TO KANSAS 4 Ihop but not for the Pancakes....

There are times in life when God blesses me, so completely overabundantly i can hardly handle it. Obviously any blessing is a ...well, a blessing. (My high school English teacher would be so ashamed of me right there) BUT my point is that sometimes God just almost overdoses are hearts with His POWER and Blessing. He did this with Abraham, when he asked him to leave everything. God then promises to make Abe into great nation. God then blesses anyone who also blesses Abraham and Abraham's family as well. THATS INTENSE.
I genuinely felt like God called me to leave everything and then sent me to Kansas. It may not have been leaving my nation as Abraham, but if you've ever driven to Kansas you realize how far of a drive it is! HAHAHA, anyhoo- the presence of God was so richly intense on our trip. When you pack 7 crazy kids in 2 cars, for a week long trip of Jesus, you gain this impact like none other. To be honest if I took the time to type out all our adventures and moments it would take FOREVER, and no one would ever take time to read it- so i am merely going to give some bullet points and highlights!

bLeSsInGs:

* Originally i was concerned for unity. If you have ever seen the breakfast club- our group had about that dynamic, give er take the drugs and bad hair styles. :) hahaha but for real, God blew our minds. He took the 7 of us and created this mini family within each other. I was blown away by the different gifts and hearts of each member. The boys are men seeking Christ as hard as they possibly can. They have servant hearts and humble personalities. The girls, who i already consider to be two of my best friends, are extreme sisters in Christ. The spirit of us all together is a hysterical one, but Jesus is a God of laughter and I think He genuinely got a kick out of it as well.

* The neat thing about IHOP is it is the most relaxed yet intense place i have ever been. There is a Holy Dwelling of the Lord there and it is evident that you can never get away unchanged. The ability to sit in the prayer room, surrounded by other believers who are completely sold out for Jesus, studying the Word for HOURS is amazing. The atmosphere is so great though with band praising God and prayer being voiced the entire time. Not to mention when Misty Edwards starts singing it is genuinely as if her voice knows the very presence of God. I had been asking God for a week of Bible Reading. That I have found is just incredibly hard to come by, since as many of you know i tend to be WAY to busy. but He accomplished that when sending me there. I could just sit and read and read and read. It was growing, nourishing, and wonderful.
Then there is also something called the awakening service. Coming from a very Baptist'ish background it was completely overwhelming for me. I watched people fall out in the spirit and prophesy over one another as if it were second nature. Aside from the overwhelmingness over it all i watched as people have backs healed, left feet healed, sores vanish- and SO much of Jesus just showing up in miraculous ways. It is Biblical for people start crying out for God to answer them- and He is blessing Kansas for doing so.
During one of the awakening services i was just a little to overwhelmed so i went to the very far side of the room to try to get away from everyone and draw. During this time a little boy ran up and sat with me, complementing on how well my art was looking. Soon his two brothers, four little asian kids, and a few others ran up. Within this time my friend Kathryn had sat down with me and i looked over to her astonished and wondering where all these children even came from. It was as if they were poppin outta the ground like daisies = absolutely ridiculous! We started dancing and just playing with them. The hearts of kids are so honest and it never fails to amaze me why Jesus wanted them to come to Him. They didnt ask God to prove things, they merely believed Jesus for who He truly was/is. Kathryn and I just sort of assume to gain child like faith is by hanging out and acting like kids WITH KIDS, so we put it into practice. While playing, Kathryn asked one of the original boys to pray over her head because she had been getting headaches that were not going away. The boy then prayed "Jesus, please heal Kathryns head." Oddly enough afterwards she asked him how he knew her name and all he said was, "I dont know your name?" hahahaha. Amazing how much Christ loves kids, and how much He truly talks to them. They listen and hear clearly when taught to. I pray one day my children will gain a download of Jesus love and power as well!

*We made friends from Virginia tech. A cup we never flicked flew across almost a ways-hitting one of them. Since that point we became united hahaha. It was really neat because i kept ending up sitting by this one guy every time we were all in the prayer room. I figured it was important so I would sit praying for him every time I saw him. I dont know that I have ever prayed over someone ive never truly met so much. Turns out he was one of the virginia tech kids.Later He ended up being one of the kids praying over me for our school. Further along in the week God had told me to get a smoothy. I really didn't want one, but after arguing for a while I just went ahead and got one. This lead me to an amazing conversation with one of the Virginia tech gals. Its so cool how God dynamically appoints us to be a church body widespread, cross our own country, as well as others. It's always amazing when people from different parts gather from everywhere merely to be touched by God and receive divine prayer. "The Body has many members" is not an exaggeration, it does, and i am almost always blessed by them. As Amanda would say, "its simply brilliant"

* Some quick fun things that happened:
-Scaring the fellas (please asked/call me so i can relay this...its just more fun to tell a little more in person)
-tree climbing
-eating at ihop at 2 in the morning...the pancakes not the prayer place hahaha
-sitting in the guys room just getting to know eachother and laughing. Man laughter IS medicine and SO good for the soul.
-telling stories in the car
-playing the random question game
-going for that random walk we all went on- then buying that silly icey
-meeting Douge...or whatever his name was from Cali (ben...his name was ben)
-dancing like crazies
-singing for hours
-watching eric do disturbing things to tyler
-praying together
-FELLOWSHIP

....i guess to sum it up, Phil Wickham does it wonderfully :

"WHEN WE ARRIVE AT ETERNITIES SHORE, WHERE DEATH IS JUST A MEMORY AND TEARS ARE NO MOREEEEE. WE'LL ENTER IN AS THE WEDDNG BELLS RiNG. HIS BRIDE WILL COME TOGETHER AND SING YOUR BEAUTIFUL!"



faith and prayers...from my heart to all of yours. <3