Our time here...

It is already midterm here in Kona for this last quarter of the year. Time has flown by very quickly and we are amazed as we look on the calender as Thanksgiving is only three weeks away. Ezekiel has flourished here in this tropical weather, growing an inch each month and putting on the pounds even faster. We have seen God do some great and mighty things among us here on campus. Week after week, we have seen God challenge us as a campus as well as the entire body of believers, to live a life of purity and righteousness before him. We are so excited about being apart of this base, just this last week, there has been great things happening. To mention a few, there was a team who went out into the community to prayer for some locals and one of them ended up requesting to come back here to our coffee shop on campus with a friend of his to learn more about God, and that night they both gave the hearts to God. Its awesome to see that we aren't just sending people out to other places to do this work but we are being apart of reaching out to this community here in Kona. Another amazing testimony is that Monday morning during a prayer time for one of the classes, they were praying for an older gentleman who was so hard of hearing he had to wear hearing aids, and during that prayer time, God completely restored his hearing after 18 years of being hard of hearing! We do serve a God that heals us!!! So these are just some of the stories we are apart of by serving and working here and you are apart of them too as our friends and supports. So thank you and rejoice in the work of the Lord.

Confessions of the Soul

Recently, I read in a book that there is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction. This statement hit my heart with a sledgehammer, see I have always prided myself in the idea that I am not an addictive person. Yes, I have my habits but I do not become addicted. But when I read this statement, God convicted me so strong, it became tangible. I felt it surround my heart and mind, suddenly realizing that I am an addict; I am addicted to myself. Philippians 2:3,4 has become my prayer, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." I have found the grace of God and have been encouraged to change. Daily I work to lose a part of this selfish addiction. I lay down my rights to myself, and everytime I want to complain or have a selfish thought, I stop and thank God for something I have. I have found that cultivating a heart of gratefulness in all that I have, looses the grip of selfishness in my heart. Everyday, I let go of spending time the way I want to spend it and instead let God chose the best use of my time. Here is another thing God has told me, in order to truly love others, you have to be willing to sacrifce your time. In America, we have a saying that time is money, which is true, it is the strongest currency we have, so my challenge to myself is where have I have been spending that currency. For Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, "Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be." Time is a treasure so where am I spending that treasure, on things that matter, which for me I have come to know that all that matters are people. This is my confession and I hope that it challenges and encourages you today.