Imagination-Overload

"I will also make You a light to the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth." -Isaiah 49:6

I'm dreaming today about Asia.. Thailand, South China.. Guilin, Nanning, Beihai, Bangkok.

The challenge of changing and revolutionizing a Buddhist country for God can only come about through servants and believers who are willing to lay aside their own understandings and zones of comfort in order to embrace the harvest and all it entails. Holding both of these ideas at the same time will only bring conflict and an apathetic or lukewarm lifestyle. Choosing the harvest however will ultimately lead us to a Kingdom that is so bountifully and vastly overflowing with the goodness of God that we could never miss what we thought we’d be obtaining through the pursuit of our own comforts and safeties in the first place. Our partnership with Him in the journey is the reason we live. God is calling you to be His fellow comrade, to co-labor with Him all around the world.

You see, God is the creator of everything.. His kingdom on earth is crying out for creativity. Creative minds, creative ways of doing marketplace ministry on every level.. small-scale, large-scale, local and international. One of my amazing friends Kristin is leaving in a few days to study abroad for business in Cyprus, Greece, India, China.. she is a marketing ambassador for America but above all, for Jesus. It's remarkable to me when I think of how many people she will touch with the sweet love of Christ, how many doors she will be able to walk through, that no one else could attain, simply because she was willing to work hard and take a chance on something that's bigger than herself. God's blessing, favor, grace and kiss is attracted to our willingness to step out on a limb with Him.

We must also be creating things with our prayers.. that's faith!

Get creative and use the Bible for your inspiration. I looove the Bible! The Word of God has no limits. It can be taken anywhere freely without bonds of religion and handcuffs of pagan worship. It is powerful. It saves. It restores people from their paths to eternity in hell and sends them on their way to heaven. The Word speaks everywhere. You can’t get away from it. It only takes one brief moment to divide the soul and the spirit, to call our humanity into divine freedom in a supernatural world.

Even when in the borders of communism and illegalities, the Word prevails. The Gospel can lead one homeless person to salvation in Bangkok while at the exact same moment bring 100 people to Jesus at your home church in America. The Word is international, bilingual, generational, irresistible and intense!!

God promises in Psalms that He will "beautify the afflicted ones with salvation!" Pray today for the people of Asia. Pray that they will hear and understand. Pray that they will be filled with Holy Spirit. Pray that they will have personal encounters with the King of the universe.. encounters that leave them ruined for anything else.. convinced, passionate and desperate for the Kingdom of God. Pray for the homeless, the rich, the business men, people in authority.. and then ask. Ask God to give you personal imagination-overload! Ask Him for creative ways to sneak into intellectual and fogged minds with the Gospel. Wow God! Thank you for what you're doing and planning in Asia!

Photos from some of my trips to China and Thailand..

Dinosaurs and a Shower!

My big sister, niece Eliya Rae, Nephews Isaiah Wesley and Silas Jack came into town to say goodbye to me this weekend(since I move to Africa in FOUR weeks)! I'm in love! (The 4th.. Levi Danger.. is on the way!! And yes it's true, he will be able to say "Danger is my middle name" haha!)

Isaiah, Silas and Eliya!

I've been spending my days playing "dinosaur", tag, wrestling, soccer, frisbee, making marshmallows under the stars and hearing Silas' little voice say "I wuv you aunt Gabby"... and somehow I still seem to have popcorn showing up in the strangest of places from our quest to the movie theatre last night.. O how I will miss them so!

We also had the wedding shower this weekend. I'm such a blessed girl.. my family is the most incredible on the earth and my gorgeous friends truly have hearts of gold. Everything felt so surreal, like a movie. We gathered at Julia's Bed and Breakfast.. cried, laughed and celebrated love and life together!

Thanks mama for always making things so special.. and thank you Aunt Illa.. wow, you're a gem! I want to mirror all I see in you guys! The shower was filled with family, covenant friends, mentors.. women of God that I love! Thank you for your unconditional love, your spirits that stir me, your hugs and your priceless gifts..

At Gorgeous Julias!

My Aunt Illa and cousin Danielle.. dancing :)

My besties and Dual-Maids of Honor.. Lauren and Joelle!

Love you ladies.. thank you for making life so FUN!

Wedding Season

This wedding season has ushered me into a time of preparation that I never quite understood until I began to experience it for myself. There's nothing like it in life. God's been speaking to me specifically about His wedding.. His feast.. His bride. Is she ready to walk down the aisle? Is she spotless? Pure? Worthy to stand before her Groom? The anxiousness one feels in the natural when they are getting married is the same anxiousness we should carry in our spirits when it comes to making ourselves.. the body of Christ.. ready for the return of our Groom.

Each of us have been placed under specific responsibilities for this wedding season.. whether it be leading a children's service in America, baptizing lady-boys in Khon Kaen, discipling Bible students in the Middle East, praying for the sick, loving the lonely, preaching to the lost... each of these things represent one more stamp placed on the invitations for our Wedding with Christ, one more pearl beaded into her jewelry, one more whisper of confidence in her ear as she takes that step toward her love, one more stitch added to the hem of her gown. Don't take these preparations lightly. It's the season of making the bride, the body of Christ across the nations, ready for our Love, our Savior and Husband.

One of my favorite scriptures says that "He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation".. Preaching the Gospel, signs and miracles, repentance, turning from darkness to light... THAT is what makes the Bride ready.

"I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exalt in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels... For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning. The nations will see your righteousness and all kings your glory; and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate. You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. It will no longer be said to you "forsaken" not to your land will it any longer be said ,"desolate", but you will be called, "My delight is in her" and your land "Married", for the Lord delights in you, and to Him your land will be married... as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you." - Isaiah 61-62

This scripture speaking of the Bride of Christ, is brought full-circle in Revelation 21 as a description of what the new heaven will be like when this season that we're in now is completed...

"'Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper"... (the flawless descriptions of this heaven go on and on)...

..."and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it, and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life." Hallelujah!

Be stirred deep in your spirits not to slack in this time of preparations. It's a time of consistency, of looking at each and every detail while still keeping our eyes on the goal-- the aisle that's being laid before the throne that we will walk down, into the arms of our Love forever. Our Groom's longing for us..

Break from life..

"But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly Kingdom; to Him be glory forever and ever..." 2 Timothy 4:17-18

Mmm.. isn't that a great scripture to wake up to?? That's how my weekend began..

Truly, nothing in the world matters apart from being strengthened by and standing with Jesus and then proclaiming Him to the world. He's everything and I'm in love :)

It's been a productive week to say the least.. at this time in 5 weeks I'll be married to the most amazing man on the universe and in Africa, so you can imagine there's not much explaining to be said when it comes to the need for productivity.

I had the incredible honor of speaking at our young adults service - Fusion - on Tuesday night about Mission SOS and the work that's taking place specifically in Harar.. Thanks Pastor Nate and Lisa! You're the best!!! My heart thrives off seeing Holy Spirit spark something in people's spirits.. something that shouts "Go! Live a life of adventure among the unreached!".. and then cascades through their eyes, piercing the very atmosphere. Preaching Jesus to people who have no clue is the greatest thing there is... it's the pursuit of all humanity.. either we're giving that message or waiting for someone to come give it to us. Mmm.. I could just run out of my skin!

Linda and Mohammed with disciples.. Adventurers and missionaries on Africa's Horn!

Yesterday afternoon ended up being a splendid time to break away from my schedule, appointments, errands, and lists upon lists of "To Do's"... with my Lauren. It started with fika, dinner at our favorite vegan restaurant called "Flaming Icecube", a spontaneous drive out to the country to jump in a lake in hopes of refreshment from this sizzling summer sun, another fika, and a random photo shoot, barefoot and laying in the grass in the center of the city's night lights. I was sick from laughing at the end of the evening... hahaha! No seriously, we almost drowned! Thank you my Lauren for making me break away from "life" and live a little :) I loooove our dates together!

Artesian and Norwegian.. Sheetz?? Who knew!?

Crazy Good God!

Ephesians 2 (Message Bible)

"It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

I love when Pastor Thomas says, "Jesus did not come to make bad people good... He came to make dead people live!" And what a life we're living!!!

I spent my weekend in Pittsburgh with the Elvelyck's and my Lauren at Peter and Martina's house! (Longing for you guys to be back in the states!) I had the honor of watching the most precious kids, eating a delicious breakfast made by Stephanie and then even let Daniel and Lauren win a card game... you can't win when you're a guest right??? haha..

Lauren and Daniel.. yea yea yea.. woho...

Me and Denzel :)

The "flirt" faces :)

Photos from a gorgeous day at my favorite park!

Amazing friends

But Ruth said "Don't force me to leave you; don't make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I'll live. Your people are my people, your God is my God; where you die, I'll die, and that's where I'll be buried, so help me God.. not even death itself is going to come between us!"

Wow, what an example of covenant friendship. I've been reading Ruth this week and Romans.. looove the Word of God!

Yesterday my heroes Daniel, Stephanie, Novali and Denzel came to Youngstown!! I love my SOS family.. what incredible pioneers and adventurists they all are. The relationships we find in life that are deep and focused on the heart of Jesus are like nothing else.. they stir your insides because you're both Holy-Spirit-lovers and chasing after the Kingdom on earth.. that's how I'm feeling now. Ready to run!

Min Hus

Novali!

Daniel and Denzel

Beautiful Stephanie

Min van Lucas!

Going to Pittsburgh tonight to hang out with Novali and Denzel again. What an honor! Can't wait to practice my swedish :)