here is an excerpt from my journal last night at our weekly campus meeting (ohana meeting) where they commissioned all the students into the nations next week on outreach..

"the palms hypnotize me..

the children playing amuse me..

I sit here in the Ohana court reminded of God's faithfulness. The pale blue sky painted in clouds. The last golden strokes from the sun

creep around the edges.

Surrounded by the nations.. all with one passion, one heart after the same Lord. Many tongues and cultures, skin tones and world-views.

One common goal.

to expand the lords kingdom, reach those that are unreac

hed, love those that have never been shown love, serve and grow. Tonight marks our commissioning. The night we are blessed and sent out by our leadership. One week from today i'll be arriving in Manilla Philippines. Surrounded

by yet another new culture. In a team of many cultures. We have a Brazilian, two New Zealanders, a girl from UK wales, and USA. After these past few months I feel as tho the world has shrunk. It went from being a bunch of random countries out in the world somewhere, to men and women sitting next to me in class, roomates, friends. Thats one of the beauties of YWAM. So many different people and nationalities. Its here that you learn to love despite your differences..and in THAT, you grow.

We all have sacrificed something to be here, but its beca

use we all desire something more.."

Looking back on these last few months I cant help but laugh at this crazy thing called a DTS. One of the most interesting processes you'll ever go through..but with amazing outcomes. It still hasn't sunk in that I am living in hawaii haha and its been three months! :) so much soul searching and seeking the Lord and finding out more of who I am has taken place. It's crazy to think that this phase of life is already over :( but its time for another season. It's time for outreach..the place where we put all that we have learned into practice. I'm so excited to see how the Lord uses each of our teams..our strengths, our

weaknesses, our talents... how he uses US as tools..to bring LIGHT, hope, and expose stories. i'm so exhausted that I almost feel inadequate going into outreach. I pray that he will use me despite my weary body and tired mind..that my soul would

still be alive..continually seeking..continually desiring more.

This morning in class we prayed over each team and asked the Lord for words and pictures. Some things spoken over our team was that we were a team of intense UNITY and not to let the devil break that. Also we wouldn't be afraid to

take risks. If we have a creative idea inside to voice it and go through with it not just push it aside. Another person saw a picture of this river flowing though us..and it was flowing with eas

e and we were moving with it and the river symbolized the holy spirit and as long as we are doing everything in him we will flow and know that to do next and where to go and he will lead us. Many other good things were spoken over us but I can

t remember now. When praying over the India team I felt as though the Lord gave me this picture..it was a scene of a street in India..all lively and colorful.. then all a sudden the outreach team started walking down the road and all the colors of the town turned grayish and everything went to slow motion. But the team kept walking in and they were glowing in light with this BRILLIANCE of light and color behind them. and as everything slowed down around them they kept marching on bringing this light and new color. I felt the Lord was saying that when we realize the power we have inside of us because

of the holy spirit we can move in powerful ways and shift the spiritual atmosphere in these countries..bringing NEW light. It was an awes

ome morning though and got me pumped up for outreach :) this afternoon I went to walmart and got some last minute shopping done. This weekend my outreach team in going camping from saturday noon till sunday around 1ish. Then we have two days before we fly out wednesday! Still feel I have so much to do :/ but i'm trust

ing everything will get done in its own time :)

heres a verse God showed me the other day that I think is an awesome prayer we should never stop praying..

Psalm 40:11 (the message)

.."Now God dont hold out on me, don't hold back your passion.

Your love and truth is all that keeps me together"..

some recent photos.

click on photos to view them larger

-- zach and laura are married and they are awesome :) and it was zachs brithday!

--camping with some friends one night! right by the water, so much fun

-- on the left is my roommate natalie from Germany and in the middle is my friend elizabeth from north Carolina

-- my classmates!

-- a sweet iguana we found!

-- my word duty crew :) getting metal to take to the scrapyard

-- me and my friend emily at a waterfall one weekend

-- celebrating my friend Liz (in front) 's birthday..starting with a trip to the beach

-- looking at bamboo at this garden we toured

God you are so good...you are faithful Lord even when we fail. you are constant..you never leave... I love you Lord... and I thank you for your presence and your peace...

ERIC VISITED!!

CLICK HERE to see video of the surprise :)

so last thursday I recieved one of the best and biggest surprises of my life when Eric came to Hawaii and totally surprised me. I had NOO idea he was coming, he has contacted my friend Sadie and had her in on it and they totally got me! and the greatest thing is it's all on video :) haha. Not gunna lie..I seriously have the best boyfriend ever. I am so blessed and I thank God daily for placing him into my life :D we had so much fun together, for the weekend 7 of us rented a minivan haha and explored the island and went camping and saw one of the most beautiful stary skies i've ever seen and jump off cliffs and stood up next to a rushing waterfall! We also went snorkeling, so awesome! we ended the week together on Tuesday at the beach, my friend Ben let me borrow his cycle and we stayed at the beach all afternoon and watched the sunset :) couldnt have asked for a better time.. he also came to all my classes and fit it really well with everyone. They all loved him :) here are some photos of our time together..

pre-IRONMAN!!

CLICK HERE to see a video I made of the day at the triathalon..

a few weekends ago a few of us volunteered to help out with the half triathlon that was happening in Kona. It is a pre-requisite for the IronMan competition in the fall which is a full triathlon. We woke up at 4 in the morning and headed out around 4:30. We arrived there around 5:30 and our first job was to help stamp the numbers on the athletes arms. It was so fun because we were the first people they talked too and we got to ask whether this was their first time or not or whether they were nervous or not. It was nice to be able to encourage them as we stamped their arms and sent them on their way. After that we watched the swimming section..they started and ended at the same spot they basically made a huge circle in the ocean. The triathlon had about 1200 participants and it was crazy to see that many people in the water at once. The half triathlon consists of:

swim: 1.2 miles

run: 13.1 miles

bike: 56 miles

and the ironman is a FULL triathlon..which is DOUBLE that! those people are seriously crazy! Our next job wasn't until the finish line so during the day we hungout at the second switchover spot and watched the bikers switch to running. Then when they started coming up to the finish line our job was to make sure the went straight to this one tent

to get their GPS's cut off. The athletes are kinda out of it when they come through the finish line because they are so worn out so my job was to make eye contact or grab their arms and direct them to that tent. It was fun because one of the first females to finish..a PRO athlete..ended up half collapsing on me haha so now I can say that a pro athlete sweated on me and I assisted her to the tent haha. Some people came through with their backs just covered in blistered from getting so burnt in the sun..others were pucking. It was crazy. Some people were in their 70's and 80's crossing the finish!! It really made me want to get in shape so that I am that healthy when I am other.. I have alot more respect for these athletes and the hard training they put into this.

Baptism

A few weeks ago our class went down to the beach because some of the students wanted to get baptized. It was such a touching time to see your friends make public declarations that they are never going to turn back to their old selves. After each person was baptized a few people gathered around them and prayed life and blessing over them. Such a beautiful time together..

here is a video I made of that morning..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_ajAUHodwU

i'm sorry that I wasn't able to tape everyone because I ran out of card space :/

Homework

here is a short slideshow I made of some research I did of my outreach location..

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO!

Public Speaking and THEword.

This past week we had John and Yvonne Childers Speak. They are the parents of Paul Childers who is the head of PhotogenX :) John is very wise in the word as well as on teaching us how to properly public speak and prepare small sermans, like we may have to do on outreach. One thing that stuck out to me this week was when he taught on the three Gods Baal, Asherah, and Molech. And how they are still very much worshiped to this day..

Baal: (Lord and husband) ...controlled the weather and therefor the wealth
Modern day Baal: love of money, greed

Asherah: (sister to baal) Goddess of love and sea..worshiped through sexual orgies
Modern day Baal: Sexual immorality, porn

Molech: was a fiery God particularly interested in children...worshiped by sacrificing children
Modern Day Molech: abortion

wednesday night we has to prepare a short 3-5 speech on an injustice issue..I choose starvation and poverty. Below is my speech as well as a short (and bad, I literally made it 15min before by speech) slideshow to use as my visual aid

intro: (hold up picture from book and read this out of book..)
** Decisions I must make on any given day:
-blue shirt or pink cardigan?
-Tall soy chai latte or Grande caramel macchiato?
-write reports first or work on budget
-text message or call?
-eat out or frozen dinner?
-Reality television or headline news?

** Decisions SHE must make on any given day
-blue dress or blue dress?
-river water or puddle water?
-walk once for four hours to get water or walk twice for 8 hours to get more water?
-sleep with the fisherman who will give food in return or let orphaned grandchildren go to bed hungry?
-persist through the struggle, or give up?
-curse God or praise him?

SPEECH:
We take for granted the everyday choices that we have as Americans. "In this world, God has given us the gift of choice. Injustice threatens to take it away. They can drink the filthy, bacteria-ridden pond water or drink nothing. Clearly, that is no choice at all.." Same goes for starvation..they can not afford food, or they have no food, so they do not eat. Again, where is the choice in that? Yesterday we talked about the clean water crisis and today I want to inform you on starvation and poverty. Starvation is a major problem in today's society, but it is concentrated in third-world areas, such as Africa and parts of India and South America.
907 million people in developing countries are hungry. 25,000 people die everyday..16,00 are children. That's one child every 3 second. There is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.
Exports say in order to provide water, basic health, and nutrition for everyone in the world they estimate it would cost around 20 billion dollars, which is how much Americans spend in one year on ice cream. The wealthiest fifth of the worlds people consume 86 percent of all goods and services while the poorest fifth consume only 1 percent. There are over 1 billion people living on a simple dollar a day. People across the world are dying and living in poverty and starvation while we are here over-eating and continuing to be wasteful. Statistics how that 40% of the worlds food supply is wasted. In America we take food abundance for granted. From sushi to steak to salad and smoothies, countless food choices are part of our daily routine and a key component of our leisure and fun. One hundred and thirty-four million of us—75 percent of the adult U.S. population—are obese or overweight. Issues like these are overwhelming and can automatically make you want to shut off yourself from it. The Lord calls us to do the opposite.. he commands us to "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up justly and fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." How can we help, what can I do?, we ask. Freerice.com is a website that allows you to answer simple trivia questions and for every correct answer they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. As they mention in class yesterday only 10 dollars can provide someone with clean water for a week. Like all issues of injustice, amongst the despair and hunger, the dying and needy, there is HOPE and we have hope in our Lord Jesus Christ who cares for us, whose love is sufficient and everlasting, whose grace and mercies are new everyday :)

click here to see a sideshow that I played after my speech..

Intercession: Clean Water

Wednesday morning of this week during our intercession time, we decided to focus on the Clean Water Crisis. The staff led us in an interactive for of intersession..giving us a glimpse of a day in the life of someone with no clean water. After giving some statistics they had us get into groups of three and told us we must be silent during all of this. With our group we were given a bucket and followed a staff member up around the building to distant shed where we filled our buckets with water. The entire time during a walk the groups were told to say "one, two, three, one, two three" and continually count and say nothing else but "one, two, three". As the groups starting coming back we were told to just dump out bucket of water out. My heart starting burning..seeing everyone dump out their full buckets of perfectly clean water..wasting it. when children across the world are drinking muddy pond water. I could feel myself interceding on the inside. My stomach knoted up and my heart turned angry. Kids are dying from lack of clean healthy water. what can I do?? what can we do?? As we gathered back together they told us how every 3 seconds a child DIES from not having clean water and the effects of it. so as we were walking, everytime we counted to three a child died. It was such a heartbreaking number..and do think of it happening as I was saying three. They then had us drink a cup of dirty water..it had chunks in it and I gagged a few times..it was so difficult to put down. but there are people who go through this EVERY day. Except their water is full of mud and bacteria while ours was only full of nasty edible stuff that isnt usually put together. For only 10 dollars a child can have clean water for a WEEK. and We spend 10 dollars on little minuet things. After this time of walking in their shoes and learning these statistics we gather together to pray over the global isssue. I encourage you as well to think of these children and families without clean water. Maybe think twice about how long you let the water run and how long of a shower you take. and pray for this issue throughout the week.

Some Statistics I found:

• At any one time, half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases.
• Over one-third of the world's population has no access to sanitation facilities.
• In developing countries, about 80% of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions.
• 1 out of every 4 deaths under the age of 5 worldwide is due to a water-related disease.
• In developing countries, it is common for water collectors, usually women and girls, to have to walk several kilometers every day to fetch water. Once filled, pots and jerry cans weigh as much as 20kg (44lbs).
• Average person in Africa uses 4-5 liters a day..average American uses 80-100 gallons
  

holy spirit Let it rain..

Last week we had the amazing privilege to hear Amy Sollars speak on the topic of the Holy Spirit. and let me tell ya..she is the woman to do it! Her testimony and her experience with the supernatural and holy spirit are insane and so encouraging.. we have the power of the holy spirit INSIDE of US, and through him miraculous signs and wonders can be performed :) This Holy Spirit topic can easily make people turn off or ignore because it is something that is so difficult to understand. Amy provided lots of biblical references backing up everything. main focus this week was teaching us to have a relationship with the holy spirit..he is a very real part of the trinity, not just some Casper ghost, one of the God head, the 3rd person. God walked in the garden with Adam and eve..Jesus walked with the disciples and now we walk with the holy spirit. This week was on FIRE with the holy spirit. He out poured and manifested (def: a showing forth) himself in ways I've never seen before! it was incredible to see. As Amy would say "He's my friend, and if hes my friend then he shows up..and when he shows up..things happen ;) . We learned about some of the different representations of the holy spirit: fire, oil, dove, finger of God, water, and wind/breath. As well as the different gifts of the spirit (1 Corinthians 12). She broke it down like this..

Revelation Gifts..supernaturally REVEAL something..the eyes of God:
words of wisdom, words of knowledge, discerning of spirits
Power Gifts..supernaturally DO something...the hands of God
faith, healing, miracles
Vocal Gifts...supernaturally SAY something...mouth of God
prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues

Wednesday night we have an incredible time of ministry and worship.. the chorus we sang and the volume we sang..so loud and so beautful! we were all crammed in the classroom and tons of other classes and people on campus were joining in because of the incredible out pouring of the Lord that was going on. fresh baptism of his spirit..joyful singing...it was like no other night i have ever been a part of! Thursday night at our weekly all campus Ohana meeting..the Lord really revealed himself again through another POWERFULL night of ministry and worship. Thank you Lord so much for meeting us so much throughout the week!!
..since I suck a words and voicing and putting into words how I feel...here is an excerpt of my good friend Elizabeth's blog, so you can get a better feel how that night went :)..

"So the first day was good. Second day was better. Third day... day of resurrection it felt like, haha. Friends of mine who completely put some of the gifts of the spirit in a "heck no" box... all the sudden were being filled with the gift of tongues... Friends who struggled for the past 6 weeks with questions and finding truth in what God thinks about things... began to experience God in those places... breakthrough was happening all around me. I not only saw it with my eyes, but I was hearing with my ears the testimonies, I could feel the joy of the Lord rising up inside of me, and my doubts were being turned into beliefs. Wednesday night came and we had ministry night with Amy and "Phase 3" students (part of Fire & Fragrance ministry here at YWAM). Call 2 All (another DTS going on right now) also joined us as we went after the heart of God. From 630 - 930 (when we got kicked out of the building for being too loud), we worshiped... Singing, Dancing, Shouting, Interceding, Laughing, Praying in tongues, Joining with Angels in loving Jesus and being loved by God... fully walking in the Holy Spirit. For me to explain what happened this night, would not even come close to the breakthrough that each one of us felt. Like I said before, we were joined by Angels. Worship was a little rough in the beginning, but then we asked God to come down in our midst and take over - and He did. We started singing this melody and you could feel the atmosphere shift. There were voices that were not earthly, and the volume of the singing could not have been from our small group. It was incredibly ridiculous how beautiful that sound was, and how it could never be replaced by anything earthly... Heaven invaded earth last Wednesday night."

let it rain..let it rain..
open the floodgates of heaven..
let it rain..let it rain

let it rain
let it pour
like its never rained before


you can view all of Amy notes that she taught us at www.amysollars.com