The Harvest Is Ripe in America

Dear friends,

I am filled with such joy as I am able to tell you just a handful of the amazing things that God has done in my life, the lives around me, and in the world over this past summer.  It has been nothing short of overflowing with testimony after testimony of God's love for His children and deep passion for all to know His name an fall deeper in love with Him.  I have never in my life been more convinced that the Gospel really is the good news and the power that the blood of the lamb and our testimony has.  God is alive and moving in the earth, and me & you get to be a part of it.  How exciting!

Exactly 3 months ago (to the day!) I wrote you and shared what the first two weeks of the Summer Quarter looked like.  As I read back over what I wrote, I am amazed that it only got better from there.  Our expectation for the summer as a whole was that the Lord was going to do something out of the ordinary, that he was going to knit our hearts together and bring us somewhere in the spirit that we had never gone before, because of the unity we had with each other, and the holiness and purity we walked as we chased after being fixated with one thing, and one thing only; the man Jesus Christ.  And as I write you three months later, I am more than thrilled to report the summer has been just that… more than we expected and full of promises fulfilled by the Father.

I was so blessed to have many of you invest in prayer & finances as I got to go to Pennsylvania for Circuit Riders this past month!!  One day, we were praying for all of the CR schools going to Fiji, LA, Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Kona, & Norway, something began to happen in my heart unlike anything I had ever experienced as we prayed for the one in Lancaster, PA and I said to myself "I have to be there."  I didn't know how I was going to get the money, or if I would even be able to go…. Housing, food, transportation, and so many things were ahead to figure out but I knew I had to be there.  Something inside of me knew that if I went, my life would be changed forever.  After only one week, I think actually less than 7 days, someone pledged to match $1.00 to every $1.00 that I was able to raise!!  So I got myself in to gear and did everything I could.  At the end of those handful of days, the Lord had provided above and beyond what I needed!  He also got me free housing with some of my best fiends that was walking distance from the school being held and almost all my food was taken care of!  God is the God of abundance!

Circuit Riders kicked off in the heart of Lancaster, PA for a full week.  Every day we would have training with about 500 other students who had signed up for the school.  And every day that number would grow because people would get saved, and immediately want to come to training to learn how to preach the gospel…. and this was a reoccurring story!  Every night we opened up the place to whoever wanted to come as we worshiped the King of Kings, and heard a message from one of the leaders.  And again, we started at around 1400 people the first night, and by the last night we grew to just shy of 2,000 people!!!  In just 2 days of outreach we saw over 320 salvations and 60+ hearings, just on the streets in this small town!!  People are ready to hear the gospel, the harvest is ripe!!!

Every day I could feel more and more fear break off of me as I became convinced at the reality of the Gospel, and the sacrifice of Jesus' life for not only mine, but every single person in the world.  If God send His son to  died for every person, wouldn't He want every person to know about it?  And as Christians, we have the answer and the privilege of sharing it with a lost and dying world in need of a savior.  We all were there at one point, we all have been saved by Grace and not by works, but by a loving Father who is so desiring a world to fall in love with Him…. and now from that place of knowing who we once were, and where we once were, we get to tell the rest of the world the good news.  Hallelujah!!

As Circuit Riders traveled all around the world (but mainly in America), they figured out that there was 1 salvation for every minute of outreach.  Jesus Is Alive!!!  He is awakening His bride, saving the lost, and preparing us all for His great return!!  Being a part of this story is one of the most exciting things in the earth.

We were so privileged in Kona to have held a Circuit Riders two weeks after I returned and it was also amazing!  I got to lead a small group for training of about 14 people.  As we hit the streets all of the outreaches as a whole saw 10 salvations in town and a handful of healings too!  I personally was able to be a part of 3 stories of 2 young women and a teenage boy coming to know Jesus.  It was so wonderful to see things like this happen in Kona, right in our back yard!!

After going to PA, I was able to go to Washington, DC with one of my best friends, Grace.  While I was there I got a call from my dad saying him & my mom wanted to visit me before I headed back to Kona.  Our time together was so sweet! We were able to just enjoyed each others company, share stories from the places we all had been over the last 8 months apart, and were also able to love on people in the streets of Washington, DC.  It was so fun to be able to share the gospel with my parents by my side.  It made something in my heart come alive and it was so fun!

It's been four weeks since I returned back to Kona and have continued in the Track.   Just two weeks ago we had our quarterly Love Feast.  This is pretty much where we love on each other like crazy!!  We eat good food, we dance, we honor each other, and we have presentations from the electives that we have (Song Writing, Preaching & Teaching, Biblical Studies).  We had such a fun night all together and were able to reminisce about all the lovely things we were able to all experience over these past 3 months.

We are now at the end of the quarter & preparing for next quarter!!  The schools in the Track this past quarter were Compassion Ablaze, Community Transformations, and Crisis Response International and they have all transitioned into Staff Training and preparing for all of their students in the DTS' to come in just two short weeks!

I had the privilege this quarter as many of you know, to lead the Track with Blake & Shannon Casteel for the first time, and it went amazing.  So amazing that they have asked if I would join official leadership of the Awakening Leadership Track, and there was no hesitation in my heart!  In less than 2 short weeks we will kick off everything again for the Fall.  With around 100 staff coming to join us to be trained to staff DTS' this coming January, it is again the largest quarter we have ever had… and it just keeps growing!!  We are so blessed, and quite honestly blown away at how rapidly things are morphing into something that is wanting to be replicated on many YWAM bases across the world.  I don't know how I got into this position, other than the kindness of the Lord.  There are no qualifications on my part, except that He is my strength & qualifies me by His love and mercy every day.  Being in the Track, and now helping lead, my life has been extremely transformed in every way and I am so thankful for God's plans for my life overriding my dreams that I thought would satisfy.  He is so committed to each and every one of this and I am more convinced of it everywhere I go and with everyone I talk to.

In 3 weeks I will be headed home to North Carolina to spend 2 weeks with my family!  I am able to see one of my best friends from childhood get married and to meet my niece Dylan Rose for the first time!! I am very excited for this trip and appreciate your prayers as I am traveling!!

Thank you to every person who has invested in my life on this journey.  I am full of gratitude and thankfulness as I think of how each of you have had a part to play in this wonderful story.  I am blessed beyond belief!!

Have a wonderful day filled with the fullness of all the Father has to pour out on you!

You are very much loved.

-Lizzie Stein




For more information on the history/vision of YWAM and the purpose/heart of The Awakening Leadership Track, please visit another page on this blog:
http://shebegantofly.blogspot.com/p/vision-heart.html

If you would like to partner with me in prayer or be a one-time or monthly support please email me at oceansroar@gmail.com or click the following link: http://www.uofnkona.edu/support/missionaries/5644

Closing Chapters & A Continuing Journey

3 years ago (minus a couple days), I arrived in Kona, Hawaii for the very first time to do the PhotogenX DTS.  A year after that I decided to staff a DTS, and one year ago I decided to come back full-time to do the Leadership Development Track.  Talking t a friend about all of this, they summed it up perfectly - "These past few years may have flown by, but I feel like there has been 5 years worth of experienced in them", and I even dare to say that there are more than 5 years worth.
Over these past 3 years, I have fallen in love with Jesus in a way that I have only dreamt of before and I have grasped a hold of His love for me and have only just begun the beautiful journey of walking in the abundant life that He offers us for all of eternity.  I have helped lead people through freedom, and have been lead through it myself.  I have been broken and restored, hurt and healed, died & have become alive for the very first time.

I never would have dreamed of having the life that I live now.  I have been blessed beyond words or measure and feel the beauty of it every single day.  I never dreamt that I could feel this free, or feel so much peace.  I didn't know that it was possible to have a hope that never wavered, or a peace that went far beyond circumstances and wasn't dictated by my situations.  I had no idea that there could be a love that was stronger than death and killed every peace of evil in my heart.  I am on a process, as we all are, and it's beautiful.  It's painful sometimes.  The pruning that the Lord brings sometimes it's all fun and games.  But it's so amazing to be loved by a God who is love Himself and to discover the depths of it more each and every day.
In the beginning of the Track the Lord told me He wanted to do two things:
1 - Completely free me of fear
2 - Teach me how to have endurance & be sustained
I can say without a doubt that this year has been full of these two things.  As you can read over my past blog entries, fear has been erased, and I have found the beauty of the sweet presence of the Lord not being a part of my life... but being the entirety of my life and everything else flowing out of it.  The treasures and gems I have found in this place are worth more than any silver or gold...

And now here I am, in the middle of Amsterdam, Holland.  I had never been to Europe before, but have always dreamed of going.  I told myself that when I went I would never want to leave... I maybe don't feel that strong about it yet, but there has been a love established in my heart for this place and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will be returning.
The other night our team sat around and hung out and shared what we felt the Lord was giving us in these 2 weeks.  I began to share how I felt like again the Lord was giving me two things:
1 - I am marked as an intercessor // The head knowledge that Prayer and Intercession flowed outside of Worship is so vital and a pure gift from the Lord has turned into full heart knowledge.  I have seen, felt, experienced, and chased after the beautiful truth that the veil has been torn and we have full access to God.  We have the power to shift atmospheres, to change the world, and to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.  This is a part of our inheritance as Christians and this revelation became so alive in my heart.
2 - My God Satisfies // This is a part of the meaning of my name (along with many other things).  Something that I have always longed for, but never really thought possible when it came down to it, was for God to really be everything that I needed and to be completely satisfied in Him.  I wanted to not desire anything but Him... to find my joy in Him, to find my hope in Him, to find true love in Him, to find purpose and dreams and life in Him.  This was established in my heart over these past 2 weeks.  I couldn't say that there was a "moment"... but as we fasted & prayed, I heard the Lord say that He was giving me this gift.  And the amazing part is that it didn't come out of me freaking out, and becoming exhausted and wrongfully striving after it... it was given out of a place of me rest in Him, seeking His face, becoming enamored by His beauty & power.

Today was our last day here in Amsterdam and it was quite wonderful.  The majority of us are leaving Amsterdam tomorrow and either heading back to Kona, visiting family for a couple weeks or traveling around Europe.  As you know I am traveling to Scotland and London for the next two weeks!!
There are so many other things that I could share about from this trip... but I will close it out for now and share more later.  I do want to thank every single one of you though, that helped me get here.  Whether you gave financially, prayed for our trip, encouraged us, looked at pictures, read this blog... Whatever it was, thank you so very much.  This trip has not only changed my life, but also every one else who came with me.  I could not be more thankful or feel more blessed and very loved.

I will leave you with some pictures from the past week... Enjoy!

 

 [My beautiful friend, Tegan and I near the Dam Square] // [Blake, Shannon, Shiloh,

Aarow & Brave - My amazing leaders & their three kids]

 [Almost all the girls on my team - Molly, Emily, Ruth, Kate, Cammie, Tegan, and me]

 [Our team worshiping in the Prayer Tower and reading the Psalms over the city of Amsterdam]

[Central Station in the middle of the night]

[The view of Amsterdam from the library]

[We took a 20 minute train ride & visited Haarlem for the day!  This is the city where Corrie Ten Boom's
house is, The Hiding Place (I will post another blog about our time there). Needless to say,
it was absolutely beautiful and had such a presence of peace in the quaint downtown.]

 

[Kaashuis Tromp // An incredible cheese shop in the heart of Haarlem, Holland]

 

[The Dam Square]

CLT --> KOA

This is it.  Here we go.  A crazy, new, unknown adventure about to start.  It's so different leaving home this time.  I don't have as many nerves, the sadness in my heart is more but I feel my heart is so ready for this, so at peace with where I am going, and so excited for what's in store that it's making it a bit easier.  I'm leaving at even more of a crucial time with my sweet niece Abi Liv growing so fast; I got to watch her take two steps today, which definitely made me so joyful.  But the Lord knows all of that, He knows how much I adore my family & will miss them... And His grace is sufficient.
I was talking with one of my brothers the other night about leaving, and I had this realization on how much the Lord had really done in me, how much He had changed my heart, grew me & deepened my roots.  He is so faithful to each and every one of our hearts.  I didn't take on this past six months and think "I am really going to let the Lord grow me and teach me things", although that is not bad, it just hadn't crossed my mind to intentionally make that decision, but by my obedience in the small & big things, He did exactly what my heart desired, even if I didn't know it desired that things.  I love giving the reigns of my heart over to the one who created it, it just makes things so much more beautiful & worth it.
I have such an expectancy in my heart for what's about to come.  I couldn't give you any clues as to what that will look like, because I have absolutely no idea or even a grid to imagine what's going to happen.  But everything inside of me wants to explode because of the excitement I have.  I have no reason to fear, no reason to worry or to be anxious.  I have every reason though to be peaceful, walking with strength & grace, and full of joy.  Those are my inheritance and it's crazy what you'll stumble upon when you allow yourself to look at life through that perspective.

Thank you to every single person who has journeyed with me.  Whether it's been by praying for me, by being a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on, or by giving financially, or by rooting me on and encouraging me to go after the dreams in my heart.  I could not be more blessed to have the family & friends that I have.  I have never felt so full of abundant life ever before.  My cup overflows.
If you feel led to support me financially one time or monthly, or by praying for me on a regular basis please email me at oceansroar@gmail.com or call me at (704) 724-1175.

I love you all dearly & am so thankful.