Shine has begun

Oh my goodness, these last weeks have been so busy yet SO good. We started our 6 week seminar on the global sex trade and a Christian response. So far we've had some great speakers but the information is definitely quite heavy. A lot of the students are having a difficult time learning how to process these things. Keep them and us in prayer please. Next week we have an amazing woman speaking on Biblical Justice so that should be encouraging. We have a good group of people here eager to learn, I'm enjoying getting to know them.

We have an outreach/teaching in Latvia in a few weeks, so please pray for that, we are hoping to get a really great deal on tickets tomorrow. I know I don't know where exactly the money will come in, but I know that if I'm to go, I'll go.

I am really enjoying the beauty of this city. Yes there is a heaviness of sin, but God is a restorer. I am looking forward to being apart of this restoration in the future.

a photo of our staff and students!

I am so embarrassed

I can't believe I let 2 months go by without updating this blog! These last 2 months have been busy but so sweet. We (my small team) have been preparing for (and just begun) our 6 week seminar called Shine. Its about the global sex trade and a Christian response to it. 6 weeks of several amazing speakings imparting to us their wisdom and experience. 5 weeks held here in the Red Light District of Amsterdam and 1 week in Riga, Latvia with our sister ministry, Freedom 61. Last year Shine opened my eyes and truly changed and shaped me into the woman I needed to become to take the next few steps in this ministry, so naturally I am SOO excited to see what the Lord does with our amazing students.

God is so sweet and gentle. He truly has been providing my needs. As a little girl I remember my dad teaching me the differences of needs and wants. I've sacrificially given up most of my wants yet I haven't really been in want since doing so. Being here away from family and friends, in a whole new country, with so many different languages, only having the money God gives me... its quite hard for some one who isn't spontaneous, who loves all her ducks to be in a row, and loves to have everything organized and planned and be on top of her game. But God is showing Himself powerful through my inadequacy.

Last week my team and I listened to a message from Benjamin Nolot, the founder of Exodus Cry. It was amazing, he spoke about Moses, the first abolitionist, and how God brought Moses into the desert for 40 years to humble him if you will. Moses was inadequate and thats where God needed him to be to work through Him. I am nothing, but God is huge and nothing is impossible with Him. Whatever calling He has for me here He will make sure it comes to pass, all I am doing is saying "yes".

 Prayer
-Students as they encounter some heavy issues during Shine
-Us, the staff to be well rested and well prepared
-To be thinking ahead, after Shine is complete the Lighthouse staff will have a few weeks of praying and fasting to decide what ministries He wants to start with The Lighthouse. I am excited to see what He says about the ministry I came here to pioneer.