Week 6: Prayer Week

So we're now in week 7 but let me reflect a bit on prayer week last week. Its amazing what happens when you actually chase after God full force. We had groups of people praying every hour of the day, besides our little chunk of time for lecture with Leon, for 5 days straight. Our little prayer room became a popular place of escape. I remember thinking "I wish we always had this room" but then I realized I can dwell on God and talk to Him anytime I want in any place I want. Still, in our little sanctuary it was so much easier to focus on Him. Monday was a big day for me. Ever since Byron Bay I've been asking God to show me what is keeping Him from having my whole heart. The things in my life that I hold with a closed fist. Well Monday morning after base worship and tea time, God brought me to my knees in surrender. I was in the back of the room during our little worship/ open mic/ confession/ whatever-we-wanted-it-to-be time when I realized that God was asking me to lay down my family, Christian, and my guilt. I was holding myself up by a stack of chairs because I was too weak in the knees to hold myself up. I went for a walk outside for awhile just asking God why I have to give Him the most important things in the world to me (minus the guilt). My family is everything to me. I tear up just thinking about how much I love them and they love me. And Christian is my best friend who I love more than words can express. Questions flooded my mind. What does it mean to lay them down? Am I strong enough? Whats the point anyway? I didn't get any answers right away... not until Wednesday when I actually decided to speak this out to the rest of the school in front of everyone on the mic. Afterward everyone prayed for me and some approached me after with a few words that were directly from God confirming a few serious questions for me. That night was one that I will remember until I'm old and gray. This may sound creepy and weird to any non-believers and maybe even some believers reading this but God just totally showed up that night. He surpassed any expectation I had going into this. It is a very long story and I will share it with only a few people in my life, but He actually revealed to us who He is, and the very reality of Heaven, Hell, Jesus, the Father God, and the Holy Spirit. I am still trying to digest that night. It ended with the most authentic and amazing worship session I have ever had in my life because we were all in utter awe of the God that we serve. The God that we GET to praise. He is so very real and so very worthy!!!
Anyway, He answered some of my questions that night with, "I will never force you to do anything, but if you want to be my disciple I need to have your whole heart. You must love me first." So I think God just wants to know that I love Him first and that I am willing to go and do whatever He asks of me. That I have faith in Him and His plan for me in this short life. I'm scared because my flesh wants so badly to just live a simple, uncomplicated life with all the materials and security I need. Mine is just one story this past week. Each person in the DTS had some sort of break through last week. All of these people were headed in one direction but have chosen to grow with God which has completely altered plans they've mapped out for their lives. I love how God moves in a repentent room. He loves it.
After a long week, Saturday the girls at 77 (my house) made a big house breakfast and we all slept in till 11ish (since we barely slept all week). I made French toast :) Then I went to the beach and we had a big movie/game night. A few of us went to this place called Thai Seasons which has awesome, cheap Thai food. Then Starbucks. Liz and I watched A Walk to Remember.. I'd been craving it for awhile! And Sunday I slept in again, went to the beach with a girl from Orange County named Breezy, went to church and played cards till pretty late. I'm still loving it here and I'm getting sad I only have a month left in Australia! My dad informed me that I'll be home in 98 days haha.
Lots of Love!

With Opened Eyes

Well, after a spiritually, emotionally, and physically exhausting week in Byron I feel like I am finally rejuvenated and refreshed. We studied the fear of the Lord this past week under the teaching of Glen Vines.

My favorite couple verses of the week: Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

Psalm 25:14 "The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them."

God is hungry for me and you. He wants to confide in us. For me I am taking everything that I am learning and trying to apply it to my life but most of what I've been learning is very challenging! I know how apathetic I can become when I'm home, but I never want to return to that spiritual deadness. That life is too easy. God has been confirming to me every day that He has called not only me but everyone who labels him/herself as a Christian to live a radical life. A life that people of the world see and don't understand. This life is not going to be easy, but so rewarding and fun!
On Friday the director of the base and his wife shared during our missional living portion of the morning. They created a clothing company called "Moselle Clothing Company" which works alongside the ministry "Destiny Rescue." Destiny Rescue is a ministry devoted to rescuing sex slaves out of the pit of Hell that they are drowning in. They place the victims in a recovery center where they just love on them, feed them, and give them hope in Christ. This is when Moselle comes in. Moselle then takes the freed sex slaves and employ them. The business is brand new so they only have a few full-time workers right now in Thailand. The girls were taught how to knit and sew the clothes together so that each cent Moselle makes can go directly to these former sex slaves. It's incredible! Moselle doesn't have any other employees. Just volunteers. So I encourage anyone who reads this to at the very least check out their website www.moselleclothing.com. Destiny Rescue has ministries in Mozambique, East Asia, and Eastern Europe. Each victim saved has made the decision to have a relationship with Christ! Over the past few years God has really given me a heart for victims of sex trafficking and I'm praying about whether or not He wants me to really dive in to the abolition full force. We'll see!

- 1 million CHILDREN are in the sex trafficking trade as young as 4 years old.
- 27 million slaves exist today.
- Today you can buy a child on the Thai-Burmese border for $5 AUD.
- The UN estimates that a child is bought or sold every minute.

Human slavery makes more money than Google, Nike, and Starbucks combined! I know this stuff is really hard to think about but I just pray that it will open your eyes to see outside of our little bubble that we live in. On a lighter note, we went to the Kondalilla Falls today where I cliff-jumped and played in a few waterfalls. It was amazing. Last night we joined the September school at the base because they had their graduation ceremony, but I left early to play in a little soccer game which was amazing. It's been way too long since my last soccer game! Throughout the week, in between lectures and meals, students go to McDonalds and Starbucks all the time; McDonalds because it's cheap and Starbucks because it's relaxing. It's funny to me how much people love McDonalds! Please pray for finances for me-that my outreach fees would be provided for. Also, for those who are enslaved to human trafficking and for the clients who continue to enslave them. Ask God to convict them and stir in their hearts. Pray for my Thailand/Cambodia outreach team-that God would prepare us for the journey that is about to change our lives and hopefully tons of other lives. Thanks for your prayers!!

Byron Bay: Healing

Sunday morning we drove 3 hours south to Byron Bay which is a famous backpacking location. People from all over the world travel here to see this gorgeous landscape. It's so lush and green everywhere... extending straight to the crisp,clear ocean with sandy beaches. B-E-A-utiful. We're here staying at the Byron Bay YWAM base for evangelism until Friday so it has been a great little change of pace. Probably about 15 of the girls are crammed in the spider-infested garage where we sleep in bunk beds. We have a white horse in our backyard and there are loads of cows in the frontyard... very strange beach town. And I keep waking up to dreams of spiders crawling all over me! haha i really dont like them. The other girls are in a YWAM house a little closer to the beach and the boys are sleeping on the floor in the church.

So tonight was kind of another ground-breaking night for me and unlike anything I've ever experienced before. My roommate Jocelyn from New Mexico has suffered from scoliosis for years. Her back is in constant pain from sunrise to sunset and her legs have been uneven for at least the past 2 years. Her left leg is more than 1 inch shorter than her right. Tonight, after evangelism in the most hippie town I've ever been to called Nimbin, we decided to collectively pray for Jocelyn. The Holy Spirit was completely consuming the entire room as we prayed for her healing. One leader said we should sit her in a chair and straighten her legs and thats when I saw just how much shorter her left leg was from her right... how she hides it from people I have no idea. Anyway, we continued to ask Jesus faithfully to heal Jocelyn and I watched Jesus lengthen her left leg before my own eyes. Seriously!!! Her legs are now the exact same length!! I don't even know what to say!! Why does it take something like that for our faith to be dramatically increased? He is a faithful healer and I now have NO doubt what-so-ever!! It has been such a heavy night and my heart is just softening by the minute. Just thought I'd share that with you guys. If you have just the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. Jocelyn will never be the same and neither will any of us as her witnesses.

Hope all is well back home :) I'll be pretty out of the loop this week because we're so busy all day every day but I will try to post again when I get back to sunny coast.
I love you!!!!!!

In His Grip,
Caitlyn