The great unknown

So today is Saturday. It's that one day between the day that Christ died, and the day He conquered all human understanding and resurrected from the grave. I never used to think much of this Saturday but a few years ago I heard a sermon on the significance of this Saturday not only in this season of Easter but the timeline of our lives from start to finish. So to explain what I mean I'm going to take this all back to New Testament right after Jesus was killed on the cross. So we know that Jesus had 12 disciples during His ministry on earth, and we know that they gave up everything to follow Him and His message. These 12 left their family, friends, jobs, homes, and lifestyle to follow Jesus simply because they believed He was the messiah that was promised, and that He was the Son of God. So think about it, Jesus, who the 12 disciples gave everything for was just nailed to a cross and killed. Think about how they may have felt; angry, broken, disoriented, lost, confused. Although they knew He was the Son of God and that He said He would leave them, they didn't know what was next. The disciples were in a season of waiting. All they had was what they knew to be true about Jesus, and the promises He made to them. This was Saturday. This was people who have everything for Jesus waiting for what would come next in God's plan. At some point in your life I'm sure you've been in a season of "Saturday", a time where your next step isn't clear, where you don't know what tomorrow will bring, and all you have to do is wait. Trust me, I know; waiting sucks. We all want answers of, and we all want to be in control of every single detail of our lives. Realistically this is impossible. We can't know what comes next, but what we can know is the promises God, our loving father has made to us as His children. Instead of living in a dark and hopeless "Saturday" season, always longing to know what comes next, we can live a life in full confidence that we serve a mighty and powerful God that holds you in your hand and knows everything about you, inside and out. We serve a God that is love and is faithful, and because of what Christ did we don't need to worry about tomorrow because God has an amazing plan for our lives. So when a season of "Saturday" comes remember that God knows you, and loves you and that He knows what's ahead of you all we need to do is lay down our desires and longings to know and just do in God's will. One last note on this topic, is that I got a lot of inspiration for this post from the song "Buried in the Grave" by All Sons & Daughters. I highly recommend you check it out and listen to the words and just reflect on where you are at, and what you need to do next to just bask in the amazing plan God has for you. Anyways thanks for reading, and I hope this Easter weekend has been a. Time to reflect and grow in all God has for you. 

Because of Him

Well today is Good Friday. Some of you may view it as an extra day off school, or a day you don't have to go into the office, whatever you may think, I hope you take the time to read this blog post and just for a second think about what Good Friday is about. Before I get into what I wanted to talk about I want you to know, this is not about religion. This is not about me trying to convert you, or pull you into some religious institute. This is simply about me sharing about the greatest event in human history, with no strings attached. Good Friday is the day that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world willingly submitted himself to a death so horrendous, that only the worst criminals were sentenced to it. Jesus had done no wrong, in fact He lived a life that was perfect, and blameless, but instead of fighting it, He took the penalty. Jesus was taken, beat, whipped, and mocked. The whip they used had pieces of bone in it so that every time it hit him it would rip his skin, they did that to him 39 times, because 40 is considered to be deadly. Finally they took a wooden cross, and laid Him down on it and nailed His hands and feet to the cross. Then they proceeded to lift him up for everyone to see, and that was when the Saviour of the world hung by nails in His hands and feet on the cross. Now just think about how painful that would be. All of your body weight is held on these nails, it is also impossible to breathe so in order for you to breathe you have to lift yourself up on these nails. Then if the Romans got bored of watching you hang there they would break your legs and you would suffocate. At this point also Jesus (being fully God on earth) who was in perfect unity with God the father in heaven was separated from Him as he hung on the cross as a sacrifice for all the sins of the world from start to finish with no strings attached. When I think about that all I can think about is "what the heck?" So you're telling me that someone who was perfect, and who was God, would just take the penalty for everything horrible I have ever done. Yes. Why you may ask would Jesus do this? Love. God loves you so incredibly much that He would even sacrifice His only Son, who was in complete likeness of Himself to live on earth and die a death only the worst of the worst die, because He loves you. Now I know this is usually the part where a million questions come up... But this is no strings attached, there is no catch. Jesus died so we have the opportunity to have a relationship with God, and have ever lasting life in unity with Him in heaven. So to kind of out this all in perspective, we are all sinner, we have all messed up. God being the perfect one that He is can't be surrounded by sin and imperfection. In spite of that God loved and longed for us so much that He sent Jesus as a perfect sacrifice to walk to earth and live a life with no flaw. When the time came Jesus was sentenced to death, not because he had to or wanted to but because God longed so much to be in unity with us. So Jesus was crucified and at that time all the debts for a wrongs of the world were paid in full and forever. Jesus paid for our messy lives, for our mistakes, for our guilt, shame, and catastrophic fails. Not only did Jesus die, he paid a price for you. He paid a price that was infinite and limitless, because that's how much you are worth to Him. Jesus's death was irreplaceable and nothing else could fill the gap and void that was placed between us and God. His sacrifice was priceless, and perfect, which makes you priceless and perfect in Him. You were worth it. You were worth Jesus dying on a cross. Just think about that. So that's really all I have to say, at first I was just going to make one long post for the entire weekend, but Easter and this time of year where we get to reflect on the love that God has for us is so humbling and beautiful that I am going to write a post for every day this weekend. So I hope all of you got something out of what I had to say, and again for any further questions I would be happy to email you or talk to you on Facebook. 

Not for sale

So I have wanted to write a post for a while now specific to human trafficking and the sex industry but I just didn't know what to say. Honestly I still don't. What am I supposed to say about the fact that girls are treated like merchandise in sex auctions in Eastern Europe? What am I supposed to you about the girls in Cambodia that are destined to be sold from birth, simply because they are female? And what am I supposed to you about the fact that in Nevada there are legal and working brothels exploiting girls daily? This world is a crazy, messed up, broken place. Honestly I can't even fathom that this is going on. So many of us just choose to live in our own personal bubble and block out all the injustice that is going on around us. It's easier to just pretend everything is okay, because everything is okay for me, right? It makes me sick to my stomach to think that there was a time I had no idea that human trafficking was even a problem. So, because of that I know it's my job to educate as many people as I can about this issue, because  as William Wilberforce said “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” Today we watched the documentary "Nefarious: Merchant of Souls." I would highly suggest watching it if you would like a slap in the face of reality, because within the first few minutes your heart is broken into pieces by hearing the horrors of being a trafficked woman in Eastern Europe. Before I get into some really intense moments of this documentary I just want to let you all know that this subject is very heavy and hard to swallow, it will break your heart, but it should. You can't spend your entire life living in your little safe haven, you can't ignore reality. But I would like to for warn you that it is a heavy subject, and I am not really into watering down what is a shameful reality for us as a human race. In this documentary you get to experience and see the true reality of human trafficking in Moldova, Thailand, Cambodia, Las Vegas, and Amsterdam. I will start by talking about Amsterdam, and first you need to know that prostitution is legal in Amsterdam. There are legal brothels lining the red light district, and those brothels are plastered with women displaying their bodies in showcases waiting for a customer to come and buy their services. Another thing you need to know is that the majority of women that work at these "sex shops" are not Dutch locals, they are women which have been trafficked most likely against their will from Eastern Europe like Moldova, or the Ukraine. Once a girl is chosen she will then be taken into a room where the man has free reign to do as he wishes to her for his own pleasure. In those rooms the men are completely unsupervised, and many of the women will experience physical violence or abuse because they are only there for the pleasure of men. I don't know about you, but last time I checked women were not objects you can sell in a store window. Next I will talk about Moldova, as well as the general area of Easter Europe. I never realized the full extent of the sex industry in Eastern Europe, and honestly it is horrifying. Generally what will happen is a pimp will either get romantically involved with a girl, or promise her a job somewhere else (as due to current economic situations jobs are very limited) as a waitress, or a retail worker. Once the girl either agrees to go or even if she doesn't she will either be abducted or sent away to a brothel. Once she reaches the brothel she has to go through the "breaking in process" this basically involves being beat, raped, dehumanized, and forced to watch other women being beat or sexual assaulted. If during this process they decide to run away they will most likely be physically beat, but not enough to kill her as she is worth a large amount of money to these pimps. From there once they feel she is broken in enough they will take her to a "showing" where she will be forced to strip down and walk across a stage while buyers, and pimps decide if she is worth their money. Most buyers will decide to "test the merchandise" before purchasing and then if they decide to purchase they will transfer the girl they bought to a larger city where she will be forced to sell her body to dozens of men every single night. In Moldova alone 25,000 victims are human trafficked annually, and that is just a small number in comparison to the sales and trades of human beings all over Europe. Human trafficking is a worldwide problem that is just presented in different ways depending on where you go. In Thailand and Cambodia, there are huge issues of prostitution due to a massive cultural view of women. In Cambodia if a woman gives birth to a girl she is said to have "hit the jackpot" because she can sell her daughter in the sex industry to make money back. When a girl is born in rural Cambodia she is about 95% destined to be sold into a life of prostituon. It is said there that to measure the love you have for your daughter is dependent on where you sell her. If you make her prostitute in her own village or close by you love her, but if you send her away to be prostituted then you don't love her. As a matter of fact most Cambodia girls start grooming themselves from a young age to sell their bodies because they feel like they know that's the case for most girls, and that they need to do it to make money for their parents. How distorted is our world, and our view of love that a parent could sell their own daughter into slavery? This is not just a poor people problem, even more well off families in Cambodia will do this just to make more money. This is literally the screwed up world we live in, that we could allow a country to be host to over 2.5 million slaves due to human trafficking, with well over 100,000 (in which we can't account for) stuck in the sex industry with no choice, and no way out. In Thailand many families who live in rural areas can't obtain legal citizenship, so they can't get jobs. So to make money they will sell their daughters to pimps in larger cities like Bangkok. In Bangkok these girls, many of which are minors, are forced to dance in strip clubs, work in massage parlours, karaoke bars, and brothels. Another disturbing fact is that many men from North America, Europe, and Australia fly down to "vacation" in Thailand and spend their time renting underage girls for the night, using them for sexual pleasure. How have we as a human race allowed ourselves to believe it's okay to fly to another country to use a teenage girl for sex? We can't keep going on like this, and we can't keep allowing our daughters, sisters, and girls fall victim to sex slavery. If all of this hasn't given you a reality check yet, I thought I would post the going rate to buy or rent a human being world wide: 

Child in India: $12-$45

Teenage girl in India: $25 

Rent a child for a month in Thailand: $25

Girl in Kenya: $600 

Girl in Mozambique: $2-$1000

Woman in Pakistan: $400

Trafficker buying a girl in Canada: $5000

Woman in Moldova: $2686

These are just a few examples of how you can put a price tag on a human being. You can choose to shut your eyes and block this information out, but this is reality. This is actually going on to millions of human beings every single day. To close off this very long blog post, I would like to speak to the culture of prostitution here in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas you can't walk one block in the heart of the action on Las Vegas Blvd. without being offered cards with naked women on them and a number for an escort service, or seeing a billboard advertising an escort service, or simply seeing women walking around wearing very little clothing offering their bodies to men from all over the world. In Las Vegas itself prostitution is illegal, but in many other county's in Nevada there is legal prostitution with working brothels open. When I say it's illegal in Las Begas itself, all I mean is it's not allowed which makes it very shady and underground. The other night our group was doing a prayer walk of the older downtown area and we noticed these weird and really dark looking motels. The motels were all boarded up and had painted on doors and windows. Every single person in my group said they had this strange and heavy feeling while walking by, so we stopped and prayed for the motel and kept walking. While walking we noticed about four blocks of these motels. On our way back we stopped and asked why they were all boarded up and we were told that all of these motels were hot spots for prositution and were shut down by the cops. Even though they were shut down all they did was simply move locations and just a few more blocks down the street were motels in which girls would use for their "services". This is North America, and this is what is happening. This is not just an overseas problem, or a lower class problem, or problem outside our understanding. This is happening here, and it's happening every single day. I really don't know what else to say other than I hope you care about this as much as I do. I hope you care that millions of people are caught in human trafficking, and that so many of them of women, girls, and kids, that are literally forced to sell themselves. Any sort of innocence or dignity they is stripped away the moment they are forced to sell their bodies to their first client. So, I hope enjoyed this lengthly post. If you have any questions about human trafficking I will do my best to answer, and I can't wait to share more of what I am doing here in Las Vegas, and in Thailand and Cambodia to combat this issue. Thanks for reading and I will be sharing more soon!

 

The Prayer Project

So I know, you are probably thinking "Micayla you just posted on your blog yesterday." That is a fact yes, but I'm not your average blogger. I don't follow those blog rules, or some once a week guideline because I have to. What I say on this blog comes directly from what is placed on my heart, nothing more and nothing less. So I hope you can appreciate the fact that everything I write here is because I love sharing about what's going on in my life in order to be able to inspire others to follow their dreams, but not only that God's vision for their life. In my previous post I talked a little bit about saying "yes" to God on a daily basis, no matter what He may throw at you. As a follower of Christ it is our duty on a daily basis to take up your cross no matter how heavy it may be and say "yes" to what God has for you that day. This weeks topic of my DTS is "identity in Christ", and I am telling you just from day one that this week is going to be one that pushes me beyond where I feel comfortable. I could easily so no I don't want to do that, or no I feel uncomfortable but I would be cheating myself out of so many amazing things God has for me. Rewind about two days, I was at a church service here in Las Vegas like I have done every other Sunday since I first got here. The topic of the week was prayer and growing up in the church that seems to be a topic that comes up a lot. This time was different though. This time I heard something really fresh and new out of a message I'm sure I have heads dozens of times. What the pastor said wasn't some crazy radical concept that he just came up with. All he said was there is power in consistent prayer to God about those you care about most, and those things that seem to keep you awake at night. I really liked that concept and I knew that God was speaking directly to me through that pastor. I had forgotten to pray. I had forgotten to be consistent to continuously give everything up to God. There is literally immense amounts of power in the fact that I can directly communicate with God on a daily basis, so why don't I? Why don't you? Why wouldn't we give Him everything. He is sovereign. He is good. His hand controls the world. He has a plan. So why wouldn't I give Him everything? From all of this God laid on my heart to make a list of the people I care about most, or ones in which He will specifically lay on my heart (right now I am keeping it at a manageable number of about 8-10) then every day for the rest of my DTS I will pray for these people. So that's what I wanted the blog about, something I will be referring to as "the prayer project". A lot of people may ask "well what is prayer going to do?" All I can say is "what can't prayer do?" God is good, and He loves when we bring out messy lives before Him. He loves when we give Him room to be God. So many people skip over prayer because "God already knows, so why pray?" or "God already knows what will happen so why ask?" God's plan can only happen if you give Him room to be God, and that means yelling for help on a daily basis, saying "God I need you, I long for you." God knows what's going on, He knows what you need, He's just waiting for you to lay it all out before Him and let Him be God. So that's all I have to say, i hope you enjoyed, and I can't wait to post again soon. 

Viva Las Vegas

Well I am at the end of my third week of DTS, it's honestly crazy how time flies. First off, I would like to apologize for my lack of blog posts. We are usually quite busy around here, and any downtime we have is usually spent relaxing, and enjoying the fact that we are in sunny Las Vegas. God is doing amazing things in Las Vegas through our base, but He is also doing amazing things in me and I can't wait to see where He takes me next. Every time I think about posting on this blog I debate about what to say because I don't simply want to list what I am doing here I want to be real and open and allow you guys to really understand how awesome our God is. Last week our topic was "the father heart of God". Going into that week all of our leaders said you know it's going to be really intense, and it's going to really challenge you, but who knew they were actually right! God can and will do amazing things when you just say "yes" to Him. I feel like a lot of Christians (including myself) forget that being a follower of Christ is a daily uphill battle of saying "yes". You can't just say "Jesus you are my Saviour" one time and that be it, you need to say "yes" to what He has for you every single day. That being said God has given me opportunity after opportunity here to step outside of my comfort zone and say "yes". One being an outreach we did called Viva La Worship. Basically what we did was busked on the Las Vegas Strip singing worship songs and praying for people who came by us. It was such a humbling opportunity to shamelessly worship Jesus, and get to play music in a context that was so foreign to me. Overall it was such an amazing experience and another really cool thing I can say that I have done. Another outreach that we did just this past weekend was hand out flowers to women on the street for valentines day. To put into context why this is so impactful, the area I am living in is not really the most put together area of Las Vegas. There are a lot of people around us who are not as fortunate as we are, and a lot of women who need to prostitue their bodies in order to make ends meet. The fact that we had the opportunity to just go out and love on some women who may never get that kind of love is incredibly humbling. Small acts done with great kindness have the opportunity to change this world and this was just a really amazing example of how that principle can be put into play. All in all I feel as though there is a lot of crazy change going on in our neighbourhood, our base, and in everyone's hearts who live at this base. I know a lot of people questioned the fact that I chose Las Vegas as the place to do my DTS, but I know that this is where God has called me to be and the cities that are the most broken need people who care and are compassionate that much more. So that's why I am here, I am here in Las Vegas because this city needs love, and this city needs redemption. Amazing things are going to happen in Las Vegas and I want to be apart of that. So until next time everyone, Viva Las Vegas! 

Change, growth, and new beginnings

Red rock canyon January 27, 2015

Well everyone, I am here. I am in Las Vegas, Nevada. Right now I can't even comprehend the fact that I am here. For the last four years I have known that this is where I would be after graduation, and although back then this seemed distant, here I am! I arrived here on Monday morning and I am not going to lie initially it was very overwhelming. When you walk into a room of strangers, walk into a dorm which will be your new home, and say goodbye to your Mom and sister all in one day that naturally leads to some anxiety. All that being said right away I knew that this place would become home to me, and the people I would have the privilege to serve with would most likely become some of my best friends. The first day was all really just a blur. A blur of emotion, a blur of remembering everyone's name, and a blur of just soaking in the moment of finally being here. Fast forward to day two, January 27, which also happened to be my birthday! My birthday was fantastic, for many reasons but for one in particular... It was my first birthday with no snow! Aside from the lack of snow it was just a really great day. We started by going to red rock canyon to hike in the mountainous region outside of Vegas, which might I say was barely a hike but rather an intermediate to advanced rock climb. From our lovely "hike" we headed over to a park and had a barbecue, and just had fun as a group playing volleyball, and on a playground. Overall our group is getting along so well, and I can't wait to see the growth we continue to have together. When we returned to our base we had a prayer and worship evening, which no matter how many times you do has extreme power and forces you to cross boundaries and comfort zones in order to grow. During this time we were invited to get a cord put on our wrist, which as I'm sure you are wondering is something done in India to represent a time in which you have had an encounter with God. At that moment I knew that any worry, fear, or anxiety I had about being here would melt away because my heart serve and my heart to change lives is so much more present than anything that could hold me back. This week so far has just been a lot of information and change so expect more posts in the very near future with more information about what I am learning here, the progress I am making, and what I am doing. I just want to let every single one of you knew that I appreciate all of your support, it really truly means the world to me. I would also like to invite anyone who has questions for me to feel free to post in the comments below, or if you know me personally to contact me through any other form of social media as I will be connected until at least April. One last thing (I know I'm rambling) is that if anyone, and I mean anyone at all needs prayer please contact me and I would be happy to do that for you. Other than that expect more updates from me and I hope you have a fantastic weekend! 

The night before

Well here we are, the night before I leave for YWAM, which happens to be one of the craziest, most exciting, yet terrifying thing I have decided to do. I'm sitting here at midnight, just a few hours before I leave for the airport thinking about the past few months leading up to this moment. For the longest time it's always been well in a few years I plan on going to YWAM, or in a few months I'm leaving for YWAM Las Vegas, and more recently in a few weeks I'm leaving, and now tomorrow this is actually happening. Even now I can't even fathom that the time is here, the time in which I leave everyone and everything I know and love to go do work in a very new and unknown place solely because that is where I've felt called to go for the last 4 years. Right now I feel sad, happy, excited, terrified, but mostly blessed, so incredibly blessed. So instead of taking this time to talk more about what I'm doing (which I'm sure you will all hear lots about) I want to take this time to say thank you. Thank you to anyone and everyone who have taken time out of their busy lives to support me in this journey. So many people have blessed me financially, emotionally, and spiritually. When I didn't think financial ends would meet, all of you blew my mind in how generous you could be. When I needed to be reassured that this was a good idea, and that it's all going to be okay, I've had my amazing friends and family by my side supporting me all the way through. So as I sit here anxiously waiting for this next chapter to begin what I'm going to miss is all of you, my friends, family, lifegroup, siblings, parents, Collide girls, co leaders, co workers, teachers, leaders, and everyone else who graciously blessed me in and through this journey. I feel as though I am rambling (which I probably am) but honestly I can't say thank you enough, I can't say thank you enough to everyone along the way who has supported this crazy, terrifying, and excited dream I've had since I was 14 to go and break out of my comfort zone and make this world a better place. You believed in me enough to invest your time and resources, and the only way I can begin to repay you is by taking this journey and let it rock my world so I can love others with no boundaries, and so I can come home and tell you all the amazing ways I had the opportunity to changes lives. So thanks, you guys rock.