Saying Yes

I am so excited to share how God is stretching my faith, and what He is inviting me into!

The last two weeks, He has been revealing things in the future for me, and after seeking His heart and waiting for confirmation... I have committed my focus and energy into several things for next year.

The first thing I will be joining Him into is becoming a DTS (Discipleship Training School) staff for the Fire & Fragrance school that will start here in January. Staff training starts next month, with a bit of a break for Christmas :) I am stoked! So far there are about 45 staff and 200 students who have applied!!! This will entail three months of being with students here, while they are learning and growing by having different speakers and topics every week, and then continuing with them to outreach for three months to share Jesus.

Here is a video that describes a bit more about what Fire and Fragrance DTS is focused on:

Click for Fire & Fragrance Video

God is so good! And has such good timing! This school is in my DNA :))

Also! About a week before I was asked to help staff the DTS, God started speaking to me about joining Circuit Riders in 2013. This is something that started in YWAM Kona 2011, which was started to join God in the Awakening of hearts-in the Revival that is happening all over the world!!! I am not sure what that looks like yet, but I know He will continue revealing His plans as time goes on. These Circuit Riders will be happening in many places around the world, with the main vision of spreading the Gospel.  Here are a couple of promo videos about Circuit Riders to give you more explanation:

Click for Circuit Riders

Click for Circuit Riders2

God has been planting seeds in my heart for the Nations... He has been speaking to me more and more since I have been involved with YWAM (starting 2009). And my heart to see Nations turn to Jesus and be restored continues to grow.

He recently told me part of the calling for my life is to "Awaken hearts and bring freedom to the Nations"... whoah. Sometimes I feel like asking- Me, Lord?? But then I remember who my Father is... the Holy, powerful, and passionate God! And that through Him {all things are possible for those that serve the Lord}  who am I to question His purposes and plans? I am embracing His calling on my life!!! I am saying "Yes, Lord-send me". He is worth it all. He is worthy of my life given fully to wherever He leads me.

He has shown me the depth of His love, and His character/nature to me the last couple of years like never before... my life is fully surrendered to the Lover of my soul, and I am excited to join Him with the Revival that is happening in the world... He is doing something in our world unlike ever before in history! I am finally recognizing it, finally getting rid of unbelief, and embracing the invitation.

So with all that said, I am thankful for this preparation time God is blessing me with in Kona. I am now committing my time, energy, and fundraising into these things and will happily let you know more information as I find out.

Enough about me :)) thanks for reading! I appreciate your interest in my life and would love to hear from you at Violetttsareblue@yahoo.com.

~Violet

Deeper

Virginia is for lovers!!! ;)

and after a year and a half since i had been to my home state, i loved the time i got to visit and soak up relationships with family and friends. i treasured everything from the normal, everyday moments-to the rich and life giving conversations that seem best when we happen to stumble upon them. i have learned beauty of both, and how deep relationships come from these things. wonderful :)) here are just a few pictures of my time at home:

sisters-minus one

my adorable nephew

playing in the woods with my youngest sis

the most beautiful mother-to-be

time with my bestie

thankful for friends!!!

 And now i am back in with ywam Kona, and am committed to being staff for what is called "Leadership Track". God was faithful to make it clear :) The vision for this position is to raise up leaders, equipping them with the tools necessary to go anywhere God calls them-even to some of the hardest and darkest places of the world-to spread the Gospel from the place of intimacy with the living God. To teach us how to live life and walk in obedience to our callings and not burn out. Leadership Track Staff is a community of people on the ywam base that is accountable and growing with each other in God, along with serving the base in various work positions (such as serving in office work, grounds, maintenance, kitchen, etc). Outside of that, we help run the prayer room that is on the base, along with regular intercession for the Nations and what God is doing in the world. It is a very focused and intentional staff position that calls us deeper into the heart of God.

Let me tell you, when I felt God tell me to join after my time with serving the Mission Builder Ministry, I became so excited. My heart is for all the things that they pursue, and I am ready to dive deeper into growing with God and serving the needs of the ywam campus. I believe whole heartedly that this year is a very significant year of my life.

That is my update :)) Here I go.

~Violett

[For the Sake of Knowing Him]

I am so excited to share. These last two months have been such a redeeming time for my heart. Like I mentioned before, I have been working as a leader with the Mission Builders since I have been here. I will continue this until the end of June, and will then be joining staff on campus with what is called the "Leadership Track". (I will explain more on that later).

 But what I am smiling to share about is how God has been so faithful to His promises in my life...during most of my time with ywam Maui, God brought me through a "winter season" with Him. I won't go into those things in detail, but out of His goodness and love He used my time as staff there to take me away from things in my life I continually tried to cover my brokenness and wounds with-which I didn't even know I had. Some of those things were interests/hobbies/friends/etc. that He allowed to be stripped from my life. These things weren't necessarily bad, just distracting me from God being able to touch my heart. Pushing God away from allowing Him to fill those areas of my heart-and in a way pushing His love away. So with such patience and gentleness, He allowed a stripping in my life that brought me to a place of brokenness and complete vulnerability before Him. This brought such healing as He continually touched areas of my heart that needed restoration-as He rooted out lies of what I believed about myself and wrong beliefs of who He was. These things could only be done through hard circumstances. At first, this challenged my belief with who He was, and I had questioned whether He was really good. I remember asking, "God, why are you allowing these things to happen when all I want to do is serve You? When I am giving my whole life to You? All I want is to be close to You." Yet, what I didn't see in the beginning is that He was answering my prayer of wanting to be close with Him. What I didn't realize is that He wanted that too-that He was taking away hindrances in my heart that kept me distant. WOW. WHAT A GOOD GOD. Even during times of doubt, He was faithful. With all that said, the last year I was able to see more and more of the big picture as He was healing me and drawing me close to His heart. And now I can say that I am so in love with my Jesus. It is not even about us! It is about HIM. Yet, out of His love He draws us close.  And no matter what the circumstances may be in this life as I follow Him- whether good or bad -I will believe in His goodness. I will believe in the depths of His love for us. I will follow Him wherever He leads me.

These are things that He has been telling me as I go, and has been showing me the big picture now that I am coming out of the winter season. One of the promises He gave me before coming to ywam Kona was that "the longer the winter, the more beautiful the spring" and that He was going to bring me in to a beautiful season that would be a time of restored joy and a restoration of things that were stripped away. And I am starting to see this happen. I am so thankful that I am able to enter into a good season and also be intimate with Jesus...and not just close to Him in only the hard seasons. Lately, I have been continually overwhelmed by His love. And often during corporate times of worship I can't help but shed tears out of of thankfulness of what He has done in my life!!! I wish I could give everyone the joy and love for Jesus that I have found...that I have been given. He has given me freedom, rest, love, peace, and purpose that can only be found in Jesus.

There is so much I could share from the last couple of years :))) but will end with saying don't give up through the hard times. Persevere. Search for God's heart through it. Hold onto truth over feelings. Don't remove yourself from a hard circumstance just because it is hard; it may be just where God wants you to be to do a beautiful work in you. [Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6].

As I look back and see how His working was mostly inward, I have a feeling that this time as staffing in Kona will be preparing me for His plans that will be reaching outward. And I am ready :) A song that has been playing in my head all day goes [[catch me up in Your story, all my life for Your glory]]. Love it. Wraps it up well.

Thanks for reading. Hope this encouraged you in some way :)

~Violett

Helloooo Kona

It has been almost a month since moving my life to ywam Kona. Whew. I am loving it so much! So thankful it is part of God's plans for me to be here :-) God had some surprises for me when I got here, and tells me He has more... (how could I NOT be excited?!) My first surprise was being asked to join the leadership team for the Mission Builder ministry that is here. (click on this *What is a Mission Builder?* to get more details). As of now, there are about 90 Mission Builders that range from all ages and come from all over the world. Their purpose is to come for 1-3 months to serve the ywam Kona base with whatever department that needs volunteers (kitchen, grounds, housekeeping, office work, etc). Since ywam Kona is the biggest ywam university in the world, volunteers are very welcomed to help keep the campus running.

With that being said, my job as a Mission Builder leader is to help with the logistics of the program. It pertains to preparing rooms for MB's, laundry, airport pickups and dropoffs, and other tasks. That is the logistics part of my job. Yet, the heart and focus the leaders have is to help bring community and discipleship among the Mission Builders.

This past couple of weeks has seemed a bit of a blur because of all the adjusting to a new place, new personality of a base, new ministry, new everrrything :)) with all this going on, I have been praying about God's purposes and plans for me here, and how long He wants me on the Mission Builder ministry. So far, I know for sure that He wants me on the Leadership Team until the end of June, and will wait for His guidance for my time here after that. He definitely has me trusting Him in new ways :) I have a feeling God has more plans for me while I am here, and am stoked to find out.

If you get the chance, please pray that God will continue to work through me to help build community here. That He can work through me to point people to Jesus with whatever walk of life they come from. And for a continued love for the people He brings into my life.Thanks so much!

That is just a peak into my world! Thanks for reading =)

~Violett

p.s. here are some pictures of our corporate base worship that takes place at least once a week :)) one of my favorite things!!! Fifty-seven nations represented this quarter.

Our Team!

Glimpses of our ministry in Asia

Building Friendships

Volunteering at Ophanages

Christmas Parties

Where to start? Whew. So much has happened in the last couple of months since my two co-leaders and I lead a team of fifteen students to Ch!n@. The past week has been emotionally up and down from an overwhelming thankfulness of all that God did in and through our team in Asia, to saying goodbye to our "kids" after they graduated from their DTS. After walking through life with them so closely the last six months, it is not the easiest to say goodbye. Yet, I am extremely thankful for all that God has done within their lives and what He is calling each of them to do.

From the start, our abnormally large team has had quite the adventure! During lecture phase, God told us that it wasn't an accident we were such a big team, and that through us He was going to do big things in Asia. :) How exciting is that?? It is such an honor join God with what He is doing in the nations! It is one of my favorite things.

You may be wondering what we did there. Our main ministry was friendship evangelism with university students, where we would split up into small groups and make friends with the students, looking for opportunities to share our faith and love for Jesus. We were able to build many friendships, and share the gospel with many people through our big team! Something I loved about this area of ministry we focused on, was the way God went before us and continued to bring us person after person at just the right timing in their life because of their hunger for truth. He has perfect timing :) As a team, we loved coming home in the evenings and sharing with each other the stories of what God did daily-it was awesome!

Other areas of ministry we focused on were: connecting with churches already there, and helping them with their outreach opportunies such as Bible studies and English Corners; along with creating and running several weeks of "VBS" for some of the kids that were near us (this is a rare opportunity); and volunteering at orphanages on the weekend.

Since we were there during Christmas time, we helped with a lot of Christmas parties and were able to share the gospel many times with skits and friendships made there. One example of how God worked through us was at our first Christmas party. We were asked shortly before to perform a skit...so we scrambled to get ideas together asking Him to shine through us. We ended up acting out the birth of Jesus and used random scarves as sheep ears and shepherd head wraps, and singing several Christmas songs. To us, it didn't seem to be anything special-but later we found out twenty people accepted Jesus as their savior! So exciting! And that is just one story of God doing amazing things.

As a team, we were reminded again and again it wasn't through our planning, ideas, words, actions, ability, or wisdom that won people to Jesus... we are not anything special! But God taught us that when we are willing, He can work powerfully through ordinary people to bring Him glory. Many times it was the moments we least expected people to be interested in the gospel that God showed us His power. Because of this, we continued to learn how important intercession and prayer is in life! God moves to the sound of our voice... We started to see the power of this along with worship in a much deeper level while is Asia. Which has helped grow our faith in our personal lives as well. I know for me, I don't want to start my day without His spirit empowering me-I don't want walk in my own strength in what He is calling me to do! I was shown again and again how dependant I am on Him, and the difference prayer and God's presence makes in every area of my daily life.

I am so proud of my team! And wish you could hear all the stories of what God did and how He grew/changed each person on our team. Yes, we faced challenges. Yes, we had bumps as a team like any outreach does...but God proved Himself faithful again and again and we came back excited and thankful :) He is moving in the nations, and I am so thankful I got to see a piece of it while in Asia.

Now you may be wondering what I am doing next? :) :) As my commitment is coming to an end at YWAM Maui, I feel the Lord is leading me to serve at YWAM Kona for a season. (Another island in Hawaii). I am not sure for how long, nor do I know all the plans He has for me there, but I will finish my time at YWAM Maui in April and fly to this sister YWAM He is directing me to. This decision has come through a lot of time, prayer, and seeking of confirmation. It takes a lot of trust in moving from one place to another when all I have is His direction and my small faith, but I am growing more and more excited! And I know that I can trust in the goodness of my Father that He has proven to me over and over again-that He has good plans for me, and will take care of all my needs. And from the continual revelation of His love for me, I can't help but live my life for Him...wherever He takes me, I will follow.

Thanks for reading! I will post my new address soon that will change starting in April. :)

Also, thankYOU for your support with prayer and finances in my life! Know that you helped send out my team to Asia-you helped change lives :) I will keep you updated with my needs in the future as I continue with YWAM. I appreciate you, and want you know that you are an answer to prayer for what God calls me to do.

~Violett