Pictures from Romania

Here are some photos from my trip so far!

Colder than Colorado.

I've made safely to Romania and it is freezing.
Snow covers the streets and trees, but I am thankful to see sunlight.
Unlike London, the sun is more extrovert here. It actually reminds me a lot of home.
We are in Targu Mures. It is a cute little town with a little bit of city and a little bit of quiet.
During the 4 weeks that we are here, my team will be working mainly with orphans and street kids.
We will be going to an orphange, cancer hospitals, and the gypsy village to offer love and care to the ones less fortunate. Our goal while we are here is to seek God and to pour out his love in a way that these people and children can feel something like never before. A way that will allow them to see past the suffering and hurt, and a way to bring hope. Life is a precious gift, and I only hope my time here will be just that. I'm giving my life to God. I'm letting him use me in whatever ways he needs to in order for these people to know true love. Because sadly, most of these people don't have families or have never experienced what it means to be loved. I pray for unity as a team and I pray for a spirit of boldness. I am not afraid of what I'm about to see during these next 4 weeks because I know God is in the middle of it all. And through him, there is freedom.

Goodbye England. Hello Romania.

It is 12:05 am and I'm about to leave for the airport.
The next blog post will be from Romania!
...as long as there is internet connection.
Please be praying for my team as well as the 2nd half of my team who will be in Serbia!
I love you all!
God Bless!

-Makayla

Here's to a new year...

I'm so thankful for what God has done in my life.
2010 was an awesome year filled with lots of love, new friendships, and change.
I went to college, decided I needed to seek God, and then moved to London.
I left everything I knew to experience life 4,672 miles away from my family and friends.
But I was welcomed into a new family. I now have friends from Germany, Argentina, Spain, Puerto Rico, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Chile, Belgium, the UK, and some hilarious Americans.
I ate my first real English breakfast.
I learned words like: "chav", "wonky", "mingen", and "dodgy"
I now call trash "rubbish".
I learned how to live in a house with 12 people.
I met Coldplay on my 20th birthday.
I had amazing encounters with God.
I fought demons.
I met some awesome homeless people.
I experienced spiritual warfare.
I learned how to cook for 25 people.
I witnessed my friends being healed.
I had prayers answered.
I stepped out of my comfort zone.
I ran two miles with a thousand santas.
I experienced freedom.
There are so many things I could list about how great 2010 has been, but for now I will just hold on to all of the memories.
It's really been an incredible year, and I know 2011 will be even better.
I can't wait to go back home and see my family and friends,
but I also can't wait to see where God takes me next.
And...
To start off the new year, I got my first tattoo last night.
It's a feather on my left side.
It represents my freedom in Christ.
Since I've been here, God has been constantly reminding me about my identity and who he made me to be.
That I am free.
I was also praying before getting the tattoo, and God pointed me to this verse:
Psalm 91: 4
‎"He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge, his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."
It means a lot to me and It is now a constant reminder of how amazing my God is. And I will never forget this season of my life.

I head off to Romania on Monday and I'll be there until the 31st.
Unfortunately I won't have my laptop with me, but I will try to give updates as best I can.
Please continue with your prayers.
And I just have to say thank you so much to everyone for your support.
All my funds came in.
God is so faithful.

May God Bless you in this new year!

Love always,
Makayla

Give as you feel led

Dear Friends and Family:
As most of you know, I am currently in London with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). These past 3 months have been life changing and I’m so thankful that I have the opportunity to be here. God has clearly been working in my team, myself, and in this city. I have officially finished the lecture phase of the school, and am now heading to Romania on January 4th to complete the outreach phase. While I’m in Romania I will be staying at a YWAM base and working at a children’s orphanage as well as reaching out to the Romanian people. I only have 2 more months left overseas, and thankfully I’ve had my funds covered thus far. However, in order for me to continue pressing forward into what God has for me, I will need to have close to $1,500 by the beginning of January. I know this number seems quite high, considering December is almost over, but I am trusting that God will provide. Although finances are needed in order for me to do this, your prayers are more important than the money that comes in. Please be praying for my team, for safety, and for provision. And if you feel led to donate to my cause, you can click on the donate button to the right of the page. You can also email me at MakaylaRenaud@aol.com if you have any questions or if you would like to donate by another way of payment.
I want to thank everyone who has continued to support me on this journey. Your prayers, your love, and your donations are such a blessing. I am so thankful to have such a strong support system.
God bless you.
Makayla Renaud

Santas in Oxford, England

For those wondering how the Santa run went on Sunday, here's some photos and a video from the event. It was quite hilarious running two miles with a thousand santas.

Fighting demons, going to Romania, and everything else in between.

I'm exhausted. This past week has been the most intense week of my life.
It was deliverance week. To be delivered from something can be quite a renewing experience, however it is a process and I'm still in the middle of it. If you don't know what it means to be delivered, it's when you allow God to get rid of the spirits that have clung to you or the spirits that aren't from him, but are from the enemy.
At the beginning of the week we discussed the types of spirits.
i.e. spirit of anger, spirit of control, spirit of depression, spirit of fear, spirit of jealousy... the list goes on and on.
I realized that most of these things are spirits that I would never recognize or even think to have.
Some of these spirits may have traveled through family history, curses, or ancestors.
The most interesting part of being delivered from these spirits is the manifestation.
Everyone has different ways of manifesting, and we also discussed the different types of manifestations. ( yawning, crying, vomiting, shaking... the list also goes on and on)
We talked about the influence of demons and how there have been experiences during deliverance when demons are manifesting through the one being delivered. I wasn't afraid of this, however I had a strange feeling that something wasn't right inside of me.
On Thursday we all gathered in the living room to pray and to release these things holding us back. We began deliverance.
I prayed and asked God to take away all fear and to have complete control during this time. I wanted to be free from whatever evil spirits were on me.
I have to mention that something I found quite odd is that two times already since I've been here, there have been two different people to pray over me and both of them have stopped mid-prayer and asked if I have ever done any sort of witchcraft. In which my response was "no".
Oddly enough, someone came over and began praying for me and rebuked the spirit of witchcraft and demanded it to come out. My body had a response to this and I fell to the ground and let out a blood-curdling scream. It wasn't my scream, and everyone in the room knew that. We had triggered a spirit inside of me that was slowly beginning to show it's face. A few more gathered around in prayer over me and I prayed as well. Later that evening, my family here advised for me to receive prayer again. I went back into the living room and they had asked me if I knew of anyone in my family who has ever done witchcraft or if I knew of it in my family history. I couldn't recall ever hearing any stories or knowing of my family doing witchcraft, so I was clueless as to how this spirit was on me. They began praying over me again and the spirit began manifesting once more, except more violent this time and stronger.
I fell to the floor again letting out horrendous screams, yells and moans, and fighting the people trying to hold me down. There were 4 people pinning me down to the ground and a few others in prayer around me.
I was conscious during this whole time, however I wasn't myself. The spirit was coming out from my mouth, my eyes, and my body movements.
It was angry and it was evil.
When they began telling the spirit that he can't have me. That I am a daughter of Jesus and that Jesus had defeated it, the spirit began mocking them and laughing. My head was shaking back and forth and my arms were twisting and contorting. My stomach had convulsions and my chest would pound up and down violently while my back was to the floor.
My conscious self was very uncomfortable and I just wanted this awful thing to get off of me.
When I came to, and was able to speak as my voice and not the demon, I began crying out to God.
It was an exhausting fight, and I was quite effected by it afterwards.
But I wasn't afraid because the demon couldn't do anything to me.
I have already accepted Jesus as my Lord and he is stronger than life, death, angels, demons, or any other powers, height, depth, or anything else in all creation. Nothing can separate me from the love of God.
Even while I was receiving prayer as this demon was tormenting, every time when it was said " In the name of Jesus, be silent", the demon would shut up and fall. It was powerless whenever the name of the Lord was demanded over it.
This experience has really opened my eyes to see the reality of both good and evil. And how Satan is prowling around and trying to devour. Even to those who believe in God.
It turns out that this spirit of witchcraft that was over me was a spirit that has traveled through my family lines. All the way back to my ancestors. I am the one to cut that spirit and to now be free from whatever curse had been upon me and my family.
Things that have happened with my great Grandparents, Grandparents, and Mom and Dad may also have had an effect on this and could have fed the spirit more, however, I am proud to say that it is no longer part of me and it has been defeated.
I was also delivered from other spirits besides that of witchcraft such as the spirit of depression, the spirit of anger, the spirit of control, etc... there are many of them. And this isn't just to say that "okay I've prayed and received deliverance, I'm perfectly free and everything is gone and good"... It isn't. This is a process, and i am daily praying for God to deliver me from these spirits.
I've just been able to expose them and now I know what they are and I'm fighting the good fight to defeat them.

So on another note, I am going to Romania on January 4th for Outreach!
Our DTS team has been split into two groups. One is going to Romania and the other is going to Serbia.
We will be there for 3 weeks and then spend another 3 weeks somewhere in the UK.
I'm getting quite excited, however I still have a lot of funds to raise.
I'm going to need close to $1,500 by the beginning of January in order for me to finish this second part of the school and to go to Romania with the rest of my team.
Please keep praying! And if you would like to help support me financially on this journey, there is a donate button to the right of the page!
God Bless you!

There was more I was going to write, but It's getting late here and I feel like this post has been long enough. So I will write more soon!
Love always,
Makayla



P.s. I did the Santa run in Oxford yesterday and it was a blast!
There were over a thousand Santas running! However the experience trying to make it to Oxford was quite the pain. Everything that could have possibly went wrong for us to get there, went wrong. I ended up spending a good 25 pounds extra just to make it for this race.
But in the end it was worth it, and Oxford is beautiful.