Hello from Rwanda! We've been here a week or so now and we are definitely still adjusting, but it is great as well. The unity of our team is definitely being challenged but we are fighting hard to keep it and push it to grow deeper. God is teaching me so much already in being here it is crazy. Ministry wise, we have been partnering with a ministry out of YWAM here called APRECOM. They provide counseling, home visits, support groups, and physical needs for people living with HIV/AIDS. We heard testimonies yesterday of how some people here got HIV. We heard a woman's testimony of how she was raped during the genocide and got HIV. She said that she went crazy for four years following the genocide where she went around not wearing any clothes. God totally got a hold of her life and healed her mind. You would never know that she had been through all of that. This woman though, a few months ago was raped again and now she is pregnant and doesn't know what to do with the child. It broke my heart to hear her story. What we are discovering here in Rwanda though is that so many of the people here are numb to the emotional pain of life. People could share their testimonies and not show one bit of emotion. It is really interesting. We're not sure if it is just cultural, or if it is because they are so guarded because of the deep wounds that they have. We are continuing to build relationships with people and our hearts are growing for them.
If you could be praying for our team for health and unity, we would be so greatful. I hope you are doing great, and that you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I love you all so much.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
God's Amazing Love
The last 11 weeks have been so amazing. I have learned so much about God and about myself. My eyes have been opened up to the world and the great need people have to know and experience God's love for them. In the last few weeks we have had teaching on our identity in Christ; identifying our gifts, talents, and dreams that we have been given from God; unity and reconciliation in relationships; missions; and this week we have our last teaching on compassion.
I have learned so much about what God has done for me by sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. God loves me so much and offers an amazing plan for my life but because I have sinned I was separated from God and therefore, I could not know and experience God's love and plan for my life. Jesus Christ is God's only provision for my sin and that through Jesus I can know and experience God's love and plan for my life. When I prayed to receive Christ as my Savior and Lord an amazing thing happened. My standing before God changed. The Bible says that the punishment for sin is death. When Jesus came to die on the cross for my sins, He took the punishment for what I deserved. When I put my faith in Jesus, His death became my death. What also happened though is that His resurrection became my resurrection! I am a new creation! Everything that is true of Jesus is also true of me; everything. This means that God's feelings and thoughts towards Jesus: adored, accepted, righteous, powerful, royalty, and authority; all of those things are also true of me. The following I wrote in my journal a few weeks ago when I realized what all of this meant:
"God loves me so much. It is because of who I am, not because of what I do. I am holy and created in the image of God. I am loving, peaceful, joyful, patient, kind, good, gentle, faithful, loyal, caring, compassionate, just, righteous, personal, relational, powerful, filled with and speak truth, comforting, encouraging, serving, edifying, have self-control, passionate, take initiative, zealous, fun, exciting, obedient, Spirit filled, and pleasing to God. I am His bride, His Beautiful, His Precious and Treasure. I am a gift to this world, and am humble. I am washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus and in the Spirit of God. The power of God is in me because the Holy Spirit is in me; the character of God is in me because the Holy Spirit is in me. The authority of Jesus Christ is in me. I am an intercessor and I am a proclaimer of truth. I pray against fear, insecurity, and rejection and receive with the authority of Christ all that He says that I am. I am Janet Mulvey and I am a child of the Living God! I am His Sweetheart."
Isn't this amazing! Two other things that are just as amazing is that this can be true of anyone who places their faith in Jesus Christ. Every single person on this planet is a child of the Living God and is created in God's image. God is just waiting for us to invite Him into our lives to pour His love out upon us. He isn't forceful, He's patient and gives you the opportunity to invite Him in. No matter what though, He still loves you, no matter what you have done, but He wants, so badly, to take away your sin. The other thing that is amazing is that God has given us His Holy Spirit to live inside of us so that we can have the power to live up to this new identity. In my own strength I would not be able to love God or love others the way that I am called to. The power of the life of Jesus in me (the Holy Spirit) is greater than the power of my old self. I no longer have to be dominated by my self-defeating and self-destructive desires and I no longer have to live a defeated life or as a victim, I can live in victory! God has given me life and a freedom to be who He has created me to be. Praise God!
What this means for my future, I'm still not completely sure. I have identified some things that I definitely have a heart for and love doing; such as working with youth, kids and women, traveling overseas, coaching sports, and being hospitable. We will see what the Lord has in store for me when I return. As for the next two months, I will be in Rwanda serving and loving people there with the love of Jesus Christ. I am so excited to get there. We leave December 18th and arrive in Kigali, Rwanda on December 21st (Pray for our travels as it will be quite exhausting!). When we arrive there we will take a few days to get over the jet lag, celebrate Christmas together, and then head into the New Year working with a Youth With A Mission base there. I am looking forward to the ministry opportunities that we will have there. These include working with people affected by AIDS and HIV, children's ministry, evangelism, working with street children/orphans, working with widows, youth ministry, and vocational training. It will be an amazing time and God is going to do amazing things in and through us.
If you could be praying for us as we travel, for our safety and that everything will go smoothly; praise God that He has provided financially for everyone at our school to be able to go to Africa (that is $5000-$6000 per person for over 80 people!); pray for us while we are in Africa for our safety, our ministry, and our health, we have teams going to Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique.
I hope that you are doing so well and that this holiday season is an amazing blessing for you. You have been such a blessing to me and I thank God for you being in my life. I pray that God would pour out His love upon you.
"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God..s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God..s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)"
God Bless You!
Love,
Janet Mulvey
P.S. Here are some websites that you can take a look at about what I will be doing in Africa.
YWAM Rwanda Website - http://www.ywamconnect.com/sites/ywamrwanda
Janet's Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/coachmold
Team Rwanda Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/teamrwanda
I have learned so much about what God has done for me by sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. God loves me so much and offers an amazing plan for my life but because I have sinned I was separated from God and therefore, I could not know and experience God's love and plan for my life. Jesus Christ is God's only provision for my sin and that through Jesus I can know and experience God's love and plan for my life. When I prayed to receive Christ as my Savior and Lord an amazing thing happened. My standing before God changed. The Bible says that the punishment for sin is death. When Jesus came to die on the cross for my sins, He took the punishment for what I deserved. When I put my faith in Jesus, His death became my death. What also happened though is that His resurrection became my resurrection! I am a new creation! Everything that is true of Jesus is also true of me; everything. This means that God's feelings and thoughts towards Jesus: adored, accepted, righteous, powerful, royalty, and authority; all of those things are also true of me. The following I wrote in my journal a few weeks ago when I realized what all of this meant:
"God loves me so much. It is because of who I am, not because of what I do. I am holy and created in the image of God. I am loving, peaceful, joyful, patient, kind, good, gentle, faithful, loyal, caring, compassionate, just, righteous, personal, relational, powerful, filled with and speak truth, comforting, encouraging, serving, edifying, have self-control, passionate, take initiative, zealous, fun, exciting, obedient, Spirit filled, and pleasing to God. I am His bride, His Beautiful, His Precious and Treasure. I am a gift to this world, and am humble. I am washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus and in the Spirit of God. The power of God is in me because the Holy Spirit is in me; the character of God is in me because the Holy Spirit is in me. The authority of Jesus Christ is in me. I am an intercessor and I am a proclaimer of truth. I pray against fear, insecurity, and rejection and receive with the authority of Christ all that He says that I am. I am Janet Mulvey and I am a child of the Living God! I am His Sweetheart."
Isn't this amazing! Two other things that are just as amazing is that this can be true of anyone who places their faith in Jesus Christ. Every single person on this planet is a child of the Living God and is created in God's image. God is just waiting for us to invite Him into our lives to pour His love out upon us. He isn't forceful, He's patient and gives you the opportunity to invite Him in. No matter what though, He still loves you, no matter what you have done, but He wants, so badly, to take away your sin. The other thing that is amazing is that God has given us His Holy Spirit to live inside of us so that we can have the power to live up to this new identity. In my own strength I would not be able to love God or love others the way that I am called to. The power of the life of Jesus in me (the Holy Spirit) is greater than the power of my old self. I no longer have to be dominated by my self-defeating and self-destructive desires and I no longer have to live a defeated life or as a victim, I can live in victory! God has given me life and a freedom to be who He has created me to be. Praise God!
What this means for my future, I'm still not completely sure. I have identified some things that I definitely have a heart for and love doing; such as working with youth, kids and women, traveling overseas, coaching sports, and being hospitable. We will see what the Lord has in store for me when I return. As for the next two months, I will be in Rwanda serving and loving people there with the love of Jesus Christ. I am so excited to get there. We leave December 18th and arrive in Kigali, Rwanda on December 21st (Pray for our travels as it will be quite exhausting!). When we arrive there we will take a few days to get over the jet lag, celebrate Christmas together, and then head into the New Year working with a Youth With A Mission base there. I am looking forward to the ministry opportunities that we will have there. These include working with people affected by AIDS and HIV, children's ministry, evangelism, working with street children/orphans, working with widows, youth ministry, and vocational training. It will be an amazing time and God is going to do amazing things in and through us.
If you could be praying for us as we travel, for our safety and that everything will go smoothly; praise God that He has provided financially for everyone at our school to be able to go to Africa (that is $5000-$6000 per person for over 80 people!); pray for us while we are in Africa for our safety, our ministry, and our health, we have teams going to Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique.
I hope that you are doing so well and that this holiday season is an amazing blessing for you. You have been such a blessing to me and I thank God for you being in my life. I pray that God would pour out His love upon you.
"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God..s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God..s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)"
God Bless You!
Love,
Janet Mulvey
P.S. Here are some websites that you can take a look at about what I will be doing in Africa.
YWAM Rwanda Website - http://www.ywamconnect.com/sites/ywamrwanda
Janet's Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/coachmold
Team Rwanda Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/teamrwanda
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
YWAM, DTS, AMAZING!
Being here has been such a blessing and faith building experience. Daily we are seeing God's faithfulness. There are so many stories of God providing for people physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I'm learning about generosity and compassion, and I'm growing a lot. I've been working through a lot of forgiveness. Realizing that when certain things excessively bother me here that there is probably a deeper thing going on and I need to ask the Lord to show me why it upsets me. Through a lot of that, I have been able to release forgiveness to a lot of people that I have been holding on to.
Things are great here. I'm sitting here trying to put into words everything that has been going on. So much, it is so crazy! I'm just going to start rambling and hopefully you will understand some of it. God has been showing me a lot. I definitely had to work through some acceptance issues. I was so self-critical when I first got here. God spoke to me about it though. He's been telling me that as I want to become a more beautiful/better person, it is not about what I should be and shouldn't be doing. I just need to look to Him. He will work on me. If He wants me to work on something He will convict me of it. I don't need to be so hard on myself all of the time about who I am not. That gave me so much peace. It has been awesome. God loves me exactly the way I am. He created me with all my strengths and my weaknesses. If I was anyone else, I would not be able fulfill the calling God has on my life. He has been revealing His love to me more and more. This week I was wrestling with the fact that I didn't really have anyone to talk to about some stuff I was working through. I closed up, withdrew from people. God totally met me where I was at. He showed me that when no one else is around, when it seems like nobody cares or is listening, He is there. He has not forgotten me. He wants me to recieve Him as my best friend. The one that I run to. When I am lonely, I turn to Him. When I am totally excited, I will run to Him. It was really cool that God met me where I was at. It was actually funny because I fell asleep during the speaker's talk and I woke up and he was asking if anyone needed prayer and I raised my hand and God met me right where I was at. It was amazing. So far our topics for classes have been The Father Heart of God, Hearing the Voice of God, the Holy Spirit, and Discipleship and the Cross. It is all good stuff.
God is so good. I love Him more each day. Even when I feel like crap, He loves me and He is there for me even if my emotions tell me otherwise. I've been challenged to make the Bible my standard for everything. We are living in Bible times today and it is so cool to see what God is doing and hear what He has to say.
Well, besides all the spiritual growth stuff going on, we have been having a good time. (Just check out my pics at myspace.com/coachmold ) Some of us walked 4 miles to Magic Sands beach, we only thought it was 1.5 miles away. But we pressed on and it was so worth it. It was awesome. We stayed in the King Kamehameha Hotel the first week here, it was so sweet! Air conditioning is so great. I went snorkeling a few times while in Kona. I got to see some sea turtles(adorable! I so badly wanted to touch it, but it is illegal), lots of colorful fish and coral. We went as a school to Haupuna beach for a day and that was awesome. I bought a boogie board and had a lot of fun. We walked to a cave that was carved out of the lava rock by the waves and jumped off of it (8ft drop). I cut my foot pretty good on a rock on the bottom though and couldn't wear shoes for a couple days, but it is getting better now. After Kona, we moved up to Makapala which is totally different from Kona. It is 60mi north at a little christian retreat center. We have 2 girls dorms with 20 girls each in them, a house with 4 rooms with 4 girls each in them(I live here), a bunch of little bungalo cabins for the guys, and a house with 4 rooms for the 4 married couples we have with us. It is a neat little place and really pretty, but it is in the middle of nowhere. Basically anything near by is really pretty, but there is nothing to do there. Even at the 2 beaches we can go to you can't swim in them because of all the rocks and crazy swells. We've been bonding a lot over Friends episodes, ping pong, movies, and random fun activities such as capture the flag at night, open mic night, and next week we are having a costume masqarade. We don't have internet and have really bad phone reception too. So it is interesting to say the least, but our team is really getting close. We have people from all over the world on our team; Thailand, Korea, Japan, Austrailia, UK, Holland, Mexico, Canada, New Zeland, and USA. It was pretty crazy here during the earthquake we had a few weeks ago. I had been in plenty before, but most on our team hadn't. It was really big and really long and it happened at 7:15am when most of us were still sleeping. Talk about a wake up call. FEMA came the following days and tagged 4 of our buildings as condemned (on the whole island 30 were tagged as condemned). We've been cleaning up and adjusting. We went into the closest town and helped people clean their homes and shops. It was a great opportunity to serve the people in the community and show God's love to them. We were able to volunteer at an aid station for the Iron Man (look for me on TV). We had a blast!
So I think you're all caught up. Every Thursday we come down to the Kona base to worship and gather together with the other schools here. We get here early and head over to Walmart for supplies and then plop down and type away at our computers until the meeting.
If you could be praying for me, I have a couple of prayer requests. Pray that God would provide financially for everyone on our team. So many people need money still. I still need $1500 or so to cover my outreach fees. Also pray that I would continue to submit under the Lordship of God over my life and be obedient to what he calls me to do. Lastly, start praying for our outreach. I found out that I'm going to Rwanda! I can't wait. Pray that my compassion and love would grow for the people there and for all of the lost in the world. I want God's heart to be my heart and I am far from it, so pray that God would work in me.
I hope you are doing wonderful, and that God is meeting you where you are at and drawing you into His presence. I hope to hear from you soon!
Keep Worshipping,
Love,
Janet
Things are great here. I'm sitting here trying to put into words everything that has been going on. So much, it is so crazy! I'm just going to start rambling and hopefully you will understand some of it. God has been showing me a lot. I definitely had to work through some acceptance issues. I was so self-critical when I first got here. God spoke to me about it though. He's been telling me that as I want to become a more beautiful/better person, it is not about what I should be and shouldn't be doing. I just need to look to Him. He will work on me. If He wants me to work on something He will convict me of it. I don't need to be so hard on myself all of the time about who I am not. That gave me so much peace. It has been awesome. God loves me exactly the way I am. He created me with all my strengths and my weaknesses. If I was anyone else, I would not be able fulfill the calling God has on my life. He has been revealing His love to me more and more. This week I was wrestling with the fact that I didn't really have anyone to talk to about some stuff I was working through. I closed up, withdrew from people. God totally met me where I was at. He showed me that when no one else is around, when it seems like nobody cares or is listening, He is there. He has not forgotten me. He wants me to recieve Him as my best friend. The one that I run to. When I am lonely, I turn to Him. When I am totally excited, I will run to Him. It was really cool that God met me where I was at. It was actually funny because I fell asleep during the speaker's talk and I woke up and he was asking if anyone needed prayer and I raised my hand and God met me right where I was at. It was amazing. So far our topics for classes have been The Father Heart of God, Hearing the Voice of God, the Holy Spirit, and Discipleship and the Cross. It is all good stuff.
God is so good. I love Him more each day. Even when I feel like crap, He loves me and He is there for me even if my emotions tell me otherwise. I've been challenged to make the Bible my standard for everything. We are living in Bible times today and it is so cool to see what God is doing and hear what He has to say.
Well, besides all the spiritual growth stuff going on, we have been having a good time. (Just check out my pics at myspace.com/coachmold ) Some of us walked 4 miles to Magic Sands beach, we only thought it was 1.5 miles away. But we pressed on and it was so worth it. It was awesome. We stayed in the King Kamehameha Hotel the first week here, it was so sweet! Air conditioning is so great. I went snorkeling a few times while in Kona. I got to see some sea turtles(adorable! I so badly wanted to touch it, but it is illegal), lots of colorful fish and coral. We went as a school to Haupuna beach for a day and that was awesome. I bought a boogie board and had a lot of fun. We walked to a cave that was carved out of the lava rock by the waves and jumped off of it (8ft drop). I cut my foot pretty good on a rock on the bottom though and couldn't wear shoes for a couple days, but it is getting better now. After Kona, we moved up to Makapala which is totally different from Kona. It is 60mi north at a little christian retreat center. We have 2 girls dorms with 20 girls each in them, a house with 4 rooms with 4 girls each in them(I live here), a bunch of little bungalo cabins for the guys, and a house with 4 rooms for the 4 married couples we have with us. It is a neat little place and really pretty, but it is in the middle of nowhere. Basically anything near by is really pretty, but there is nothing to do there. Even at the 2 beaches we can go to you can't swim in them because of all the rocks and crazy swells. We've been bonding a lot over Friends episodes, ping pong, movies, and random fun activities such as capture the flag at night, open mic night, and next week we are having a costume masqarade. We don't have internet and have really bad phone reception too. So it is interesting to say the least, but our team is really getting close. We have people from all over the world on our team; Thailand, Korea, Japan, Austrailia, UK, Holland, Mexico, Canada, New Zeland, and USA. It was pretty crazy here during the earthquake we had a few weeks ago. I had been in plenty before, but most on our team hadn't. It was really big and really long and it happened at 7:15am when most of us were still sleeping. Talk about a wake up call. FEMA came the following days and tagged 4 of our buildings as condemned (on the whole island 30 were tagged as condemned). We've been cleaning up and adjusting. We went into the closest town and helped people clean their homes and shops. It was a great opportunity to serve the people in the community and show God's love to them. We were able to volunteer at an aid station for the Iron Man (look for me on TV). We had a blast!
So I think you're all caught up. Every Thursday we come down to the Kona base to worship and gather together with the other schools here. We get here early and head over to Walmart for supplies and then plop down and type away at our computers until the meeting.
If you could be praying for me, I have a couple of prayer requests. Pray that God would provide financially for everyone on our team. So many people need money still. I still need $1500 or so to cover my outreach fees. Also pray that I would continue to submit under the Lordship of God over my life and be obedient to what he calls me to do. Lastly, start praying for our outreach. I found out that I'm going to Rwanda! I can't wait. Pray that my compassion and love would grow for the people there and for all of the lost in the world. I want God's heart to be my heart and I am far from it, so pray that God would work in me.
I hope you are doing wonderful, and that God is meeting you where you are at and drawing you into His presence. I hope to hear from you soon!
Keep Worshipping,
Love,
Janet
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