Christ's amazing GRACE

How many times have I seen Christ's amazing Grace in my life? When I look back and think of how many times God has walked me through situations where I would have given up so easily. I can say that Jesus is definitely my provider. Being a missionary is absolutely a challenge for me. I always try to be in control of everything and having everything planed out. But now I am challenged to trust the Lord to be in control. Let Him take of the maneuver and ask Him for things. Sure enough God will give them to you because He says so himself in Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Last month I was challenged that way! Your teams did some fundraising for Outreach and they also asked all the staff to pray about giving money so I did. As I was listing to God for an answer I felt like He was saying: " Give $100 and don't worry I will give it back to you." So I did and obeyed. It was super hard for me to do because that all the money I had and I still had to pay part of my staff fees for that month. But I just had to trust Him. Sure enough He was faithful. Not even a week later there was check of $100 from a person that I did not expected from.
It just blows my mind how God cares for a selfish person as myself.

Not to long ago we had the most amazing spring weather among lots of snow storms. How crazy is that? So we as the last big of the staff decided to go rock climbing. Sadly I didn't conquer anything that day. I attempt to climb a 9.5 plus and after that I was to tired to to continue and finish the 7.5. It was way to hard for me and I only climbed once in my life before. But only to show how much fun I had that day I'm going to add this pics. Left: Me on 7.5 Top right: Me on 9.5 plus, Bottom right: Me pretending to kick eric of the rock




Right now I try out different recipes and experiment around. Like giant meatballs filled with eggs, baked spring rolls, my own creation of a black forrest cake (moistened cake with 2 layers of chocolate filling, 1 layer of whipped cream and berries, covered with chocolate cherry glaze) I am also working on my cookbook. I'm putting all my favorite recipes together and cleaning the kitchen. I absolutely love my Job...

Crazy and different Christmas experience

Wow it's been so long AGAIN.
So much to do and not enough time to sit down on a computer to get on my blog.
Things here on campus are going to be a bit slower since our teams just left for outreach to Thailand and Peru.
I apologize to everyone I haven't talked to in a while. My computer broke about 3 months ago my cellphone bill is to high yet God knows my needs and gave me a computer and a cellphone to use for the next 2 months. He is the BEST!!!!!
Over Christmas I spent 2 weeks in Dallas. I decided I was going to join our DTS group to go on a stateside outreach. Crazy enough to make that kinda decision I found out that night we arrived (thursday) that I was supposed to be cooking a Christmas dinner for 450 people. 10 frozen turkeys, about 10 lbs of dried pinto beans and 3 days to prepare. I had never cooked a turkey before because there was always either my dad or Jen to make it. OR have ever cooked so many dried pinto beans at the same time.
My turkeys turned out fine plus the last 2 were for display so I tied the legs together with a red ribbon. (looked super cute)
My beans not so much! I had them soak for a day and a half and then cooking for a day. The last hour of cooking I burned the bottom of this huge pot. It was late and I forgot to add more water.
Oh well they just had a little smoky taste to them.

These 2 weeks I got to learn a lot about putting others before me and serving them with a the love Jesus Christ gives me.
Easier said then done! So many times I could have put other before my own needs but I didn't.
Selfishness is I think is something everyone has to deal with every single day. "Selfishness" and "Patience", a big thing that God is teaching and helping me walk through on daily bases.
Worship was another thing that I was kinda in charge of during this trip. Let me just tell you I have never been so much challenged in this category. I was told that we were in charge of a Wednesday evening church service at the Dallas International Street Church and I was to lead worship.
Jenni just told me that they liked peppy and lively worship. Okay first of all I am not a peppy worship leader and not trained enough to do so nor did I have be right songs with me!
Let let me tell you how God has used this situation and made a lesson out of it.
We had 2 weeks to prep and after the first 2 attempts of practicing the songs I picked out I just gave up and told Jenni I couldn't do it. Of course I didn't give up. After spending most of the time searching for songs we finally had songs picked out that might've worked and went through them once before we had to leave for Church.
It was only by God's grace and by my wonderful friends that this worship service didn't turn into a whole disaster.
When we got there we set everything up and where ready to start. As we were singing the songs our mics went in and out the whole time so that no one really could here us to much. Plus after the last song was done people expected more songs and that's where the Holy Spirit took over and our guitar player jumped in and started singing another song and saved the worship time.
There is so much more I could write but that's for next time....

A new challenge

Never give up! Even when it’s really hard and you just want to hide from the world. Stay firm and bold. God will be with you he will never let you down. This gives me comfort and giving up all my rights for the kingdom of God. Mark 8:34,35 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. I am willing to give up my life and everyone who is dear to me and follow the Lord.
I am reading Making Jesus Lord from Loren Cunningham. This book has given me a new prospective on how to serve the Lord.
My new challenge is a young lady who I will mentor for the next 6 months. I am asking the Lord to giving me wisdom and humble me, so that only his will and not my will be done. Please keep praying for me!
On Monday our Discipleship training school starts and 12 new students have arrive. A new beginning and new challenges have started.



I’m making the welcome dinner tonight! Humus and whole wheat tortilla chips as appetizer and Greek lamb racks with Greek salad and brown rice. I have been to my first Hillbilly Football game on Friday and my first bluegrass concert on Saturday. My parents arrive in 2 days and I get to spend 2 weeks with them plus my sister in law is expecting her first baby any time soon.

So much has happend in the last month! I have been among people that tried to fill up there bodies with alcohol, drugs, fake love and lots of other junk. It was so hard not to judge them. I just wanted to go home and hide in my room and never talk about it again. But God showed me how much he cares for them and how much he wants them to know Him. We met so many people with christian background and ran away from it because people judged them by the way they looked! It broke my heart to hear their stories and how their hearts have harden towards God. I was just observing how my friends interacted with the people that came into our booth. I wish I would have talked to more people. It was my first time to evangelize. But it was nice to see that we where accepted by everyone. Not one person walked away that we talked to! God has so much planed for us.
I sold 2 of my purses and gave one to one of the vendors that I met there. Her name is Coco and she sews beautiful guitar cases. I wish I had time to pray for her before I left. So keep her in your prayers.
On monday I am going to find out if I am going to have a niece or a nephew!(so excited)
I am going to visit my family in Bald Knob AR and help them out for a month. Pls. pray for me that I will be successful in finding people that are willing to support me!

A God story

How to start? What can I say? How can I make this a God story?
I give praise to the king of kings and lord of Lords. I serve an awesome God!
I have seen miracles in my life…
I have seen Jesus provide for me when I needed HIM most….
I see His creation every day and every moment I say: “Praise God!”

Really I have been so blessed this month and I was able to see Jesus provide for me. Everybody who read my last blog knows that I have started sewing purses for this hippie festival. What do Christians like me do at a hippie festival selling purses? Let me tell you…
The Wakarusa (name of the hippie festival) is an annual band festival that is here to stay. We are setting up a small pilot program to learn the most effective ways to reach out to these participants. As an in-road to establish a presence at the event we are partnering with both local and out-of-state artists and craft-makers to sell God-inspired arts and crafts. This will provide a contact point for evangelizing, prayer, and giving tracts. Our staff and artists are trained to pray for and evangelize to those with varied worldviews. We are also ready to offer discipleship to new converts.
I am really excited to be a part of such an awesome opportunity. But not only that I have already experienced God’s glory in the preparation time.
When I started out I had borrowed a sewing machine from a friend and was really excited. But it didn’t last for very long until I had to return the sewing machine. I was really frustrated and bummed that I couldn’t continue my work. So I started to pray and asked God for a sewing machine under $25. I kinda looked around in Antique stores but couldn’t find one. The next day a friend and I stopped at our local thrift store and there it was a SEWING MACHINE. I asked if it was on sale and the lady at the counter said she didn’t know. I left my number and asked the lady to give me a call if she finds out. I was waiting for a call but it never came. So 3 days later I went there again w/ my brother and some friends and asked again for the sewing machine. Praise God for my brother and his girlfriend. Thanks to their friendship with one of the ladies that works there I was able to get the sewing machine for free!!!!

Part 2 of my Newsletter!!!

More about my life in YWAM Ozarks!

Preview
During my entire DTS I had a hard time deciding what to do after. I worked in the Kitchen as my work duty for the first 3 months. And I really enjoyed it! It seems like God instigated for me to stay here because the former Cook just had her second child. There was no way anyone else had the time or knew how to cook for 30 people every day for 2 meals. So I decided to stay. I have been working here as YWAM staff for 6 months now. I have made a year commitment……

Living in Community
….. Running a campus takes a lot of people to get the schools going. Right now we have 11 Staff plus 10 Students. Our Campus Directors (Jim and Barb Nizza), 3 School of biblical studies (SBS) Staff, 4 DTS Staff, 1 Hospitality Staff and me as Kitchen Staff. You’re with the same people everyday 24/7. And like everyone else I get annoyed by some people’s habits. Like for instance: Some of my girl friends here love Taylor Swift and like to play it EVERYDAY and I can’t stand it. Instead of going crazy about it and tell them how much I hate having to listen to it, I react in LOVE. I just mentioned it in a conversation that I don’t like listening to Taylor Swift but because I love them I will listen to it when they play it. It’s easier to enjoy living in Community if you respect and love the people you life with.

Our Goals and Projects
We are running a lot of little and big projects. A bigger one that we have been working on for a while now and really close of finishing is the Cafeteria. One of our goals here in YWAM Ozarks is reaching out to the Community (mainly the youth). So we started looking for some activities that we can offer. For instance we have Ultimate Frisbee on Sunday afternoon, a coffee house on Saturday’s, Mission adventure and more. We usually have 2 schools going during the year DTS and SBS.

What happened since last September?
DTS and SBS started on the same day! We had 2 week before to get everything done. We where all really excited to meet the new students.
So on end of Sept everybody came and so much chaos because everybody was trying to find there rooms and running around. I had some family here my dad came for a visit.

School began on Monday and everything began to schedule in again.
Ok so pretty much everyday was a busy day for me. I had to cook for 30 People (not counted guest speaker and other guests) everyday for 2 meals. I was glad I didn’t have to make the roaster every week. Jen my boss how is THE Kitchen chef told what to do. =) (by the time she was 8 months Prego)
But then it happened! After waiting for an extra 3 weeks the baby Ava Pearl Levin finally came. Jen decided to have the baby in the dorm. Guess who’s The Levin neighbor? Yes it’s me and I heard everything! (Totally weird experience)
Well time goes by so fast! Exactly 2 Months ago the DTS was going on Outreach to a Muslim Country in Africa.
That meant for me to be in charge of the entire kitchen. (It’s not that big) Decide what we will eat the next 2 Months, make sure everything stays clean you know all that stuff you have to do when you’re in charge of a kitchen.
Wow I can’t tell you how much I love my job! Not only get I to do it everyday I also make other people happy. Cooking is my passion and I thank God that he used my passion and made it into my ministry. What a wonderful God I serve.

God Provides
Right now I am working on another project. I am making purses and beat jewelry and try to sell them at a hippie festival. I’m also trying to sell some of them online so if you’re interested just let me know! I also crochet beanies and hopefully I get to start to make baby clothing. I started a group on Facebook (Angelina Kerns art and more) where you can see some of my Stuff that I made and also some of my somewhat art works. Since I have so much time after dinner I decided to do something with my time. I haven’t sold anything yet but hoping that will change soon.
Other than that I just enjoy being around my friends and loving God more and more everyday. Whatever it takes to live the life that God wants me to and that means trusting God to provide.

Be A Part Of My Ministry
All YWAM staff are required to raise financial support from friends and family. Who are interested in partnering with their personal vision and calling. I would like to stay and help out a little longer. I know God has so many awesome plans for me and I know He wants me here during this time.

Would you pray about being a monthly supporter?

Just contact me and I will give you further information on how to give.
Thanks for being a part of fulfilling God’s plan in my life!

Newsletter!

Ok after I have tried to send my Newsletter per E-mail. I had decided to just blog them because it's to much work and most of the people I have tryed to send them they could not receive them.

Hey Everyone!
I just wanted to give you an update, of what I’ve been doing in the last few years!
This is for everyone! People who know me really well or people who just know my parents or haven’t seen me in a while!
I am working with an organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). YWAM’s mission statement is to KNOW GOD and to make Him KNOWN. This ministry began in 1960. The main focus was giving young people opportunities to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the whole world, according to His command in Mark 16:15. Today, we still focus on youth, but we have members (known as “YWAMers”) of almost every age. Many of our short-term efforts have grow into long-term endeavors that have left an impact in lives and nations. YWAM encourages new vision and the exploration of new ways to transform lives through training, conveying the message of the gospel and caring for those in need. We are currently operating in more than 1000 locations in over 150 countries, with a staff of nearly 16,000. A prerequisite to joining YWAM staff or receiving further training is YWAM’s Discipleship Training School (DTS).
Now back to my Story!
I first heard about YWAM when I had just turned 5. A YWAM group came to stay at my parent’s guest house for a few months. When I was almost 18, I took a job at a guesthouse. Located inside the guesthouse was a small YWAM office, plus my boss was a former YWAMer. Isn’t it funny how God clears our path before we get there and prepares the way for us?
I still didn’t know much about YWAM until my brother Johannes, a YWAMer himself, sent me an email. He invited me to join a DTS starting at the end of February 2009. I had committed to work at the guesthouse until the end of March. “No big deal!” I thought, “I’ll just take the DTS starting in the fall.” But my brother insisted on me coming to the DTS in February. I am not a risk taker, but I took the challenge. I had 2 week to decide if I should go. This meant: praying about it, talking to my boss, buying an airline ticket, and getting over my traveling fears (I hate traveling on my own). God managed everything; he really wanted me to go! I got laid off, I found a cheap ticket and God gave me peace. March 1st I was in a plane on my way to Ozark Arkansas!

The first three months of my DTS I spent time learning about Jesus and the way He feels about me. What a time of transformation!
After 3 months of life changing experience, I went to a communist country in Asia for two months. A country where no one is allowed to teach the gospel. A place where people are stacked on top of each other, because there are too many people and not enough space to live. It was a hard experience, but helpful to see the world from a different point of view. Living in a different country makes you different. Now I see things through different eyes. Let’s just say God renewed me through and through. HE scrubbed me real clean! =)
After my DTS, I decided to stay and work as Kitchen Staff on the Campus in Ozark, Arkansas. During my entire DTS I had a hard time deciding what to do after. I worked in the Kitchen as my work duty for the first 3 months. And I really enjoyed it! It seems like God instigated for me to stay here because the former Cook just had her second child. There was no way anyone else had the time or knew how to cook for 30 people every day for 2 meals. So I decided to stay. I have been working here as YWAM staff for 6 months now. I have made a year commitment.

……….my Story is going to continue.
What you are going to read in my next letter is: My life in YWAM Ozarks as a Staff.

God bless you
Angelina

P.S: We, at YWAM Ozarks, would love to pray for you! Let me know if you have any prayer requests, and we will either pray for you during one of our campus intercession times or I will keep you in my prayers personally!