dear bloggers,
as many of you know i will be taking a trip to uganda in 6 weeks! ahhh! the details are being finalized, i am preparing my heart and organizing everything ill need to head across the world to africa. friends and family, i am still in need of $900 to make this trip possible! i would ask for you to prayerfully consider supporting me financially in the upcoming weeks, and most importantly, that you would partner with me in prayer. i love and appreciate all of you!

blessings,
laina

dear tumblrs,

in march of 2012 i will be traveling to entebbe, uganda, and the lake victoria islands with my internship through the city church ventura.  we will be engaging in new believer discipleship and island outreach on the islands of lake victoria. we will also work with osnaidde orphanage and invest prayer, love and children’s ministry to the children of this orphanage. our weekend ministry will include service at family life church and involvement with the bible internship in entebbe.  as a young person with a passion for nations, this will be the highlight of my year as an intern.  

i need to raise a total of $2,650 for the trip. $1050 of this is due december 13 in order to secure my reservation. besides learning and touring our team will visit and minister in outreaches to the poor and those struggling with addictions. this trip will be a life-changing experience for me as I seek to understand God’s heart for this nation and how i can participate in what he is currently doing in this region of the world.

i would like to ask for you support in prayer, first and foremost, and if you feel led, financially. 

please pray for:

God’s heart for the people of uganda, for my fellow interns and team leaders

salvation and healings for those we encounter

unity for our team

health for our team

financial provision

if you would like to support me financially, please make you check payable to:

The City Church Mission Teams

6360 Telephone Road

Ventura, CA 93003

[on the lower portion of your check please write my name: Laina Humbles ,Uganda Mission Trip](all contributions are tax deductible)

thank you for your consideration!

blessings,

laina

“consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. you know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. so don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
james 1:2-4

i’ve been thinking a lot about victory lately.  seeing my friends win battles they have fought for years, and overcoming exhausting struggles in my own life… it made me realize that the more i have striven to fix myself, to explain away my fears and stifle anxiety, the deeper i have fallen into the pit. 

the good news is, learning to let go and allow the Lord to handle the messes we make in life gives way for victory!  the battle belongs to him anyway. 

exodus 17:8-16 tells the story of israel’s victory over amalek.  moses, who was leading God’s people, didn’t even have to fight the battle.  instead, God commanded him to go up to the top of a hill and lift his hands up to heaven.  as long as moses’ hands were lifted, israel prevailed.  when his arms grew tired, aaron and hur held up moses’ hands and helped him stay surrendered to God.  israel claimed the victory God had brought them to!  moses built an altar and called it jehovah nissi meaning the Lord is my banner. 

when we strive to mend our broken hearts and medicate our wounds we end up making the problem worse.  it’s only once we are able to cast the burden of the war we are fighting upon the Lord, lift up our hands, and declare that he has defeated our shame, that will be able to overcome.  today, through the miracle of the cross, we are able to claim that victory freely, if we come before God with willing hearts.  here’s the question friends - do we want to keep trying to do it on our own, or will we claim that which has already been won?

victory is mine.

i’ve always been a writer.  i love to think, to spill my heart out onto paper, and to share what i have to offer with the world around me.  so here i am, beginning again with this little blog i have (ahem) faithfully kept, and writing about a new work.  a new season of life. 

over the past year, a prophecy from isaiah 43:18-19 has been continually impressed on my heart. 

“remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  behold, i am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  i will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” 

so this blog is about a new thing!  GOD’S thing that he’s doing in my city and in my life!  i may throw in some random things that interest me along the way but that’s part of why writing is fun for me.  there aren’t any rules. 

enjoy the show.