Exciting News

This fall I will be attending the Foundations for Counseling Ministries (FCM) school through the University of Nations in Kona, HI. A 6 month, 24 credit course, the school is held on the YWAM Kona base and is the first of 2 years worth of classes/internships towards me receiving a BA in Biblical Counseling! At this point I'm not 100% sure that God will have me there that long, but I am excited to being this pursuit of education & equipping! 

Over the past several years God has begun writing blue prints and vision into my heart. Reaching out the broken hearted, the hopeless, the ones trapped in darkness: the destitute. As I have worked with and amongst many who would fall into that category my heart has been wrecked to see them reach a place of wholeness, joy and freedom! Society has come up with many band-aids to help these people such as housing, food, money, education - and these are good, but they don't deal with the heart issues at hand. Observing the impact God's presence has on a person's heart, mind, body and soul has completely fascinated and inspired me to pursue whatever is necessary to facilitate His Presence here on earth. With that as the vision I feel a need to become equipped in Biblical counseling & inner healing. To walk alongside the destitute in hopes of helping them reach a place of healing, restoration, freedom and ultimately reconciliation with Christ is my future. This is how God has designed me to participate in His Kingdom work and I am so honored, humbled and excited to start this process of training! 

The 3 month FCM lecture phase begins Sept 27th and is followed by a field assignment/internship. While in lecture I will learn about relationships, Christian identity, helping skills, personality restoration, forgiveness, law and grace, & the work of the Cross all in a counseling format. The first part of the course will cost roughly $4,500, $1,000 of that I've already paid (thanks to my summer job here at the foster facility). There will be more details about the field assignment/internship later so keep looking for that in the coming months.

I appreciate your prayers as I begin this exciting journey of equipping in the University of Nations, Kona. Should the Lord so move you to help me financially I would love to talk with you more about it so please feel free to email me at lovingreflections.marisa@gmail.com 

Love Always

Epistle to Diognetus - The Christian Way

Reading through Water from a Deep Well by G. L. Sittser and he included an excerpt from the Epistle to Diognetus. Likely written around 130 A.D., it describes how Christians viewed themselves in contrast to the larger pagan world. After looking up the full text I spent some time meditating on my own walk with God and seeing how I compared. The testimony of the early church is phenomenal and I can't help but share an excerpt with you as well. May it inspire and encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called - a citizen of heaven, child of God, and beloved of Christ!

FOR the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring.
They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

To sum up all in one word-what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures.

The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they are the preservers of the world. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens. The soul, when but ill-provided with food and drink, becomes better; in like manner, the Christians, though subjected day by day to punishment, increase the more in number. God has assigned them this illustrious position, which it were unlawful for them to forsake.

Love Always

Beautiful Roses

As I sit watching tears well up and spill over... these are the destitute. The ones my heart cries out for, echoing His own tears shed. I love them, more than my own life, yet still not as much as He does. Thinking about them makes me yearn to leave home, wishing to be with them. They are worth it. They are a treasure of great value, buried in a field. I am willing to give all that I have and all that I am to tell them that Jesus Christ wants to purchase their freedom - He gave all He had for them, because they are worth it.

Roses of Mumbai from Roses of Mumbai on Vimeo.

From my own experience working in the red-light district of Thailand, the power of telling a women she is priceless is incredible. I have wanted to go give roses to women in these places for years and have yet to, but someday - I will personally see the change in their faces as I hand each one a rose and tell her she is Beloved. 

God knows my vision does not stop there, but right now, simple acts of honor are so appealing. The harvest is ready- swing the sickle wide!


The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
(Isaiah 61:1-4 ESV)

Love Always

There Is HOPE

"But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Tuesday an American woman was sentenced life 

She'd allowed a man to rape her 5 month old daughter - multiple times

Now 3 years old, the child has a new mother

THERE IS HOPE

Last week I spent several days 

With a 5 year old little girl who'd been sexually abused by her father

My heart is stirred and I cling to the truth

THERE IS HOPE

Last year I spent 2 months with SHE ministry in Thailand

Going into the bars to show they are priceless, to show love

I pray to someday go again because

THERE IS HOPE

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

At a time when the dark is getting darker

I praise the Lord for remaining the same, He is good

Even when i am broken hearted

THERE IS HOPE

A man named Jesus, who is God

Came in white as the Redeemer, Savior, Salvation

To mend the broken, heal the bruised and restore the abused - He came

THERE IS HOPE

Firstborn of the dead,

He is coming again - only this time He will be

Jesus in Red, the Judge

THERE IS HOPE

"For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness." Galatians 5:5

To reach the hopeless and destitute

He has called me to walk out Isaiah 61, bringing HOPE of a better day

Promising a time of justice and restoration

HE IS HOPE

"Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope."

Hebrews 3:1-6

HOLINESS IS MY CRY, FOR WORTHY IS HE TO BRING FORTH JUSTICE

"And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."

 1 Peter 1:17-21

Love Always