Pray 4 us, please!

I can't believe it's almost July! Where does the time go? I wish I had more internet time to post some pictures from my DTS, but not right now :( I am having a blast, being challenged in many areas of my life, as well as seeing God move spiritually in other students lives around me...I am always smiling and in awe of what God is doing...

I am wondering if you could please pray for the team before we go out on Outreach to Johanessburg. That the money to go would come in (we are looking at still trying to raise about $5,000 so if God puts it on your heart to give, you can be such a blessing and send a check to Shouts of Joy Ministries-Stephanie Wendel, 701 W. 4th Street, Kimberly, WI 54136), as well as protection and unity for our team. Because of the many diverse people, we have been struggling a bit with communication issues and conflict...not really bad where it's gotten horrible, but we fail to understand each other and listen to what we are realy saying. We leave in two weeks so any extra prayer and/or financial support would be a huge, huge blessing!

Thanks to all of you who have been faithful in keeping in contact with me! I love you guys soo much and miss you!

I Believe I Can Fly!

I love this picture so much because when I look at it, I see a prophetic picture of Mfuneko and the rest of my friends here in YWAM. He looks like he could fly away! Over the past 7 weeks, I can honestly say I have seen some amazing miracles, not like the ones that people would rant, rave, and write in the newspaper...but the ones that actually involve hard work of changing hearts and minds. This picture of Mfuneko is also a REAL visible picture of many beautiful invisible changes that are taking place inside of many of us, including myself. Without going into great detail, I would just like to say that Mfuneko has really melted my heart with his insightful "tell me more about..." kinds of questions. He comes from an incredible heartbreaking background that no child should experience, and his story would make any person's heart ache for justice. As he shared, all I could do was ask, "Why God? Why him and not me? Why was I born in America with the best opportunities and he wasn't? Why didn't I have to experience the worst of the worst while I got ice cream for a snack and tucked into a warm, safe bed at night?" To this day, I still ponder these questions about life and God, but we all know we live in a fallen world. I learned that all I could do was listen to his story and mourn for him, praying that God would use me to produce some kind of healing in his heart, and I was touched by a comment he made to me one day..."Steph, you are like a bright star in the sky that when people lose their way, they just look towards you. You will lead them on the right path." I had tears in my eyes because it wasn't cliche, but straight from the heart with his broken English. I asked God about this and I felt that God wanted me to repeat it back to him. I looked in the scriptures about the star of David and it said that the wise man came from very far lands to get to Jesus, whom everyone was waiting for to come to earth. I told Mfuneko that he could also take the words he shared with me prophecy because people are going to come from even far away places to hear his testimony and how God has changed his life. Even worldly, wise in their own eyes, kind of people. They are going to see him shining as a bright light, and wonder how he's changed his life. I really believe this. I have experienced miracles since day three how God has grabbed his heart and taken away much of his darkness! He has become a little brother to me--a "brother from another mother." :)