Crisis Response International Traning in Virginia

Recently Crisis Response International (CRI) conducted training in Triangle Virgina at Prince William State Forest Park. Six people landed in Virgina at the end of June in order to start planing for the training. I had the honor of being on of the six people that labored in preparation for the training. During the training I had the immense joy of helping to run the training's day to day operations and provide logistical support for the training. It was a lot of work but I would not trade it for anything. I really enjoyed working with the team that came to Virgina in June as well as the the team that came from Kansas City to help the week of the training. Following are some pictures from our training:

Grace Grace!

I love meditating through Ephesians 1.
Verses 3-6: blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His GRACE, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
It was Grace that Jesus Christ died for us and makes us acceptable to the Father for eternal life.
Jesus cried in the Garden before His crucifixion, "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am that they may behold My Glory which You have given Me..........
This desire of Jesus is manifested in the Cross which was the sacrifice of the Godhead for us and because of this we have GRACE. Grace to live our lives for Him the author and perfecter of our Faith.

Are you ready!

Jesus is asking His bride the Church if she is ready.
"Are you ready my sister my bride, are you ready for I am surely coming back for a mature and spotless bride. are you ready I am getting ready to refine my bride in America. are you ready, are your ready, are you ready. I am looking for my bride to rise up to her full destinly to know who she is, to walk into my throne room as a Bride not as a begger and not as a widdow. I am ready are you ready. I am ready to love you and welcoming you. Come up her my sister my bride. I desire that my bride in America would get past all the distractions and worries of life and be with me where I am to behold my glory."

Fireworks over DC Mall

The following clip is of the fireworks over Washington DC with the Washington Memorial to the left.

4th of July in DC

I had the amazing privilege to meet up with friends that I met in the Army and spend 4 days in Washington DC for the 4th of July!  In the picture from left to right is, me (Christina), Kassi (in the back), Angel and Angelee in the front. We are at a school in Columbia Heights in DC that over looks the mall and the fire works.

The following picture is Angel, Angelee and myself in front of the White House.

What is true Humility?

In Romans 3:23 it says, 'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god,' (NKJ). How can we fall short of something that we never had or were never destined to take part in?
The truth is that we are destined to share in God's Glory!
Yes it does say in Isaiah 42:8 'I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another.' But who are we are we another? or are we part of the body of Christ. (1Cor 12:12 and following verses)
John 17:22, Jesus prayed for us saying to the Father, 'And the glory which you gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.'
Why do we find the need to put ourselves down to prove we are humble?
What is true humility? Could it be that we have it wrong?
Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible and he wrote about himself that, 'Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth,' Numbers 12:3.
Could it be that humility is simply thinking rightly about oneself?
Is it God that puts us down and makes us feel worthless or is it a false religious spirit?
If you were a painter and you created a painting, and someone comes up and criticizes your painting saying it is horrible and the painting is worth nothing. How would this make you feel as the creator of this painting. How do we think God feels when we put ourselves or others down in the name of humility saying that we are nothing or not capable of anything.

Decide

I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with someone that I respect, like a mentor. He was bold enough to tell me that he thought I had a control issue. I am thankful for people in my life that can speak the truth in love even it it does hurt initially. What he suggested was that I read and study through Ephesians.
I have enjoyed the beginning of my journey into the first chapter of Ephesians, so much so that I have not been able to make it past the 8th verse. In fact I have been captivated by Ephesians 1:5 in the New Living Translation; "God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. this is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure." In fact if I was completely honest I would say that I really can not get past the fact that 'God decided.'
This is an amazing thing because God, the created of the universe, the one with all wisdom and power and sovereignty, not only made a decisive discussion but that He shares this decision with us, this is vulnerability.
When in the past I have been in leadership positions I would not make decisive discussions or if I did I would not share them because than I would be bound by my word.
The fact that God decided (and shares His decision)in advance to adopt me into His own family brings my heart great comfort and joy, before I did anything wrong or right, when I was just a thought in God's imagination He decided on behalf of me.

Blogging

Were do I start.........
mmmmmmmm......
I have a desire to communicate and tell my friends and family what is going on in my life but............ I just never know what to write.......
I would rather sit across the table from you and hear your heart and share mine. I much rather talk in person so I can see your facial expressions and you can see mine and hear my voice inflection.
Communication is so much more than words on a computer screen.
I wish I had the time and energy to communicate with everyone that I care about more regularly to sit across the table and see your face and hear your voice.
Than there is the question of what do I write? and what if I spel something wrong or what if my grammar is not very good and you do not understand what I am saying.
So all in all my desire is to stay in touch with so many but I just never know what to say and how to say it. So here is the begging of my attempts at being better about updating my blog.
Thank you!

First Day of Spring Kansas City, MO

St. Patrick's Day Parade in Kansas City, MO

Haiti

For all of you that had a hand in supporting me on my trip to Haiti, Thank You!!! Thank you for your prayers and financial support.
I have been back for a while but the images and the experience is still very much alive in me.
It has taken me a while to process what happened and what the Lord did during this trip.
First of all the Lord opened my eyes to understand the simple things in life that really matter, like a place to sleep, clean water and food to eat. Second the Lord gave me a deep appreciation for the people of Haiti, they are so resultant. They have nothing, so they take nothing for granted. They are some of the most grateful people I have ever met.
While down there I worked primary in a Hospital were the patents lived outside in tents because of the damage to the hospital caused by the earthquake. I helped to transport patients from outside in the tents to the operating room on the third floor for surgery.
I also had the opportunity to say with an orphanage in Leogan for two days. This orphanage lost everything. Out team stayed in tents and helped the process of moving ruble, so that the orphanage can be rebuilt. We also got to know and minister to some of the 43 girls that lived in a large one room tent.
Mostly though I feel the Lord has given me a burden to pray for my nation. I have a greater burden to give myself wholeheartedly to studying the word of God to understand the day and hour that we live in as a church and a nation.
I have also have a greater desire to see individuals, families, towns and nations rebuilt on Kingdom principles. I desire to see people come to a saving knowledge of Christ and be healed up and trained up to serve Him wholeheartedly.