IHOP – Day 7

Alas, it is our last day here at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.  This morning I had a really lovely and enjoyable time in the Global Prayer Room, journaling about some things that God was touching my heart with from a book I started reading, “Entirety” by Dana Candler.  In the very first chapter, Dana mentions a time when her husband Matt said, “You know…we can be wholehearted before God right now.”  This totally struck me, because I, like Dana, have probably perceived wholeheartedness as being a distant, unattainable dream that is out of reach for my weak heart.  It never really occurred to me that any random, unlikely moment contains the potential and opportunity for me to seek to love the Lord with my whole heart, mind, soul and strength!  I just feel like there is a paradigm shift that the Lord wants to do in my mind and the way I approach this, which will probably require tearing down some mental strongholds and planting some seeds of truth on this topic – I’m looking forward to getting more revelation from Him on this!

During the following intercession set, I chose to spend some time standing on the “LIFE lines”, which are basically lines of red tape on the carpet where anyone can stand and pray for the ending of abortion and life for the unborn.  I spent about 20 minutes there and it was really good to just spend some concentrated time praying for this issue, both for Canada and America.  This is an issue that is becoming increasingly important in our continent as pro-choice leaders make their way into positions of government in America in the near future and for Canada where the issue is simply ignored by politicians and something they seem to try to keep hidden in the closet because they’re afraid to address it.  It is so crucial for me to really have this as an ongoing part of my prayer life and I think it would be great to have a place where people can stand and pray for LIFE in our own house of prayer in Winnipeg!

After this, I decided to make a short visit to the Justice Prayer Room, which Joe had visited on Wednesday and told me a little bit about.  After going myself, I totally agree with him that it reminded me very much of our own house of prayer!  It’s smaller, has less resources, and there were very few people sitting in the chairs – it totally felt like home – lol!  So even though the surroundings were rougher and the sound was less polished, it was really encouraging to be there and I really enjoyed observing the team working through hiccups and experimenting with their instruments and singing a little off key here and there – there is hope for us yet! 

I’m now back at the hotel and all our stuff is packed up and ready to go.  Joe is at the prayer room and Justice is napping.  The plan is to the go to the other IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for supper and if Justice has a nice, long nap right now, we’ll hopefully catch most of the Encounter God Service tonight before heading out on our 14-hour long drive back home through the night!  If you think of us, pray that we’ll have a good, safe trip back home!  And although I’m looking forward to being back in our house, I can’t say I’m looking forward to the ice and snow I’ve heard has arrived in Winnipeg. 

IHOP – Day 6

Today was a fairly uneventful day.  Joe went to the prayer room in the morning and I went in the afternoon, after which we brought Justice to the house where our friend Christina is staying while she does the Commission internship.  She generously agreed to babysit Justice so that Joe and I could have a date tonight!  We didn’t have much of a plan, so we just found a small park and went for a walk and then sat under a nice tree and talked for awhile before going out to Cinzetti’s – a fabulous Italian buffet – for supper.  I ate WAY TOO MUCH food, but we had a really nice time, continuing to talk about some of the things God has been speaking to us.  Sadly, the crepes stand was closed, so I didn’t get to partake of that particular chocolatey & fruity goodness, but overall it was a delightful evening.  When we got back to pick up Justice, it sounded like they had a pretty good evening with him until after they gave him a bath, at which point he is used to getting his nightsnack, so he got a little cranky.    But Christina did a great job babysitting & all was well once again as soon as he was back in mommy’s arms – haha.  We only have one day left here at IHOP and we’ll be driving back during the night tomorrow.  We’ll be sad to go, but also happy to be back in our home.  Justice is becoming less and less fond of his bathroom nursery, so I think he’ll be happy to be home too.    I am also looking forward to seeing how some of the things God has done and spoken to us will take shape in the season ahead!

IHOP – Day 5

This morning, Joe was kind enough to get up with Justice and feed him before heading off to the prayer room, which gave me some extra time to rest my eyes in bed, even though I obviously couldn’t actually sleep.    Justice and I hung out and then I got my chance in the prayer room in the afternoon.  Today I decided to sign up for the healing rooms and I had to wait quite a while to get in, but it was definitely worth it!  Through an amazing married couple, probably in their 40′s, the Lord ministered to my heart and some really awesome ways.  I was led through a time of confession and repentance for sins, communion, worship, renouncing curses and lies and demonic strongholds, and receiving prayers of healing and blessing.  It was SOOOO good for me!  Several tissues later, I felt like the Lord accomplished some beautiful victories in my heart and I really am trying to take a hold of the lady’s word for me that “today was my day”!  I am choosing to believe that I am now healed, regardless of the symptoms I feel in my body, and I am resolving not to give in to fear and self-pity any longer!  Another amazing thing is that the lady shared with me two scriptures that the Lord had pointed out to me several weeks ago in regard to my health problems, which was just a great confirmation for me & also some encouragement to continue to meditate on those passages and declare them over my life.  They were…

10  My bones suffer mortal agony
       as my foes taunt me,
       saying to me all day long,
       “Where is your God?”

11  Why are you downcast, O my soul?
       Why so disturbed within me?
       Put your hope in God,
       for I will yet praise him,
       my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:10-11

 1 Praise the LORD, O my soul;
       all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,
       and forget not all his benefits-

 3 who forgives all your sins
       and heals all your diseases,

 4 who redeems your life from the pit
       and crowns you with love and compassion,

 5 who satisfies your desires with good things
       so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:1-5

After that, I sat in the prayer room some more and just read Psalm 103 until it was time to line up to register for our appointment in the prophecy rooms.  At this time, Joe came with Justice, and all three of us got to go together to receive some prophetic ministry.  God spoke some really interesting, encouraging, and also challenging things to us which will require some more prayer and asking the Lord for discernment on how He would like us to respond, but it was really good!  We then drove around again and picked a random Mexican restaurant called On the Border.  It turned out to be very good & I would definitely recommend it!  I am now back at the hotel, Justice is sleeping, and Joe’s at the prayer room.  Life is good.  Vacations are good.  God is good.

IHOP – Day 4

This morning, Justice didn’t want to sleep either, and Joe ended up with him sleeping on his chest for a while!  I got showered and ready for the day while Joe fed Justice breakfast, but then Joe got a migraine headache, so I hung around for a bit longer to help out until my coffee date with Christina!  I met up with her at Higher Grounds and we had a great talk about what things God is working on in our hearts and things about the prayer movement and our house of prayer in Winnipeg – good stuff!  It will be good to have Christina back home with us in just a few weeks!  After that I went back to the hotel to pick up Justice so that we could go to the Malachi Prayer Meeting (MPM), a prayer meeting for parents and their kids, led by kids!  It was so awesome to see the worship team of young people leading the room in worship and intercession and all the kids who repeatedly got in line to pray on the microphone for issues like abortion/adoption, healing/signs & wonders, and the Onething conference – I even got prayer for healing from the kids!  Since I’ve never really been a part of children’s ministries, I think it’s important for me to get a vision of where our children can go in God and what we want to teach them about intimacy with Jesus, the Word and prayer and intercession.  I think I have an idea of what I desire for my children to be able to enter into in their relationship with God, but I don’t yet know how we’ll get there.  We are definitely on a huge learning curve and need the wisdom and guidance of the Lord in how to raise our kids to be in love with Jesus and partnering with Him in advancing His kingdom!

After the MPM, I took Justice back to Higher Grounds where I bumped into Joel again and fed Justice his lunch.  Then Justice and I went to catch a little portion of the Worship with the Word set in the Global Prayer Room (GPR) where they were singing about the Song of Songs and how His name is like perfume poured out – love it!  At this time, Joe was in the prayer room as well, so we said a quick hello and brought him some tissues for his tears (gotta love it when you get a good cry in God’s presence), and then headed back to the hotel to give Justice a bath and a nap.  After his nap, we went to pick up Joe from the GPR and headed over to John & Tracie Loux‘s house where their son Nick did a photo shoot with us, which he is doing as a fundraiser for their adoption of a little boy named Aiden from the Ukraine!  (Feel free to visit Tracie’s website for more details if you would like to donate to their adoption)  We sadly had sort of yucky weather with a misty rain in the air, but we made the most of it and we were totally impressed with Nick’s photography skills and his ability to give us direction and come up with creative ideas!  I couldn’t help but laugh though when Nick was taking some pictures of just me & we came upon a bridge with a metal pole railing and he instructed me to “interact with the pole” – lol.  We also got to meet the rest of John & Tracie’s children – Taylor, Isabelle and Elia.  Elia is 2 years old and it was quite amusing watching her play and interact with Justice.  She is really sweet, but definitely more assertive than what Justice is used to, especially since he doesn’t have many opportunities to play with other children.  It didn’t look like he quite knew what to make of her, but I think he still had a fun time!    It was also great to have the brief opportunity to chat with Tracie, whom I had only previously known from reading her blog and talking to her on Twitter.  It’s always great connecting with new people who are of like mind and heart and seeing what you can learn from them.

After our photoshoot, we headed back to the hotel where we fed Justice his supper and gave him pureed chicken for the first time!  Ha!  He continuously gagged and coughed until I mixed it up a bit with some squash – I don’t think it was the taste so much as the texture that he had a rough time adapting to.    While I was feeding Justice, Joe perused the Streets & Trips software that we borrowed from my parents, which also shows you where restaurants are.  We decided to drive to one area where we saw several that looked interesting and then ended up going to Old Chicago, which turned out to be a specialty pizza type joint.  Kristi, you’ll be happy to know that they had the sweet Raspberry Iced Tea, which I tried – I liked it, but found it was actually a little too sweet for me.  Joe and I both got Calzones – kinda like a huge pizza pop, except way better!  Then, since it was our first time at this restaurant, they have us a free ginormous, soft & gooey, warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream – yum!

After supper, Joe and Justice stayed back at the hotel and it was my turn to go to the GPR!  Luke Wood’s team was leading the intercession set, which was packed, since it was Tuesday and an all-staff prayer meeting.  The theme was Israel, so I just entered into agreeing and joining in with the intercession for this nation.  Towards the end of the meeting, Wes Martin told anyone who was sick to stand up if they wanted prayer, so I did so and several young ladies came to pray for me, which was awesome!  More than just praying for me to be healed, a couple of them gave me prophetic words, which really encouraged and ministered to my heart.  I then stayed for an hour of the Worship with the Word set being led by Jaye Thomas, but I was beginning to crash, so I headed back to the hotel for some sweet sleep after a very full day!

IHOP – Day 3

Well, today started out a little rough, since Justice decided he wanted to wake up for the day at 6:00am, but we’re learning to roll with it & he just spent some time in bed with us until we were ready to get up too.  After breakfast, Joe headed to the prayer room while I spent most of the morning blogging and reading and playing with Justice.  I had leftover Applebee’s for lunch and then Joe & I switched roles again as I got my slot of time in the prayer room for the afternoon.  I had a really good time prayer journaling during a sweet Worship with the Word set led by Grace’s team, but after awhile I started doing the headbob from not quite enough sleep, so I went to Higher Grounds to get a latte and I bumped into Joel, who had just recently arrived with Jordan and Jehu from SHOP in Winnipeg, so Joel joined me for coffee outside in the freezing cold, since there was no room in the coffee shop.  I was quite happy when I bumped into Candace Nashman and also got to say hi to Matt Gilman, both who had been in Winnipeg for the Onething conference last year and Matt had stayed at our house with Tim Reimherr and Marcus Meier.  It was good to see them both!  After I finished my coffee, I headed back into the prayer room for some more God-time in another Worship with the Word being led by Jon Thurlow’s team and then at 4pm it was time to head back to the hotel.  Since Justice didn’t nap very well in the morning or the afternoon, we gave him a third nap at 4:30 and I decided to take a nap as well!  We then joined up with Joel, Jehu & Jordan at Chipotle for supper (6 J’s all at one table!) and then made a quick trip to the WalMart SuperCenter (a first for me – sick, it’s huge!).  Joe then went to the prayer room for the evening & I just finally got Justice to go to sleep at almost 9:00pm (he usually goes to bed at 7:30pm), as he kept crying every time I tried to leave him.    So, I will probably read a bit and then go to bed, because tomorrow’s a full day! 

IHOP – Day 2

Well, Justice slept great during our first night at the hotel, in his new nursery (AKA the bathroom) and after all having breakfast and showers we all had a nap!  lol.  I love vacations!  It was such a nice relaxing morning and then when Justice woke up, we quickly got ready to head over to Forerunner Christian Fellowship (FCF) for the 10:30 am service.  We were pretty stoked when we got a parking spot right at the doors because we have a baby with us – woohoo!  Every now and then there’s some nice benefits to being parents.    Then we sat in the bleachers at the back of the sanctuary and Matt Gilman led a rockin’ time of praise and worship that had the whole place clapping, shouting and dancing – it was a lot of fun!  Both Joe and I really enjoyed it, since we sometimes miss the big, loud & boisterous corporate worship services that we were used to in the Pentecostal church we used to attend.  I can hardly remember the last time I danced, so it was fun to do that again – although I think I’m paying for it now, since I think it caused my muscle strain/pull/tear (not really sure what it is) in my leg to flare up.  Oh well, at least I had fun!  I think Justice was enjoying it too, since this was definitely a new experience for him.  He was totally enthralled by all the noise and activity and was flapping his arms around happily and excitedly during the worship! 

Rick Joyner was there to preach and he spoke on revival, which was really good.  Something that I found sort of funny was that during the message, a young woman sitting in front of us with her husband, turned and was smiling at Justice who was playing with some toys & then she pulled out this really nice camera and motioned to us to see if it was okay if she took a picture.  I nodded & smiled and then she snapped a couple shots of our adorable baby – he’s just that cute that random strangers want to take his picture!!    At the end of the service I wanted to maybe chat with her, but then I noticed her take earphones out & realized that she was having the sermon translated for her, so who knows where she was from or what language she speaks – just another unique thing about the IHOP community!  During the message, I had to step out with Justice to feed him some lunch, and I passed Kelsey Bohlender with one of the twins – wish I could’ve stopped to say “hi” and maybe hold Anna or Mercy, whichever one she was, but it was neither the time nor the place – too bad!  I got to listen to the rest of the message on a T.V. in the Student Lounge and one of the ushers and a random young lady helped me with Justice, which was so nice – I love the body of Christ! 

After the service, we accidentally stumbled upon a restaurant that had been recommended to us – Sonic – which is a modern drive-in restaurant.  It looked very cool, with all the little drive-in stations where each stall had a full menu board and equipment for you to pay for your meal & where you could sit in your car and have your meal brought to you.  But, since Justice was getting grumpy and it was soon time for his nap, we just went through the drive-through.  The food was still good though & now we can say we went there.    Justice and I then headed back to the hotel while Joe went to the prayer room.  I spent some time on the computer and reading a book while Justice napped and then fed him and played with him when he woke up.  When Joe came back, he shared with me some great stuff that God was touching his heart with on David’s vow from Psalm 132 on finding a dwelling place for the Lord.

We then decided to go out and have some family fun time, so we found a little park off of Red Bridge Road that had a play structure and we played on it with Justice.  He had his first experience going down a slide, which he seemed to mostly like, but everything was a little beyond his playing capabilities – I think Joe was having more fun playing with everything! After that we took Justice in the stroller and did some serious off-roading along some bike paths that went up and down steep hills with big tree roots jutting out everywhere – ha!  I was a little nervous, but if you know Joe, you know that he loves adventure, so I didn’t have much say in it!   By this time, it was quite dark & I was using a flashlight to light up the path for us & it was getting a little chilly, so we decided to leave.  Well, just as we were packing up, a police car pulls up behind us & is shining it’s spotlight on our van!  We don’t know what’s going on or what to do, so Joe gets out of the van to find out if there’s a problem – WRONG MOVE!  lol.  The police officer was NOT impressed that Joe started to approach his vehicle and he gave Joe a bit of a rough time, questioning him about why we were at this park, when apparently it was closed and it was dark & where were we from & please sir, take your hands out of your pockets where I can see them!  He took Joe’s driver’s license and we had to sit and wait for several minutes before he came back to the van & he was much more pleasant then & told us that since he didn’t have his red & blue lights flashing, that we could’ve just driven away, but we didn’t know that!  Anyways, it definitely added to the adventure of our little family fun outing!

     

We then wandered around, looking for somewhere to go for supper – it’s a little difficult when we don’t know the city at all or where to go to find restaurants, but we found an Applebee’s and had a nice meal before heading back to the hotel.  After feeding Justice, it was then my turn to go to the prayer room and Joe stayed behind with Justice, who went to bed.  At the prayer room, it was an intercession set being led by Luke Wood’s team and I chose to spend the time reading my Studies in Joel notes, which was really good, because it was all about the importance of our intercession in impacting how things go for us in the end-times.  It just stirred some things up in my heart again on the topic of intercession, which was awesome.  I then stayed for an hour of the next set, which was a Worship with the Word set with Ashley Prior’s team, and just spent some time journaling before heading back to the hotel around 11:00pm.  It’s been a little strange getting these alone times with the Lord, when I’m so used to always having Joe and/or Justice around, but it’s been really enjoyable and I want to take advantage of these opportunities to be in His presence without any distractions (even though Joe & Justice are both wonderful distractions) and just focus completely on Him.

IHOP – Day 1

So, we left for Kansas City, Missouri and the International House of Prayer around 6:00pm on Friday night.  We almost immediately had to detour because of an accident or something on the perimeter highway in Winnipeg, but thankfully it didn’t delay us too much.  We got through at the border with no problems, praise Jesus, even though we hadn’t thought to bring a birth certificate along for Justice (note for next time!).  At the border, we changed & fed Justice and were back on the road by 7:30pm.  It didn’t take long at all for Justice to fall asleep and he pretty much slept for the entire trip, only waking up whenever we stopped to fill up gas or take pee breaks.    He was an absolutely perfect little travel companion and we couldn’t have asked for him to do better. 

We had some blowing snow and ice, but it wasn’t bad at all and the roads were pretty good for most of the trip.  I only drove 3 hours out of the 14 that it took us to arrive, and I was slapping myself trying to stay awake – ha – but at least I contributed what I could.  We had drive-through Little Caesar’s pizza and crazy bread for supper around 9:00pm on Friday and the rest of the time we snacked on candy from Joel, Spitz, and cookies.  We took a few wrong turns when we arrived in Kansas City, so I was super thankful for the GPS tracking device and software that my dad lent us – it definitely came in handy!  We’re staying at an extended-stay hotel, which is sort of more like an apartment building, but the price was right and our room has a little kitchen, so it’s perfect for us.  What’s even better is that the bathroom is quite roomy, so we can fit Justice’s playpen in there for his naps & hopefully for the night, which means that Joe & I can still use the rest of the room for ourselves without having to worry about waking him up. 

 

When we arrived, we had to wait a couple hours before we could check-in, so we had breakfast at Higher Grounds, the IHOP coffee shop and then caught the 2nd hour of Justin Rizzo’s team doing a Worship with the Word set on Song of Songs 5:9-16!  It was really good!  After that we got settled in at our hotel and we all had a good nap!  After a quick lunch at the hotel, I went to the prayer room again for a couple hours while Joe stayed back to take care of Justice.  Misty was doing a devotional set, so that was really great to enjoy, except when all the bad food I had consumed during the drive caught up with me & I spent a good portion of time on the toilet – lol.  Oh well!  After that, we went to Panera for supper and then I dropped Joe off at the Encounter God Service and Justice and I headed back to the hotel.  I’ll soon be putting Justice down for the night and then I’ll have some quiet time by myself and probably go to bed early.  All in all, the trip down was a success and we’ve had a great first day of our family vacation! 

Happy 8 Months Justice!

Well, the last couple months have seen a lot of changes and milestones for our little guy!  To try and keep this from turning into a novel, I’ll keep it to point form.

1.  He started eating solid food and loves it!!!  So far he has tried rice cereal (so-so), oatmeal cereal (loves), sweet potato (loves), pears (loves), peas (not so much), carrots (so-so), banana (loves), apples (loves), squash (loves), peaches (loves), pumpkin (so-so), and green beans (not so much).    I’ve also tried doing most of these by pureeing them myself, which has actually been lots of fun!

2.  He discovered how to get his toes to his mouth!

3.  He has started doing “push-ups” – he’s working out his muscles to get ready for crawling!  He also does “sit-ups” – constantly trying to lift his head up when lying on his back!

4.  Grandma Engbrecht came to visit!

5.  First time in a swing!

6.  For a while, his favorite word was “mamamamama” – sadly, he doesn’t say it anymore – I should’ve taken a video of it while I had the chance!  But he loves “talking”, especially to his hands and his soother!

7.  He loves going for walks with us in the Cuddly Wrap.

8.  He goes to sleep on his own without being rocked!!  WOOHOO!!  And he sleeps through the night, only occasionally needing his soother back.  YAY!!  He has also started to sleep unswaddled more often, seeing as he gets out of it fairly easily now & he has also started to prefer sleeping on his stomach.

9.  He has become a rolling, moving machine!  He can make tracks pretty quickly and cover some distance just by rolling around and spinning on his stomach and doing his attempts at crawling, which is mostly him doing his “push-ups”, which usually causes him to move backwards.   He is slowly learning to also lift his tummy off the floor, but hasn’t quite figured out how to get his legs up under him.

10.  He has learned to hit things with a flat hand/open palm and he LOVES it!  He is constantly hitting his high-chair table, the floor, his toys, us, himself, and also his favorite – the drum.

11.  He had his first haircut!  Just a little trim around the ears. 

12.  He’s really getting good at playing with his toys.  He keeps getting better at grabbing, moving, picking up, reaching, pulling, banging, and winging them around!  He likes to play with them with vigor and passion – haha!  He has a particular fascination with strings.

13.  First time playing in the leaves!

14.  He laughs a lot more now then he used to and much more easily!  He’s getting more ticklish and it is so much fun to make him laugh!  We love it so much though, that we have to be careful we don’t overdo it, because it inevitably leads to hiccups if we take it too far – lol.

15.  He continues to amaze and awe us with his drooling and spitting abilities.  However, something has finally come of all this, as his top teeth are making an appearance!  It currently looks like possibly 3 teeth are coming in on the top!

16.  He can sit on his own!  This has added a whole new dimension to playing & has also made life easier at times, since sitting him on the floor means he stays in one place, whereas putting him on his back or stomach means he’s bound to travel and get into things. 

 

17.  He caught his first cold.    This is a milestone I wished we could’ve avoided, but I suppose it was inevitable.  He’s had a runny and stuffed up nose for several days now and he’s not a very happy camper.  I never realized what a happy child I had until he got sick and I discovered what he’s like when he’s grumpy!  He definitely hates the nasal aspirator (schnot sucker) but has actually started to become more used to it & doesn’t scream bloody murder quite as much – lol.  Hopefully he gets better soon!

I am a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain

A meditation on Song of Songs 4:12, 15

“You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain…You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.”

Jesus, my Beloved, my Bridegroom – I want to be a spring enclosed and a sealed fountain^a that is kept pure and undefiled for you.  I desire to be a vessel for the living water that comes from your throne^b, a jar of clay that contains the treasure^c of the presence of your Holy Spirit within me^d.  As I drink deeply of the water that you offer me, would that same spring of living water well up in me to eternal life^e.  As your bride and as your wife, I long to be one whom you can come to and drink deeply of the fountain of my heart and that it would satisfy you and give you joy^f.  I desire that the well of my heart would be deep^g and rich and abundant, bringing you great pleasure and delight when you taste its water. 

Would you help me to, above all else, guard my heart, since it is a wellspring of life^h.  Help me to keep my heart pure and untainted by the mud and pollution of the worldⁱ.  Jesus, I desire for the wellspring of my heart to flow with righteousness and holiness, uncontaminated by sin or compromise.  May my fountain be yours alone, never to be shared with other lovers seeking to take a drink and steal what belongs to you^j.  Would you place a seal upon my heart and a lock that only you can open – a sign that I am yours and that you are jealous for me with blazing love^k.  Would you also seal any cracks or points of weakness that hinder me from being able to keep your presence in my life^l – make me like a spring whose waters never fail^m, a woman who is in constant communion with your Spirit and continuously being filled with your lifeⁿ.

Jesus, would you give me understanding^o and wisdom^p, would the words of my mouth drip with purity and righteousness^q, and may I have the fear of the Lord so that I could be a fountain of life^r.  Help me to see my heart as the rare treasure that it is, as a sweet, refreshing spring for my Beloved, so that I would guard it rightly and keep it pure for you.

a Song of Songs 4:12
b Revelation 22:1
c 2 Corinthians 4:7
d John 7:38-39
e John 4:13-14
f Proverbs 5:18-19
g Proverbs 18:4
h Proverbs 4:23
i Proverbs 25:26
j Proverbs 5:15-18
k Song of Songs 8:6
l Jeremiah 2:13
m Isaiah 58:11
n John 10:10
o Proverbs 16:22
p Proverbs 13:14
q Proverbs 10:11; James 3:9-12
r Proverbs 14:27

Compassion International – Dominican Republic Trip

This year, Compassion International decided to take six bloggers to the Dominican Republic to let them see and experience Compassion’s ministry firsthand and then blog about it.  I seriously wish I could’ve gone – I think it would’ve been an amazing and impacting trip, especially since we have a sponsored child, Yasmel, who lives there.  However, I will have to live vicariously through these bloggers as they share about what they see and how their lives are changed as a result.   

I remember when I went to Mexico on my first missions trip and how my heart was wrecked by the sweet children I met in one poverty-stricken neighborhood whose name literally meant “Little Hell”.  I still remember this one beautiful little girl whose name was Aranza, who I held in my arms for as much time as she would let me & how I sang over her about how God loves her, even though she couldn’t understand a word I said.  My prayer is that these bloggers and everyone who hears about their trip in the Dominican Republic will also get wrecked with a heart of true compassion and love for the needy children of the earth.  My prayer is that many children will get sponsored as a result of this outreach and that many lives will be changed for the better! 

If you’re interested in reading the stories from these bloggers, check out Compassion’s “Our Trips” page.  Also, if you’d like to sponsor a child, please visit Compassion’s “Sponsor a Child” page.