If You Don't Feel Like Praying, Talk To God About It

Many apologies for how late this blog is! Life has been truly crazy this last few weeks; but no excuses, my bad!

To say that God has been moving through this place is a complete understatement. The amount of retained learning and growth that has taken place the last weeks has been HUGE. Thus far, we've had these topics during our lecture phase: evangelism, culture of honor, spiritual warfare, character and nature of God, and the Cross. The two teachings that have had the largest impact on my life so far have been the cross and spiritual warfare. I could speak for hours about all that I have learned and all that I have been going through here, so if you have any questions or would like to hear about anything in more detail, please do not hesitate to drop me an email! I would love to talk more about any of these topics of our spiritual journey. I'd like to share with you a few events/life lessons that have been strongly put on my heart the last few weeks.

We had the opportunity this last Tuesday to put on a Christmas gathering at a men's prison facility about an hour away from our base. The morning before we left, we had a time of intercession where we prayed for the people we would come into contact with there and for the Holy Spirit to move through the prison. During the time of intercession, many of us were given visions, words, phrases, and bible verses. I was given a vision of Isaiah 42 and a very large black man. I had never read this chapter out of the bible before except for verse 16, so I had really no idea what the entire chapter was about. We shared with the group what we received from the spirit, if anything, about the prison visit. I was hesitant at first to share my visions because I thought they were so random, but I felt so strongly that i should speak up about them. So I did. I came to find out that Isaiah 42 is about the servant of the Lord, it speaks on freeing the captives from prison and leading the blind out of darkness. It not only brought new meaning to my vision, but quickly became a favorite chapter in the bible. Now I know that the vision of Isaiah 42 spoke truth about the prison, what about the man I saw in my vision? Wouldn't you know that about an hour into being at the prison out of no where came a huge black man that walked straight up to me and talked to me for the entire time we spent at the prison. His name was Kevin and he was from Nigeria. We talked, laughed, prayed, hugged, and he shared with me a lot about his past. It hit me half way through that Kevin is God's Isaiah 42. Kevin had faith in Jesus as His savior, but didn't quite know what exactly to do about it. My leader and I had the privilege to pray over Him and hopefully speak some truth to Him. With about 30 minutes left in our visit, I went outside because I felt led to simply pray for Kevin and our time there by myself. I prayed that if it be God's will, would He keep Kevin and I in contact when I leave so that I may have a hand in continually praying for him. When I walked back into the room where everyone was, Kevin handed me a slip of paper with his phone number and email address! I'm not kidding, I felt as if God himself was handing me this slip of paper. In all honesty, I've heard stories from other people about God giving them visions and prophecies and seeing them come true and what not, but it was always hard for me to realize or comprehend it because I have yet to witness it myself. This was God's first stamp in my gifts of the spirit passport: prophecy. To completely put this into perspective for you, would it help if I told you I've been praying for gifts of the spirit for two weeks now? God truly answers when we knock on His door, when we seek His truth and when we ask in Jesus' name. Continue to be faithful in the little things and God will truly begin to be faithful in bigger things. I could go on and on about this topic and what has happened to me over the last couple weeks because this is only the tip of the iceberg; so again, please don't hesitate to email me and ask me about it.

One more massive lesson I've learned since being here. I am supposed to be here right now. How simple does that sound? I am supposed to be right here, in Davos, right now. God knew I wasn't ready for what He had in store for me prior to me coming here. I know He is molding and pruning me to become the man I am supposed to be so that I can fully live in Him and accomplish His will. With that said, I've been seeking confirmation the last week or two on certain specific details of my life (one being the gifts of the spirit and that one is surely being answered as I write this). I'd like to ask you to pray for me regarding confirmation on the other details. Without telling you any of them, if you are given any thoughts, feelings, or visions while praying please email them to me! I would not only be thoroughly encouraged to hear your thoughts, but they could very well be the words God desires for me to hear.

Thank you for the continual encouragement and support that I have received, it means more to me than you know! I pray that all is well with you and that God is at work in each of you. I miss you all!

SNOW

We woke up to a winter wonderland Wednesday morning! Snow was falling all day long and covered our lodge and surrounding area. We had some free time today so we went out on the hill behind our lodge and built a kicker (jump) and all of us boarded off of it! So fun and exciting to finally get back on my board. All of our prayers for snow finally came true; one of my friends here did an all-day fast on Tuesday for snow! And it worked!

I led everyone in devotional time this morning. Each student has to do it three times through out lecture phase and I was the first student to go. I gave a little teaching, or sermonette as the leaders here call it, on one of the nine fruits of the spirit: self-control. I gave them examples from my own life, biblical examples, and where I have already seen self-control at work in some of the students. It was interesting teaching on the subject because self-control has translate into discipline and this bunch of 18-20 year old snowboarders don't want to hear it! I noticed how uncomfortable it made them in their seats, so I switched up my game plan a bit and praised these young guys for acts of self-control I've seen in them here. They responded well and a few came up to me after devotional time and asked further questions or if I would pray for them. God is so awesome. We had our weekly worship session on Monday night and the Holy Spirit made another magnificent appearance. We not only had a non-believer come and experience Christ's love, but Jesus spoke to me through my friend Sean. During worship, a song was playing that spoke about laying down your worries and burdens at the feet of Jesus. I felt the need to go to the back of the room and start to simply pray. My pride was on my heart as I asked Jesus if He was proud of me; I've never really thought about it or thought that He truly was. I know that He loves me unconditionally, but never knew if He was proud of me because we fall short so often being human. A few moments later, my buddy Sean walked over to me and simply put his arm over me and started praying for me. When we were done, he hesitated a bit and looked uneasy. I asked him what was up and he told me that God has been telling him all evening to tell me something. He told me that God wanted to tell me that He is proud of me. How crazy is that!? Sean said that God had told him too a few different times and he just thought it was nonsense. When I told him that it wasn't nonsense at all and that it was exactly what I needed to hear his face lit up and gave me a huge hug. God is so awesome again!

We have free time tonight so my small group is going indoor rock climbing together! And Saturday we are going cross country skiing for a few hours! I've never been cross country skiing in my life! Nor have I had a pair of skis on my feet since I was in middle school! I'm really stoked to go.

I have been receiving so many encouraging comments from people, thank you all so much for them. I hope all is well with you and I remember you in my prayers (which is often because we literally live out the verse, "pray without ceasing"). I miss you all!

Psalm 139:14

Gruezzi! Welcome to German 101, that means hello, it is the formal way to greet adults here in Switzerland.  To say the last few days have been unbelievable would be an understatement.  I know it has been awhile since we last spoke and I would love to unload everything right now on here, but you'd probably go crazy reading such a long post and I just don't have that much time!  So here we go!

This is pretty cool, so one of the reasons I came to YWAM is for guidance and direction from God and to learn how to truly hear, feel, and see the holy spirit move in me.  The very FIRST teaching we had on Monday was on 'Hearing God's Voice.' If that wasn't a sign then I don't know what is!  Another awesome story like that, before all of us students arrived here and before our leaders knew anything about us, they spent a day praying for each of us hoping to learn something about us from God.  In turn, we had a prayer session the other night where our leaders shared with us what they had revealed to them.  Arnold, my mentor here, shared with me a couple visions that came to Him concerning me.  He told me that he pictured me with an orange ball playing with youth from all across the world.  Lets see, what could that mean? Maybe a basketball in my hands doing sports ministry around the world? What are my dreams again? Oh yeah, sports ministry.  He also had James 1:3-4 on his heart while praying for me, which says: "Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  This had been something that has been an issue of mine for months now! Those are simply two of the many amazing stories thus far.  

There hasn't been any snow fall here around our base since we arrived last week, but the mountain tops surrounding us have snow.  Hopefully, all the snowboarding areas will be open in two weeks because everyone here is incredibly anxious for some snow.  We are having a board waxing party Saturday afternoon, I'm pretty stoked.  Our days during the week are so packed that we haven't had any time to simply hang out with each other; so this weekend will be a great chance for us seven guys to hang out.  Out of the seven guys, three of us are from Oregon! How crazy is that, then one is from British Columbia, another from Huntington Beach, another from Detroit, and last, but not least Norway.  The guys from Norway is David, and he might be one of the funniest guys i've ever met.  So far, all of us have been getting along very well and we've all bonded very quickly.  Four of my leaders are from Switzerland, another one is from somewhere in Canada and my mentor here, Arnold, is from Holland.  To say that they are all awesome wouldn't give them enough credit.  They have done an amazing job leading and teaching us thus far and I honestly feel blessed to have the opportunity to learn from them.  

I'm going to take some pictures of our base and the surrounding area this weekend so I can put them up for you all to see.  And we are going on a long hike on Sunday so I will hopefully be taking some gorgeous pictures then as well.  I will try and post more often, but like I said, my weekdays are packed!  I want you all to know that I miss you and think of you often.  If there is anything specific you'd like to know, just drop me a line and I'd love to answer it.  

Day One- Sorry it is so long!

Wow, I am finally here and it is freezing! What a day God gave me today. It started with a wonderful send off in Portland with my family and Kirsten; incredibly blessed to have them in my life. I had a direct flight from Portland to Frankfurt, Germany and sat next to a sweet elderly lady that literally talked to me every moment I was either awake or had my headphones off. She and her husband are on the tail end of their 20 year traveling time or experience or however you'd like to word it. And yes, I said 20 years, they have basically spent my entire life traveling! She proceeded to tell me stories from Africa, Australia, China...Fiji, Argentina, Peru...you get the picture. I was able to sleep for the first two hours of the flight, then I watched the new Indiana Jones movie (not all that good) and Leatherheads (also not very good); so I talked with my new friend most of each movie.
Once I hit Frankfurt, I realized two things that I immediately regretted not bringing. A watch would have come in quite handy walking through an airport where there are virtually no clocks. Plus, my phone couldn't find service so I couldn't use it as a source of time. So I sat down on my computer thinking I could check my email and Skype some people and 10 minutes into using my computer it dies. Where's my power cord? In my checked luggage...fantastic. I was able to reach my lovely mother, however. I decided just to walk to my gate and hang out there and read until my flight boarded, but to my surprise I had the Amazing Race in my waiting room and on my flight. There were 7 teams of two hanging around being interviewed by the crew with their huge cameras and all. Lucky me I was the only one in the whole crowd they decided to interview! So I had two teams come up to me with their camera crew and talk to me about who I am, where I'm from, and a ton of other random questions. I had to fill out a release form so they could put me on TV and everything! Pretty crazy, right?
I landed in Zürich to find both my bags waiting for me which was such an answer to prayer! I walked through customs and had this grizzly looking man run up to me and give me a hug and then said, "You're Matthew, right?" Arnold is his name and he led me to the rest of the YWAM people so I could meet all of them and then he treated me to McDonald's: the home of the $12 McChicken value meal. How horrendous is that? I felt ashamed having him pay that much for me knowing I could get 12 McChicken sandwiches back home for this price! There are seven guys and two girls in our class, along with six staff members: two married couples and Arnold and another lady. So far, everyone is really cool and down to Earth.
Today has been a roller coaster ride of emotions, but I am happy to finally be here and I know I'm supposed to be here. Thank you all again for your prayers that got me here safely! I'll post pictures and a random video I took in Frankfurt tomorrow! Miss you all!

Blessed Beyond Measure

In all of my days, all 23 years of them, I have never felt this encouraged, motivated, or loved by so many people. It simply began as a thought, and now YWAM is a reality. This is due in large part to all of you whom I so graciously dedicate my first ever blog! It is because of your support, your willingness to step out and put faith in not what I am doing, but in what God is and will be doing that I am here writing this today. To say the least, I have been overwhelmed and overjoyed by the amount of prayers and support that has been shown. It has been incredibly reassuring and encouraging to read your notes and letters. It has proven to me that God is in complete control and that His ways are higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:9).

The love that has been shown has been, as my sister would put it, exceedingly abundant. It has made me feel truly loved. As we do things that require us to step out in faith and be vulnerable, I believe it is our human nature to wonder what other people think and might do in response. All of you have helped wipe those worries away and taught me to look up and focus on God's love and acceptance rather than that of the flesh. From personal experience, I believe we sometimes forget the support and love we have around us. God places people in our lives for a reason and I encourage you to think of someone today who has supported and loved you in times when you needed a helping hand or a shoulder to lean on.

Thank you. Thank you for believing in me, trusting me, and illustrating God's love to me. This is dedicated to you, for all that you have blessed me with.

I close with a quote from a book I finally finished that is very relevant:

"Love the Lord your God, and love one another. Love one another as He loves. Love with strength and purpose and passion and no matter what comes against you. Don't weaken. Stand against the darkness, and love. That's the way back into Eden. That's the way back to life."
- Francine Rivers