Give us more Jesus!

Hello All!!

I hope you are doing well! Once again, sorry for being slackers as far as updating our blog, but we are getting the hang of it! Promise. Since we last updated, lots has been going on. We have been catching up on Elijah house 6 hours/week and will be done next week! Yay. It has been such an AWESOME experience, and God has used the course greatly to encourage our faith, show us what all he has done in us already, and how he is promising to do even more! I was pretty intimidated about Elijah house before we started, I mean, its kind of scary to think that your going to rummage around in your closet and tackle the skeletons head on! But, God is faithful, that is for sure. In the past 3 weeks, God has set us free in many ways. Sometimes I think I really underestimate the Lord. Yes, God is mighty and sovereign...but my troubles and wounds are too deep for him?!? No way, lies lies lies. So, for you that have found yourself in the same boat, there is certainly hope. Tremendous hope. God is teaching (Notice I didn't put "taught"...because it is an ongoing process of course) me to forgive even when it means possibly getting hurt again. He is teaching me to: quit the performance mentality, quit picking up other peoples burdens for them, but instead walk beside them...if the Lord asks me to, how to pray and listen to people while God does the work.

So most of the above stuff has been in addition to normal class, which has been packed, and way awesome! In the past two weeks, we have covered many things including: how to form Partnership teams (a core group of people who want to be a part of what we are passionate about and what we are doing overseas), how to be able to tell our personal stories, and stories from the bible in a way that can be contexualized in every culture, more about the Church Planting Movements going on around the Globe (I reccommend the book that has more info "Church Planting Movements" by David Garrison), more about how Community Health Evangelists provide organic ways of spreading the gospel, while maintaining, improving, and preventing all forms of health issues. This has been particularly encouraging to me because when I see needs both physically and spiritually, I have found it hard to balance both. This is an awesome method! So...there is class time in a nutshell. :-)

As far as what we have been learning outside of the classroom, we have been hanging out on UMKC campus, just meeting and praying for students, and we also went through the "Village Experience" last weekend Sept. 26 & 27. Being on UMKC campus has been fun because I can remember how it way to be a student, and how nice it would have been if someone just came up to me and said, "hey how are you? Is there anything I can pray for you about?" I mean, most of the time I have thought of this to be pushy, but honestly, its just a blessing. Im not pushing my faith on anybody, I am simply asking if they would like to be prayed for and loved on? This has been an awesome new perspective for me!! As far as the Village Experience...it was mind blowing, and awesome. I can't share a whole lot because it is a simulation program that equips and prepares people for what they might encouter on the mission field, and I don't want to ruin it for anybody!! :-) Lets just say that we walked...A LOT, we're confused A LOT, accidently got converted to a fake religion, and by the end of it, we were ready for a hot bath and a cozy bed! This experience opened my eyes so much to the different cultures around the world, and why the presence of the Holy Spirit is SO important :-). So what can I say, we are learning A LOT! But mostly, we are learning more about who Jesus is, and how he views his people and his body/church! Great stuff!

As far as our location for outreach...WE ARE GOING TO CAMBODIA!! Yay! So far our team consists of a family of four originally from Australia; Joe and Sue (the parents) and David and Anna (the awesome teenagers) and possibly Gabi who is from Germany. We will be working with All Nations long time Church Planter, Joni. She is an awesome woman and I can't wait to learn from her for 3 months! Oh..and did I mention that me and Chris will be married? :-). Yup! We are having a small party (some like to call it a wedding ;-P) to celebrate what the Lord has done in and through us in November! So of course, all prayers are greatly appreciated in this awesome time of transition and newness!

So I hope that you now feel like you are getting in on a little bit of what we are learning, and if you want to know more references on some of the topics, or just ask question about anything, feel free to comment, facebook or email us (thejourneykc@gmail.com) We are praying for everyone this week and if anybody has any specific prayer or support needs, please let us know! We want to know about ya'll too! :-) We love you and hope your weekend is blessed! Thank you for all of your encouragement, support, and prayers!

Love you lots

Meghan