LoveFeast

April 2013

So this past Friday we were so blessed by the base with a Love Feast that commemorated the end of lecture phase for the School of Worship and Discipleship Training School. It was also a send off for our outreaches that begin on April 10th! We have come a long way of three months of preparation. We have laughed together, cried together and learned together. We have heard each others testimonies, struggles, hopes and dreams. We have served together, played sports together and reach out to Hong Kong together through various ministry times. We have danced, shouted, surrendered~ together. Most importantly, we have interceded for the people we are going to tell the good news to. Now we begin the short preparation of team building and orientation for entering into other countries.

Love Feast was titled appropriately as "Transforming From Glory to Glory". Indeed, it has been a time of change and transformation for each of us. We have learned the character of God as Loving Father, our identity as His children, how to fight in spirit warfare and how to overcome struggles and strongholds in our own lives and those of our families that have been passed down to us or impressed upon us by the enemy. Many more things we have learned individually and as group. God has spoked more than I could have imagined and I am ever grateful for the journey He has and is leading on.

During the LoveFeast, we ate pizza and salad (both were amazing, and we all teased each other about the amount we were all eating. GIANT slices! I was so happy.) Afterwards we gave a short testimony of what the Discipleship Training School has meant to us, and I loved listening to my fellow students and friends share what God has been doing in their lives during the past three months. We had a worship service and danced, jumped and sang our hearts out to the God who gave everything for a relationship with us. It was an amazing time of community and family fellowship, a great time to end our lecture phase and begin the next part of our journey: outreach.

This past Wednesday was our last local outreach, which brought a lot of sadness to Bryn, Kim and I. We have grown to love and have a passion for the women and men that exist on those streets, so that night was special for us. We bought purple wildflowers and interceded for the girls. It wasn't really a big impact night conversation wise, but we treasure it. I was able to speak to one of the men I had spoken with a few weeks ago, and we talked about God and having a relationship with Him. He told me he prays every morning and then played a song he always listens to. It was thanking God. Then he played another song that said God all provide. We swayed and sang in unison in the street of a Red Light District. It was so awesome. Chuckie had a bad night and didn't want to talk, but I'm praying for him. That man has an amazing heart and God loves him so much...I only hope he realizes it. I also reminded Debbie that I was praying for her, even when I'm not there. She asked me to pray this, "Pray that I can go home." My heart ached.

The week before, we were blessed to have many of the base staff come and present an amazing drama about a girl who gets pregnant and is rejected by those around her, but Jesus redeems her and shows her His pure, precious love. The girls were so touched that we had brought this to them, and pulled out their phones to record it. I was able to explain it scene by scene afterwards when Debbie and I watched it on the phone and she asked questions. She is hurting so much, I believe she may have walled her heart off to accepting true love. She is an amazing woman though. I did not get to talk to Anita that night, but I was able to see her dancing to the worship music the School of Worship students were doing down the street a little ways. She seemed so full of joy, such a change from the first time I met her. It's an amazing transformation. She trust that God will provide, she wants to go home, but she is not angry or bitter about her situation. It's beautiful to see. So much faith, I haven't seen it like this in the western world.

A little information about outreach, I leave in less than two weeks and will have no communication until I get back, so do not expect any more blog posts after next week until June!

Prayer Requests:
Team Unity
Peace
Visas to arrive soon
Health for the entire outreach
Outreach and the people we will meet
Wisdom and guidance
Open hearts to God's will
Peoples finances, health insurance

Thank you!
~ Ashley

~*~Leave a Legacy that will Make a Difference in the Wolrd Around You.~*~