INTO THE WILD!

We are packing for Niko!! I thought that we were going to be very minimal about what we are allowed to take but I am surprised at how full my backpack is. It makes me worried for outreach!! I am excited for this 4 day camp. I know God is really going to challenge me. I usually don’t feel out of my comfort zone in other countries but when I am faced with nature and no sign of civilization it makes me a little uncomfortable. I am so excited though. It will be nice to get away from the base and be forced to bond even more with my fellow DTS YWAMers. So I am thankful for this opportunity. I hope we come back even more bonded. Some of us watched Into the Wild last night to get psyched for the wilderness. Super good movie, but now I’m scared to eat anything while I’m there! Ahhh!!!

My outreach team is still deciding the course of our actual journey. We can only be in Mozambique for one month so we will spend two weeks in Durban before that. We are also praying for the other location that we will go to for the remaining two weeks between Durban and Mozambique. It will either be Lesotho or Swaziland. Both are beautiful and both have a need for outreach. So please keep that in your prayers. My team has started fundraising! We sold pancakes the last two mornings and it was a lot of fun. We didn’t make too much but it’s a start and anything is better than nothing! I started making bracelets to sell with the yarn I brought. I knew it would come in handy!! And mom and Melissa laughed at me… haha. Miss my family so much.  

This week defiantly did a number on me though. I thought Holy Spirit week was intense… I didn’t think anything could even come close to it. But this week proved me wrong! Fiona was great. She really showed us how to use communication and how NOT to use communication. The word “disciple” comes from the Latin word meaning “learner.” I really see that I have so much more to learn about this world and about God. We really took some time to look at our lives and were able to evaluate where we were keeping things away from God, parts of our lives that we didn’t want to let him in. It brought up a lot of dark things from my past that I thought I had dealt with. I guess in a way I just pressed them deeper in and this week I was able to confront them and give them to God. I thought last week was emotional and hard but this week was just as challenging. I can see that God is working in me in pieces and parts, breaking things down for me in a way that I can fully heal before moving to the next part. And once again I feel even more free! Even lighter and even more forgiven. I know God forgives, I get that. I struggle with forgiving myself. We did an exercise where we took some time and left all of our burdens and heaviness at the base of the cross. I analyzed parts of my life, prayed and talked with God about them and then was able to let them go. Praise God.

A verse I just want to share to sum up the week (and because I’m in love with it):

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

I got to experience the Holy Spirit in a completely different way then last week and I am so grateful for it. Thanks Fiona.