Just the Beginning

Grief is strong here in Germany, my time here ended a few nights ago and one by one my fellow students are leaving, going back to their home country (I leave next thursday). I am extremely grateful for my experience in the Mobile DTS 2011. Nothing and no one can take this away from me! I have been on an incredible journey, discovering all new aspects of God and my life has been changed from the inside out! My identity is solid in Christ, my hope and joy comes from Him and in time of sufferings, He will never leave me. Looking back to the Grace I was before, and looking at the Grace I am now, I am in awe of the power of Christ, only He can bring deep change. I've discovered that it just takes saying "yes" to God and He will take you places and levels beyond what you can imagine.

Thursday night was our graduation and it was one of the most bittersweet moments I have ever experienced. Feelings of excitement, sadness, satisfaction and joy rushed over me, I didn't quite know what to do with them! The night started with a yummy meal of burritos (not realll burritos, but they were close) and ended with delicious icecream. In between there was a time of worship, leader speeches and passing out of the certificates. I don't think our school has experienced such a powerful worship time. I felt like God was saying Isaiah 41:10 to us- 

"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

There comes a certain level of fear knowing it is the end and we are going home but the cool thing is that DTS may be done, but God isn't done with us. He has so much more planned! Being fearful will stunt the growth we have all encountered. 

On another encouraging note, one of our leaders charged us with a verse from Matthew 5:16-

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

This is just the beginning, my new life starts when I get home. How will I use the light that is in me??

Two weeks left!

I am back in YWAM Herrnhut, with two weeks to go and 24 weeks behind me. God is faithful. I haven’t updated in a while but that doesn’t mean nothing has happened, these last two weeks have been crazy! Buxtehude was a week spent investing time in the community; we worked with troubled kids in the park, spoke in a few church youth groups and did some practical service work. For the weekend we had a special chance to live at the Royal Ranger outpost and personally, I don’t really know what being a “Royal Ranger” means...I just went along with everyone else. But it was a fun weekend! We chopped down trees all day saturday and spoke at a local church where I met a set of triplets! And just like my brothers and I, they were two boys and a girl, the girl the youngest. I was stoked! It was my first time meeting an older set of triplets. All in all the week was good, we weren’t too busy and we had a lot of time to get to know each other. That was important because the outreach teams were split, so we were paired with people we didn’t know too well. 

On sunday I packed up my stuff and left for Prague! My dad arrived that afternoon and we spent the week together there. It was a very special week. I got to share my experiences with him and he got to update me on my family and what is going on at home. We toured around Prague and also did some prayer/devotion time together. I was also able to see my friend Anetka who I met on a mission trip a few years ago. It’s always a blessing to see her! My dad left friday morning so I spent the day with some friends who did their faith week in Prague, on saturday we started the way back to the castle and hitchhiked along the way. It was so much fun! I have never done that before and I had my suitcase with me, but God provided and we got picked up by a bright orange hippy van and then later picked up by a teeny tiny car that we crammed into. It was quite the experience. I don’t recommend hitchhiking in America, but I’m glad I was able to experience it. 

We arrived at the castle to total chaos. My school is here (40 people) the MOTA school is here (130 people) and the January DTS is here (20 people) plus all the staff members (100 people). The first meal altogether was very overwhelming. But it is nice to see the people again, and it will be fun to attend their graduation on thursday. 

My school has lecture this week and next week is sort of a “prep” week for going home. I am really trying to finish strong and see what God has planned for the rest of the time here. After all, a lot can happen in just two weeks.

Buxtehude, was?

It has been almost three months since I have been in Germany but now I am back! As we were driving from Holland to the border I noticed the exit on the highway said "ausfahrt" and I realized it was german which brought me to a conclusion, I had to be in Germany! My excitement lasted only a minute though. Germany is not one of my favorite places but I am happy to have started my journey with YWAM here. There are four more weeks and I know they are going to be jam packed! For this week I am in a town called Buxtehude, near the Hamburg area. My team and I (nine people) will be here for the week participating in different forms of evangelism such as speaking in churches, working with the Royal Rangers and visiting our friends in Hamburg! The rest of the school is spread throughout Germany each team working with different ministries, so this is a powerful week for Germany! Next monday we will begin our faith walk week- which means pray, hear from God and go. I pray it will be a week that stretches and grows me. After that week we will spend two weeks in Herrnhut and then it's off to home! Wow. I don't want to think about that yet.

This past week in Holland I stayed in Heerde, an adorable town with bikes and flowers everywhere! I stayed with an awesome host family who had two dogs and a cat. Just in case you were wondering. We did all kinds of ministry while there, hanging out with the youth (one night we had a dance party!), church ministry, small group programs, working in homeless and mental shelters, children programs and chilling in towers interceding for the town. Tuesday night we got together with another group from our school for a "dutch night!" We played traditional dutch games, ate yummy dutch food and enjoyed each other's wonderful company! I really enjoyed being in a different part of Holland, Amsterdam is it's own place and you can't truly get the "dutch experience" there. For example, because I was in different houses I noticed that all the mirrors are mounted so high because of how tall the dutch people are. Short little Grace had trouble seeing in them! I also noticed the dutch consume more coffee than other europeans (except italians) and I love it! It is a way of living, to just relax and enjoy deeper relationships. Maybe I can bring that back to America with me, anybody down? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my update, though I have noticed they are becoming more like "updates" than what I am experiencing/feeling. Sorry about that! Time is flying by and we are becoming so busy! But thank you for your prayers, I appreciate them so much! I will be be back soon!