Matt Atkins talked about the father-heart of God. This week i i moved from believing God loves the world to God Loves Me, and that he is not disappointed in me!
Knowing the Father Loves you is the foundation to growing as a Christian. Matt talked about how God's love is unconditionally demonstrated, which is the way He acts towards us and not just how He feels. His love is also demonstrated affections , which is experiencing His love! Matt also talked about what hinders us from receiving God's love and its my fallen nature.
My fallen nature has a deep longing to be known and loved, so i have this fear of what people think of me. This fear also come from me feeling like i am just not good enough so i begin comparing myself with other people, comparing how they are better then me or what gifts they have that i wish i had, because if i had them i would be a much better Christian/person and God would love me more and i would then be good enough (I hope you can followed that). ahhhh but it's so not about that! God can't love me anymore then He does right now! His love isn't based on performance or earning it by being a better person, HE LOVE ME FOR ME! God for sure doesn't compare me to others! oh man how flippin amazing is His Love for me!
and yeah it was a very emotional week just dealing with breaking down some walls and letting God totally in. but also during this week God's love for me went from just being head knowledge to actually understanding and experiencing how much He loves me!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Week 2
Week 2 (October 13-19) was a crazy one...
Our speaker was Kristy Wilke and she spoke on hearing God's voice. She emphasized how everyone who is saved can hear from God, it might not be an audible voice but God does speak to us if we are willing to listen. Even if we are not willing or think we are not capable of hearing God, He will still have his way in our lives! God can speak in so many different ways and it may take practice learning those ways, especially if we in the past had an expectation on how we should hear God. Kristy challenged us to practice God's presence and by doing so we will draw so much closer to God and learn more of the Love He has for us.
On Wednesday October 15 we were told that a hurricane was to hit St. Croix that night starting at 8. so after our 10-12 class we started hurricane Omar prep! All of us students were in charge of cleaning up the "Great Room" which is the big room where we have class and hang out a lot of the time. Then we were to pack up an overnight bag because we would all be sleeping in the Great Room, which ended up being like 16ish people. The staff worked hard at boarding up windows and doors of all the buildings! That night was a fun night of just hanging out and playing games ( in the dark because the power went out around 8). The winds picked up a lot and we were able to watch the storm from out dinning room that has large open windows, which also aloud us to experience some of the strong winds.
On Thursday morning i was surprised to wake up to the sun shinning! We all went outside to survey the damage done. Lots of branches and tree limbs were down, and we had a few power lines down but none of the buildings were damaged What a Blessing! We spent the morning cleaning up, so i got some sun that day!
Saturday they staff decided to take us to the beach to just relax after a crazy week with hurricane Omar and all the work we put into the cleaning up. That trip ended up making us even more tired cause we hiked about 20 some minutes to the beach called: Sandy Point. Yep it was pretty sandy and the waves were pretty good for there not being any waves here in St. Croix!
Sunday started of good in the nice AC church! After church, since we still didn't have power, a few of us decided to go to the laundry mat... boy was that an experience! First we had to find and wait for a washer, actually we needed 3 washers (it cost 3-4 dollars for the washers!). Then we had to wait for tokens because they "ran out" (the owner didn't trust the employee with the key to get more tokens so we just had to wait and practice patience)... then we had to find dryers, which was quite the chore... wait some more and then finally folded our clothes and got out of there! That wonderful trip took about 3 hours! Oh and to make things even better about 10 mins after we got back to the base, the power came back on!!! yep what a Blessing! :)
Here is a verse that i was reflecting on this week:
1 John 3:1-3
See how very much our father Loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to his world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him.
Everyone sleeping in the Great House!
The side of the base all boarded up and tree branches
everywhere!
The poor banana trees!
Our speaker was Kristy Wilke and she spoke on hearing God's voice. She emphasized how everyone who is saved can hear from God, it might not be an audible voice but God does speak to us if we are willing to listen. Even if we are not willing or think we are not capable of hearing God, He will still have his way in our lives! God can speak in so many different ways and it may take practice learning those ways, especially if we in the past had an expectation on how we should hear God. Kristy challenged us to practice God's presence and by doing so we will draw so much closer to God and learn more of the Love He has for us.
On Wednesday October 15 we were told that a hurricane was to hit St. Croix that night starting at 8. so after our 10-12 class we started hurricane Omar prep! All of us students were in charge of cleaning up the "Great Room" which is the big room where we have class and hang out a lot of the time. Then we were to pack up an overnight bag because we would all be sleeping in the Great Room, which ended up being like 16ish people. The staff worked hard at boarding up windows and doors of all the buildings! That night was a fun night of just hanging out and playing games ( in the dark because the power went out around 8). The winds picked up a lot and we were able to watch the storm from out dinning room that has large open windows, which also aloud us to experience some of the strong winds.
On Thursday morning i was surprised to wake up to the sun shinning! We all went outside to survey the damage done. Lots of branches and tree limbs were down, and we had a few power lines down but none of the buildings were damaged What a Blessing! We spent the morning cleaning up, so i got some sun that day!
Saturday they staff decided to take us to the beach to just relax after a crazy week with hurricane Omar and all the work we put into the cleaning up. That trip ended up making us even more tired cause we hiked about 20 some minutes to the beach called: Sandy Point. Yep it was pretty sandy and the waves were pretty good for there not being any waves here in St. Croix!
Sunday started of good in the nice AC church! After church, since we still didn't have power, a few of us decided to go to the laundry mat... boy was that an experience! First we had to find and wait for a washer, actually we needed 3 washers (it cost 3-4 dollars for the washers!). Then we had to wait for tokens because they "ran out" (the owner didn't trust the employee with the key to get more tokens so we just had to wait and practice patience)... then we had to find dryers, which was quite the chore... wait some more and then finally folded our clothes and got out of there! That wonderful trip took about 3 hours! Oh and to make things even better about 10 mins after we got back to the base, the power came back on!!! yep what a Blessing! :)
Here is a verse that i was reflecting on this week:
1 John 3:1-3
See how very much our father Loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to his world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him.
Everyone sleeping in the Great House!
The side of the base all boarded up and tree brancheseverywhere!
The poor banana trees!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Week 1 in St. Croix!
The entrance of the base.
The wonderful cabins we sleep in!
I survived my first week on YWAM!
My flight and traveling went very smoothly on last Satruday. I got all settled into my little cabin (or cabanas as we now call them!) with my roommate Kathy. Later that night i meet the rest of the staff, it felt a little overwhelming because there were so many of them and so many names to remember!
This week has been a lot of going over guidelines, work duties, homework, and getting used to the schedule we will be having. My work duties include cleaning up and washing dishes after every meal on the weekdays. We did have fun this week too...one night the staff shared about themselves and how they got to St. Croix, we had a game night and this past saturday we got to have a tour of the island! We went to the most eastern part of the United States, the jungle and a few beautiful beaches! We were also given a welcome BBQ and party, which was an awesome night of fun and fellowship and getting to know the staff and other students better.
We already dug into God's word and had a lesson on Relinquishing Your Right, Responding in the Opposite Spirit, Intercession, and Character and Maturity. God is already at work in me and showing me how to relinquish "my rights" to him.
I'm excited for this week's speaker Kristy Wilke who will be speaking on Hearing God's Voice!
Thanks for all your prayers and support! You can remember our team as we are adjusting to our schedule and life in St. Croix and also remember the staff in prayer as they are preparing us for our mini outreach, which they are still praying about where God is leading our team to go.
Thanks!
Love & Miss you guys back home!
Morgan
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