking back I had the opinion that if I had a small, easy dream to fulfill, I wouldn’t be as disappointed if I had a bigger dream that didn’t get fulfilled. But my God sees my deepest desires and knew that I would not be completely satisfied with just that. I love that about Him. He knows me far better than I know myself!

Since then, I have been praying for opportunities to step out of my comfort zone and step out in faith. I have had amazing God moments where I have been able to speak with people about my faith, offer words of comfort and wisdom and pray for people. Focusing my attention on others and their needs has redirected my heart to what God wants me to do and where He wants me to go.

Since I started writing this blog post a few months ago, yes this has been one in the making for a while, I have applied and am going on a discipleship training school for one month. This will involve 2 weeks of training and study about being a disciple of Jesus. Then we will spend 2 weeks in Samoa on mission outreach. Had I not let go of my own dreams and dared to believe that God had a bigger plan for me, I may not have seen this trip as an opportunity to grow in faith and challenge myself.

What I have come to see in all this is that maybe a full life is not about what I can get out of it all. But what can I do with what I have? I believe there will more opportunities to be blessed if we take what we have and use it to do something for God. Rather than looking for ways to fulfill our selfish needs. Just like in Stacie Orrico’s song More to Life, “There’s gotta be more to life than chasing down every temporary high”.

If we are blessed to overflowing shouldn’t those blessings spill out of our lives to others? I am going to Samoa tomorrow for the outreach phase of the DTS. We had an amazing two weeks learning to be disciples of Jesus and growing in faith to the point where we can’t help but want to share the love and good news of Jesus. We will be in Samoa for two weeks. I hope that in that time, I learn to take every opportunity the Lord gives me to step out and bless others.

In my opinion, Jesus came so that we may have a life lived to the fullest (John 10:10) and I don’t think that He intended for us to just look out for and indulge ourselves. With this in mind, I believe that a life lived to the fullest looks like taking opportunities to be a blessing, stepping out of your comfort zone to try something new and letting go of the fear that will hold you back from accomplishing all of this. We can do this by putting our trust in and looking only to Jesus Christ who is the perfecter our faith. Hebrews 12:2.

Bit of a long post this time but God put this on my heart quite some time ago and has kept giving me different experiences to add to it. I hope this blessed you or encourage you in some way.

Many Blessings

Princess Warrior Maid

Image from

Why Me? Why Not Me?

Why me? Why not me? In different situations in my life I would find myself asking one of the preceding questions. Why do they pick on me? Why am I not a cooler person? Why am I not invited? Why am I still single? I know that I am not the only person who asked at least one of these questions or one of the like.

Living in a very self-centred and self serving society, it is way too easy to create a habit of asking these types of questions daily. Why didn’t I get that promotion? Why did it have to be my car that broke down? With all of our ipads, iphones and ipods, it’s no wonder we are unknowingly sucked it our own little world where the main attraction is us. It is drilled into us just by the names of our everyday devices.

Now, I will admit that I am guilty of being sucked into my own little world. If I am listening to music or playing on my phone, in order to have a coherent conversation with me, you need to have my full attention before you start talking. I bet none of you are like that though, but you may have a friend like that.*wink*

But technology is not the only way we are self-centred. We can develope an attitude of entitlement. We believe that we deserve something, pray selfishly for it (yes there is such a thing) or try to obtain it in our own strength and then get disappointed when it doesn’t happen or we don’t get it. For many many years, ever since I was a young girl, I wanted to get married and raise a family. That was all that I wanted in life. Well, that and to become an actor. At the rate I’m going currently, becoming an actor is more likely.

Here is where the selfish prayer comes in. I prayed to get married because I wanted someone to hug me and tell me they loved me. Now don’t get me wrong, I grew up in a loving family and was often told how much I was loved, but there is just something about a man telling a woman that he loves her, that seems more magical. Must be all the fairytales and disney movies I watched. I wanted a fairytale romance.

I remember when I turned 18, I told my parents that if a guy were to ask me out, I would be ready to say yes. (just so we are clear, I hadn’t turned anyone down before this, no one had asked me out but this was my way of saying “come on God”) Well a week went by and nothing happened. I didn’t have guys lining outside my door waiting to confess their love for me. A month, and still nothing. Then a year passed and then 2 years. And then finally 5 and a half years! Why Me? Why do have to wait so long?

Without realising it, I had centred my life on finding a husband. As though that was the most important thing in the world. Not trusting God, I had come to resent that fact that I was still single and had started to complain about my current relationship status. I remember praying one night and saying, “I don’t know what you are doing. I don’t know what you have planned but I am not happy right now.” Then I started to list all the reasons why I thought I deserved to get married. As if I had any right to be telling God, the creator of all, how he should be doing his job.

I was wallowing in self pity. But God was not going to leave it that way. Shortly after this, two people spoke into my life and it completely changed my point of view. One was best friend. I was telling her how it wasn’t fair because all I wanted in life was to get married and raise a family. I wasn’t asking for much. It should be really simple. She replied with this simple yet wise statement that I will never forget, “You may want something simple, but maybe God wants something bigger for you” In getting so caught up with what I wanted for my life, I had lost sight of what God has in store for me.

Step one: refocus. I had to refocus my sights on the Lord.

The second person was a lady at church. While praying for me she said that there was something I needed to repent from. That God doesn’t give second best and where I am right now, is where He wants me.

Step two: repent.

I had spoken harshly to God out of selfishness and had been extremely discontented with where I was. The cool thing about God is that he doesn’t hold our mistakes against us. So once I had asked for forgiveness, He started afresh within me.

Now, instead of asking, “Why am I still single?” I ask, “What can I do for you because I am single?” And, “How do you want me to spend my time as a single person?”

I won’t lie, it has been a really tough journey. I still get the shadows of that feeling of loneliness, but because of what God is doing within me, I am so much happier. I have refocused my life to focus less on me and my problems and more on the God who is so much bigger.

This applicable in any situation no matter your walk of life. God cares. He has a plan. While it may look different than what we want or imagine, He will never disappoint.

I hope you will be encouraged through my story and may your journey shifting your focus onto God be a rewarding one.

Many Blessings

Princess Warrior Maid

By the Grace of God… My Story.

I decided for this post to be about my story. My testimony. In the past I have shared my testimony with different groups and people and each time it has changed slightly. That’s because God is always doing something new in my life. However the thing that has always remained the same is his grace. His undeserved love and favour. I mess up all the time (hard to believe I know) but he always shows mercy amd extends his grace towards me when I repent. So this is my tetimony of what God’s grace has done in my life. 
God’s grace has always been present in my life. That’s not to say that my life has been easy because of it. Quite the opposite actually. But the experiences and blessings because of my faith in Him have been worth the struggle. I was raised in a loving Christian home. I knew who Jesus was and what He had done for me. But I learned later that knowing and believing are two different things. In primary school I was a target for bullying. A lot of what was said to me and about me back then stuck with me long through my teen years. I struggled with knowing who I was as a person. Who I was as the Lord’s masterpiece. I gave my heart to the Lord when I was 12 at a GetSmart Conference. (youth conference) I felt that I was ready to make the decision for myself to follow Jesus with my whole heart. This was the beginning of a very bumpy journey as God would start to reshape my life as I allowed Him. (He is gentleman, He won’t go where He is not wanted) Over the next couple of years I felt as though I struggled to fit in. I suffered social anxiety and felt socially awkward. While I had a few friends who truly cared, I was blinded by lies the enemy was whispering to me. “You are not good enough, pretty enough cool enough. You are not enough.” Lies.
At Easter Camp 2012/13 (huge youth camp with 5000 youth from different churches) at one of the afternoon optional sessions, God spoke to me through one of my youth leaders saying that there was a stake in my life holding me back from being free. (One of the speakers had told a story about how elephants in India are trained. When they are babies, they are tied to a stake in the ground and because they are so little, when the tug at in to try and get free, they can’t move it. So when they grow up and are still tied to the stake, though they have the strength to move massive tree trunks, they still believe that they cannot move that stake. They don’t even try) Now whether this stake in my life, whatever it was, had mades its home within me and was consuming me inside. Sounds morbid I know but that’s the only way I can describe it. I prayed about it for the rest of the day asking God to show me what was holding me back from being free to be me. He eventually revealed to me through a long buried memory of an incident at school where a fellow classmate had told me that she didn’t like me because of my “personality”. Little did I know that these words would take root in my heart and for the majority of my teen years, I would be shaping and judging myself based on those words. After praying with my leader and a nothing short of miraculous release, the pesky demon that had been whispering lies to me for years, was finally gone. I saw his claws be ripped from my heart and angel of the Lord dragged him back to Hell where he belongs. Sounds crazy I know but God showed me this as a form of closure. I am no longer a slave to those lies. Has my life been easy since then? No. Of course not because I am still human. I still get insecure but I know to recognise those feelings as lies and I pray as soon as they come. 
Now, did I deserve this favour from God? No. He is God. My creator. God of the universe. But He shows us his love by giving His Son, Jesus, to pay the price we would have had to pay for our sins. Death and eternal separation from God. He made me worthy of that Grace, that favour by paying the price I should have paid. 
I encourage you to take a moment to reflect or pray if you feel so inclined, on your life and see if you can see God’s fingerprints. Even the littlest things such as catching a glimpse of a gorgeous sunset are ways that God is telling you, “I love you just the way you are”.

I hope you enjoyed this bit of insight into my life and feel encouraged.  
Many Blessings 

~ Princess Warrior Maid