Outreach in 3 Days

Yes, it's real. I can't believe it, but I really do leave in three days.
Every Wednesday night we have "family night," and we talk about what's going on and just take time to fellowship with each other like a family. Last week we did a "giving night" during that time, where people pray and ask God to show them what to give away and who to give it to. I've heard insane stories of people giving away thousands of dollars and other stuff, but I couldn't wait to see what would come out of our own giving night. One girl decided to buy my friend Gabi a roundtrip ticket home so she could be with her family because her cousin had unexpectedly passed away the night before. It was so sweet. Another guy on staff gave his car away to someone else on staff, who had been praying for a car. Just a couple examples of many awesome, serious God moments. Family nights are usually 45 minutes to an hour, but this night took over three hours to complete.
Saturday, we had Lovefeast. We all dressed up fancy, had dinner, received special awards, and each room performed for everyone. My award was, "Most Likely to be a Disney Princess." Haha! :) My room did a boy band mash-up dance to the songs Bye Bye Bye, Quit Playing Games With My Heart, and One Thing. It was super fun :) The staff ended the night doing a dance to "Hot Cheetos and Takis," which is the most ridiculously catchy song I've ever heard. It was amazing! We have the best staff ever :)
So, Thursday we have to clean out our dorms and be completely packed up! My team will head down the mountain Friday afternoon and wait there until leaving for the airport at around 8 pm. We board around 11:30, and will arrive in Costa Rica early in the morning :) SOOO stoked.
Please pray for my team, for unity, health, traveling safety, prepared hearts, and wisdom for whatever we encounter during our time there. I have also completely lost my voice, so please pray for that specifically. Thank you so much!
Hopefully I'll still be able to post once a week or so. Love you all!
~LC

Outreach Prep Week

Last week was solely focused on preparing for outreach. As you can probably imagine, we were all SO excited to get started :)
We were each given a personal schedule so we would know when and where to be to learn the dramas and skits. I'm in six dramas, and they are all so special and unique.
Tuesday, we learned two dramas put to song. The first one is called "All the Poor and Powerless," and it is the product of a vision God gave to a staff member named Mary. It shows Jesus coming alongside broken people and showing them how to live the way He created us to. It's beautiful.
The second is "Facade." It shows the main character putting on different masks to hide who she really is because she is ashamed of what lies underneath. But then Jesus comes, breaks those masks from her face, and loves her for who she is.
That night, we did story time by the fire. Each student had learned two Bible stories by memory and told one in front of the group. It was really cool to see how people portrayed the stories differently even if they were repeated.
Wednesday, we had kids ministry! Mary taught us how to make balloon animals and showed us what else we would be taking with us in the kids ministry bags for outreach. After that, two girls and I learned a little skit also for kids ministry called "Smiles," which shows joy being spread around through smiles. :)
Thursday, we learned a really powerful drama called "Forgiveness." This one is so much fun because my whole team gets to participate, including my outreach leader, Lars. In this one, I play Satan, which is so much fun. Haha! It shows the main character being led by Christ as the beginning, but then he gets caught up in temptation, and I come in and lead him into a bunch of other things that of course don't fulfill him. He ends up getting mad at me and makes the run back for Jesus. But the temptations and I get to throw him to the ground and beat him up until Jesus steps in to take it for him. Then all the evil people fall to the ground at the end. It's so awesome!
After that, the girls on my team learned a dance called "Shackles." It's a lot of fun, really fast-paced, and we got a good two hour cardio workout while learning it. ;)
We learned our last skit on Friday called "Ragman." It's the oldest drama they have which shows the basic Gospel of Jesus taking away our hurts and sins to the cross and conquering death. Mary said this one never fails to be one of the most powerful dramas they have, and people get saved left and right.
The whole week was such a blast. We are continuing to grow as a team and hear from the Lord about outreach.
We leave in NINE days. How did that happen!? I think time speeds up when you join YWAM!
Thanks for keeping me and my team in your prayers!
Blessings,
Lynelle

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

Acts One

Wow, God has been doing SO much!

This past weekend, we were preparing to leave for YWAM Colorado Springs for the Acts One Conference. At 6 am Sunday morning while we were all sound asleep, the fire alarm went off, loud as can be with flashing lights and the whole nine yards. Surprisingly, I was instantly awake enough to grab my glasses, put on a jacket, put on shoes, and get to the gym as fast as I could. It was pretty freezing outside, and it felt like it was in the middle of the night. But we all had to wait there for the fire department to come see what was wrong before we could do anything else. Some people decided to play volleyball to pass time. Thank the Lord, nobody was hurt, and there was nothing serious wrong! Apparently down in the child care room, something sparked and made some smoke which set off the alarm system. We were then able to go back to bed before leaving at 2:30 in the afternoon for the conference. All the schools from YWAM Denver and Colorado Springs were there plus some others. All together, there were about 400 of us.

The base in Colorado is an old hotel, so it was really convenient for all the schools to stay there. I had 5 roommates in my room. They mixed up the people rooming together which of course was a great way to get to know other people better. :)

This is painted on the wall as you walk into the dining room. I absolutely love the heart of YWAM.

There was nothing really planned--the Holy Spirit totally led the worship and teachings. Such a crazy, powerful, amazing time! I literally had the most joyful worship experience of my life on Monday night. Jumping around, singing "No One Else" with young people who want God more than anything is so exciting! The link to the video below gives a pretty good picture of how worship was :)

No One Else

In addition to worship, there were countless testimonies. Person after person got up and spoke about what God did for them and how they were healed during those three days. Tuesday night during worship, I actually got gold dust on my hands. If you don't know what that means, it's known for being a sign of the Holy Spirit's presence. I've been kind of skeptical when I would hear about stuff like that in the past, and when I looked down at my hands at first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. But holy smokes, there it was! Several of my friends had it too. Here's a picture, but it was really hard to capture even a portion of what it looked like.

Today we left after lunchtime. Each of us learned so much and the Lord really spoke to us.

Now we are back at Eagle Rock, the name of our home in the mountains. These next couple days, we are bringing the International House of Prayer to our base! I'm really excited to see what else is going to happen :)
Here's a little teaser of the beautiful weather right now!

I love living here. Did I mention that? :)
Also, I'll be announcing where I'm going for outreach after I make a payment on Monday. I'm SO excited to let you know.
Thank you so much for lifting me and my friends up in prayer and supporting me! This has already been the BEST experience.
Blessings to you and your families!
LC