So close . . .

Week four has begun at the University of Tennessee. I am just settling in to the new schedule and planning out what this semester will look like. Never did I ever imagine that on top of my weekly homework, the 4th week of my last semester in college would include a medical school interview! I only completed my secondary application for the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine about 3 weeks ago. I had just begun to relax knowing all my applications were finished when I received a call inviting me to interview with them! One year ago I was just deciding to follow God on this path, and honestly, I had little faith I would be where I am today. God's amazing grace has so guided me this past year I stand in awe of what all He has done! So, for now, I am preparing for a day-long interview on Thursday February 2nd. Please join me in praying that God would receive all the glory for whatever comes of this. Please pray that I will abide in Him for everything I need up to and at the interview. It is no longer I who live but Christ in me, and I am confident that He who began this good work in me is faithful to complete it!

And we Beheld. HIS. GLORY!

I just returned from Passion 2012 in the Georgia Dome. It was one of those things that I had heard about and honestly only wanted to go because I knew John Piper AND Beth Moore would be speaking. I had only mentioned to my sister Julie how I would like to go, but had neither the resources to do so, nor was I around our college group enough to let our leader know I wanted to go. But I guess God wanted me there, because I ended up on the list and Monday afternoon I left with 23 others from our church to head to Atlanta.

We arrived a little late but walking into the dome and seeing 45,000 people worship God was breath-taking! I remember thinking, "Oh my goodness, I wonder if this is what Heaven is going to be like?" That first night just blew me away with the bigness of this conference. The crazy thing is that from 45,000 people they were able to break us up in to community groups of a few thousand and from there groups of 8. In these small groups we were able to discuss and digest what we learned in the main sessions and we could pray for each other and be prayed for.

That night we arrived back at our hotel about 1:30 am. We were all already exhausted. But morning came rather soon and on 4 hours of sleep we began our first full day of the conference. That morning Beth Moore spoke. It was my first time hearing her in person. She spoke on the woman with the issue of blood who touch the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed. Her point was that we all have uncomfortable, ugly, dirty secrets that we need healing from, and that Jesus knows how dirty we are and He still heals us, completely. That afternoon, we learned of the overwhelming 27 million people trapped in slavery today. That's more than ever before. Loui set the goal for us to raise 1 million dollars to fund operations to stop human trafficking. That works out to roughly $22 a person. He said "instead of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, we are taking from the poor and giving to the the poorest."

I loved hearing speaker after speaker preach truth, straight from the Bible, without watering it down. The true gospel was preached, the point was made that life is only about God and when we focus on knowing and loving Him above all else everything else pales in comparison, and that the real answer to human trafficking is discipleship; that we have to take what we learned there back to our campuses. The last lesson before we left, Loui gave us Eph 6:19,20. Its were Paul is in prison and he has just told the church to put on the armor of God. He then goes on the say," pray for me also, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Loui implored us not look forward as though our life starts when we finish college or when we do whatever, God has a purpose for us now, and it is to glorify Him through sharing the gospel with every opportunity and with all boldness.

Never before have I witnessed such true worship of God. Never before have I felt the presence of God so strongly that even a worker in the conference center stopped someone and asked what was going on because she felt something in her chest she had never felt before. She came to Christ because the presence of God was in that place! As a child I used to pray for revival in this nation. I knew that America was tanking and that it is very possible that Jesus will come back very soon. But I used to pray that we would have at least one more great revival in this nation. Yet, being in college and seeing how fake so many 'Christians' are I had grown cold and lost faith that God could do much of anything with this generation.

Yet, this week, I saw the power of God shine forth from those same college students. God showed up, and made all the difference! The worship that was experienced there was as close to reckless abandonment of self I have ever known. We sang together over and over that we surrender ourselves completely to His will and His way. His name was lifted high and made known in a way I never thought possible. Revival is not out of reach. God is at work among the college students of America and I would not be surprised if revival broke out across the country from what He has done!

Oh, and our goal to raise 1 million dollars to stop human trafficking, we smashed it! Our grand total was a little over 3 million! But more than that, God has started a fire in all of us to take action. We will raise awareness but if it doesn't produce action then it's in vain. We now know in our hearts, not just our heads, that God is powerful and He has a job for us, now. He has something for each of us to do right now, right where we are, and we must obey. I know God has rejuvenated and revived me this week. He has given me the the fire to start this semester and make a difference for Him.

I can't wait to see what God does with this, because I know it's going to be big! So, please join me in praying. Pray for an end to human trafficking, join with us to fight this, pray for revival in this nation, believing that it can happen. I'm adding a few links were you can see what God has done at passion and one were you can take a survey to see how many slaves had to work to make the things you use everyday. I would encourage you to do this and then take action to demand suppliers buy slave-free products.