Monday Night/ T-Minus 33 days

 

PILGRIMS

 

 ALABASTER STONES

 

 

RORY RODRIGUEZ

 



 

STRIPE COATS

 



 

WEAVER AT THE LOOM

 

 

Thank you so much to everyone who came to support me on Monday. It was a night filled with fun, fellowship and great music. Please take the time to check out these amazing musical artist. I was blessed by each one of them.

 

Please continue to pray for financial support. I leave in 33 days and am only 1/3 of the way there. I have faith in a BIG GOD that finances will come through. Please DONATE!!!

Also, pray for my living situation. I am waiting to hear back from a potential flatmate, pray the Lord opens the door for me to stay there for His glory.

 

As the time is drawing nearer for me to leave the spiritual warfare is becoming stronger. I ask that you partner with me in prayer. That I may be focused on God and not be distracted by any insecurities that satan is trying to stir up within me. God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called and by His mercy and grace He is choosing to send me. I want to walk in complete obedience to His will. Pray that even when I fail (which is often) that I can portray Christ in humility and repentance.

 

If you see me out & about at work, church, community group feel free to love on me. I want to enjoy every single one of you before I leave. You are my sending family, I rely on you more then I care to admit. I am grateful to God for the wonderful men and women that He has surrounded me with.

 



British Benefit Show

Hello friends and family. I hope your summer is going well. God has been so faithful through every up and down that I have encountered this past month. A few praise reports. My dad after 3 years has found  a full time job with benefits working in his field of study!!! I was blessed tremendously on my birthday. Thank you to everyone who came and donated to my mission trip.
This Monday August 27th, I've been blessed to host a benefit show to help raise funds for my trip.

5 great bands will be playing. Please take the time to check out their band pages. Entry is $7, you can donate more if you'd like. I only have 1/3 of the money I need raised. I have faith in a BIG GOD and I know He will supply my every need. Please tell everyone about the show!!!
It will be from 7pm-10pm at College Avenue church
8221 S. College Ave, Whittier, CA 90605
Bands:
Pilgrims
Alabaster Stones
Rory Rodriguez
Stripe Coats
Weaver at the Loom

Also, please continue to pray for a flat in my price range.

Love you all. 41 days until I leave for London!!!!

It's my birthday month :)

Hi friends, it has been far too long since my last post. Since April I have held a yardsale and had a skype chat with Mark and Lizzie Dyrud the Reality London church planters. I now have a better vision of what I will be doing during my time in London. I will be serving as a Missionary Ministry Assistant helping with podcasts, bulletins, women & prayer ministry. One thing that I am really excited about is the Kids Ministry that is currently being built, I will be continuing the work that has been started.
I am still leaps and bounds away from financially being ready for this trip. I have faith in a great God but I too have to do my part to reach out and ask for financial help. With your donation you are partnering with me on my mission to London and helping in furthering the plan God has for me. This is all for His glory :)
My birthday is July 16. I'll be 26. Instead of sending me flowers or getting me giftcards to starbucks or Forever21 I ask that you please use the donate link on my page to contribute to my trip. I leave 3 months from today :)
Thank you for all the prayers. I have definitely felt covered in them these last few months. I love you all. God Bless.

Prayers & Support Needed

Friends thank you so much for all of your prayers thus far, I ask that you please continue to partner with me in prayer. 

• Accommodations: This is by far the most practical need that I will have while in London. Please pray the Lord open the doors for a flat, God loving flatmates, and of course financial provision to pay for it :) 

• Financial provision for: groceries (gotta eat), public transit (gotta get around), prepaid british cellphone (to call Mark & Lizzie when I'm lost, haha). My monthly budget living at the bare bones is about £950, and my trip is for 6 months. This is quite a sum so please, please, please pray for provision. If you feel led to partner with me financially please email me at denisebridget716@gmail.com 

• My plane ticket has already been provided for, please pray for a blessing over the individual who blessed me with them. This was such a tremendous blessing for me.
• Pray my relationship with Mark, Lizzie and Reality London can begin growing more before I leave. That God continue to direct what His will for me is while I'm there and that I can see a clearer vision of it.

I love you all. If you have any fundraising ideas please let me know. I've pushed back my yardsale to the end of April. Thank you to all who have donated items for me to sell. 

"He will lead us through anything if we'll just hang in there and follow Him. This means being diligent in prayer, relentless in our resolve, unwavering in faith, and determined to stand firmly on God's Word and His promises to us."-Joyce Meyer

This quote was a part of my devotional today. God is quick to comfort me and assure me of His love when I ask.

 

TRUE GRIT...

I was so blessed to hear Pastor Mark Dyrud speak at Reality LA on  Hebrews 12:3-13 this past Sunday. The message continued our series on Endurance. Pastor Mark mentioned grit bins that he sees around London during the snow season, I was able to find a picture of it :)  

Please take the time to view the message. It was such an encouragement to me and I pray it can be one to you as well. I am in a season where I am being proven by God and although it is tough at times every trial is making me stronger in Him. Christ is the ultimate survivor. He is the only one who has conquered the grave. He is the grittiest :) Let's be more like Jesus.

http://realityla.com/teachings/endurance-true-grit/

Please pray:

-The Lord open up a venue for me to host a benefit show. I feel like doors keep closing on this. Hearing no quite a few times gets discouraging but I know if it's God's will I will receive a yes :)

-The rummage sale at my house on Saturday April 14th. I have already been blessed with quite a few donations of things for me to sell. Now I just need people to come and buy them.

-The Lord continue to mend my heart. The healing process is one of continual release. Pray that I can daily surrender all my fears and allow God to fully work.

To God be the glory

God is good. 

In the mist of personal trial God continues to overwhelm me with His love, opening doors that only He can open. Let me take you on a journey of my last two weeks. 

Plane tickets to anywhere right now are the dominant expense to any travel. As I'm beginning to set up fundraisers my first goal was to purchase my flights both to and from London. I originally wanted to get my tickets in January but God had me wait making me a little unsettled being a planner and all. I now realize had I purchased my tickets using a credit card as I intended a couple months ago I would have totally robbed myself of a blessing and robbed God of His glory. A member of my church family came forward and offered to take care of my round trip plane tickets. Who does that? Only someone moved by God. When I received the text about my tickets my jaw dropped and my eyes instantly filled with tears. I was sobbing so hard I was freaking my mom out. When I finally mustered up the words to explain what happened my mom just looked up to heaven and praised Jesus. Thank you friend, you know who you are. Words will never fully express how grateful my family and I are.

Next...I've only ever had one laptop. A Toshiba my dad bought me my freshman year in college 8 years ago. I knew I needed to get a new one and really wanted a MacBook but the one I had my eyes on was upwards of $1,200. In casual conversations with members of my community group the topic of my broke down, takes an hour to warm up computer came up and how I'm praying for provision for a new one. God stirred the heart of a lovely young couple to give me their used one free of charge. Again, I had one of those "who does that?" moment. Jesus is so evident in the members of my church family. It is only through Him that I am this blessed. This blog is being written on my new to me laptop :) Being a PC person all my life this is definitely a transition, but one I am happy to make. Thank you Isaac & Shaina!!!

If you have spent more then 10 minutes with me, you know how much I love Disneyland and how I'm almost always there. I've had an annual pass for the last 4 or 5 years. With my trip to London I decided not to renew my pass this year and it sadly expired last month. It has been weird not having it but its something I know for the time being I can live without. Mark & Lizzie will be visiting us from across the pond and will be going to Disneyland. I am invited to go but without a pass I knew I wouldn't be able to without forking over a pretty penny. Asking for help has always been hard for me, its a pride issue that the Lord has been working on me with. I reached out to a friend that goes to Reality LA and works at Disneyland, apologizing for the question I'm sure they're asked all the time. Would you be able to sign me in? A response came quickly, "being signed in comes with block out dates but I have a free day pass that you can have". Really??? God is just in everything. Not only will I get to visit one of my favorite places in the world but it will give me a great opportunity to fellowship with Mark and Lizzie.

I don't know why I am surprised by God's provision. He is showing me time and time again that He is guiding my path, I only have to make the choice to trust Him and take a step forward. I am still a long way from my financial goal but I cannot help but give God glory for what HE is already doing.

Upcoming event:

I am having a yard/bake sale at my house on Saturday April 14th weather permitting. If you have any items that you can donate I can come to you to pick them up. Please pray for this event and for the acoustic benefit show that I'm in the midst of planning.

Pressed but not Crushed

It is in time of pressing and being broken when God draws you closer to him. He sees every tear and hears every cry and continues to be faithful. His love and patience has been overwhelming in this journey and its only the beginning. I am a person of lists, plans, schedules, routines and familiarity and God has been stripping that away in drastic ways the last month. Both in my personal life and my spiritual life. In all circumstances I can see God's hand at work. A year and a half ago I read a devotional by the great Charles Spurgeon that continues to be dear to my heart and always relevant:

"He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. If you bring forth fruit, you will have to endure affliction. But this affliction works out such precious results, that the Christian who is the subject of it must learn to rejoice in tribulations, because as the tribulations abound, so his consolations abound by Christ Jesus. Rest assured, if you are a child of God, you will be no stranger to the rod. Sooner or later every bar of gold must pass through the fire. You will be delivered from clinging to the present, and made to long for those eternal things which are so soon to be revealed to you."

I am being made into a better creation for Christ and although it sucks sometimes and loneliness and doubt creep in, I hold true to His promises. He is my chief joy and strength and in my weakness He is made strong and I can only give the glory to Him. Please continue to pray for me. I am truly blessed with some amazing women in my life. You know who you are :) Thank you for listening to my soundless ridiculous cries, for making me laugh when I thought I couldn't and for always directing me to Jesus. Community with believers is one of the greatest gifts God gives us. I love you!!!


Also, I want to hold an acoustic benefit concert within the next couple of months. Please let me know if you'd like to play or if you know of an intimate, reasonably priced venue that will let me hold the show.
So far the wonderful bands: Pilgrims, Alabaster Stones and Miss Christie Brooke have agreed to perform. Check them out on their facebook pages. They're pretty much amazing :)

stepping out in faith

Pastor Mark, Lizzie & I at Reality London, Aug. 2010

I vividly remember telling my parents at the age of 13 that someday I will be a "missionary" for Christ in a foreign country, here I am almost 13 years later stepping out in faith and obedience to the call God has placed on my heart. The Lord has given me a great love for Pastor Mark, his wife Lizzie, the church of Reality London and the city of London. He has broken my heart for what breaks His regarding the city. This decision to serve in London has been and continues to be a labor of prayer that has spanned over a year and a half, wanting to make sure it was God's voice I heard and not my own desire. The day has finally come to start preparing for my mission. I will be serving as a "ministry assistant" at Reality London, serving wherever, however and in whatever the church needs. Pastor Mark and wife Lizzie will also be pouring into me and discipling me as God leads them. This will be a season were I will be challenged, matured and definitely humbled. All to the glory of God.
          For a little over a week the prayers and possibilities about going to London have become a reality and God has already begun to be so overwhelming faithful to His promises providing in so many ways. I will be gone from October 2012-March 2013. In the upcoming months leading to my departure I will be needing first and foremost prayer. That the Lord continue to guide every decision made,  that He guard my heart and mind against any attack from the enemy both here and abroad. Second, London is a very expensive city. The preliminary budget for the 6 month trip is $15,000US which at the current exchange rate comes to $9,472.45GB,  needless to say that is a huge dip in funds. It will cover a room at an apartment, roundtrip airfare, transportation while in London, groceries, toiletries, basic healthcare, a phone while I’m there and any unexpected expenses. If you feel led to give there is a donation button linked to my paypal account.  Please comment if you have any questions, concerns, prayers, scriptures, fund raising ideas or anything you feel would help. I will be posting blogs regarding prayer request, praise reports, and upcoming fund raising events. Since you will be investing in me and sending me on mission I want to keep you as informed as possible. Thank you for being diligent in prayer, for loving me and supporting my obedience to step out in faith. I love you and am excited to see what God has in store for me on this journey.