Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Mid-School Report

Wow.

I am halfway through my DTS. Already, God has made me a completely different person than I was when I got here. I have never had so many revelations in my entire life. God is pulling me even closer to Him, breaking off chains of shame, rejection, self-hatred, pride, etc. and making me fall into even deeper love with Him than I ever imagined. My heart for worship has grown even bigger and I’m loving writing songs and enjoying God’s presence in the beauty of New Zealand.

Week One – The Holy Spirit – Mal Maloney

Goodness, what a week to dive into. We learned about the limitlessness of the Holy Spirit and how it is different from God and Jesus, but how it is still one with them. The idea of 1+1+1=1 will always blow my mind. Three revelations I had from this week were:

1)      Holy Spirit impact is what drives Faith, and the Biblical scripture enforces it.

2)      Matter doesn’t matter in the will of the Holy Spirit.

3)      My Spirit can store things my brain cannot and God chooses when to reveal it to me.

 

Week Two – Intercession/Hearing the Voice of God – Joshua Cole

This week was a major week of breakthrough for me. God used this week to cut off a lot of shame and fill my heart and mind with the knowledge and power of His love. Three revelations:

1)      God created longings in us that must be continually fulfilled by Him.

2)      Whether or not I feel His presence, God is always worthy of my attention.

3)      Shame burdens me and withholds me from deeper intimacy with God.

 

Week Three – Character and Nature of God – David Cole

Joshua Cole’s father, this man had a lot of years of testimony and knowledge under his belt. Through lots of different stories, I learned about God’s makeup.

1)      Because our emotions and feelings are made in His image, they are a merely a reflection of His own, which means when we hurt Him, we hurt Him more than anyone in the entire universe.

2)      His power is perfected in my weakness.

3)      God’s never gonna divorce me. He’s committed to me for eternity.

Week Four – The Father Heart of God – Frank Neae

God brought major revelation with my faith and unbelief this week and then He soothed my open wounds with His fatherly love. This was a week with MAJOR breakthrough – our first full-day fast happened this week and that evening, God broke some huge chains of self-hatred and shame off of me.

1)      Jesus did not die for our minds, but for our hearts. (My will = surrendered)

2)      Who gave/told me my identity?

3)      Jesus didn’t die merely so we could have a personal relationship with God, but He died so we could have HIS relationship with His and our Father.

 

Week 5 – Circuit Riders – Samuel Rodriguez and Chase Cofer

For week 5 and 6, we joined and evangelism conference in Tauranga where we learned radical boldness and love in sharing the simple Gospel with people. God gave me a heart and a passion for the lost I am NEVER gonna be the same. I’m now one of those crazy Jesus freaks that walks up to random strangers on the street to ask them if they “know Jesus.” *Warning – if you aren’t a follower of Christ, I’m probably gonna try and share His love with you.

1)      I want a heart for the lost.

2)      We are all soul-winners.

3)      God gives us all supernatural boldness in order to further His kingdom

 

Week 6 – Circuit Riders – Samuel Rodriguez and Chase Cofer

1)       Live un-offended.

2)      Love radically.

3)      Jesus is my one true love.

 

God has done so much to me these past 6 weeks and I can’t wait to see what He’s gonna do for the next 6 weeks! We are beginning to prepare for our outreach, my team of 8 is going to Fiji and then back to New Zealand! God is gonna do great things! I love you all!

God Bless!

-          Hannah

Heartsongs

I AM GOING TO FIJI!!! Okay guys; found out that my outreach is in Fiji! I have an awesome team!!!!!

Dave is our leader!

And then we have Sarah and Aleisha!

And the students on my team are:

ME

Jacob Van Zanten

Jacob McCormack

Beth Roughton

And last but not least…STEPHY REYNOLDS!!!

BOOM.

I’m super duper excited. We all got undercuts to honor our team. Except Sarah.

I’m super rad now. Who knew I would ever shave my head?

We finished Circuit Riders, one of the most amazing experiences of my life! I will never forget it and I am forever changed by it! I’m just warning you now – I’m a Jesus freak and I’m gonna try to make you one too.

We stayed in Tauranga for the 2^nd week of CR at the Marine Outreach base in a lovely valley – Gideon’s Valley to be exact. It was super nice and modern and sleek and we were on vacation for a week, but I’m glad to be back at our quaint little cottages at the base of the mountain. There’s something so homey about Crystal Springs. But I will miss one beautiful part of Gideon’s – the waterfall. There is this one unbelievable waterfall in the valley – it’s unreal. It’s so beautiful and majestic and powerful and it takes my breath away. I swear, I was down there every day having quiet time with God and peacefully watching the waterfall.

Saturday and Sunday were sooooo nice. The Musos relaxed both days; we sat around and wrote songs – our assignment this week was to write 2 – 4 line songs that focused on pushing into God’s presence and man, out group came up with some powerful worship songs. We have some crazy anointed worshippers here and it blows me away. I wasn’t planning on telling my lyrics for the world to see, I haven’t posted any of my songs because I feel super vulnerable when I share them, but I’m working on being vulnerable, so here’s the one I wrote:

God, you’ve heard every praise imaginable

So here’s my heartsong, it’s original

Lalalalalalalala

 

 etc. etc., you get the idea.

Basically, one thing I’ve been feeling lately is I long to give God a song or praise He hasn’t heard before – something He would delight in because it’s never been given to Him before. What could I possibly offer that He hasn’t experienced? He’s had entire worlds worship Him – the Seraphim fall before Him and worship for all eternity with every song ever imagined! So how could I give Him something He had never heard? So I give Him my heartsong, and the chorus of La’s express what words cannot.

So there it is.

Lalalalalalalala

This week, our lecturer is Goldie Gibson, a beautiful woman who runs marathons and 63 years old, and still has faith in God’s promise that He will bring her a husband. Man, she’s such a strong woman and carries so much Joy and Faith and Wisdom and I am just soaking up her lectures. She prayed over me on Monday and it was so powerful.

We interceded for the Nations yesterday and man; God gave me such a heart for the United States. During prayer, I got a scripture – Revelation 10:11:

And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

MAN. I have never read that before and it hit me soooo hard. The USA is a melting pot of peoples and cultures and God, in that moment, gave me a heart for revival in my country. I love intercession. All the time we spent at the Tauranga House of Prayer instilled such a passion in me for intercessive worship and 30 minute worship is never going to be enough for me! Goodness.

Anywho.

I love Jesus.

I hope you do too.

Otherwise, my posts would really freak you out.

I did my sermonette today! If you’re interested in knowing what God has told me about God-given dreams and desires and longings, message me and I’ll Skype you or send you my notes!

Peace out girl scout!

NARNIA

Our free weekend is over.
It went by soooo fast.
The students and staff get two free weekends during the DTS, and this weekend, all the students (minus Beth and Dan) rented some vans and went to Narnia.
It's true.

Saturday morning, we loaded up into the 2 vans, one girl van and one boy van (THE GIRL VAN WAS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST ONE) and we started the MOST AWESOME roadtrip in all history of roadtrips.
The great thing about New Zealand is, there are no interstates or big road systems. Everyone gets everywhere on small, curvy, lovely, country backroads. And though it's not very fast, it makes for the best, most amazing, roadtrip memories.

The girls' van had the good speaker system, so we jammed and partied - the windows down and music blaring with Marit expertly navigating the rather large, stick shift van on the LEFT side of the road. For the record, we only accidently drove on the wrong side of the road once. We were slightly lost. In Paeroa.

Man, the roads up over the mountains on the way to Coromandel are sketchy. There's literally no shoulder as you wind up the mountain - you swerve and you fall of s crazy cliff to your death. Steph and I fearfully clung to each other as we rounded each turn - we may or may not have let out a couple of gasps (screams). But Marit's a champ and we didn't die. Even though we went over that mountain FOUR TIMES.
Yeah - I tell the rest of that story later.
Anywho.
We made a pit stop and peed on the side of the road. I'm pretty sure Marit unintentionally mooned some lucky truckers. I love Marit.
As we got closer to Coromandel, the scenery just more and more beautiful and captivating - you can't tear your eyes away from it. So we all saw Chase and Sam at the same time. Yep, the dudes leading our Circuit Riders conference, the ones I've talked about previously, had the same exact idea as we did and were trekking out to Coromandel as well! So they joined us in our lovely journey! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

So yeah, we finally got there.
And we had to walk to the beach.
Cathedral Cove, its proper name.
And by walk, I mean a 45-minute-hike. You have to work for that beach.

I basically ran the entire way.
Nothing was gonna keep me from kissing the sand that William Moseley once walked on.
I almost trampled Tasia and the Jacobs a couple of times.
And so, I finally made it to Narnia.
GUYS, IT'S JUST LIKE THE FREAKING MOVIE.

 

I walked through that cavernous arch right to the sparkling water and towering cliffs, as much in awe as the Pevensies would have been.
I threw down my towel and ran into the ocean and pretended I was Lucy Pevensie, joyfully rediscovering Narnia.

It was soooooo incredible, I just couldn't believe it.
Oh, and as usual, the water was cold.
Like, really cold.
Isn't it always?
I think that's the third time I've willingly thrown myself into frigid temperatures since I've been here.
Gosh, not to brag, but I'm living the life.
How many people get to do this?
Like zip.
Anywho, we frolicked in the ocean and jumped off rocks, screaming "FOR NARNIA" and took manymanymany pictures (which will come very soon!). We layed around, chit chatted, and played volleywall (it was a game Sam invented - I won't even try to explain it) until we decided we were hungry and we needed to find a place to sleep.

So I said goodbye to Narnia and trudged back up to the van.
When we got back, we found out some lady had talked a cop out of fining us $400 for double parking. And the boys' battery had died since Kyle left the lights on. But some angelic Kiwi gave us a jump start. God is so good.
So we were on our way to finding FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD.
So over the terrifying hill we went.
Steph and I snuggled to stay warm.
I love Steph.
I swear, we stopped by at least 3 towns before we found food we could all agree on. As we went to go eat, we last Sam and Chase to some teenage boys they felt they needed to share Jesus with. Gosh, I hope that, one day, hunger won't get in the way of my desire to share God's love with the world.
So some guy convinces us to eat at this pub. And we do. And some drunk, German woman named Marion strikes up a conversation with me. And she gives me the number of someone who could possibly let us pitch some tents in their yard (or at least that's what we thought). And then she let me pray for her. Which was awesome - God totally touched her and she nearly started crying.

And then we went over the mountain to the hot water beach.
It's hot because it's on top of a volcano.
Oh, yeah, by the way, we went at nighttime. Which means it was cold. And the Artic winds blowing of the Pacific aren't too forgiving. So it was cold. But the hot water was marvelous indeed. But let me tell you, that sand was PIPING HOT. The deeper you got into the sand, the hotter the water got! But the tide came in, and the water got cold, so we all ran screaming to the vans. Us girls loved our van. We changed in it, slept in it, ate in it, everything. So, naturally, it was a mess. It ate my sunglasses and gum in the first hour. Needless to say, we all just tossed everything everywhere and it was one big beautiful mess. But oh so comfy. I don't think there's ever been a more comfy mess.
So we found a campgroud. But it cost $21 PER PERSON to sleep there! PER PERSON. So we called the lady and found out she had 8 beds open in a hostel-like beach house and anyone who didn't want to pay to sleep somewhere could just stay in the vans and we could sleep on the side of the road. So back up over the mountains we went to the beach house! It was so lovely, driving in the dark New Zealand landscape, listening to James Vincent McMarrow. Just like a dream.
Just a note - I love our group. In case you didn't know.
We pray for EVERYTHING. All the time, and God totally blessed us.
We got to the beach house and piled out of the vans and prayed for our accomodations that night.
And then we went inside and found out the house had 10 extra beds open.
EIGHTEEN BEDS EXACTLY.
We had exactly 18 students on the trip.
We took God's subtle hint and took all the beds. And we slept like babies after some nice games of ping pong and fun snuggling time.
The next morning, we packed up and drove over the mountain for the last time. And we went to HAMILTON. I had such a relaxing time - before we got to Hamilton, we stopped in Peoroa - the historic location of the creation of the famous New Zealand drink of choice, L&P. After we ate and got a picture by the big bottle, we made the two-hour trek to Hamilton and relaxed! We went shopping, ate, and I got a new sweater. Maybe two. THANKS GRANDMA! :)
And finally, we made the last leg of the trip home. And I was so happy when we finally pulled into Crystal Springs, jamming to Taylor Swift.
God is good.
More to come.

Peace out girl scout.

Druggggggs

Today.
Well, I was gonna go to Circuit Riders with everyone else, but I guess God wanted me to rest.
Last night, I went to bed with a wee little fever, took some Nyquil (thank you Janessa!), and was out all night. I woke up, fever gone, but feeling just crappy and my right eye was nice n crusty. I kinda rubbed it off in my miserable, sleepy trance. As soon as I actually got my miserable butt out of bed and looked in the mirror, I nearly peed myself. I looked like a half demon-child, with one completely gross bloodshot eye that would only open halfway.
Needless to say, it was terrifying.
So, I stayed home and ate all my lovely sandwhich (thank you Johanna and Beth!) and visited the doctor with the Family Ministries director, Andrea.
Dr. Dunn checked my lovely lungs and said all was fine, keep chuggin' the C and all would be fine. Then he poured some lovely dye into my eye and shined pretty blue lights in it. And I have Conjunctivits.

 

Yay!
So I got some lovely eye cream and I can't wear contacts for a very long time.
Not quite sure how long this demon-looking thing is gonna last.
On the bright side, I got to chitty chat again with the lovely Carly before she and Rich left for Rich's family reunion. She's da bomb dot com.
And I got the Gap all to myself!
jk
It was really lonely.
So I spent wayyyyy too much time on Facebook.
And then I stole Rebekah's "The Young Victoria" and took my computer up to the A-Frame to watch it in the lecture room. I took everybody's name cards and placed them strategically around my computer so they could all watch the movie with me.
And then the A-Frame was locked up.
So I had to walk back to my cottage by myself.
Without my spirit friends.

But seriously guys, I NEED YOU. STOP BEING GOOD CHRISTIANS AND COME LOVE ME FOREVER. I HATE SNUGGLING WITH MYSELF.

i miss my YWAM family.

This could be a problem in the future.

I'm gonna drug myself to sleep now - I have to get rid of the pain of LONELINESSSSSSSS.

peace out girl scout.
(ps - Elisa - I owe you Major bucks for internet today) (love you!)

War Cries

Goodness.
Cicuit Riders.
Dude.
Well, yesterday was awesome possum.
We cut shame off our lives. And we let out crazy war cries, because we were declaring war on the souls of the lost. I know it sounds strange to some of you, but it's true. There's a war on our our souls, and although we know the outcome and the victory and the reward of the world all goes to God in the end, we're fighting battles for souls so God's inevitable victory is even more powerful.
So we marched, we sang vicotry songs, and we cried crazy intense war cries.
God is so good.
And today was outreach. We did street evangelism.
Ummm, yeah, it was the first time I've ever just straight-up asked random strangers if they know Jesus.
First, I want to tell you guys that I am STILL SICK.
This morning, I felt like pooh. I wanted so badly to burn for the lost and get pumped to share His love with them. But I had trouble even functioning normally.
Our entire crew prayed over me and the yucky mucus left my nose immediately.
IMMEDIATELY.
GUYS, DO YOU GET THAT??? GOD TOTALLY HEALED ME OF MY GROSSNESS SO I COULD SHARE HIS GOOD NEWS.
God is good. All the time.
So Elisa and I hit the streets. Man, I was that crazy Jesus freak asking people if they "knew Jesus." And let me tell you, it was the craziest experience of my life.
Note to all:
Elisa and I did not save one person.
Not one.
We were flat-out rejected by every single person we spoke to.
As soon as they heard the word "Jesus", people got so crazy offended and some would literally turn and run away. SOme threw their hands in the air and said "I want nothing to do with this." Others broke my heart, saying "I'm not interested in Jesus" or "I don't need Jesus." I could just see Him crying saying "Take the AMAZING gift of life I have offered you! I layed down my VERY LIFE so you could live and experience my one true love!" And people rejected Him.
Note:
YOU DO NEED JESUS.
I'm gonna be bold right now, I haven't been bold enough on here because I've been afraid of hurting or offending people, but I want to tell you right now that you NEED Jesus. It's a fact - whether or not you choose to accept it is your choice, and He gave us that choice because of His INFINITE love for us, but one day, you Will stand before the King of Kings and you will tell Him the choice you made in this life, and I am sharing that with you now because I don't want to stand in front of Him, guilty of not giving you the news that He is the only Way, the Truth, and the Light.
Yep.
Did you know I told one woman that I felt God wanted me to encourage told me that seh was "Perfectly happy and didn't need encouragement" and stomped away angrily?
Sorry lady, you didn't seem too happy to me.
There was one Maori woman Elisa stopped on the sidewalk. She ask her if she knew Jesus. The woman hurridly replied "Yes" and so I asked her if she had a relationship with Christ - if she prayed with Him, read the Bible, was part of a Christian community, etc. She sighed and said "Yeah, i pray sometimes..." and I was all like "That's great! Can we encourage you today with some more prayer?" She quickly informed me that she needed to catch her bus, but after being rejected before, God gave me the determination not to let her get away. So I said "We can totally walk with you to your bus!" Say Elisa and I both began to pray for her as she walked to her bus.
Then she stopped walking.
And we finished praying.
And she looked at us.
And I knew God had done something.
I wish we hadn't let her go after we prayed for her.
But we'll continue to pray for her, along for the countless others who got away.
Seeds, right?
Anywho, I'm sick again. Funny how I got sick again right after outreach ended. But I did have anice, relaxing sushi dinner with Hannah and a walk on the beach.
But yeah, it's crazy how God healed me just long enough to further His kingdom.
In my weakness, He is made stronger.

It's biddy-bye time.
I'm not sorry if I offended you today.
At least you felt something, right?
Love you!
But really, I do love you.
Storge love. Agape love.
Look it up.

Peace out girl scout.

Creepin'

I'm never gonna get tired of the beauty of this place. The drive to Taraunga is incredible, going up and over the mountain just takes my breath away. Pictures literally don't do it justice.
Oh, and another thing. Today in the bus ride to Circuit Riders, we listened to a mix CD that had a Lot of country on it. At first, I was like NOOOOOO, but then I kind of...liked it is a bit of a stretch. But I didn't want to puke. I think it took me back to Nashville, Tennessee for a few minutes and reminded me of home.
Not that much.
Anywho.
My brother, Kyle (from Minnesota!) is the most precious thing ever.

 

I love bus rides. We like to jam and snuggle. My two fav things everrrrrr.
Circuit Riders today was great. Gosh, our speakers, Sam and Chase, are two young men on FIRE for God and have such a passion for reaching out to the lost and bringing them the love of Jesus. It's so contagious! While we were taking a break, Sam was hanging out outside, saw a man walking down the side of the road, and ran to talk to him and Dion (the man) was saved on the spot! THAT'S CRAZY. It happens in real life! These guys have so many incredible stories of ministering to people and inviting them to Jesus that it blows my mind! So we "practiced" talking to random strangers and sharing the Gospel with them - it was...frustrating. There's so many questions I never realized that I have no idea how to answer and how to simply share the love of the Father with a complete stranger. Outreach this Thursday should be really interesting.
God please give me the passion and the words to speak to the lost.
Oh. Haha, yeah. Steph dropped her wallet in her pee today. Right in the toilet. And she was so preoccupied with the safety of her wallet and its contents that she left her pants completely undone. Fly down, belt undone, the whole shazam.
Yep.
I died when I saw her. She's so funny.
Haha, and Henk cracked me up tonight at dinner - he got a teeny spaghetti sauce stain on his brand-new white V-neck and got straight up and ran straight to the kitchen to wash it. Oh Henky Henk.
Haha, and then, after dinner, I went flower picking and I decided I wanted to give them as a discrete surprise to Carly. On her bed, of course.
So, it seemed like a good idea to go look in her window to see if she was in her room.
Needless to say, it wasn't.
I just looked like a super creep as I creeped around the side of her cottage and popped up into her window, only to see her staring right back at me.
So I did what any normal person would do in that situation.
I ran.
That seemed like a good idea too.
I didn't realize exactly how creepy it was until after the fact.
Needless to say, the flowers weren't much of a surprise.
#hannahprobs

Peace out girl scout.