When Kenny Peavy came to speak about the Kingdom of God in my DTS, my idea of living for God underwent major changes. Without a doubt, it was the most transformational week for me in lecture phase. In this DTS, I’ve been telling the students up til this point, “Just wait until the week about the Kingdom, it’s going to be crazy!” Once again, I underestimated how powerfully God would work.

Kenny is amazing. Great worship leader, very authentic and humble, incredible story of what kind of life he had before he knew God- but beyond all of this, GOD moved mightily this week.

Something we discussed throughout the week: We have a DAILY choice between defending our reputation among men, or developing our relationship with Father, Son and Spirit. A daily choice. Which do I choose? I think I often try and accomplish both…putting time and energy into keeping a solid reputation while simultaneously living for Christ. How is this even possible? No wonder I feel so exhausted sometimes. I’m striving for a lifestyle that’s impossible. Paul talks about this throughout so many of his letters; the CHOICE we have to please God or please men. Often times when we seek to please God, we will end up pleasing men as well…but our desire should be to please God.

An exercise we did in class: Draw two columns on a sheet of paper. On the left side, write down accusations/lies you’ve been told or believed. (ex: I’m alone, I don’t have the ability to make a big impact, others are more important) And on the right side, write down the truth that contradicts those lies. There are scriptures supporting each of those truths. It’s a simple exercise but SO important…I’ve done it several times and I keep these papers in my bible to read on occasion.

In the scriptures, God tells us that we can all have the gift of prophecy. Kenny takes this seriously. He prophesied over many this week, and a lot of the students experienced a new level of faith. It was awesome. Some students came away from this week with a clear idea of what their calling is…that’s HUGE.

This Thursday, we took the entire DTS plus Kenny to the beach and did baptisms! About 12 people were baptized in the ocean. Here are a couple pics:

I forgot to mention- last week we did a children’s ministry at a local church in our neighborhood. We walked around the streets inviting people right before it started, and then gathered everyone outside of the church building. We performed a few dramas and taught a couple children’s songs, and we all had a ton of fun. Here are a couple pics:

Let the transformation continue...March, here we come!

Week 7 begins tomorrow. That's crazy. The past two weeks have been nothing short of busy, and now that outreach plans are beginning to come together, our days will only increase in activity. We met for the first time in our outreach teams this week. Our Central America team is the largest, with five staff, ten students, and four children- a total of 19! It was exciting to talk about each individual country and share the information we've received so far. The Mexico team has three staff and two students, and the Haiti team has three staff and nine students. Everyone is pumped for those last two months! But in the meantime...

Week 6 was about servant leadership. We talked a lot about how our attitudes dictate the outcome of our situations, our success, and so much more. As a leader for the DTS, I was taking just as many notes during class as the students...lots of good information and biblical examples of Godly leadership. So much growing to do... :)

A couple fun things in the past two weeks:

*Valentine's day party (chocolate, dancing, singing)

*A really great game introduced to us by Regula from Switzerland. She brought a TON of Swiss chocolate bars that she kindly shares with us all...and one of the ways she does that is through this game. She takes a bar of chocolate and wraps it in probably 15 pieces of notebook paper, taping it closed. That sits in the middle of the table along with a fork, butter knife, pair of gloves, scarf, and a hat. The people playing roll a single die and whenever they roll a 6, they put on all of the items mentioned and try to open the wrapped chocolate using only the fork and butter knife. If they are able to open it up (takes awhile) they can eat (again, only with the fork and knife) as much chocolate as they can...while they are doing this, the die is still being passed around the table and if someone rolls a 6, the person who is mid-scarf/hat/gloves trying to cut open the chocolate has to immediately stop and pass everything to the new person. As you can imagine, it's easy to roll a 6 and so it takes awhile for the chocolate to get opened. It's pretty funny and I'll try and capture some footage of it the next time we play.

On a different note...I'm feeling pretty worn out and low on energy. I knew this would come at some point, and it's sure to appear again during outreach, but I would appreciate prayers in this time. Everyday is so full and it's easy to get a little drained. But I still love being here!

And thank you for the cards and couple care packages I've received...they truly make my day. I feel so special whenever I'm told I have mail! Touches of home are so sweet and very much cherished.

Enjoy your week...I'll update soon!

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." -Galatians 5:1

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" -Romans 8:1

I think I underestimated what this last week would be like. I knew the general idea, I knew it’d be huge, but I wasn’t prepared for just how mightily God would move in the hearts of the DTS. Thankfully, God’s plans are greater than ours could ever be. And my goodness, what a plan He had for the past few days…

Basically, this past week was all about breaking free of anything that’s formed our identity besides God. Such an important thing to do before going out to minister to others. It always blows me away to hear someone’s story and struggles. We ALL have junk in our lives, often imposed on us and sometimes chosen by us. For example- divorce, abuse, abandonment, addictions, eating disorders, self hatred, unforgiveness (of self or others), depression- this list goes on and on. And most of us don’t just struggle with one thing. There are several parts to what “breaking free” means, including identifying the issue, asking God for forgiveness, asking God to reveal the root of the issue, and declaring freedom from it according to God’s word. Perhaps the biggest challenge of this week is when all of this is shared in the open amongst the group. Many people have never admitted any of their struggles, and continue to remain in a solitary prison because of it. But the beauty of outwardly sharing in this setting is that you are immediately surrounded by support and encouragement to break free. Imagine sharing your story with close friends; imagine them weeping with you for what’s been lost and wrongly done; imagine having them pray over you and speak truth to you; imagine getting something off your chest that you’ve been carrying and believing in for YEARS. It’s powerful. And believe me when I say that there is literally a physical change in most people afterwards. You look at them and see an actual difference in their appearance. Our students aren’t the same as they were a week ago…all because they took a risk and trusted God and asked Him to be free.

It was an exhausting week. After hearing so many heartbreaking stories and crying a few buckets worth, it’s all you can do not to sleep for the entire weekend. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

God is so good.