Week Eight YPDTS

Week eight, not so intense and prfound as six and seven, but a good one none the less. This was special because I have been praying for God to give me His joy, not the temporary kind that we can create, but His real, deep joy and He's been giving it to me big time! We had outreach prep week this week, which was full of dramas, skits and dances and late nights. By wednesday, we were all already extremely burnt out, but God just gave us so much energy for the final day of learning, which were dances. I learned a dance, HA, and actually had so much fun because we were constantly reminded that this wasn't about us and that looking silly or untalented didn't matter as long as we were giving it our all for God. I was able to have so much fun and confidence in performance just for the small fact of knowing that I wasn't doing it for me. This makes me wonder how much differently we would step out if life didn't always revolve around us and if we were living lives to reflect Christ instead of ourselves. This is something that I and many others here struggle with, but our previous speaker Dean Sherman gave us a phenomenal quote to digest. "You should only refrain from doing things out of wisdom, not fear", and we have an unlimted amount of wisdom available from God when we are willing to ask. This is not to say that I have left fear to the dust and am now able to go through life completly lacking fear-of-man, but I am able to take baby steps towards that reality. Not only did Dean Sherman give us that idea to contemplate, but also he reminded us that, "There is zero possibility that God will not be with you when you are obeying the great commision." These have come to life for me this week in how I need to decided that when I go after something, it needs to be with 100% of me. So, in turn I was able to have a good time being part of God's work in preparation for Thailand. The thing about this week that was pretty crazy though was that it started as one of the worst weeks for all of us. We are getting to the point where we are tired and getting to know each other well enough that it's fair to be grumpy - so monday and tuesday weren't a hundred percent awesome. After a really intense worship time though, the attitude of the school had shifted. We were able to take communion mid week, as well as spend two straight hours just being with Jesus and we were able to wash each others feet. This was a great way for us to refuel and has made me realize how important it is to recharge with praise. The book that I just finished is called "The Power of Personal Prayer" by Jonathon Graf, and he made a statement in there that "Praise poises us to battle from a position of victory instead of for victory." I thought this was extremely profound and almost forces me to value praising God so much more.
This week we also started to pray everynight as roomies. We throw prayer requests out to each other and just end our night with thankfulness and petition. It was crazy to see the closeness that tiny little act brought, but not surprising since prayer is extremely intimate. We also started a prayer wall in our main lounging area which was cool so that we could all come together and rise up as the body of Christ instead of just individuals.
With not so spiritual stuff this week I got to shred for the first time!!! Saturday we went to Breckenridge and for the first time for most of us, got out to snowboard for the season. It was amazing and I couldn't help but thank God for the beauty and fun that He has created! We also, on Thursday night, went to this wear house that has trampolines over the whole floor and the side walls. It was the most intense workout I think that I have ever done in my whole life, but it was crazy fun. A group of 15, 18 and olders walking into a childrens birthday party hotspot felt kind of ridiculous, but it ended up being a ton of fun for all of us and we saw some pure talent after eight o clock when bed time hit for the kids who had school the next day.These guys who came after were AMAZING and had core strength that I have never expereinced in fraction so I have found my newest hobby to pursue. Just kidding, but there is some crazy things that people can do on a trampoline. I also spent the night after we got back laying in bed feeling like I was bouncing, which was kind of cool but made me dizzy too. I also learned a little bit of how to salsa this week, I realized my hips are very much attached to my body and unfortunately I was not blessed with rhythm, but my dance partner was a girl.. so either way we looked ridiculous and everyone else was just as brutal as myself so we just got to have a good time together.
This week was amazing for God providing joy to us all and I have been able to recognize God's presence in things so much more than just worship, class and church. It's about the baby steps and just working to live like Christ. He is more interested in the process than the product so here I am in process, faults, struggles and shortcomings which are all made perfect through Christ.

The next webisodes for Jesus Freaks are on the web!!! YOU NEED TO VEIW THEM AND LINK THEM TO YOUR FACEBOOK STATUS AND BLOGS TOO PLEASE!!

www.jesusfreaksmovie.com

Week Seven YPDTS

I was very moved by this week. We were able to have another DTS group from our base in Arvada stay with us here at Eagle Rock. We took class together, worshiped and fellowshipped together and were able to just have fun and get to know some more people with the same goal of knowing Jesus as us. We did not have a Monday night outreach for this reason, but the week was full of growth and love with Dean Sherman speaking on Spiritual Warfare. I was overwhelmed with what he was telling us since it was never something that I thought existed around me, but it surrounds us all every day! We all have a spirit inside of us that has to choose daily to follow the world or the kingdom and principles of the kingdom are universally appreciated but often hard to follow through with. I realized that I am a hundred percent in the kingdom of God, even when I sin. His grace is ready to fall on me as soon as I repent and in His powerful name I can rebuke the enemy with all confidence that he has no power over me after that. I was able to really see how much power Jesus’ name holds and that I never have to fear death, because He holds the keys. His love was so evident to me this week and the goal coming in was to be able to feel the intimate relationship that Jesus offers us, when we are willing. This week I was finally able to feel some of that real intimacy. Each day with Dean Sherman reinforced that as a believer of Jesus I never have to worry about not being worthy to spend eternity with Him, He is the redeemer and was absolutely perfect in His sacrifice. There isn’t a level of holiness I need to reach because He already gave me that when I decided to choose Him as my saviour. I feel like I’m reiterating the gospel, but I think this week it really came alive for me again so I am excited to share it in any way that I can. Not only were the teachings and everything great, but being able to hang out with the Musicians DTS (MDTS) was also really great. We were able to just enjoy each other through games of volleyball, worshipping and just getting to know each other. I am thankful to the Lord for blessing me with so many friends and allowing me to be surrounded by so many people who encourage me to continually get to know Him more and choose the Kingdom every day. I am blessed beyond what I could ever imagine. Not only with my new friends here but also all of you back home and of course my family, every week that I spend here I realize the blessing that they are to me and God must have something pretty amazing planned to have allowed me to live in the greatness I have been.

The MDTS left that Friday as well as Dean Sherman. We were able to have an amazing worship time where Jesus performed a miracle in our midst. My roommate has been suffering from intense, chronic back pain for the last two years and has seen about every doctor that she could. She was still in pain and found it uncomfortable to just sit and worship. By an act of obedience another girl here began to pray over her during worship and another girl and I felt called to join in, in praying over her. Each of us felt a specific direction from the Holy Spirit of how to release her from her pain and after much praying and allowing the Holy Spirit to penetrate and release familiarity of pain, she was healed! Her pain was gone for the first time in two years and though we were expecting that it might come back, four days later she is still free of pain and each day we are thankful that she can go through the day painless. It was amazing and surreal to me since healing was something that I thought of as only a Jesus and disciples thing, but He always comes through and shows me that He is more powerful than I had contained Him to. That night I was also able to go to Kingdom Night and here I paired up with three boys, one whose fire for God was something of a spectacle to me. The confidence he went out in and just the assurance that God was with us the whole time, gave me special confidence and I spent a lot of time watching and learning. I was able to talk with a few people and generate a few smiles with Jesus’ love, but most of all I learned. It was really great and I am excited to be able to get back out and continue to learn and share the love of God. I was also able to go the infamous Tijuana Taco’s which everyone around here talks about and I was pleasantly surprised. Authentic Mexican food is great I would like to say and if you ever decided to come to the Denver area, I would highly suggest hitting this place up. Also order yourself a horchata (don’t pronounce the H, I was laughed at by our Mexican student) since it is amazing! I also ate cow intestine here, which was kind of gross I’ll be honest, but it didn’t taste that bad. I was told that heading to Thailand I better start getting ready to eat whatever was put in front of me no matter what it was, so pray for me.... if you know me at all you’ll know how picky of an eater I am and how easily my stomach reacts to EVERYTHING! I’m going to need some major transformation ha.

Anyway, Saturday was the day that really made me realize a ton about myself and my relationship with Jesus. We were able to have a worship time with United Pursuit band (AMAZING! Get there music as soon as humanly possible).  There was just a room full of us, packed into our worship center down at the base learning these new songs and allowing the Holy Spirit to penetrate the room like I have never felt before. Everyone was so all consumed by Jesus, that they didn’t even look at each other or care about how badly they were singing. Here is where I realized that Jesus is the only one who can wreck me. I generally don’t cry, most people know that since I have an extremely hard time doing it around the people closest to me, never mind others, but here I could not even contain it. I have found throughout worship times that I cannot hold in the tears, but here was especially strong. After about five minutes of trying to fight it back, I just let it flow and the amazingly real presence of Jesus in the room was so evident to me that my worship experience was much more than just singing. I was prayed over here and even though neither of us really knew what was being prayed about I felt the Lord working in me and I was able finally relinquish my trust to Him. Not only was I touched, but I had the most amazing image of intimacy given to me that I can truly say that I understand the type of love that God wants to give to us, in fractional form. I was transformed. I was excited to hear that many people had the same sort of experience as me and that throughout the whole school, there was a new hunger for knowing more about Jesus. I love it and I am excited to see where it takes us up till outreach as well as when we go out into the world to share the truth that we have been immersed in for the last three months of our lives, 24/7.

This week was really a God week. Though class and other weeks have been great, I was able to really feel the intimacy that God is pumped to have with us as well as to really be confirmed of how much he loves me. There will never be a way that I can earn myself into heaven, and I am so grateful for that because grace is the most amazing gift that I could ask for. His provision and grace was shown this week when the launch of Jesus Freaks happened just yesterday.  Over three years and just under one million dollars was put into this YWAM documentary, but mostly just about how Jesus transforms and is in constant pursuit of His people. We are praying that this goes absolutely global and that the world can be touched by the story of a few students and a girl who died, loving Jesus the whole way. Please go to the link that I have posted below and watch the webisodes. If you are loving if, attach it to your facebook status, blog or whatever other internet option you have because when people search Jesus or freak on google, we want this to show up and just show the world that they are never too far gone to experience the grace of Jesus. “..but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly”, Romans 5:20. I was so blessed this week and I hope I know that there is a lot of Jesus stuff in this one, but I think that’s what this whole experience is about.

www.jesusfreaksmovie.com

Week Six YPDTS

I'm sorry I haven't been doing a good job of keeping this consistent, I often just get caught up in the little things and find that it's bed time before I know it. These last two weeks have been extremely intense with our speakers and very out of schedule for us which has made things extremely busy, but also really has been challenging me if I'd like to take what I'm learning and keep it in my head, or to apply it to my heart. Each morning I have to wake up and either out loud, or in my head say that today I am choosing Jesus because sometimes without the commitment, temptation is more attractive. But last week we had a speaker by the name of JR Pohlemus, a pastor and speaker, and he spoke on the Holy Spirit. We have been working a lot in the Holy Spirit this whole quarter in just being able to hear him, feel him etc. but we got more into the gifts of the Spirit which were fairly new to me. We dove right in and on our first day, JR spoke about the tongues. It was amazing to see how many people had the gift and that it was available to every believer who believed and was willing to receive. It was something that I was very interested in, but I felt a very unsettling feeling come over me when we were able to practice the already given gift to us (by the Holy Spirit) and turned into something much deeper for me. The unrest was overwhelming and I just started to feel that I needed to talk to God about what was going on and why this was something that I was so afraid of. I wanted to intimacy that a spiritual language with God could provide, but there was so much blockage in the way. This turned into something that was amazing, because the Lord blessed me with a yearning to find this blocking sins and where they might root from. I began to mind map and just think about the different things that had taken me to the spot that I'm at with sins that are separating me from God and here a journey started. Healing is painful and disciplined but the Lord is already working in me because as willing as I am to be closer to him, he is 100 times more willing. This was also a revelation to me this week that God pursues me as his child. I had heard people speak about how God pursues them and wants them and is constantly reeling them back to him but I hadn't had that revelation myself. Then we were sitting in worship, and at the end of a song someone got up and just said hey guys, let's thank God for what he's doing in our lives every day. Just being able to be in a community of love like we are and so forth, after that I was so humbled. The Lord showed me what a pursuit he had had on me that I would get to a community like the one I was blessed to be in. I felt an impression so strong after that of "Karly, I love you", something I obviously knew already, being fundamental, but it was something that absolutely broke me to realizing how much the God of the universe wants me. His pursuit is on and he doesn't give up, that's what is so amazing.
 Later in the week, JR brought his daughter to help with teaching and she gave us the idea that when we look back to situations that brought us pain or bitterness to see the source of pain in that situation and Jesus right beside us because he was there with us. He was so much more hurt than we were at what was happening and he was there to love us, especially when we weren't getting love from people around us. To know that his love is so unconditional that it doesn't matter what I do or what circumstance I'm in is so comforting and I can be as confidence in his love tomorrow as I am today. The whole week was one that was really interesting and hard because I didn't have a lot of knowledge on the Holy Spirit and His gifts, but I feel like I have a lot more knowledge of even the bible and how I can apply that to my life, when God and I are ready.
This week I also went to Kingdom Night (evangelism in lo-do). It was crazy since there are usually a lot of people, but there were only six from our school and maybe 15 or 20 from the other schools. I was able to talk to a few boys from the area as well as a man who challenged me a lot on the credibility of everything I believe and made me more inspired to look for the roots of Christianity (obviously Jesus, but the translations of the bible and such). It was an amazing ride back to our school also, since the group was so small we were all able to be real with each other as well as just have a lot of fun. Sunday also was great because the church that I am going to is speaking on idols. This week was the idol of religion and each week that Pastor Jay has talked about a different idol I have felt convicted to change my life and follow God so whole heartedly and put all other things secondary to him in my life. I am seeing so much progress! It's amazing. Just being able to take my thoughts captive and treating people with the love that Christ flows through me is the beginning but intimacy with my Creator has stepped it up a notch which is what I am so hungry for. I am finding that the more that I learn and know about God and his character, the more hungry I am to learn more! It has been great and I would love to write about week six, but I will do that tomorrow since it is bedtime right now. Please be praying for me and my team with the outreaches creeping up and that their funds will start flowing in. We trust in the Lord to provide, but prayer is always part of the plan so thank you!

Also check out this link - http://www.jesusfreaksmovie.com/ - putting it on your blog will help it to increase rank on google when the words Jesus, or freaks is searched.