Week 2: We Are Still Human
Disclaimer: Jumping into week two was an honest reminder that the church is made up of people. People are still human and no organization is perfect. Someone once told me that falling in love has three stages; Infatuation, Disillusion, and Acceptance. It is the same way with a church or any organization. You are initially like “Wow! God is so moving and everything is perfect and this is amazing!”. Then the longer you are there you begin to see that people are not perfect, they smell, they have zits and pores and it’s uncomfortable. Not everyone will be your friend, but then you come to the acceptance or the reconciliation. You have to reconcile if you will choose to stay un-infatuated or look past imperfections and choose love. I knew coming into CR that this was not a perfect organization. But I still feel like God called me here for a season.
If you ask me in person I will tell you the same thing. I think that if God wanted me doing ministry on college campuses, there are over a thousand ways for me to do that, so it begs the question, “Why CR?”
I also think that God wants me here for CR as well, but we shall see exactly what that means and more time passes, because as of right now I don’t know why.
Monday: Messenger Track
Class time recap! Sammy took the first half and Nick took the second. In the first half, Sammy talked about the qualifications for leadership. Leadership goes beyond personality type. Sammy also gave us a larger vision for CR as a whole. Something that CR has faith for is to see 80 million salvations though this call, and that is a storyline that we are now a part of. Nick took over the second half sharing about faith and what it takes to carry out Gods plan for your life.
He actually had a six-point sermon.
- Everyone is invited to a journey of faith
- It is your choice to say yes
- You are only going to get your next step
- It looks different than you think
- It’s actually about a relationship with Jesus, not your dreams
- God is faithful.
This only confirmed my choice to switch tracks and after class was track time. My FIRST day of my new track! In messenger track we learn more about one-on-one evangelism, preaching and finding the message that God has put on our hearts to share. My first day of track was crazy, already breaking into groups to preach to each other, I was completely out of my element and I knew that I was where I was supposed to be.
Monday night Brian Brennt preached on the Lord’s prayer, or more affectionately, “The Disciples prayer” and how really when we talk to God we should talk to Him like He really is our father. We cried out for God to show us His love as a good father, that we can talk to boldly, who only has good gifts for us.
Tuesday: The Sand in the Bottle
In the morning I had a 45min conversation with my mom’s cousin Jason, who is a pastor in Florida. We were talking about ministry and living a life without regret. Also, that ministry comes from overflow. As I was telling Jason about changing tracks, he reminded me of an illustration of filling a bottle with large rocks, sand and then water.
At each stage, you think that the bottle is full, but in reality, there is more space for greater things. So it is always important to put the foundational things in first, like identity, authority, and the like, otherwise, you won’t have the room if you go right to the sand.
“I think that the worship stuff was the big rocks, and you are just now getting the sand, and haven’t even touched the water yet”
In class that day, I stood up and shared about making crazy life decisions in my past and taking crazy steps of faith. This was a step of boldness I knew would be the beginning of many things I would start to walk in while I was here.
The crazy thing is if I look back to Bella in her junior year of high school, she couldn’t decide between food and music. In that season I really felt like God gave me the choice to choose whatever I wanted and He would breathe on it. I went with food as many of you know, my last year at school was crazy and I was so happy with my decision. I made that choice because I never wanted my music to be anything forced, under a time constraint or lifeless. I wanted to keep it as a hobby between me and God.
The last thing from Tuesday, remember how I said that the yellow house had won the trophy during last Wednesday’s games? Well, in one of the boy’s houses (the blue house) their leader stole the trophy from the yellow house, so the yellow house leaders messaged the other house moms. We all dressed in black and marched over to the blue house demanding back the trophy (after lifting one girl so she could get into their house through a window)
We didn’t get the trophy back, but the woman came together and the whole thing was hilarious.
Wednesday: Outreach
Sammy taught about the main points of Circuit Rider Culture
See the need | Meet with Love | Repeat
Talking about the woman at the well and Zacheas. Jesus went to anyone. Jesus didn’t go right to the most seemingly influential person, He went to the broken. Giving us the courage to go for the “whosoever’s” on the campus. You never know where the ripples of that one person will go. Jesus revealed Himself as the messiah for the first time to a woman who was broken and caught in the bondage of her sin, yet it was that same woman that He used to bring an entire city to repentance.
This was the first Wednesday of our weekly outreach. The whole school was split into teams, given instructions, and then sent off to universities all throughout southern California. I was placed on a team of around 20 people, staff and students, all tracks included. The only person I knew on my team was my housemate Shawna.
I was in a car with 5 people, upon arriving we began to talk with college students and pray for them. This was something I had done in high school. We called them “treasure hunts” going out and looking for God treasure. It was wonderful to be on Biola’s campus. It felt like being at Liberty in Lynchburg, but much smaller. While praying for this girl with a knee brace I remembered dreaming about that very campus and a fire starting in the main courtyard where we were. My faith grew exponentially.
Thursday: Testimony and Prophecy
Nick taught the last day of this week. He talked about being a servant and asking God for compassion. Asking God to give us the heart to see people the way He sees them and breaking out hearts for the lost wherever we go. Not just campuses, anywhere, at any time. He also taught about hearing Gods voice, basically prophetic 101. He talked about a concept called “original design” asking God to tell us how He created that person to be. We then practiced this the following Monday and we prophesied over each other. Super cool to be reminded of things and told thing about my true nature, to have the courage to walk into the warrior leader He is calling me to be.
The second day of track time was fire. Chase taught us about a clean breakup. The power of God’s forgiveness and removing areas of sin or compromise in our lives. The best part of this news is that once God has forgiven it, we don’t have to deal with it again. We don’t have to repent again, just accept God’s forgiveness and make changes to walk out in the new life that has been given to us.
Friday: Chicken Soup
Prayer room was lit again. God started doing amazing things as we began to intercede for an event CR was doing on the campus of Chapman University. As around 80% of the school went out to Chapman, I felt like I needed to stay home and make soup.
I ran to a Ralphs with Cielo and Kat, bought $50 worth of cookie and soup making supplies, went home and started cooking. Two chickens and many veggies in a pot later, one person showed up at our door to eat soup with us. It started raining.
Did you know that it only rains in Huntington Beach 17 days out of the year? Well since I have been here it has rained 3 times. I like to say God brought the rain with me from home, considering we are on the tail end of hurricane season. So as all my friends were messaging me about Hurricane Michael hitting the coast of VA, and thunder and lightning, which is a spectacle here began to rumble, I felt a little closer to home.
Saturday: Hollywood Arise
Saturday we went to join this event happening in a tent behind the Dolby Theater. It was a 72-hour burn that was contending for the culture in Hollywood to change. It was amazing to partner with so many people who have been praying for the city. When asking an international student a few days later about shocking things about America, he mentioned this
“Hollywood is so glamorized by the media throughout the world, and then you see it in person and it is broken”
Sunday: Korean church
Even though there is no part of me that is Korean, I felt right at home in the Korean church I went to with Viktoria today. She had met a gentleman at the airport who was Korean and invited her to church. He took us out to eat Bulgogi and Japchae and brought us back to HB from Irvine. The rest of the Sunday we rested, writing blogs and eating cookies.
I went with Scottie (other house mom with Heather and Lexi) to the Evangeline. I started to go out of my house. Starting to make friends. Starting to insert myself into community and be a little vulnerable.
It was a wonderful day.
Week 3 is only two days in and God is continually building on what we are learning and growing in. Thank you for keeping up to date with my journey so far and continually supporting me!
-Isabella
Juniper 
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