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

The Father Heart of God

Hey everybody!
Awesome week. We started it off with going to the base in Arvada and meeting with the other schools for worship in the beautiful Faith Bible Chapel auditorium.
Here's one of my favorite songs we do in worship. The couple who sing it at the base are incredible.

After that, we spent time in our small groups. My small group leader, Amy Barlow, is such an amazing woman of God and has been a huge blessing to me already. Amy, the three other girls in my group, and I went to a park to work on a project she put together for us. We started out with plain wood, had the option of staining and/or spray painting, and wrote a phrase on it as a reminder of what an awesome God we serve.

Kara, Me, Amber, and Maria.

Later, we had lunch, did laundry, had dinner, and then went on our community outreach. One of my roommates, Hanna, and I went to Shannon's Hope to look after some kids while their moms participated in a Bible study. It's a ministry that helps women with children and gives them a safe place to live in a Godly environment. I love how involved YWAM Denver is in helping the community. It's such a beautiful thing when the world can recognize the great impact of a Christian organization in their own neighborhood.

This week, our speaker was Claude Bonjour from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. He did an incredible job at conveying the Father Heart of God. So many people either see God as being really distant, or they have distorted images of what a father is, but God wants to have a close relationship with us as our Father, the way a Father should be. It was a really refreshing week to re-experience the overwhelming love God has for each of His kids. Today we went into the worship center for a "soaking time." We were spread out in the room, just being still in the presence of the Holy Spirit, while the staff came around and prayed for each of us. Such a powerful time.

This Sunday we will be heading to Colorado Springs to meet with other schools for the Acts One Conference. There will be three or four hundred of us there worshiping the Lord, and I know He will show up!

Can't wait to tell you about it :)

Thanks for your prayers! They mean the world to me.

Blessings,

Lynelle

Character of God

Sorry for not blogging this week. It has been really busy!

On Monday, we had our first day where we go meet in Arvada with the other people at the base there. We had an awesome time of worship, met with our small groups, did laundry, and ended the day with community outreach.

My team went downtown to a community ministry called Confluence. We did a prayer walk around the neighborhood, which has been having a lot of division and violence. It was a really great time to pray and intercede for unity, safety, and salvation in the lives of the people there.

This week we started work duties, which typically take place from 3:45--5:30 in the afternoon. Everyone is assigned to a certain duty such as housekeeping, maintenance, child care, etc. My work duty is breakfast prep. Yikes, I wasn't too excited about that because I'm not exactly a morning person ;) But I made the choice to start with a good attitude anyways, and it has turned out to be fantastic! I love working with the other girl assigned, Shanteyl, and we have a fun time singing and listening to music while making breakfast for everybody. It starts the day off on a great note, and having the afternoons off is a blessing :)

This week was also our first lecture week, and the subject was The Character of God. Intimidating subject, right? I was worried about it being kinda dry, but boy was I wrong. Pastor Blake Mattocks from Faith Bible Chapel taught on this subject so incredibly--it definitely rocked each of the students.
Here are just a few of the beautiful truths he taught us about:
--The goal of Christianity is transformation.
--We are called to be World-Changers and Kingdom-Shapers (we have been going around Eagle Rock reminding each other of this every day).
--Something flows out of my life every day, and I decide what it is. It not only affects me but other people as well.
--Courage is choosing conviction over compromise.
--Contentment is a learned behavior. Discontentment will cause you to wander and reject God's timing.
--The smallest act of obedience is always greater than the best intentions.
--Kindness is God's secret weapon. It's a gateway to relationship with Jesus, leads to repentance, and is a proactive virtue. It looks for opportunities, and it is my responsibility. It does not judge. It restores right relationship with Jesus Christ.
--Transformation is not about trying harder but training wisely.

The way Pastor Blake explained the Character of God was so amazing and practical. It inspired every one of us.
I'm blown away that this is just the end of week two. There is so much more to learn and experience :)

Please be praying for everybody here. There has been some spiritual warfare going on. Obviously people are on the verge of major breakthroughs in their lives, and the enemy isn't too thrilled. Thank you! :)
Love you all!
LC