Do you want to perish in safety?

Today at church the pastor read this quote. I thought it was some good food for thought so I will share it with you.

(On one hand) I'd like to be brave, but I'd also like to be safe. My heavenly Father, on the other hand, loves me deeply enough to tell me the truth. He tells me I can't be both brave and safe. He wants me to be clear there's a choice, he wants me to choose to be brave. And choosing to be brave means choosing not to be safe.
In a fallen world, following the will of God will generate suffering in our lives. In fact, there are two things that are always the will of God and always dangerous in a fallen world: telling the truth and loving needy people. In fact, if my life of following Jesus doesn't feel dangerous , I should probably pause and check to see if its Jesus I am following. If I'm playing football and nobody is hitting me, I might check to see that I'm actually out on the field.. Football is about contact and following Jesus is about loving needy people, it turns out, its not safe. In fact, I generally try to keep neediness away from me. Think about those in your family who are the most needy and hurting, those in uor church fellowship who are hurting the most, those in our community who are in the most need, those on the other side of the city who are most vunerable. Them. Serving them and loving them is uncomfortable. It''s mesy, it's untidy, it's unsafe and can even be dangerous. And yet paradoxically, Jesus tells us this is where the deepest joy is. - Gary Haugen, President of International Justice Mission

Blessings..

Its strange how I've only been here for 9 days but it feels like three weeks and at the same time it feels like it went so fast. I feel so comfortable here. Like it was made for me. Like family. As if I was really coming home when I left, not leaving home. The first few days seemed like I was in a foreign strange place. Everything seemed weird. In this particular organization the interns(aka me) are essentially thrown into the program immediately. I think thats why it seemed so weird. I was walking up the street to the girls house the other day just basking in how much I do not deserve this. I mean it is such a huge blessing. I just can not understand what I could have possible done to deserve something this awesome. I love the people. I love what we do here. I am absolutely in love with the landscape. I can always find something beautiful in nature to be in awe of God. Im on the college ministry and we do a bunch of outreaches with the college students, a bible study and get to hang out with them. On Thursday mornings we go to help out the Feeding the Hungry ministry. They feed tons of poor and homeless people in Honolulu. Basically when we get there everyone who wants prayer gets in this giant line. Sometimes this can be over 250 people and we,as a team, pray for them individually. I had a hard time with this concept at first. Not that I had a hard time praying for them. It was a true honor and joy to get to do so. I think it was as much of a blessing for them as it was for me. It was hard though to be genuine. I felt like I was praying the same sort of prayer for ass of them. And altough I genuinely meant everything I was praying for for them individually I wished so badly that I could peir into their hearts and see what they really needed prayer for. This put me in a rut. I really cared for them but it was hard to pray general prayers for people I really have a heart to pray for. All of that praying can be draining but it is such a joy. We pray so much here! I have never prayed so much in my life. We pray internationally and domestically weekly. We just pray so so much. It's awesome. I am really loving getting to be dependant on God through prayer. The other night after talking to some of the girls in the house about demonic stuff I started to freak myself out before going to bed. I was sitting in the dark just freakin out. Scared. So I grabbed my bible and turned to Psalms 71. Totally directed by God. It was perfect. It was about God's protection. I started to pray after reading it for peace and contentment. It was like a flood. I know it wasnt of me because it was unlike any sort of peace I had ever felt before. It was powerful. It was the single best night of sleep I have had since being here. So there's some of my week. I also wanted to let you know that I need $1650.00 more in support to go to Israel and my due date is October 29th! If you want to email ,wewolpert@hotmail.com, me I'd love to hear from you. I have a hard time getting time to email people back but I love you all!

I'm here!

Wow it was a long night. I went to the airport at 12:00 last night for my flight that departed at 2:30 am. Once I arrived I was greeted by Kezia ,my RA Hawaiian style (an amazing smelling lay!). Once I got to the house most of the girls were still sleeping since it was only 5:30 am. Once everyone was up though the day went into full blast. There was an hour quiet time and then and hour of international prayer. We prayed for Nepal and for our team in Bangladesh. Three of the interns gave their testimony(sidenote: I too am an intern and will have to give my testimony to be able to graduate from the program). It was awesome to see how they had been wooed by the Lord. After that we went to do an outreach at the beach. I have already surfed! Woohoo!!! I was awful but it was fun! Everyone has been so awesome and welcoming. I feel like I have been thrown into the mix but it's a good feeling. I am ready to get this show on the road! Sorry no pictures this time hopefully I will get some up soon so show you all how awesome everything is going!!

The Final Countdown!

It may be the most awesomely bad metal song of the eighties but it is also the very last day for me before I leave for Surfing the Nations and that song has kind of been my anthem for the last couple of days. I am definitely feeling all of the excitement from the last six months of waiting to leave rushing in on today! Last night I was feeling like it was definitely time to let out an "I'm so over joyed squeal". I am really nervous too. A good nervous though. As if I'm trying a new food or something. I mean Surfing the Nations is all very foreign to me. I know a lot about what they do and I've talked to their office staff a lot!! ha ha Please just pray for me. Pray that the flight over to Honolulu is safe and that I transition smoothly. If you would like to pray that I don't forget my toothbrush feel free because some how I always forget that little guy! Midnight tonight I'll be awaiting my 2 am departure into Honolulu. Crazinesss!!!

Prayer Bookmark!

I created a bookmark you can print out to remind you to pray for me. It was sent out with the support letters but I also wanted to give you a chance to print it out if you recieved my letter electronically or perhaps you lost it.

Thus far

In February, when I was first accepted into Surfing the Nations, I realized that I would have to send out support letters to help with everything. Never having to send out a support letter before I was terrified. I wanted to make sure that my letter was clear and concise and let everyone know exactly what I was doing. I didn't want to trick people into supporting me or something. I had actually never even gotten a support letter from anyone so I started researching and looking at how other people had written theirs. I wanted mine to be genuine and honest. It took me about a month and a half to sit down and actually write it, just as a side note it is so incredibly obvious to me that I did not write that letter because I am a terrible writer and it came out so well God totally prepared me and wrote that letter for me Go God!, but in that time of researching God did a lot of work on my heart. I was so afraid to send these out to real living breathing people. I didn't like asking people for money. It was like who am I to ask them for anything? God really showed me that there was no need to be afraid. Scripture says it. If you do not ask you will not receive. How will people know you need their support if you don't ask for it? Christian or non people love helping people who are helping people. Aside from the fact that we are the body and to better His kingdom we do it together. I fully believe that God will provide exactly the funds I need. I was so freaked out in Feb that I needed to save all this money and that I needed to take this really boring job even though I could have other jobs I actually enjoyed just so that I could have enough money to do this but now I realize that I didn't need to take that job because God has been saving for me. I mean hello God has been saving for me since he knew me. He knew that I was going to do this way before I knew. Where God leads he proceeds and where He guides he provides. I need so much support. Really I do. I mean as far as encouragement I feel like that is almost what I need the most aside from prayer. It is encouraging that people are praying for me......

I also wanted to note to everyone that while I'm in Honolulu at the school and while I'm in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, China and Hong Kong I will be posting pictures and hopefully some video to keep you all up to date on the happenings. So you can follow along with where I'm at in this amazing adventure I call life. I hope you feel apart of what I'm doing because if you are praying for me or supporting me in any way you are a part of it.

My support letter

For the past few years, I have strongly felt God calling me to the mission field. I believe going to the farthest parts of the earth and letting people know what God wants to do in their life is an extremely important call God has given me. “ But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?” Romans 10:14 –15b.
God has presented me with the opportunity to go to discipleship school this October. While I am there God will be breaking me, molding and making me into the woman He has called me to be. I will be maturing in the basics of discipleship: prayer, fasting, scripture, generosity, evangelism, and devotion, “progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and clearly…” Philippians 3:10.
On November 25- December 21,after two months of training, we are taking a mission trip to the 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is an area of the world that contains the largest population of non-Christians in the world. Specifically, we will be going to Israel, Jordan and Egypt. While there we will be visiting orphanages, ministries to the poor and needy street kids, sharing our faith with Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab peoples and building relationships with the locals.Hopefully I will be going to China and Hong Kong in February as well to do another mission trip. We will be distributing bibles, teaching English as a second language, helping the poor and needy and teaching the locals American sports like surfing and volleyball.
Lately, I have been learning (and am still learning) to depend on God fully, that if God guides, he will provide and it is okay to ask others for help. James 4:2 says, “You do not have because you do not ask”.So I am asking for your prayers:
v. Pray that God prepares our hearts and minds to evangelize and love the people of Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.
v. Pray that God works through all of us to glorify Him.
v. Pray that we are kept safe and healthy through such dangerous territories and through all of our travels.
v. Pray that we rely fully on God, to trust Him and to pursue Him daily, surrendering to His perfect plan for us.
v. Jesus Prays for All Believers: "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they might be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17: 20-24

Beyond your prayers, if you are lead to support me financially, I will be forever grateful. I truly believe that this is the journey God has called me to and would greatly appreciate any level of support you are able to offer. All of your donations will go directly to me. I will be using them for travel expenses and things like that. You can send your donations to:

Surfing the Nations
P.O. box 29393
Honolulu, HI 96820

Please make your check or money order payable to Surfing the Nations and place my name in the memo line of the check.OrYou can also go online to make you donation via credit card through their secure Egiving system. Under the Purpose for gift note put my name. Surfing The Nations Foundation is a Nonprofit Christian Organization that mobilizes, prepares and trains Christians across the globe into missions. All Donations are tax deductible.

And lastly my prayer for all of you; “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11

May God Bless You!

Whitney Wolpert

Dropping the jigsaw pieces..

I read a great story that inspired me to change the name of my blog. Basically it was about how we all put together the jigsaw pieces of our lives the way we want to see it but we need to stop putting them together that way, drop them and let God pick up the pieces and show you the picture He has put together for you. Just imagine how much more beautiful and unpredictable the big picture of our life is without us always trying to put our own pieces in there. Its basically surrendering our life to the plans God has for us. I believe is ultimately what I will be trying to do in my life. To stop trying so hard to do what I want and to surrender to doing what God wants. This blog will be the adventures of where God takes me.