Hello, everyone! I hope everyone's week has been well and you aren't too upset over the elections...
I have a lot to say and have had quite a full week, so I will be doing this post in 2 parts because I have a LOT of pictures to share (and I can't wait!!)!
As the Sunday before last was my birthday, I forgot to post the most ADORABLE "Happy Birthday" I received the entire day.... are you ready?
Also last week, we suffered from a power outage thanks to darling Hurricane Sandy. Fortunately, the power outage lasted the greater part of the day that we were not home (because the other side of town still had power). It rained and poured here Monday (10/29) night and for some reason a bunch of our people decided to go play frisbee in the hurricane storms. They all came in absolutely soaked. But I guess they had a blast..."Who else can say they played frisbee in a hurricane?!"
My two roommates and I on the other hand decided to make a last minute Walmart run at 4:30p (Walmart was closing at 5p due to the storms). That was sooo chaotic! Walmart ran out of flashlights and all the other hurricane supplies, but they did have some scented candles. So I bought one. A large, white, peppermint-scented candle. It smells like Christmas :-)
There was hardly anyone on the roads and the Walmart parking lot was so empty and the rain was pouring so hard.
This is probably the most empty I have ever seen the roads before. The funniest part of rushing at Walmart was when we were leaving, we were looking for my roommates white Honda. We see a white car and we all rush over to it, running in the rain, and we open the doors no problem. Suddenly, my roommate (whose car is was) and I notice that the hood of this white vehicle is black....and the hood is open. We look at each other confused and then a man's voice says, "Hey!!"
"THIS ISN'T MY CAR!!"
"WHERE IS OUR CAR??"
"SORRY!!!" We yell to the man as we run the opposite way laughing....we were still looking for her car.
We found it...probably 4 aisles or so over. At least we weren't taking the whole hurricane thing too seriously.
Tuesday morning came and our power was off. Many of us had had our phones and computers charged, plus we found out the church still had power so we still have class there. We all brought our chargers. By the time we got home for dinner Tuesday evening the power was back on! And the worst of the storm was over.
Wednesday was Halloween and...well....I just have to share:
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Our teachers last week were Tom and Donna Cole of Pure Heart Ministries International. They were AMAZING. Tom and Donna used to be counselors until the Lord called them to Kansas City, Missouri where they ended up being on staff with International House of Prayer - Kansas City. Their class does so much in your heart that after IHOP-KC let them start teaching the class IHOP ended up making the 8 week class a requirement for anyone who wanted to join staff. It is an understatement to say we were honored to have them! The topic was "Pure Heart" and it was a week of inner healing. Each session of theirs is tied to a different Beatitude (although we had ultra condensed versions of all of their sessions...think 8 weeks into 4 days).
On Monday they opened it up with what being poor in spirit really means all the way down to the Greek.They tag-teamed on how we literally have nothing to offer Jesus except our dirty, ugly, icky sin and the amazing thing about Him is that He accepts that offer and He gladly takes our filth to clean us up and make us new again. Crazy stuff. They also shared on our need for God and our need for others and my brain was definitely overflowing with information - I took so many notes!
They then blended into the next session they call, "The Mother Wound", which is based off of the Scripture above. Donna taught us on the Mother Heart of God and how so often as a society or a culture we completely focus on the Father Heart of God and forget that He has a mother's heart too for both, man and woman, were made in His image. Because man and woman were both made in His image that means each, man and woman, carry a part of His heart that the other doesn't. Tom and Donna both shared their testimonies (which are CRAZY) and then we did a ministry time where wounds in our hearts from our mothers (or people who were motherly) were healed, and many of us had wounds we did not even realize!
Tuesday, Tom taught on the Father Heart of God and many more wounds were healed in the hearts of our students and staff. Tom taught on how Moses and Jesus were meek men but they were not weak men. It was very, very interesting on the roles fathers play in the family and how there has been a direct satanic attack against the fathers of this generation and it can be seen so clearly even on television.
Afterwards, Tom and Donna modeled the true repentance and confession of James 5:16, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. They talked about what repentance really means and how confessing your sins to your brother is supposed to free you and not cause shame or pain or condemnation. If it does, it is confession out of the wrong spirit. Repentance is supposed to be joyful and uplifting because you are saying, "God, I turned away from YOU, the ultimate pleasure, for lesser pleasures. I am turning away from those lesser things now and receiving the greater things which you have for me."
Wednesday, Donna taught on Biblical femininity and what that looks like. It's not "You have to wear dresses only. No make up. No jewelry." It is about the part of God's heart that is in a woman and not in a man. How typically women are selfless givers and that shows the part of God that is always giving. She talked on the Creation story and also on Ephesians (for the men). She shared with the men why it is important that they, too, understand Biblical femininity because one day they will have wives and children.
Donna then gave us a lesson on forgiveness and the layers in which forgiveness comes. Forgiveness is a choice that we must choose. We have no other option. If we harbor unforgiveness, God must also harbor unforgiveness against us. Wrestling with unforgiveness is okay, as long as you fighting to forgive. It is not okay to just keep that unforgiveness in your life because it will become a stumbling block in your walk with God. The Bible says that Jesus will extend forgiveness as we extend it to others (and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors --- Matt. 6:12).
We also made a list of the things Holy Spirit brought to mind that we have yet to forgive. We listed them all off and took them to the cross (we didn't have a real wooden cross...We had a red cross drawn on a piece of paper, propped on a music stand). We took them to the cross and tore them up and left them there. No longer could these things have a hold on us.
Thursday, Tom taught on true, biblical masculinity and what it means to be a peacemaker. He shared on how God has made masculinity a gift to women and children in servanthood, not pride. He also shared with us on how men need to be called into manhood and girls need to be called into womanhood (both which happen by the mouth and blessing of their father). He shared personal stories with us and the men went forward for ministry time.
Finally, Tom and Donna ended the condensed Pure Heart series with what it means to truly have a pure heart. They shared on false humility, more in healing our wounds, and prayers we can pray asking for the help of the Lord in specific areas.
For the finale they called the men and women to gather together (men in one bunch, women in another bunch) in front of the stage so we could bless each other for our different, God-given characteristics.
Example: Man: "Women, I bless you for your compassionate hearts." Woman: "Men, I bless you for your desire to protect."
And on and on we went for quite awhile like a volleyball match. We went back and forth and back and forth and finally both genders came together handshaking or hugging (depending on what the girl initiated) and it was really, really sweet.
**All of Tom and Donna's classes are available for FREE MP3 download. Just add them to the cart, check out, and I believe you receive and email to download them...I forgot how I did it. Hahaha. You can do all of that and check out their other resources here!**
Wednesday and Thursday night, Donna also came over to take us through an extremely condensed study of Revelation, sharing with us years worth of knowledge she had acquired and turned into a PDF file. Anyway, so she took us through the entire book of Revelation in a quick 3 hours and everyone was so amazed, we didn't want it to stop.
She covered everything from why we should study the end times, to explaining how some things are symbolic and others are literal. She gave me more insight on that book than I think I have ever heard in my entire life. I loved it. So you can see in the picture above, this is Donna right before we began the study Wednesday night.
Also Thursday night, I had to pack my bags for 4 days and 5 nights in Washington, D.C. for David's Tent!
So I got all my stuff together and Friday morning we had small group, lunch, class with John Leech, and then we left to our nation's capitol!!
Friday morning during small group, Team South Africa decided to go to Tomato Pie Cafe where I found the most amazing creation, I think, in all of my life.
The veggie bagel is a bagel where one side has cream cheese, the other side has hummus, and both are topped with tomato, shredded carrots, shredded cucumber, and diced onions. I also ordered a mocha. And just to show how classy Tomato Pie is I took a picture of how they serve their water. In a glass bottle.
After John Leach's class, we packed up the vans and started off on the 3 hour drive towards Washington, D.C. for David's Tent.
Upon arriving in D.C. we first stopped at the church where we were staying at, then we went off to Gate Post (which was providing all of our meals) and then finally arrived at David's Tent.
For those of you who don't know, David's Tent was started by a man named Jason Hershey, who felt from the Lord to do a tent on the Ellipse of the White House for 24/7 Prayer and Worship for 40 days before the election. They started September 25, which left them a day to worship just because Jesus is worthy of it, and I forgot what they called the very first day.
By the time we arrived at D.C., they had already begun the Night Watch <<Unplugged>> (which means that it was acoustic from 9p-7a).
This was the first team...
We were all so excited to be in Washington, D.C. that a bunch of ran outside to see the White House (which is only the blurry speck)!
This is me, David's Tent, and part of the Washington Monument.
Me, my friend, N, Washington Monument, and David's Tent
Finally, the F.&F. Crew was able to do our set (11p-1a)
And so our team led worship for 3 hours. Yeah, they rock. You can tell. There are two djembes.
We ended the night having parked directly across the street from the monument, and oh my goodness gracious, it was gorgeous!!!
The next morning I had my first Dunkin' Donuts experience... a Dunkinccino (half hot chocolate, half coffee) and a bagel with cream cheese.
Saturday was super cool! During the 3p-5p set, Georgian Banov of Global Celebration organized a Drum Circle. The goal was to gather 300 drummers of all different kinds. I even got to bang on a little djembe myself that some woman just walked over and handed me. Here is a little tidbit of the drum circle...
So Georgin Banov led the drum circle and everyone was dancing because, I mean really, who doesn't love drums? I definitely do!!
Well, this post has become really, really long... I will finish up the second part soon!
I love you all!
Xoxo,
Cheryl
I have a lot to say and have had quite a full week, so I will be doing this post in 2 parts because I have a LOT of pictures to share (and I can't wait!!)!
As the Sunday before last was my birthday, I forgot to post the most ADORABLE "Happy Birthday" I received the entire day.... are you ready?
Ahh, yes. My aunt sent me pictures of these little fellas because they needed to wish me happy birthday too!!!
I definitely miss my puppies :-(
Also last week, we suffered from a power outage thanks to darling Hurricane Sandy. Fortunately, the power outage lasted the greater part of the day that we were not home (because the other side of town still had power). It rained and poured here Monday (10/29) night and for some reason a bunch of our people decided to go play frisbee in the hurricane storms. They all came in absolutely soaked. But I guess they had a blast..."Who else can say they played frisbee in a hurricane?!"
My two roommates and I on the other hand decided to make a last minute Walmart run at 4:30p (Walmart was closing at 5p due to the storms). That was sooo chaotic! Walmart ran out of flashlights and all the other hurricane supplies, but they did have some scented candles. So I bought one. A large, white, peppermint-scented candle. It smells like Christmas :-)
There was hardly anyone on the roads and the Walmart parking lot was so empty and the rain was pouring so hard.
"THIS ISN'T MY CAR!!"
"WHERE IS OUR CAR??"
"SORRY!!!" We yell to the man as we run the opposite way laughing....we were still looking for her car.
We found it...probably 4 aisles or so over. At least we weren't taking the whole hurricane thing too seriously.
Tuesday morning came and our power was off. Many of us had had our phones and computers charged, plus we found out the church still had power so we still have class there. We all brought our chargers. By the time we got home for dinner Tuesday evening the power was back on! And the worst of the storm was over.
Wednesday was Halloween and...well....I just have to share:
IT'S A SOCK MONKEY AND A PENGUIN!!!!
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Our teachers last week were Tom and Donna Cole of Pure Heart Ministries International. They were AMAZING. Tom and Donna used to be counselors until the Lord called them to Kansas City, Missouri where they ended up being on staff with International House of Prayer - Kansas City. Their class does so much in your heart that after IHOP-KC let them start teaching the class IHOP ended up making the 8 week class a requirement for anyone who wanted to join staff. It is an understatement to say we were honored to have them! The topic was "Pure Heart" and it was a week of inner healing. Each session of theirs is tied to a different Beatitude (although we had ultra condensed versions of all of their sessions...think 8 weeks into 4 days).
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4
They then blended into the next session they call, "The Mother Wound", which is based off of the Scripture above. Donna taught us on the Mother Heart of God and how so often as a society or a culture we completely focus on the Father Heart of God and forget that He has a mother's heart too for both, man and woman, were made in His image. Because man and woman were both made in His image that means each, man and woman, carry a part of His heart that the other doesn't. Tom and Donna both shared their testimonies (which are CRAZY) and then we did a ministry time where wounds in our hearts from our mothers (or people who were motherly) were healed, and many of us had wounds we did not even realize!
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5
Tuesday, Tom taught on the Father Heart of God and many more wounds were healed in the hearts of our students and staff. Tom taught on how Moses and Jesus were meek men but they were not weak men. It was very, very interesting on the roles fathers play in the family and how there has been a direct satanic attack against the fathers of this generation and it can be seen so clearly even on television.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6
Afterwards, Tom and Donna modeled the true repentance and confession of James 5:16, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. They talked about what repentance really means and how confessing your sins to your brother is supposed to free you and not cause shame or pain or condemnation. If it does, it is confession out of the wrong spirit. Repentance is supposed to be joyful and uplifting because you are saying, "God, I turned away from YOU, the ultimate pleasure, for lesser pleasures. I am turning away from those lesser things now and receiving the greater things which you have for me."
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Matthew 5:7
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:10-12
Donna then gave us a lesson on forgiveness and the layers in which forgiveness comes. Forgiveness is a choice that we must choose. We have no other option. If we harbor unforgiveness, God must also harbor unforgiveness against us. Wrestling with unforgiveness is okay, as long as you fighting to forgive. It is not okay to just keep that unforgiveness in your life because it will become a stumbling block in your walk with God. The Bible says that Jesus will extend forgiveness as we extend it to others (and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors --- Matt. 6:12).
We also made a list of the things Holy Spirit brought to mind that we have yet to forgive. We listed them all off and took them to the cross (we didn't have a real wooden cross...We had a red cross drawn on a piece of paper, propped on a music stand). We took them to the cross and tore them up and left them there. No longer could these things have a hold on us.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9
Thursday, Tom taught on true, biblical masculinity and what it means to be a peacemaker. He shared on how God has made masculinity a gift to women and children in servanthood, not pride. He also shared with us on how men need to be called into manhood and girls need to be called into womanhood (both which happen by the mouth and blessing of their father). He shared personal stories with us and the men went forward for ministry time.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8
Finally, Tom and Donna ended the condensed Pure Heart series with what it means to truly have a pure heart. They shared on false humility, more in healing our wounds, and prayers we can pray asking for the help of the Lord in specific areas.
For the finale they called the men and women to gather together (men in one bunch, women in another bunch) in front of the stage so we could bless each other for our different, God-given characteristics.
Example: Man: "Women, I bless you for your compassionate hearts." Woman: "Men, I bless you for your desire to protect."
And on and on we went for quite awhile like a volleyball match. We went back and forth and back and forth and finally both genders came together handshaking or hugging (depending on what the girl initiated) and it was really, really sweet.
**All of Tom and Donna's classes are available for FREE MP3 download. Just add them to the cart, check out, and I believe you receive and email to download them...I forgot how I did it. Hahaha. You can do all of that and check out their other resources here!**
Wednesday and Thursday night, Donna also came over to take us through an extremely condensed study of Revelation, sharing with us years worth of knowledge she had acquired and turned into a PDF file. Anyway, so she took us through the entire book of Revelation in a quick 3 hours and everyone was so amazed, we didn't want it to stop.
She covered everything from why we should study the end times, to explaining how some things are symbolic and others are literal. She gave me more insight on that book than I think I have ever heard in my entire life. I loved it. So you can see in the picture above, this is Donna right before we began the study Wednesday night.
Also Thursday night, I had to pack my bags for 4 days and 5 nights in Washington, D.C. for David's Tent!
So I got all my stuff together and Friday morning we had small group, lunch, class with John Leech, and then we left to our nation's capitol!!
Friday morning during small group, Team South Africa decided to go to Tomato Pie Cafe where I found the most amazing creation, I think, in all of my life.
The Veggie Bagel
Tell me this place doesn't look adorable.
After John Leach's class, we packed up the vans and started off on the 3 hour drive towards Washington, D.C. for David's Tent.
Upon arriving in D.C. we first stopped at the church where we were staying at, then we went off to Gate Post (which was providing all of our meals) and then finally arrived at David's Tent.
For those of you who don't know, David's Tent was started by a man named Jason Hershey, who felt from the Lord to do a tent on the Ellipse of the White House for 24/7 Prayer and Worship for 40 days before the election. They started September 25, which left them a day to worship just because Jesus is worthy of it, and I forgot what they called the very first day.
By the time we arrived at D.C., they had already begun the Night Watch <<Unplugged>> (which means that it was acoustic from 9p-7a).
This was the first team...
This is me, David's Tent, and part of the Washington Monument.
Me, my friend, N, Washington Monument, and David's Tent
Finally, the F.&F. Crew was able to do our set (11p-1a)
And so our team led worship for 3 hours. Yeah, they rock. You can tell. There are two djembes.
We ended the night having parked directly across the street from the monument, and oh my goodness gracious, it was gorgeous!!!
The next morning I had my first Dunkin' Donuts experience... a Dunkinccino (half hot chocolate, half coffee) and a bagel with cream cheese.
Saturday was super cool! During the 3p-5p set, Georgian Banov of Global Celebration organized a Drum Circle. The goal was to gather 300 drummers of all different kinds. I even got to bang on a little djembe myself that some woman just walked over and handed me. Here is a little tidbit of the drum circle...
So Georgin Banov led the drum circle and everyone was dancing because, I mean really, who doesn't love drums? I definitely do!!
Well, this post has become really, really long... I will finish up the second part soon!
I love you all!
Xoxo,
Cheryl
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