embracing life

it is hard to believe i have only been here for a week. it has been one beautiful day after another in so many ways. My trip started off a little hazy as there were some nervous parts of my flight experiences with delays and what not, but 30 some hours later I arrived tired but excited. We spent the first few days getting to know one another and learning about YWAM and our particular base.

I'm really excited for our group as there are only 17 students and 6 staff, so we have the wonderful oppurtunity to really come alongside each other and get to know each other in a powerful way. as i told some people before leaving, i was a little afraid about the age gap with students being younger and all, but God has just showed me how much we really can learn from one another. I know we are all hand-picked for this purpose and God is just already using us to speak truth into each other's lives. Just a quick story of some cool things God has already been doing.....

this past weekend, we drove out to the "bush" (country) and had the chance to stay a t afriends house in the beautiful countryside (saw kangaroos, ate kangaroo :) and had such a great time talking and learning about hearing God's voice. And during one session we were asked to think about how God views us. And for those of you who know me well, I tend to be a perfectionist and am usually really hard on myself; and as I was praying and refelcting, God showed me this picture of a girl in a beautiful white dress and really just spoke to my heart and asked me to stop holding on to my rags-my deficiencies that I tend to dwell on, b/c He wants to give me this dress. it was so so freeing!!!! and even cooler, one of the leaders shared with me that she too saw God handing me this dress and just how HE desires to build me up to be an example and an encouragment to other girls.....

so I was really encouraged and excited about this revelation and about an hour later, God gave me such a chance to minister to some girls on my trip. We were spending some time praying for one another and I shared with the group that I felt the need to pray for someone dealing with suicide and hoplessless and it turned out 2 of the girls on my team had been thinking about it before this trip. So I was able to pray with them and share some of my own personal journey with depression and just felt so blessed and encouraged by GOd to be used in such a way. it was totally HIM that brought about the oppurtunity and He just continued to blow my mind throughout the weekend with how HE chooses to move in people's lives.


We now have entered into our first week of lectures and the normal schedule, so just continue to keep us in your prayers as people still are having trouble with homesickness etc. it has been cool to see people starting to come out of their shell, but I know more will happen....

and as for me-I ask that you just pray for my heart to be undivided for the LORD. I'm loving the chance to play sports every day, having fun living in this beautiful community with awesome people, but I don't want God's blessings to become a distraction. God is awesome and has given me so much to be thankful for here and so much just to enjoy from HIM, but I want HIM to remain the center and KING of my heart!