the devil came on horseback documentary.

i dont even know what to say. im almost ashamed that here i am, sitting in my three bedroom 2 and a half bath with two animals and a closet full of clothes. i go to school everyday and the last thing on my mind is the fear of losing my life. i dont even think ive ever been in a situation where i was really going to lose it. not that im worried, ill be with Jesus. but the fact that im so protected, so safe. while thousands of girls and boys my age right now are being murdered in sudan. their moms, their brothers, their dads, their uncles. people like you and me. i dont know what to do. and i know that Jesus is so much bigger than it all, but i just get so sad when i think that were standing here watching hundreds of thousands of innocent sudanese christians get slaughtered. were standing here, in america. and what kills me is that the sudanese people think that were there for them. one man said he prays for america, hes so thankful for what they are doing. but most americans dont know or dont care about whats happening a continent away on africa. is this what God's called us to do? the only thing i have comfort in is that i know that God sees them, and He loves each and every precious life that has been brually taken. oh, but if it could only end. please have mercy Jesus...

when the saints

such an amazing song! i dont know how long it will be up there, but go here and download the song, its free http://www.ijm.org/NETCOMMUNITY/page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fphobos.apple.com%2fWebObjects%2fMZStore.woa%2fwa%2fviewAlbum%3fid%3d267224087%26s%3d143441&srcid=22357&srctid=1&erid=2088672 .
its honestly so good. i can't get over it

one of the weirdest things ive ever seen...

...anyone else confused? i really was, so much that i had to take a picture

i got tagged by katie.. haha

just noticed. okay, well...
1. ive never been trick or treating. next wednesday is my...16th year of NOT trick or treating? cool
2. i used to be a big tom boy. i cut my hair really short and wore baggy clothes and me and my other "tom boy" friends would argue if we should call ourselves tom girls or tom boys. my now best friend beckie wore dresses and when she would ask to play with us wed say "no 'cause dresses are girly girl!" yay for second grade!!
3. i fell on a treadmill in 7th grade and still have the scars. it hurt so bad!
4. i was on a plane 6 times the summer before my 8th grade year. cali-florida-panama-florida-cali-costa rica-cali
5.when i was little i would pretend to give God a kiss and a hug before i went to bed and id say goodnight to the angels around me :)
6.I ABSOLUTELY HATE GREEN BEANS. and i went to a little ladies dinner at beckies uncles church and a lady scooped a huge pile of them onto my plate and said "i made them myself, theyre delicious!" wouldnt have been bad, but then she came and sat next to me and made sure i ate them. when she wasnt looking id put them on beckies plate, but she made sure she saw me eat them. it was awful
7.i talk to my dog and cat when im alone.
well, i have no clue who's going to read this and who to tag. sooo if you havent done this then i tag you!

i

really dont like awkward, incredibly uncomfortable, conversations. and then you wish you had said something else but you only knew what came to your head when it happened cause it was just so weird. and people yelling at you from their cars(well, not when i know them of course) and especially when they happen right after eachother.
butttttt its okay!!!
learn learn learn
like paul, i think it was paul, that said, let your speech always be with grace, as if seasoned with salt, so you will know how to respond to each person. ohhhh Lord i need that!

Rami Khader Ayyad.

http://www.opendoorsusa.org/content/view/287/139/
go there to view the article. he left behind his pregnant wife and two young sons as well. i dont know if ill ever be able to fully understand the middle east conflict, but i do know these people are our brothers and sisters in Christ. why arent we helping them more? if youve heard of Brother Andrew's latest book, Light Force( im just beginning it, my mom just finished it) when you get to the end youll read about a young man named Rami who was ready to do anything for the Lord. this is the same man. and he was the owner of the same bookshop mentioned in Light Force, the only christian bookshop in Gaza. my mom and I were talking about the book when i mentioned the article i had read from my sisters blog about a young palestinian bookstore owner that was murdered, and my mom realized this was the same Rami from Light force.
his family needs our prayer.
christian palestinians need our prayer.

adflksajdfslk~!!!!!

school!!!! ah!!! its becoming too much. thinking about all the credits i need...the things i need to do for colleges to want to accept me..blah. its too much. but, its all in the Lord's hands. its hard learning how to trust Him even with these kind of things.

worship

i love everything about it. i mean, i don't know, it's just so cool how God gave us the capability to worship Him through songs, and we dont need anything else to do it, we just need us and that's it. i mean, we add in instruments, and it's awesome, but i just love how God made it so simple. like, when youre full of joy, all you want to do is sing! haha i love the Lord so much! it's like worshipping is the only thing i can think of doing sometimes when im trying to express my love and adoration for Him. and how as a church body we can do it together! :)

"Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre."
psalm 150:1-3

china!

my friend made a video about our trip to china, and since im too busy to make one myself, i thought id just put hers up:) its 7 minutes...but its worth it!

my epiphany of the morning...

"To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administation of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might be now made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places." ephesians 3:8-10
Okay, so not only is it amazing the kind of grace God has towards Paul, to allow him to tell of this great mystery-what Jesus did for us and God's love for us-to the gentiles. But angels, good and bad, didn't understand it either until it was revealed through the church! I don't know, yesterday my mom and I had a long conversation about angels, demons, satan, evil, free will...and a lot more.. so, when I read that this morning, it made me really excited! It then brought me to.."it was reavealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in theses things which now have seen anounced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-things into which angels long to look." 1 peter 1:12
that's insanity! i mean, angels must've been going, "Lord, why did you even create these things?" for thousands and thousands of years until that mystery was revealed to them through us, the church! crazy. I just think it's so cool the nature God has, the longing to love us and be loved by us-companionship. That's why He made us! and it finally makes sense to all those angels, good and bad, why God would make such funny creatures like us... Ha..well, I don't even know if this is making any sense, but it all makes sense in my head and when I talk about it, writing it is a little harder. It's just so cool!
i love Jesus :)

matthew 11:28

i love how simple and straightforward Jesus is.
"come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I wil give you rest. take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. for My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

i try so much in my human weakness and in my flesh to carry all these things when the Lord is clearly telling me, " Bethany, come on, just let me do it!!" i guess i like to act macho or something because ill just say, "No Lord, really, i think i can handle it. look at me, im all super-christian and stuff!"ha....NOT. being home in this different season and time of rest compared to China has been hard because ive been noticing so much more that needs prayer and then sub-consciously thinking that i can do it without relying on the holy spirit. which is not smart. theres so much need for the Lord in carp, and its really overwhelming trying to deal with it all alone. i just felt really burned out, like, "Lord, i dont know what to do, theres just too much for me to pray for and too much that needs to be fixed by You!" and then, in His tender patience and mercy(AHH THANK YOU LORD haha)He was just like"Um, bethany...MATTHEW 11:28!!!!!" and its that simple. just take off my burden, give it to the Lord, and take His. no if ands or buts. He's so good to us! i can't get over it, and i know i'll never EVER be able to understand it. and He didnt make prayer to overly burden and weigh us down. He wants us to give it to Him through prayer, because prayer changes things!!!! im so excited to see what He's going to do this year:)

college..

i know i still have two years to figure it out, but i've been begininning to think of where id like to go for college...
its really overwhelming, so many choices.
"Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path"
ps 119:105
yup

me!

"One thing that I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple...when You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You, 'Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.'"
Psalm 27:4,8

:)

James...

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. "
james 1:27
okay, that's crazy.
just think about what james is saying right there. it seems like one of the themes of james is purity, especially purity of speech. in the verse right before that it says "if anyone thinks himself to be religious, yet does not BRIDLE HIS TONGUE but decieves his own heart, this man's religion is worthless."
and worthless meaning idle, fruitless, useless, etc..
so we as christians can think were striving to live out a pure religion before God, but really because we dont live a life of purity, were decieving ourselves.
we can donate thousands of dollars every year, we can go to the soup kitchen every month, we can even travel overseas and do "good things", but its not real religion in the eyes of our Father unless were trying to keep ourselves unstained from the world. verse 27 isnt an either/or instruction, it says AND to keep oneself unstained from the world.
it goes both ways too, we can try to be as holy as we want, but without an outpouring of the love Christs poured out on us in our lives it's also useless...i guess it all comes down to love. Christ's love for us, our love for Him, and that love being put into action through us. when we have a pure love for Christ and His word, it comes natural to want to love others and to try to glorify God through our lives by walking in the righteousness He's given us.
haha there were probably a lot of run-on sentences in there...but i just felt like sharing that. it's something God has been revealing a lot to me lately:)

IM HOME

wow, okay, I'm home!!!! There's so much to talk about...so I dont know what to say. Regardless of that, GOD IS GOOD! He did awesome things and I'm excited to get to share what He did and spoke to me this trip. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS! I'll see most of you tommorow at church! blessings!!!

English Camp a Great Success

We got a phone call from Bethany early in the morning today. She is back in Hongkong after the week of English camp. She said the camp went really well; they formed great relationshps with the kids and were able to be very open about their faith. They performed a drama called Freedom and then led discussion groups about why only Jesus could set the prisoner free. By the end of the week, many Chinese teenagers had prayed to accept the Lord!

Their plans for the next week in Hongkong include visiting a drug rehab center and spending time transporting some of "Dad's Letters" across the border into mainland China.

Bethany sounded really good. She said a lot of the team had been troubled by travel-common stomach ailments and asked for prayer for health and strength. None of them are getting much sleep. Apparently she slept most of the train ride back!

Again, I'm posting the only picture I could find of her.

Next Stop: 20 hour train ride

Bethany's team is now on a train headed into mainland China where they will be holding an English language camp.

Yesterday the team "prayer walked" around the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas using Ephesians 1:17-18 as their prayer basis. This is a picture of Bethany at the temple with three other team members. Out of over thirty photos posted on the Global Expeditions site, this is the only one of her!

Lets pray this prayer for Bethany and her team and for the Chinese students in thier English camp.

Ephesians 1: 17-18. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints

Bethany's in Hongkong

We just got a brief phone call from Bethany. She and her team arrived safely in Hongkong, where she says its HOT. They won't be there long: they are leaving on Tuesday for mainland China. After a 20 hour train ride, they will arrive at their destination ready to teach English to a camp of teenagers, 13-19. The English camp has curriculum and lesson plans, seems really well organized. Bethany is excited!

She doesn't know if she'll have access to the Internet, but I can send her messages, which the team leaders distribute, so if you have something you really want her to know, I can pass it on.

She thanks everyone for your prayers. "The Prayers of a faithful man availeth much!"

Bethany's Mom for Bethany

TEXAS

Ni Hao! Well, I have five minutes here on the internet, every body is trying to get on. I'm here! I'm so exhausted....please pray that the nearness and joy of the Lord would be my strength. My team is leaving tonight at 3 from where we are now and taking a 2 hour bus ride to dallas where we'll be taking a 16 hour flight to tokyo with a 5 hour layover there and then 5 hours to hong kong! I've really realized that God has really prepared me for this trip...and I'm very thankful. I can feel all the prayer that was put into this :) But, the same prayers as before, for unity in the team and that sort of stuff. I miss you all! I can't wait to go home and worship Jesus with all my friends...it will be very refreshing :) adios friends!

Almost there...

OKAY! So, only four more days until I get on a plane for Texas, and only six until I'm in China! Because of the difficulty of accessing the internet and even being able to sign into a blog(government restrictions) my mom, Helen Ernst, will be updating this blog. Whatever she hears or reads from me will be posted here so everyone will be up to date.

Well, anyways, I'm REALLY excited to see what the Lord has in store. I believe in faith He's going to do miracles and CRAZY things :) Prayer is really appreciated, REALLY. Some specifics are: unity in the team, we would continually be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit, we would accurately show the love of Christ, and God's will would be done! Keep on checking back these next few weeks, hopefully there will be lots to read as the trip unfolds :) Blessings in Christ! Bethany

hi everyone :)

I decided to make this blog for china. I'm not really sure how it will work out when I get there, but hopefully I'll be able to keep everyone updated:) I'll be leaving to Hong Kong and Southern China with Global Expeditions July 10 and coming back August 4. If you have any other questions you can email me at bethany.ernst@gmail.com :) Have a blessed day