Walking Barefoot

First off, sorry I haven't updated in a while! It is crazy busy over here with everything, and this is the first time I could sit down and just write.

Second. IT IS AWESOME HERE. Day by day, I grow more in love with this place, and these people. I feel like I have known them my whole life, and that I can just trust and rely on them so much for encouragement and pointing me to Jesus! It's amazing the community God placed here at this time and season for each of us. I am in a small group with 4 other girls, and our leader Katie! These ladies are so amazing, and we have grown so much closer together, even though it's only been 2 weeks! We also have these journals that we are required to  do every week and turn in Monday morning and it has been such a good thing for me. It gives me time to sit down and reflect on what God has taught me during the week. 

This week we had the privilege of hearing from Mike Phillips on Hearing Gods Voice. I went into the week not really expecting to get much out of it because I felt like I was "pretty good" at hearing God. It's amazing what you can learn when you open your heart to hear what God will say. A lot of what Mike talked about was things I didn't even realize about myself and how those things sometimes prohibit me from hearing God well. Not only that, but he definitely brought up things that showed me why I act certain ways in certain situations, not even necessarily in a bad or sinful way, but just overall. He talked a lot on the Holy Spirit and how we all have the Holy Spirit inside of us, and it hit me pretty hard to hear some of the stuff he said, but in a really good way. God is changing me inside and out, and I really can not wait to tell you guys more! For now, I feel like this is all God wants me to say, but just know that being here has and is shaping me, and it is so good. Thank you so much for all your support!!!

So, as many of you are probably aware, my best friends are here with me too, and many of you also know the injury Taryn got 2 weeks ago, the day before we were supposed to move into our dorm. If you don't, you can head over to her blog and read the story, but I can just say that it was honestly one of scariest (not THE scariest) things I have had to deal with. She is SO strong though, and God has been healing her so much! So last night (Friday night) one of our friends Hannah got this sense that she was supposed to pray healing over Taryn and her foot (which many people have done). So a group of us sat in one of the rooms and Hannah prayed over her foot. Right as she prayed, we started seeing swelling going down, not dramatically but little by little. And so we continued to pray and worship, and I got the passage of James 5:13-18. Which is all about healing, and confessing your sins to each other. So we talk for a little bit, and just worship God for who He is, and what He has done for us. And then felt like we needed to obviously include God in this whole thing, so we sat there and just asked God, what do you want us to do?  God has been really showing me that He loves to speak to me through visions and dreams, and so he gave me a vision of a sort of blanket or towel over Taryns foot, so I was like okay Lord, so I tell everyone and we find this gray towel to put over her foot, but it didn't seem right, it seemed too big and not the right color and such, sounds dumb, but I felt like we needed it to be exact to my vision. So one of our friends Rut said she had a smaller towel, and I asked her what color it was, and she said white. At this point I freak out, and lay on the bed just PRAISING Jesus because the towel I had in my mind was white. WHOA. So, we end up searching for it for a few minutes and find it under Taryn. One of the other girls, Maddie, had a vision of it being a hot towel, so we got the towel wet and hot, and placed it over Taryns foot. So we sit back down and ask God, what do you want us to do now? The word oil popped into my head. So I say, alright Lord, I will tell them. So I say, "Well, I think we need oil for something." Maddies eyes LIGHT up and she's like, that's crazy because I found this oil in my bed the other day that I have no idea where it came from. So we grab the oil and then ask God, okay God what do you want us to do now? Rut speaks up and says, well in that passage you just read, the oldest used the oil. Also Maddie said that she had a vision of someone rubbing Taryns foot. So we decide that I was the oldest in the room and it was my job to rub Taryns foot with oil. As many of you know, I hate feet and have such a hard time with that, but I was like, alright God, it's all up to you to use this, and I know you will. So I rub her foot with oil, and we place the hot rag on top of her foot. By this time, it's 11, which is quiet hours, so we can't sing anymore, but we can still pray. So we turn on worship music on a laptop, and just sit in prayer in the dark over Taryns foot. After a half hour of doing this, we were like, okay God, what next? We all got the sense that we were just supposed to wait. I end up getting a time of 12, and then Maddie speaks up and says that the verse she just read in the bible was talking about morning time, and healing. So technically 12 is morning, so we sit in silence, and just worship and pray to God for healing. As it reached 11:59, Taryn had spoken up saying that she wanted to play one of the first worship songs she sang at Bellingham CTK, and so we do. I was like, we really don't have time for this... it's almost 12. I heard God speak very clearly to me, "What's 5 more minutes? Wait until 12:05." Okay God, but this song is shorter than that. What do you know... Right at 12:05 the song ends. So we ask God again, who is to take the rag off? The youngest. Which is Rut, who just turned 18 this week. Some say its revenge for her saying it was supposed to me rubbing the feet... but oh well. ;) Haha. So, Rut takes off the towel, and you can SEE that Taryns swelling has gone down SO much from before we started praying, and when she woke up this morning most of the bruising was gone. We are just PRAISING Jesus for his HEALING power! It is SO amazing and ALL the GLORY TO HIM! AH. HE is SO GOOD. Also, as we were coming down the mountain when Taryn initially got hurt, I got the time of 2 hours. So I immediately thought, oh 2 hours and she will be completely healed. Of course we all know that didn't happen. I just sort of forgot about the whole 2 hour thing, and moved on. UNTIL, last night, I realized we had prayed over Taryn for healing for 2 HOURS, and it happened. It is not 100% better that we know of, but God is definitely moving in her foot, and healing her. And to add the whole "2" thing, it had been exactly 2 weeks from when the injury occurred. AH, JESUS!!! What the heck. So good. Also, right before we even did this, we had gone out evangelizing in Kalispell, about 30 minutes from where we are, and it was awesome too, but when we were on our way back in the van, Taryn had a canker sore in her mouth, and our friend Maddie put her hand on Taryns lip, prayed, and it was COMPLETELY gone. So that was the first step in this whole healing thing, and it was AWESOME. God is so good!!! 

Basically, we all really didn't have much experience in healing, or any of it, but I really have been learning through things that God sometimes calls us to go barefoot, and go into the unknown and just see what He will do. Some of the things I said, I felt so stupid, but God uses even what we think is stupid, and not relevant. He will call us out of our comfort zone to see what we will do, and if we trust Him. He called and convicted me to touch Taryns foot, which was BEYOND what I ever thought I would do. 

Everyone in the room that night has a different story of how God spoke to them, and little prophecies and visions they were given, and I could write PAGES upon PAGES of what happened, but God did WORK in that room, in hearts, and physically. It is amazing what God can do with an open heart, and open mind. I LOVE IT! He is SO GOOD you guys. 

I will keep you updated what is happening with Taryns foot, but everyone that was there that day, seeing her foot, knew it was broken on the mountain, and God has been healing it so rapidly, beyond our expectations. So basically, what I encourage you guys to do, is not limit God. I know this is just an update on things going on here, but God can do things like this where you are at too, not just on a YWAM base. Press into Him! I love and miss you guys, and will update next Saturday. <3 nbsp="" p="">