A Day In The Park

This past Saturday we as a class went and served in the inner city of Nashville, TN. We served with a group called Isaiah 58, and they do this every Saturday. They bring a bus and a bunch of people to this park and feed and just hang out with these inner city kids. So needless to say I kind of got stuck with a not so fun job and handed out food all day. It was tight quarters, with some random guy I didn't know that kind of smelt, and yeah. Meanwhile the rest of my classmates were out in the beautiful weather playing football, basketball, chasing kids, and just loving them. Everyone had such a great time. It was a great experience and I wish that we would have something like that in our home town, not like we have a inner city really, but like maybe having an organization that goes down to the Homeless Shelter and just helps out and hangs out with the people. There were about seventy-five people that showed up for the free lunch, and a majority of them were kids. So here are a couple of pics to show you how cute all the kids were.

It was pretty crazy because on the way there we got lost, and then we witnessed a car crash, so then we had to pull over to the shoulder and wait for the police to come since we witnessed it. But yeah we didn't stick around because there were plenty of people that had seen it, so we walked back to check if everything was okay. And everyone that was invovled was fine.

A Blast From The Past

Well I was just looking through some of the things Tash has downloaded on her computer. And I stumbled across this picture, of me and my track girls, I thought it would be fun to give a shout out to them. I miss you guys tons!!! This ones for you!

A Little Late

Sorry about not posting to much this week, things have been a little hectic. We've had a lot of stuff due this past week. Everything from a newsletter (which will be in the mail tomorrow), a scripture verse that needed to be memorized, given written and orally, a book that needs to be read along with a book report, another book that is more like a workbook, and on top of all that my small group had to make and clean up all of the meals this weekend. So needless to say this week has been jam packed with tons of stuff, and the Lord is teaching everyone time management that's for sure. (P.S. we are watching movies from a guy named Dean Sherman, he is teaching us about Relationships and Spiritual Warfare. He looks like this guy teaching math. These movies are from the 80's so you can only imagine.) He looks like Ned Flanders, this is for all you Simpsons fans out there, so you can get a better visual.

The rain in now pouring outside of the Media Trailer, so along with all the stuff that I wrote before, the weather has been quite crappy. We haven't really gotten a chance to get off the base, besides going to church this morning. Sometimes things can be a little draining on a person. It's hard because there is such a mixture of ages and personalities here, like people that came straight from there mom and dad's house, and then people who have been away from home for years.

Anyway within this next week look forward to getting a newsletter in the mail.

Fun in Louisville

Well ladies and gents, this last weekend was the first weekend we've officially had off from DTS. So needless to say Tash and I took advantage of that and headed of to MJ's and Sonny's, in Louisville KY. We had an absolutely great time, they treated us like royalty. Courting us all over Louisville, getting a grand tour of the city, we got to go to the Louisville Slugger factory along with heading over to Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is held. We also got treated to some amazing meals, everything from Yang Kee Noodle, to The Crackle Barrel. If anyone gets in the area of Louisville, I must suggest that you go and spend sometime with Miss and Sonny, they are two amazing people. We had some great talks, belly hurting laughs, and some just all around great fun.

Now you may be wondering what the heck Tash and I are doing on those horses shown above. Well let me tell you, in Churchill Downs there is a museum and these are in there and you can feel what it feels like to be a jockey. Throughout the whole race the jockeys keep in the upright sitting position like this. Crazy huh!??!!? Talk about a wall sit!!
This picture to right is in front of the Louisville Slugger factory. I should also give MJ some props for this picture, it's pretty sweet, I must say so myself. This bat is just HUGE, it's leaned up against the building next to it. If I remember right Sonny told us that it is the most photographed place in Louisville.

MJ and Sonny, I just wanted to let you guys know that Tash and I had a great time. Thank you so much for your hospitality and love that you guys showed us. It was awesome to get away for awhile and without being able to go home, but still have it feel as though we were home with you guys!!! We were and are so blessed by you guys. Thanks for your love and support.

Being a Pro Intercessor

Well as I have discussed in previous entries, we have this thing we do here called intercession. And well this is kind of a big thing here, and we do it about 3 hours a week. So needless to say when I get invovled in something I like to be good at it. Well, let's just say I'm not very good at this but I'm trying. The other day I was walking out of one of our intercession meetings with Marc (a guy in our class) and he's like, "I think I"m spiritually deaf," and I was like buddy I know what you mean. When you're put in a group and pray, and are suppose to be hearing from God, when you don't man do you feel like a loser. So the other day in intercession, I was sitting there quietly waiting and hoping for just something, anything. And well something popped into my head, and I went ahead and looked into the Bible at the verse that came, and was like what that has nothing to do with anything. So I just put it aside, but the guys in my group were very encouraging and had me share anyway. Let's just say at the end of the session one of the guys comes up to me and says, "Dana I feel as though the Lord is telling me that you would be a great intercessor." And I was like, (in my head of course) are you joking me buddy, I don't even hear from Him. He's like, "really I think because of your humility, that God is going to use you, so check out this book." So he gave me a name to this book and walked off. CRAZY!!
So today we had intercession again, and like I wrote in yesterday's blog I have been struggling with patience. I wrote also that God gave me the Proverb to help me through it, but I needed to gain wisdom and fast. In intercession though today, I believe God gave me another verse, it was 1 Corinthians 2:13-14. Paraphrasing it says something about how wisdom comes not from man, but from the Lord and the Holy Spirit. So yeah, um hello!!!! Needless to say I gave it up to the Lord, and can only hope that through Him I will get through my struggles of patience.

Look at that pose

Look at that pose
Originally uploaded by DaJoy.

Gosh can you beleive that pose??? I wasn't even a cheerleader, man did they miss out huh!?!?!? I would have been the bomb!!!! Who uses those words anymore??? Anyway um things this week that have been a struggle would be the patience issue. I never thought I really struggle with this before here, but then I thought about it and the fact of the matter is that when your out in the "real" world you can get away or drive away or just somehow put distance between who or whatever is buggin you. But here your forced to hang out, to be with each other all the time. And not to be mean or anything but a few of these people I wouldn't hang out with outside of these walls. So the verse that God gave me to try and deal with this is Proverbs 19:11 the first part says paraphrasing of course, that wisdom gives patience. And the Lord gives wisdom, so I'm praying for quick wisdom!!! :)

Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith
Originally uploaded by DaJoy.

This is just a taste of all the fun we had on our very first outing as a small group. We went on a picture scavenger hunt!!! To much fun!!!

Fun Stuff

Hello to all!!! I was just going to let you guys know that today we are going on a picture scavenger hunt. Which should be pretty funny and pretty fun all wrapped up in one day!! The other thing too is the fact that since we will be taking pictures, that more then likely I will have some new pics up on my flickr account. Hopefully by sometime tonight. I will also try and post another blog for today, just more about some of the teachings and stuff, that has been going. Along with an update on intercession!!! I know your all on the edge of your seats, and begging me to post right now, but your going to have to wait!!

School Lesson

OK so I promised some updates on what we have been learning these past two days so I will try my best to put into words what we have been learning. These first two topics are from our Dean Sherman videos, the first one is on Relationships, and the second is on Sex.
Relationships
Relationships are the root of every problem in the world. God relates to man, and through Jesus Christ's death we are able to relate man to man. If we are not right with God we are not right with fellow man and if we are not right with our fellow man then we are not right with God. The biggest issue in relationships is PRIDE. Most of the difficulties you will run into with relationships has to do with someone's PRIDE. There are 2 faces of PRIDE, the first being arrogant and the second being inferior. Arrogant is obviously the fact that we think we are better then something else, and the inferior complex is the fact that you believe that you are nothing and nobody. Both of these are types of PRIDE.
Relationships are necessary. The value of people, and your knowlegde of this value makes it necessary for you to relate. We relate according to value and not behavior. We can easily step on a cockroach but not a baby, why you may ask. Because we know that the baby is innocent, beautiful and valuable. There is also the factor of the value of the relationship, there is always a 3rd party. There is a husband and there is a wife, but the third party you have to factor in is that of the marriage too. You have to value your wife, but you also have to value your marriage. Relationships are also possible. They are possible through God, because He is relationship. The Father loves the Son, and the Son the Father, out of that love comes the third party, the Holy Spirit.
Christianity is nothing more than relationships, not a religion. Jesus came to restore relationships.
If evoluntionists are right, and matter is matter, then why do we matter?? Why is there more value on human lives then that of the cockroach!!! Because matter isn't just matter. Evolutionary teaching declines our value as humans.
Christianity is not hard, two things you have to do between life and death, love God and love your neighbor and yourself. If you leave out the first one you are a humanist, and if you leave out the second you are a Pharisee. The biggest thing in society is Sex. God thought up and created two sexes. The most fulfilled and fulfilling people are the one's whole with Christ. Sex is an outward expression of an inward condition. Satan wants to destroy sex and to let you never be fulfilled by it!!! Sex is a 100% from God, there is nothing dirty about sex. Satan is a fallen angel and angels do not have sexual orientation, so how would he know about sex at all!!
Sex like stated before is the biggest thing in society, but yet as Christians we do not talk about it openly. It is shunned, what we have done with it has made it what it is today, but the Lord is the one who made it so it is not dirty!!
One last thought:
There are no new sins under the sun. Sin is boring, it's not new, it is repetitive, it's all the same, you can't find your individuality in sinning, it only confines you. When someone says they need to find themselves and only engulf themselves in sin, are not being individuals or finding themselves. Only in Christ can we find our uniqueness, because everyone is different.

The Teaching Begins

Well ladies and gents, yesterday and today we had the start to our first series of teachings. And let me tell you they are going to be great. What we are diving into are love, sex and relationships by Dean Sherman. If you haven't read the book I suggest going and getting it. The book though isn't anything like the videos, the videos are awesome. I'm getting so much out of them, it's like one of those things that is obvious once you are told it, but you needed to be told it in order to get it. I will get back to you on some of the stuff I have been learning I forgot my notes in the Big House.
I really feel to that last night the girls really bonded which was really nice. Things I think are running smoother now, just because of the fact that everyone is getting along better. We are all finally getting to get familiar with each other.
Thank you all for your prayers, they are much appreciated!!!

Intercession

Does everyone really know what this means?!?!!? Well I sure don't, well didn't that is. This morning we had our first intercession, I suppose I should define what that is. I'll try to the best of my ability, well you get together with other people and have a prayer time about the nations around you, you sit quiet before the Lord and see what He leads you to pray about, and then you just start praying out loud about it. So we get together with this group and I'm the only DTS person in my group and the rest are staff. And we begin, and I'm like geez I don't have any idea what's going on. Needless to say it was a pretty interesting first time, I finally figured it out in the middle of doing it. But man when you haven't done something like it before and don't know what to expect it can take you by storm.
So before we got here Tash and I went online to figure out what our classroom leader was going to look like. We were fishing through these photos and pics, and finally found Libby. Well let's just say that in the pic Libby was a quite older lady with crazy hair. And so Tash and I just laughed to ourselves and were like great stuck with an older lady. Well we finally got to the YWAM base and walked in the front door and this lady says, ' welcome to YWAM, you guys must be Tasha and Dana.' And we're like 'yep.' 'Nice to meet you I'm Libby.' Let's just say she was NOT the lady we saw in the pic, she is like 24 and pretty cool. So yeah that was a fun surprise!!!!

An Insane Asylum

Well I have been informed that the place where I lay my head to sleep at night, where I shower, where I eat, and where I learn is not what I think it is. It is...........an old insane asylum, can you believe that!!!! I sure can't, but let me tell you something else, it gets better. Now you may be asking yourself how can it get better Dana, well let me tell you how. Not only is it an insane asylum, the town of Adams is known for the Bell Witch and don't ask me what the story is all about or anything of the sort because I don't know. But I promise I will do my research and get back to you on that. So yeah I can't believe that!!!!

YWAM Here We Are

Well to be completely honest driving into Adams, Tennessee, was not all I thought it was going to be. It is quite a small and run down little town, and when I say small, I'm not joking. Like I don't think I saw an established place to eat, let alone a gas station. Mom, be glad you didn't come to drop me off, because you probably wouldn't have wanted to leave me. So needless to say when we got here, we checked in and then asked for directions to the nearest town that had some real places to eat. We then took our first trip into the big city of Springfield, TN. I don't know what to tell you about our first impression though, I don't think it was all we thought it was going to be, but yet we didn't have to many expectations either. It just ended up being a "eh" thought, which is neither good or bad, just "EH." Needless to say Tash was ready to turn that Tourty (the Taurus) around, the minute we drove into town. Run down houses, no eating places, no gas stations, and then taking a ten minute drive to get to the base, which was out in the middle of no-where, was just not doing it for her. But now that we are here and settled in, I think it'll be fine. If everything else fails, we know we'll be able to hang out with each other, which is a little taste of home. Going to bed at 10:30 and getting up and being ready by 7:30, is quite a stretch for a college student though. Bring it on though, bring it on!!! :)

Hotel Wireless

Here's a quick post because I don't know if I'm going to beable post again today. A little update from the trip, yesterday and the day before we were in Terre Haute, IN, staying with Tash's family. We had a great time, thanks for your hospitality!! So last night we drove a few more hours towards Adams and ended up in Evansville, in a hotel for the new year. The picture on the side is of myself, Tash and my best friend Laura, whose family we stayed with in Des Moines. I hope all your New Years were safe.