Wildlife Wednesday

Every Wednesday, I will bring you a photo of a creature in Hawaii.

A Gecko hiding on the side of a table in the Natural Farm. Kona, Hawaii. 

Vote!

Like a good citizen, I applied for a mail vote weeks ago. Tomorrow I will stick a stamp and cross my fingers that it will get to Ottawa on time. 

Out of 23.6 million electors in the last election, only 5.2 million voted for Harper's Conservatives. That's 22% of eligible voters, and 16.2% of the total population. There are 5.65 million Canadians aged 18-29. In the past, this age group has voted so little that politicians don't bother with them. If all of Canada's youth voted, they would rock the whole political system!

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday Sunrise Service at Old Airport Rd. in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. April 24, 2011.

Praise the Lord! He is risen! We have freedom because of Him!

Praise God for Korean Food!

This past Wednesday, the Natural Farming work duty team was treated to a homemade Korean supper! What a treat! Now I know what real Korean food tastes like. 


Before the supper we were granted the pleasure of hearing Dr. Park speak. He is one out of two people in North America who is certified in Natural Farming. Dr. Park spoke to us about the importance of Indigenous Microorganisms in the soil for good farming. There is one organic farmer on our team and even he says that Natural Farming is revolutionary! It's funny how the old way of farming (before chemicals and machines) is new again. I will post more about Natural Farming soon. There is just so much good stuff to share! 

FACING GOD FRIDAY

“Face God instead of Facebook” – Hannah Jung, northside roommate

My first weekly Facing God Friday post is already late. But I will try to post every Friday about some things I’ve been learning in the Discipleship Training School lectures.

Listening to God was the first topic of study in our weekly lectures. To be honest, the thought of hearing God’s voice freaks me out. I know, I’m a Christian; I’m supposed to want to hear God. But the idea of actually hearing an audible voice from God is intimidating. If I’d ever have such a privilege, I don’t know what I’ll do. Most likely I’ll run in fear, but where are you supposed to run when God is everywhere?

The speaker, Christian Fox, gradually dispelled my fears. He emphasized that God simply just wants to spend time together. Hanging out and chilling – that doesn’t seem so scary.

God speaks to us in many different ways. With Moses he used a burning bush, with Joshua He sent a wrestling angel, and with Joseph He used dreams. Similar to how I relate and communicate to each of my friends differently, God relates and communicates to each of us differently. Also, God will speak to each individual in different ways at different times.

Christian listed 10 ways that God can speak to us:

• Bible – The Word of God  2 Timothy 3:16, Romans 15:4
• Our Heart and Mind    John 10:27
• Vision (Visions and dreams are not the same. Visions occur when you are wide awake and not tired).  Daniel 7, Acts 7
• Dreams Matthew 1:18-24
• Through other people
• Creation
• Pictures (with a picture you need to ask God to help you figure out what the picture means)
• Feelings (God designed our emotions)
• Sensations in the body (For one man, through feeling sensations in his own body, God spoke to him of illnesses amongst a group of people. With this experience the man was able to heal)
•  Audible Voice 1 Samuel 3

To apply what we learned in lecture, Christian guided us through a few exercises. The first one involved asking God what He thought of me. So that’s what I did. I put on my Spiritual Spam Blocker: I asked God to help silence my thoughts and desires and the opinons of others. I used the authority that Christ has given to silence the voice of the enemy. Laying underneath a palm tree, I closed my eyes.  I asked, “God, what do you think of me?” I waited, hoping to get a word. I didn’t hear anything. I opened my eyes and saw this:

Is this what God thinks of me?

The song Always floated into my head.

Did You rise the sun for me?


Or paint a million stars that I might


Know Your majesty?


Is Your voice upon the wind?


Is everything I've known marked


With my maker's fingerprints?

Looking back in my life, I remember that God often moves me through His creation. When I am outside seeing the beauty of nature, smelling the fresh air, and feeling the enormity and diversity of the natural world – that is when I feel God’s love, humor, genius, and power.  

Another exercise involved getting in groups of six. In our groups we prayed for one individual for 30 sec. God often speaks through other people, so each person acted as a vessel of God’s voice and asked, “God, what do you want to say to this person?” I’ve never done anything like this before, but since I was in DTS, I gave it a try. After all, faith is the key to hear God. So I reminded myself that God wants to speak to me. For some people I would receive a word, for others I would hear nothing at all. Other people in my group saw images and movement. As we went around the circle it was amazing how connected our thoughts from God were. For one girl it was a confirmation of a vision she had a while ago. When it was time for others to pray and speak to me, a girl said she saw “Big eyes looking in awe”. Hmmm. Twenty minutes ago, my eyes were wide open in awe of God’s creation. Coincidence? Or was it God speaking?

Throughout the week I heard more and more accounts of how God was speaking to the people in the PhotogenX class. It was tangible confirmation that God still speaks to His people today.

As I write this underneath the shade of a Banyan tree, looking at the blue skies and palm trees, I think, “Sometimes when you listen to God, He brings you to His best.”


Hearing God's voice Podcast: Part 1 and Part 2

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More Notes on Listening to God:

- Listening to God means having a personal relationship with Him. 

- Guidelines that will help you hear the Lord

o   Accept Christ

o   Have faith, believe that God will speak to you

o   Have pure motives (God opposes the proud and gives to the humble)

o   Be willing to wait (Waiting does not mean sitting back and sleeping. It means waiting on the edge of your seat, ready for action)

o   Be willing to obey

Levels of Relationship

- Level 1: Know them through observation. You’ve seen them before.

- Level 2: Have knowledge or information about that person. You know their name, where they are from, etc.

- Level 3:Become familiar/acquainted with that person

- Level 4: Developed Relationship through spending time 

- Level 5: Able to distinguish one person from another, like how a mother can hear her child’s cry amongst a group of kids in a park.

- You must be awake to hear God’s voice. If you’re tired, then you are spiritually not ready.

- Prophecy is meant to build up and encourage.

- Be careful what you share because you might be wrong. Listening to God is a journey and you are not right all the time.

- When you receive or give prophecy ask yourself 4 things:

o   Does what someone says to me / Does the thing I’m going to share fit with the character of God?

o   Does it glorify Jesus? Does it bring you closer to God?

o   Do you have a sense of peace at what is said?

o   Do your friends and family or other believers feel peace about what is said?

- Hearing God’s voice means following an incredible ride.  Take a look at Martin Luther King or Mother Theresa – what amazing lives! The more people I meet here in YWAM, the more I add to the list: Susi Childers, pioneer of the PhotogenX DTS. Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM.

During the week we were asked to read the book "Is that really you, God?" by Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM (Youth with a Mission). Sixty years ago, God gave Loren a vision of waves of young people moving out across the continents announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the whole earth. What an amazing life! Life is not boring when you listen to God.

- A meaningful life that is faithful to God is what I want! A daily discipline of listening to God is what I will practice, even Jesus sought out God’s guidance before doing anything. And when God speaks, I must remain faithful to Him, without any negotiations.

"Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often hidden event of God's active presence in their lives. Hence, the question is...not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence."
-  Morton  Kelsey, from The Other Side of Silence: A Guide to Christian Meditation

Where in the world should I go?

It's the moment I've been waiting for! Just 15 minutes ago, the leaders released our outreach locations. We have six choices:

1) China
2) Cambodia
3) Japan & Thailand
4) Philippines
5) Mozambiuqe
6) South Africa

They have given us 45 minutes to pray and pick two or three choices. If you were in the same position, which journey would you choose?

Aloha

Sunset view from campus. 

In less than a week I have traded -40ºC for +25ºC, switched my snow boots for Birkenstocks, and have postponed my search for polar bear sightings for sea turtles and whales. Goodbye to the Arctic! I’m now in Hawaii for Discipleship Training School (DTS) with YWAM.

For the next six months I’ll be looking for adventure, taking a lot of photographs for proof of this adventure and living in a communal Christian community. I’ll give you one warning about this blog: There’s going to be a lot of God talk. I also have a confession to make: I’m in Hawaii for more than photography and social justice. I’m here to get back to a more intentional walk with the Lord. For the past five years I’ve been spiritually distracted. I have let life get too busy. It’s time to refocus and spend time with the Lord.

So you have been warned. There might be some strange and crazy things that I’m going to share on this blog. I guess one would expect nothing less from an adventure (and from God).  

I welcome all questions, comments, and prayers! You can learn more about what I’m getting into at the PhotogenX DTS 2011 information page or at the class' website.


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