So Much Going On..

Seriously, good luck. So much is going on in this blog, I apologize in advanced.

I have a problem. Half filled journals are taking over my life. Why do I start new ones before previous ones are finished? I really don’t know. One day I’ll finish one. Maybe.

I honestly don’t know how to go about explaining to you what has happened the last two weeks; but I’ll give it my best shot.

Brenda Lewis came and taught on the topic of Identity. She may just be the sweetest lady I have ever met in my whole life. After this week I think if anyone were to ask me what I want to be when I grow up I’d say Brenda. But apart from her being extremely rad she had a ton of great stuff to say. We spent the week digging out our dreams and desires for our lives. At first I felt really uncomfortable about this because I didn’t know what my dreams were. I, like many, had been taught dreams are just dreams and they have no place in the “real” world. But this week we learned that dreams are there for a reason.God uses our dreams and desires to do great things through us. We just have to be willing to follow those dreams with God in the lead. After we all loosened up a little it was like being in a room full of little kids. We started sharing our dreams and how that would look to further Gods kingdom. Eyes began to light up and smiles were contagious, we were dreaming again. Some became full time missionaries in a certain country, others traveled the continents, some had beautiful little families, others adopted slum kids, some wrote books, made documentaries; the list went on and on.

On ministry night we listened to an old sermon by Paris Riedhead. Paris spoke on how humanism has taken over our thoughts and actions. We do things for people and not God. Even when we go out and help people/do mission work we are helping them to relieve them from suffering. And by no means is that bad, it’s great; but we’ve lost the point of it all. We must serve God, not people. God deserves our service, He deserves our love, He deserves us, He deserves those broken people. God doesn’t fit in any box we as humans try to put him in, He’s so much bigger. Paris also talked about the lines we draw in the sand for God. “God, I will serve you and love you as long as you keep my family safe. Once you’ve crossed that line, I’m done.” Of course anything could go in that space but we draw these lines without even realizing it at times. God paid the ultimate price for us, why don’t we give Him everything He deserves? We all became so convicted by the end of his sermon. I was amazed by how humanistic my heart had become and how many lines I had in the sand without me being aware of it all. We sat around in a circle and repented for not doing what we do for the right reasons and sang songs of worship for our great God, simply because He DESERVES it.

Last week Phil Gazley came back and spoke about the Holy Spirit. So many notes, so much information. But that I’ll have to keep to myself.

I’m excited for this coming weeks’ speaker. Morgan Perry was a part of the making of Sex & Money. I’m so excited to pick her brain and find out everything she knows and listen to the stories she has.

We continue to go to The Shade Tree every week and build relationships with the women there. We also continue to street evangelize every Friday night. Every person I meet has a different story; a beautiful, heartbreaking story.

We're in the process of planning for our trips to India/Nepal and Thailand. There is a ton of information about all that, but I'll save that for another blog. I'm still in need of $3,000. If you'd like to send me support you can send a check made out to YWAM to:
YWAM
C/O Arielle Gomora
P.O. Box 36606
Las Vegas, NV
89133

or go to PayPal and send it online to my email address. ariellegomora@yahoo.com