On January 4th I finished packing(with the invaluable help of my family and friend Jerica) and headed to San Antonio. I have joined the cross-cultural training program headed by Larry and Terry Singletary -- Xtreme Teams International (XTI). Though I have already made a lengthy list of items that failed to get here I have settled in nicely into the XTI dorm. My roommates are wonderful and I look forward to some excited as well as educational adventures with them. I'm sharing a room with Hannah and though we have differing tastes in music(mainly regarding country) I think we will do well as roommates. :-) It will be a learning experience for both of us. Just to give yall an idea of what I'll be doing here... XTI's goal is to prepare individuals to follow God's calling. They have commited to assisting me in "reaching my peak potential in preperation for cross-cultural ministry" whether it be in the States or overseas. They have a class on Tuesday nights and house church on Sundays. Each trainee also has a one hour coaching/mentoring time with Larry and Terry each week. We will be building relationships with a certain people group here in San Antonio. We will focus on that people group and document what we learn so others can follow easily. I have been informed that Hannah and I will be working with Myanmar(Burmese) refugees. Larry will be introducing us to a family soon. I'm excited! As of now I know that there are both Buddhist and Muslem Burmse refuees here so I will be learning about both religons. I was hired at a Chick-fil-a just 5 minutes from our house this week. Thank you Jesus for providing it quickly and thank you for connections! A dear friends older sister who lives 10 minutes away manages the Chick-fil-a and hooked me up. :)Work starts this Monday at 6:30am! (oh my... so early...)Please pray for me as I: -endeavor to build relationships with the Myanmar people-start a new job-learn to live on my own-make new friendships-learn more of my Father's heartThank you all for your prayers! Love ~Missy~
Donations Accepted
Part of the XTI training is for me to build a support base of monthly supporters that walk beside me with prayer and financial aid, so that at the end of my training I may be able to at once dive into my calling, wherever that may be, with no financial hindrance. This money could also go to future missions trips. If you feel led to help me in this endeavor you can mail checks to:
Larry&Terry Singletary
6113 Sun Dial
San Antonio, TX 78238
My "agent number" is 221 so please notate on all forms of donation.
Thank you!
Contact Me:
Marissa Watkins
4119 Copano Bay
San Antonio, TX 78229
serving_him_7@sbcglobal.ne
t281-702-2355
XTI
Larry&Terry Singletary
xtremeteamsinternational@yahoo.com
6113 Sun Dial
San Antonio, TX 78238
(210)454-6466Mission Statement:Our mission, with the Holy Spirit as our recruiter, is to train through mentoring those He calls and connect them to their stategic role in completing the Great Commission.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Heidi Baker- deep thoughts
I've been reading this book called Compelled by Love, written by Heidi Baker. This lady is awesome. Here's some stuff from her book:
She says they came to Mozambique to “see the gospel proven, to see the glory of God in the darkness. We came to heal the sick, raise the dead, and drive out demons in the power of the Holy Spirit. We came to serve God and not money. We came for relief from worry about our lives, what we will eat, drink and wear. We came to be Jesus’ hands extended among the poor. We came to see righteousness, peace and joy.”
Yea baby!
“For the poor draw us into a life of living even lower still, leading us on the low road—the only road forward—until we become as desperate for God as the poor are for daily bread.”
“Since moving to Mozambique, we have learned to depend on God for everything. If God does not show up there, we are dead. In the Western Church we decorate the altar, sing another amazing song, wave another flag, turn on the colored lights and smoke machines, and sit in a very comfortable chair. Some of these things can be wonderful expressions of creativity and ingenuity. They can, however, become backup plans. What we need most is to be totally dependent on God showing up. We need His pure presence. ”
Yes!!
“If God does not show up, no one else will either. If God does not heal, we will be dead. If God does not deliver, demons will torment the people to death. We have no fund-raising backup scheme if God does not take care of our children and provide for our needs. We can’t and won’t go on.”
Amen
“Why does the kingdom break forth with such power among the poor here in Mozambique? It is because the poor rely on each other. They need each other. They live in a community of interdependence… The poor are truly rich for the simplicity of their devotion.”
“If you are called as a missionary—a sent out one—then you are called comfort those who mourn. You are called to love the broken until they understand God’s love—a love that never dies—through you. Yes God wants you to do signs and wonders. But the love of God manifested through you is what people really need. So you must first see His face. You must become so close to His very heartbeat that you can feel what others feel. I want to live as if I am hidden in His very heart, where His thoughts become my thoughts and His ways become my ways. This is how we will reach the world.”
That is my favorite. Awesome. My hearts desire.
Joyfully!
~MW~
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The Spiritual Realm
A thought I thought this summer:
"This world is alot more like Lord of the Rings than I thought."
This is regarding the spiritual realm around us. I always thought of the spiritual realm as above or below us. Not around and with us. This summer I was awakened to the reality that spirits, angels, demons, etc... are alot more involved and active around us than I ever thought. I also realized that spiritual warfare has alot more effect on our daily lives then I ever would have imagined. This new understanding has created a new urgency inside of me. There is a battle going on around us and we have to fight. I finally understand the term "prayer warrior." The verses in Eph 6 are very real to me now and I realized the importance of putting on the armor of God.
I still have alot of questions though. I just read This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frant Peretti and now I'm reading the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. They have provked even more questions. :)
Anybody have any thoughts/experiences/verses you want to share concerning Spiritual warfare?
Joyfully!
~MW~
"This world is alot more like Lord of the Rings than I thought."
This is regarding the spiritual realm around us. I always thought of the spiritual realm as above or below us. Not around and with us. This summer I was awakened to the reality that spirits, angels, demons, etc... are alot more involved and active around us than I ever thought. I also realized that spiritual warfare has alot more effect on our daily lives then I ever would have imagined. This new understanding has created a new urgency inside of me. There is a battle going on around us and we have to fight. I finally understand the term "prayer warrior." The verses in Eph 6 are very real to me now and I realized the importance of putting on the armor of God.
I still have alot of questions though. I just read This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frant Peretti and now I'm reading the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. They have provked even more questions. :)
Anybody have any thoughts/experiences/verses you want to share concerning Spiritual warfare?
Joyfully!
~MW~
Monday, August 17, 2009
Naturalism :)
Church is not a thing, it’s a being. You don't "go to church" once a week. You ARE the church 24-7. There are a lot of places you could go with this but I'm going to focus on one aspect of being the church. Being the church is a way-of-life that, when you take away all education and preconceived ideas, should come naturally to a Christian walking in the Spirit. To put it simply, being the church is really just being in relationships. That is the heart of it. It’s not about singing great songs. It’s not about hearing a great message. It’s not about having great ministries, buildings, attendance, etc... It’s all about the relationships. There are three relationships involved; the one between you and God, the one between you and your fellow believers, and the one between you and non-believers. If you look throughout the New Testament, most everything Paul tells the church to do is relational.(Here's a few examples: Col 3:12,13; Rom 15:14; Jas 5:16; Eph 5:19-21; I Thes 5:11; Heb 3:13) There is nothing institutional about church.
I keep hearing the question, so what does an organic meeting of the church look like? Honestly, I don't know. We are supposed to meet(Heb 10:24,25). But really, does it have to look like anything? Hebrews says we're supposed to exhort one another, but I don't think we have to make the church look like anything. Why do we try to make it into something anyway? Its like we’re trying to control it. Are we afraid of something? I don’t know. But, whenever we try to organize or run church, we automatically put our man-made boundaries, limitations and names on it. I think the only titles the Bible gives the church is "bride" and "body" of Christ. I don't see any reason to add our titles and definitions to that. I'm against giving any type of church gathering a title or name because of the implications that will come with it. And also, when you name something, you automatically divide it from others of its kind. So, when I go to meetings on Thursday nights and Sunday nights, I will say I'm going to hang out with some of my Christian friends. I don’t want any “name boundaries” between me and any of my friends who don’t fellowship with us on those nights. On Thursday and Sunday, we're just friends who have God in common and want to get together weekly to celebrate it and practice being an encouragement to each other. That brings me to what we do in our meetings...
Do we have an agenda? To a certain extent, yes. But it’s never in stone and we're always open to whatever. No, we don't have to sing songs every time. No, we don't have to have one person prepare a word every time. There is freedom to do what the Lord puts on our hearts to do. One night at Guy Ben's we didn't even leave the dinner table. One topic of conversation led to another and we just lets things flow naturally. The Lord had laid on Guy Ben's heart to talk about the church and so we did. We chatted about other things too, prayer together, and watched a movie. In essence, we hung out. Nothing artificial, controlled, or scheduled. Completely natural.
When you get together with friends, or have somebody over for dinner, about the only thing that's planned is the food. The rest of the time is just spent being friends which could include, getting to know each other, talking about what's going on in each other's lives, doing stuff you like to do, etc... I think church gatherings should be like that. Obviously there is wisdom and guidance needed; you can't get together with believers and just talk about the latest football game or economical crisis and call that your fellowship. You may have to guide your conversations to a certain extent. Thats where your relationship with God comes in.
God really should come up in our everyday conversations alot more regularly. Talking about what the Holy Spirit has been teaching us should be as easy as talking about last night’s Astros game, how your cat had kittens last week, etc… Telling about what Jesus did(is doing) should be as easy and common as telling about what your friend did last week. He is our best friend right? If we talked about the God the way we talk about our friends on earth... wow. A lot more people might know about who He really is and many more people might be inclined to dig deeper. We need to be spreading the word of the Kingdom everywhere we go, all the time(Acts 8:4).
But to be able to talk about God in depth, we have to be spending time with Him. We should seek out His presence and company the way we seek out our friends' presence and company. I know I text my friends on a daily basis (and actually quite often throughout the day). If I would talk to God as often as I text, I know my life would be significantly different and my relationship with God would be alot deeper. I guess I have some work to do.
Joyfully!
~Marissa~
I keep hearing the question, so what does an organic meeting of the church look like? Honestly, I don't know. We are supposed to meet(Heb 10:24,25). But really, does it have to look like anything? Hebrews says we're supposed to exhort one another, but I don't think we have to make the church look like anything. Why do we try to make it into something anyway? Its like we’re trying to control it. Are we afraid of something? I don’t know. But, whenever we try to organize or run church, we automatically put our man-made boundaries, limitations and names on it. I think the only titles the Bible gives the church is "bride" and "body" of Christ. I don't see any reason to add our titles and definitions to that. I'm against giving any type of church gathering a title or name because of the implications that will come with it. And also, when you name something, you automatically divide it from others of its kind. So, when I go to meetings on Thursday nights and Sunday nights, I will say I'm going to hang out with some of my Christian friends. I don’t want any “name boundaries” between me and any of my friends who don’t fellowship with us on those nights. On Thursday and Sunday, we're just friends who have God in common and want to get together weekly to celebrate it and practice being an encouragement to each other. That brings me to what we do in our meetings...
Do we have an agenda? To a certain extent, yes. But it’s never in stone and we're always open to whatever. No, we don't have to sing songs every time. No, we don't have to have one person prepare a word every time. There is freedom to do what the Lord puts on our hearts to do. One night at Guy Ben's we didn't even leave the dinner table. One topic of conversation led to another and we just lets things flow naturally. The Lord had laid on Guy Ben's heart to talk about the church and so we did. We chatted about other things too, prayer together, and watched a movie. In essence, we hung out. Nothing artificial, controlled, or scheduled. Completely natural.
When you get together with friends, or have somebody over for dinner, about the only thing that's planned is the food. The rest of the time is just spent being friends which could include, getting to know each other, talking about what's going on in each other's lives, doing stuff you like to do, etc... I think church gatherings should be like that. Obviously there is wisdom and guidance needed; you can't get together with believers and just talk about the latest football game or economical crisis and call that your fellowship. You may have to guide your conversations to a certain extent. Thats where your relationship with God comes in.
God really should come up in our everyday conversations alot more regularly. Talking about what the Holy Spirit has been teaching us should be as easy as talking about last night’s Astros game, how your cat had kittens last week, etc… Telling about what Jesus did(is doing) should be as easy and common as telling about what your friend did last week. He is our best friend right? If we talked about the God the way we talk about our friends on earth... wow. A lot more people might know about who He really is and many more people might be inclined to dig deeper. We need to be spreading the word of the Kingdom everywhere we go, all the time(Acts 8:4).
But to be able to talk about God in depth, we have to be spending time with Him. We should seek out His presence and company the way we seek out our friends' presence and company. I know I text my friends on a daily basis (and actually quite often throughout the day). If I would talk to God as often as I text, I know my life would be significantly different and my relationship with God would be alot deeper. I guess I have some work to do.
Joyfully!
~Marissa~
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