I Have Oceans More for You
“First, I saw you sort of leap-frogging from stone to stone down a stream. I feel like He’s gonna keep leading you one step at a time as you joyfully obey and adventure with Him. Then I heard Him say,
“I have oceans more for you, Amanda.”
He has oceans worth of more knowledge from Him, and oceans worth of works for you to partner with Him in.”
My wonderful community back home all prayed and asked the Lord what He might want to impart to me before I left for 11 months on the amazing adventure of the Race, and the word above really struck me when I first received it and has continued to speak to me ever since. Now, I believe God is using it to confirm His direction for this next season in my life once I finish the Race in only 1.5 short months!
THE WHAT…
Soooooo, I’m moving to Spain this fall!!!
I’m starting a leadership academy in Mijas, Spain this coming September, which also has aspects of a missions/discipleship school. It’s called G42, which stands for “generation 42,” from Matthew 1:17. We – me and you – are the 42nd Generation, called to radically receive and make known the love of God on the earth.
G42 was started by Andrew Shearman, the mentor of the man who founded the World Race, Seth Barnes. Their website is a great resource if you want to read up on it any further and watch their video: https://www.generation42.org. If you do visit the site and are wondering why the information they give is a little bit vague, that’s because the program, while very rooted in scripture, is Spirit-led and therefore more fluid in nature. It’s constantly changing and one year of interns will likely not have the same experience as another, because each class’s experience is tailor-made by the Lord, and I wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂
9 MONTHS…
The other G42 interns and I will be spending 9 months in this program, which starts September of 2019…yep, you read that right, I’ll only be home for about 2 months before leaving the country again for another 9. I’m a little sad that I won’t get to spend the holidays with friends and family again this year, but I know that the Lord’s timing is perfect and I’m excited to spend my holidays diving into Him even more intently this year.
TIMELINE…
Our first 3 months will take place in Mijas, Spain, where the home of G42 resides. Our middle 3 months will be spent doing a missions practicum somewhere else in the world to live out what we’ve learned the first 3 months (we don’t know where that will be yet), and the last 3 months will be spent back in Spain, debriefing and finishing well before we head back to the States.
COMMUNITY…
G42 emphasizes community living and learning how to do life with others well. True, the Race is very much about community (so much so that there’s not much alone time or personal space at all haha), but I’ve heard that the community in G42 is worlds more intimate and intentional than that of the Race, which I’m very much looking forward to.
The other night I was watching the movie The Good Lie about Sudanese refugees during the Second Sudanese Civil War (great movie, I recommend it!) and they quoted an African proverb that made me think of G42, because it’s all about community…
“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve lived a lot of my life trying to get places as quickly as I could, even if it meant I had to go alone. But the Lord has been teaching me the wisdom and value of ‘going together,’ and that we were never meant to speed through this life on our own – we were created for relationship. I’m excited to dive into this greenhouse for relational community and to learn how to live and lead it well.
THE END GOAL…
At the end of it all, the large picture goal is simple yet profound; to have a more intimate relationship with the Lord, to become more deeply rooted in our identity in Him, to learn how to start and lead missional communities and to be able to take others into that same intimacy with Him wherever we go and whatever we do, throughout the globe and throughout our lives.
To quote the G42 crew: “G42 Leadership Academy is a 9 month training program located in Mijas, Spain focused on a transformative curriculum of equipping for leaders who are passionate about establishing the Kingdom of God on earth.”
I feel so honored that the Lord would lead me into a season of sitting at His feet and of equipping. When I got my acceptance email into this program, I wept, because I felt like the Father was saying, “I so want to invest in you, that I’m intentionally setting aside this season just for you to be poured into and to encounter Me on a deeper level.” He’s already been confirming that this is the direction He’s leading me in, and I just feel so very loved, seen, known and valued by Him!
THE WHY (AT LEAST FOR ME :)…
One of the many lessons I’ve learned from doing the Race so far has been that I am the healthiest version of myself when I’m actively reaching forward to make dreams and visions come true that the Lord has placed in my heart and when I’m walking forward into the future He’s set out for me. I want to wholeheartedly cooperate with the works of His hands in becoming the fullness of all He’s fashioned me to be. About 10 years ago my discipler, Jennifer Briner, recommended a book for me to read, The Making of a Leader, by Dr J. Robert Clinton.
Side note: I’ve had many people throughout my life tell me that they see leadership in me, though it’s often been hard for me to see or believe that for myself. The more that leadership opportunities have arisen, however, the stronger my desire to dive into what developing Godly leadership looks like has grown.
I bought the book a few years back, tried reading it several times, but was never able to stay committed to it because I always found it extremely dry and too didactic in nature to hold my attention. I wanted to learn what it had to teach me, I wanted to grow in wisdom, but I didn’t have the patience to push through what I found to be very boring at the time – sorry Dr Clinton! While I was preparing for the Race, however, I committed myself to reading this book, since my mentor must have had a good reason for recommending it, and I decided to bring it along as one of the precious few books I could fit in my pack. This past month, I finally finished reading it. True, I still found it to be very dry, still very monotone, and I still struggled at times to make it through, but in the end, I did what I set out to do, and I’m so thankful that I persevered, because I’ve gleaned so much wisdom and gained many valuable lessons from reading it. One thing that resonated in me when I read it was this bit of wisdom…
“When Christ calls leaders to Christian ministry He intends to develop them to their full potential. Each of us in leadership is responsible to continue developing in accordance with God’s processing all our life.” (pg 196, The Making of a Leader)
I know the Lord is never “done” developing us into our full potential, but I feel like His call for me in doing G42 is another step forward into saying yes to His plans and purposes to use me as a leader in the earth, whether from the front, on stage, or from behind the scenes. Most importantly, I feel like it’s a call to spend a season going deeply and wholeheartedly after Him with all that I have, and to learn how to invite others to come alongside me in true “follow me as I follow Christ” form (1 Corinthians 11:1).
THE BACK STORY:
In the season leading up to the Race, I was in a very broken place. I had just been through something devastatingly life-altering and I was desperate for the Lord to draw near, to heal my broken heart, to breathe life back into my lungs and to restore my ability to hope again. He did just that and more – He is SO faithful, y’all!!! He took all my brokenness and brought fullness of healing – He even uprooted deep-seated lies and unhealthy thinking patterns in the process that I wasn’t even aware of – it was like He was doing a little spring cleaning in my heart and mind 🙂 He took my crippling fears and replaced them with His transforming Love. He took my void of hopelessness and filled me up with promising hope. He filled me with excitement to dream with Him again about the things He had placed on my heart and had given me a passion for over the years. He told me that the next season in front of me was for me to have from Him as a gift, and He gave me the freedom to choose what I wanted this season to be about. He reawakened many dreams that had been lying dormant, deep in the recesses of my heart, one of them being Missions. He introduced me to the Race, quickly opened wide all the doors, and provided for me in ways I never imagined possible. He has proven Himself faithful to me time and again.
Within this season, another longstanding dream was to have a season of sitting at the Lord’s feet and of being poured into about the deep things of God. I wanted to go deeper with the Holy Spirit and to get to know Him on a more personal level. I wanted time to focus on just me and Him. After I graduated from 6 years of college, I was incredibly close to making the decision of attending a ministry school, because all I wanted to do was spend time with Him and invest in my relationship with Him. Instead, I chose to start working full-time to pay off my student loans. I don’t necessarily regret that decision; it was the responsible thing to do and it has proven very fruitful in its own way, but it also caused the excitement of some of my dreams to be choked out and dulled.
I had hoped that the Race would be more of a season of sitting at the Lord’s feet than it has been, and, while it’s been an incredible honor and privilege to pour myself out in service over the last year (and I wouldn’t trade it for anything), it’s also not at all come close to cultivating the intimacy with Him that I had hoped for or expected.
I’ve heard the Race compared to jumping into a pool, while G42 is like swimming in the ocean. I’ve heard it put that the Race is like freshman year in school, while G42 is like senior year – not that we ever officially “graduate”…every analogy breaks down somewhere 😉 All that to say, I know the Lord has called me to “the more,” and I can hear Him calling me to go deeper with Him. I’m ready to dive into the deep end! I’m ready to challenge myself. I’m ready to keep saying “yes” to Him as He continues to lead me on this adventure!
HOW YOU CAN HELP…
If you have already supported me for the Race, it means the world to me that you’ve invested your finances, time and energy to help me love on and serve others throughout the globe – THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! It’s been an honor and a privilege to partner with the Lord to bring His Good News and His Love to others – some who had never before heard or known of it!
The total cost of G42 is $10,500, which includes airfare, lodging, food, my missions practicum, everything, for 9 months. My goal is to be fully funded by the time I leave in September (lofty, I know, but I believe it’s possible)! Hey, that’s only 100 people giving $105 per person! That’s not terrible! 😉
At the very least, I need to have $4,500 raised by this September to be able to fly out to Spain, but my desire to be fully funded before I begin the program lies in wanting to be fully invested and undistracted while I’m there.
If you are interested in partnering with me again, or would like to for the first time, that would mean the world to me also, and you can do so in the following ways:
1. To donate directly, go to the G42 donations website:
https://www.generation42.org/donations
Scroll down until you see the “September 2019” heading
Find my picture
above my name, Amanda Kretsinger 😉
You can make a “one time donation” or a “recurring donation” by clicking on the corresponding buttons and following the prompts
Give by card or PayPal
*G42 is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so donations are tax deductible – woo!*
2. I am in the process of brainstorming several items that I will have for sale in the coming months, such as necklaces from Lovishly, t-shirts from Bonfire, and some other exciting goodies. Stay up to date on my social media (Facebook: Amanda Kretsinger, and Instagram: AmandaRoseKretsinger) to order.
3. I’m bringing back the ever-popular Adopt-A-Box. My sweet mom is rehabbing the one I used to fundraise for the Race because it’s at home and I’m all the way in Peru 😉 Keep up with my big colorful board of fun on social media as well and follow the steps to make a donation:
Pick a number that stands out to you (you can choose as many as you want) and have fun with it – maybe your child’s birthday date, your favorite number, the number of coffee mugs you own…
That number corresponds to the $ amount that you donate
(ex: choosing #24 = $24)
Donate through following the instructions for the 1. above (https://www.generation42.org/donations)
Or give through one of the other various options I’ve got available for you listed below 😉
Personal PayPal: PayPal.Me/AmandaKretsinger
Venmo: @Amanda-Kretsinger
CashApp: $AmandaKretsinger
Cash: send me a message or email: [email protected] (yup, still using my good ole college email address 6 years later 😉
Any amount you’d like to donate is both welcomed and greatly appreciated!
4. Finally, PRAY! I honestly feel cliche saying that, because it’s the Christianese thing to say, but it’s also SO TRUE, haha, so I can’t avoid the cliche this time. Please pray for:
-Financial provision
-My short 2 month home stint with friends and family would be intentional, restful and sweet
-Courage to walk boldly into all the Lord has in store
-That God would prepare my heart for the season to come
Love you all! God bless you!!
