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From January 5 -18th, I (Seth) and the rest of the Alaso staff had the amazing privilege to visit the nation of South Korea! It was such a cool opportunity to experience a new culture and watch God move in the lives of some really awesome kids! The reason that we travelled halfway across the world was to run a discipleship style camp for a group of 100 Koreans from ages 9 – 18. The difference in this camp was that we were not only doing normal discipleship teachings but we were also teaching English! This was a new experience for us and another way for us to watch God work in the hearts of these amazing kids. We also each got to lead a small group! So it wasn’t just about them getting an English education but also interacting with us and talking about all kinds of different topics. My small group especially liked to talk about American culture and movies and to tease me about the fact that I couldn’t handle spicy food like they can! It was a lot of fun, but also really good to talk about the things that God was speaking to their hearts. 
The last night we were there everyone posed for pictures and said goodbye.  Korean food is so, so good! This is duck soup with all the extras! I think my favorite part of the whole camp was when we would have Korean worship bands lead us into the presence of God before the night teachings. We danced and jumped around like crazy (You should see Wes dance! ). Many of the kids in the camp were not Christians so the idea of worship was foreign to them. But when the bands began to play worship songs in their language, they would jump around and go crazy with everyone else! They got to experience the presence of God!! What could be better than that? The other thing that really sticks out in my mind is the ministry times that we had after the teachings! It blew my mind to see the way that these kids responded to the spirit of God! Over 30 of the 100 kids got saved over the course of the 2 weeks!! Go God!! One personal story was that there was a girl in my small group who got really sick just a few days into the camp. She had to go home early and we prayed and prayed that God would heal her so that she could return. The first day of the second week came, and do you know what happened?? God had totally healed her! She was able to finish the camp with us, but the story gets even better. On the last night I went up to Wes to see how he was doing he told me that he was able to sit with this girl at dinner that night. He had felt led to talk to her about giving her heart to Jesus, and she said that she wanted that very much! She received salvation that night!! So, not only did Jesus heal her physical body, but He healed her spirit as well! Isn’t God good?! Please pray for the kids that we got to hang out with! They are such an amazing group and they have God’s destiny written on their hearts. Pray that each one will find God in their everyday lives and put what they learned into practice! 
This is all the students and staff who worked with the camp! |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 February 2012 20:13 |
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“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, and who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
It says “we know” but do we really know this, do we believe it? This is one of the most well-known scriptures, yet there are so many things in this world that makes it seem untrue. A lot of the time we take hold of the first part of the verse, repeat it over and over to ourselves, put it on a sticky note on our mirrors, but leave the second part hidden away in our Bibles. “(Those) who love him, and who have been called according to his purpose.” Let’s take hold of this part too. If we get this down then we can gain a solid foundation in the chaos of the world around us. If we are pursuing God’s call and not living outside of His will, even in the worst of situations that war against us, God will work all things together for good. It most likely will not ever be in the way our human minds picture it, but He will nonetheless. “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”(Hebrews 6:10) These are promises that the Lord has given us. It’s something we can trust in. Do you think the Creator of the world would not keep His promises?
Here enters the aspect of faith. Yes, faith sometimes can be a hard one to grasp. Romans 4:16a says, “…it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring…” Grace meaning favor or good will. God longs to bestow His good will over his children (us), but we must have faith. What is faith really? Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Assurance is a promise or pledge; a guaranty or surety. We can rest in surety of God’s promises. This doesn’t mean faith will magically appear once we read and believe this. We must walk in pursuing faith. Conviction, in this context, is being brought to the awareness of truth and lies. It’s basically sums up the phrase “shining light on the subject.” This applies even in the areas we cannot see. If our God is the creator of everything, then we can trust that the word of God is true even when it tells us about things our human eyes and minds cannot imagine or grasp an understanding on. We have to remember God sees the whole picture whereas we only see a small portion of it.
Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith is it impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11 is all about faith, faith that all the Bible characters had through their real life chaos. It’s in God’s character to be faithful and He will never go against His character which means we can have an assurance that He will continue to be consistently faithful just as He has from the beginning of time. |
 On 11/11/11, I (Kathryn) went up to The Call in Detroit, Michigan along with the Alaso staff. This event consisted of 24 hours of intercession and praying our guts out to God. Our time there was stretching because we did not eat or sleep at the event. Still the rewards were sweet as God showed up and released His power and blessing in Detroit. Being part of an event like this is almost indescribable. When I was at this event, pouring my heart out to God with thousands of other people praying, not only in Detroit, but all around the world at different prayer meetings, I could sense God changing things! As we lifted Him up, He pushed back the powers of darkness over the city of Detroit. For as the scripture says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the ruler of the darkness of this world”(Eph. 6:12 KJV). The authority of the enemy of our lives took quite a hit as we prayed for forgiveness and repented for sins throughout the 24-hour period! Now let me tell you a few snippets of things that happened.   Do you know the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael in the Bible? (Read Genesis 16-21) God said that He would bless both Isaac and Ishmael to be great nations. Today we call Ishmael’s descendants Arabs, and Isaac’s descendants Jews. If you watch the news, you know that there is great rivalry between the two nations, where many wars have been fought. Well, at The Call, there was one moment where a messianic Jew (descendant of Isaac) and a former Muslim extremest (a descendant of Ishmael) came onto the stage and asked for forgiveness from one another for their sins and for fighting. The significance of this being that God is restoring relationships between nations for His glory! God is all about relationships and He is in the business of reconciliation and has been since the beginning of time. This story just shows how He is always working to do so and how He will continue to work in each and every single one of our lives! My friends and I sat back watching this, weeping for joy with God as healing took place in people’s hearts. Along the same lines, we were also able to similarly address other issues that severely affect Detroit, such as racism and abortion. We experienced major breakthrough spiritually in the city, and in our own hearts as well! God really stirred my heart when we prayed for revival in America. Revival being a time of reawakened faith in a large population. This word has been humming around America lately; Christians are praying for this and for another wave of missions to be released in our nation. Now I have heard about revival and even bought a book to read about it. I had said with my mouth, “Oh yes, that would be nice if that happened,” and had agreed with the speaker, “Yes, it shall happen!” But in my heart I felt there was NO WAY that would happen! I looked at the unpromising state of America and saw nothing but economic crisis, corrupt politics and media. I just knew that there was no way that God could revive America. No way José. But in Detroit, God spoke to my heart. In His still small voice, He asked me, “Do you really believe I can do anything?”…. I knew what He was getting at, so in my stubborn heart, I said to Him, ‘But God, look at us! There is no way we’re turning back to You as a country now!” I didn’t hear anything from Him, but immediately I thought of the story of Jonah and the city of Ninevah in the Bible. The people of Ninevah were scalping their enemies and doing what seemed like the most detestable things. God spoke again to me and said, “I set a standard when I sent Jonah to Ninevah to call them to repentance. Ninevah did repent. America is not too far gone.” Immediately the conviction of the Holy Spirit came upon me and I repented. Once again, God spoke and said, “I can do anything, continue to believe and you will see your nation turn around.” I choose to stand upon the promise God made to me, for all of us. God is doing amazing things in the United States, and He will have His plans and purposes accomplished. So let us thank Him for what He has done and let us continue to lift up Detroit and this nation to Him. For His will to be done and for His kingdom to come! Praise the Lord! |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 08 December 2011 15:31 |
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 Kingswood youth group from Amarillo, TX arrived at YWAM Tyler for their SST Mini the day after the Servant's Heart youth group. Jake and Brittany stepped into the leadership position and thought the group was amazing. During that week Kingswood served alongside Servant's Heart, adding a team of 24 students and leaders to the Servant's Heart group of 22. Together, they participated in work projects throughout the week.
For the first two days they went into the city of Tyler to work with the organization PATH (People Attempting To Help - find it on the web at http://www.tylerpath.org/). While with PATH they gutted a house and prepped it for remodeling. In just two days, Kingswood, who brought an assortment of tools including hammers, drills, and a table saw, had the whole house ready for renovation. They did everything from taking down ceiling fans to putting up dry wall, scraping mold from the "popcorn" ceiling, and fixing up the yard! It was such a blessing to see this generation rise up to help the community of Tyler through physical labor, and not complain about it. After Kingswood tore down and renovated the PATH house, they spent the third full day of their SST Mini working on the YWAM Tyler base. Using their trailer full of tools, the students and staff worked on a house here on campus and helped move dirt along the newly paved section of campus road. The best part of working with the Kingswood group was seeing their positive attitudes; it was evident that they are Jesus-loving people.  
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 June 2010 16:41 |
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On the final morning of the Oklahoma-based youth group's stay at the base we spent time debriefing, asking the students to share a favorite day or moment from the past few days. Many of them talked about the East Texas Rescue Mission and how getting to talk to the men there opened their eyes to the needs in that community. We asked each student to fill out a short evaluation and to write a story from the week on the back of the paper. Stephen, a 16-year-old, wrote this: "This week was amazing. We got to go to the Rescue Mission and help cook for the homeless people. The teachings affected me a lot and I got closer to my friends, the staff, and my youth leaders. During this week I felt like I was away from the world, had peace, and that everything I was doing was for God. Doing so much for God and being in His presence all the time was awesome."
In previous posts I focused on the service projects that the students did during the day, but I've waited until now to really disclose what we did in the evenings. We gathered in a classroom for teachings every night, touching on Lordship, Quiet Times, Relationships, and the Family Heart of God. The students were impressed with how easily they could relate to the speakers and had a clear desire to hear what they had to share. After they were given the Quiet Times teaching, which gives direction on how to have a relationship with God, we had the students spend half an hour reading their Bibles in the mornings. They were amazed at how God clearly spoke to them as they prayed, and when He directed them to a verse in the Bible. Elizabeth, who is 14, talks some about Quiet Times here: "When we had Quiet Times, God and I seriously connected all over again. It honestly touched my heart. I have to say the hardest part about the SST Mini is actually putting into practice what I've learned. Here I am surrounded by people living for God, but when I go back to school or work I won't be, so I'll have to change the way I live. I loved absolutely everything about the SST Mini, and I loved getting to go out and serve other people. The experiences were truly amazing."
It encourages me to know that God desires a relationship with His people and it doesn't matter how old we are. He has a purpose for each of our lives, how awesome it was to spend a week with these kids and see them gain understanding of the love and life that God has for them! After many group photos and some teary goodbyes, the Servant's Heart youth group loaded their vans and headed for home. We hope to see them again this summer since many of them expressed interest in the summer SSTs, and thanks to things like Facebook, Twitter, and texting, communication with them is hardly limited. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 13 April 2010 15:56 |
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