WLS+AZ Missions - Update #6

WLS+AZ Missions - Update #6

  Sunday, July 12, 2015 at 12:22 AM    Unknown

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I felt God calling me to this trip because He told me that He wanted to show me something. A week before this trip, it finally hit me that I was going on missions. I felt prepared but also nervous because I was not sure what I would be doing at a Native Conference. But God really took all that fear and nervousness away when we entered the WLS camp site. During the week, it was cool seeing about 120 different tribes worshiping God. A lot of them have passion for God and they have thirst for Him. I learned a lot that week, through the Warrior Circles (Worship), Battle Council (Workshop), Life Circles (Cabin Times), and One on One times. I have noticed there are a lot of similarities between Asian culture and Native Culture. Some are that they are very traditional and they put respecting their elders very highly. A lot of them struggle with depression, drugs, abuse, and sexual pleasure. During Life Circles, I felt God working in everyone in my cabin, even through me. He gave me an opportunity to lead the small group. At first I was not looking forward to it because leading is not my strong suit. But God gave me the ability to lead, and showed me that He is in control and that I should always trust in him. That week was a good pre-cursor for the Arizona trip, because during WLS, I made strong bonds with some people in my cabin, so that during Arizona we could share about deeper things.

Once I got to Arizona, I was psychically drained from the previous week. I was not looking forward to the things God had planned for me, since I was so tired. With a lot of prayer, God gave me a burst of energy whenever I was low. This week of Arizona was so much more different than other trips I have been on. It was really spiritually challenging, because there was a lot of spiritual warfare. There was a kid in my small group that came once, but that one time he came; he was singing a peyote song that supposedly invited evil spirits to come. After that, we felt a lot of hardships; team members were injured, some were mentally uneasy, and we were not unified as a team. With faithful praying, things started to change; our team was more unified, and people were getting healed. But the battle was not over yet, one of the navajo, which was one of my good friend had a bracelet that had a evil spirit within it. I guess God had this plan where he wanted me to cast out the evil spirit. When we were on the way to pick up the bracelet from his house, I started to doubt myself and God's power, and fear started to enter my mind. But one of the counselors prayed for courage, which helped a lot. When it is time to pray over this bracelet, I sensed the Holy Spirit watching and protecting me. After a lot of prayer, we all felt relieved through God's love. I felt as if this was why God wanted me to go on this trip. Afterwards, I felt as though God showed me that I may have the gift of discernment to be able to help remove this evil spirit and further God's kingdom.

Praises and Thanksgivings:

- Thank God for giving us the energy to do everything and more through these past 2 weeks.

- Thank God that I was able to meet and bond with different natives, not just Navajo.

- Praise God for everyone who accepted Christ in the weeks of WLS & Arizona.

- Thank God for protection from the evil spirits.

- Since I was the only boy in my grade that went, I felt alone, but thank God for the love he has shown to me through many other people.

-Daniel