I'm Moving to Georgia...And Nobody is More Shocked Than Me!!

This video is a song that the Lord has really been using to speak to me in this season. Let it wash over you today.

Have I got an unexpected update for y’all! I am moving to Georgia and believe me nobody is more shocked than me. Let me back up and bring you into the journey that has led to this decision. Back in November of last year I was scrolling through Instagram, and I saw a post on Corey Russell’s page, and he had tagged the Bridal Glory ministry. I had never heard of it before, and I was intrigued so I clicked on the tag and started scrolling through the ministry’s page. I found the teachings and started listening to them and I was instantly drawn in. It’s kind of like the normal IHOPKC messaging that I’m used to, but somehow this is even deeper and more tender. In researching the ministry, I discovered it was a church in the Atlanta area called Ascend Atlanta and they have a ministry school. I watched the promo for the school, and I instantly thought that looks amazing. It has an in person and online option so I thought about doing the online one, but when I looked at the price, I discovered it was not much cheaper for the online version than in person and if I was going to spend that amount, I would want to do it in person. So, I basically dismissed the idea. I’m here in Kansas City, planted for the long haul and I love my life and I’m not planning on going anywhere. Looking back, it had a very similar feeling to the first time I saw the promo video for fire in the night at Onething 2006. I had the thought, wow that is the coolest thing I have ever seen. If God could ever make a way, I would do that in a heartbeat. Then I looked at the dates and since I was teaching public school at the time none of the tracks worked with my schedule so I just dismissed it thinking it would never happen. 3 years later God opened a door for me to come and this has that same feel of God opening a door to do something that was in my heart, but I thought was impossible.

I have been asking God for several years to visit a church besides IHOP where He is moving. He’s moving all over so I didn’t have any set ideas but when I discovered this ministry, I decided this was the church I wanted to visit. The only time I could get away of course was spring break, so I thought about going to visit a Sunday service. But for the price of tickets, Air B&B, etc. just for a Sunday service I couldn’t really justify spending the money. A couple days later they announced they were going to have a conference of sorts called Glory Nights and it was the last weekend of my spring break! Now I could actually justify a trip. So, I did something I had never done before. I took a trip all by myself to a city I’d never been to before and didn’t know anyone in and visited a church where I knew absolutely nobody. It was a leap of faith, and I am so glad I took it! I went with no expectations just excitement to see the Lord move and experience Him in a new way. The 2nd night of the gathering, the leadership team and some of the academy students got up on stage and they were giving different prophetic words that they got while praying for the people attending the services. When they were done, the pastor said he had one too and began to share. He said I saw a vision of a yellow brick road. Instantly I was alerted because of a prophetic word I received back during IHOPU in November of 2012 from a dear friend. It was one of the most precious and impacting words that I have ever received, both because of what it said as well as who it came from, and I often go back to it when I need to re-cast vision for my life and for what God is doing. That part of her word was this:

“I got another picture of a street paved with gold bricks in the New Jerusalem. It was called "Amy's Road" and was put there in memory of the time you spent clearing the path. I believe that this either represents the fact that Jesus will reward and honor you publicly for the time you spend clearing the road, or it is actually the real reward He is going to put in the New Jerusalem for you. He sees the time you spend clearing the path for the next generation and it’s as precious as pure gold to Him."

So, when he said yellow brick road I instantly thought, oh my gosh I think this is a word for me. And then he said he heard the phrase, “we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Then he saw Dorothy’s red heels click 3 times and he said watch the next 3 months, a shift is coming. He also said he saw another picture of a moving box right after where the tape was going from left to right. He said they may be connected. That night I went home and texted a friend and shared the word and said I thought it was for me at first but now I’m not sure. So, she suggested that we ask the Lord to confirm it if it was my word. I thought that was a great idea so before I went to bed, I prayed that he would do that. The next morning, I went to the last service which was a Sunday morning. I got there early to get a spot in line and get a good seat and I chatted with the lady who was behind me in line. Her name was Susan, and she was an Academy student. When we were done, she introduced me to the lady who was in front of me, a lady named Minnie who was also a student. Susan introduced me and said Amy’s from Kansas City and after she said that Minnie goes super matter of factly, oh you got a word last night. I said, excuse me? She said yeah, the Kansas word that was for you. I still wasn’t sure if that was confirmation because I didn’t know this lady at all. She kept looking at me like she had more and then she launched into this beautiful prophetic word. It was one of those where after you wish you had grabbed your phone to record it, but I wrote down as much of it as I could remember. After the accuracy of that word, I realized her gifting and I said OK God, You confirmed the word. I’m claiming it as mine. I think I’m moving to Georgia.

Sunday service was good and when it was over, I was just going to leave. But my flight didn’t leave until 10 pm that night and I basically had all day to kill. My plan was to go visit the Atlanta House of Prayer, which is also 24/7, and just spend the day there until I had to leave for the airport. It was about an hour from Ascend. Since I wasn’t in a hurry, I just decided to linger a bit. I’m so happy I did! The girl that was sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me. She was also a student there. Then she introduced me to the lady sitting next to her who was an online student visiting for Glory Nights. Then that lady introduced us to the girl that was sitting next to her who was an online student and was in process of moving to Georgia to be in person. We all began to chat together and then prayed together. When we were done one of the girls asked if we had lunch plans and if not if we would all like to grab lunch. I was like well I was just going to eat somewhere by myself so sure. So, I ended up going out to lunch with 3 ladies who I had only met like 10 minutes before. Crazy! I don’t do that kind of stuff! It was clearly orchestrated by the Lord. So, we were just sharing stories and hearts and I shared that I was in a whirlwind because I thought the Kansas word from last night was for me. One of the girls said, I don’t know who this is for, but I feel led to say something about the number 14 and how in the Bible every time there was a significant transition between generations it was always 14 years. There’s something about the number 14. And then I had the thought, well that’s interesting because now that I think about it my 14-year anniversary of being at IHOP is July 1st and that will be 3 months from now. We exchanged contacts and have kept in touch over the past few months.

So, the last 3 months have been a wrestle and honestly this is really bittersweet. I love the nightwatch and I truly love my job and my life here. I really thought I was nightwatch for life. If I had stayed, my school was going to move me to the 4-year-old class and I was going to have all of my same babies for another year, which was a really exciting prospect because I love my babies! I shared my journey with my principal and said since July 1st was my anniversary, I would let her know for sure if I was coming back on July 2nd. 

When I was home for Christmas a dear sorority sister gave me a precious gift- a mustard seed necklace. I have been wearing that every day as a reminder of trusting the Lord with my little mustard seed of faith. I think God knew I would need a practical, physical thing to hold on to in this season and I am grateful He choose to do it that way and through her. (Thanks Brittany!)

I’m always careful about “signs” because when you want something, you can make anything a sign, but there have been moments along the way that have felt like signs/confirmations. In my 14 years here, this is the first time I saw something and thought that looked better than what I was already doing. I think that’s important to pay attention to. Last week I had pretty much decided but gave the Lord 1 more opportunity to close the door and say no if I was misinterpreting what I heard. I was going to apply to the academy, and I wanted Him to close the door and tell me no if I was wrong, otherwise I was moving forward. I applied on Monday and received my acceptance on Wednesday, and I said OK. I am doing it! I’m packing up and moving to Georgia!

I told my principal I’m not coming back, and I’ve shared with the “bosses” I serve under in various capacities. Now that the decision has been made, there are tons of practicals that the Lord is going to have to work out. I am going to need a job and/or more monthly partners and I’m going to need a place to live. The school is 2 years so I know I will be gone at least that long, but if I’m honest this feels like more than just a temporary move. Who knows what the Lord might do with my weak yes? So, prayer for all the logistics and practicals is appreciated. This truly has shocked me, and I cannot believe it’s happening, but I am so excited at the prospect of getting out of my comfort zone and going on an adventure with the Lord. The main prayer request is finances and provision. I am good through the summer but after that I’m not sure how He’s going to do it- but I’m trusting that He is. I figure he’s going to use a combination of partners and another job like he has done here all these years, so I am also looking at jobs in Atlanta. If you know of anything, or even something remote I can do from home, let me know! I have been saving every month to put towards a new car, but that fund will now go towards moving expenses. I’m still praying for a car, but at the very least I will need a new set of tires before winter comes.

As I look back, I can’t help but reflect on His faithfulness to me for the past 14 years. Wow! His leadership truly is perfect, and He already knows what’s coming next.

If you are stirred to sew into me and my new adventure, you can go to the Partner with Amy tab.

Cincinnati, Ohio!

April 16, 2014

Hey guys I just returned from my last ministry trip of my IHOPU career! It’s so crazy how fast it’s gone. I am just a little over a month from graduating! I wanted to do a quick recap of my trip. Thank you for everyone that was praying for us. We truly felt your prayers!

One of our main focuses during our time there was a juvenile detention center called the Lighthouse. This is a place that houses boys between 14-20 who have committed felony offenses such as assault, sexual abuse, etc. Basically if they were of age they would be in the normal prisons. There is a very precious couple who have a ministry there and they have been faithfully leading church services for the boys for over 20 years! That particular Sunday morning we got to lead both services. It’s totally voluntary for the boys to come or not and we had about 30 out of the 60 in the facility that chose to come to our events. The next night we put on two worship concerts for the boys. The boys are really hungry for God and they have really desired to learn how to do prayer meetings so we showed them a bit of how we do it at IHOP with the harp and bowl model. That may have been my favorite night. I love how the Lord just loves to meet us where we are at. The boys love a Christian rapper named Lacrae and so we all started rapping one of his songs and the boys loved it. Then one of our team got up and did a spoken word and started rapping the Bible. The boys ate it up. They all wanted a try. There we were in the middle of Podunk nowhere with a bunch of hardened criminals (scared little boys who have had a hard life) and they were all rapping the Bible. They were doing the model except instead of singing, they were rapping. It was so cool to witness and I have to admit I teared up a few times because it was just so precious. I think the most impactful part of the Lighthouse was the night we prayed for the boys. We had a night of prophecy where we just asked the Lord what He wanted to share with each boy. They were all so moved as they could feel and see that God saw them and loved them. Several even committed their lives to Lord that night! It was a very fruitful week.

There was a wonderful couple who hosted us for meals and the husband owns a painting company. Some of his employees are saved and some aren’t. We were given the opportunity to go and prayer for all of them in small groups. Again it was so cool to see how the hearts of the guys were touched when they heard how God felt about them and how He saw them. The most impactful one was the guy’s business partner grew up Catholic but wasn’t really walking with the Lord. After our time praying for him he asked the boss if he told us anything about him because there was just no way we could have known the things we were saying. When he said no he said how can I not believe there is a God after all that? So exciting and encouraging!

The rest of our trip was kind of sporadic. Some of the church leadership in Cincinnati really felt like we were to go to strategic places and just worship and bring the presence of God to those places. So one day we went on the top of Carew Tower, which is one of the tallest buildings there and also to a park and just had some sweet times of worship and praising God.

One of the days we had the opportunity to lead worship in the middle of the campus of University of Miami. Those that were not on stage got to go around and evangelize. I got to talk to a lady who loved Jesus and was having a really hard time in her life. I prayed for her and she was really encouraged and edified. We saw quite a few salvations as well. One guy was a violin player and while we were worshipping he came over and joined us. After we were done a couple of our team members started sharing the Gospel and he got saved. It was so fast! I was sitting next to him the whole time listening to the conversation. After he walked away I was like how did that even happen so fast?

Our last day we went to the Cincinnati house of prayer and did an Encounter God service like we have here. One of our team shared a really powerful message out of John 13 and Jesus washing our feet and then we did more praise and worship. I even got to sing on the mic this time. It was really scary but I did it. Baby steps…

Oh and the craziest thing happened the last night. We went to a gas station for some ice cream and afterwards we were all standing outside in a circle eating and debriefing and this woman walks up randomly and goes, I was just driving by and I saw you guys standing here in a circle and I was wondering if you are a prayer group? I just gave my life to the Lord today. What in the world?! That’s how it was the whole trip. It was like they were just drawn to us. So we got to pray for her and encourage her. It was such a sweet end of the trip.

Overall I would just say that I had so much fun on this trip. We only had 14 people which is way smaller than the past trips have been and that made it way easier to get to know everyone. I don’t think I have laughed that much in a really long time. On a heart level I didn’t feel like I got as much personal breakthrough as past trips but I had a really enjoyable time.

Check out this Instagram link for pictures and short movie clips!
http://instagram.com/cincymissions#
 

Safer Than a Known Way

April 16, 2014

I have just a little over a month left until graduation. This past 4 years has just flown by! This quarter has been so busy but I wanted to send ya’ll an update and even ask a prayer request. In my last blog I mentioned I might go to New Zealand for a bit. As seniors, we are given the opportunity to do a senior capstone project which basically looks like a group of us going to another house of prayer somewhere for about a year and serving and strengthening the house of prayer. I initially signed up for New Zealand because it sounded super exciting and I had just gotten my passport, but after a couple of Skype meetings with them I realized that I just wasn’t excited about it. Sure it’s pretty but I think the beaches would only keep me for about a month and that wasn’t a good enough reason for me to go. New Zealand didn’t have a nightwatch or a CEC and it made me realize that I definitely want to be somewhere that has both of those things. Those are the 2 main things that cause my heart to come alive- singing to Jesus in the middle of the night and teaching kids about Jesus! The day after our last Skype session, IHOPU had a ministry fair where a good number of ministries from all over came and we had an opportunity to connect with them and see if we felt led towards a certain location.

So I decided to go to the ministry fair and just feel it out. My main desire in going was to find somewhere that was excited about children’s ministry. I walked around for several hours and nobody even brought it up. I was actually a bit discouraged and kinda figured it was a lost cause. But before I left I decided to stop by the booth for the Orlando house of prayer. I wasn’t really expecting anything given the response I was getting but I was curious to see if anything was there because they just went 24/7 and I’m sure they would welcome someone coming to help strengthen the nightwatch. I started talking with one of the guys at the booth and he asked me to share a little of my journey and I told him how I did FITN and then have done the nightwatch basically my entire time here. He got so excited and told me that they just went 24/7 and had like 5 full time people for the nightwatch. But here’s the part that threw me for a loop. After chatting for a bit he goes, "you know Amy if you were to come to OHOP you would be paving the way for the next generation." Now my ears perked up because I hadn’t even said anything about kids yet only nightwatch. And what he said was word for word a very significant prophetic word I received last year for my birthday when I was really seeking the Lord for vision for my life. Of course he had no idea what he was saying but as he was saying it he was like man I’m really feeling the Lord. So then I asked well speaking of the next generation do ya’ll have a CEC? And he said they did and shared their heart for raising up the next generation. My heart got so excited! He said the 2 areas where they probably need the most strengthening would be the nightwatch and CEC. So the next week I connected with the associate director on the phone and now I am emailing back and forth with the guy who leads the CEC just to get a better feel for what he may need.

This is where the prayer request comes in. In a few days I will be starting a 21 day fast. A few of my friends and I decided to do it a couple months ago and set the dates for later in the quarter. But here’s the cool part. Some of the sophomores were feeling like they wanted to do a fast and not knowing anything about ours they called it for almost the exact same days, just off by like a day. So now it’s like a school-wide invitation. The coolest part is that the main goal of their fast is confidence in the love of God which I have been praying over my class and myself for at least the last year. I felt like it was a sweet kiss from the Lord to show me He hears my prayers. I am fasting for several personal heart things but I am also going to be asking for direction. When New Zealand was out of the picture I was planning to stay in Kansas City and go on staff here. But now this other opportunity may be surfacing. The thing about it though is that I’m not even sure if anyone is planning on going to Orlando and the exciting part for me in thinking about the capstones is going somewhere with a group of people that I’ve been running with 4 years. I wouldn't be super excited about it if I was the only one going. So needless to say there are many fears I have in going somewhere I don’t know anybody. And let’s be honest, it’s way more comfortable to stay here than go to a completely different state where I won’t know anyone. So yeah if ya’ll could join me in praying for direction and for my heart that would be awesome! Remember the more prayers that go in the faster those bowls get filled.

I have to admit that graduating is very bittersweet. I have absolutely loved my time here at IHOPU! I don’t like change and transition is super scary. I recently read a book called Safer than a Known Way. It was a really random find and it’s an autobiography about a woman named Pamela Rosewell Moore. Basically this chick was 21 when she prayed her life over to God--with contingencies. She didn't want to leave her home country (England), she wanted to get married young, and she didn't want to speak in front of people. One by one, God leads her to surrender her expectations and follow His plan. She ends up serving in many countries, speaking to large audiences, and marries in her forties.

She shares this poem as a reflection of her experience--also her inspiration for naming the book:

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unkown." 

And he replied, "Go out into the darkness
And put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light
And safer than a known way!" 

-Minnie Louise Haskins, 1908

She put her faith in God, her hand in His, and trusted His way really would be the best--for her and for reaching others for Him. And it was. Her experiences smuggling Bibles, learning under Tante Corrie (who we might better know as Corrie ten Boom), and so much more are proof that God's way was best.

The book had a really big impact on my heart and I have been gradually relinquishing my rights to the Lord. The biggest and ouchiest one is I relinquished my right to write my own story. Instead of telling God how He was supposed to be doing things, I now say You’re will be done. It’s a slow journey but I am learning to trust that He really does have an adventurous story for me. In one of my classes one of the teachers was talking to us about graduating and figuring out life and how scary it all can be and he made a comment that really stuck with me. He said at our core we believe that if we really follow the Lord wholeheartedly that our lives will be hard and not enjoyable. But he told us that his experience has shown him completely the opposite. I’m asking the really hard questions like do I really believe you satisfy? Are your plans for my life really good? Can I really trust you with the desires of my heart? Do you really know what will make my heart come alive? Is God’s way truly safer than a known way?

Pamela said at the close of the book "God knew how to write my story far better than I could have imagined.” Now my question is, am I brave enough to trust that the same is true for me?

 

Lord God Merciful

December 16, 2013


Today I am officially finished with my 1^st semester of my SENIOR year! What in the world? Can you believe how fast this past 4 years has gone? This quarter has been absolutely amazing. There is a lady here who wrote a children’s book called “The Thankables.” It is all about being grateful and thankful and not grumbling or complaining. She challenged our church body to 40 days of making war on grumbling. Here’s the video. It’s never too late to start!

http://www.thethankables.com/join-war-on-grumbling/

Y’all I am not exaggerating when I say it is truly changing my life. Grumbling and complaining is deadly. You really can speak death over yourself instead of life. I have been internally doing this war on grumbling and I have seen such a difference in my prayer life. Instead of arguing and complaining about how He’s doing it wrong and how actually His leadership isn’t really perfect, I have turned it into prayers of thanksgiving and gratitude for what He is doing and focusing on what He is doing instead of what He’s not. Turns out He’s doing a lot more than I had realized before!

Since this is my senior year, I have really been reflecting on my time in school and just how different I am now than I was when I first moved to Kansas City. I’ve especially been thinking about the nightwatch. I was remembering how after first semester I had the opportunity to switch and how I almost didn’t because I was afraid I would miss out on relationships with the people in my class. Now looking back I can’t imagine what my life would look like had I NOT switched to nights. I have the most amazing relationships with people I probably wouldn’t be as close to had I chosen to stay on days. Plus I LOVE the sweetness of nights. I don’t even want to think about what I could have missed out on if I had let the fear of missing out win. I am so excited to finish out my final semester in the watches of the night. The Lord really seems to be highlighting the necessity of day and night prayer and it sounds as though there will be many students switching to nightwatch next semester. I am looking forward to January to see who all will be joining us in the night.

This quarter my James class absolutely rocked my world. I think it may have been my favorite after all. We had to write a reflection about how our prayer life changed from what we learned in the class. Here is a bit of my reflection that I turned in. I feel like it summarizes what God has been doing in my heart:

I think the first thing that has been transformational in changing my prayer life has been to see God as a God who delights in mercy. These past 3 years at IHOPU have been a time for me of dismantling wrong ideas about God and His character. Before I came for fire in the night I thought that God was really mad at me and punishing me for a certain relationship in my life. Although my boyfriend at the time was the one that in my mind treated me badly, when God told us we had to break up, instead of judging him for how he treated my heart, God not only showed him mercy, but actually blessed him. He did not appear to be doing that to me and it actually seemed like I was getting the raw end of the deal. So it’s a journey God and I have been working on over these past few years. Last semester we had the book of Isaiah and my main take away from the class was how merciful God is. It really broke down a lot of my ideas of a harsh God. You just can’t see that when you really look at how He treats Israel. He is merciful unlike we have ever known or even have a grid for. So then coming from that class last quarter to this one and Minor Prophets at the same time, the theme this semester that God has been screaming to me is, “Amy I’m merciful!” It’s all over James and the all throughout the prophets. It has changed everything about my prayer life. I’m not praying to a God who is mostly mad and frustrated with me because I keep failing. I am talking to my sympathetic high priest who knows my frame, knows every detail of my life and what has made me the way I am today. He knows my weakness and even though I am frustrated with myself when I blow it, He is not. I have even begun to see especially over the last couple of years how God ending that relationship was very much His mercy to me on so many levels. His perfect leadership is always seen in hindsight. He desires that we learn mercy, which means He gives us opportunities to do just that. As I was reading through the book of Jonah, I was struck that Jonah actually got mad at God because He was merciful towards someone that Jonah didn’t think was deserving of mercy. I realized that has been my attitude towards God in my own situation. But I can’t be mad that God showed him mercy. I deserve hell but God has given me mercy. When you remember the truth through that lens it changes everything, and it literally has changed everything this semester.

I think the most impactful thing God was teaching me this semester came through the book of Hosea. It touched me when I read the notes but then when he hit on it in class it touched me even more. The basic premise is Hosea is a picture of God and His relationship with Israel. Israel is represented by Hosea’s wife Gomer. Before they were married, she was a prostitute and even though Hosea loves her better than anyone ever has, she continues to run back to her other lovers. She gets sold into slavery by another man and her husband Hosea buys her back! This was the part of the notes that got me:

“He will not be intimate with her immediately nor will he fully exercise the authority of his “title” as a husband – because she is too tender and weak at the beginning stages of her “deliverance” from the other lover.  Gomer still cannot make the distinction between “husband” and “master” and thus is not able to rightly interpret even the intimacy of Hosea rightly.  Thus he withholds intimacy to give her time to trust him with deep confidence and understanding.  She must be gently and tenderly brought to the place of intimacy without shame, or intimacy rightly received – not as a possession to be used but as a friend to be enjoyed.”

When I read the notes and heard this in class I just had tears streaming down my face as I realized this is what God has been doing with me. What I have perceived as rejection and a sign that God doesn’t really desire me, is actually His plan to get my heart to a place where it can actually receive His love. Oh I pray that more breakthrough is coming!

Onething is coming up and I am going to be helping with CEC again this year. They are doing things a little differently and instead of having all the kids all together in one room they are breaking them up by ages. I have been recruited to work with the 10-12 year olds. I’m kind of nervous because I am used to doing 5-7 year olds and this will be completely out of my comfort zone, but I am really looking forward to seeing how God meets me in my weakness. I am going to be going on another ministry trip in the spring and this year I will be going to Cincinnati, Ohio. And I know a lot of you are already asking me what I’m going to be doing when I graduate. I don’t have much information as this is a very new development (meaning I’ve only known since the week before Thanksgiving) but here's a little teaser for you. I have an opportunity to move to New Zealand for up to a year after graduation for my senior capstone! Looks like I heard rightly about getting a passport. More details to come on both trips as they get closer!

Senior Year!

October 26, 2013

Well ya’ll I am officially done with my first quarter of senior year. I have a feeling this year is going to go so quickly. I apologize for the lack of update until now. This quarter was definitely the hardest one yet and when I say I had absolutely no free time because of homework, I am not exaggerating. My classes were the book of Isaiah and the Life of Christ in the Gospels. Each class on its own is a hefty workload and as far as I know no other class has taken them together before. In fact when seniors from last year found out they were all shocked that they would do that to us. While it was extremely hard, it was also so good and having the combination of both classes at the same time was really cool.

In the Life of Christ the teacher opened up the class by stating that the reason the gospels aren’t read more is because we don’t get anything out of them. Most of the time, if we are honest, we read the Bible to find some application for our own lives or to get our daily devotional for the day. The first week he said we are often guilty of being more in love with idea of Christ than with Christ Himself and I really had to take a long hard look at how true that might be in my own life. Jesus is a real man and how can I be in love with someone I don’t actually know? I think one of the things that impacted me about the class was the idea to ask Jesus questions as you’re reading different stories in the Bible. Jesus lived 30 some years on earth. He has memories of all those things that happened. I have to be honest because although I had heard that before I didn’t really try it because I didn’t think He was gonna talk back anyway. My teacher said He probably won’t answer back, but He might. But either way ask the questions because it makes it more real to your own heart. It was so encouraging! Whenever anyone has said that in the past, I understood them to mean ask Him because He’ll talk back. But this was the first guy to be real and say actually no He probably won’t answer. It may seem silly but I feel that gave me the permission to start doing it and it’s been really fun to think about what He may have been feeling or thinking when certain things were happening.

The book of Isaiah was also really good although very overwhelming. I mean the book is 66 chapters so it’s hard to cram it all in 8 weeks. I have read through the book of Isaiah several times and was somewhat familiar with it. I think my biggest take away from the class was how merciful, kind and tender the Lord really is. We see over and over again how Israel was constantly rebellious against the Lord and did their own thing. But no matter what they did, the Lord continued to go after them and chase them down with His loving-kindness. I have heard people say they don’t like the Old Testament because God is so mean, but honestly after this class, all I could see was how tender and compassionate He is. The way He deals with Israel is the way He deals with us. He is gracious, slow to anger, rich in love and good to all. He is just so kind. Even when I am faithless, He remains faithful. It’s so comforting to my weak little heart!

It’s really interesting too because this quarter I have Minor Prophets with Dave Sliker who is the same teacher I had for Isaiah and He said His goal for this class is for us to see God rightly. It looks like God’s just gonna continue to break down my wrong understanding of Him as mean, harsh and distant. Praise the Lamb! The other class I have this quarter is the book of James. I am so excited about this class! It is taught by Dale Anderson and he actually used to be on the nightwatch. Last year when the class was offered, he was still on the old nightwatch schedule where all the students are on the new. So it was not a nightwatch friendly class. But all the nightwatch students prayed and asked God to make it work for us this year and He totally did! He is so kind! Dale is just so tender and has cried every class period so far. It’s so beautiful to see an older man cry when He talks about Jesus. This one may be my favorite class…too soon to tell though.

I made a big change this year as well. I switched my concentrations. I had signed up for CEC again this year but about a week before school started I had a conversation with Bobby who is the guy over the nightwatch students and I expressed how I felt really left out by not choosing house of prayer leadership last year. I loved CEC but I didn’t really learn anything that I hadn’t previously learned in my other schooling and the one reason that I chose that concentration, he didn’t even cover all year. Bobby actually apologized and told me that the way that I was feeling was not my fault but a design flaw with the school and that he would take full responsibility for it. Then he made it super simple. He said go where you’re going to have the most fun. So I switched to the House of Prayer Leadership concentration and have not regretted it or felt like I made a bad decision. I’m still teaching my 5 year olds on Sunday mornings though and loving it!

The school is also doing something new with juniors and seniors. They started a student led prayer room at IHOPU. It’s like the one in the normal prayer room, but it’s manned by students only. We were all placed on a team and we also have a harp and bowl (the model that they teach in the music school and what they follow in the normal prayer room) lab each week with our team. I am my team’s admin so I get to serve in more of a behind the scenes kind of way. I love it! I haven’t sung on the mics yet, but we’ll see if I get the courage up to do that at some point this year. I also get to lead my own d-group of freshman girls. I was so excited to be asked and it is so fun so far. I make them a home cooked meal every week so we eat together and then they just share their hearts and we pray together. My goal has been to create a safe loving environment where they feel they can share and be vulnerable. From what I can tell they all seem to feel that way. I would appreciate prayers as I lead them and disciple them though. It’s a big responsibility to shepherd other people’s hearts and I really want to love them well.

I know that was a lot! Thanks for reading =)

Prayer requests:

Vision: Next month is my birthday! Last year I asked the Lord for vision for my life and He answered in a powerful way the whole week after my birthday. I am asking for that again this year, but even greater because I have a huge life transition happening when I graduate and at this point I don’t really know what I am doing yet. So clarity for my next step would be spectacular!

My heart: Just prayers for continued healing. My biggest desire is to be confident in God’s love when I walk across that stage in May. Pray that He would encounter me in a deep way in my remaining time at IHOPU.

Senior year: As the leaders of the school, we have all been feeling a lot of pressure and warfare so far this year. Please feel free to pray however you feel led about that.