Learning to rest...

I am learning to rest. It's a biblical principle - and command - but so often I forget just how important it is to live it out. By the end of last week, all of the school staff here were getting pretty worn out. Our schedule is a bit more packed than anyone intended.

I want to brag on our school leaders a bit. :) I am so blessed to have the leadership in my life that I do. They came to us - the staff - on Monday evening and told us that they were going to revise the schedule!! So, we now have an extra night off during the week. Plus, a couple of activities were combined giving us a bit more free time. Yay!!! It has helped my week so much, and has given me the opportunity to get a few things checked off of my "to-do" list. Yay! Oh ya...and then they took us all out to the Cheesecake Factory! Mmmm...the Chicken Madeira was AMAZING! I highly recommend it. :)

On another note, I have become a bit more involved in my local community this quarter. My church has a few "life groups" (basically small group settings) during the week. I'm involved with one on Wednesday nights that has been focusing on a study in freedom. And, my friend and I (from the base) have gone to the Friday night Young Adults life group a couple of times. In fact, I'm getting ready to head there in a couple of hours! I'm finding it so helpful to be getting involved with friends outside of Youth With A Mission. It's been fun to get to know new people in the community and a bit more about island culture. I love Hawaii!

In honor of being intentional with my rest, I will be taking my second full rest Saturday this weekend! :) (With the exception of maybe heading to the bank to make a deposit). I did this last weekend, and it helped so much with the beginning of my week! So, I'm planning on it again!

Oh...and a couple of great praise reports! I received a couple of unexpected financial donations this week that will help pay for my November staff fees! Yay!! So, thank you to those of you who gave. It is so appreciated and incredibly helpful! And, thank you so much to my regular supporters - both in finances and prayer. I am so blessed to have you all in my life!

Blessings!

Megan

He continues to heal!

Hi all!

Here are some highlights that have occurred since the last time I wrote:

- I turned 28 years old!!!!! And, I must say, it feels quite different to now be - officially - in my late 20's! (I know…many of you are probably laughing at me right now, but it's exciting for me!)

- Our DTS took a week-long trip to the Big Island to join 7 other DTS's for a corporate week of learning from Youth With A Mission's founders and other great leaders. It was a week of being encouraged by our leaders to dream big! God's plans for our lives are usually greater, more fun, and completely outside of our realm of understanding. He has options for us we didn't even know existed!

- This past week was quite a busy one for our DTS. Lectures were amazing (we were learning about Kingdom Sexuality: God's perspective). Worship, prayer times, and processing times were all wonderful. But, we also began to realize just how busy our schedule is. Our school directors being the incredible leaders that they are, decided to change our schedule a bit. We now have a bit more free time! So…what am I adding to my free time? Exercise! I have desperately been needing to be more active. So, I'm doing it! Just got done working out, in fact. :)

I believe those are the highlights of the past couple of weeks. There will be more specifics to come on this coming weekend's blog. But, I wanted to be sure to catch everyone up!

Oh ya! And, God continues to bring healing and freedom to the DTS students. Last week, during a time of worship, I felt that the Lord was wanting to bring healing to people who were experiencing headaches. No one had told me that they were having headaches. But, the Lord was showing me that some people were (God loves to speak and heal!). So, I asked for those that needed healing to come to the side of the room and we'd pray. I knew (again from the Lord revealing it) that someone was experiencing pain behind their left eye. Sure enough, I asked the first girl if the pain was behind her left eye. She looked at me surprised and said, "yes!" We prayed and God healed!!!! :) A few others also received healing that night from headaches and other physical pain. So incredible! God certainly loves to bring healing!

All for now!

~Megan

Week two...

I set out for a walk through Manoa Valley this morning around 9:15...didn't get back until noon! I ended up going all the way up to Manoa Falls. It was so beautiful! A few too many mosquitos, though, so I didn't linger too long.

This has been another incredible week. Maria Daughtery was teaching our students about hearing God's voice in lectures this week. It's always fun to see students growing more and more confident in their ability to hear their loving Father speak to them.

This week, God has been impressing on my heart the power that is in confession from our mouths! Not just confession of sin, but confession of God's truth and promises over our lives. In my own life, I'm learning the importance (and freedom) in declaring the truth of what He says about me instead of believing and adhering to the lies that come from the enemy, other people, and even myself. I'm learning to listen to God's truth about me (especially through Scripture), speak it out verbally, and walk it out in my life. I'm noticing this impact how I use the gifts and talents He has given me, especially in the way of worship. I've been singing out a lot more lately...singing the songs I feel Him putting on my heart.

Student testimony: One of the things I have learned is that when God is doing powerful things in our lives, the enemy hates it and does everything he can to kill, steal and destroy that work (John 10:10). We had a short 10-minute break from lecture on Wednesday morning, and as I was heading back into the Tin Cathedral (where we learn, worship, etc.) I noticed one of the girls laying on her bed, with a couple of other students praying for her. As I asked her what was going on, she began describing how she was feeling physically. I knew she had been fine earlier, so immediately sensed that this was probably the work of the enemy, trying to distract her from getting all God had for her during lecture. She was experiencing heat in her body, racing heart, nausea, and fuzzy head. She agreed that she felt it was the enemy. So, as I began praying for her, I felt the Lord directing me to have her declare (from her mouth) the authority Jesus has given her and tell the enemy (ie: demons) to leave her alone. After this, I had her declare Scripture about her authority, identity in Christ, and power over the enemy aloud. As she began to speak these truths out, her voice got more clear, loud, and authoritative. After about 3 minutes of this, and asked her how she was doing. She said good! That she felt she could sit up again. She got up and we headed back into the Tin to soak up more of what God had for the day!

Demons attempt distract from the freedom and power that God is bringing in peoples' lives. After Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit led Him into the desert for 40 days of fasting before beginning His ministry (Matthew 4:1-11). Satan himself came to tempt Jesus. Jesus' response was to fight back with Scripture. It is the first weapon I see Jesus use against the enemy. It must be a primary weapon we use! (Ephesians 6:10-18 show other weapons we use, including Scripture.)

Outreach News: Our outreach teams were formed yesterday!!!!! I can officially saying that I am co-leading a team of 6 students (5 gals and a guy) to a couple of countries in southeast asia! :) Because of safety concerns I can't publish the names of the countries, but feel free to call me if you would like to know! ;) We will be leaving the first week of December and will return the end of February. I love my co-leader, Jimmy Yim, and our wonderful students! So blessed. :)

Coming Up: I will be celebrating my 28th birthday in Kona this week, as the Kona DTS's, Kauai DTS, and Honolulu DTS join together for one great, crowded week of learning, worshiping, eating, and living life together. We'll be hearing from Loren and Darlene Cunningham (founders of YWAM) and David Hamilton. All are speakers I was encouraged and blessed to hear from during the School of the Circuit Riders I was part of over the summer. So, I am looking forward to our students being blessed by their great wisdom and contagious love & passion for Jesus.

~Megan

Week One...

This is going to be a quarter of FUN! It's a something that God has been speaking to me...even before I got back to Honolulu. And, I am definitely already having fun. The students are so great to be around. Their hearts are so beautiful!

This week, we have been learning (in lectures) from Art Collins about identifying the marks of a disciple of Jesus. All of the students and staff are still getting used to one another. We had a delicious Mexican style meal tonight as a school, followed by fun games and laughter. Such a great group!

One of the other things that I know will be different for me this quarter is getting more involved in my local community. I started going to a small group through my church last January quarter, and have continued this. I really love the people I have met through my Church. The small group I am in right now is studying freedom in the Lord. Love it! Even as God continues to free my heart from more and more of the things that hold me back from Him, I learn that I always have room for more freedom. I really am having so much fun with God this quarter! He is becoming my best friend. :)

It has been a great start to the school this week, and I am expectant of the greatness of next week already; simply because God is great!

Much love...and have a great weekend!

~Megan