Faces of YWAM Perth
The moment you have all been waiting for... pictures of where I live!!!
[Sorry for inconvenience, but these pictures were causing my site to load slowly, so I will have to put them up another way. Thanks for understanding, friends!]
So that's it for now. I'll add some more pictures as I find time to do so. I am setting up an online photo to help me get pictures to you all sooner, so be on the look out for that, eh? I hope you love these sites, and I am definitely waiting for you all to send me some. Oh, and will somebody please send me some mail? I'm feeling left out cuz all it seems like everyone's getting heaps of mail but me. It makes me kind of sad. Anywho, LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU HEAPS! Rock on!
In the Light
How would you feel if you were asked to confess of your unrepented sins and areas of bitterness/unforgiveness in front of a classroom of 48 people? You can image how I felt last Friday!
Last week's lecture topic was repentance and forgiveness. For those of you who are not familiar with the YWAM DTS format, here's a quick idea as to how our training works. Shirley Brownhill, last week's speaker and the YWAM Perth director, spoke in our class everyday on the specific topic of the week. Every lecture was very in depth and precise on its subject. One morning we had a lecture on true and false repentance (it was my favorite morning of them all). Two of the mornings last week we had lectures that covered the area of forgiveness and bitterness. On Friday we put all of our knowledge into action.
Our class came in, and at the front of the room, there were two chairs. Shirley sat in one and the other one was open to each student who would like to come up and put their teaching into practice. Before we came to class that morning, Shirley encouraged each student to find some time to ask the Lord if there were any areas of repentance and unforgiveness that we needed to bring into the light. You should have seen everyone on Thursday night! We were all a bit nervous, but even more so, we were all reverent to what the Lord was speaking to us as individuals.
The time on Friday morning began and the first person came up to pray. Once a person sat in the chair, they would simply pray things as if it were just them and God. Everyone, students and even staff, had a turn. After a person prayed, Shirley and Arlen (our school leader) would pray for them. Once they were finished praying, we would nail our list of things to a wooden cross that we had in the room. Some weeping, others laughing, I know that each of us left that room feeling so free and relieved that we did not have to fear our reputations being corrupted by hidden sin or unrighteousness. I mean, I could literally see some of my classmates sit down because of the shame and embarassment they felt, but they would get out of that chair as if they had just been freed from a lifetime of prison. It was beautiful!
Sometimes we are afraid to stand for holiness because you do not want to seem as if you are "holier than thou". Other times we think that our performance will determine the quality of our spiritual depth. What I have failed to realize is that if my character and lifestyle fails to display the humility and fruit of the Spirit of Christ, I am only producing dead works. God cannot be near anyone who is not humble because His holiness cannot be in the presence of sin. So I choose to be broken and holy and without the recognition of mere humans because what I desire most is simply to be in God's light and presence.
More Smutz
A little more details of my life here in Perth:
I live in a dorm house only two blocks from the actual YWAM base. We affectionately call our home Two Two Eight (228) because it is the street addy and the code name for where we live. There are two huge rooms in 228 and each room has about 20 girls living in them. I live with some fabulous ladies who mainly originate from the States. One good friend of mine is an Aussie from the East coast whose name is Tara. You're probably going to hear more about her because she's pretty fun and we have a good time together, poking fun at each other and such!
Lectures, as I said earlier have been going fabulous! I'll actually let you know what I think about lectures when this week is over! HA! It's repentance and forgiveness week in our school and we're learning about living our lives completely in the light. It's a tough lesson to learn, especially because we are now talking about living holy lives in the site of God. It's been amazing!
Our days are filled with all kinds of things to do, and you'll be happy to know that not only is our spiritual character being tested, but our physical character is being shaped as well. We have MORNING EXCERSIZES every morning at 6am; we also have morning chores everyday where everyone in our base "family" receives an assigned job to help be good stewards of the home God has given us. Along with that we have work duties where every student is assigned a job for the entire lecture phase that we are here. My job just so happened to be writing articles for the base yearbook! Who would've thought that I could be assigned a job I really like, eh?
The food here is pretty good (not like my Dad, Edith or Mama Steph's cooking, but pretty good), but I don't think I'll be gaining any weight... Other than that things are fabulous! The people are so lovely, and the things that I am learning so far have been phenomenal! And to think, it's only the SECOND WEEK!
I miss you all and hope things are going well. Write me, I'd love to hear how you are doing. So, yeah! That's that for now! LOVE YOU ALL!
I'm Being Found Out
G'day from the beautiful city of Perth, Australia! It is a nice chilly, but sunny morning and I have a few minutes before morning lectures start so I thought I would write a bit since an entry is long overdue.
Last week we had lectures on the Nature and Character of God. I am learning more and more that we can never fully trust God if we are not familiar with His character. Here's a little challenge for you: Read Psalm 145 and tell me how many traits you can find that talk about God. There are SO MANY! And if you read it over a second time, you'll still find more!
Along with knowing more about God's nature comes knowing yourself. I know that this may seem a bit foreign, so maybe I'll go into a little more detail another time. But basically because God has created us in His image, we can see our true identity when we look at His (or at least the identity that we were meant to have). Because God is holy, I am meant to be holy; because He has perfect love, I should have perfect love. Often times I don't, and that is the purpose for this week: Forgiveness and Repentance Week!
All I can say is please pray for me. I am learning a lot about the effects of your past on your present life and we're going through a lot of introversion and such. I'm being found out! Anywho... Gotta go, eh? I'll write more later! LOVE YOU ALL!
Deprived
Ok, so let's face it. America is one of the greatest nations in the world! I have seen the "other side" (other countries) and there are just some things that I LOVE about America (especially California) that you wouldn't see anywhere else. So, I have decided to send an S.O.S. to the world and ask that if you find it in your heart to send me something here in Perth, these would be the items to do so:
Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (all flavors), Cap'n Crunch, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Grahams (they do not necessarily provide a full breakfast for us, so cereal and things would be great, except no nuts can enter the country...), GOOD EARTH CHAI TEA (Mama Steph, you know what I'm talking about!!!), S'more & Strawberry Pop Tarts, Ketchup packets you get from Fast Food places (they're easy and free, and Ketchup here tastes weird), RANCH DRESSING!!!, A Brita Water Filter (for hydration purposes), Toilet Paper, Aquafresh Toothpaste, Sour Punch Candy... I wish you could send In & Out Burger, but I guess McDonalds, Hungry Jack (Burger King) & Subdway will have to do. Did you also know that there is NO, I repeat, NO STARBUCKS here in the western part of Australia? HOW TRAGIC?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Yes, I cried.
Anyways, enjoy the pictures and WRITE ME, LOVE YOU ALL:
PO Box 8501 Perth Business Centre
Western Australia 6849
Australia
