Hey,

Just a reminder to all of you out there, I won't be updating this blog until I get back, so check out the blog that will be done for all my fellow DTSers while I am gone.... http://jamm2011.dinstudio.com/ It is a great place to find out about our exploits, which I'm sure will be many, and learn a little more about what God is doing in the lives of everyone. On that note, I pray that all is well with you and I hope you know I am praying for you. Keep us all in your prayers for safe travels, easy in and out of customs, and a lot of FUN!! Also pray that God reveals Himself even more. We are here to serve the Lord! Also, please remember, that you are made for MORE!

A Matter of the Heart

I feel like I haven’t been posting as much lately. The reality is a lot has happened in the last few weeks that I don’t feel fully capable of describing over a blog post. I even find it hard to describe to people over the phone. The truth is, God has been moving in my life, and even if no one else gets anything out of this DTS, I know that this DTS has forever changed my life, or at least, that is what I pray. God moves in unusual ways, but I’m finding that He only speaks to us in ways that we can handle. In addition, He speaks to each of us in a unique way. When He speaks to me, it is a message particularly catered to me.

In the last few weeks, I have spent more time at Greenhaven Farm, with my roommates, and with God. My focus has shifted in the past few weeks, and I can only pray that the Lord allows me and gives me strength to be real and authentic everyday, and that He allows me to see more of Him; to meet Him in my heart and not simply in my head.

I have been finding over the last few weeks that I knew God before only in my head and not in my heart. I guess this might seem like a strange statement to those who know me, but God wants our hearts not our minds. Yes, ideally, He would like our minds too, but that is not where revelation of who He is comes from. He doesn’t live in our heads. He doesn’t even care about how much knowledge we have or don’t have because if we have a heart that is not in full surrender to Him, we aren’t going anywhere. We will be stalled by our knowledge…. I guess I’ve been learning that knowledge is all well and good, but that doesn’t mean that you truly understand what He has done for you. I didn’t.

I have spent years of my life doing. I have spent so long trying to earn salvation, without realizing it. I thought that God wanted me to always be doing things for Him. I had two hands that were willing, but I didn’t have a heart that was open to Him. God uses our hands, but that isn’t what He is after. Just today, our speaker Frank Naea mentioned a verse that sums this up pretty well:

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may

give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I

pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may

know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in

the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is

like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised

him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far

above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be

given not only in te present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:17-21

NIV).

This is a matter of the HEART! It is a matter of God reaching us in the very depths of our being… suddenly, life is no longer about constantly moving, mental aerobics, or doing as much as I possibly can do in one day. It is about the condition of my heart, which I can testify my heart is in pretty sorry shape in relation to my Father in Heaven. I don’t, or I should say didn’t, know God in way that reached my heart. I had all this knowledge about God, the Bible, theology, society, people….but nothing about WHO God is. Nothing. There are many reasons why I never let God take root, and one of them just happens to be that I was too busy doing to stop and allow God into my heart. It also goes back to pride and the idea that I never wanted to let anyone hurt me ever again, so I didn’t. I built walls around myself, my heart, which kept all out; including God. It left me a robot, shell of a human being.

Even as I write this, I can hear the voices of those of you reading this, saying, “No, this isn’t right…they must have brainwashed her…” “This couldn’t be true, she is so servant hearted…” and on and on and on and on…. You don’t have to agree with any of this, but you don’t see my heart. Only God knows what has happened, how I came to this stage, and what He sees as my next steps. He alone can save me, and only He can tell me who I am and who I am not. Amazingly, I don’t feel pain writing this.

It really is about our personal relationship with God the Father. He saved me. SAVED me. He saved you too, but do you feel it? Do you feel the weight of your chains lifted? I do. Do you feel it in the depths of your heart?  It really hit home today that believing in God in your heart says that the blood of Jesus is sufficient, that the grace of God is sufficient for me. I don’t have to do. I don’t have to prove myself to God. I just have to allow His grace to flood my heart, and I have to daily give my life over to Him. It is hard. Even now as I still struggle with my relationships with some of the girls here and back home, I have to hand those over to God. I have to focus on Him. When I feel like I’m being overwhelmed by everything that I feel like I need to work on, I just hand it over to God. The work He has started in me, He has also finished in me through the cross…and that is enough for me. It is not by my works that I am saved, but by His grace.

In other more exciting news, just last Sunday, we had a JAMM Café, which is an opportunity for my DTS to take over a church service and get our message about human trafficking out. We led worship, read poems, had a small skit about human trafficking, and asked for financial support…which God more than supplied our needs…we asked for $1500, and God provided much more than I or anyone else ever expected. His provision has been huge thus far.

Thank you as always for your support and prayers… this is going to be my last blog posting for a long while due to lack of computers on outreach. However, some of my fellow DTSers are going to blogging about our journey in Japan and Thailand for the group…the link is: http://jamm2011.dinstudio.com/

Check it out, book mark it, add it to your favorites, and find out how I am doing and more about our outreach!!

Female Infanticide

I did my research project for DTS on Female Infanticide, which is the killing of innocent babies (generally of the female gender). It occurs all across the globe. However, it is culturally engrained in India and China; though the practice is illegal in both nations. Here are two short videos to learn more about the practice. I hope you enjoy, or at least learn more about infanticide. 

This one is very difficult to watch, though demonstrative of how potent infanticide is: 

   

This video has more facts about the situation in India:

This is a topic that really breaks my heart, and I hope that it breaks yours a little too. Please pray for the daughters being born in India and China right now; that God would change their society to see them as worthy members created for a purposed. They were made beautifully in His image.

Thank you!

A Powerful Story

Hello!

Here is a powerful story about one man's journey into the world of sex trafficking. Don't worry, it isn't gruesome or gross. It is a great testiment to the power of God's grace and His revultion at this horrible trade.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/31795904?autoplay=1

Please Pray

Hello all of my faithful prayer warriors,

I guess this really isn't an update because I don't feel comfortable giving out details. However, I ask that all of you pray fervently for the people in my DTS. In my last post, I mentioned that I believed that our DTS was under spiritual attack, and I still believe that it is. Recent events have made me aware evermore that this DTS isn't just an ordinary DTS. We are currently under attack for whatever reason. Planned speakers don't show up or have to cancel, people leaving (currently 2 out of the original 16 DTSers have left), unusual situations have presented themselves. We are under spiritual attack. I have been told that most DTS's don't have nearly this many problems, and I have also been told that as a group we are one of the most talented that has come together at this particular base. Once again, I can't give details, but I hope that you can bring our DTS and every individual forward in prayer. I am specifically praying for unity among the group because I feel that many of the attacks have been toward dividing the group. I also am beginning to get a sense that each of us can do great things for the Lord, but we are being thwarted. One thing after another has come up to stop our plans or hinder us in our efforts. I know that the Lord has already completed the work that He has started. He promised that through the cross, and I don't know if we are to go through the fire in our testing or if we will be rescued from the fire. However, I ask that all of you prayer warriors bring us before the Lord in prayer. Ask for our protection, strength, courage, and endurance. Ask for unity amongst individuals. Pray for us, please. I know that the Lord has a plan for everyone, but the verse Eph 6:12 has come to mind specifically that we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against powers of this unseen world. Please just pray for our victory today and in these coming days. Thank you.

The 5th Floor

What to say about the 5^th floor…it is an interesting place, but it isn’t very pretty. It has lumpy carpet with dirt ground into it, and the walls have bubbles where water or some other unknown substance has caused the plaster to move away from the actual wall. To the normal viewer, it is probably the one of the “grosser” floors because of the lack of maintenance. In fact, I walked down it the other day, looked up with a smile and realized that they finally replaced some of the burnt out light bulbs. Let’s just say, our hotel is anything but classy. (I should note that roof over our head is definitely something worth being grateful for.)Despite all of its deficiencies, the 5^th floor is a very special place to me.

Oddly enough, I don’t live on the 5^th floor and I probably never will. I’ve lived on the 3^rd floor, and I currently occupy an apartment on the 4^th floor (much to the chagrin of my downstairs neighbors, fellow DTSers). J But, my high opinion of the 5^th floor remains the same. 

This week has officially been rough, and it is only Thursday. Even though we’ve had the chance to color pictures and try to see who can find the difference in the pictures the fastest, this week has been full of those awesome rollercoaster emotions that I mentioned last week. I feel as though the Lord has mainly been speaking to me about forgiveness and reconciliation, can we all jump up and down and clap our hands now? Yeah, I thought so, no one really likes this topic. That is okay, neither do I. :D Oddly enough, we have been learning about forgiveness and reconciliation from the book of Philemon, if that isn’t what you got out of the book of Philemon take another look. J I started out this week (Sunday actually) receiving a letter from one of my fellow DTSers telling me how much I had hurt her; I will be the first to admit, I can be rather blunt. Her full length letter went on to tell me that she felt degraded by me and that I made her feel insignificant. My heart broke as I read the letter. I do not believe that anyone wants to hear that they have hurt someone else in any way. She then finished the letter off by asking for my forgiveness as well. It was a difficult pill to swallow, for sure! I can tell you right here and now that my gut reaction was to throw the letter away and NEVER deal with this issue. The problem: there are only 14 DTSers….avoidance is not an option! After a couple of minutes, I knew I needed to apologize, but my pride was definitely in the way of this situation. I didn’t really WANT to apologize especially after some of the things that she wrote. I walked up and down my hallway (4^th floor) for a good 20 minutes before I knocked on one of our staffer’s door to talk about the letter. I needed a 3^rd person to give me some perspective into this letter because I was most definitely not being objective…

Long story short, I apologized, received forgiveness and gave forgiveness…the process of reconciliation had to take place, but not before I took the matter to God on the 5^th floor. Not before I came to a place of utter and total peace about this person as well as my role in unintentionally hurting this person. I had to come to that place where I realized that I could be friends with someone who had hurt me and I didn’t really get along with…sometimes, personalities do not always mesh. However, as adults, as members of the Christian community, the Church, the Body of Christ, I had to take that initial step of reaching out and jumping over a hurtle that stood between us. I had to choose the right way to respond rather than the way I would have liked to respond in that specific instance, and I reached this understanding with God on the 5^th floor.

For me, the 5^th floor is both a physical place and a metaphorical state of spiritual worship. It is that space where we come to stand before our Lord and worship Him alone. It is the place that we wrestle with the things the Lord is teaching us or wanting us to do, the place where we cry out for mercy and forgiveness, and the place where we allow God to heal us and each other. It is that place that we take a step beyond ourselves and focus only on the Lord. He is in that space.

Later in the week, as we were reading through Philemon, but seemingly inspired by God, I was pushed to consider reconciliation with a few others that I know. Actually, the class was instructed to go through the process of forgiveness and reconciliation, but God revealed to me that I am really good at forgiving people, then forgetting literally everything…the transgression…the person…everything. I felt God ask me to step beyond simply forgiving, but also reaching out to those around me and maintaining a friendship despite past hurts. Thankfully, I had the renewed friendship from earlier in the week to use as motivation to really make a change. Thanks God for giving me a picture of something that I didn’t really want to do, but had to do anyway as a model for what I am supposed to do for the rest of my week….let’s just say, I have a little bit of homework to follow in Philemon’s example of loving Onesimus.

Then, on Thursday night, my dear friend, a fellow DTSer decided to leave our DTS!! It was horrible to watch her pack her stuff, place it on the baggage cart, roll it to her car, and drive away. My heart was broken because this girl has been a dear friend to me. When I am down, she is the one I turn to for a good laugh, a hug, and a warm smile. Instead of wallowing in the sadness, we decided to get together as a DTS and pray for her. We decided to pray that her journey be safe, her road would be straight, and that she would get into a Canadian university. However, even more powerful was our time of worship afterward, we felt called to praise God even in the confusion and hurt. In essence, we went to the 5^th floor to praise Him for being in control and for giving us peace in this time of heartache. I know it sounds insane to be this sad about someone leaving after having only knowing them for a month, but DTS is a time of getting to know each other very well. And a family atmosphere has already taken root amongst our small band of Christ followers. Prank phone calls should be enough of an example of brotherly and sisterly annoyance and affection. We have grown together. To have one of our own severed from us creates sad feelings, confusion, and brokenness. However, we also feel that the Lord will strengthen us during this time. He will use this situation for His good and bond those of us left together even tighter than before.

As a final note and prayer request, please pray for our DTS. Pray for our staff, all of the DTSers, our speakers, and our outreach. The fact of the matter is, our DTS has been under attack from the moment we got here. First, one of our male DTSers left after the 2^nd or 3^rd week. Then some of our speakers cancelled, got delayed, or were unable to meet us here in Canada. Then, we had to swap rooms in an effort to balance the girls out. Finally, another DTSer has left; for whatever reason, Satan wants this DTS to end. He wants to break our spirits and leave us in despair! We have chosen a road of joy and praise, but we ask for your prayers to combat any continued attacks. We claim victory, unity, and above all peace in the arms of Jesus. I’ll be taking this issue before the Lord on the 5^th floor, I hope all of you do too! Thank you.

Relationships, the Homeless, and my Birhday!

This week has definitely been a rollercoaster, and I realize that it is apart of all of our journeys to have good days and bad. But, for a girl who tends to be very stable emotionally most days, this process has been interesting. I jokingly tell my roommates that I have cried more in the last month of being here than in the past 10 years, I guess that gives you perspective on how insanely emotional this process is. However, I am finding that though emotional and physically exhausting, I wouldn’t change where I am for the world. We all have bad days, with feelings that totally stink, but that is apart of the process. It is apart of growing stronger and more sensitive to the Lord’s leading.

Our topic for this week was on relationships and identity, which only built on everything we learned last week about the Spiritual Disciplines…please don’t ask me how. I think it would take me years to fully explain how everything in the DTS seems to fit together and create an atmosphere of extreme revolution within self. Even after a month, I know and hope I will never be the same. One of our staffers put it beautifully when she told us that all of us will be “ruined for the ordinary.” I say, bring it on, Lord! Change us! Make us who you need us to be!

As many of you know, yesterday was my birthday, which added a new challenge to this week. I missed home and the people that I would normally celebrate with. It really made me sad, but more than anything, I felt God speaking to me that we (He and I) could start a new tradition. This year, it would be about Him and me. No one else mattered, and as long as He was there, it would be a great birthday. That very evening I found out from one of my fellow DTSers, Marvin, that I would be one of two going to downtown Toronto to feed the homeless on Thursday night. At first, I thought he was joking simply because he is known for being a prankster, and his prank phone calls are the reason my phone was unplugged for an entire evening. However, after Marvin finally convinced me that he was serious, I knew that the Lord had had a plan in putting me on the first team to feed the homeless on the very night before my 21^st birthday. He was getting me to focus on Him and giving back to others.

Our adventure feeding the homeless was amazing! We were told that going out wasn’t just about feeding people. The people living on the streets are not starving, they might be hungry, but they aren’t starving. The fact of the matter is, they just want to interact and feel human again. I hope that we showed them the love that Christ has for them. I hope also that the woman who brought us saw a little of the love Christ has. We had the opportunity to talk to some more than others, but a few definitely remain prominent in my own mind. There were two men one with a guitar and the other with a dog, they showed us that homeless men and women can have a job and vocation. People living on the streets are not simply bums. Some cannot afford living expenses. Another man spoke to us for about an hour about philosophy and theology. He had come to Canada from India to become a philosopher. We discussed the Communist Manifesto, Nietzsche, the life of Jesus, and if Jesus really was the Son of God. It made me realize that all the man wanted to do was debate and talk to people. It also broke my heart a little seeing how much he needed Christ’s love. I hope that the next groups get a chance to spend with these men. They are truly characters, and I would love to go back again.

We ended up getting done feeding the homeless in time to catch the 11:43pm train back to Ports. At 12:03am on the train, we noticed it was my birthday and Marvin sang “happy birthday” though quietly since the train was completely packed. We got back to Ports at 12:30am, when my roommates all sang “happy birthday” to me as well. They are so cute!

My birthday may have been one of the simplest I have ever had, but it also was one of the best…if not the best. I know that God was completely in control of everything that happened, and I was so encouraged by my fellow DTSers. However, in this small family that is forming, we have learned to love birthdays…cake (along with all other sugar) is a rarity. More importantly, I felt like this birthday helped me reevaluate how I want to spend the rest of my birthdays. It stripped away all of the self centeredness and made me focus on the importance of who I am spending time with, not what we are doing or how much money is being spent. It is about focusing on the Lord and all that He has for me. It is about showing love to those around me.

Relational God

How often do I check in with God during my day? I pray regularly, read the Bible inside and outside class, and I do my best to get to Church every Sunday. After spending time learning about the Spiritual Disciplines (ie. Prayer, solitude, meditation, etc.), I realize that our God is more relational than traditional. He wants to spend time with us.  Nevertheless, how often do I just sit and spend time communing with God? How often to I try to listen to His voice, meditate on His face, or talk over the things going on in my life? I have to admit, communing with God is something that I often have to schedule in because I never feel like there is enough time. The sad part is, I don’t think that I have the right to try to schedule God in whenever it is convenient for me. God is an ever present force in our lives, and we should be going by His schedule not our own. After all, He created us, not the other way around. So why do I have such a hard time sitting down and communing? Sitting down in fellowship with my King?

This isn’t an easy question for anyone to answer, but I realize that yes, communion with the Lord does take a little bit of scheduling on our part. We have to make TIME to sit down with Him. As with any friendship, we have to find the time to be together, but going a little deeper, I personally have a hard time stilling myself mentally and physically. We live in a fast paced society that tells us that every minute of every day we need to be moving, doing, and getting things done. So much to do, so little time. While it is good to get things done, and it is good to finish our projects, I have been realizing that by always going, I rarely rest. I rarely give myself the chance to sit down, take a breather, and enjoy the company of God. While I’m not entirely sure as to why I feel like I always have to be doing, I realize that part of the problem is the culture that we live in that refuses to take a break. Most cities never sleep, and most of us, keep chugging away with little thought to the fact that in order to bring glory to His Kingdom, we have to spend quality time with our King.

This week (or I should say weekend), we enjoyed lectures on the Spiritual Disciplines, and even put a couple of them into practice. Our first time of simply spending time with God was asking God, “What do you think about me?” I was sitting on a bench, under a tree and felt a huge disconnect (this was after about 20 minutes of sitting). Everything within me felt like giving up, but I realized this was about practice not about getting a message and moving on. So, I asked God to open my heart and sat a little bit longer. After a couple of minutes, I looked over at the tree I was sitting under and I felt like I should climb it. I honestly haven’t climbed a tree in about 12 years, so I had to question if I should seriously climb the tree. After a couple of seconds I realized that sitting on the bench really wasn’t working anyway, so even if nothing happened in the tree, I wasn’t missing much on the ground. I climbed the tree. Once I got a good 15 or 20 feet up, I said, “Well, God, you got me into the tree, what now?”

As I was sitting in the tree, I looked down, and I saw how far up I was from the ground and my backpack, which was still sitting under the tree where I left it. It was in that moment that I had to question, why I wasn’t afraid to fall when I was sitting in the tree. The fact of the matter is, when you climb a tree (or anything) your entire weight is being supported by something other than you. I was leaning on a branch that if it broke would leave me helpless to falling and at best breaking a limb. The fact of the matter is, I couldn’t protect myself if I were to fall, but despite this knowledge, I still felt safe standing in the tree. Then, I felt God saying that none of us is strong enough to protect ourselves. We all need to lean on something or Someone in order to be safe at times; and that is okay. I felt the Lord tell me that He always wants me to feel safe when approaching Him, and that it is okay to feel vulnerable. Being strong doesn’t mean that I have to be strong for everyone else. It means that I can be strong enough to be broken as well.

I know that most of you have never seen me cry, which isn’t that unusual since I am not an overly emotional person. Part of this is because of who I am, but I think that much of our society believes that tears are a sign of weakness. It is only now that I am realizing that it takes even more strength to allow people to see our vulnerability than it does to be strong all the time.

Yesterday, we were asked to go around the room and say positive words about each other. The first word that multiple people said was ‘strong.’ It struck me as an interesting thing that I can be viewed as strong by these people who have seen me cry more than anyone else. Still, they see strength. I think the more I open up, the stronger I get. I hope the same for all of you.  

Some Pictures

I realize that my last post was very long, and it didn't have any pictures! So, I am adding on some pictures that correlate with my last post :)

This is where I go walking every morning, along Lake Ontario.

 Port Credit is where we are staying. (In picture, Max and Kyungmi)

 This is another view of Lake Ontario.

 My room...I get the big bed, and my roommate, Jessie, has taken the bed on the floor...let's just say, there is a lot of togetherness, which is great practice for outreach!!

My awesome roommate, Jessie.  

                           All of my beautiful roommates...this was the only photo I had of all of us, but clearly, we have a lot of fun together :)

 All of the DTSers plus staff... Left to right starting in the back, Wes (staffer), Maureen (staffer), Wouter (staffer), Harcourt, Kevin, Isaac, Marvin, Jess G, Stefan, Maxine (staffer), Anna (staffer), Jessie B (my roomie), Cat, Hayden, Olivia, Me, Shin Hye, Kyungmi, Tabitha, and Matt (in the very front).

Team Manure on the farm with our tractor... always having fun!

Kevin (in red) and I spreading the manure from the trailer bed. and singing  disney showtunes... I think Jessie is driving... It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.



My first month or so...

First off, I would like to thank all of you who have supported me over the last month through prayer and friendship. I know that the first leg of my journey wouldn’t have been the same without your kindness and God’s provision. Secondly, I want to thank you for looking at my new blog. I haven’t written a blog in years…not since they were super popular…aka pre-facebook. I have decided to write this blog in response to a request by a friend, but also as a way to keep in touch with friends and family at home. Rather than send numerous emails, which are infinitely more personal, but results in forgetting who I told what, I figured a blog is the easiest way to get inform people of what the Lord is doing in my life. (Not that I dislike personal emails or facebook messages, please keep sending those to me!! I love hearing from you! J ) I also realize that a number of the people who have supported me through prayer are friends of my mom, so as a way to thank you, I thought I would give you a more direct link to the goings on of my life.

Okay, my thoughts on JAMM (Justice, Arts, Media, and Music) DTS thus far… I am loving every minute. Everyday, it seems like the Lord is opening my eyes to something new, and yes, it can be tiring, emotionally draining, and physically exhausting, but I know in the long run that I was made for more. The Lord asks us to take up our cross everyday, but do we really? I know that I haven’t in the past. I know that it is so easy for me to get wrapped up in my own world and forget those who are hurting all around me. This DTS is definitely not allowing me to get comfortable.

I know you are all dying to know… I have only 3 roommates right now (it is a long story of swapping rooms and ‘Survivor’ like voting off of the island, but we made it to the room upstairs.) The girl I share a room with, Jessie, is awesome. She is such a sweetheart, and I don’t think the Lord could have chosen a roommate for me that would have been more similar…she doesn’t even hear my alarm clock go off in the morning anymore! We’ve had some interesting bonding experiences, such as our apple peeling parties and bagel making exploits! Yes, when we are bored, we invite people over and bake….it should be interesting to see what else this girl comes up with to make. However, I am learning a lot!

There are 15 other DTSers here from various countries around the world, I believe we have 2 Germans, 5 Canadians, 3 Americans (including me), 2 Koreans, an Australian, a New Zealander, and a guy from Papua New Guinea…please don’t do the math, I think I forgot someone… It seems like a very interesting group, and I have been told that we are one of the strangest groups that has ever come. However, thus far, we have all been very honest about our own personal struggles, and bonding is definitely happening, even if that means that we walk to the nearest McDonald’s, which is a good 20 minute walk. We walk everywhere, including school.

We have had some interesting experiences, such as touring downtown Toronto (I live just outside of Toronto) with Wes, one of our staffers. We were asked to look at Toronto and specifically talk to the homeless men and women in the area. I have never noticed how many men and women live in poverty or homelessness within a downtown area, and it makes me realize how many more people must live in every metropolitan area without a roof over their heads. Wes emphasized the fact that the men and women who are homeless are not some subgroup of humans, they are human beings just like you or me. They appreciate when anyone says ‘Hello’ to them and cares enough to stop by. It made me aware of how many time I have walked past a homeless person and didn’t give them a second thought. So, Wes asked us to walk up to homeless people, talk to them, engage them in conversation and genuinely care about them.

Even yesterday, we were working at Greenhaven Farm, which is owned and operated as a non-profit for individuals in need of housing and love. I was most definitely not comfortable…15 DTSers, plus 5 staff, plus the 3 people who live there on a regular basis, results in a lot of togetherness! In addition, we only had 2 bathrooms (I have been told this is great practice for outreach…yikes!!). We were asked to do various chores, such as move wood, till the garden, weed, and spread manure in the field…do you want to guess which one I ended up doing? If you guessed ‘spreading manure in the field,’ you were correct! I think I mainly volunteered because I got to have the opportunity to drive a tractor, where else are you going to get the opportunity to drive a tractor?! I realize that I live in Minnesota, but I am a city girl, not a cow girl. Anyway, we were told to shovel the manure into a trailer; then, we had to climb into the trailer (manure and all) and shovel it onto the field. Thank the Lord for gloves and rubber boots! I will never complain about changing a diaper ever again! Still, I think our team had the most fun. We were singing songs and laughing the entire time. I don’t think anyone has ever had that much fun with that much dirt EVER! My point is, I wasn’t comfortable at all, especially the day after. It was gross, but I knew that God wasn’t asking me to do something that I felt comfortable doing. He was asking me to step outside my little bubble and do something that no one else wanted to do. Then, the Lord made it fun. I would do it again….maybe. J

I guess my point in this post is the fact that I feel like the Lord is calling me to live a life that is less ‘comfortable.’ A life that spurs me toward getting to know more people, doing the jobs that aren’t preferable, and creating friendships with people I wouldn’t ever talk to normally. Safety is awesome, but when it comes between me and His Kingdom, it is a serious waste of my time.

Anyway, let me know what questions you may have for me, and always remember, I love hearing from you! Blessings to all of you!