GO HERE AND LISTEN TO THIS SONG.. one of the worship leaders wrote this song with a freind, and it has become one of my favorite songs to just listen to and take in!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps 

so this week has been really good. again sorry i dont really update often, but im trying! and thank you for your support, i really appreciate it, and get encouragement from it. i love you all so much and am so blessed to have so many caring and generous people in my life. 

this weeks topic is the character of God, as well as fear of God. it has been really stressful because its a huge topic to cover in 4 days, and of course i have a billion questions to ask and they cant all be answered. but weve looked at how above all, God is holy. We have to understand His otherness. thats been a big thing. weve also learned what its like to fear God, and how to live that out in our everyday lives. its really slapped me in  the face because i have gone through life for SO long without even considering God's holiness, without even acknowledging WHO He is, and what He deserves. thats really been in my mind and ive gotten discouraged because of my way of life. ive just felt so ashamed of the way ive chosen to live- knowing God but deciding to do what i want instead. ive been praying a lot for God to just make my heart pure and give me the desire to seek Him no matter what i think or feel or experience. 

the school leader came up to me and was like " hey i bought this little book and i feel like im supposed to give it to you. " so she gave it to me and it was a book by beth moore called A Taste of Believing God. while reading it God revealed to me that for so long i have based my faith off of what i experience.. i believe God as long as He does what i tell Him or want Him to do. which is completely selfish and stupid. i am in no way saying that i have had a complete revelation and im no longer struggling! no. im learning that this IS a process, as much as i want to know everything and understand everything RIGHT NOW. thats a hard thing to grasp too- im not quite there yet. but it was still really good to realize why some things have been the way they are in my life.

im trying to turn over a new leaf! im trying out seeking God and learning about who He is. its rough! and did i say frustrating? i didnt know  it could be so hard. but God allows us to go through trials so that A- we will learn to trust Him above all else and trust that He is faithful. B- so that we can help and comfort others when they are going through trials, just like God helped me when i was struggling. 

so yeah its all a big process. pray for perseverance. that i wont give up when i FEEL certain emotions, when i doubt and have unbelief. it would really help!

READ ISAIAH 61.. i think it may be for me?!

i love you all and please continue to send letters. it makes my day!

i miss everyone 

so before i go to sleep, i thought i would share with everyone what happened tonight.

today was our last day with the speakers, lisa and vince. they are TRULY awesome people. im pretty sure i mentioned that they have been talking on the subject " life happens" - talking about vows, sins, wounds, forgiveness, soul ties, lies, and behaviors. obviously each of the things they talked about were pretty emotional. despite that, this week has truly been life changing. i have learned SO many new things that have benefitted me, and i also know that i will be able to take the lessons home to help the people around me. each subject is significant in our lives on a daily basis. the things i got out of this week will play out in my Christian walk for the rest of my life [ at least thats what im aiming for :) ] here are some things i learned.. forgiveness is NOT a feeling. there are righteous and unrighteous judgments. (i realized how i judge pretty much everyone before i even know them as a person) WOUNDS= occur when legitimate needs are not met, or met in the wrong way. we are usually hurt by people we love. we tend to sin in response to wounds. ( SO TRUE!!) wounds can pervert our view of who God is as well as His character. wounds must be dealt with properly or they wont heal, and we will continually deal with them. SOUL TIES= big one for me. a soul tie is when the soul (mind, will, and emotions) of a specific person creates an influential or authoritative bond on another persons mind, will, and/or emotions in either a Godly or ungodly way. the way to determine if we have ungodly soul ties is to ask ourselves.. do i trust ______'s word over Gods? do i do what ______ says without praying? also, have i had sex or any unrighteous physical contact with anyone? .... those were some hard things to ask myself. i realized that for SO long i had such an ungodly soul tie. mostly everything i did was completely determined by how a certain individual in my life would react or what they would think. how dumb is that? i cant believe i actually cared more about what another human being thought over what God thought or desired for my life. it sucks to think that i actually went that far. but you know what, i am in the process of learning God's true character. who He is. how He is faithful , how He loves ME. i am learning that He desires me, no matter WHAT i do. its a mind blowing concept that i am trying to come to grips with. anyways, LIES= due to whatever reason, there are lies that we have believed in our lives. (ex.. im fat, no one likes me, God doesn't love me.) there is a source to each lie. and when we believe a lie, it takes root in our lives and has power because we have accepted it. believing lies can lead to certain behaviors. which is a whole other story in itself. so if you want to know more you can text me and ill tell you. so yeah with all of that, we were taught how to be set free from each of those subjects/things in our lives that have had power. if your interested in how to do that you can text me with that question as well. thats the summary of what ive learned all week in lecture.

today was good. every friday night our base does this thing called launch, it basically a mini church service. and the worship leader is awesome! his names donny, and he is also one of the cooks. so when i have dinner prep on mondays and wednesdays im cooking with him. he is a real man of God, and hes funny! hes dating my school leader, they make a great couple. i always play jokes on him. ill walk up and be like.. hey donny, your girlfriend told me to tell you she wants to break up.. sorry. it funny. but yeah so he lead worship and then one of the people that lives on base here spoke about missions. he did his dts here and moved to kyrgyzstan for 10  years doing mission work. he was wise and i enjoyed what he had to say. then of course we went to evangelize. there are 4 choices every week, you either stay at the base and pray/interceed, go to hotel street (a mix of harry hines and deep ellum), go to the university of hawaii, or go down to waikiki. so this week i went to waikiki, and we brought this huge sign that says "free healing prayers" (i didnt stay with the group who had the sign). i was surprised at all the other people evangelizing. i talked to a couple of people,  while you read this it would be cool if you could pray for them. one guy named billy who is 19. he believes that there may or may not be a God, but hes leaning more towards the belief that there isnt. he thinks that were just here to live then when we die nothing happens. also a guy named ken who was making balloon animals and hats. i didnt really get to talk to him cause we had to leave, but he said he wasnt very "religious" but his parents were. i asked him if he believed in God and he didnt really have an answer. then a few of us prayed with a girl whos mom just got out of jail and she wanted her to be sober. she was really sweet. so yeah if you could pray that they will hear the truth of God and that they will open up to who He is and what HE desires for them.

after we got home, the base had an optional all night prayer in our prayer room. we spent time praying, reading the Word, and just soaking in the presence of the Lord. i was having a hard time because for years i have believed the lies that the enemy has told me. so when it was like 1 in the morning i asked if everyone could pray with me against the lies that satan had told me and that i had believed. it was amazing to be surrounded by people who cared for me and my relationship with the  Lord. God really broke me and brought out all of the pain and emotions that were attached to the numerous amount of lies i had believed. it was weird cause i have never been in a situation like that, i would have never asked everyone in the room to pray for me. so even though i didnt notice it, God was with me and He gave me the strength to step out and ask for help from other believers. i cant even describe all the emotions and things that the Holy Spirit did, but i can say that i was able to speak out and acknowledge the lies i had believed, and i was able to renounce them and speak truth. my friends were also able to pray over me. ahh  all i can say is that it was an EXPERiENCE and an encounter with God. He has a plan for me and satan is pissed because God is going to use me. once i get out of this battle and step out onto the other side, i will be unmovable and unshakable in my faith. i will bring joy and truth to others around me. and the when the Lord uses me to help others, it will be genuine and REAL. so i know that im definitely at war, but God has given me the power and protection that will bring me into His will and plan for my life. im really nervous and scared but i have to step out and trust that God is with me and that He is cheering for me, calling MY name. ahh i am getting excited. 

so if you could just pray for perseverance and strength not to give up in times that i feel hopeless and alone. again keep praying that i will EXPERIENCE God's truth, that it will be real to me.

thanks for reading, im really tired.

love hannah grace

i know i havent updated this in a while, but we ALWAYS have something to do here so i dont get a lot of free time, and when i do, i dont spend it on the computer. so i apologize!

so last week, the new speakers came and talked about spiritual warfare and the authority we have in Christ. they were two men from california who started kingdom ministries. they basically just go around the world talking about the things they taught us, as well the power of prayer and things like that. as soon as they started speaking to us, i was loving it. i learned so much and got a lot of knowledge about things that i was naive about. like i knew we all struggled at some point in our lives with things, but these guys showed me a new way to look at it. they taught us to get to the root of things, that if we just deal with things on the surface, they are going to keep coming up in our lives, as well as hinder us from knowing and walking with God at our full potential. reading this it might not be a revelation to you, but i really learned a lot this week. they also challenged us to test things we hear around us, like in church or through other believers. not to just automatically assume that what they are saying is true just because of the position they stand in. but that we should go back to the Bible and test it to see if it is Biblical. its not an easy thing to do, it really is stretching me and my faith.

one of their priorities is to see people set free, to help people get to the root of their struggles and wounds. these guys spend the majority of their time praying with people.. i dont know how to explain it very well, but i will try. im sorry if im all over the place and nothing that i say makes any sense to you as you read, its just something i want to share because i got a lot out of it and i believe others can too.

at the beginning of the week the speakers offered one on one prayer with us as individuals. so of course i decided that i wanted to get prayer and hopefully receive INSTANT healing from all the things i struggle with or witness some awesome insane miracle. even though that didnt necessarily happen, i was so excited because they took me through a process. first, they started off by praying for the environment, declaring in Jesus' name that God's purpose would be fulfilled in my time there. and then after that we talked about what i was struggling with, like what i felt was holding me back from knowing God and His will for me, and the all the oppression i felt from my life: feelings, etc. ( like i said, i thought the two guys would pray for me and i would witness a miracle and be set free from all of my problems!) but then they made it clear that they werent going to be praying for me, telling me things that God reveals to them about me. no, they asked Jesus to show ME what was at the root of all my pain and struggles,to reveal to me things in my life that were standing in the way of Gods truth. let me tell you, once they asked God to reveal things to me, it got CRAZY! i didnt think that God would reveal anything, but mannn He did! things that i would have never thought of came to my mind. so after God would reveal whatever memory or thought to me, i would tell the people praying with me, and then we would test it. they would ask God to show me significance to the thought and/or memory that came to my mind,to show if it meant anything,. and for me God revealed memories in my life that had made me feel and think a certain way. He showed me what had happened to make me FEEL the way i did, He showed me the significance of the memory and WHY i felt the way i did. i had based my feelings off of lies that the enemy had told me, which caused me a lot of pain. so once i recognized the issue and acknowledged what had happened to cause the pain, i renounced the power that it had over me in JESUS' name, which allowed me to be free from the pain of that specific thing. it was really cool and powerful for me, im not sure if that story makes a lot of sense over the internet, but i tried my best. the main point is that i learned to get to the root, recognize the problem, and renounce the power of it, all in Jesus' name, and with that authority i have, nothing can harm me or overcome me.

so that was last weeks lecture phase over-view. it was great. on saturday i slept in till 2, and just laid around all day. sunday i went to my official official home church here in hawaii, Christ Fellowship. its the church where the people who started it are from texas. then on sunday night the new speakers who are teaching this week came in and talked to us to get to know us better. we played some team building games , as well as spoons and scrabble. ill have pictures up later. then yesterday, monday, they gave an overview of what they would be talking about all week. the focus is " life happens " its kind of an overview of last week, but this week were focusing more on the actual sin or problem were dealing with, and what the root is. about forgiveness, what it is and how you live it out on a daily basis. about personal sins, recognizing them and allowing God to forgive us. were learning a lot, so ill update later on specific things that spoke to me.

thanks for reading that whole thing if you did. it feels good to know people care about whats going on in my life. i enjoy knowing that :). so thank you. and please continue to pray that God will renew me and just completely pour His truth into me. that HE will open up my eyes to see the world through His eyes. that He will give me His heart for people. also, for freedom. that i will experience genuine freedom. and finally, that i will really understand the reality of the cross, of Christ the Son of God dying for MY sins. i really cant wrap my mind around that and a lot of times i have a hard time believing it.

so thanks again! and if you any of you ever want to feel free to send me letters :) i will write back i promise.

love,

hannah

yes, i am a mermaid!

so every week we have a speaker come and teach on a certain topic. they speak monday through friday at our lecture times. this past week we had a guy named danny lehmann come and talk about evangelism and spiritual discipline. he was really funny and he had a really cool testimony. he worked as the base director here for a long time, and he has written a few books. he had a lot of interesting and knowledgeable things to say, so in the end it was beneficial!!

on friday nights the whole school splits up into different teams and goes to evangelize at different places. theres a street downtown that is filled with prostitutes, and homeless people. and thats where ive been the past two fridays. last week i went and met a lady from rockwall! it was a divine appointment i am told. she was looking for her boyfriend and asked me to pray for sobriety for the two of them, and she gave me her number. she was really sweet. it was funny too cause i told her i was from dallas becuase i figured she hadnt even heard of rockwall, but to my surprise she was from there! 

this weekend i got to go again, with danny lehmann and another guy from the school. it was cool to be able to ask his opinion and get some insight on some deeper things i was curious about that he didnt touch on in lecture. also, since he wrote books on evangelism, i was excited to see God work through him. he really does live out what he preaches on, which is great to see.

yesterday i went to bellos beach, its the beach in the pictures that i first uploaded. it took an hour and a half to get there by the bus. its way worth it though. the waves werent as big, but the people who went were funny so it was fun (that sentence sounds weird). hopefully next weekend ill be able to go to pearl harbor. im not sure though because we are always doing something, the only time off we get is on thursdays, saturdays, and sundays. and im tired so i usually sleep. 

today i went back to the first church i visited, Christ Fellowship, where the pastor and some other people are from texas. it was fun and interesting because two of the guy staff spoke. one on being lukewarm, the other on fear of the Lord & man. i wish everyone back home could just come here and experience all this with me! there is so much faith and trust in God here. but we definitely are in a bubble, and im scared to come home because i know how different it will be, as well as challenging. even though thats a far way away, it still freaks me out. anyways, when the sermon was over they had an opportunity to get prayer, and i decided that no individual can have too much prayer. i walked up to a lady, a little hesitant, but once i told her what i needed prayer for, she told me that God told her she would be praying for someone with the exact needs i had. so that encouraged me. i get a lot of that here. like the things people say to me and pray for me is EXACTLY about whats going on in my mind and in my life that i need to hear and get help with. there is A LOT of encouragement on a daily basis. i love it here. but i am sooo homesick. i hope no one forgets about me!!!

please keep praying that:

1. i will know truth 

2. for discernment 

3. that i will be set free from all the struggles im dealing with!

4. and that i will not give up once throughout this whole experience.

here a few pictures:

           covered in sand

bored.

       HOMESICK

i havent updated in a week, and im sorry! but thanks for reading it and supporting me. i really appreciate it. i dont have a lot of time to update because monday through riday we have pretty much every hour planned out for us.

its late here and we have church in the morning so i will update when i get home!