A Journey of Faith

The list:
one backpack of bare necessities.
no money, no cell phone, no computer.

Tuesday morning arrived and my outreach team gathered outside of the prayer room to venture off on our 4 day faith journey. We were given an envelope for each day containing a list of tasks to be completed, in faith. We were given a bus schedule and a map of our location (yes, an actual paper map). My team in particular would be venturing to the town of Captain Cook; a very small community located up the mountain towards the south end of the island.

It would be way too much to write everything that was on our task lists, but I’ll give you a few just to give you an idea of what we had on our plates.

Prophesy over 3 people accurately
Meet with a government employee
Get invited to a home for a meal
Get $100 worth of free groceries and give it to a family in need, asking the Lord for the address of the family
Get on the radio to prophesy or share the gospel
Pray for at least 1 physical healing
Speak at a small group in a local church
Street preach

There were many more things on our lists each day, but those were a few of the big ones from the journey. Imagine having those kinds of things on your “to-do” list every day! But the greatest part… every single one of them came to pass! Praise You Jesus for your faithfulness! I would love to give the story from each one.. they were all so detailed and incredible. But unfortunately, I simply do not have the time to write that much.

Here is one of the coolest stories that happened…

One afternoon as we were walking down the street, we noticed a bunch of teenage skaters up at this self-made skate park by this house that was under construction. So the two guys on our team decided to go up and just hang out with them for a bit. When Marty and Erik get up there, they see about 15 teenage boys skating and smoking weed. The perfect spot. Luckily Hawaiian culture is super welcoming, so they instantly started up conversation with some of the guys. They decided to build relationship first, so they didn’t say anything about God or what they believed. But then Marty felt like the Holy Spirit told him to show the boys his tattoo. So he asked one of the guys about their tattoo, and then followed by showing them his. The second he took off his zip-up, the boys were fixed are Marty’s tattoo. It’s a picture of a lion with a fox in it’s mouth. They boys asked what it meant, so he got to explain how the Lion represented God, Truth, and the fox was all things that are counterfeit of the truth, such as drugs, alcohol, hooking up with girls, etc. The boys all began to ask questions, which flung open the door for Marty and Erik to begin to talk to them about the love of God and how much better He is than all of this stuff in the world. As he spoke about God, he could watch as the boys were coming off of their high! (Amazing what the Holy Spirit can do!) He then felt like he was supposed to ask them if they wanted to experience the love of God right then. The main guy was like, “yeah man!” and of course made all his friends come over too. So Marty and Erik began to pray that the Holy Spirit would come so that these boys could feel the love of God. A few minutes later the boys looked up, huge smiles across their faces, and exclaiming, “woahh… I feel really good! That was crazy!” Marty and Erik got to pray for the guys, and were able to go back the next day to hang out with them and talk more about God and His amazing love!

How incredible is that!? These boys were able to experience first hand the joy of the Father over them, and how much He loves them. They were able to hang out with two guys, very close in age, who are radically committed to the Lord and His Kingdom. Jesus, you are so awesome!

In addition to this story, Lauren and I were able to sit down with the president of the high school for an hour (the Lord totally opened the doors) and talk about the value of each students destiny, the importance of family and community, and the necessity of mentorship in the students lives! We were also able to pray for the healing of a man who had pancreatic cancer. And I say “had” because I know in full faith that he was healed. The Holy Spirit was ALL over it. The $100 of groceries was given to 3 women who are living together with a baby under the age of 2 in a shack-type house. We were led their by God and able to pray with them and bless them with the food!

I’d say that through the entire week the primary things that I learned were that God is SO faithful and you can trust Him with anything. He is so committed to every single heart, and He will always provide for His children. (and yes, that means food! We also had free food for half of our meals! and I’m talking feasts!)

Why take a week to go on a faith journey? I legitimately want this to be the way I live the rest of my life: solely on the faithfulness of God.

Here is us with our free groceries! Who does this?! Only our God. =)

That the Lord may receive His Glory

It's hard to believe I'm already well into my second week of the School of Revival in Kona, Hawaii. It feels like just yesterday I embarked on this crazy adventure of intimacy and radical devotion to the Lord...

Class had kicked into full gear, and has already begun to blow my mind. This week we have a speaker from New Zealand names Aaron Walsh. Incredible lover of Jesus... The way this man uses the english language is impeccable. I think my entire 7 pages of notes (from only 2 days of class) consists of epic one-liners. I'll try to give you a short synopsis of the massive revelation I've received so far...

If I had to pick one theme that I was getting from his message, it would be that we all need a shift in perspective to grasp the concept that it's ALL for His glory. Nothing else. Our internal posture needs to be set on what is concrete and ultimate: heaven. This world is temporal and finite. So why do we behave as if the world has everything to offer? If our fundamental understanding is misaligned from Gods, then internal disturbances is unavoidable. The glory of God is God's primary goal, so why is it not ours? It's not out of vanity or for God to go on some ego-trip. It's simply because He is worthy! When the glory of God fills the earth, day and night worship will not need justification. It will be a necessary reaction to His worthiness!

Goodness... I know for myself it is so hard to fully understand just how worthy the Lord is. I say things like, "I mean, I really like the service but the worship just wasn't very good." and then I'm confronted with the realization that it simply isn't about me! We often go into worship with a mentality of what it will do for us. Make us feel better, maybe get some prayers answered, etc. But the reality is that worship is for God! It's because He is WORTHY! He is worthy of our praises, of our lives, of our money, of our time. He's worthy of it all! Because in eternal perspective, He is all that matters. It's as simple as that. and all of the longings inside of us, the supremacy of Jesus is the source of all of our longings! He's THAT good. All of the longings inside of our heart He put there. and He conveniently made Himself the answer to all of them. He is just that amazing...

Needles to say, I'm having an incredible time dwelling in the heart of the Lord. This is such an incredible season of being brought together with like minded people who have dedicated themselves to setting themselves to seek the face of the Lord first and foremost. To be radically consecrated to Him and love nothing more than His presence.

In regards to how you can be praying, I am in need of $5,500 in two weeks! So if you could please pray that finances will come, I would be so appreciative! I find out my outreach location this week, so when I do I will have to update this again to let you all know how you can be praying, etc! May God shower blessings upon you!

Madison

(If you are interested in partnering with what I am doing here and what I will be doing on outreach, please email me at madison.wooster@okstate.edu or on facebook! For financial contributions, PayPal Donation link is also on the top of this blog)

The Next Step

As many of you know, over the past 6 months I have fallen madly in love with my Savior. He has entirely won my heart and will forever possess it. After all, He is and always will be the ultimate father, leader, and romancer. He loves me just because He does, and nothing I can do will ever change that! How could I not love Him back? How could I not give my entire life to bringing Him glory? So of course, I have given him my plans for the future. It is all in His hands now. In February I started hearing the Lord speak to me about what He wanted me to do after those 6 months of DTS, but if any of you know me relatively well, you'll know that I have to be utterly convinced before I will do something out of my comfort zone. And of course God knows me better than anyone, so He knew He would have to tell me what He wanted me to do next at least 10 times before I would agree. Which is exactly what He did.

Over a course of 3 months, the Lord endlessly asked me to return to YWAM to do a secondary school called the School of Revival. It is another 6 month program that will be focussed on deeper intimacy with Jesus as well as revival history. We will each have a social injustice, region, country, or people group that the Lord has placed on our hearts to pray for during the 6 months and will be doing reports and a final thesis as to how to bring the presence of God to that place or how to reach that people group, etc. The first 3 months will be in the classroom, and the last 3 will be on another outreach.

Although it does scare me to not be going back to college right away, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is what the Lord has asked me to do. And i know that being in the Will of God is the safest place to be! Hopefully I will be back at Oklahoma State in January, but that too is up to the Lord. I have come to a place a realizing that my life really doesn't belong to me.. it is the Lord's to do with as He pleases. I know that my happiness will forever be found in my Beloved... and I really will follow Him to the ends of the earth.

Your prayers are so greatly appreciated, and do more than you could ever know! I am so thankful for all of your support in what I am doing. However, I want to ask that if anyone is willing to support me financially, I would be so entirely thankful! I am needing to raise $10,000 for housing, food, classes, books, and outreach expenses. I know that the Lord will provide though! If you do feel that you would like to contribute to my mission, I have a paypal "Donate" link on the upper left-hand side of this blog. It is completely secure and is used by many non-profit organizations and missionaries. This is a much easier way than paper checks, and even the littlest bit helps so, so much!

Thank you so much for following me as I continue with spreading God's love to people all over the world, and I hope that you will pray about supporting me!

I love you and pray that God will bless you and your families!

Faith Journey: NYC

As we went over our weekly schedule Monday afternoon, our leaders purposefully skipped our plans for Saturday telling us that we had a surprise. Little did we know, it was going to be a day full of faith in the heart of New York City.

Our leaders prayed about it, and felt like the Lord wanted us to accomplish the following things:

Individually share our testimony, the gospel, give an accurate word of knowledge, prophesy over someone, and heal a sick person. Corporately we were to street preach, do some sort of artistic performance, get recorded on some type of video/media, get food for free to feed the homeless, prophesy and pray over a business and the owner, and somehow get a bike for free to give to someone.

Sounds pretty ridiculous, right? Better yet, our leaders were not coming. Instead, they put me and my teammate Ben in charge. They gave us a train ticket, $5, and said they'd pick us up in the city in 8 hours. So off we went, and our adventures began as soon as we got on the train. The Lord began to speak to me to this woman a row back and over, so before our stop I made my way over to her seat to begin to talk with her. I told her all about how the Lord sees her, and a few more personal things that she was going through. She looked at me with this awed expression, seemingly confused as to how I would know that. I explained to her that God knows her, which is why He told me those things. Unfortunately our train arrived, but I was able to share God's love with a total stranger. A few other of our team got to share the gospel with people on the train as well!

When we got to NYC, we were heading towards time square when we spotted a psychic stand on the side of the road. Ben instantly knew he was supposed to talk to her. So he went up and started telling her about herself, her family, and how much the Lord wanted to bring her out of her struggles. She starred at him extremely confused and replied, "uh.. okay get outta here kid. I'm supposed to be the one reading you, not you reading me!" Ben then shared the love of God with her before leaving! -- As we continued walking towards time square, Kayla was singing something to herself like usual when Lauren stopped and said, "we should sing on the red steps in the center of time square!" We all stopped and looked at her like she was crazy, but then decided - what the heck! So we figured out what songs and decided that Kayla would street preach right after. Now for those of you who don't know, the red steps are the back of TKTS, a discount ticket booth that hundreds of people line up for every day. It is the very center of time square, where everyone comes to take pictures. We climbed up the steps and just began to worship God. As we were singing, I opened my eyes and saw that all the people in the line to the left were turning to listen, as was the school of high school students to our right. We had been nervous that no one would be able to hear us in such a loud and busy city, but it was as if God hit the "mute-button" on NYC as soon as we started singing! As we were worshipping, I then noticed some super model walking towards the steps with a whole camera crew behind her, video taping with huge microphones and everything. She walked up the steps to right beside us, but her videographer didn't follow. He kept his camera and microphone on us. =) As we finished, Kayla began to tell everyone that we were just a bunch of kids in love with Jesus and how much He loved them too. It was so amazing!

After sharing God's love in time square, we headed towards central park. On the way we prayed for a few people, Lauren shared her testimony in a guitar shop, and a few other things I can't fully remember. We were walking through this huge shopping strip with stands all down the road when I suddenly felt like we were supposed to ask these businesses if we could have free food to feed the homeless. So we split up and started asking. Kayla and I walked up to one and I explained to the owner that we were christian missionaries who were looking for food to be donated for us to fee the homeless. He then told us he was Jewish, and we freaked out! We got to tell him all about how we are always praying and interceding for Jerusalem and about his inheritance in Jesus! We then got to pray over his business and the owner himself. It was unbelievable! He also agreed to give us free food! We found about 3 businesses that would donate food, so we said we'd come back towards dusk.

As we continued on towards central park Pascale and I walked right past a guy with a sign that read "Shalom Bike Rentals"... we looked at each other and started smiling and said, "we have to talk to him!" So we turned around and he began to ask us if we wanted to rent a bike. I replied, "um.. no, weird story actually. We're a bunch of Christian missionaries from Hawaii and this morning the Lord told us that we were going to meet someone with bikes who would be willing to give us one for free so that we could give it to someone in need." He didn't speak much english, but luckily Pascale spoke both of his languages: french and some african language! She talked to him and found out he was muslim. She got to share the gospel with him and talk to him about the bible for quite some time. He then told us that his boss was a few blocks up and to ask him about the bike. So when we got to them and told them the story, they said the boss was actually a few blocks over but to come back later.

After we went to central park and prayed for people, we made our way back towards the bike boss. I don't know how, but the gift of faith came on me so strong and I just knew we were going to get a bike! (as crazy as it may seem to get a free bike in nyc) - The guys saw me and were seemingly surprised that I actually came back. They walked me, Ben, and Pascale across the street to a van with a bunch of bikes in it, and pointed out the boss. (or so I thought). I again told the story of how the Lord told us to give a bike to someone in need and that we'd get it for free. He replied, "well, I'm technically not the owner, but I'm in charge for today... hold on a sec." He talked to someone and then turned back to me .. "you can have a bike." - I couldn't believe it! I thought it would be a small crappy run-down bike, but it was a legit black and red bike, full size! We thanked and prayed over each employee and walked down the street with our free bike! We then headed off to go collect our free food...

We prayed about who God wanted us to give the bike to and some people got an older man and some got a teenage boy. So we walked around looking for people to give the food to first. God led us to these sweet old ladies and an elderly man. We had full on hot meals! Not just a bag of corn! When we gave them the food they were soooo thankful! One of the ladies didn't speak english, but I got to talk to her in spanish and share my testimony with her as well as pray together! It was incredible! But after that, we still had a whole box of corn in the husks left and a bike. Everyone we asked didn't want the corn, which was getting annoying. Then Joel said he felt like God said whoever accepts the corn is who we're supposed to give the bike to. We stumbled upon a basketball court and felt like this 14 year old boy was definitely the one. But Ben and Joel were convinced that we had to stick with the corn word. So they walked across the court and offered the kid corn. He looked at them like they were crazy and said no. We were like, "well of course they aren't going to want corn! They're playing basketball!" but they were just like .. well then he's not the guy.

We had about 15 minutes until we were being picked up and we still had a box of corn and a bike. We were wondering where in the world we were going to find this guy when an older man came up and said, "hey, how much you want that bike for?" We all stopped and stared at him because we weren't expecting someone to approach us! We looked wide-eyed at Joel who was holding the corn, and he goes, "uh... you want some corn?" and the guy responds, "can I have the corn and the bike?" and we were like, "YES!! You actually can!" He looked so confused, but we explained the whole story to him. He then told us how he had surgery to remove his intestinal cancer a few weeks ago and had been looking for a bike because it hurts to walk around a lot. But he didn't have a lot of money so was hoping he could buy it off us kids for cheap. He showed us the scar and everything from the surgery, and told us how earlier that day someone had given him free water with the ten commandments attached to it. We got to share the gospel with him and how God was showing him that He would provide! Then we all got to pray for the healing of his cancer.

As Felix walked off with his box of corn and new bike, we heard him yell across the street to his friend, "HEY! I just got a free bike!" with total excitement in his voice. It made all of us smile SO big!

(The girls and Felix with his bike and corn!)

Basically, it was the coolest day ever. We got to see God's faithfulness and how He always provides. God could send His spirit to times square and everyone would proclaim that He is King. But this Saturday, God just wanted to bless Felix and a few homeless people. Our God never forgets the individual. He is so kind, that He will even give His child a bike who wants one. Thats the God I'm in love with...

Our Nations Captiol

As we all climbed out of the Greyhound bus and gathered our suitcases, we were greeted with a cheery, "Well team, welcome to our Nations capitol!" from our very own leader, Sam Harper. We had finally reached a location that we could call home for an entire month! This was a little over 2 weeks ago, and little did I know how intense our time here was going to be.

Our first couple days was primarily consumed with getting to know our contacts here at the Justice House of Prayer (our base). Hearing stories of how JHOP was started and its vision was so inspiring. We also got to hear alot about the birth of the famous red LIFE tape, a prayer movement for the ending of abortion. Those first couple days we were also given the privilege to do our first LIFE siege. As we all lined up in front of the Supreme Court, the smell of red duct tape over my mouth, I began to pray for the ending of abortion. As I was standing in the cold wind, I looked to my right to see a family taking their picture on the steps. The Lord started speaking to me about all of the children who will never have the opportunity to go on family vacations, to take pictures with their mom & dad, or tug on their mothers shirt to tell her that they're hungry. I instantly began to bawl. As the tears started coming faster, I realized I couldn't really breathe anymore... I still had the tape over my mouth. I thought to my self, "gosh, I can't even cry!" and thats when I heard the Lord speak so softly with such a sadness in His voice, "Exactly... they can't even cry. No one can hear them..." - That broke my heart.

^ My team standing in front of the Supreme Court praying for the ending of abortion.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all depressing. At the same time as this, there are always people who are talking to our spokesperson. They're given the opportunity to share our heart for the power of prayer and the love of Christ. We're often even encouraged by passers-by! (passers-by may sound like incorrect grammar, but I'll have you know I had the greatest English teacher my senior year, Mrs. Pile, and I now know that passers-by is correct! haha) - We've gotten to do many sieges, and will be continuing throughout our stay in DC.

My favorite story so far is from when we on a tour of the National Mall. As we were ending our tour for the day at the Jefferson Memorial, we had some spare time before we were to be picked up. In the lower level of the memorial there is a museum type area with souvenir shops and such. We noticed a quote written on the wall above a nook that stated that "the knowledge of man is happiness" or something of the sort. My leader Levi instantly prayed out, "No, the knowledge of God is happiness." - We somehow ended up sitting around in that nook wasting time, when Jackson pulled out his guitar to just play quietly during our spare time. As he played, we were all quietly singing praises to the Lord. I guess we picked up some volume over time though, because when we opened our eyes we were greeted to a crowd of people who had gathered to listen. We were all a little startled to see so many people watching and taking pictures, but Levi stepped out to proclaim, "hey guys, uh.. we weren't really planning on this but we're Christians and we believe that Christ died for all of our sins. and if any of you guys would like to talk or pray with one of us we would love to." - As Levi was saying this, the Lord began to speak to me about a middle-aged woman in the crowd. So I weaseled through and tapped her on the shoulder. Our conversation went something like this:

Me- "Ma'am? The Lord just wanted me to tell you that He sees you. That He is wanting to comfort you in this time. That He sees what is going on in your family and He just wants to let you know that He is holding you...."

Woman-- she instantly started to bawl and threw her arms around me. As I stood there hugging her as she cried, she looked up to me and said, "My mother just died last week." - and continued crying while thanking me through her tears.

Me- "Is that your daughter right there?" (the Lord had highlighted her to me as well) and sure enough, it was. "I feel like the Lord is wanting to bring you two together in this time. To mend your relationship." I think I said a few more things, but by this point the mother and daughter were both crying and hugging each other.

That was quite possibly the most incredible thing I have ever experienced. As I was praying for the mother and daughter, my team was quick to jump on the opportunity to prophesy over the other bystanders. Kayla was hugging a teenage girl who was bawling, a few of the boys were ministering to this teenage punk boy, while the leaders were each talking to people as well. It was so humbling to see how the Lord will use people who are willing and listening for His voice at all times. I think that is what I am learning the most about... to simply listen at all times. If you're always listening for God's voice, then He knows He can use you because you're ready to respond.

Our team will be in DC until May 24, when we will venture to New Jersey and New York for a few weeks! That will be SO exciting! After that we have a short 3 day debrief in South Carolina and then back home to Hawaii for graduation!!! I can't believe the time is going to quickly!

I know I am failing miserably at updating my blog... but with such a busy schedule it is kind of hard to find the time to type up all the the thoughts and emotions that go on during the day. Hopefully I'll get better at it!

God bless you all!

Madison

Hello East Coast!

My time here has been absolutely amazing so far. My team has become family. We are in New England, Connecticut and the Yale campus looks like Englad! It's almost as if God is giving me little pieces of Europe in America! The Lord is already moving in the most amazing ways possible.. and He's actually using ME! I cannot believe it...

At a burn Friday night (at the church we're living at) One of our leaders Levi called people up for healing. I don't know what came over me.. I don't know how it happened.. but God actually used MY hands to work through. I prayed for 3 people, who were ALL healed. One lady hadn't been able to lift her extend her leg since September, and she even showed me how she couldn't raise it. After I prayed for her she just kicked it right up! After another prayer all pain and tightness was gone too! She kicked so high she accidentally kicked Kayla in the hand! haha I was flabbergasted.. This other lady had abscesses in her stomach or intestines, I can't remember. But it was constantly painful and she couldn't eat without excruciating pain. I prayed for her and she said, "um.. it's a little better" - So I prayed again, but then God started giving me different words for her. So I just started praying over her and emotional stuff. and she started shaking and weeping and almost fell over because the Holy Spirit was shaking her so much. After that she kept thanking and hugging me.. I totally forgot about her stomach. but as she was walking off I was like, "hey wait, how is your stomach?!" and she started feeling her stomach and looked back at me with a huge smile, "It doesn't hurt at all!" ... I saw her at church this morning and she said she ate breakfast for the first time without pain.. unbelievable.

Last night was an awakening meeting on Yale's campus with the IHOP University students. Lou Engle's son Jesse was there. And he prayed over me! He is SO cool! We got to talk for a while too afterward. During the meeting we were praying for students and people in the community that were in the room, and I got to pray over a few people. And God actually spoke through me! I can't believe it actually happened. People are falling out in the spirit even when it's only me who is praying for them! The girl came up to me afterward and explained how dead on my words were. I almost cried. Like crazy accurate stuff that I could have NEVER done on my own. Its AMAZING! The Lord is so good.

Easter Sunday is incredible. This incredible family invited us over for dinner. We got to spend the whole afternoon playing games outside, relaxing, eating a ton, and simply lying around together. I love my family here. They are such a blessing!

I'll try to update as much as possible, but our schedule is ridiculous! We've been getting to sleep around 130am and going all day!

Love you all!

Last day with Steve - Day 4

Once again, I'm going to copy my notes verbatim in hopes of somehow expressing the incredible concepts given to us in class.

If you are a believer you are a part of a new humanity, a redeemed humanity. And the Holy Spirit abides in you and guides you into all truth.

A supernatural quality of life and ministry is possible, beyond past experiences or what has ever been seen before. Do you believe that? You can know it in your head that it's possible, but that is only knowledge. Until you believe in your heart it will have minimized effect on your life. Romans 10:9

Self-evaluation is chronically sewn into our cultures to try to fix ourselves so that we can "help" God. Our self evaluation is us thinking that what God made wasn't quite enough, that we have to someone improve. The Bible says the righteous are bold as a lion! But we have an emotional reaction to confidence of thinking that it's setting yourself up for failure. We're thinking that from a perspective of what we can do in and from ourselves and not from God.
We're afraid that if we truly believe we are beautiful we will become vain or arrogant. But when your belief that you are beautiful comes not from self-evaluation or comparing yourself to others but from the voice of the Father over you, it can be believed in complete humility! The world wants us to be encouraged but is terrified we'll believe it.

The result of Adam and Eve eating the fruit in the garden was that they now looked at themselves They now had self-evaluation. They saw themselves and for the first time saw that they were naked. Before this they did not know anything about themselves except for what the Father told them. So when God came to the garden, instead of running towards God they ran away from God because they looked at themselves and knew they were naked.

We are so often afraid to complain to God. But it's right smack dab in the middle of the Bible! David complained to God and God called it worship! God just wants you to talk to Him! If we engage God, He will engage us. We're so wrapped up in our theology that we answer a lot of our own questions instead of going to God.

John 16
verse 7 - "It is better for you that I go away, for if I do not go away the helper (Holy Spirit) will not come to you." - Jesus
The disciples were living a supernatural life with Jesus. Healing the sick, seeing crazy miracles. But the Lord said that we will live a better life with the Holy Spirit. We're supposed to be living a more supernatural life with the Holy Spirit than the disciples lived with Jesus on earth!

The Holy Spirit does not come to convict us! He comes to empower us! Focusing on all of your wrong will only disable you from doing what is right and what you were created to do!

There was some more, but I don't think simply writing it on a blog would do it justice.