Big Update!!!

Hello all!

I have been trying to write a blog over the past month on all that has been happening since my last update on moving to LA. Since then, I've served at a Revival Alliance conference, Azusa Now (a prayer and worship event that took place in LA with over 100,000 people!!), I have been working updates for Iris, helping launch a video podcast, and really settling in here. It is really wonderful how we have become family within Iris Media and love each other so well. The journey has been tough but we have been pressing on together and it makes it all the more worth it.

I have been praying for years about becoming a yoga or fitness instructor and really felt that direction from the Lord, but have been waiting on the right timing. Moving to LA, I really felt like God was speaking to me about pursing yoga and was randomly offered unlimited yoga classes for cleaning the studio twice a week! That has been a dream and I am falling in love with yoga! It has been a great escape from the busyness of internship and LA life and living with 5 other girls! I've been really able to connect with the Lord on the yoga mat and hear His voice and feel His joy and strength so powerfully.

Now the big news.... The original plan for the internship was going to Mozambique for 3 weeks. This is still the plan for most of the interns... but when my leaders heard of my heart and passion to be a missionary in Africa, it was arranged that I would stay on our base in Pemba, Mozambique for 3 months!!! I will be able to accomplish so much more for Iris Media and especially for our Stop for the One sponsorship program! There is so much happening in Mozambique with Iris and there is so much that needs to be captured on film so that God can be glorified!

I will be leaving for Mozambique in a month!! So there is a lot to get done before then! I am finishing up a video update on the drought and famine in eastern Africa which has been a lot of work because of the importance of getting the poor and the hungry fed! Then am heading off to Redding, CA to train with some Iris Media staff for filming in Africa and will also attend Bethel Church's Creative Conference! I am really believing for a lot of breakthrough in my creativity before I head out to Africa to lay my life down and truly pursue my dreams for media!

My passion for media is that it is the best way to get your message to the MASSES! And to be able to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in Mozambique and show the world what God is doing. It is a DREAM COME TRUE! I know that this is JUST THE BEGINNING of the incredible work God is doing with me.

All I want to do is give the Lamb the reward for His suffering, all He has done for me, I want to do for Him. I will go lower still in laying my life down at the alter so that He may be glorified fully and truly in my life. He is worthy of it all. I am so in love with Him and I will go anywhere so that His Kingdom would come and His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So I need a lot of miracles to get to Mozambique for 3 months this summer! PLEASE PRAY FOR ME! for

• PLANE TICKETS! 
• Traveling expenses
• Visas 
• Vaccinations 
• Supplies 
• A new computer 
• I desperately need a new computer to be able to work on videos in Mozambique. My current computer is about 7 years old and I can't even update my iPhone on it! Or even update Google Chrome. 
• Traveling money 
• Money for Redding trip 

So I am believing God for a lot very quickly. I'm leaving for Redding on Sunday, May 15th until about May 27th and will return to LA to pack up all my stuff. I will leave some things in LA but will be flying out to Mozambique from Chicago so I can see my family before I go!

I know Jesus said in Luke 9:3, Matthew 10:9-10, Mark 6:8 to go out and bring nothing with you. And in Luke 22:35.."Then Jesus asked them, "When I sent you out without purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" "Nothing," they answered." So when I feel foolish for not having anything but knowing God has called me to go, I remember what JESUS said. Go with nothing. So, here I am following the words of my Savior, believing every word He has said.

I think this may be the best update I've ever written. I'm so in Love with Jesus.

So PLEASE PRAY FOR ME! Pray for protection, for blessings, and for lots of money.

If you would like to support me financially, you can give to me over Paypal (email shootingesther@gmail.com) , send me a wad of cash and/or checks in the mail, or just buy my plane tickets or a new computer.

I love you so much! Thanks for reading and being invested in what God is doing in my life! I am so grateful for all of you!

Here is a little update I posted on Facebook!

Update I posted on Facebook on April 13!

Serving at the Revival Alliance conference! 

A podcast shoot we did with Shawn Bolz yesterday!

Azusa Now!! 100,000 people worshiping Jesus! 

Podcast shoot with Heidi Baker!! So powerful!

My 26th birthday celebrated at Zuma Beach in Malibu, CA! 

I MOVED TO LA

I have like 10 unfinished blog posts because while I was in Chicago I really felt that I was supposed to lay my life down and serve my family in the season and be hidden in Him. Leaving Harrisburg was super hard because I loved and was loved so much but I knew that I was stepping into greater purposes that the Lord has for me. I didn't know how long I would be in Chicago with my family but the Lord had told me it would be a season of easy harvest and low hanging fruit. And it definitely was. It was WONDERFUL! I love my family SO SO SO much! I love all that God has done in my heart and my life through going lower still for my family and showing them Love looks like something.

I have been taking baby steps to pick up the dream of my heart to be film maker that I had laid down before the Lord to pick of more of Him and His Word so that I would be established in my faith before getting behind a camera. I knew that the Iris Hollywood Artist Boot Camp would be a huge launching into this dream, but I had no idea how huge.

I now live in LA.
Interning with Iris Media.
Working on media projects for the Kingdom of God.

Say what...

Jesus says if you lose your life for Me, you will find it. Matt 10:39. I love how the more I get to know Him, the more I get to know myself. And the more I love to lose my life.

It has been an easy and hard transition into LA. Easy because God has given me amazing roommates to run along side with that I met at the Iris Hollywood boot camp and has allowed me to come here right into family. We have all taken huge steps of faith to come here and serve the Lord through Iris Media. These women are amazing. We are all so thankful to be here in this season and to be there for one another. Making meals together, praying together, encouraging another, and going on this adventure together has been amazing. And it hasn't even been two weeks.The hard part has been a new level of faith and new level of fighting for it.

When I got my final acceptance to the internship, I started packing my bags right away. I didn't have any resources to come but I knew that God would provide. And He did in the 11th hour. Actually exactly 24 hours before I was leaving, what I needed to get here was provided. I had an appointment to rent a car at 1 PM and at 12 noon was handed an envelope with $1,000 cash. And then within the next hours before leaving at 1 PM on Sunday, was given more with love to help on the journey, and also found out that two different friends had paid for hotel rooms for my mother and I.

It was amazing.

The journey here was incredible, the Holy Spirit poured Himself out without measure. The trip was gorgeous, the time with my mother, the time with my friends, seeing the country, was all so wonderful. The Lord was so faithful to bless my mom and I with a great time and great country. Utah is beautiful. The Grand Canyon is amazing. I'm in love with this land.

Since being here it has been a search for what I am doing. At the Iris Hollywood school, they prepared us mentally for the spiritual atmosphere that is over LA. Hollywood and LA hold so much influence over the world and there is a fight for it in the spirit. It's definitely been a battle to remain steadfast knowing that I AM SUPPOSED TO BE HERE. That I am qualified, I am called, and more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. HALLELUJAH.

The internship is amazing and all that we will be accomplishing is powerful and fierce. I'm so honored to be a part of a team that will be using media to proclaim the Gospel and testify to what the Lord is doing all over the earth with Iris Global.

There are definitely things I am in need of to pray for. I have been sleeping on a mini futon in the corner of the living room, so a bed would be FABULOUS but there God gives grace to abound in little. I also could definitely use a bike to get around since I don't have a car, we have been walking lots and lots which is great but a bike would be useful when in time crunches. I am also seeking the Lord for the right job or the right provision that I can give more of my time to the many projects we have with Iris Media. We are also going to Mozambique this summer with the internship and am seeking God for how I am to be obedient to Him in that. So if you could pray for me and believe God with me! I know if I seek Him first all things I need will be provided.

Thank you so much for reading this update and what God is doing in my life. I love you all so much. Please let me know what you think and what you are hearing from the Lord for me!!

Love love love to you!! A video soon to come!!

The view from my apartment in LA!