Unapologetically and Honestly Loving Others with Reckless Abandon

"Lord, I saw your face last night When I looked in the sky You were smiling You told me it would be okay You would make a way In my dark times CHORUS: Every time I hear your voice Every time I feel your touch It makes me know that I can face tomorrow One more time When all my friends go away I'll be glad to say You're still near me Even when the wind blows by I feel warm inside You're so lovely CHORUS I need you, don't leave me Without you I can't survive CHORUS I know that I can face tomorrow 'Cause you will walk me through My pain and sorrow I know that I can face tomorrow One more time I can face tomorrow You can face tomorrow We can face tomorrow One more time" One more time-The Katinas If you haven't listened to this song, I suggest you do. I had someone here show me this song, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Its funny how when you hear a song, and you know the person, you can tell exactly what is in their...

I can't believe that I am half way through my trip. I am so excited to see what else God is going to do. I am blessed to see that God has so much more for me here. I have begun to spend more time with the members from my church here and I have truly fallen in love with them. I can see how years of religion has beaten them down. I am so grateful to have a pastor here who speaks the truth to them and tells them what the Bible says, no more, no less than what God says in His word. I love it and I pray that God will continue to touch lives here. So today I ask for your prayer for our Pastor, his wife who is sick in the hospital. His name is Pastor Peni Finau so if you can please lift him up and his family. Thank you! I know that God is going to move as His people pray. I pray that you are blessed today as you intercede for others that you may never meet. Thank you so much for your prayers and know that I miss you and can't wait to share what God has done here in The Kingdom of Tong...

I wanted to just share a bit of my heart with you today. God has really been drilling into me that this season for me is to get me to break free from some of the things at home that hold me back from totally doing what He needs me to do. This season is to break the records that play over and over in my head. Things like I have to do something different than what God has placed before me, that I have to be someone I am not just to make others happy. For example, I am more like Mary than Martha. Anyone who knows me for 5 seconds can figure that out, and although there is a season for working and running around, I will always choose to sit at the feet of Jesus over running around like crazy because there is so much more freedom, peace, rest, and the ability to gain wisdom when we sit in His presence. I will tell you that God is getting through to those things that I knew were there before but He just couldn't get to. The voices of others and the voices of my own flesh were just to lou...

I am so blown away at the way that God has changed me and I have only been here for 5 weeks. I am so blessed and excited to see what is coming next. I know that He has so much for me in this short time while I am here and what He wants to teach me before I return home different than when I left. I am glad to say that He isn't done with me yet either. He has taught me already how to hear His voice more clearly and how to trust in Him alone. I know that God has things to show me here that will help me for the rest of my life. Thank you Lord for your favor and your rich blessings Thank you Lord for your love and your grace. Thank you Lord that You choose to use a sinner saved by Grace like me. Thank you Lord that I am here because this is where Your presence for me is. Thank you that YOU have brought me to a place of still waters and rest. Thank you Lord that your mercies are new every morning and that I get to have the privilege of knowing you so magnificently in my life. Thank you f...

I share this with you so that you can understand what God is doing to change me and make me live outside of my feelings and circumstances. The place I live is wonderful, it is full of love, joy, laughter about jokes we have had being altogether, but then when the night comes and everyone goes to sleep, it gets quiet and other things happen. Now coming from a household where roaches are the enemy and my parents and now my brother in law go on roach hunts, I now live in a place where roaches reside. Now please understand that this isn't a complaining post by me, it is something God is changing in me and teaching me through these small creatures. The other night, after a great night of fellowship and the word at our evening service, I believe God had a job for me to do and so reluctantly I learned and hopefully passed the test. I went to bed feeling tired from the day and as I laid down with in 20 minutes I was awaken by a roach in my room, running around and trying to get to me in my...

I know I have been sharing my experiences with you and yet this morning, I feel like I need to share with you what God showed me during my time with Him this morning. Its Luke 5:33-6:5, It talks about the religious leaders asking Jesus about fasting and then the disciples picking wheat on the Sabbath. If you haven't read it, please take the time to read it so you get a sense of what I am talking about. Jesus was talking to the religious leaders about fasting and they couldn't understand how come His disciples didn't fast and pray. Then He spoke of the parable of the old wine skins and the new wine skins. I have read this portion of scripture many times in church and things and yet today I caught something new. Jesus was telling the old religious leaders that they were so set in their ways that the new ideas Jesus taught they wouldn't understand because of their rigid thinking. And then it goes on to talk about the Disciples picking wheat on the Sabbath. And again he sha...

I was honored when I was asked to speak to the youth of Tonga Faith Church (the Church I attend) and to share with them last Friday night. I prayed and God spoke through me about Extraordinary people who all had one thing in common, Obedience. I shared with them about Joseph, Esther, Samuel and Jesus Himself and how they were all obedient to God's calling and the plan He had set before each of them. I was shared that each  of them had a choice and they had an opportunity to be obedient, even if it cost them their lives. And for Jesus I shared that He was obedient even unto death. I shared a little of my testimony and that I chose to be obedient when the Lord called me out of my prison almost 6 years ago now. Like it says in 1 Samuel 15:22-"Obedience is better than sacrifice," and sometimes Obedience IS our sacrifice. That isn't always the case but sometimes it is. We need to recognize that there are moments when we obey the word of the Lord and He honors that AS our s...

'Oholei Beach is a place that I went to last Wednesday night and had a great time. Its dinner and a show. I went with the girls that I go into the schools with and teach the bible to High School, Jr. High, and elementary schools. This place has an amazing presence of God that rests upon it because the Gospel message is preached every time they pray over dinner. It is just such a huge blessing to be in a place that declares biblical principals to people visiting from everywhere. I was so blessed to be there and experience that. The owner is an undercover minister, and preaches like it too. He loves the Lord and honors God with his work. It is pretty amazing place to go to. They have all different kinds of Tongan food there, fish which I didn't eat but then they have the suckling pig, and potatoes and this great dessert. Then we got to watch a show. It was incredible. I have videos and things that I will upload when I get back home because of the internet here but it was pretty i...

Today I am sitting here at the station writing, looking out the door at the beauty God has created and watching the wind swirl around. I am so excited about the season that is coming, not just in the spiritual but in the physical. I get to experience something here in Tonga that I don't get to experience in Southern California. Warm weather and something maybe scary to you, but cyclone season is coming. I am so sure that to you, I sound crazy. CYCLONE Season?!?!? But I love wind and the power it has to make things new in a different way than any rain can ever do. I know that it can be scary and it can do damage to things differently, but at least in my life, there is something that changes in me with the wind. I am watching the trees rustle and the grass wave as the wind blows and I can just see God moving in through wind. I can feel the gentle kiss of breeze on my skin and know that somehow change is coming, whether in me or around me, change is coming. I guess I like the calm fee...

I went to a Fijian church service yesterday and that was such a cool experience for me. I got to see them sing, dance and just share their talents with us. I was blessed to be able to be there and to witness Jesus in other nations too. I am just blown away at the love that these people have not just for each other but for the Lord. I took videos and things from the service yesterday that I will share once I get home but I wanted to share about what God showed me there. I was sitting in the audience enjoying how amazing God is and how He created us all so different and yet similar on so many levels. While listening to the pastor, I turned around and saw some girls that I recognized from the church I have been attending. It was so nice to see familiar faces in the midst of a crowd of people I didn't know. They are the youth of that church who sing and are apart of the worship team, so I got to talk with them and hang out with them after the service when they had the food. It was just...

I got to go to the elementary school on Friday and share with them about Jesus in their bible class. I had about 35 kids in one class and it was just me. I was nervous, I wanted to say the right thing and talk to them about something that was relatable to them, so I shared a little about me and then asked them some questions. I had them lead some songs so that we could dance around a bit and then get serious into the bible. I wanted to make sure I shared the Gospel with them so I did what I knew to do best, fly by the seat of my pants, and share Jesus with them. I asked them questions about what they knew about the bible and then talked about Jesus' life. I had them close their eyes and I walked them through what a barn smelled like, and I described what it could have been like where Jesus was born. I explained to them that this was a gross and unhealthy place for a baby to be born and yet allowed them to connect it. See here in Tonga they have a monarchy. They know what it is like...

I have been reading through the life of Jesus and reading through Luke and the first parts of Matthew. I love comparing what is written and seeing it from so many points of view and to learn about it on different levels. I am in Luke 4 right now where Jesus was being tempted by Satan and where he was when this happened. Man, I feel like I can relate to where Jesus was and how He was feeling. But the interesting part of this chapter my commentary pointed out was that, Jesus had one of the best days thus far in His earthly life, He had just been baptized and the Holy Spirit came upon Him. WOW! That is so cool, and then the Holy Spirit led Him into the Desert. Is that what you read too? He lead Him into the DESERT?!?! Why when Jesus had one of the best days, did the Holy Spirit, apart of God, apart of Jesus, lead Him there? Well the commentary mentioned, which I thought was so cool, was that more often than not, the Holy Spirit leads us into the desert to let us know what we are made of. ...

I am not sure you find this to be true but I do, at times the Lord is moving I see that the weather reflects the spiritual out pouring of the spirit. Yesterday I had been listening to this song by Jesus Culture, it talks about rain and letting it rain. I am so amazed that last night it poured and rained the better part of the evening and the picture above is what is left. It just shows the difference in even just places because last night on the news the Anchor was talking about how Samoa and a couple other islands are in a drought. They can't get water and are in desperate need, yet God literally opened up the floodgates of Heaven last night and poured out rain here. I am not sure why God is doing this there in the Islands but I know it has a purpose. I hope that you and I can pray for those islands. Not having rain in a long time for them is so different because that just doesn't seem to happen in the Islands but I am sure God has His reasons. I pray that the Lord will unleas...

I have to say that the past two weeks here have been hard, sticky, tearful, struggled through and fought for A LOT! I have felt beat up and knocked around more than I can even count. I have needed a major attitude adjustment and I think I have finally come to grips with the fact that this is my life for the next two months. I feel like I need to give you a real sense of life in the Islands. The food is different and maybe not as clean as we are used to, the roads have potholes, it rains a lot, trash gets burned, dogs run wild, and yet it is BEAUTIFUL! I don't say these things in a bad way, but I say them to give you an idea of what the environment is like. I knew it would be hard, spiritual warfare would RAGE, that my soul would be challenged daily but today I feel better for the battle. It wasn't that I was away from home or that I miss everyone, which I do but I know I am here for a purpose so that was the easy part. The part that was hard was allowing my mind to catch up to ...

Last night I went to our discipleship class that is held in a home on another part of the island. We arrived early and as I walked in, the family whose house I was in had something getting set up for me. I felt so honored. I was greeted with fruits, coconut juice strait from the coconut and a beautiful flower necklace. I was so humbled and taken with this amazing display of love and honor they gave to me. I am nothing and no one special without MY JESUS to go before me. I am not someone who wants to think that I am better than I am. I want to always be mindful that I am DUST and if the Lord wasn't please with me, He could take my life in a second. I am not worthy of being in a place of honor, ONLY God is worthy of that and I give Him all the praise for His amazing love. I got to share a bit about me and how I came to this place. I shared how at 6 years old told the Lord if He wanted me to GO I would GO, bags packed and all. I shared about where I came from and that I struggled an...

I am honored to be in a country that honors God, even if they don't realize it. If you take a look at their flag it is red because of the blood of Jesus and white because of the cleansing power of Christ's blood. I just love that. I want to share with you something that I have come to love about this country and it isn't what you think, it is a new sport that I am learning and starting to really love. RUBGY! Its awesome! Its like watching Soccer, Hockey (for the fights) and American Football. I love this game. I am not sure if you have watched Rugby or anything like that but when the Pacific Island teams play, before engaging in the game, they do a traditional war dance native to their country. Such as, New Zealand  who do what they call the "haka" which is used to try and intimidate the other team. I am learning so much about all of these things that I have enjoyed and watched for so long. I learned that New Zealand and even Samoa some of the war dances are invol...

"Don't close your eyes,  Are you who you wanna be? Is it everything you dreamed that it would be,  When the world was younger,  and you had everything to loose." This is your life-Switchfoot Those are some powerful words, when I needed God to shine His truth and light to me, He did through this song. I have been sick with my allergies and congestion pretty much since I walked off the plane, but I want you to know that God has totally used this to humble me and let me rely more completely on Him. I have been really under the weather for a few days and it has been really difficult to cope with that when my family is far away. BUT don't you know that God is faithful to give you exactly what you need at the right time. He gave me a loving kick in the butt and yet let me cry it out. These past few days have made me reflect even more on this song than I ever have before. I love this song and I have listened to it for years. Don't you know that God will reveal som...