Two more weeks flashed by!

So I guess I sort of skipped 2 weeks... Week#7 was on Basic Christianity, This week was on Holy Spirit, and I must say both weeks were absolutely incredible!! I've learned so much and also have grown so deep in a relationship with the Lord! I wish i could blog ever last detail and every note I took during lecture but that would probably end up as an epic novel. For everyone at home, you will probably get the whole spiel when I come back home ; ). God is working in my life beyond anything I ever imagined. He is just totally refining me from head to toe. Funny how "refined" happens to be the theme for our school... It's really cool too because you can see it in everyone here. I love it! I love being surrounded by people who are going through the same thing and not having to focus on any responsibility so we can completely focus on the Lord. So next week I believe our lecture is on Spiritual Warfare, which will probably be very good for me to learn on! So Monday I have to do something called Chapel Talk, which is a 30 minute mini sermon- I guess you can call it. AHH!! I'm kind of nervous but I know it will be good! First, I thought God wanted me to speak on Praise in a Thanksgiving way, but it's kinda changed to how we can make our Christian walk about us and what God can do for me, so from there we should change and be praising God and showing thanksgiving. So we will see how it goes...

Prayer Requests: I've been having killer headaches, so please keep me in your prayers. Good news and total blessing beyond belief!! I was able to go to the chiropractor today which will hopefully help a lot, compliments of my fabulous family!! <3
Also, just please continue to pray for unity of my team, it is getting a lot better but it will be really important on OR because boys and girls will be living in separate places, which is not the case for all the other OR teams. Thank you for all your prayers! It's been so great and you are seriously making a difference in my life and the work of the Lord.
Love & Blessings,
Samantha

PS~ Picture of all the girls on my OR team!! =)

...Another week...

It's Saturday today... We did our lectures this week on Relationships. There's not a whole lot to say other than that I learned a whole other perspective on relationships and I definitely have different (possibly higher) standards than I did before this week. Only 5 more weeks of lecture before OR!! I'm so excited and feel so blessed that most of my finances have come together quickly and smoothly, Praise the Lord!

I love getting mail here, it's often the hi-light of my day, so if you would like to send me a letter, I will return it with a postcard of a sunset or something ; )Today has been a very relaxing day, which is great for re-cooperating. Tomorrow is Halloween so instead of the typical American thing, we are having a talent show tomorrow night! HAHA.. should be fun.

Prayer Request: There's some students here that don't have all their OR money, if you would like to keep them in your prayers, specific names I know for sure are Johanna and Justin. Thanks for all your prayers, God is working! <3

PS~ Picture is from last Saturday at the beach, guess which pair of legs are me? lol

Life Happens...

This week of lecture was phenomenal! As I said last post our topic was "New Hearts". We went through things like wounds, forgiveness, judgments, curses, vows, soul ties, personal sin and generational sin. After learning what exactly the subject (wounds, forgiveness, etc.) means then we went into how it affects us and how we fix it. It was an intense week but so much applicable content. It was so good!!! I'm in such an amazing place spiritually! I've never been so full and overflowing with so much love from God, not to mention peace, joy and all that good stuff =) So.. I think tomorrow we start lecture week on relationships. We have a lot of homework to wrap up on weekends but it's really good content we will be able to use during outreach phase. We are currently reading Vintage Jesus. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but then again, I haven't read very much of it yet.

Yesterday we got up at like 5 am to get to Makena beach, on the other side of the island to volunteer at Xterra (5k and 10k practice runs for a triathlon). It ended up being really fun after we got over the initial early morning mood. Plus, we got a free shirt!

I'm getting really excited for outreach! We have just hit the half way mark for lecture phase, which means I've been here for 6 weeks-ish and have 6 more here in Hawaii. I'm still considering all my options for what I will be doing after this time. I've been praying a lot about it and I'm not too sure what God has for me next so I'm just waiting. If you would like to pray about it too that would be awesome! The prayer requests from last week are still requested ; ) And as always I appreciate your prayers more than anything.
Love & Blessings,
Samantha

Media Fast, CHECK!

So sorry it's been awhile since I've updated my blog. Last week Monday to Monday we did a media fast. The point was to not turn to our technological devices and instead turn to God and generally just cut out distractions of the 'world' from our lives to have a better view of God working in us. I wasn't sure how this was going to play out, but surprisingly enough one day I was feeling a bit homesick/ lonely and I went to lay in my bed. I started thinking "I wish I had my phone to text someone" and then BAM! I realized I should pray and tell God about this feeling and let him help me FIRST. You would think this is something I already know but it actually never dawned on me before in this way. Media (or friends & family) is something that I would go to before I even took problem to God, I knew I had a problem not going to God first but who knew this would help identify it in that special way.

My weekend: Saturday I got to go to Lahaina! What an amazingly beautiful place! So touristy, so there's big resorts and cute little shops and super nice beaches. I got to snorkel and I saw a giant sea turtle up close, coolest thing ever!

This week is New Hearts (aka Life Happens... and what to do when it happens to you). Such an awesome week already! We've had 3 lectures and there all amazing! There is so much spiritual warfare going on right now though, with personal stuff for a lot of people, which is super expected with such an amazing thing that the Holy Spirit is trying to do!

Prayer Requests: Please pray for this spiritual battle the school is going through. Please pray that God's will-will be done in each of our lives. Once again, I appreciate all your prayers! Incredible things are happening here!

PS~ The picture above is at Lahaina with my amazing friend Naomi! =)

Bible Overview

WOW! I can't even begin to explain how amazing third week of lecture was! I think it might be my favorite week yet. In 13 hours of lecture we did Old Testament and New Testament Survey: Promises Made & Promises Fulfilled. Never ever in my whole life has the Bible made so much sense to me, and now more than ever it's so exciting to me!! I can't even begin to describe exactly what I learned but now I have a deeper understanding of God's qualities. Ultimately, I have a much clearer view of God's love for us and the purpose for things that happened in the Bible.

I've actually been here for 4 weeks now, and today's my birthday! It was very out of the ordinary but still good. It made it so much better having family and friends from home wishing me a happy birthday, and even having gifts from my family and friends to open today. Totally made it so much better! It was really cool yesterday cos Hospitality made me a very pretty cake and sang me happy birthday and for a birthday dinner a group of us went to a local pizza place that was amazing! Today we had premade plans for our school to go to Hana, which is home to the Seven Sacred Pools, and awesome underwater caves and cliff jumping. It was a good place to spend my birthday I suppose. Either way I feel super blessed to be here, learning what I am learning.

Prayer Requests: First of all, thank you to all who continually pray for me! Your prayers are amazing and much appreciated! I guess just the next week of lecture, that all our hearts will be open to what we will be learning on World View. Also, just please continue to pray for my head aches =/ They're definitely a nuisance.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! LOVE,
Samantha

Listening to the voice of God

Week 2 of lecture just finished and this week we had a wonderful speaker! She spoke on the voice of God. How to hear it, the different ways he can speak, things that can hinder us from hearing him and so much more! It's so amazing how just after a 5 days of lecture and really seeking after God's heart how much better I can identify the voice of God. Today, as an act of hearing God, we drew another person's name out of a hat and took a piece of paper, and were told to go find a quiet place and let God use us to speak to them. OH WOW!!!! It was so amazing to be able to be used by God in that way and have it completely witness with the other persons spirit. Also, the letter I received totally hit home. There were lots of little details in my letter that just amazed me, cos it spoke wonders about how God cares about the little things. For example, my letter was written with a purple pen (purple being my favorite color), it was signed Abba (my favorite name for God, and the biggest surprise of all the girl who drew my name started my letter with my full name(she did not know my middle name, except for possible overhearing it subconsciously)it was just totally a God thing and it was so beautiful! This is definitely a lesson I'm excited to hold on to and grow in as I grow in Christ. I have so much joy in him, and I'm so excited to be here.

Life in Hawaii is quite the adventure. Hitch hiking, and running around barefoot EVERYWHERE are just a couple of the things that are out of the ordinary for me. Dirty feet all the time is totally normal... haha. Theres always time for the beach on the weekends, so between the sand and being barefoot 24/7 I have to re-paint my toes with polish every week, but it's so worth it! The weather gets really warm some days, but because of the humidity its hard not to be sweaty in the sun. I love the wind here! We live up on the hill with so many trees, it's always amazing outside. So much beauty and when your in this kind of envoirnment learning about God is just that much more amazing!

Last weekend we took a trip to Bamboo forest! It was so incredibly beautiful! It's like a nature trail/hike/adventure course. You start walking through this bamboo forest and you're so tiny compared to it, you feel like an ant in blades of grass, but it is so amazing! Then you climb up rocks and theres ropes people hung to help here and there. You get to a creek/river and have to jump in and swim about 100 yards to where the trail continues and finally when you finish the trail you get to a huge beautiful waterfall! We all jumped off the rocks there, it was such an exciting experience! Our optional weekend day trips happen every once in a while but its so cool because it gives us a chance to get to explore the island we're living on =)

Prayer Request: My outreach team meets regularly and we all get along great! Please pray we continue to grow in unity as a group so when we leave for outreach things will go smoothly. Also, please pray for my health. I'm very prone to headaches and lately I've been having a lot of problems with them. I appreciate all your prayers more than you know!

Love & Blessings,
Samantha

First week of lecture..

This past week was our first week of lecture. It was totally incredible! It's really awesome too because it is so easy to see that people's hearts are already beginning to change here. As for me, this past week has brought on distinct confirmation at 3 different times and ways that the Father wants me to go to him for answers and then wait for his perfect timing to reveal whatever it is he is wanting to reveal to me.

'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' Jeremiah 33:3

There was a point where I got antsy and discouraged but after the second confirmation I was filled with an overwhelming peace and joy and just total understanding that God is with me, even when I'm waiting for him to speak to me.

MY LIFE VERSE
Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD
Psalm 27:14