update of a very full life...

This Update has been overdue for many, many months. To my friends, family and church specifically those in Iowa, I apologize for how concise this needs to be, but it is an update nonetheless. I remind you that you can email, call or text any time if you'd love to catch up! :) I will put you on my schedule!

Some "facts from Lara's Life" bullet points for you:

-I'm in my 2nd year at BSSM here in Redding, California. I am absolutely loving it and getting challenged to the core. This year is focused intensely on leadership training. 

-In January I will have been living in Redding for 2 years! Feels just like yesterday that my nervous little self got in my car and made the 29 hour journey over the mountains by myself. 

-I currently work 25-30 hours every week at Target. I'm in charge of the cosmetics department and really love the detail work that includes. (thankfully)

-My current schedule of life is 4:00am-11:15 work, then off to school until around 6:00pm. It's full, but I really do enjoy it. That is a HUGE change from last year and something I thank God for every day. While I would love to not keep this crazy schedule all year long, it's my honor to work and do school in this environment. 

-I help Brenda VanWinkle once a week because unfortunately that's all my schedule allows for currently. I would love to help her more as she continues to press in for Ireland.

-Every Monday night I take Arabic class through the church here in Redding. Such a beautiful language.

-I am currently filing paperwork to become a part of World Indigenous Missions. This way I will be under a covering, family-wise, prayer-wise, and financially-wise by the time I am ready to make missions and ministry my profession vocationally. They are an amazing organization and you should look them up! :)

-Next week my parents will be here in Redding for a visit! I'm SO very excited! :)

-I still love coffee (just seeing if you're still reading)

-The week after Thanksgiving I will be traveling to Texas with one of our pastors at the Church to be on their ministry team. It is a huge honor to be one of six picked for this trip. For those of you who gave towards my tuition, THANK YOU! This is part of our tuition this year, and I so appreciate that. It's going to be a blast!

-I'm not 100% sure I will be home for Christmas yet. Tickets are PRICEY! yikes. But if I was home I would squeeze all of your necks!

-In March of next year I plan on traveling to Turkey for a missions trip for 10 days. We will be serving in Izmir in an international church, serving them however we can. We will have the honor of coming alongside of some missionaries there and the people who minister to the Turkish people every day. We will also perhaps get to serve some Syrian Refugees in the area (which is what my heart beats for). This trip will cost $2200 for those of you asking that question.

-After falling in love with the Middle East even more last year in Lebanon, it is SUCH a joy to travel back to the area and to Turkey where so much of the New Testament occured. The leader of my trip is someone I consider an Apostle of the region and it is my honor to learn from her. 

-I have the honor of taking a class here next semester for long-term missions here at Bethel Church.

-Brenda will be traveling to Ireland next Spring for about 6 weeks. It is my hope to join her at some point in that 6 weeks to travel with her, and add support so she isn't by herself. The last time we went over plane tickets were about $1000 plus food and lodging, etc, for those of you asking that question again.

-If all goes as planned, I will be traveling to Texas after graduation to do my W.I.M. training at their head quarters. 

-I'm looking for someone who illustrates children's books, specifically birds. I'm trying to get one together before next Summer and have no idea how to do so. 

-I am so super honored to be serving Iris Ministries every week and have been learning so many powerful things and truths that I have been tucking away for the future. 

-I have begun the process of looking for a new vehicle. We've figured out that with as much as we've put into it, it's no longer the best investment, that being said, I'm a LONG way to being able to purchase a new(er) car and it's been in my heart a long time to be able to give this one away to someone I've had in mind for a long time. 

-Life is beautiful, I've never experienced the depths of His peace, and love and presence like I have in this season.

-Yes, I'm still single. ;) I know someone was asking or thinking it. 

-I am blessed with the most amazing family in the world: shout out to all of you. Mom, Dad, Jb, Carla, Noah, Mussie and Greta. Tim, Kim and Alena. Matt and Ilona. I really, absolutely couldn't do anything without them and their support.

Just as a reminder, my email is larahochstetler@gmail.com. If you mail me I'll get you my number, address or whatever else you need to stay in touch! I love you all and am so honored to know you. I hope this helps you feel more 'connected' with all that's going on in my life! Bethel Menno, an update is coming soon!

Peace and Many Blessings,

Lara

We are never powerless: choosing our response.

       So realistically at this point with 30+ hours of work and full-time school and homework, I cannot possibly get mad at myself for not posting much as of late. However, I do want you, whoever you are, to still feel connected to my life in some way so...here it is! Sometimes I write things and they mean nothing to me, and sometimes I write and have no idea what I'm writing until I come back to it and it challenges me to my core. This was one of those things. This is from some of my homework for school this year. I wrote it for a book report, and I wanted to share it with you. It seems like a lot of people I talk to in my life are walking through this. To choose joy and hope inspite of not seeing our promises come true is one of the hardest, yet essential things we do as believers. I hope that you will join me on this journey as we learn to live well and full of His LIFE.

"God is creating a way for you to be complete, not lacking anything. Your job in this season is to grab hold of hope and not let go! Like a farmer who labors to produce a crop, your joy lies in the hope of the harvest to come.
"We have to appoint ourselves as the keeper of our lives and the protector of our hearts. We choose our moods, actions and belief systems; therefore, we are powerful enough to change them!" (Supernatural Power of Forgiveness, Kris and Jason Vallotton)
        

        So for me, at this point in my life these 2 quotes go together. Something I'm walking through at the moment, and I think will continue to walk through is, what we do with the promises The Lord has given us that have not yet come to pass? How do we posture our heart when it genuinely hurts to pray for something that we honestly don't want to pray anymore for? How do we choose hope in the moments when our hearts are sick because of hope deferred? At times I think that I have walked through things thinking that I couldn't have 'fullness' of joy until I saw that thing I had hoped for fulfilled. But I'm finding more and more that if I live with that mindset it makes me powerless. That if I am dependent on that promise happening to live in fullness of joy than my joy is then dependent on my circumstances, and not on the very one that is my source of joy.
        Realistically, I think that sometimes it's much easier to just blame circumstances for internal hurts. I think it's easier to find fault in other people, on their actions or lack thereof. But this second quote says it all. We are the keeper of our hearts and lives. We actually have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to choose how we respond to things. And we have been given the ability to walk through pain, not denying that it's there, but choosing joy, and peace in spite of the pain. It's an act of worship, I think. I was just today faced again with an ongoing situation in which in my mind I feel I have the right to choose offense, but instead I have chosen to choose joy, not because my pain doesn't exist, but because I know that it's actually a healthy way to protect my heart, and those around me in my life. Basically, I want to move into a place where I am complete, where I have ownership for my life and I have the ability to hold onto the promises, keeping my heart healthy and full of hope at the same time.

        Something I have been walking through as of late is this: I have set my heart on Him. I am determined, that no matter what, no matter what God does or 'doesn't' do for me, I will never withhold myself from Him. When we learn to move past our offenses and choose to worship Him instead, it always makes us powerful. I have determined within me that no matter how tired, how frustrated, how broken I 'feel', He is and always will be worth all of my attention, and all of my affections...and that my friends has filled me with more hope, steady joy, passion and energy than ever before. It really is our choice, our powerful, free choice of how we respond to Him. And while I have a LONG way to go, hope builds every day, making it worth the sacrifice that it is most days.

God bless you on your journey to becoming whole, and realizing that He wants us to be full of life, and life abundantly. He is for us, and not against us. Will we choose to live in that reality today?

L