I'm going into the world...... [Matthew 28:19-20]

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

[Matthew 28:19-20 NIV]

I know what you're all thinking....I'm in a missions school... of course that would be the verse I use. But this verse has really had an impact on me. I want you to read same passage, but from The Message:

"God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."

[Matthew 28:19-20]

And that is exactly what I feel like God is calling me to do; to take this knowledge and revelation of God's character and truth that i've learned into the world and share it! Why would I want to keep it for my self? Over my nine weeks here so far, I have really felt God affirm my call in life. And that call is going to lead me to be a full time missionary! How awesome? So what does this mean? Well... this means that I will not be attending college in January as originally planned. Instead, I am going to be attending a second level YWAM School in Denver, Colorado! The school is called School of Worship (SOW) [click the link to read about it]. The mission statement for this course is, "to raise-up worshippers who are passionate about Jesus and skillfully trained; those who will not only minister to God's heart, but will go into all the world with His high praises in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand (Psalm 149:6),"  

After that? I am not totally sure, but I know that I will be involved in missions/ministry. I am pretty confident that it will be in the form of YWAM. I would love to be apart of a YWAM youth ministry, or staff a DTS. At this point, I can't really see past SOW, but I know God will speak to me. 

Okay so here is the background story of why I have chosen this over Berklee College of Music (Yeah I know that you guys think i'm absolutely crazy for turning down a scholarship there, and yeah, I am crazy): When my mom was pregnant with me, she was prophesied over that I would be a worship leader! This prophecy has always been in the back of my head, but I never really knew how to pursue it. I thought by going to music school I would be pursing this, when really I realized that going to Berklee is only going to pursue my musical calling, but not my worship leader calling. I also realized something else since being here. When I first got here, I thought that because I had gotten a scholarship, God wanted me at Berklee, but then I got the revelation that God is a God of CHOICES! I believe that there is ONE call on our lives, but MANY paths to that calling. By God providing me with the finances for Berklee, He made Berklee an option for me. Had the finances not been there, it wouldn't have even been an option. So yeah, God made that an option because of His goodness. So SOW is another one of those options, and for right now, it is the option I am going to take. By being at Berklee, I would be getting an education to be in the industry, or sit in an office as a musical therapist, when really I know that I am called to be in the world, and see it change! By being apart of SOW, I will not only get an intense training in music, but also a training in how to be a Worship Leader and also get training to go into the world! I have been praying about this a lot, and so has my mom and we are both in agreement!

So yes, this is me officially announcing that I am not going to college as planned, and I am going to be a missionary! Yes this is very scary as I will be totally dependent for finances. SOW is another $4,000 and then joining staff can be anywhere from $14,000 and $17,000 a year because of staff fees, meals, insurance, visas, etc. BUT I know that God is my ultimate provider, and if I am in the center of His will, He WILL provide. Yes, I know I have to be proactive and do my part, but I am totally trusting God for finances in the years to come!

I ask that you partner with me so that I may hear clearly from God about my future, and also pray even now that God provides my finances. 

Well 24 days til I leave for London & India! I'll let you know more soon!

- Grace Eggers

Make Complacency My Enemy...

"Hear me Oh Lord when I cry.

I'm broken, I'm thirsty, and I'm tried.

God make complacency my enemy and your fight.

Let desperation be like David's key for my life.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me;

my cup runneth over, my cup runneth over.

The broke, the contrite you have yet to deny.

I lay before you; I lay bare before you.

No you're never gonna leave me dry

No you don't, no you don't' no you don't

You're always willing; my cup you'll be filling

You fill us with your love; overwhelm us with you love.

Take us from the ashes, seat us with princes.

It's what you do; it's just what you do!"

- Never Gonna Leave Me Dry - IHOPKC

This song has come up so many times this week during base worship, school worship, worship night, and in my quiet times! I have really made this my prayer! One of the words spoken over our school is that we "make complacency our enemy"! What a prayer! God has really been speaking to me about a lot of things the past week or so and I can't wait for Him to continue speaking. 

With all that said, I am really sorry that I haven't posted an update in a while! I have no legitimate excuse! So i'll get right into it. Since my last blog we have had lectures on the Father Heart of God, Submission & Authority, and this past week was on Missions! Talk about heavy topics! Father Heart was really good, and I embraced the healing that came through seeing God as my Heavenly Father. Authority & Submission was also great and very challenging. However, my favorite week thus far has been Missions. We had the National Director for YWAM Bangladesh speak to us. Originally from Papua New Guinea, he has truly adopted Bangladesh as his home. It was so great to see someone who has SO much passion for the nations and has so much passion to see others catch the same passion. He talked a lot about the imbalance in missions and mission support! Did you know that only 10% of Christians support missionaries!? That makes me really sad!

On Friday, we applied Missions by "adopting a country." We were given a list of unreached countries to pray about. Part of adopting a country is to pray, give, or go. At first I didn't feel like i was discerning what God was saying to me, however as I kept praying, God clearly spoke SYRIA to me. Wait... what? Why? I was kinda bummed because I was hoping God would speak a south-east asian or african country to me. But God really pressed Syria on my heart and as I kept praying about it, God began to give me an excitement. Yes I have to admit that I didn't even know where Syria was, but now I know that I have to find out more about the country and definitely keep it in my prayer. 

During the course of the week, I really witnessed God reveal His call on my life for missions/ministry. In reality, I think I have always been called to missions, but it took this week for my eyes to be opened to it. I have never wanted to lead an ordinary lifestyle, and I don't want to. God has called me to be apart of the world, to live in the world, and to see it change. The thought of living the "american dream" sickens me. Not saying that it is wrong, and yes for some people that dream is awesome, but for me particularly, I know God has called me to live out of the normal. Having a call in missions is very scary, but also VERY exciting! 

So yes folks, I, Grace Eggers am going to be a missionary!

Talk to you soon! I promise I won't keep you waiting again, 

Grace Eggers

PRAYER REQUESTS

- Pray for my outreach team going to London and Hyderabad, India

- Pray that God will bring in funds for outreach! We need $4,500 each! (Ask God also if He would have you partner with me in supporting me financially with my costs)

- Pray for direction as to what to do after DTS

- Pray for continued health for my body recovering from Mononucleosis/Glandular Fever

Jai Ho!

I'll be singing that a lot! And the best part, is i'll be singing it in INDIA!

Today, our outreach locations were announced! As I said before, we will be spending five or six weeks in London working with Megacities! Megacities was started by YWAM Perth. Every two years, YWAM picks a city. They go into this city for one year and evangelize the heck out of it working alongside local churches. In 2010, they were in Mexico City and saw over 10,000 people come to the Lord. This year in London, Megacities is coming to a close and so far they have only seen 260 salvations, however there is firm belief that something BIG is about to happen in the closing season. My DTS is split up into three teams; we will each be assigned a borough and will do ministry there!

After the weeks in London, I have the awesome privilege to travel on a team of 15 to the great nation of INDIA! Nothing has been announced as to what we will be doing there, or where exactly we will be! All I know is that I WILL be there, and it is going to take $4,500 to get me there! But God is so good, and he is SO faithful! I am so excited too about my team, there is such great chemistry on our team, and I know God has BIG plans for us! 

I will keep you posted as I learn more about the outreach!

Love you all!

The next four days...

The next four days are going to spent in intense prayer. Outreach locations were announced tonight. I have four days to pray about it, and make my decision on Friday. We will know the teams by Tuesday.


There will be three outreach teams. Each team will spend 4 or 5 weeks in......

London!

After that, each team will go to a differnt location for 6 or 7 weeks. The locations are....

Cambodia

India

Nepal

Now comes the part where you and I both get to pray that God would confirm where I am supposed to go. Also, my outreach fees are estimated at $4,500. Therefore, please pray that I am able to raise that money, and also consider joining in with me on this adventure by supporting me financially. 


Stay tuned to find out where God calls me!

My hands are really cold right now....

Well, I have officially been gone for a month! It is seriously crazy to think about. I have made so many new friends, best friends, experienced a new culture, been set free from fears and disbeliefs, had an unhealthy amount of TimTams, but most importantly I have been captivated by the lover of my soul, Jesus. 

The people here in Australia, YWAM in particular, are absolutely beautiful people. The hearts, passions, and desire for relationship in these people has changed me. I am still the same Grace Margaret Eggers that I've always been, but a better version. Transformation, revelation, and reconciliation has taken place. Hallelujah! 

This past weeks lectures were on Worship & Intercession. My views of both of these have changed so much. Our speaker, Chris Adams, was SO good! He kept our attention, challenged us, but ultimately, he encouraged us. We had a great time of intercession on Wednesday morning, and a great time of worship on Friday morning. Worship here is amazing, raw, and passionate! 

Monday night, we had our Monday Music Lectures. This week was on Worship Leading. Oh my gosh! Probably my favorite lecture session in general that I have had. As I am called to be a worship leader, I learned so much from this. God is really speaking to me concerning this calling. I realized that education on worship leading, is what I want more of. I'm hungry for more of it! With that said, I am really praying about God's direction for me after DTS. 

Other than that, I am finally adjusted to the schedule and routine here. Waking up for morning excersize is kicking my butt, but it has really disciplined me and gives me no excuse not to have a quiet time. I love that. I see what you did there, YWAM. Lunch Dishes every day is still not very fun, but I am learning to embrace it because I have to deal with it every day. Thursday nights, we have Evangelism. Something that I was scared of at first but now look forward to. And of course my weekends are lovely. Saturdays I tend to devote to doing my weekly journal, spending downtime with friends, and enjoying the views of Perth. Sundays have become Beach Days! The Indian ocean is BEAUTIFUL! Ah, so awesome!

So here is what I'm most excited to tell you about....

This Monday ( IN TWO DAYS ) We find out our OUTREACH LOCATIONS!!!!!! Ah so so so so so so so so so so exciting. After Monday, we will have a week to pray about it (without talking to anyone else about it) and then we get to tell our leaders where we feel God is calling us to in confidence. Sometime after that, our teams will be announced! AH! God has broken my heart for a few nations already, so we will see how it goes!

Anyways, I just finished up watching the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics with some of my favorite people in our dining room. Now, dinner.

I'll be updating you on Monday once our outreach locations are announced.

Forgiveness & Repentance

This is going to be long, but you're going to want to read it. Seriously.


Wow, what a week! I wish everyone on this earth could go through what I and the rest of my DTS went through this week. Let's start at the very beginning...a very good place to start.


Monday mornings, we run. Each day we start out with morning excersize at 6 AM. Yeah, you read that right... I am up BEFORE 6 AM every morning here. Good discipline, eh? Anyways... we all showed up to morning excersize like always, except this time, there was a different vibe in the air. All weekend we had been hearing rumors and stories of what this week would bring to us. Forgiveness & Repentance. Let me tell you what, people don't talk it up for no reason.


Yes, this weeks lectures were on Forgiveness & Repentance. We had one of our base leaders, Ari Slooks from Holland speak to us every morning on not just forgiving and repenting, but living a life of forgiveness and repentance. In the first 15 minutes of our lectures on Monday, God was already convicting me of sins in my life all the way back to third grade. Conviction of things in my life that I didn't realize were sin! The best thing about lectures here at YWAM is they are SO Bible based. There is a scripture to reference everything that our speakers say. That makes it all the more convicting. 


Not only did Ari teach on Forgiveness & Repentance, but he also encouraged us to dig into the Bible and think, he had some very challenging things for us to ponder. Monday-Wednesday were on repentance and the cross. Thursday was on sin and forgiveness. On Thursday, Ari gave us a piece of paper that had categories of sins based on the ten commandments, and gave us our homework. Our homework was to go home, and write out two lists; one for sins/repentance, and one for things/people we need to forgive. WHAT?! Seriously!? Yeah, I'd be bold enough to say that it was the hardest assignment I have EVER been given. 


How does one go about writing out sins as far back as we can think that we have never dealt with. First, you have to be humble enough to write out your sins. If you aren't then you're having pride <-- a sin. So you have to write that one too. See what I mean? As I was going through the list of sins and writing out my sins, there was none stop conviction. Then came to the forgiveness. That one was a bit easier, but still scary. 


SO now you're probably wondering why we did that. Well Friday morning was the answer.


Every Friday during DTS is "application day." Therefore, we put into practice what we learned Monday-Thursday. Little did we know (well we had an idea from all the stories), this would be the most monumental days in some of the lives of the MDTS (Music DTS). We were told to dress comfortably for a long day and to bring our lists. We met in a different room than our lecture room, somewhere more secluded, around 8:30 AM. We started with an hour of worship, and then the fun began. At the center of the room were three chairs. One for Ari, one for our Small Group leader, and the center chair for us. One at a time as led (not forced, but everyone participated), we took a lead of faith and sat in the middle chair with our lists. We confessed our sins....every....last...one....of....them in the form of a prayer. Then, we forgave. WHOA. Talk about emotions, talk about boldness, and talk about compassion. It was ABSOLUTELY amazing to see the boldness of EVERYONE (36 people, guys and girls between the ages of 17 and 31) take a step of humility and confess their deepest darkest sins, be forgiven and redeemed, and then release forgiveness to others. Everything from talking back to parents, to forgiving rapists. 


After the prayers by us, Ari prayed redemption and healing into our lives. After being supported by a loud cheer and applause, we each made our way to a cross in the back of the room, nailed our lists to it, and were prayed over by our small group. So much compassion and grace in the room through hugs, encouragement notes, and happy tears. 


WHAT A DAY! Well, I'm sure you're wondering what time we finished up? Well like I said, we started at 8:30 AM..... took 30 minutes for lunch, and 30 minutes for dinner, and finally left at 11:30 PM! YEAH, That's right. We went on for 15 hours! SO totally worth it though!


For me, God brought a lot of breakthrough concerning my dad. I realized this week that yes I have gotten over my angry-at-God stage, but I was harboring anger towards my dad. It was so good to release that and to also release forgiveness to others. I woke up feeling physically lighter and SO free! God is totally at work in my life, and I can't wait to keep telling you guys about it! 


What a testimony to the body of Christ! Can you imagine if people did that everyday? Today, it is so foreign to confess sins because of pride. But it is necessary. One of the biggest things we learned that it is not enough to just confess to God in our spirits and hearts, but there is something about verbal repentance that will bring us closer to the Lord. Ah. So good. I have the best savior ever, and He is faithful, and GOOD! He forgives out of LOVE and is SO approachable! 


Well, if you've made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back! 


Thanks for reading!

Just another update...

G'day mate! How are ya? It's been great! Koala.


I think I am bold enough to say that those set of phrases accurately sums up my DTS. They are lyrics to a fun song writing contest we had here! You can hear them in the video below.


This week has been so amazing. It has been filled with laughter, tears, inside jokes, and LOTS of coffee.  I can't even describe how much I love the people in my DTS. We grow closer and closer which is SUCH a blessing. I have heard a few stories of some bad DTS experiences. God is so good. We officially have 36 people in our DTS. There are so many different instruments and a range of different talents among us.


This week brought many new things. It was our first full week of a normal schedule. We also began band practice, small group, one-on-one's, and prayer chain. In my band, we are performing the songs "With or Without You" by U2 and "1, 2, 3, 4" by Feist for a fundraiser for outreach in week 9. Also, we have to write a song which should be interesting considering I have never written a song in a group. My one-on-one is Eden. She did her Music DTS last july and is now staffing my DTS. Because she is new, Arielle (another girl staffing my DTS) sits in with us, so technically it is a two-on-one. We meet together for about an hour a week just to chat and see what I'm learning and how I am. Arielle and Eden combine their one-on-ones together and we have small group on Tuesday nights. There are seven of us girls plus Eden and Arielle. One of the things I love about YWAM is the different levels of intimacy we have with different people. It really gives you a chance to become close to so many people. On thursday nights here, we have evangelism. Evangelism is something that YWAM Perth is known for. The whole base gets together and goes on in small groups to evangelize in Perth. Then of course on friday nights we have Friday Night Meeting (YWAM church). 


Something that started for us this week is Prayer Chain. For the last 14 years, there has been constant 24 hour prayer at YWAM Perth. My DTS has a shift from midnight-7 AM on saturdays. So our DTS splits up into smaller groups and we all take an hour. Of course, my shift is at 3 AM. Yeah 3 AM people. So there are four of us that gather at the wee hour and intercede together for a variety of things. Whatever God puts on our hearts.


Week Two's lectures were on the Nature and Character of God. And wow was it amazing. Initially I was not super pumped about this week, not that I was dreading it, but I was looking forward to other weeks more. But that changed. I learned so much. there were so many things that God revealed to me. Mainly about his goodness. I always have known things about God's nature and character, but it wasn't until this week that I really began to BELIEVE it. Fridays here are "Application Day". For week two, we had an intense time of worship. Our speaker Josh, challenged us to really focus on who God is and worship Him for that. Another thing Josh had us do was picture a time in our life that we had trouble and to look at it like a photograph and imagine WHERE God was during that time that we may not have seen before. He also encouraged us to journal during the time of worship. Again, God really revealed Himself to me. There was such a sense of freedom and direction during the morning. Many people got words for others and there were many chains broken and walls smashed. God is so good.


We have had other great times of corporate worship too!


PRAYER REQUEST:
Please pray that God will reveal himself to me and give me direction for after DTS. Please pray that God will begin to break my heart for the nation He wants me to outreach to. And please pray for a continued smooth transition into my new home!


Week three, this week, is on Forgiveness & Repentance. Every YWAM-er I know says this is the most pivotal week during DTS. Hard during the week, but such a sense of breakthrough and closeness with the other DTS-ers after. So get ready! I'm sure I'll have a lot to say next week,


Until then,
I'm Grace.... 
and this is "Grace Talks"




hehe.