Bali Briefing!

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. This trip has been amazing! God taught me so much! The main things God has taught me was:

*Fear- That Gods love casts out our fear. Paula told me that the fear in Bali is the spiritual warfare whereas at home the fear is the fear of man.

*Faith- I learned that I had so little faith before coming on this trip. God taught me that answered prayers are in Gods time and not my own but to have faith that God listens and answers.

*Leadership- Accountability, that what I do or say effects my character. We want to be respected leaders. We must also be completely satisfied with God's praise only not by people or our serving can easily be put into works or idols.

*Spiritual Gifts- To have faith in my spiritual gifts and use them to serve others.

*TRUE WISDOM COMES FROM HUMILITY

*Compassion- Having compassion towards others and seeing the love God has for each person.

This trip has brought me to the deepest pit of my fears. It has grown me so much in my faith and I am so thankful and blessed for all of your support. I put together a slideshow on youtube for you all to see! If you are having a hard time seeing it, click this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUcV2-ScLLg

HOME!

Hi friends and family! I made it home safely! Thank you for all your prayers and support on this trip! I am currently in works of uploading pictures and I will post a blog on my final thoughts asap!!!

THANKS!

Lauren

Best $1.20 investment

I feel like my faith is growing so much stronger. Abbey has been really sick the past week with Bali belly. As I shared in my last blog, the Lord healed my ear and it was a fast result. However, I have been praying for Abbey and my eye and I was realizing that I was getting annoyed that they weren't healed yet. I was like "God you healed my ear right away, can't you just heal my eye and abbeys tummy now?" THEN I realized WOW I am not being patient with the Lord at all. So many times I can remember praying for something and being so impatient with God. I know the Lord will heal our physical problems, but it is not in my timing but Gods timing, for he makes everything perfect in his own time. I believe God healed my ear for that one time for me to remember to have faith in God that even though he may not respond right away it doesn't mean He isn't going to do it. We must pursue continual faith in the Lord in all circumstances.

Today was pretty awesome. Staying in Bali has kind of turned into just a typical day. I was feeling like I was just living here. I was realized that daily we need to remember our mission statement "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," - Matthew 28:19 This is what we are supposed to do daily. Serving God and making disciples. It was so crazy how easily that started to slip away even in a place like Bali. You would think that this would be in your continual conscience. However, it is easy to get in the lifestyle wherever you are at, you forget your focus.

I woke up today praying to God that would keep me focused. I went to Kuta to surf with the kids at the Kuta orphanage. When we were done Abbey and I went to the mini mart to go get some crackers and water. I got these crackers that I was really looking forward to eating when i took a bite of a cracker it was really stale and I found out it was expired. I was so agitated I went to the cashier and complained and it didn't really help much. It was actually really good that Abbey came with me or else I wouldn't have noticed but she explained to me how that was rude and that this cracker proboably took about a year to get here. That the people around saw my character by the way I acted. I started feeling bad but it was so true what she was telling me.

I went to the car and drove with the kids back to the orphanage. On the car ride there I passed out the stale crackers and the kids didn't complain once about what the cracker tasted like. They were just stoked to get anything. Then I was thinking like WOW I am a complainer and that these kids appreciate so much and what they have. God totally showed me this today. Just learning more and more about my surroundings. That we need to be more aware of what we do and how we are portraying ourselves to others.

The ORU team is leaving on Monday, please pray for a safe flight home for them. Also please pray for Abbey and her health as well as my eye it is still infected. Please pray for the safety and protection of the Body of Christ here. Thank you love you all!

Lauren

update

Hi friends and family! Thank you so much for your support and prayers! This week the ORU worship team, Abbey and I went to the orphanage and did an assembly for the Christian school here. This week we did the 1-5th graders instead of kindergarten and preschoolers. We played games and did worship. The people at the school are so hospitable. They were so nice they provided us thank you bracelets and food this morning. Most of the people I have talked to here are nice and really interesting to talk to.

Praise God for safety and casting out fear and thank you again so much for your prayers. The Lord is teaching me so much and this is such an amazing growing experience. It is really interesting because normally around kids I tend to gravitate to the younger children but I find myself gravitating more toward the older ones. Maybe it is because of Younglife and I do miss my girls so much! I definetely feel like God is refining my call and I am so excited!

God is teaching me so much about faith. This WEEK WAS AMAZING. I went to church this Sunday and I had an ear infection. When I got to church this man wanted to pray for healing on my ear. As he was praying I was thinking how much faith this man had. This is the faith that we should have. I found myself doubting when he was praying for me. When the worship came on, the Holy Spirit just flooded through me. The song Mighty to Save was playing and it hit me! GOD CAN MOVE THE MOUNTAINS BECAUSE HE IS MIGHTY TO SAVE! I was putting God in a box with Bali. I was thinking this place is so spiritually dark that there was not much hope. BUT IREALIZED at that moment that GOD CHOSE HIS PEOPLE BEFOREHAND and that GOD IS MIGHTY TO SAVE HE CAN SAVE THIS PLACE!

During the service, the message was about faith without works is pointless and it got me thinking a lot. The Lord is teaching me so much about my spiritual gifts and intercession being one of them. This message got me thinking that I NEED TO HAVE FAITH when praying. "I tell you the truth, if you have faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." -Matthew 17:20 This is my gift God has given me and if I have faith as small as a mustard seed God will answer.

After the service and realizing this, the same guy came up to me and asked if my ear was better . I said no and he wanted to pray for my ear again. This time we prayed I had faith. I had more faith than I ever had in the Lord. Not just about my ear but in the Lord in general. That night my ear was healed. It was such an amazing thing to know that GOD IS MIGHTY TO SAVE and how powerful "In the name of Jesus Christ" truly is. God healed me and my sickness. God can save the people here and heal them!

Prayer requests:

*Abbey got Bali Belly and please pray that the Lord heals her
*One of the girls from the children's home put her hands on my eyes and I got an eye infection. Please pray that the Lord heals it. It's not that bad!
* Safety for the body of Christ here in Bali; ORU TEAM, Global church, the people here in Bali
*Please pray for my heart and that I can be more patient and a listener.

Thank you so much love you all!

lauren