Hello!

Sorry to all two of you who read my blog, (I love you, mom!) for I have not kept up very well! But! I have an excuse! First of all, the Internet has been down. Pretty good excuse, I'd say! Second, we have been busy! Two days ago, we had class taught by Jeff Pratt on the Father Heart of God. It was amazing. We also had practical application during which we were freed from many things (bricks) that created a wall around our hearts. Wonderful!!! That night, I got to take care of the Murphy kids and make adventure maps in their house with them! Then later, all the girls got to spend a night on the town and get dessert from a sweet restaurant to celebrate Jen's birthday. Tons of fun!

Yesterday, we had worship (superb) and class, and continued with testimonies. We only have five or six left! So close! We are becoming quite the family! And I love it! Last night, I was the student of many as their tried to teach me how to play ping pong. Didn't go so well, but it was fun!

Today, we went snowboarding! On the way, one of the vans broke down so we frolicked on the side of the road and it was so much fun. So funnn! Got a great video. I'll post it. When we finally got the van fixed, we decided to go to Keystone instead of Vail and it was awesome! And now, I am so exhausted!!! So... Goodnight!

Here's a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuZW1K35Xs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Oh! And also...

One of the staff members from the other DTS thought I was homeless because I was carrying a bunch of people's things and I threw my jacket under the bench he was sitting on and then walked away. He turned to Kyle and said, "is that girl homeless?" hahaha Kyle said, "no. She's one of our boarders." But all the way back people were telling me that I couldn't come along. Only DTS students and staff can stay at Eagle Rock and they just don't have room for a homeless girl, like me. Super funny! Good joke for the entire ride home.

This is Really Awesome

Today was our second official day of class, taught by Jeff Pratt, on the Father Heart of God. Amazing. We are learning about how we build walls around our hearts with bricks like guilt, rejection, fear a man, etc. and these things keep us from fully experiencing the freedom and joy of Jesus. We dug into our past to find out why we do the things we do and why we have grown numb in areas. Real heart work is going on here! It's going to be so liberating tomorrow during practical application. Tonight there was an optional outreach called Kingdom Night. Only one can full of us chose to go, but we met up with more YWAM-ers once we got down the mountain. When we got to our destination on 16th Street Mall, we started worshipping God for His wonderful character and His amazing love. Instantly, people were drawn, that's where the fun happened! We branched out, invited people in, gave out free hot chocolate, and made friends. All kinds of people came to see what we were up to! I talked to and prayed for and with many people who were walking down the street. It's amazing how many people will put aside their agenda to feed curiosity. I'm just so glad we caused something worth being curious about! I met a very wide spectrum of people; homeless, drunk, businessmen, students, children, teens, drug addicts. You name it. And I got to pray with them! Do you realize that when you minister to one person in a particular people group, that whole group can be touched. So why not minister to one person from every people group?! It was great! So great that we ran way late and actually just got home about 20 minutes ago. That's 50 minutes after we were supposed to be getting ready for bed. Any complaints? Definitely not! Tomorrow might be different, though, when we have breakfast at 7:30. Posh! We'll be fine! Haha goodnight.

First Night of Outreach! And First Day of Lecture!

Yesterday, we got up, breakfast, then loaded the buses to head down to the Arvada base. We got there and began worship with the other two schools that are staying down there. Worship was great! We then spilt up into assigned groups that are our intercession groups with whom we meet every Monday! I am the only girl in my group and there are four guys from BDTS and three from the other two schools. We began praying, asking God to lead us to a country that He wants us to pray and interceed for every Monday from now until the end of the lecture phase. We prayed for quite some time, getting random verses, images, songs, phrases, etc. All of them pointing to the same three locations. Those being Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. Next week we're going to pray again, asking for one specific country! I'm excited! Then we got together to prepare for our evening outreach! There were tons of different groups and I was in the group that was going to the skatepark, but it was freezing AND snowing (which was lovely) so we decided not to go the skatepark because it'd be us and the concrete. So we improvised. We gathered up the money from our pockets and bought two big jugs of Starbucks coffee and thirty cups and lids. Then, as we drove to downtown Denver, we prayed, invited the Holy Spirit to work through us and bless people, and sang worship songs. It was awesome! We got to our destination, split into two teams, and made our way to God's peolpe! We got on the bus and basically went in circles talking to people, praying for and with people, handing out free coffee! It was a good time! I believe God planted some great seeds and did some great work through our willingness to serve Him and just love on His people! One particular man that I spoke with was riding the bus simply because he didn't know what else to do. He was homeless, very drunk, and had no idea where he was going. He said his name was Michael. I offered him coffee and he looked at me with his wide, dialated eyes in disbelief. "Now why do you think you're doing that? Why exactly are you here giving me coffee right now? Why me?" He asked. I could tell in his eyes that he was thinking, 'I am so trashed, I am so unworthy. I don't even deserve a cup of free coffee.' I answered by telling him that I was out with a group of God's children, with the mission to love more of His children. So essentially, this coffee is for him, from God. I didn't think Michael's eyes could get wider, but somehow, they managed to. "Did you... honestly? Really? Did you really just say that to me?" He felt God's unconditional love. "I am covered, I mean, I am so covered in beer right now. I'm trying to hide this beer on my lap from you. And for you to come up and give me a cup of coffee... I mean..." Yes, he was drunk, but I believe he felt loved. But a kind of love that he wasn't aware existed. He couldn't believe it existed. Here he was, riding the free public transportation, no direction, no self worth, beating himself up for past occurences and the Father God of the universe bends down and hands him a cup of coffee. Michael then opened up and told on of my roommates all about he hurt, his struggles, and how he got to this point. I was called over by the guys on my team because I was holding the coffee. I left Michael and Kathleen in the back of the bus and served more coffee. I talked to a man about my God given joy. We rode the bus around town, then when we had run out of coffee and it was time to go, we got off the bus at our stop and Michael got off with us, because he wasn't finished learning about this amazing love displayed to him earlier. At this point, he was talking to three of the guys on my team and I went over to join them, and tell them that we had to get moving. As I was waiting for the chance to speak, Michael told us that this cup of coffee and this display of love was so impacting that he is going to start praying again. A renewal of faith through a cup of coffee. God moves in every way you could imagine, you just have to invite Him into it. He has amazing plans!! All of that was last night, and now it's the end of today. Today was our first official day of the lecture phase. Our speaker for this week is Jeff Pratt. He has ana amazing story, and worth while things to say about the Father Heart of God. He told many stories of demonstrations by earthly fathers that help us better understand the love of our Heavenly father. At the end of his teaching, he had us stand and ask God to have mercy on us for things we have done. It was a freeing moment! This group of people amazes me more and more each moment we're together! We also began work duties today! Me, along with Alecia get to watch John and Bethany Murphy's kids at least two days out of each week! Their kids are amazing! And Alecia is amazing! So our work duty time is going to be a lot more like play time! It's going to be so fun! And now it's finally free time and I should be reading my book! So I'm going to get on that!

Good Day!!!

I anticipate many of these in my future! Woke up a little late, my hair is OUT of CONTROL! No big deal. Breakfast, packed a lunch, which I ate two hours later, on the bus. Headed to Breck! Great riding, the snow was a little sketchy and there was quite a bit of ice, but I stayed upright all day long! Success! We all got bags of cookies to hand out to the liftees and the ski patrol guys! They love us now! Every sunday we do Sercive on The Hill, which is basically church service on the hill! We all met up at one for lovely, simple worship, a message by John and Katie and fellowship, then we did a community ride down, meaning we all (about 40 of us) ride down the same slope together, trying no to run over or get run over. Quite fun! So much fun! I somehow got stuck with all the skiers. I was the only boarder, so naturally conflict arose, all in the name of love. Haha it was a good time! Bus ride back was fun. Everyone sharing music and talking about how to pronounce certain words. Like Hammock! And the Packers lost. Bummer. And no one understand where I'm from, because I was born in to a Wisconsin family, but I was born in Mexico, and I lived in Morocco and France, but I'm from Colorado. I'm an American and Mexican citizen, so no one knows where I'm from. Hahah Ahh the humor. Anyways, time for homework and sleep! We get to do laundry and have class at the Arvada base tomorrow! Yay!

Day of Riding and Fellowshipping

Because I'm exhausted! We got up early, breakfast, drove to Keystone, rode long and hard all day, I rode with a bunch of people for the first half, then I took a turn and my friends went a different direction so I lost them and waited at the bottom for about twenty minutes, then rode the lift to the top and waited there a while. Finally I found Ashley, Alecia, Mike, Jannelle, Simon and Victor. I rode with then until we lost Alecia and Mike, but the remaining five of us stuck together for the rest of the day, picking up Michael every now and then. We got to tell all kinds of people about our school and why so many of us from so many different places are all in one place, and such great, loving friends! Planted lots of seeds today! And then we made dinner and ate t while watching the Broncos play terribly, then say in the Big House and fellowshipped. This is a wonderful place.

First Day of Riding!

Today rocked. First of all, we had an early breakfast at 6:45, then we packed all of our snowboarding (and some skiing) gear into the trailer, loaded ourselves into the van and headed down to the Arvada base! We arrived during the other two schools' quiet time so most of us went to Safeway. I bought gorilla glue so I could attempt to glue the back padding into my bindings. Then we had an AMAZING time in worship with all three schools and all the staff, and then a great teaching by Peter Warren on the way to Holy Spirit moves and works in us. Great word! It's wonderful how much we engage in corporate prayer here! In not even a week, we have become a family. Encouraging words are as numerous as the trees on the Rocky Mountains! Plus more! We then met with only Boarders DTS and went over logistics of the trip ahead. Another quick trip to Safeway for snacks and such and he headed up the mountain towards Keystone around 12:30. The bus ride up was great! I always dreaded bus rides because I'd always sit alone, or with someone who didn't want to talk to me, but these people are different. We have become such a family, growing and residing in God. It truly defies today's view on our generation! I LOVE it! Riding was amazing. I don't think I have ever gone so fast! I went very fast. And I started jumping more and did much better than I ever have, and much better than I expected to! Especially on my first real day of riding in quite some time! I, surprisingly, saw very few other YWAMers in passing on the mountain and stuck with the same general four or five people. One of my fellow riders got hurt from a fall and three of us began to pray for his healing. Seconds after we said, "amen." other BDTS students and staff began showing up out of nowhere! As a family, we all gathered around and prayed for him more. Prayer never goes unheard, and never unanswered, as far as I'm concerned. Though he was not healed instantly, the pain lessened and he was able to ride down the mountain by himself. I was disappointed, of course, that he wasn't healed on the spot, but me, always looking for the light, thought about how awesome it was to go without seeing the other riders from BDTS all day, then suddenly, the community was needed and we gathered in a flash to pray for our brother! God is lovely, and He is loving. Though I don't always understand Him, I trust Him with everything He has given me. I know it is all in the greatest of hands!