Hello team! If you haven’t already, you will be receiving an e-mail soon on your final trip instructions. That e-mail will contain the team roster, which I have also included at the bottom of this post (just click on the link to download and view). Please take a few moments and pray over the individuals on your team. Here are some ideas for target prayers, as you lift each one up to the Lord.

• safe and smooth travel
• physical, emotional and spiritual health
• peace and rest
• wisdom and understanding
• increased anointing and grace
• divine appointments
• personal breakthrough
• strength and boldness
• fulfillment of God’s will

Some of the most powerful and effective prayers are the ones we speak out! Words have power so as you pray, declare! The Word, the name of Jesus and the blood are also very powerful tools for prayer. In addition to praying for your leaders and team, you should be praying for yourself. Here’s a few ideas; as a prophetic act, you can read Ephesians 6:10-20 and actually put on the Armor of God! It’s a fun way to memorize the verses, and is also good preparation for your trip. Get saturated in worship! You can also strengthen your spirit by praying in tongues and maintaining a thankful and positive attitude. You’re just a few days away! Get ready for an awesome trip. We’ll be praying for you and can’t wait to hear the testimonies!

South Africa Photo Roster

~Sally, G Trips Intern

The countdown is on! Are you ready?! We have been planning and praying for the trip and team heading to South Africa. You are going to experience the power of the Gospel, meet amazing brothers and sisters in Christ, and make memories that will last a lifetime. Whether you have been on a trip with us before, or this is your first time, you will not be the same afterwards. The Global Awakening team is an encouraging, loving, and passionate body of believers (among other great qualities).  Our family is growing as we continue to minister locally from Mechanicsburg, PA and around the world! We are so honored that you have chosen to come with us to South Africa and we welcome you to our family 🙂

Below are the names and photos of your trip leaders. Tom, Charity and Pat live and work in Pennsylvania at Global Awakening. Steve, Sally and Kim are Pastors who have been leading trips and partnering with us for years. You will be truly blessed by this leadership team. Let’s lift them in prayer, asking God to cover, protect and fill them. Extend your prayers over their families. Your prayers are powerful and intentionally  praying for your leaders is so important.

 

In the next post I will be adding the team member photos. I encourage you to set aside at least a few minutes of your prayer time, specifically to pray for the individuals on the team. This is a strategic praying. Declare the Lord’s strength over the names you read, lay hands on their faces on the screen, have fun with it, be creative. Maybe you will get a prophetic word to give one of your teammates. Praying should be fun, not a boring task on your to-do list. In the name of Jesus, I bless your time in prayer, and I ask the Holy Spirit to bring you joy and peace as you press into prayer for trip and South Africa team.

~Sally, G Trips Intern

Hello South Africa team. I apologize for the length of time it has been since the last blog post. I’m sure you are all getting very excited for your trip. Tonight I am going to write about developing a personal prayer life. You probably already have your own way of fellowship with God, so this will just be a few ideas that you might consider adding to your prayer life. These are some practical ways that can help to keep you accountable and consistent in your prayer and devotion time with the Lord. These points are drawn from an article I read on the International House of Prayer’s web page, which was written by Mike Bickle.

3 Tips for Developing and Keeping a Consistent Prayer Life

1. Schedule your prayer time. If you think of your time of prayer as an appointment, you may be more likely to “show up”. You wouldn’t miss appointments with friends, family or professionals, so don’t miss your appointment with the King. Setting a time establishes “when” you will pray.
2. Make a list. Most people will pray 10 times more just by scheduling and utilizing a list for prayer. It may seem legalistic, but many people who love God, confess they find it difficult to sustain a prayer life, and these simple tips are very helpful. Having a list will keep you focused on “what” to pray.
3. The 3rd tip is to have a right view of God. A right view of God will cause you to “want” to pray. A good way to test your view of God is simply to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you, if there is any lie you believe about God. If he shows you anything, then you can ask him to show you the truth about God, so that you can replace the lie.

You can take these 3 ideas for developing a stronger prayer life and apply them to your prayers for the trip to South Africa. You are only a short 2.5 weeks away from the departure date! In the upcoming blog posts, I will be adding pictures of the individual team leaders and members. This way you will have names and faces of people who you will pray with and for.

~Sally, G-Trips Intern

Expectation is an interesting concept. One year my mom told me her New Year’s resolution was going to be “expecting less of others”. At first I thought that was pretty cynical, like she thought people were bound to disappoint so it’d be easier to just expect that from them. That wasn’t the point at all though. She wanted to grow in contentment, to not be emotionally dependent, on others meeting her needs or expectations.

With God, expectation can and should look very different. He is perfect, he is good, he loves and his plan for each of us is always to give us hope and a future. His promises are true, and we need to believe that. When we pray for healing, provision, wisdom, understanding, or direction, what do we expect? God won’t always give us what we think we need, but we can expect that he will give us what he already knows we need. In the same way, he wants to use us to give others what they need. Having the expectation for God to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine will build our trust in him and it will move him.

Watch this short message from Randy about the Power of Expectation

Now take some of these truths and declare them. If you take half a dozen verses and commit to declaring them, let’s say 5 times a day, it will start to change your expectation about God, what he can and will do through you and for you.

1. My prayers are powerful and effective (2 Cor 5:21; James 5:16b)
2. God richly supplies all my financial needs (Phil 4:19)
3. I am dead to sin and alive to obeying God (Romans 6:11)
4. I walk in ever-increasing health (Isaiah 53:3-5)
5. I live under a supernatural protection (Ps 91)
6. I prosper in all my relationships (Luke 2:52)
7. I consistently bring God encounters to other people (Mark 16:17,18)
8. Through Jesus I am 100% loved and worthy to receive all of God’s blessings (Gal 3:1-5)
9. Each of my family members is wonderfully blessed and radically loves Jesus (Acts 16:30.31)
10.I uproariously laugh when I hear a lie from the devil (Psalms 2:2-4)

11. I set the course of my life today with my words (James 3:2-5).
12. I declare today that I cannot be defeated, discouraged, depressed or disappointed. (Phil 4:13)
13. I am the head. I have insight. I have wisdom. I have ideas. I have authority. (Deut 28:13; Deut 8:18; James 1:5-8; Luke 10:19)
14. As I speak God’s promises, they come to pass. They stop all attacks, assaults, oppression, and fear from my life. (2 Peter 1:2-4; Mark 11:23-24).
15. God is on my side today and therefore I cannot be defeated. (Romans 8:37; Psalms 91)
16. I have the wisdom of God today. I will think the right thoughts, say the right words, and make the right decisions in every situation I face. (1 Corinthians 2:16)
17. I choose life today. I choose health. I will not be depressed today. I will not be in lack today. I will not be confused today. (Deut 30:19; Neh 8:10; Ps 103:1-3; 2 Tim 1:6,7)
18. I expect the best day of my life spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and financially in Jesus’ name. (Romans 15:13)

You are not a muffin… YOU are a cupcake!

Sally Couillard,

Global Awakening IMT Intern

 

I  therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ~Ephesians 4:1-3

We are going to impact many lives on this trip! How we come together matters. Long term impact depends more deeply on the team’s heart preparation and unity in the Holy Spirit, than it does on technical preparation.  Here are some ways to consider preparing your heart and spirit, so that we, as a team are strong, unified and leave a lasting impact.

Be on point

If you were to shoot an arrow with a dull tip at a target it may strike the mark, but will it stick? No. Let your arrow be sharp. A good witness doesn’t have to be perfect, but let’s consider some areas that could hinder or enhance long-term impact.

Pray that God would help to prepare you to be:

• focused (on Him)
• unified (with Him and the team)
• positive
• submissive
• full of praise and faith
• clean of any pride, rebellion against the team or leaders, division, strife towards members, complaining, negativity and impurity

Be flexible

You never know when the opportunity to minister will present itself. Maybe it will be an airport, airplane, automobile or hotel lobby. There are going to be places where you expecting to minister to people and see the Holy Spirit move, but God is not limited to our expectations or agendas. Many times opportunities arise when we least expect it and feel unprepared or weak. Be flexible and expect the unexpected!

The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way. ~Psalm 37:23

The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. ~Proverbs 16:9

Be confident in your calling

Whatever excuse you may hear as to why God won’t use you, put out of your head. His grace is sufficient for you, and his power made perfect through your weaknesses. Maybe you’ve heard this one: God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called! Tell yourself you’re worthy, smart, talented, gifted, valuable and you belong on this team! Every member is bringing something different and together with our different strengths we will make a difference.

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I set you apart. ~Jeremiah 1:5 

Here is a prayer for you to repeat regarding your confidence;

Father I thank you that I can be confident in Christ and rather than dependent on my own ability. The stirring inside me to travel to South Africa is a desire that you put in my heart. I have chosen to say yes to the call! In Jesus name, I break the power of any lie that I may be hearing about myself including what I am called to in this season. Holy Spirit come fill me, replace lies with truth and ungodly fear with faith.

 

Welcome to the South Africa team’s blog page! We will be posting devotionals, prayer requests and other tid-bits to help build community within the team and prepare you for the trip to South Africa, Nov 7 to Nov 20, 2018. We can all pray everyday in the time leading up to departure, for each other, the team leaders, and of course the churches and people we’ll be ministering to in the wonderful nation of South Africa. God is going to do amazing things, beginning right here! So let’s get ready, and get excited before we GO!

While you prepare, get into prayer!

You have your checklist: passport, sunscreen, toothbrush etc…But there’s a lot more to preparation for your trip to keep in mind than what goes into your suitcase. If you haven’t already, start making time to pray into the trip. One method of prayer that I like to use is “Up, Out, In”. Praying up just means that the focus of our prayer is on God and Heaven. Thank him for who he is. Praise him. Make declarations about Heaven’s plans aligning and being fulfilled here on Earth as we prepare and go to South Africa. After you have prayed up, pray out. The focus of out prayers have to do with others and what is outside of ourselves. Intercede for the team, the leaders, the hosts and anyone we will be ministering to. Once you have spent time praying up and out, pray inward for yourself. For some more really great ideas on prayer, I highly recommend one of my favorite books, The Happy Intercessor by Beni Johnson.

Here are some areas to target in your time of intercession

• Expanding the Kingdom of Heaven
• Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
• Increased anointing, revelation and authority in the Spirit
• Physical, emotional and spiritual healing
• Salvation and deliverance
• Health, safety and provision
• Personal and corporate assignments, growth and intimacy with God

In the coming days and weeks I will be posting more ideas and requests about prayer and preparation for the South Africa trip. Your input, thoughts and requests are important. The blog is to help you get ready, get excited and get to know the team better. Another place we will be connecting is through a group facebook page, so let me know if you want to be added as a member. Send your prayer requests, prophetic insights, ideas and comments to imt.intern@globalawakening.com. I will be sharing these with the team here, so that we can build some community and great friendships before we go. If you would like to receive emails about new posts on the team blog page, just click the blue “Follow” box on the right of the page. I am excited to hear from you all and pray with you for your trip to South Africa!

Sally Couillard,

Global Awakening IMT Intern

 

Thanks for joining us!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton