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.