already memories ...

sometimes i can figure out how to add captions like a normal person & other times i can't, so who knows. i didn't think i'd keep using this blog after my little YWAM stint, buuut there have been some requests. and if they persist, maybe i will write even more. :) the first windblown pic is me & ash in the back of a jeep some guys rented and took us all over the island for our early birthday celebration, since our birthdays are two days apart. the next two are at our birthday dinner, and the guy with his mouth wide open is actually our really good friend - despite what ashley's face says. (haha i love that pic!) and finally there are two pics of commissioning night.

life is like a box of chocolates!

Fun times in Lahaina! It rained all over the island this weekend so we wandered around the harbor town.

We toured the Baldwin house, where some awesome missionaries from Connecticut lived back in the day. I love learning about history & I've always wanted to tour this place since I read about it in the Christy Miller books, hahaha.

It was great to tour, because normally everyone harps on the missionaries for bringing disease and starting fights, but the Baldwins were loved by the Hawaiians. Their house was always full of people. Dr. Baldwin provided medical care and helped the people to establish their language in writing. They loved on the people constantly. It took about six months to reach Hawaii by boat, so they stayed for twenty years before they ever went home to visit their family in New England! Talk about an inspiration!

a jumbled up "story"

one night in the van (we travel everywhere in 15 passenger vans that are only still running by the grace of God, but that's another story ... or set of stories.) someone was talking about how they're worried about doing what they were sure God called them to do because they didn't have money for it. i am not very trusting in this area either, but the way this guy was going on and on i felt like i had that faith to move mountains compared to his griping. clearly this happens to be a guy that i (let's be frank, because i usually am) can't really stand.

i can see where he's coming from. i think that nearly everyone struggles in the area of money. clearly it's the god of choice for the majority of the west and it controls the majority of our decisions, if not the course of our lives. i'm as guilty as the next guy. i want to be in control and it scares me to let God have total control. (which is weird because if He's in control and something goes wrong, it's not my fault ... and nothing will go wrong if He's in control, so why worry in the first place?)

all of that aside, i still firmly believe that if God calls us to do something He will provide more than enough for us. i'm still learning a lot in this area, and it's interesting to hear different believers perspectives on money and provision. i feel convicted to study more of what the Bible says about money, instead of shaping God into my own preferences. i don't want to come to my own conclusions based on my own desires. but from what i've studied of the Bible and seen in the lives of people around me, i can safely say that He will provide! He deserves our trust and nothing less in every area of our lives, even finances.

so when this guy was going on and on about how miserable these next few years are going to be because he doesn't have money, something in my spirit did not settle. i said, "i don't get it. didn't God call you to this? so why wouldn't He provide for you? do you really think that God wants you to be suffering the next few years?" and i tend to cross lines without realizing it, but i kept going and didn't feel dumb until after the conversation was over. i explained to him and the other few people who were there that during my DTS when there were people who didn't have enough money for outreach, we all prayed about it. and then we all gave what we felt God nudging us to, because we're family. and in a family if there's one person "going hungry" while the others are livin it up at the hotel california ... that's a dysfunctional family and the last thing God wants for His body of believers. if someone doesn't even have money to go on outreach and there are tons of other people buying lattes everyday ... is that really what love looks like? everyone in my DTS ended up with enough money to go on outreach. it's not about forcing people to give money, cause that's not right either. it's living under complete surrender to God and asking Him what He wants your money to go toward, and i believe that when we live that way there will be blessings untold for us and for those around us!

the guy was pissed at me for saying it and i felt really dumb. i'm quiet and rarely give unsolicited advice, but i was so upset that he didn't give God the glory that is due to Him. if God is who we say that He is, if He is the omniscient provider ... then i really don't think that guy needs to worry about a miserable next few years following God's call in His life. sigh. even so, i got out of that van wondering why i opened my mouth. why did i even bother saying anything?

fast forward to this morning. announcement time. "i've been thinking about something chelsea said ..." (whaaat?!) she had been in the van that night and (to make a long announcement short) has really been convicted about money and felt like we should collect money for everyone who still needs outreach money.

it's really not a big deal or miracle, but God really encouraged me through it. i hold back so much from speaking things on my heart, probably doubting whether they're from the Lord or not, but i need to stop doing that. i need to start realizing the impact that my words could be having. i need to choose my words carefully because people do listen, whether i feel like it or not. whether i see results or fruit, God is using me. and i needed to be reminded of that, so thank you God.

"Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble."(1Tim 6:10, the Message)

"Don't be obsessed with getting more (money). Be relaxed with what you have. God assured us, 'I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you . . .'" (Heb 13:5, the Message)

name that nation ...

5 Characteristics of [a nation] ...
i. a mounting love of show/luxury (affluence)
ii. widening gap between the very rich and very poor
iii. obsession with sex
iv. freakishness in the arts; masquerading as originality and enthusiasm, pretending to be creativity
v. an increased desire to live off the state

Does this sound like any nation in particular?
I automatically thought of the USA as our speaker challenged us with this today. It was actually a quote by a British historian named Edward Gibbon in his 1776 book "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." He listed these as the main attributes of Rome before its fall. Ironically that was written the year that the USA was starting out, hey? Makes me shudder. The fall of Rome is commonly attributed to outside Barbarian invasion, but truthfully it did not fall because of external influence. Their fall was the result of internal decay as they turned from a firm foundation on absolute truth.

We're watching a video series by Dr. Francis Schaeffer this week called "How Should We Then Live?" As much as I enjoyed the first day, I'm expecting awesome things from the Lord all week! Something else I found interesting was that the Roman culture as it reached the fall was marked by apathy. I had a terrific conversation last night about ... apathy. God confirmed a lot of things in my heart that I'm feeling directed toward and it's neat to see Him tie things together.

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

wonderful weekend

With friends in Wailea, one of my favorite beaches on the island!

Holiday in the sun anyone? :) Blissful Saturday soaking up the sun.

Sunday we left at 4am to drive to the top of Haleakala Mountain! We got lost on the way and I was in a panic thinking we'd woken up ridiculously early for nothing, but we ended up getting there in decent time and the whole thing was covered in fog. Everyone else was super bummed out about that, but I had experienced Haleakala sunrise AND sunset in my DTS (with a 10-hour hike in between, crazy story for another time!) so I didn't mind. I was actually laughing hysterically at the whole adventure and Ada said, "Chelsea, you can make anything fun!" Made my day. :)

There I am in my wokeupat4amwearing10layersoftshirts glory!So after we hiked around a bit and were driving down, the sky cleared up for about 10 minutes! The whole weekend was full of "God-stories" of His timing and blessing, even in being able to do that this morning.

Sunday after church we were invited to hang out on a yacht all afternoon. The churches here are incredibly generous, continually blessing us in all sorts of ways. It was a busy but wonderful weekend!

breathing again

What a week! I finally understood why the SBFM is cracked up to be such an exhausting endeavor. That was mostly due to my own procrastination, but apparently everyone else did the same thing because we were all acting like zombies. Our worldview projects were due this week. Each group was responsible for a two hour presentation on an assigned worldview as well as an extensive written report. (Plus our usual reading & Bible reading & community assignments.) My group presented on New Age last night and it went really well.

New Age is incredibly interesting to me, and the more I learned about it the more I realized how much it was God's hand for me to research this topic. Their beliefs have permeated American culture and I had no idea how much of it I was buying into! I loved watching Oprah whenever I went to the gym or had days off work. I'd heard she was kinda kooky but rolled my eyes at people for being overly critical. She calls herself a Christian but mixes it with New Age. No wonder New Age is so prevalent in the world when one of the most influential people alive is pushing it to an open audience for an hour every weekday. New Age beliefs aren't harmless like they may come across to be.

Even scarier was learning about Marxism and how much America is shifting toward communism. Those examples were jaw-dropping - to say the least. We also learned about Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Secular Humanism. Tons of great information. Tons of reasons to worship God all the more.

A few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night and thought it was storming outside, but realized it wasn't raining. (I've never seen lightning in Maui or even heard thunder.) It was the sound of the ocean! It's like living a dream ... waking up to the ocean ...

this that & whatever

cross cultural communication

That was our topic for the week. I think if I'd heard this speaker during my DTS it would've confirmed everything I'd feared missions would be. In other words it would've made me keep thinking that being a missionary means you have to be a complete weirdo and lead a miserable life. I've grown since I did my DTS two years ago and was able to receive everything with a much better attitude. I listened to his amazing stories of his lifetime spent as foreign missionary and my jaw dropped. I can see that the choices he made are not just for the sake of letting his culture go so that he can be different, but because to make an impact in any culture you need to let go of yours.

It's an easy concept to talk about and listen to, but when it comes to letting go of my culture I definitely pick up an attitude. I take pride in being an all-American girl! I love our country and don't want to conform to something else. But my identity can't be founded in my culture. As much as I insist that I find my identity in Christ alone, I live my days in a way that shows otherwise. We resist letting go of our culture so much. We might think it's some Biblical principle and fight to the death to hold onto it, but the truth is that it's just something we value in our culture and it can be laid aside for the big picture.

One of the examples he used was names. He started replacing people's names with things like Dorcas and Chester and it was irritating. Sidenote: most of the school was annoyed by the speaker. And he could read body language like a book so he would call people out on it. Which was hilarious. I had a military tshirt on the day he found out I was Mennonite and he had a field day teasing me about that, especially cause he could tell I hated that the Mennonite thing even had to come up. Same thing when he wanted us to guess the artist of the song he was singing and I was the only one who knew it was Carly Simon - "Wow Chelsea, that's pretty good for your Mennonite background ..." Yeah yeah yeah, I try to keep it on the downlow mister.

But back to the example of names! :) If you had to change your name to something quirky you'd probably be resistant to it or wonder why bother. Our names are just words but we put our identity into being Chelsea Lynn Shank. We should be willing to change anything if God asks us to. Plenty of people in the Bible had to change their names - Abraham, Sarah, Paul and Peter. God wants to lead us more than we want to follow. God loves us more than we love Him.

He focused on getting rid of the cultural "screen" that gets in the way of our communication with people. This can happen in our own culture, but obviously is more of a barrier when we're crossing borders. We evaluated where we fall in being time vs event oriented, task/persson, dichotomistic/holistic, crisis/noncrisis, achievement/status, and vulnerable/non. Americans tend to be on the first half of those groupings. I scored big on achievement, which is all about earning what we get. This is good for life but gets in the way with theology because I have trouble receiving grace. It's hard to understand the grace of God when you live with a mentality of having to work for everything you get. I was also big on holistic thinking, but in everything else I was right in the middle.

I have a lot more to write, but I have to go work in the kitchen! God is doing a lot a lot a lot in my life and it's awesome!

$30,000

A friend and I just walked back from Anthony's coffee shop, one of the many struggling small businesses here - it seems like half of Paia is shutting down! Hawaii is being hit very hard by the economy because tourism is fading off. I've lost track of the number of people I've met who have lost their jobs and are searching for anything. A lot of people at my church have been moving back to the mainland. So in Anthony's this guy came over to talk to us and I thought he would just hit on us and move on, but no. We got into some political chitchat and he kept saying he was leaving but then walking back to tell us something else. When he finally left and we finally stopped laughing my friend was like, "It's times like this I wish I had a blog ..." And I remembered I have this and haven't written in ions ... so here I am.

Updates of the election were on the TV and after he got the lame jokes out of his system he started telling us that he doesn't know which candidate is better, but he was sure that Obama would win. He chuckled as he told us he would lose a lot of money if he didn't, because he'd put $30,000 on a bet. When I think how far $30,000 would go for me, it blows my mind that someone can just toss it out on a bet. What kills me even more is that he just got done telling us how he has been a businessowner for almost 40 years and this is the first time that he's ever felt scared. Everyone's fear is paralyzing them from spending which is screwing the economy over even more. He's been coming to Maui for 32 years and was distraught that most of his favorite waiters have moved off the island in the past few months.

The $30,000 deal made me assume he would vote for Obama, but he leaned in close to tell us that he couldn't vote for Obama for one reason. Abortion. His politically correct manners shined as he told us that he didn't want to take our rights away from us (we assured him we have no desire to exercise that "right"), but it's just wrong. And he can't imagine standing before God in judgment for all the babies he would have a hand in killing if he voted for someone who supported that. Amen! He owns some cemeteries on the side ("You see I did that cause I saw this whole thing comin!") and talked about the babies he's buried and how his daughter can't have children. He knew the stats on how much of our taxes go toward paying for abortion. Absolutely disgusting and heartbreaking.

It was refreshing to talk to him, because I have grown tired of people brushing abortion off as "just one issue of many." Who cares what a person says about anything if they think murder is justifiable? If human life is not at the core of their value system, there will be tragic repercussions to their behavior. Abortion is not just another issue! It is life or death and God calls us to choose LIFE. It's not about being "pro-life" and "pro-choice." The logical opposite of pro-life is pro-death no matter how they try to market it.

Yeah. I could go on but luckily for you there is a huge pile of homework calling my name. :)

But guess what?!
This past weekend our base had Manny's Mustache Marathon, a 7.1 mile run from the base in Haiku to one of the houses in Paia. I've never run more than three miles, so I thought I'd jog as much as I could and walk the rest, but I ran almost the entire thing! It was hot as heck but once I got to the portion along the ocean I was golden. I also felt like throwing up a few times, but then I'd see a guy up ahead and force myself to pass him. Smart comments had been thrown around beforehand, agitating me enough to make it my goal to pass at least two guys. I beat half the guys and was the top finisher for the girls!!! I still can't believe it. We had a BBQ on the beach to celebrate and the guys had a modeling faceoff to be judged for the best mustache. I guess the whole idea came out of a way for the guys to show off their sicknasty mustaches from "Overgrowth October." Oy vey.

nissan xterra baby!

Some of us volunteered at the Nissan Xterra World Championship triathlon in Wailea this weekend. Handing out drinks to the runners is a ton of fun. (Seriously!) Saturday is a 5 & 10K run and Sunday is the real televised deal of a one mile swim, 27 miles of biking on trails, and a six mile run.

malcolm muggeridge

"The greatest artists, saints, philosophers and, until quite recent times, scientists, through the Christian centuries, . . . have all assumed that the New Testament promise of eternal life is valid, and that the great drama of the Incarnation which embodies it, is indeed the master-drama of our existence. To suppose that these distinguished believers were all credulous fools whose folly and credulity in holding such beliefs has now been finally exposed, would seem to me untenable; and anyway I'd rather be wrong with Dante and Shakespeare and Milton, with Augustine of Hippo and Francis of Assisi, with Dr Johnson, Blake and Dostoevsky than right with Voltaire, Rousseau, the Huxleys, Herbert Spencer, H.G. Wells and Bernard Shaw." [mm]


"This life in us, . . . however low it flickers or fiercely burns, is still a divine flame which no man dare presume to put out, be his motives never so humane and enlightened. To suppose otherwise is to countenance a death-wish. Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one, and in some the other." [mm]

life life life

celebrating ada's birthday at flatbread! she is from norway & claims the pizza at flatbread is better than rome! i know i love it, but what don't i love to eat. ;)

my friend abbey & her baby Israel! we were on the same team to nepal & she is one of my favorite people in the world, hands down.

life is good. the leader of our girls small group has us list highlights and "lowlights" of our week when we meet together each week. i have to stop myself from going on and on about highlights! i am learning and growing so much. to be able to say that i am learning to KNOW the nature and character of God ... is amazing. it is a privilege and i am so thankful for this time to dig into His Word and His Truth for my life! so much happens every single day.

i was really encouraged when one of the staff said to me, "chelsea, do you see this?! can you see what the Lord is doing in you?" and went on to explain how much deep change she can see in me already, and how awesome it is for her to be able to watch. i was slightly jealous because i can't necessarily see it, but i do feel it and i am THRILLED to know that it is taking place. i am so hungry for Him and what i want more than anything else is the Lord. i love being around people who are hungry for Him. talk to people about the Lord. ask people about their testimonies - for their lives, for that week, for that day. it makes my day to be around people who love to talk about God. it's a shame that it's not more natural for everyone. i know that personally i need to talk to everyone about my love for Jesus. not just the people closest to me who i know love Him as well. He needs to be not only the forefront of my mind, but the forefront of my conversations. constantly.

"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

waxer

don't mess with a man's woman.
i love being protected and am unashamedly a sap for love stories, so this analogy from waxer (our speaker) clicked immediately. :) anyone can mess with waxer or say what they want to about him, but the minute they say anything about his wife - "you'd better forget about it - it's all over!" a man will do anything to fight for and protect the woman he loves.

and what is the church to God? His Bride.
and what are people constantly bashing? the church.

what a convictingly great word ... to be careful when we start talking trash on His bride! it's also encouraging to know that God will redeem His church. that as His body we are on the forefront of His mind. waxer influenced me tremendously and i can't summarize everything God spoke to me and did inside of me this week. that was just one of many 'waxerisms' that will stay with me. i have a lot to apply to my living! he talked a lot about our role in the church to serve, and how when we are serving to serve people we will end up burnt out. when we live to truly serve the Lord and not man is when we will find fulfillment. another good line was that the key to frustration is unmet expectation. how easy is it to apply that to not only church, but relationships? work? life in general? we forget that we have both physical and spiritual needs to be met, and commit entirely too much time to meeting our physical needs. not that they aren't necessary, but they aren't everything. which is why we see people like michael jackson or britney spears having their physical needs perhaps met in excess, and yet they are going crazy. their spiritual needs aren't being met. (then there are the searchers like pamela anderson sticking up for PETA in a desparate attempt to find purpose, but that's not quite getting it either ...) instead of worshipping God they are worshipping themselves and receiving worship. and it's not just the rich and the famous - i am just as guilty. we are created to worship and serve God, not ourselves.

funkiness

the spiritual atmosphere in paia is notoriously heavy, as a lot of beliefs are mixed together and experimented with among the drifters. it gets prayed into a lot and i have not felt threatened or attacked during my time here. (which is so the Lord's hand, because i have heard some horrid paia stories.) apparently a lot of girls in our house have been having trouble sleeping and as one explained - "experiencing some funkiness." my roomy & i were oblivious until the other night when we were laughing away in a midnight conversation and i heard someone two rooms down quoting scripture. i said we should get up and pray with them but then we decided not to because we thought maybe they were just reading the bible out loud to each other to finish their assignment. (we read through the old testament.) of course they weren't doing homework and we had a house meeting about it last night.

in all honestly it was a frustrating meeting for me because i had been sleeping and feeling fine, and evidently i'm an ignorance-is-bliss kinda girl because it freaked me out. last night i had trouble sleeping and woke up a lot and had a huge headache this morning. go figure. pray for protection and for deep, refreshing sleep. i hesitate to even write about this, because i hate to give the devil any attention. i think his work gets recognized way too quickly and if we had that much fear of the Lord and His power we would be much better off! if satan has the power that he does, so what? it should only lead us to a fuller realization of the power of our God who defeated satan completely!

the best part of the house meeting was hearing that some of the guys (who all live in a house one block away) had been waking up in the middle of the night sensing a need to pray over our house. for a few nights they had been right outside praying over us around 3am. two nights in a row the exact same van drove down our street and each time it saw the guys would stop suddenly and turn around. we live on a one way street. even though the doors get locked at night they had been keeping the key on a ledge beside the front door. (they moved it to a lockbox now, thankfully.) God has been faithfully protecting us from only He knows what! what an encouraging blessing to know there are guys humbly waking up to intercede through the night because they are that sensitive to His Spirit. thank you Lord!

lectures

A large chunk of my time here is spent in lectures. Our first and second week were taught by staff and mainly by the YWAM Maui base director, Tom Osterhus. I have very much respect for Tom and his ability to effectively communicate the wisdom the Lord has given him. He did "Biblical Overview" last week which might sound dry, but is far from it! I absolutely LOVED the entire week and grew so much. You leave with headaches and have conversations and wrestle with things, and know God is stretching you and making you who He has created you to be. This week was "Inductive Bible Study." I had gone through it before so it wasn't new information, but I was able to practice it and feel comfortable with the concept now. We have a more in-depth project due in a month, so we'll see if I'm still saying that once I get into Phillipians.

Here are some excerpts from the first few weeks ...

• God knows what His potential through me is, and it is far beyond anything I can grasp!

• Having a Biblical worldview is important because ideas have consequences! This is a catchphrase for our school, and I'm fascinated by the examples we study. America was based on Biblical principles and prospered for so long because of that solid foundation we take for granted. Since we have turned away from those standards as a nation we have begun to fall into deeper depravity and until we turn back to the Lord, our nation will continue heading in a frightening direction. Nations like Nepal that are based on Hindu principles have never achieved much. Even a country like Finland which doesn't profess Christianity but is still based off of Christian ideals has reaped the benefits of living from godly guidelines. When North and South Korea split, the North remained communist and now has rampant starvation. South Korea turned to Christianity at the end of the war and is thriving. They actually send out more missionaries than anywhere besides the USA and even have four of the world's biggest churches!
• I was intrigued by the difference between consequential judgment (we sin and that has natural consequences/effects) and retribution (God's punishment). This came out of a discussion about people who say Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans was the people 'getting what was coming to them.'
• God has been teaching me so much, a lot of which might make you say 'Well duh Chels', but it is deeper than I can put into words. It's about connecting head knowledge with heart. It's about confirming truth inside of me and learning how to articulate it so that I can effectively communicate my passion for the Lord to the world.
  

• Theology can lead you into a deeper place of worship because it magnifies the TRUTH of who God is and as we get in touch with scriptures we learn who God really is. Worship is meant to be an expression of the TRUTH that we know. I am learning so much about truth. I'm also convicted of being a "sponge thinker" because I tend to just absorb and need to be more of a critical thinker in all of life. We took evaluations and almost everyone scored in the "secular humanist" range ... SCARY!

• "The marks of truth as Christianity conceived then are that it is supernaturally grounded, not developed within nature, objective not subjective, a revelation and not a construction, discovered by inquiry and not elected by a majority vote, authoritative and not a matter of personal choice." [Harry Blamires]

• The Abrahamic Covenant blows my mind. It opens my eyes to who God is and how much He loves us. Covenants in that day had to be walked out by both parties to signify commitment, and whoever broke it would be cursed. Imagine the fear that Abraham had to feel about entering a binding covenant with an infinite God! But God was the only one who had to walk through it. Whether Abraham broke it or not, God's promise to him would remain!

Yeahhh, that hardly scratches the surface. I am so thankful that I am here and for everything the Lord is revealing to me. Yesterday in our girls small group time I was one of the only ones not crying from the stress of the school and I was questioning myself like, 'Am I not putting enough into this Lord? Should I be more frazzled to be more stretched?' I can picture God laughing at me, but of course in the moment He calmed my ever so quick to compare spirit. We've got a good thing goin on Chels, and there is no need to compare yourself to anyone else. So many sweet times with God, every day. Whenever I'm gone I find a million more things to be thankful for about myself/family/life ... and lately a big one has been: work ethic. Thanks Ma! :)

party saturday, study sunday

always divine

Two quick stories of God wowing me the last few days ...

• One morning I headed to a local cafe to read and pray and was settled into my window seat with my chai tea. There are lots of characters around Paia so it's not necessarily unusual for some kind of ruckus to occur ... anytime. That particular morning there was a woman COMPLETELY out of sorts though, and causing an extraordinary commotion in the cafe. I was kind of in my own little world, but it got so noisy and I could hear the desperate exasperation of the cafe owner attempting to shut the lady up. Next thing I know she is yelling, "Well I'm a manic depressive! Do you have any idea what that is?!" among other things, to which the poor employee says no. I was sitting there rolling my eyes at God, feeling sick in my stomach, but finally I said from my corner, "Hey, my dad has that. I know what that is." Crazy loud lady practically leaps out of her skin with joy. (Kinda felt like she would've whipped out a gun if no one had known what bipolar is - she was intense.) So I walked over and sat down and I could see the relief on the owner's face as I brought a calming presence to the situation. Amy had recently moved to Maui from Las Vegas where her ex and two little girls were still living. She poured out her entire life story with breaks to sprint outside to check on her poor dog locked in her car - "She's only acting so nuts cause she can sense that I'm nuts - once I calm down she'll be okay." (uh-huh, and maybe if she was outside instead of sweating to death without food or water she'd be okay too ...) She told me how important it is to tell my dad that I love him, horror stories from her own illness, and how important her Christianity is. She hugged me when I said I was a Christian too, but her distorted view of God made me feel sick. I don't know what came out of it, but I know I was in that place for a reason and it continues to amaze me just how intricately God orchestrates our lives. I need to be obedient in the "small stuff."
• Last night I was having a fabulous conversation with my roommate, and eventually we were pouring out our hearts about abortion and how passionate we are to see it come to an end. We were saying how we could both just bawl every time the topic comes up, when another girl walked in. We caught her up on the content of the conversation and she starts talking about her huge heart for intercession and all that God taught her at The Call this past summer. Turns out she had been fasting yesterday about abortion, and feeling very lonely in her desperation for the urgency to end abortion. Then she "just happened" to walk in on us discussing that ... one of the issues heaviest on both of our hearts as well. This was probably one of those "had to be there" kinda things ... but once again, in my eyes it was a divine appointment. I am so stoked for the three of us to lead an intercession time with the DTS or maybe the whole base focused on abortion. Even MORE stoked to see it come to an end, to see people come out of shame, to see the value of human life restored in our nation and WORLD!!!
  

soaking it up

My roommate Megan and I at Lovefeast, which is a huge celebration night to conclude "Exodus." Exodus is something each DTS at YWAM Maui does to kick off the school. Everyone sleeps under the stars and roughs it for 3 days with only a sleeping bag, Bible & journal, and flashlight. No showers, changing clothes, brushing teeth, nada. It was awesome during my DTS because it unified our school and helps you to bond really quickly. Nevertheless I was thankful to be on the clean side of things this time around. :)

Haha, this would be my friend Elizabeth, who is staffing the DTS and had a wonderfulll time on Exodus. Just to give you a glimpse into the extremes of Exodus.

Goes without saying, but here is the b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l coastline. Views like that make it so much easier to wake up early in the morning to go running.

Attempt at capturing the reflection of an awesome sky turned into a portrait of Shamu, one of the vans we take when we're not hitchhiking. So far hitching has been a breeze. Yesterday morning we prayed and in less than five minutes a hyperactive woman pulled over to pick us up. She couldn't figure out how to unlock the doors and told us she was just in a bad car accident and didn't quite know this vehicle yet. All of that information became apparent as she started driving, but I think she was also distracted by worshipping. She had her music blared and was so stoked we were Christians so that she could continue singing and dancing. She ended up taking us all the way to our destination even though hers wasn't quite that way.

The first week of classes has been EXCELLENT. Tom Osterhus, our base director, spoke each day and it was basically an overview of the course, introducing us to Biblical worldview. I have to go do heaps of homework, so I'm not really in the mood to rehash it all out here. Soon though.

la la la

the workload is hyped up to be exhaustive, so i'm taking things one day at a time. i am on day two of classes and it's working so far. :) we have a lot of reading to do and the books we're working through right now are "celebration of discipline" "know the truth" and "what skeptics say," along with reading through the Bible. after some mind-boggling reading yesterday i switched to the Bible and found myself thanking God for the simplicity of His Word. it's so refreshing to understand what you read and yet be able to come back to it again and again and receive new insight and revelation. but why would i ever expect God to be anything less than amazing like that?

this morning as i read in Genesis i was reminded of the miracle that rain had to be to people who never experienced it before. i was praying about not wanting to take God for granted - or anything for granted. i kept praying and was "distracted" by the most beautiful rainbow! it was enormous and brighter than any rainbow i've ever seen. there are rainbows on the island quite often, but this one was so bright that i had to stop looking at it! it got really noisy and i thought it was only the wind in the palm trees but it turned into this heavy downpour of rain. it kept raining and raining and was one of those perfect moments, just me and God ... knowing that He loves me.

relaxing before classes start

Paia fits me so perfectly! everyone is uber friendly and i'm not used to people smiling back at me and asking how i'm doing. i love it. you know how i'm generally afraid of dogs? not in maui! i decided that the dogs here get to be free and run around the beach so much so they're just happier and friendlier and less aggressive. i may or may not have seen owen wilson tonight at pbay frolicking in the waves with his adorable pup. couldn't tell, it was dusk & everyone tends to have shaggy sun-bleached hair like his.

i like to think my hair was meant for beach life.

i was thrilled to return to New Hope Maui this morning, the church i was involved with during my DTS. the pastor had a huge impact on my life and my vision of what church can/should be. he mentioned this morning that if we all come to church prepared, there isn't that much of a need for a sunday morning message. our personal testimonies will feed the body as much as a message from the same one or two pastors will. people shared what was happening in their lives and that always encourages me greatly. his message definitely hit home though! the enemy doesn't necessarily reside in hell or in the world, but wherever there is spiritual darkness. it is when i let sins linger that i leave room for the enemy to attack. something that stuck out to me was that God gives us the freedom to fail. i love that, probably because i need that! and here's a quote that's still sinking in ...

"Satan will not continue to assault you if the circumstances he designed to destroy you are now working to perfect you."

trying to put pictures on, not knowing what i'm doing