Past 8 months, wrapped up!

8 month wrap up.......

I decided to take a look at the past 8 months of my life and do some reflecting. I see a time of God really going deeper in my heart and teaching me more about his character. As most of you are aware, I went back to Kona to staff a Discipleship Training School, which is a 5 month missionary training program. I was blessed to lead a team of 7 other men and women, with  a co-leader. 3 of our team members had a Korean background and the rest of them were from the States. I love how the Lord brings people together from all over the world, to follow him. I had a good time learning more about Korean culture, but did find it challenging at times.

During the beginning months of the school, April through June, God was teaching about time management and how to keep him close with a busy schedule. People have told me prior to doing my DTS that staffing is one of the most time consuming things, you can do and you die to yourself a lot. I thought yea, no big deal, I've go God I'll be fine, probably challenged but okay. Well I shortly found out what people were talking about. It felt that every second of my day was spent on other people. Which allowed me to take my eyes off of myself and to have a view of other's needs before mine. I thought that I was a selfless person...well maybe a selfish person with a selfless mindset is a better way to put it. I can't think of a more beautiful example of what it means to lay your life down for another. My prayer life was highlighted, in a way that exposed the power of my prayers, along with the area of praying that I need to grow in. Every day I needed God.

After the busy school schedule was wrapping up, my co-leader and I were preparing the schedule for our time with the team overseas in London first then France. We were all looking forward to a change of scenery for 2 months, along with reaching souls for Christ. We began our journey, along with 25 other students from our school to a place called Harpenden England. There, we joined a training school called Circuit Riders, with 80 other hungry believers.We spent time worshiping together, praying, and searching our hearts for those little stoppers in there masked as fear, unbelief etc. that hold us back from opening our mouths to share the gospel and Christ's heart with people. Being in a room full of people who are passionate about God, and tired of not obeying his commands, leaves for a momentum that can't be stopped! During our time in Harpenden, we did street evangelism 2 days, and saw 129 people give their lives to Jesus, 52 people got healed of physical aliments. God is on the move in England!


From Harpneden, we traveled to another town call Crouch End, which is located outside of the city of London. There we were working with YWAMers, assisting their church services on Sunday mornings, local women and children's home shelter, and other church festivals, sharing our testimonies and playing games with the kids. It was a full time of traveling around and being the lights that Christ has called us to be. We had the privilege of speaking at different churches, on simple topics such as faith, or the love of God or a testimony. It was a powerful thing to share a simple story and to see other people, get encouraged by what God has done. We even got to speak to a  college aged group of students from all around the world, and it turned out that a minimum of 9 people gave their hearts to Jesus and numerous healings took place as well. One of the last few weeks there, we re-located to a town called Romford and helped with a first ever vacation Bible school program for several churches in the area. 99 kids raised their hands to receive Christ! And kids were praying for each other and seeing them get healed!

Concluding our time in England, we were all filled with such hope for England! Shifting countries, we then made our way a bit more south ending in France. Since we were coming from England we thought it would be nice to stop through Paris and at least see the Eiffel tower. We made a short day trip out of it, to see Paris and get a taste of France, before we planted our roots there for a month. After a long day of traveling, we finally arrived in a town called St. Hippolyte Du Fort.

In St. Hippolyte Du Fort, we were staying on the YWAM base, that just got settled in a few months prior to us coming. As they were in transition time for their location and staff members, there were a lot of foundational blocks to be built. They wanted us to help them scout the area of the town, to get a sense of the Lord's heart for the people and to see what connections with the locals could be made to begin building relationships. Every morning we joined with worship and prayer for the town, then would go out on the streets. We didn't have many conversations with the French speaking people, but did a lot of prayer walking. Our main service in France, was not what you think of when you are on a mission trip, which typically looks like reaching the lost souls and ministering to the unsaved. We had the privilege of serving the YWAM base. It was a joyous challenge to set our day to helping cook and clean the venue, and other household work that needed to be done in order to be ready for the DTS to begin that coming September. The Lord did a great and deep work in our hearts as we were there. We had a great taste of team building, and allowing the Lord to strengthen our character to look more like Jesus.

Thank you again to all of you who have supported me and pray for me!

Blessings!
~ Lauren