last week

sorry i didnt blog last week guys! Well last week our speaker was Bruce Stephanik. He's a really awesome guy whos an associate pastor at the church I go to here in Salem. He used to be in YWAM and he pioneered the YWAM bases in Mexico. For me personally I felt God was talking to me alot about living with totally authentic faith and living a completely authentic/honest life. But throughout the week here are a couple main points that really stuck out from the weeks lectures.
-I cannot become who I am destined to be by remaining what I am.
-We need to BE the message.
-Freedom is divine empowerment to do and to be what we're originally designed for.
-As soon as you set yourself in a place of judgement, you have eliminated your chance of being the anwser.
-Our job is to speak into the world prophetically and redemptively.
-God is after authentic love
-Don't give your life to lesser things
-The most dangerous people in the world are those who have nothing left to lose.
-Sin narrows your world and how you view it
-If comfort is the governing value of your life then discipleship ends at that point.

Then Bruce gave us 4 questions to ask God. I got some pretty amazing anwsers form God=] They're personal, so I'm not really gonna type it out I don't think. But heres the questions. I wanna challenge ya'll to ask God these questions!

1. What does God want to do with my character at this point in my life?
2.What does God want to do in the way you've done relationship up to this point?
3.What does God wanna do in relationship to the structure of your life?
4. What does God wanna to with the mission of your life??

well, I love ya'll and hope all is well back in Washington. You are in my thoughts and prayers!!!

Last week

Last week our speaker was world renowned Dean Sherman. The whole topic of the week was relationships, it was an amazing week, and here are some of the points that God taught me.
-Love is about choosing what is highest and best.
-Whenever you make ANY decsion in life you need to ask..is it loving?? is it wise??
-Everything is a choice. One thing does NOT lead to another. Everything in life is a choice.
-Discipleship is being changed into the image of God.
- You can't know God if you arn't activily loving people. But having love doesnt mean you know God.
-You want more of God? love more!
- You are never more like God then when you are loving people.
-Dying to ourselves is about laying down our rights, cuz in reality we don't have any. Laying down selfishness, and serving others in love.
- love is a choice more then a feeling.
- Your knowledge of value brings responsibility.
- Lusting after people is de valueing them
-We are all equal. See everyone as having equal value.
-Knowing isn't just what our brains holds. Knowing in an intimate experience.
-Love is greater when it jumps over more boundries
-God's intention had always been relationship
-Relationships are all about value. Including valueing yourself. You have to see yourself as equal with others.

Valentines Day

Well this years valentines day was the best I've ever had!!!
The boys in my class surspised all 17 of us girls in my class with a super special dinner!! It was really fancy!! And super delicious!!! We had such a blast getting dresses at Goodwill before hand and we had so much fun getting all dressed up. It was such a blessing and a really fun time! And the night before we had a girls night (that i planned) we made a bunch of yummy food stuffs. Watched "The Secret Life of Bees" cuz mom sent it to me in the mail. (thanks mom!!) and then we had a dance party/sleepover in the prayer chapel!!! it was sooo much fun =] wooo for all the single ladies!!!!

Go God

This past week has been really amazing. Our speaker was Dan Baumann. He works on a YWAM base in Kona, Hawaii and has written 2 books. "Imprisoned in Iran" and "A Beautiful Way". Anyways, Dan is REALLY cool. He was pretty different from our other speakers, although they have all been totally different...Dan is really chill. He's a total beach guy, says "yeah" alot. And he's always sayin "Go God, go God.." He basically shared his life story with us, along with alot of other things. And I just wanna share with you some pieces of his lecture that really impacted me.
- EVERYTHING is all about Jesus. Start and end your days with Him.
-our vision of God is SO small. We can;t put God in a box! Once we ask God to give us a greater revelation of Himself, everything changes.
-Live right now. Alot of the time we are waiting on confirmation from God to go out and do something or make a decision and he wont say anything. Alot of the time He did respond but we either ignore it or don't listen. So often He is just waiting for us to respond in obedience!
- We can't always just wait for God to change our hearts about somthing. We need to trust and obey and trust that over time He will change our hearts.
-Remember the day you experianced God's love the most??? He's still the same today.
- So often we say our passion has died down or is gone. But it's still there! We are just letting our emotions rule over our passion. The passion is there even if you dont feel it.
-God wants to surprise us. He delights in us!
- Jesus called the disciples on ordinary, average days. Embrace the ordinary. Dont take ordinary days for granted. God loves to surprise us with Himself.
-It's no the "why" God is doing something that matters. it's about fully relying on Him.
- He will give you "special grace" when needed.
-Everything you ever wanna do for God, will be the overflow of intamacy with God.
-Life is discovering over and over again that God loves me =]
God wants to be apart of everything we do. We don't have to be doing something "spiritual" but just inviting God in and doing things with him makes it spiritual. Hangout with God.
- We cant make "feeling ready" our God
-All you have is today. The future doesnt even exist yet.
LIVE RIGHT NOW. DREAM BIG. LIFE IS ALL ABOUT DISCOVERING WHO GOD IS.
Everything in this life is about loving God and loving people. When you don't know what got wants you to do...you do know! love God and love people.

Please pray for this

Incase you guys didn't know, 60,000 people have died from cholera in Zimbabwe as of January 31st. This epidemic has been spreading rapidly all over the southern portion of Africa. Everyone is dying because you need clean water to heal from cholera. The whole reason they are getting cholera is because they don't have clean water! Pray about this. But also be willing to be the answer to that prayer. Don't ask God to send other people the anwser or to send other people to be the answer. Be willing to be the answer to your own prayers. Whether it's raising money, going to Zimbabwe, or something else. Be willing. Let God use you!

I have a question.
When will we defeat this present darkness of social injustice that blankets our world in such unbearable misery?
Friday night I was walking out of one of the lecture halls after one of my classes ended. Me and six of my peers had just walked out the door into the cold winter night when four armed men started yelling at us. They pointed their guns at us and shouted "Get on your knees! Get on your knees NOW!". After recovering from a dizzying moment of shock and confusion I realized I needed to obey their orders. But I realized to slowly. After a moment of clarity I was shoved to the ground by one of these men. I was shocked to see they were dressed in camo...they looked like soldiers. After we were all on our knees these men forced us to put on bandanas. I knew what was going on. This was a classic sceanario of human trafficking.
As if I were reading it straight from a book on child soldiers...the night unfolded into my worst nightmare, something I never imagined would happen to me. "Why God?..why?!?!" I kept asking. After being blindfolded we were all poked and prodded by their guns and shoved into the back of a van. The confusion was was almost incapacitating. As soon as we were in the van I grabbed the arm of my whimpering friend, asking who it was I was grabbing ahold of. I didn't dare take that blindfold off. It was Marina...sweet,caring Marina. Scared out of her mind. But as soon as I started whispering to her, what sounded like the head soldier in charge yelled at me, saying "shut up or I'll shoot you!!!". The rest of the van ride was filled with a terrifying silence, except for the continuing jeering remarks from the soldiers. The ride was bumpy and uncomfortable but it was a cake walk compared to the hell we had to endure next....
The van soon came to an abrupt hault. And the seven of us were this time forced to exit the van. Still blindfolded and utterly confused. It's difficult to even begin to describe what happened next.
We were standing in some kind of open feild, I got the tinest bit of a peek from behind my blindfold. We were then all shoved to our knees and found oursleves sitting in mud. All of a sudden there was a blood curdiling scream, but it wasn't from any of the girls in our group. I recognized the voice. It was one of our DTS leaders, Megan. She was screaming
"no!...no..please NO!!! Don't shoot!...no please NO!!!!"
Then I heard the shot of a gun...and complete silence.
As soon as the silence came, it was gone. Replaced with the cheering from the blood thirsty soldiers lips. "You're one of us now! Welcome to the club."
"Oh my God." I begun to realize exactly what was going on. They were recruiting us as soldiers of their rebel army. I am going to die.
I frantically prayed to God begging Him "Please God! Please end this! Don't let them chose me! Don't let them even notice me!"
It seemed as soon as I prayed that prayer there was already a soldier picking me up, forcing me to my feet.
I was the next victim.
I resisted at first but then realized I didn't stand a chance. I succumbed to the soldiers grip on me and followed after him. I was led to the center of the feild and there the screaming started again. "NO!!! NOOO!! please no! Don't shoot me!! noooo!!!" These cries from whatever innocent girl was up next sent chills down my spine. One of soldiers then put a gun in my hand. I instantly had the reflex to elbow him in the stomach. I refused to hold it. Once I started to resist he started yelling at me. Forcing it into my arms, coaxing my fingers over the trigger. I still couldn't do. He screamed in my ear with the ferocity of a lion. "SHOOT!!! SHOOT HER NOW!!! Shoot her or I will kill both of you!!!!!! SHOOT!!!"
I still resisted. They were sick of playing games. Another soldier came behind me and held a gun to the back of my head. Thats when I knew it was time to give up. I had lost this battle. The poor girl screamed out in despersation one last time....and then I pulled the trigger. They patted me on the back and said "YEAH! Welcome to the club!"
I couldn't think. I couldn't feel. What. Just. Happened....

Now this reall did happen on Friday night. Although it was a pretend sceanario used to teach me and my classmates about human trafficking. It was acted out by our DTS staff members and we really did go through all of that. It was beyond difficult to go through, but incredibly eye opening. Oh and I got the idea to write this is story form from a girl named Kristi in my class by the way.

Alright so now here are some things you need to know.
Real facts everybody.

There are more slaves in the world today then there were during the times of the African slave trade.
-27 Million people in the world are living in some form of slavery.
-Human Trafficking is the 2nd largest criminal industry in the entire world.
and it's a 39 billion dollar industry.
-4 Million of them are sex slaves,
- One million of those are children.
- 70% of Russian orphans are trafficked.
-Almost all internet porn with the exception of Playboy, is actually trafficked women. Women forced to do it.
-Nearly 200,000 people lived enslaved at this moment in the U.S. and an additional 17,500 new victims are trafficked across our borders each year.
-50% in the U.S. is sex trade, the other half is trafficked into forced labor.
This is slavery....

You WILL be hearing more about this later.....