///F<>O<>G\\\

FOG…. It’s a little something called the Favor Of God.

Basically it’s when something ridiculously amazing happens that you totally know was straight up from God. It’s a random blessing that you were not expecting. It’s getting a sleeping bag given to you from someone you just met when you’re sleeping on the floor of a church. It’s hopping on a random bus and seeing friends who were just talking about how they were going to try to get a hold of you. It’s as simple as a slice of pizza given to you when you have absolutely no money for food. It’s just something random and unexpected that you know is from God.

Whenever we are following God and His plans, we will be living in the FOG. He’ll bless us at random times. Sometimes we will be expecting it, and sometimes it will be so unexpected but so needed. It’s just how God works. The more you follow and trust Him, the more the FOG seems to just show up.

How I seem to get anywhere in my life over this last past year has been crazy FOG. I went to Hawaii for three months, China for 2 ½ months, back to Kona for 5 weeks, and OC for 2 weeks. I always put every penny I have in and come up short, but God loves to supply and provide when we give it all. Here is a little story of some FOG on my way home from OC to Detroit:

The two-week outreach to OC ended officially on Saturday, 27 August 2011. The staff from the outreach were driving people to the airport up until the following Monday. My ticket from LA to Detroit was on Tuesday. I had a 1:20 pm flight to Las Vegas and then left there at 10:30 pm to fly to Detroit…and land at 5:30 am on Wednesday J So I didn’t have a ride to the airport.

I looked up different plans online, tried to find rides from people I knew, advertised my need for a ride on Facebook, and basically did everything I could to get to LAX by noon. For $50 I could get a shuttle to pick me up from the church I was staying and drop me off at the airport, or a $20 shuttle from the bus stop, or a $7 metro pass. I had literally no money. Not even a nickel in the change pocket of my wallet. So those options were quickly ruled out. All I had was an OC bus pass. So I looked up the bus schedule online and mapped my route to LAX. The hour long car ride would take me: about 4 hours via bus. My first bust ride would be 30 minutes. Wait for the next bus. Then 40 minutes. Wait for the next bus. 40 minutes. Wait for the next bus. 1 hour and 30 minutes. And then a 1.2 mile walk with my luggage to the airport. Sounds fun, hey?

I had originally planned to leave just before 7 am just in case I missed one of my busses. That way I’d for sure make it to the airport before noon. All I had was a backpack, so I didn’t have to worry about checking in my luggage. I woke up around 5:30, packed up my stuff, brushed my teeth…and it was like only 6am. So I decided to just leave earlier than planned. I figured it couldn’t hurt to be too early at the airport. The first bus picked me up at 6:20. I rode it for about 30 minutes and got off to transfer to the next bus. I had an unlimited bus pas for Orange County. I got on the next bus right away and rode it to the end of the line, so for about 40 some minutes. I got off and kinda wandered around trying to figure out where my next bus was. I finally found the stop across the street and down the road a bit. I waited for my bus and chatted with some other people waiting for the bus too. Finally the bus pulled up. I got on and tried to use my bus pass. Unfortunately the my OC bus pass didn’t work anymore. I had crossed into a different county and needed a different pass or had to pay the bus fare. I had no money so I left the bus and sat back down on the bench and watched the bus pull away.

Not gunna lie, this was the hard part. I had no money. No way to the airport. No cell phone to call anyone for help. Nothing. So I said to God, “Here I am. I’m doing this thing you told me to do. You said ‘Go, and I’ll provide for you.’ So here I am. You better show up.” Pretty basic. Pretty scary. Pretty exciting too at the same time.

A couple seconds later a guy walked up to a bench a bit away from me and was digging in his bag. I said, “Here we go, God,” and walked over to him. I explained my bus problem and my lack of money and asked if he could give me the $1.25 to ride the bus to my next stop. I figured I’d just have to do that for every stop until I got to the airport. He handed me 5 quarters right away and then started giving me more so I could get a transfer pass to ride my next bus. He gave me just over $2. Then we started talking more, and I explained my route to him and mentioned walking the 1.2 miles. He told me that he had taken the metro straight to LAX before and gave me about $5-6 more in quarters so I could get a day metro pass straight there. FOG!

We got on the bus and just started talking together. He told me where to get off and then started to help me buy the day metro pass. I put about $4 in the machine when another random woman walked passed me and told me to hit the refund button. She handed me her day pass and said she didn’t need it anymore. FOG! I hit the refund button and tried to give the money back to the guy, but he told me to keep it. We got on the metro and rode that for 20 some minutes until it was my stop. I transferred metros and then took a free shuttle from the metro station straight to the airport. I got there just after 10 am, plenty of time to get on my 1:20 flight.

I later counted all the quarters and random other coins that guy gave me. I had just over $7. I was able to get some food for my 8 hour layover in the Las Vegas airport.

That is the Favor Of God.

oh the places you'll go when God has complete control

The fire continues. Each day just gets more and more intense. Just when I think I may finally have a good understanding on things, something new blows my mind away. It's amazing.

And now I am so excited to tell you about what's going on next!! A team of crazy, Jesus loving, out of their minds, Circuit Riders are heading to Los Angeles, California. More specifically: Orange Country. Home of the richest people in America. And it's about to get crazy.

About 100-200 fiery revivalists are about to shake up the OC. We already have many churches in that area ready to follow up with us in this movement. Denominations have been pushed aside. It's all for the glory of God!! Nothing is going to come in the way of what God is about to do in CA through the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why LA? The last crazy Jesus Movement started also here in Orange County on the beach. Thousands came to know the Lord and went to tell everyone they knew. We are hoping, praying, and believing for a repeat of what happened in the past. This is the epicenter of today's culture. And we know Jesus wants to change it for Him! We were be working on skid road with prostitutes, the poor, the rich, the broken, and the lost. Anyone and everyone. We are going out with passionate hearts and empowered spirits to heal, bring revival of the heart, and reformation of lives.

God is calling me to join this crazy, passionate team. He wants me to evangelize to the lost and disciple the saved. He has given me a voice and the honor to work for Him. I need your support in finances and prayer. I still need a lot of my lecture fees for this class and also now additional costs for going to Orange County. I have invested everything I have into this, knowing this is where God is calling me. I don't know when I'm going to be going back home. I'm not leaving until God tells me too. I am needing at least $2,000 for the rest of lecture fees and for the LA two week outreach. But God is calling me for longer than that, and I will need more.

Please ask the Lord what He is telling you to sew into His Kingdom to bless not only me but the lost and hurting people in LA. I appreciate your time reading this and truly seeking His heart.

MOUNT UP!

I've been here in Kona, Hawaii for 11 days. It feels like I've been here for months, like I've known these new friends for years, like the revelations I've learned have been taught over my entire life. And .it's only been 11 days. Crazy.

I think this is what Heaven feels like. Time flies by but feels like it takes forever. Glory every day. It's not this place or this class that is the reason. This only give the environment for the opportunity to encounter God in an incredible new way.

I'm sure you're wondering, what's this Circuit Rider thing? Why am I in HI for 5 weeks? What's the point? Is it really worth it?

In the late 1700's, the western world was pretty under developed. In order to reach the lost, a group of men volunteered to ride horseback from town to town preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and making disciples. These men would come to a town, preach until the town was saved, ride to the next town, preach until the town was saved, and go to the next town. They would continue this for several towns and then would return to the first town to disciple the believers. They could travel in the cycle creating a circuit. These men were called Circuit Riders. Most of them faced physical trials with sickness and persecution from the people in the town. They didn't quit until it killed them.
And this is the heart of the class. Circuit Riders exists to establish and equip a generation to obey and fulfill Jesus' Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). It aims to cultivate a generation of leaders wholly given and surrendered to the will of the Father, living for a purpose greater than themselves, and sent as laborers of the Gospel to the hardest and darkest frontiers on the earth. The purpose is to revive and awaken the church to ignite a burning passion for the lost; to boldly proclaim and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit; and to make and train disciples through Biblical truth so they can go out and do the same.

This class has drawn me into deeper intimacies with God, called me to intercession and partnering with the Holy Spirit, shown me how to live in community centered around God, to go out and preach to the lost, to heal the sick, and to lead others to do the same. We have seen over 40 salvations and even more healed from various sicknesses and diseases all within the last two weeks. We cannot wait to see what comes next.

If you are interested, every day our class is recorded and uploaded onto itunes. All the podcasts are FREE! Just search "Circuit Riders" and look for the man on a house icon. I would totally recommend listening in. God WILL DO crazy things in your life if you let Him move.

Something Crazy.

Today is Thursday, 7 July 2011.

Today anyone attending the 5 week class, Circuit Riders, in Kona, Hawaii is supposed to arrive, get all checked in, settle into their rooms, meet and greet their fellow classmates, reunite with past friends, and just be there.

Today I'm sitting on the computer. I have an eye doctor appointment in two hours followed by a good seven hours of work. And then I'm coming home and booking a ticket to Kona.

I don't have $1,400 to take the class. But I do have about $800 to try and purchase a ticket to Hawaii. And so I'm going to go. I told Jesus that if He gave me enough money for a ticket, I'd go and trust Him to provide the rest.

I think I was just waiting for a sign. You know how we do that sometimes? We just sit and wait for "something to really tell us what to do next". And I suppose I got it. :) I was chilling at work, and someone reminded me, "when the Lord tells you to do something crazy, you'd better do it."

So let's do something crazy.

2 Corinthians 5:13-14 (The Message)
"If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do."

Will you join me in this crazy adventure? I am challenging you to do something crazy. I am asking you to ask God what He wants you to give to help me. I'm not asking you to give something random. I am asking you to ASK GOD. If He tells you not to give, so be it. If He tells you $2, you'd better give $2. And if He tells you something more, you'd better follow Him.

Trust Him. It's all I'm doing right now.

Stepping in Faithfulness

So...it's been a long while since I've updated this.
Maybe I've been too busy. Maybe I've been too lazy. Maybe I just haven't known what to say.
It's probably a bit of all of those things.

I've been back home in Grand Rapids for almost three months. It's ridiculous how fast the time seems to have flown by. And what have I done with the time? I think that's something I ask myself a lot these days.

When I first got back, I was filled with a passion to go out and change something. It's not that the passion has died off or slipped away. It's more like I haven't known where to start. Is that a good excuse? Of course not.

But through this all I'm learning more and more about the faithfulness of God. How He pursues us. How He never gives up. How He is so constant to attend to our needs. How He will always push us further than we think we can go. He is always faithful. Will we have the faith to follow?

When I first got back home, I planned on staying in GR for three months and then heading back to Hawaii to take a five week class that would push me even further. But I let life back here pull me back and decided to not go. But the Spirit of God wouldn't let my heart rest. Every day for the last three weeks, He's been whispering into my heart, telling me to trust Him and to follow Him. He kept asking me if I'd be faithful back to Him.

And so, in two weeks I'll be heading back to Kona to take a 5 week class called Circuit Riders. The class is focused on deeping our relationship with God to higher levels and bringing what we've learned in "class" into the "real world." I'm not sure where I will go when it ends. I might come back to GR. I might head to a different country. I might stay in Hawaii. I don't know yet. But I do know that this is where I'm supposed to go.

I'm stepping out in faith because I cannot do this alone. He's good. He's faithful.

March News

Hey Hey Hey!!! Update from CHINA!!!!

The Lord has been doing amazing things here in China. Small little things that create miracles. He is so good. Always.

I want to share a story about some of the girls we met here in Dalian. Their story is a testimony of God’s faithfulness to pursue His children. It is also a reminder to be faithful to what God calls you to do personally. 

I told you a bit about Wang Lin (Esther) and Han Yu (Jade) in my last update. I met Esther at the after school program with Jessica whom we met through Tom. Esther came to English corner with Jade, who later came with more of her friends. 

A couple weeks ago, Brandon and I went with Jade, Esther, and Autumn to an Ocean World here in Dalian. We saw lots of coral and fish. We saw a dolphin show and a seal show. We walked through a water tunnel where sharks swam above our heads. It was really neat seeing parts of Dalian and getting to know our friends better.  Afterward we met up with Amanda and Faith to eat dinner all together. We had talked to both Jade and Esther before about God who loved them, created them, and desired a relationship with them. All the other times we talked with them, they were a bit interested but didn’t want to make a commitment to anything. However, that night after talking with Faith over dinner, Jade decided to give her heart to Jesus. J

We are pretty sure that she also explained what happened with both Autumn and Esther. We know that God has planted the seeds in their hearts. God is faithful and will produce a harvest when the time is ready.

Their story is an example of following after the faithfulness of God. God puts relationships into our lives. It is our responsibility to follow what He tells us to do. If we wouldn’t have made friends with Tom, we wouldn’t have met Jessica. If no Jessica, no Esther, which means no Jade.

We were frustrated at first because we kept sharing the gospel with Tom, but it seemed that no fruit was coming. But it was through him that we were able to meet Jade. And through that relationship Jade is now a sister in Christ.

Thank you for all your prayers for our ministry in China. It may seem that what has been done is so small, but we cannot judge the impact of what we do based on a number. So many have been impacted in small ways. God is faithful and will produce the harvest. We can just plant the seeds. It some cases we get to water the seeds. And in others, like Jade, we get to bring in the harvest. I am so excited that we get to plant and water those other seeds so that one day others will reap the harvest of our work.

We left Dalian for Dandong on February 9. We were hoping to go to Yenji a few days after that so that the NK team could go in for the 14-19. All of our days got rearranged. The team finally went in February 24-29, ten days after when they were scheduled to go in. Only the three Korean boys were allowed to go in though. The rest of our team stayed in Yenji praying and fasting for those in North Korea. Everyone on our team fasted during this time. God did crazy amazing things in each of our lives.

I do not know how each of our team members were impacted, but I can tell you bits of what God has been doing in my life.  The first couple of weeks here in China were very hard for me. I tried to do everything on my own without trusting and leaning on God for support. But the Lord started working on my heart, leading me into new levels of intimacy. When I found out that the team was going into NK, I began to ask the Lord what He wanted me to do during this time.  I have a huge passion for purity and holiness. “The pure in heart will see God” (Matthew 6:8).  I want to see God. I want to be so close to Him. I wanted to use this time to grow even closer than I thought possible with God.  I felt like the Lord was calling me to a ten day only water fast followed by a ten day Daniel fast (only fruits/veggies and water). During this time I would be praying for North Korea and also reading the Bible.

My fast began when I was in Dandong. Every day we would go down as a group to the river along the edge of the city. Across the river is North Korea. We could actually look into the country while we were praying. A couple of times we went down to the river at night. There was a bridge that went from China to NK. The bridge was only lit up half way across. Once it reached the halfway point, it was complete darkness. There were almost no lights on the other side. It was such an incredible experience praying for the nation of North Korea while looking into it.

We arrived in Yenji on February 18. Once the team entered into NK, I began to attempt a sleep fast. From February 24-29, I probably sleep ten hours total. I spent that time praying and reading through the Bible. I read through the entire Bible. God did so much work in my life. He challenged me to grow deeper and closer to Him. He challenged me to surrender absolutely everything over to Him so that there was nothing left in me that wasn’t from Him. He challenged me to purity and holiness.

It was one of the most amazing weeks of my life.

God is so awesome.

Hello from Dalian!!!!

It’s been so amazing here! We all think it’s super cold…but it’s usually never below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s very windy here because we are so close to the ocean. I really wish it would snow. It has a couple times; but not near as often as I would like. 

We finally started our Chinese lessons! One of the volunteers from the base is teaching us. She gives us conversations to learn and practice with each other. These are some of our conversations:

Person one:   Hello                                                   Ni hao

Person two:   Hi                                                        Ni hao

One:                How are you?                                                Ni hao ma?

Two:                I am doing well.                                 Wo hen hao.

One:                See you next time.                             Xia ci jian.

Two:                Bye.                                                     Zai jian.

Person A:       How much is this?                             Zhe ge duo shao qian?

Person B:       30 dollars                                           30 (san shi) yuan

A:                     Too expensive                                   Tai gui le

                        Can it be cheaper?                            Ke yi pian yi dian ma?

B:                     How much do you want to pay?      Ni xiang hua duo shao quian?

A:                     20 dollars.                                          20 (er shi) yuan

And my personal favorite: Ting bu dong: I don’t understand. 

We met a man here in China named Tom who seems to have connections everywhere. He had been meeting with different members of our team. He was really interested in helping Chinese students travel to America to go to different summer camps. So he wanted some of us on our team who have summer camp experience to talk about summer camps to some of the interested students and parents. Kirsten and I have both attended summer camp and have been counselors at camp, so we got delegated to come. The first meeting with Tom was just a lot of basic facts about the camp. We didn’t have to speak much. Tom took us out for lunch afterword at a Hong Kong style restaurant. We had roasted duck & rice, beef & noodles, and veggies. It was so good trying other Chinese food.

Jane and I were able to meet with Daniel and his family. We rode a taxi to their house. We were not exactly sure where we were going. It was about a 20-30 minute ride. We were not too sure what to do when we got there. We went over some English vocabulary words from about 3-5 pm. Daniel is a very smart 13 year old boy…but has lots and lots of energy. It was a lot of fun but a bit tiring. After we finished our lessons Daniel showed us all these videos online about car crashes in China. It kind of made Jane and I a bit nervous riding around in the city. Driving in Dalian is crazy. I really don’t think they have traffic rules here.  We had dinner at their house. Linda cooked us shrimp, chicken, Korean rice, garlic broccoli, eggs, and this rice ball sweet soup thingy. It was all so delicious. Linda drove Jane and me back to our apartment. There is hope for Chinese drivers.

All the girls on our team decided to do a mirror fast until we go to Beijing on March 11. Basically that means…no looking in the mirror. At all. 

We decided as a team that we wanted walk to the Xinghai Square early one morning to pray for the city of Dalian and for all of China. It’s about a half hour walk. We woke up at 5:30 and met together at 6 to walk to the park. It was so cold outside. We had to keep moving to stay warm. We were there for about an hour praying over the city of Dalian and for China. It was such an incredible time worshipping the Lord. I am planning on bringing a blanket next time so I don’t freeze. 

On Saturday morning the girls made breakfast for the boys. Yummy American (ish) omelets. We had another English corner again that night. Our topic was beauty this time. Lots of Chinese people came this week. The coffee shop we were in was almost too small for all of us there. We’ve been meeting lots of people at our English corners. We meet people there and hang out with them outside of English corner. While we get to know them more, we tell them more about ourselves. 1 Corinthians 2:2 has become my life verse while being here in China: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” How can I not talk about Jesus? He is my life. He is my everything.

Kirsten and I met again with Tom to discuss the summer camp. This time we were asked to speak in front of a small group of parents and students. We talked about what our experiences were like and why summer camp is a good thing for kids to attend. It was really funny because both the camps Kirsten and I have attended were basic Christian camps. We learned how to start fires and tie knots and swim. The camps Tom was advertising for were computer camps and really good sports camps. Our camp experiences were not anywhere near the other camps. But we managed to hide that fact and just talk about how we learned to become more confident and make connections with people while we were young. We also brought up the interesting fact that Kirsten and I had never met before coming to YWAM. But we did meet in Kona, HI at a through the YWAM program. The crazy thing is: Kirsten and I both live in Grand Rapids, MI. We were even born in the same hospital three days apart. Yet it was through YWAM that we met. God is so amazing. 

Our school leader Jeff came on January 24. He visited with us and made sure we were all doing well. It was lots of fun being able to show him around our lovely city and have him meet our contacts. He was only here until the 29^th. It was so sad to see him leave. We cannot wait to see him again in Kona and to tell him of all the things God has been doing since he left us.

When we were with Tom, we were able to meet a woman named Jessica. She runs an after-school program for children aging from 6-11. She heard about our English corners and wanted us to prepare a small English corner for her children. So Jane, Amanda, Clint, and I went to her program. We thought we were going to have to prepare a whole schedule, but she already had it all laid out for us. She told us and the children about Chinese New Year. Then we played some games. They were all games we had played but had different Chinese names. Jessica had tried to translate the Chinese names into English. We played: Stool Rush, Drumming to Pass, and I See You Say. Can you guess what they are? Musical Chairs, Hot Potato, and Charades.  We also were able to help make dumplings. Only Amanda actually made them. Clint, Jane, and I just watched. The little kids were so adorable.

Amanda and I were able to meet with one of the people we met at English corner named Peter. We went to a coffee shop with internet so he could help me set up a Chinese QQ…which is just like MSN. It was way easier than I had been making it out to be. We started talking about different holidays. Peter explained to us about Chinese New Year and what would be happening the following week. It was so interesting to learn about the Chinese festival. He said it was a lot like Christmas. We asked him if he knew about Christmas and if he wanted to know more about it. We were able to share with him how God created the whole world and how sin had separated man from God. We explained that God loved the world so much that He sent His own son from heaven to earth to be the sacrifice for our sin so we could be together with Him again. We told him that was what Christmas was really about. We know that seed planted will not go unnoticed.

One of the volunteers at the base, Minerva, had a friend that needed to create an advertisement for English classes. So all of our non-Asian team members went to help her out. We did not know what we were getting ourselves into. J We went out for lunch first to a seafood restaurant. We had so much food I wouldn’t know where to start to describe. We then went to the English school office. She told us she wanted to make a recording movie of us. Great thing to announce to a team full of people who haven’t looked in the mirror for a week. J We had to pretend we were English teachers or were in classes. It was a lot of fun but super crazy. J It took us about an hour and a half to film everything because we were always laughing so hard. After Minerva and I went out for dinner at a Western style restaurant. It was so amazing to eat spaghetti once again.

We had another English corner on that Saturday. Since it was so close to the Chinese New Year we decided to make our topic on Holidays. It was such a good opportunity to learn more about the Chinese culture and also talk about our holidays…such as Christmas. And Christmas means Jesus.  One of the girls I met at the children’s program was able to come to our English corner. She also brought her friend. Brandon and I arranged to hang out with them the next day. We had to ride the bus an hour to meet with the one girl. Then we rode the bus together for a half hour. We walked for about ten minutes and rode another bus for a half hour until we finally got McDonalds where the other girl worked. It is a Chinese custom to give guests gifts. So our friends bought us soooo much food. We felt so stuffed. We were able to talk more about God with them. It was so funny. They kept telling us that we were not like the other Americans they had met and read about in the newspapers. And I kept telling them that was because we were Christians. It didn’t seem to quite sink in all the way. Before we left them, we gave them note cards that we had written them with different Bible verses on them and encouragement. We told them we would be praying for them.

And now…CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!!!! (Feb. 2) There were fireworks literally going off all day. At least from 7am to way past midnight. It was crazy intense. Sometimes we honestly felt like we were in a war scene in some movie or something. I learned how to play Majong…a Chinese game. So much fun. I like to think I’m getting pretty good at it. J We woke up the next day…and there were still fireworks. And the next day. So crazy and so amazing.

Brandon, Faith, and I were able to meet up with Daniel and his family again to teach more English to him. We googled SAT prep questions and had him look up the words he didn’t know. I think we all learned new words. J Linda and Jerry made Chinese dumplings for dinner. They let us help make them as well. Both Brandon and Faith are from Chinese decent. Brandon is Chinese Canadian, and Faith is Chinese Singapore(ian?). And I am not Chinese at all. They were pretty good at making the dumplings. First you roll the dough into small circles. My circles looked like squares. I don’t understand how that happened. Then you spoon the dumping mix (meet and veggies) into the middle of the circle and pinch the sides with your finger and thumb. Dumplings are supposed to be short and fat. Mine were long and skinny. Linda and Jerry both laughed when I finally gave up making Chinese dumplings and started making American dumplings…most commonly known as donuts. J After dinner we rode the bus to Xinghai Square, but the city was so packed with people going to the square to watch the firework show. Our bus stopped 20 minutes away from the park, so we had to watch. We were able to see some of the fireworks above the buildings, but we missed the show. Jonathan recorded the entire show on his i-pod. 

Our next English corner was about family. Not a lot of people showed up because many people were out of town for New Years. My friend from last week came again and took three friends with her. She also brought her Bible with her and told me she had been reading the card I gave her and reading the verses in the Bible. We told her to write down any questions she had while reading so she could ask us later when we hang out again. I know God is working in her heart and drawing her closer and closer to Him.

These are the stories. They sound fun and cute. And they are. But we are not here for cute little stories. We are here because this is where the Father has been calling us.

My first couple weeks here really discouraged me because it seemed we were not able to really share with people about God. I really questioned why I was here because I didn’t feel like I wasn’t being used by God. The more I asked God why, the more I felt like He wasn’t answering. I became very confused and disconnected from what was happening here.

And then the Lord brought me to read 1 Peter. He writes about a fire that purifies gold. When impure gold is put in a hot fire, all the pure gold sinks to the bottom while the impurities rise to the top to be scooped out. This process is repeated and the fire heated higher until all that is left is pure gold. Peter writes that the fire that tests our faith is hotter than the fire that purifies gold. God is going to put us in place that are hot and hard to see if we will cling to Him through it all. And this is what He was doing in my life.

It’s been hard here some days. But I’ve learned through everything to cling to the Father and what He wants for me. For too long I’ve done whatever I wanted to do. And I want to be like Jesus. I want to walk like Jesus. And to do that, I must listen exactly to what the Father tells me to do. Jesus only did what the Father told Him.

What is the Father doing? Do you know? Have you asked Him? My first couple weeks here, I thought I knew what God was doing. I just kinda did what “felt right,” but nothing seemed to be really happening. It was so frustrating. I felt so discouraged. But when I started to ask God what He wanted me to do, and did what He wanted, it was then that things started to happen. He has opened my eyes to what He is doing here in Dalian and in China. I dare you to ask Him what He wants you to do where you are. It will completely change your life.

I am not sure when I will be able to update this next. We are leaving Dalian next week and heading to Dandong and Yanji. From there five members of our team will be heading into North Korea for a week. The other ten of us will remain in China to pray and fast for what God will be doing in NK. I wanted to go in so badly, but God told me to stay in China. John 14:30-31. The world must know that I love the Father and must do exactly what He commands.

God is at work here in China. We are ready and eager to help rake in this harvest.

Thank you always for your prayers and support.

You can email me at: juliannelanning@fastmail.fm

Let me know if there is anything I can pray for you.

Grace and Peace

Julianne

China

Greetings from CHINA!!!!

Wow…it’s so crazy that I finally am here. I’m sorry it took a bit long to get my first blog up. We do not have internet in our apartment. So I can only use the internet on the weekends when I have spare time.

China is super amazing. I absolutely love it here.

Our team: Sarah, Kirsten, Clint, Vickie, Faith, Simon, Brandon, Jordan, Laura, Jane, Philip, Amanda, Jonathan, Lauren, and I left Kona, HI around 9pm Tuesday, December 28. We flew about 6 hours to San Francisco, landing there around 4:30ish am their time on Wednesday, December 29. We had an almost 8 hour layover there. We left around 2pm and flew 12 hours to Beijing, China. From there we flew about an hour to Dalian, China. It was around 9pm China time on December 30 when we finally arrived.

We were picked up from the airport from some staff members at the YWAM base in Dalian. They drove us to our apartment in a small rented bus. At first we had all 15 members of our team in one apartment, but now we have two separate apartments: one for the guys and another for the girls. The girl apartment has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and small dining table. And we live on the 21^st floor. J This is where we first lived all together. The boys slept in the living room on mattresses. They now have their own apartment…and beds. J Sarah and Kirsten, our two staff members from Kona, share a room with a one king size bed. The other two rooms have a different setup: one queen size bed and a bunk bed. We have four girls in each room.

Every morning we make our own breakfast. It’s generally the same thing: rice, eggs, tea, some sort of fruit (bananas, pears, tangerines, and sometimes strawberries), and seaweed. We eat both lunch and dinner at the YWAM base. There is always rice at every meal. There usually also is a dish with meat and vegetables, and we have fruit at most every meal. I’m getting pretty good at using chopsticks. I’ve only seen two forks since being here.

About two-three times a week Brandon, Laura, and I go to the market to get food for breakfast. The market is just on the street near our apartment. It is only open until about 9am. They sell so much food there. The first time I went there, it was so crazy. They sell all sorts of fruits and vegetables. They have winter coats, boots, mittens, hats, and whatever else you want to ward off the cold. They also sell frozen fish and shrimp and stingrays. It is so super cool.

Fun Stories:

We went to this Chinese restaurant one of the first days we were here. One of the best ways to describe it would be to call it a Chinese Mongolian BBQ. You select a broth to boil your food in. We chose half a pot of chicken and half a pot of spicy beef. The waiter brings the broth to the table which has a built in stove top. The broth begins to bowl in front of you on your table. You choose different meats, veggies, tofu, and noodles. You toss the different food items into the broth to let them cook. You take the food out and eat it and then toss more food in. It was so much fun and delicious.

One day for dinner we were given 25 yuan (the Chinese currency) each for dinner. Laura, Brandon, Faith, Amanda, and I decided to go out for dinner together. Together we had 125 yuan to spend on dinner, but we didn’t know where to do. So…being good YWAM students, we decided to ask God what to do. At first we felt like God told us to walk three blocks, turn right, walk past two buildings, turn around, and cross the road. We walked there and crossed the street. Someone felt like we were to go to the restaurant with yellow lights. We walked there, and the woman working told us to go next door. The place looked really random, but we decided to try it. We had amazing chicken cury with rice and egg noodle soup. It was so good. We each got a bottle of either pop or juice with the meal. Our total came to 29 yuan…for five people. That’s just less than 6 yuan a person. The current exchange rate is about 1 US dollar= 6.52 Chinese yuan. We each ate a whole meal with a drink for about 75 cents each. So crazy.

Brandon, Laura, and I were walking down at the beach one day just looking at the rocks and sand. While Laura and Brandon were taking a picture, this guy came up to me with a pad of paper and started speaking Chinese. When he realized that I didn’t understand, he spoke to me in English. He told me that the next day was his girlfriend’s birthday. He wanted me to write a short note to her. He had been going up and down the beach asking different people to write notes. Brandon, Laura, and I each wrote a note while we talked to him. His English name was Dick, and we exchanged email addresses so we could hang out again. We got in contact with him and planned to hang out with him. We met him and his girlfriend at the beach later that week. He told us that he had just met this old man who invited him to eat lunch with him. So we jumped on the bus with Dick, his girlfriend Evita, and the old man. We rode the bus to the end of the stop, walked up a hill, and to the man’s house. We ate sunflower & pumpkin seeds, peanuts, oranges, tangerines, apples, and candy while the man cooked lunch. We flipped through the TV channels and ended up watching some crazy Chinese opera. While we waited for lunch we played a tongue-twister game with Dick and Evita. We gave them an English tongue-twister, and they gave us a Chinese tongue-twister. If you said the sentence wrong, you had to sing a little song. I got everyone wrong. It just wasn’t fair. J Then we ate lunch. We had duck, beef, pork, chicken, crab, shrimp, clam, jellyfish, fried vegetables, fish, shrimp chips, salted peanuts, and dumplings! It was all so delicious. The man had made all of the food. He was so adorable and precious. It was probably his first time having Americans in his home. He was so happy. He would never let us have an empty plate or glass. He would always give us more and more food. We ate so much. He told us we could come back any day. J

We met again with Dick and his girlfriend, Evita. We went to fly kites in Zhongshan Square, the largest park in Asia. It is only about a ten minute bus ride from our apartment. It’s always very windy in Dalian so the kites flew really well. After we finished flying kites, we rode the bus to a coffee shop nearby. When we were there we started talking about God and His son Jesus. They had heard a bit about Christians but wanted to learn more. We read Genesis 1 and 3 with them and explained how God was real and that He created the whole world, including us. We explained that because of sin, we were separated from God. But God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to become a man and to die for us so that we could have a relationship with God. We gave Dick a New Testament Bible in Chinese and English. We met with both Dick and Evita the next day. They had a couple more questions about God. They left on Friday to go home to Beijing for winter break. I am excited to see them when they come back in March. I know this seed that was planted will continue to grow.

China really is amazing. Dalian is so beautiful. The people here are so eager and open. God is working so much already in the hearts of the people living here. It started a bit slow getting to know people, but it has begun to pick up as we meet more people. Our biggest way of getting to meet people is through the English corners we will be doing. At English corner people come to practice their English. We prepare a small skit or presentation and then introduce the topic of the night. Then we break into small groups with the Chinese people and discuss the topic. From these groups, we get to know people, exchange phone numbers, and meet up later with them. As we develop these relationships, we begin to tell them about Jesus. Already many of the people on our team have begun to meet people and develop friendships. I was sick our first week and wasn’t able to go to English corner. I was able to go this past week. On Friday we met at McDonalds. I met a woman named Sandy. She did not know a lot of English so she tried to teach me some Chinese. I now know how to count to 10 and the colors of the rainbow. J On Saturday we met at a hotel in a meeting room. I met a couple university students and a local family from Dalian. The mother and son spoke very good English. She asked if I could come and teach English to her son. I am supposed to meet with them later this week.

Please always be keeping us in your prayers. God is at work here in Dalian. We want to get into what He is doing. Please pray that we remain focused on what He wants us to do here and to not waste our time. We only have three months to impact these people’s lives forever. We don’t want to waste a day. We want to always be available so we can meet people and share with them how much God loves them and desires a relationship with them. Pray that God will bring divine appointments to us and that we will meet people who want to know more about God. Our God is so big and so amazing. He loves these people so much.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

To contact me, email me at:

juliannelanning@fastmail.fm