Aloha! A New Season!
BIG NEWS! In 5 months I will be leaving the UK and heading off to...... Hawaii!
I will be studying missions, worship, the Bible etc on a Crossroads Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) at their founding base, the University of the Nations in Kona. I will be there from January-March 2018 then on outreach in an unknown location in the world with my team from April-May. Please follow the link for more information on the course.
This blog is designed as a kind of public journal of what God is doing in me as well as a place to share news and photos both before I go and when I'm there. I hope to encourage you in your journeys of faith, wherever in your journey or wherever in the world you may be! I also would LOVE and rely on your support in many ways. Your prayer support and emotional support are utterly invaluable to me. Words are hugely important - please pray for me as much as possible! Please email me/message me/write to me and encourage me with what God is saying. I need you! Please come do this journey with me, in whatever way He may prompt you.
What? Why now? Why Hawaii? I thought you were going to Peru?! I know.
I feel like lots of you have been part of my story in big and small ways over many years, and some of you have seen more of the journey than others, so here is somewhat of an explanation of what is going on. I'm so grateful to all of you for the part you have played and are playing in my life. I could not do this without the God who orchestrates everything beautifully according to His plan or without the beautiful people like you that He brings along my path.
Many of you know that the reason that I am a teacher is because God broke my heart back in 2010 for the kids in the slums in Mexico, who did not get any chance of an education therefore no opportunity to learn about Him or to learn essential life skills or reading and writing. Back even before that I have had visions of me teaching literacy skills and the Bible, and seeing kids and young adults learn, grow and get sent out to other neighbourhoods, different nations, or just stay and teach others, equipping them to grow and change more lives around them.
Teaching girls about their worth & identity in God. Guadalajara, Mexico 2010
Boys in the orphanage in Guadalajara, Mexico 2010
Back when I lived in St Andrews, I had a prophetic picture of my heart, and whenever it was sliced into, the words "The Nations" appeared. I felt that God say He has branded the nations right through me and many of you will know that I have had the privilege of travelling to many nations and seeing Jesus' face in many cultures and languages throughout my life. My heart particularly beats after South America (Peru.. Bolivia.. Colombia.. I undoubtedly will end up there) and South-East Asia (I spent a couple of years of my childhood growing up in Singapore so I am particularly fond of that area of the world too.)
I was in Hawaii back in April visiting a wonderful friend of mine who I've been on various adventures with around the world over the years! I thought I was just going to make the most of having a friend in Hawaii, and I went expecting a holiday and certainly not expecting God to turn my world upside down! As we were worshipping in the University of the Nations I was overcome, worshipping with laid-down, fiery lovers of Jesus from 30 different nations. My heart with the nations in was bursting and I wept as the flags kept dancing past and we kept praying out healing, freedom and peace over nation after nation. Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM) then spoke about Hawaii being the meeting point of the nations as it is pretty much exactly between the Americas and Asia, not far from Australia. When I realised that I had been looking at my British map, from a British viewpoint, and that the Americas and South-East Asia meet in Hawaii, that was it. I knew I had to come back. I knew that I would meet people from all nations in this place that would be significant contacts for me in the future. I knew God had carved my heart into this shape. I knew I had to be trained as a missionary just as I have already been trained as a teacher, before I venture into unknown lands and plant schools and/or churches. I knew I needed to take time out to be with God as I have never had any sort of break in my education/working life. And now, that's it. My life is His. He directs and I hold on as tight as I can and try not to fall off or take back control! I want to pursue Him to the ends of the earth (Hawaii is literally as far away from England as I can get..??!) and I know that He will change me there.
At the University of the Nations, Kona Hawaii April 2017
And who knows what He has for me or where He has. But I will pursue Him and this crazy adventure of a life that He has called me to as long as I have breath in me.
No, I'm not going to sit on a Hawaiian beach for 3 months.. it is an intensive program of prayer, study and worship. I'm not going to live in Hawaii indefinitely, I'm there to train for a set time (3 months), and this will then springboard me out into the nations. Currently my heart is still particularly excited for Peru, as lots of you know. I am fairly sure I will live there for a season in the near future. But right now my plans are to rent out my house, resign from my job and go in faith for 5 months! I expect that I will then come back to Bury, reconnect with you lovely people, get a job doing supply or maternity cover.. then await for where and when God says next.
