May My Life Be Marked By Faith

I’m going to Iris Leadership School! If you would like to check out where exactly I’m headed, feel free to explore their website. Here is their direct link: 

https://www.irisglobal.org/missions/harvest/leaders-school

For a slight peek into what my time there will hold, here is a snippet found on their web page. “The foundation of this training will include a deeper understanding of growth in identity and character. We will also be training world-changers in both basic & advanced ministry skills and leadership skills. Students will be trained in advanced Bible study, preaching, healing, deliverance, team building, church planting, vision, evangelism, starting Iris bases, building a revival culture, apostolic strategy, becoming a 501(c)3, and much more. Each student will also have the opportunity to practice ministry development in a practical, local church context by starting ministries, raising up leaders, and giving ministries away. There will also be school retreats and missions trips during the school year. And, of course, there will be ample time for prayer, worship, soaking, and personal ministry.”

Again, feel free to explore their website for more information or questions you may have.

Now for my own personal story and how I ended up with this specific adventure on my horizon. As many of you know, I graduated from Taylor University last fall with an undergrad in Social Work. The door opened for me to work at a real estate company in a town near the one I graduated college from. I took the job, got my own apartment, and was on church leadership at the church I had attended during my time at Taylor. Life was consistent with work, church, and my friends there. Then December came, and I felt that I would be moving back to my parents home. I found out that my mom was scheduled to have surgery and I wanted to be there for that process. I moved home early December. After my mothers surgery I asked the Lord what was next, thinking it was time to find a job that I was passionate about. God said to travel. It didn’t make sense but I’ve found life is simply too short not to listen when you feel God is speaking. Within the following eight weeks, I touched the Atlantic, Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico. I went on many adventures, saw loved ones, and the Lord began to speak to me more about my passions.

It wasn’t this one specific moment where I realized, I want to do ministry, it just happened. I knew I loved being at church growing up, I felt the most alive when speaking about the Lord with others, and I knew my faith would be a very significant part of my life but it was this shift of intentionality, I want to do ministry. I came back home from my last trip ready to commit. I began job searching. I was looking into ministry organizations I respected, Christian camps- you name it, I probably thought about it. Nothing seemed to excite me, even though many were amazing opportunities. One day when I was on facebook, I saw an ad for Heidi Baker’s Global Mission Schools and something in my spirit leapt. I knew Heidi Baker had a school in Mozambique, I even had close friends attend her school, but I didn’t know there were any in the U.S. As I began researching, I found the Leadership School located in Pismo Beach and there it was, excitement. As I read their requested prerequisites  the excitement faded as many I did not meet. I spoke with my Pastor and he encouraged me to give it a shot any way. Weeks went by and I would feel this excitement creep up but I would just push it away as the thought of it happening seemed impossible.

I was wrong. I was accepted. Let me be clear in that once I found out, it wasn’t an automatic I knew that it was what I was to do next. I prayed and prayed and felt that the Lord was allowing me to pick. As I spoke with loved ones, the support and encouragement was overwhelming. I realized that so many of the options I had prior to this seemed, without sounding arrogant, possible to accomplish on my own strength. Where as the Iris School, I could not have even gotten in without the Lord. What an exciting opportunity to continue to step out in faith.

I had this moment that for the rest of my life, I want each step I take to require more faith than the last. I want to live my life so that I trust God to the degree that if He doesn’t come through, I will fall on my face. Stepping out of the boat isn’t easy. So as I move forward in the planning of this next adventure I have moments where it sounds terrifying and overwhelming but then, I realize that I want more of God and the peace that that brings, conquers all other emotions.

Here is where you come in, if you're reading this it means that when I sit down and think about the people in my life I value most, you come to mind. 

I do plan on finding a part-time job once arriving in CA this autumn and I will be working this summer but I know I will need some additional help financially. Here is a list of foreseeable costs:

- $2800 tuition
- rent, groceries, gas money
- gas money to make the initial trip to CA this coming Autumn
- money for a plane ticket to spend Christmas with my family
- student loan bills

If you would like to give, you are able to do so online by going to 

https://www.irisglobal.org/giving-center/leaders-school

You will be able to type in my name, Sarah Lewis, and submit that way.
( Make sure you enter into the second part, tuition payment and not registration fee)

You are also able to mail a check to my current address of 
1015 E. Oak St. Greenville, IL 62246

As always, prayers are appreciated greatly as I prepare to move cross country, leave my family here, live in a place I've never been with people I've never met, seek employment, and attend a school to learn more about the Lord.

Thank you. Thank you for not only taking the time to read this but for all the ways you have invested in me, challenged me, inspired me, encouraged me, and believed in me even when I may not have believed in myself. 

sincerely,
Sarah Dawn