Prys Die Here!

Sorry once again for taking a long time to update. I think I need to try to start updating more than once a week because there is so much that happens every week that it is impossible to cover everything that happened!

This past week was holy spirit week. It was by far the most exhausting week in every possible way. There were so many times I wondered how i was going to make it through the week. I don't even know how to describe last week through a blog except to say that I learned a lot about the power and presence of the holy spirit. The lectures that we had were awesome. Our speaker for the week was Stephan Hugo who leads another base in South Africa and is also the leader of YWAM South Africa. He also brought a team of 4 people with him to help. A lot of the DTS students were nervous for Holy Spirit week because the staff have been talking since we got here about how it was going to be a powerful week and that we were really lucky to have the speaker that we had. We really just didn't know what to expect.

Monday morning Stephan started out by prophesying over some of the people on our team. He told me that the picture he saw for me was a big tree. I have had a good upbringing. I have strong roots. In the future, a lot of people will come and sit under my tree and I will influence them by just being myself. I don't usually like it when they start prophesying because you never know what they are going to say but what they told me was encouraging. Monday night we had the first "holy spirit party". The power and presence of God was definitely there. I saw so many things that I have never heard of or experienced every before.

Another part of the week that really stuck out to me was on Thursday morning we had the opportunity to bless the other people on our team. During lectures Stephan told us to start praying that God would show us what God wanted us to give away and who he wanted us to give it to. It was amazing the things that people were giving away. People were coming into the room with guitars, laptops, cameras, jewelry, etc. God really challenged me that day to begin living a lifestyle of giving. To often we are too focused on our own situations. We try to plan ahead and save money instead of helping other people who are close to us who are struggling. If we feel like God is laying it on our hearts to help somebody,whether it is something small like saying a quick prayer or something as big as giving away a car, we need to obey and do what he is telling us. God sees our obedience and he will bless us in other ways. So many people worry so much about money and wondering how they will afford things but trusting God is so much easier! He will provide for everything that we need.

This week is plumbline week. Everybody says that this is by far the most challenging and emotional week. It is a week of healing. The way that they described it today is like a weed. When you first see the weed in a garden you can rake over it and cover it with dirt and make the garden presentable. The weed will continue to grow until the whole garden is covered with weeds. The only way to stop the problem is to uncover it and dig it out at the root. Soo this week our lives are the garden. Every person has things from the past that have hurt us and affected us. A lot of times we forget about it and move on but we aren't truly healed. This week is a week of uncovering the things from the past- even if we don't know what they are yet- and being truly healed. At the end of the week we take turns sitting in the hot seat in front of everybody and telling them about our past and getting counseling from the speaker. So as you can see, this is going to be a very emotional week but a necessary week. Pray for open hearts this week that we will discover things from the past that need to be healed and also that our group will grow closer during this time.

Good news!! I was accepted for a fundraiser at Applebees! A few of my friends have been working really hard to raise the rest of the money that I still need for outreach. We found out last week that the Applebees fundraiser is going to work out. I will post the flier in the next post. If you are interested in supporting me through this fundraiser all you need to do it print out the flier and bring it to Applebees on September 16 between 5 and 9 and 20% of the bill will go to help with my outreach fees. Prys Die Here! (Praise the Lord!)


Other prayer requests:

- we are busy planning a fundraiser concert to help a few people from our team who are struggling to pay their fees. We only have 2 weeks to pull everything together and we don't have much time during the week to practice or plan
- the swine flu has arrived in S. Africa. Pray that the flu is controlled and that it doesn't reach the poorer parts of the community because it will spread quickly. Also, there are a lot of people on the base who aren't feeling well but not necessarily with the swine flu but just pray for that they will start feeling better soon!
- pray for strength for our team for the next few weeks as we prepare a LOT of dances and skits for outreach. The days are getting very busy but pray that we can continue to focus on God through it all.