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