Quick Update

It has been so long since I have posted a blog. I must apologize. I don't have a computer and the thought of trying to condense and summarize my experiences on my phone was an incredibly daunting task. A task that I so skillfully avoided until tonight when I finally felt like it was my obligation to suck it up and write this blog. Regardless of my less than enthusiastic feelings about it.

Wow. Five weeks since my last blog. How do I fill you in on everything that has happened in the last five weeks? Well, for starters I had an amazing send off from the YWAM base in Delhi. My decision to leave was announced to the whole class and everyone gathered around me in prayer. That night my classmates all went out and got me different gifts. I bought food for everyone and we all had a special dinner/celebration on the rooftop. Then all of the boys asked me to write a note of encouragement to them in their Bibles. They in turn all wrote notes of encouragement to me. The girls stayed up with me and helped me pack. Sarah woke up at 4 a.m. (after having stayed up with me for almost the entire night) to go with me to the airport. She truly is such a blessing to my life and I can honestly say that she will be a part of my life long term.


After almost missing my flight, I arrived in Jabalpur and was picked up from the airport. We took a 3 hour drive from Jabalpur to Damoh... And that is when my Damoh journey began.

I have been so immensely blessed here. They have given me so many opportunities. I teach English at the children's home. I teach kindergarten to second grade, Monday through Friday. It has been an amazing experience. These kids are so bright and loving. I walk downstairs in the morning and get attacked with hugs and kisses from the little kids. I live in the children's home with the the kids. I eat with them. I play with them. It's been so cool. :)

I was initially only supposed to be here for two weeks, but God had Hos own plan and four days after I arrived here, my trip was extended for another two months. I leave here on the 26th of October for Delhi.

I'm going to make this blog post very very quick.
I just wanted to fill everyone in on what has been happening. I will get access to a computer soon and write a more extended blog.

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers, love, and support!

Elyssia

The Next Step

I have been staring at this screen for the past fifteen minutes unable to write anything. So, I finally decided that I should try to make some progress and see what comes of it.

First and foremost, I have made a lot of very tough decisions this past week. These are decisions that have been made after weeks on my knees in prayer. The Lord has been speaking to me for the past three weeks that He wants me to follow Him in complete obedience and surrender. He placed such a heavy burden on my spirit that it was time for me to move on from YWAM and follow Him however He leads me. I have prayed earnestly on this decision for the past three weeks. I have brought it before the Lord and asked for His guidance and complete clarity. In these past weeks, He has only further confirmed that this is His voice speaking to me. I am amazed at seeing His hand in this and using person after person and scripture after scripture to further lead me into the path He has laid before me.

Logically, I am aware that this decision doesn't make sense considering I made plans to be at YWAM for the duration of my trip to India and I love everyone at my base and in my school so much. . . but God's will does not always make sense to us in the beginning. I have shed so many tears over this request of obedience from the Lord. These people have become my family and I am going to miss them so much, but God has made His will for me incredibly clear and I have to follow.

I am also aware that not everyone is going to agree with my decision and not everyone is going to support me, but that is a small price to pay if it means that I am being obedient to the will of my Father. Ultimately, regardless of whether people agree or understand, I am accountable to God and I can't stay at YWAM when I know He is calling me elsewhere. It is my prayer that you all know how much I love you and that it is never my wish or intention to ever disappoint you all through the decisions I make. With that being said, again I must say that I have to follow God's will for me no matter the price. 

This school has blessed me so much in the past two months I have been here and I love the people here an incredible amount, so please know that this decision was not an easy one to make. I had a conversation with my school leader Friday night about my decision. I am so blessed to be leaving on good terms and in unity with the school. They are going to pray over me as a school tomorrow and give me time to share with everyone my heart and what the Lord is calling me to. My parents, as well as my church leaders back home, are supporting this decision, which is even more of a testament to the fact that our God is a God of unity. I am so incredibly blessed by all of these people.

As for the next step, it is not time for me to come back to America yet. I have no intention of coming home before my previously scheduled flight at the end of November. God has orchestrated so perfectly an opportunity for me to serve at CICM in Damoh. My church family and my parents have an amazing partnership with the organization. They have offered me the opportunity to serve in the orphanage they run for three weeks. My flight from Delhi leaves this Tuesday at six in the morning. I will be flying into Jabalpur and from the airport it is a three hour car trip to Damoh.

So, I am now across the world from my family and my comfort zone with absolutely no plans beyond the next three weeks of my life. Yet my plan is to have no plans and allow the Lord to show me where He wants me. I am at a place where I am willing to go anywhere and do anything if it means walking in obedience to Him. Talk about a leap of faith. It's insanely nerve-wracking, but my Father knit me together and laid out my steps before I was even thought about by anyone. When I think about it in that context, me not knowing where I will end up four or five weeks down the road doesn't seem as big of a deal. He is faithful and I am excited to discover what He is calling me to.

I love you all so much and I want to thank you for all of the support and love you have shown me these past two months. It truly is overwhelming to think about all of the people who God has blessed me with. I thank Him every day for all of you and I pray that somehow my time in India is also a growing experience for everyone back home as well. In reading this I hope you are able to see my heart and know that I am truly wanting to just follow after the Lord in obedience, wherever that may be.


I still plan on blogging on a regular basis. Also, if you have any questions for me about culture or anything else I would be more than happy to answer you.

I love you all!!!!

God Bless,

Elyssia

Another week... Another blog

Another week.... Another blog.

I just want to start this blog out on a note of praise and thanksgiving. Thank you to my Lord and Savior for His faithfulness and guidance. Thank you to good doctors that gave me good antibiotics to clear up my health issues. Thank you to my wonderful sister Sarah Guilbault for her continual compassion and companionship throughout this journey so far. Thank you to the family connections I have in Delhi that have come alongside of me to offer me their homes and wonderful food on the weekends. Thank you to my parents for giving me into the Lord's hands and loving me with such an unconditional love. Thank you to my family and friends back home who send me care packages and encourage me on a daily basis. Thank you to my church family who has stood behind me both in prayer and financially. I can not begin to express how blessed I feel by having you all in my life.

Summarizing my weeks is an incredibly difficult thing to do.. and honestly at this point my brain is completely fried.... So I think I am just going to share with you all a few stories from this past week.

On Friday night I was in charge of kitchen clean-up with Sarah (the other American). The kitchen is on the fourth floor, which also happens to be the roof of the building we are staying in. We did our kitchen duty and walked over to the edge of the rooftop. As we were leaning over the balcony edge breathing in the Delhi air and taking in the moment, we started talking about God (which always seems to happen with us). As we were talking, one of the local temple's loud speakers came on and Hindu chants pierced the nights silence. As soon as the chanting started, Sarah and I dropped to our knees and started praying. After we prayed, we stood up and started singing worship music.We stood there for an hour just singing praises, from our rooftop, to the Father over the chanting. It was such an overwhelmingly beautiful moment.

Then, today I was making my way back to the YWAM base from South Delhi. I was the only white person on the metro and people seemed to stare more than normal today than I have ever experienced here before. I felt such spiritual oppression to the point where I couldn't breathe. Everything in my being wanted to catch the next flight home to Indiana. I grabbed my headphones and started playing worship music. It was after the worship music started that the Lord told me to take my Bible from my purse and start reading it. I immediately said, "No, Lord. It's not safe to do that here." He prompted me again and this time I didn't say no. I took my Bible out of my purse and it was as if every eye on that metro pierced through my body. If I thought that I was being stared at before, it was only further confirmed through the looks of disgust and murmuring that was occurring among my fellow metro passengers. A seat opened up and as soon as I sat down the women around me all got up and went to the other side of the metro. I have never felt such an open disgust from other people as I did today. It's so amazing to me how offensive the Gospel is to those who are blind to its truth.


Anyway... I must go. I would love to write more, but unfortunately this weekend has gotten away from me. I love you all so so so much and I am so blessed to have you in my life. Please pray that I continue to walk in obedience to God and the path He has laid before me.

Talk to you all next weekend!!!!!!!!!


WITH ALL MY LOVE,

Elyssia

I Will Follow You

Hi, again.

Another week has passed. It has gone by so slowly and quickly at the same time. I have dealt with a lot of health issues these past couple of weeks, which has brought me to a place of complete surrender at the foot of the cross. When I am sick at home, I have my mom there to run her fingers through my hair and take care of me. I have my dad to hug me and tell me he loves me. I have great medical facilities where I don't have to worry about whether or not I'm getting the proper treatment I need. These are things that never passed my mind prior to two weeks ago. These are things that I have taken advantage of for the past 18 years of my life.

 There have been times in the past two weeks that I have been knelt with my face to the floor unable to control my crying as I plead for my Father to hear me. Truly, nothing apart from His grace has sustained me these past couple of weeks. Not my parents, not a good hospital, not my friends, nor a comfortable place to stay. Without His living word and the right He has given to me to draw boldly into His presence through the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, I literally would not have been able to make it through some of the days these past few weeks. He truly is teaching me sole reliance upon Him to sustain me, and it is an incredibly difficult but beautiful lesson to learn. I don't want to be apart from Him, even for a moment, because I am seeing the depravity of who I am apart from Him. I have fallen so deeply in love with the nature of my Creator and there is nothing worth anything apart from Him.

Who am I that He looks upon me with such love? One of the times I was on my knees in my room crying out to Him, I saw His throne room in all its glory. He was sitting on His throne as everyone was praising Him. I then saw me lying there crying as everyone was exalting Him. He stood up and raised His hand to silence everyone. He then walked to me, knelt down, picked me up in His arms, and carried me back to His throne and just held me. How does the Creator of everything that ever was and everything that will ever be love me so much that He will pick me up and just hold me to Him in my state of brokenness? If these thorns in my flesh are what I had to go through to experience His faithfulness and to truly surrender to the cross, then I consider myself blessed. I have experienced the Lord in such tangible ways these past weeks and I truly am just left amazed.


The true meaning of the words to this song have become real to me since my stay in India.

Rescue- Jared Anderson
You are the source of life,
I can't be left behind,
No one else will do,
I will take hold of you,

I need you Jesus,
To come to my rescue,
Where else can i go?
There's no other name
By which I am saved,
Capture me with grace,
I will follow you.

You are the source of life,
I can't be left behind,
No one else will do,
I will take hold of you,

Cuz i need you Jesus,
To come to my rescue,
Where else can i go?
There's no other name
By which I am saved,
Capture me with grace,

I will follow you

This world has nothing for me,
I will follow you
This world has nothing for me,
I will follow you,
This world has nothing for me,
Im gonna follow you,
This world has nothing for me


As far as prayer requests go.... if you all would gather around me and pray that the Lord will give me discernment in regards to a few things. I am in the process of working through what I feel like the Lord is speaking to me and really need discernment. Also if you could lift up my team. There have been a lot of health issues among both the students and the staff. 

Thank you all so much for your love and support. I love you all so much!

God Bless,

Elyssia

The Past Three Weeks

Hi Everyone!

First and foremost, I have to apologize to you all for my lack of updating these past weeks. Access to internet is not as easy to come by as I had hoped, so that makes doing a weekly blog a little difficult. I also must confess that trying to summarize my weeks in a single blog post is a daunting task that is easier to avoid then to take the time to sit down and do.

I honestly don't know how to effecively communicate what the last three weeks of my life has consisted of and what God has done. God has taught me so much about His character and the depravity of who I am apart from Him.

The second week of my DTS was very very difficult. I delt with an incredible amount of spiritual warfare. One night at one in the morning.. I was woken up by the sound of the electrical pole outside of my dorm showering down sparks into our building and on the street below. When the girls all linked hands and started praying, the top of the pole was immediately consumed with flames and sparks started flying everywhere.

The next night, I awoke at two in the morning to a black hooded figure standing in the corner of my room. At that moment I was so paralized with fear I couldn't move and the only thing I could say was, "Jesus is Lord". I then got up from my bed and went in to Sarah's (the other American that is in the DTS) room. I woke her up, crawled into bed next to her, and asked her to pray for me. Still being half asleep, she prayed, told me I could stay in her bed for the night, and rolled back over to sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes, I felt fingers running down my arms and legs. I started fervently playing scripture and when I opened my eyes, the shadow casted from one of the other girls sleeping looked like a women with black hair similar to mine twisted and mangled in a way that would only be possible if she was possessed. When I was looking at this shadow, the girl who was sleeping above her hit the metal bed frame in her sleep which sent a pircing bang throughout the entire room. At that point, Sarah was woken up and could feel the oppression. We sat up, joined hands, put on worship music, and started praying. As soon as we started praying, all of the power shut off and we were left sitting in her bed in completely darkness. We grabbed a flashlight and started reading scripture, praying, and singing worship music until the lights turned on a good 30 minutes later. She and I then tried to go back to sleep. As soon as she rolled over, turning her back to me, I felt a hand grasp my shoulder. I reached to hold it, thinking it was Sarah's hand, but I opened my eyes realizing that her back was to me. I took the iTouch that was playing worship music and put it on my chest and sang until I fell asleep.

Those are just a few stories of the spiritual warfare I experienced my second week of being here.

The third week of DTS was so amazing. God gave me such a peace and confirmation that this is where He wants me to be. I stopped viewing the base that I am staying at as a "base"... but I started viewing it as my home. I also started viewing my classmates as family instead of just people that I am going to be around for the next five months of my life. I truly saw His hand and experienced His comfort more than I ever have in my entire life.

This past week (the fourth week of DTS) was so hard, but beautiful as well. I experienced this week true brokenness in the presence of Christ. He is breaking me and ridding me of the things in my heart that are not of Him. It has been an incredibly painful experience, but God is revealing so much of His character to me and I am so blessed to be broken for the sake of Christ.

He's changing me. Molding me more into the likeness of who He is and I can't wait to see what He is going to do in the next three and a half months.

Hard to believe I've already been here for a month. It feel like so long and only a few days at the same time.

Anyway... I must go. But I love and treasure you all a bunch!!! Can't wait to see and hug you all!


Much Love and God Bless,

Elyssia

My Psalm

My Psalm

I am known by the creator of everything. He knows that I am sitting and meditating on His word right now. His hand is upon me even in Delhi, India.

You understand all of my thoughts. All of my fears. You can feel my weary and troubled heart. You know my afflictions. Oh God, You are with me in my troubles. You care for me in my pain. My tears do not go unnoticed by You. How I love you Lord. My afflictions are great, but You are my comforter even in the midst of the trials. I rest and depend on You in my suffering. You have enclosed me behind and before. I am surrounded by You. Before I speak a work of my suffering or cry out to You, You know my distresses. How great and perfect is Your love. How deep it is that I will never comprehend. I walk in obedience as Your servant and cry to you in my suffering. Oh God, hear my cry. In my loneliness stretch out Your hand to me that I may know Your touch. Whisper words of comfort softly in my ear. Put my afflicted heart to rest, that I may taste Your peace. I do not deserve what I am asking, yet I plead for it in my lowly state. Let me look upon Your face and experience joy in my tribulation. You are holy. You are good. You are just. Your Son's sacrifice has made me pure and sanctified in Your sight. So it is by His blood that I draw near to You in confidence. Knowing that You will hear Your daughters cry. Take delight in me. Look upon me with mercy. I rest in you and wait patiently for You. You have broken me, yet You are faithful and will restore me according to Your lovingkindness. If you will not walk with me through this, I will not go because I can do nothing apart from You. I boldly ask You to not only walk with me, but to carry me. For my legs are weary and my strength is gone. Hear my cry and fulfill the work You have started in me. I am Your daughter and I sit in obedience waiting on You Lord.

On the Verge

On the Verge   

So it is now day five of being at the YWAM base. . .and honestly I'm on the verge of a complete breakdown. I miss home so much. I miss how my mom is there to play with my hair whenever I get overwhelmed, or seeing my dad come through the garage door after work. I miss my friends humor. I miss everything down to the smell of my house and the way my bed feels. I have no idea how I'm going to last five months here. This week has been a serious struggle. I go through stages of loving it here.. to just wanting to pack up all of my things and catch a taxi to the airport.

I've been sick with stomach problems that have been incredibly painful and it makes me want the comfort of home. I am the baby in this program. The next closest to my age is Sarah, who is 19. Everyone else is 22 and older. Being the youngest is hard on me too. 

I'm feeling incredibly overwhelmed currently and I just want a hug from my mom. 

Anyway, I won't keep harping on the fact that I want to be home and I'll share with you about where I am.

I am in Northern Delhi (about ten minutes outside of where the red fort is). I am in a building that is kind of built like a five-story condo. The ground floor has two entrances. The first entrance is into where the girls dorms are.. and the second is into where the boys dorms are located. The girls dorms are split into two rooms. I have three roommates in my room and the other room has three girls. So there are seven girl students all together. Like I said earlier, I am the youngest by far. 

There are no showers in the building. We take showers by filling up a bucket with cold water and pouring it on us. The toilets don't flush. We can only use the a/c from 10 at night until 6 in the morning. We have rice and dal (which is lentils) for just about every meal. No phone or computer Monday through Friday. No leaving the base Monday through Friday. 

The school starts on Monday. A minimum of 16 hours of lecture and 3 hours of intercession are required per week. So Monday through Friday from 6 in the morning until 10:30 at night are completely planned out. 

The Lecture Phase goes as follows...

week 1: Hearing Gods Voice

week 2: Faith & Finance

week 3: Discipleship 

week 4:Character of God

week 5: Sex & Relationships

week 6: Inner Healing

week 7: Father Heart of God

week 8: Mission

week 9: Spiritual Gifting

week 10: Submission to Authority


....so this is what the next 10 weeks of my life are going to look like.


I don't really have anything else to update on.

Please please pray for me because I'm really struggling. I really just want to go home.

Love you all,

Elyssia