YOUNG LIFE UPDATE

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for supporting Young Life! Young Life has been awesome! We have a couple of new leaders that are already connecting with kids which is really encouraging! This year has been a great start with the fellowship and the club in general.

This upcoming Monday we are having our annual Halloween Club! This is proboably one of the biggest events of the year! We are having it at one of my girls, Holly Herzog's house! I will be speaking at Club Monday about the Immoral Woman! Please pray that the Lord will use me to speak to the hearts of the kids at the club! That the Lord will really speak through me!

The Lord has been teaching me so much the past month. He is really teaching me about having Him be my number one in all circumstances. That all I need is His love ALONE.

"Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance! I will bless the Lord who guides me, even at night my heart instructs me. I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me."- Psalm 16.

As I was hiking during my quiet time, this verse really struck my heart. GOD ALONE is my inheritance, He has been such a blessing in my life. God is guarding my heart at all times. Its so amazing how I am actually walking into a blessing with Young Life and the season I am in life. God is really teaching me how to delight in Him and KNOW that my Joy comes from following His will and serving Him.

I also am learning a lot about truly HOW BIG GOD REALLY IS! I started this accountability group with two of my girlfriends and we are going over crazy love. It has truly been such a blessing to have such amazing friends in life to walk with during this season. This book has really opened my eyes to the how Big HE really is.

My prayer is that I will desire God's will in my life and that my heart will always be on fire for Him. That I learn to completely fall in love with Christ. That I serve wholeheartedly without any fears or distractions. I really feel like the Lord is slowly taking each fear out of me one by one.

Praises:

* The Lord has provided $6,500 of my budget so far!

* New freshman have been coming to club!!

* I started a jewelry line called Charis! Take a look http://charisjewelry.blogspot.com/ !

Prayer Requests:

*That the Lord will provide for my grades, I have been struggling in my classes

*Freshman boys to come to club for Corey to take to camp!

*A couple of my girls would like to do workcrew this upcoming summer where they live at camp for a month and serve. Pray that we get spots together at Woodleaf for the July session. It is really hard to get spots all together at the same camp!

*Pray for a re- energized bible study. My group of 13 haven't all been showing up to my bible studies. I changed my bible study to Thursday evenings so hopefully the girls can make it!

Thank you so much for your prayers! I am so blessed to have all of you supporting me! Love you all!

-Lauren

YOUNG LIFE NEW SCHOOL YEAR!

Hello friends and family! Thank you so much for supporting the ministry the Lord has put before me. I am so blessed to be given the opportunity to serve on Young Life staff. Through eight months of prayer about my call into this ministry, I can confidently say that the Lord has called me to Young Life. I am really excited about this new season the Lord has in store for myself and His ministry. I am so thankful you are a part of making a difference in these kids lives.

This year was a great start! Our first club was awesome! From now we are doing an integrated club with San Clemente and San Clemente Downtown! Corey (New Area Director for San Clemente Young Life) did a great talk on how Jesus wants us to come to Him to celebrate! We have a handful of new leaders and I was so encouraged for this new school year!

I have a group of 12 Juniors in high school that I have been mentoring for the past year. I took them to camp this past year and it was amazing! Never cried and laughed so much in my life! 7 of my girls committed their lives to Christ. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h79apOT41Mg) They are on varsity cheer this year and 3 of the 11 are doing Jr. Leading for my cabin times (bible studies) It is so amazing to see how the Lord has been moving in each of their lives and how thirsty they are for the word! I am really excited about this upcoming year to see how the Lord is going to grow them.

Please pray for :

*My personal spiritual balance. I have been struggling with balancing Young Life, my personal life, school and my spiritual replenishment.

*My encouragement starting this new job and just where the Lord has me in life.

*Young Life Club- that there will be a smooth transition for combining Downtown and San Clemente.

*Finances- My budget for the year is $13,000, I still need to raise $7,000 of that!

*Leaders- Pray for the encouragement for all the leaders and that the Lord will provide new potential leaders.

*YL girls- pray that they will continue following Him and will pursue a stronger relationship with Him.

Holly Herzog

Corin Burns

Lauren Jackson

Taylor Drew

Sarah Mikosz

Lauren Zines

Nicole Pappalardo

Amanda Simkins

Ivette Stevens

Kelsey Bennight

Farrah Haglom

Loni Carissa

Thank you so much for all of your support in Young Life!

Love you all,

Lauren

WOODLEAF YOUNGLIFE CAMP!

Hello Everyone!

I am getting really excited Young Life camp is SUNDAY! Things are getting crazy but ITS SO EXCITING and I am so blessed that God has provided me an amazing group of girls! The Lord totally provided for each one to come. This is going to be an amazing opportunity for them as well as myself. It has truly been an amazing year with Young Life and seeing how the Lord is growing each and every one of these girls.

Today I was reading in Matthew 13:3 “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. ⁴ As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. ⁵ Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. ⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. ⁸ Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! ⁹ Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Please pray that each and every one of these girls will be a flourishing crop. That the Lord will soften their hearts and will want to have faith in Him. Also pray for the protection of the body of Christ at camp as well as encouragment for all the leaders going! THIS WEEK IS GOING TO BE A SELFLESS WEEK FOR ALL LEADERS! Pray that each leader will be spiritually prepared for this upcoming week! If you can please pray for each of my girls their names are;

Corin Burns

Holly Herzog

Loni Carissa

Lauren Jackson

Taylor Drew

Ivette Stevens

Sarah Mikosz

Nicole Pappalardo

Kelsey

Amanda

Farah

Thank you so much!

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