Back To School

January 10, 2025

A Listening Heart

Dear Nieces and Nephews,

The Abundant Life students are heading back to school today after three-plus weeks of grieving, healing and re-orienting since the shooting on December 16. Thousands of people have come alongside them through prayer, fasting, trauma research, notes of encouragement, providing meals and even eating at Culvers and Texas Roadhouse to raise funds.

Are they ready?

Dear Heavenly Father, please send a fresh wave of your Spirit into the hearts of the students, teachers and support staff as they take this next big step today. Meet them in their pain and lead them forward. Help them to know and feel your safety. Remind us all to keep praying through this Challenging day. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

God has me going back to school today too.

Awhile back, someone I love was running away from me. I searched, chased, found, caught, rebuilt, loved and repeated for several months. I faced insults that sent me into new training grounds. Through this season, I learned a lot about letting hurtful words roll off me while searching for their root cause. Eventually, with no truth in them and a much humbler heart, there was nothing left for them to stick to.

Except for one. I didn’t think it was true until its stinger stuck and wouldn’t let go:

“You don’t know how to listen.”

“WHAT? I am always listening! I ask questions. Then I wait in silence. What else can I DO?” That argument thrived in my brain for a few months.

Eventually my heart softened and an Aha! moment hit: My offended mind wasn’t letting my heart listen.

Listening is different from hearing. Listening means “To pay attention, especially through the act of hearing.” Paying attention is the core of the definition. Hearing is secondary.

Our loved ones are often silent.

God is often silent.

But we can still listen. It might require going deeper than questions, when we don’t even know what to ask. It might also require hearing rantings and ravings which don’t match the grieving heart underneath.

Above all, pay attention. This is the school God is sending me back to today.

There is another one who is insulting me now. It just re-started two days ago. I thought I already passed this test. Maybe it’s semester exams? I want to pass. Right away, without another long, painful process.

Nieces and nephews, your age range spans decades. Allow me to separate you into groups for a moment.

To you older ones:

Our youngers, as a whole, live in a world darker than we can fathom. They face addiction to unfiltered darkness and all its rippling effects, and are living smack in the middle of what we only hear about. They are surrounded by the enemy’s lies, and have internalized a lot of them through both choice AND innocently breathing in the polluted atmosphere around them.

They need us.

But much more than our storehouses of wisdom, they need our ears. And our encouragement to listen to the heart of the Holy Spirit for themselves. He is their ever-present help in times of trouble. They need us because they need Him, and we can point the way.

The biggest moves of God we’ve had at camp have not come because of adult-led teaching, worship or altar calls. Rather, they’ve come when we’ve convinced kids to listen to the Holy Spirit and we’ve given them space to do so. Then, as we ride the waves of revelation with them, listening to what they are hearing, seeing and feeling, we see the supernatural take over. It’s only from this place that light breaks through with its healing, freedom and revival.

I believe the voice of the prophets which has repeatedly said kids will be at the heart of the coming revival. Let’s make room for it! They’ve got the desperation. Now they just need a personal encounter with The Answer.

To you younger ones:

Please search until you find the heart of us olders. It’s true we’re not always right. We don’t know everything and aren’t perfect. But our hearts are for you. Even though God does speak to you directly, you need our encouragement, nurturing and wisdom because He speaks to us too and we've been around awhile.

To everyone:

When Elijah got afraid and so desperately needed encouragement, exaggerating his problems, running and feeling sorry for himself, he finally found God in the “sound of sheer silence” (I Kings 19:12, New Revised Standard Version). Not in the windstorm, earthquake, fire, or shattering rocks which were trying to cover it up with their misleading distraction.

This is a realm I want to get comfortable living from. There is a sound emanating from the silence in our loved ones’ hearts, and from their storms. Will you listen there with me?

Let’s go back to school together. It’s not a bad place, just a hard place. Learning is hard. But God is meeting us at the door and will be with us through the day.

All my love,

Aunt Michelle

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By Michelle Hauge • March 28, 2025

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Adventure Day

By Michelle Hauge • March 23, 2025

Dear Nieces & Nephews, We had been home schooling your cousins for several years when I decided our days had become too mundane, and “Adventure Days” were born. Once a week, I’d wake everyone up with a mysterious list of items to pack, then we’d drive off into the great unknown. The study desk for the day might be a new library, the top of a bluff, the base of a waterfall, a waterpark in its off-season, a donut shop. Kids had only to trust, follow along and have a great time. Some of them loved these days and still talk about them today. Some chafed and battled. Why? I still ponder my way through the psychology of it. I’d suspect there were two elements at work: pride (“I have better ideas than you; I want to do mine instead.”) and insecurity (“My trust broke when I was a baby and I can’t trust you unless you’re utterly predictable.”) Both demonstrate an insatiable appetite for being in control. And I relate to both. It amazes me how diligent God is in refining the skill set I need to trust Him in each day’s unpredictability. It’s finally dawning on me that the angst in the pit of my stomach won’t dissipate until I let go of my pride and insecurity and stop battling for my own way, which sounds like this: “I want adventure, but it needs to be of MY choosing, in MY timing. I need YOU to be steady and predictable and safe. YOUR job is to (please) make it comfortable and fun, and (please) make sure I look really good to everyone else along the way.” God doesn’t usually go along with requests like this. He loves me too much. He loves YOU too much too. If you feel like you’re drowning today, please learn this alongside me: The very life circumstances that are drowning us can also make us float. The difference is in our response. Lightness and ease will not come from being in control of our own adventure, but in surrendering and trusting the One who loves us so very much. He is trustworthy, even when others haven’t been. Peace will not come when the unpredictable stops. It will come when we learn to float in it. How do we learn this skill? Ask the Holy Spirit for swimming lessons. He will teach you. He will . Just ask. Even if you don’t think you know how to hear His voice, I guarantee He will not give you a snake when you ask for bread. (Matthew 7:9.) He’s the One who knit you together in your mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13.) He knows every thought before it even enters your mind. (Psalm 139:2.) He certainly knows your language. Pay attention. Make Him your focus, not the circumstances that are making you panic. Then respond. We’re on the adventure of a lifetime together, you and I. Let’s enjoy it! Love, Aunt Michelle

Equal & Opposite Reaction

By Michelle Hauge • February 26, 2025

Dear Nieces & Nephews, “Grandpa Dave” has been God’s gift to our family since both sets of grandparents left early for heaven. We don’t live super close, so most of our contact lately has been over the phone, talking about challenges and breakthroughs and what we see God doing through them. Yesterday he told me that while thinking about how dismal the world is looking these days, he was reminded of Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. “God is getting ready to release an equal and opposite reaction to all that the Enemy has been unleashing,” he said. I had to wrestle through the concept of “equal” when it comes to God and Satan, but eventually it made sense. God’s not wasteful. I think He uses just enough of his bottomless resources to meet each action with its equal reaction. And here’s another scientific truth we see everywhere: When opposite and equal forces collide, there is a burst of ... shall we say ... productivity ? When it’s opposite electrical charges, there is a spark or release of energy; the intensity depends on the magnitude of the charges involved. Varying air temperatures collide to create a storm. (I could go on, but I'll stop before my simplicity brings laughter to the true scientists among you.) That’s where my encouragement for today is coming from. My life has been a fierce, ongoing storm for some time now. (I’ll bet I’m not the only one.) Every day there is either cataclysmic disturbance with flying debris, a respite of sunshine and rainbows, or darkening clouds as another onslaught forms. The main goal of my quiet times is to lift my chin, focus my attention on the Savior, press on, and hold onto peace. Bill Johnson says, “We only have authority over the storms we’ve learned to sleep through.” Jesus has a cushion laid out for me in the bottom of the boat beside Him, and I intend to use it. Then I'll wake up occasionally to watch the lightning display or pull others to safety. This morning I studied all of Newton’s Laws of Motion, and there is a boatload of spiritual truth hiding in all three. I plan to dive deep and learn as much as I can from them about my Creator because the more I grasp how He thinks naturally , the more I’ll understand Him supernaturally . Without this, I’m sure I will sink. With it, I’m in for the ride of my life. Hoping to find you resting there alongside, Aunt Michelle