"In Christ all will be made ALIVE." I cor. 15:22It has been a while since I last blogged and I feel that so much has happened! The Lord has really been doing so much in my life. So much is going on all the time; everyday there is an abundance of things i am learning and experiencing here. so this week i began asking the Lord to show me what he is doing in all these things, specifically in my heart. the thing i felt him say is that in this season my heart is coming ALIVE! (which is really exciting :) I feel that in this season so much is being revealed in me and i am really stepping into the things i am created to be. learning to love the things the Father has given me. allowing Jesus to delight in who i am and not what i do. really running with him, fully trusting him to take me to the places he has for me! Hallelujah!
There is a group of us who spend our nights on the weekends praying and worshipping in the prayer shack in our backyard. It has been so sweet to really press into God’s presence and to experience more and more of the Living God! One night as we were praying I was looking at some pictures that are hanging on the wall of the prayer shack of kids in Masi who are apart of the Vulnerable Children program. All of a sudden my heart was flooded with emotion and I began crying. That night the Lord really poured out his heart over me for the children of Africa, specifically in Masi. I mourned the injustice of the things these kids face everyday. So many children are growing up without fathers and/or mothers. Disease, neglect, abuse, addiction, fear, abandonment and hopelessness plague the families of Masi. Children face everyday things I could never imagine the children I know from home facing even on one occasion. I mourned that night, but God also began stirring my heart. He gave me Ezekial 37 where God calls Ezekial to prophecy life over the pile of bones, and as he does the dry bones come to life, and come together in a “vast army.” I felt God calling me to prophesy over these children, prophesying life, hope, destiny over them. Calling out to each child by name because as each was born God saw them and dreamed extravagant dreams over them. He still longs for those dreams to come to pass, he longs for each child to live out their glorious destiny. Although they are over looked in this world and are oppressed by the injustices of society, the Father sees them and the great Rescuer comes to break their chains. So I feel that he is asking me to stand in the gap and to cry out for each child to come and step into their destinies…calling them to be the generation that seeks the face of God. (Psalm 24:6). Some of the things that I feel God has been stirring up in me since being here at CPx is a desire to see children raised up to know God, to love him and to hear his voice. And a longing to see families restored…Father’s returning to their children, mother’s healed and set free, and children being loved, treasured and raised up! This is so near to God’s heart!
Since that night in the prayer room a week ago, I have been praying over the children of Masi, specifically the children in the V.C. program. I have a list of all the households and each of the children’s names. I have been taking each household and praying for the children by name. As I have been praying the Lord has given me words and dreams that he has over each child, and I have been speaking those words over the kids. Here is a fun story about one of the children I prayed over:
Every Friday we have a kids club where we gather the Vulnerable Children program. i was praying over one of the households that i have never met...i prayed over a little 10 year old girl named Lucy. I felt the Lord speaking several things over her. That afternoon in masi we were going around to the households gathering the children for the kids club. one of the households i went to gather from was Lucy's! she was pretty quiet and was not opening up to me at first. but as we were walking she reached up and touched my clip (my friend brooke made me some hair clips that i could wear and then give away to little girls in masi) ...so i pulled the clip out of my hair and put it in hers. she was so excited! i told her that i wanted to give this to her but she had to promise to remember a few things everytime she wore it. i told her when she wears it she must tell herself 1.) I am beautiful! 2.) God loves me! 3.) and whitney loves me too! her face lit up...and her walls started to come down. i then told her that earlier that day i had been praying over some kids from the vulnerable children progam and she was one of them. i then told her that God had told me that he created her to be a light in this world. that where there was bad things and darkness, God had made her to bring light and love to those places. she got so excited and said "my name means light!" i got to share with her some more about God's heart for her. it really felt that she understood that God had spoken these things! it felt so significant. it was seriously one of the sweetest moments i have had in masi so far. Praise God! He loves his children!
There is a group of us who spend our nights on the weekends praying and worshipping in the prayer shack in our backyard. It has been so sweet to really press into God’s presence and to experience more and more of the Living God! One night as we were praying I was looking at some pictures that are hanging on the wall of the prayer shack of kids in Masi who are apart of the Vulnerable Children program. All of a sudden my heart was flooded with emotion and I began crying. That night the Lord really poured out his heart over me for the children of Africa, specifically in Masi. I mourned the injustice of the things these kids face everyday. So many children are growing up without fathers and/or mothers. Disease, neglect, abuse, addiction, fear, abandonment and hopelessness plague the families of Masi. Children face everyday things I could never imagine the children I know from home facing even on one occasion. I mourned that night, but God also began stirring my heart. He gave me Ezekial 37 where God calls Ezekial to prophecy life over the pile of bones, and as he does the dry bones come to life, and come together in a “vast army.” I felt God calling me to prophesy over these children, prophesying life, hope, destiny over them. Calling out to each child by name because as each was born God saw them and dreamed extravagant dreams over them. He still longs for those dreams to come to pass, he longs for each child to live out their glorious destiny. Although they are over looked in this world and are oppressed by the injustices of society, the Father sees them and the great Rescuer comes to break their chains. So I feel that he is asking me to stand in the gap and to cry out for each child to come and step into their destinies…calling them to be the generation that seeks the face of God. (Psalm 24:6). Some of the things that I feel God has been stirring up in me since being here at CPx is a desire to see children raised up to know God, to love him and to hear his voice. And a longing to see families restored…Father’s returning to their children, mother’s healed and set free, and children being loved, treasured and raised up! This is so near to God’s heart!
Since that night in the prayer room a week ago, I have been praying over the children of Masi, specifically the children in the V.C. program. I have a list of all the households and each of the children’s names. I have been taking each household and praying for the children by name. As I have been praying the Lord has given me words and dreams that he has over each child, and I have been speaking those words over the kids. Here is a fun story about one of the children I prayed over:
Every Friday we have a kids club where we gather the Vulnerable Children program. i was praying over one of the households that i have never met...i prayed over a little 10 year old girl named Lucy. I felt the Lord speaking several things over her. That afternoon in masi we were going around to the households gathering the children for the kids club. one of the households i went to gather from was Lucy's! she was pretty quiet and was not opening up to me at first. but as we were walking she reached up and touched my clip (my friend brooke made me some hair clips that i could wear and then give away to little girls in masi) ...so i pulled the clip out of my hair and put it in hers. she was so excited! i told her that i wanted to give this to her but she had to promise to remember a few things everytime she wore it. i told her when she wears it she must tell herself 1.) I am beautiful! 2.) God loves me! 3.) and whitney loves me too! her face lit up...and her walls started to come down. i then told her that earlier that day i had been praying over some kids from the vulnerable children progam and she was one of them. i then told her that God had told me that he created her to be a light in this world. that where there was bad things and darkness, God had made her to bring light and love to those places. she got so excited and said "my name means light!" i got to share with her some more about God's heart for her. it really felt that she understood that God had spoken these things! it felt so significant. it was seriously one of the sweetest moments i have had in masi so far. Praise God! He loves his children!
In other news! As most of you know, the last 6 weeks of CPx are spent on short term outreach trip where we can apply all the things we are learning in the teaching phase. I just found out last week that I will be going to…
ZIMBABWE!
I leave on April 23 for Victoria Falls, which is located in Northern Zimbabwe, right on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. From what I hear, Victoria Falls is beautiful and is like Niagra Falls but ten times bigger! We will be living in a community of about 150,000 people, called Chinotimba. As most of you know, the county of Zimbabwe was once known as the “breadbasket of Africa.” The country was prosperous and stable; however, due to the leadership of president Mugabe, the economy of Zim has been destroyed. The people of Zim were left to fend for themselves in a country where billions of Zim dollars could not even buy food for a family due to the extreme inflation. I have prayed for Zim many times for the issues the country is facing and it is a joy to be able to actually go and meet the people and serve them! The team I am going with consists of our team leader Munya, who is from Zim, two couples from Florida, David and Shannon and Ray and Stacy, and a black South African named Wonder. We will be living in the community we will be serving in which is very exciting to me!
And I hear that elephants live right outside where we are staying!
i am so excited and expectant for what God is going to do in our time there! i am praying that even now he would begin giving us each his heart, dreams and vision for his beloved country of Zimbabwe!
And in closing i wanted to include a picture of the new love of my life...Jasper Aslan. The All Nations family adopted Jasper and asked me and my roommates if we would take care of him. i don't even like cats but i LOVE jasper! i am really pretty obsessed with him!THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for being with me on this adventure and loving, supporting and encouraging me! i thank God for all of you!
MUCH LOVE FROM AFRICA!
whit
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