The Power of Giving

Announcement!!!!!!!!!!!: For those who don’t already know: I am doing my outreach in Costa Rica for the month of April and in Guatemala for the month of May! I am so excited! Also, this weekend (March 1 +) I will be in Nicaragua doing a mini-outreach. I will let you know how that goesJ.

 

This is an entry in my new journal that I want to share with everyone. I know it’s long, but I urge you to read it all to be encouraged by the swell things God is doing,

 

February 20, 2008

            This journal in itself is a testimony to the greatness of God. Now I will use it to record all (or as much as I can) of the amazing things I see him doing. He blew me away today. The day started off with my alone time with him. He spoke to me about having hope in his unfailing love (Psalm 33). He showed me that there is no better way to live my life than in his will because his unfailing love does what is very best for me. I mean, how could I go wrong with unfailing, selfless, agape love? His love is the path I will walk along forever. After that there was a time of base intercession. God spoke to many people and common themes that were noticed were how he desires that we have unity, selfless love for each other, and one direction. That we have passion like a fire and that fire would consume anything that stands between him and us (personally). Someone had a special word for just the DTS that God desires for us to be holy. This is something that has also been on my heart for the DTS. We had a passionate time of prayer, and it was apparent that he was working in hearts. I did not see this coming at all, but God spoke something directly to my heart. He said, “I have made you to be a leader. You have let fear and feelings of inferiority back into your heart and they have kept you from this calling. Let my perfect love cast out all fear and make your heart holy. Don’t worry what other people are thinking about you; what I think about you is what matters. Rise up, Forerunner!” This is a powerful word from God, but I am taking it to heart, ready to rise up and let him use me. I think that he has designed me for this role, in some ways, but I also must develop into it through obedience, discipline, and practice.

            I am still in amazement of the next thing that happened. Giacomo, the base leader, asked everyone in the DTS to go to their rooms and ask God what 2 things do they have that they are supposed to give away, and to who. I started thinking and praying as I walked to my house, asking God what I should give. As soon as I stepped into my room and I saw my bag of makeup, I knew. My friend Briana had mysteriously lost her makeup this morning and now God was asking me to give mine to her. I did not have to spend any time struggling with this in my heart because I know that laying down this right would bring me freedom. I felt I also needed to gather all the money I had in my room to give to one of the girls in my room along with my blow dryer and a pair of earrings. I put all these items in a bag and returned to class. We began. Someone would stand in the middle of the circle and give up two or more things that they love. They would lay their hands one the person they were giving to and pray for them. In turn, the person would receive the gift with a thankful heart then pray a blessing on the giver. There were simple things, such as shirts, that were given and really blessed people. There were also people giving up some of their bigger possessions like laptops, cameras, and ipods to people that needed it more than them. I could see that they were being liberated from their bond to material possessions and being filled with joy as they gave in obedience to God. God truly multiplied our blessings trough this. I felt like the little boy who gave his little lunch of fish and bread to feed over 5, 000 people. I had no regrets as I handed over my makeup to my friend who had tears in her eyes as she said, “I know how much this means to you.”

            I was blessed with some very special things. First of all, I was given this journal that I am writing in from my friend Mark. He told me, “I want you to remember all the awesome things God is doing in your life. Then I was given a gold colored bracelet from one of the staff leaders, Jesse… “Because it is pretty, and so are you.” Also, my friend Suzanne gave me a necklace of hers that I really like. Though I believe that all these gifts are from God, the next two gifts that I received might as well been handed to me by his very own hand. Another staff leader, Loly, gave me a colorful (mostly pink) died bag that she got during her DTS outreach in Guatemala. She said it always reminds her of what God did on her outreach and the beautiful country that she fell in love with. This touched me right at the heart because I don’t believe that she even knew that Guatemala is a country that God put on my heart years ago. Now he is fulfilling that dream by bringing me there for outreach this May. This was yet another whisper from God confirming that Guatemala is a place he wants me to reach for him!

            When I was sure that there must not be anything else for God to give me, he responded to a desire of my heart. I had been asking God since the “Devine Plumbline” teaching (week 3) to give me a bracelet to symbolize the way he has saved me and healed my soul. I asked him for one that I could have for my whole life to use to tell people my story. I asked him to give it to me directly instead of me going out to find one because I wanted it to have the special value that only something that God handpicks can have (like me!). I asked that it would already contain someone’s story. So… as we gathered together a girl named Karla, from Bolivia, entered the center of the giving circle. I laughed as she expressively explained about a box of special things she has hidden at home so that her sister can’t find them and use them. There was one bracelet, though, that was her favorite (it’s silver with black and silver heart charms) that she was so worried about her sister using that she brought it with her. After saying this, she looked straight at me and said, “Anna, this is for you”. I was so overwhelmed. She said, “This bracelet is valuable to me, but you are so much more valuable to God.” It was so amazing to me that even though she is not one of the girls that I am closest with, she is someone who’s story I respect greatly and God was able to speak to her and tell her that I was the one who needed that bracelet.

            The giving continued and as we each let go and received in the circle, we all became intertwined and connected in spirit. Just like God had spoken to us about in the morning, we became united and our hearts burned with love for each other. Our passion for Christ was a wildfire, consuming everything the things that stood between him and us. One of the reasons that we did this exercise was because we still needed $3, 000 to be paid for everyone’s lecture phase fees to be covered. Somehow, by the end of our time of giving, the $3, 000 was not only covered, but it was exceeded. I don’t know everything about what people had to give up to make this happen, but I do know that my friend from Germany took her entire savings that her parents had put away for her college education and handed it over to God. She responded to his call to give a tenth of that today.

            So many more things came out of this. People’s needs were being met left and right. One truly beautiful thing that happened was God brought two enemies together through forgiveness into friendship. After all of this, when we gathered for lunch, everyone could not stop talking about God’s generosity and giving praise to him for his wonders. I said to one friend of mine, “Whenever I read in the book of Acts about how everyone in the early Church was giving and no one was ever without what they needed, I think: Why isn’t the Church like that today? Now I have seen with my own eyes how this can happen. I feel like the early Church, I want to live like this for the rest of my life. This is what community is about.”

            This afternoon I headed to the prayer room to reflect on this day and the goodness of God. As I walked I thought, “I really with someone could have prayed for me this morning that I would cast ALL fear out of my heart and be the leader (and kind of leader) that God wants me to be.” I opened the door to the prayer room and there was my friend Lisa, sitting on the couch. She smiled and said, “Hi Anna! What are you doing?” “Oh, just coming to pray a little.” “Well that’s what I’m doing too. Do you want prayer for anything?” God provided almost instantaneously! Together, we praised God for who he is and what he is doing. We prayed for each other, lifting   the things on our hearts up to God. J