Fatherheart of God and four weeks till Mexico!!

I can't believe it is the end of week 8. Time has been going quickly. We have less than 27 days until we leave for Mexico City! I am getting excited to go and have loved how God is stirring in everyone that excitement to go! We are in the process of figuring out how everyone will pay for the outreach fees. As a school we have over 60 thousand that needs to come in by the 10th of March. I have been learning a lot about faith in God for finances. Please pray with me that our school will watch God work to cover all of this expense!

This week we had John Bills come and speak to our class on the Fatherheart of God. John is a longtime YWAMer. For those of you that have been reading Joy Dawson's book Intercession, John is actually married to Joy's daughter! He was such a neat guy who has spent much of his life ministering to people with AIDS as an AIDS hospice chaplain. His experiences working with people with AIDS helped to show the heart of our Father in heaven. I have been so blessed to have an awesome earthly father that has always loved and cared for me! (Love you Dad!!) I realized this week that not everyone has that and it can affect how we view God the Father! We also can have experiences with others that the enemy uses to taint our view of God. We spent time this week working through our false views of God that affect how we receive God as Father. God has unlimited Fatherly affection, acceptance, faithfulness, generosity, attentiveness and authority with each and everyone of us. He is a loving God that is perfect in every one of those ways. It was such a great week and good reminder of what a great Father we all have!!

Thanks to all of you that have been praying for me! I can tell that you all are speaking to God on my behalf! This week I found out that I had some damage done to my condo because of a leaky pipe. Please pray with me that this can get fixed soon and that the damage is minor. My insurance should cover some of it but this will be an added expense! God is a generous God though who cares for all of us and I know he will provide! Thanks in advance for praying for this for me!!

This past week I had the many opportunities to talk with friends. I was able to talk with all the Brouwers in Canada, went to Cliff and Cristine's house one night, talked with a friend from Oregon and my sister and Mom and Dad. I felt so energized by talking with them and incredibly grateful for the support system God has given me. I am blessed by all of you!! Please know that all of you are loved by me!! Thanks for reading!!

Fear of the Lord

It's Saturday and end of week 7! I have a free weekend which I have to say came at just the right time. After Slum Survivor last weekend I was pretty tired this week. It will be nice to recoup and get some homework done. Week 7 was really good. We had Shirley Brownhill, the base director, as our guest speaker talking on the Fear of the Lord. I was looking forward to hearing her speak and getting to know her a bit more. On Tuesday however, she ended up getting very sick and didn't end up teaching anymore. So, we had Will who was our teacher for Repentance and Forgiveness come and teach the rest of the week. It was a great week of teaching. We talked about what it means to be holy and how the fear of the Lord over the sin in our lives can help us to overcome anything. It was really good to see practically how holiness can play out in our lives.

Tuesday was our hands-on-compassion. We finally got in to see the girls!! We brought cookies and icing to decorate them with. It was a lot of fun! I think they enjoyed eating all the cookies! We also got into some great conversations with a few of them. Thanks for praying! Keep praying too so that we will continue to be able to go in.

Thursday was our base evangelism night. The group that I was in spent the time walking on the beach (watching a gorgeous sunset over the Indian Ocean!) in Cottesloe and talking with people we saw. We had a really great conversation with a lady who I think really needed to talk with someone. She was struggling with a few different issues in her life and didn't have many people around to help her process all that was going on. I really felt like it was key that we were able to be a listening ear to her. Her name is Fiona and she has some major changes happening with her family in the next couple weeks. If you think of her, please lift her up in prayer!!

This next week we have John Bills coming to speak with us. I am really excited about hearing him. He has been with YWAM for 36 years and is a great speaker. In the meantime I will enjoy my weekend!! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! I like thinking that people are keeping up with what I'm up to, helps to feel connected to all of you back home! Have a great weekend!

Half-way done and livin' in a Slum!!

We are officially half-way done with the lecture phase of the DTS. I can't believe it! It still feels like I just got here in some ways! Week six was a really fun week in that the topic was relationships. We learned about the foundational aspects of healthy relationships: Love, Trust, Understanding and Honor. We had Shaneane Totorewa from YWAM New Zealand come as our guest speaker. She was a lot of fun. I am so thankful for the friends and family I have and that God chose to give me each one! You all are a blessing to me.

Tuesday was our hands on compassion. We were able to get into the detention center this time but not to see the girls. They had more girls than what they are supposed to have and that meant they needed to move some of them around. Because of that, they didn't want us to go to the girls area. We were bummed that once again we weren't able to get in but we did get to go and play games with one of the boys areas. I played ping pong and a card game with a few of them. It was fun! Please continue to pray that we can get into the center and see the girls!

At the end of the week we left the base for Slum Survivor. It was a weekend away where we went to the bush (a beautiful national park). They split us up into teams and we spent the weekend living like someone might that is from a Slum. We had to build our Slum out of cardboard and tarps and live in them. We also played games kind of like they do on the TV show Survivor. We had a blast! Saturday night after we all went to bed our staff found a kangaroo getting into our garbage and food. I am so used to raccoons doing that, I thought it was funny that it was a kangaroo!! I didn't get a chance to see it though. Hopefully I will see one before I leave!

The next week or two is going to be really busy! We have quite a few assignments due along with all our regular assignments and other work duties. We are also in the process of getting prepared for Mexico City. I am getting excited for our outreach. I feel like God is giving me a heart for that city and I am ready to go! We leave in a little more than a month. Thanks for your support of me and for praying for me! I appreciate it so much! Blessings and have a great week!!

9 Gladstone

I thought I would share a bit about the house that I am living in. 9 Gladstone is the building that they have made into a dorm. There are about 30 of us that live in Gladstone. There is one big room with many bunks and then littler rooms that house other students and a few staff. I am really thankful that I am able to stay here. It feels a bit more like a home than some of the dorms. We have a kitchen and a living area. Not to mention that it is one of the dorms that has air conditioning, which has been nice since it's been so hot!! We also have Internet so we are able to email or skype anywhere in our house, which is so great! Most of the students that live here are on the Compassion DTS with me. That has been nice because we have gotten to know each other really well and have a great time together. My bunk is in one of the corners of the room. While it's not like living in a house or condo, it's nice having a little spot of my own to sit or relax. Thanks again for all your prayers and support of me. I miss all of you very much but God has been showing me how to embrace all he has for me during this time and enjoy the home he's given me for three months!! Thanks for reading!!

Intercession and Worship!

It's Saturday and the end of week 5. It was great to get back into the routine of school this week. Our topic this week was intercession and worship. I really enjoyed hearing about two things I love! Our speaker was Peter Warren who is the base director of the YWAM base in Denver, Colorado. He was a very charismatic and engaging teacher and you could tell he was is a lover of God's Word! I enjoyed him very much and felt confirmed in the fact that God made me to be an intercessor!! On Wednesday evening we were able to see a movie that the Denver base made which was a documentary of a DTS they did last year. It was a great movie that showed the way God works and moves on a DTS. It also talked a bit about a tragedy that happened at the base a month before the DTS. There was a man that came into the YWAM base and open fired, killing two people and injuring another two. That aspect of the movie made it incredibly touching. The movie hasn't been released yet but when it is, you all should see it. It's called Jesus Freaks.

Today we had a car wash to help raise some money towards our outreach to Mexico City. We had a blast hanging out at local servo's (gas stations!) and getting people to come in. At the end of the day our class had raised about $1000. I know quite a few people in our class that have no money yet for the outreach and are behind on their lecture fees. Thank you all for your support of me. I have been able to pay all my lecture fees and I am only about $500 or so short of my outreach fees. Please pray for me that God would help me find a way to make up that difference!

One other area that I would appreciate prayer is for my hands-on-compassion assignment. I will be working at the local juvenile detention facility. This past week was supposed to our first time with the girls. When we got there we were told that there had been an incident and all the kids were in lock down and probably would be there for quite a while. We stayed for a little more than an hour and prayed for the kids. We were disappointed that we weren't able to go in but really felt like we had a great time in prayer! Please pray that we will be able to go in and spend time with the girls this week on Tuesday (It would be Monday night your time!)

Thanks everyone for reading! I really love knowing that people are keeping up with what I am doing. I love and miss you all very much!!

YWAM Perth Golf Classic!!

Monday I had the chance to play in YWAM Perth's 1st ever Golf Classic. For the first time in the base's 25 years they have felt like God is calling them to buy the property for the base to run out of. Currently they rent over 50 properties. They have bought about four buildings right now and are really praying that God continues to open up other buildings for them to buy. During the celebrations they talked about how all along they really wanted to buy but God never opened things up for them. He now has been doing that. The Golf Classic was a fund raiser to help raise some of the money for these buildings. I was able to golf as part of the Compassion DTS team (see pic of my team and us playing with Perth in the background). We had four of us from my class that golfed in the best ball tournament and even had two caddies that were awesome and extremely helpful! There were about 20 teams of four that were golfing and the rest of the base came out to cheer us on and all be together. It was a very fun day. My team golfed extremely well. Overall we had one over par and came in third place. The winners had one under par...so close!! I even won a prize. On the 7th hole they had a closest to the pin award which meant my drive was closest to the hole and so I won two huge bags of coffee! Even though I really don't like coffee, it was fun to win. One of our caddies won the best dressed award. I was glad he won because they worked so hard for us and made the day a lot of fun!! Overall we raised over $20,000 towards the buildings.

After the golf game we were waiting around in the parking lot for our rides and there were these gorgeous birds that were in a tree nearby squaking at us (see pic). One of the things that has surprised me the most about Australia is how tropical it is. I never thought of Australia as being tropical but it really is. There are palm trees everywhere and I have seen all different types of unique tropical birds. The flowers are very tropical as well including ones that remind me of Hawaii! It is a beautiful place! Thanks for reading! Blessings to you all!!

Celebrate Good Times...Come on!!

This week was celebrations week here in Perth! We had a week long conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of YWAM International and the 25th anniversary of YWAM Perth! I am really thrilled that this happened to fall during the time that I am here for the DTS. It is defintely a once in a lifetime event and I am so glad I was able to be a part of such a neat time.

The week started out with three days devoted to the 50th anniversary of YWAM International. Loren and Darlene Cunningham, the founders of YWAM (see picture), came and taught most of the sessions. It was great to hear from them about where YWAM has come from and their hope and vision for YWAM in the future. Over and over again they talked about how they believe the best is yet to come. They shared the goals for YWAM so that the "flame goes forward" (the theme of the conference). One of the goals that Loren talked about was to see a Bible in every home in the world. He talked about people doing that in their cities and the fruit that they have seen from that! I loved that idea and think that is definitely a God-sized assignment!

In the middle of the celebrations was Australia Day. It's a day kind of like our forth of July. There were all kinds of celebrations through out the city. There was an airshow (no blue angels!), a parade of jet skis and carnival type attractions. There were even helicopters toting huge Australian flags (see pic). At the end of the day there were fireworks over the river in downtown Perth. It was an incredible fireworks display, probably one of the best I've ever seen (see video below)! Very fun to experience that while here in Perth.

The last half of the conference focused on YWAM Perth and the 25 years it has been going. There were a lot of stories told of what they went through in planting the base and all the growth they have seen. It was really neat to hear all that they have accomplished. Shirley Brownhill, the base director, ended the conference talking about how God is calling us to the harvest of the world by finishing the Great Commission. At the end she invited anyone up to the front to state to the whole group what they believe God is calling them to specifically. It was neat to see the diversity in people's call and how they want to do their part. Overall, it was a great week. We were spoiled with good food and a lot of people around. A lot of students left over the weekend for Mexico City to start the first wave of outreach there. We are now heading into week 5 and it will be nice to get back into the routine of school. Monday is the YWAM Perth Golf Classic. I will write more about that once we're done! Thanks everyone for reading!!