10/18/09

Hello Everyone!

First off I'm sooo sorry it has been such a long time since I wrote last!!! I'm finally here :) and here's what I've been up to:

Spiders:

In the last two weeks I've had series of spider incidents. Now... I don't mind spiders. I don't enjoy killing them but I'll do it if need be. However Janine... is another story. After a terrified scream and my roommate BOLTING out the door yelling in Swiz-German I discovered that she's not too keen when it comes to spiders. As I sit here writting I'm still laughing about (happend like ten mins ago.) but she's standing behind me plotting the death of the next one that dares to enter our little room. So far we've had three and she says that they travel in pairs thus there must be another.... somewhere. (Dos esh nude lustick) that's not how you spell it but that's what it sounds like... it means "that's not funny!" and she keeps looking over at me and saying it... :)

Anyways... she's been a delightful comic relief to a very hectic couple of weeks.

Jesus: All About Life

Last week our base participated in a 'crusade' that is traveling through Australia called, "Jesus: All About Life." It went for 5 days and we were there from 6 p.m. until about 11 p.m. every night. The weather has been pretty cold and a couple of the nights it even rained so we tried cramming as many of the 3-4 hundred people into the tent (that was set up) as possible but many had to sit out in the rain. It was an amazing experience. The speaker's name was Suzette and she's from South Africa. Her testimony blew my mind and I got to see some miraculous healings and I got see people get saved left and right!!! It was awesome :)

One of my friends here (Suzanne-base staff-20-from Ohio) has had a disease that I have NO IDEA how to spell but it's when your spin grows crooked. I remember the first week I was on the base she showed me that when she stood up straight one hip was higher than the other. Anyways Friday night I was in my room and I heard screaming out in the hall. I was annoyed because it was midnight and I had to get up at 6 so I came out into the hall to basically tell people to shut-up and there's Suzanne stand up straight... without ANY sign of the disease. She'd been prayed for that night. I was so shocked! I've never seen anything like that before. It was hard to believe at the time but now I'm just in awe! :)

Laundry:

Today I learned my lesson in laundry... empty the pockets first... half my whites are some weird brownish orange now... :D life goes on haha but I won't be wearing half my white shirts anymore! WOOT!

Homework:

A couple of weeks ago I finished my first book report on the book "Is that Really You, GOD?" by Loren Cunningham the founder of YWAM. I would recommend it to anyone! It was a great book and helped me understand YWAM a lot better. My next book assignment is "Love, Sex, and Relationships." My mom has been trying to get me to read that for years. Well, I finally am. lol
Right now the primary focus when it comes to homework is my "Adopt A Nation." Every student on the DTS has to "adopt a nation" aka make a 15 min. presentation about a country that's primary religion is not Christianity (not a hard assignment sadly) and lead the base in 15 mins of intercession for the said base. My nation is Thailand and I'm learning so much! I'm really getting excited to go there. We'll be in Bangkok (on outreach) and looking at pictures just sends shivers down my spine! It's such a beautiful place but so very messed up. Over 94% of the popular is Thervada Buddhist. As I read into what that means I was just shocked. I've never really thought much about Buddhism and what they believe.

Lectures:

We're now in week #7. of lectures. We just finished "Worldview" week. Last week was "Holy Spirit" and the week before was "The Father Heart of God." Father Heart of God week was very intense. I learned a lot about my view of God and view of myself. Holy Spirit week really built my faith. Our speaker told some amazing stories and we had some incredible times of prayer and fasting as a group. One night I remember some of the girls and I just sat in the worship hall singing, dancing, and laughing until late into the night (even though we knew we had to get up at 6 a.m.)... it didn't matter. haha :) Worldview was another hard week. Our base director taught and I honestly still have SOOO many questions about what having a "Biblical Worldview" really means. He broke a lot of our "nice Christian answers" down and challenged us in ways that I've never been challenged before. It was good for me.

Prayer Requests:

I don't know if you guys have heard but there was a tsunami that hit Samoa on the Sep. 30th. One of our students is Samoan and his family was effected the tsunami. As a base we prayed about sending relief and we decided to. So the group that is going to Vanuatu is also going to be heading over to Samoa in Nov. to help where they can. Please continue to pray for the islands in the Pacific as there was another tsunami warning. It's been hard on a lot of the staff that live here because Island Breeze Sydney's main focus is are these islands and they know many people that could be in danger. If you want to help Somoa specifically or the team that is going just let me know. :)

Please also pray for the students on my DTS who don't have all of their outreach funds yet. Many are still pray for the whole $4000.

Thank you all again and again for your support. How is Seattle doing? Enjoying the rain? AH! I miss the rain. Last week we celebrated Canada's Thanksgiving and it hit me in the face that I won't be home for THANKSGIVING!?!?!?! No Turkey? No Sweetpotatoes??? haha I miss you all very very much! I love you guys and hope to hear from you soon :)

God Bless,
-Shanna