Provision!

JESUS IS AWESOME.  YES.  I am crazy excited about all that has happened these past few weeks of school starting, and I am so eager to share everything!  Jesus has provided for me in some remarkable ways and opened some fantastic doors for me in the art community here.  So many prayers have been answered that I know I need to testify to my family in Christ!  Here we go…

Let me start by simply stating what my needs were.  This is my sophomore year at IHOPU in the Forerunner School of Ministry (FSM), and when last year ended I was busy wondering how I was going to pay for my sophomore year!  Tuition and student expenses this year are $1,875 per semester, or $3,750 total (compare this to Northwestern College where I went for a year in Minnesota: $26,740 for tuition each year).  I ended my freshman year looking for a job and wondering where the money would come from.  I had $1,000 provided for me through an education credit after my time at Northwestern (supposed to help me pay off student loans, but miraculously I have none of those), so I knew the rest would come!  With my $1,000 stowed away, I started to look for jobs.  I wasn’t sure where I wanted to work or what I wanted to do—I just knew I wanted to work within IHOP and I didn’t want to do anything involving kids (my mindset was: been there, done that).  Quite a few people suggested the Awakening Teen Camp (ATC), which was in need of counselors, but I was adamant, “I don’t want to do babysitting again.  I’m done with childcare.  I want to do something administrative.”  But, oh, the Lord had other plans.  About three days before the ATC applications were due, suddenly my desires completely shifted, “Of course I want to do ATC!  Yes!  Make an impact in teens lives!  Stay in the IHOP community and meet other students!  Be in a place of leadership and teach teens!  Yes, I want to do this!”  In a moment my mind was changed, and I rapidly filled out the application, found references in the community, and prayed that the Lord would somehow make everything work with my hectic summer schedule.

Needless to say, He did!  I was hired as a camp counselor, had a month off before that began, took a lot of trips throughout the summer, and was obedient to what the Lord called me to do.  I would be paid just enough to cover the rest of the tuition for the first semester of school, and then I knew I could get a job during the school year to enable me to pay for the second semester.  I was overjoyed at how perfectly everything seemed to work!

But then something a little nerve-wracking did happen—attendance at ATC was really low.  Most of the camps had an abnormally small amount of campers, which translated to us counselors needing to be flexible, trust the Lord and take paychecks smaller than what we had expected.  We couldn’t be shaken, though, because the Lord had told all of us to do this—we knew this was what He wanted and we knew finances would work out according to His perfect will.  Camp was awesome, and one session had a huge number of campers, which boosted us back into the numbers we needed and, suddenly, two days before I had to pay my tuition, I saw everything work out flawlessly.  I was able to pay for my first semester with $50 to spare and I wept at the awesome provision of God!  I knew He was blessing me because of my obedience to do ATC instead of work somewhere else where I could’ve made three or four times what I had.  The entire summer really was like a big fast—giving my time and energy (that could’ve been used at a good paying job) to the Lord instead!

This brings me to the school year.  Immediately after paying for my first semester, my mind was filled with thoughts about getting a job to pay for the next semester.  I was hesitant to apply to a lot of places—I wanted to work somewhere specific, but I couldn’t put my finger on where my desires could be met.  The ‘longings of my heart’ for my job were (1) to take a break from super extroverted work like ATC, (2) to only have to work 10-15 hours a week, (3) to work somewhere on the IHOP missions base, (4) to do something administrative, (5) be able to take a long vacation for Christmas, and (6) to work with books.  These seemed like absolutely unrealistic expectations, but they were in my heart nonetheless.  The only option that made some sense was the IHOP Forerunner Bookstore, but that was 30 hours a week, so it didn’t meet the second longing (plus everyone and their grandma seemed to be applying for that position)!  Regardless, I turned in my application and waited for a few days before school began, but I heard nothing.  I spent my time off before school meandering the IHOPU library, just enjoying the silence and wandering the shelves, admiring the books I hoped to read someday.  At one point I almost walked up to the librarian and asked, “How did you get this job?  I want it.” But I didn’t because it seemed absolutely unrealistic to me!

All of this build up is to say that when I received an e-mail on the first day of class saying I had been awarded a work study position, I leapt out of my chair and rushed to the office as fast as I could!  All I was told was I would be receiving $1,000 each semester for working 10 hours each week during the school year, and I would have breaks off!  I wasn’t told where I was assigned, but I knew the numbers made sense (I came in with $1,875 and the Lord provided $2,000, more than doubling my money and securing payment for tuition in the spring)!  Only after I filled out all the paperwork was I told I would be working in the IHOPU library!  My heart leapt, and I almost started to cry!  The Lord had heard and answered every single one of my desires!  Let’s be real—these were not necessarily needs; all I needed was a job, but the Lord gave me exactly what I had been hoping for!  Oh, how I am amazed by His goodness!

Well, that is my crazy work story.  Now that I’m working ten hours a week at my fantastic job, my schedule has been really freed up so that I can be way more involved with Forerunner Arts, the budding ministry here in the IHOPKC community focused on the visual arts, drama, writing, dance and all the awesome arts!  Within a week of hearing about my work-study position, I was e-mailed about joining a prayer room art team, which is the first exciting opportunity from the Lord!  Being on this team means that once a week I will go to the prayer room with five other artists to paint and sketch in a sectioned off area.  This is an opportunity to minister to the Lord by worshipping Him through creating art, as well as minister to the people in the prayer room by spurring them to the Lord through prophetic imagery.  Sometimes I go in with no plan whatsoever and just let the Lord lead me where He wants me and it’s fantastic to see what comes out of those times.  I know people are touched by what we are doing—they’ll just come and sit around us and worship alongside us as we create.

This opportunity is fantastic because I’ve started to take my art more seriously since coming to IHOPU, and I know the Lord wants me to start working professionally.  I believe He has told me that now is the time to pursue art: I need to learn, train, hone my technical skills, study art in the Bible (Exodus 35-36!) and commit to constant worship.  I need to dedicate my art wholly to Him and set myself apart so that I can prophesy freely when He gives me an image to paint.  I know the Lord has given me this ability, and it is time that I serve the body of Christ more intentionally with it.

The second opportunity before me is the chance to be the assistant for a watercolor and drawing class offered by Forerunner Arts this autumn.  Suddenly I get to be involved with the Forerunner Arts leadership, practice teaching art, learn more about my abilities and be obedient to what the Lord has called me to in this season!

The final art opportunity that has arisen is a chance to do some commissioned work. Keith Collett, one of my amazingly skilled classmates, will be releasing an EP soon, and has asked my dear friend Sarah Daugherty to do some typographical art and me to use my Photoshop abilities to work on some formatting and background art.  His debut single is all about unity in the body of Christ, and dozens of people have already been brought together simply by producing and preparing the song!  I’m eager to work with other artists who are also diving into professionalism in their fields, and I’m absolutely flabbergasted by the way the Lord has set up everything flawlessly.

Looking at all the art I get to do and my schedule for school, I have to say I couldn’t imagine a better schedule for this semester!  I spend 24 hours a week in the prayer room in addition to my time in the classroom and at work, plus doing homework, service projects, forerunner arts, extra events and simply juggling life as an almost-21-year-old adult. 

God is doing amazing things in the whole community here in Kansas City, not just in my own life!  A classmate of mine who had been in a wheelchair for over a year was recently miraculously healed of terrible nerve damage and can now walk, run and jump freely, to the glory of God!  The incoming freshman class is on fire for the Lord and eager to see an outpouring of His Spirit, and the outgoing seniors are desperate to see a move of the Lord come to IHOPU once again (they were freshmen when the IHOPU Student Awakening began in November 2009).  Seeing all that the Lord has done has put great expectation within all of us, and I am remarkably excited to see what is coming in the next few months.

Thank you for all of your prayers and for sticking with me through these updates for the past year!  I can hardly believe so much time has already gone by and that I’ve been living here in Kansas City for over 12 months!  Please pray specifically for this next season as the Lord continues to highlight the arts in my life.  I am wholly committed to go all in wherever he leads me, and I need people agreeing with me in prayer for this.  Contend for all of us artists—that the Lord would raise us up as messengers who would boldly proclaim the Word through our various mediums.  He has called us forth for such a marvelous purpose, and your partnership would be greatly appreciated!  I see this as an opportunity for you all to invest in the arts through prayer, and maybe even some of you financially.  I have some basic needs as I go into this intense period of creating art; the simplest is for new supplies, such as a portable easel for the prayer room, carrying cases for my equipment and new paint.  As of now I’ve only been able to do small sketches and little paintings in the prayer room, but I am eager to work on a larger scale so that more people can see what I’m doing—no one will be touched by my art if they can’t see it!  A large easel would be instrumental in helping me to do this.  I am totally confident in the Lord, and I know what I need will be provided so that I can minister effectively.

The ways you can sow into my artistic ministry are incredibly simple!  You can send money via PayPal to Rachel_Korhonen@hotmail.com (or through the giving widget on the right side of this page), just please let me know who you are so that I can thank you properly!  Also, sending me a check (or any encouragement for that matter) in the mail works splendidly, too!  Just message me and I'll get you my address.  Any money I receive beyond what I need for art supplies will be stowed away to help me get a passport, which will open the doors to the nations for me to travel and minister all around the world as the Lord leads!

If you have been stirred up by this past year of IHOPUpdates, please prayerfully consider partnering with my ministry pursuits here.  All that I do is made possible by the Lord and support from the body of Christ, be it a special gift or monthly support. 

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me with phone calls and letters in the past, and thank you to everyone who is praying for me now!  If any of you would like to hear more specifics of what the Lord is doing here in Kansas City, don’t hesitate to contact me!  I also send out newsletters in the mail on occasion, so if you want to be on that mailing list, send me your address.  

Thank you again, everyone, for sticking with me this past year!  I’m looking forward to all the knowledge, revelation, intimacy, relationships and art this year holds.  Join me in the journey!

Be blessed!

Rache

Summarizing Summer

As I sit in my bedroom here in Kansas City and try to wrap my mind around how to condense what has been probably the craziest summer of my life into a succinct blog post for my friends and family to read… I am overwhelmed, to say the least.  These past three months have utterly exceeded all of my expectations and my brain just feels like putty trying to put everything into words.  This summer was “The Summer of the Suitcase” because I lived out of saddlebags, backpacks and suitcases as I traveled around Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado, Michigan, Iowa and Kansas City.  Here is a brief overview of my summer itinerary:

May 20^th, 2012 I graduated from TheCall Institute.

May 21^st – 25^th I traveled across Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa on a fabulous motorcycle adventure with dad to see the mountains and get back to Minnesota.

May 25^th – June 10^th Time in Minnesota hanging out with family and friends!

      (Back in Kansas City!  I spent a week preparing for my summer as a camp counselor at Awakening Teen Camp at IHOP.)

June 17^th – 20^th I started ATC with a three-day retreat for all the counselors at the Children’s Equipping Center (CEC).

June 20^th – July 3^rd ATC Main Session One (I lived at the CEC).

      (Brief break between camps)

July 6^th – 15^th ATC Music Academy One (moved into the hotel ATC uses during the summer).

      (Brief break between camps)

July 17^th – 30^th ATC Main Session Two (moved back into CEC).  In the middle of that session I went back to Minnesota from the 21^st through 23^rd for Christa and Tyler Thielsen’s wedding.

      (Brief break between camps)

July 31^st – August 9^th ATC Music Academy Two (lived at the hotel again).

August 11^th – August 12^th Quick trip to St. Louis for fun!

      (Finally a few days at home to rest and prepare for school)

August 17^th – 19^th Quick trip to Michigan with some friends for another wedding.

August 20^th My sophomore year at IHOP University begins!

As you can see, I had a busy summer.  Being able to do a lot of fun stuff prior to ATC was exciting—Colorado was stunningly beautiful and being home in Minnesota for two weeks was a wonderful treat.  ATC formed the largest part of my summer, by far.  For those who don’t know, I was a camp counselor for junior high girls here at IHOP for four, two-week camp sessions.  We did such a variety of things at ATC: teaching sessions, loads of worship, activities, sports, Megabox Warz (putting a giant box over oneself and blindly running across a soapy, wet tarp while being attacked with hoses and running into other competitors), room invasions, ministry times, small groups, camper-led worship sets, Olympic-style games, Q&A sessions, food…  ATC is a fabulous camp because it is right on the IHOP missions base and the teens get a great taste of the IHOP atmosphere.  In total I had 32 young women come through my groups—girls from all over the United States and even as far as Egypt!  These stunning teens taught me more than I could have ever expected, as did the leadership team, my fellow counselors and all the circumstances I found myself in.

I’ll try to summarize some of the highlights and share a few things that I learned over the summer.  I went in with some natural expectations about how I would lead and how I would feel, and the Lord turned everything upside down and decided to continue teaching me about my identity instead.  I’m constantly realizing that my true identity is deep—there are so many facets to how He has made me!

·      God has taught me that I have a mothering spirit.  That sounds really foreign to me still, but what it comes down to is the way I care for people.  I have realized the amount of empathy I feel for those around me, and I have touched the emotions of the Lord as I’ve cried out for breakthrough for these girls.  One day a few of my campers were feeling ill, so on my break time I drove around getting them things they needed instead of looking after my own needs.  I learned to put the girls above myself and do whatever it would take for them to get breakthrough—this was beyond difficult at times when I would be tired, sore, sick and hungry, but I wanted to serve them radically.  I got to share in the way the Lord cares for His own and realized that the Lord is the ultimate example of motherhood (not in the sense of gender, but in the sense of how caring and selfless He is).  I’m still trying to wrap my mind around all of this, but I know this revelation is from the Lord.  There is more to it, but it’s all quite personal and I’m going to keep it between the Lord and me until I get more clarity on everything.

·      I’ve also gotten much more attached to the acronym FAT.  I was always ranting to my campers about how we need to be Flexible, Adaptable and Teachable and they eagerly agreed (most of the time).  One of my groups I lovingly referred to as Women of God, which could be easily shortened to WOG; so for the last few days of camp they were the FAT WOGS.  J 

·      I learned to submit to leadership and joyfully agree with the assignments they would give to me.  There were many times I wanted to switch a room around or work at a different station during an event, but each time I would just remind myself that the Lord had put me there for a reason, and I could learn from any situation.  Having this mindset radically changed my attitude every day and I learned to joyfully serve! 

This outlook was vital throughout all four camps.  Originally I wanted to work with the older campers in senior high (16-18 year-olds), live at the hotel for the entirety of camp, not have difficult campers, be on a certain team, room with certain people, etc.  I was actually pretty anxious about all of this before camp, but as we were worshiping the night before camp began I sang the chorus “Put me anywhere, just put your glory in me.  I’ll serve anywhere, just let me see your beauty!” and I told the Lord I would serve wherever He wanted me to serve.  The next day I found out I was going to be working with junior high girls (12-14 year-olds), living at the CEC for two of the four sessions, going to be on a different team than I had initially desired, etc.  Basically the Lord gave me everything opposite of what I had wanted and I said, “Okay!  I trust you!  Teach me through this all!” and He did!

·      During Music Academy One, one of my campers shared a dream she had that set me on this journey of obsession with Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”  Also Revelation 22:4 “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”  The reality of my eternal future began to hit me in a fresh way and I realized I will one day be with God.  I will see His face—something even Moses couldn’t do.  Jesus desires to show us His glory (John 17:24) and I WILL SEE HIM AND DWELL WITH HIM!  HEAVEN IS COMING DOWN!  This excites me.  A lot.

·      Three days before the summer ended, ATC partnered with the Circuit Riders (a 10-day intensive with YWAM and IHOP) for their opening service so that we could share the FCF building.  I missed most of the worship and the opening of the message to go listen to one of my campers lead worship in another building.  That night I was feeling really sore, tired, frustrated and depressed—I was under such attack from Satan I was about ready to quit!  Oh, how the enemy didn’t want me to hear the message that night…  When I returned to the service I was surprised by the passion and zeal of a man preaching whom I had never seen before (I later found out this was Andy Byrd).  Immediately he began to speak about how these 70 years we have on earth are our only opportunity to voluntarily worship God while we are sick, tired and depressed—because in eternity we will never be sick, tired or depressed!  We will always be full of joy, health, excitement and passion!  But in this life we have trouble—we know this to be true, so we must strive to give the Lord all we have! 

Andy talked about how our generation must stop being so self-focused, ungrateful and being ‘entitled’ to everything.  Our culture says that when I want a cheeseburger I can stop everything to go get one and get it without pickles and extra onions and if you don’t make it right I can force you to make a new one for me so that I can get what I want and you better do it quick because I’m in a hurry!  We think the world revolves around us, but it doesn’t—it revolves around Christ!  We have to start serving other people like He did.  We have to wake up in the morning grateful for running water and electricity and the provision of the Lord.  The whole message shifted my perspective instantly and I was so eager to do outreach the next day—we cleaned bathrooms, scrubbed floors, evangelized and prayed at a local homeless ministry called Hope City.  We did this every camp session, but that final time was by far the most powerful for me personally because my whole heart attitude had shifted.

·      I got to meet so many new people this summer—not just campers, but IHOPers!  Now I get to go into my sophomore year at IHOPU knowing many more people and I’m really excited to be more connected with my classmates!

(Counselors and some of the leadership after Main Session Two... This was such a crazy fun group of people to work with!)

·      A sweet moment with the Lord came one morning at the prayer room when we began to sing “How He Loves.”  The Lord hit me with such a feeling of nearness to Him—I had to sit down as I felt His presence just wash over me and refresh me.  For five minutes I felt such a tenderness and peace… it was so sweet.

·      I learned alongside the campers during the Music Academy sessions all about the power of one’s voice.  Terri Terry, one of the professors at IHOPU who has multiple doctorate degrees, discussed the ways musicians and singers bring light into rooms when they worship.  I learned that sound is slowed down light (what?!) and all sorts of crazy scientific things that have melted my brain.  I’m really stirred up to sing more because of the depth of science and spiritual power behind it!  I also intend to audit one of Terri Terry’s classes because her teaching style has enraptured me, even as a non-musician! 

·      Our director shared a powerful quote that has been called the “Fellowship of the Unashamed,” author unknown.

"I am a part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.

I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes.

And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear for "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16)."

So, as you can see, summer was nuts.  Many more things happened and the things that I learned were incredible.  Thank you to everyone who prayed for my leaders, my campers and me—we had a phenomenal time and I’m eager to see what the Lord has in store for me this school year.  Thank you for those of you who put up with the long times of not hearing from me—camp was so crazy busy I hardly had time to even text!  I’m excited to reconnect with everyone this school year, which I know is going to be remarkable. 

Thanks for everything, you guys!  Be blessed and be a blessing!

Rachel

The End of the School Year (Part Two)

(So I wrote this about two-and-a-half months ago and didn't post it until now because I forgot.  Oops.  Here you go.)


Well, it is the end of May.  I have graduated TCI and am now comfortably settled back in my bedroom in Darwin, Minnesota.  It is remarkably surreal to be back in Dassel-Cokato; I’ve already picked up on some changes—new population numbers on the signs, the landmark restaurant in Dassel was apparently burned to the ground by the fire department and construction has begun to build a truck stop in its place (*tears for Hojies*), and other small differences… Paint on a house here and new trim there… it’s amazing how everything in these little towns has been imprinted in my memory; it’s strange to see changes!

That being said, change is everywhere—it’s an epidemic!  This truly is a season of transition, as we at IHOP like to say.  As mentioned above I have graduated TCI with my classmates!  The ceremony was fun and really exciting for me because, although I have graduated my special, one-year program, I intend to be back at IHOPU for three more years until I finish as a senior in the Forerunner School of Ministry (that’s the plan anyway).  About twenty of us graduated TCI; however, only three of us are continuing on at IHOPU!  So graduation really was the end for the majority of my classmates, and that is especially strange.  Transition, transition, transition.  Some are going on to the Strike Team, which is basically full-time missions work spread up into various short-term trips available to TCI graduates only; others are attending the ACTS school for a few more months of schooling and then going on an extended mission trip to somewhere in the 10/40 window; a few are planning on working; some are going to accredited universities or colleges; and others are being flung to exciting new places like New York City…  Transition I tell you!  We felt it in TCI!  Even our leadership team was, and is, in periods of great change.

Coming back to D-C I found more transition!  Not only are the towns changing, but my long-time youth pastor, Jim Tegelhutter, is planning on moving to Florida with his wife and daughter in just about two months!  Suddenly the time has come to officially see the youth group come to a close, and that means the last youth group… ever.  The amazing thing is that in the two weeks I am home, I get to be at both of the final youth group events, hear Jim preach one last time, and spend some time hanging out before I have to return to KC.  I’m floored by the divine timing of the Lord—I was a part of the youth group shortly after it began so many years ago, when there were just three or four of us each Wednesday night, and now I get to be home to see it come to a close…  Wow, God’s timing is flawless!

Transition is also rampant in relationships!  A ridiculous number of people I know have recently gotten engaged, and there are so many weddings this summer!  Suddenly, we’re not ‘kids’ anymore… That blows my mind, too.

I’m feeling so sentimental and nostalgic.  I blame the fact that I’m typing this in my old bedroom.  With all this change, sometimes I wonder if I’m reacting in the right way—sometimes I feel a little numb, like it’s all way over my head and I can’t really grasp the reality of it all.  I doubt it will sink in that Jim is moving until he is officially gone.  It won’t feel real that my friends are married until I’m at the weddings.  Next school year, when the majority of my TCI classmates aren’t in the sophomore classes, it might click…

I keep reminding myself to trust the Lord, especially in such seasons of massive change.  His plans are perfect and He knows what He’s doing, that’s for sure!  He has a reason for everything and every season.  It’s strange to see the old ways and the old things passing away, but they are simply being replaced by a new, wonderful part of life.

I’m excited beyond belief to see where this all takes me.  Where it takes my classmates.  Where it takes Jim.  Where it takes my friends and their new families.  Something grand is coming for all of us, I know it because I know the Lord and I know His plans are good!  He doesn’t always do what we expect Him to do, but I know He’s going to blow my mind with the way He’s going to continue to show me my identity, His love and the way He works in and through every relationship.

Wow.  I sat down to write a blog a few minutes ago, but I had no idea what to write about.  Then this came out.  Huzzah!  Thank you, Jesus.

In other news, the Colorado trip was fantastic!  Go look at my photo album of pictures to see the exciting things we saw/did.  I’ve been having a wonderful time since returning—I’m continually reminding myself to be FAT (Flexible, Adaptable and Teachable) in every situation.  I’m also doing a lot of digital art, which is fun, but a little exhausting at times.  Add to that a lot of preparation for parties, showers and work, plus lots of time hanging out with Jesus and reading (I get to start The Hobbit today)! Happy summer, everyone!

Rachel

The End of the School Year (Part One?)

Hello, world!  It has been a while!  Graduation is a week away and I figured I should give at least a partial update on life.  Much has happened the past few weeks, and summer plans have finally fallen into place!

The 5K
Some of you may remember my rant about the Grand Canyon.  You may remember that I boldly declared I would be doing the Couch-to-5k running plan with the short-term goal of doing a 5k and the long-term goal of hiking in the Grand Canyon.  I can gladly say that has been partially realized!  IHOPU had the second annual “fund run” and I participated with about a hundred other students and staff members.  The weather was perfect and my friends and I had a great time!  I wasn’t able to train as much as I had originally aspired to, due to being sick and travelling, but I still did it!  I may have looked pretty silly at times, and my time was by no means astounding, but I pushed myself and met my goal.  I am incredibly proud of myself for doing what I committed to do!

Summer Plans
Also, since we are talking about the Grand Canyon already, let me share how that desire is being fulfilled in a way, too!  My dad called me up one day a few weeks ago and mentioned taking a motorcycle trip this summer.  This has always been one of our favorite things to do together—he drives and I just sit on the back and enjoy the wind!  We went on a short, 3-day trip a few years ago through South-Eastern Minnesota, which was incredibly fun!  We talked about going to the Grand Canyon, but it is ridiculously far for a motorcycle trip.  Ultimately my desire is for something epic.  Something not flat.  Get me out of the Midwest or I’ll shrivel up and blow away like a tumbleweed across the vast, unexciting expanse…

SO WE ARE GOING TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.  HOORAAAAAY!  Dad will drive the Harley Roadking down for my graduation (more on that shortly) on the 20th, and then on the 21st we will trek to Colorado Springs.  We’ll traverse Colorado, go a bit through Wyoming, see the Badlands in South Dakota, and then be in Minnesota by May 28th.  I’m ridiculously excited to pack up a saddlebag with everything I need (I get a thrill when I need to pack really light, especially for something as intense as going to the mountains), put a bunch of good books on my iPod and head off to see the beauty of God’s creation (AND DO IT ALL WITH MY DADDY)!

When we get to Minnesota, I’ll be settling down for two weeks of hanging out!  I am excited to be back home for a while.  Lots of visiting friends, doing art, resting, worshipping and helping out with a bridal shower.  When that is all done, I fly back to Kansas City on June 10th.

In KC I get to spend a week mentally preparing for my job this summer: camp counselor at the Awakening Teen Camp here at IHOP!  I’ll be working for eight weeks (four, two-week camp sessions), with a brief 4-day jaunt back to MN for the wedding of Christa Juntunen and Tyler Thielsen!  Exciting!  Each camp session I’ll be looking after 8-11 girls between the ages of 12 and 17.  I don’t really know much more than that, but I am so excited to stay involved with IHOP throughout the summer and to lead young people into deeper intimacy with Jesus.

Camp ends early August, I’ll have a few days off before travelling up to Michigan to see one of my housemates get married.  Only two days after that, school starts and I will be a sophomore at the Forerunner School of Ministry!  WHEW.

I am lovingly referring to this summer as “The Summer of the Suitcase” because there is much travelling to be done!  I am so excited for everything that is going to be happening, and I know this is the Lord’s will.  Everything fell together so flawlessly and I see His hand so clearly in my circumstances.

Graduation
As I mentioned above, I graduate The Call Institute in a week!  This year has been such a whirlwind—I got involved with so many things I would have never even thought about had I not been in TCI.  The Lord’s timing also amazes me, because my TCI class is the last one at IHOPU.  The program is officially ending here and will someday be resurrected at the Justice Houses of Prayer (JHOP) around the nation.  Everyone in in an incredible transition—a lot of my classmates are continuing on to be in full-time ministry on the Strike Team, others are returning to their homes just to work, and three of us are continuing on at IHOP University.  The Lord is so good and He has put an incredible amount of excitement in me for the next three years at IHOPU!  I am still not certain of where the Lord wants me, but I know it involves ministry, teaching and continuing to do art.  As I keep studying here, I know clarity will come, and I’m looking forward to the journey!

So that’s that.  I tentatively have called this “Part One” because there is a week until graduation and I know I have more to write about, but I don’t want to do so until school is truly done.  That being said, I probably won’t have time to sit down and process everything until I’m back in Minnesota at the end of May, so be patient with me!  In the meantime congrats to some of my friends who have also completed their first years of college, and also to those who have graduated!  YOU ARE ALL AWESOME.

Have a blessed end of the school year/start of summer, everyone!

Rachel

Art: Jeremiah's Reluctance

Jeremiah was called “the weeping prophet” and if you read his book, you will quickly understand why. Jeremiah was called to prophesy the word of God when he was just a youth, and the word was this: judgment is coming! The intensity of this was compounded by the fact that Jeremiah began prophesying in the midst of a revival during the reign of King Josiah. God spoke to Jeremiah and commanded him to share the sobering truth that Babylon was coming to decimate Israel; naturally this stirred everyone up, including Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah’s sorrow pervades the book and is not hidden from the reader. He wails at God in frustration—crying out that he wished he had never been born. Chapter nine tells of his desire to run away into the desert and hide. He was beaten and imprisoned numerous times, and even cast into a muddy well to die. His life was threatened time and time again, even by his own family. He prophesied for decades, through the various sieges of Jerusalem and, at the end of it all, was given the opportunity to live in Babylon because the Babylonians were impressed with his prophecies. Ultimately Jeremiah chose to remain with his people—the ones who had beaten, accused and threatened him. Those same people then kidnapped him, dragged him off to Egypt, and he was never heard about again. 

The verse that inspired me the most for this piece was undoubtedly Jeremiah 20:9, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” (ESV) I wanted to try to capture that moment where Jeremiah is attempted to keep God’s words at bay, but the fire within him is burning—God’s word is alive within and charged with power that cannot be held back! 

Jeremiah even expresses his desire to leave his people at the beginning of his prophetic journey (by the end of it he knew he couldn’t leave them); he cries out in 9:2, “Oh that I had in the desert a travelers’ lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.” (ESV) Here we see him attempting to run—a youth burdened to what feels like his breaking point…

In the background one can see Jerusalem, a typical city, but something is brewing in the heavens above. Jeremiah 30:23 gives the details, “Behold the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.” (ESV). A tornado comes when hot and cold air systems collide, and this tempest of the Lord forms when the hot passion of God meets the brutal, cold indifference of people. In the context of that whirlwind, prophets arise.

I am ridiculously excited that this piece is done. The initial image came into my head at the end of September 2011, in a class taught by Corey Russell at IHOP University, and I’ve been picking away at it ever since. Whenever there was a teaching on Jeremiah, I would hear another phrase or verse that would profoundly impact me. For about a month the piece was nearly finished, but I didn’t know what to do above the city in the background—I knew I wanted something to show the spiritual activity there, but I wasn’t sure how to do it technically. Then mid-April 2012, the swirling clouds appeared in my mind while Corey was teaching again. Corey is passionate about the prophet Jeremiah, so I don’t doubt that the Lord ordained this image to come to me in Corey’s classes. 

I modernized Jeremiah a little bit because he is not meant to be just a character in history; he is an archetype of intercessors at the end of the age. We are called to weep with Jesus over souls, cry out for mercy, and preach the true judgments that are coming if repentance doesn’t come. Jeremiah’s life is one to be studied and emulated fearlessly. God, raise up those who would weep with you! If you haven’t read Jeremiah, do so! I’ve hardly even skimmed the surface of it and I am so moved by Jeremiah’s intimacy with God…

This is one of the first traditional pieces in a while that I’ve been really excited about. I chose to do absolutely no editing on Photoshop to maintain the original quality of the 11 x 14 drawing. There are probably about 25 hours of work in this, from conception to completion. 

Please do not use without permission!

Prints available! Contact me if interested! 

Spring Ministry Trips

Here begins one of the most massive, but most exciting, updates I have ever written.  I tried to shorten it, but ultimately there is nothing I feel like I can leave out!  So much happened over the last few weeks and my mind is just reeling from all that the Lord has done.  Please stick with me as I share some of the coolest stories from the two ministry trips I went on between March 21st and April 7th! 

La Crosse, Wisconsin

The first trip I took was a quick one over my Spring break here at IHOPU.  I went with about twenty other IHOPU students (from all the schools and years) to La Crosse, Wisconsin for three days.  Our primary focus was to minister to the teenagers of the area.  What we did the most was pray—with the teens, by ourselves, with music at churches, all the time!  Much of our time was spent at the Encounter Christian Teen Conference, which we organized and led.  We had four sessions that were full of worship, ministry, messages by IHOPU students, testimonies, and dancing.  About 40 teens, as well as some youth leaders and adults, attended the conference. 

My main responsibility for the duration of the trip was to organize and take charge of some technical stuff: namely power points, videos and recording sermons.  I had a fantastic time serving my team in this way, and the Lord really taught me through it all!

This trip introduced a concept to me that I had been largely unfamiliar with—being fat.  Haha… “FAT” is an acronym that stands for Flexible, Adaptable, and Teachable.  Plans would change rapidly and the whole trip was a great exercise in adaptability.  Certainly the greatest thing I gained from this trip was affirmation to continue studying at the Forerunner School of Ministry here at IHOPU.  I was so challenged by the juniors and seniors who were leading our trip; they instilled a lot of excitement within me to be an upperclassman! 

It was also thoroughly amusing to listen to twenty random people try to speak with a northern accent.  All I heard was “Don’tcha know?” and “You betcha.”  Hahaha…

The Wisconsin team!  Oofda!

Dallas, Texas

This second trip was an entirely different animal, so to speak.  I can hardly even think of how to start talking about this trip…  I suppose I should share the basics.  We (TheCall Institute or TCI) went to Dallas primarily for an event called The Esther Call, which was orchestrated by all the same people who held The Call Detroit (see IHOPUpdates 6, 7 and 8).  There have been dozens of Call events over the last 12 years; the first one being in Washington, D.C. with over 400,000 in attendance.  Most Calls are in a strategic location with a specific focus.  The Esther Call concentrated on the issue of abortion and was held in Dallas, Texas, where Roe VS Wade (which legalized abortion) was passed in 1973, 39 years ago.

The Esther Call was held on Good Friday, April 6th, 2012 and was specifically an all-women call.  About 4,000 women came to fast, pray and repent on behalf of the nation for the grievous sin of abortion and the bloodshed of 54 million innocent children.  The entire event was incredibly powerful! 

A ton of crazy things happened in the week we were in Dallas, but I need to start at the beginning.  We left on Saturday, March 31st with simply the address of our destination.  The car I was riding in decided to stick with another car at first.  In Pryor, Oklahoma (4 hours from Kansas City and 5 hours from Dallas) we stopped for lunch, got back in our dear car and, behold, it would not start!  So began our first great adventure on this trip… 

The Faith Adventure

This is what we lovingly dubbed the beginning of our journey.  Katie Kotila, Gregg Rosenboom, Jarrod Elo and myself were in the car that broke down.  Prior to leaving Kansas City we discovered the air conditioning was leaking inside the car and washing the passenger’s feet with about an inch of water constantly.  Augh! 

The moment we realized our car was not going anywhere, we paused and prayed, “God, send us someone to help!” because we were largely clueless about what to do.  None of us could diagnose the issue.  Not a minute after we prayed this, a nice looking man in a yellow shirt meandered by, looked at us, walked away, came back and asked if we needed help.  We enthusiastically said, “Yes!”  His name was Jerry, and he was a former pastor!  We tried everything we could do to get the car to start—getting gas, praying over it, etc., but nothing worked!  Jerry ended up calling a mechanic he knew and paying the fee for the mechanic, who had an epic hat that said, “God is good all the time” to come to us and check out the car for two hours!  By this time Katie, Gregg, Jarrod and I began to feel like the Lord wanted us in Pryor, Oklahoma for some strange reason.  We all had peace and didn’t feel any warfare around us, so we began to worship and express our trust in the Lord.

The mechanic, meanwhile, could find no issue with the engine or AC, but claimed there was something wrong with the key!  Something was preventing the key from communicating with the dashboard, and it therefore needed to be reset.  The key, for crying out loud!  The mechanic tried to do this, but it turns out only the dealership can.  Praise God the dealership was only a mile away, but alas it was closed until Monday morning.  This meant we had two nights to spend in Pryor.  We tried to think of other ways to get to Dallas, but just kept coming back to the belief that the Lord had ordained this random adventure.  We ended up sending the other car (four sweet girls had stayed with us until we decided to stay in Pryor) off to Dallas, Jerry referred us to some nearby hotels, and our leader, Brett, told us his suggestion was to call area churches and ask them if they could support us by giving us a place to stay, money to fix the car, prayer, or anything else!  We had nothing else to do, so we decided to follow his instructions.  None of us wanted to pay for a hotel or fixing a car, so we trekked across the road to Chili’s.  We used their Wi-Fi, called 21 area churches (from the Catholics to the Pentecostals to “The First Church of God of Prophecy” and the “End-Time Apostles of Jesus Christ”), and even Facebook messaged a few pastors.  We got nothing.  Nada.  No one answered.  Apparently the body of Christ cannot be reached on a Saturday evening…

We were all feeling a little worn out and discouraged, not to mention viciously sunburnt.  Just when I was feeling the worst, the family sitting in the booth behind us said, “Sorry, we didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but we heard you guys were in a rough spot,” and then handed us a wad of bills.  I started to cry and felt a weight lift off my shoulders.  The Lord would provide.  They gave us $100, which perfectly covered one hotel room for one night.  RELIEF!!!  PROVISION!!!  Our adrenaline was racing!  We decided to go through with the hotel, but only after praying for our waitress, the family that gave so generously, and the elderly couple on the other side of us.  The elderly couple ended up knowing all the influential people in the town, including the owner of the dealership (they went to church with the guy), and they gave us his personal number and said that he would definitely help us out!  CONNECTIONS!!! 

Our next spot to get was the hotel, which was two miles down the highway.  We packed some clothes from the car and began to head down the road, when Gregg declared, “Do we want to walk there or ride there?”  We were all willing to walk, but riding would be ideal, so Gregg shot up a quick prayer and not a minute later someone pulled up to us, helped us load everything in his car, and took us to the hotel!  Joe, the helpful young man, had dropped off his mother and baby sister just so that there would be room in the car to help us out!  He said he wanted to give us a ride because he had been in our same situation once, and no one stopped to help him.

At the hotel we were able to pray for the receptionist, who said she and her husband were struggling to have children.  How fitting that we could pray for her womb when we were going to an event largely about the unborn and motherhood!  The hotel itself was super nice—nicer than I felt we needed, but the Lord had a divine appointment for us with the receptionist, so we knew he would provide the money for us!  We went to bed and I ended up having a profound dream about the generosity of the Lord: I kept singing in my dream about how the Lord is not a pirate, because a pirate steals and is cruel and rude, but God is loving, generous and blesses His children!  The next day we went to an amazing church with Jerry, saw Joe again (his uncle was the guest speaker), were prayed for by the leadership and saw the final $100 we needed come to us by the generous people of Word Fellowship Church.  We were floored.  We were all getting to the point of not knowing how to respond because the people were SO KIND.  SO GENEROUS!  So like the Lord!!! 

Here’s the icing on the cake.  After church we went to try to start the car, thinking maybe it was just overheated.  Katie put the key in, turned it, and immediately the car started with ease.  We are all shocked, but still a little nervous.  We drove it to the hotel—no problems.  The AC wasn’t even leaking anymore!  At the hotel we said goodbye to Jerry and decided to go to Tulsa, one hour from Pryor.  There we would stay at a friend’s parents’ house and have a mechanic there check out the car on Monday morning.  The car made it to Tulsa just fine and we had a great night with Grant Nordean’s parents (AND HIS CAT, PEACHES).

Monday morning we got the car checked and the mechanic declared nothing was wrong at all.  Absolutely nothing.  The key was fine.  The AC was fine.  They even filled up the tank for us.  We were off to Dallas.  That was our crazy faith adventure.  We missed the first two days of pre-call events and prayer meetings, but that was totally okay.  We wouldn’t have traded it for anything! 

The Lord ordained every divine appointment and taught us each so much.  He showed me His generosity and provision in a way I had never experienced!  He spoke volumes to me about being generous to others in return; because that is what Jesus praises in Matthew 25:31-46.  Jesus says to feed the hungry, welcome strangers into your home, clothe the naked and visit the sick and imprisoned.  Suddenly we were the strangers in a ‘foreign land.’  Suddenly we were the hungry ones in need of food.  There is SUCH a blessing set aside for those who helped us, and even the single church that called us back.  You heard me right—only one of the 21 churches returned our call.  It’s a tragedy that this probably doesn’t surprise most people, either.  The church needs to step up and serve one another, especially fellow believers in need; we believe the Lord used us to bring this to the attention of some of those churches.  I know I’m going to be much more deliberate about giving freely, because I have now been on the receiving end!  My perspectives have shifted!

Tornado Time

If you watch the news and don’t live under a rock, you may have heard that there were insane tornadoes in Dallas, Texas on Tuesday, April 3rd right around where we were.  We arrived in Dallas on Monday afternoon, spent the night in prayer, and were planning on having meetings, prayer time and a pre-call rally on Tuesday.  We ate breakfast at our host home (one of the most generous families I have ever met allowed 20 of us to come from Kansas City and stay in their home/mansion for a week), and then found ourselves sucked into the news, which was declaring tornado warnings, touch-downs, and all the craziness that comes with a system of bad storms.  That day 17 tornadoes hit, the most intense being an F-3 that wrought a path of destruction 8 miles long.

Now, this wasn’t just storms.  Throughout scripture there is a measure of the prophetic related to the weather.  Elijah stopped and released rain through prayer, Romans says that all creation is groaning, and Jesus says that at the end of the age there will be signs in the heavens and signs on earth, including earthquakes and other disasters.  TheCall organization has a ton of prophetic history actually involving tornadoes.  We believed the Lord’s hand was in this, mostly because the first two tornadoes touched down at the exact moment that 39 amazing women walked into Dallas County. 

Therein lies another aspect of The Esther Call.  During the three weeks leading up to the event, 39 women were walking from Houston, Texas to Dallas, Texas—over 270 miles.  Each woman represented one year of legalized abortion in America, and each had a testimony about how they were impacted adversely by abortion.  Some women had abortions in the past, others had siblings or family members who were aborted, and others were just burdened by the issue.  They walked from the largest abortion clinic in America to the courthouse in Dallas where Roe VS Wade was passed.  The last leg of their journey was in Dallas, and after weeks of walking, interceding, bleeding and blistered feet, the power of what they were doing in the heavenly realm was made manifest, we believe, in the physical.  That’s what we attribute the tornadoes to, in a nutshell.

Instead of being afraid and worried, we trusted the Lord and prayed on the front porch.  We saw some heavy rain and cool lighting in our area, but no hail or intense stuff, so we were very safe, physically and spiritually!  We had a wonderful time getting a taste of the power of the Lord.  We also learned to be flexible when all of our prior plans were dashed because of the bad weather!

The Esther Call

At TheCall event itself we had a ton of prayer focuses and teachings throughout the day.  Some of the topics included:

1. Feminism—women need to repent for using their sexuality to manipulate and control others.
2. A release of the Biblical mindset that children are a blessing from the Lord.
3. Contraceptives—many are abortive in nature.  It was really interesting to note that the Bible states that life does begin at conception.  In Luke 1, immediately after the angel came to Mary and the Spirit hovered over her, she rushed to her cousin Elizabeth, whose child in the womb leapt at the presence of the unborn Jesus, who was probably just a zygote!
4. An exposing of Planned Parenthood—Carol Everett (a former leader in the organization) spoke about their agenda to actually perform more abortions by targeting children at a young age through pornography, and, when they kids do become sexually active, giving them cheap forms of contraception.
5. Ending the one child policy in China and the atrocious forced abortions that occur there.
6. A release of an adoption movement and for the church to become pro-child in addition to being pro-life.

This is a massively massive update.  Forgive me for the length!  There is so much I haven’t even touched on!  We did night prayer sessions from 10 PM to 2 or 4 AM for a few nights, and as exhausted as we were from our funny schedules, we found great intimacy and power in our prayers during those sets at the Dallas House of Prayer.  We enjoyed being led by the Spirit those nights and letting Him take us wherever He wanted us to go in intercession.  We had two pre-call rallies at area churches and were able to minister and be ministered to during those times.  We prayed, prayed, prayed about everything and in every place we went.  Healings happened in the registration line for The Esther Call.  Our team was incredibly unified and brought together by the Lord.  We overcame differences.  We conquered individual fears.  The Lord reminded me of the value of being a mother and the glorious way he has created me—with the capacity to carry a human life within!  Lou taught the book of Esther.  We worshipped.  We cried.  We had a meeting outside the courthouse and welcomed the 39 women to their destination.  We had a silent life siege.  One of the girls in our company (who was supposed to be aborted but whose mother chose life just days before the procedure) was interviewed by the Dallas paper and got to share her story with the nation.  We testified of truth.  We contended for breakthrough… and we got it. 

Words can hardly express the impact we know we made through prayer.  We believe we are winning the battle for LIFE in this nation, and the world!  Since coming back to Kansas City so much has happened…

Just recently (4/11) we found out that a Planned Parenthood in California is currently doing 40 days of prayer FOR abortion and the choice of women to kill their unborn children.  The brochure makes my stomach twist.  Planned Parenthood is crumbling, everyone knows it, and they might feel like their last hope is to call on God, but He is not going to listen to them!  Isaiah 1:15-17 says it so clearly, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”  YOU CANNOT GET CLEARER THAN THAT!  The Lord hears the prayers of the righteous and answers those!

Thank you all for your prayers.  If you have any questions or would like to hear more, please don’t hesitate to get ahold of me! 

Be blessed, y’all (I have been to Texas and can say “y’all” now)!

Rachel

TCI with Don and Mischa--our lovely host parents!