Kingdom Causes' wild ride

Hi:
My name is Judy and I just turned 64. I thought I'd be home tending my garden and caring for the hummingbirds in my back-yard as they come to check out our koi pond....NOT!....instead God in His infinite wisdom and with a twinkle in His eye has me here on staff as Brad's assistant! I came on board to help with administration in the Long Beach office, but that morphed into what I'm doing now with Brad. His vision and energy are limitless and part of my job is to ride along with him and try to keep order in all the spheres he's in to. What an "E" ticket ride!!! Sometimes I go home wondering what in the world I'm doing here, and then I see the Kingdom being established and it's all OK.
My heart is to see prayer happening in a connected way in this City and to see the Kingdom Causes vision established in cities around the nation - world. Since coming here I've met so many young church planters, so many young leaders in the city and on the Cal State campus that I'm excited to see what our Father is up too and where He's going next! I've never met so many people "doing" Kingdom stuff, with a passion as in these last 6 months.
I'm personally working toward networking prayer in the City, so if you have a prayer meeting that's open to the public, please let me know. After the holidays I will be visiting different churches in the City and blogging about them, and I will be attending as many prayer meetings as I can around the City and see how the Lord would like to connect the city pray-ers. For many years I've been praying for a Church of the City, for pastors to be connected, but lately I've felt led to pray for unity among intercessors. This is one way I feel like that process might begin.
We have a wonderful mix of people on our team with a variety of giftings and talents. The common thread is our love for Jesus, our desire to see Him famous and followed, and our sense of humor!
Have a wonderful, blessed Christmas.
If you would like to join our team of 1000 intercessors you can sign up on our web-site or e-mail me at judyw at kingdomcauses.org. I'd love to add you to our once-monthly e-prayer-mail. We also have a Second Saturday prayer meeting at our offices on 21st and Cherry at 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Last Saturday we had three new people!
Each time I come away from that meeting, I know anew and afresh the power of the God I serve and His love for His people.

"Susana" in Wonderland

I have just joined on to the Kingdom Causes Long Beach Team for about two months.  I should have known from the first day what a wild adventure I had just signed up for.  My first day consisted of the Prayer Breakfast meeting in the morning, a Kingdom Causes Long Beach staff meeting, and a Youth Education Task Force meeting.  I felt like Alice in Wonderland being exposed to new people and new places.

I was born at St. Mary's from a Cambodian family that escaped the Khmer Rouge.  I went to Long Beach public schools and finally ended schooling in the Spring of 2007 from UCI.  With a Bachelors in Psychology and Social Behavior in hand, I felt like Christopher Columbus setting sail to discover that the world is round.  It was a difficult choice for me to not continue on to graduate school.  I would love to go to school and postpone growing up and facing the real world.  But God had other plans for me that I could not dream of or comprehend.  He has revealed little pieces and opened doors for me like joining Kingdom Causes.

I came into Kingdom Causes with the mindset of exploring the world but God instead has been exposing me.  Exposure in all aspects of the word.  Exposure of me (my strengths, my sin), of Long Beach (through Kingdom Causes), of people (their hearts), of God (especially His love), and many more.

In this blog, I hope to bring you along on my adventure of "Wonderland"; to share with you my feelings, observations, and thoughts; and to expose you too.

Thank you for falling down the rabbit hole with me,

Susana

He Sent a BABY!!!

At our last Second Saturday prayer meeting, the Lord began to impress on me again His absolute sovereignty. What a ridiculously bad idea - to send a baby to proclaim the Kingdom!!! He sent a baby, helpless, totally dependant on people, so fallible, so human! to safeguard the plan of the ages?! Such extravagant foolishness. Such extravagant faith. What an extravagant demonstration of the Father's power to save and to care for His most Beloved Son and to execute His amazing plan to have us all - for Himself. As I began to think about all the impossibilities in my life, my faith began to grow. I began to pray (again) for the trust Jesus exhibited while He was here. Scripture is clear about Who Jesus trusted while He was here. Think about all the ways God protected His Son during those 33 years and at the end it didn't look so good, but - we all know the glorious, triumphant outcome of the perfect trust of the Son and the perfect trustworthiness of the Father. We are called to become like little children. My prayer for you and me is that we would be able more and more to do that and to grow in the trust the Baby demonstrated when He left glory to come and be with us here - to demonstrate, among many other things, how perfectly trustworthy His Father is.
God Bless you this Christmas season. Lord, we believe, help our unbelief!