Thanks for your prayers and I would appreciate it if you could keep praying for a quick recovery.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Surgery
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me. Here is just an update. For those who don't know, I've been having constant sharp pain in my lower torso for the past few days. I've ignored it thinking it was probably something I ate or a pulled muscle (though it felt nothing like either of those). So Yesterday (Monday) afternoon I drove out into the country to the side of a back road to work on my book report (it removes all distractions, especially internet). I was on a ball, working faster than I have ever done on a book report before. Words were coming to mind and the applications were flowing fast. In about 30-60 minutes I was able to get 4 whole points done with long applications - now that's fast. 2 or 3 time whenever I shifted position I felt a really sharp pain, but I ignored it and kept working. As I was about to start my 5th point, The Holy Spirit spoke to me saying, "that pain can't be healthy. Go get it checked out." I ignored that too, since I was about to do my 5th point. He spoke again right as I started the first work of the 5th point, "Go now." I replied, "no". I really was on the ball and did not want to leave the moment. A third time the Holy Spirit spoke, "Go Now." Realizing He was right, I reluctantly left and went home. And through His prompting I mentioned my pain to Laura and she thought it was my appendix. At the hospital we found that it was my appendix and that it was infected and slowly leaking (thankfully it hadn't burst yet). So we quickly went to the ER and within a few hours (around 10:30pm last night) I went straight into surgery. They cut me open in 3 or 4 different places and successfully removed my appendix. I was at the hospital recovering for only two hours before I was able to come home. We got home about 2:45am this morning, and I had a great sleep. This morning most of the pain is gone, though I am still sore. I did not go to SLI today, and I don't know if I'll make it tomorrow or not (I'm hoping I can make it). I'm not allowed to drive or lift anything heavy for a while but thats a given.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Prayer Ministry
Prayer Ministry... some call it street evangelism, I believe though this was more prayer ministry. Our class had a unique and blessed privilege today to go out into the streets of Down Town Waterloo and pray for people. Tuesday we had someone come into class and spent 3 hours teaching us all sorts of "strategies" for approaching and talking to people. During his talking he used the example of when we ask someone if there's something we can pray for them for they say they have nothing. Then we ask them if their could be one miracle in their life today what would it be. In his example he said "world peace" and then the 'people' shoved the rest off. He then asked this imaginary person if he wanted to know peace and they said that just the world needed peace. I happened to use a very similar response when I got to be the person someone talks to during our practice time. This morning we had someone else come and teach us a bit more for about an hour. Then we prayed and asked God to show us what or who to look for as we walk the streets. God showed us all a number of things, and we made a big list of them all. Many of them that God spoke to different people were about the same person or ended up being the same person.
For example God showed me (and another classmate) to look for a man in a suit with dark sunglasses, He also showed one of the leaders to look for something fancy, and another one of my classmates a lime green car. Also God had shown someone to look for something with the pancreas. When one of the groups was walking out on the streets they saw a man with dark sunglasses waring a fancy suit. As they were questioning whether that was they guy God wanted them to talk to or not a bright lime green car drove past. That was the answer, and they got to really talk to the guy and pray for him. As they were praying for they guy, one of the leaders, being lead by the Holy Spirit, prays that him or someone in his family will be healed of their cancer in the pancreas. Immediately the guy stopped with a shocked look on his face and asked, "who told you that?" When the team told him God told them that he replied, "no, who really told you that?" Again the team told him that it was God. He kept wanting to know "how God told you that". They were able to show him the list of things that God had told us to look for, the man in a dark suit and pancreas and such. And so the man was absolutely amazed by it and the conversation went on
Anyways we split up into 4 teams of 3, each team had two girls and one guy. I was in a group with Jasmine and Janette. Through the hour to hour and a half, we were privileged to talk to 9 different people. So we were dropped off at an intersection and we reviewed the list of things to look for and then started off in prayer. As we were walking we past a Toyota parking lot that had a lime green car in it. Since our list of what God had shown us to look for consisted of a lime green car, a parking lot and a building with large windows (all of which this dealership had) we walked around the parking lot for a bit. As we were walking in, I noticed a purple car (God had just shown me the color purple to look for). But after a bit, we didn't feel like there was anyone here that God was calling us to go pray for, so we left. On the way out I noticed another purple car - odd. We walked up the street, but as we got close to the end, we all felt that God was saying that we missed something back behind us. Not wanting to miss someone God wanted us to pray for, we crossed the street and headed back, keeping our eyes open for something else on the list. As we got close to where we started we felt that we were still missing something. God told me to go back up the street again and again until we find what He was showing us. So we crossed the street and headed back up again. Right after we crossed the street I noticed another purple car sitting on the edge of the Toyota parking lot. So feeling God was calling us back to the dealership, we headed back. As we were walking into the parking lot, and older couple was walking out, the wife had a yellow jacket on (which was also on the list) and we all felt that we should go talk to them. So we did and when we asked them if there was something we could pray for them for the said no, and when we asked about a miracle, the wife replied "peace in the world". Long story short, we then asked her if she wanted to know peace in her life, and she replied "peace in the world is what we need", then they left. Almost exactly as the practice had gone two days ago.
We, Janette, Jasmine and I, also got to meet someone named Chris, who is an artist and was telling us about a miracle he had with his art. He also recognized Janette from somewhere and Janette had said that he looked really familiar. We got to spend some time talking and praying with him. Then we prayed for a lady crossing the street in a pink shirt (also on the list). Then we met a guy waiting at a bus stop. By this time it was starting to sprinkle outside. The guy's name was Ali. While talking with him we found that he knew nothing about Jesus and wanted to learn more about him. As we were talking to him we saw his bus coming down the road. I had asked him if he wanted a relationship with Jesus and wanted to accept Him into his life and he said yes! But as we were about to pray for/with him to make that decision and explain it more to him, the bus came and he left. Fired up, we continue to pray for him and I believe that he did give his life to Jesus today praise God!!! We then continued down the streets in the rain, it was a downpour by now and we were drenched. Everywhere we walked we prayed and declared and claimed, the streets we walked, for Jesus. We then came to a gas station and noticed two men and went and talked to them. The one was an atheist, but he never really finished his answer on why, except to say that he was more on the science side of things. After praying for those two we continued on and we felt that both of the men accepted what we told them and really needed to hear it, but they just weren't ready to accept Christ.
We then tried praying for a lady on the street, but she said "no" and "no" and left, same as the older man we tried talking to just up the street.
After it all we all (all 4 groups) got together in a Tim Hortons and shared some of our stories and debriefed.
Yes this was an awesome experience, but it was more than just an experience, it's something I would like to do again. Before going out I was scared, fearful and worried. But I prayed for words to say, courage, boldness and for God to take away my nervousness and well Almighty He sure did. He continued to remind me of what He's been telling me the past few weeks, "I am with you, you have nothing to fear."
For example God showed me (and another classmate) to look for a man in a suit with dark sunglasses, He also showed one of the leaders to look for something fancy, and another one of my classmates a lime green car. Also God had shown someone to look for something with the pancreas. When one of the groups was walking out on the streets they saw a man with dark sunglasses waring a fancy suit. As they were questioning whether that was they guy God wanted them to talk to or not a bright lime green car drove past. That was the answer, and they got to really talk to the guy and pray for him. As they were praying for they guy, one of the leaders, being lead by the Holy Spirit, prays that him or someone in his family will be healed of their cancer in the pancreas. Immediately the guy stopped with a shocked look on his face and asked, "who told you that?" When the team told him God told them that he replied, "no, who really told you that?" Again the team told him that it was God. He kept wanting to know "how God told you that". They were able to show him the list of things that God had told us to look for, the man in a dark suit and pancreas and such. And so the man was absolutely amazed by it and the conversation went on
Anyways we split up into 4 teams of 3, each team had two girls and one guy. I was in a group with Jasmine and Janette. Through the hour to hour and a half, we were privileged to talk to 9 different people. So we were dropped off at an intersection and we reviewed the list of things to look for and then started off in prayer. As we were walking we past a Toyota parking lot that had a lime green car in it. Since our list of what God had shown us to look for consisted of a lime green car, a parking lot and a building with large windows (all of which this dealership had) we walked around the parking lot for a bit. As we were walking in, I noticed a purple car (God had just shown me the color purple to look for). But after a bit, we didn't feel like there was anyone here that God was calling us to go pray for, so we left. On the way out I noticed another purple car - odd. We walked up the street, but as we got close to the end, we all felt that God was saying that we missed something back behind us. Not wanting to miss someone God wanted us to pray for, we crossed the street and headed back, keeping our eyes open for something else on the list. As we got close to where we started we felt that we were still missing something. God told me to go back up the street again and again until we find what He was showing us. So we crossed the street and headed back up again. Right after we crossed the street I noticed another purple car sitting on the edge of the Toyota parking lot. So feeling God was calling us back to the dealership, we headed back. As we were walking into the parking lot, and older couple was walking out, the wife had a yellow jacket on (which was also on the list) and we all felt that we should go talk to them. So we did and when we asked them if there was something we could pray for them for the said no, and when we asked about a miracle, the wife replied "peace in the world". Long story short, we then asked her if she wanted to know peace in her life, and she replied "peace in the world is what we need", then they left. Almost exactly as the practice had gone two days ago.
We, Janette, Jasmine and I, also got to meet someone named Chris, who is an artist and was telling us about a miracle he had with his art. He also recognized Janette from somewhere and Janette had said that he looked really familiar. We got to spend some time talking and praying with him. Then we prayed for a lady crossing the street in a pink shirt (also on the list). Then we met a guy waiting at a bus stop. By this time it was starting to sprinkle outside. The guy's name was Ali. While talking with him we found that he knew nothing about Jesus and wanted to learn more about him. As we were talking to him we saw his bus coming down the road. I had asked him if he wanted a relationship with Jesus and wanted to accept Him into his life and he said yes! But as we were about to pray for/with him to make that decision and explain it more to him, the bus came and he left. Fired up, we continue to pray for him and I believe that he did give his life to Jesus today praise God!!! We then continued down the streets in the rain, it was a downpour by now and we were drenched. Everywhere we walked we prayed and declared and claimed, the streets we walked, for Jesus. We then came to a gas station and noticed two men and went and talked to them. The one was an atheist, but he never really finished his answer on why, except to say that he was more on the science side of things. After praying for those two we continued on and we felt that both of the men accepted what we told them and really needed to hear it, but they just weren't ready to accept Christ.
We then tried praying for a lady on the street, but she said "no" and "no" and left, same as the older man we tried talking to just up the street.
After it all we all (all 4 groups) got together in a Tim Hortons and shared some of our stories and debriefed.
Yes this was an awesome experience, but it was more than just an experience, it's something I would like to do again. Before going out I was scared, fearful and worried. But I prayed for words to say, courage, boldness and for God to take away my nervousness and well Almighty He sure did. He continued to remind me of what He's been telling me the past few weeks, "I am with you, you have nothing to fear."
Cupcakes, Cupcakes & More Cupcakes
Devil's Food & Milk Chocolate; Double French Vanilla; and Lemon with Cream Cheese frosting! YUM!! After an intense 6-6.5 hours non stop yesterday, I made and frosted 300+ cupcakes to give away. People have asked me over and over again, "WHY????" I've replied to every one, "Why not?" I love buying, baking, giving, blessing and serving (and making things in bulk) - making 300+ cupcakes to give away fits right in.
As I was making them in the Church's Staff Kitchen, a number of staff member came and were were able to eat some. One said something along the lines of, "I just keep getting blessed today!" I gave Julia 37 of them for school, since her brownies didn't turn out too well, and I brought a dozen or so home for the Baxters. Today I left a couple dozen in the staff kitchen for the church staff, and after class I went to my next stop: KCA. Since Kindergartners didn't have class today, they will get their cupcakes tomorrow. However, every student, and teacher from Grade 1-8 in KCA got a cupcake today. Not to long after finishing that, I went to Kidzone and all the kids and volunteers got cupcakes there. I originally was only planning to make the cupcakes for Kidzone, but it kind of exploded from there. I wanted to bring some food for the kids at Kidzone, and as I was deciding to what to bring, I decided to live up to my name. My Kidzone nickname is "Cupcake" since I like to bake, so that's where the idea of cupcakes came from. I also put a couple dozen in the SLI room. Brooke and Janette had let me barrow some cupcake pans (thank goodness - they were a huge help!). Tomorrow I will take some to the Kindergartner class and I have some that I plan to take to the construction workers on our road.
It was a ton of fun and definitely worth it, even though I did have to stretch my budget for it - it WAS Worth it!!!
The Weekend Worship Experience
So, Sunday night session.... We had a powerful, powerful worship time, followed by JP delivering a also powerful message on the Holy Spirit! It was absolutely Amazing! But what really hit home was the worship/prayer time that followed the message. They had all the leaders come up front and anyone that wanted prayer, whether to be filled with the Spirit, healing or such, could come up and get prayer. It was so powerful. I didn't actually go up for prayer, but I felt as I should pray for those getting prayer: to pray in the spirit. So as the Holy Spirit flooded that room, filling every human, touching every heart, we continued to worship him in prayer, songs and praise.
As I let the Holy Spirit speak through me in tongues, God was speaking to and thru me declaring His goodness, His truth and His life! Then God blessed me with yet another "God Moment". I was kind of shaking and felt my stomach tightening up again. The lack of control in my feet and lower legs from the Holy Spirit's Presence drove me to my chair, for my legs and feet could no longer support me by my own strength. I sat in the chair behind me and continually, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit prayed in tongues declaring Truth. After a bit, my right hand was pulled to the right of me overtop of an empty chair. Then it was slowly and softly pulled down upon it. After another bit of my hand resting on the seat, I brought it back in front of me over my lap, but God pulled it back to where it was, on the chair. After God did this several times, God told me that the God of angel armies is always by my side. That He was there with me by my side; my best friend was next to me, I didn't have anything to fear. He told me that He will always be with me, He will be with me in the dry and the floods of life, He is with me!
As I had my hand of the chair my body seemed to lose strength and I shifted greatly that way so that my arm/hand supported my body and the chair supported my hand. God told me o wait and lean on Him, He is the chair. He supports me, He holds me up, He is my life and everything.
Also He answered yet another question I have had, God will I be in Canada next year? He answered that prayer I've had by telling me that I will be in Canada next year. As He told me this the thought of "SLI year 2?" popped into my head, but it was replaced with, "I don't have to worry about that, that's for God to handle." He reminded me again that He will provide.
He told me that all I have is His and All that He's given me I can give freely. He, though this, answered yet another question I've been praying about, which has been "do I sell my drone for $400, as one guy has offered?" To me it seems a little low, but God told me at this moment to sell it to him for $400. It's funny, when I got back from The Weekend and checked my emails, a number of people had sent me emails replying to my ad (more than expected), and so I replied to them with a higher price for the drone. None of the replied back so I emailed the guy who had offered $400, and he right away emailed back and still wants it (even though he made the offer and told me I should sell it to someone else nearly 2 weeks ago). Again, its funny how God works like that.
Again, God told me that I will have persecution in my future, but I will also lead kids ministry and should do so with joy and excitement for I get the privilege to serve the Lord in this way!
The Lord also shared with me another large detail about my future that I have been praying a ton about the past couple months. It was a direct answer to my prayers. However every time I think of it now, a flash of doubt comes, just because it was so big of a reveal. It's crazy to think about and I'm excited to see how God works though me in it, but it's almost hard to believe. At this moment in time I don't believe it is the right time to share what God spoke to me. I believe that it was a personal word for me, that isn't for others to know at this time.
As I let the Holy Spirit speak through me in tongues, God was speaking to and thru me declaring His goodness, His truth and His life! Then God blessed me with yet another "God Moment". I was kind of shaking and felt my stomach tightening up again. The lack of control in my feet and lower legs from the Holy Spirit's Presence drove me to my chair, for my legs and feet could no longer support me by my own strength. I sat in the chair behind me and continually, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit prayed in tongues declaring Truth. After a bit, my right hand was pulled to the right of me overtop of an empty chair. Then it was slowly and softly pulled down upon it. After another bit of my hand resting on the seat, I brought it back in front of me over my lap, but God pulled it back to where it was, on the chair. After God did this several times, God told me that the God of angel armies is always by my side. That He was there with me by my side; my best friend was next to me, I didn't have anything to fear. He told me that He will always be with me, He will be with me in the dry and the floods of life, He is with me!
As I had my hand of the chair my body seemed to lose strength and I shifted greatly that way so that my arm/hand supported my body and the chair supported my hand. God told me o wait and lean on Him, He is the chair. He supports me, He holds me up, He is my life and everything.
Also He answered yet another question I have had, God will I be in Canada next year? He answered that prayer I've had by telling me that I will be in Canada next year. As He told me this the thought of "SLI year 2?" popped into my head, but it was replaced with, "I don't have to worry about that, that's for God to handle." He reminded me again that He will provide.
He told me that all I have is His and All that He's given me I can give freely. He, though this, answered yet another question I've been praying about, which has been "do I sell my drone for $400, as one guy has offered?" To me it seems a little low, but God told me at this moment to sell it to him for $400. It's funny, when I got back from The Weekend and checked my emails, a number of people had sent me emails replying to my ad (more than expected), and so I replied to them with a higher price for the drone. None of the replied back so I emailed the guy who had offered $400, and he right away emailed back and still wants it (even though he made the offer and told me I should sell it to someone else nearly 2 weeks ago). Again, its funny how God works like that.
Again, God told me that I will have persecution in my future, but I will also lead kids ministry and should do so with joy and excitement for I get the privilege to serve the Lord in this way!
The Lord also shared with me another large detail about my future that I have been praying a ton about the past couple months. It was a direct answer to my prayers. However every time I think of it now, a flash of doubt comes, just because it was so big of a reveal. It's crazy to think about and I'm excited to see how God works though me in it, but it's almost hard to believe. At this moment in time I don't believe it is the right time to share what God spoke to me. I believe that it was a personal word for me, that isn't for others to know at this time.
Twenty20 - The Weekend
So Last weekend out post-high school/college age group (~18-30) went a few hours up north to go camping for the weekend. It was called The Weekend. The Weekend consisted of lots of food, fellowship, worship, sessions and relaxation. As you'll see in the pictures below, the cottage property that we were at had just about everything. The family who owns it, is now using it to glorify God and His people. Many camps and groups from our church are on this property. Theres everything from hiking trails, a lookout over Lake Huron, volleyball, hammocks, rope ladder, swings, zip lining, trampoline, tight roping, indoor and outdoor games, a bush maze, and a lake for their canoes, paddle boat, kayaks, inner-tubes, peddle boat and more. This place has everything. There were about 80 of us there and we all slept in one of 4 cottages, 3 bunkies, 4 campers and a barn. Guys slept on ones side of the property, girls on the other side and many adults, leaders and such stayed in the middle. I was in a small bunkie with 6 other guys. Overall, it was a ton of fun. There were 3 sessions, all were lead by our new worship leader, JP Smits, and we had some awesome and powerful worship times, sessions and prayer times (I will go more in depth on this in a future post). Some of us, on Sunday, went Hiking on some trails about 15 minutes away. It was a ton of fun, we hiked on a 2-hour long trail, and had some fun "rock climbing" experiences. For example, climbing under a number of tight rocks and dips. The trail use to be called "Fat Man's Misery" and we soon found many areas to show that accurate.
Also Andrew Baxter drove 20+ hours from Texas just to come the the Twenty20 weekend.
Also Andrew Baxter drove 20+ hours from Texas just to come the the Twenty20 weekend.
(Thanks to all who took the pictures!)
Canoeing
Hiking
Archery
Cill'n
Trampoline
Hiking view
Pre-Session Improv game
The barn. The top was a nice large living room-like place that housed 11 guys, the bottom was the place where we did our sessions, worship and such.
Campfire (post-sessions) and "Epic Story Time"
More archery
Trampoline
Volleyball
The Dock on the lake
The upstairs of the barn
Fellowshiping outside of the barn (pre-session)
Worship Band practice
Campfire
Tightroping
Swings and Rope Ladder
Post-Lunch instructions speech
Having fun
Campfire "Epic Story Time"
Hiking on the "Fat Man's Misery" trail
Playing with the kids
Zip-lining
Game time: Human Capture the Flag (Amanda was one team's "flag")
Volleyball
Side trail of "Fat Man's Misery" trail. It was a lot of fun crawling through this.
Hiking
Some SLI's Chill'n
Canoeing
More hiking
Hammocks
The Kuepfer's preparing the meals
More Hiking
Rope Ladder again...
Relaxing
Bryan giving us instructions post-meals
More Volleyball...
More Canoeing...
More tightroping...
Finding fun while hiking...
Ontario's Flower
Preparing to go Canoeing
The lake (almost the entire lake was only 3-10 feet deep)
Leah Baxter Zip lining
While we were hiking we accidentally made a wrong turn and ended up in someones back yard...
Kayaking
Hiking
The view over the lake at night
Volleyball
Hiking
Mico, the family dog
Lunch
Sunday Morning worship/prayer time down by the dock
Sideways zip lining
More pre-sessions inprov...
Another view of the lake and dock at night
Trying to set up a camper. Some of the girls had decided to try to lift the top off, not knowing that you had to use the crank to lift the top up. This cause a bit of trouble getting the camper back into a useable space.
Zip lining
JP and his wife starting one of the sessions
The Hiking Crew
The lake and the dock during the day
Hiking "tour guide" - a ton of fun!
Hiking over water
Down by the lake...
Lunch
Hiking crew again...
The Trail we were on
Bryce Snorkeling in the lake.
The lake...
Worship session
JP Speaking
Zip lining upside down
People just chill'n, having fun and enjoying the time
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