Recognizing God's Voice and Thanksgiving Break

This week, we had Donna MacGowan speak on Recognizing the Voice of God. I was so excited to hear her as a teacher because I see how she lives and see that she practices what she preaches. It was a really powerful couple of days learning about hearing God's voice and recognizing how He speaks to us. She also talked about the different ways God speaks and how to know if a word you get is really from God.
Here are a couple great points from her:
-David Watson said, "To say, 'No, Lord,' is a contradiction in terms." If you call Him Lord, you're already saying yes to Him.
-Every temptation is an invitation to live independently of God.
-The fear of the Lord is being more concerned with God's reaction to your attitudes and actions than man's reaction to your attitudes and actions.
Wednesday, our Thanksgiving break officially began. I was sooo looking forward to relaxing over the break and spending time with my family who drove in from California. They officially made it at about midnight that night, and we had a wonderful time together. Some of the students and staff went home to be with their families, but some chose to stay. We had the option of getting one of our favorite family recipes to make a special dish for Thanksgiving, and Donna bought all the supplies (and multiplied them to feed about 30 people). So we had a really fun time cooking together all Thursday and eating as a big family. That evening, we went to the MacGowan's cabin for a beautiful evening drinking hot chai, having dessert, and sharing things we are thankful for. Their cabin is the cutest house ever, by the way.
Friday, I went Black Friday Shopping with my family and got two things I need for my upcoming outreach. It was great to just get out and spend that family time together that we had been missing so much. Saturday, some of us went back up to the MacGowan's to decorate the Christmas tree and make Christmas cookies, all while listening to Christmas music of course. :)

 Katie and I made a pair of alien Christmas cookies haha

 Hanna made this cutie :)

My roommate Alex made these ones for Mark and Donna

On Sunday, some of us went to a thrift store called the Arc, which is pretty popular here (especially with YWAMers ;)). I got a couple things for outreach for really cheap! Here's a family picture we got on our way back up the mountain:

My Dad CJ, Mom Laury, me, and my Brother CJ

That evening, Dad went to minister in a prison near Denver for the first time and had an amazing night sharing the Gospel and worshiping with the guys there. We ended our last night together with a big, family jam sesh by the fire, which was super fun. A bunch of people ended up joining, with a couple guys  playing drums and another playing bass.

Lars, Jonathan, and Daddy

Needless to say, it was really hard to say bye to my family Monday morning. Definitely harder than the first time. I already miss them and will be so happy to be back in February, but I also can't wait for outreach! Only 17 days until I leave!
This week is Outreach Prep, so we are learning a lot of dramas and skits! I'm in six of them, and we started today. I'll tell more about it after the week is over :)
Thanks for reading!
xo
LC

Holy Spirit

So after the long, crazy week last week with all the extra people up here, we were pretty tired. It was a much needed lazy weekend, with a ton of beautiful snow :)
My roommates and I have been wanting some pictures together, so we finally took some really cute ones!
Here's a few:

Sandy from Chile, Hanna from Texas, Holly from Florida, me, Kara from Australia, and Alex from Oregon. Aren't they gorgeous?

Being silly!

They volunteered me for this one. ha :)

This week's teaching was on the Holy Spirit. Pastor JR Polhemus from The Rock church came to speak and did an excellent job at explaining who the Holy Spirit is, how He works in our lives, and what the spiritual gifts really are. Pastor JR talked about how the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood part of the Godhead, yet the one with which we have the most direct contact, changing us from the inside out. Tuesday, he had a team from his church come in who ministered and prophesied over each of us. We all had a really positive time, and the people spoke a lot of truth and confirmation into our lives. Then, JR actually had us "practice" prophecy. So if we got a word for anyone on his team, we shared it with them. We also set aside some time to get with another person in the school that we aren't super close to, pray, and prophesy over them as well. Thursday, we learned about the difference between speaking in tongues and the gift of tongues. I actually didn't know the difference even though I was familiar and comfortable with people speaking in tongues. So after a lot of clarification on two, JR invited us to practice speaking in tongues if we were comfortable with it. I really appreciated that JR did such a great job at being Holy Spirit-led the whole week, and he approached the spiritual gifts with so much wisdom and had great information to teach us, all based on Scripture.
This next week will only be a couple days of teaching since it's Thanksgiving, but I'm super excited because Donna MacGowan (she and her husband Mark lead our school) will be speaking on Recognizing on the Voice of God. My small group leader said Donna is one of her favorite speakers, so I'm really looking forward to it!

I leave for Costa Rica in less than a month, which is insane to think about, but I'm SO excited!

Until next time,
LC

Spiritual Warfare

I was really excited for this week to start because the Musician's DTS was coming up to spend the week with us! I knew they would love Eagle Rock, and I was looking forward to getting to know the people better. It was a little chaotic at first, because there were about 50 extra people here, and they were all staying in the Lodge, the girls' building. It definitely put us out of our comfort zone, having a bunch of people we don't know very well here, especially when my school is so tight-knit, but we were able to apply everything we learned during last week's relationships teaching. It was also interesting that this week would be focusing on Spiritual Warfare and the huge role that relationships play in it.

Our speaker was Dean Sherman, who has been involved in YWAM since the 60s. He has dedicated his life to speaking and teaching about relationships and spiritual warfare, so he really poured out all his wisdom to us that he has acquired from experience over the years.

Here are some awesome points from his teaching:

-We've been put here to live the life of God—to manifest His life—so that we can rule over earth

-Relationship is eternal and the image of God—the most valuable thing

-A relationship is an entity, a thing, as valuable as the two people who make it up

-If we’re in good relationship with God and each other, then we rule

-Satan’s agenda is to destroy relationships between me and God and other people

-God’s/the church’s agenda is to build and maintain relationships with God and others

-Sin=lack of love for God and/or others; bad relationships; evil gets in through bad relationships

-The blessing, presence, and power of God come through and to relationships

-We either subdue evil, or evil subdues us; when we don’t have good relationships, evil subdues us

-Basic prayer is to push back Satan’s influence and to pray down God’s influence

-We don’t pray FOR favor, we pray FROM already achieved favor

-Pray as specifically as you can because it exercises your faith

-The Kingdom is a way of life/living; people either live their life according to the Kingdom or the world

Kingdom Living                                                                                            Worldly Living

Love                                                                                                            Selfishness

Serving                                                                                                        Controlling

        -we don’t need “servant hearts;” we need serving hands and feet

Submission                                                                                                   Rebellion (1 Samuel 15:23)

Humility                                                                                                        Pride

  -I’m never more demonic than when I have pride

Generosity                                                                                                    Greed

Justice                                                                                                          Injustice

Integrity                                                                                                        Corruption

Wholeness                                                                                                    Brokenness

-The Church is who I am; the Kingdom is how I live

-How you live becomes a channel for spirit power

-2 Corinthians 4:4—blinds the unbelievers—shows why spiritual warfare is ALWAYS a factor

So, the main focus was that when our relationships with God and other people are strong, we don't give the devil a foothold to send evil in, and we rule the way God purposed for us. It was really interesting to hear how important our relationships are because they really are the center of spiritual warfare. Satan is always trying to attack our relationships, because us being in bad relationships gives him power. I can see from my experiences that this is absolutely true, so everything I learned is really priceless.

On Tuesday evening, there were about 250 people here because it was debrief week for the Around The World DTS and Compassion DTS that just got back from their outreaches. We all went into the gym where they set up a stage, and they shared testimonies, stories, and dramas that they did while they were on outreach. Yesterday, we went down the mountain to Hillside Church to see them graduate. We began the ceremony with a couple worship songs, and then some of the graduates spoke about how much DTS changed their lives. It was incredible to listen to what they had to say, and I can't imagine being in their shoes in three months! I'll probably cry like a baby having to say bye to all the awesome people in my school.

After this next week we have Thanksgiving break, which means I get to see my family! I miss them like crazy and am so excited to share this beautiful place with them. :)
And only a little over a month before my outreach to Costa Rica! Crazy how time flies!

Relationships Week

I feel like I keep saying this to myself over and over again...this week has been SO good.
This week we got back into lectures after the last at the Acts One Conference. I was excited to get started again. Our speaker was Kristy Wilke from YWAM Montana, and she spoke on relationships. Wow, wow, wow. It has been easy for me in the past to feel like I have heard stuff repeated, being raised in Christian school, ministry, and church. But Kristy presented every aspect of relationships with a beautiful, new freshness that I've never heard before. I literally have 22 pages of notes. Some of the things we learned about are emotional maturity, social skills and how Jesus used them, things that make us relatable to other people, conflict resolution, toxic relationships, codependency, relating to parents, practical honoring, relating to unbelievers, Christian sexuality, sexual issues, and romantic relationships. As you can tell, she basically covered every end of the spectrum, so it was a really intense, deep week with a lot to process. There was so much "meat" to every single thing she said. I really admire her for being so passionate about speaking the truth into our lives in such a practical way.

Miracle moment! On Monday when we were supposed to be paying half our outreach payment, one of my friends, Alyssa, found out her tuition wasn't even paid off yet. There was a miscommunication somewhere in there, so the staff gave her until Thursday to raise about $1500. God has been doing such an incredible work in her life, it was crazy for any of us to think she might be leaving. Of course, God blew us away and totally provided for her! Wednesday night she was able to sleep in peace knowing she would not have to go back home over mere finances. God is so faithful!

Last night, I decided to go to Kingdom Night, which is street evangelism in downtown Denver. I didn't know what to expect, but it was amazing. We went down with some other people from the Arvada base to sing on the streets, talk to people, listen to their story, pray for them, and minister to them about Jesus. I decided I will be going every week from now on. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what it was like.

 Katie, Alyssa, and Stefan talking to a guy named Romeo, who was finally able to forgive his father for abusing him as a child

Sandy and Jonathan ministering

This is Gabi, one of my best friends here

So it was a great night of ministry to the people in downtown Denver, and I'm looking forward to going back!

Also, my final announcement because I haven't made it public yet....I'll be going to Costa Rica for my outreach! To be honest, it was the last place I wanted to go when I heard it was an option. But, I am THRILLED that God had something else in mind because I'm going with an awesome team! My team leader is Lars, and this is some of what we have planned so far: a week working on the Pacific Coast with children at risk, doing arts, crafts, dramas, games and even teaching some surf lessons; one week of wilderness survival training in the forests of Cartago Province (NIKO); serving an indigenous community in the Talamanca Mountains, Earthquake relief work in the Guancatse Province, possibly even a boat trip to a remote tribe; we will be doing work projects of various kinds, local evangelism, intercessory prayer, speaking and working with churches, youth, skate kids, and definitely doing some Bible distribution. I know this outreach will be a once in a lifetime opportunity. We had our first team meeting two nights ago, and Lars had us play a team game to see how we worked together. He was surprised to see how well we worked together right away, so that was exciting! We signed some papers and are getting more and more anxious to go :) I want our lives to be the most powerful and attractive evangelism for the people of Costa Rica. I'll be leaving December 15th and coming back February 9th. I'm SO stoked.

Next week, Dean Sherman will be coming to speak to us about Spiritual Warfare. The Musicians DTS, about 50 students, will also be coming up to Eagle Rock. It will be a little crazy with that many more people here, but I'm really excited for it :)

Keep the prayers comin'! :) Love you guys!
Lynelle