안녕하세요 여러분! (An-nyeong-ha-se-yo yeo-ro-bun) Hello everyone!
I've been in Korea for 11 days now, and I've completed the first week of our DTS (Discipleship Training School)! The total travel time was a little over 26 hours from Denver to 가덕 도 (Gadeok Island)! But, thankfully I was able to sleep as soon as I got to my room, and I didn't experience any jet-lag!! :)
This week was quite an emotional rollercoaster for me! The first few days in 가덕 I was really overwhelmed and nervous. I'm the only non-Korean student, and there's only one other person (a staff member from Hawaii) who isn't fluent in Korean. SO I was very nervous about not being able to make friends, and not being able to talk to everyone. I was overcome with guilt about not knowing enough Korean, and not studying hard enough.
But, as the week went on, God helped me overcome my feelings of nervousness and guilt, and He just filled our whole group with love and understanding for one another! I have been able to connect deeply with the other students, and the staff members, and there's just so much love and encouragement from everyone!! And they're even helping me improve my Korean!!
This week the lectures were from an Australian woman named Susan Cole. She focused on opening up our minds and hearts to hearing the voice of God, and the many ways He can speak to us.
One interesting thing was on Tuesday during the lecture when I was able to reflect on some of the times God has spoken to me in the past and I either didn't listen or didn't quite realize it was God.
I also had an amazing encounter with God on Wednesday morning during the lecture prayer time. Susan had us all ask God to search our hearts to see if there was anything that was keeping us from intimacy with him, or anything that we needed to give over to God.
I immediately felt a presence come into the room and a warm, kind presence come over my body, and I knew it was God. I realized that I was holding too closely onto worries about my future (college, career, relationships, desires, expectations, etc.) and about Owen. Just then God told me to Give all my worries, give my whole life, and give all my love to him.
I just started praying and laying down all my burdens for Christ, weeping, and praising God.
Susan came up to me a few minutes later and prayed with me, and then told me about a picture she had seen from God for me:
"I see you climbing up a great mountain, and pulling a trolley up behind you. There's nothing necessarily wrong with the trolley, but it's too heavy to pull up the rest of the mountain. So, in order to get higher up the mountain, you're going to have to let go of the trolley. And God is just asking you if you will trust him with your trolley. And there's a mist further up the mountain, so you can't fully see how far from the top you are, or what the terrain looks like, but if you trust God with your trolley and climb further up, walking with him in faith, he will reveal more of the mountain to you."
She also heard Revelations 4:1 for me:
"After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
This really confirmed what God had been speaking to me. It was shocking, and uplifting, and beautiful. So right now I'm focusing on giving everything in my life to God.
I want to follow him in everything I do! I'm praying that God will reveal to me my original design and the purpose he has for my life, and that he would take away my fears and worries, and just let me give them all to him!
The week continued to be spirit-filled and I just felt God moving in my soul and in 가덕. Especially during worship! The worship here is so incredible!!
Another staff member heard Zephaniah 3:17 for me later on in the week, and I've just been continuing to meditate on that verse!
"The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."
The Lord is wonderful in all his ways, and he restores all things with his love!!
*Korean phrase of the week: 하나님 사랑해요! (Ha-na-nim sa-rang-hae-yo) I love God!/I love you, God!*
Thank you all again for supporting me through this journey!! God has provided more than enough funds for my DTS, and I just feel so loved and blessed by Him and by everyone!!
Feel free to message me, and let me know if there's any way I can be praying for you this week!! :)
May the Lord Bless you and keep you!
~Hope Starr
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