CHINA CHINA CHINA

A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot

~Ecclesiastes 3:2

MY GOODNESS I LOOOOOVE CHINA!!! I cannot express how much I loved being in China! I will share some experiences from China in this blog.

Traveling to China:
What an experience! I met Diane, the lady I went with, the Monday before I left and we headed out Friday June 29, 2012. Let me just say that God knows what He is doing when he pairs people up to do His work. Diane and I are so similar and we had a blast! We flew out early Friday and arrived in Qingdao, China on Saturday night! I prayed about my seat on the plane to be lead by God. So, from DFW to Seattle the Lord allowed me to sit next to this man and his wife and through conversation we discovered we lived near eachother, well within a 45min drive of each other. He asked where I was traveling to and so on but you guys, this man was a chief operator in a nearby school district. Goodness! So this man gave me his business card and told me to email him if I needed anything such as a job! bahaha God is so good! Let me just say that 11 to 12 hour flight from Seattle to Beijing was an interesting one. Food smells cannot go anywhere on a plane in case you were wondering! :) Beijing to Qingdao was well IDK because I slept the couple hours! I do know that before getting on the plane we had to ride a bus to our plane! hehe That was interesting.

Qingdao, China:
We went to a house church Sunday night and it was neat to experience. Let me just through in here that I feel so privileged and honored that the Lord would invite me to go to China with Him. We began our reading sessions on Monday and we would read with about 7 readers a day. We would read from 9-12 and 2-6 Monday through Friday. Each reading session took about an hour. I had a total of about 13 readers because they all come at different times and different days! Any who, GOD is GOOD! All of my readers were college aged students except for three. One was 14, one was 30 and a middle school teacher, and one was 39 who had a 13 year old son and she taught young kids about money management! I so loved getting to help them improve their English but more so I loooooved sharing Jesus with them!

Before I said yes to going to China with LST I prayed about it to see if this is where God wanted me. He clearly showed me that He desired for me to go. He pointed me to Matthew 10 when Jesus sends out His 12 disciples. (If you havent read it, I suggest reading it!) With this being said, I would pray this chapter becaue I knew that God had a lot to show me in these scriptures before, during, and even after China!

In Matthew 10:7-8 it says "As you go, preach this message: The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." So on Wednesday July 4, 2012 I prayed: "Lord, I pray and ask you to allow your Holy Spirit to rest upon me and the room where readers meet." You guys this sentence in my prayer would change the entire day along with this verse. This specific day I had a reader named Vincent who is extremely intelligent. He is a believer who had some very intellectual questions. Haha So, I did a lot of praying before this reader came because I wasn't sure how to handle some of His questions. The Lord told me to see if he wanted to study a different book of the Bible through the LST workbooks since He has already read through some on his own. The Lord also told me that it was ok to cross reference scriptures with this particular reader. I felt like this was a big deal because his english was grrreat and I has been a believer for a couple of years. He was hungry for the Lord and I wanted to be sure to be obedient to how the Lord wanted to teach him. So thats what we did and it was aaaaamazing! We talked about all kids of things in our reading sessions like the Holy Spirit, Revelations, Gods voice, and Gods beauty! God is doing mighty things in my new friend and brother in Christ! I also had a reader name Heather who is a middle school teacher in China. Teachers their are highly respected and I am not goin to lie, I felt a bit intimidated because I didn't believe that I was qualified to work with this woman. (Can you see the trend...I was low in confidence and that is exactly what satan wanted but GOD is bigger than that and pulled me up and strengthened me each time.) This woman didn't consider herself a Christian. The Lord instilled some boldness and courage in me (thank yall for praying) and this particular day (july 4th) we were talking and after the lesson she asked me about lasik eye surgery in America. Any who, the Lord laid it heavy on my heart to ask her if I could pray over her eyes because our God is a healer. I gave her an example of the time the Lord began healing my eye (more info in another blog about healing). I told her what happened and asked if we could pray over her eyes. I had a book and she would attempt to read the cover. Well we prayed once and she didnt notice a difference. So I prayed again and nothing. Then a third time and I prayed for healing and the presence of the Lord to rest upon her. I said amen and I looked at her and she looked like she had been shocked. I said did you feel anything. She said yes. I said what? She said a shiver. (For those of you who are doubting...she wanst cold bc it is hot in China and they dont even like the air on. So it was not a draft of the air conditioning.) I said do you know what that shiver is? She said no. I said yes, its the Holy Spirit. When I prayed for her eyes she didnt want to pray herself so I did the speaking. After she felt a glimpse of the Holy Spirit and after talking about it a minute I asked if we could thank the Holy Spirit for coming and she said yes and before I could even start she just said thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you with her head bowed and her hands open. We thanked God together for her experience. She said she felt so honored that God would want her to know He was here with her. Prior to this in our first two prayers she said maybe God is too busy to listen to our prayers for her eyes. So after feeling the Holy Spirit she was sooo thankful! God is soooo good and I got to thank Him with a sister who is interested in knowing more about this God who makes time for her! AMEN!!! I had another reader on this day named Helen and she is hillarious! We always got to talking and laughing every session we had together! She just started going to church like maybe a total of three or four times at this point. We were talking and I was sharing some things the Lord has laid on my heart and she began to tear up. I know this was the Holy Spirit!!!! :) I also had a reader who brought a friend two times before he left to go back home for the summer. Their names are Jeremy and Lynn. This precious sister and brother and I chatted for nearly three hours this day. GOD IS GOOD! The Lord opened the door for me to share a couple of testimonies with these two college students. One being that people will indeed think we are crazy for being Christians (they are Christians) but they will be the ones calling us and asking questions about Jesus when they realize we are not crazy! they were so stoked because they look forward to their friends and family being Christians one day! :) We talked about this for a while and how in Matthew 10:22 it says "all men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." We talked about how God warned us in this passage that there would be people who disagree with us. She also asked me about me ring which opened up another door to talk about how God hates divorce and how my mom, sister, and I prayed for my dad for six years when my parents were separated and God mended our family and brought us all back together. They were both crying at this point because of the Holy Spirit! Jeremy had lots of questions because (w/o my knowing) He was going home but his parents are divorced. I talked about how much I love my little sisters but that it was hard at the beginning. He asked how can I love my brother if he really isnt my brother. I think his dad is remarried and Jeremy desires to love his 12 yr old brother like Jesus loves him. They cried and we talked and prayed and read scripture. This 24 yr old guy wants to go home and teach his brother english using the same books/scripture we were using. So I gave him an extra book so that he and his brother can study Gods word and english together!!!! PRAISE GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS! It says in Matthew 10: 19-20 "do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." This is exactly what God did all day everyday!!!!

This particular day was great becase the Lord opened my eyes to the fact that I may be among believers or unbelievers but that no matter what God has something He wants to share with me and others! He opened my eyes to see His children how He sees them! In Matthew 10:16 it says "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." The Lord is faithful and He helped me fulfill this scripture in a way that allows God to be glorified and honored!!


A different day I had the chance to pray with my 14 year old reader whos name is Angela. She didn't know what the word pray meant. We talked about it for awhile and then we prayed. It was her first time to ever pray! :) God is good all the time! So many great things are happening amongst the people of China and I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to travel to partner with God in that country!

Traveling home:

Long story short...our longets flight from Beijing to Seattle we ended up having the privelidge of being in business class which is just like first class! We had chairs that literally turned into beds!!!!!!!! :) Praise God because we could sleep! WOW God is so good to us! It was like His blessing and gift to us! All because we were taking our time to get to our plane that left at 440 but the lady came and found us in the airport because the plane wanted was going to attempt to leave early but were the only two missing. LOL Either way, we enjoyed having slippers, comforters, chairs that turned into beds, and a restroom with lotion, smell good soap, and perfume! Haha WOAH!

I also had the chance to attend a church that was primarily college aged students with a couple of my readers (Jeremy and Lynn and Dianes reader, Joshua). It was very neat to attend a church that spoke in Chinese!! hehe I loved it! We walked pretty much everywhere! Our two feet where our vehicles for the two weeks, We ate ice cream daily because we found the coolest gelado place ever and well we like ice cream! Oh goodness we had a good time in China with the Lord! :) God is good and I could go on and on with stories but I will stop here! I soooo want to move there lol Any one want to go with me? I dont want to live by myself lol :) I for sure plan to go next year if I cant go sooner!

Please keep praying for our brothers and sisters here in the U.S as well as China and around the world! Also, my funds didn't all come in. If you are interested in helping me finish paying for the cost of the trip please log onto my personal webpage at www.lst.org/2012projects/casondrachaz and I do THANK all of you who have already financially supported me as well as kept me in your prayers! Thank You all!!!

My Prayer For Us

Lord God Almighty, Thank you for our brothers and sisters all across the world! Lord may you give us courage and boldness even amongst the people in our own lives even right now Lord. Lord please give us the words of encouragement that our friends and family need even today. Lord help us speak boldly about you! Lord help us share your word all over the earth so that you may be glorified. Lord we love you and thank you for all that you do! Thank you for our brothers and sisters in China! Lord we pray that you continue to speak truth and life into them Lord. Lord you are good and we thank you for dwelling inside us! Amen.

My Journey to IHOP...not pancakes but prayer!

A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot

~Ecclesiastes 3:2

I have been in a season of dying to myself and my own desires while uprooting from all familiarties. Hence the verse above that really explains my Journey to IHOP. As many of you know, I have been at the International House Of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City since April 5th! You can check out the prayer room at http://www.ihop.org/ if you would like! I highly recommend it! IHOP is night and day prayer and worship!!! Some of you may not know why I am here or what I do here, so this post will fill you in a little bit! :)

Let's go back to December...I went to the One Thing conference in December. It's a conference that is held by IHOP. This is what I thought IHOP was, a yearly conference. haha Little did I know that it was much more than a conference. This particular conference is held like the last four days of the year. It was AMAZING bringing in the New Year worshipping! Any who, the Lord led me to check out an information meeting about the internships at IHOP. I found out that yes, indeed there are people that pray and worship day and night! 

While I was in the information meeting the Lord began to tug on my heart and I began to pray for a clarity. I felt like the Lord wanted me to come do an internship. So, as I am sitting there praying and talking it over with my friend, a lady comes up and introduces herself and ask if we have any questions. Bahaha OH I had questions! So she began answering them and I am still praying in my head and I ask the Lord, Lord please, if you desire for me to go have this lady pray with us. Well no sooner than I pray this, the lady says can I pray for you. haha So I told the Lord once again, Lord please if you want me to go please clearly tell me. Well the lady started praying and the Lord gave me a clear picture of the word "come" written in the clouds (thought picture in my head). Then He gave me a picture of like a silhouette head and told me "gaze upon me." Woah! haha So I said Lord, is this just me, is this satan teasing me, or is this really you? haha Sounds silly but those questions really went through my head so I asked the Lord. As I asked the Lord (IN MY HEAD!), the lady praying proceeds to say yes, Lord we know what you are putting on our hearts is from you, it is not because of our desires, it is not because of satan, but it is truly you Lord. AHHHH! AHH was my first thought. Like, really Lord you want me to "come, gaze upon you" at IHOP? The answer was for sure a yes, which led to the next few months of asking the Lord when and how.

The best way I can explain January-March is like this: You know when you are dating someone and they call you and say, hey get ready because I am going to pick you up in thirty minutes but it's a surprise! You get all excited and say ok and you get ready. You hop in the car and they start driving and then like reality sets in. You start asking questions like: Where are we going? How far is it? Do we have enough gas? Do we have enough money? Did I dress appropriately? Do you have a map? Is there enough time? Are you sure you know where you are going? They just simply look at you and say yes, I have everything under control, trust me, relax. Welp, this is how I felt those three months. I said yes Lord I am ready to go gaze upon you and then I had all these questions and the Lord looked at me and said, Casondra I really do have everything under controlm, trust me.

The Lord was so faithful, gentle, and patient with me. Praise Him! haha It takes a lot to be patient with me and all my questions but He truly is phenomenal! The Lord ALWAYS has all the logistics figured out, far better than imaginable! He provided an amazing contact within a couple of weeks (maybe one week) of saying yes to Him. He provided a random check in the mail in March (sounds crazy but it was for real). By the end of March He provided me with housing in Kansas City and a friend booked/bought my plane tickets to and from Kansas City! By the time I left I had enough money for one month. So in my mind I was totally fine with just staying in Kansas City for one month if that was what they Lord desired, but deep down I knew without a doubt the Lord desired me to stay for the three month internship. So, I came faithfully and peacefully. The peace truly is something that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7) especially because it seemed crazy to go to an unknown place without the finances already available. To our human minds and our human wisdom, yes it is very crazy. I had been praying about it and the Lord told me He would take care of everything because it is what He desired of me. So He gave me a peace that launched me to "come gaze upon Him!" I am currently in the Intro to IHOP-KC internship and I finish up my three months on June 24th.

I am running along side some amazing people with a goal being to have true intimacy with the Lord! IT'S FABULOUS! I get to pray (interceed) for so many different things that are on my heart and on the Lords heart. It has made me realize in a much deeper way then before, the power and importance of prayer. The importance of conversation with the Lord. Conversation goes both ways, not one way. He has shown me in the past the power of prayer but being here and realizing how little I actually prayed before coming, has made me desire more of Him in a new way. I say this because we all need to be setting chuncks of time aside to pray (interceed) for people that do not know the Lord, the sick, the blind, the poor (both in spirit and financially), and we really need to be praying for our families. The Lord is the only one that can do anything about the above but He desires to use us as partners in these things! His scriptures are filled with His desire for us to pray and go out and do the things He calls us to do. The Lord has really given me a new perspective. My goodness, I love Him! I have also really been studying revelations in my classes! This is probably one of my favorite teachings here! I am in classes about three hours a day and in the prayer room about 4 to 5 hours a day. We also serve in various areas such as ushering in services and conferences as well as working with kiddos! Every Sunday morning I work with the little 19mts to 24mts! I have really enjoyed these little ones because it is amazing to watch them learn the things we teach them for one, but it is also great to receive so many hugs since I am away from my family! hehe Yes, I love my hugs!

As you follow my blog, I will tell you about how the Lord truly has provided for EVERYTHING! I will also tell you what I have been learning while here! After I get through all this, I will begin telling you how the Lord has lead me to China! So, I will be posting a lot of posts because I am beyond excited about everything the Lord is doing! Just a side note: I do write a lot...I will try to condense my writting but I can't guarentee anything! ;)

For Such A Time As This

~Esther 4:14b

My Prayer For Us

Dearly Beloved, I thank you that you ask us to come gaze upon you wherever we are. Lord, I thank you that you are always available to talk to and have a conversation with. I thank you that you speak to each of us so uniquely. Almighty Beloved, I thank you for your unconditional love and your sweet, gentle, patient, and faitfhful spirit. Lord, we come to you right now and ask for clarity in our next steps and we ask for boldness and courage to do the things that you put on our hearts. Beloved, we trust your leadership. Lord, you are trustworthy and we place our lives under your leadership. Thank you Beloved for all that you have done, all that you are doing, and all that you will do. Most of all, thank you that you are coming back for us soon! We love you Lord! Amen

Seasons

Seasons...come and go but each season carries its own challenges and beauties. Just as the Lord created seasons in nature, He also creates seasons in our lives. I am starting this blog so that I have a way of sharing both the challenges and beauties that come in different seasons of my life. I want to invite you to join me in my Footsteps Through the Seasons the Lord has for me. I have titled this blog Footsteps Through Seasons based on the scripture in Ecclesiastes 3. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

This is just the first part of Ecclesiastes 3 but ever since I was about 13 the Lord has shown me so much using this little piece of scripture. The word is truly alive! I can read this passage over and over but the Lord always reveals a different facet of himself and myself through these verses. Therefore, I begin this blog with this as my springboard post. I sincerely thank you for joining me in my Footsteps Through Seasons but I encourage you to think about your very own footsteps and seasons. Where has the Lord taken you? Where is the Lord taking you? Where do you desire to go? What challenges have come to surface in your current season? What beauties have you discovered this season? Whatever season you are in right now, I am excited for you!!! For the Lord has something special He wants to reveal to us in each season! 

My Prayer For Us

Creator of all seasons, Thank you for all the seasons in our lives. Thank you that you truly see us, hear us, and desire us. Creator God, please help us in the season that you have us walking in right now. Please reveal what's on your heart for us to learn and gain from our current season. May you help us overcome challenges and may you open our eyes to see the beauties in this season. Thank you for your provision Creator God. Thank you for your unconditional love and thank you for your trustworthy leadership. Amen.

I look forward to sharing this journey of my Footsteps Through Seasons with you!