"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." john 15:4
"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit." jeremiah 17:7-8
January 2010
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to post! I can’t believe it has been a month already and I haven’t updated once! Things have been super busy here at the base. I arrived New Years Eve in time for the staff retreat, but with barely enough time to finish all the rooms for the arriving students. The students arrived between the Tuesday and Friday before the DTS the second week of January and it’s been an incredible time since, getting to know each other. We have 21 students this quarter for the DTS. There is also a Children at Risk school running, as well as a good amount of staff. It’s been a struggle to get everything ready so that there are enough beds but things have come together nicely… we are definitely in an exciting pioneering stage of YWAM San Jose… and I am so thrilled and grateful to be able to be a part of it. It has been wonderful coming home to this family and exciting to see how God is working here among these passionate young people who desire to make His heart known. I feel I have so much to write and update about, but all I can think about is the last days…
Where to start? The first week we had a teaching on Intimacy with God with our incredible Vanessa Pavely. It is such a privilege to have her share with us the passionate heart of God… He has given her such a heart to make His love known to the world and to be able to receive from Him through such a passionate heart is a total blessing. The second week we had a teaching on the Character and Nature of God, with Carlos Penning. This was also really incredible to be challenged once again in who we believe God to be… in His justice, and mercy and love and grace and how these characteristics are shown and work together in different circumstances in the Bible and also today. Last week we had a teaching on Spiritual Warfare and Intercession with Roger Santos from Brasil. This week was challenging but God definitely brought out some treasures… like how our obedience to Him comes out of our faith in who He is, and our faith comes through hearing the word of God and revelation of the knowledge of who He is… through this revelation of our incredible and awesome God we begin to know Him and LOVE Him, and desire more of Him… this also builds our faith in Him as we know and walk in relationship with Him… through this we are obedient and are able to walk out in what He calls us to because of our Love for Him and faith in Him… and faith being simply believe He is who He says He is. This week we are going a little deeper with teachings on the Power of the Cross, and asking God for revelation of what He has truly done for us that we might live and know Him… tonight we are watching the Passion of Christ and taking communion together. Pray for breakthrough in the lives of the students and also the staff! He is constantly desires to draw us closer to Him and this time is so special and unique!
Here are the names of the students so those of you who want to pray can pray specifically for them…
Desiree (and daughter Reeghan) – Washington, USA
Julie – Manitoba, Canada
Regula – Switzerland
Bailey – Virgina, USA
Melanie – USA
Tawneke – USA
Ingrid – Norway
Jenelle – Alberta, Canada
Christine (& Dave – on staff) – Vancouver, Canada
Steve & Elizabeth (& daughters: Abby, Gabriela, Grace) – Alaska, USA
Gisselle – Honduras
Chelsey – USA
Rachel – England
Lauryn – Colorado, USA
Jose & Marianela – Costa Rica
Jose – El Salvador
Stefan – Switzerland
Mike – Arizona, USA
Johnny - Idaho, USA
We have been blessed with an incredible staff team also, who would love and need your prayers!
Vanessa & Spencer Pavely (DTS Leaders), Lito Espinoza, Morgan Taylor, Dave Bergen, Johan Simmara, Rossella Dodero, Elena Espinoza, Rayme Van Beaver, Melissa Barman, Leigh Cappabianca and myself!
This week, like I said, we are jumping into a teaching about the Love of Christ and aligning ourselves with His truth and heart… it involves a lot of inner healing and times of ministry for the students and can be a huge week of growth individual but also as a DTS family.
Last week during base intercession, we were asked to share with a small group about why we are here, and what we feel the purpose God has called us here for and then pray for one another. Rayme and I went for a little walk to clean up some hospitality dishes with the intention of sneaking away from intercession time… and had a really awesome talk and the Lord totally met with us… Something that I had been struggling with, or I guess more of a question I had was where does my will meet His will? And, how can I be sure I am doing His will and not my own? - walking by the Spirit and not by my flesh so that I can walk more fully in the calling He has on my life. We began talking also about how he desire to reveal Himself to us specifically, and how often time we look at others and their relationship with the Father and how He reveals Himself to them… at time I can be envious of this and desire those same things… and the Lord was showing me how although its clearly not a bad thing to desire more of Him but when I am constantly looking at what I don’t have I miss out on what is right in front of me… what He has already given me. I believe He is calling us to be faithful with what He has already us… to be at the same time yearning for more of Him, and content with what He has already given to me. I want to stop being distracted by that which I am not yet walking in, but to be faithful in stepping out and offering back to Him what He has already given me.
We were talking this through and prayed before heading back to class, just asking the Lord to show us. And the first thing we talked about in class was directly answering those questions… that as I abide in Him and position myself to fall more in love with Him as I spend time with Him, He will be preparing me to walk into the destiny He has for me and that my will meets His will as He forms my heart as I abide in Him. He is shifting my focus to no longer be on where I am at with Him and how I can go further and where I am not yet at in the sense of comparison… but to be simply content in Him, loving Him and spending time with Him in His presence simply because of HIM… not the things I desire from Him. I want to choose to be with Him simply to love Him and be in Him… abiding in Him.
