Right after the earthquake hit Haiti the atmosphere at AIM changed. It seemed like everyone went immediately into emergency / disaster relief mode. People started focusing on how AIM can help with the relief efforts in Haiti. Job descriptions changed and people instantly came on board to work full time with AIM with the Haiti Relief.
The other day I went through the AIM and World Race blogs to make a single blog on the latest details. We have stories directly from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, what we are currently doing, the things we are hoping to do and lots of people who are getting ready to head out. Please continue to pray for all of our staff as they make big decisions and even head down to help.
Click on the link below to read the latest updates -
As you might have read in one of my last blogs, while at launch in New Zealand I missed out on the first big night of ministry. The good news is that we have more than one night at launch.
The following night we begin with some great worship. As I am praying and worshiping in front of a huge world map the Lord beings to speak...
It's not good enough.
Being a Christian is not good enough.
Reading your Bible or praying is not good enough.
Being an evangelist and telling people about Christ is not good enough.
Being a missionary is not good enough.
The people of New Zealand, the countries around the world have all of these things.
They have Christians, evangelists and even missionaries. But that's not good enough or they would have seen revivals and come to know Me.
God. If you don't need us. Why did you chose us? Why are we here?
You must bring a new thing. You must listen for the words that I am bringing. You must go where I am moving. Seek Me. I am wanting to do something new. That is how revival will come. That is how lives will be changed. As you bring Kingdom you will see miracles.
Apart from me you can do nothing. Anything besides what I am saying and doing is not good enough.
I am currently swimming in receipts and airline quotes...
I wanted to let everyone know that we are sending a World Race Alumni team down to the D.R. to help with things along the border of Haiti. I am heading out of town for a conference and will probably not have time to update everyone here on what is happening in Haiti / D.R. However I am the teams contact person in the States and I am also the one who posts on the WR Prayers blog. So please feel free to check out the Prayers blog as well as on the AIM Haiti site.
Again check out prayers.theworldrace.org to get prayer requests and praise reports of what God is doing on the field with our World Racers.
I love worship! Singing has always been something that has brought me closer to the Lord. When the presence of God is heavily on a place where people are hungry for Him you can almost guarantee that there will also be people set free and healed. I LOVE that! Being able to pray over other people and speak God's truth over them is one of my favorite things.
All of those things happened the first night, but I missed it. All of it. One of the Racer's backpack didn't make it and the airline could only get it to an airport an hour away. I was informed I had to take the Racer that night while everyone else would be having an awesome time with the Lord.
I had to do something I didn't want to do. I'd been doing a ton of driving and really wanted a day off from being on the road for hours. And I really didn't want to miss the night session.
We were successful in getting the guy's bag, even though the airport was closed. And I did have a good chat with him on our long drive. But by the time we got back the night was over. They talked about how awesome it was and how the Holy Spirit fell. I was bummed I missed an awesome session. That once again my natural gifts were used rather than my spiritual gifts. Yet there was a part of me that was ok with it. The Lord had asked me to surrender once again and I did so with the right attitude.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas & New Years!
Surprise... I am back in New Zealand! I arrived a couple of days early to spend some more time with friends and to be here for when all of the Racers and staff arrive. The last two days have been wonderfully sunny as it's summer here. My friends decided the best thing to do would be to go for a nice walk with beautiful views each day. It really was worth the long walks. And I am so glad I brought my running shoes & a pair of light weight pants to walk / hike in.
This afternoon I am picking up one of our staff members and three of the squad leaders for the teams. I am looking forward to sharing this beautiful country with some of my friends! Then tomorrow morning the masses begin to arrive! The team leaders and another staff come in tomorrow. Followed by the finance people then next day and then everyone else arrives. So glad I was able to hire some buses to pick everyone up. (Plus the owners of the buses are friends from another ministry here, so we are supporting them while they help us out.)
Please be praying for everyone as they travel. Coming into New Zealand can be a bit intimidating as they are very strict on what you can and can't bring into the country. Pray that everyone remembers to declare everything and not get hit with any fines. Pray that they all have favor and do not have any issues coming into New Zealand. Pray for travel mercies for everyone. And that everyone will adjust to the time and climate changes easily. Oh and let's not forget to pray that the Kingdom of Christ will move in and through all of us, that we will be able to enjoy each others company and the beauty of New Zealand and the people here!
I probably will not get a chance to blog again until I am home in Georgia... so look for an update in a couple of weeks.
Posted in The Real Me by Casey Wells on 12/15/2009
One of the things that really challenges me and speaks to me is the devotional of works by Smith Wigglesworth. Today's reading was something that really spoke to me so I thought I would share it with you...
'And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing'
- 1 Corinthians 13:3
...
A man came to me, and we had long talks about the Lord. He told me, "I was in a very difficult place. I had been working very hard in the church and had given all my strength..."
Oh, I see such godly, holy people doing more than they ought to, thereby giving themselves away. Don't you know that your body belongs to God (1 Cor 6:19-20), and that, if you overtax your body, God says He will judge you for it? We have to be careful because the body that is given to us is to exhibit His power and His glory, and we cannot do this if we give ourselves all the time to work, work, work and think that that is the only way. It is not the way.
The Scriptures teach us that Jesus had to go renew His spiritual vision and power in solitude with His Father (Mark 1:35), and it was also necessary for the disciples to draw aside and rest awhile (Mark 6:30-31). Couldn't Jesus give them all they needed? My dear brother, whatever God gives you, He will never take away your common sense.
Suppose I unwisely overextended my body and knew that I had done so? How could I ask anyone to pray for me unless I repented? We must be careful. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and He has to dwell in them, and they have to be for His purpose in the world. We are not working for ourselves; God is to be glorified in our bodies. Many today are absolutely withered up, years before their time, because they went beyond their knowledge.
International day of prayer for the
persecuted church
Day of the orphan
I fly to New Zealand!
I'll be gone for 11 days. I get
to travel with one of the Jan '10 squad leaders – Kyla Cornelius. Our job is to
get ministry setup for all 18 teams that are going to be there in January! It's
a huge job, especially since I currently don't have anything lined up for our
time there – needless to say I am overwhelmed with everything that needs to get
done both in New Zealand as well as all of my normal work that is piling up. Please keep Kyla and I in your prayers over the next couple of weeks :-)
The very
definition of ‘Awakening' is exactly what took place during the World Race
Awakening Conference that was held in Brasov, Romania. Every current World
Racer, World Race Alumni, Staff, Coaches, and the men who had the vision and
drive to start the World Race came together for the first time. Over 200 of us
brought the Kingdom of Christ as we worshipped the Lord together for four days.
The first day
of the Awakening I was reading from the book of Acts in the Bible. I love the
book of Acts and have read it quite a few times, but this time was different.
My focus wasn't on the sings and wonders, the miracles. I wasn't searching for
anything. I was just enjoying reading Scripture. Then something that I've read
numerous times stood out as if I was reading it for the first time...
"So, God who
knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit..."
- Acts 15:8
Wow. God the
Father gives us the Holy Spirit because He wants to acknowledge us! The gifts
of the Spirit are not reserved only for those who are evangelists and see people
come to know the Lord, or for those who have the gift of healing and get to see
people healed in order to celebrate Christ their King. God wants to give us the
gifts of the Holy Spirit because He wants to remind not only us but those
around us that we belong to Him. That we are sons and daughters, a royal
priesthood, forgiven and set free, healed and delivered.
I shared this
revelation with everyone the first night. There were some people crammed in
that tiny room who needed to allow God to give them the acknowledgment that
they deserved by allowing the Holy Spirit to move in their lives. When we deny
the Holy Spirit to move, when we deny the gifts of the Spirit we are not
allowing God to acknowledge us. And there isn't anything else that God wants to
do except acknowledge us as His own...
A
small group of friends got together for a time of checking in
with each other and praying for one another. I again shared that although I
have a peace and know that I am to be here, I still am not satisfied with
everything that I have been doing. Laura had a very simple, specific word from
the Lord for me â€" I needed to draw near to Him.
And
that is what I did. Each morning I spent more than just my devotional time with
the Lord and would just sit with Him or share with Him. A group of us even
decided to drive over an hour to Bethel church in Atlanta, knowing that we
would be able to truly worship and be in God’s presence. Nothing major really
happened during any of these times. It was just about being with Him. He kept
saying over and over that He loved me. I just didn’t realize that He wanted to
show me that He loves me…
# 1
One of the things that a few of us here have really enjoyed is being able to go
to the Fox theatre in Atlanta. Sadly we just haven’t had the time or money to
go to any shows this year. Well we heard of a deal where we could go see
Chicago for under $20!
# 2
My roommates and I have decided that we are going to move to a different
apartment complex. All of our community has moved over there, and well we don’t
really like the place we are in at the moment. The place we wanted to move into
only had one spot available for the style and date that we wanted. We went in
to sign a one year lease for a big two bedroom apartment, but for some reason
the security check was timing out and wasn’t going through. The next day I got
a call that they had all gone through… and the reason that it didn’t go through
was because the rent had gone down by $20 a month the next day! And did I
mention that it’s an amazing apartment! It’s on the ground floor, but above
ground with a great view of the woods!
# 3
One of the guys who used to work at AIM was given a ton of brand new luggage
from someone who owns a store. He gave most of it away before even making it to
the office with any of it. But there was one carry on piece of luggage left and
it was red. It was exactly what I wanted! And I got it for free :)
# 4 Jimmy
asked to talk to me for a minute and walked into one of the offices. He said
that God had spoken to all of the World Race leadership team individually over
the last couple of weeks. God was showing them that all of the gifting and
passions that I have and miss using are all what The Awakening is about. The
Awakening is a few day event where World Race alumni and everyone who is on the
field will meet together for worship, prayer, and prophesying over each other
and the nations. If I wanted to go, the leadership team would cover the cost of
me getting there and while I was in Romania!
# 5
To make # 4 even better… some of my coworkers / closest friends are going to be
spending a few days in Greece before Romania and then a night in Paris on the
way back (because I am an amazing travel agent and got their tickets for a
steal). I had originally been invited to go with them, but wasn’t sure if I
would be able to now since I was certain that the tickets would be to expensive
or that we wouldn’t be able to find someone to cover the office while we were
all away. Well… I was able to find a way to get tickets that would only end up
costing me $400 of my personal money, and the head of WR is going to make sure
that someone is covering the office! I get to go back to Greece and see stuff
that I missed on my first trip, experience Kingdom in Romania, and go to Paris
too!
…
and don’t you dare think this is the end of the list! I know that God Loves Me,
but I also believe that He wants to show me in expected and unexpected ways.
Besides I have a few things that are on my wish list~God
started speaking to me about purchasing a fancy digital camera (since I find so
much joy and life in taking photos), which means that I also need to upgrade to
a better laptop and external hard-drive, and I really do need to buy a new
hiking backpack with all of the travel that I am going to be doing (did I
mention that I am also going to New Zealand and possibly Australia in December
and January?). So I am really hoping that those end up being # 6, 7, & 8 :)
This
blog is going to be all about my little sister, Courtney. I lovingly call her
my little sister, because she is not only the youngest but also the shortest
;-)
Courtney
and I don't have the type of relationship where we sit up at night on our beds,
giggle, tell each other everything that happens in our lives, and dream about
the future. But we have a bond that nothing could ever break. We may not agree
with each other's decisions or beliefs all of the time, yet we love and respect
each other no matter what.
I
can't say that I blame her for some of the decisions that she made over the
years. Honestly I probably would have done the same. She grew up a lot faster
than she probably needed to. Being an adult has been hard. Courtney has gone
through the struggles of being unemployed for long periods of time, having
horrible jobs, and struggling through relationships.
A
week before the last training camp she called me and told me that she not only
didn't have a job, but she wanted to break up with her boyfriend of over five
years and needed to find a new place to live since she didn't have money for
rent. She didn't know what to do. After talking with my coworkers and praying
about it I gave her a call. I offered to fly her out here to training camp if
she would help mom in the kitchen and sit in on some of the teaching sessions. Never
in a million years did I think she would take me up on the offer.
But
she did! Courtney spent two weeks in Georgia, working hard, listening to
speakers, enjoying the worship, and having fun! She made new friends and loved
being here!
We
talked a little bit about the stuff that she experienced while here and just
life. It was interesting to know that it was all just a timing thing. If I would
have asked her to come out here any earlier she would have declined. There was
a spark, life, and joy in her while she was here that I feel like she has been
missing and wondering where it went. Between being in such a positive / loving
environment and being away from circumstances in CA she was able to have the
courage to make some major decisions in her life. She's doing things for her,
to give her a better future. I couldn't have been more proud of her while she
was here or the changes she is making in her life. I totally love my little
sister!
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