Brave New Girl

It really did happen! Asia! It happened! And wow, life really goes so fast! It’s been well over a month since I have been back in the States. And life DID NOT wait for me to take a little power nap upon arrival. I finally sat down to edit photos and begin thinking of how to share the stories of all that happened.

So just know that stories are brewing….. there’s so many! It is so hard to describe moments that changed you…. moments that will forever impact you.  There are things that happened that changed the way I think and do life…. and I have so few words for those moments. Really I don’t even know what happened other than God showed up. And life was richer.

Mostly I want to shout out to all the people who believe in me….. and believe in the God in me.  Your giving impacted the nations.  This was the first trip I have been on that I truly, with all my heart felt like the planet was changed because of the love of God flowing through me and our team.  And you guys were part of history being made. Travelling and ministering with Georgian and Winnie Bannov was a dream come true…. no MORE than a dream come true!!

Our team spent 3 days in norther Thailand and Burma, loving on kids that were former child soldiers or at risk of being trafficked.

After Northern Thailand, we headed down to Bangkok for a few days.  We went to a trash dump village and threw a party! So many people got saved and healed and filled with JOY, it was blowing us all away!

 

One night in Bangkok, we threw a joy party in the red light district.  Our friend played the violin that sounded like angels singing. People would come from streets over just to hear her play.  So we just started cheering for people as they walked by us…. and it turned into this celebration tunnel. We had no translators and had a VERY hard time talking to the workers on the street. But laughter and celebration and love…. needs no translator! The girls were leaving their store fronts to walk through the tunnel! They laughed and giggled their way through! One man just stood with us for nearly the entire time we were out there. He just couldn’t understand why we were there because no one comes to that area to do anything good. You could feel the Light on the sidewalk where we were….. Lighting this dark and hopeless area in the world.

After Bangkok, we traveled across the border to Cambodia.  The border from Thailand to Cambodia has one of the highest rates of human trafficking in the world. You can physically feel the spiritual climate change as you walk the border.

We stopped to visit one of the sweetest kids homes I have ever been to! They would run down the long drive just to hug us and hold our hands and walk us back to their home.

We threw a HUGE party with fried chicken, watermelon and ice cream!! We sang songs and made balloon animals and giggled! It was pure bliss!

After Siem Riep, we flew to Phnom Penh…..one of my fave cities in the world!  We spent some time in a trash dump village, where I decided trash dumps are probably one of my favorite places to go.

We also spent some time in a slum area where a very high percentage of women and kids are trafficked.  Again….we threw a party with games and snacks and music and giggles! So many people in the neighborhood got saved that day! Pray for the LIGHT of Jesus to invade that neighborhood.

Our trip came to a close with a beautiful team dinner…..which i don’t even have a picture of somehow! My trip extended a few more days to hang with my Canadian family and some other sweet friends and mani/pedi/hairstylin’ at the local Asian spa!

SO there ya go…… Asia. Don’t you worry…..I have more stories and pics coming! Thank you everyone who sent money and encouragement and love and words…. it was my favorite trip I have ever done. Definitely the most powerful and most restful and most impactful thing I have ever been apart of.  I am indebted to the Bannovs for sharing their feast with us.  The level of Joy and Rest the Bannovs walk in was astonishing….. thank you for showing me “ministry”. It was so beautiful! And I am forever changed by the message you guys carry:)

We are already craving Pumpkin Spice Lattes at our house. And then we walk outside and hit the wall of stifling heat… the shocking reminder that we are ONLY in the middle of SUMMER!  We have been declaring “This is the BEST SUMMER EVERRRRR” at our house! It was off to a sour start, but is turning into one of my favorite summers ever!!  Sometimes life dumps a ton of lemons in your front yard. No use sitting around crying. Might as well be brave, squeeze those lemons and invite your friends over for frozen hard lemonades!  Fun, joy, happiness…..inside jobs! So here’s a little peek at my summertime so far!

Hope you enjoyed that little montage of summer! Brave New Girl is off to pack her suitcase! THAILAND and CAMBODIA here I come!! Best summer everrrrr!!!

In 2006, I packed 4 suitcases and boarded a plan to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. So young and naive, I had never booked a plane ticket and here I was MOVING to a foreign land. Everyone thought I was insane. My Granddad kept asking “Isn’t there a war happening there?”  And “why would you want to move THERE?!  It’s not safe for a woman to go there!”

Well, I did it. It was one of the gutsiest things I have ever done and I never in my whole life could have imagined how that trip would have changed my life.  You can’t know that kind of stuff going into it.  And some how years later, I feel moments, experiences,  from that trip still changing me.

I moved to Vietnam because I heard God say “I have prepared a place for you there” BEFORE I had even set foot in that country.  Sometimes you just have one word to hold onto and it’s like the view finder you gaze through. When I was on a mission trip to Vietnam a few months before I moved there, it felt more impossible for me to NOT live there than to actually live there.  It just felt like every moment was made for me.  And so I moved to Vietnam because everything in me knew it was set up by God.

The land was magical and extreme. The noises were foreign and loud and constant. The people were strange and beautiful and warm and curious. It wasn’t long before I felt love growing in my heart for these people who were so different than me.

As you can imagine, every day was ALIVE and fast and full of adventure.  I was encountering God at every turn. But after 6 months I was looking for some new challenges. I was working for a ministry that helped kids get off the streets by employing them in a cafe. We loved them, ate their yummy food and taught them English and about Jesus.  We also taught conversational English to university students …like HUNDREDS of them every week! I was burned out and really wanted to find something I was more passionate about. So we decided to develop an outreach program to places like leper colonies, AIDS hospices, homes for sexually abused kids and orphanages.  I was upset with my team mates for NOT choosing the scary places and leaving them for me. LIKE REALLY UPSET!

So, I “got stuck” with the leper colony and the AIDS hospice.  Let me be be super clear, I HAVE NEVER SEEN OR KNOWN ANYONE WITH LEPROSY OR AIDS. (I had only read stories about Mother Theresa) I had NO idea what to expect….And I had NO idea that God chose those places to birth a dream in my heart.

My team and I raised a bunch of money to buy rice for the leper colony. A big gift for our first time to this facility. Also perhaps a bribe to let us through the gate.  We were allowed in to deliver the rice and talk with the lepers. The big scary guard happened to be gone when we arrived (JESUS:)) so we had access!

After a half hour of chatting with the lepers, I noticed a brick wall at the back of the property.  I was curious what was back there, so I asked if we could go and see what was behind the wall.  As my translator explained what I wanted to do, the nurse in charge had a look of terror on her face. She just kept saying “No..no..no..” and then words in Vietnamese that I assume meant “No, the white girl is not allowed back there” To that I said “Oh we are definitely going back there!”  After 10 minutes of back and forth with the nurse, she finally gave in. She would give us 10 minutes. And if her boss came back and caught us, she would deny she knew anything.  (If I got caught, I was looking at jail time and deportation.)

I never in my entire life could have imagined what was behind that wall. Nothing could prepare me. My Vietnamese friend (who admitted she was arrested at this very facility AS WE ARE ROUNDING THE CORNER!) held my hand as we walked to the door. As I walked in I just froze. Stiff. Silent. Taking in everything and trying to sort everything all at the same time. Bodies…left to dye. Cursed with AIDS. They were so young.  So alone. Bones with skin on them. Some of them were chained to the beds because they were convicted criminals. In the back corner, a priest was reading the last rights over a man I am sure couldn’t have been older than 22. I have never felt so helpless in my whole life.  I had no words. No emotions except for this ache deep inside of me that someone has to do something for these people. Why is no one helping them??!!

My friend Bao moved around the room touching each frail person …praying for them. Telling them about Jesus. Just talking to them. They had no one. Every single person in the place had been abandoned by their families and banished to the back of this property to die. They had no one.

That day I was silent for hours. (If you know me, you know this is NOT me!) I went home and locked myself in my room and cried for hours. Trying to sort out what had just happened. My thoughts would just SPIN because I couldn’t think of a solution. All that would come out was “Jesus, someone has to help them!”

Little did I know that He was posing a question by plopping me smack dab in the middle of a scenario I had no idea how to problem solve. I was saying “Jesus, someone has to help them!” and He was asking “Will you be the one that helps them?”

When you walk with God closely, it often feels like there are more riddles and questions than answers and solutions. It is all to draw us closer to His heart so He can show us how to partner with Him because He really does believe ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.  I am starting to understand that when we trust Him and take crazy risks (like moving to a foreign land when everyone in your world thinks your insane), He births dreams and passions that maybe wouldn’t happen journaling by a peaceful lake.  (PS-I love journaling by peaceful lakes!)  I’m also starting to understand the difference in a good idea and a passion or dream that you would give your life for.  That day at the Leper Colony, destiny happened.  It rattled me to my core. I knew I could never be the same after that.

I kept going back to that hospice. Each time praying for people. Grieving with them. Crying with them. Laughing with them. And each time I felt more confident that God had a magnificent plan even though I had no clue what it was. I just knew in my bones that before the foundations of the world, when God was creating little me, that He was whispering about the days I was living in and the dreams that one day I would walk in.

I don’t have any pictures of the people at the AIDS hospice. For obvious reasons. However, I ended up finding out about another AIDS hospice that took in kids that either had HIV or their parents died of AIDS.  It was and still is one of my FAVORITE places on the planet.  I would often imagine living there.   Most of my thoughts and time was spent organizing trips to see the kids. It was MAGICAL!

Each time we would leave, my heart would be in turmoil. “What we are doing isn’t enough! Why are they dying? They are so young! It’s not fair.” My sweet friend told me just to talk to Jesus about it because she had the same questions…and no answers. Just that love compelled her to go back again and again to these places for the dying and destitute.

I moved back to America a few months later. We told the kids that I was going on an airplane ride and wouldn’t be coming back anymore. None of them seemed to really understand because none of them had ever been on an airplane. The little girls only asked if I would come back for their weddings one day.  They were no older than 10. Of course I said YES!!!!!! HOPE FOR THAT!!!!

As I adjusted back to life in America after living a VERY different life in Vietnam, my heart ached and stirred. I had questions I didn’t even know I had. It was a holy frustration. And the only things that bubbled up in my heart were “Someone has to help them! They are so young! There has to be more to the story than just telling them about Jesus and then they die. It’s not fair that they don’t get to live out their destinies!”  God will let those things stir until you are ready to stop and listen…ready to embrace His plan.

About 2 months after I returned to the states, my former pastors called me to let me know that they found out Jesus heals people.  Like He heals people. Today. Now. It’s really real. If I hadn’t been through the past 8 months of questions with God, I am not sure I would have been ready for that conversation. But sometimes your heart knows something your mind can’t understand. At the end of that conversation with my pastor, i knew that she was telling me the truth and I knew that Jesus wanted to heal those that the world has abandoned and left to die. Those that are diagnosed incurable.

So I set out to learn everything I could about healing and miracles and Jesus. He birthed something in me during that season in Vietnam and I made a decision to radically pursue Jesus and the gifts and healing FOR THOSE PEOPLE. And at the core of it all, my heart is to introduce people ..all people… to the love of an Amazing Father, to my best friend Jesus and to the comforter Holy Spirit.

Someone said to me a few months after I was back in America and I was looking back with alot of questions…..”Sometimes God will take you half way around the world to teach you how to hear His voice.” Yep… and birth a dream. And prove His love. And set you on the course of your destiny.

In 3.5 weeks, I depart for Thailand and Cambodia. We will be ministering to those the world has cast aside. The dying. The destitute. The lonely and broken. Our message is the extravagant love of a really good Father. SE Asia is a magical land that God is so in love with. They have a beautiful destiny. And I am excited to be part of it.

I would love for you to be part of this journey… it’s just one more chapter in this beautiful love story. Your support means EVERYTHING TO ME!  It is one thing to be called. It’s quite another to GO!

God is FAITHFUL!!!! He always supplies my every need! Thank you for all your support and love and prayers and prophetic words and encouragement! I am a lucky girl to have such amazing friends! Stay tuned here for updates and pictures:))

CIAO–Celeste

Friday Aug 15, $1200 is due to Global Celebrations to complete my trip costs.  

Friday Aug 15 $2000 is due for a plane ticket.

There are multiple ways to give:

Online donations:

https://globalcelebration.wufoo.com/forms/asia-2016-invoice/

(Please email me if you give online so I will know you gave)

PAYPAL: celestejohnson1109@gmail.com

CHECKS–please email me for address info

 

Fourth of July. Not my favorite holiday, but the food always seems to satisfy. BBQ. Potato salad. Burgers. Beer. Watermelon. A few of my favorite foods.

This year something interesting happened. All my fourth of July plans changed and I ended up going back to my hometown for a quiet weekend with my mom.  A little bummed because I felt like I was gonna miss all the “activity” of the holiday.  (I like to be BUSY! Slow pace makes me restless.) But somehow this year, going home felt appropriate.  I had a sneaking suspicion that something important was going to happen. And i was right:)

I am a city girl that was raised on a farm.  I don’t like to get dirty. I don’t like silent nights (Except for those darn crickets). I don’t like miles and miles of farm land and pine trees. I don’t like 1000% humidity. I don’t like gnats. I don’t like not having cable or wifi. (my mom hasn’t rolled with times) I don’t like talking about how “good” someones cotton field looks this year.  So much I don’t like….. can you tell? I am a CITY GIRRRRL!

I moved to the city in 2011….not looking back once. Not one ounce of regret in my decision. I found my people. My homeland.  Culture, face pace crazy traffic, excellent shopping, excellent food…the list goes on and on.

But somewhere in all of my city loving, my heart ached for “home”.  The place you go back to that smells like home.  Feels cozy like your oldest blanket. Food so good your soul sings. A pace so slow you can’t help but slow down and listen.  The place where tears are shed in the middle of the night. Conversations happen over morning coffee. Endless hours of Gilmore Girls and 80’s comedies (usually Steve Martin the lead).  The coziest of beds because the blankets are old and have been dried on the clothes line in the back yard. (All of this amazingness I realized after my departure in 2011 of course:))

I’ve lived abroad and I always had a home to come home to.  It’s the safe place where I got to just be me.  A place to fall apart as I adjusted back to life in America. Home.  Meals were cooked for me with love.  I was allowed to just go on and on and on with all the stories of people and places and God and what I was learning.

My mom moved out of our farm house in 2011. And renters moved in. ( I may have had a Goldilocks complex…someone was definitely sleeping in my room!) It was the weirdest feeling of not having a home to go home to.  A range of emotions every holiday.  I had no where to go that felt quite like home.  I have spent many holidays with many amazing friends who are like family. But the heart always longs for home. Family. Tradition.

So this fourth of July, I got to go home.  I was nervous.  I had not stepped foot into our old house since I left in 2011. The timing was so perfect.  My whole world shifted that weekend. I said goodbye to someone I love with my whole heart and went home. As I walked in the front door, a RUSH of emotion flooded me.

That weekend the most beautiful thing happened……. The very things I had run away from were bringing me so much comfort.  I encountered the slow paced, let it all go, just be you, cry your eyes out, it’s safe here, let’s make some good food and talk and snuggle and sleep late and drink lots of coffee and talk some more feeling.  And then some more.  Home happened.  I am crying as I write this because God has healed my heart so deeply in the past 5 years. And his gift to me was to go home again.  He gave me a deep longing for home, but He did it by asking me to go on a journey with Him to the city. To leave it all behind.

It’s weird to go back to a place you left once you are healed.  It’s like I had new eyes to see and experience everything.  (I kept saying “Everything seems so little. The counters are so short. Was it always this small? Or did I grow?”)

My home life as a child was hostile and broken and heavy.  It was a place I couldn’t wait to leave. And I found myself sad to leave this time. But with a hope that I have never experienced before. I know that holidays will be spent there now. It’s the place I dreamed my children would enjoy one day. It’s the “country retreat” we joke about.

It is a place. But it is also a person.  God has been so faithful to heal my heart. My mom’s heart. And mend our relationship.  Going home to spend time with her is a dream come true.  She is so good at home. She is so good at love.  She’s so good at so many things.  And I am so thankful that she makes a wonderful, cozy home and opens it with so much love! So much I took for granted because my heart was hurting and broken. And so much God has restored in both of us so that home can happen again. The way He designed it to be.

I pray you all experience HOME. And that God heals your hearts to enjoy home. And the people at home. And make beautiful memories.

I am still a city girl. That may never change. But going home is now an adventure and a retreat.  Good for the soul.

XO-Celestial

A few culinary treats from the weekend:)

 

We had the BESSSSSSST time in Trinidad.  The people were so warm and hospitable. The food was spicy and flavorful…. ok sometimes spicier than I could handle!  For Kyle it was NO PROBLEM AT ALL!! We spent most of the time hanging with the local church who welcomed us like family.  Our friend Blake was the guest speaker at a conference(he wrote “The Veil”…click here to order his book…. it will change your life!).  We were blessed to assist him and be his ministry team.  We worshiped with the locals (I haven’t encountered God that much in worship in a LONG time.), walked the streets of the neighborhood and prayed for so many people (lots of healing, encounters and one man met Jesus for the first time), ate SOOOOO MUCH AMAZING local food, drank an insane amount of coffee, played endless games of hide and seek with our hosts 4-year old son and laughed so hard every single day that our cheeks hurt!!!

I love you Trinidad! You were so magical! It was such a gift from God that we got to make beautiful memories with you!

Until next time T&T….Ciao!

It’s been a bit since I have sent an update and since I have been out on an international mission.  So I invite you into my little world to get a closer view of what’s been going on and to let you in on some exciting news…..

For a little over a year, I have been managing an upscale consignment boutique in Atlanta. I am super blessed to wake up every day and LOVE to go to work! If you know me, you know how much I love fashion. Every day I get to style women and love and encourage them.  And the favor of God in my job has blown me and everyone around me away!   I have had extreme financial breakthrough this year… debts cancelled and paid off! (Thank you Dave Ramsey!)

This past year, I taught a class on Missions at Bethel Atlanta School of Supernatural Ministry, did logistical planning of two international mission trips at BASSM, taught multiple fundraising workshops for missions at Bethel Atlanta, mentored BASSM students who are called to the nations, joined the missions board of Bethel Atlanta, moved to the most amazing riverside community that we call the “Garden of Eden” and traveled to Trinidad on a mission trip.  So as you can tell, it’s been a really amazing year!

I am so excited to announce that I will be travelling to Thailand, Burma and Cambodia on August 7 for two weeks. I will be joining Georgian and Winnie Bannov of Global Celebrations and their team to take joy and the love of the Father to the land that I love the most.  I have been asking Jesus for the next step of my journey and He said “My joy will be your strength”.  I felt so compelled to go with the Bannovs because they carry such extreme joy and love. And I really want to experience how they walk in that level of joy in a land that is so oppressed.

I would love for you to get involved in any way you feel led.  I would love your prayer! Your excitement! Your encouragement! Your prophetic words! Even your monetary support if you feel led to give! Your investment in this mission and the call on my life to take the Father’s love to the beautiful people of SE Asia will certainly not return void.  I pray for a hundred fold return for all that you sow into my life and this mission.

I have this fun game I play with Jesus…. I dream with Him about things I need for a trip , make a written list and then let Him provide extravagantly! And He always surprises me beyond belief. He has already been so extravagant this week in his provision. I wrote out a list of payment deadlines and then a wish list of items I need to travel and within two days someone gave $750 toward my first payment and someone else surprised me with a brand new fancy camera.  (It was on the list!) So I am super excited to see how He pours out his provision as I prepare for this strategic mission to the land that stole my heart a few years ago.

I invite you to come on this journey with me to Asia and into the Father’s heart as we love the beautiful people there.  I promise to keep you all updated! Stay tuned on Facebook and Brave New Girl Blog for updates and pictures. I am honored to know you all and call you friends and family! I love you all!

Blessings and abundance!!

Celeste  (Brave New Girl)

Click the link to watch the Global Celebrations video: (It’s really good!!)

http://www.globalcelebration.com/Southeast-Asia-2016-Tour

 

TO GIVE MONETARILY:

My personal Paypal: celestejohnson1109@gmail.com (if you do not want a tax receipt)

Online donations: https://globalcelebration.wufoo.com/forms/asia-2016-invoice/

(Please email me if you give online so I will know you gave)

If you would like to mail a check please email me for my address.

*A tax receipt will be provided for checks and online donations*

For those of you who like to see the numbers:))

Trip cost: $3000

Flight round trip: $1900

Cambodian Visa: $50

First payment of $1500 due Friday June 10 ($750 raised already)

Second payment of $1500 due July 8.

Flight purchase by July 1.

 

Just put it on repeat for the day……………… IT IS SO GOOD!

ok…just go buy the whole album!

#whathinderedlovewillonlybecomepartofthestory

Be brave today….even if it’s so scary….or you feel alone.  Bravery happens in the moments of hard choices….in the moments when you have to trust so deep it hurts.   You get to write your story with Love….and Love always wins:)

 

Ciao……BNG

 

 

 

This song has been on repeat for like 3 days now….And I have seen images in my head like a movie reel…of all the reasons I am here in Cambodia. Have a listen while you read:)

I came with the idea that this trip would look somewhat like a typical mission trip.   Full itinerary.  Lots of street ministry.  Maybe orphanage work.  Things that are so familiar to me.  Places I am so willing to go to.  Things I am willing to do without much thought.

So I do apologize if this is what you were expecting to see…:)

This time God decided to rip the face off of missions.  And teach me how to follow my peace.  To wake up everyday with excitement and expectation.  I am not sure if this mission was for the people here.  Or for me.

Jesus challenged me before I arrived here to say yes to every invitation I received. (not violating my core values..obviously!!)  So that is how I have lived the past few weeks.  For a planner, this has been a delightful challenge.  God said, “This trip is a giant RESET for you.  You being RESET back to your original design…to know My voice and to be lead by Me.”  Who knew I needed to be reset? I thought I was accomplishing alot in my little world.  But in all my planning and accomplishing stuff, I lost a sense of wonder.   Like it’s possible to plan so many good things that somehow God never gets to wow us.  So I decided to let Him wow me this summer….and for the rest of my life.  I was born for wonder.  I was designed to be astonished by Him.

Many of you I am sure were expecting nice pictures of sweet little orphans…….. or stories of girls being rescued in the middle of the night.  I have so little of that to report.   What I do have to share is that each day was filled with wonder and delight.  It was a bit like fluttering around…and it would make most people extremely uncomfortable.  Especially the planners with hourly goals.

I went for coffee and the power was out…….so i sat down to figure out how to get the address to another coffee shop.  I overheard a couple talking about the very place i was trying to get to.  So we chatted.  They invited me to dinner 🙂 I ended up moving into their house the next day.  Before I left for Asia, God showed me a very elaborate room I would stay in.   Which is the room I am currently staying in.  Yep…the same room I dreamed of.  He told me I would stay with a family while I was here…..I didn’t know ANYONE in Cambodia.  Now my life is so woven into this family, I can’t imagine life going on without them being part of it.  My friend saw a big crystal chandelier in a vision….and sent it to me the first night I came to dinner.  At dinner, I sat under a huge, crystal chandelier.  He showed me I would go to the beach while I was here….we went to the beach last week as a family:)  All of these came from saying yes….none of it was planned.

So from staying with the Canadians, I have just said yes to everything they invited me to.  I was invited to a house of prayer meeting to pray for Cambodia. I said yes. I was invited from there to coffee with a woman who had some questions about what God was showing her.  I said yes.  I was also invited to a prayer walk to pray for revival in the city.  I said yes.  At that meeting, I was invited for breakfast with all the leaders of the church in Phnom Pehn….like the leaders of ministries here….all at one table.  I said yes.  From that meeting, I rode home with a lady who has been here for 2 years.  She opened up and shared her heart with me…she even cried because of the things I was prophesying to her so touched her.  She invited me to lunch.  I said yes.  At lunch, she told me about all the things she see in the Spirit….and how she has no one to process it with.   And she cried because she read Blake Healy’s book The Veil and for the first time in her life felt understood. From that meeting I was invited to pray for a girl with AIDS. I said yes.  The daughters of the Canadians have each invited me into their worlds…coffee, treats, manicures, massages, shopping….and the sweetest conversations about God and love and dreams and beauty.  Conversations I will treasure for a lifetime.  All of which I said yes to.  Even going to get Pringles and Dr Pepper would often result in laughter and deep conversations and an exchange on a heavenly level.

Christine, the mom, told me this week how she had been praying God would teach her things….and then I arrived.  And the past few days just looking back, I am IN AWE of how God orchestrates things.  I am IN AWE of how extravagant He is.  I am fully convinced that He would bring me half way around the world just to live with the Canadians and share my sweet love story with them.  It would be enough.  He would bring me here to have coffee and manicures with a young woman dreaming of big things and questioning what love really is and how to hear God’s voice.  He would bring me here to encourage those fighting on the front lines every single day.  He would bring me here for one conversation that confirms and validates a woman’s encounters with Heaven.  He would bring me here to pray for one single person who had just been diagnosed with AIDS.  He would bring me here to RESET me and teach me how to follow His peace.  He is so extravagant that His ways amaze me.  He is never concerned with how much something costs….He already paid.  He would go to great lengths for one moment….for one person.

What if that’s what life with Him looks like?  Just saying yes to moments and letting Him overwhelm you.  Letting Him lead you into the most amazing circumstances that you couldn’t plan if you tried…..but you end up there because you said yes……and you’re there because He is with you and He is ready to move.  What if our wildest dreams are more in the yes to moments….as opposed to the hourly goals and endless planning?  Maybe that sort of living is just for some people.  I have decided this way is how I am designed.  I am designed to be lead by Him….to move with His Spirit……to follow Peace….to wake up everyday so aware of His presence that I would follow it anywhere.  It’s rather difficult and inconvenient to “stop for the one” when it’s not on the list for the day!

So…yeah…..It’s been the trip of a lifetime! It’s still happening!!! I have just done alot of family! God is so good at building family! I have prayed for alot of missionaries and cheered them on! I have helped people hear from God! I laughed alot and pointed out God in all of His wonder! I fell more in love with Jesus than I ever thought could be possible!

God has been talking to me already about coming back to this land…..being connected to the people here….being part of revival happening here in Cambodia! So pray for the missionaries to be awakened fully to the Kingdom….and ALL of His goodness! To know the fun side of God! To know the availability of Jesus and Heaven! Pray for hope and joy! God is moving in the land……….and I am so in awe that I get to be part of it!

Brave moments:

–sleeping in a hotel room where we killed 3 spiders the size of Africa!

–believing for total healing for someone with AIDS…even though I have never seen anyone healed of AIDS personally

–telling the world…and the church…I didn’t really do what you thought I would do here….But I did what He dreamed I would do

–not having a plan for the day

–not planning what I will “do”  upon my return to America…yep…don’t know the details yet

–spent incredible amounts of time with Jesus….

–Opened my heart to the possibility of falling in love again

–did an entire mission trip based on my dreams at night, encounters, words of knowledge from friends and saying yes

–almost 8 hours on the phone trying to change my flight and no cuss words escaped my mouth

–believing that there is not one single flaw in me…and I really am the Beloved…every single day

–deciding that the BRAND NEW season awaiting me in America is just a big blank canvas waiting to be painted with a beautiful masterpiece!

-choosing to not be offended when I don’t agree with someone’s theology or beliefs…talk about 10,000 opportunities to get offended…whoa!!!

So go be brave!:))

Ciao
Brave New Girl