I am just returning from six days of mission work with the Christ Church Youth. It was such an incredible time. I do not know who came back more changed - the kids or myself. I feel like these six days were exactly what I have been longing for. Part of coming here, I hoped to be challenged and to be stretched. This mission trip did both of these things...
Andrew and I took three kids on an amazing journey. We started our journey by heading southwest to Exeter to a place called Dartmoor.
It was absolutely beautiful. We were in the middle of no where.
Dartmoor is gorgeous, but you have to be careful and make sure that you do not get blown away! We went on a hike while we were there, I literally felt like I was going to be blown off the hill!
Well, being blown off Dartmoor was not our purpose in going. We met up with another youth group who is forming a youth church. Their vision was quite close to my heart because it all seemed so much like the stories of Newsong in it's beginning stages. There were five kids and five leaders that came, plus an amazing kitchen crew who ended up blessing us far more than just with food! Our youth came down to bless and serve them. We were also there for the purpose of teaching deeper freedom principles. Over the course of the weekend we taught on Teachability, Defensiveness, Entitlements, and Unity and Agreement. It was definitely not a light weekend. The really fun part was getting to teach. I got to teach the teachability section and then Andrew and I team taught on Defensiveness and Entitlements. It was really stretching. I loved it! It definitely made me manifest, but I am so glad I had the opportunity to do this. First of all, I haven't really taught anything since June - how refreshing teaching is! Also, I have never taught anyone over the age of 14. So, here I am teaching people from 16 to adulthood. It was a little scary, but I loved it. I think teaching freedom (Jesus Stuff) is so much more fun than teaching normal material. I also really enjoyed blessing the leaders. It's so fun to encourage people. We also did some prophetic worship with the group! I loved it! I cannot believe we are doing this stuff with the youth! The best part of our time together was when our group of kids prayed over the group we were serving. We got each young person's DNA as a member of establishing the new youth church. Their leaders prayed the DNA over each person. It was so powerful. We then got to pray over the whole group and commission them out into ministry. How powerful to unleash a group of young people on a city. I know that one day we will hear of a youth revival starting in the heart of Exeter. Another great thing about this time was watching the Christ Church kids serve and bless other youth. I was very impressed by everything that they did.
After leaving Dartmoor, we traveled for seven hours (we made a few stops along the way) to Ellesmere Port near Liverpool for the second half of our mission. The first half was really a time to bless and serve a group of hungry young people who were passionate about Jesus. The second half of the trip was about getting the Christ Church Youth out into the world of evangelism. We ended up serving a bus ministry that is part of the Church Army. The bus ministers to disenfranchised youth in the area. The kids from the area come on the bus and get free hot drinks, get to play games and hopefully meet Jesus! After seven hours in the car, the kids went directly into ministry mode. Monday evening we had the opportunity to join the bus team serving a group of young people. Our goal was to serve and bless. We ended up praying for kids and leaders. Many people got to hear what the Lord had to say over them. I was on a prayer team with one of our young people and we had the opportunity to lead one young boy to the Lord. It was really special. It was also cool to watch the Lord bless our faithfulness in stepping out. After praying for one boy, another stepped immediately up for pray. It was great. All the Lord wants is for us to take one small step of obedience and He always meets us. The Lord is good. Our youth kids were totally united that evening and they shinned with the heart of Christ. We all left energized and excited about the evening. It was really exciting. Two evenings later, we joined the bus in a different part of the city. Our second group was a little rougher around the edges, (They reminded me so much of my students at home)still our youth kids rose to the occasion. The kids on the bus did mock a couple of our young people. It was an interesting learning experience for me. I left Andrew on the bus praying for the bus kids, and took our kids outside for some prayer. They were a little shaken up. I got to practice my pastoral skills. Although they were upset, the Lord met us and in the end we could see that the Lord had really used us. It was so amazing. It really challenges me. I want to be doing this kinds of stuff all the time. It's so powerful.
Besides missions stuff, we also got to do some very fun things. We did a lot of driving, which was actually really fun because we all got to know each other better. The youth that we took were totally amazing.
One young boy is a real evangelist. He was born in Argentina and was part of two major revivals in South America. The stories he could tell you would absolutely blow your mind. He has also been totally transformed over the last year. God met him when he was in a dark place and pulled him out! The Lord speaks so clearly through the Word to him. He is also just really cool and I enjoyed getting to know him. Another young man we took is pretty cool, too! I passionately believe that he will be a pastor one day. He is totally passionate about Jesus. He also has been radically changed by the Lord and has an amazing heart to serve and bless people. He also has this really obnoxious munchkin voice, which he blessed us with so many times while on the trip. He's an actor and really talented drummer. He's also just a really nice kid. He introduced me to the game that took up most of our car time. It was the mini cooper/yellow car game. Every time you see a mini-cooper or a yellow car you get to hit someone. It's great. I added the rule that as an American I get to hit you twice. This young man really enjoys making fun of my accent, so it was actually great retribution. He was sitting in the middle of the car and was the most easily accessible person in the car. Poor thing, he did get a little abused. As for the third youth member, she is a super star. She is so sweet, gentle and compassionate (accept when she's playing the Mini-cooper game!) She is beautiful on the inside and outside. She is amazing at making friends and really has a heart of service. She is also extremely prophetic. She hears the Lord very clearly and accurately as both Andrew and I found out when we asked the kids to pray for us! I really enjoyed having her on the trip. It was nice to not be the only girl. We also got to bug the boys with singing musicals like Greece and High School Musical! It was great fun! We were a great team.
Besides ministry, I was totally blessed by the fact that I got to see some pretty cool parts of England. Dartmoor, like I said before, was beautiful. I really liked it. Now I know what a moor looks like! We also traveled into North Wales on our day off. We ate Lunch at a restaurant called "Tiffany's". We saw some really cool Welsh signs - man they look funny!
We walked around the outside of a castle
and took a train to the base of Mt. Snowdon. We even got to see the summit - I guess that's a really rare thing.
I teased everyone because although Mt. Snowdon is the tallest mountain in Wales, it is only like a fourth the size of Mt. Rainer. (Shhhh....It's really just a foothill - but don't tell them that) The Welsh coast was beautiful. We also got to go into Liverpool - there was lots of Beatles's stuff everywhere. We say the Mersey River and Liverpool Cathedral. Everything we did was so fun.
This is a trip that I won't soon forgot. It was a really special time. I think it did a lot in my heart. I learned so much about who I am and what I love to do. I know that I am a teacher, but I really do love to teach about Jesus. I know that I have the skills to lead a time and also to help guide young people. I feel like the Lord continues to show me the power of my words and how much I love to bless and encourage people. I feel like every day I begin to hear the Lord's voice more and more clearly. I am so excited by all that he is teaching me! He blows my mind every day.
It brought back so many fun memories of all of our conferences in Tacoma. There were many late nights praying for amazing pastors from all over England, plus some pastors from Germany as well as a group of wonderful pastors from Kenya! I think it would be so fun to visit the Kenyan pastors!! It's just such joy to pray for people and watch them change as they encounter the presence of the Holy Spirit! Jesus is so good. I love how he speaks so clearly to people's hearts. Encountering the love of the Lord for another person is so powerful. I feel like I got to have some amazing power encounters with the Lord during the conference. It's amazing how you really love people just after praying for them. Also, the leaders from the Exeter portion of the youth mission were also at the conference. It was fun to see them again, but also sad to have to say good-bye knowing I will for sure probably not see them again. I think one of the cool things about this week was seeing how Jesus Ministry is being birthed across the nation of England! Christ Church carries a very special banner of Christ and I know that the Lord is going to use this church to spark revival across the nation of England! Praise the Lord!
We saw it in the evening so that meant there were very few people there. It was perfect. I must admit, everyone is right, she is very small! 
The Cathedral is so breathtaking. The best part was there were a few "renegade worshipers" in Notre Dame. These people just started singing. It was beautiful because of the acoustics of the Cathedral. It was also a little funny because you could tell that the people maintaining the cathedral were not too happy about this spontaneous worship occurring. They were searching the cathedral to find the people. The cathedral was very pretty. Still it felt so empty. We prayed for the spirit of the Lord to fall deeper upon that place. We did a lot of walking and almost missed our train. We were not informed that our ticket had been changed. So, we arrived early, but were actually almost late. Praise the Lord we decided to make sure we were "early". We literally had to run onto the train. I also almost didn't get back into England...Ooops, I didn't have all my paperwork. I thought I had this lovely stamp in my passport meaning I could come back in. Unfortunately, that's not what actually happened. A blessing was that the customs officer was very gracious and technically I could now stay in England for an extra two months...not that I will. I guess it's how people extend their visits to England. Again, praise the Lord for this very gracious man...I think it would have been much worse if we hadn't been about to miss our train. Still, the Lord is good and I sit in my home in London. Praise Jesus. Being back in London, I know that I prefer London to Paris. I think it's prettier and it also feel so much safer! I am currently staying with another family in London because of building work happening at my normal place of residence. I am quite enjoying the couple that I am staying with. They are lovely and their home is very peaceful. It's a blessing to get to stay here for a short visit. Well, that's it for now. I will post more as new adventures come up.
