Outreach Location Released!!!

I know a lot of you have been just as excited as I have been to find out where I am going on outreach!! Well... I am going to Los Angeles and New York!!! There are a total of 7 of us going, all girls!! I am the oldest on the team. I am close to 13 years older than one of the leaders of the outreach and another girl. How exciting, that I get to watch God move in the young. The rest of the girls range from 20-27.

Our focus in LA will be a mix of working with the Dream Center, which is pretty much a street ministry that has been going on for years. And working with prostitutes and young people on the streets as well as doing street evangelism. We also will be going to college and high school campuses preaching the gospel of Jesus. We will be there a total of 7 weeks building relationships with each other and with those that we will be ministering to. God is so fantastic!!

New York is going to look quite a bit different. We will be there during fashion week. This gives us opportunity to be with the models. We will get one on one time with them, taking them to coffee and the like, getting girl time. When it comes down to the runway we will help prepare them for their walk, dressing them and praying for them. What a wonderful time to share the love of Jesus. What a wonderful time to speak life and encourage these women who so struggle with image.

When I found out where I was going and what we would be doing there as a team, I got super excited. I long to see women restored to the fulness of what God intended!! I love to speak life and to encourage! What a joyous opportunity to be apart of a team that will go in and make a difference, because the Lord goes before us. We will see so many women restored! We will see hope where there has been no hope! We will see many come to know the Lord! God is good!!!

Please be praying for me and my team. Some of the core strongholds that these women and young people live in and under are: self-hatred, comparison, insecurity, depression, anger, and suicide. Please be praying that these areas would break over their lives and over these regions. Please pray for our protection as a team. Pray that we would be unified, and there would be no dissension among us. Please pray for great opportunity to minister and share the gospel. Prayer is so essential for God to move mightily. Please pray in a paving of the way for signs, wonders and the gospel to be preached. Please pray for boldness.

I am so excited!! I can't wait to post the updates of what God has done!!!

If you feel led to partner with me in bringing hope to a dying world you can do so financially and as well through prayer. Outreach costs are roughly $5000. which include airfare, food and lodging for 3 months.

You can make checks payable to Erin Crain and send them to;

Erin Crain

14416 254th st. e

Graham, wa 98338

Thank you for considering. Thank you for praying. Thank you for believing in my dream. Lets continue to dream big together!!!

Much Love!!!

Erin Crain

The Key... is the Key.

So my Call2All DTS life so far looks somewhat like this... wake up throw any kind of clothes on because that just doesn't matter here, and go find my seat that is strategically placed if front of a fire hydrant. As I twist off the cap, it is launched at me with so much pressure. The water pummels my face as I try to drink in as much as I can. You see I want all that the Lord has for me!! I want all of Him!! I want to know Him more and more and more every single day.

For as long as I can remember I have longed for so much more in my walk with the Lord. And I am learning so much of what I have known in my walk with the Lord has been based on experiences and how Jesus Christ makes me feel. Or what He can do for me. Or what He can free me from. You see I love Jesus but its a puny love compared to how much I have loved myself. I have cared more about my failures and concerned more about my succeeding than people dying without ever knowing the great love that is found in Jesus Christ and what He actually did for mankind. I have been more concerned in what I can do for people for them to hear about Jesus than knowing Him for myself. I have jockeyed with the Lord for the glory that has always and only belonged to Him. My mindset is still one of Jesus help me to do great things for you.

The gospel of Christ is not for the faint hearted. Its not for goose bumps. Its not for what I can get out of it. Its not about what feels right in the moment, or what gives me peace. Its not for my gain. Its not about Jesus being in my life. Or how He can make my life better. He is not an accessory. I can't have God's life and keep my own.

The gospel of Jesus Christ will change the lives of individuals that want a new life that is only found in him. The gospel has nothing to do with me... my desires, my thoughts, my aspirations, my wants, or my future. My whole view of Christianity has been a little... or rather a lot skewed. The Bible talks about daily dying to self. Pick up your cross daily and follow me. I was given a great analogy yesterday about what this would look like. In roman times the cross was a horrific way to die. You could easily invision yourself picking up your cross and carrying it daily. What would happen to my reputation? What would people think of me as I am walking down the street with this huge cross dragging behind me? Even in those questions, its still about me. Today we wear crosses around our necks and get them tattooed on our bodies. The cross doesn't so much embody a brutal death much in western cultures. It would more likely be today, waking up and sitting in an electric chair and turning it on and frying ourselves until there is nothing, until we have no input apart from what Christ would think. This is the key to salvation. Sin has no power when we are dead. The Bible says that if we want to actually identify with Christ we MUST die to self daily. We must partake in His suffering. We must live by the spirit. If we walk from the inside out we will not walk contrary to the will of God. But if we walk according to what our 5 senses are craving, we honestly cannot be saved. There is no victory. We will be slaves to money. We cannot please God. And our circumstances will dictate what we do.

What does it really mean to be saved? Salvation is a very dramatic thing. It should shift things. There is power in Salvation. There is no power in Religion. We know longer think for ourselves, but we have the mind of Christ.

Christianity doesn't look like religion in any shape or form. Christianity starts with self-denial not self-benefit. Religion is the biggest obstacle to Christianity. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 4, "Come follow me." The first thing we see is following Jesus, and Jesus did what He saw His father doing. If we live by the spirit, we won't gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

I don't know about you, but I can't picture living another minute with this mentality. I think that Paul says it best in Philippians chapter 3:12-14, "Not that I have already obtained this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the great prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

I am thankful that it is a new day. I am thankful for God's unmerited favor. I am thankful that the Lord is beginning to take the blinders off my eyes. I pray that He continually gives me understanding how to walk and understand everything that I have already been given. As followers of Jesus we have been given everything we need to live like Christ.

Lord help me to do die to my self-fulfilling ways. Help me to press on toward the goal of having your mind and being one with you. I want more of you Jesus. Transform me by the renewing of my mind. I choose to flip the switch today Lord, to sit in that chair, to give up all my rights. I choose today, Lord, to die. Have your way Lord. I will lose my life so I may be found in Christ. Please Lord, remind again tomorrow. And then please remind me the next day and the next. Teach me a lifestyle of self-denial, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

God in My Waiting...

This season I am in, has been one of waiting. Everywhere I go I am waiting. Even before I left to come to YWAM I was waiting on God to speak to direction, and to bring clarity. He did speak and it brought a lot of peace. Why does the Lord speak quickly sometimes, and sometimes not? I am finding for me that it is not so easy to wait. I have one gear and that gear is high. I don't know the meaning of slow down. I know go go go. Back home it is such a fast pace environment. Everyone is in a hurry. My dad always says "hurry up and wait," when we are driving in the car and people are speeding past us only to have to slam on the breaks at the next light. Its ingrained in us by the booming voice of society, and the busyness all around us.

Even being here there are many lines that I have to stand in and wait. There are lines to the bathrooms at break times and 3 times a day waiting in line for meals. The Lord has taken me out of the busy, busy, busy mentality of back home and brought me to a place where I am squirming in an environment that is so amazing. I am just not used to being so free in my thoughts. The Lord has gotten my attention and I am fully aware that He is doing something amazing. So here I am waiting again. Waiting on God, which I am convinced will probably be a natural thing I will be doing the rest of my life. I will let you know when I hear about what is next. I am expecting great things.

"Flungers, Signs and French braids"

It has been very exciting being a student again! So many new things. New relationships, new rules, orientation, campus tours, work duties, oh and don't forget the accents. There are so many different accents here. I think that it is one of my most favorite things ever. Its like an orchestra of language here. There are more people from Korea this quarter than there has been for a while. It has been very fun, entertaining and amazing!

We had to have a Housing meeting on Sunday and everyone from my particular building had to come. Very interesting... It took about 2 hours. I do have to admit it was kind of boring. But my building manager did share 1 particularly funny story about clogging the toilet. When you are a family I guess it is safe to say that you can potentially talk about anything... So he said that if in the middle of the night that if we happen to clog the toilet, not to wake him up but to use a "FLUNGER"... he also used hand motions. Our building manager is very funny. He is Korean. A very brown Korean. Which is not very common outside of this island. Koreans like to be white and mostly you will see them walking in the sun with long sleeves, pants and an umbrella. On registration day me and one of my roommates went to the housing table to get our keys and our building manager was checking us in and giving us our keys. He asked my roommate what she was to be called. She said, "Leslie". He replied back, "Lesalee". He looked at me and said, "you Cwain". He rocks!

There are always opportunities to run into new people. You can pick up a game of frisbee, chat with someone standing in line. There is always a line for meals. Or just be passing through campus. Yesterday as I was about to go meet at the flags so we could walk down to go swimming at the peer. On the way I stopped at a friends room to see if she wanted to come. On the way back down the stairs I overheard a gal hollering to see if anyone knew how to french braid. I did. So 5 mins later I had a new friend nick-named Thunder from the land down under. And her hair looked amazing by the way. What a joy to meet so many different people from all over the world. I really do love all the amazing culture all around me.

One of my new favorite games is called SIGNS. And it's absolutely the best with the Koreans. It is a group game played in a circle. Every one has a chair except for the person in the middle who is standing. Everyone has a sign... peace sign, hang loose, touch your nose, make bunny ears. We try to be as creative as possible. The person in the middle closes their eyes while we pick someone to start the sign. Whoever starts is as discreet as possible and does their sign and then someone else in the circle, hopefully without the person in the middle seeing. This gets to be very funny as the guesser is turning in circles trying to follow where the sign has gone. If the guesser in the middle sees someone make their sign but doesn't make another sign in time the middle person can tag them. But if the guesser doesn't get there in time to tag and the sign was passed and received the game continues and more laughing is the result. It is awesome! Super fun and the Korean students are the best at it. Kind of like a mime game. So other than the laughing there are really know words spoken.

We are now 2 days in and I have been super, super blessed to be here. My staff and leaders have made me feel so at home and so welcome here. I love the sense of family and community. I am doing my best to take it one day at a time. And not focus so much on what I am doing next, or what is going on back home. I want to get out of this experience as much as I possibly can. The sun hasn't been out much since I have been here. A little the first day I arrived and for about an hour today. I will post some sunny pictures when I can take them. Tomorrow morning there is an opportunity to sit in the prayer room from 7-9am. So right after breakfast that is where I will be. It is so good to be in the same place with Aaron Barker. His worship and how he leads you into the throne room, is like embracing an old friend. Especially if you haven't seen him for a while. I am so looking forward to getting to know God so much more during this quarter.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Philippians 3:7-8

It's Official!!!

I am now a YWAM student. I will start classes on monday. I have been on campus here in Hawaii for 4 days now and am sincerely blown away!! I saw the sun today... which made me very happy. This is not at all what I had expected. God is blowing out of the water all my desires and anything I thought this might look or feel like!! I am already experiencing God's amazing love for me and am still trying to take it all in. Being obedient to the call of God is not always easy. It is stretching in more ways I had thought. But as I trust in God all my apprehensions are falling away. God is so incredibly faithful. I am very eager to experience God more and more as this time continues.

We as a student body were welcomed with a traditional ceremony from the local islanders which has been going on all day. This experience has been very honoring and overwhelming. These people truly know how to bless you and make you feel welcome as a part of there "ohana" their family. By song and dance we were covered in a blessing. It was very powerful. I know that you would have loved to be here Dad to witness this. I am still so overwhelmed with many emotions as the initial shock is starting to melt and break off.

I have met so many people from all over the world. My room is made up of a gal from Switzerland, Oklahoma City, and a gal from Oregon who recently moved to Hawaii which attend the PhotoGENX DTS which are all gifted photographers. Plus 2 others that are in my specific DTS; a Korean girl from Ecuador, and a local Hawaiian. So a total of 6 of us sharing 1 bathroom. They are all so unique and fun. There are 9 different Nations represented in my Call2All DTS. I love culture and diversity!! This has been such a wonderful time.

I am truly grateful for all the support from everyone back home who has given or is still giving to this cause of me going to the nations! I love you all! I will be in touch!

Bye for now.