The importance of a personal devotion time with God

As most of you all know that I live in Iwakuni Japan serving at Calvary Chapel Iwakuni as a missionary. I over sea the children and youth ministry and have a lot of other different ministries that I do here.
I always ask God how am I here in Japan as a missionary. God being God always tells me because of His grace.
Some of you may not know my testimony and that when I was younger I was a very shy kid and teenager.
-I had reading and writing problems.
-I hated speaking and reading in front of people.
-I was afraid of everything when I was kid.
I would of rather jump out of a plane with no parachute on then speak in front of people that's saying a lot because I hate heights.
So how did a kid who was shy, who hated speaking and reading in front of people and had reading and writing problem end up in Japan as a missionary?
I wonder that everyday I am here but I am so thankful that our God is just that big and good.
The answer to that is easy..........Gods grace and the way I learned about the beauty of Gods grace is by having a personal devotion time with Him.
I grew up in Visalia, CA. I started going to Parkside Chapel when I was about 5 or so and that is still my home church today, 20 years later.
I remember being about 13,14 years old or so and hearing about missionaries going out to serve the Lord in another country and thinking to myself  "God that is so cool that they have that faith but I can never do that". That was when I knew that God started to put that on my heart to be a missionary but I was so afraid. I was even afraid to go on a plane at that age so I thought that alone would hold me back from serving God in another country.
When I was 16 years old I went to a Christian winter camp and we where in this big Sanctuary with tons of other youth praising and worshiping God. I remember thinking to myself  "how cool this is God to see all of these youth worshiping you and hearing Your Word taught but I could never teach Youth Your Word because I'm afraid of public speaking and I myself cant speak well".
When I was 13,14 years old my dream was to be a missionary and when I was 16 my dream was to be a youth Pastor. I thought those dreams where only just dreams and could never come true.
God showed me how big He is!!!
When I turned 18 I started helping my youth Pastor out with jr. High. Some of you may know who Jason Wigand. He was my youth Pastor. God blessed me a lot by putting him in my life. When I was 19 God blessed me again by putting John Hinton in my life. Some of you might know him also. He pushed me to dream big and chase that dream God has given me.
When I was 22 I went to bible college and lived in Israel my second semester of bible college.
When I was 23 I went to do my last semester in Japan.
Now I'm 25 and I am a missionary in Japan and also a youth Pastor at the church I am helping at.
How did this happen? Gods grace!!!!! It was ALL God!!!! God doesn't need us but He wants us!!!
It was during my devotion time that God spoke to me to pursue to be a youth pastor and missionary.
It was during my devotion time when God would speak to me, love me, hold me, change me and move me.
Just how important is it to have a personal devotion time with God? Very important!! It is life changing!
During your personal time with God, He will start giving you His desire of His heart and He alone will start making His desire become real in your life.
I want to encourage you all to have a personal time with God everyday. That is when you will start to hear from Him and His dreams become your dreams and then they will become dreams you will be living out for His glory.
Hold on with everything the dreams, the desires that He has put in your heart. God will make those come true beause they are His dreams, His deisres that He has placed in your heart as you are having a personal devotion life with Him!!!
During your devotion time with the Lord, He will  speak to you, love you, hold you, change you and move you.
Keep loving Jesus with all that you have and watch how big and good our God is!!!

Different Ministries

Here are the different ministries here at the church to keep praying for!

 This is our sanctuary here at Calvary Chapel Iwakuni. We have around 60 adults and around 40 kids that come here on Sundays. We have mostly military families that come out but it is on the Pastors and I's heart to keep reaching out to the Japanese so they can hear the Good News. Our time is from 10:00am-11:30am. Pastor Mike Silva is teaching through the book of Revelation right now. Please keep praying that more people come and hear Gods word and learn more about the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

 This is our fellowship room where on Sundays we come into to fellowship with each other after Sundays service.

We also have our potlucks here where we enjoy together some GOOD food and fellowship
Please keep in prayer that more people would come and fellowship and be around Christians.

We are still working on this fellowship room to get more of a cafe feel to it.

 We also have a women's bible study on Tuesdays morning were the women are going through 1 & 2 Peter.  Please keep praying for the women as they are now in 2 Peter and growing in Christ together.

On Wednesday nights Pastor Mike leads a small group in the fellowship. They are going through first Kings. Please pray that more people will come as this is a good time for discussions.

I also meet up in the fellowship with a Japanese man named Takahito on Tuesday nights. I teach him the bible and he has about two weeks ago accepted Christ. Please pray for Takahito to keep growing in the Lord.

 This is our Preschool-Kindergarten class (4-6 year old).

We have around 8-14 kids on Sunday mornings here in this class.

On Sundays during service this is were we have our 4-6 years old come and learn out their awesome God.

Please pray for the teachers as they get prep and teach these little about Jesus.

Also pray for these kids that they will learn about God and also remember Gods word.  

This is our toddler class  (2-3 year old).

We have about 8-14 toddlers that come on Sundays mornings.

Please keep in pray the toddlers that come and the teachers as they are teaching the toddlers about Jesus. 

 This is our youth room. The youth is called T.R.Y. Transformed Redeemed Youth.

We have about 5-8 youth that come on Wednesday nights.

Please keep them in prayer as we are teaching what it means to really live a life as a teenager that is Transformed and Redeemed by Christ.

Also please pray for me and the other leaders to keep loving them as Jesus loves them and to keep reaching out to more youth and tell them about a God who loves them so much.

 This is our Elementary class (1st-5th grade) class.

We have around 12-15 kids that come here on Sunday mornings.

Please pray as this kids are learning just how awesome our God is and how much He loves them on a personal level.

Please pray for the teachers they teach these amazing kids just how much and how real God's love is for them.

 This is our Nursery class (up to two years old)

We have about 6 babies that are in here.

Pray for the helpers in here as they keep showing love onto these beautiful babies.












These are the different ministries that are going on here at Calvary Chapel Iwakuni. Please keep praying for this church and the people of Japan. As it is on God's heart for EVERYONE to be saved!!

Our weakness and God's strength

I know all of us have a weakness and it is so easy to dwell on them and give and say "whats the point to keep moving on."If you have been dwelling on your weakness for some time now may you now stop dwelling on your weakness and staring praying. thinking, hoping in the strength of God.
Don't dwell on the things you cant do but on what God can do. I cant tell you how many people in my life telling me of the things I cant do because of my weakness. Satan loves to point out the things that we cant do and things that are just too hard to do. I pray if Satan is telling you all these negative things that you will rebuke Satan and say "get behind him Satan and by God's grace I will do great things for God."
For us as Christians God gave one of the best things we could ever ask for and that is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit in John 14 and promises that the Holy Spirit will always be with.
Remember this verse when Satan try's and reminds you of your weakness....."I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." John 14:12. Such beautiful, awesome words from Jesus.
We are able to do greater things because Jesus went to the Father and He lives in the Father and the Father lives in us and He is with us. Jesus has over came the world and the world has no hold on Him. With the Spirit of Truth living in us we truly can do the imposable because it is our Father working through us!!!
God really does know how to comfort His children!!

New Start to a new Year!!

I know the beginning of every new year people make new promises but give up very quick. Have you thought of something this year on what you want to do or change in your life? Have you already gave up on that and said you will start next year. I know I have already given up on what I wanted to change by going to In-N-Out  three  time in a week when I was back in CA.
One thing I love about God is that He never gives up! He makes us promises and always comes through. There have been so many times I want to give up on God and try to do the things of my flesh. Every time I fail and I get into my flesh God is always next to me saying "I haven't given up on you" "My grace is enough". How true is that in our lives? That out God will never give up on us and He has given up on us and that He is grace is sufficient for us and His power is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9).
God has me back in Iwakuni, Japan and one thing I prayed to God was that I will not let my fears and my weakness be an excuse to not do the work God that He wants me to do. We have no excuse to just live these ok, half effort, fearing, lives because Gods grace is sufficient.
May this be a challenged in our life this year that every time God says "go" in our life that we will "go" that every time He says to "love" we will  "love" every time He says "stay" we will "stay".
Last year I chased fully the desires  of my heart that God has given me and that is why now I am here in Iwakuni, Japan doing things I thought would be only just dreams in my head. CHASE the desires of your heart that the Lord has put on your heart! Make sure it is from the Lord and chase it!!! Don't let laziness and fear get in the way of something great, something that you thought would only be just a dream, something awesome that God has for you!!! GOD HAS NO LIMITS!! Keep that close to your heart!
Let this year be focused on God and His grace. We can do so much more in this life then we believe we can because God is for us.


Please keep praying for the church here in Iwakuni, Japan. Pray that many people here will be saved this year. That the eyes of the lost will be opened and they will come and know a God who has something so much more for them!!! 

Amazing

http://www.churchleaders.com/children/childrens-ministry-videos/157833-11-year-old-shares-christ-in-every-book-of-the-bible.html

this is one of the amazing thing that God can do through a child. Raising up children in God's word can shake you up!!