Korea del Sur- do you want to be taller or shorter?

We get to Korea and when we finally get to the hotel, after about 20 hours of traveling we are exhausted! The hotel appears pretty nice! Which is awesome and when we go upstairs, we see that they took the beds out of the rooms, to make it more "roomy" for us. Hahah. Random but then we had a few days to relax before we were to be the prayer team for this Impartation Seminar held at the hotel. During our days relaxing we had some interesting food and some great worship sets. We also wrote up 'dreams' for trip, which was incredible to see come true throughout the trip (you will see)

Once we begin the first day of the Impatartation Seminar, we find out that there will be this awesome Korean worship band that makes you dance like crazy. So the first hour starts, and we are all jumping around dancing like crazy people- and needless to say continued jumping and dancing all crazy like for the next week and a half with them (our calves hurt to the point where we had to stretch everyday and be careful walking hahah) After being drenched with sweat, we sat down to listen to Deyoung speak then Chad Dedmon (from Bethel) spoke the majority of the Seminar. By the way- this seminar was filled with about 100 Koreans ranging from ages 15 to 68. The next few days we prayed for each one of them, recording what God would tell us when we asked how he created them. People were extremely blessed and Jesus was touching hearts even as we prayed.

The next day Chad felt like someone in the audience had knee and back pains and asked if they wanted to be healed. A few people from our Catalyst team went up, including me, and he prayed for us. When I was prayed for I was swaying back and forth and nearly fell over. Hah, I was also swept over with joy. My knees felt tingling in them. Then one of the leaders on our trip received prayer, One of Laurens legs was longer than the other because of a broken leg hindering growth when she was younger and she decided to get prayer for healing. She sat down on a chair and a group of us, including Chad, prayed for one of her legs to grow out (about 2 inches to catch up with the other) and I saw with my own 2 eyes God grow her leg out 2 inches.

At that point I had to refuse all human logic I've ever put my trust in, I knew God was big- but prior to this moment I thought He made a lot more 'sense' to human reasoning (silly statment in itself) and I had to expand my view of God, especially in reference to what He is capable of here on earth.

To top it off, a Korean woman needed healing on the same thing- one of her legs was also 2 inches shorter than the other- so we began to pray and the shorter leg grows now 2 inches longer than the other- Chad grabs a translator and asks the woman "do you want to be taller or shorter?" she says she's always wanted to be taller and as they pray the other leg catches up and becomes even with the other!

God doesn't give a dang about what should logically happen according to our little pea brains!!

Hahaha. There has been a lot of laughs. During one of the worship sets- I was overcome with laughter, along with a few others. And I could just feel how near God was in that place. The Holy Spirit was having a good time in there. It felt like I was playing with Jesus, it felt so right. God continually wants to surprise us, wants to take us to new places, and just have fun with us... It's true!

I've learned that the only thing that keeps us not living in this joy and adventure with God is our tendency to take our eyes off of Jesus and focus too much on others and ourselves. If we stay focused on God He will take care of us, and uniquely be with us, love us, and show us new things.

During one of the teachings- Chad spoke about Heaven's perspective on success, and how it is not about RESULTS but about our Faith in following Jesus and takings RISKS!!

Taking risks isn't merely physically demanding tasks, but also is about emotionally putting yourself out there when it doesn't feel right, when it doesn't feel comfortable, when it feels irritating, even when it feels pointless. We're called to put ourselves out there. To be vulnerable with each other- and to take on each others burdens. I haven't been the most vulnerable in the past, so when it came to dealing with my ish on the trip I tried to go back to old ways and internalize- but knew God was calling me to take a risk in this area, because He wanted to show me how He would take care of me and help me in those times.

Let me tell ya, the frustration in approaching vulnerability is so temporary and the results from taking risk in these areas lead to better relationship with others and with God. He loves breaking down the walls around our hearts so we can feel what love really is.

He brings us to greater life, we are indefinitely most alive when are with Him. He desires to be with us through everything- even more so for us to recognize that He has, in fact, been there all along.
So I fasted during lunch one day and just went through my life with Him and He showed me how He never leaves us nor forsakes us. "The love that he has given us was never in doubt"

This was merely the first 5 days in Korea. I realized at this point that my mind was about to be thoroughly blown while on this trip.

The Chase.

I write this as a introduction leading into telling my experiences of venturing through Cambodia and South Korea, because an introduction is quite necessary for what was experienced.

As we neared leaving on outreach, I had questions, I had doubts, I had desires, I had hopes, insecurities, limitations on myself, limitations on God, fears as well as dreams.

Of course, I wasn't too aware of most of this, but God had a plan to teach me a lot! 2 journals full of teaching to be exact. Documented Highs and lows. Lessons from school in Tacoma. And now of God being God in Korea and Cambodia. Saving people, healing people, making himself known in peoples' hearts. Making Himself known in my heart.

The ways I saw Jesus come to His people has radically changed my life. People always use the "it's not a religion, it's a relationship" but woahhhh is it! Religion dies out eventually, as we all do. Relationship, Love-in fact with the one who made you, the one who your always at home with, and going home to some day- never dies out. Jesus is a lover and a fighter. He does not give up or forget to show up. He's in it for the long run and wants to give us a new song, wants to give us a new heart and WILL do all He promises to do.

So He promised He was going to show me who He is, and when I left the US He decided to start revealing Himself to me differently than He ever has. ...good different haha

He gave me new eyes and a new brain to start off.