Catholic SST

Hello SST alums! Hope you are doing just swell.  I have a quick update for you! For Spring Break this year, we had our first Catholic SST!  Isn’t that cool?  We had 29 students that came from Canada, San Antonio, and here locally in the Tyler area.  They were an awesome group!

 

It was amazing to see how God moved in each of their lives throughout the ten days that they were with us.  At first, I don’t think they really knew what to think about all of us crazy ywamers, but as we all got to know each other, some amazing friendships were developed.  

 

 

 

In the very first intercession time that we had, 4 different groups felt like God had given them pictures of the same thing.  They were either cliffs, cliff jumping, or that they were standing on the edge of a cliff and God was beckoning them to take a leap of faith with Him.  We really felt like this was a word of the Lord for their school.  It was almost as if He was saying that even though much of what they were learning looked very different from what they had seen in the past, that He was calling them to dive in anyway.  And man did they dive!

 

Each of the teachings seemed to build in them a greater understanding and faith in the greatness and goodness of God.  They began to hear His voice and to experience the Holy Spirit.  I was amazed as I watched God take them into His arms and show them His love.  It was a beautiful thing!  

 

We went on outreach to Houston for 5 days and it was awesome!  We didn’t sleep much and worked our tails off, but it was SO worth it.  We did prayer walks around Planned Parenthood, VBS at 2 different locations, homeless ministry at Church in the Park and Street Church, and so much more.  Each and every place that we went was another experience in which God would move in and through the students.

 

 

The second night we were there was Wednesday Street Church!  We were able to do our dance for all the homeless people there which was a lot of fun, but the real story was that after the alter call was given, our whole group practically dived into the crowd to pray for people!  It was such an amazing night of ministry as they were able to speak into the lives of people who desperately need a touch from God.  

 

The next night we attended a Healing Mass at the Catholic Charismatic Center in Downtown Houston.  I was amazed as all of our students went forward for prayer at the end and received the ministry of the Holy Spirit!  There was such joy in the room as God was ministering to so many of them in their own individual ways.  We heard testimonies from them of visions and dreams, and many other intense encounters with God.  

 

As I have reflected on the time that we were able to spend with this SST, I have simply been in awe of the ways in which God works.   He is so faithful and so good!  I can’t until we have many more experiences with God this summer!  I hope to see all of you there!!

 

 
Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 March 2012 19:06
 
Thoughts

 

 

  

What’s a thought?  What’s wrong with one measly little thought?  It can’t be that bad, right?  Right?  
 Our thoughts can seem so insignificant, but in reality, they are the very things that control our focus.  Where we allow our thoughts to dwell will likely determine the course of our focus and actions for a period of time.  Our thoughts are affected by the things that we allow to enter our minds.  If we are putting junk in, our focus and actions will result in junk (sin).  
If we lack purity in our thoughts, what is the result?  This is the truly scary part about the whole thing (don’t worry, we will talk about the good stuff in a minute ).   Unfortunately, a lack of purity in our thoughts will result in a decrease in intimacy with God.  How can we have a pure relationship with God when our thoughts are muddled by the junk of the world?  We begin to have a skewed perspective on what’s important in life and we begin to leave God in the background.  
This is the good part!  God has given us a design for our thoughts!  Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”   God desires for us to walk in righteousness in our thoughts.  You may be saying, “Well that’s easier said than done!”  It’s true that it is not easy.  The beautiful thing about God is that He never allows us to face things that we are unable to overcome!  
How do we overcome the thoughts that the enemy wants us to focus on?  It can only be done by abiding with the Father.  That means that we have to be faithful in our quiet times!  If you want to have the strength to face the challenges that will come at you through the day, HAVE YOUR QUIET TIMES!!!  Abiding in the Father = purity and power through redemption!   He is the source of all that you need to overcome anything that you will face, including your thoughts and the temptations that will come.  
The scripture that has given me strength through many times of temptation is 2 Corinthians 10:5.  It says, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking captive every thought to the obedience of Christ.”  I would encourage you to memorize this scripture and when you begin to get tempted with thoughts that are not of God, SPEAK IT OUT!  By doing this, you are taking authority by the power of the presence of God that lives inside of you!  
Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 20:59
 
South Korea 2012!

 

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!
Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 February 2012 20:13
 
Faith in Real Life Chaos

“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.
 
The Call

 

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!

 
Last Updated on Thursday, 08 December 2011 15:31
 
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