Wow, how times flies. Sometimes it seems like yesterday that I began Phase 2, and at other times it seems like I have been here for forever. I definitely can say that I have enjoyed my time here and have grown so much and have been challenged to be a better leader. I am also very excited for the next phase of this journey to begin in August.
So, our week at Eagle Rock (week 10) was great, and our speaker was Michael Berg from the YWAM Orlando base. We got to chat briefly about Orlando, and I found out he lives very close to where my brother and his family live. Plus I enjoyed talking to someone who knew what southern food was (like fried okra) for a change.
The speaker for last week was Dave Gustaveson and he is from the YWAM Los Angeles base. Dave is a very serious guy, but has a great sense of humor. Dave spoke on Spiritual Authority and really challenged me to think about how we are to submit to authority in the context of how God designed it, even when you may disagree with the person in authority. I may not be the fondest of some of the people we have in high political positions; however, I can still submit to their authority and pray for them, but also know that they still answer to the highest authority - God.
Well, as I write this I have 4 more days of classes left and then I graduate the Phase 2 leadership school at 2:30pm on Friday. This week is Director's Choice week, so the schedule is a little more laid back with the focus being on processing everything we have learned during these past 11 weeks, as well as some intentional team time. It is amazing how quickly I have gotten to know my classmates, but I guess when you live in community together 24/7 you become close very quickly. I know that many of the students and staff here will be lifetime friends.
I will be back in Georgia for 3 days after school ends before heading to Florida with mom and dad for about 3 weeks, and then back in Georgia again for about 4 weeks before heading out in August. I hope to see many of you and to be able to catch you up in person about this next phase of the journey beginning in August. I will also be sending out a newsletter within a week of returning home.
God Bless and I pray God's joy to overflow in your lives.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Week at Eagle Rock
So, today the Phase 2 school and I headed up to Eagle Rock (where I did my DTS). The leaders decided to do something a little different for the week, so here we are. At the end of the week we are also going camping for two days. It will be kinda nice for the Phase 2 to just have some bonding time together.
There are still some logistics I am working on with the leaders from China, but when I update you all with those details it will be via letter for security reasons. When I go to China there will be things that can and cannot be said, so I will be sure to let you know those things. On a side note, the leaders had their second child, a baby boy, who is healthy and was born 10 minutes after they got to the hospital.
Last week was a busy week for me, as we have a big project due on Tuesday this week. One of our projects is to plan an outreach to an international location, which includes researching plane tickets, immunizations, budget, etc. My classmate Marcelo and I have been planning an outreach to China and Thailand, and is has been a lot of fun. The purpose of this project is to know what all is required to plan an outreach, so that in the future I will know how to do it if I need to. Even though it is a lot of work, I have enjoyed working on the project.
I hope that you all are doing well. Please let me know how I can be praying for each of you.
There are still some logistics I am working on with the leaders from China, but when I update you all with those details it will be via letter for security reasons. When I go to China there will be things that can and cannot be said, so I will be sure to let you know those things. On a side note, the leaders had their second child, a baby boy, who is healthy and was born 10 minutes after they got to the hospital.
Last week was a busy week for me, as we have a big project due on Tuesday this week. One of our projects is to plan an outreach to an international location, which includes researching plane tickets, immunizations, budget, etc. My classmate Marcelo and I have been planning an outreach to China and Thailand, and is has been a lot of fun. The purpose of this project is to know what all is required to plan an outreach, so that in the future I will know how to do it if I need to. Even though it is a lot of work, I have enjoyed working on the project.
I hope that you all are doing well. Please let me know how I can be praying for each of you.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Crazy Week
Hey again! I am excited to be back on track with the weekly updates! So, this week has been a crazy one. The Boarders DTS (for those who snowboard or ski) returned on Saturday and Sunday from their outreaches to Mexico, Panama, and Thailand. The Boarders DTS started while I was in Colombia on outreach, but I had the opportunity to meet many of these DTS students when I returned from my outreach for debrief week. It has been good hearing what God did in their lives through their outreaches. They are graduating today, but it has been nice having them around this week. And tomorrow the "Around the World" team that is part of the Multi-cultural DTS currently running here leaves for their outreach that takes them to 7 countries in 80 days. With the schools this semester being so small I have really gotten to know the DTS students, so it will be sad to see them go, but joyful at the same time.
Wednesday night this week was quite interesting. We participated in a worship event from 12 - 2 am that included several YWAM bases throughout the world all engaged in worship together via a program called Genesis. Genesis is similar to Skype, which allows you to see and hear people over the internet, and we were able to have 9 bases pulled up on our big screen at all times. It was a neat experience that included some bases from Amsterdam, Egypt, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland, Mexico, and some in the United States.
So, for the long anticipated wait - I will be leaving for China the end of August, and I have made a 2 year commitment to this team. With August being only 3 months away, I realize I have a lot to get done in that time, but I am excited. My current passport expires in January 2010, but I was strongly advised to renew it now here in the States instead of waiting to do it in China where it will be more of a hassle. So, that is the next big thing to do before I can apply for my visa. If you would be praying for those two things, I would greatly appreciate it. There are still many more details to come about China, but I need to finish filling in my family on them first, which I will be doing this weekend.
I am actually leaving in a few hours to fly to Orlando for the weekend where I get to spend Memorial Day with the family, and I will be back Monday night to resume classes again on Tuesday. I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, and let's not forget to pray for our veterans and their families remembering the sacrifices they have made for us. God Bless.
Wednesday night this week was quite interesting. We participated in a worship event from 12 - 2 am that included several YWAM bases throughout the world all engaged in worship together via a program called Genesis. Genesis is similar to Skype, which allows you to see and hear people over the internet, and we were able to have 9 bases pulled up on our big screen at all times. It was a neat experience that included some bases from Amsterdam, Egypt, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland, Mexico, and some in the United States.
So, for the long anticipated wait - I will be leaving for China the end of August, and I have made a 2 year commitment to this team. With August being only 3 months away, I realize I have a lot to get done in that time, but I am excited. My current passport expires in January 2010, but I was strongly advised to renew it now here in the States instead of waiting to do it in China where it will be more of a hassle. So, that is the next big thing to do before I can apply for my visa. If you would be praying for those two things, I would greatly appreciate it. There are still many more details to come about China, but I need to finish filling in my family on them first, which I will be doing this weekend.
I am actually leaving in a few hours to fly to Orlando for the weekend where I get to spend Memorial Day with the family, and I will be back Monday night to resume classes again on Tuesday. I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, and let's not forget to pray for our veterans and their families remembering the sacrifices they have made for us. God Bless.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Weekly Teachings and Phase 2 Fun
Well, it's definitely time for an update. I apologize for the lengthy delay between updates, but I have been having problems with my laptop, and I only get about an hour's worth of use out of it everyday, which I have been using for homework. So, this will be a lenghty update to let you know what has been going on the past few weeks. I will start with a brief overview of all our weeks of teaching so far, and conclude with a bit of an update about China.
The first speaker we had was Dan Thoemke, who spoke on Spiritual Leadership from the book of Esther. The theme I took away from that week was: God has a place for you in His presence; from the perspective of Esther it was a fairytale of a peasant becoming a Queen as well as the redemption story for the Jews. The second speaker we had was Doug Toller, who spoke on Lessons in Leadership. The theme I took away from that week was: True leaders always persevere - we looked at the life of Abraham Lincoln and how he failed or was defeated several times in 29 years before he was elected President. The third speaker was Dean Sherman, whom I also had in DTS, and he spoke on Effective Personal Ministry. The theme I took away from that week was: Ministry is a choice to serve from a motivation of love and a flow of the Holy Spirit through you to meet the needs of people. The fourth and fifth speaker spoke on Wholiness (Wholeness and Holiness) and Public Speaking. The theme I took away from Wholiness week was: Focusing on becoming who I really am as being set apart for a significant purpose as a believer in Christ. And the theme I took away from Public Speaking week was: to quote JFK - "Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary." Or, to create your own style and "groove" to speaking. And this week our speaker has been Chey Foran, a YWAM Denver staff member, who taught on the Strengths Finder 2.0 book. The theme for this week was focusing on discovering your strengths and learning how to "walk in them" effectively. For those of you wondering, my top five strengths in order are: Belief, Responsibility, Developer, Includer, and Positivity (if you would like a brief description of those sometime let me know).
China........well, as long as their baby does not choose to come early, I will be having lunch with the leaders on Tuesday (May 19th) to discuss details of China. While the one of the leaders did teach in my school for two weeks, as well as the Multi-cultural DTS this past week, there just has not been an opportunity before now to sit down with them and discuss work, life, and details of China. I know some basic information based on the leaders sharing during class times, so I will fill you in on those details. It is a pretty amazing story of how God began to put the plan into motion several years before the leaders arrived in China. They especially felt called to China and knew God wanted a specific city, but didn't really have clarity as to where specifically that was. They felt God laid on their hearts for three criteria to be met to know that it was the right city for them to be in. So, a scouting trip to China was taken, and through a conversation, a city was mentioned (to protect the leaders and the work they do I will not place it on here, but it is the one I have mentioned to many of you) that fulfilled all three criteria and to which they felt was God's leading. Later that night when one of them opened their Bible they found a piece of paper with that city's name and part of the map of China from a time when they had torn apart of map of the world to pray for the people of those countries, and not knowing it would be used years later as a confirmation of their calling to China. So, that is the basic story of how this team ended up in China. I look forward to sharing more with you as the rest of the story unfolds.
Last week we went bowling as a class, and were as a small group to "dress up." My small group went for the "gangster" look, while some of the other groups dressed up to look like our guys, or wore one of our Director's shirts that had been borrowed from his wife without his knowledge (pretty funny to see his face when he saw all of his shirts). I have posted these pictures for your amusement. I have also posted a few pictures of snow that we had here a few weeks ago (snow usually still occurs here until after Memorial Day). I also had the chance to go to a Colorado Rockies game (I have been to a spring training game for the Minnesota Twins, but never a MLB game during season before) for $15 - that price included parking, ticket to the game, magazine, and a hot dog and coke. Not too bad!! I had a lot of fun and posted these pictures too!
Thank you for your patience with me this past few weeks with blog updates as well as for your continued support of me. It is my heart and desire for the blog updates to again resume weekly. I pray God's favor over each of you and that you may be blessed beyond measure for the blessing that you have been to me. God Bless.
The first speaker we had was Dan Thoemke, who spoke on Spiritual Leadership from the book of Esther. The theme I took away from that week was: God has a place for you in His presence; from the perspective of Esther it was a fairytale of a peasant becoming a Queen as well as the redemption story for the Jews. The second speaker we had was Doug Toller, who spoke on Lessons in Leadership. The theme I took away from that week was: True leaders always persevere - we looked at the life of Abraham Lincoln and how he failed or was defeated several times in 29 years before he was elected President. The third speaker was Dean Sherman, whom I also had in DTS, and he spoke on Effective Personal Ministry. The theme I took away from that week was: Ministry is a choice to serve from a motivation of love and a flow of the Holy Spirit through you to meet the needs of people. The fourth and fifth speaker spoke on Wholiness (Wholeness and Holiness) and Public Speaking. The theme I took away from Wholiness week was: Focusing on becoming who I really am as being set apart for a significant purpose as a believer in Christ. And the theme I took away from Public Speaking week was: to quote JFK - "Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary." Or, to create your own style and "groove" to speaking. And this week our speaker has been Chey Foran, a YWAM Denver staff member, who taught on the Strengths Finder 2.0 book. The theme for this week was focusing on discovering your strengths and learning how to "walk in them" effectively. For those of you wondering, my top five strengths in order are: Belief, Responsibility, Developer, Includer, and Positivity (if you would like a brief description of those sometime let me know).
China........well, as long as their baby does not choose to come early, I will be having lunch with the leaders on Tuesday (May 19th) to discuss details of China. While the one of the leaders did teach in my school for two weeks, as well as the Multi-cultural DTS this past week, there just has not been an opportunity before now to sit down with them and discuss work, life, and details of China. I know some basic information based on the leaders sharing during class times, so I will fill you in on those details. It is a pretty amazing story of how God began to put the plan into motion several years before the leaders arrived in China. They especially felt called to China and knew God wanted a specific city, but didn't really have clarity as to where specifically that was. They felt God laid on their hearts for three criteria to be met to know that it was the right city for them to be in. So, a scouting trip to China was taken, and through a conversation, a city was mentioned (to protect the leaders and the work they do I will not place it on here, but it is the one I have mentioned to many of you) that fulfilled all three criteria and to which they felt was God's leading. Later that night when one of them opened their Bible they found a piece of paper with that city's name and part of the map of China from a time when they had torn apart of map of the world to pray for the people of those countries, and not knowing it would be used years later as a confirmation of their calling to China. So, that is the basic story of how this team ended up in China. I look forward to sharing more with you as the rest of the story unfolds.
Last week we went bowling as a class, and were as a small group to "dress up." My small group went for the "gangster" look, while some of the other groups dressed up to look like our guys, or wore one of our Director's shirts that had been borrowed from his wife without his knowledge (pretty funny to see his face when he saw all of his shirts). I have posted these pictures for your amusement. I have also posted a few pictures of snow that we had here a few weeks ago (snow usually still occurs here until after Memorial Day). I also had the chance to go to a Colorado Rockies game (I have been to a spring training game for the Minnesota Twins, but never a MLB game during season before) for $15 - that price included parking, ticket to the game, magazine, and a hot dog and coke. Not too bad!! I had a lot of fun and posted these pictures too!
Thank you for your patience with me this past few weeks with blog updates as well as for your continued support of me. It is my heart and desire for the blog updates to again resume weekly. I pray God's favor over each of you and that you may be blessed beyond measure for the blessing that you have been to me. God Bless.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Work Duties and Assignments
I know many of you are interested about my work duties and assignments for this school, so I thought I would update you on that.
My work duties these three months actually consist of two jobs. My first job is child care every Monday morning. I get to work with the toddlers and we do crafts, play on the playground, etc. while the parents are in a staff meeting. My second job is kitchen crew leader every other weekend. Every other weekend my crew and I (there are four of us total) are responsible for making all meals, cleaning the kitchen after every meal, cleaning the dining area, and washing and drying all dish towels that are used. We cook for an average of 40 people each weekend, and Sunday's lunch is our biggest meal. Last weekend we had pot roast for lunch on Sunday and it required that it was in the convection oven by 6:30am - luckily for me the new convection ovens for the kitchen had just come in the day before and were installed, or I would have had to put the pot roast in the old ovens at 4:30am (we have problems with the temperature of the old ovens being off by 100 degrees from time to time). I am definitely not my mother when it comes to cooking, but I am enjoying being in the kitchen and trying new things.
Well, my assignments this semester have definitely been keeping me busy. Here is a look at the different things that we are required to do:
Book Reports - we are required to read the following books and to turn in a book report on them every other week. The books are: A Tale of Three Kings by J. Oswald Sanders, Teaching to Change Lives by Howard Hendricks, The Shack by William Young, and a book of my choice.
My work duties these three months actually consist of two jobs. My first job is child care every Monday morning. I get to work with the toddlers and we do crafts, play on the playground, etc. while the parents are in a staff meeting. My second job is kitchen crew leader every other weekend. Every other weekend my crew and I (there are four of us total) are responsible for making all meals, cleaning the kitchen after every meal, cleaning the dining area, and washing and drying all dish towels that are used. We cook for an average of 40 people each weekend, and Sunday's lunch is our biggest meal. Last weekend we had pot roast for lunch on Sunday and it required that it was in the convection oven by 6:30am - luckily for me the new convection ovens for the kitchen had just come in the day before and were installed, or I would have had to put the pot roast in the old ovens at 4:30am (we have problems with the temperature of the old ovens being off by 100 degrees from time to time). I am definitely not my mother when it comes to cooking, but I am enjoying being in the kitchen and trying new things.
Well, my assignments this semester have definitely been keeping me busy. Here is a look at the different things that we are required to do:
Book Reports - we are required to read the following books and to turn in a book report on them every other week. The books are: A Tale of Three Kings by J. Oswald Sanders, Teaching to Change Lives by Howard Hendricks, The Shack by William Young, and a book of my choice.
Spiritual Leadership book by J. Oswald Sanders - we are required to read 3-4 chapters of this book every other week and do study questions at the end of the chapters.
Cast of Characters by Max Lucado - we are required to read 2 chapters every week and to be prepared to participate in a small group discussion of the chapters on Wednesdays with the class. We are also required to facilitate the small group discussion at least twice.
Memory Verses - we are challenged to learn passages of scripture and to "store them in our heart". Every other week we are tested on the memory of the following scriptures: Matthew 20:25-28, Colossians 3:12-17, Phillipians 2:5-11, and Ephesians 4:1-6.
Projects - we are required to do 3 projects during this school. The first project is leading a corporate intercession time. For this project we are placed in groups of 3 and required to research places in the world where the gospel is not being preached. Then we present the information to the YWAM community during worship time on a Friday and then corporately spend an hour in prayer for the different needs of this country. My group is researching Dayr az-Zawr, Syria. The second project is planning an outreach. We start this project this week, and we will be partnered with a classmate and will be required to plan a outreach, just like the outreach I went on to Colombia. The third project is called Holy Discontent. This project is done individually and is to open your eyes to the things of this world that burden you and spur you on to find a way to help. For example, if someone is burdened by child sex trafficing that occurs in Asia, they would do their project on the subject and how they can get involved in changing the statistics and preventing other children from being sold into this industry.
Sometimes I look at all of the assignments and think it is a lot, but I am learning so much and am challenged everyday. I am blessed to have this opportunity and am taking every chance I can to soak up all that God has for me through this time. Thank you again for your support of me through this season.
God Bless.
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