CSMP 2017

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

Apology

Hello all, 

I apologize for not giving y’all an update more recently for CSMP, I have had some health issues that have been popping up throughout CSMP, that have taken time that I would work on for updates, in order to rest instead. Please keep on praying for our team! I will resume updates of things that I have learned/been learning once CSMP is over. 

-Much Bless 

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

Financial Update

I probably should have posted something akin to this a while ago, but since June 18th I believe, the Austin team has been fully funded. I kind of wanted to post a personal testimony/praise God moment. So, I was not fully funded until the 18th, and I found out that one of my family members took my support letter to their local church which the congregation is only about 15 people and God provided me the rest of the support that I needed which was around $300 with their help. Not only were they incredibly supportive, but also generous in sending me as a missionary. The crazy thing is, is that I am not super close to this family member, and I have only been to their church one time before, I believe two years ago, and so I was exceptionally surprised looking at my financial form and realizing that God had provided the exact amount, actually slightly over that I needed to participate in this missions trip. I think this story was truly representative of God’s power and willingness to provide for his children. I was really stressed about funding for CSMP, but praise God!

Here Comes Adulting?

Soooo, I have a job? Tutoring in Austin at the Austin Learning Center. Before CSMP started I applied for literally four jobs. I wrestled with should I even apply for jobs, I mean technically I am still waiting on to hear back from Texas Tech, but on the other hand, I want to be faithful with everything God is calling me to do so, I applied and then I got a job!!! YAYYY I won’t be rolling in the dough as much as the two cute bears will be, because I will be applying for grad school (again), but at least I have something of a plan.

Matthew 7:7-11 Ask, and It Will Be Given 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

CSMP Update #8, 6/24/17

PPAP (Pen Pineapple Apple Pen) https://youtu.be/Qu5G443dQ4A

Physical-training Prayer Application Perspective The light at the end of the tunnel or the rainbow after a rain. So, originally my other teammates and I that were injured, were going to ride bikes, but then they didn’t know how, so then we ended up running the 5 miles. I was really bitter about running, because I was told by the leaders that we would do yoga or bike the five miles. Honestly, I just wanted to walk the five miles instead of running it, because we ran the day before and my calves were killing me. I have NEVER, like ever run up until this point in my life, but only for missions. AND the crazier thing was that I had broken my foot earlier in the semester, so I was still regaining strength in my legs. By God’s Grace, and through the encouragement of my very persistent teammates I was able to go from exercising 2-3X per week with no running experience at all, to broken foot, to strength training, to some running, to running ⅗ miles that my teammates ran, we ran together. I will be forever grateful to all of my teammates that pushed me so much just to get to this point.

Why do we do PT?

Romans 5:3-5 English Standard Version (ESV) 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Suffering together builds the team, so working out not only is great team building, but also it prepares us to be healthier once we actually hit field work. After the first day training with the Ann Arbor team and being sore for 4-5 days, I was like I am done with this, I just want to be D-O-N-E, DONE, just stick a fork in me and call me dinner. On the other hand I appreciate the fact that I have went from no running at all (although to broken foot, to rebuilding my previous strength, to running a 5K with the help of God and my wonderful incredibly, supportive, teammates that always pushed me to do my absolute best, even when I didn’t want to be affirmed nor encouraged, and especially didn’t want to run.) Running is so painful, like my calves would be burning every time we ran, and my legs would be the equivalent of jello.

Last Day of PT For our last day of PT we played ultimate Frisbee and split up into four different teams, and played out of five points, neither of my the games we played got up to five, but we won one game and I think lost the other or tied. The field was really wet and I slide across as I was trying to catch a Frisbee, and I accidentally did the splits, which was super painful. It was so painful, I just started laughing, and my team was like, “Are you OK?”, “Do you need prayer?” I just told them I always need prayer, but I’m ok, and I got back into the game. I really appreciated the time I got to spend with my team throughout PT, even though PT= T-PAIN 100%.

Team Building Exercise

Later on in the day, yesterday (6/23/2017), we played several “team building exercises.” One of them was each team, the Austin and Ann Arbor team each pushed a van across the parking lot then Preciosa and Pouf trolled us by driving to the stoplight, where we ran to get into the van. Our leaders are such trolls, that’s why we troll them as well. Then we went to a park together and played some games, such as Ships and Sailors, Cat and Mouse etc. All the games were especially entertaining, especially hearing my teammates scream “AHHH” during Cat and Mouse.

Prayer Requests: -Team Unity: that despite our differences God’s Grace would overarch any differences that would separate us from God’s mission. -For the Gospel: as we boldly love on the students at CCA, we would boldly share the Gospel with them. -Personal: Grow in awareness, discernment, and working through my own emotions and frustrations. Grow in awareness and understanding of spiritual gifting's.

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

CSMP Update #6, 6/7-6/14

The Struggle of missions is Real. I think over missions overall I have been having to battle against a lot of self reliance, my own frustrations at myself, and attentiveness in a group environment. Rather than chilling in the kitchen and doing dishes to get away from my other teammates, I need to not always be the first one that jumps up even it’s something as simple as prayer to serving, but just to quietly remind the group through quietly asking, “hey, can anyone help with with x,y or z?” is just as effective if not more effective as “YO! CAN SOMEONE DO THE DISHES?” With the help of a friend, I kind of realized I didn’t do the dishes, because I wanted to serve, but because the environment of missions has been quite overwhelming for me personally. Interacting with people although a genuine joy is quite challenging getting to know the other team members in a group environment, because it’s so loud sometimes. (Mealtimes, UYO etc)

Most of my friends and teammates, if I have not mentioned this before are Asian, so looking at their culture through my own, in my opinion they can be not only very subtle, but also very sensitive through the different avenues in the way that they communicate. It’s interesting that I am still learning something new from my friends, even after in some cases two or three years of knowing them.

PT=Physical Training

Has been a real struggle for me personally. Even though I pushed myself a lot doing low-impact workouts like swimming, social dance, and also weight training technically, before my foot was fully healed, I still haven’t been able to keep up with my teammates. My legs just haven’t been enough for me to get to my previous strength level, so when I do PT I have had to ask a guy to restructure the workouts. His name will be now and forevermore to be known as “The Commander”, because he’s in charge of our PT plans. Every single day of PT has been such a struggle. Everyday, I am always the last one to finish everything, but my teammates have been super encouraging about it. They always shout my name, and clap for me, just trying to encourage and love and support me, which honestly just makes me feel more awkward at times. (insert derp face).

Overwhelmed.. Frustrated… discouraged… ok I’m walking away now…. Try Again Perhaps I have always known this, but every time I am faced with a challenge typically I break it down, or I feel overwhelmed, and then frustrated with myself, then discouraged, and then I walk away in order to cool off a bit, and afterwards I will try again. I have had to wrestle through this cycle a lot on missions, wrestle with a lot of anxiety. Etc.

Differences in People, but the same Body… Many of my friends/teammates are from different countries, are different ethnicities, are from different cultures, speak different languages, have different passions, but together we are one team, with one mission that goes to one city, and is a part of one body, together we serve the greater body of Christ, to glorify him in every aspect, and making disciples of all nations in the name of the Father, the son, and the holy spirit. 1st Corinthians 12:12-31.

Prayer Requests:

-Team Unity: that despite our differences God’s Grace would overarch any differences that would separate us from God’s mission.

-For the Gospel: as we boldly love on the students at CCA, we would boldly share the Gospel with them.

-Personal: Grow in awareness, discernment, and working through my own emotions

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

Access June 18th Outline Notes

Share: Pastor Joe from the Singapore site asked us this question. What is something that you are proud of in your life? Why?

Personal Reflection -junior Duchess -valedvictorian. -got to dream college (UT AUSTIN), graduated and got scholarships to fund education. Why am I proud of those goals? I set a goal and stuck with it for the most part.

Greater than what i hold onto. Consider: where do u find your safety, security and success? What do you hold onto?

The One Thing: Give up what you hold onto in vain; Jesus is your real gain.

Luke: 18: 18-23 ESV I. Jesus knows your "one thing" Profile: young rich man is… -young -successful. -entitled position of authority and influence. -educated. -do-gooder. "Good teacher, what must I do ro inherit eternal life?" Vs. 18

What is your actual belief about God?   In Singapore- people have the right answer for everything. 1+1=2. Right thing to say. There is this Asian culture to try to save face You have a different.... Face with family. Face In public Face with friends. Face at work. Americans value freedom of expression.. as long as I express myself that’s what matters. Not as much freedom to express what you honestly feel in Singapore and Asia in general.

It’s hard to know what people’s actual belief’s about God is because there is this culture of saving face. What is your actual belief about God? Jesus starts to reveal what he actually believes. Jesus asks.. why do u call me good? No one is good except God alone. God defines what is good alone. Do u really know and believe I am God?

The young rich guy: tells Jesus “I have kept the ten commandments since i was young.” Modern day rendition: “I I I think that I am good, and i am going to jesus for him to affirm me as a good guy…” “Don’t you see those 17 gold stars i saw in kindergarten. The rich guy was insecure..  genuinely curious. The way he responds is a little defensive explaining himself insisting on his own goodness.

Pastor Joe: For many years i felt like i was a good kid. I did all the right things.. knew all the right answers. Jesus revealed the mans actual belief. This is your one thing in life. He was sad, because he had a great number of treasures.

***The rulers actual beliefs: Good things, come to good people by their own good efforts.

**This mans actual one thing (God) My own accomplishments and gains.

Sometimes it takes faith to recieve Gods gift.

Pastor Joe: “Some of you use church as a cover for your unfaithfulness. Send me Lord... why? I was running away. I was such a perfectionist that i hesitated to turn in papers on time. Man... i don’t care about what ppl think but I care what ppl think.

Have you ever been uncomfortable trying to follow God? I don’t want to do this... Im so dry.. God just disagreed with you. Have you ever walked away from God but ever walked away feeling sad? You are here present but you heart is not.

What is that one thing? That thing u have to give up.

What is your one thing? God has revealed to you that you have put your trust in? Your true idol for safety, security? Success?

When Jesus isn't your one thing, Jesus just becomes an add-on in your life to make you feel more affirmed?

I placed my church inv. At my significance. Person came in late to access and judges them for being late. I refused to address outside of Jesus. I tried desperately to find my significance in anything and everything even in good things like the church.

The young ruler found his safety and security in things other than Jesus. When we surrender to God we are so focused on the losing part we dont realize what we are gaining. I wonder if he was insecure and didnt know the steadfast love of God was greater than anything else in this world.

What the young man should have responded.. is i have no good apart from God. Psalm 16: 1-2.

“The deepest, tenderest place in the heart of God is reserved for sinners who can offer him nothing but their need.” Ray Ortlund.

II. Jesus is worth surrendering to Read Luke 18: 24-27 The disciples told Jesus “you just turned away your prime candidate.” This guys has been to OCR b4 ocring, and been to every OCR, participated in Freshman missions, did Csmp and now going on asian missions. This rich guy “Hes done it all. Hes the ultimate bachelor. If not him.. who is good enough?”

***Our idolatry makes it impossible to follow Jesus and gain eternal life. Marriage is an exclusive committed relationship. Even if you are the most hard working person in life.. if its not Jesus your pursuit..  then at some point you may turn away.

Jesus is the only good one.. its on his goodness that we stand upon.

Ask yourself: Is there anything you feel like you deserve more of? Have you been obsessed with your competence, reputation, or ranking amongst others? Have you been experiencing a loss that u need to grieve over? Is there something youve gained that you feel you need to hold onto? Is there something you dont want to pray about?

A lot of seniors.. What r u doing after graduation.. idk.. stop asking me. Its embarrassing just to say IDK. Like an essay you are dragging out that you don't know. Second, Third, 4th friend all get jobs.. First friend.. you are happy.. But you think what about me God?

Come to LG you have job.. Praise God it was a gift to me.. yes lord it was a gift praise God..i can be a missionary in my field. 4 months in and your like i hate work.. it stinks.

We always challenge graduates to give your first paycheck to step out in faith.

Students esp... im telling you its harder and harder to give up your all. As a bachelor.. all i have is time.. married.. i hesitate.. Becuase of my Baby boy.. As you get more sucessful you gain more.. the more you gain the harder it is to give and hold up.

***Is Jesus really worth it? Jesus makes eternal life worth it.  .. not by yourself but by the work of God. Vs. 27   He makes it possible to say and do good works.. overflow of good works. Ephesians 2:8-10

Read Luke 18:28 Surrender to Jesus is complete. Surrender to Jesus is continual. In order for it to be complete but continual.

J.D. Greer Surrender starts with the realization that... I would gladly give it all. Surrender means coming to God with open hands and open heart. Am I fully surrendered?

Following Jesus doesn't have anything with your current profession.. its something deeper than that. Regardless of what your doing.. what and where.

Jesus is worth it all. Paul.. whatever I had i counted as a loss for the sake of Christ.

I was so dedicated to the middle East in the military I even came up with the... Four Ms Missions in Military for Muslims in Middle East - genuine prayer at first. Camp Greenly. Rifle in my hand and training.. shooting at target. God spoke to me to pray... Vivid image of when i gave my life a few years prior.. ive been pining my hopes in marine corps. I took pride in it.. over the years.. i put my safety security and significance in military. I took out loans.. forgive all loans if you sign up for more years.   I had stopped turning to the Lord as my providor. My lord i give up marine corp.. Hehe.  I see what u are doing..   Go to county called dajbootie. Narrowed down list.. Ok lord send me. My name wasnt called. Lord.. what is it that you want me to do? Those good things had become my one thing. Whole season pray through.. hopinh whatever you want to do.. show me and ill follow.

God opened door.. miracle provision for transformation center. Month later.. Months later pastor Andrew.. asked me to get inv. With church.. Month after that sent pastor ben. Month after that first int. Church plant.. 6 months. God showed me this is what I'm doing. Person challenged me.. what y Fast and pray about it.. I think, I think God was calling me to be a Pastor..

Went with Jakarta for a year.   That was a hard year. Christ was probing my heart what my one thing really was... Are we even listening to what the Lord has to say.

Psalm 27:4 Intimacy from God was Davids one thing.

Helen H. Lemmel

One thing: Give up what you hold onto in vain; Jesus is your real gain. Life Application: I release............. My reward is Christ alone.

Reflection: I think for me, I doubt that God wants me to give up on being an AuD. I just don’t think that’s what God want’s for me, but I think He is wanting me to surrender my timeline, by not getting into grad school this year, it kind of screws up my 10 year plan, but maybe one more year in Austin is just what I need to help transform me into a missionary not only as a worker in the workplace, but also as a student, in all areas of my life. 10+1 year timeline here we go. Also if you get a chance, please watch Pastor Joe’s from Singapore’s preaching. He’s such as hilarious pastor, he’s so sassy, in speaking truth to people’s lives, he calls them out on their bluff.  

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

CSMP Update #6 Ignite Testimonials

(SHOUT OUT TO JESUS BECAUSE IGNITE WAS LITE) Light it up up up.. Jesus is on fire. https://youtu.be/-Jzqq4B8H2Q

The Access after Ignite there was an open mic session open for the ENTIRE CHURCH and these are brief testimonies of the breakthroughs, meetings, and reminders that God was able to do throughout this time.

People came to know Christ.

I was pleased about what the lord spoke to me. I could relate to jonah... who are we? Do we have a right to be angry? I realized if God could forgive ane and realized i want God to change my heart. I need him ti change my heart to be a light and witness to family.

Rachel- asking God to speak to me. 1. Pursue online ministry. The internet is a great avenue to minister to people. 2. Longterm missions. 3. Adoption and Foster care.

Daphney (Asian Missions Team/Fellow Aftershock) Came in really excited. My heart and my life and my strength. How can i worship you when i feel hopeless. U connected w/ ppl of Nimmemiah Im so sinful even trying so hard. No hope in this world other than christ. God didnt just leave us alone but gave us jesus, bought us at a price. He gave me faith that is not my own.

Edwin- blessed by ignite. Men nowadays are rejecting their identity as fathers. Freshman mission trip. Being a father to the orphan less. Rebuked and challenged. Me being a son to show others He is loving father.

Reagan God reminded me a lot of things.

Me Just graduated from college, I don’t have everything all together. I was planning on going to go to graduate school and still am, but I am on the waiting list for grad school still until the end of summer. Before I left for CSMP I really wrestled with applying for jobs, but I sent in a couple job applications in anyways, because I realized that just applyign for jobs

PRAISE GOD FOR EVERYTHING!!! Every breaking of walls, Every barrier, Every chain of sin, to meeting people for the first time, the angels rejoice in heaven when one in number is added!

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

Urban Youth Outreach CSMP Update #5

CSMP Update #5

Urban Youth Outreach

Going to UYO again was amazing to be able to continue to build relationships with Katelyn, Justin, Grace/Hannah and Pastor Daniel. I originally met Katelyn and Pastor Daniel on SBSP (Spring Break Mission Project), two years ago in sophomore year. We learned a lot about how they do urban ministry. They have a house church in the middle of Inglewood, and have been able to grow over the thirty years that they have been there, through all the gang violence God has been so faithful to His Church, and especially ministering to the gang members in this area.

What did we do at UYO?

Work projects, prayer walking, praying with people etc. The work projects that we did were mostly organizing the storage units. We played with the kids, a lot, but it helps the staff members thereby allowing the long term workers to do the work of the ministy, but for us we only see a short chunk, of what God does there. For example, while I was there, we played outside, but I went inside to get something, and Katelyn was working with one of the younger girls they were doing a bible study together, which was absolutely precious. The girl was reading from the bible aloud and it was a beautiful sight to see.

 <iframesrc="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Furban7.org%2Fposts%2F10155541437569674&width=500" width="500" height="626"style="border:none;overflow:hidden"scrolling="no"frameborder="0"allowTransparency="true"></iframe>

https://www.facebook.com/urban7.org/

 I remember…

I remember God met me so powerfully in Chicago, meeting four different people that all had family members with disabilities, or had disabilities themselves.

This time God met me powerfully too.

 Here’s a section of what I wrote from my reflection time at UYO. It’s amazing how literally ALL the convictions that I had at SBSP came into fruition throughout my time as an undergrad student, so praise God!!!

 SBSP Convictions 2014

Through all of this came into fruition a lot of what I have been praying for and in way that came to be a lot faster that I could have ever hoped. There are several reasons why God has placed me in this church. 1. To break away from sin. 2. To be healed in God's love. 3. Build spiritual pillars in my life (prayer... read da bible) 4. Build relationships within the deaf community 5. Share the Gospel 6. Share how God has worked in my life as are encouragement to others. Not necessarily in that order..

Here is a link to the original blurb I wrote after the missions trip.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yyd-gD4zsWvF0t6VT7CKfNZ_FQlLXbXbeo6DGNAWKp4/edit?usp=sharing

 UYO: What did I learn?

Here’s a section that I wrote during my time at UYO… that I think is the best representation of God’s heart for this ministry.

 God is still/always/constant/sovereign

 -working with the kids is tough there’s no doubt about that, but their genuine joy and affection for almost total strangers is the same way we should be in total awe of who God is.

 -They will not remember me, my name nor my face, but I hope that they will genuinely remember the love and the affections from Christ through me, and many others passing before me through here, and still many more after me, so that they may know the glory of our father who is in heaven.  

 -please pray not only for the promise of restoration over this place, but that it will happen in truth.

 -the things you learn on CSMP will always stay with you (courtesy of Hannah/Grace, ex HMCC and previous CSMP member. )

 Spiritual Battle is Real

During our time at UYO the girls stayed in one house, and the guys stayed in the other. At our last night of UYO there was a house fire at the neighboring house over to us, which was closest to the girls house. Hangil came up into the girl's house to tell Preciosa that we needed to get out of the house,.. And we heard a CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK, which was him falling down the stairs of the girls place, but he ended up being totally okay. From the girls vantage point, we couldn't see the fire as well as the guys could. Apparently, one of the guys said that they should start packing, and so instead of the guys leaving the house, they all started to pack instead of leaving the house to go outside. Whelp, there goes all of our fire safety training.

We gathered all outside of UYO and started praying over the fire, and once fire trucks came and it started to die down, we went inside and held an informal prayer gathering, roughly around 10:30 or 11pm at night. All jokes aside everyone was ok, no one sustained any injuries, except for Hangil falling down the stairs, and he’s fine.

I think everyone was just spooked by the experience to say the least. For a lot of my friends I would say that was probably the first time something like that had ever happened, so for us as a team to experience a fraction of the fear and anxiety that the residents of this neighborhood was enlightening, because it gave us an even deeper insight as to why the residents want to leave. Spiritual battle occurs when we least expect it, but I think most of us were thankful that it didn’t happen earlier that day when the carnival was happening with the kids.

Praise God for giving us a fraction of the fear and anxiety that the people within this neighborhood have, to understand and empathize more deeply why they want to leave, to start a new life,

pray for redemption over Inglewood and for spiritual protection. 

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

!gnite Conference  (Let’s Get Lit for Jesus)

CSMP Update #4

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pMM7XVxQFkJ-v5mp8qHBT_718Y0-b0QRNSgNoKRdLg4/edit?usp=sharing

***Here is a copy of my notes of the sermon’s themselves if you would like to read/review them, If you have any questions let me know, but just for the sake of trying to condense the information I am going to condense what I learned in this conference as in the following questions.***

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XK7EUSYuGvCetwvZ6IpgZ18u5gVGJc-jpMaXAZoqYeA/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a copy of my notes from Faith and Entrepreneurship***

 For those of you reading my updates, and that don’t know what Ignite is, it is a missions conference that is targeted towards undergraduates and young working adults to ignite a passion in their heart for missions, not just short-term missions projects like CSMP, but ignite their hearts for missions in the workplace, in graduate school, throughout their entire life.  People’s hearts are ignited for God’s work towards His people among the nations.

What did I learn? Going forward how can I apply this in the future?

I learned two things at Ignite, which I was taken aback by. Most of the lessons that they learned were not necessarily directly related to ignite, but I think they were definitely relevant to the season that I am in.

Apart from God I can do nothing (John 15:5)

Typically, when I learn lessons they are usually very hard, and sometimes I have to learn them over and over again in order to understand the lesson. I was reminded through this process that prayer is really important to all aspects of my life, because it breathes out a reliance and dependence on God, and I need to be praying for my future, my goals, hopes, dreams, etc.

This entire semester I had approached memorizing sermon on the mount (Matthew Chapters 5,6, and 7) in a very secular, student oriented way. It didn’t occur to me until the Friday of Ignite happened that I needed to pray for God would help me memorize the sermon. I approached sermon on the mount in a very student-oriented way, so i just read it over and over again, listened to it in the car, while doing laundry, etc. God makes our burdens easier to bear when we pray and through difficult times God pours out a reliance and dependence on him. Yeah, so I went through and did everything, but sermon on the mount just didn’t make sense, I couldn’t speak it until God, softened my heart through prayer.

This past year, I also realize that I didn’t start praying for Grad school applications, until after I started receiving rejections. I realize that I should involve God more with my plans, and He will open the door.

God doesn’t just want my plans (Jerimiah 29:11), but he wants my heart

In the same way that Jonah ran away from God’s plans for him to minister to the people of Nineveh. I too have been running away. I feel like God has been preparing me for a position of leadership (within the Capital C-Church which may or may not end up being Harvest), but I have rejected that. I didn’t/don’t want to lead if I end up staying in Austin, which to be honest is my most viable plan at this point, to do research with a professor, work part-time, take the GRE (again) and reapply to graduate school.

I digress.. The prayer that I have been praying for myself looks something like this… If I hold in my hands all of my goals, hopes, dreams, and those are all from God, his hands are wrapped around mine, waiting for me to put them in His hands.

 What were the messages like?

Overall the theme from Ignite was from the book of Jonah Chapters 1-4. Each Chapter had a different message with a different take away or what they call in our church the “one thing”

I would say that one thing that I learned was… from above, but those things were inspired by these messages.

 Jonah 1: live out your identity.

One thing: embrace your identity as ministers of the Gospel to the world around us.

 Jonah 2: Second chances.

The ONE thing: we receive second chances from God to serve second chances to others.

 Jonah 3: Front row seats to God great work

The one thing:

We praise God for the transformation we see in people and people groups.

 Jonah 4: What do you value

The one thing

Respond to Gods reality check by recommitting to his great commission.

 All the Commissioning’s, Let’s Do All the Thing’s

Detroit Church Plant Commissioning

Asian Missions Team Commissioning

Community Summer Missions Project Team Commissioning

Pastor Samuel Beck Commissioning

At Ignite we had a lot of commissioning. What is church commissioning? In the early forms of the Christian Church (book of Acts), people would be presented before as a group before the church, and the people of the church would lift up their hands and pray over them as they are sent out to go on missions, plant a church, and also in this case commissioned Pastor Sam Beck. Yeah, so we were presented to the Austin and Ann Arbor churches and people prayed for us. Being on stage with all of my teammates was such a huge blessing, it was this realization of oh… CSMP is finally happening, all of the prayers and fundraising, talking to friends and family, and whelp it’s finally here… haha. Standing on stage looking out into the congregation I was so incredibly blessed by being prayed for and going forward with the confidence that people were praying for me, and my team. I was so humbled, incredibly humbled by this church, that God loves so much, that I can see so clearly God moves through people so much, I started crying onstage.

 WORSHIP

Ignite’s worship with both the Austin, Ann Arbor and Detroit churches together was an amazing experience. It was crazy lit. Everyone was just dancing, jumping up and down. If you have never been to a Christian conference, I would highly suggest it. Praying for people from our sister church was such a huge blessing. Sometimes there would be 7-10 worship leaders on stage, and it’s such a huge rush worshipping with that many people together. Although, don’t go just for the spiritual high, but be intentional in praying for the concert or conference, that God would meet and speak to you and other’s powerfully.

 Faith and Entrepreneurship

During Ignite there were several workshops/seminars that you could sign up for and I signed up for the class Faith and Entrepreneurship hosted by the previous CEO of the company Seelio, Moses. I wanted to learn more about how entrepreneurship and faith come together, especially because I would like to start my own Audiology practice one day. He brought an article for us to discuss with each other. The article was called “Startups for Renewal.. A primer for redemptive entrepreneurship.” The article is currently in the works, but we had the privilege to read it before it’s was fully ready to be published. If there was anything that stuck out to me it was this…

“The imagination and worldview of any generations founder’s set’s the direction for the next generation’s reality.”

Ventures need to be profitable to humanity,

Dignify rather than objectify

Contain aspects of servant leadership,

Have aspects of Christian values, but not overtly

Christian leaders of a Business need to have revelation and wisdom, and are in tune with the Holy Spirit, and leave very little room for mediocrity (different from perfectionism).

I left with more questions than answers, but in the article, also gave a set of questions to ask if a business is following a certain criteria, not that they have to be following ALL of them but it was a very informative and helpful seminar. i will hopefully post that later on. 

Love you friend’s and fam!

Please be praying for our team!

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

CSMP Update #3 FRM 101: How to be a Ranch Hand

Repenting isn’t bad… it just hurts.

PTouf challenged us when we first got back to missions what are some things that we have been putting our hope into…

If I am completely honest with myself, it’s been my future. He gave some examples of people’s idols such as friendship, security, intelligence etc, that people give their lives for and instead we should be giving out lives for Jesus, because he is already working and moving.

I think over this past semester/year I have been learning a lot about Grace. I put a lot of my self worth and value in my abilities to do certain things and in the future. I feel very frustrated when I can’t do something, or I try very hard, so still the overarching concept of Grace. I realize that in my life there will things that happen that I can’t do anything about. Anything from breaking my foot, wisdom teeth removal, sickness, that it’s not only ok to ask people for help, but also I should ask for help from others, and also delegate tasks.

 PTouf’s Uncle's Ranch

You know that feeling of laughing so hard that your sides hurt? Your abs burn and you absolutely can’t breathe except to take in a short burst of air just to laugh it all out? It’s a terribly horrible and yet wonderful feeling all at the same time.. You should try it sometime. Seriously, you won’t regret it. All it requires is a group full of wonderful friends, a dash of boldness and a willingness to be made the but end of a joke… multiple times.

Coming into CSMP, I didn’t expect there to be so much laughter and genuine joy throughout this process of missions. There are times where it has been hard (being rebuked by PTouf multiple times, repenting before missions), but this is a passage about joy and laughter.

At PTouf’s Uncle’s and Aunt’s farm we did anything from going around the trails and looking at the farm animals, four wheeling, butchered a hog, and of course ate wonderful delicious food and played games. I realized that doing all of these things was like a cultural immersion, not for myself, but for my teammates which not only allowed them to experience a greater love for his people, but also the world and all of his creation.

My team explored the farm by walking around and also were driven around in trucks. The farm had water buffalo, cows, chickens, ducks, pigeons, goats, a turkey, and kittens.

 Crispy was a Hog, an unassuming hog that was living his normal life, until we decided to eat him

Crispy was Delicious… mmmm Crispy

Before we got to PTouf’s ranch he asked us if we wanted to slaughter and eat a hog once we got to oklahoma. Some of us were hesitant about this, to say the least, but nevertheless our teammates complied, and those that did not want to see him die, but others were totally cool with going forward with this plan.

Killing and slaughtering the hog for I and my teammates was definitely a cool experience. I won’t go into too much detail, just for the sake of you all, but once it was dead we took boiling hot water and skinned off the hair, and then it started to rain, so we all went inside to wait for it to stop raining. We named him Crispy...mmmhhh crispy made for some delicious BBQ. As a whole we had been incredibly blessed by P.Touf’s family for serving us delicious food. Everything and I mean everything was fresh, because they had their own garden for food and raised their own animals.

 Not your Good Ol’ Fashioned Hot Chili Peppers, but a Hilarious story

Another hilariously funny story, so we were eating mustard greens which P.Touf’s Aunt was cooking for us, and there were these chili peppers from Laos that were incredibly spicy. I unexpectedly took a bite of one of them, and my mouth was just in pain, but I swallowed it anyways and said “Those were NOT JALAPENOS.” Everyone on my team just started rolling in laughter, and Ptouf made fun of my facial expressions. He’s such an amazing Pastor, but he’s such a troll.

Then afterwards Eric Lee decided to play a game called what are the odds. The way you play is you ask a person what are the odds of doing x; lets say eat the rest of the broccoli, the initiator of the game calls another person’s name, ask them the question, and they say a number, for example 20, and then they will say the number at the same time of eating the broccoli out of 20, 2 is definitely, and 20 is not at all. That’s how I think you play it anyways, so Eric challenged every… single… person, until…… he lost, and then he had to drink milk and water to decrease the spice level. However, we were at the end of our meal and we were stuffed from the food we cooked from BBQing Crispy, so Eric had to suffer through a full stomach without also . PTouf’s Aunt was so mad at him for letting us do all of these stupid things.

Another thing we did at the farm in Oklahoma was ride four wheelers. My teammates had never even done anything remotely similar to this, with the exception of Luis, so they were hesitant to drive them. So, I just hopped on the four wheeler once Luis started it, and rode away. “High ho Sailor… AWAYYYYY!”

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

CSMP Update #2 Birthday Blessings and Austin Sendoff

I’m a What?!?! I’m a missionary...

I have been reflecting over the last few days overall, leaving home the Sunday after my graduation party left me with a surreal feeling.. As I was being sent out on missions not only by my church, but my family and friends as well. Everyone I was with said that they would pray for me from my grandmother, and my mom, to several of my friends from HMCC Austin. They were sending not only me, but their prayers to support us through this process. I have been incredibly blessed by all the love and support people have shown me, friends, family members, people within the church. I was also incredibly blessed by people in Austin sending us off before we left on missions.

La Michoacana

As a part of CSMP training/exposure we went to La Michoacana to have breakfast tacos  in order to prepare for missions for the latter portion of our trip, two weeks of which will be in Austin towards the latter portion of CSMP, so late July through the first of August approximately. We had breakfast tacos there to build relationships with the community, because that grocery store what you could call a hub or cultural center of the community, not necessarily for historic or cultural value, but many of the people that work or shop there, are also the parents of the children at the school where Ally works at, which is an Austin Achieve school. Ally by the way is one of our leaders for CSMP.

 RIPP

So, I have a very embarrassing story to tell you all. The day that the members were outreaching and prayer walking in East Austin. La Michoacana is in East Austin and it is typically known for having a dominantly Latino community. We walked around and found this gym that a member of the community had set up for free so people could lose weight and be healthy. They had normal weights and bars, but they also had a huge tire that you would bend down and flip. I saw some of my guy friends flipping this tire and I thought I should try to as well, so when it was my turn I bent down, and all of a sudden I heard this huge ripping noise, jumped back up very quickly and took the jacket I had on me at the time and wrapped it around my waist. It was very embarrassing, people within the community ran back inside, and started laughing and I just started rolling it was so hilarious. My teammates also got a kick out of it as well. So… RIPP, Rest In Peace Pants.

 Austin Team Bonding Experience

Focus the working/single adult lifegroup hosted a potluck for labor day weekend and invited the CSMP team to have dinner with them and to bless them before we left on missions.

 Happy 22nd Birthday (Surprise!)

The first week of CSMP has been really great! We left on May 30th which was my 22th Birthday from Austin to Oklahoma to Ptouf’s (Pastor Tou Fue’s Uncle’s Ranch) in Oklahoma. I was so incredibly blessed and embarrassed by my Birthday lunch with my CSMP team from Austin. We did this exercise where everyone affirmed me of one thing that they liked about me, and I was so incredibly blessed/embarrassed by my friends/teammates. They let me pick my favorite restaurant and even brought out a birthday cake for me. Although, I was embarrassed that people went to so much trouble over me, it really was the best Birthday a girl on missions could ever ask for, especially since we left as a team the day of my Birthday from Austin.

https://youtu.be/AgFeZr5ptV8

Thanks T-swift for commemorating this momentous occasion. I’m feeling 22! :

[cenaynaylovesjesus]

CSMP Update #1 Mostly Logistics

This is mostly about the logistics stuff for CSMP, so if you have already seen/read this stuff then you can probably skip over it, but if not here are all the things. 

Hey y’all, I’m going on a mission trip this summer, and I started a blog not only for in helping to keep me accountable for missions updates for my prayer partners and supporters, but also to use it in the future. I realized a lot of people on missions already have one, so I was like… why not? I also realize that this first update is more of links to different websites, but I wanted you as my prayer and financial supporters to understand the reason not only why I am going on missions, but also why my church sends us on missions. Here are all of the links that can provide you with more detail about my trip, support letter, prayer card, a video that the Austin team created, and the link. 

Here is the link for my support letter. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gH_JajUiHFFEgDxdk3N7aFokNExCyqs5hlIXNOZkUZE/edit?usp=sharing 

Here is the video explaining what we will be doing as a missions team together. https://youtu.be/Zb8ioEWwiGU 

This is a link for the the prayer support card. https://goo.gl/photos/dFNh5jUeRQ2U6XDEA 

This is the link for online giving. http://austin.hmcc.net/signups/csmp-2017 

I realize this is kind of overwhelming to read all of this stuff at once, but please be praying for I and my team that we would grow a heart for the Gospel. My own personal prayer request is that as we boldly love on people, we are able to boldly share the Gospel. 

May God Bless and Keep you!

Ce’Nandra Franklin