disclaimer: this is NOT an exhaustive list.
there’s something I’ve been meaning to post and keep forgetting to. it’s from the end of October. better late than never, right?
so we had a mid-quarter outreach in October, which was 1 week in downtown Denver (remember the Teddy Bear story?). it was a busy week, lots of time spent out in the freezing cold, and lots of late nights and early mornings. in other words, prime breeding ground for sickness. a lot of people were getting bad colds.
we got back to the base late Thursday night and Friday morning I woke up with a headache and sore throat and totally felt the beginnings of a cold coming on. during worship that morning, they told people to go up to these 2 guys who wanted to pray for healing for those who were sick. I didn’t go up. I feel bad asking for prayer like that and then if I don’t get “healed”, then I don’t want the person to feel bad. so I was like, “OK God, if they pray for like, a group of people or something, or if someone comes up to me and asks to pray for me, I’ll do it.” well then they decided to have everyone who was sick get in a group and have others lay hands on them and pray for healing. ha :)
I figured I had nothing to lose. this way I wasn’t on the spot, so they wouldn’t pray for me individually and then ask expectantly, “are you better??” and then if I wasn’t better, I’d let them down. (I know, I’ve got issues – I shouldn’t be worried/thinking about that – trying to get over it)
so I went up. and they prayed and I did feel a little relief in the pressure I was feeling in my head, and my throat didn’t hurt as much. but as we left the worship session and went about our days, my throat started to hurt a little again. so I was like “oh…bummer.”
BUT – I woke up the next day and felt TOTALLY fine!
Praise God! and praise Him that I haven’t been sick at all these 3 months I’ve been here! the flu has made it’s rounds twice now (it’s making it’s 2nd round currently – so far so good). horrible colds have spread around. and God has protected my health.
Praise Him!
learn how to spell “too-shay” – I’ve said it twice on here within the past week and each time I put the disclaimer that I don’t know how to spell it so I spell it like it sounds.
this morning at 2:45am I woke up to the sound of my roommates rushing around, running out the door. I could faintly hear a “beeep…beeep…beeep…” I soon realized they were freaking out because the fire alarm was going off. I rolled over, thinking, “ugh – dumb thing, I’m SO not getting out of bed.” but then I realized EVERYONE was jumping up and running out the door so I thought, “ok, will I get in trouble if I don’t evacuate? like, is it mandatory?” I decided I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble (at that time in the morning, I couldn’t figure out if it was illegal or not to not evacuate…although it SHOULD be a voluntary evacuation…just sayin’…). so I slowly climbed out of bed, rummaged through my drawer to find warm things to put on (priorities, first – I didn’t want to freeze outside - I settled for 2 hoodies and my snowpants), stuck my phone in my pocket, and leisurely made it outside.
then we all sat in the admin building (which was really cold but I, having priorities and taking the time to properly suit up before evacuating, was comfortable…while others were in shorts and freezing…hehe – that’s what they get for freaking out). we got to go back to our rooms by about 3:15am I think.
I tried really hard not to fully “wake up” but it was still enough to wake me up and I couldn’t fall back asleep ‘til at least 5am. I was bummed. I’m so tired today. but it’s OK.
and PS, there was no fire.
ha – I suppose, though, if there ever were to be a fire, then I’d regret being so relaxed about it.
but seriously, evacuations should be voluntary.
that reminds me of the time some of us girls lived in the extended stay hotel by LU and had the fire alarm go off in the middle of the night…
(I wrote this 11/30/10 but didn’t have internet so I’m posting it now)
hi.
this week I have 3 presentations to do. have I mentioned that presentations aren’t my favorite? I wasn’t sure if I had.
heavy sarcasm.
I’m trying to fear God and not fear man. I’m trying really hard to not be anxious. I’m trying to put Phil. 4:4-8 into practice. I still feel like I’m failing at it though.
today I went to Starbucks for a couple hours (we have a weird schedule this week, it’s outreach prep week, so I had a couple hours free this morning). then I called my friend. he’s good at being tough but encouraging. I asked him to just tell me about Jesus. :) and he did. among other things, he asked me if I thought Jesus was excited to come to earth and suffer like He did for the sin of the world? too-shay (I don’t know how to spell that word, so I spelt it like it sounds so you’ll know what I’m trying to say).
on my walk back to the base, I really just wanted to cry and get all the ickiness out. but I couldn’t cry. not because it wouldn’t come. the tears were about there. but it was so stinkin’ cold out and the wind chill was like –50 (I might be exaggerating a little, but not much). it was so cold that I couldn’t even cry when I wanted to. I rarely cry. and when I finally want to, I can’t. because it’s so stinkin’ cold. as I walked, I asked (yes, out loud), “God, why do You let it get so cold??”
I didn’t hear an answer.
but Jesus left Paradise to live on earth for 33 years. I can handle sacrificing earthly paradise (the Keys) for 5 months. by His strength, I can do this.
the topic this week is Heart of Worship and Will & Erika Strickland are teaching. I absolutely love this dynamic duo. they are my favorite Stricklands ever.
yesterday and today Will taught. soooo good! he started off with teaching on the tabernacle and all the specifications for building it – normally, an easily boring topic. however, he made it so interesting (plus he’s hilarious so that helps). did you know that all the items and the things they were made out of represent Christ and man in some way?? oh my goodness – MIND BLOWING! I have heard so many teachings on the tabernacle and nothing ever stuck. I’m sure someone’s even taught me before that everything represents Christ in some way – it’s just that it finally made sense to me. you hear things enough from enough people and eventually something sticks. stick a fork in me, I’m DONE! 
and then there’s the HUGE grace factor that studying this stuff stirs up. how thankful I am that God lets us come directly to Him now and worship Him and ask forgiveness without having to go thru all the procedures and protocols! all because of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. mmmm such grace abounds to us!
the second part of yesterday, he taught on Proverbs 4:23, which says something to the effect of “Above all else, guard your heart – for it is the wellspring of life” (Jen version, I can’t find the translation that words it that way right now). each of our hearts is like a well. shoot, I have to pack up and head back to the base but I’ll continue this later – it’s so gooooood!!!!
Holy Spirit week has ended.
teachings included how to speak in tongues and how to prophecy. tuesday night we had a mandatory Holy Spirit party, Holy Spirit tunnel included for impartation.
because I try not to use my blog as a sound-off spot to deliver blows of criticism, and because I do not think I can talk about last week in a manner is Christ-like, I will keep my fingers restrained.
I tried to keep an open mind. it wasn’t new to me (well, the Holy Spirit tunnel was) but I have studied numerous movements and such.
it’s a new week. Praise Jesus.
so at the gym they track your workouts. most machines have little screens you log into and they tell you how to set the machine and your goal and they count your reps and all. then the program ranks everyone. now, for some, that might carry no incentive for them to workout more. for others, however, it only brings out their competitive edge. if I ever said I wasn’t competitive, I apologize – I lied. I have learned that I am competitive. to the point of checking the rankings a few times a week and pushing tons of weight the last few days in October so I could make the top 60 list.
I am a sick, sick person.
but a healthy, fit person.
so, for the month of october, I ranked #51 out of the top 60 women for the most weight lifted! YEAH BABY! I think I did somewhere in the 123,000lbs range. 15 elephants, if I remember right.
so far this month, I’m #2 in my age range (females) for weight lifted. and I think #54 out of all the women.
I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it.
~jenny machado.
4 weeks left here – YAY! this week is Thanksgiving, so my aunt & uncle from Cheyenne are picking me and Krystle up Wednesday for the long weekend! then I’ll just have 3 weeks left! Dec. 20th we fly to Estonia, by way of Germany. we have a 6 hour layover in Frankfurt, so we are getting to explore the city for about 4 hours! here’s what our schedule tentatively looks like:
Dec. 20th – fly to Estonia (layover in Germany, explore Frankfurt)
January 2nd – take a bus to Latvia
January 12th – fly from Latvia to Norway (Skein)
February 4th – fly back to Denver
February 12th – FLY HOME!
I’ve heard outreach flies by, and I’m pretty sure the fact that we will be going to 3 different places will make it go by even faster.
I am so excited to get home! I miss my family, my friends, the weather, beach volleyball, LPC, indoor volleyball, the water, the bridges, working out with friends, saturday afternoons floating in the pool at Bait Shack on giant floating bean bags with Tiff, the culture, Leigh Ann’s coffee shop, hammocks, giant bean bags (as in Shane’s), Zeva, fresh bananas, mangoes, kayaking, sweating, sushi, simple pleasures…just to name a few things (and in no particular order).
shoot, listing those things makes me even MORE longing to be back on the islands!
I am really excited for outreach, though. Jae & Kevin (our leaders – um, they pretty much rock my face off), have made a point of making this outreach music-oriented. we don’t know a whole lot of what we’ll be doing yet, but some things are doing music seminars, leading worship (we will split up into 3 or 4 teams and rotate around), doing a concert, and running youth camps.
I am so stoked that worship will have such a big part in this journey. trying to focus on fearing God and not man. I cannot wait to go on this adventure as I cling even more closely to God for His grace, strength, and power. it is a battle already to not let fear and anxiety start bubbling up in me. I will GREATLY appreciate your prayers while I’m on outreach!
thank you to EVERYONE who has been praying for me or even if you just prayed 1 little prayer for me or whatever – THANK YOU! I can honestly say I’ve felt a difference. this journey with YWAM so far has been amazing and I am amazed at what God has done in me already. it’s definitely been by His strength and not my own.
I’m going to do a few different posts tonight.
keep it real.
~jen
this week’s speaker topic is the Holy Spirit.
yesterday we spent most of class time learning about speaking in tongues. then he had anyone who wanted to learn how to speak in tongues come to the front of the class and he prayed for them and then they all practiced.
I learned there’s a difference between the gift of tongues and speaking in tongues. the gift is to be used to edify others and must be interpreted. speaking in tongues is your prayer language and is between you and God.
he taught that to speak in tongues, you must ignore the analytical part of your mind because your analytical mind will try to stop it from happening. the analytical mind processes what you’re thinking/saying. so apparently, to speak in tongues, you must ignore a part of your mind.
I’m not really sure why God would create us with such awesome, complex brains/minds/inner workings only to require us to disregard them in order to have a deeper fellowship with Him. I must just be too analytical I guess. rather unfortunate.
God cannot be put in a box.
on thursday the dude’s having his prophecy team from his church come and prophesize (spelling??) over each of us.
"The Shooting (God told me three things)" | JesusFreaks Movie Web Episode 1 from JesusFreaks Movie on Vimeo.
This webisodes are leading up to the release of the film in December. It starts off with the shooting at the YWAM Denver base in 2007. Powerful stuff.
mmmmm!! I have seen and experienced God in so many tangible ways over the past week or so especially. I am well aware, however, that God has always been at work – it’s just that now I’m seeking Him harder than ever before and tearing apart the box I’ve put Him in and am becoming more and more aware of His work. but I have so far to go!!
today I gave my creative presentation and totally didn’t bomb it!! PRAISE GOD! it was supposed to be 2 weeks ago but it got postponed until today. anyone who really knows me knows I had a horrible speech class experience in college and it greatly increased my already high hatred of public speaking.
this week’s teaching topic is the “Fear of the Lord” and God is really challenging me with this: do I fear man more than I fear God? so often the answer is yes – I fear man more than I fear God. I’d rather take the easy way out and disregard what God is asking me to do.
and so today, as I sat waiting to give my short presentation, I was battling and battling inside. I started feeling like I might start losing it (I throw up, to summarize for anyone reading this that doesn’t know me very well). I was fighting the urge to get up and get out of the classroom. RIGHT before I went up, I finally yelled (in my head), “I WILL NOT GIVE IN TO THE FEAR OF MAN! I CHOOSE TO FEAR GOD, NOT MAN! I’M GOING TO DO THIS!” seriously, if you were in my head at the time, you probably would’ve had to cover your ears because I yelled it so loud in there.
God has allowed for me to do this DTS. did I hear Him audibly say, “GO! Do this!”? no. but I feel like this is what He has called me to do right now. and so since He has called me to do this DTS, that means doing everything that is involved with the DTS – including the 2 creative presentations. I am going to honor Him and choose to rely on His grace to do these.
He is so strong! I praise You, Abba, for Your strength! Thank You for carrying me today!
tonight, Faith Bible Chapel had a thing called “Encounter” – it was a night of worship and a dude gave a short message. it was such a beautiful time of worshipping our awesome Savior and God. I’m so glad I went.
oh how I yearn to know Jesus more!! the best way to do that is to spend time with Him, just as I would a good friend that I wanted to get to know more.
I love being freed to worship my Jesus, my Savior, my God unashamedly and abandoned.
God speaks to us thru different means. for me, I think He speaks to me most thru worship/music.
to top it off, I decided between dinner and Encounter I was going to go to Starbucks and treat myself to a soy chai latte. Becca went with me and get this – I used my gift card (I got one when I came here and put $20/month it – oh my goodness, time OUT. I was typing away and hadn’t saved this and all of a sudden my Norton thing popped up saying it needed to restart for updates and since I was typing, it selected to restart and it closed my blog and restarted!! so I was praying it didn’t get erased – and it didn’t! it recovered it!! Praise Jesus!!
ok ANYWAY – I had like $2 and some odd cents left on my gift card for the month of October (I haven’t reloaded it for November yet). so I gave the girl the card and said it wouldn’t cover both our drinks but I’d use a credit card for the rest. well she swiped it and said “oh – it doesn’t say there’s a balance left to pay, you’re good!” and I was like “…what?” she had mentioned before that that she couldn’t reload my card because the computers were down. so when I walked away and looked at my receipt, it said “gift card balance not available” … so I’m thinking I got free Starbucks tonight!!! hehehe YAY!
I am exhausted. I’m skipping the gym in the morning. don’t hate. I’ll go friday and saturday. 5 days a week ain’t no shame.
oh that reminds me!! ok nevermind, I’ll post it later – I’m so tired.
keep it real.
all GLORY to God!
-jen
every monday night we have community outreach. we all split into groups and go do different things each time. tonight the group I was in got to do “creative evangelism” – which means you pray as a group before you go out and see if God gives anyone direction as to where we should go and what we should do. usually (if not always) the group at least goes downtown somewhere. so tonight we went downtown.
we split into smaller groups downtown and our group had 4 people. we decided to hit up a coffee shop first (always a good start 
it was really cool how God made it so easy for us to talk to them – THEY started the conversation! and what was super cool was that we all felt like we had missed an opportunity to talk to them at the coffee shop, and we were all regretting it. and here God gave us another chance and once again, made it so easy to talk to them.
one dude was an agnostic, the other was “a-religious” … basically accepting everything. they were both college students (18 and 19) and the a-religious one kept using really big words that I didn’t understand (he was a philosophy major – figures).
I wish I could say it ended with them seeing Christ for who He is and coming to know Him as their Savior. but it didn’t go that way in the conversation. it was more of a “so what do you believe?” type of path the conversation took, not one where we shared the Gospel, unfortunately. I suck at that still. hopefully seeds were planted or watered at least.
I just had a super unexpected blessing! I was eating lunch and talking with friends and somehow the topic of outreach came up and someone asked how much I had left to raise and I said I had received $400 in support so far so I need quite a bit still. one of the guys in my DTS got up and said “don’t go anywhere!” and disappeared and came back with an envelope with multiple checks inside that add up to $300! he has all his money raised and his dad found these checks in his bedroom back home and sent them here for him. and my friend had forgotten about the checks until we were talking at lunch and he said he felt like God wanted him to give the checks to me because God wants me to go on this trip.
how cool is that?! hahaha 
God is so cool.
I haven’t been too stressed about money since coming out there, but yesterday in church all of a sudden I had a wave of stress hit me. I started thinking “oh my goodness, I have no job, I have no income…if I have to pay for the rest of outreach out of pocket, I’m going to come back with next to nothing…” and I had to really work hard to not let the stress come over me for the rest of the day. I know God will provide for me, even if that means my bank account being depleted. He is above money.
yesterday and today I’ve just been really sickened by my pride and so that’s been something I’ve consciously been trying to turn from last night and especially so far today.
and then this happened. hehe
we stayed at a Salvation Army community center in downtown Denver this week, having class in the morning and doing ministry in the afternoon/evening. (Mriss – LoDo means “Lower Downtown”, it’s just a term that caught on for downtown Denver)
wednesday night we went down again to the main street downtown (16th St. Mall). we were each give $1 and put in groups of 3 or 4. we could do whatever we wanted with our dollars, but we couldn’t just give them away. we were supposed to buy something with them (and we could pool together with everyone in our group and also add our own personal money if we wanted to). so before we went out, each group prayed together to see if God gave anyone “pictures” of what we were to buy.
now, I’m not all into the “pray and see what images God brings to mind” game. honestly, I feel like a lot of times it’s just people’s own imaginations. and I’ve never really prayed with people who were praying with the sole intent to get pictures from God until I came here. sometimes friends in the past have said God randomly gave them a vision or whatever and I don’t question those – that seems more legit.
ANYWAY – I’m not here to argue whether or not God speaks to us thru giving us pictures. 
so we go downtown and hit up Walgreens and end up buying a teddy bear. then we walked around, looking for a little kid and/or someone pushing a kid in a stroller. it was about 8:30/9pm so the chances of seeing little kids was kinda getting slim. we came to an ice cream shop and saw 2 little girls inside, 1 wearing a pink coat. so we stood outside, debating whether or not we should give them the bear. they came out and started walking away and no one felt like we should give them the bear (it was kinda weird to give the 1 bear to 2 girls and be like…”here, you’re wearing pink, so you get it – haha). so we held on to the bear but realized it was time to meet our group and head back to our place. so we got on one of the busses that runs up and down the street, hoping to find a little kid on the bus. no such luck. we got off the bus near our meeting place and stood outside a couple shops, trying to decide what to do with the bear.
we saw an older man in a store so we decided we’d just give it to him when he came out. so we stood there waiting and waiting and he kept getting distracted by things in the little store. then we saw a husband and wife walk by, swinging their little girl. we all looked at each other and go “…let’s just do it!” so we walk up and Davidson (in my group) goes “excuse me…we bought this teddy bear tonight to give to someone and we saw your little girl and wondered if she’d like to have it?” a little bit of an awkward silence. then the mom goes “I can’t believe this…I had told my little girl we’d get her a teddy bear tonight and I had just realized the store was closed so we weren’t going to be able to get one tonight…!” wow. crazy. so they accepted the bear and we asked if we could pray for them about anything. they paused and then the husband goes, “Yeah, actually…you could pray for our marriage…” he was SO honest to just out right say that to us, strangers. so we prayed for them and when we were done, the woman had tears in her eyes. they asked what church we went to, and told us they used to go to this certain church but it kinda sounded like they didn’t go regularly anymore (hard to tell). and the woman then said she had been struggling lately and really felt like this moment was for her – that God had given her this moment.
stoked. I couldn’t believe how the night had ended. it definitely gave some validity to the picture the 2 people in my group had both gotten. growing my faith. I cannot put God in a box. all glory to Him for what He did that night!!
I like to think that whenever that husband and wife see their little girl’s teddy bear, it will remind them of God’s goodness and His intimacy.
dang, gina – this week of teaching was a-mazing.
Jeff Pratt was our speaker and taught us about the Father Heart of God. i’m going to try to recap from my notes.
first we talked about passion. passionate people change the world. our hearts need to be completely His. not only is it the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:37-38), but Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
Jeff told a story of man who was enthralled with his adopted daughter. absolutely adored her. they were sitting on a dock in Cape Cod and his daughter had a fishing pole (and…she was fishing…needless to say). the man’s sitting there next to her, just gazing at her and overwhelmed with love for her. out of no where, a shark comes up out of the water and rips the girl’s arm off. immediately, the father jumped in the water and pried open the shark’s jaws to retrieve the his daughter’s arm. long story short, the surgeons were able to reattach her arm. Jeff used this story to back up 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” i liked the illustration (it was a true story) because it made that verse come alive to me with a real life example of what it looks like.
we all have 3 needs:
1 – to be loved
2 – to be needed/wanted
3 – to have significance
when we look to others to fulfill these needs, we easily become insecure and dependent on other’s affirmations. the beautiful thing is – all of these needs can be fully met by God. to be loved and to have significance can definitely be proved by Jesus’ death on the cross to save us from eternity apart from Him. there are so many verses that prove it as well. Psalm 139:13-16, for one. and as far as being needed/wanted by God – how about Jeremiah 29:11 and Matthew 28:19-20 for starters.
unfortunately, and i am guilty of this, we are too often more affected by the affirmation of others than we are by what God says about us.
Jeff talked about 5 love types. Husband, Friend, Lover, Mother, Father. i have explanations for all of them, but i’m trying to keep this concise (HA – yeah right – like i’m capable of that). so if you want any explanations, let me know. but unless we learn to receive these types of love from God, we’ll manipulate others to meet our need to be loved - when God is the only perfect Lover.
one thing i will mention, in regards to receiving love from God the Father, is that “Father” is used as a metaphor for God over 178 times in the Bible. i love the Truth that no matter how i fail, God loves me because I am His daughter. He loves me with unconditional love. He loves me as I am, not as I should be. and His love is for you too!!
ahhh – so that recaps all week. PSYCH! (yeah, i just pulled that word out – goin’ old school) that was just day 1. but in order to keep things interesting and not uberly long, i’m going to leave this as it’s own post.
oh how God loves us!!! i feel so loved, so beautiful, so full of worth, so…joyful! i wish i could bottle how i feel and sell it – i would make a fortune. i’d have my trip to Norway paid in no time! ;)
keep it real.
~jen
OH – PS! yesterday i got my first financial support for Norway! i got 3 checks in the mail, totaling $400! Praise God!
the very first day i was in Denver (Monday) i went for a walk early that morning for lack of anything better to do (i had been up since 4:30am). this was my first venture out as a carless human being in like over 10 years. i started out by crossing small neighborhood streets. no big deal. then i moved to crossing the BIG streets. pushing the “cross” buttons and waiting for the walking man symbol to light up. all by myself. while waiting to see the walking man at 1 light, i randomly broke out and sang “the lion sleeps tonight…”. i had sung the beginning of it in my head and for some reason, that part escaped and became vocal. no clue why. i kind of giggled there at the stop light, realizing how random that was. kinda glad no one was around.
the first couple times i walked back from the gym in the early morning, i saw the same goose in the same exact spot on the sidewalk. granted, it may not have been the same goose. but i like to think it was. i started telling him good morning when i saw him. i named him Henry. since then, i have come across large groups of goosen at that spot and now i can’t tell which one is Henry. so they’re all Henry. and i saw hi to them and ask them what’s up. i’ve yet to hear a response though.
yesterday a guy in one of the other schools here walked by behind me and pulled my hair and said “BOING! …i couldn’t help it, it’s so fun!”. for a second i thought i was back in 1st grade. then i remembered i had straight hair still when i was in 1st grade. it was really funny. i’m glad my curly hair can create fun for other people!
speaking of hair, tonight for outreach i went to the elderly/disabled people’s home. this one man i talked to told me (twice) that he loved my hair, it was beautiful, and that it looked good on me. ha :)
i think i have found my favorite Starbucks. it’s right by our school (there are 2 right by our school…actually). but the part i love is that when i went early one morning to do some work before breakfast, the 2 women working there were older and just…well…fun/motherly/grandma-y! SO not your typical “hi i’m really cool and dress emo and have my own unique style which isn’t really unique because i look just like everyone else trying to look unique” Starbucks baristas. i quite enjoyed it.
i NEED to recap what i’m learning!! ugh..i need to just start making lists of things i need to do so i actually do them and don’t just talk about doing them.
keep it real.
~jen
when shane drove me to the airport to fly to Denver, he kept telling me that this was a chance to start fresh. coming to denver, nobody has pre-conceived notions of who jen is. nobody knows me. i can become the person God created me to be and not who people expect me to be. i liked that concept.
tuesday morning last week (week 1) we had worship. during worship, i felt God was showing me that i’ve let sin/satan dictate who i believe that i am. i had always kind of just accepted that i am a person who lets fear hold her back, a person who lets anxiety overtake sometimes, etc. that’s “just who i am”. but that’s not true. just because people expect me to be a certain way doesn’t make it right and doesn’t mean that’s how God’s created me to be.
friday morning during quiet time, i meditated on Psalm 139 where i am told that i am wonderfully and complexly made by the Creator of the universe (God). He knew me before i was born, He knit me together in my mother’s womb. i love that passage – i often have to remind myself of it when i’m feeling insecure or worthless.
during Friday’s worship time, a guy from another school here that i didn’t know came up to me and said, “i keep getting a ‘word’ for you – is it ok if i pray for you?” skeptical but curious, i nodded my head “yes” (it was pretty loud, the worship was still going on). he said the word he kept getting was “transformation” and that he felt God telling him He wanted to transform me during this time. being the skeptic that i often am when it comes to that type of stuff (i’m working on being open…), i thought it was cool but i also kinda thought “that is so vague – obviously anyone here for DTS is anticipating to be changed”. but i still thought it was cool, and it was biblical, so i believe it was the Holy Spirit prompting him. he also felt like God wanted to remind me i was beautiful to Him – which was cool too because just that morning i had meditated on Psalm 139.
anyway, this monday, in the first teaching session (this week’s speaker spoke on the Character of God), the first point the speaker made was that the goal of Christianity is – wait for it -- transformation.
just seems to be a reoccurring theme that God keeps bringing up for me.
living in great anticipation of what He wants to do…
keep it real.
-jen
i got to the YWAM base Sunday night. it’s Thursday night. i haven’t taken a single shower at the base yet.
everybody gasp in disgust.
are you finished?
ok now are you finished?
:)
ok now i’ll tell the rest of the truth – i’ve been showering at the YMCA (yes, mom, i’m taking showers. tell andy i’m using body wash, too). :) dude – the Y has brought such sweet excitement to me! i found an indoor volleyball court there and found a ball and played against the wall the first morning after my workout! so stoked that i have access to it! hoping to be able to play if there is a league or anything going on there. also – the showers are so great! at the base, 2 showers are shared by at least 10+ girls. so not only is it chaos to get a shower in the morning, the hot water also probably runs out. there’s so much more space to get ready at the Y and they have shampoo, conditioner, and body wash – oh and towels! it’s sweeeet!
so this week has been a lot of class time of introduction-type stuff. learning about fundraising, going over the rules/guidelines/assignments/etc. last night we watched a video of a message Loren Cunningham gave back in like…1968 or something. it was really good, all about relinquishing our rights, our life, for the sake of the Gospel.
we’ve also had “bonding” time, where everyone in our DTS shared their testimony with the group. and guess what. :) by the grace of God, i was able to give my testimony! i was one of the first people to go – i knew if i put it off ‘til the next session, i wouldn’t be able to each much and i would be fighting anxiety. so i did it! definite props to God on that one – it was cool. the first of many opportunities to rely on God’s strength in my weakness!
i found out a little more about the norway and mexico city trips. the biggest thing i learned is that norway is geared more toward friendship-evangelism – building relationships with people over the 7 week period and evangelizing thru those relationships. mexico city is more street evangelism, reaching people on street corners and such. i’m leaning more toward norway right now – my heart is geared toward relationship evangelism. i’ve done the street evangelism stuff before and personally…i just haven’t seen much fruit from it. it works, God can definitely use it. but i personally prefer to build relationship first.
the internet has been out most of the week. so i’m writing this offline and will upload it when i get access (which…you don’t really care, because if you’re reading this, that means i got access…). :)
i’m doing a lot better than i was monday (day 1 post). praise God the nauseous feeling, headache, and lack of appetite lasted mainly just the 1 day.
someone should probably go to bed soon. oh ok, fine – i’ll be that person. i’ll sacrifice. you can stay up – don’t worry – i’ll go to bed for you.
OH! 1 more thing. tomorrow night some of us at the base are going to play ultimate frisbee! so stoked! so excited to just be active with people.
ok for real – i’m ending this.
keep it real.
~jen~
