Fizaith Walk!!!!!!!!

Holla

So yeah the faith walk was AMAZING! For those of you that do not know, Faith walk is a yearly event for the IMTs, It consists of all the people meeting outside on the field at 4 am on Saturday morning. We circle together and have prayer and then Ryan Called out what teams were going. Half the team went the other half stayed and did outreaches in OK, and they would keep at least one person back and in prayer for the faith walkers! So anyway, i was 99% sure i was going this weekend and sure enough i was in the second group chosen. It was Hazel, Milly, Nece, and Me, so we grabbed our 6 foot cross got in the car put our blindfolds on and went to sleep. About 3 hours later we came to a stop... The last 30 minutes of the drive was jenny driving in circles on a dirt road... Some quick rules. We cant ask questions, if we get a ride from someone we are only allowed 25 miles per driver, we were only allowed to pack our bible, journal, a change of clothes, and a water bottle. We believe God for everything.

Then Jenny led us out of the car with the cross and our blindfolds on... She told us to take our bandannas of and the first thing we see is a 4 way dirt road and cows. Jenny prays with us then leaves... awesome. So First thing we did clearly was spend time with God. Following this our group stood in the middle of the road, closed our eyes and pointed where we thought we should go. Two people pointed one way, then there were two other directions, so we went with majority. We walked on the dirt road for probably 3 miles and then we came to a PAVED ROAD!!!!!!!! Once we found that we decided to go right so then we walked probably another 6 or 7 miles until we hit a highway... and by highway I mean two lane road with street signs.  

After we took a short break, we decided to go left and one thing we did during all our walking was talk about what we were believing for. A couple things was a place to stay with a awesome family who has a teenager, pizza, i thought tacos, someone who would provide food/directions/a ride/money, to be able to talk to some old people, and to not have to walk on Sunday at all. So after we walked for a few miles we talked to a few people, at this point we were pretty sure we were in Oklahoma. We kept walking and finally came to Stratford, Ok. We were excited to be in civilization, first thing we walked to a gas station for the bathrooms and while there two sets of people gave us some money. They said they were so encouraged by us, and in reality they were helping us, it was so cool! So at this point we found out there was a town wide yard sale, so we decided to walk around talking to people. We talked to 2 families i believe, but the first ones were really excited for us and they gave us some water. At this point we decided to head back towards the gas station to get a map for directions. 

We walk into the store and inside is Don, he was this older gentleman how noticed who we were, he helped IMT's doing the same thing a few years back. So he was a answer to a few prayers, he gave us some money, food, and directions. After we ate we started walking where he said and we walked past these people in a garage. We walked up and it was a older couple, they were awesome, they were worried for our parents so they offered to call our parents, and on top of that they asked if we wanted a map and gave it to without asking also they gave us some money. After that we started walking towards Ada, which was east. After about 2 miles Don honked the horn and pulled over to give us a ride, He gave us a ride 15 miles to Ada. The question was keep going the last 10 miles and be stuck between 2 towns or stay in Ada and figure something out, we decide to pull into the last store in town and pray about it. While we prayed and talked it over don went inside walgreens, we decided to go the extra 10 miles, so i go in to get don and hes talking to a 19 year old girl Jessica. Later i was told she thought he was crazy, but she asked me what we were doing, and she thought it was cool and drew out directions to the next 2 towns(19 miles) and told me where her church, pastors house, and her parents, and she offered to pick us up if we are still walking. 

To be honest I assumed i would never see her again, but anywhoo as luck would have it after a mile or so walking a car pulls up behind us... It was jessica's mom, Tochie (Mrs. Cates) she picked us up, took us to there house, fed us, let us clean up and sleep there for the night. We had tacos! it was amazing, They are such a blessing to us they have no idea! That night we sat together and we listened to Bill (Mr. Cates) tell stories about growing up and God and we wrapped up the night with a prayer. I felt  so honored and welcomed to be there. When we got up in the morning we went with bill to help feed the cows, it was awesome! Then we came back and went to There church. Atwood Church of the Nazarene, we found out there was the 100 year celebration of there denomination being created and they were having a big potluck! It was so fun, there were about 50 or so people, Word got out we were there so we all got called up to the front and I spoke for a few minutes about what we were doing and God's provision so far! 

After that we went to talked to the youth small group for a while and just poured into them, Then we headed back to church and Brother Larry spoke on 1 peter 2:9-12, about being chosen people and being about reproach from non-believers. Couple things that stood out. 1. God wants to do something in our heart and mind. 2. There are people around us hurting and it is our job to make a difference. 3. God doesn't save us just to keep us out of hell, but to empower us through Christ and make a difference in this generation! It was sick!!!! After service we got ready to leave and realized Jessica had completely arranged rides for us from Atwood to our apartments. She was so amazing! We returned at 530 pm sunday, so excited and fired up for God. 

God spoke to me a lot over this time. One thing was that God will provide a way out of every situation, another is that God has our time and divine appointments lined up wether we are hearing from Him or just pointing a direction and walking. That if we didn't do one of the things we did everything after it would probably not have happened... God is AMAZING. God was showing me that with just a little faith He will provide, and He hears and wants to bless my prayers and thoughts. For instance we were talking at one point about food, and what we were believing for and i thought tacos but i didn't even pray it but we had it! It just blew me away about how God wants to bless us and set up help the whole trip, but yet i struggle so much at times to trust God with my future... If He's wanting to bless us with pretty much everything we asked about then why the HECK wont i give everything to God???? To be honest i thought ours was pretty easy, because i was expecting walking 50 miles with no food and sleeping outside. But God was teaching me about faith, love and so much more through this. 

Last but definitely not least God put some of the most amazing Families and people in my lives, the Bill, Tochie, and Jess and Don were so servant hearted, there hearts were purely on helping us to the fullest extent. All of them feel like my family, and accepted us immediately.

I thank God for them and there help, and pray blessings pour out on there lives. Thank you everyone for your prayers, and keep the rest of the IMT's in prayer for this week if you dont mind :) I love you all!

p.s. Here is the link to where we got dropped off at.

mapquest.com

-Chris Kavounis 

Lujiah

Crank Dat Jop Jop

Hey everyone i am back, and here to bring probably the shortest post ever. This past weekend we went to Joplin, Missouri... It was pretty sweet. We got there friday late afternoon, and met with the people from Watered Gardens. This is a Christian outreach center not a church, they help the community by giving food, clothes, and furniture to those who need it. Its a really cool ministry, but over the weekend we did a mix of either inviting people to one of the two services, helping clean up there facility or helping with the services.

So friday after we met with the leaders we went inviting people, then after the guys went to one host home and the girls went to the other. Our house was AMAZING! They were such servants, by winning our hearts immediately with massive amounts of food (take notes ladies ;) ). But they were such a blessing. Saturday we woke up to an amazing breakfast, then went in to help cleaning up and renovating there center... Highlight being me not seeing one, but 3 scorpions, killing one of them... Im a beast i know! After this we went home to another amazing meal, took a nice nap then went back to invite people to our service. 

The first service was a lot of christians and the Spirit of God was all over the place. We did worship for over two hours, then Jamie gave a INCREDIBLE testimony. Following this was the cure, and bondage skit really good! Then one of my roommates jacob brought the word, Talking about worshiping in spirit and truth, again God was moving so strong. Following the message was a altar call the IMT's prayed for a few people it was good for me, because i felt God giving me stuff to pray for people about. Following this the Pastors called the IMT's up to be prayed over, they did then proceeded to prophecy over a few of us. This was my first experience with this, it cause interesting but cool. We went home got some rest, then came back to church for the morning service. This is where there ministry is coolest, they bus and van in people from the streets or from rehab houses they offer free breakfast, but in return the people have to sit through a short service. Everything was good, Meg brought the word she's awesome! Her message was short due to time constraints but it packed a punch! Following this we prayed for people again, then helped clean up stuff and got on the bus to come home. :) and that completed our first outreach!

In conclusion... this wasn't really my shortest post... sorry i ramble. A few things i have heard recently is one quote from The Shack, is something along the lines of "The world so wanted its independence and now its mad at the one who gave it to them." Thats deep!

Also one thing i am learning is wether or not things play out how we plan or get the blessing/ response we were expecting, God is working and did see your blessing, and He is working... we just don't see from his perspective. Until you can give EVERYTHING to God, you will not even begin to get the full blessing he has for you. I love and miss you all! But i need to go to bed... i am pretty sure i will be going on my faith walk in... less the 4 hours so if you could keep me and the other IMT's in your prayers that would be great! God is going to do big things!

-Chris K.

Now faith is...

Ok so It's been a while... I left off with the commitment service, That was pretty sweet! We spent the day fasting, in prayer, and silence. I enjoyed it, one thing i have been learning out here is you don't always have to be hearing or learning from God. Sometimes its okay to just hangout with Him, be in His presence in silence. It is the most peaceful I have been in a long while... I read a lot, then finally want outside to the baseball field and just laid down at the back wall.  I didn't feel God speaking a lot about my commitments and such, i had most of it before that day anyway. But He was just showing me peace... and almost just saying give me control and i'll take care of your future. Which helped me out alot... but  yeah that was good, Then we went to the service there was worship, prayer, communion, and we prayed over our commitments with a TL. 

Then this past week we did a lot of training with the ministries, and just walkthroughs of there rules and how everything is run. We kept going to classes, i like most of them my favorites are Foundations of Faith, Ministry gifts, and callings, and Transformed Living. The Ministry gifts class is... different to say the least... very... spirit led. The info is good, and i like the teachers its just a whole different mindset... Transformed Living is taught by Ron Macintosh, He is an amazing speaker! He has a whole mindset that we as humans are the only ones stopping ourselves from a Prosperous and blessed life living For God. Again a different mindset but it's really good and he is backing up his thoughts with scripture and such.  Finally there is the faith class, and this guy is a beast his stories and teaching style i love! At the end of the class he gave us a assignment to believe for something that you need or want. then write it down ask God and believe for it. Thats a stretch for me in itself... But God will help me overcome! :) i will keep you up to date on that! He was pulling out of Hebrews 11:1 where it says now faith is... thus the title... But he was just saying how faith is now not tomorrow, God wants to bless us now, we are just so easy to push are hopes and dreams off until tomorrow. That we should believe it for now... whatever it is just have faith that God will provide and He will if we are where He has called us to be. Also it blew my mind away to hear how much passion he had in this believing system, I asked him after class If he has ever believed for something and it didn't work out, and if so what do you do? He said defiantly and that first thing is God's always right, and the next step is check yourself, motives, and if you are in Gods will, then re-evaluate. Which was amazing seeing as i found out when i got home his wife had died of cancer the year before. I felt bad, but intrigued at the same time that his faith has stayed how it is. 

 Random fact... Vivi is the most beautiful brazilian girl i've ever met, and she's awesome! and she thinks I'm cute... which in Portuguese means... nice? I am not being forced to write this.... :) On another note... We did witnessing rooms on saturday... which if you don't know... or aren't  Christian it may sound weird... ha... but basically it is simulated evangelizing... we have 6 minutes to make a difference in there lives... weird... i know, but we had 4 situations... a person who's best friend just died, 2 people drinking at a bar, a woman who husband is abusive, and a emo guy... it was weird... I thought i did better then i thought i would but 6 minutes was entirely not enough... 

Besides that, everything is good we start outreaches this week, i am kinda excited but also nervous... but it is all good. Today was chapel pastor Rod spoke. 3 things that stuck out to me was him saying selfishness will stop you from being a leader. That we MUST trade selfishness for selflessness. And finally God isn't looking for ability but availability, that unless we acknowledge our fears we will never see gifts in others. All of these things i have heard before to one degree or another but it really clicked. It doesn't matter wether i am good at something or not if God is calling me there, He WILL find a way. But back to the pastor he is the kids pastor, he has such a heart for kids, they do a bus ministry every saturday where they send 55 buses around tulsa to pick up kids who couldn't get to church otherwise. So about 1000 kids come into a room... maybe 1.5 times the size of the Satellite center... yeah crazy! But it was cool spending time and loving on them. But... yes this is it for now. i love you all! Comment it up!

In The Beginning.

To start things off i would like to say I dont like writing at all, so this blog 

will most likely be me rambling, also there will be alot of run on sentences.

And sentence fragments. So, here goes nothing.

Lets start rewinding about 6 months, after interrogating Rachael for a month about IMT,

I finally decided to accept that God was calling me to tulsa for at least 9 months.

Now fast forward back to real time, For those of you who don't know i am now in Tulsa, Oklahoma doing a program called In Ministry Training through Victory Bible Institute. It is up to a 2-3 year program if you want it to be, as of now im only going this year but i am leaving God to make that decision. :) I am going to school full time, in the mornings from 8:00-12:20. 2 classes a day then after all the IMTs meet up and go out on outreaches of some sort. We will be doing things like helping out with Victorys Ministries. We are leaders in their Youth Group, 24.7. Also we will be doing kids trucks, and street evangelism, helping the community, and im sure a bunch of things i haven't heard about yet. On the majority of the weekends we will be doing a outreach of some sort either in Oklahoma or any other state. I will be home for a few weeks at the end of december, besides that as of now i will be home in 9 months. 

Their are about 50 IMTs 15 of which are guys.... We live with 4 guys to a 2 bedroom apartment with 2 bathrooms and we share a living room and kitchen. There are quite a few rules, but the focus is to devote and focus on God so it makes since. We cant watch TV, movies, videos on the internet while on the VBI property. No secular music can be listened to or in the houses(including instrumentals), basically anything you cant buy in a christian store you cant listen to. Dating is strictly forbidden, so are front hugs with girls and talking to any IMT girl by any means other then in person. We can call them on the phone before 10pm if we HAVE too. So basically we are choosing to not acknowledge them or ELSE... Also we cant talk to any other girls at all after 10pm... but on the bright side... guys dont have to tuck in our shirts while at school. I would say thats a fair trade. Then there are the assumed No drinking, drugs, cussing, fighting, wrestling with the opposite sex. There is a curfew of 11pm on weekdays and 12am on weekends.  Also we run on ryan time, which is 7 minutes ahead of real time. so we have to be 7 minutes early everywhere we go. 

I am 2 weeks into school just finishing up VP(Vale la Pena) which is basically a two week indoc. and basically we wake up at 5am to run for a half hour, go home get ready for the day, do a fire time and be out the door by 745. The first week we split into 4 groups and did a bunch of team building activities. and had a bunch of meetings regarding rules and what is expected of us. Then this past week we started school, I decided to do practical ministry which is basically ministry stuff. The only other thing i was interested in was worship but that would have been for the sole reason that i would get to learn guitar... But anywhoo.  after school we would do some cool team activities such as rappelling, Zip Line, a big rope swing thing, and getting our whole team over a 12 foot wall in 30 min. But during these 2 weeks we have been up and doing things basically from 5am until 11pm curfew. FUN! for the test we we took last night we had to remember 5 differant things biggest being 1 cor. 13, I crammed and thought i had everything done. I passed for sure 4 of the 5. I will know tonight if i passed 1 cor. 13. i messed it up a little bit. which stinks because that was the first think i memorized. We are finishing off VP today with a day of silence and fasting. we have a commitment service at 8pm. During today we are supposed to spend it with God and search for what He wants us to commit to. 

I am excited to see what God is going to do, reveal and show in me over this time of my life. A few things that i have to get used to/ try and grasp a better understanding of...

1. Tongues. The incessant need to pray in tongues at every prayer whether its for dinner, the day, or healing. Like i know about speaking under your breath but its more talking/yelling it while the main person is praying. It is kind of weird in my opinion but they have a very different view on this. I have some stories that are funny ask me if you want to know. I have been given this gift prior to coming out here, but i am no where near understanding it. So if this confuses you... Me too! My advice would be research it, and ask people about it. 

2. Believing for things. Like money, health, a car... This is new to me praying to God that he does something for you. In our principles of prayer class we all prayed for a car... I have no problem asking for  something,but believing God will give me a white Subaru Sti with gold rims because i prayed it seems like im the one in control... something i definitely  have to get with God about.

3. Healing. I believe God can heal people and use people to heal people for sure. And this hasn't been the overall theology out here, but the thought that If we have enough faith God will heal that person. God will do what he wants, regardless of how much we pray. And hypothetical if you are a pastor of a church standing on that belief... what happens when your wife or even you gets diagnosed with cancer and dies? Your faith crumbles...? or you didn't have enough faith?

Interesting question if you ask me. I am by no means saying that we shouldn't pray for the sick. I believe there is healing definitely and that through knowing Jesus and faith you MAY be healed, but a pastor having a magic hand and saying He can heal whoever, and someone saying if you aren't healed you didn't have enough faith is utterly ridiculous...

So yeah these are my beginning thoughts, and ramblings hope you enjoyed. More to come soon!

Comment and let me know what you think!

-TopHeR