Tijuana Fundraising Update!!!

Thank you SOOO much all who donated to my trip today! I not only made the $300 deadline for tonight, but I also cut into the remaining $500 due on the trip account and now I only owe $145!!!! CRAZY! I did not expect that much money to come in today! You all amaze me and I can't wait to show you the film and the testimonies that come out of our time in Tijuana! Bless you!!!!!!


$755 raised!
$145 to go!

https://missiontrips.ibethel.org/

Tijuana

Tijuana is the location of the largest sex trade and prostitution industry in North America. "Zona Norte (officially colonia Zona Norte, "North Zone (neighborhood)") is an official neighborhood as well as a red light district located in Tijuana, Mexico. It is the largest red-light district in North America known for its brothels, street prostitution, and illicit drug sales. Due to its proximity to San Diego, California, it is frequented by US citizens as well as locals."(Wiki) Tijuana is also known for heroin camps, extreme poverty and malnutrition. In Tijuana, prostitution and often sex trafficking is legalized which has exacerbated the problem and has contributed to the size and popularity of this city as an epicenter for the sale of sex and purity.

As many of you know, I am someone who is PASSIONATE about IDENTITY, and BEAUTY and have experienced the attack against those things my entire life. I am also passionate about children and fighting for those who are abused, neglected, and uncared for. "Prostitution of children is a problem in Tijuana's Zona Norte, both in the form of voluntary acts as well as illegal child trafficking. Voluntary prostitution by children, often referred to as survival sex in order to obtain a warm meal or a place to sleep for the night is prevalent in the area. Often these children are smuggled across the border into San Diego and other nearby areas." (Wikipedia)

I will be going on a missions trip to Tijuana in March and we will be ministering directly to those involved in the red light districts and we will also be ministering to the poor and those in heroin camps among other things. Possibly even more important, we will be filming the ministry of churches and organizations as well as our own trip. We believe that this will have a ripple effect not only to the people we are directly ministering to but those that will view our film. 

We have our first fundraising deadline on January 9th and I have about $300 due on that day. If you would like to be part of a world-class documentary and mission to Tijuana, Mexico, please seriously consider donating to this amazing trip. 

www.missiontrips.ibethel.org

It is going to be a very impactful trip and I expect an even greater impact from the documentary we are going to film and release to many film festivals, hopefully throughout the world. Click on the link below if you are interested in investing in this worthwhile cause.

www.missiontrips.ibethel.org

www.missiontrips.ibethel.org

Birthday Treasure Hunt!!!

Wow! Birthday is turning around! Thanks to my sister and several of you I decided to stop wallowing in my disappointments and pity and prayed that God would take me on a birthday treasure hunt in the airport!!!! I just met my very first treasure!!!! I had about 4 pages of specific revelation about her from God and it ALL ended up being accurate! My first words about her were "purple shirt, dread-like brown hair, freckles..." Crazy accurate physically, spiritually, and in many other ways!!! This led to healings and freedom and breakthrough!!! Not to mention new friendships! We exchanged info and are going to send updates on answers to prayer! Wow!!!!! So far this delay ROCKS!!!! Jesus, you sly beautiful you!!!!! More!!!! Lets bring some children home!!!! Lets restore families!!! Heal hearts!!!!!

Sweet Jesus...

Jesus, is the sweetest person I know.

On Saturday morning I had a Single Life Small group meeting and it was a meeting where I shared my relational journey which is an extremely vulnerable part of my story.  It was hard, but also easy and I really feel closer to my group.  It is such a wonderful, fun-loving, and beautiful group of people and I left feeling very loved and heard and seen.

As I was walking out to my car, I saw some roses and I went over to smell them.  In my head I thought, "I wish I got flowers.  There really is no one to send me flowers.  Even this rose. It would be so lovely to have this rose." But this rose was also OBVIOUSLY part of someone's garden, and I would NOT pick a rose or any flower from someone's garden.  As I leaned over to smell the rose, I touched the head of the rose ever so gently and rose broke off into my hand.

The craziest part was WHERE the rose broke off.  Not at the head where I LIGHTLY touched it, but way down the stem so that it was a long stemmed rose!!!!  I felt like God was giving me this rose!  And so I took it!!!

I brought it home and I put it in a vase and I smelled it.  It was one of the most fragrant roses I have EVER smelled in my entire life!!!  The very next day it was BIGGER and it had been in full bloom the day before so this was SURPRISING and DELIGHTFUL.

Everyone who has smelled the rose has said that it is the most fragrant, sweet smelling rose they have ever smelled.

I believe it was anointed from heaven just for me.  Everytime I have been in the same room with it, I have been overcome with giddy, lovestruck joy.

Jesus is so sweet.

Day 1

Day 2

Provision Comes as the result of BIG VISION!!!

On Wednesday evening, I received an e-mail from the financial office of the ministry school I attend stating that I still owed a payment from October 8th.  This has been very difficult for me because although I have found small amounts of income through cleaning houses, driving people to the airports in surrounding cities, and offering my photography skills at half price, I still have not been able to find other employment to fill in the gaps.  My training is smack dab in the middle of every single day so it can be very difficult to find a job for the hours I do have available.

Wednesday afternoon however, I had a job interview that seems very promising.  Although it does not pay a lot, I would receive an iPhone and could cancel my current phone plan, which would save me a lot each month. I would only be working two days a week but it would be helpful. I think the interview went well, so we shall see!

So back to Wednesday night.  The e-mail stated I would need to address this issue by the end of the week or I would be locked out of school this coming Monday. Additionally, we have our final payment of $1100 due in two weeks as well. So as you can imagine, I started to worry.  I have already sent out support letters, so it seemed like I had asked enough people for money.  The only other option in my mind was to make money, but it was becoming hard to do that.... So I was in a quandary.  I had all of these bills breathing down my neck...  I knew God had sent me out here.  I knew he had called me to go to this school and be part of these ministries, so it didn't make sense to me that he would just abandon me out here with no provision.  And that's when God's truth began flooding over me through people in my revival group, people here at Destiny House, people at church, and through GOD HIMSELF. 

Tonight at church we talked about not letting negative worry in our thoughts but instead "worrying" about amazing things like... "What would happen if God provided MORE than enough for me? What would I do? I'm worried I'm going to have so much money, I'm going to have to start giving it away!" One thing that stood out to me was this thought that when we hear a negative curse, it's easy for us to imagine that negative thing, but when someone blesses us, it's sometimes hard for us to let our imagination run wild with the possibilities of that blessings. But WHY?!? Let's imagine and declare these impossible blessings over our life!

We had a time where we just asked God to take us into the throne room and speak to us about whatever issue had been hard to overcome lately.  I saw myself entering the throne room and God was smiling.  He was almost giddy with excitement, joy, and mischief!  He started throwing golden coins at me!  Abundance!  Over and over.  I started stuffing them into my pockets until my pockets were bulging.  "No, Melissa."  He said with a smile, "I've got someone to carry that for you."  I turned around and there were angels holding huge bags bulging with gold coins.

Then God showed me another picture of me as a little girl.  He took me to an ice cream shoppe and I was sitting up on one of those swivel chairs and he sat next to me and looked over at me with a grin and said, "What do you want?"  I ordered a big Sundae and he said, "I want to treat you.  I want to give you abundantly MORE than you could ask or ever imagine!"

I know God values my ambition and my heart to earn my own way.  But I also know he values teaching me how to receive from him as well.  He has more for all of us, you know.  Much MUCH more than we realize. 

So fast forward to this evening.  I check my e-mail...I'm in tears of joy as I write this! I received an anonymous donation of $500 that paid for my October 8th payment that I missed for school! Praise the Lord and THANK YOU whoever you are.  Even better than that was the fact that it ended up being that my October 8th payment was actually $320, so the remaining $180 went directly into the last payment I owe for school!!!!  Hallelujah!!!!


Wow.  Thank you EVERY single one of you who have donated to me, provided odd jobs, bought paintings and prints, photo sessions, booked my taxi service, etc. I can hardly wait for the time to come where I can bless you in return. I declare that you will receive back DOUBLE what you have given. MAKE THAT TEN TIMES!!!!! Wow. I am overwhelmed in the best possible way.

Outstanding October!!

I'm amazed at how God has been moving these past two months.  It's amazing that I have only been here for 8 weeks!  SO much has happened and continues to happen daily! Here's just a quick highlight reel of a few amazing things this month:

On October 2nd and 17th, I had skype interviews for a part-time house cleaning job and I got it!!! It's only 8hrs/wk- 3x/mo. but it will be enough to pay my rent!  I am still praying and looking for another part-time job or two to be able to pay the rest of my bills and rest of ministry expenses.

October 16th and 17th- I had training for my city service project.  I will be working with the drama ministry where we will actually get to go into elementary schools, AS CHRISTIANS and minister to the children using drama and exercises. The deeper we got into training, the more and more excited I got to be part of this outreach!  I think it will open wide children's hearts to break off fears, doubts, and lies of the enemy!  I am believing for salvations and breakthroughs during this time and am excited for it!

October 18th-19th- the ministry I work at and live at, Destiny House, went on a retreat to Oakland, CA to the Home of Peace.  This is home with a rich heritage of revival, miracles, salvations, and missionaries coming to visit and also being called there.  For me, I have decided to plan a few trips to the Home of Peace to work on a book I have been writing.  I will be posting some teasers on here as well for those of you who are interested. It was amazing staying in rooms where missionaries and revivalists have stayed and received so much from God. I had a personal breakthrough in the room I stayed in, where God actually showed me that the same two angels I had felt during an encounter with him a couple years ago were my two "imaginary" friends I had as a child.  I actually REMEMBER talking with them and have memories with them, so its interesting I never put it together before.  I called one Cha-Chi and the other one was like in tongues... it always seemed to change.  But it was amazing.  Also, in my room I stayed in there were two different pictures of angels hanging up.  I thought this was kind of cool.

October 21st- We had a worship meeting/party/family get together with the people in my revival group.  This was an amazing time of getting to know people a lot better.

This last Thursday, October 24th, we went to a ropes course to continue team building with our revival group and also seeking personal breakthrough.  This was actually a very profound and powerful trip for me, so I am actually going to write a separate post about that.

I love you all!  Thanks for praying for me and being watchmen on my wall!!!

Blessing!

Beautiful Visions

"I will be found by you." - Jeremiah 29:14 Ready or not--- here I come!!! 

"Yesterday, I had a vision of sitting on the lap of Jesus. He was squeezing me so tight and I was a little girl again, with straight blonde hair, and only smiles. Then we started dancing and I turned into a beautiful bride with a veil running down the back of my head. I danced with Jesus and then I danced with the Father and his hand was so big, mine looked like a child's hand or a babies'. He had broad shoulders that could carry the world, and he dimmed his eyes down so I could see a little bit what they were like. They were just light....burning light and when he started to turn them back up, I had to look away because it was too bright. He told me that I was small. Really small. And that when we all made messes it was no big deal to him. Like changing a diaper. He told me I was more precious than silver and more costly than gold. He placed a garment of white righteousness over me and a long purple scarf of dignity and royalty over my shoulders. He called me His."

This is just a portion of this vision that I had on Friday morning during our house worship time.  This vision lasted for about 20-30 minutes and one of the sweetest encounters I have ever had with the Lord.  Much of it was spent just sitting there, crying and soaking up the love God has for me and over me.

I encourage you all this week, to get before the Lord in worship or stillness, and ask him to show you more of Himself.  I asked to have eyes that see and ears that hear.  I imagined that we were in a field together and I asked him how he saw me.  This vision I had came out of me asking Jesus REAL questions, and him answering.

I think sometimes we don't encounter God, have dreams and visions, or see the power of God in our life because we are used to praying TO God...instead of talking WITH him.

He wants to talk WITH you today.  He wants to hear your questions...and he longs to answer them.

He wants a conversation and relationship!

Let's all practice more in hearing his voice today and responding with all of our hearts!!!

Love you!