where to begin?

So much has happened since my last blog. Every time I sit down at the computer and try to write, I don't know where to start, so I just don't write anything at all. I'm going to try to summarize what's happened in the last few weeks.

-Week five's teacher was Al McBryan, who is from Edmonton(yay Canada!). He addressed predestination and prophesy and left many of us thoroughly confused. The biggest question of the week was - "what exactly does God know?" If He really is "all-knowing," does He create people KNOWING that they're going to heaven or hell? Would a loving God really do that? Sadly, I cannot give you a clear answer. What I learned that week was that it's REALLY hard to know exactly what God knows, and maybe it's just supposed to be a mystery. God is big, God is God, God is good, and I am fine with that. If you want a clearer answer, contact Al McBryan!

-Week six's teacher was Mary Sliter, better known as "Crazy Mary." She IS crazy - but in a really great way. She's almost 70 but acts and talks like she's 25. She has an amazing testimony - a really really awful childhood - but as she said, she is cleansed by the blood of "Jay-zuz" - the only thing that can make you clean. Her topic was called "Seven Mighty Nations," or tackling the strongholds in your life that keep you from living how God intended. Many people have "mighty nations" in their lives like fear, shame, rejection, self-hate, bitterness, emotionalism, self-pity, humiliation, etc. On Friday of that week, many people tackled and received prayer for the mighty nations in their lives. It was pretty darn awesome.

-This week's teacher is Sy Rogers. He is fantastic. His topic is "Redeeming Sexuality" - so far he's covered common problems the church has with sexuality - things like adultery, pre-marital sex, and molestation. He also discussed WHY Christians struggle with sexuality and WHAT we can do about it. Sy is an excellent public speaker, VERY knowledgable and highly entertaining.

-In other news, we were finally put in outreach teams for South Africa! My leaders, Jamie, Karl and Carol, are awesome. I love everyone on my team and I'm really excited to get to know them better and spread God's love with them. I was appointed to be the worship leader, which scared me slightly, but let's face it - I am ALWAYS frightened to lead worship but God ALWAYS stretches me and is faithful and blesses me through it. So I'm excited about it. This is the first time I haven't had my guitar with me for an extended period of time in about seven years. I didn't bring my it with me because the neck cracked while it traveled from the Yukon to Ontario. I'm hoping it will be fixed before January, cause I'm gonna need it!! In the meantime, my friend Nate is letting me borrow his whenever I want, which is very kind of him.

-Ooh. I've been on a couple of photo shoots with my new friend Kristen, a YWAM staffer who is an awesome photographer. She is teaching me so much, and she even let me borrow her awesome Nikon camera for a couple hours. I went nuts. It's been so much fun learning more and pursuing this passion. Here are a couple shots that I took:



-I'm loving my classmates, housemates, staff and YWAM in general more and more. It's an awesome place to be and I would recommend a DTS to EVERYONE!!!

-Saving the best for last: God is amazing. Before coming here, I thought, "Really. What else can I learn about Jesus and Christianity? I know so much already." That thought makes me laugh now - probably the biggest lesson I've learned so far is that there is SO MUCH to learn, and I will ALWAYS have more to learn. God is so big and so awesome, and I love learning more about Him.

I love you all!! Don't be a stranger! Write me a comment or letter or ANYTHING, I want to hear from you.

In Christ who is pretty much PHENOMENAL,
LC