2 bits, 4 bits, 8 bits, a dollar, if you skip to the end, you'll stand up and holler!
The last two weeks have been CRAZY busy. Every three or four days, a new major event happens. I have titled each big event so you can skip to the parts you want to read about. If you are short on time, just read the last title. :-)
2 Bits: Bethel Group
Last week, a group from Bethel's Supernatural School of Ministry visited us. They shared puppets, face paint, a drama, balloons, and prayed over the kids while we had a birthday party. It was so much fun!
These people carried God's presence with them so strongly. Home seemed closer when they were around.
The day after they visited IFL, they hosted a "Youth Awakening" service. Our youth group attended and learned who they are in God as well as how to use the arts to connect with God and evangelize. I was filled with so much joy and love, I was a bit delirious. :-) The first part of the day was worship and workshops. Pictures below are from the morning sessions.
We were given practical training in "treasure hunting." (It's where you wait on God to speak some details about someone, i.e. what clothes they are wearing, where they are, etc, then go find them and tell them they are God's treasure. You also offer to pray for them and share anything else that God puts on your heart to tell them.)
So, the training we received mixes treasure hunting with the arts. People made balloons into swords and princess crowns and told people that God wanted to know they could be His princes and princesses. They also made fun balloon animals to spread joy. As they gave out balloons- to both adults and kids- they shared whatever God put on their heart and offered to pray for people.
Other people were taught how to rap a prayer over someone or sing a prayer over someone. Some people took pictures and passed them out to whomever God led them to and shared what that picture meant. Others drew pictures. Some made cards. Some performed dramas. Some painted faces as they prayed over the person.
It was all creative. It was all evangelical. It was a BLAST! The kids in my youth group will never be the same- one of my girls who never smiled before now smiles all the time. 
They have tools to not only connect with others, but to connect with God.
I was given a book by the director of Bethel's school of ministry called, "Cultivating Kingdom Creativity" by Theresa Dedmon. It is REALLY good. It's "a practical guide to releasing supernatural encounters through prophetic arts in your personal life, church, and community." I'm looking forward to reading it and seeing how God challenges me and uses the arts in my life.
Sunday, many students from the youth group testified in church of how God had spoken to them and used them because of what they learned from the Bethel team. They reported healings, salvation, and of hearing God's voice. It was awesome! :-)
4 Bits: Baguio-Nazarite Training
The day after the Youth Awakening seminar, four of my friends and I went to Baguio for Nazarite Training. Baguio is a mountainous region in the north- central part of the Island of Luzon. We had over 8 hours of travel by bus to get there.
The entire training was about humility, based on 2 Chronicles 2:14, "If my people will humble themselves....I will heal their land." The training took the word "humility" and unpacked it in a way I'd never heard before.
The first session was about the differences between generations and how the older generation needs to pass on their revelation the younger generation. They talked about how the younger generation is visually stimulated with a unique ability to multi-task. The younger generation is also an all-or-nothing generation. We can smell fake-ness and want to be challenged. We will rise to the expectations you place on us.
We learned about how when you reject and criticize your appearance, abilities, parentage, and environment, you are calling God a liar. Each of these things plays a critical part in the message that God has called you to carry. We learned how to accept our 'defects' in order to make them a part of our message.
We learned the destructive nature of false humility that says, "I can't do it; I am nobody." This is just as destructive as being puffed up about something from your life.
We had a session about meekness- power under control. In this session, we identified the character traits God desired to instill in us through various irritations. Then, we wrote down our rights and then tore them up into a box. "God, I have no rights anymore. You have them all."
The last session talked about spiritual covering and how if offers protection. I don't have words to share about how impactful this teaching was. It just changed things on the inside. :-)
After the sessions, we got to shop in the markets of Baguio. It rained and we had no umbrella. An hour after our first taxi flagging attempts, we finally got one to take us back to the meeting hall.
We stayed for the first session of Phase II of Nazarite Training. It was on Holiness. For me, that is where everything in Phase I Humility connected with my heart. It was a wonderful, tear filled, Holy Spirit moment! :-)
Dianne and Sheila on the bus eating dinner
Me
Jhen-Jhen
Sheila and Lhen-Lhen
Our Dinner
Me and Dianne
Me and Dianne "Were you smiling?" "Yeah, me too!"
We stayed at a very nice college. There was a hot shower and the water was drinkable! I had a hard time breaking my habit of using my water bottle to brush my teeth, though!
Yes, Jessica, that bunny you gave me when I was 14 came with me. He's my pillow! I promise! He's been all over the world!
View down the mountain
Breakfast
Brushing Party! :-)
Picture, Picture!
Reading the Manual
Praying over someone who confessed same-sex attraction
Looks like Colorado!
Spiritual Authority Umbrellas
Picture Picture!
Baguio City
In the Market
It was raining.
That is a wall of sausages behind me. NOT house decorations!
Trying to get a taxi
Taxi!
Broken Umbrella. TAXI!
TAXI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please? I'm so wet!
Finally! We made it! Haha!
8 Bits: SSRW Training/ Wedding
We got home from Baguio on Thursday morning. On Friday Morning, I left for another part of the Philippines (Imus, Cavite) to help conduct SSRW training. We trained over 150 teachers in how to use Sing Spell Read and Write. While training, we shared how vital of a role they play in a child's life.
That night, my "heart sister" Michelle got married to her wonderful husband Jay. I had the privilege of staying up most of the night so that I could watch her wedding online and call her while she got ready. I am so amazed and grateful for technology that allowed me to 'be there' on that day. My friend Judith let me use her computer so I could connect to the internet. (My brand of broadband had no signal.) Michelle and Jay, your wedding was beautiful. Thank you so much for letting me a part of it.
We finished the SSRW training late on Saturday afternoon with the help of about 4 cups of coffee and many snack breaks! :-)
On the way home, it was just Tita and I in the car. We had an enjoyable conversation, then went out to eat together before coming back to IFL.
(Sorry, no pictures from the training time.)
A Dollar: It's Time to Holler
You ready for this???
I'M MOVING BACK TO AMERICA!!
To many of you, this may be a shock, but it's been something I've prayed about for months. It has been confirmed to me over and over again that I am to go back.
I leave here on May 7th. I will stop in LA to visit a family friend for a few days and tour LA. Then, my brother will fly me to Texas on May 9th using his buddy passes. He is saving me over $200! Jack, please never leave your job! lol.
I have such mixed emotions about leaving. I'm excited about the next season of life God has for me. But I am very sad to leave here. I feel like I just got started. But God is wiser than me and I trust Him.
The current plan is to take this summer to get stabilized and to write what He puts on my heart. I don't know in what venue I will write, or who will read it, or even what I will write. I just know He said to write and that when the time comes, He'll fill in the details. Again, I like His plan better than mine.
Then, this fall, I will go to graduate school at the University of Texas at Arlington to get my MA in Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL). I am praying to finish my application before I leave here. I've already started and just have a couple more things to do to complete it. Pray for acceptance. One part of my GRE score is not so great.
The Lord is good. I have job leads already. I just have to follow up with them. I will have a place to live. I will have my car back. And I have enough money to live off of for a little while without working. But I definitely don't have enough to pay for school! This is going to be such a new adventure!
I said bye to Tina already. She is going back to her place tomorrow. I will not be here when she gets back. I gave her a picture of her and I swimming together as well as a keychain that says, "Quitters never win." I pray that she will make the choice to continue to study. God has such a great plan for her life. And school is part of it. We cried together and prayed together. It's so hard to say good-bye. And that's why I always say, "See you later."
I am still working on the math workbooks. Pray that I finish well. I need these done by next week so that I can be a speaker at the youth camp the week after that. Pray that my emotions stay stable enough to focus on the task at hand. I covet your prayers during this season of transition.
God bless and see many of soon!
