She lives!!

Hey everybody! SOooo sorry for not blogging in FOREVER! I again have only a little bit of time so I'll have to blog in segments...hopefully again tomorrow. But I'll tell you a little bit of what has happened now.

Okay. To be honest, I really don't want to go into great detail about the first two of the three weeks I will write about. They were one of the hardest times in my entire life! I was greatly challenged spiritually. But God is faithful to never leave us or forsake us, and He proved Himself true during this time.

In short, the first week was called "inner healing". Which consisted of us all having to fast, pray and search our hearts for things that were holding us back from all that God has for us. The concept is good. The way they carried it out was not. For me, confessing sin and publicly forgiving a person, telling my testimony--all of these things are good at the appropriate time. But this seemed forced. Every student was assigned a group and within our group every person had to (after fasting and praying) go up in front of the rest of the group, sit with two leaders, and confess all your sins and forgive all the people you need to forgive and blah blah blah. I felt like I had to come up with stuff to say because I honestly didn't have much at all. I spent most of the week very confused and upset as to why we had to do that. BUT when it was my turn to go in front of everyone, it actually went well. I didn't talk about things that God and I had already resolved, so it was just sort of cleaning my heart before Him and also hearing some encouraging and prophetic words from my leaders.

So that was a very condensed/tame version of week 1. Now for week 2.  I though week 1 was terrible until I came upon week 2!! It was without a doubt, one of the worst weeks EVER, at least the first half. The beginning speaker is from this area of Cartagena and because of this he speaks a million miles an hour. On top of that he was very spontaneous and random with his words and stories...hardly making sense even to the native spanish speakers who were listening. So, because of this it was nearly impossible for someone to translate for us. In fact several tried with little success. But what we gathered from him wasn't what I wanted to hear. He claimed that all of us, even Christians, had dabbled in sin and had opened themselves up to evil spirits that they needed to be liberated from. So, you can guess where it went from there. We were, again, basically forced to fast for 2 days which I did not do the second day. And then everyone was "liberated" so-to-speak. I could not even stay to watch it was so strange. A lot of falling down on the ground and spitting up stuff and yelling.

I spent my time fasting and praying, not to be liberated, but to listen to God for His direction and clarification. And it came. I did not and do not believe that a Christian can have any other spirit within them besides the Holy Spirit of the Living God who permeates our whole being. I was completely uncomfortable with the speaker who did not bring peace or rest, but confusion. God showed me verses that helped clarify what I believed.

I do not write about this to scare anyone or make you worry about me. I write about it to show you how real the spiritual realm is...that we must be constantly on guard and walking in truth in order to know what is of God and what is not. We will recognize evil or good by its fruit. The only fruit I saw from this man was liberation of Christians from evil spirits which is not Biblical. My pastor did clarify for me that many times in places like this where the spiritual realm is much heavier and the people are undereducated as to what is Biblical and true, this stuff can happen.

I did not feel in danger during this time, nor have I ever felt in danger while here. So no worries! The best place for me to be is smack-dab in the center of His will! 

Anyway, enough on that topic because I'm tired of talking about it. But I appreciate your continued prayer in the coming days as we encounter new things and different speakers weekly. We need God's continual guidance!

Okay so after this speaker left mid-week, a man they call 'Papa Jack' came to speak about God's Fatherly Love. He is an american who speaks Spanish, so I was able to understand nearly every word because it was slower! It was ENTIRELY opposite of the other speaker and topic and wow what a blessing! His message was so calm and peaceful and comforting. One question he asked us is, "What would you do if God, the Father, drove up in your driveway at your house one day?" We spent some time writing out the image in our heads--which showed our idea of who God is. It was really interesting! I said, well first I would likely run to the bathroom to check my face in the mirror, then I would change clothes. Then I would run through the house and yell to Cole downstairs to TURN DOWN THE MUSIC, GOD IS HERE!!! haha! and then I would proceed to raid the pantry for anything I could possibly offer Him to eat. Then I would realize, as I typically do when looking in the pantry that there's nothing of interest (what a spoiled brat I am!) and then I would open the fridge and settle on some fruit. By then, of course, God would be at the door knocking. I would open it and probably start sobbing and hugging Him. Then He would say to me, "I already cut up the fruit. Come on, lets go down to the lake and talk for a while."  :))) Isn't if funny to picture ourselves before the Creator of the Universe?! I can hardly imagine it. But anyway, 'Papa Jack' had a lot of interesting insight. One thing he said was: ya know when you are doing devotions alone with God and you....oops..fall asleep? And you think, aww no, not again! So sorry God?! Well, God isn't mad! God is our daddy, so just as a daddy loves it when his little girl falls asleep in his arms out of complete peace and trust, God loves it when we are completely at rest in His presence.  aww. how sweet. :)

okay, I have to go super soon but I will say this: this past week, week 3, if you will, was absolutely incredible. I feel so so blessed by God to have experienced it, and my attitude about being here has greatly changed because of it.

I went with a group of six, myself included, to a town called Arjona outside of Cartagena. It was like a whole different world even though it's basically just over a little mountain! Where Cartagena is noisy, congested, unfriendly, and starless, Arjona is quiet, welcoming, spacious and the sky is peppered with starts every night.  Oh and it even rains there!!! Wow, how I missed the rain!

Okay that's all for now. I know, the best is yet to come--but it's like a good movie. Ya gotta have some suspense!  I love you all and will be writing again very soon to tell you about my week in Arjona!

Blessings,
Chelsie