And the countdown is on!

WOW. I really wanted to post a blog last week but time got away from me. I'm leaving for Durban on Thursday. I've been getting all of my stuff packed up and sorted. I didn't realize how much work packing would be. I don't think it has completely hit me yet that I'm leaving Jbay and that I wont be living with my roommate anymore. I've gotten a little attached to this town (and of course some of the people here). It'll be strange not living in Jeffreys anymore. Man... 4 MORE DAYS!

This weekend I went with some to stay with a friend in his home town (Mossel Bay- which is a 4 hour drive up the coast) for his 21st birthday and his grandmother's 80th birthday. I had a really great time. It's hard to fully experience the coloured South African culture while being here in YWAM, but being in Mossel Bay this weekend was the full on experience. I don't think I've ever heard more Afrikaans in my life. Thank God I've picked up a little Afrikaans and could get the gist of what was going on in the conversations. But I felt like I was at home again... my friend's family really welcomed me into their home. And they had CABLE! :) It was one of the first times I've watched cable since I've been in South Africa. The view was incredible. I could stand on the patio and see the ocean and the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful.

Anyway, I'm tired after the bus ride. Have a great week you guys. I love and miss you

DTS STAFF!!

I have extremely exciting news! The opportunity that I was talking about in my last blog is this: I'm going to be volunteer staff for the September DTS with YWAM Durban! If you're not quite sure what a DTS is, let me explain. DTS stands for "Discipleship Training School" and it's is an incredible school that teaches students about the depth and character of God. The aim of the DTS is to develop a daily walk with God rather than to accumulate information. The DTS is approximately 5 months long; 3 months of lectures and then 2 months of outreach. The DTS is designed to encourage students to develop in personal character, to cultivate a living relationship with God, and to identify their unique, individual gifts and callings in God. Cross-cultural exposure and global awareness are special emphases throughout the DTS, and answers the call to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19.



As most of you guys know, I did my DTS with YWAM Orlando in September 2007. DTS was a life changing experience for me. For the first time, I realize that I had been putting God into a little "Christian box". God challenged me so much during my DTS. I experience community living for the first time at YWAM Orlando, and honestly, I didn't like it back then. During DTS I realized just how selfish I was and God brought up a lot of issues in my life such as pride. He really dealt with my heart... and it was painful. DTS was literally one of the best things I ever did and opened my eyes to missions. It gave me a new excitement about God. I learned so much in my DTS. Each week we got a new speaker to come in and teach on a different topics (this is the lecture phase and is three months long). Some topics include: hearing God's voice, the father heart of God, forgiveness and many others.

So, my responsibility is going to be working with the DTS students. I'll be leading a small group and having one on one's (accountability) with the female students. The DTS starts September 17, 2008- February 6, 2009. In our outreach, we'll be doing ministry for a month in South Africa and another month in probably India. Although I will be on "staff", it will be as a volunteer. Please pray about whether or not you will be able to commit to supporting me through prayer, and/or financially supporting me. My staff fees, food and lodging add up to around $400 a month. So, for the first three months, which is the lecture phase, I'm in need of approximately $1200. For the last two months which is outreach, I'm in need of approximately $4,000 for airfare, staff fees, food, lodging and other outreach costs. All together, that's approximately $5,200. I cannot do this without you guys. Please pray about what kind of role you can play. If you have any questions, feel free to email me anytime. I'd love to chat.

I'll write more about Durban (which is in South Africa by the way), and the YWAM Durban base in another blog later this week. Here is the YWAM Durban's website if you'd like to check it out: www.ywamdurban.org . I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

And another busy week is coming to an end. Each week I find myself more and more blown away by God. We just finished 3 more books... 2 Corinthians, and 1 and 2 Timothy. Something that really stood out to me in 2 Timothy is Paul's commitment to the gospel. So many people were abandoning him and turning their backs on God, but in spite of severe suffering and persecution, Paul sticks with Jesus. He doesn't give up. Paul was dedicated. And the amazing thing is, Paul was previously the one who was persecuting Christians. God is in the business of restoring lives and truly making us a new creation.

God has done absolutely incredible things in my life and has taken me from my old life, to this new life... I'm a 21 year old missionary in South Africa studying the Word of God. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be doing what I'm doing now. Never. But God dreamed it. He had a purpose for me that I knew nothing about, but now I truly believe I'm living out my purpose. I want to play a role in the discipleship of others. So many people have poured into me, and discipled me (we never spiritually "arrive"...discipleship is a process that lasts our entire lives) and I am excited to play that role in other people's lives. I love intercession; communicating with God is such an important and beautiful thing. I love missions. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I wanna reach out to the lost. I wanna share my story with them and hear theirs. I want to see people fall completely in love with God. I wanna tear down strongholds in people's lives in the name of Jesus. I wanna see people live radical lives for Christ. I am so excited to be where I am right now. I'm really blessed. I have a really incredible opportunity that I'll write more about in my next blog. Just know that it's something I'm very excited about and I've put TONS of prayer into. I'll write more about it later on in the week though.

Anyway, I love and miss you guys. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend.

My little Mia

Today was really cold and windy. However, when I decided to take Mia into the community to watch some of our friends play rugby, I did not know this. After walking about 5 minutes I realized that it was really cold. I don't exactly understand rugby, but I get the idea. It's pretty similar to American football. I hate watching rugby on tv, but I really enjoyed watching the guys play today. They really impressed me. Rugby is a really big deal here. And these crazy rugby players don't wear pads or helmets! They play very very rough and yet they don't protect themselves. Why, you may ask? I HAVE NO IDEA!

God's really been changing my heart (in a good way) about community living. It really does have it's advantages. You always have friends around you and you can usually find someone who wants to play cards or watch tv or just chat. We all share responsibilities. Different people prepare meals through out the week. We each have like a "chore" or work duty. I have lots of awesome people around me that are positively influencing Mia and me. I have lots of good babysitters. Mia is very attached to a lot of people on the base. She's got 4 other little friends on the base that are right around her age. She's a very loved little girl.

Speaking of Mia...she'll be two and a half this month! I cannot believe it. She is the friendliest child I've ever met in my life. She is SOOO social. I suppose she has to be considering she's surround by so many people all the time. She makes new friends everywhere we go. Even today at the rugby field....she was making friends with a couple of ladies today and they had a bottle of flavored water. Mia said to them "Oh, you must give me some of your flavored water." The funniest thing about that is most of us Americans would word that sentence: "Oh, you have to give me some of your flavored water." The word "have" in English doesn't exist in Afrikaans it's some word that means "must". So, when they speak in English they would use "must" instead of "have". Mia never says have. She'll say "Mommy, we must go to the shop"... the translation of that is: "Mommy, we have to go to the store". It's so funny how African culture has rubbed off on her!

Not too much else happening here. I hope you guys are all having a great weekend!

Ikhaya

The base has a 24 hour prayer going on right now. Not sure if every one's familiar with 24 hour prayer so I'll briefly describe it. Basically people can sign up for a 1 hour slot through out 24 hours and pray whatever God puts on their hearts. The point is that for 24 hours straight, prayer is happening (praying for the nations). In the prayer room is a world map and books with facts on countries and prayer points and stuff. I prayed from 9-10 tonight and loved every minute of it. When you get in that mood and have God's heart for a nation, your heart literally is breaking for them and the areas Satan's lying to them. Prayer changes things and I love it. And I also love the nations... :)

My house here (we call it ikhaya-ikhaya means house) is right in the middle of town, really close to the township...about a 5 minute walk. We're right next to the bus stop. Literally buses come and pull up next to our house. So people are always chillin out on the front porch steps or around the back porch at all hours of the night. There have been a few instances where homeless people walked right into our house (and rooms) from off the street. We even had some street kids come in at night and steal food out of the fridge. But since the start of SBS (March) the only things that have been stolen out of the house has been food. Lesson learned though; now we keep doors locked and actually remember to close doors. The point is, the weekends are way worse. Meaning it's 12:30 am right now and I can hear drunk people shouting outside. Very loud, drunk people that are sitting in the yard.

So while I'm on that topic of loud, drunk people and safety and all that... as soon as it gets dark here, it's not safe for girls to walk anywhere alone...or even two or three of us together. We need a boy. Now, for most people maybe this wouldn't be an issue, but being the independent person that I am, I find it annoying. I mean I understand and all, but it's something I've had to get used to. One of the biggest problems is this: The SBS all lives together in ikhaya. We have classes here and everything. However, the rest of the people on the base and the actual base (where we go for worship and prayer and meals) is a 5 minute walk. Not far at all but if it's dark...you're basically trapped here in ikhaya. And when I say trapped, I mean that pretty literally.

I've been in South Africa for about 7 months now, and I'm pretty adjusted to safety issues and cultural differences. I still find some things here odd. For example: They call traffic lights "robots". Apparently you cannot buy white eggs here...they're all brown and have little feathers and "stuff" (it appears to be poop) on them. *yuck* They have a very different accent that I think sounds very British. You can buy milk out of a carton that DOESN'T get refrigerated and apparently stays "good" for over a year. We eat TONS of rice and potatoes...sometimes meals of only rice and potatoes. There are tons of different things but there's a few.

Anyway I'm going to go get some sleep. Good night guys!

Completely Desperate

This week we've had the most beautiful weather! Literally perfect weather. Almost every moment we're not in class I'm down at the beach doing homework there. Well almost every moment. Today I was studying and listening to some great worship music and watching the waves. The beach is beautiful and kind of rocky. Off in the distance are gorgeous mountains. It's days like today when I realize just how blessed I am. Man, it was a beautiful day.

This is a really busy week. Monday- Wednesday we're studying Colossians. Also on Wednesday we have an exam and an intro to New Testament Greek. Thursday-Saturday we're studying 1 and 2 Thessalonians. So this week will be another crazy week.

Yesterday, after morning lectures, as a class we went to the beach for to do a practical application. Our teacher asked us to write or create something that showed where we're at presently in our relationship with God. Me, being the incredibly creative person that I am, wrote in the sand. :) Everyone else was making cool things out of sand and shells and wood, but not me. I can write...that's about as creative as it gets. Anyway, what God's stirring in my heart right now is really hard to put into words. I'm more desperate for God than I've ever been in my life. I'm starving for something that only God can fill me with. I'm so glad that God's taken me this far, but I wanna go farther. I wanna go deeper. I want incredibly intimate times with God. I think He can always take us deeper. I wanna experience who God is on a daily basis and be changed daily because of how great God is. This is what I wrote in the sand: Desperate. In love. Hungry. Never satisfied. Deeper. I AM... a fire starter. I AM a world changer. I AM a crazy, 21 year old missionary and I will make a difference.

Have a great week guys. I love and miss you tons. Good night.

My Confession...

So, as I wrote in my last blog, this week we're studying the book of Luke. I'm about to make an incredibly honest confession that I'm embarrassed about...here it goes: When God first spoke to me about doing the SBS I was really dreading having to read and study the gospels. Because, in my mind, I'd heard all the stories when I was a kid about how Jesus healed people and cast demons out of people. (Yes, what a horrible thing for a Christian to say...I know, I know! I said this was embarrassing. God's taught me a lot about humility...) Also, I really didn't understand a lot of what Jesus said. I found it all very confusing. Let's fast forward to now. I've read and studied 3 out of the 4 gospels so far. I literally love the gospels. I really enjoyed studying Mark and John a lot, but Luke blew my mind. God has really ministered to my heart through this book. I am actually disappointed that we only have one gospel left (Matthew). I wish there were more gospels.

On that note, last night we saw, "The Passion of the Christ". If you haven't seen it, watch it. Rent it tonight. I think that pretty much, if you're an American over the age of like 7, you know something about Jesus and that he died on the cross for you. Am I right? We've all heard the story, but it's more than a story. It's real. It really happened. It shows us just how much God loves each and every one of us. It's a real story about the Son of God living a perfect, blameless life, then laying it down as a sacrifice so the world could have eternal life; so we could be made right before God. Jesus made it possible for us to have a relationship with God. Watching that movie puts it all into perspective for me. Picturing Jesus being beaten beyond recognition and spit on and mocked...it really broke my heart. I was sitting there, watching this movie, praying that I wouldn't completely lose it and have a meltdown. Needless to say I think most people in the room watching the movie were crying. It's hard not to cry. Jesus Christ suffered and died for us! Thank God it didn't end there though. Just like Jesus said he would, he rose again and he's in heaven with God.

Tonight the whole YWAM base, about 70 of us in all, got together for a braai. (Basically a braai is the South African word for barbecue) We all ate great food and played volleyball and played some cards. It was a really fun night. Plus, the weather tonight was absolutely beautiful. If I had to guess I'd say it was about 73 degrees. Lately it's been in the 30's yet tonight it was warm! It was very strange weather, but it was perfect. Anyway, I miss you all and hope you have a wonderful weekend!

We're all only human

The more I read the Bible, the more I realize that I really don't have it all figured out. The more I try to comprehend about the Lord, the more complex and mind blowing I find him.The more I dig and search the Word with my heart and mind, the more I fall in love with it. I have absolutely no problem admitting that there's so much that I just don't understand, but it's okay! I don't need to know every answer. We never will figure it all out. That's the great thing about God; He's so bigger than what we think He is.

It seems like every week, (we study a new book of the Bible each week) I think, "Okay this one's my favorite". The Bible gets better and better. This week we're studying Luke. We have a gifted speaker who has an awesome understand of the Word. So as of this week, Luke is my new favorite book. And can I just say that the disciples give me hope as a believer. I mean really, some of the things that they say remind me that they're only human, just like all of us. They make mistakes. They open their mouths and say dumb things when they should just be quiet.

For example, Peter, in Mark 8:31-33. Jesus is telling the disciples that he's going to suffer and be killed. But Peter pulls him aside and rebukes Jesus. But Jesus turns around and rebukes Peter and actually says to him "Get behind me Satan". Oh Peter... not too wise.

Or how about John and James in Luke 9:51-55? Jesus and his disciples are heading to Samaria but the people there do not receive Jesus. So James and John say to Jesus, "Do you want us to commant fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" Seriously guys? Did you two just say that?? And Jesus rebuked them.

Now please understand; I'm not trying to knock the disciples, I'm just saying that I'm thankful that their humanity is shown through out the Bible. It reminds me that as followers of Christ we're all on this journey together and none of us have "arrived". We all mess up from time to time.

Mia and I have horrible colds right now. The problem with community living is that when one person gets sick, we all get sick. 12 people in one house, breathing on each other, passing germs around doesn't make for a good combination. There are quite a few people in the house with colds. Please remember us in your prayers. This cold is taking all our energy away. There has been so much sickness, and problems with people's visas and stuff like that. Satan knows that we're all growing and learning a lot from SBS and he is trying to stop us any way he thinks he can.

Okay, I have tons of homework to get back to. I am so interested in hearing what's happening in your lives and what God's teaching you right now. Also if there's anything you'd like me to be praying about, please send me an email and let me know. I pray for you guys often and miss you all! Tot siens.