In Colombia

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you all know that I am safely in Medellin, Colombia! We arrived in Bogota on Christmas Eve, where we stayed at the YWAM Bogota base until the 26th when we left for Medellin.

Here in Medellin this week we have been staying at a church retreat center, which is really nice. We learned really quickly here in Colombia that many people do not have hot water for showers and such, so we all have become accustomed to cold showers, which actually after a while feels kinda good when it is hot outside. The average temperatures here have been 50 degrees in the morning and night and 70 degrees during the day. I can now say that I have also learned how to hand wash my clothes and hang them over a balcony to dry. Who knew 2-in-1 Suave shampoo could make your clothes smell so good.

Our ministry this week has been to work with the kids (ages 2-10) and the youth (ages 13-18) by doing dramas, giving testimonies, and someone preaching. We leave the church retreat center on Friday and will then be working with the YWAM Medellin base for the next 12 days, and will be staying various places. We will start out staying in a college dorm, and then will move to the YWAM base, and possible some host homes.

I hope that you all are doing well. I will post again when I can get to an internet cafe. God Bless.

Week Eleven

Well, this week has definitely been an exciting one. The week started out with us going down the mountain on Monday, like we always do, but what we didn’t expect was to be spending the night down the mountain too. That afternoon around 3pm it started snowing at Eagle Rock, but didn’t reach Arvada until about 5pm. We left early that night to head back to Eagle Rock, but soon discovered when we were only about a quarter of the way up the mountain that we weren’t going to make it……my van had already fishtailed three times, and we soon discovered when we pulled over to put the chains on (before the worst part of the mountain) that one of the three vans was missing the chains. So, the decision was made that it was safer to come back down and stay in Arvada for the night. The 57 of us (staff and students) were split among the Arvada base and YWAM Denver staff houses for the night, and we just had a fun sleepover – we all just looked at this adventure as preparation for outreach.

We started out Tuesday morning with class down the mountain and made it back up the mountain by the afternoon. Our teaching for the week was on Evangelism, and I enjoyed our speaker, Richard Thompson very much. One aspect of Richard’s teaching that I found to be interesting was when he talked about the four reasons why many people do not do Evangelism. The four reasons are: Bad Experiences / Bad Examples, Apathy, Unbelief, and Fear of Man. We then talked about how to model Evangelism in the way that Jesus did it.

Tomorrow night we have our Love Feast with the entire YWAM Denver community. The students in my DTS, as well as all the secondary school students, and all staff come together at the end of the lecture portion of the school for a big celebration of what God has done the past 3 months, as well as a send off for the outreach portion of training. There is always a theme for Love Feast, so ours is Winter Wonderland (kind of funny since it is suppose to snow again tomorrow). I am looking forward to Love Feast and just “hanging out” with my fellow classmates, who are going on a different outreach than I am. I still can’t believe that the Mexico outreach team leaves a week from Sunday, and the Argentina team, and my team, Colombia, leave three days later on Christmas Eve. It seems like the first three months have flown by.

I pray that you all are doing well. Please let me know how I can be praying for you.

Thanksgiving and Outreach Prep

Hey everyone! I hope that you all had a splendid Thanksgiving holiday. I know I definitely did. I was blessed to have mom and dad come out to Colorado to visit me for the holiday. I got to spend about two and a half days with them, and we had a lot of fun. I am very thankful for my parents for the love that they have always shown me, and for their unconditional support of me in following my dreams.

Well, this week has been Outreach Prep week, and we have been learning the different dances and dramas that we will use while on our respective outreaches. Each outreach leader was given the task of choosing the dances and dramas that would be most effective and culturally sensitive for our outreach locations, and this week we have been learning them non-stop. My team will be doing nine dramas and a skit with puppets (we are not doing any dances on our outreach team). Each outreach member is a part of four dramas, and I am involved in the three dramas called: Fix You, Gone, and Redemption, and I am doing puppets. I am pretty excited about all of the dramas, and our team has worked really hard during practices. Hopefully I will be able to film some of them and post them for you to see.

It is hard to believe that there is less than three weeks left before we leave for Colombia. We will be flying out on Christmas Eve and travelling from Denver to Atlanta to Bogota, Colombia. Luckily we have a four hour layover in Atlanta, so mom and dad, as well as a few other parents that live near by, are going to come see us at the airport. It will be nice to see mom and dad again, even if only for a few hours.

Above is a picture of the Colombia outreach team. The three in the front our our outreach leaders, and the rest of us are students. (Darren, the outreach leader is front and center, and Keri and Angie behind him are our assistant outreach leaders).

Well, next week we are back to a somewhat normal week with teaching on Evangelism, so I look forward to updating you then on what I am learning.

Oh, and I have added some new pictures as well. A few weeks ago my small group and I did a photo shoot, so those pictures are posted, as well as some pictures of our recent snow.

God bless you for your faithfulness in reading my blog and for your prayers. I pray that you know how much I love and appreciate each one of you, and how thankful I am to know each of you.

Creative Presentation

Well, I finally got my creative presentation posted on here for you to see. My creative presentations had to include different methods (such as teaching, drama, song, etc.) and since I used the method of teaching for my first presentation, I was not allowed to use it again this time. So I chose to do a video as well as write a poem about my subject matter. To view the video below, just click on the arrow and it will play.

Poem:

(Callousness Side)

We walk by without a care
who are we to stop and share
Our own agendas have dictated our day,
and to make an effort would get in our way

Why should we care
when no one else seems to either
We are better off to live for ourselves
and to not be tied down to helping anyone else

No one was there for me and I turned out just fine
and they will too in due time
I will just continue with this life
and one day will be done with all this strife.

(Sensitivity Side)

We walk by and can’t help but care
for we were created and meant to share
We might have our agendas planned for the day
but we are willing to allow God to change them for His way

We feel our eyes fill with tears
because we realize we all have similar fears
We realize this life is lived better together
and have hopes that it will one day be forever

There’s someone who says it will be just fine
and that He can be yours for a lifetime
We will continue in this life to press past all the strife
and one day will have victory in this fight

Go Conference and Week 7

Well, I am back to blogging after missing last week since I was at the Go Conference, which was all about Missions. It was another full week, but a great one too. We were challenged by John Dawson (president of YWAM), Trent Shepard, Jim Stier, and Fred Market to join God in His movement “at home” and “around the world.” The organizers of the conference made the room assignments, so I was placed with three of my classmates that are not my roommates for the week, and it was fun to be with different people for a few days. And of course, we were able to take longer showers too, so that was a plus!

This week’s teaching is about Spiritual Warfare and Dean Sherman is our speaker. Dean serves in many areas within YWAM, with one of those being part-time at YWAM Denver, so we are excited to have him here this week. He definitely has a sense of humor as well, as he threw a Frisbee at me in class today (I didn’t even tell him I was a PE teacher – and no mom I was not misbehaving!). I look forward to sharing with you what we have learned this week from Dean.

I presented my second creative presentation on Tuesday, which was on Callousness vs. Sensitivity. I did a short video and a poem, which I am hoping to share with you soon. I will definitely post the poem, but I am working on being able to post the video too.

I pray that this week God may show you more and more of His love, and that you may experience a side of His character that you maybe have not experienced in awhile.

Relationships, Snow, and Hiking

I can hardly believe that it is halfway through week five already. Time flies when you are having fun! So, last week concluded our lectures on Relationships, and here are some things that I learned from our speaker, John. Relationships are necessary, and we are to be part of the sonship. John defined sonship as a paradigm shift to being a son and a servant, not one or the other. When looking at both roles we find the significance in being a servant, as well as it is a role Christ has called us to, but being a son takes much more responsibility and includes our inheritance in Christ’s Kingdom. We also spent some time talking about how we are to not let the world define how to do relationships, but rather to do life with God and He will define those for us.

This week is about Fear of the Lord and our speaker is Lorrie Gray. Lorrie and her husband are on staff with YWAM Denver, so they are excited to be up at Eagle Rock with us this week. They also have a 16 month old girl, Zoey, so I am enjoying playing with her. (For those of you that don’t know, I love kids.)

Over the weekend 15 of us decided to get up at 5am and hike Eagle Rock (the mountain peak that is across from our campus) to be at the top in time for the sunrise. Now, let me just tell you……this is not your typical mountain. There are no paths, so you basically make your own path going up the side of the mountain, and over the many boulders (Mom-aren’t you glad I told you this afterwards instead of before?). It was an awesome hike though, and the sunrise was beautiful!! I have posted some pictures for you to enjoy.

It also snowed a few inches here last week, and I only got about 3 pictures since my camera battery died and I had to recharge it, but I did post those pictures for you too.

Well, I will post again this weekend, just in case I am not able to post next week. We are going to Estes Park, Co next week for the Go Conference. The Go Conference is a YWAM affiliated missions conference that is held every year and includes students from YWAM bases around the US that are completing DTS. So next week there will be 450 YWAMers at this conference. It will be exciting, and I am looking forward to it.

I pray that this week that you may know that God is bigger than any situation or obstacle that you may encounter. I pray that you all may be blessed in some capacity this week.

Week Four and Frustrations

So, I can’t believe that it’s week four already. One of the leaders added up all the time that we spend in class during the first three months of the lecture phase and it is said to be the equivalent of going to church every Wednesday and Sunday for four and a half years. So, am I learning a lot? Yes! Am I going to have to go back and read all my notes again several times to comprehend all that I have learned? Yes! Am I loving it, despite being tired or overwhelmed at times? Yes! This week is relationship week, so I am looking forward to sharing with you at the end of this week what I learned from class with John Murphy.

So, I know you have all been waiting for this one……is there anything frustrating you? Of course living in a community with 40 students and 14 staff twenty four hours a day seven days a week on a mountain is going to have moments of frustration. What are the biggest frustrations? Well, the same things that are the biggest blessings too. One frustration has been my six roommates and I trying to find the balance of “preferring one another as more important than yourself,” and speaking up when something really bothers us so that we can fix the problem. It definitely is a test in humility, and a great learning experience. The other frustration has been with showers. We have a limited supply of water here as you have to actually buy water rights in Colorado, so Eagle Rock only has a certain amount of water a month, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. YWAM is working on the final purchase of another well to be used starting in January, but in the meantime we are limited to three minute showers. The time isn’t that bad (and I can't complain considering some people in the world don't even have water), but if we abuse the time then we may not have water at the end of the month to drink or cook with, etc. This is also another reason why we come down the mountains on Mondays to do laundry. So, while short showers and problems with roommates may be an occasional frustration, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.

Now for the fun stuff…..last night I got to go swimming at an indoor pool while watching it snow outside – it was so pretty. The Gilpin County Recreation Center is ten minutes from Eagle Rock and they have given us an amazing three month membership price of $46 (that is less than the students at the college I worked at paid a month). We go to the gym Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but we had some free time yesterday evening, so I went back again to swim. The gymnasium is really nice with all the essentials as well as the Olympic size pool. There is also a kid’s pool with a slide that is heated, so yeah, I went down the slide a couple times!

Well, I will close for now, but I pray that each of you is experiencing God in a new way each day too.

Weekend and Lessons on Character of God

Hey everyone! So, the weekend is almost over, but it has been a great one! I had the chance Friday night to go down the mountain and into the city of Golden to the mall. Half of the group that went decided to go to a movie, while the other half of us decided to just walk the mall and spend time together (as if living in community 24/7 on a mountain where you can’t escape isn’t enough – I guess I am just a relational person like my mother). And then yesterday we all went into Boulder for the day. Boulder is a very diverse town as it is where the University of Colorado is located, but is full of great things to see and do. We spent most of the time walking around and just checking out the town, enjoyed the musical street entertainment along the way, and then went to a restaurant called Hapa for sushi (on Saturdays from 2-5pm you can get a plate of sushi for $3.50). I have never had a desire for sushi, but since this year is all about trying and doing new things, I figured I would try it. I have to admit that I am not likely to order sushi again anytime soon, but if it is the last thing there is to eat, then I will eat it. I have posted some pictures from yesterday for you to enjoy.

Now to update you on what I learned this week on the Character of God. Our speaker this week was Donna MacGowan, the DTS Director’s wife, and she used to be a school teacher, so I enjoyed her teachings a lot. During our teaching one thing I learned was: “that God will never hurt you except to help you.” Just like the times that we get a splinter in our hand and our mom or dad pulled it out for us – it may have hurt when they pulled the splinter out, but it helped take the pain of the splinter away. We did several activities throughout the week as well, and one of them was to find an object that described your relationship with God and to bring it to class and share with everyone. I used two objects – the first was an onion to symbolize that God has to peel away the layers (fleshly things in my life) to get to the core, the sweetest part (where the focus is on the spiritual); and a propel packet to signify that water is plain and boring (much like my life when lived on my own), but when the propel powder is added to the water it gives it flavor and shakes it up a bit (a life lived for Jesus instead).

I hope you all are doing well. Please let me know if there is a specific need that I can be praying about for you. God bless you all. And thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

Lessons on the Father Heart of God

I wanted to update you on what I learned last week during “Father Heart of God” week with Jeff Pratt.

One thing that really caught my attention was the statement: “Some people never pass through the pain to get to the pleasure.” Jeff used the example of exercise (no wonder I liked him!) in that if we stop every time we feel the burn we would never get to the pleasure of actually getting in shape and feeling better physically. The same is true spiritually – if we never push through the pain, then we never get to the great reward that God has for us.

Another lesson from the week that really stuck with me was based on “Seasons of Captivity.” Jeff was sharing about a three month experience where God lead him out of full-time ministry and into work on a fishing boat cracking live crabs and cutting salmon ten hours a day. He was not very excited about it, and couldn’t figure out why God had him going through this experience, but he quickly learned many things in his season of captivity. One thing he shared about the experience was: “that in captivity God will show you the worth of a soul.” We may not always know why God asks us to do certain things, but if we are obedient to do them, we may see the worth of a soul in someone who God has purposely crossed our path with. You see, after three months on the ship, on the day the ship pulled into port, a guy nicknamed Rip, asked Jeff to lead him to Christ. Had Jeff tried to escape his season of captivity and left the ship early, or not lived his life for Christ, that one soul may have been lost. The second part of this lesson that also stuck with me was the question: “Why do we question if we are in the will of God when things are uncomfortable instead of if we are in the will of God when things are comfortable because God has not called us to be comfortable.” This statement is so true. It is easier to question God or to call out when things are not going my way, but when things are going great, I kind of forget that God is there. I get the mentality that I can do this on my own. Oh, how WRONG I am!! I need God at all times and need to be in the center of His will, whether it’s when things are comfortable or uncomfortable.

There obviously was so much more that I learned last week, but this blog would become a book if I included it all. So, I just wanted to share with you the things that impacted me and meant the most from class last week.

This week we are talking about the Character of God, so I will be sharing the lessons I learn from this week’s classes soon.

In closing, I pray that God may fill you with His love this week and that you will see His hand of blessing in all that you do. And I want to share with you my life’s verse for encouragement.

“The Lord will work out his plans for my life – for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me.” Psalm 138:8

Assignments

Hey again everyone! Well, week two is over, but there is still homework to complete this weekend. Yes, I said homework. The teacher has become the student once again, but I am actually enjoying it because I am learning so much. Since DTS is a school and I will earn 20 college credits through the University of the Nations (part of YWAM) once DTS is over, we are required to do assignments. The assignments are not meant to be busy work, but to challenge you in your walk of faith.

So, here are the assignments that we are required to complete during the lecture phase of DTS.

1. Book reports – we are required to read 5 five books (that are based on YWAM Beginnings, Relationships, Character, Prayer, and World Missions) and do a report for each book. Every other week a book report is due.
2. Meditations – each week we are given a different passage of scripture to meditate on and to write our personal insights / what we learned from the scripture.
3. Weekly Tests – each week we are tested on the previous week’s lectures.
4. Velvet Elvis – a book by Rob Bell that we are required to read a Chapter a week (starting week 3 of school and concluding week 12) to discuss during small group times.
5. Quiet Time Notes – we have a weekly journal that we are to fill out that is more or less to get or keep you in the discipline of having a quiet time with God.
6. Creative Presentations – we are assigned 2 presentations based on character traits and each presentation has to be a different method of delivery whether song, skit, dance, teaching, etc. (I have already done my first presentation which was FAITH vs. PRESUMPTION, and I used the teaching method, so next time I have to do something different)
7. Final Test – a major test given at the end of the lecture phase, in which we will be required to recall 2 major points from 10 of our speakers and apply each point to our lives.

It seems overwhelming at first, but it’s really not that bad. We actually have an optional study hall for 2 hours every Tuesday and Thursday night to work on assignments is we want, and plenty of time on the weekends.

Well, I pray God’s blessing upon each of you, and will update you soon on what God taught me this week in “Father Heart of God.”

Week 2 at Eagle Rock

So, I will start with a little update from last week. Each week of training is on a specific topic, so last week was on “Bonding.” We spent about 15 hours a day in getting to know one another through various activities and by sharing our testimonies. It is pretty neat to see a diverse group that God has called to Eagle Rock for this time of Discipleship Training School, and how we all began to bond very quickly. We have 26 females and 15 males and have students from Canada, Sweden, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Korea, and all over the United States. We concluded the week by taking a field trip to Estes Park, CO (about an hour away) to hang out in town and to see the elk. I had a lot of fun, and have posted those pictures for you to see.

It’s now week two of training, and we are definitely back to a more normal schedule. This week’s topic is the “Father Heart of God” and our guest speaker is Jeff Pratt. This morning Jeff used some very powerful movie clips to reiterate what the Father’s heart for us, His children, looks like…….I don’t think there was a dry eye in the classroom after each video. We also started our weekly chores this week, and I am responsible for answering phones and doing some office work – I think I am the only one with secretarial experience, but I am not complaining. I will also have some weekend kitchen duties from time to time, as well as helping with some housekeeping chores.

Since DTS is a school, we do have homework and projects to do, but I will share all that information with you in my next blog update on Thursday or Friday, so you will have something to look forward to.

Also, I know many of you have asked, so here is my mailing address until December 18, 2008.

My Name
YWAM Eagle Rock – Fall DTS
3840 Golden Gate Canyon Rd.
Black Hawk, CO 80422

Check out the Pictures of YWAM Eagle Rock

Hey again everyone! I have posted pictures of where I am living for the next three months on my picasa web account. You can either access it by clicking on the picture of the sun to your right or by going to the following web page: http://picasaweb.google.com/abarnette22. You can then open the folder titled YWAM Eagle Rock, and then EITHER double click on the first picture to open it and then you can click on the arrow at the top of the picture to scroll through them all, OR you can click on slideshow and it will play for you (if you do slideshow, when it gets to the end it will restart, so just hit ESC to quit).

Finally Here at YWAM Eagle Rock

Hey everyone! So, I apologize in the almost 2 month hiatus from blogging. August and September became a little busier than I anticipated, but I was very blessed to meet with many of you during those months and to be able to hear what is going on in your lives.

A short update........I sold my car to a family friend in September, so that was a huge praise and one less thing to worry about before leaving for Denver. Also, for those of you that I did not get to see or talk to this summer, I know my outreach options for the second part of training. We have been given three choices: Mexico; Bogota, Colombia; and Ushuaia, Argentina. We were told to pray about it and to go where God is leading, and if He was not specific then to just choose. After praying about it, God is leading me to the Bogota, Colombia outreach.

Ok, now on to what you really want to read about. I made it to Denver early this afternoon, and was taken to the main campus in Arvada to check in and to meet my fellow students. After lunch and some paperwork we were then loaded into vans and taken up to Eagle Rock (the mountain campus) where I will be living the next three months. The girls are being housed in The Lodge which has 6 dorm rooms (4 student rooms and 2 staff rooms), an auditorium for worship, a men and women's bathroom, and a lounge area. Each student room has 7 girls per room, with 6 bunk beds in each room, so for the most part we each get our own bunk bed. I definitely will learn a lot about community! Our bathrooms are complete with 5 showers, 5 toilets and 6 sinks and are really nice. Each of us also get our own cubby in the bathroom to hold our toiletries. From 10pm to 7:45am we are allowed to utilize the men's bathroom as a second bathroom, which gives us amble space for 28 girls. The other three buildings on campus are the Big House, the Gym, and the Dining Hall. The guys are staying in the Big House which is across from our building and has the game room in the basement of it. Pictures will be posted soon.

Speaking of pictures, I have added a link on the right side of this page that says pictures and includes a picture of a sun. If you click on the picture of the sun it will take you to my pictures that you can look at. The pictures are in a public folder, so you do not need to log in to see them. Just realize though that when you click on it, it will redirect to a picasa web page, and away from the blog page. So, if you wanted to come back to the blog, you will have to pull the page up again. I am working on trying to get the pictures on the blog where you do not have to navigate away from it.

Ok, I will close for the first day, but I pray that you all have a blessed week, and know that I am praying for you.

Poison Spreads

So, a few weeks ago I was helping out at a backyard Bible club when I was stung by a yellow jacket on my left ankle. There were yellow jackets everywhere at this apartment complex and I had somehow escaped getting stung the two days before, but on the third night, I wasn’t so lucky. To top it all off, I am allergic to yellow jackets, and of course was not carrying my epi-pen with me. That night I only had a small allergic reaction and the swelling was only the size of a quarter. But, as things go, the next day my leg and ankle had swollen to the size of a dollar and a red streak was running down my leg toward my veins, indicative of a medical condition called cellulitis. Cellulitis is when toxins seep into your veins (which run to your heart) and then spread to the rest of your body through your blood stream, and can be fatal. So, I got on the phone and called my Doctor and got a prescription medication right away. I’m happy to report that after a week, all the swelling and redness disappeared.

I wanted to tell you the above story, so that you would have a better understanding of the life lesson that God taught me through this experience. You see, there are things in our lives that can be like the yellow jacket poison. If we get stung by it, and don’t get medicine to treat it quickly, then it will continue to spread until it gets into our bloodstream, and eventually kills us. Maybe greed, pride, jealousy, bitterness, etcetera creeps in and when we recognize it we think that we can handle it, yet we all know that we can’t, so it begins to spread. The only way to keep it from spreading is to call upon the true Healer, Jesus, who takes those sins upon Himself on our behalf. He reminds us that we might have scars from the sting, but that we have once again been spared from something far worse. Our hearts may be small in size, but it is the most powerful and vital organ in the body. So, what are you allowing to flow to it? Poison or God’s love?

Goodbye Gainesville State College

On July 1, 2008 I said goodbye to my friends and co-workers at Gainesville State College where I have worked for the last 5 years. Very few people in life are fortunate to find a job they love and people they love working with. Well, I was blessed to have found both at Gainesville State College. I am grateful to those who came alongside me in those 5 years and helped to mentor me, encourage me, cry with me, and basically just walk through life with me. And while these words will never truly express all I want to say, to all of you at GSC I say thank you.

F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)

Why are you going with YWAM instead of some of the other organizations out there?

Simply put, God was very specific as to who I was to go with (see 2nd blog entry in May). It would be much easier to go with an organization that helps pay a salary or a stipend, but God has been teaching me obedience and to have faith in Him, and that He will provide for all my needs wherever He calls me, so I am going to trust Him for that. Isn't that what faith is all about - trusting Him without knowing what the outcome will be?

Why did you resign from your job 2 ½ months before you will leave for Denver?

Since I work for a college, teaching schedules as well as classes taught are made several months in advance. So, in September 2007 I had to make the decision as to which months I was going to teach in the summer (’08), and since I usually took July off to spend with family before starting work again in August, I stuck with the same schedule (God hadn’t revealed His plan to me yet). Once I knew God’s plan for the future, I knew that I would have budgeted enough money to still take time off in July to spend with family and to get some business affairs in order, and that I could then find some part-time jobs or do babysitting, etc. from August – September, since I wouldn’t be teaching when classes started in August.

What do you plan on doing with your things?

I am only allowed to take 2 medium sized suitcases and a carry on with me to Denver, so for now I plan on leaving the rest of my things at my parents’ house in GA. Once I know where I will be going after Denver, then I will figure all of that out.

Where will you be going after Denver?

As of right now, I do not know where I will be going after Denver, but God has told me that I will start in Europe or Asia, and that eventually one day I will be in Africa (my heart’s passion). YWAM does not send you to a certain base after completing DTS, but rather you have the option of where you want to go based on job availability or where God is leading you to go.

What kind of job will you be doing with YWAM?

YWAM has the need for people with every kind of training imaginable – from IT specialists, to accountants, to nurses, to teachers, to coaches, etc. Each person uses their gifts and talents to not only minister to the people, but to also help run the YWAM bases. Some people are called to the “front lines” of ministry and others are called to “assist those on the front lines.” Each job is equally important. God may change His plan, but for now I know that I plan on using the gifts and talents that God has given me to help teach and put together recreation / physical education programs wherever He takes me.


If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and I will do an additional blog of F.A.Q.

Support Letter

Dearest Family and Friends,

God is infinite in His wisdom and plans for our lives, so it is my honor to share with you the work that God has begun in me, and will continue, until its completion. For several years now I have had two passions in my life – teaching and doing mission work. While I was able to combine those two passions while working at Gainesville State College, I still felt a deeper desire to do them long-term, on an international level, and in some of the most desolate areas. In July of 2007, while taking part in a short-term mission trip to Kenya, God confirmed my calling to be a missionary.

After returning from Kenya, God immediately began to put things into motion that I still would not comprehend until months later. One of those things was the specific organization that He desired for my training and mission work – Youth With A Mission, also known as YWAM. YWAM has 200 mission bases around the world.

The first part of my journey will take me to Denver, Colorado on September 29, 2008 to take a Discipleship Training School (DTS) program. The first three months will be dedicated to classroom work, as well as plugging into mission opportunities with the YWAM staff in the Denver area. The last two months will consist of a seven week international mission trip (location unknown until the DTS begins), followed by a week of debriefing, with completion of DTS on February 13, 2009.

Once my training is complete I am then eligible to apply to be staff at any of the YWAM bases. Certain locations may require more training such as cultural training pertinent to a specific area, etc. At this point in my life I feel God is calling me to make a 3-5 year commitment to missions. I know He is calling me to go abroad after completion of DTS in Denver, but I do not know yet where He is leading. I trust that in His time, He will put all the pieces of the puzzle together and lead me once again to where He desires me to use the gifts and talents that He has given me.

In preparation for this next phase of my life, I have resigned my position at Gainesville State College, effective July 1, 2008…the end of the second summer session. I plan to take some time off to have a little vacation, spend some time with my family and get my business affairs in order. Since I will no longer need my car, I have it for sale. I can use my parents’ old car they have at our Georgia house if my car sells before I have completed my time at the college. Once I sell my car, I will use the proceeds left after I pay off my car loan towards my expenses for DTS in Denver. I also plan to do temporary jobs in August and September to make some money to fund this endeavor.

I am personally responsible for all the expenses involved with DTS and my future mission trips. In order to go and fulfill all that God has planned for me, I need to develop a prayer and financial support team. This team would be made up of churches and/or people willing to either pray regularly for my ministry, provide financially for my ministry, or a combination of the two. My church, Lakewood Baptist Church, in Gainesville, Georgia, has already pledged to provide some support, for which I am very grateful. The total cost for my training in Denver will be $6,000. The cost includes lodging, meals, and training in Denver, international airfare for the 7 week mission trip, visas, and lodging and food at the YWAM base where I do my mission trip. All my personal needs, including laundry, etc. will be my personal responsibility, as this is not included in my costs. Presently I am trying to secure short-term support for the first part of my journey, the DTS training in Denver. Because this is basically considered schooling, any financial contributions made will not be tax-deductible and will have to be made to me personally. Once I become staff with YWAM, as with many mission organizations, I will not be paid a salary, but will have to depend on continued support to fund my ministry. One of the things I liked about YWAM is that they do allow their staff to work part-time, if they can find employment, to help raise their funds. As a YWAM staffer and when I am on the mission field, any contributions made at that time can be made through YWAM, for my benefit, and can be used as a tax-deduction. If any of you feel that you can pledge any form of long-term support, I will provide you at a later time with more information about that.

I am asking you to consider whether or not you can be a part of my team. My most urgent need is support for DTS, but I hope that some of you will feel you can also support me for the long-term. I need to have my team complete as soon as possible, hopefully no later than September 15, 2008. I have enclosed a Response Form and an envelope for your response.

If you would like to be part of my support team, please mark whichever area/areas are appropriate for you on the response form. If you decide to support me financially, please make your check payable to me, attach your completed response form, and either bring to me or my father, Andrew (Andy) Barnette, or mail it in the enclosed, addressed envelope I’ve provided.

I am very excited about this opportunity, and for getting to be a part of what God is going to do through me, and in the lives of all those that I will meet. I appreciate your love and friendship. Thanks for considering joining my team.

For those of you who are my friends in my home state of Florida, I will be home the second weekend in August, and I hope that I will get to see at least some of you while I am there.

Yours in Christ,
Andrea Barnette

If any of you do not have access to a computer, and prefer to receive periodic written updates from me, there is a place on your Response Form where you can request that.

Also, if you would like more information about YWAM Denver, feel free to visit their website at:
http://www.ywamdenver.com/

God said YWAM

So, I wanted to share my story of how I ended up with deciding to partner with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Denver for doing my mission work.

Well, it all began in August of 2007 when my parents and I arrived in Kona, Hawaii for a vacation. I had only been back from Kenya for a week, during which time I helped take care of my 2 nephews, and the morning after my nephews went home my parents and I flew to Hawaii. I was pretty exhausted and my body was still trying to adjust to all the different time zones, but one thing I remember very distinctively when we arrived in Kona was a group of college aged kids that were getting their luggage and piling into a van with the sign "University of the Nations" on the side of it. Being an educator I remember thinking that must be an interesting school, but didn't give it anymore thought. Two days later my parents and I went to the store, and sitting in the parking lot was a University of the Nations van. Again I became curious, so that night I logged on to the internet and googled the school. What I discovered was a college that offered Bachelor's and Master's degrees with a Christian emphasis, but that required all students to complete a Discipleship Training School (DTS) before any other classes could be taken. The DTS could either be completed at a University of the Nations Center (several locations around the world, but the main campus is in Kona) or at a YWAM base. I remember linking to several YWAM bases from the school's website and learning that Loren Cunningham, who founded YWAM, also started the University of the Nations schools. Again, I thought all of this was cool, but kinda put it in the back of my mind.

Fast forward about a month, and on the night of September 21, 2007 as I was praying I heard God say to me: "Colorado Training Center." It obviously didn't make sense to me at the time, but I prayed about it and wrote it down in my journal, as I was sure that God would give me more in His timing if I was suppose to do something about it. Well, four days later on the 25th God then said: "YWAM." I had a little harder time believing this was God speaking to me, instead of thinking it was my own thoughts because I had been reading blogs of some fellow believers that were travelling the world, and in some countries they had been staying at YWAM bases. So, God said: "If you need confirmation, then you will find the name Tabitha on a YWAM Australia page." I kinda laughed, but somewhere deep down also knew that I should trust God on this. So, doing what anybody would do when God tells you where to find something, I googled YWAM Australia. I searched, and searched the pages for the name Tabitha, but with no success (I am sure God was laughing at this point too). So, at this point I am thinking that either God doesn't believe in Google or it's not time for me to find the right website. =) Well, the next day, the 26th, on my way home from work, I heard God speak to me again, and this time He said: "Denver, Colorado - this is where the training center is located in Colorado that I want you to go." So, of course when I got home, I checked to see if there was a YWAM base in Denver, and what do you know, there was! I still wanted the confirmation about YWAM and was still curious about the Australia page, so on the night of the 28th I typed in the google box: YWAM, Tabitha, and the first result that came up was: YWAM Newcastle. I clicked on the first result and was shocked and excited to see that Newcastle is in Australia and the name in the middle of the page was student Tabitha McLauren's name. I just sat in awe of God for the next few minutes at how awesome He was.

From there, God laid out the plan for me to do the September DTS, since I had a contract with work that would extend through the summer, and September was the next available option for me. So when I applied and was accepted, it was just yet another confirmation that this is where I was meant to be in the next phase of my life's journey.

Confirmation to do Missions Full Time

I love how God uses many different ways to speak to us about His plan for the path that we are meant to be on at a particular moment, and how when He speaks it, it resonates deep in your heart and brings so much peace. Well, that's exactly what happened for me on Friday, July 20, 2007 while in the bush of Ewasu, Kenya.

I was on a short-term mission trip with Adventures in Missions and we had just arrived that afternoon in Ewasu after leaving the slum of Kibera where we had been teaching in a school the first part of the week. Immediately upon our arrival in Ewasu we were greeted by the children and a game of soccer quickly ensued.....we of course lost and it was memorable for me because I ripped my skirt, exposing my behind to everyone! After a few games of soccer the kids headed home before the sun set and the animals would start roaming for the night. For the next hour the team decided to use the time we had for personal reflection / quiet time. Before I left on this trip to Kenya, my friends had compiled a set of cards for me to read everyday that I was gone, so on this day I started my time off by reading one of those cards. As I read the card I began to cry, and I knew that the reason I was crying was because God was speaking to me in a very personal way.

Inside the card was the following scripture:

Thus says God the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the Earth and its offspring,
who gives breath to the people on it and Spirit to those who walk in it,
"I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you,
and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people,
as a light to the nations,
to open blind eyes, to bring prisoners out from the dungeon
and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
I am the Lord, that is my name;
I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to a graven image.
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
now I declare new things;
before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."
Isaiah 42:5-9

I read these verses several times, and prayed, and God just said: " You do have a calling and it will be to take my truth to those I send you to." And at that moment, it wasn't said, but I knew that my calling would include some of the most desolate areas in the world. God confirmed my calling that day to be a missionary full-time and revealed that for a little while that it will be completed on an international level.