The Words I Would Say...

Hello... I am am sorry for not blogging for a while...!!!

These last few weeks have definitely changed my life. I realized that I have to have an unmovable faith in God... and that I just want to love people as Christ did. I have heard this scripture before, and never thought anything of it. But, God really put it on my heart the last few days.

Philippians 1:21... "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." If living is Christ, then I want nothing more than to live as Christ. If it means suffering for the glory of the Lord... then I totally want to! GOD IS ALL HE CLAIMS TO BE... so to live as He did would not be a waste. I want to experience Joy in suffering... and that IS possible through Christ. Thus, death is not a morbid experience, but a home coming!

We had a bonfire a week ago, and while we were worshiping, a girl came up to me with a word from God. She said... "COMPASSION." She said that God just told her to say that. I was so overjoyed... God had told yet another person to tell me that. WOWOW! Since I have been here at YWAM, God has really laid that on my heart... just loving the unloved, and anyone for who they are. I have been given a new level of compassion for anyone who I meet... thanks GOD!

Just recently, God told me that I need to fear Him more... and spend less time (OR NOT ANY TIME) fearing man. I struggle with this, and it limits me from stepping out in faith with a prayer or a vision or something from God. I want to be bold and know that my identity is in Christ... therefore who/what should I fear!? My friend Zach showed me this passage in John 15... it really meant a lot and gave a new level of confidence in Christ!

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hated you." -John 15:18-19

This next week is Ministry Prep Week. We will be spending the whole week with our outreach teams... preparing a drama, learning how to teach English... pretty much anything involving our outreach. I am excited for the drama, because I got cast as Jesus!

If everyone reading this could pray for my grandmother... she was just diagnosed with cancer. I know that she would really appreciate the prayers!

Love,

Joey

Oh, and here are some picture of the YWAM Tyler, TX base... and some animals haha!

GUY'S DORM

MY BED

ONE OF THE LAKES

Wherever you go

Hi! I am listening to Firestarters right now and it is SO calming!

This last week was awesome! If there is one thing God revealed to me, it's that I WANT God's desires for my life to be MY desires! Everything that I desire should be/is in God... because anything desirable is God's anyways! Do with me what Your will is, God. I want to be a living sacrifice, more than a conqueror... a dread warrior for God's kingdom.

After base prayer this morning, I have come to realize that what God wants us as Christians to do is fairly blunt. Our base director shared this... and it brought a new revelation to me about my duty as Christian. In Matthew 4, Jesus tells His disciples, "come follow and I will make you fishers of men." And each disciple dropped his nets and immediately walked with God. It doesn't say that they hesitated or came on their own time... they immediately dropped their nets and followed God. It is simple... once we make the decision to drop our own nets and follow God... we NEED to be proclaiming the Gospel and sharing God's love with everyone; whoever God tells us to. If I want people to experience freedom in Christ, as I have, I HAVE to tell them about it. How else would they know? This is what I want to do with my life...

God showed me Romans 12 a few days ago... specifically verse 2:

^"2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. "

I have bee praying about this for a while... about not being distracted by or attracted to the things of this world, and here is it, Romans 12:2! I want God to transform the way I think... a literal transformation of thought. I want to be stripped TOTALLY of my own thoughts and desires. Then, this verse says I will know God's plan for my life... but it isn't just a plan, IT IS PLEASING AND PERFECT! I cannot wait! God is telling me, straight up, that HIS plan for my life is perfect and pleasing to Him.

Thanks to everyone who has been following my blog, it really means a lot! Please pray that I have more courage to step out in faith when it comes to sharing God's love! And, pray that I continue to love reading; I have been enjoying it lately!

A heart for...

Hello! It has been a few days, but I will fill you in on the necessary information, hah!

I suppose it's about time to explain what YWAM is... YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission! It was started about 50 years ago by a guy named Loren Cunningham. God had given him a vision of thousands of young people crashing the shores of ALL THE CONTINENTS, like waves. So, he answered his call from God and started YWAM! There are a bunch of schools that YWAM offers.

I am doing a DTS right now, which stands for Discipleship Training School. The school is 5 months long and consists of two phases. The lecture phase covers the first three months... and the outreach is the last two months. In DTS, we learn go to deeper levels of commitment through studying God's word, discover more about His character, and find His purposes for the future.

Here is the YWAM website, so you can take a closer look if you'd like... http://www.ywamtyler.org

On Thursday, when we were in the prayer chapel before dinner, we had the opportunity to pray and intercede for any nation we wanted to. I instantly felt God telling me to pray for Ukraine, Russia, and Romania... which is funny, because ever since I started asking God what His plans for my life were... and which nations I had a heart for, He said those three. COOL COOL COOL! So, I prayed. It was awesome... me and my friend prayed for these nations, and we prayed hard for orphanages, and that the kids would just feel God's love!!! After we prayed, he told me that he was adopted... which was totally appropriate and amazing, because we just prayed over the importance of adoption! WOW

I just found this... it is Mark 14:29... when Jesus predicts Peter's denial... Jesus tells Peter in verse 27, "All of you will desert me." Peter replies to Jesus in 29... "EVEN IF EVERYONE ELSE DESERTS YOU, I NEVER WILL." So even though Peter does end up denying Jesus three times... that is not the point, here.

I WANT to follow Christ and His plan for my life... and even if everyone deserts Jesus... I won't! It feels good to say that...!

I love you Mom, Dad, Josh, Emily, and Elona! I miss you guys...

Please pray for me... thanks.

Your voice is like the sound of many waters.

Yes, it is Saturday today! I woke up at 8 for an all dorm clean up... no sweat haha. We ate at 10, and then I played soccer for a hour or so... a great start to the day!

The last half of this week, I have been asking God for patience, because I know that His timing is PERFECT! Thus, I tried my best to keep my eyes and my heart in utter patience and know that I can't force God's blessing on my life... not a vision, word, or dream, because it is all in His perfect time. So.... Before I left for YWAM, my church prayed over me and that God would bless this time in my life. Well, a bunch of the people felt that God told them I was very compassionate, and that I had a heart for the unloved or the outcast. Now here I am in Texas... 1200 miles away from MN, and this girl named Julie comes to me last night and tells me that God told her that I am compassionate... that I have a heart for children without parents (ORPHANS!!!), and that He wants to open my eyes even wider to the people who don't feel loved. WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW! I couldn't believe it hahaha, it was amazing to hear that from God a second time, in a different place!

Last night was my first Dwell Night, and I loved it! I don't know why, but I really realized last night how precious infant life is. I saw a tiny, delicate, new born baby next to me and just wondered for the longest time why anyone could have an abortion!?!?! It made me really sad to imagine what could have happened to that baby next to me... YIKES! I just found this... and I think someone read it last night too...

Psalm 24

¹ The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.
² For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas
and built it on the ocean depths.

So since we ARE God's, and we live on HIS earth... why do we get to choose to kill some of His children!?

Anyways, I am looking forward to the rest of the day, and especially next week!

I miss you Mom, Dad, Josh, Emily, and Elona!

Oh yea, just pray for me in general! Thanks

HELLO! I LOVE YWAM... OH SO MUCH!

This week has been awesome! I seriously love every second... God has totally blessed through and through. I made the decision last week to go to South Korea for my outreach. Instantly, from the moment I heard that South Korea was one of the three locations, I knew God was telling me He wants me there... I am so happy with my decision. There are 8 other DTS students going with, and 4 people leading the outreach. Hopefully I can learn some Korean in the next three months, because there a bunch of Korean ESL students in my dorm.

Here is my schedule... just in case anyone was wondering. This is approximate, for the schedule is ALWAYS subject to change haha!

-wake up

-class from 9-12

-lunch at 12:15

-quite time/do whatever I want until 3:30

-class at 3:30

-dinner at 5:15

-work duty (CLEANING CLASSROOMS!!!) from 6-8

-something (usually prayer or worship) at 8

-curfew at 11:30 (1 on weekends)

Last night God told me something really reassuring! For the last couple months, I have always had Isaiah 6 in my head, especially Isaiah's vision of the Seraphim CONSTANTLY proclaiming the glory of the Lord. I thought about it basically all of yesterday, and just praying that God would put those word in my heart ALL OF THE TIME! Just as I was praying that I opened my eyes and the Bible next to me was open to Isaiah 6! And then, that same night, we were singing and one of the songs was about Isaiah 6! Seriously... out of the thousands of verses that Bible could have been opened to, and the millions of songs we could have sang... WOW. So I realized that God was telling me, "Don't get discouraged, you know in your heart I am always with you." It was really cool, to me, because I was starting to doubt myself for some reason.

Well, thanks for reading! Please pray that I do not doubt myself! Thanksss

Love,

Joey

By the way, here is Isaiah 6...

Isaiah's Vision of the Lord

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah's Commission from the Lord

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is a desolate waste,
12 and the Lord removes people far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.

This is my first blog!

Hello, I now live in Tyler, Texas at the YWAM base... i have been here for a little over a week. I should have started a blog right away... because I have so much to write about. Thanks to my mom, though, I now have a blog haha!!!

Everything about YWAM is awesome, and I love it here. I really don't know how else to describe it! I love my classes and I love the friends I have made so far. It is weird to think that I have only been here a week... because my friendships are so strong already. I know God is constantly trying to get my attention, and since I've been here, I feel like he is saying, "Now I have you right where I want you," because I have fewer distractions and all I can do is listen to what he has to say. And, I am amazed, because for the first time in my life... I actually like to read!

If you could, just pray for me in general, that my love for reading would increase... and that my mind will be free of distractions ALL THE TIME, that would be awesome! Oh, and morning class today was awesome! It was about how Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and that He is full of compassion and love... Jesus embodies compassion. I really enjoyed this.