The Sweetness of Surrender

Hi! I recently wrote a blog for YWAM Maui's website, and decided to share it here :) 

Before my commitment to YWAM,  I was living in Nashville, TN for several years. During my time in Nashville, God spoke to me a lot about dreaming with Him-and encouraged me to dream bigger with Him often. It was a beautiful season, and a time for those dreams to grow and develop. When God asked me to come back to YWAM Maui to help staff, I had no idea the heart journey He was about to take me on!

My first month back staffing, He asked me to surrender all my dreams. He wanted me to give all of them back to Him. At first, I was angry, hurt, and confused. “What? Why? Didn’t you want me to have faith for these? You have been speaking to Me about them for years, God. YOU told me to dream bigger about them when I was afraid to, why are you taking them away?”. These were the questions that came up in my fear that He was changing His mind on some of the deepest dreams of my heart.

I didn’t understand and struggled with why a good Father would do this. But even in my doubt of His intentions- I said yes to His request. I opened my heart and hands and gave Him back all my dreams. It was a hard process-and done with tears and a lot of questions.

But you know what His request revealed about my heart? What I believed about His nature. It showed me that I didn’t believe He was for me, that I was afraid He wouldn’t come through for me, and that He would withhold good things from me. WOW. And I thought I had already walked through that. But He was going deeper.

Because I said yes to surrender, He was able to touch areas of my heart that I didn’t know still needed healing. It let Him go to the roots of my wounds. And He knew that asking me to give Him back my dreams would open my heart to the process of healing. What sweet surrender!

What if I would have resisted to His poking and prodding? What if I would have said no to the area of my heart He was touching? I would still be in the same place I used to be-with wrong beliefs of His nature-of who He is! When we say yes to His process, we continue to walk in more freedom as He transforms and restores. He doesn’t want us to keep a band-aid on our wounds; He wants to heal our hearts and remove lies that keep us from knowing Him.

And you know what He has been showing me? That if I don’t know His goodness as a Father, my heart can’t fully receive or enjoy the gifts He has for me!

I am so thankful that I follow such a loving Father. He is good. He is faithful. He is worthy of me surrendering my everything. And what sweet surrender.

Aloha

Hello to my wonderful family and friends!

So much has happened the last few months. We just had our Fall school return from their outreach to Asia with amazing testimonies of what God did. I am linking a team video of my sister's outreach with her team! This will give a glimpse of their time in Indonesia and the Philippines. They were able to see many people receive Jesus as their savior, and connect them to local churches! They were also able to encourage the churches they visited, and serve them in many ways.

I want to brag on my sister's team :) they were able to persevere even when they had a lot of challenges come their way. Not every outreach is easy- they are often challenging and out of our comfort zone. This can cause disunity and discouragement for teams, yet this team overcame these challenges over and over again and we are SO PROUD of them! The teams that returned were also able to meet the Winter school that is here now, and encourage them for what is to come. 

Seeing the drastic change of each student in their walk with God always encourages me and what I do! For example, during the graduation ceremony we had for our Fall school, we had a time of worship at the end of the night. And as I was singing, I was distracted by someone singing VERY loud. I looked to see who it was, and started to cry because it was a student that used to be the quietest and most reserved of all the students-and he was singing at the top of his lungs because he was so overcome by all that God did in his life! And that is why it made me cry-because THAT is a huge reason I am here. To not only be apart of a ministry that brings the Gospel to Asia, but also to see the lives of students changed forever by going through a school that allows them to grow in their relationship with God. It's a beautiful thing, and I am thankful to be apart of it. 

My last letter I shared about my adjustment to living in community, and God's challenge for me to "dive in" and not fear burning out. I also shared about my position as the leader in the Hospitality department. I am still in that position, and thankful I can serve the ministry in this way. The first quarter was full of a lot of surrender, trust, and adjustment in many areas of my life. And this quarter I feel that I am now more able to flourish in my position and bring more vision to my area of work. I have several staff that work with me, along with many students that work in my department several days a week-and it has been a joy to be apart of their lives :)

Along with that, I get the opportunity to help lead worship here, and I am thankful for that opportunity to grow! Helping with worship is a big heart desire of mine, and I hope to continue developing that area of my life. 

Thankyou for reading :) I would love to hear how you are doing, and if there is any way I could pray for you! 

Violet 

P.S. Scroll down for pictures!

Click Fall DTS 2018 - Phindo Team to watch a glimpse of outreach! 

Just me and some pomelo fruit!

The Fall school that just graduated! Woo!

(My sister is the top left)