I'm Letting Go

Amy D! After reading your post I was reminded of a song that I have been listening to A LOT lately! Check out the words

Or Watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNEhKLrsUfo

Francesca Battistelli Lyrics - I’m Letting Go Lyrics
My heart beats, standing on the edgeBut my feet have finally left the ledge
Like an acrobatThere’s no turning back
ChorusI’m letting goOf the life I planned for meAnd my dreamsLosing controlOf my destinyFeels like I’m falling and that’s what it’s like to believeSo I’m letting go
This is a giant leap of faithTrusting and trying to embrace
The fear of the unknownBeyond my comfort zone
ChorusI’m letting goOf the life I planned for meAnd my dreamsLosing controlOf my destinyFeels like I’m falling and that’s what it’s like to believeSo I’m letting go
Giving in to your gravityKnowing You are holding meI’m not afraid
Feels like I’m falling and that’s what it’s like to believeFeels like I’m falling and this is the life for me

Girl you are standing on the edge and soon will be letting go! I can't wait to see what God has for you too!

Our Team...

here's some fun pics of our team from one of our meetings...minus a few that were missing that day!...One more week and we are outta here! God is doing so much...I need to be writing it all down...i am famous for telling that to others...but sometimes I fail to take my own advice!

Viva la vida y Dios!

Carolyn's post just reminded me that it is one week and one day until we leave! I can't believe it's almost here! I've enjoyed reading everyone's inspiring posts! Thanks for sharing. I'm not sure my story is all that inspiring but here it goes. I really enjoy traveling, meeting new people, and experiencing different cultures. I have been blessed with several opportunities to do so in my life. I was itching to travel again last year, and I spent some time online researching volunteer/service types of trips. I wanted to volunteer because #1) I thought it would be more rewarding than doing the touristy thing and I really enjoy helping people, #2) I was looking for opportunities to practice Spanish more and #3) if I'm being completely honest, I thought my husband would be more willing to pay the money for it if it was service-related as opposed to for my own personal enjoyment. I wasn't experiencing much success with my online search, but it was around that time that God began to work in my life again.

I had been going to different churches off and on, but God led me to Gateway. I was amazed at first with the people I was meeting and the overwhelming feeling that God led me to these people for a reason. Then I began to hear about the Peru trip, and I was immediately on board! It was an answer to a prayer that I probably didn't know I should be praying. I think I was still in the mindset of my three earlier reasons for travel, but God quickly changed my perspective! He worked in my life in so many ways on the trip last year. He was pretty honest with me about the things I needed to change in my life, he gave me a fabulous group of people to work with and learn from, and best of all I experienced such joy in what I was doing, not just with using Spanish and playing with kids (two of my very favorite things!) but in doing work for Him!

This year I know more about what to expect, and I'm approaching the trip with a much different mindset, but I hope I am just as equally inspired as last year! This past year I feel I have learned so much on my walk with the Lord, but I have also experienced quite a bit of stress and anxiety over a job at a new school district and some life changes I will be facing in the next couple of years. I pray daily for discernment on what to do, but the answers have not come to me yet. I keep using the analogy that I feel like I'm on a cliff looking over the edge and below are so many different exciting things I could be doing. I want to jump, but I don't know in which direction or even if I should at all. Right now I feel like God's holding me on the cliff. I plan to continue to pray and seek answers, and I hope that in Peru God has some insight for me. Even if he continues to tell me to stay on the cliff! All I know right now is that I am excited to serve him again and to work with all of you! I can't wait to see what he wants to teach me this year and what he has planned for us as a team!

~ Amy D. ~

The Ups and Downs

Well here it is just one week and one day to departure! What can I say!? This whole thing started out last year about this time with me telling myself that I could never do a thing like go on a mission trip to an Orphanage! Now here I go on an adventure with the Lord! He has asked me to go with Him on this journey. I continue to battle the 'WANT TO'. I was telling a friend that I feel a little like Jonah right now in the sense that I don't want to go! BUT... I am so excited about going with my Lord to see taste and touch, just experience and learn all that He has for me! I know the saying is that when there is fear that means that you are not trusting. I don't want to have this fear of the 'UNKNOWN' I so much want to embrace every single detail of this journey.
Through these last 5 months I have gone from overflowing excitement and fearless to cowering in fear hoping something will happen that will cause me to have to stay behind from this trip. I am coming out of that cowering in fear to the excitement today, fear fear go away and never come back! I choose today to TRUST Jesus to take care of all my needs, wipe away all my fears and to comfort my heart when it gets broken!
Carolyn

P.S.
Contrary to popular belief, I AM NOT BABY SHOPPING!

God is faithful!

I don't really know where to begin, except to say that I have wanted to go on a mission trip for a long time. No where in particular, but when I started to attend Gateway, the trip to Peru really caught my attention....so after prayer and consideration, Adam and I decided to sign-up. Now I did have doubts along the way....I cannot speak Spanish....What do I have to offer?....I do not like being out of my comfort zone....all of those doubts though, I felt could be overcome. Then the big whopper hit, Adam unexpectedly lost his job. Again doubts overshadowed my mind, as I told myself that it is not too late to back out of the trip. Adam and I continued to pray and he read me a verse that most churchgoers are probably familiar with, from Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths". I had read it many times before, but this time it had a new ring to it! It is so hard for me to not "lean" on my "own understanding", but for this WHOPPER, I would have to rely on God. We continued on with preparing for the trip, filling out paperwork, applying/renewing passports, etc. That was a hard part, paying about $200 to get our passports. Where is the money going to come from?! We might need that money to pay rent! Well, guess what I got in the mail that day? A check for $200 from my parents to go toward our mission trip. God is so good, and I do not know why I am so quick to forget that. I do not know why I am such a doubter! Maybe a week later, Adam and I were informed that an anonymous giver paid for BOTH of our trips in full! As I type this, I am still in shock. Thank you whoever you are! I am constantly being reminded of God's faithfulness and I just pray that my faith continue to grow. I do not want to be a doubter! "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23.

Leah McDonald

Connecting The Dots

Ok,

So today we had our third team meeting and Amy talked about our blog being a place where we can leave our memorial of what God is doing. I have been holding back part of my story, not exactly sure why. I thought that after today's meeting that it is now time to share some more of my puzzle.

In September of 2003 I began a journal of all my emotions and feelings about what I was going through after my second miscarriage. During that time of healing through journaling God was leading me to turn my journal into a book. As you can see by the date I had been at it for a LONG time! There have been two occasions in these last six years when I have thought I had my ending to the book.
Most recently, December of 2008 I was sure that all I needed to do was go through and update it and proof read it from when I had it edited and critiqued in 2006.
In December a friend and I made the commitment to set aside some time to do this completion. She had also been putting off her commitment to write on a different topic. We had both agreed to keep one another accountable to our calling.
It was approximately one month after we made this commitment that the Lord made it very clear that I was to come on this Trip to Peru.
The weekend we had set aside was the one after Valentines day in February.
It was in January that I heard the CLEAR calling from God to this trip. Then it was like a flood gate was opened and God was telling me to keep my heart, eyes and ears open to His voice because NOW is the time HE will show me great and mighty things.

Jer 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
It was almost like every time I obeyed Him He showed me something new. First it was committing to write the book, then it was answering the call to the trip, then it was doing a Beth Moore study on the Book of Esther where the focus was, "For Such a Time as This", and most recently it was stepping up to lead the organizing of the VBS for the trip and oh let me just tell you how MIGHTY my GOD is!!! If you don't know, I knew NOTHING about VBS before now. God took nothing and brought it to life! Just like the Earth was without form, and void. I was just like that and He took the Spirit and HE moved and now we have VBS! Zachaeus a wee little man, a sinner just like me who comes to know Jesus in a personal way. Just like I know some wee little children will come to know Jesus on this trip and whole houses! I believe my GOD can and wants to do that! John 3:16 God SO loved the WORLD!

If He can take the formless dark Earth and move the Spirit on it and well, just look outside, So beautiful! He can do all things!
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
...
So there ya go, a few more dots in my puzzle!

When I find my self standing in front of the next challenge I pray I have the courage and strength to say YES again and again and again!
I Love you my Jesus!

Carolyn

Just the Beginning!

In order to paint a small picture of the work that my Heavenly Father has done I have to start this by explaining events that began about 18 years ago!I am not positive of the year BUT it was very shortly before Bill and I married in 1992. I was diagnosed with Endometriosis and Poly Cystic Ovarian syndrome (PCOS). I was 17 years old at that time and over the following 17 years Bill and I fought the battle of Infertility. During this battle we have encountered the casualties of; one Ectopic Pregnancy (pregnancy/fetus outside the fallopian tube) and one miscarriage. The Lord has grown me and strengthened me SO much through these EXTREMELY difficult battles. He is my ROCK and I KNOW He will get me through ANYTHING!!!That is the short version of my journey. Through a series of events in the beginning of 2007 our battle with Infertility would come to and end!!! I was scheduled for a complete Hysterectomy in April of 2008! I was so relieved....the battle was over...!!!
Two months after my surgery my best friend, Amy Hayward, went on a mission trip to Peru with a group to an Orphanage to minister to their physical and spiritual needs. When she returned and shared the events that took place while she was there, it was all too much for my heart to take! I said, "I could never go there!! My heart could not take it."

WELL…
Over the past several months God has placed a calling on my life to go to this Orphanage this June, and work with these orphans. (More on my blog @ http://www.carolynjohnston.blogspot.com/ beginning with the post titled Extreme Surrender)

A few years back as I continued to struggle with wanting a family I was determined to find God's will for our lives. Was it His will for us to bear our own children? Did God want us to have children at all?
I went to the Word and here is what the Lord gave me:
Isaiah 54:1-3
Isa54:1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
Isa 54:2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
Isa 54:3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

When God showed me this it was like He was saying He is going to give me so many children my house will not be able to contain it.
While I think on this in relation to this trip I wonder if this is not just the beginning of something HUGE in our lives!!!!

Our Journey to Peru....

Team Peru,

It is my sincere prayer that each of you would know that you are not on this team by accident. Each of you have something unique and of great value to bring to the table. I am excited as I already see the Almighty Hand of God working in each of your lives. You all have a story to tell of how God has brought you to this point. A story that will bring God fame and glory...so tell your story, tell it often, tell it well!

my story goes like this...

6 years ago I started on a journey that I never imagined would bring me to this place...i took my first missions trip to Zambia, Africa...3 years and 3 trips back to Africa later...I very clearly heard God's call on my life to serve in missions. I had no idea what that looked like...through a number of circumstances and listening to God's voice...I said yes when He asked me to be obedient and to follow Him, even when it didn't make sense. God brought me to Gateway Church over a year ago and in that process has allowed me to be mentored by Mike Stiles...in the area of mission leading...I am SO GRATEFUL for this opportunity to grow in the gifts God has given me...if you would of known me 15+ years ago...you would of said..."Amy Hayward going to foreign countries?...leading others in that same journey?...yah, right!" I stand as living proof of what happens when you surrender, and obey His voice. His blessing pours out over your life...you are changed...and life as you know it will never be the same.

It is an amazing place to be when you know you are exactly where God wants you...doing exactly what you have been created to do.

My prayer for each of you is that this journey to Peru would be either the start of that for you...or maybe encouragement along that journey for you...I pray that each of you would gain an unsatisfiable desire to know God in a new way...and to diligently seek out what He has made you for...and that in that process...life as you knew it would never be the same.

It is my joy and priveledge to walk alongside each of you on this journey...my heart is to serve you and to see you grow closer to the One Who gave His all for each of us...

I give Him all the glory,

Amy Hayward