I can't believe that a month of this school has already gone by!
Camping was an amazing experience for our school. No phones, in the "wilderness", and sleeping in tents made for a stretching opportunity to grow closer as a family (school 🙂). I was a little nervous to be camping but ended loving every minute of it. We hiked up Pedro Blanca (White Rock) in Ojai, California, as well as swam in the river and slept under the stars. It was challenging, yet relaxing and over all a time to get to know each other. We learned about different ways to pray by ourselves as well as read Judges and 1 Samuel as a school together. So thankful for my SOMD family.
This week's lecture was beyond words. Brad Stanley has a heart to share about Urbanization and how it effects how we fulfill the Great Commission in the world today. It's crazy to think that my generation is the most urbanized as well as the most technologically advanced generation. About 54% of our planet is urbanized (as of 2014) right now, so that means we are able to reach more people than ever before. Urbanization is the moving of people into physical proximity and allowing cultures and diversity exist in unity with each other. This is bringing more unreached, isolated people groups into cities, making it easier to share the gospel to them. Most people from these people groups are forced to move to cities because of natural disasters like famine and drought causing about 80 million people to move every year (about 1.5 million a week!). These developing cities are growing faster than they can provide for, causing urban slums to grow rapidly as well! About 1 in 7 people in the world, live in an urban slum. I've seen these slums in Cambodia, and they are in a desperate need hope. God is bringing these people out of isolation and needs people to meet them in the cities to share his glory.
This is only a glimpse of what this week held in lecture, and it has been a rollercoaster of emotion and processing what this means to me personally. It's exciting to hear that God is bringing people out of isolation and in a different way then ever before. People are leaving home to go to school or get a job and are keeping in touch with their families back in their villages. If we can reach those in the city, then we can reach those in isolation through those in the city! I love that Brad is very passionate about sharing his heart for the cities, but never discredits those who are called to work in the isolated places. I loved this week and I can't wait to see how God uses it to impact my future. I have loved growing up in the LA area and being here at YWAM LA has really grown my love for the city . I love that all the nations are represented here and that this city is so influential to the world.
Sorry if this felt a little more like a lecture this week. I wasn't sure how to share without giving a little bit statistics. 😂
I really enjoyed this week.
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Saturday, April 29, 2017
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Learning to be a Follower (SOMD ~ Wk3)
So this post is a bit early this week because we are going camping!!!! I am so excited to get off the base and get to know my SOMD family on a deeper level. I'll make sure to update everyone about it next week!
I had the opportunity to go home for Easter. It was so nice to get to spend time with my family as well as my church family for Easter at Fairplex! Love the crazy busy day!
This week was Spiritual Leadership week with Kenny Peavy. Kenny is an amazing speaker because he not only teaches you in a classroom setting, but you see him live out what he's teaching. I was honored to hear him speak during another school that I have done through YWAM. Kenny is very Holy Spirit lead and is a true example of what a leader looks like.
The main thing Kenny kept saying is that in order to be a good leader, you have to be a good follower. As Christians, we are called to be followers of Jesus, so becoming a healthy leader comes with that. Paul and David were both willing to live to follow in God's calling for their life. They weren't perfect but they were at a place of listening to what God said to them and acting on it. I want to live by this example. Sometimes, we end up like Judas or Saul, wanting all the glory for ourselves. We want to see how far up on the ladder of success we can get by ourselves or we expect God to reward us here on earth. That's not what our goal should be, it should be on how we can further the kingdom for God's glory. He freely gives to us so we can freely give it away. He gave us the best he could, Himself! Our goal is to become his disciples, so we can make disciples, so they can go out and make disciples, and keep it going till the end of time!
I really enjoyed the worship time Kenny lead our school in. He had us sing from what the Spirit was speaking to us to show us that we are all worship leaders. When we worship, it's not about who's watching but only what happens between us and the Lord.
This week was so good and I can't wait to continue to see how God speaks in the coming weeks! I'll see you guys next Saturday, and I'll update you on our camping trip!!!
I had the opportunity to go home for Easter. It was so nice to get to spend time with my family as well as my church family for Easter at Fairplex! Love the crazy busy day!
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| Look how grown up my brothers look! I love watching them grow into young men! |
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| Our annual Easter picture. :) |
This week was Spiritual Leadership week with Kenny Peavy. Kenny is an amazing speaker because he not only teaches you in a classroom setting, but you see him live out what he's teaching. I was honored to hear him speak during another school that I have done through YWAM. Kenny is very Holy Spirit lead and is a true example of what a leader looks like.
The main thing Kenny kept saying is that in order to be a good leader, you have to be a good follower. As Christians, we are called to be followers of Jesus, so becoming a healthy leader comes with that. Paul and David were both willing to live to follow in God's calling for their life. They weren't perfect but they were at a place of listening to what God said to them and acting on it. I want to live by this example. Sometimes, we end up like Judas or Saul, wanting all the glory for ourselves. We want to see how far up on the ladder of success we can get by ourselves or we expect God to reward us here on earth. That's not what our goal should be, it should be on how we can further the kingdom for God's glory. He freely gives to us so we can freely give it away. He gave us the best he could, Himself! Our goal is to become his disciples, so we can make disciples, so they can go out and make disciples, and keep it going till the end of time!
I really enjoyed the worship time Kenny lead our school in. He had us sing from what the Spirit was speaking to us to show us that we are all worship leaders. When we worship, it's not about who's watching but only what happens between us and the Lord.
This week was so good and I can't wait to continue to see how God speaks in the coming weeks! I'll see you guys next Saturday, and I'll update you on our camping trip!!!
Saturday, April 15, 2017
SOMD ~ Wk 2
Hi Everyone!
I'm really starting to enjoy blogging! I've been writing, I'm starting to not only see the importance to document my day, but it is helping me process (I'm a external processer by nature) as I write. This week went by really fast. It was a shorter week in the sense that we only had lectures for the first three days rather than having them every weekday morning.
It's crazy how you can meet people through YWAM and feel like you've known them your whole life. We are in such close knit of a community where we eat, sleep, learn and worship all on the same campus, so you get to know each other really quickly. I love it! I love that people from all different backgrounds and cultures come together to learn more about God and how he wants to use us as individuals coming together to be the body of Christ.
Our topic this week was Boundaries. I wasn't sure how this topic would be discussed through our speaker but I feel like I can look back on this week and understand more about what unhealthy and health boundaries look like, how to maintain them in the change of seasons and that they are ok in first place. It helped me to place a foundation on which to build my own boundaries on. One thing that Craig, our speaker, said that affected the way I think was about which of the Trinity has the ability and power to judge. I've always thought it was God the Father who has this authority, but it actually Jesus who does. Jesus was fully man so he not only has the authority to judge us but he has the understanding of what we are tempted, tried, and suffer with as human nature. This really put this into perspective for me, as it changes the picture on how I see God on his throne and how he's not just sitting up in heaven judging without understanding of what we go through. Ts not that I didn't think he didn't understand but it shows more of how he cares for to have Jesus be the one who sits as a judge.
One Thursday a month, we usually have a base wide prayer and fasting day (P&F), where we all agree to sacrifice eating and drinking (anything but water) for the whole day until dinner. We usually prayer about one larger topic that in more in depth than our normal intercession times. Today (Thursday) was our usual P&F day for this month. We watched the Passion of the Christ in honor of Easter and then we prayed for unreached people groups throughout the world because they don't know about the sacrifice Jesus made for us and them. I found out that there's more YWAM base throughout the world than unreached people groups, in fact theres double the YWAM bases! YWAM LA's goal is to "adopt" one of these people groups in the next season and not only be praying for them, but eventually send outreach teams to these people. Our leadership team at the base is being challenged to be praying about who these people will be and will announce it in the near future. We were then surprised by our director with a Easter feast! Our base closes for the weekend but they wanted us to be able to celebrate as a community.
On Friday, we did a scavenger hunt as a school. We call it Urban Plunge at YWAM LA and we do it in the heart of Downtown LA. It was a great time of bonding as team, and I was surprised at how much I knew the city, yet there are new surprises around every corner! It was challenging as we were encouraged to do "missions" as a team to go out and pray for people and do worship in public as well as complete silly challenges like walk down Hollywood Blvd. with our shoelaces tied together.
I'm happy to be part of this school and I can't wait to see how the next 2 1/2 months bring us even closer as a SOMD Family!
I'm really starting to enjoy blogging! I've been writing, I'm starting to not only see the importance to document my day, but it is helping me process (I'm a external processer by nature) as I write. This week went by really fast. It was a shorter week in the sense that we only had lectures for the first three days rather than having them every weekday morning.
It's crazy how you can meet people through YWAM and feel like you've known them your whole life. We are in such close knit of a community where we eat, sleep, learn and worship all on the same campus, so you get to know each other really quickly. I love it! I love that people from all different backgrounds and cultures come together to learn more about God and how he wants to use us as individuals coming together to be the body of Christ.
Our topic this week was Boundaries. I wasn't sure how this topic would be discussed through our speaker but I feel like I can look back on this week and understand more about what unhealthy and health boundaries look like, how to maintain them in the change of seasons and that they are ok in first place. It helped me to place a foundation on which to build my own boundaries on. One thing that Craig, our speaker, said that affected the way I think was about which of the Trinity has the ability and power to judge. I've always thought it was God the Father who has this authority, but it actually Jesus who does. Jesus was fully man so he not only has the authority to judge us but he has the understanding of what we are tempted, tried, and suffer with as human nature. This really put this into perspective for me, as it changes the picture on how I see God on his throne and how he's not just sitting up in heaven judging without understanding of what we go through. Ts not that I didn't think he didn't understand but it shows more of how he cares for to have Jesus be the one who sits as a judge.
One Thursday a month, we usually have a base wide prayer and fasting day (P&F), where we all agree to sacrifice eating and drinking (anything but water) for the whole day until dinner. We usually prayer about one larger topic that in more in depth than our normal intercession times. Today (Thursday) was our usual P&F day for this month. We watched the Passion of the Christ in honor of Easter and then we prayed for unreached people groups throughout the world because they don't know about the sacrifice Jesus made for us and them. I found out that there's more YWAM base throughout the world than unreached people groups, in fact theres double the YWAM bases! YWAM LA's goal is to "adopt" one of these people groups in the next season and not only be praying for them, but eventually send outreach teams to these people. Our leadership team at the base is being challenged to be praying about who these people will be and will announce it in the near future. We were then surprised by our director with a Easter feast! Our base closes for the weekend but they wanted us to be able to celebrate as a community.
On Friday, we did a scavenger hunt as a school. We call it Urban Plunge at YWAM LA and we do it in the heart of Downtown LA. It was a great time of bonding as team, and I was surprised at how much I knew the city, yet there are new surprises around every corner! It was challenging as we were encouraged to do "missions" as a team to go out and pray for people and do worship in public as well as complete silly challenges like walk down Hollywood Blvd. with our shoelaces tied together.
I'm happy to be part of this school and I can't wait to see how the next 2 1/2 months bring us even closer as a SOMD Family!
Friday, April 7, 2017
SOMD ~ Wk 1
Hey everyone!
It's so good to finally sit down and write my blog more often, like I originally wanted to when I started it. I hope I can keep you all updated in this next season, and that you can see a little more into my daily life here at YWAM LA.
A few weeks ago, I sent out the two outreach teams from the Compassion DTS that I staffed last quarter. I am so proud of all my students and I can't wait to hear all their stories of how God worked in and through their lives in this season. It's only been two weeks, but I already miss them like crazy. I've seen lots of people come and go over the last 3 years since I've been here, but it's different when its the people you've poured into that have left. They come back after outreach in 7 weeks, and I can't wait for them to be back. :)
Last week, I had a week off to spend resting after the school. I enjoyed being home, although it went by way too quickly. I love that I live close to the base so I can go home in my time off and spend it with family. It's funny because when I'm home, it just feels so normal, like I never left but being here at YWAM feels normal too. I love that being at both places feels like home, although I do miss the other place when I'm not there.
I loved that I was home for the Easter Egg Hunt fundraiser that my parents hosted at Amy's Farm last Saturday. They raised money for EveryOne Free, an anti- human trafficking organization and Jonah's Light, a scholarship program for an after school program in memory of a little boy who was killed in a drive-by shooting in a local neighborhood. My parents love to serve and I'm so glad that set that example to me and my brothers.
It's been 4 years since they last hosted one, so I was happy that I could be apart of this one. Since my family is planning on moving to Texas later this year/next year, and I don't exactly know what that means for me, I was happy that I could be there with them.
This week was the first week of SOMD (School of Ministry Development) a leadership training school, here at YWAM LA. I am so excited to be apart of this school as a student, this quarter. I always want to be a consent place of learning more about God and who he created me to be. This week we shared a bit about ourselves to the rest of the school and are getting to know each other.
We are reading through the entire Bible during this school and we have already read through Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. We are to read it as a small group, or individually, as long as we read each book in one sitting. Our leaders want us to understand the Bible as one story pieced together to help us understand the context in which it was written (who it was written to, what needed to be said to them, when it was written, etc.).Our leaders have been giving detailed introductions to each book to help us understand these things so we aren't reading the Bible "blindly".
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| Here's the School of Ministry Development (SOMD)! I am already so excited to get to know all these wonderful people! |
I am excited to announce that I have received most of my funds for this school! I am still in need of $400 by next Friday, April 14th. I am also planning on attending the outreach that follows this school. My leaders are still planning on a location, so I will keep everyone updated on where that will be once I get more details. I am hoping to raise $3,500 for this outreach.
If you are interested in supporting my financially, please contact me in one of the ways below. :)
I am planning to update this blog every Saturday, during the next three months. Subscribe so you can stay in the loop!
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Email: mad4mangoes1@gmail.com
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Blog: www.offthehookthree28.blogspot.com
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