Three Snickers

A couple of days ago some crazy stuff started to happen. But first the back drop. Today I was supposed to have 500 dollars for outreach, I was at mostly a loss of who to go to, and didn't know where the money would come from, however as we have seen God has never let me down. It was tuesday, skate night. My first night leading it by myself, we had no keys and no way that I knew of to get or snacks that we sell or play music. Luckily some of my team learned the code to the box and got us our snacks. There was a brand new box of candy bars with snickers in them, my favorite, and I called out to the team, "If any one wants to buy me a snickers I will gladly receive it!" A student cried back "I'll get it for you!" booya.

The next day to cultivate a culture of generosity and on the word of the Lord we had a giving time, I asked the Lord, "Jesus what can I give? What do you want me to Give?" "Nothing." He said. "Nothing?" " Nothing." Ok, so I stood and watched as macbooks shoes and thousands of dollars were being exchanged in acts of radicle generosity. As I stood there, one of my students came up to me and put a fresh 100 dollar bill in my hand, praise God! The time was drawing to a close so I walked to the back of class, My friend Jaimie gave me a snickers, thats 2. Very sweet. Then another one of my students asked me what phone provider I had, its verizon. "Does Verizon support iPhones?" "Well starting This month they do." "I want you to have this."

BAM! iphone 4! IN ITS BOX! A bit used but amazing nonetheless. Then Jaimie goes and buys me a brand new OTTERBOX For the thing! That night a got another 100 dollars.

This morning I was with a band of brothers, we get together to talk about how awesome Jesus is. I started to tell the tale of my two snickers and began to pray out almost jokingly; "Jesus I'm pressing in for the fullness! God let me have a third snickers and the 300 I need today!" We prayed for God to release the fulness in our lives, what ever that was for each of us in particular. Then I went to class, Brian Brentt brought a great word and we all ended up allot freer. Then my friend Lauren came and gave me a snickers. THE THIRD SNICKERS!!!!! And said to me "Alexander, the Lord wants you to know that he will bring you the fullness of provision." God is so good! For you readers that need a breakthrough in your lives of finances, put your hands out and pray this prayer, Jesus thank you so much that you Love me with such a extravagant love, God I repent for fear of lack in my life. Thank you Jesus that you love me more then the Birds of the air Matt 6:26, how much more will you provide for me?! So right now I take authority over every lie that says you will not provide for my every need and I tell it to go to the foot of the cross, Thank you Jesus for your blood that covers over a multitude of sins. And Jesus I just ask that you would provide for this situation right now.

Then ask the Lord if there is something you need to do to partner with him to get the blessing, maybe it involves radicle generosity, or some form of obedience.

God is good

Where did I go?

Quick update, so firstly the story will continue. I already have some post written but I wanted to update you guys, its been two months now. so I will cover a little of home and here.

As you may have heard I took a road trip across America with three of my friends, you can read about it here, gloryboundkk.blogspot.com. It was amazing and God did some awesome stuff in my heart getting me ready for this year.

I was home for a week for thanksgiving and then back to the island. Ah good ol' Hawaii. I made it back in time for YWAMs 50th anniversary final celebration. It was amazing the leaps and bounds missions has come and is headed into. After that was Christmas, mele kalikimaka, I spent it here in Hawaii with some close friends, it was fun but a bit sad being away from family.

Now for why I came back. IM STAFFING THE DTS! For you long time readers and friends you may recall that I did a discipleship training school also known as a DTS. Now after two years in YWAM doing schools and an internship, Im staff. We have an amazing school with amazing students that love Jesus so much. As you may know after three months of Lecture there is three months of outreach. I'm leading with two amazing girls, Taylor Mehl and Katelyn Leavitt, we have the best team of 17, 3 families 4 kids 4 singles also 2 bikes. Oh your probably wondering were we are going, well I'll tell you, the west coast of the United states of America, predominantly L.A. and Seattle. Get excited, we are, pray for us, were praying for you. Also pray for provision, I need my first thousand to secure flights on the third of February.

And don't worry I will be posting about after London and all that

London

How can I convey the joy of love. For 7 days I was in England for my best friends wedding. As much as it was about the bride and groom, God made it about me. As I write this I'm still unpacking it. The day I left Kona a friend gave me a word about God wanting to pour his love out on me, thats exactly what happened in england. I saw the sights, castles, pubs, London. Ate amazing food, and enjoyed my best friends. I want to write more about my impressions then what we actually did.

Being with close friends in foreign countries is like christmas morning everyday. The love you continually feel is sometimes overwhelming. Now add to that the joy of a wedding and that was almost London. Reunions. It was a time of reunions, promises fulfilled, and exchanging of vows.

Adventure, it was a time of adventure, and hope. Oxford. I went to where Lewis and so many of my favorite authors taught and lived. We went to their schools, and ate at their pubs. The whole experience was one of so much joy.

I dont want to know what its like to live a life outside of the excitment of knowing Jesus, but I do know it. However, he redeems. Thank you Papa for my adventure in England

Finale

I couldn't go back to my house, I had to find a new one, that day I had been thinking about where to go to sleep. baggage claim would be too busy. But they had a small place that was out of the way and was talking about the new train system they had installed. No one ever went around there and there was electricity, so I went from my great dinner and went to my new house. That night I paid for some internet and skyped some friends, I also got "The Terminal" and watched it that night. This was the worst night of sleep I have ever had, I slept on the cement floor, under a light. I woke up and was ready to get on a flight. I had breakfast, waited and then went in for lunch. I had subway for lunch and read my bible in the Z terminal, my favorite terminal. It was time, I was scheduled for the middle flight. I was a pro at the airport, I knew my way around, I was pro at security and scoffed when people were confused on the way through the lines. I didnt really think i was better then them I had just done it allot. some thing inside me said this is the day.

Over the previous four days God had taken me from a one spot to another and I still dont fully understand what it was that he did. I rebelled at the beginning and thought God a liar, but he exposed my heart and showed me that I had put myself as the king and him as the subject. I had been looking at Jesus as some sort of good luck charm, thinking if I have him I can do anything, ignoring his true lordship. We have this idea of christianity that any hardship is from the devil and that God only sends good on us, the Idea of " God disciplining those he loves" is some sort of foreign notion. And when we are faced with that verse we think that all it means is that we should read the bible more or pray longer. I have come to this point where he is the Lord of the universe, Creator of Heaven and Earth. 100% wrath 100% love all at the same time. And if it was in his plan for me to live the rest of my life at this airport, this is where I would live, and I couldnt stop loving him or worshiping him. It was no longer head knowledge this was experiential reality.

I walked up to the woman behind the desk and told her my name and my story about how I was trying to get to england. She told me what I had heard every time, if there are seats I will get one. I waited and worshiped. they began seating, I watched the numbers of seats left stay where it was. they finished boarding, and began to call stand by.

"Alex Graves"

After five of the hardest days of my life I heard my name finally be called. At first I was shocked, they called again. I went got my ticket and danced laughing to my seat, economy plus. I finally was on my way to be in the wedding of my best friends. I was about to have some of the most fun I have ever had.

Cool new links

Thats right new links! The first link is Fire and Fragrance, this is the ministry I am part of, the second is great blog thats coming out of our ministry. The third is a blog and adventure I am now apart of. This is really exciting, you will be getting some different perspectives on whats going on in my life, its also a little more up to date then here. So a quick update: I am not stuck at the airport, I'm done with the internship, I WILL be writing about all of that. Oh also I am on a journey across the united states, thats what the third link is all about.

D5

I had left the terminal, I had no ticket to get back in and was sitting at the baggage claim waiting for my bag to come out. I was eating a dannish and drinking snapple. my former house was amazing the bench I had found there had no arm divders so I could lay down, this was not the case. I tried to nap, it wasn't very easy. The baggage claim at Dulles is dark. Its underground and there are no windows. Now after the past two days of disappointment sitting in a cave is not my idea of fun. After waiting for two hours my bag finally came. time for a change of scenery. Light, windows, space, this is the check in area at dulles, and its glorious, they even have a large windowed area where you can sit and wait, it has electricity, and is close to the bathroom. For lunch I went to the ale house they had there, I had a cheese burger and read the brothers Karamazov.

It got to about dinner and I told the Lord, "jesus, I'm going to go get dinner in an hour." then I went to watch the sunset, as the sun was setting i was griped with hunger pangs, before this I was in not particularly way hungry, but all of a sudden I was starving. So I got my stuff and went to the restaurant I had lunch at. This is not a seat your self establishment so I waited, as I waited two men walked up, a white guy and a black guy, they asked if it was seat yourself, I said no, they said maybe the bar and walked in. I watched as they began to talk to the waitress, and too my suprise they looked over and asked me to come and join them, their was something about this that felt incredibly right, so I joined them. we started looking at menus and introducing ourselves. The white guys name was dean, I cant remember his friends name, but he was from Liberia, a country in west Africa. They are bussiness partners and work both here and in Africa. As we were talking Dean told me to order anything, so I got the buffalo applewood bacon burger, and a beer. They were both shocked and intrigued that a missionary would drink beer. The rest of the night we talked about jesus. but all things must come to an end and it was time for me to find a place to sleep.

D4

My life had turned into "The Terminal" and I was Tom Hanks and I now needed to find a place to sleep. I had been thinking about this for a while and decided that to have a successful night in the airport I would need three things: One, a place to lie down, two electricity, and three a bathroom. I found all of these things in terminal 38b. It was quiet, out of the way and had every thing I needed. so I began to make a home. It was two benches, one bench was for my bed another I made my table and put my laptop on to watch movies on. now beds need to have pillows and blankets. however all I had was the clothes on my back and the things in my carry on. One of my favorite things is figuring things out, and this night I was going to figure out a bed. I had my mattress, now for a pillow, that was easy enough, two bibles and a beanie make a great pillow, almost as good as Jacob's rock. for a blanket I took my hoodie, zipped it up with my feet in the hood and legs in the rest with the arms wrapped around me. and for the rest of me I had a suit jacket. That evenings entertainment was a bugs life and napoleon dynamite, for dinner, water, peanut butter m and m's and pizza pretzels. The next day I would stay in the airport. That morning I woke up, packed up my house sent for my bag and tried to enjoy another day of my adventure.