Updates and Prayer Requests...

Okay now for some info about what has been going on with my Russia trip and what will be going on this summer.

Russia update:

I will be spending this coming fall semester in Russia working with an IMB missionary team and attending a local university.  I am beyond excited about this and can hardly wait for August to get here! 

I just heard from the university today and they are preparing the paperwork for my visa!! I have to fill out some more paperwork and send a few things to the IMB travel agent so they can continue working on my visa.  As soon as this is taken care of, I can focus more on getting what I will need and working more on learning some Russian with Rosetta Stone.

Prayer Requests:

That the visa process would go smoothly and quickly

Finances (I’m over half way done with fundraising!  But still have a little over $1000 needed)

General preparations

Summer youth update:

This summer, I will be the youth leader for First Baptist Church in Booker, TX.  I am both incredibly excited and extremely nervous about this!  I have a big heart for jr. high and high school students, and seeing God work in their lives brings me more joy than I can even begin to express.  I have worked as a youth intern the previous two summers and sponsored/helped with more events and trips than I could even begin to count.  So I do have a little bit of experience.  However, it will definitely be different being the one in charge and having to plan every detail of the summer when I don’t know any of the kids or how things usually go in this church an youth group.  Also, teaching is definitely not a gift of mine!  I can organize and take care of administrative details with the best of ‘em, but teaching?  Not something I have ever been able excel at!  I am also not a naturally authoritative person.   Over all, being the sole youth leader is not something I am comfortable with at all!

But, when did God say that following Him would be easy?  I think it is actually a good thing that I’m not comfortable with this and know that I am not qualified for this job.  This way I will have to depend on my Lord for everything, and when He does move in mighty ways in these kids’ lives, I’ll know it was not because of anything I did on my own.

I already know God has some HUGE plans for this summer!  I am fairly certain that He is leading me to teach a pretty deep bible study based on a book I’ve recently read called Wrestling Prayer by Eric and Leslie Ludy.  This study is much deeper than almost anything I have seen anyone try to go through with jr. high and high school students.  Actually, this book is focused on a deeper level of Christianity than the majority of adult Christians in America ever experience.  Over the past year or so, God has been revealing to me how the version of Christianity seen in America is weak, selfish, and void of the vast majority of the power and … that God has made available for those who will truly follow after Him whole-heartedly.  While, I am nervous about how well this study will go over, how well I will be able to teach it, and if the youth will be able to understand and implement these lessons,  I cannot take everything I have been learning over the past year and take an easier route and encourage this selfish and weak version of Christianity.   

Prayer Requests:

God will be preparing the youth for what He wants to teach them through the summer

God will raise up some mighty warriors in this group

I will be able to connect with the kids right away

I will be attentive to what God wants me to plan and do through the summer

My deepest desire is to be named among my King's Company of Heroes!

Well Hello!
 I am finally giving in to peer pressure and starting a blog to help keep everyone updated on my journey to Russia this Fall.  I decided to start this a little early to also include the many adventures I'm sure will come with spending another summer working with Jr. High and High School students. :)  This summer I will be the youth leader for First Baptist Church in Booker, TX.  I'll explain more about that later though. I will be posting prayer requests and updates regularly(hopefully!) both for this summer with my students at Booker and as I get ready to go and spend the Fall semester serving in Russia.
For now, however, I want to share about what is truly the most important and deepest desire of my heart and share a little of the background information that is driving me on this journey.  The past year of my life has been an incredibly thrilling journey.  For now that journey has led me to a period of realigning my priorities and falling ever deeper in love with my God and King.  Now, I am definitely not a writer!  So, in order to not take away from the grandeur of what I have learned through this journey, I am going to use a quote from a book that God has used to stir my heart in truly awe-inspiring ways to begin explaining where my heart is.

   “Elijah and Samson were real-life men, empowered and enable by the Spirit of Almighty God. And just as they were strengthened for the real-life battles of their day, we are made mighty for the real-life battles of our day.  Our battles may not demand the outrunning of chariots and the carrying away of city gates, but they do demand a supernatural enablement.
            And yet there is a vast shortage of believers who simply believe with childlike faith that God even desires to build such superheroes in our modern day.  We have far more faith in the power of the enemy to defeat us than we do in the power of our God to deliver us, change us, empower us, and demonstrate His mighty nature in and through us.
            I, for one, believe.  And I am throwing my hat in the ring, pushing all my chips onto the table.  I refuse to have a form of godliness that denies the power thereof.  I want the real thing, not some trumped-up show of emotion, not some Christian light show, not some sugarcoated sermon about God loving me still even though I am covered in filth and once again trounced under the feet of my enemies.  I want the ancient power that coursed through the veins of Joshua, the ancient strength that stirred within the soul of Gideon, the ancient passion that overcame Josiah, and the ancient courage that gushed forth from the soul of Daniel.
            I don’t know about you, but I refuse to accept our modern rendition of Christian mediocrity as God’s best for His church.  I refuse to accept this paltry show of human love, this pitiful wheeze of hope, and this candy coated defeat as the real thing.
            I read the Bible and my soul is stirred.  I see men who stood alone in their age, crying for the people of God to once again return to the real thing.  I see women who gave themselves as broken bread and poured out wine for their beloved King, believers who had a substance, a fire, a power, a courage, and a love wholly different than that which is showcased today by our modern troubadours of the gospel.
            And this is why my soul burns for the Order of the Mighties, the Company of Heroes, God’s Gibborim to once again arise.  Countless millions of so-called Christians are frittering their lives away in a powerless, defeated, miserable wilderness of half-doubts, sinful bondage, and paralyzing fears.  They have God, but they only have the crumbs of His person.  They have life, but it’s a life upon a hospital bed, intravenously being maintained by selfish consumption and fleshly addictions.
            I refuse this hollow form of life and godliness.  I yearn for something more, something better, something real.
            For me, I long to be included on Christ’s list.  I long to have a name among the Mighties.  I esteem this as the most worthwhile use of my life on this Earth.  I have forsaken all for my King’s kingdom and His glory.  And in so doing, I have found the God of the Bible taking form within my soul.  That ancient strength, that ancient power, that ancient passion, and that ancient courage are beginning to emblazon themselves upon my inner [woman].”
                                                     - Wrestling Prayer by Eric and Leslie Ludy

This has been a HUGE burden on my heart lately. I am drawing ever nearer to my King, and He is revealing His power to me.   My heart is breaking for what I’ve seen around me.  The monster of mediocrity has taken a great hold on the Christians of our generation.  This is an evil that is so difficult to fight, because those caught up in it are completely content with what they have because they don’t know what they are missing.  Last night, my heart was so heavy for our generation.
This is part of my prayer time a few weeks ago…

I don’t even know where to begin.  I have been feeling so great lately.  I could feel You strengthening me and loving me deeply.  But I feel like I have just dropped 10 stories from where I was.  I am suddenly feeling waves of doubt (in myself), despair (for those around me), and disappointment (in how apathetic and weak I have been all these years).  I don’t know what to do.  I know You still love me and want to use me (despite my weakness), but how do I fight off feelings of guilt for all the years I gave You the bare minimum?  I know You are all-powerful, but I am struggling to see how to fight this monster of apathetic, selfish, and weak form of Christianity that has so many people around me trapped.  It is breaking my heart to see so many so-called Christians only experiencing the ocean of Your love from standing ankle deep at the shore, and being content and even happy with that.  Nearly everyone I see is living in Christian mediocrity while avidly pursuing the things of this world to satisfy them.  Almost no one is desperately running after You whole-heartedly.  This is not the norm of American Christian culture.  A weak, ritualistic, “I’ll-fit-it-in-when-I-have-some-time” kind of faith that is most often expressed only because it’s what is expected is the norm.  I lived this way for so long, but now I want nothing more than to know You and make You known.  This is such a freeing and empowering feeling. I want everyone to feel this strength and love.  You have SO much more in store for Your followers than we can ever come close to imagining.  There truly is nothing that compares to Your embrace!  But how do we even begin to fight this mass mediocrity?

The answer I received was simple but powerful:  “Pray”

So, this was and is my prayer for this generation:
Lord, I am praying for a great revival!  I pray that you would build up your mighty warriors in this generation to fight to the death against this weak cultural Christianity that has taken so many of our generation astray.  You have made so much more power and strength available to us than we can possibly imagine.  Lord, be building up warriors who will begin to wield that power for Your glory.  Move in such a mighty way in our hearts that only You will get the glory.  I pray that you would call Your Mighties into battle and we would no longer be content with standing on the side lines.  I pray that we would desperately and whole-heartedly want the real thing.  Raise up Your Company of Heroes, Lord, so that this mediocrity can be defeated and we can be a part of revealing Your glory to the nations.


 Do you want more than a mediocure faith?  Will you give up everything, deny your self and any and every hold your flesh has on you, and seek the heart of Christ with all that you are? 

Above all else, no matter what this blog becomes and no matter where I end up in years to come, my desire is to live a life worthy of being named among God's Mighties.  I am striving to know the heart of my King and follow Him without the slightest reservation or hesitation. 

With that said, I pray that you will see this blog as a way for you to join in the fight and pray about the work God is doing around and through me, but I also hope this will be an encouragement to you to begin or continue your journey to joining the King's Company of Heroes!

How was that for an opening post!?!  FYI, It is quite likely that I will never type that much in 1 post ever again! haha 

In Christ,
Rachel
1 Corinthians 15:58