Oh goodness, it's been a very busy two weeks!
Last weekend was thanksgiving weekend. My first American thanksgiving! It was really great. Let me give you a brief summary.
Thursday
- I had the biggest thanksgiving dinner of my life! There was food lined all the way down the hallway and around the corner - hah and i know only two of you from home will actually know how long that it since the rest of you haven't been here. But trust me it's a lot of food!
- Dutch blitz. Need I say more. There are a couple of us that really might be hopeless addicts. I kicked butt in both games by the way, just had to throw that out there.
- Football. People born in the north vs people born in the south...and the foreigners divided among both teams. Yeah North!
Friday
- Black Friday! For those of you who don't know what that is, it's the biggest shopping day of the year in America.
- We left at midnight and headed out among the crazies to go find some sales!
- We shopped until 6am. Really....who does that? Is that healthy...probably not.
- Slept until 1pm and then had the laziest day ever, it was beautiful.
Saturday
- Hello Miami!
- Stacie, Kelley, Nathaniel and I left at 6 am and headed down to Miami for the day.
- We went to South Beach!
- It's still shocking to me that at the beginning of December people can be walking around in swimsuits!
- It was a nice little get-away
This past week of teaching was really good. A man named Glenn Sheppard spoke on revival and it's importance. He really spoke into our lives this week and worked through a lot.
This next week is on effective personal ministry and one of my favorite teachers is flying in for it so I'm pretty excited!
I cannot even believe this will be my last week of class! Then we have one week of outreach prep before Christmas! It's going to be a busy two weeks.
Something to keep in your prayers:
The Discipleship Training School right now is planning their outreach, their two locations are Thailand and India. There is a lot of unrest in both countries and the teams are really praying about what to do and how this will affect them. Please pray for incredible discernment and wisdom!
Thanx.
Peace
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
The little bus that could...
Have you ever seen that kids book "The little train that could"? It's a cute book about a little train that would always say "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" and in the end the little train made it to wherever it was going, hence the name of the book. If you've never read this book, i just sound crazy right now...
But anyway, this was totally the story with the bus we drove to North Carolina. It's a really old school bus... It broke down on the way there but we were able to get it "fixed". Then it broke down in north Carolina and we couldn't use it all week, we managed to get it running on the way home but it was burning through oil like nothing else. We had to stop 4 or 5 times on the way home to put more oil in, it was really the longest bus ride of my life - 13 hours!
The conference itself was pretty good. The conference was intended for the DTS students but we went along with them because the speaker, Danny Lehmann, was speaking mainly on evangelism. Some of it was review but it was all good to hear. He talked about spiritual disciplines as well which i enjoyed. It really challenged me to spend more time studying my bible. My school requires that I read the entire Old Testament before I graduate but it's hard to read and really study it in this amount of time we're given. I'm really going to start putting more effort into finding time to study as well though. Right before i came here I got a new study bible. It's really sweet and has a lot of notes and maps in it, I love picking my bible apart and looking things up, it's something i thoroughly enjoy i just need to make time for more of it. You can pray for me in this area!
On Tuesday afternoon the 12 of us in my school spent the afternoon at a bus station praying for and chatting with people. It was a really good afternoon! My friend Stacie and I got the chance to talk to about 20 people. We just asked people if we could pray for them and i was shocked how many people were so willing to let us pray for them and were fairly open. It was definitely a good conversation starter as well. Things like this always motivate me to really know my bible better because people always have so many questions!
This next week is going to be crazy. I have three days of classes before thanksgiving break. On Thursday we're all having thanksgiving dinner at the church. That'll be wonderful. hear it's more food than anyone knows what to do with. Then there's a huge football game during which we hope we won't have to make any hospital runs...
The day after thanksgiving there's a Christmas party at the base directors house. How crazy is that?? Thanksgiving and Christmas parties all in one weekend! The day after Thanksgiving is also "Black Friday" - the biggest shopping day of the year. People start shopping in the middle of the night to catch the crazy sales!
I shall update y'all after thanksgiving!
But anyway, this was totally the story with the bus we drove to North Carolina. It's a really old school bus... It broke down on the way there but we were able to get it "fixed". Then it broke down in north Carolina and we couldn't use it all week, we managed to get it running on the way home but it was burning through oil like nothing else. We had to stop 4 or 5 times on the way home to put more oil in, it was really the longest bus ride of my life - 13 hours!
The conference itself was pretty good. The conference was intended for the DTS students but we went along with them because the speaker, Danny Lehmann, was speaking mainly on evangelism. Some of it was review but it was all good to hear. He talked about spiritual disciplines as well which i enjoyed. It really challenged me to spend more time studying my bible. My school requires that I read the entire Old Testament before I graduate but it's hard to read and really study it in this amount of time we're given. I'm really going to start putting more effort into finding time to study as well though. Right before i came here I got a new study bible. It's really sweet and has a lot of notes and maps in it, I love picking my bible apart and looking things up, it's something i thoroughly enjoy i just need to make time for more of it. You can pray for me in this area!
On Tuesday afternoon the 12 of us in my school spent the afternoon at a bus station praying for and chatting with people. It was a really good afternoon! My friend Stacie and I got the chance to talk to about 20 people. We just asked people if we could pray for them and i was shocked how many people were so willing to let us pray for them and were fairly open. It was definitely a good conversation starter as well. Things like this always motivate me to really know my bible better because people always have so many questions!
This next week is going to be crazy. I have three days of classes before thanksgiving break. On Thursday we're all having thanksgiving dinner at the church. That'll be wonderful. hear it's more food than anyone knows what to do with. Then there's a huge football game during which we hope we won't have to make any hospital runs...
The day after thanksgiving there's a Christmas party at the base directors house. How crazy is that?? Thanksgiving and Christmas parties all in one weekend! The day after Thanksgiving is also "Black Friday" - the biggest shopping day of the year. People start shopping in the middle of the night to catch the crazy sales!
I shall update y'all after thanksgiving!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Greetings
Wow i feel like the past two weeks have flown by, i don't even know where all my time went! I was sick most of last week, so i suppose i slept one of those weeks away. Thank the Lord I am almost back to normal, I was starting to feel a little stir-crazy.
We had some intense craziness for a little while last week what with the election and all. That was definitely quite the experience.
Our past week of teaching was really good, i really enjoyed it. Our teacher this week was Jeremy Harke, he talked on a range of things like post modernism and where does culture fit into the church. It was really interesting.
He made a point of stating that he believes that culture, community and the gospel should work together in the church and taking any one of those things out causes a great imbalance. I never really thought about that before but I feel like often the culture aspect is taken out, or culture in the church is viewed as bad, but Jeremy was really showing us the importance of having a healthy balance of all three.
Pretty cool.
On Sunday we are heading off to North Carolina for a week long conference. I'm pretty excited about that. It'll be a long drive but I'm sure it will be entertaining. We are taking a school bus and a couple of 15 passenger vans, there are 65 people going. It should be fun!
Pray for safe travel as it is a ten hour drive with a lot of people, and for health to be restored!
Peace
We had some intense craziness for a little while last week what with the election and all. That was definitely quite the experience.
Our past week of teaching was really good, i really enjoyed it. Our teacher this week was Jeremy Harke, he talked on a range of things like post modernism and where does culture fit into the church. It was really interesting.
He made a point of stating that he believes that culture, community and the gospel should work together in the church and taking any one of those things out causes a great imbalance. I never really thought about that before but I feel like often the culture aspect is taken out, or culture in the church is viewed as bad, but Jeremy was really showing us the importance of having a healthy balance of all three.
Pretty cool.
On Sunday we are heading off to North Carolina for a week long conference. I'm pretty excited about that. It'll be a long drive but I'm sure it will be entertaining. We are taking a school bus and a couple of 15 passenger vans, there are 65 people going. It should be fun!
Pray for safe travel as it is a ten hour drive with a lot of people, and for health to be restored!
Peace
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Happy November!
I cannot believe it is November, I think this is going to be a busy month. In about two weeks we're going to North Carolina for a week for a conference, I'm pretty excited about that. American Thanksgiving is this month as well. I hear it's a pretty big deal around here. That should be a fun experience.
I'm officially half done my lecture phase! wow.
It has really hit me over this past week how blessed I ma right now. God is providing me with everything i need, both financially and otherwise. I am surrounded by amazing people that love and support me and what I'm passionate about.
I'm really excited about this next week. Our teacher is Al McBryan, For those of you that know him you understand. He is a brilliant man, who knows the bible better than almost anyone I know. It'll be a good week.
I do have one prayer request.
- For health - a lot of us have been sick over the past couple weeks and it would be wonderful if everyone could be healthy again.
I appreciate your prayers so much!
Peace,
I'm officially half done my lecture phase! wow.
It has really hit me over this past week how blessed I ma right now. God is providing me with everything i need, both financially and otherwise. I am surrounded by amazing people that love and support me and what I'm passionate about.
I'm really excited about this next week. Our teacher is Al McBryan, For those of you that know him you understand. He is a brilliant man, who knows the bible better than almost anyone I know. It'll be a good week.
I do have one prayer request.
- For health - a lot of us have been sick over the past couple weeks and it would be wonderful if everyone could be healthy again.
I appreciate your prayers so much!
Peace,
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
breaking the fast...breakfast?
Hey!
Oh it has been so long!
I have finished my two week fast and it's been pretty good. It has been a really good time to be able to just chill out with God. I've been digging into my bible which has been wonderful, and spending time just listening.
Over the past few weeks God has been challenging me to let go of everything, and let Him have my life. As usual this is a struggle for me because I like to have control. But God has really been stressing that it's not enough for me to give Him most of my life, He wants it all. I tend to do this thing where I tell God He can have something but I like to hold on to the very edge of it, I can never seem to give it up completely. Well God has been really dealing with me on this and really convicting me of areas of my life that I'm still trying to hold onto the edge of.
It's been hard but I'm really working on it.
I want my life to be used for Gods purpose and only that. The desire of my heart is to be exactly where God wants me to be, no where else. All my own plans and desires will never satisfy me if they don't match up with God's plans and desires for my life.
So that is where I am at right now.
Please pray for me as I seek God and His plans for my life.
Peace
Oh it has been so long!
I have finished my two week fast and it's been pretty good. It has been a really good time to be able to just chill out with God. I've been digging into my bible which has been wonderful, and spending time just listening.
Over the past few weeks God has been challenging me to let go of everything, and let Him have my life. As usual this is a struggle for me because I like to have control. But God has really been stressing that it's not enough for me to give Him most of my life, He wants it all. I tend to do this thing where I tell God He can have something but I like to hold on to the very edge of it, I can never seem to give it up completely. Well God has been really dealing with me on this and really convicting me of areas of my life that I'm still trying to hold onto the edge of.
It's been hard but I'm really working on it.
I want my life to be used for Gods purpose and only that. The desire of my heart is to be exactly where God wants me to be, no where else. All my own plans and desires will never satisfy me if they don't match up with God's plans and desires for my life.
So that is where I am at right now.
Please pray for me as I seek God and His plans for my life.
Peace
Monday, September 29, 2008
fasting anyone?
This morning we started our day with worship as a base, it's pretty much my favorite way to start the morning so it was wonderful.
I feel like in the week that I've been here there have been so many things that I've wanted God to show me; so many things that I've been like "hey God can you make that clearer?" "hey God can you please show me how that works?" "hey God what the heck do I do about that?" and God was finally like "Hey Sarah Jane could you shut off your computer for a bit and actually seek me out on these things instead of wanting them handed to you on a platter??"
This response shocked me a bit, it just wasn't quite what i was expecting. I really felt like God was asking for me to spend two weeks without my computer or the phone. The idea is that any time i would generally spend on my laptop I will spend seeking God out and digging into His word. I am excited to see what God is going to do with this time in the next couple weeks.
So after i finish this blog entry I'm turning off my computer. If you NEED to contact me i will be checking my email once each morning to keep on top of my finances since I am still in need in this area. But anything personal will have to wait.
Please pray for me in this time, that God would use it for His glory.
Talk to you in a couple weeks!
Peace and Blessings!
I feel like in the week that I've been here there have been so many things that I've wanted God to show me; so many things that I've been like "hey God can you make that clearer?" "hey God can you please show me how that works?" "hey God what the heck do I do about that?" and God was finally like "Hey Sarah Jane could you shut off your computer for a bit and actually seek me out on these things instead of wanting them handed to you on a platter??"
This response shocked me a bit, it just wasn't quite what i was expecting. I really felt like God was asking for me to spend two weeks without my computer or the phone. The idea is that any time i would generally spend on my laptop I will spend seeking God out and digging into His word. I am excited to see what God is going to do with this time in the next couple weeks.
So after i finish this blog entry I'm turning off my computer. If you NEED to contact me i will be checking my email once each morning to keep on top of my finances since I am still in need in this area. But anything personal will have to wait.
Please pray for me in this time, that God would use it for His glory.
Talk to you in a couple weeks!
Peace and Blessings!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
SOME 08 begins
I am finally in Orlando! I arrived here on Saturday night.
It was a long journey here...literally, my day of flying was something ridiculous like 20 hours, from when i left my house to when i got here.
Intended route: Edmonton - Phoenix - Charlotte - Orlando.
Unfortunately my time between Phoenix and Charlotte was 25 minutes...and my plane was late, so that route went out the window. There was only one flight from phoenix that would get me to Orlando in the same day and that involved back tracking to orange county California.
New route: Edmonton - Phoenix - Orange County - Las Vegas - Orlando
Then my plane had "mechanical difficulties" in orange county so my plane was delayed by another couple hours. Needless to say it was a long day of sitting in airports!
My week has been pretty good. I've sat through a lot of orientations this week, which has been informative, but I'm definitely glad to be starting class on Monday!
I'm living in a house with 9 students and two staff. My room has 5 of us in here, it'll never be dull that's for sure.
I don't have too much of an update to give at this point, but by the end of next week I'm sure there will be more
Peace and Blessings
It was a long journey here...literally, my day of flying was something ridiculous like 20 hours, from when i left my house to when i got here.
Intended route: Edmonton - Phoenix - Charlotte - Orlando.
Unfortunately my time between Phoenix and Charlotte was 25 minutes...and my plane was late, so that route went out the window. There was only one flight from phoenix that would get me to Orlando in the same day and that involved back tracking to orange county California.
New route: Edmonton - Phoenix - Orange County - Las Vegas - Orlando
Then my plane had "mechanical difficulties" in orange county so my plane was delayed by another couple hours. Needless to say it was a long day of sitting in airports!
My week has been pretty good. I've sat through a lot of orientations this week, which has been informative, but I'm definitely glad to be starting class on Monday!
I'm living in a house with 9 students and two staff. My room has 5 of us in here, it'll never be dull that's for sure.
I don't have too much of an update to give at this point, but by the end of next week I'm sure there will be more
Peace and Blessings
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