How, then, can they call on the name of the one they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?

Thursday, October 24, 2013

NEWS

I'm so excited to announce that I'll be going to East Asia in January for my outreach! I can't post the exact location for security reasons. We'll be spending about 2 months there doing ministry in the city, and we'll also be going to the mountains to some unreached people groups/people who have never before heard the gospel. I am so excited to experience more of God's heart for this nation! YAY TEAM

Learnings

Hey hey. 
I write to you sitting outdoors in my jeans, sweater, scarf and boots. This the first cold day we've had for..ever. This remains as the only downside I have encountered living in Florida; I miss my favorite season - fall. I was way too excited about putting on my warm things this morning like you don't even know. 
Anyway, I just thought I'd share with you some nuggets from last week's teaching. We watched Dean Sherman's video series on Ministry. It really wrecked me. There were so many revelations that came from his teaching and as I look over my notes I'm just wrecked all over again. 

He defined ministry as what God does through you by his Spirit. He said if you aren't serving, by definition you aren't ministering.
Isaiah 42:1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...
He talked about the culture in the church today that sometimes says "Holy Spirit fall in this room" and asks for the presence of the Holy Spirit just for us to feel it and see that as enough.
 Jesus was filled with the spirit to preach good news to the poor, to heal the sick, to free the captives. The Holy Spirit is not a  presence we should merely sit in and enjoy for ourselves, but use to enable the work of God to happen through us. 

He went on to talk about gifts and said "gifts are for serving. A gift isn’t a gift unless you’ve given it away. If you haven’t given it away, it’s a possession. May you never know what gifts you have and what you are unless you intend to utilize it." He talked about gifts and each gift as a part of the body of Christ. 

That week was such a great challenge to me and I'm still processing and taking in everything that was said. Ugh. So good. 

Sorry for the rambly feel of this post. I hope it can encourage you in some way or at least make a little sense. 
I hope you, reading this, are doing well. If you would like to contact me, you can do so via facebook or email at larakaystricks@gmail.com. I'd love to connect with you and feel free to let me know if there is anything you would like prayer for, I would love to pray for you! 

Much love. 

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Little blurb.

So we're coming up on the end of the second week here. It is so good to be back.
The first week we learned about decision making and leadership. John Bills is such a great teacher and there is always so much to learn from his week! This week we've been learning about the essentials of the gospel. We are so blessed with amazing teachers, and the wealth of knowledge of the Bible that Al McBryan has just blows my mind every time. I have loved learning about the gospel and diving into scripture.
In the SOMD we are required to read the Old Testament. It seems like a lot when you think about it, but I am really loving going through the stories chronologically and seeing how the story unfolds altogether. So anyway, that's just a little nugget of how things are going here. Catch y'all later.