Hello allll! I am so sorry I haven't updated this in awhile. We went camping for 2 weeks with no internet or cell phone connection so completely cut off from the world as we know it... :) haha okay so a little brief update on camping. The night before we left our school had a giving night. We could give one another money, objects or just words that God put on our hearts for one another. It was a real powerful time for us as a group and someone on my outreach team blessed me with $440 which was the rest of my outreach fees. Talk about God. So that was just a real emotional night with accepting that gift but also realizing God was saying I want you to receive me, my love for you and all I have in store for you. So having that night happen before going into camping was really amazing. Getting away out of normal typical life and just living in God's creation is the most relaxing thing ever. I just felt completely romanced by God all of the two weeks. It is hard to explain in words but just picture getting up every morning with all the unique sounds of birds and bugs that he has created to sing to us every morning-even the mornings where it is annoying :), and then going out in the middle of a field and just reading about a God who loves us more than anything. All of it was just great.
We have been back on base a little over a week now and to be honest it has been a hard transition. It has gotten better but at first it was hard to just be back in the world. Last weeks lecture was on Missions. We were able to hear about a ton of different countries and the needs that are in these places. One of the biggest things I got out of the week was how altered my perspective on missions or a missionary is. God calls us to be missionaries no matter what we are doing. My dream of being a teacher and my dream of going to third world countries can be one dream. It confirmed a lot of stuff in my heart which was really nice. Praise God!! We had our last Youth Street this last weekend and it was a huge winter wonderland. We decorated and all dressed up and had a really good time with the kids. On Sunday we decided to take a ferry ride over to Magnetic Island and spend a day relaxing there. This place was absolutely beautiful. Just a different kind of beauty then the place we went camping. I love how creative God is.
I just feel blessed to be on this journey and every time I think about that I go back to the people who helped make it possible! Once again I want to thank you guys so much for all of your support. I miss you all more than you know during this holiday season. Things you could be praying for me about: I am missing home because of the holidays and everything going on, just a sense of tiredness and being in week 10 prayer for energy, and for preparation for my outreach team as it is coming up really fast. We want to see God move in PNG. We not only want to talk about Jesus but we want to be Jesus to these people by serving them and helping them out anyway we can.
I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was lovely and you are all welcoming in the Christmas season with a spirit of joy! I love you all
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Our Dream-is God's Dream
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called-his holy people who are rich and glorious inheritance.
Ephesians 1:18
Learning more and more about Jesus is such a beautiful thing! This last weekend was so relaxed and very much needed. We moved off the ship on Saturday morning and then had a low key day until we had youthstreet that night. Youthstreet consisted of hotdogs, loud music, glow sticks, the Holy Spirit, and crazy games of extreme musical chairs. On Sunday God blessed me ten fold by being able to skype with my family for a couple hours. Seeing their faces was amazing but made the rest of the day a little hard with the feeling of missing them! We went to a sister church of Hillsong Sunday night and were able to experience a different environment and new people!
This week our lecture topic is Destiny by Design! When I first heard the lecture topic I really didnt know what to expect but after the first day I really felt God telling me it was going to be a light bulb week! So that was an exciting way to start things off. Our speaker's name is Gwen and her passion and zest for life is greater than most people you will ever meet in a lifetime. It is a glorious thing in a speaker. Our callings in life begin before we are born-it is something we have no control over and the person who knows us best (God) chooses it for us. Must fit us pretty well then huh? We are each designed according to our purposes in life. One of the biggest things I got out of this day is that I don't want to be 80 years old and have regret about not being bold enough in my life. I want to go after it. I want to make a difference. Whenever God talks about the kingdom in the bible He refers to little things. One of the examples we used was a mustard seed. He compares it to the little things in life-to do big things in the world-it starts with doing little things. A lot of times we hear our calling-it is the thing that makes our heart beat a little faster when we think about it, our eyes light up a little more than usual, and a fire is lit inside of us. In the mist of all that the enemy sneaks in and begins to put doubt into our minds. He tells us lies to try and prevent us from going after our calling. Once we begin to think too much in our head-instead of relying on what the Lord has told us in our hearts-we start to reason away the possibilities.
Another aspect is hard work. Things are not going to just be handed to us. Yes a calling is a gift from God but it is also an adventure he wants to embark on with us. God is all powerful-he could do it all on his own if he wanted to but he chose us to do it with Him. A lot of oppertunity is often missed because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. How true is that?! Holy cow I was convicted! At the end we took some time to discuss what we loved to do or play when we were little. Often times that will connect right to our calling in life. It is when we get older and begin to care what people think and take on the world's influence that we steer off the path of our calling. It is so fun to look back and remember what made us jump with joy when we were little. I was always running around, trying to find the next adventure, playing power rangers in the backyard with Tommy, and making super hero costumes out of paper. But there was also the side of me the was obsessed with babies, loved to play teacher, would trap myself in my room for ages playing barbies and constantly dreaming of getting married and having kids. Now I have dreams of being a teacher, working in an orphanage in Africa, getting married and having a huge family. All of that corresponds to what I dreamed about when I was little. How great is our God for taking things that we LOVE, that we have a PASSION for and creating it into something we can do for the rest of our lives. All we have to do is CHOOSE it. Let our hearts dream.
At the end of the week we had a "ten year reunion" we all wrote down on a postcard where we were in ten years from now and were able to share them with each other. What a difference it is when you get to say your dreams out loud and pray about them with other people.
The other night we were discussing more about our outreach details. After going to Kerema, PNG my team will head to Rockhampton, Australia to speak to churchs and highschools about life and getting involved with missions. We were asked a question about PNG to get our hearts and our minds really thinking. Our leader asked "Why PNG? Why do you think you are going to PNG?" I sat down and just asked God why he wanted me to go to Papua New Guinea. He said he wanted to make a face for this country. A lot of people don't even know where PNG is let alone what is going on in this country. After hearing this I turned the question around asking okay so yes on PNG but why me? And all I heard was "Because you know" Instantly the scripture in 1 John 3:16-18 popped into my head. It says
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
Instantly my heart was just beating! These people are God's children just as much as we are. He wants their hearts to be after Him just as much as he wants our hearts! He is going to use us there to change these people's lives and that is why I am going. To know God is to have his heart for his people and these are his people. 1 out of 7 women are dying in child birth they estimate that by 2015 1 in 7 people will die from AIDS. Those are his children. They need to know about their father in heaven so they can spend eternal life with Him. I am so excited to embark on this journey and I encourage any of you that want to embark on this with us as well to continue praying for my team, the people we are going to meet and this mission of God. I am about $700 dollars away for my outreach fees so if anyone feels it on their heart to give any amount (absolutely anything helps) I will post the link at the bottom of this blog to give you that opportunity.
I miss you all!!! I will update again next week and then we leave for camping from the 21st of November until the weekend of the 4th of December.
https://ywamrto.com/payment/WebForm.php <----to donate!! put my name in the spot where it says recipient
Ephesians 1:18
Learning more and more about Jesus is such a beautiful thing! This last weekend was so relaxed and very much needed. We moved off the ship on Saturday morning and then had a low key day until we had youthstreet that night. Youthstreet consisted of hotdogs, loud music, glow sticks, the Holy Spirit, and crazy games of extreme musical chairs. On Sunday God blessed me ten fold by being able to skype with my family for a couple hours. Seeing their faces was amazing but made the rest of the day a little hard with the feeling of missing them! We went to a sister church of Hillsong Sunday night and were able to experience a different environment and new people!
This week our lecture topic is Destiny by Design! When I first heard the lecture topic I really didnt know what to expect but after the first day I really felt God telling me it was going to be a light bulb week! So that was an exciting way to start things off. Our speaker's name is Gwen and her passion and zest for life is greater than most people you will ever meet in a lifetime. It is a glorious thing in a speaker. Our callings in life begin before we are born-it is something we have no control over and the person who knows us best (God) chooses it for us. Must fit us pretty well then huh? We are each designed according to our purposes in life. One of the biggest things I got out of this day is that I don't want to be 80 years old and have regret about not being bold enough in my life. I want to go after it. I want to make a difference. Whenever God talks about the kingdom in the bible He refers to little things. One of the examples we used was a mustard seed. He compares it to the little things in life-to do big things in the world-it starts with doing little things. A lot of times we hear our calling-it is the thing that makes our heart beat a little faster when we think about it, our eyes light up a little more than usual, and a fire is lit inside of us. In the mist of all that the enemy sneaks in and begins to put doubt into our minds. He tells us lies to try and prevent us from going after our calling. Once we begin to think too much in our head-instead of relying on what the Lord has told us in our hearts-we start to reason away the possibilities.
Another aspect is hard work. Things are not going to just be handed to us. Yes a calling is a gift from God but it is also an adventure he wants to embark on with us. God is all powerful-he could do it all on his own if he wanted to but he chose us to do it with Him. A lot of oppertunity is often missed because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. How true is that?! Holy cow I was convicted! At the end we took some time to discuss what we loved to do or play when we were little. Often times that will connect right to our calling in life. It is when we get older and begin to care what people think and take on the world's influence that we steer off the path of our calling. It is so fun to look back and remember what made us jump with joy when we were little. I was always running around, trying to find the next adventure, playing power rangers in the backyard with Tommy, and making super hero costumes out of paper. But there was also the side of me the was obsessed with babies, loved to play teacher, would trap myself in my room for ages playing barbies and constantly dreaming of getting married and having kids. Now I have dreams of being a teacher, working in an orphanage in Africa, getting married and having a huge family. All of that corresponds to what I dreamed about when I was little. How great is our God for taking things that we LOVE, that we have a PASSION for and creating it into something we can do for the rest of our lives. All we have to do is CHOOSE it. Let our hearts dream.
At the end of the week we had a "ten year reunion" we all wrote down on a postcard where we were in ten years from now and were able to share them with each other. What a difference it is when you get to say your dreams out loud and pray about them with other people.
The other night we were discussing more about our outreach details. After going to Kerema, PNG my team will head to Rockhampton, Australia to speak to churchs and highschools about life and getting involved with missions. We were asked a question about PNG to get our hearts and our minds really thinking. Our leader asked "Why PNG? Why do you think you are going to PNG?" I sat down and just asked God why he wanted me to go to Papua New Guinea. He said he wanted to make a face for this country. A lot of people don't even know where PNG is let alone what is going on in this country. After hearing this I turned the question around asking okay so yes on PNG but why me? And all I heard was "Because you know" Instantly the scripture in 1 John 3:16-18 popped into my head. It says
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
Instantly my heart was just beating! These people are God's children just as much as we are. He wants their hearts to be after Him just as much as he wants our hearts! He is going to use us there to change these people's lives and that is why I am going. To know God is to have his heart for his people and these are his people. 1 out of 7 women are dying in child birth they estimate that by 2015 1 in 7 people will die from AIDS. Those are his children. They need to know about their father in heaven so they can spend eternal life with Him. I am so excited to embark on this journey and I encourage any of you that want to embark on this with us as well to continue praying for my team, the people we are going to meet and this mission of God. I am about $700 dollars away for my outreach fees so if anyone feels it on their heart to give any amount (absolutely anything helps) I will post the link at the bottom of this blog to give you that opportunity.
I miss you all!!! I will update again next week and then we leave for camping from the 21st of November until the weekend of the 4th of December.
https://ywamrto.com/payment/WebForm.php <----to donate!! put my name in the spot where it says recipient
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
KEREMA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA!
I just wanted to post something saying my outreach location! I have a link to the video they made last year when they went on outreach so it will be very similar to where I will be going and what my team will be doing! There is 9 of us on the team and then a girl leader and a guy leader. We don't have all the details worked out yet but that is what Tuesday night outreach preparation is for! I will post the links and I encourage you guys to look the place up-it is beautiful!
We will be in Kerema for 5 weeks and then the last 4 weeks of our outreach will be in different cities in Australia going to schools and churches and telling them about what is going on in Papua New Guinea and the stories that we will have when we get back!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqG-nW2lK3g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHlI6xw2OPk&feature=share <-----UPDATE ON SHIP!!
We will be in Kerema for 5 weeks and then the last 4 weeks of our outreach will be in different cities in Australia going to schools and churches and telling them about what is going on in Papua New Guinea and the stories that we will have when we get back!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqG-nW2lK3g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHlI6xw2OPk&feature=share <-----UPDATE ON SHIP!!
Update Update Read All About It!!!
I am so sorry it has been so long since I have updated my blog and unfortunately this one is going to be short and sweet. It has been a crazy last week and a half. We moved onto the ship for the week while the National Leader's Meeting is being held at our base. I love the ship. It is small yet cozy! It is right on the beach so morning runs have been a dream come true!!
Lectures this week are on relationships-oohhh lala. Not quite. We will be talking about marriage relationships but to start with we are talking about our everyday relationships. I am learning a lot about myself and what I contribute to relationships. With the good, I am also learning about of a lot of issues I have with relationships and areas I need to work on to be a better friend, sister, daughter and someday wife. In order to grow we must change and change can be hard but I am anticipating it with an open heart to let God do whatever he pleases.
We also found out that we will be going to Papua New Guinea for our outreach!! We are dividing up into 4 teams and will all go out into different cities. We find out all the specifics on that tonight. We will be in PNG for 5 weeks and then our groups will go out into different parts of Australia for 4 weeks to go to different schools and churches and tell people about what God is doing and the testimonies of our experiences in PNG. I just have an excitement in my heart about this trip and have true faith God is going to speak a lot about my future through my outreach.
As far as finances, I still do not know the exact number on outreach but would guess anywhere from $2500-$3000 which is making me about $900 away from that. Earlier today I was $1500 away but received $600 in total today from 2 amazing supporters. $900 sounds like a big number but if you break it down...if 30 people give me $30 I would be at my goal. God is really challenging me to rely on Him in this and to allow him to use the body of Christ to get me to this goal. I want to allow him to use you guys and give you guys the opportunity to support me. This is such a fear of mine to "ask for money" but in that alone God is doing work because it is such a humbling experience. Humility seems to be a theme in this past week :)In no way do I want people to feel obligated because I have faith God is going to provide but I am simply asking for prayer. Not only in finances but in missing home and everything that is going on there that I am not able to be a part of and for growth. God is beginning a great work in my heart and strengthening my life long relationship with him. I want to be changed at the end of this.
I will continue to remind you all that this adventure is not mine alone but each and every one of you are apart of this. I am learning because of your support and soon(55 days to be exact) I will be in Papua New Guinea where lives will be changing and the credit all goes to God and the people He used to get me there. I love you all so much. I wish I had more time to write but my meeting calls. Hoping you are all well at home.
https://ywamrto.com/payment/WebForm.php <-----The website to support me.
Lectures this week are on relationships-oohhh lala. Not quite. We will be talking about marriage relationships but to start with we are talking about our everyday relationships. I am learning a lot about myself and what I contribute to relationships. With the good, I am also learning about of a lot of issues I have with relationships and areas I need to work on to be a better friend, sister, daughter and someday wife. In order to grow we must change and change can be hard but I am anticipating it with an open heart to let God do whatever he pleases.
We also found out that we will be going to Papua New Guinea for our outreach!! We are dividing up into 4 teams and will all go out into different cities. We find out all the specifics on that tonight. We will be in PNG for 5 weeks and then our groups will go out into different parts of Australia for 4 weeks to go to different schools and churches and tell people about what God is doing and the testimonies of our experiences in PNG. I just have an excitement in my heart about this trip and have true faith God is going to speak a lot about my future through my outreach.
As far as finances, I still do not know the exact number on outreach but would guess anywhere from $2500-$3000 which is making me about $900 away from that. Earlier today I was $1500 away but received $600 in total today from 2 amazing supporters. $900 sounds like a big number but if you break it down...if 30 people give me $30 I would be at my goal. God is really challenging me to rely on Him in this and to allow him to use the body of Christ to get me to this goal. I want to allow him to use you guys and give you guys the opportunity to support me. This is such a fear of mine to "ask for money" but in that alone God is doing work because it is such a humbling experience. Humility seems to be a theme in this past week :)In no way do I want people to feel obligated because I have faith God is going to provide but I am simply asking for prayer. Not only in finances but in missing home and everything that is going on there that I am not able to be a part of and for growth. God is beginning a great work in my heart and strengthening my life long relationship with him. I want to be changed at the end of this.
I will continue to remind you all that this adventure is not mine alone but each and every one of you are apart of this. I am learning because of your support and soon(55 days to be exact) I will be in Papua New Guinea where lives will be changing and the credit all goes to God and the people He used to get me there. I love you all so much. I wish I had more time to write but my meeting calls. Hoping you are all well at home.
https://ywamrto.com/payment/WebForm.php <-----The website to support me.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
God is the least religious person you will ever meet
Hello to my beautiful friends and family! I am now into my second week on dts! Crazy I feel like I have known these people forever. This week we are talking about friendship with God. Such a different concept to think about huh? Normally it is he is our Father, our lover or our king but I have never really thought about God as my friend, my best friend.
Adriel Booker is our speaker this week. I love the way she speaks to us like we are in a personal conversation with her rather than she is lecturing to 35 students. The first day she had us simply analyze the friendships we have in our lives and things we love in our friends. I am so blessed that I have the friends that I do and so many examples of friendship that pull out the qualities that people want in a friend. It makes it so much easier to relate friendship to God. Abraham and Moses were the only two people in the whole bible to be called friends of God so we studied their stories and the characteristics they brought to their friendship with Christ. Jesus just wants to enjoy us, go on adventures with us, laugh with us, talk with us, and simply BE with us.
After talking about friendship with Christ she began to talk about fear of the Lord. Dun dun dun everyone instantly thinks fear of the Lord as being afraid, walking on egg shells or waiting for God to punish us. Buuuut in fact that is not what the bible means at all. In Hebrew fear means stand in awe of/reverence. A way she related this was to our fathers. We know they love us more than the world, wants the best for us and would do anything to protect us. They would never do anything to harm us but yet we still have a sense of fear towards them never to disappoint them and always wanting to respect them. Same thing with God. So then we analyzed if our delight was in the fear of the Lord to answer that we looked at scripture(funny how everything is in scripture huh :) One of my favorite parts of this days lecture was when we looked at Jesus' value system and compared it to the world's value system...
Jesus' Value System
Lay down your rights
Leaders are to serve their people
Love your enemies
Befriend the outcasts
Accept Foreigners
Marriage and sex=sacred
Cover sin and restore
Build others up
The World's Value System
Fight for your rights
People serve the leaders
Revenge
Protect yourself from the outcast Go back 'home'
'try before you buy'
Expose it
Compete
After really taking a good look at that it just blows my mind by the world we live in. Then we went on to talk about Why we fear the Lord. We fear him because of who he is, because it is commanded in scripture (Deuteronomy 10:12-13) and because of the benefits! The benefits are we get to have intimacy with God, for our own good and the good of our children, protection, prolonged life, provision, to avoid evil, wealth, honor, life, and to be spared by the Lord. We also fear him to grow and strengthen the church and most importantly to give him glory!!
Naturally as a human my biggest question was HOW DO WE DO THIS?!? ha okay here is how...1. Persuing him/knowing him. 2.Dealing with fear of man(could go on forever on this one) 3.Obeying Him. 4. Being holy (holy does not mean perfect. holiness is positional..in God's family) 5.Identifying sin issues. 6.Dealing with sin (confession and repentance) I know that was a lot but so far this week's topic has been awesome and continues to humble me and make me fall more in love with my God.
On Tuesday nights we have outreach prep to get us ready when we go on our outreach! I think we find out locations next week..so exciting!! This week we just did a bunch of team building games. We are going to have four outreach teams so it is going to be great! I cannot wait!!
On Wednesday we have all base worship in the morning and it is soooooo good! Ahh it is so nice to come together with everyone here...like 200 people right now and just worship. Always starts the day off right. Then Wednesday nights we have community bbq where we invite people from the community to come share in a meal with us and just hang out. It is a good time to get to know people in the town and let them know what ywam is all about and our mission. We also celebrate birthdays on these nights..so cake is always fun :)
On Thursday nights we have study time to do our journals for the week and our workbooks. They are due weekly and are pretty extensive but I am really trying to not label it as homework because the scriptures we read for it and the questions they ask us are awesome and really make us analyze our faith and where we are at in our walk. We all get together and do them with each other so it is fun!
Friday nights are free nights so we just do whatever. Saturday is when we have our youth program!! I met 3 awesome middle schooler girls last week and it was so fun to just hang out with them and begin to build relationships with them. The youth here need Jesus. We are doing a Youthstreet has talent night this weekend for them to get up on stage and put on an act. We are excited!!
Sundays are our free days as well. Last Sunday we went to a park on the beach and had a huge bbq consisting of chicken, buffalo wings, chips, corn on the cob, veggies, soda...so good!! I love just being with the people here. Everyone is so encouraging and just living in community-I love it!!
Well I have made this super long..thank you to everyone who made it to the bottom of this..to those who stopped halfway...I still love you :) I hope this finds everyone in good health and happy. I miss you all and I would love to hear updates. Send me an email or a message on facebook. You are all missed dearly. To my little Olivia...I had our song stuck in my head the other day. "Woah Woah stuck like glue, you and me baby we're stuck like glue" I love you!!
Prayer requests: energy for our team! We get up at 5:30 everyday-praise the Lord I am adjusting really really well but it is difficult for some people. Finances for my team-school fees are due this friday (mine are in, praise jesus) but some people still owe a lot of money so we are excited to see the Lord provide. Outreach finances..we don't know exact amounts yet until we find out where we are going but it looks like I am still going to need some finances for that but I will have that figured out next week. I am so thankful for everyones prayers and support!! You are all apart of this with me and on this adventure with me...the people in australia and the people in papa new guinea who we are helping thank you as well. I love you all!
PS it is raining here so Oregon is on my mind!
Adriel Booker is our speaker this week. I love the way she speaks to us like we are in a personal conversation with her rather than she is lecturing to 35 students. The first day she had us simply analyze the friendships we have in our lives and things we love in our friends. I am so blessed that I have the friends that I do and so many examples of friendship that pull out the qualities that people want in a friend. It makes it so much easier to relate friendship to God. Abraham and Moses were the only two people in the whole bible to be called friends of God so we studied their stories and the characteristics they brought to their friendship with Christ. Jesus just wants to enjoy us, go on adventures with us, laugh with us, talk with us, and simply BE with us.
After talking about friendship with Christ she began to talk about fear of the Lord. Dun dun dun everyone instantly thinks fear of the Lord as being afraid, walking on egg shells or waiting for God to punish us. Buuuut in fact that is not what the bible means at all. In Hebrew fear means stand in awe of/reverence. A way she related this was to our fathers. We know they love us more than the world, wants the best for us and would do anything to protect us. They would never do anything to harm us but yet we still have a sense of fear towards them never to disappoint them and always wanting to respect them. Same thing with God. So then we analyzed if our delight was in the fear of the Lord to answer that we looked at scripture(funny how everything is in scripture huh :) One of my favorite parts of this days lecture was when we looked at Jesus' value system and compared it to the world's value system...
Jesus' Value System
Lay down your rights
Leaders are to serve their people
Love your enemies
Befriend the outcasts
Accept Foreigners
Marriage and sex=sacred
Cover sin and restore
Build others up
The World's Value System
Fight for your rights
People serve the leaders
Revenge
Protect yourself from the outcast Go back 'home'
'try before you buy'
Expose it
Compete
After really taking a good look at that it just blows my mind by the world we live in. Then we went on to talk about Why we fear the Lord. We fear him because of who he is, because it is commanded in scripture (Deuteronomy 10:12-13) and because of the benefits! The benefits are we get to have intimacy with God, for our own good and the good of our children, protection, prolonged life, provision, to avoid evil, wealth, honor, life, and to be spared by the Lord. We also fear him to grow and strengthen the church and most importantly to give him glory!!
Naturally as a human my biggest question was HOW DO WE DO THIS?!? ha okay here is how...1. Persuing him/knowing him. 2.Dealing with fear of man(could go on forever on this one) 3.Obeying Him. 4. Being holy (holy does not mean perfect. holiness is positional..in God's family) 5.Identifying sin issues. 6.Dealing with sin (confession and repentance) I know that was a lot but so far this week's topic has been awesome and continues to humble me and make me fall more in love with my God.
On Tuesday nights we have outreach prep to get us ready when we go on our outreach! I think we find out locations next week..so exciting!! This week we just did a bunch of team building games. We are going to have four outreach teams so it is going to be great! I cannot wait!!
On Wednesday we have all base worship in the morning and it is soooooo good! Ahh it is so nice to come together with everyone here...like 200 people right now and just worship. Always starts the day off right. Then Wednesday nights we have community bbq where we invite people from the community to come share in a meal with us and just hang out. It is a good time to get to know people in the town and let them know what ywam is all about and our mission. We also celebrate birthdays on these nights..so cake is always fun :)
On Thursday nights we have study time to do our journals for the week and our workbooks. They are due weekly and are pretty extensive but I am really trying to not label it as homework because the scriptures we read for it and the questions they ask us are awesome and really make us analyze our faith and where we are at in our walk. We all get together and do them with each other so it is fun!
Friday nights are free nights so we just do whatever. Saturday is when we have our youth program!! I met 3 awesome middle schooler girls last week and it was so fun to just hang out with them and begin to build relationships with them. The youth here need Jesus. We are doing a Youthstreet has talent night this weekend for them to get up on stage and put on an act. We are excited!!
Sundays are our free days as well. Last Sunday we went to a park on the beach and had a huge bbq consisting of chicken, buffalo wings, chips, corn on the cob, veggies, soda...so good!! I love just being with the people here. Everyone is so encouraging and just living in community-I love it!!
Well I have made this super long..thank you to everyone who made it to the bottom of this..to those who stopped halfway...I still love you :) I hope this finds everyone in good health and happy. I miss you all and I would love to hear updates. Send me an email or a message on facebook. You are all missed dearly. To my little Olivia...I had our song stuck in my head the other day. "Woah Woah stuck like glue, you and me baby we're stuck like glue" I love you!!
Prayer requests: energy for our team! We get up at 5:30 everyday-praise the Lord I am adjusting really really well but it is difficult for some people. Finances for my team-school fees are due this friday (mine are in, praise jesus) but some people still owe a lot of money so we are excited to see the Lord provide. Outreach finances..we don't know exact amounts yet until we find out where we are going but it looks like I am still going to need some finances for that but I will have that figured out next week. I am so thankful for everyones prayers and support!! You are all apart of this with me and on this adventure with me...the people in australia and the people in papa new guinea who we are helping thank you as well. I love you all!
PS it is raining here so Oregon is on my mind!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Don't seek God for an answer, seek God..for God.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
I have heard this quote several times but when I heard it today in lectures...it was a whole new meaning!! We are learning about hearing God's voice this week by a woman named Joanne. She is awesome and through her story, her knowledge and her experience she is is teaching me a lot!
Hearing God's voice is something I have often had a hard time with because I can never decipher if it is mine or his. Joanne started off with telling us before anything we needed to realize who we were in Christ. He is our King-making us children of God-Princesses or Princes. That is so awesome to think about. Song of Songs 4:9 says "You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace." That is God talking about us!! We mean that much to him! Therefore..he cares, he loves us and he is going to speak to us.
After beginning to grasp that concept she proceeded to challenge us on hearing his voice. Like any relationship, we need to get to know His voice before we are going to be able to recognize it! Like our best friend's voice-it is after many many long talks that we now recognize their voice when we hear it. Same goes with Jesus! She also used this great example of mountains. The closer you get with the Lord-the less you know. Seeing mountains from far away they look smaller and you feel like you know exactly what it looks like. The closer you get-the more detail there is, the more you notice and the more your perspective of the mountain-changes. All of this was so eye opening it was great. Tons of ahhh hhaaaa moments! God is a personal and loving God-he knows the number of hairs on each of our heads therefore he knows the way we listen, the way our brains think and the way we communicate, he WILL speak to each of us individually and in our own ways!! Gosh I just love it!!
We have been having some intense volleyball matches here at the base-it is so fun to all come together and get a little competitive! The other night we went down to the strand(beach) and played some rugby after having a community bbq!! We got assigned our work duties yesterday as well and I will be helping out before dinner to prepare the meal. That will be 2 hours a day! Other fun news...we are having a ton of stuff going on at the base within the next couple months with tons of conferences and stuff so more people than normal sooo...they need more places for people to stay...and the medical ship comes home to townsville on Friday....so in about 2 weeks us girls get to move down to the ship which is at the beach and we get to stay there for 2 weeks!! We are all super excited because the beach is about 45 minutes away so for 2 weeks we get to live right on it! It will be a fun little adventure!
Okay this post is super long but I am learning lots and wanted to update you all on it!! Oh ya one more thing :) we are also going through the book...Is that really you God? and it is awesome I recommend it if you are looking for a good book on our faithful God! Alright well I miss you all and continue to ask for prayer and support...you all are awesome and I don't know where I would be without any of you!!
I have heard this quote several times but when I heard it today in lectures...it was a whole new meaning!! We are learning about hearing God's voice this week by a woman named Joanne. She is awesome and through her story, her knowledge and her experience she is is teaching me a lot!
Hearing God's voice is something I have often had a hard time with because I can never decipher if it is mine or his. Joanne started off with telling us before anything we needed to realize who we were in Christ. He is our King-making us children of God-Princesses or Princes. That is so awesome to think about. Song of Songs 4:9 says "You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace." That is God talking about us!! We mean that much to him! Therefore..he cares, he loves us and he is going to speak to us.
After beginning to grasp that concept she proceeded to challenge us on hearing his voice. Like any relationship, we need to get to know His voice before we are going to be able to recognize it! Like our best friend's voice-it is after many many long talks that we now recognize their voice when we hear it. Same goes with Jesus! She also used this great example of mountains. The closer you get with the Lord-the less you know. Seeing mountains from far away they look smaller and you feel like you know exactly what it looks like. The closer you get-the more detail there is, the more you notice and the more your perspective of the mountain-changes. All of this was so eye opening it was great. Tons of ahhh hhaaaa moments! God is a personal and loving God-he knows the number of hairs on each of our heads therefore he knows the way we listen, the way our brains think and the way we communicate, he WILL speak to each of us individually and in our own ways!! Gosh I just love it!!
We have been having some intense volleyball matches here at the base-it is so fun to all come together and get a little competitive! The other night we went down to the strand(beach) and played some rugby after having a community bbq!! We got assigned our work duties yesterday as well and I will be helping out before dinner to prepare the meal. That will be 2 hours a day! Other fun news...we are having a ton of stuff going on at the base within the next couple months with tons of conferences and stuff so more people than normal sooo...they need more places for people to stay...and the medical ship comes home to townsville on Friday....so in about 2 weeks us girls get to move down to the ship which is at the beach and we get to stay there for 2 weeks!! We are all super excited because the beach is about 45 minutes away so for 2 weeks we get to live right on it! It will be a fun little adventure!
Okay this post is super long but I am learning lots and wanted to update you all on it!! Oh ya one more thing :) we are also going through the book...Is that really you God? and it is awesome I recommend it if you are looking for a good book on our faithful God! Alright well I miss you all and continue to ask for prayer and support...you all are awesome and I don't know where I would be without any of you!!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Hello alll!!! I have been in Australia for 3 days now!! It is absolutely beautiful here! My group consists of 19 girls and 17 boys. I was shocked at how almost even it was!! We have several people from the states, northern Ireland, England, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, Australia and Canada! I love having all the different cultures here! The accents are probably my favorite part! I live in a room with ten other girls so I know we are in store for a lot of fun!! We are all getting along really well so that is nice! School starts today with orientation so I am stoked to hear about our schedule and everything we will be doing!!
On Saturday we went to the beach all day and it is postcard pretty!! Everyone in Australia isn't too impressed by the beach in Townsville because Australia has much prettier beaches but I love it! They call it the strand-it has plenty of shops, food spots and full of palm trees!! I will upload pictures when I am able to!! The sun here is hot-so sunscreen is a must!! On Saturdays we run a program called youthstreet. It is a lot like younglife which I was involved with at home so God for sure had his hand in that. We invite kids to the base to hang out and we have different teams all day such as art team, sports team, and music team. Then at night we feed them dinner and put on a concert. It is a good way to get to know the kids, spend time with them and share the good news of Jesus with them!! Yesterday was registration, more paperwork, taking our student photos, and paying the last bit of our fees!! Praise God he provided me with all of my school fees. You are all amazing! Now for outreach!! We don't know where that will be yet so we do not have a final cost.
Well I will keep you updated when the time comes!! Bless you all heaps! ( They say that word a lot here :) ) I miss and love you family and friends!!
Oh and I ate kangaroo for lunch yesterday...no big deal...
On Saturday we went to the beach all day and it is postcard pretty!! Everyone in Australia isn't too impressed by the beach in Townsville because Australia has much prettier beaches but I love it! They call it the strand-it has plenty of shops, food spots and full of palm trees!! I will upload pictures when I am able to!! The sun here is hot-so sunscreen is a must!! On Saturdays we run a program called youthstreet. It is a lot like younglife which I was involved with at home so God for sure had his hand in that. We invite kids to the base to hang out and we have different teams all day such as art team, sports team, and music team. Then at night we feed them dinner and put on a concert. It is a good way to get to know the kids, spend time with them and share the good news of Jesus with them!! Yesterday was registration, more paperwork, taking our student photos, and paying the last bit of our fees!! Praise God he provided me with all of my school fees. You are all amazing! Now for outreach!! We don't know where that will be yet so we do not have a final cost.
Well I will keep you updated when the time comes!! Bless you all heaps! ( They say that word a lot here :) ) I miss and love you family and friends!!
Oh and I ate kangaroo for lunch yesterday...no big deal...
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
One week, one week, one weeeeeeek
Ahhhhh! I leave in exactly one week! I have officially booked my flight and will fly out at 6:50 on October 6th! So far 32 people are signed up and ready to go to do my school-but still some people are in the application process so be praying from them and God's direction with ywam in their lives! I have been able to talk to a lot of people that are doing my dts school so that is nice to get to know them a little bit before I go. One of the girls from Georgia is actually on my flight from LA to Townsville so that is such a God thing because 20 hours on a plane is going to be long so it will be nice to have someone to talk to!! My school has been really good at doing a video chat with our school director about every 3 weeks to get us ready to come and keep us updated on everything going on at the base(or house) where we will be staying.
As far as preparation, my suitcase is in my room and is pretty much packed with everything I need. If you know me, it is amazing that I have one suitcase and a backpack for 6 months- it was difficult but it happened!! I have a few more things to get at the store but other than that I am set to go! My mom, dad, two sisters, and my two nieces will be dropping me off at the airport so a huge prayer request would be that I do not completely cry my eyes out on my flights, as excited as I am for this next six months-family and friends will be a hard thing to leave behind. Wow I get choked up even thinking about it!! Buuuut God has so much in store! Plus thank goodness for technology these days there will be no problem keeping in touch whether it be email, phone calls, Skype, or even the old fashion snail mail!
I cannot even express how thankful I am for all the donations everyone has sent me and all the support from you guys-without it this wouldn't all be happening and is such an answer to prayer. As of right now I am about 1,000 dollars away from my estimated amount but God has strengthened my faith this summer and because of that I know this will be easy for him :)
Well the next time I write I will probably be there!! I am praying God is lighting each one of your paths where ever that may be at the time! Love you allllll!
My address:
Brittany Spelman
c/o YWAM Reef to Outback
P.O. Box 6221
Townsville, QLD
Australia, 4810
As far as preparation, my suitcase is in my room and is pretty much packed with everything I need. If you know me, it is amazing that I have one suitcase and a backpack for 6 months- it was difficult but it happened!! I have a few more things to get at the store but other than that I am set to go! My mom, dad, two sisters, and my two nieces will be dropping me off at the airport so a huge prayer request would be that I do not completely cry my eyes out on my flights, as excited as I am for this next six months-family and friends will be a hard thing to leave behind. Wow I get choked up even thinking about it!! Buuuut God has so much in store! Plus thank goodness for technology these days there will be no problem keeping in touch whether it be email, phone calls, Skype, or even the old fashion snail mail!
I cannot even express how thankful I am for all the donations everyone has sent me and all the support from you guys-without it this wouldn't all be happening and is such an answer to prayer. As of right now I am about 1,000 dollars away from my estimated amount but God has strengthened my faith this summer and because of that I know this will be easy for him :)
Well the next time I write I will probably be there!! I am praying God is lighting each one of your paths where ever that may be at the time! Love you allllll!
My address:
Brittany Spelman
c/o YWAM Reef to Outback
P.O. Box 6221
Townsville, QLD
Australia, 4810
Thursday, August 19, 2010
It's the thing to do
"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms"
1 Peter 4:10
1 Peter 4:10
The bible simply calls us to spread the word of God. There is no one picture of this because God has given us all different gifts to spread his love to others. God has given me a passion for kids and a love for their hearts and I want to use this gift to glorify Him! I am so excited to pursue that desire and become a teacher but before that I want to know more about the creator of the world. Soooo..I am doing YWAM (Youth With A Mission). It is a 6 month program where for 3 months I will be living in Townsville, Australia with probably around 40 other people and learn more about Jesus! This includes topics such as Encountering God, Seeing Life from God's Perspective, Recognizeing Jesus as Lord, Becoming more like Jesus, Doing the Works of Jesus, and Orientation to YWAM. Also while living at the base in Townsville we get to be apart of a youth program for kids ages 12-17. This will happen on Saturday where we will put on events, games concerts and fun activities for the kids. Best of all we get to build relationships with them, be their friends and love on them! For the next 3 months it will be the outreach phase-location unknown-but we will be able to help those in need and spread the love of God to them. The base I will be going to has been doing a lot in Papa New Guinea so there is a chance that will be where our outreach will be. They had the opportunity to revamp a ship and turn it into a medical ship. They are currently out providing health care to people who need it. Pretty cool ya?! I will post a video about it so you can see more details! I feel so blessed that I get to be apart of this!!
As scary as this whole adventure is I am beyond excited to follow this calling into a place I have never been, with people I don't even know and totally 100% rely on the Lord. Today in this world we miss out on the chance to completely rely on God, in America we have a lot of what we need provided to us but it is all so false. God is the only one that has what we need and I am stoked to embark on all this with Him. It is coming up so fast but it is awesome to look back and think that I wanted to do YWAM 2 years ago and now in his own timing, God has brought the opportunity back around and worked everything out to make it happen! Financially I am still sweating bullets and praying hard because I still need around $2000 but then I take a second and look back on how much he has provided this summer and realize I have nothing to worry about!! Thank you to all of you who have supported me and been praying for me!! Our God is faithful and he has definitely shown me that this summer! 5 weeks until I leave!! WOW!
More updating to come!! http://www.ywamrto.org/ I am doing the October DTS program!
Oh and if you have any questions feel free to email me: bspelman07@wou.edu
As scary as this whole adventure is I am beyond excited to follow this calling into a place I have never been, with people I don't even know and totally 100% rely on the Lord. Today in this world we miss out on the chance to completely rely on God, in America we have a lot of what we need provided to us but it is all so false. God is the only one that has what we need and I am stoked to embark on all this with Him. It is coming up so fast but it is awesome to look back and think that I wanted to do YWAM 2 years ago and now in his own timing, God has brought the opportunity back around and worked everything out to make it happen! Financially I am still sweating bullets and praying hard because I still need around $2000 but then I take a second and look back on how much he has provided this summer and realize I have nothing to worry about!! Thank you to all of you who have supported me and been praying for me!! Our God is faithful and he has definitely shown me that this summer! 5 weeks until I leave!! WOW!
More updating to come!! http://www.ywamrto.org/ I am doing the October DTS program!
Oh and if you have any questions feel free to email me: bspelman07@wou.edu
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