Immerse

Immerse: involve oneself deeply in a particular activity or interest; i.e. baptize

Years ago I went to France and Nova Scotia with the goal to immerse myself and so learn about/in all things French and the French way. This immersion gave me a love and appreciation for the fine arts:  music, art, food, etc. You may become what you eat, but your “soil” or surroundings definitely play an important role in the forming and shaping of your inner being. Perhaps that’s why Proverbs 13:20 says “walk with the wise and become wise” or in Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world”. As a Christian, immersion is a way of life. It is vital for us to so surround ourselves with those running after Jesus while also carrying such a Kingdom of Jesus way about us that people feel immersed by His love, peace, and joy wherever we go. A week ago today, I was visiting family and friends in Louisiana for 2 weeks. These are just a few photos from only the first few days there. God is really good and I hope to share with you a few wonderful highlights from my time there, fill you in on what’s going on now, and briefly vision cast where God is leading my 2019.

Above and below: some of my Louisiana Ohana 

Above: I want to give honor to whom honor is due...mom, you've done so much to invest in the Kingdom through my life. You are the flight finder queen and are quick to sow seed, meet needs, dream big, and believe! Thank you for showing me through not only you our words but also your actions how to be a mother, pastor, daughter, child, and friend of God. I love you!

Above: so pumped Mrs. Kerrie, keep running for God and thanks for preparing those cross necklaces gifts for the Cambodian kids we get to love on in this season. 

Above: my cousin and fire friend, man of God Jacob...I'm so proud of you and your Jesus journey; don't quit, keep praying, believing, and following Jesus! 

Above: it took some time getting used to American fast food again.

Above: guess who's pregnant?! I'm excited to meet the new "grand" ☺

Above: look at my crew rocking some traditional Cambodian scarves! 

To start, my family pulled time, resources, finances, and schedules together to pull off the coolest and quickest Christmas break I’ve ever been a part of. They booked my ticket for me and picked up a very jet-lagged and excited traveler. I was able to surprise countless people, share stories from the field in person and hear about new marriages, adoptions, babies, ministries, churches, colleges, and vehicles. All the children grew taller and more mature and all of the adults seemed to pick back up with me where we left off. I was able to take family photos thanks to a dear family friend and also share sparklers and a new year’s celebration with “the grands”, as I call my niece and nephews. I was also welcomed back with my very own car that my grandpa donated to me and was able to make “house visits” which I love to do. I was able to wear my traditional Cambodian attire and share with my local church all about family and our focus as Christians for 2019 needing to be all about working together not against one another. I was able to road trip to Grand Isle, celebrate at Christmas in the Oaks in New Orleans and bless a few folks with gifts from Siem Reap, Cambodia. Over all, I spent, I think just enough time back immersed in all things Louisiana, I even had boiled shrimp on Christmas day. I could probably write a few blogs on the waves of people that I spent quantity or quality time with while being there. Their life, families, stories, encouragements, marriages, children, pregnancies, and friendships mean so much to me and yet, the main thing I feel led to share about my time there is specifically regarding the “soil” found in Louisiana. Immersion in Louisiana looks like swimming in a deep love for family and spending time/ making time for one another. In Louisiana you can’t help but get the sense that you are in a special place with special people. God is truly doing so much there, it is literally full of His “oil”. He is equipping and empowering many new leaders in the local churches. God is entrusting many new parents to guide and train a new generation. Louisiana is full of food and an abundance of folks to share it with. People are willing to share stories and open their homes to host others. Families are priority there and God is pleased with the love they share. Since I grew up there, it was easy to jump right back into things as I had done before. In fact, if I could have I would have visited more people, cooked more food, listened to more stories, shared more stories, road tripped further, and worshipped at more venues but timing was/ is everything…so I couldn’t do it all, but had to remain focused…there was so much to do and so much to choose. Yesterday, back here in Hawaii, more on why I am here later, I surfed my first wave EVER. However, it took me more than my first try to truly ride the wave. I am still a bit in shock how God set it all up and allowed me to experience it. The adrenaline it took to actually hop on the board at the very right time and wait for the wave to give me the momentum that I needed to simply glide/ surf was the most intense yet natural and peaceful thing. I don’t quite have words to express how much I loved it and I still feel as though it were all a dream. It wasn’t a dream, it was destiny. I was born to do it, like God had somehow prepared me in other sports and activity to get the feet right, motion sturdy, and timing all to be able to surf my first wave. I am eagerly waiting on getting back out there and I couldn’t have surfed without my fearless friend Yoonjung who pioneered the surf lessons at Hapuna beach as well as our teacher Carla for patiently showing us first on the beach our correct positioning and then on the water, giving us tips, helping us learn about timing, giving us words of wisdom and caution, and guiding us “to the right”. This past 2018 I started in Louisiana, traveled to Kona, lived there as a student of a YWAM SHIPS Kona Hawaii Discipleship Training School (DTS), went on to live as a missionary and Bible Core Course student in Poipet, Cambodia for the remaining 9 months, to then return to Kona in December and back again to Louisiana just before returning to Kona where I am now, on New Year’s Day. Why am I back? They say, wherever you found yourself on New Year’s you may be doing that throughout the rest of the year. I’d say that sounds about right as I’ll be doing it all over again this time starting tomorrow. Literally, this year as staff of YWAM SHIPS (*our first official class lecture of DTS for the students begins tomorrow) I will be raising up and leading a new 9 month student DTS outreach missionary team back to Cambodia in all of 2019. So I’ll be trekking and traveling all the while drenching or immersing my feet into known and unknown waters.   

Below: https://www.freefunder.com/campaign/ywam-dts-staff-cambodia-2019

As a kid, two films really impacted me: Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” and Dreamwork’s “Prince of Egypt”. Go ahead and give those two film’s soundtracks a listen. As I mentioned earlier, while growing up in Louisiana, I became immersed with the idea of faith and family being central to our lifestyle as well as believing that Ohana, meaning no one gets left behind, should be of deepest importance. It was very difficult for me to be in Louisiana recently and not feel like I was leaving anyone out, I wanted to be with everyone, at all times, but God had me specifically and continually re-center, and focus on having “one on ones”. I wanted to do it all, but this just wasn’t the main thing. Because of timing, there are many more friends and family I will wait to see Lord willing either in here in Kona, there in Cambodia, or next time I’m in their “neck of the woods”.  In YWAM this phrase is very popular, “one on one”, and is the main way we do discipleship outside of the classroom with students and roomies. We go on “one on one’s” because “iron sharpens iron” and this immersion version of discipleship is just like how Jesus did it (Immanuel, God living with us, processing with us, listening to us, speaking life into us, etc.) . Keep this idea in mind as I continue…from the movie “Prince of Egypt” as much as I love the songs, I love a particular scene where Moses is speaking about his recent encounter with God and his call. He asks his wife Zipporah to look at her family who were free, out in the wilderness, laughing and enjoying their family. In the film, he says that He only hopes for the same thing for his family, who are at that time slaves in Egypt rather free and flourishing like hers. For that reason, he told her that he must go to help usher in a new era or freedom for his people and lead them on to the “Promised Land” out of Egypt. My prayer with leaving my family and safe and sturdy waters of Louisiana is to come out here in Kona where many have “left all to answer the call” just as I had last year, to help them go on to ride those waves they were destined to ride. I am here to mentor, disciple, train, teach, and usher a new family onto a Promised Land lifestyle while also venturing out and extending this found freedom in Christ to those on the way, in Cambodia in particular but perhaps also in countless airports or visa upon arrival lines, all the while living Ohana style, not leaving anyone out, especially not leaving Jesus out. He must become priority. His presence must become our focus. We must stay in step with Him, entering new waters, resting where He leads, and then going back out again, trusting our teacher and friend into deeper and deeper waters, ever immersed in His ways of love to then extend that to others as easily as we breathe our air around us in and out, in and out. I knew that as I had been immersed in Hawaii for my DTS Lecture phase last Jan-Mar I was going to just ooze “island-time” and the “Aloha Spirit” into my outreach…truly, this place has become a place of safety, refuge, and rest for me and missionaries alike perhaps because we can come here as we are and grow as fast and as strong as we can. However, as I lived in Cambodia for the majority of 2018, God also wanted me to immerse in their “waters” which truly defined family in a very different yet similar way. As you may have been able to tell from my previous statements about Louisiana, my family did more than I could have ever or will ever be able to pay them back for, not just recently but especially throughout my time as a missionary in 2018. They fulfilled wishlist orders, packaged gift bags for children in Cambodia, gave me free Advocare products, painted my nails, gave me contact solutions, you name it, God has provided through the hands and feet of brothers and sisters sowing seed, praying for me, and meeting my random “daily” needs. You know, it wasn’t just my blood family, though they contributed so much. Many who over the years have become “soul-sisters and brothers”-in Christ-family laid down schedules and commitments, to “just be” with me. They listened, they paid for the meal, they drove the car, they bought the flight, they bought the phone plan, and they cooked the meal, because of love. With all of the hurricanes and storms in life that literally blow through Louisiana, people have really learned how to “love the one” well there. In Cambodia however, to be “one” is to be part of the group. To love “the one” then, is to love all as “one”, if that makes sense. It’s a bit more communal and makes for an expanded heart for others. Let me put it this way, in the Kingdom of God there is no favoritism, and there are no favorites. God really loves us all as one, one by one. It is a hard thing for us to grasp because we in the West look out for one another so long as we have the same interests, perhaps are in the same time zones, work the same jobs, have the same hobbies, or are blood relatives. In Cambodia, they do this too, but just like they have a different way of cutting carrots and cucumbers (at an angle, making it the perfect dipping tool), they also have a little bit different way of viewing and treating Ohana. The Hawaiians gave us the word Ohana meaning no one being left behind which is true, in Hawaii you can’t help but feel just welcomed to “be” yourself and express that, everyone being valued as they are…while the Cambodians took this word to a different level. I would say being immersed in Cambodia has taught me to chunk the schedules and embrace the present…whoever is present for however long, embracing them as priority and someone to serve, learn from, lean on, and love. While returning to the mainland, I couldn’t help but hear God tell me through various counselors I trust and admire, as well as directly to me, SLOW DOWN and share life with those right in front instead of trying to cram everything and everyone in. I sometimes got caught up in the who wasn’t able to “drop everything” and spend time with me. I confess, I sometimes didn’t make the best use of my time and spent a few hours binge watching television to escape my emotions. I found ways to avoid wisdom by driving around and blaring music, but time and time again, those I re-immersed with were the God-sent folks who didn’t allow me to adopt old habits or numb my emotions through the normal things I used to do. They reminded me that I was loved just for being Chelsea and that they had my back no matter if I did “back flips” so to speak for their behalf. I wasn’t a performer or needing to be perfect for them. They allowed me to be the one who needed lovin’. They immersed me in their rich deep well/ oil/ spring of love. From that time in LA, God made me fix my eyes on priority, those who were “hungry” for family, were making time, and those who were actually there in the moment / present with me. When I wanted to check out or escape, instead, I did as I had learned to do in Cambodia, I ran to God and leaned in to the people in my vicinity to process pain, culture-shock, or disappointments as well as joy, jokes, and silly moments. God really taught me how to lean on others in a way that made us all one in Cambo…we were equals there and rather acting like I had had it all together, God made me put false humility aside. The Lord had me start at ground zero with people in LA rather than expect them to be just as I had remembered. God wanted me to see that just I had grown being away on the mission’s field, fully immersed in Hawaiian “waters” and Cambodian “soil”, so had they, being on theirs. So here I am back in Hawaii and really trying to take it all in because I get to do it all again. I am not getting “a re-do” so much as I am called here to help others get “to do”.  I may have learned so much as a student last year in my DTS, but God is quick to remind me that my heart needs to remain teachable in a posture of child-likeness with eager student questions at the tip of my tongue. I need to be mindful of my faith and friendship with God being first and foremost, as I learned through “Louisiana immersion” as well as keep Ohana close and not allow others to fall into the cracks as best as I can. Further, I need to keep my heart open to those God has placed in my present, embracing every part of them as beautiful and allowing them the “just be” like “Hawaii immersion” has taught me. Also, I need to continue to view my decisions and the people in my path as valuable to my being and so take care of the “colony” and be sure to remain friendly and focused on those literally in my “Facetime Space”, like roomies or new students feeling afraid or homesick as “Cambodia immersion” taught me. 

Above and below: Monday morning with the new students of the quarter, worshipping the King in Kona 

As valuable as all of these new lifestyle lessons that these places and people have taught me, I still need to keep my heart, eyes, and hands open to God’s new treasures to be discovered and captured in this new 2019 year of Harvest and Joy. Just like the ocean, I can’t hang my hat on the fact that I surfed one wave already (like having done DTS and Outreach in 2018), but it is time to venture on to a new wave (2019). It won’t be exactly like the first one…though I am heading back to Cambodia, I am still growing and getting ever stronger. I flip and fall off of the board only to get back and try again and I know that with the waves constantly coming in and out, I can never make a mistake so long as I try. Jesus will always send the wave, we must learn to listen, obey, and take courage with the small faith we carry, and fix our eyes on Him, then in no time, He will teach us to ride the waves just like He does.   Just like with surfing, in life, timing is everything. There was a time I was immersed in one culture, the East, but now I am back in the West to re-immerse in rest and revelation. In this season, it’ll be a time to train a “new wave” of students to trek to Cambodia full of faith and confidence in Jesus, not in themselves, to see God transform the nation in one generation for Jesus unto Jesus. I am blessed to be having Janea, my covenant friend in “divine convergence”, who joined me in Cambodia for 3 months last year, to spend a month here in Kona this Feb. to help me train the next crew. Just as I saw God take my last 9 month team become literally a John 17 community, this time, as I have ridden a wave already, I can sense in my spirit, that with this coming wave, we will all “jump up on the board” (that is become a John 17 family) that much faster so we can ride this wave, that much longer. I hope to not hold back with my roomies that God has so sovereignly placed in my path for this quarter in Kona, as well as the staff like Carla or Yoonjung, running side by side with me, or with my new Cambodia team’s potential co-leader(s) and student(s). I hope to embrace Jesus and all that He is in this season as well as embrace that just like with my Louisiana family, our yes to Jesus makes a difference in many of the “one’s” lives. I hope to embrace those in my path and to never clique up or leave any Ohana out. To embrace the new with the old and keep growing, expanding my heart for love for Jesus for others. I hope to champion us to become a unit and so take that much more territory for the kingdom of God in 2019. It will be a year of joy. It will be a year of one-on-ones, literally, as a staff I will be assigned to make specific connections for the sake of helping others process their Jesus journey here at YWAM Ships and throughout outreach. It will also be a year of being, resting, waiting, watching, learning, practicing, trying, failing, falling, swimming, paddling, jumping, holding, stretching, growing, and surfing. Where will you find yourself this year? Where will you allow yourself to grow by way of immersion? How will you follow God unto deeper waters than 2018? It’s not about how well you get up on the board or how well you believe in yourself, but it is all about immersing yourself with the belief that Jesus loves you, and He created you to do great and mighty things just like He has/ does. Don’t let fear outweigh your level of faith this year. Focus on the Lord and say yes to the dreams He has placed inside of you. Oh if you would only believe Him, in the good times or the hard times. He is faithful to plant you, learn to bloom where you are planted and to not count the days, but make the days count. Let’s do this immersion and surfing thing together this 2019. Leave a comment below and tell me about you sense God is leading you this year.