Can you feel the thunder?

     Sitting here on my porch absolutely blown away by the creativity and beauty of God. From my spot here, I look out and see palm trees and a bright variety of flowers. I hear birds singing their songs and an occasional distant rumble of thunder. It is currently stormy today. I love it when it storms! The rain pours down and the trees bend in the wind. The flowers, which you would think would wilt, instead welcome the rain and seem to stand stronger throughout the downpour.
     The flowers have figure out and embraced what I am still trying to grasp. That when the rain comes... it is a time to rejoice! Rejoice because God is God and He is good! Rejoice because He turns these rains into nourishment and I grow stronger because of them. Rejoice because the thunder means His presence and He will not leave my side.
     I find the notion that so many believers my age have; that when they are older they will have a better relationship with God, just plain silly. And when they are older they will start reading their bibles and really get to know God. All of my peers who say this, have not allowed themselves to fully experience Gods love. Because once you experience that... the things of this world will no longer satisfy you. And anyone who finds satisfaction in this world is merely kidding themselves.
    The idea that "one day" I will cling to God brings me back to the rain just outside the protection of my porch. The rains are here, as is the thunder, the time to cling is now. I guess my question is... can you feel the thunder? Not just hear it, but can you FEEL it? The trees are swaying and the birds are still singing... what are we doing?
     Lets Rejoice!

Sweet Surrender

     This past weeks lectures have been on Lordship: knowing the fear of God. What a week it has been! TO finish off the week, we spent 15 hours in a time of worship. At first I was afraid it was going to be a grueling 15 hours, but quite the opposite! I dont know why I would ever think that... I can easily spend that time with Becky - so how much more so would I want to spend that time with my best friend Jesus?
      We started by praise and then moved into a time of the most interesting worship I had ever been blessed to experience. Going into that night, I had no idea I would be tap dancing in a blue dress to worship my God. But what a great way to get to dance before my Father as His beautiful princess! After that, it was a time of surrender. Surrendering the things we held onto and laying them at the foot of the cross. We brought in items to represent those things that we wanted to surrender and literally laid them at the foot of the cross and spoke out for everyone to hear of what we were laying down. I laid down my family; releasing any responsibility that I felt for them and their well being and picked up faith that God loves them way more than I ever could and is taking care of them. I also laid down my passport. I have always told God to send me anywhere and I will go, but I needed to lay that down and if He calls me to stay and be a missionary in America - I will do it. I laid down the beautiful oragamy bouquet that my boyfriend made me for my birthday. Our relationship is something I lay down every day, but I wanted to do a physical act of that and in front of people. In laying down our relationship; I laid him down, my right to be married, and my future. The next thing was one of the hardest. My bear, Jeffrey, that my best friend had gotten me represented the relationships I hold so dear to my heart. It also represented my comfort. God asked me to not only lay this down, but to give it away to a girl who had let go of so much that night. I am a little embarrassed to admit just how hard it was to do that and sleeping without him will take some time getting used too. The last thing I surrendered was my control. My control of my dreams, identity, and everything else I tried to control. So I cut off my hair with a pair of kid scissors... Even as I was doing this I was trying to control how much I was cutting off. But the Holy Spirit kind of took over at that moment and I lost complete control of the scissors. My hair is currently very short and VERY uneven.At the time of doing this, I did not realize everything I was doing. I felt stripped bare and completely vulnerable to everyone around me and especially God. This was a mutual feelings among my fellow students and staff, but I had to wear mine. A constant reminder of the sweet surrender that opened me up in front of God and everyone. I have become a master at not showing people whats really going on underneath - in turn; I have consistently tried to do the same with God. Walking around with my little stump pony tail reminds me of the nightmares you would used to have of being in the school cafeteria naked. I hoped that after I did it, total peace and freedom would come over me.... but it is going to be a bit more of a process than that. So much came off with those 6 inches of hair... not only my control, what my idea of beauty way, my individuality (since everyone says I look like my big sister who has short hair and I wanted to be different), all the times I had set my goal before Gods, and my striving. But I know that my God is faithful and He will use this constant reminder to teach me what it means to be open and vulnerable in front of Him.
     So Daddy, it is all yours - every bit of it! I want you to have it all; every step I take, every breath I take, every relationship I make. If You arent the center or purpose of it - I dont want it. I am completely yours Father! Speak for Your servant is listening. SPEAK for Your servant is willing. SPEAK for Your servant is ready! Daddy, all I want is You. You are my hope, You are my smile, You are my desire. I will lay it all on the alter, every day, before You because You are all that I need. In your faithful name Jesus, Amen!

Go Pass It On Tour

Hello everyone!!! I apologize for the lack of blog posts the last few weeks. I was away on the Go Pass-It-On Tour. What is that you might ask? Oh, well let me tell you!!! The tour is actually a 3 year commitment from YWAM to bring the Word of God BACK to the Western world. It originated from my base here in Brisbane, when the churches of Australia and my base director wanted a change. We are physically running 16,000km across the Western world from east to west. This physical act of intercession is showing that God is taking back the land as His own.

                We go to small, rural towns and set up a huge tent! We start in Australia, then move to Western Europe, then to Canada and the United States. Throughout the week we do service projects, prayer walks, have nightly events in the tent with various speakers, and a completely free after school program for elementary school kids. We spend a week in each town and true to form; God always has something new for us in each town. Our purpose on this tour is not to start our own thing then leave, but to come alongside the pastors and churches that have devoted their lives to that town. We meet with them at the beginning of the week; hearing what God has placed on their hearts for the town and praying with them.

                Another aspect of the tour is the running. We run from town to town carrying a gold baton (bat-ton as they pronounce it here) to signify “passing on the wisdom of God to the next generation. We run anywhere from 4-8km. Each school does a different three week leg of the tour; so there are always news groups and fresh ideas to keep this tour passionate, intentional, and alive! For me, even the fact that God has healed me enough to be able to run was a fantastic testimony to His power and love!

                I had been anticipating this tour before I even knew it existed. Before going to YWAM, God gave me a reoccurring dream of a huge white tent in the center of a small town. The tent was overflowing with people! These people weren’t there for the free cookies or tea, or even the live music coming from within the tent; they were there because they couldn’t resist the Holy Spirit! The tent would move on, but what God had done inside it stayed within their hearts.

                The tour was everything I loved to do! It was challenging; we were constantly going/doing, meeting new people every day – getting a glimpse of their lives, tons of childrens ministries, tough work-projects that pushed us to the point of having no other choice but to rely on Gods strength to keep going, and so much more! Every day we saw or heard of how God was moving in our own hearts and especially the town. It was one giant YAY GOD moment!

                My biggest YAY GOD moment happened on our Friday night youth night in the second town we were in, Boonah. The topic that night was “identity” and we were challenged to go to the people next to us and pray for them. I approached three young girls and a random boy that ended up tagging along. The first part of the conversation was about what we saw in the mirror and our insecurities with that. As I was spouting about telling myself I am beautiful, the Holy Spirit floored my heart with the realization that I was talking to them just assuming that they knew Christ. God being a God of second chances, gave me the boldness to ask them if they had ever given their lives to Christ. I will never forget the look of uncertainty that was shared between them until one of them spoke up and said “we have no idea what that means”. At that moment, I realized what God was going to do in our conversation that night. We went to the back of the tent and just started talking about it. I was blown away by the fact that they had never been to church or knew anything of God and yet, were brimming with questions! We talked about who Jesus was and what He did on the cross, I explained heaven and hell, encouraged them that they can are were hearing Gods voice, how to hear his voice/ how to talk to Him, and what it meant when they did ask Him into their hearts.

                That night we prayed and ALL 4 OF THEM ACCEPTED JESUS INTO THEIR HEARTS! After that, God continued to move outrageously! Two girls to my left were sobbing and not understanding their tears of joy. The little one next to me was laughing uncontrollably (as was I) out of excitement for what God did, and the boy guy in the middle was looking around trying to figure out what the heck happened! It didn’t stop there… they started getting revelation after revelation of a different characteristic of God! One girl turned to me and asked me if I realized that God just doesn’t forgive us once, but every day! The other asked me who Matthew was before I even opened their new bibles to teach them how to use it. She said that God had told her “Matthew is important”. WOW! YAY GOD!!!! I still get giddy talking about it J I wonder how much more then angels are still celebrating!

                I also had my 20^th birthday while I was away on the tour. My birthday went as such;

Waking up – Me: “good morning God!!!”

God: “Good Paige, Happy Birthday! Hey, what’s that by your arm?”

I love how humorous our God can be; especially when He reminds me that all His creation is beautiful as I frantically try and remove the giant beetle from my sleeping bag at 4am. Hahahaha it still cracks me up!

                The rest of the day was spent surrounded by extraordinarily loving people and Gods gifts! I asked God for 2 things for my birthday; the opportunity to work with children and a new challenge! That afternoon was spent in an elementary running around playing “hunter” with a group of 4^th grade boys. And that night I was asked to be one of the main speakers in our youth night and to lead the alter call. Ask and you shall receive! Our God is so good J

                  As God promised in my dream, what He did in the tent has and will definitely live on in my heart. I jump for joy in the fact that it will in hundreds of others as well! To anyone reading this, please pray for the tour; the people running it, the towns we are going into, and the beautiful children of God that are receiving the message.