Wednesday Meeting: 4.30.08

I've already talked to just about all of you, but just to remind you, and to clarify on a couple things that were wrong:

The Mozambique Team of 2007 will NOT be praying over us Wednesday night... that will actually be Sunday night. Sorry!

But we WILL be shooting a group photo Wednesday night, so MAKE SURE YOU'RE HERE ON TIME and wear a plain colored shirt that shows your personality. Erik, you do have to wear SOMETHING, though.. I know, I'm tempted to show off my sweet tan lines too.

I love you all. See you Wednesday night.

Sunday Night

We have a meeting this Sunday (tomorrow) at 9:30 PM at the Loft. 

There is a possibility that Aradhna will still be playing, and if that is the case we will move the meeting over to Blake's. It is SO important that all of you are there tomorrow. If you have a meeting, school work, social things- they can all wait. We leave in two weeks, so this is the most important place for you to be. Leave your meetings early, do your work throughout the day and after the meeting (it won't be too long), and hang out with your friends later.

Wednesday will also be important because my team from last year will be coming for the first 30 minutes to pray over us and share some Mozambique experiences with you, so PLEASE be on time! 

To recap: 9:30 Sunday at the Loft and 9:30 Wednesday at Blake's. 

Love you guys and praying for each one of you!

-Madison 

We are grinded down and broken to be healed and restored.

So, with the busyness this week with school and just… distress/ life, it’s been so amazing to see the fruit of the seeds that the Lord has been scattering. He's been showing me just how active he is in working and changing us- making us light, changing our hearts, blessing our faith- not just because he loves us or because we are his, but to gain for himself a glorious name; for his own renown. All that we have accomplished, God has done for us (Isaiah 26:12). He has allowed us to behold the glory of Christ with unveiled faces, but not just for our own eyes. We are to reflect his glory. That’s why he has made his light shine in us. To give him the ever-increasing glory.
Personally, I feel like I’ve been a gear this week- working and just being… grinded down that He could show himself to me that much more brightly. I read Isaiah 35:10:

the ransomed of the Lord will return.
they will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

He has promised us everlasting joy in his presence! The joy and light that comes from knowing him should radiate off of me to all! For his glory. He is revealing himself to His people for His glory. The Light of the World has not only shined on us, but given us light to be light to those in darkness.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. – 2 Cor. 4:6

-emily

Ashley is our favorite

At least for now!

And everyone who comes to the meeting tonight will automatically be our new favorites! 

Blake's House tonight at 8:30. Be there.

Love, Mom

"Only A Shadow"

that was lovely, Erik. but guess what?? IT'S A NEW DAY!! which means NEW FAVORITE TEAM MEMBER---ASHLEY.

so anyway, cool story. It happens to relate to Isaiah 43 (go figure).

So the Misty Edwards song that we listened to at the Mozambique meeting just a mere 2 (now 3, since it's technically Wednesday) days ago--the same one that Blake heard that one time while he was reading Isaiah 43, ya know?

yeah, well I get out of the shower this afternoon, around 1:09pm, and my roommate is printing off the lyrics to it!! (apparently it's called "Only A Shadow," if you were wondering) I didn't recognize it until she started singing it and was like, "Ashley, i want you to hear this song! It's amazing!" and then I realized what it was and pretty much freaked out, because it was another crazy timing thing from the Lord.

OH and even CRAZIER part of the story.... She, Lauren, (my roomie) heard about the song from this other awesome Christian girl on our floor, Megan. Apparently Megan asked Lauren if she or I had been playing the song in our room, because she heard it on our hallway. But us 2 and the girl across the hall (Laura) are the only Misty Edwards fans, so when none of us admitted to being the source of the song, I was totally convinced (and not at all surprised, with how crazy and evident the Holy Spirit has been lately) that the Lord had put that song in Megan's head, then Megan told Lauren, who told me, who realized (once again) the Lord is sooo involved in our lives!

He really does make connections and "coincidences" (for lack of a better word) among His people to reveal His love, create strong community, and make His Presence (and the Holy Spirit) known!

Awesome.

yay i'm the favorite! (for now...) oh well, yay!

erik just thought he would get online (because his team leader told him to), check his email (because his team leader told him to), check the blog (because his team leader told him to), post on the blog (because his team leader told him to), and become mommy's favorite (because his team leader told him to)! i love you all

Become Me and Madison's Favorite Team Member!

Each time you post on this blog with what the Lord is doing in your life, what you ate for breakfast that day, whatever... You will automatically become me and Madison's favorite team member! Oh, and back rubs and free meals help out too.

Mommy and Daddy love you very much.

Big Team Meeting and Fund Raising Opportunity

Our Big Team Meeting is this Saturday from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm. Please be sure to get there on time because we will be leaving the church and going on a "field trip." This means be there AT 8:00 am, do not arrive 20 minutes late thinking it will be no big deal because you will be left behind, no kidding. Dress as if you were going to the Refuge.

IMPORTANT: We are meeting at the Journey's new East Campus location. NE 36th and E Robinson.

Also, we have one more fund raising opportunity. Next Thursday night Journey is having a volunteer dinner and they need people to come and work it. They need at least 15 people and you will be paid hourly. It is a NY themed night so the majority of you will be dressed in NY styled clothing (yankees, mets, street vendors, etc.) serving hotdogs and what not. It should be fun, so let me know who wants to do it.

You guys are the best! We will have a Moz team meeting on Sunday night, so plan on being there if you can.

Love you guys!

Madison

PS- Great job getting all of your passports and pictures in. Our visa applications are all ready to be sent in as soon as we have our final dates!

Faithful

The Lord is ALWAYS faithful.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Phil 4:6). As Blake was saying in the last post, there is absolutely no need to worry. Why would we worry when we have a perfect and powerful Heavenly Father looking out for our every need? As humans, there are many things that are beyond our control. We have to leave them up to God, so I challenge you guys to stop trying to come up with money for this trip by yourselves. Stop trying to make this work. Get on your face. Pray. Fast. Cry out to the Lord. James 1 reminds us that a prayer without faith is useless, so be reminded of how the Lord your God has been faithful always and will continue to be for eternity:

He delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, as he promised. (Exodus 6:6, Exodus 12:31)

He sent his Son to earth and he was born of a virgin, as he promised. (Isaiah 7:14; Luke 2)

His perfect Son died as a sacrifice for our sins, as he promised. (Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Luke 23)

Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, as he promised. (John 2:22, Luke 24:1-7)

He sent the Holy Spirit to us, as he promised. (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:1-3, 16-21)

“You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed”(Joshua 23:14).

"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations" (Deuteronomy 7:9)

God will always be faithful, so go pray in confidence that he is listening and if Mozambique is where he wants you this summer, he will without a doubt provide a way for you to get there. Do not limit the Lord to what you can do, his power is so much greater. Have faith because he is faithful.

Get excited for our meeting TONIGHT at 9:30 at the Loft. This is going to be an intense meeting, so please everyone try to be there!

Love you guys more than you know!

Madison

Rest

It's Sunday- the big crazy deadline day. I'm experiencing it from the other side (it's 3 am Sunday morning), but it's still that day. I just wanted so say a few things, even though it is a weird time.

I love you all. Friday night's thing at Jacob's land was incredible- I wish we could have stayed another night (who knows, maybe we will do something the few days before we leave for Mozambique...). Even though all we got to do as a group was sit around that fire and have that talk, I feel like that was a really awesome time we will never forget. Things were definitely said there that are not normally said to anyone else, and that's really special for our family. We really are becoming a family together, isn't that cute? But seriously, I'm overwhelmed with the blessing of that, and my prayer is that all of you would feel it as well- I know most of you do.

So this next part is for those of you who are nervous about money stuff. Don't worry. Even up until Midnight tonight, don't worry. He commanded us not to worry. And there is no such thing as a 'righteous', 'Godly', concern here. We are to use the minds God has given us and be efficient with those, but He has told us never to worry. Do what He says to do. Don't even think about the 'what ifs.' The birds don't even think twice about whether or not there will be enough. Luke 12:24 "Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!"... hmmm.... There really is ALWAYS ENOUGH. Sounds like a good name for a blog. Or a book. Or a theme for a body of people who are recklessly, hopelessly, unashamedly, ridiculously, foolishly ABANDONED to a God who says He will be the Provider. I said it to everyone before, and I'll say it again when it comes to this subject about the money: Do what you know you need to do (fast, pray, fall on your face, cry, hurt, feel, sell some things, call some people, fast, pray, fall on your face more, sit at His feet...) and then rest, believing He will do what He wants to do and that He will reward your faithfulness.

Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him."

Matthew 25:21 "'...you have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'"

So before you throw in the towel, trust that He will do what He wants. "If you say go, I will go; If you say wait I will wait." -Thanks Casey. But if He gives you a direction, GO. WAIT. STAND. SIT. TALK. LISTEN. HURT. PRAY. LOVE. Do the thing God is telling you. DO the thing God is telling you.

Right now He is telling me to rest. That's not a joke just because it's 3:30 am. I had a nap. I need to rest in Him. This post is mostly for me. I have thought about the What Ifs all week, and I got completely exhausted today. What is He telling you? Do you believe He is telling you anything? Well, too bad, He is anyway. When it'd be easy for me to walk on my own two feet and 'enjoy' life on my own, He's waiting where I looked at Him and left Him, right by my bed, still saying the thing He wanted for me for that day. 

Thanks for letting me use this as a time for me to 'center myself.' Hopefully this resonated with a few of you. 

Again, I love you all.

Goodnight.

Blake.

(photo of a mother and child from Maputo)

Money.

Hey, this is going to sound harsh, crazy, sad, all the negative sides of team-ness.

But unfortunately it's an issue we have to address.

We have been trusting the Lord to move, and He has. We will continue trust. 

But here we go: if you don't have your money (or at least 3,400) by this Sunday, we ARE going to have to let you go. We have been talking with a lot of people and praying a lot, and this is the right thing to do. God is an efficient God. He is good at provision. And He will provide a way for you to go if you are meant to go. He may provide that via you dipping into funds you didn't want to, making sacrifices you don't want to make, selling things you don't want to sell... God loves sacrifice done with a pure heart, a heart that is obedient. But it will be Him doing that in you- stirring in you in order for that to happen- you will not be glorified in that sacrifice.. We believe He is going to provide this money by Sunday- 6 days from right now. So be aware that if you don't have it by then, you will not be going to Mozambique.

But rest. He is not going to hurt you and make you feel like some failure that is value-less to Him. There are many reasons He shuts doors. Trust me, I've been seeing some slamming doors and some flinging-wide-open doors. He will do what he wills. We have surrendered this team to that will, and if you don't end up going, and you grumble and complain to Him about it, then it's obvious that you probably shouldn't have gone anyway. You're meant to be with Him, and if you staying in Oklahoma means more of Him in your life via brokenness, suffering, whatever, then that's what will happen. 

So again, I tell you, REST. There are no coincidences. He knows what He is doing. We will all still love everyone on this team, even if some of those people are removed from the team. We can still get together and pray over each other and carry each others' burdens. 

I love you all, I hate having to say things like these, but I have to.

Isaiah 55

Fast, pray, listen to His heartbeat, and do what He says. after that, if you do what He has said, He WILL do what He wants. And what He wants is ALWAYS to bless you. Maybe it won't make sense for a while, but in the end, it's blessing you, His Beloved.

Good night. Please call for Anything.

-Blake

Passports and Visas

I need your passport and 2 passport-size photos by WEDNESDAY!

I have most of them already, but I need a few more of you to get your passports and pictures to me by Wednesday so that we can be filling out paperwork and sending in everything on Thursday. Get excited, we are one step closer to MOZAMBIQUE!

Love you guys and please let us know if you have any prayer requests or thoughts to add to the blog. 

Your fearless ATL,

Madison

No Meeting Tomorrow Night

The title says it all-we're not meeting tomorrow. Everyone seems to have busy weeks ahead, so take Sunday night to catch up on the reason we're in college in the first place... school!

We are in the process of trying to find a fundraiser for our team. It's getting late and we're still in need of some serious cash.

• T-shirts are not going to be worth the effort (they are fun, but don't make much money)
  
• Panera is booked for fundraising nights through June 1st
• I am going to Taco Cabana on Monday morning to ask about a fundraising night
• Anyone can work at the Journey Bowl on Friday, April 11th for $10/hour, just let me know, and I'll sign you up.
• Go to Riverwind on Monday (girls) or Friday (guys) for a free $10 to gamble with...I'm only sort of kidding about this one. The Lord uses evil for good, right?
• Anyone have any other ideas??

You guys are amazing. Can't wait to see you on Wednesday!

Madison

Urgency

We leave in 39 DAYS!

You guys are the best! Seriously though, I can’t even begin to tell you how much my life has been blessed by knowing each of you. The Lord has made you all so uniquely (ex. I don’t think we’ll see Emily burping the ABCs like Ava anytime soon), and I love how we each bring such different personalities to the group. Blake and I did not put together this team- it was completely the Lord. His hands are all over these eleven people, and he is moving in all of us. How cool is that!?! God knew, before we were born, that we would be together right now. (Psalm 139:16). He chose you to be on this team. He moved you in this direction and brought you here. I know it is because he wants to do something AMAZING in and through this group of people!

Sometimes I forget the reason we all know each other. We are going to Africa together (assuming you do all those things Blake told you to do)! Our lives are going to be drastically changed, and we are going to experience that together. Are you ready? Seriously though, are you? Pray for the Lord to break you even more, so that we can minister and identify with the hearts of the people of Mozambique. We do not want to be the harvest; we want to be harvesters in Africa, but also right here in Oklahoma.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. (Luke 10:2-3)

We leave in six weeks! I am starting to feel a sense of urgency to push into the Lord even deeper than we have before. Prepare by spending more time sitting at the his feet and in fellowship with this team. Father, rid us of everything that would be a hindrance to your Spirit moving in this team. We want no part of things that are not of you.

Some Official Team Business…

• I know this Saturday is Big Event, but if anyone wants to go to the Refuge instead, I am so there.
• Call to make an appointment to get your shots TOMORROW! The first available appointments at Goddard are April 18, which is pushing it.
• Everyone needs a blog because they are really cool.

I love you all!

Madison 

 

Reminders, Dates, Etc.

Hey, remember these things, because you won't be going to Mozambique unless they are done:

-Get your shots/pills taken care of- if you don't start some of them in the next week and a half, you will not be able to go to Africa.

-Get your passport to Madison so Journey can get your visa- this needs to be done before next Monday, because if it isn't done by then, you won't go to Africa.

-Get your money in before April 15th- the total amount is due then. That's two weeks away from today. If you are lacking more than a few hundred dollars on that day, you probably won't be able to go to Africa.

Sorry bout the redundant "you won't be able to go to Africa." I just felt like being consistent for you to realize the importance of these deadlines. It means you going or not going on the trip that we have been meeting up for and praying for and investing a large part of our lives in. I love all of you and it would kill me to tell you you can't end up going with us. But those top three things must be done by the times I said.

Also as far as other dates/things to know go: 

April ??th to the ??th is our team retreat/camping trip/hangout and fish and ride dirtbikes and make fire time. It will be at Jacob's land, and we'll figure out more details soon. 

Soon (the next week or two) we will take a group picture, it will be awesome. My friend Evan French, will take it for us, and it will actually be a really cool picture- it may or may not involve a VW bus as our backdrop. We'll see. 

*We're actually figuring out the date and other specifics right now...

Tonight's catch phrase was tiight. Things we'll never forget:

Ava's cornbread description

Erik and Ashley screaming each other's names in a hateful tone

Jacob providing 2% milk for Ashley to spit up

Madison spilling water all over herself (not that that's unusual)

Blair's leg being the solution for Erik's back scratching needs

Ava's snorts

"Queen Mother!"- is apparently an expletive

Grace listens to really good music- i.e. the Cold War Kids (Ok, maybe I'm the only one that will remember that.

Colin is the target of much of Madison's feistiness (listen to Feist too, she's great)

Okay, good night. I love all of you.

Blake

Rid us of ourselves

We belong to you.

This trip is yours, father. We seek to please only you. Rid us of ourselves and make us yours. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, and blow our minds again. We say you are not finished. You are actively working through every moment of our lives. You have a perfect, pleasing plan for each of us individually. We invite you in to do whatever you want to do. Break us, Lord. If we are going to be with the broken, we have to be broken. So give us your heart for your people. Give us your heart for each other. We want to feel what you feel. We want to love what you love. We want to cry for what hurts your heart. We choose to be doormen in your Kingdom and we walk away from the kingdoms we've built with our own hands. Lead us in your truth, never let us go. You don't need our service. Rid us of the deception that we have done something to deserve this trip. Rid us of the deception that you need us. You don't need anymore servants. Their work is worthless to you. You desire lovers. Make us your lovers, Jesus. We are your bride, and we come to you, ready to hear your heartbeat, and then go out and do what pleases you.

(photos from gallery on Iris Ministries' Website)