Recap #5 (China): Installment 2

While in Beijing I spent a number of days reading through Psalm 139. It is a favorite of many people, and I am no exception. However, as I read through it this time, I felt that God would speak to me or bring some revelation every few verses. I would then meditate on that section and pray it over myself and my life. I had some really special times with God while reading through this Psalm. I have shared some of my journal excerpts. I also developed a worship soundtrack of sorts for my time in Psalm 139, so I have interwoven the songs into this post.

"O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me."

Examine your heart. What do you see? What does God see?

God, I want to have a pure and clean heart that strives to be like you. I ask that you forgive me and cleanse my heart of all these burdensome iniquities. I thank you and praise you for being a God who doesn't leave me the same person. You desire to change me, shape me, mold me, more into your likeness. You are so good to me, Father. I am so undeserving of it. I want you to continue to hone and refine my heart to look more and more like yours. Make my heart so beautiful.

Lead me in your ways, Lord. Help me to turn from my ways and the ways of the world; to  leave them behind without another backward glance.


"You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away."


Lord, help me to have my thoughts fixed upon you. I pray that my desire for you would be so great that I can never get enough of you.

"You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do."

You are everywhere. I need to be everywhere with you. Make me more aware of your presence. Give me a greater desire for that wonderful presence. I pray that every morning I would wake up early burning with excitement to spend time with  you.

"You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord."

I pray that you would be the filter between my mind and mouth. Teach me when to keep my mouth closed. Help me to speak only life and love to others. Build me to be an encourager.

"If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me."

You are with me anywhere I go, whether I feel you there or not. You are omnipresent. No matter what place I'm in or what season of life I'm in, you are still God, and I have a reason to sing and worship you.

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mothers womb."

You know me inside and out. You are the Great Physician because you know exactly how my body works. You know me completely; every single detail. As humans we long to be known and understood, and you know us and understand us better than anyone ever will, and even better than we know or understand ourselves!  You are amazing, God.

"Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous- how well I know it."

Only my God could create humans so complex and unique. You are so creative. Your works are all beautiful, magnificent, and perfect.

"You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb."

Even before I entered the world, you still watched over and cared about my life. Your tender care is so intimate to watch us even in our mother's womb, where we are still secluded from the world. Your love cannot be fathomed.

"You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."

God, you already know my whole life. You have gone before me and prepared it for me. Nothing is unexpected to you, nor is it too big for you to handle. Every hurt, every joy--you already know they are coming, and you will stand at my side through them all. Thank you for being a God who takes care of every detail, but also wants to live them out with me.

The more my eyes are opened to see God more clearly and understand more completely who he is and what his character is, the more I will fall on my knees in worship.

God wants to speak to our hearts through the Scriptures. We just need to take the time to listen as we read. Meditate and pray through the Word and allow them to flood our lives with love, peace, and encouragement.

Recap #4 (China): Installment 1

This is going to be the first of two update installments for China. This installment will be about our team's experiences and adventures, and the next one will be about my personal lessons and things that God was speaking to my heart during our time in China. So stay tuned for the next part...

Our time in China was divided into two parts. First we spent a number of days in Beijing, mostly sight-seeing and hanging out. Then we traveled to Xi'an, where we met up with some other fellow YWAMers. China was much more fun than I expected, and I was surprised to find myself sad to leave!

In Beijing we had the opportunity to take in many of the famous sights of China, which was pretty amazing. I had the chance to visit the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, and the Olympic stadium. The team had a pretty fun time being tourists for a few days!

The streets of China

We ate with chopsticks for nearly every meal

Heath, my cutie of a boyfriend

ATW team at the Temple of Heaven

Cuties! Tiska, Maria, and Lydia

Tiananmen Square

Chair lift up to the Great Wall

Great Wall of China!

Maria and Sarah on the way down from the Wall

The Bird's Nest at the Olympic stadium

Tiska, Josh, Heath, and I at the Olympic stadium

In Xi'an, we had a few classes to help finish up our lecture phase and we were able to engage in a few different ministry opportunities as well. Our team went to a couple different orphanages and also attended English Corners, where Chinese people come to hang out and socialize with native English speakers in an effort to practice and improve their conversational English. 

One of the orphanages we went to was a home of sorts for children with disabilities. There were two different women who had devoted their lives to taking care of this handful of children. It was such an amazing testament to the faith of these women to believe God to provide for them and these children and to give them the strength, patience, and grace needed to work so hard every single day and to love on these kids. 

We stayed with a few different families living in China and working to share God's love there. This was my favorite part of our time there. I was able to stay with our speaker/teacher and his family, and what an amazing blessing they were. He and his wife welcomed me and the other two girls staying there (Maria and Lydia) into their home as if we were really a part of their family. I also loved being able to hang out and play with their two young sons. Spending time in a home and with small kids was such a comfort after being away from home and on the road for so long. Maria, Lydia, and I also spent a lot of time just hanging out with them and having great conversations about God, faith, life, and all of our questions. It was definitely enriching, enlightening, and thought-provoking. 

At the orphanage in Xi'an

Craft time!

The girls on our team (plus Joshua Diego)

This is the team's update video after our time in China, to fill you in on what I missed:

Recap #3 (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong was short-lived for us. We only spent a couple days there. It was a time for us to learn about and prepare for entering Chinese culture, as China was our next destination and the culture and lack of acceptance of Christianity would be an entirely new experience for all of us. We needed to be ready for what was coming!

Our trip to Hong Kong was a memorable one for me. We had a 12 or 13 or 14 hour (I can't remember exactly...it was long, I know that) red-eye flight. I think I might have slept a total of an hour on the whole flight! It was rough, but the cool thing was that God really spoke to me during that flight. I had an extended time of prayer for my friends and family, which was pretty meaningful. As I prayed for my family members, God showed me how blessed I am to have such a loving, supportive, and just plain wonderful family. My heart was filled with gratitude for the amazing parents I have. They have sincere and caring hearts, and selflessly love me and my two sisters. My parents put everything they have into loving us, providing for us, and teaching us about life. And my two sisters are so unique and different from me. It's pretty comical. But I know that they have this amazing capacity to care for others that simply astounds me. I know that if and when I stop to take the time to appreciate my family and the amazing qualities they possess, there is much that I can learn from them. I hope to be able to love them well and be grateful for them each and every day. God has blessed me abundantly!

While in Hong Kong we stayed at the YWAM base, where we were warmly welcomed by the staff. It was interesting to see how different their base was from the Denver base, and to embrace the wide-reach and great diversity of YWAM. Pretty cool! In addition to our China preparation, we were able to engage in some prayer walks and even attended a Nepali church service as part of our ministry time in Hong Kong. Our team also got to do some sight-seeing and be tourists for a day, which was pretty fun! We were able to walk around downtown for a bit, then we rode this tram up a hill/mountain to the top of the city. The view was absolutely breath-taking!

Downtown Hong Kong

The tram ride to the top of the city!

 Christina and I on the tram

View from the top!

Hong Kong

Posing at the top 

The girls on the team stop for bubble tea--typical.

Ministry with kids from the Nepali church. Craft time!

Some other quick insights from my time with God while in Hong Kong:

"'I would love to treat you as my own children! I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land--the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling me "Father," and I wanted you never to turn from me.'"   (Jeremiah 3:19)

God's heart for us is so beautiful it's baffling. He desires us so much. He longs for intimate relationship with us, and he tell us that in his Word. He doesn't hold back from us; he is completely selfless in his love for us. He always wants to show us how much he loves us, even if we aren't faithful to show him our love for him. 

He just wants us to run to him. No matter if we have never run to him before, or if we have put him off for months or years, he just wants us to turn to him. He forgives and forgets the time when we weren't running after him and allowing him to lift us up in his warm and loving embrace. All he cares is that we do come. What a wonderful Father we have.

"'My wayward children,' says the Lord, 'come back to me and I will heal your wayward hearts.'"   (Jeremiah 3:22)

Recap #2 (Mexico)

So, our official Around the World (ATW) outreach began in Veracruz, Mexico. It was a great place to begin, because we were able to see many people accept Christ for the first time during our ministry times, and that provided us with a lot of excitement and encouragement for all of our destinations ahead. 

Our ministry times in Mexico looked very similar in each place we went. We would perform dances, puppets, dramas, and someone would share a personal testimony and present the gospel. Then we would typically have an altar call and invite people up for any prayer needs. (I even shared the gospel during one of our ministry times!) Our team did this sort of ministry in parks, schools, at a hospital, and in a couple extremely impoverished villages. And we often sweated our brains out during our ministry times, because Mexico was stinkin' hot! Needless to say, AC was our best friend.

Many people encountered God and his immense love, power, and grace, and his kingdom was advanced in a great way. We also say a number of people healed, and I was able to be a part of praying over a few people who were healed. God really worked miracles in Mexico, and it was really powerful to witness!

A few ministry highlights:

• Sarah and I prayed for a man with back, neck, shoulder, and head pain, and he was healed. Our God is a God of miracles!
• The mother of one of our translators shared a testimony about her mother, who was a devout Catholic. She fought often with her mother about her beliefs, but her mother encountered God and gave her life to Christ. Praise God for transformed lives!
• In one of the impoverished villages we visited, I was sitting next to an adorable little girl. She was a bit shy and would always look away whenever I smiled at her. The girl's mother, who was a believer, was sitting behind me, and during one of the dramas she told her daughter (in Spanish) to look at the angels. The mom explained to the daughter that it was the glory of God (gloria de Dios). The little girl watched the angels, then looked at me with a huge smile on her face, all her shyness gone. And even though this girl was only about four years old, I could tell that she understood. As I looked at this little girl smiling at me, God spoke to my heart that he had great plans for that little girl and she was going to be someone special and do great things for him. It was amazing to see God's hand on such a young girl in such a powerful way.

For me personally, Mexico was an experience of learning how to really pour my everything into ministry times, even if it was uncomfortable or undesirable for me to do so. It was a process of learning to get over myself and focus on the real purpose: loving others and sharing the gospel with them--to see transformed lives! It is a lesson I think that will continue to learn throughout my life and there will be times where I am very successful and times when I fail miserably. But if I continue to rely on God's grace and fix my eyes on what is really important, he will help me and grow me in obedience and boldness.

I often prayed these verses over myself during our time in Mexico:

"I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ's return."    (Philippians 1:9-10)

"For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die."    (Philippians 1:20)

This is our first outreach update video, which summarizes our time in Mexico:

Some photos of our time in Mexico:

Praying over people after a church service

Performing puppets at one of the schools

Students at one of the schools we visited

"Forgiveness" drama

With some students at a preschool and elementary we visited

Watching puppets with children in one of the impoverished villages

Our team after one of our ministry times

"Fix You" drama

Our team with some of our local contacts

Playing Catch Up: Recap #1 (O.C. Uprising)

So my big plans to blog about my adventures around the world failed miserably. I am now going to do my best to play catch up and hopefully process my trip at the same time.

I had a wonderful 5 months with YWAM, and traveling the world was phenomenal. While I was ready to come home when outreach was over, I know that I have been bitten by the traveling bug, and I cannot wait until my next opportunity to travel. I absolutely loved experiencing new places, cultures, and people. I especially loved people watching. I find it so incredibly fascinating, and I think you can learn a lot about people and their way of life just by observing them living their everyday life. The world is a big and beautiful place, and I want to experience it all!

God taught me so many things during outreach. I know that I'll be learning things from my trip for a long time to come. God is so cool like that. He can give you an awesome experience and allow you to continue experiencing it and learning from it long after it's over, because he knows when you are ready to learn certain things. He is a God of perfect understanding and perfect timing. I love it!

I am first going to try backtrack in an effort to recap a little bit of our time in Orange County, California. We were a part of O.C. Uprising with some YWAM students and staff from the Kona, Hawaii base. It was a large gathering of Christians seeking God for revival across America, starting in the O.C.!

Here is a video of some of the highlights of our time in the O.C.:

It was amazing to see and experience all the amazing things God was doing in the lives of the people in Orange County. The harvest was really ripe there, and we had the great privilege of being part of the harvest.

One verse that God really laid on my heart during our time in Orange County was Ephesians 3:7:
"By God's grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading the good news."

The first day I went out to do ministry, I was paired with one girl from Denver and a staff member from Kona. We met and talked to a small group of middle school age Vietnamese girls who were just hanging out in a courtyard in the center of a shopping area. We talked to them for a while and asked them if they knew about Jesus, and we shared the gospel with them. Three of the young girls accepted Christ right there!

During most of my time in the O.C. I was really struggling to have a good attitude about ministry times, because I don't really enjoy just walking up to random strangers and starting conversations--friendship evangelism is not my strongest gifting. I struggled a lot with feeling guilty that I wasn't as hyped up as others, but God showed me a few things as I brought him those feelings. He reminded me that I am not to compare myself to others. Everyone is different, thus their walk with him will always look different, and that is okay; in fact, that's how it should be. He wants individuality, uniqueness, sincerity, ME. I meditated more on Ephesians 3:7, and God really spoke to me about how preaching the gospel was a privilege, and taking advantage of that privilege went beyond my feelings. He also gave me peace by reassuring me that my obedience to go out and engage in ministry despite my hesitations was all that he was asking of me. God was honored by my obedience to him. My love for him hadn't changed, just because I wasn't as amped up as everyone else. The enemy was trying to make me believe that what I was doing had no value and that it wasn't good enough. Anyone can be obedient when they're hyped up, but God saw me overcoming obstacles to show him I love him and to share that love with others. He saw my heart and my effort, and that made him happy.

Two other quick highlights from the O.C.:

1) My niece, Harper Marie, was born!

2) I had my last drink from Starbucks for 3 months. (I decided to fast from Starbucks for the entire outreach phase of DTS.) *I did so successfully!

Overall, the O.C. was great and really served as a good launching pad for us to travel the world and impact people for Christ!

Brief Update: Outreach Has Begun

My apologies for the lack of updates lately, but we have been on the go and without Internet for the past week and a half. Two weeks ago we left Denver and drove to Orange County, California where all of the YWAM Denver staff and students met up with a large group of students and staff from the Kona, Hawaii YWAM base. We gathered with the purpose of hitting the streets of the OC and sharing the gospel. YWAM has been praying for a revival to sweep across our nation and our week and a half of intense evangelism and worship in California were the beginnings of this revival.
Each day we met for worship, fellowship and intercession, then went out for ministry during the afternoon. Each night we held meetings in a big tent outside the Hilton hotel where people accepted Christ, were healed of physical ailments, were freed from addictions and depression, and found the joy of peace of God through prayer and worship. The presence of the Holy Spirit was so powerful and evident in that tent every night and God used it to start shifting the spiritual climate of that area.
Outreach in the OC was good preparation for our Around the World outreach, because we got to wet our feet and be encouraged by God's faithfulness. We are currently in Veracruz, Mexico. We arrived late Saturday night and had our first day of ministry yesterday. We went to a school and gauge English, did skits and shared about our cultures with the students. The students were very sweet and we had fun spending time with them. We will be doing ministry in the parks here and at the hospital as well. On Monday we leave Mexico and head off to Hong Kong, so time is going to start flying by soon.
Pray for the power and effectiveness of our ministry and safe travels!

The Craziness That Is My Life

The faith life is definitely a life of adventure and unpredictability. This past week has been the epitome of that for me.

I am not going to South Africa and Mozambique with the African outreach team any longer. I am now a part of the Around the World outreach once again. Craziness, yes, I know. But let me start at the beginning instead of the end. Also, it is a long story, so I'm going to try to be somewhat brief.

A couple weeks ago I was starting to feel a little unsettled about going to Africa, and second-guessing my outreach switch. It was strange, because I was soooo excited to go there--I've been waiting for so long to actually make it to Africa. This was my chance, and the team was going to be doing so many awesome things that I couldn't wait to be a part of. I pushed those feelings aside, thinking that God was trying to teach me to be content, especially because all of the outreaches had been finalized by that point.

The unrest continued, but I just ignored it, because I didn't want it to be a distraction to me from what I was doing here. Then, last weekend, there were a few YWAM students who were let go, because they were involved in some serious areas of sin. This left a spot open on the Around the World outreach, and with that, my restless mind kicked into overdrive wondering what that meant for me. It became such a distraction that I finally went to my small group leader with a need to vent all my confusing thoughts and feelings, and to receive some prayer and advice.

After talking and praying with my small group leader, I went to hash it out with God on my own. I had an awful mindset going into my prayer and reflection time, because I had already resolved I was going to Africa, so there was no need to pray. Wrong. God had something up his sleeve, that's for sure.

While I was praying, God really just convicted my heart of not trusting him. I hadn't trusted him with my finances, I hadn't really consulted with him about choosing Africa, because to me Africa was the perfect choice. He reminded me of my decision to transfer from Concordia to Virginia Tech. It was an extremely difficult decision that I didn't want to make, because a different option made sense in my head. But once I chose obedience over personal desire, God gave me the transcendent peace he promises and he promised to be faithful. It ended up being one of the best decisions I have made in my life, and I was blessed far beyond what I could have ever imagined. If God was faithful then, why couldn't I trust him now?

So, things got set in motion with the DTS Director, and God overcame numerous seemingly impossible obstacles on the way, confirming to me that this was the path he really desired me to be on. It was a crazy week of waiting, confusion, fighting feelings, choosing resolve and obedience; but it was ultimately a blessing and I had a sense of peace about all of it when it was said and done. God is so good. He gave me a second chance to go on the Around the World outreach. He doesn't give up on us, and I'm believing that he is going to be doing and asking big things of me on this outreach, which is scary and exciting. I'm still a little disappointed about not going to Africa, but I know and trust that God has my best interests at heart, and just like before, he will bless me far beyond what I can imagine.

To Give Is to Bless

This week our topic for classes has been "Relationships." It is being taught by our DTS director, Jeremy, and his wife, Keeley. They are quite the dynamic duo, and listening to their testimony has been awesome. It is cool to hear their heart, to know how they've walked with God in their life, and how God has really shown himself faithful and loving. They are a precious couple, and I found myself hanging on their every word as they shared.

Then, yesterday in class they gave all of us students an assignment of sorts. We were to pray about giving a gift(s) of some kind to one of the DTS students or staff members, and we were going to give them to the person during the following morning class session. The idea was that in giving we bless others and also find ourselves blessed as well. In seeking God's guidance, we could minister to others in our little community here with a simple gift. As Jeremy was giving some examples and explaining in more detail the idea behind our assignment, I knew who I was going to give to and what I was going to give.

One of my roommates suffered sexual abuse during her younger years, and has been profoundly scarred by that. God has been doing a huge work in her heart and life since she has been here, and it has been amazing to watch her open her heart and life to God and to just blossom into this beautiful woman of power and compassion and tenderness. She was the one who God immediately placed on my heart. My next thought was of the book "Redeeming Love," which is a beautiful fictional story based on the book of Hosea. It is a story of obedience to God, relentless love, overwhelming grace, and passionate pursuit. I had brought up the book before in conversation with her, and she said that she thought she would really like to read a book like that.

Also a couple days ago a few of our roommates were having a conversation about our fears and worries about relationships and marriage in the future. This girl had confessed she felt that she wanted to be in relationship with a man who was pure, even though she wasn't, but she didn't think she could ask that of someone, because she wasn't worth the love of a man who was pure. Satan was still peddling his lies of worthlessness, dirtiness, and impurity to her. But I see her so much differently. And so does God. All I see when I look at her is beauty- inside and out. This girl has a huge heart. She is so genuine, and has immense enthusiasm. She is just a complete joy to be around. I wanted to be able to communicate to her that she WAS worthy of a pure man, and that she had immeasurable worth as a daughter of the King. I wanted that book to show her the immensity of God's love and his relentless pursuit of her, and to also communicate to her that God could write her an amazing, beautiful, and romantic love story; her past does not define her, nor does it define her future.

When I gave her the gift, she teared up, thanking me with such sincerity that I felt it in my bones. She told me later that she couldn't wait to read the book. It was such a wonderful feeling to be used a vessel to minister God's love and truth to her, and also to share one of my passions with her (reading). In giving, God also blessed me.

We spent two hours of our morning giving gifts to one another, explaining how and why we had chosen our specific gifts, and then also praying over and blessing one another. It was so extremely moving (there were lots of people tearing up throughout the whole thing), and it was an enormous encouragement to everyone in the room. Everyone left that session feeling incredibly blessed.

"Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full--pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back."     Luke 6:38

I'll Give the Nations to You

I have been listening to this song a lot lately, because last week the speaker we had for classes challenged us to wrestle out with God, "What were you saved for?" As I prayed about it during the last week and a half, I kept hearing God telling me that he saved me for the nations. I was a little frustrated, because I already knew he had placed a call on my life to engage in missions internationally, but I think that's all he is going to reveal to me at this point in my life. I am choosing to be content with it and continue asking him until he knows it's the right time to tell me. I trust him and his ways. I am saved for the nations.

Fighter Verses

Since I forgot to post last week's fighter verse, I am going to combine last week's and this week's.

"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared."


Ephesians 6:12-15

Relinquishing Your Rights

Last week, all of the DTS students watched a sermon by Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, about relinquishing our rights. Now the theme of relinquishing our rights to things seems to be a pervasive theme in the lessons we have been learning so far in DTS. I feel as though a lot of things we struggle with in our Christian walk find their roots in a failure to surrender things to God and trust him completely. I am realizing so many things about how relinquishing rights relates to missionary work, and how the areas of my life that I haven't relinquished to God are hindering me in my personal spiritual growth.

The relinquishment of rights is the release into the rewards of a relationship with God. We see this with numerous characters of the Bible. Daniel was willing to relinquish the rights to his life and trust God when he was thrown in the lion's den. Was he rewarded? He sure was! Paul gave up lots of rights. For example, he could have been a great religious leader, but he relinquished his rights to his reputation and success. He also relinquished his rights to life as Daniel did, and was martyred as a result. But was he rewarded when he got to heaven? You bet! These men and others in the Bible are examples for us, yet Christ is our greatest example of relinquishment of rights. No one relinquished more rights than Jesus Christ. And Jesus experienced the greatest rewards of relationship with his father.

The key to ministry, specifically missions and world evangelism is relinquishing our rights. We must die to our rights if we want to submit our lives to the Lord in ministry. If we don't relinquish rights, we don't give God control to be working miracles in and through our lives. The best part of this is that we will always get God's best when we let him choose. When we say to God, "Rid me of myself," he will bring so much freedom into our lives that we will ask ourselves why we had been so hesitant to do so in the first place.

After realizing how crucial the relinquishment of rights is not only to ministry, but also to my personal walk with the Lord, I needed to think about how to identify the areas of my life that I haven't relinquished to God. Of course praying about it and asking God to reveal them is crucial. Also just thinking about things that you lose your temper over, you haven't relinquished. If you have truly surrendered something to God, you cannot be upset about it, because you no longer can hold any claim to it. This is really challenging, because we have been told our whole lives that we have rights to things and we have ownership over things. Even more challenging is maintaining our relinquishments. Just because we surrender something once, does not mean that we won't have to relinquish that right again in the future. We have to renew our relinquishments, just as we would renew our driver's license.

It helps me to remind myself that nothing is actually mine; it is all God's, and he has graciously gifted me with them. I also know that the rewards of relationship with God will far outweigh the "sacrifices" I have to make in relinquishing rights. Not only will I gain greater intimacy with my heavenly Father, but my ministry will also be strengthened. I am praying that God will reveal to me bit by bit the areas in which I need to relinquish rights to him and provide me the strength to do so. I want to loosen my grip on the things of this life-- like freedom, family, reputation, finances, friends. I want less of me and more of God, and that means relinquishing my rights.

Roomies

Roomie picture: Me, Maria, Christina, Jacquelien, Tiska, Sarah, and Hannah. I love them!

Write Me!

If anyone wants to write me letters, they are MORE than welcome to (at least for the next three months, anyway)!

My address while I'm here in Denver is:

Courtney Robinson
c/o YWAM Denver
12750 W 63rd Ave.
Arvada, CO 80004

Blessed!

On Monday afternoon I arrived in Denver for the start of my DTS. I felt unprepared as far as details went, but prepared in my heart for whatever it was that God had for me during the course of the next six months.

It's currently my fifth day here, and I don't even know where to begin in explaining all that has happened so far. So many things have already happened, and we have been pretty busy. But God has really been blessing me here. My heart is overflowing with the happiness that comes from being in Christian fellowship and community. If I could summarize my four days here so far with one word it would be RELATIONSHIP. There are about 60 students doing DTS here, plus about 70 staff (and many of them are families with little kidlets running around). So there are a lot of people. We have mostly just been meeting people and getting to know them. The most surprising thing of all is that I am really enjoying it and I have been outgoing and initiating conversations and haven't had to give myself a pep talk to do so!

I have met so many wonderful people, and I especially love my six other roommates, whom I've spent the most time with. They are all crazy and awesome and hilarious. We are the "rowdy and loud" room. We have a lot of fun, but we also get deep. I feel so blessed by the immediate connection and bonding we have all had with each other. I am seeing how much relationship and people are the basis of ministry. God has really given me a new desire to meet and connect with new people.

Most of what has been going on this week has been centered around preparing us for our specific DTS. There are a few different schools going on right now at the Denver base. I had applied for the Around the World DTS originally, but after arriving, I did not have all of my support in, and was transferred into the Compassion DTS. The Compassion DTS has two separate outreaches that the students are able to choose from. On Wednesday the leaders of each DTS shared about where the outreach was located and what types of ministry they would be involved with. The Compassion DTS had two choices for outreach: the Philippines or Africa (South Africa and Mozambique). While watching the video for the African outreach, I felt God telling me that now was my time to go to Africa, despite what I had thought coming into DTS.

The Africa outreach includes ministry at an orphanage during our time in South Africa, and in Mozambique we will be partnered with Heidi Baker's healing ministry. I cannot explain how excited I am about this. Orphans are definitely an area of compassion in my heart--even just kids in general. And I know that Heidi Baker's healing ministry is amazing and powerful. I am looking forward to all that God has in store for outreach. The only glitch right now is that I am still a little short on my support for outreach. As of right now I still need $724, so if you could be committing that to prayer, that would be awesome. Or if you feel led to give, that would be great too! Just contact me.

Although I am really excited for outreach and to finally go to Africa, I'm also content to just experience this lecture phase for the next couple months. Next week we start classes, and I can't wait to learn, learn, learn! I am so ready to be a student of God's Word and to just learn more about him and how he works and moves. In the five short days I've been here, I've taken in so much good stuff-- lessons, stories, testimonies, breakthroughs, quiet moments, prayers, relationships, connecting, praising, learning, sharing. I already know that I'm not the same person I was when I came. God is already moving and working in my heart and life. If five days looks like this, I CANNOT wait to see what the next six months will bring!

Prayer Requests:

• for my heart to be open to what God wants to speak to me or how he wants to change me
• that God would have ALL of my attention and focus during this time with YWAM and run hard after him
• for healing of the hurt and brokenness in my heart
• that I would soak in everything coming at me and also be able to process it and apply it to my life

South Africa is the southernmost country in Africa, and Mozambique is directly to the Northeast of South Africa.