Chiang Mai week two

Sunday I went to a Thai church with 5 other people. It was entertaining because everything was in Thai. They had 2 rows in the back with headphones at each chair. They had a translator there speaking into a microphone so we could understand what was going on. In the Thai culture you take off your shoes when you enter temples so the tradition continued into the church. I have to mention that I enjoyed not wearing shoes in the sanctuary. We should bring that back to America. After church we went to eat and then headed out to an orphanage in the middle of nowhere. It was BEAUTIFUL. I enjoyed that ride so much...even if I was in the bed of a truck smooshed with three other people (Will, Jen, and Emma). We got there..played games, sang songs, made bracelets, and just chilled with the children. Roomer has it that a couple of the kids just became Christians. Praise God! They put on the Christmas story play for us. The oldest ones were 13, but the average age of the children was about 10 years old. They were so stinking cute. The girls also made up a dance for us. It was so special. When we arrived back to Wongen (the place we're staying) we got out of Larry's truck and boom there was a baby elephant on the street right next to us. Two guys were walking around with the elephant trained and following them. We fed the elephant...so stinking random!!! It was sooo funny. I hadn't even noticed the elephant and Carrie was like Sarah there's an elephant behind you. hahah only in Thailand...

Monday we taught English at an elementary school. I taught occupations with Will, Saul, and Max to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. We played red light/green light after, duck duck goose, sharks and minnows. Sometimes the language barrier is a challenge...not for teaching English sake...it's because sometimes I really want to express how much I loved hanging out with them...but I can't. I know they see it in the way we come there and act around them, but at times I wish I could use words to tell them that. There was this adorable 10 year old boy who was fascinated by my blue eyes. I took like 10 pictures of him. Some of our team did a skit for them and we also sang some carols for them! I was completely exhausted when we got back...we all were. I took a 2 hour nap!!! We had our usual class Monday night.

Tuesday we went to a different elementary school and practically did the same thing. We were in the classrooms longer and this time I was in 2nd grade (the best grade ever) with Will. We taught clothing and animals. They were soooo stinking cute. When we entered they stood up and said "good morning teachers" in unison. SOOOO cute. We played games with them as well. I was exhausted Tuesday night when I crawled into bed. I was almost asleep and then God totally woke me up. He was speaking to me hardcore and it was so unreal. It was obviously God to me because 1.) I never have a problem sleeping 2.) He was speaking something to me that I had thrown away the 2nd week of DTS and never thought it would come back up again and 3.) He is a faithful God and during my prayers in the morning I was pleading with Him asking for guidance about direction for the next season of my life and then 14 hours later He talks to me about it. Just keep me in your prayers because God is speaking definitely...it's just that I'm having a hard time figuring out the order of things in my life.

Wednesday we had the chance to sleep in until 9. I got up, showered, and then had an amazing quiet time. I believe God's speaking big time to me so I'm pressing in hardcore. I was talking to Synnove about everything that's going on and then she received an email from a staff person back at the LA base. In this email she was talking about how she felt that God was calling her to something...the same thing as me. Wow wow wow this was sooo encouraging. Literally at that same moment she was typing this email to Synnove I was talking to Synnove about the exact same thing. God does cool things like that to encourage me. I'm not saying I know exactly everything that's going on, but I have an idea. We went on a prayer walk around Chiang Mai University. We prayed against the evil spirits that have these people blinded. The University is covered in idols on Buddha and 'spirit houses.' Their religion here is a mixture between Buddhism and Animism. Crazy stuff...God is bigger and it's awesome that we carry that authority in us with the Holy Spirit. I literally could feel the pressure of these spirits when we were standing right next to one of the spirit houses. My eyes hurt and I felt sick...Synnove's eyes were hurting as well. So crazy! We had class and then after class Ton and Mama went out to eat with Max, Carrie, Tony, Will, Megan, Laura, and myself. Such a great time with them. Ton is in the class that Carrie and I teach. He's so fun to be around!!!

Tonight we are going out to dinner and to see Narnia as a team...plus Ton and Mama are coming with us as well. =) Keep them in your prayers. Today we are preparing for this next week. We are leaving tomorrow morning for 2 different villages. We'll be gone for a total of 6 days. We'll be teaching English and doing a lot of random things. I believe we'll also have the chance to ride elephants and ride bamboo rafts.  Wahooo...what a Christmas experience. Kind of excited to get away over Christmas. I think it would be harder staying here not very busy. I would think about being home too much. This Christmas will be a different one...but a rewarding one at the same time. It'll be amazing having the chance to serve Jesus on His birthday. Please keep us in your prayers!!!!

Sawadee kaa!

The title of this blog is what we say every time we greet someone. Creative...I know. So this blog is going to be absolutely crazy because I have to cram so much in in such a short time.

We arrived to Bangkok late Thursday night/Friday morning. Slept some. Then ventured around Bangkok for a little bit. Saturday we went to three Buddhist temples. On our adventure we took a sky train, a boat,  a 'tuk tuk', and a taxi. We saw a gigantic statue of the reclining Buddha. I hung around with my roomie, Mirjam, as much as possible. This girl has been an amazing blessing in my life during DTS. She has taught me a lot without even knowing it.  Our Thailand A team left for Chiang Mai at 600 pm on Saturday.  The other Thailand team came to say goodbye to us at the train station. Mirjam bought me a mocha frappe from Dunkin Donuts and then 20 short minutes later they left us. It was super depressing leaving people...again. Saying goodbye to her and Raphael was hard. I was a little heavy for a while. I'm still missing them like crazy. We took a train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. It ended up being a 17 hour ride on the train. It was super sweet because it was a sleeper train. They came around at 800 and set the beds up. At that point I was exhausted and ready for bed. I woke up at 545 the next morning, had a quiet time in my little bunk, and waited for them to take our bunks down.  We were picked up by Ya (Thai man who works for the Centre and translates a lot for us) and Cory who is originally from Michigan but works for The Centre as well.

We arrived to Wongen Kafe, which is where we are staying during our time in Chiang Mai, a little while after we left the train station. Emmie runs the cafe and is a DTS graduate as well. She is a local Thai. The coffee shop is awesome. It's on the first and second floor. We live on the 3rd floor and our bathroom is on the 4th floor. Megan, Emma, Maxine, and I are in one room. Synnove, Jenifer, Carrie, Jacqui, and Laura are in the other room. Then the boys are all together, of course.

Sunday evening we went to walking street. It was a fun time! We ate some delicious food, shopped (bargained...wahoo), and checked out the environment. During dinner the national anthem came on and we had to stand up during it. They play it every day at 8 am and 6 pm in public places. You have to stand up or else they'll draw attention to you by blowing a whistle at you until you stand up (happened to a French lady near us there). Walking street is sooooo long. We didn't realize how long it was until it was too late. :) We were suppose to be meet everyone at a certain time at the end of the street. We left with 10 minutes to get there and we ended up arriving 13 minutes late. Woops...but it'll happen. The street is filled with so many different things to buy....Maggie Lee I have seen a bajillion elephant items. I wish I had endless money to spend and endless space to take these objects home in because I would bring you soooo much elephant crap home!!!! You must visit Thailand seeeska.

Monday we had orientation for "The Centre", a mini lesson on teaching English as a second language, and a brief overview about living at Wongen. We split up into our teaching teams for the classes. There are 5 classes we're teaching and 10 of us so it worked out perfectly. Carrie (my cousin) and I ended up getting put together. We actually started teaching right away (Monday night). Our class starts at 500 and ends at 600. We are teaching the highest level The Centre currently has. They are a high elementary to intermediate level. This basically means they know their vocabulary, but are in need of practicing conversationally. We do a lot of tense practices and conversational speaking/asking of questions. We LOVE our class. We have 4 students. Ton is a 21 year old student at Chiang Mai university. Ong is a 24 year old graduate of Chiang Mai, but currently works in the agriculture department researching. Hai is 35, from Vietnam, and is in his masters at Chiang Mai. Kee is 30 and is in her PhD at Chiang Mai. There is so much joy in our class. Friday night we had the chance to tell them about Jesus in our class. So cool.

Tuesday we went to a huge temple in Chiang Mai. It overlooks the city and has a beautiful view. We prayed when we were up there. I was feeling ill before we even left. After the temple I came back here and took a 2.5 hour nap. My stomach has been getting these random pain. Pretty sure it's indigestion problems from the different food. We taught class again and beforehand I didn't really feel up to it, but Will and I prayed before class together for an overwhelming amount of joy and God showed up. It was an amazing time. I laughed like crazy!! After class I was back in a rut. I had a really bad day spiritually. I felt overwhelmed, heavy, and rejected by the Lord...which is absolutely ridiculous but that's how I was feeling.

Wednesday I woke up and God renewed my strength. He met me in my quiet time big time. It was amazing. We had Thai language lessons from Ya Wednesday morning. It was a lot of fun. I stink at it. It's so hard because it's a tonal language. So you could be saying the right word but could be saying something completely different than what you're trying to say because of your tone. Some of us went to Mae Jo university to help pass out fliers for the English classes that are going to be started at a local church by The Centre. I had a really hard time trying to speak the one line they taught us in Thai, but Will carried us. God gave us our team such an amazing group of guys. I'm so thankful for their love for our Lord and team. They're so encouraging. After the passing out of fliers we went to a Thai Bible study. I was so encouraged it was unreal. I thought I would get to encourage them in their walk, but if anything they encouraged me. Their love for our Lord was so evident. They are so in love with Jesus and you could see that on their faces during worship. We had 2 Thai people there that could speak some English so they translated some of it for us and then translated our testimonies for them because one of the students asked us to give our testimonies. This was probably one of my favorite moments of outreach so far.

Thursday we went to Techno university and participated in the international festival. We sang Christmas songs in front of a ton of poeple. Soooo funnn!!! We got to have family time with the team and just chill out for the afternoon. Had class Thursday night

Friday we planned and got ready for the Christmas party then taught class and then had the Christmas party. It was a blast. White elephant, Jenifer shared about Christmas, and then Opal shared, in Thai, about the Christmas story. So a ton of students heard about Jesus!!!! So awesome.

Today we had the day off. Slept in. Went to the internet cafe. Went to a market! So funn...have to go!

PS. Synnove is break dancing in my room right now. Keep us in your prayers! love you all soo sooo much!!!!

We are going to a village on Thrusday or Friday for 5 days!!!! ahhhh so fun.

Sunland skate park

Today was our last day at the skate park in Sunland. We have been going basically every Friday since September from 230 – 630ish. We just hang out with the people in and around the skate park.  I thought I knew how much I loved these people, but didn’t understand how much I really do love these people until we left today.

There are a few people who I connected with instantly and words can’t explain how much I’m going to miss them. On the drive back to base I began worrying about when I was going to see them again, how often I would be able to talk to them, if they would realize how much Jesus loves them without me being there, and so on. Instantly I sensed God asking me, “Sarah, do you not trust me?” 

Instantly, I was reminded of how much more God loves them than I do. I was reminded that the only reason I was able to show up to that skate park and show them a minimal amount of love I have is because God loves us first. He loved me first and because of that I am able to love the people at Sunland park.

My prayer is specifically for the individuals that I came in close contact with. My prayer is that God, you will touch them in a radical way. Lord, show them your fullness, your power, your love. God show them that Jesus came down to this earth for our sins and that there is no guilt in what they have done because you’ve taken it away through your Son. Lord, show them that you are walking with them daily by the means of your Holy Spirit. I pray that Your Holy Spirit overwhelms them so much that they’ll feel you walking so closely with them. Lord, love on them and send other people to love on them just like we had the chance to do so. Thank you so much for letting me meet them. Thank you for who they are and who you created them to be. Lord, I pray that they would know that you have created them for a specific purpose. I pray that they would understand how much You love them and desire to have a relationship with them. Lord, thank you thank you thank you thank you for RYAN, Donovan, Tyler, Caleb, Jade, Lanee, and Hadley.

outreach information/prayer concerns

Hi folks

We're going to Thailand!

On Wednesday, December 8th, 12 people from 4 different nations will be traveling on 2 airplanes approximately 22 hours to the beautiful nation of Thailand. We wanted to take this opportunity to share with you what it is we will be doing!

We will be flying into Bangkok, where we will spend two days having cultural orientation, including a half day prayer walk around the city where we will be visiting various Buddhist temples in order to gain a better perspective of the religious climate in Thailand. From Bangkok we will be traveling up north on an 11 hour overnight bus ride to Chiang Mai, the 2nd largest city in Thailand, where we plan on spending 4 weeks working with a University student ministry called "The Center". Below is a basic description of this ministry...

CHIANG MAI: The Center...
"The Centre is a happening hangout for university students in the north of Thailand. You can help the students learn conversational English and then make relationships with them through which you can share Jesus Christ. The main reason they come to The Centre is for English classes but you don't need to be a teacher to help with those.  It's conversation based so it's just hanging out with them and helping their English. Through that you can invite them to the outreach activities The Centre runs in the evenings. Your team will also have the opportunity to do dramas, dances, share your testimonies, preach a short message, play games etc. The Centre has a desire to see this nation impacted through the next generation!"
This is a highly relationship based ministry so please be praying for favor in all our relationship! PRAY that we would love boldy and would share our lives with transparency. There are many other opportunities for ministry in Chiang Mai that we may be involved in, including an orphanage for children who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.

From Chiang Mai we will be traveling a few hours east to a small town called Chaiprakarn where we will be working with a children's home called Sila Home

CHAIPRAKARN: Sila Home...
Sila Home was started by a local Thai pastor a few years ago and serves as both an orphanage and a children's dormitory for 40 children ranging from 5 to 20 years of age. Many of the children have been rescued out of potentially harmful home situations. Some were at risk of being sold into prostitution by their families, some are too poor to afford proper education, some were homeless when they were found or came from homes where they were simply not being cared for. Those working at Sila Home are committed to raising these kids by providing the opportunity for a proper education, feeding, housing and raising htem up to be leaders in their communities.
Some of the ways our team will be able to serve this ministry are... Loving the kids! Our first goal is to simply be an extension of God's love to them. We get to play games with them, give them attention that they wouldn't normally receive(There are 4 longterm committed staff for all 40 kids), teach them english and just plain love them. We will also be able to serve them practically by helping with the regular upkeep of the property and any other special projects they would like help with. Last time we helped move and rebuild a concrete/barbed wire fence and worked on their mushroom farm which helps to provide income to feed the kids. The children are amazing and I consider it an honor that we are able to go serve and love them.
PRAY that we would love these kids unconditionally and that God would show us how to care for them while we are there. And also that we would have a mind to work as we serve them practically as well.

DATES
December 8th, 2010 - February 7th, 2011

PRAYER REQUESTS
-Health for the team
-Provision for all the finances we need to make this outreach happen
-That God would increase our LOVE for one another and for every person we will meet
-Unity --- pray that God would give us an abundance of grace with one another and that He would put it in us to think the best of one another at all times
Pray that we would "do only as we see the Father do", as we will be surrounded by plenty of opportunities.

MEET OUR TEAM! Click on the link below to meet the team and see how you can come along side us...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49yKa0Y27DE

thanksgiving break

a ton of people are peaceing out for thanksgiving break. it'll be awesome to rest, read, and just hang out, but i'm going to miss them while they're gone. i'm looking forward to outreach (thailand), but man it's going to be hard leaving these people. kind of in a funky mood. a lot of stuff is racing through my mind.

video of the DTS tracks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhHfMi0fiY&feature=player_embedded


watch this video. i'm part of the skate track. :) cousin carrie is part of the create track. God does so much through these tracks it's unreal. He doesn't have to use these tracks or us, but He chooses to do so. This past Friday was absolutely unreal. There is no way other to describe it. I was completely emptied before I went to skate track. Friday morning God was wrecking my controlling self for the better. Long story short, I literally tried to hide from God because I was so overwhelmed with everything that He has been doing. I literally ran back to my bed and hid under the covers. Two minutes after laying there God spoke to me just as He spoke to Adam in Genesis, "Sarah, where are you?" It wasn't that God didn't know where I was. He was saying Sarah climb out of bed. Why are you hiding? After I kind of pulled myself together I went to talk to my small group leader, Nova. After I finished talking to her I had about 5 minutes until I had to meet for skate track at 1:45. I was so emptied, emotional, tired, and so on. But, I told Nova that I really didn't want to go, but was going to be obedient because God will bless it. Who would have known how much He was going to bless me!!!!

We arrived at the skate park and soon as I stepped foot on that park my attitude and strength was renewed. I began talking to one of the guys, Jeremy, who is a Christian and part of the local youth group. In the middle of our conversation I looked down the fence and this guy, Ryan, was down there so my crazy self gave him an obnoxious smile and wave. He doesn't usually talk a lot or make much eye contact, but Ryan gave me a grin and a head nod. PS. that means something. Anyway, I went to talk to him and basically God gave me the opportunity to hang out with him for the entire evening. It was an amazing time. I really enjoyed chilling with him. He's been through a bunch of crap this last year and it breaks my heart so lift him up in your prayers. While I was hanging out with Ryan, Jimmy led this kid, named Jude, to Jesus. Then an hour later this guy named Sean started repenting sins he'd never told anyone before to our DTS school leader and track leader, Shaun. Shaun led Sean to Jesus and it was AMAAAAZZZING. Sean literally looked like he was high off the Holy Spirit..and he was! You think that's enough??!!?! Well I thought that was completely outrageous, but the Holy Spirit continued to move. Donovan came out of the skate park, saw Sean, and asked him what was wrong with him because he looked high. Sean said, "I just got saved." I wish you could have seen his face. This kid and all of us were speechless. The Holy Spirit was blowing us away. Donovan looked at Sean once again and then said Shaun, "I want what Sean has." So THENNNN, Shaun led Donovan to the Lord. During the prayer Shaun had his left hand on Donovan's right shoulder. After they prayed Donovan asked Shaun if Jesus was touching his shoulder too. Donovan said that while Shaun was holding his right shoulder he felt Jesus holding his left shoulder. WOW WOW WOW. Not only did God show up in these examples, he showed up in other ways too. It just reminds me over and over again that God's power is made perfect in our weakness and that when we are weak he is strong. He has been teaching me that this week. Truly amazing. This is just the skate track. The other tracks are create, media, and justice.

God bless us with your strength this week. Love you Lord!

showing off the team

This is the first Thailand A team picture. We took this the night we found out what teams we were on. The whole point of this post is to show off the team. Saul is the dude on the far left, then it's Tony (team leader), and then Will. Starting from the left with the girls it is Laura, Megan, Emma, Carrie, Jacqui, Jenifer, Maxine, me, and then Synnove (team leader). Glad to introduce you to the studly team.

Haggai 1

God continues to blow me away here. Tuesday night we have our base gatherings. Usually these gatherings are open for people outside the base to join. Typically the night includes worship through music and a speaker of some sort. Last night, they closed the gathering to base people only. We started with a few testimonies from some DTS students about the previous week in Gleanings and San Francisco. Carrie, Saul, and Matt spoke. After that the SOMD (school of ministry development) spoke about this Luke 18 conference that is going on. It’s going to be huge! 3,000-5,000 college age students are flying/driving to LA for this conference from all over. They even had to move locations because they have too many people coming. It’s basically a conference for people who feel called to missions or are interested in missions. It’s a 3-day conference, and Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM) is speaking Saturday night. So, you might be asking what we have to do with it?!?! We YWAMers get to go!!! Verner (our base director) believes so much in the YWAM presence there that he is covering our cover fee. Not only do we get to hear Loren speak, be amidst thousands of people who love and want to serve Jesus, but they’re going to have us there as a tool. All the YWAMers are going to be wearing the same shirt so that they know who we are. Instead of an ‘alter call for salvation’ they’re going to have more of a calling/questioning time for these young adults. I am SO pumped for this. Jesus is using me to fire up people for the sake of His great commission. I may only be a ‘DTS’ student, but the Lord has done miraculous stuff in my life already when it comes to my heart for missions. We’re not there to ‘promote’ YWAM; we’re there to promote the Great Commission!!!! This just gets me pumped up thinking about it; it’s unreal. Of course, I will refer them to YWAM because this organization is an amazing and anointed tool that God uses to train His children (chosen ones) for missions. Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Okay, so after this Verner began speaking. I don’t even remember how he started this entire thing, but he got up there and closed it off to the public because he wanted to ask for forgiveness from everyone. I was absolutely blown away by this. He got up there being completely transparent about everything he had just gone through. He said that he was wondering why during intercessory prayer times we’ve been having such a difficult time getting clear direction from the Lord. At the same time the base staff had their weekly meeting and had decided to do their annual Christmas tree lot, just because it’s usually what goes down. Verner said that he went to Joy Dawson’s house to talk to her about how intercessory times were difficult (she’s a well known lady in the YWAM family who has great practice and fruit with intercessory prayer. She has written, basically, a ‘how to have intercessory prayer’ guidelines sheet. While Verner and other staff members were sitting with her, Joy told them that intercessory prayer was easy. She boldly went on further explaining what she meant by that. In the gathering, Verner basically said that he is life an infant. That he is learning how to listen to God. He was up there to say that he and the leadership had not led intercessory prayer the way it should be held. He went on to confess how he doesn’t like waiting on the Lord. How he is good at working and getting things done, but has the hardest time waiting. He said that he has been rushing intercessory prayers and not letting the Holy Spirit work through things. He then said that an individual on staff came up to him on Friday and told him that God had given her this phrase “it smells like flesh” for the base. She said that the Christmas tree lot was being done by fleshly works and desires, that God didn’t have that in the plans. Verner said that he started crying because he knew this. He knew that this was wrong because they had rushed this decision to happen. He was upset because in September, someone reminded him, that they prayed about doing the Christmas tree lot and God said no…but he had completely forgot about it. Anyway, it came down to the fact that Verner wasn’t listening. He was trying to rush God, and then was blaming God for no response. It was probably one of the most beneficial and powerful things for me to see him get up there in front of 100 people, confessing his sin and then asking for forgiveness from everyone. I literally started tearing up during this. At the end one of the CSBS (Chronological School of Biblical Studies) students stood up and asked if we could pray for the elder counsel ‘Korean style,’(where you all just pray at once out loud) and then asked anyone who was touched by this to go up and lay hands on them and pray.

This is where this night begins to hit me, personally. As I said earlier I was completely blown away by how powerful Verner’s confession was to all of us; even to the point that I began to tear up. When Adam asked those who were touched to get up and pray for them I just sat there. With all of my being I was yelling inside, “Sarah, get up! Go up and pray for them. What is your problem?!?” But, I couldn’t; I sat glued to that seat. After we prayed for them, a base staff lady, Kathryn, got up and said that she felt that we should be practical and sit there, as a base, and wait on the Lord. As soon as we started waiting on the Lord, I felt God telling me to go over to Synnove (my small group leader) and talk to her about how I had been holding back from being myself and who God created me to be. I sat there AGAIN battling inside whether or not I should do it at that moment. Then God said, just do it. So, I got up and went over to her and asked her to talk to me after this entire thing because I know if I didn’t tell her right then I wouldn’t have told her what was going on inside of me. She said that she wanted to go outside right that minute and talk to me about what’s going on.

Synnove and I went outside and I started pouring out what was going on. To sum it up, I wasn’t being obedient to what God was calling me to do. Earlier that week, on Monday, during base worship I sensed God telling me to go talk/pray with Jessica Hover and I didn’t. Even though I wasn’t faithful, God continued to be. He brought her over to me during worship. She came over and said that God put a verse on her heart for me and then she prayed for me. This is just one example of me lacking obedience. Before I even came here I knew I would struggle with being a student, but relating more with staff. Because of this, I have been sitting back and letting others lead. Even when I have felt God asking me to take a certain opportunity to lead I haven’t. I have been struggling with this fear of man. I have been afraid that my fellow DTSers will think I’m trying to be a staff person by taking on leadership opportunities. Because of this I have been sitting back. I haven’t been the person God has made me to be. After Synnove encouraged and prayed for me we went back into the meeting and at this point there was an overwhelming presence of God in that room. Everyone was repenting. It was amazing. Soon as I walked into that room I knew that God wanted me to yell out for His fire and boldness to be who he created me to be. There was no more sitting back for Sarah Jane Alber. I desperately called out for Jesus to come meet me in my weakness. Come make me who You created me to be. After I called out in front of everyone I felt like this weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. It was God, no doubt about that. Later on in the night Jess aka Marge got the Holy Spirit laughter. It was hilarious. It was like God was laughing and being joyful through her. At first it was really weird to me because I was like why is she laughing during this time of repentance, but it was clear that God was joyful. He was delighting in us because of this corporate repentance. He loved on us with joy. Jess was His tool to bring this on. It was awesome!!! God is stretching my view on Him every day, and I am so thankful for that. Thank you Jesus!!! He is preparing me for something big…just not exactly sure what it is yet (which is the fun part).

Gleanings trip

So last week we were at a YWAM base called Gleanings. There were a lot of differences between that base and our base, but at the same time there were many similarities. It was out in the middle of nowhere, even compared to our base that only has a 7 Eleven in walking distance. The main ministry of Gleanings YWAM is to package food and send it to countries in need. They receive all type of donations to keep the base running, including the food they are sending to other countries. It was an awesome food ministry, but it was hard being there. I struggled in a lot of different ways. Basically, I was humbled and realized how desperate I need the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes God really has to take us places to open up our eyes. Had a great time Wednesday and on, but was definitely ready to come home. It was awesome being around a smaller group of my fellow DTS students, but I missed the other half of our family. Man it’s going to be hard to leave for outreach.

Here are some pictures from the Gleanings base: 

Gleanings and LA DTS students/staff

work duty in Gleanings

beautifulness

gleanings.

yo peeps.

i am off to gleanings, ca for a week with half of the people from my dts. the other half are headed off to san francisco. we'll be serving in many different ways so if you could be praying for us that'd be awesome. we'll be back on base friday. can't wait to get off the base for a while. prayers are appreciated. :)

hey guys, God speaks.

On Wednesdays from 9-10:30am we have small groups, and without any bias mine is the best. =P But, in all sincerity my group is amazing. Our small group leader is absolutely beautiful; her name is Synnove and she’s from Norway. Including me there are 7 girls in the small group. The girls are: Amanda from Canada, Emma from England, Megan and Brittany from New Jersey, Noemie from the French part of Switzerland, and Laura who is from Pennsylvania. When we are together we have an absolutely amazing time. There are many times where we meet outside of small group simply because God has blessed our small group and we have joy in that blessing.

This past Wednesday we had an ‘assignment’ for small group. We each had someone else in the small group that we were to be praying for. We were asking God for a word or phrase that He wanted us to give this certain individual. For this assignment I had Synnove, and God gave me the word ‘fire’ to relay to her. I really didn’t understand why he gave me that word, so I continued to press in asking Him why He presented me with this word. He showed me this picture of people trying to put out a forest fire that was quickly spreading. Long story short the fire represented Synnove. After I told her this she went on to explain how in the last couple months or so that ‘fire’ keeps on coming up. She had a vision of herself bending over a field that was completely dead with a torch. A song that she has continually been listening to deals with being on fire, and so on. Super cool how God uses us to speak to one another.

Emma and I at Starbucks

So, my fantastic British friend, Emma, had me for this small group ‘assignment.’ Let me give you a little info on this lovely lady. She is 18 years old and makes it known that I’m so much older than her. Her birthday is the day after mine so she makes it a point to say that I am 6 years older than her. BUT, this is only kind of true for like 10 hours. I am really only 5 years and 10 hours older than her…not 6 years. As you can tell she likes to pick on me, but it’s all dandy because we pick on each other. PS. Did I mention that I love, love, love her. We didn’t talk the first week, but you can find us hanging around each other pretty often now. She is on my outreach team to Thailand as well. Boy, I am pizzzzummmped. Here are some things she enjoys: picking on me (as I stated before), blaming me for injuries to her body that I had nothing to do with, make fun of Americans, wash dishes after dinner, borrow my blue zip up, etc. This girl is crazy cool.

me on top of Bunsen

Okay now hold on tight ladies and gentlemen because what she had for me is super crazy awesomeness straight from Jesus. So God laid a couple verses on Emma’s heart for me and then gave her a vision of me along with the verses. The verses are from the beginning of Romans 5. It says, “[1] Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2] Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. [3] More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, [4] and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, [5] and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (ESV).  Then she had this vision of me climbing a mountain, by myself. She said when I was on this path I was kind of rushing up to get to the top and I wasn’t looking at the beautiful view that was surrounding me. Then as I continued to climb the mountain and came to the top Jesus was standing on top of the mountain. She used the word ‘glory’ to describe what He looked like. Then she said after seeing Jesus a man stepped out behind Him. She said that she had the sense that I needed to continue trusting in God’s glory, focusing on what He has laid right in front of me right now, and chase after glorifying Him and that eventually He will provide me with the desires of my heart. Not only is this awesome in itself, but the awesome part about this entire thing is that this summer when I was in Yellowstone National Park I was climbing a mountain and my aunt Debby asked me to take up the back of the pack when we were hiking Bunsen. When I got to the top of the mountain God convicted me of my attitude and selfish desires. I was trying to race up the mountain instead of being in the moment God gave me. Long story short, a couple of weeks later we were climbing Avalanche Peak and I was at the back of the pack again. This time it wasn’t by choice or service, I was sick and was having a difficult time climbing the strenuous path. I was with 5 other girls and 2/3^rd of the way up the mountain we stopped and rested. During that time I pulled out my Bible passed it to a friend and asked her to read Romans 5:1-5. I’m in a hurry so this story is not in as much detail as I would like. But, the point I am making is that God communicates. He is talking to us all the time, even when we don’t think He is, HE IS. Most of the time we aren’t aware of how He is communicating with us. It’s so amazing how the talks to us, but not only does he talk to us…He CONFIRMS what He is saying to us. He did just that with what He gave Emma to tell me. God wants to talk to you. Believe that. I am learning more and more of what that actually means. So exciting!! God is personal God!

me on top of Avalanche

the three day penny challenge

This week’s speaker is Kristy Wilke and she is awesome. She brings such a spice to the way she teaches and it draws me in. She is on fire for Jesus and makes it known. She is teaching on “Hearing God and Intercession.” Her teaching has honestly been life changing. When I have more time I’ll put up the notes I have taken during her teaching, but for right now I want to share with you what her teaching has been doing for me personally.

On Tuesday Kristy gave everyone a penny. The purpose of this penny is to challenge us in our walk with Jesus. Literally, it’s there challenging us while we are walking. She challenged us to put this penny in our shoe for 3 days. The sole purpose of this penny is to remind us to ask God what he would have for us at that exact moment in time. The first couple times I felt the penny I was completely confused, forgetting that I had even put the penny in there. But for me, this is how my Christian walk is. It is a learning process. When I began walking with Jesus I didn’t remember a lot of times to spend adequate time building my relationship with Him. Throughout the day the amount of time it took for me to realize what was in my shoe and then actually turning to Jesus decreased because my awareness had been stretched. Likewise in my walk with Jesus over the years when I am facing a hardship, carrying a burden, troubled, impatient, irritable, joyful, exhausted, grateful, forgiving, etc. I have found that the amount of time it takes me to turn to Jesus has decreased. It isn’t that I’m even close to being perfect, but the more I look to my relationship with Him the more he blesses me. It is crazy to me that He blesses me simply because I find myself being in His presence and He loves that I am soaking in His presence. How and why in the world does he love me (us) this much? All I know is that because of this love He has for me, I fall more and more in love with Him. This penny challenge has been absolutely amazing. I am anticipating what God is going to do in these next two days. Hopefully He’ll continue to bless me and draw me closer to Him each step throughout my day.

this is the beautiful view i am talking about :)

One song that has been speaking to me, specifically today, is You Won’t Relent by Jesus Culture. One of my favorite lines from this song Kim Walker sings and it says, “I don’t want to talk about you like you’re not in the room. Wanna look right at you, wanna sing right to you.” This fits absolutely perfect into the teaching this week. These words Kim sings go straight to my heart. Can you imagine what it would look like to walk throughout the day holding Jesus’ hand instead of simply talking about or to Him like he isn’t there the whole time? Seriously, imagine it. I can imagine myself getting cranky in the morning and then Jesus being like, “Come on Sarah, I know you’re tired, but I love them and I know you love them, let’s show them that we love them together.” I can imagine walking from breakfast, still holding Jesus’ hand, and looking at the mountains and sun rising behind them, and then I can hear Jesus saying, “Sarah, I made this. I made this for you. Isn’t this beautiful? I want you to look at them and be reminded of how beautiful I have made you.” I can imagine going to base worship, small group, base intercession, DTS worship, etc. holding Jesus hand. I can imagine how he would meet me in each of those times. I can imagine sitting next to Jesus in class asking me to challenge the idea I have of Him. I can see Jesus saying, “Sarah, I am speaking directly to you right now through Kristy. Please listen because I know you’re struggling with this.” And this is only my day starting at 7 am and going until 12:30 pm. Honestly, what would our lives look like if we let Jesus really, really, REALLY speak to us throughout the ENTIRE day, not only in our blocked out quiet times (if we even do those)? What would our lives look like if we didn’t listen to lies we feed ourselves, we let others or the devil feed us? Instead of believing the lie that we’re ugly when we leave the house, why don’t we leave the house in the morning holding Jesus’ hand, believing what he has to say about us (that we are unique, beautiful, and wonderfully made)? Instead of feeling inadequate throughout the day, why don’t I ask Jesus how he feels for me at that moment? What a life changing discipline this would be if we were to take our relationship with Jesus serious at every moment of every day. Can you imagine what the church, Jesus’ bride, would look like? I seriously believe that the name ‘Christianity’ would not have as bad as a reputation that it already has. Can you imagine?!?!??!?!?!?? I already see what it’s doing in my life. Pleaseeee…I challenge yourself to put a penny in your shoe for 3 days. Every time you feel that penny ask God what he would have for you at this moment? Would he have you love on your co-worker? Would He ask you to go up to your boss and ask how you could be praying for them? Would he have you put down the remote and serve your community? Would he have you ask for forgiveness from someone? What does he have for you? It’s something. It’s unique. Put yourself at the foot of the cross and get involved. There is only one you. Let Him use you. It’s such a blessing. Ahhhhhhhh. I’m so pumped!! Thank you Jesus.