Well we've been in Colorado for officially one month and the time has absolutely flown by. i guess that happens though when you're having so much fun and learning so much about the Lord. Someone said that DTS is like drinking from a fire hose, and it's true. We have gotten so much foundational teaching these past 4 weeks that if eric and i didn't look over our notes regularly we'd be way over our heads. But it's incredible and i would love to share in further detail some of the teachings if anyone would like me to. So far we've covered the character/Father heart of God, how to be a Godly rebel/heart of a disciple, the fear of God and recognizing the voice of God/intercessory prayer.
Last week we prayed about where God wanted us to go on outreach. Our school leaders gave us the four locations the teams would be going: Turkey, Thailand, Nepal and Uganda. We prayed and felt the Lord say very strongly that He wanted us in Uganda. Savannah even got confirmation when she repeatedly picked out the slip of paper that had Uganda written on it. That’s a way cool story we can share at another time. But anyways! On Monday our school staff confirmed that we were supposed to go to Africa so that is where we will be for the final two weeks of our DTS. More details about what specifically we'll be doing in the upcoming blogs!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Some pretty cool info
We had orientation today and while we absorbed A LOT of information a few things really stood out to us.
1. Our CDTS (Crossroads Discipleship Training School) has a major focus on children and families. YWAM believes that when mom and dad are called, the kids are too; it's a whole family thing. One of the teachers for the kids shared that kids do amazing things on outreach. God oftentimes speaks through them directly. We should remember that they're not given a junior sized Holy Spirit. They're given all of His power, just as much as we get. They are mighty. Excited to see how God uses Savannah!
2. 90% of missions funding and workers travel to areas where the Gospel has already been taken. Only 10% goes to the nations who have either never heard or that has only had a very few touched. It's like water being poured from a well. Most of the water is going to places that are already wet while the driest lands are getting nothing. YWAM Colorado Springs focuses on the area of northern Africa to the Middle East to Asia. It is the most densely populated area of the entire world with the least number of people who have heard the news of Jesus Christ. The need is great! While people everywhere need the Truth and help from missions, the people of these nations have the least access and desperately need help. So thank you to all who have helped send us on this journey. You are helping us to go help an area that doesn't receive nearly what it needs.
Blessings and joy to you all!
1. Our CDTS (Crossroads Discipleship Training School) has a major focus on children and families. YWAM believes that when mom and dad are called, the kids are too; it's a whole family thing. One of the teachers for the kids shared that kids do amazing things on outreach. God oftentimes speaks through them directly. We should remember that they're not given a junior sized Holy Spirit. They're given all of His power, just as much as we get. They are mighty. Excited to see how God uses Savannah!
2. 90% of missions funding and workers travel to areas where the Gospel has already been taken. Only 10% goes to the nations who have either never heard or that has only had a very few touched. It's like water being poured from a well. Most of the water is going to places that are already wet while the driest lands are getting nothing. YWAM Colorado Springs focuses on the area of northern Africa to the Middle East to Asia. It is the most densely populated area of the entire world with the least number of people who have heard the news of Jesus Christ. The need is great! While people everywhere need the Truth and help from missions, the people of these nations have the least access and desperately need help. So thank you to all who have helped send us on this journey. You are helping us to go help an area that doesn't receive nearly what it needs.
Blessings and joy to you all!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Home Sweet Colorado!
Hello all! Sorry it's taken us so long to post anything. The past few weeks have been wildly hectic! But we are finally in Colorado Springs ready for this new adventure to begin. Before i tell you more about what we're doing now, i'd like to recap the past month.
Going away/fundraiser: we had a great time at our party. Thanks to everyone who made it out! We raised over $1,000, had some yummy desserts, enjoyed the music played by Eric's uncle Buzz's band and had a time of prayer circles. Rachel (my best friend for anyone who doesn't know) hung out with us throughout the day and we spent a lot of time praying even before the party began for the Spirit to move in our hearts and the hearts of whomever He wanted there. We prayed most earnestly for continued direction and focus on Christ. We felt led to pray for that more so than prayers for finances and protection and safety and all the "typical" trip prayers. All that will come. He has promised us all of those things in His Word and He is faithful. So long as we are seeking Him, those things will take care of themselves.
Commission Service: our church (Town Center Community Church) had a time of commissioning to send us out. Pastor Brent read from Acts 13: 1-3 1 "Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off." And that's what they did. They gathered around us, prayed and sent us off!
The trip!
We moved out of our house on Thursday, March 31 and stayed with my dad for our last few days in town. We hung out with dear friends and spent time relaxing. We left around 6:30 Tuesday, April 5 and drove to Chattanooga where we ate breakfast with the lovely Niki Davenport at the Bluegrass Grille. Then we just took our time and drove until we reached St. Louis. We got out of the car and visited the Arch. It was way cool. We got a little further west and stopped to sleep for the night. The next morning we had breakfast and hit the road. We finished Missouri and drove a LONG time in Kansas. There wasn't much to see but since it's landscape that we're not used to, it was interesting. Savannah did great the whole way, but when we were still 3-4 hours out of the Springs, she had had enough. We all had but she just expressed it with whining. Unfortunately there weren't any real stops by this point so we prayed for a spirit of calm to fall Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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her and before long she slept. We got in around 7:45 last night, met some of our school staff, unpacked and organized some and got some really great rest. We checked in today, took a tour and were blown away by the beauty of the mountains that are our view. We have high expectations for what the Lord has in store for us in these upcoming months. We pray for continued guidance and humble/ready hearts. Love you all! More to follow :)
Going away/fundraiser: we had a great time at our party. Thanks to everyone who made it out! We raised over $1,000, had some yummy desserts, enjoyed the music played by Eric's uncle Buzz's band and had a time of prayer circles. Rachel (my best friend for anyone who doesn't know) hung out with us throughout the day and we spent a lot of time praying even before the party began for the Spirit to move in our hearts and the hearts of whomever He wanted there. We prayed most earnestly for continued direction and focus on Christ. We felt led to pray for that more so than prayers for finances and protection and safety and all the "typical" trip prayers. All that will come. He has promised us all of those things in His Word and He is faithful. So long as we are seeking Him, those things will take care of themselves.
Commission Service: our church (Town Center Community Church) had a time of commissioning to send us out. Pastor Brent read from Acts 13: 1-3 1 "Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off." And that's what they did. They gathered around us, prayed and sent us off!
The trip!
We moved out of our house on Thursday, March 31 and stayed with my dad for our last few days in town. We hung out with dear friends and spent time relaxing. We left around 6:30 Tuesday, April 5 and drove to Chattanooga where we ate breakfast with the lovely Niki Davenport at the Bluegrass Grille. Then we just took our time and drove until we reached St. Louis. We got out of the car and visited the Arch. It was way cool. We got a little further west and stopped to sleep for the night. The next morning we had breakfast and hit the road. We finished Missouri and drove a LONG time in Kansas. There wasn't much to see but since it's landscape that we're not used to, it was interesting. Savannah did great the whole way, but when we were still 3-4 hours out of the Springs, she had had enough. We all had but she just expressed it with whining. Unfortunately there weren't any real stops by this point so we prayed for a spirit of calm to fall Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0
her and before long she slept. We got in around 7:45 last night, met some of our school staff, unpacked and organized some and got some really great rest. We checked in today, took a tour and were blown away by the beauty of the mountains that are our view. We have high expectations for what the Lord has in store for us in these upcoming months. We pray for continued guidance and humble/ready hearts. Love you all! More to follow :)
Home Sweet Colorado!
Hello all! Sorry it's taken us so long to post anything. The past few weeks have been wildly hectic! But we are finally in Colorado Springs ready for this new adventure to begin. Before i tell you more about what we're doing now, i'd like to recap the past month.
Going away/fundraiser: we had a great time at our party. Thanks to everyone who made it out! We raised over $1,000, had some yummy desserts, enjoyed the music played by Eric's uncle Buzz's band and had a time of prayer circles. Rachel (my best friend for anyone who doesn't know) hung out with us throughout the day and we spent a lot of time praying even before the party began for the Spirit to move in our hearts and the hearts of whomever He wanted there. We prayed most earnestly for continued direction and focus on Christ. We felt led to pray for that more so than prayers for finances and protection and safety and all the "typical" trip prayers. All that will come. He has promised us all of those things in His Word and He is faithful. So long as we are seeking Him, those things will take care of themselves.
Commission Service: our church (Town Center Community Church) had a time of commissioning to send us out. Pastor Brent read from Acts 13: 1-3 1 "Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off." And that's what they did. They gathered around us, prayed and sent us off!
The trip!
We moved out of our house on Thursday, March 31 and stayed with my dad for our last few days in town. We hung out with dear friends and spent time relaxing. We left around 6:30 Tuesday, April 5 and drove to Chattanooga where we ate breakfast with the lovely Niki Davenport at the Bluegrass Grille. Then we just took our time and drove until we reached St. Louis. We got out of the car and visited the Arch. It was way cool. We got a little further west and stopped to sleep for the night. The next morning we had breakfast and hit the road. We finished Missouri and drove a LONG time in Kansas. There wasn't much to see but since it's landscape that we're not used to, it was interesting. Savannah did great the whole way, but when we were still 3-4 hours out of the Springs, she had had enough. We all had but she just expressed it with whining. Unfortunately there weren't any real stops by this point so we prayed for a spirit of calm to fall Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0
her and before long she slept. We got in around 7:45 last night, met some of our school staff, unpacked and organized some and got some really great rest. We checked in today, took a tour and were blown away by the beauty of the mountains that are our view. We have high expectations for what the Lord has in store for us in these upcoming months. We pray for continued guidance and humble/ready hearts. Love you all! More to follow :)
Going away/fundraiser: we had a great time at our party. Thanks to everyone who made it out! We raised over $1,000, had some yummy desserts, enjoyed the music played by Eric's uncle Buzz's band and had a time of prayer circles. Rachel (my best friend for anyone who doesn't know) hung out with us throughout the day and we spent a lot of time praying even before the party began for the Spirit to move in our hearts and the hearts of whomever He wanted there. We prayed most earnestly for continued direction and focus on Christ. We felt led to pray for that more so than prayers for finances and protection and safety and all the "typical" trip prayers. All that will come. He has promised us all of those things in His Word and He is faithful. So long as we are seeking Him, those things will take care of themselves.
Commission Service: our church (Town Center Community Church) had a time of commissioning to send us out. Pastor Brent read from Acts 13: 1-3 1 "Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off." And that's what they did. They gathered around us, prayed and sent us off!
The trip!
We moved out of our house on Thursday, March 31 and stayed with my dad for our last few days in town. We hung out with dear friends and spent time relaxing. We left around 6:30 Tuesday, April 5 and drove to Chattanooga where we ate breakfast with the lovely Niki Davenport at the Bluegrass Grille. Then we just took our time and drove until we reached St. Louis. We got out of the car and visited the Arch. It was way cool. We got a little further west and stopped to sleep for the night. The next morning we had breakfast and hit the road. We finished Missouri and drove a LONG time in Kansas. There wasn't much to see but since it's landscape that we're not used to, it was interesting. Savannah did great the whole way, but when we were still 3-4 hours out of the Springs, she had had enough. We all had but she just expressed it with whining. Unfortunately there weren't any real stops by this point so we prayed for a spirit of calm to fall Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0
her and before long she slept. We got in around 7:45 last night, met some of our school staff, unpacked and organized some and got some really great rest. We checked in today, took a tour and were blown away by the beauty of the mountains that are our view. We have high expectations for what the Lord has in store for us in these upcoming months. We pray for continued guidance and humble/ready hearts. Love you all! More to follow :)
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Less than a month!
It's hard to believe we leave in less than a month! We are getting more and more excited as the time approaches. I'm packing up the house more and more everyday. It's bittersweet. It's hard to leave our first home but very exciting to make steps in the direction that God is calling us. We found ourselves getting a little overwhelmed a couple of weeks back. All of our thoughts were around what money we had raised, what money we still needed, what to pack and when and all the things that go along with a process like this.
We quickly humbled ourselves in prayer to refocus our attention on the only thing that matters and the whole reason we're going to Colorado in the first place. We needed to put our cares, troubles and thoughts to Jesus and the call to carry His name. Even though we were thinking about our ministry, we took our eyes off of Him and giving Him continuous praise just for a moment but it was long enough to make our human selves stress out. Please pray that we continue to put Him first throughout the entire process.
Update with exciting news to share: we have completely paid for the lecture phase! $6,490! We've even got some money already going for outreach. We have until June 7 to cover the remaining balance. He will get us there! Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!
We quickly humbled ourselves in prayer to refocus our attention on the only thing that matters and the whole reason we're going to Colorado in the first place. We needed to put our cares, troubles and thoughts to Jesus and the call to carry His name. Even though we were thinking about our ministry, we took our eyes off of Him and giving Him continuous praise just for a moment but it was long enough to make our human selves stress out. Please pray that we continue to put Him first throughout the entire process.
Update with exciting news to share: we have completely paid for the lecture phase! $6,490! We've even got some money already going for outreach. We have until June 7 to cover the remaining balance. He will get us there! Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
An update
Just wanted to say that YWAM has all of our necessary info, just waiting for our registration stuff! God is providing more of the necessary funding and we're always looking for more money raising ideas! If you know of any, send them our way! Thanks and much love!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Christmas Time is Here!
So i know i was going to use this to tell about our missions adventures, but i can't help it. i'd like to keep this night in the record book. We got our Christmas tree tonight! We went to Kroger, somewhere i never expected to buy a tree, and found a 7 foot Noble Fir. It's been raining all day and since this one was semi dry from being under the awning, it meant we could decorate tonight! So we took it home; i made dinner and Eric prepped it but cutting off the lowest branches and base. After we ate, we brought it in, finally made it stand straight and got to work. It smells sooo good! Reminds me of the scratch & sniff book, "The Sweet Smells of Christmas". Savannah was enthralled by the plugged in lights on the floor. She, of course, wanted to put them in her mouth, but we stopped her before she met the same fate as Aunt Bethany's cat in Christmas Vacation. It took us 3 times to get the lights to look right in the tree, but we did. My Pappy and Mom would be proud. Nothing works better than the old squinted eye trick. We store our ornaments in empty popcorn tins (you know the ones with the 3 flavors: caramel, cheddar and butter? Does anyone actually eat the butter popcorn? anyways!) and Savannah really liked just putting hers in and out of the tin. Since we figured Savy would want to pull every ornament off the tree that she could, we bought her a set of 4 plush, Winnie the Pooh ornaments. They're super cute. After watching me a couple of times she tried to put Tigger in the tree, but seeing as she didn't use the string, he fell out immediately. But hey, she tried! It was precious. She got sleepy so we put her to bed then Eric and i decorated the rest of it. i don't know if i've ever laughed harder when hanging ornaments. We had such a great time. No stress, just enjoyment. Remembering ornaments from years past and thinking about the future. We ate chocolate chip cookies and snuggled on the couch while our Christmas music mix played on the ipod. It was one of those nights that can't be planned. It's perfectly wonderful in its simplicity. This season we are praying to fully embrace and experience God in every part of the holiday. With every tradition, party, decoration and gift. None of it would be here if God hadn't decided to descend His throne and join us where we were. Thanks, Lord for being so awesome. Merry Christmas! May you be well pleased with all that we do in Your name.
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