Blessed

It's a blustery overcast Saturday and I am sitting on my bed, looking out my window with a heart of thankfulness.  My heart is in awe of a God who loves me and cares about every detail of my life.  He is good.  Jason and I have our tuition PAID IN FULL!!  Yeah God!  God is so amazing and faithful!  We are so blessed to have friends like many of you who are deciding to be a part of what God is doing in our lives.  We believe that God will bless those who invest!  So, BLESSINGS to you! :) What seemed impossible, God has made possible through wonderful people like you. Thank-you from the bottom of our hearts. We have no doubt that God will continue to provide for our monthly needs and our mission trip to San Francisco in March 2011.

It all seems so appropriate with Thanksgiving coming up this week! We are excited to spend this wonderful holiday with Jason's immediate family at his Aunt and Uncle's beautiful home in Roseburg, Oregon. All of our roommates will be joining us as well! It will truly be a celebration of thankfulness. We love this time of year as we celebrate many things, including Jason and I's 3rd wedding anniversary on the 24th, and Jason's twenty-fifth birthday on the 29th!

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend reflecting on the things you are thankful for in your life. :)

fluff balls

One of the things that took quite a bit adjusting to when we first got to Redding was moving in our two cats, Zao and Bella in with our roommate's dog, Kipper. It was amusing at first, watching both of our cats in the crate hiss and growl at Kipper who seemed to almost drool looking at them through the crate's gated door. Poor Kip seemed so confused as it seemed like he wasn't sure if he wanted to chase them or eat them.

After a little over a month of carrying their crate up and down the stairs to get the animals used to each other, they are now finally able to co-exist together!! Hallelujah! Having their litter in our room got old really fast as well as carrying that huge crate up and down the stairs! Jason and I felt like we were carrying a little prince and princess on their coach. Yea. Hopefully never again. We love them, but not that much.

Here are our little cuties..

                                          Zao (We also call him The Fluff)

                                          Bella

                                          When they were kittens

                                   One of their favorite spots at the top of the stairs

                                          Kipper and Bella on my lap :)

Believe and Read!

Today we finished sending out all of our support letters. Whew! Jason and I are excited to see how God will come through for us. He always does. The rest of tuition is due this week and we had a $900 balance! This past weekend money has been trickling in.. God is good! We still owe about $700 more.  Jason and I are learning to rejoice and thank God before He comes through with the faith to know that He will! It's exciting really.

While we are believing God for our finances, we are reading away for our homework. I personally have never read so much in my entire life! I am not a big reader, so this year is stretching me a lot in this area. It's all really awesome material, so I am really enjoying the hard work. Of course, Jason is loving it and is ahead in all the reading. He's my little book worm. :)

Here are a few of the books we are reading:

We need your support!

Family and Friends!

Everyday is an adventure for Cierra and I, here in Redding California at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry as God has been moving radically both in our hearts and through our hands. The first day of our outreach Treasure Hunt (*See our blog entry labeled "Enthusiasm") class, Cierra and her team encountered some people in downtown Redding who were preforming Reiki (a form of new age energy therapy where practitioners are able to heal himself and others, with the use of specialised symbols). They were able to engage in conversation with two of the onlookers after asking what they were doing. "They are doing Reiki. They are able to find all the parts of the body that need healing and heal it." The girl said. Cierra and her team started to explain that they were on a hunt to find people on their "treasure maps" and that they were able to do the same thing, but with a God who loves them! Soon they were able to talk with them and see the girl's uneven leg grow out! They also prayed for her decaying tooth and hurting back, which they did not see healed right away, but are believing God to continue to touch her. Now, we are excited about the opportunity to be sent out on an upcoming short term mission trip, both by Bethel International and by YOU.

The heart and passion here at Bethel International is to raise up a generation of world changers that will be known simply for their reckless abandonment to see that Jesus is Lord in all the nations. As we are building relationships with various regions around the world one of the main goals that we have is to make the nations look like geniuses. The strategy is go to and raise up influencers in their own nations so they begin to run with the inheritance that God has given them to transform their nation. All of the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry trips are partnered with Bethel International’s vision for transforming nations.

The trip that Cierra and I will be a part of will be partnering with the Promised Land Fellowship in downtown San Francisco, whose goal is to transform the community around them through Christ’s radical love and power.  We will be equipping the leaders and members of this ministry with tools that they can take out into the streets in their area.  We will spend much of our time on these same streets ministering along side these individuals. 

We really want you to be a part of what God will be doing through our hands on this trip to San Fran.  We are asking you to consider sowing into our lives.  Cierra and I both know that the greatest impact comes from people who respond to God.  We need both your prayers and your money but we trust that any giving will be done with joy and not out of obligation.  No gift is too small!  We are still in need for our final tuition payment and cannot attend this trip unless it is paid off. We are also in need of monthly support in this season.

 Financial gifts may be made online at ibssm.org (There is also a link on the right side of the blog).  You may specify whether it is for the mission trip or towards school tuition. This gift is tax-deductible and you will receive a statement at the end of the year for your tax records. If you wish your gift to be anonymous, please check the anonymous box. This will allow you to receive an end of year statement, but will not allow us as students to see your name. This gift is non-refundable, and if for any reason a team member or team does not go, the money will support another mission trip sponsored by Bethel Church. (If online payment is not an option, donations can be mailed to Bethel Church Attn: Bethel International 933 College View Dr. Redding, CA 96003.)

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and be a part of the amazing things that God will be doing through us!  We love and value who you are and pray that your life would be invaded with the love of Jesus today and in days to come.

Much love and blessings,

   Jason and Cierra

Dead Dead Dead Dead

We are so blessed!

Within the last month:

-our car has sold, providing us with money to live for the next month or so!
-money has come in the mail and through visitors and friends at exactly when it's needed (for rent, food, etc.)
-we are seeing life changing miracles on a daily basis and experiencing them through our hands on a weekly basis.
-I (Jason) now have a part-time job.
-we are seeing huge breakthrough in our growing relationships with our room mates.

I will recount a highlight from just a few days ago.

Brad, Ton and myself were about to sit down for a game of farkle at our dinning room table when the Holy Spirit had other plans and from Stephanie's prompting we launched into the mother-of-all conversations.  We hit topics such as eschatology (end times, book of Revelation), security of salvation, baptism in the Holy Spirit and identity in Christ.  It was heavy...in the best possible sense!

At one point we were talking about how, as believers our old sinful nature is dead.  How, when we accept Jesus into our lives, our old self and original desire to sin are dead, leaving us righteous and in right standing with God.  We are no longer "sinners, saved by grace" but "paid for, righteous and pursuing holiness".

This means we are dead.

dead dead dead dead.

When we sin and think,"it's just my flesh" we are necromancing.  We are bringing back to life something that is already dead and should be left dead.

Romans 6:1-4 "What then shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 4) and when we sin its not our original intent.  We are in a battle against a mouse with a megaphone.  The enemy has no power except what we give him.

So, as we are all sitting around our table, letting this revelation sink in, Stephanie suddenly says,"I feel this poking pain in my side, like I am being stabbed."

We all just sit there, knowing that the Holy Spirit is doing something but at that point, not sure what.  Then, the Lord shows me a picture of him on the cross and all 7 places that he was afflicted with pain before succumbing to death.  Jesus was pierced in his side.  Why?  This is what the soldiers did to verify that Jesus was dead.  Indeed, he was dead.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit was reminding Stephanie that she is dead.  How cool is that!!!??

The night went on and what had started at about 10:30pm was not done until about 2:30am.  The Holy Spirit is looking to touch people and He loves to move through those who are willing.

Are you bringing back to life something that is really dead??  Be dead, stay dead and be alive in Christ.