So it turns out God works in mysterious ways. Go figure eh.
Last Monday a team mate and i went to give blood at one of the college campuses we were evangelizing at. We figured it would be quick and then we could go out and talk with some students.
I'm not sure what made me think i wanted to do this since blood makes me kind of squeamish and i have a strong dislike for needles. But regardless, I found myself in the "blood bus" with a needle in my arm stealing a large quantity of my blood. I'll admit the needle wasn't so bad so long as I didn't look, it was after the needle came out that the problem started. The lovely nurse took the needle out, gave me a band aid and some powerade and sent me on my way. She of course asked how I was feeling and such and I was fine so off I went.
Well I didn't make it more then 5 feet past the bus when i started feeling light headed and blacked out. The nurse came out and with the help of my team mate managed to get me back in the bus. Talk about kinda embarrassing... They kept me on the bus for another 45 minutes pumping me full of fluids. I was really quite annoyed with the whole situation...I don't enjoy being incapable. I kept thinking how i could be out evangelizing to people on campus but instead i was stuck in a blood bus trying to remain conscious. I really was not impressed.
Well while I was in there we started talking this guy giving blood across from me, that came in shortly after they brought me back. He was pretty interested in what we were doing with the campus ministry. He wasn't a christian but he was definitely seeking truth and seemed excited by the idea of a personal God who sent His own son to die for him. We were able to chat with him a few more times after that day and he actually gave his life to the Lord last week. What a blessing. It was such an encouragement to me to see how God used a situation that was really frustrating to me and brought something beautiful out of it. Praise God. He is continually showing me that in my weaknesses He is strong. Love it.
I hope this encourages y'all back home, God can use whatever situation we're in, it's not about what we can do it's all about Him.
Peace
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Week One
Holla from Miami!
We've been here for a week now and I love it.
My team is working with a campus ministry at Miami Dade called WAVES. WAVES is a student run christian club on campus and is fairly well known by the students. Today was the first day of classes and our first day going out on campus and it went really good. The students are pretty open to hearing what we have to say and most of them are really searching for something. Today was a huge encouragement to me, I was able to talk to a lot of people and was able to share the gospel with ten different people - it really made me excited for the next month down here.
It occurred to me today how much God is doing in me and has done in me in the past year. Before coming to YWAM I dont ever remember sharing the gospel with someone on my own, I've never had the boldness to just start talking to people like that, but it's really become a lifestyle. I love it. This is what God has called us as Christians to do - Go into the world and share the gospel.
Please continue praying for my team as well as the students we'll be working with!
I'll keep you posted.
Peace.
We've been here for a week now and I love it.
My team is working with a campus ministry at Miami Dade called WAVES. WAVES is a student run christian club on campus and is fairly well known by the students. Today was the first day of classes and our first day going out on campus and it went really good. The students are pretty open to hearing what we have to say and most of them are really searching for something. Today was a huge encouragement to me, I was able to talk to a lot of people and was able to share the gospel with ten different people - it really made me excited for the next month down here.
It occurred to me today how much God is doing in me and has done in me in the past year. Before coming to YWAM I dont ever remember sharing the gospel with someone on my own, I've never had the boldness to just start talking to people like that, but it's really become a lifestyle. I love it. This is what God has called us as Christians to do - Go into the world and share the gospel.
Please continue praying for my team as well as the students we'll be working with!
I'll keep you posted.
Peace.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Feliz Navidad y Adios
Wow Christmas has come and gone and now it's time to go.
I spent Christmas with my family in Mexico. It was wonderful, it was a good time to relax and be refreshed before i'm off and running again.
I'm leaving for my first part of outreach today, we're driving to Miami later this afternoon where we will spend our first month. I'm pretty excited to see what God is going to do with us and through us over the next two months!
I am not taking my laptop with me so I will try my best to find internet where I can and up date you all on whats happening.
Thank you so much for supporting me this far both in prayer and in finances, it has meant so much to me! Please keep me and my team in your prayers over the next two months.
Well I gotta get going and finish my packing!
Peace.
I spent Christmas with my family in Mexico. It was wonderful, it was a good time to relax and be refreshed before i'm off and running again.
I'm leaving for my first part of outreach today, we're driving to Miami later this afternoon where we will spend our first month. I'm pretty excited to see what God is going to do with us and through us over the next two months!
I am not taking my laptop with me so I will try my best to find internet where I can and up date you all on whats happening.
Thank you so much for supporting me this far both in prayer and in finances, it has meant so much to me! Please keep me and my team in your prayers over the next two months.
Well I gotta get going and finish my packing!
Peace.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Time is running out
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
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
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,
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