Catch up...

Hello friend! I'm back....in the US, in YWAM, on my blog. A lot has happened over the past few weeks, so I'm going to try to fill you in. I arrived in Los Angeles on Sept 21 for my School of Ministry Development, and life has been moving fast ever since.

Week 1: I heard lots of great lectures on Passions, and discovered my top 5 are Truth, Integrity, Reconciliation, Generosity, and Compassion. I developed action plans to feed my passions and got some accountability partners to help me out. I'm definitely being challenged to grow in these areas, and it's SO good!

Week 2: Outreach, outreach, outreach. I was presented with 3 outreach options: Mexico, Morocco, and India. After lots of prayer, good conversations with my great leaders, and re-focusing on why I'm here and where I feel God is leading me.....I decided not to go. It was a hard decision because my heart wants to 'go', but I know it was the right one. We are working in our outreach teams in preparation until we go in December. But what about me, and the others, who are not going? We got the amazing opportunity to develop our own project! I love it, and might even stay a little longer in LA to see it become a reality. What is it? It's called Love Rescue Me (from a song by U2), and it's a campaign to help link people in local churches with organizations in the city that are doing one on one ministry (like the different missions on skid row and rehabilitation houses for women getting out of prostitution). The team I'm on has come up with some awesome ideas, and we all getting pretty excited with thoughts of seeing peoples lives transformed by love of Christ!

Week 3: Love Rescue Me! We spent a lot of time in our project/outreach teams, and set an awesome "overall objective": to see 5,000 individuals from churches develop relationships with 50,000 people on the streets over 3 years! If that doesn't get you excited, maybe have someone check your pulse. Dreaming is so fun!

Week 4: The Merek Fire. You might have seen it on the news, but maybe not. There was a wildfire that started in the hills behind our base, during a Santa Ana windstorm. The fire spread very quickly and we were evacuated last Sunday at 4am. We had a great worship and prayer time in the Denny's parking lot, and we literally saw the fire curve around the base, missing my classroom by about 800 ft. We were able to come back to the base later that afternoon, but were on warning and ready with bags packed for the next two days. It was pretty stressful, but we had a great time serving in different evacuation centers. I was a little nervous to go, thinking that I didn't really have anything to offer people who had just lost their homes. I was sure someone was going to ask me why God let his or her house burn down, and I would have no idea what to say! God is WAY to faithful for that. As I stepped out in willingness to serve and be used by God, he ministered to me and I always had an encouraging word, a listening ear, and the heart to truly care for the hundreds staying in the centers. One woman even encouraged me by reminding me that I can talk to God whenever I want, wherever I am, about whatever is on my mind. What a good God!

Well, those highlights sum up some of what I've been up to over the past few weeks. I'll be back soon, sharing more of my experience with you. There's always my staff, roommates, the amazing bible studies we do, and my sister, brother in law, and 8-week-old nephew that are visiting right now! I hope you are well, and I would love updates on your life as well! Blessings!

Christmas Pictures

My outreach team (notice my cute haircut)
Monica and I with our best Christmas smiles
Adam playing the sax......sideways

From Commissioning to Christmas

On Friday the 21st, my DTS class was commissioned for outreach. It’s a very exciting and special night on the base. After three months of looking……….tired, we take a nap, then we put on our very best outfits, hair and makeup, even jewelry to top it off. The night was led by my amazing school leader, Caleb Brownhill, he’s the red headed Aussie. We went over each school (DTS, Sports DTS, Bible School for the Nations, Community Counseling School, Art Evangelists School, Transformation School, and the Biblical Core Course) and each school had a couple minutes to share what the past three months have been like and testify to what God has done during the lecture phase. It was great to see what’s been happening in the schools, and there were lots of laughs. Caleb introduced each outreach team (there are about 12 teams leaving this week), and we gathered in our teams throughout the auditorium and people gathered around to pray for us. It was a powerful time!
Pictures of 1) the girls on my outreach team, from left to right: Charissa, Chanelle, Amerra, Robyn, Lindsey, Jessica)
2) Friends, from left to right, Robyn, Adam (outreach team leader), Amerra, and Pam (one of my amazing leaders)
3) Most of my DTS class
4) My and Caleb, my school leader and ........... hero!




Christmas came a few days later! The weather didn’t feel like Christmas, over 100 degrees and tank tops everywhere, but the stockings, good friends and lots of yummy food made it feel like Christmas to me. My outreach team met at one of our leaders house for breakfast (see picture), we opened stockings, and enjoyed spending the holiday together. From there I lay on my bed, took a little nap, and read the Christmas story during my quiet time. It was a great morning! The girls of 228 and got all dressed up for dinner (which is really lunch) and headed to the base. The auditorium had been transformed into a beautiful banquet hall, and we spent the afternoon eating, listening to some very special musicians entertain us (my outreach leader, Adam, played a few carols on his saxophone), and participating in the world’s longest gift exchange: 300 people, 300 gifts, and 3 hours of laughing, developing those all-important alliances, and enjoying family away from family. It was a special Christmas indeed!

The 12th and Final Week: Evangelism

Well, I start off every almost every entry by saying our speaker was great. This week I'm typing it enthusiastically! I've made an amazing friend here, Katie from LA. We've been anticipating our speaker for week 12 together because.....it's her dad! Dave Gustaveson is the director of the YWAM Los Angelas, and he's amazing. We laughed, we cried, then we laughed until we cried. The topic was evangelism, and he squeezed it into 3 days of teaching and took time to celebrate Christmas and Boxing day with us. He covered a lot of ground, told tons of great stories about Peter Brownhill, our base founder, and of course his daughter. He encouraged us to live faithfully with what God has given us now: money, relationships, our opportunities to share the Gospel on outreach. etc. When we live faithfully today, God moves us into tomorrow and entrusts us with more responsibility. That's what life is all about!

Week 11: Missions

We had such a great speaker this week. Paul Dangatoumbda flew over from Nigeria, where he's the national director of YWAM. He was an experience: his passion, beautiful accent, colorful clothing, and the revalation he brought to Matthew 28:18, the great commission were captivating. He really brought to light the fact that God created us on this earth for a very specific purpose. When we live out of this purpose, we lack his annoitning and our effectiveness. God's entire heart is to win the lost and edify the church, and everything He does works to accomplish this. Therefore, everything we do should work towards this goal. This week's teaching centered on two things: 1) Hearing the voice of God and 2) Obedience. We can't live out God's purposes for us if we aren't hearing His voice and living in obedience. So, the question is.......What has God spoken to you? What strategy has he given you to accomplish his purposes? I'll be honest, I don't know yet. But when I do, I'm going all out.

Week 10: Freedom in Christ

Eight Principles from Freedom in Christ
1) Deliverance: When the power of the Holy Spirit overcomes the power of the evil one in a persons life and sets them free, it's a sign the Kingdom of God has come
2) Jesus came to set us free, he broke people out of bondage though the power of the Holy Spirit and we are to do the same
3) We don't see a lot of delieverance ministry in the west because the the Gospel is often intellectualized
4) People can be fearful of deliverance, thinking if they have bondages then they aren't saved at all, or because of tramatic past experiences where they have felt circumstances were out of control and don't want to create another circustance like that
5) Generational sin can create bondages in individuals, there will be strong influence or tendancy to be tempted in specific ways
6) You have to want to be set free, no can make that choice for you
7) Bondages can be broken at time of salvation
8) Deliverance puts God's power on display and brings him great glory

Week 9: The Fear of the Lord

God really challenged me during Wednesday morning worship; through a word he gave Richard. In Matthew 17 Jesus asks his disciples who the world says he is. They reply with prophets, a demon possessed man, etc, then Jesus turns to Peter. “Peter, who do you say I am?” I really felt like God was asking me who he is. I had to confess that I don’t know him as well as I thought, or as well as I lead others to believe I do. A line in the song we were singing caught my ear. “And I would give the world to tell your story, cause I know that you’ve called me.” And I was really challenged again, do I really know God’s story? Do I know him myself, or do I just know him through what other people have told me? Can I tell someone about my Fear of the Lord, or just our speaker's Fear of the Lord? Then it hit me hard that I’m leaving in three weeks, thinking I have the answer to a need that everyone have. And I do to a certain extent, but I’m kidding myself if I think I’ve got all the answers. A desperation came over me to know my God more, the God I pray to everyday, and the God I sing songs of praises too. It was an uncomfortable morning, but it was a revelation from Him, he is bringing me closer to his heart.
I had a great day with God on Friday. During lecture on the conversation of my heart, and how those conversations can be sinful, I had a revelation other than realizing how ugly my thoughts can be. I’ve always been such a task oriented person, and I’ve been in ministry with such task oriented person that I’ve never really considered that God can be proud of me when I’m not doing anything. He can be excited over my thoughts, and not just my actions. The other part of this is that because I’ve spent so much time listening for the applause of men, I haven’t had ears to hear the applause of my Father. My relationship with him is suffering because I haven’t been able to hear half of what he’s saying to me, the kind and loving words that I’ve always desired to hear. That evening I got a card from my mom that had pictures of my sisters wedding in it. I couldn’t wait to show people, but I decided to show them to God first and get his approval. I took my pictures to the park and showed them to God. He totally talked to me! He told me I was so beautiful, he told me that he wanted me to know that on the day but I didn’t listen. I thought, that was such a great day, I love thinking about that day. He said that he remembers that day too, and he thought it was a great and really fun day too! It was the most reassurance I’ve ever felt. When I finally did show my pictures to my friends, they made a big deal about them, but it still didn’t compare to the words of my Father. I’m trying to position myself more to hear the simple affirmation from heaven.