My Dream Come True- or so it seems

My school staff announced yesterday that one of our outreach teams will be going to India!  If you didn't already know, I have felt called to India since I was fifteen.  Our staff told us the outreach options, gave us ten minutes to pray, and told us to come back with our first and second choices (the other choices were Romania and Washington DC) written on paper and give them to the staff.  By the time the staff had prayed about it, too, our teams were made :)  They put me on the India team :) 

Please pray for finances to come in, as I have none of them so far :P  I don't know the precise cost of the outreach yet, either, but I'm guessing somewhere around $2,500 to $3,000. 

Well...I will update more later maybe :P

Bye. 

Well I survived the first week

But it wasn't too hard- the combination of awesome people, challenging teachers, and lots of Jesus time and homework outweighs the stickiness of East Texas, and I have come to realize that I like being here.  It is my second home.  Which is a good place to be when you are away from home! 

I keep calling my parents, but it takes me so long to get ahold of them that I forget what I was going to tell them...so here's so that somewhere I will have written down what I need to tell them:  Me:  "Dude, I totally met Larry McKinnon!  And he remembers both of you, and remembers dad with the weedwacker.  And I totally cleaned his room for like three days straight cuz he was staying in the hotel."  Ok, sorry, I know most of what I write probably isn't very interesting :)

Last night I missed Dean Sherman speaking at family night, and at first I was very dissapointed, but when God sure blessed me through the preschoolers I helped out with :)  They were awesome.  I wish life was still that simple!  Why do things have to get so much more complicated as you get older?  It seems that for every year, one more thing is added to my life to complicate, whether it's a 'bad' complication or not is irrelevant, it's still there! 

Speaking of complications, I have no idea what I am doing after SOE- I had a dream this morning that my parents were here, and that I was telling them not to buy me a plane ticket home, because I was going to stay here for staff in training stuff, and they were upset and were still trying to get me to come home.  Which of course would never happen in real life, they would probably me happy for me.  It just shows that I have a lot of stuff on my mind!  I really hope God shows me what to do soon!  And then of course, there are our outreach options, which I think I might have an idea of where God wants me to go, but I'm new to this 'hearing God really clearly' thing, so I'm still praying.  If y'all are bored in your prayer lives, how about sending up one or two requests for guidance for me?!  Thanks :) 

My DTSwhichisinSOEnow is going to be here soon, and I am sooo excited to see them!  I love my school now, but the deep connections I made in DTS won't be broken :)  *crosses fingers*  I hope I have a lot of time to spend with them. 

Well I think I should go now, my school has Dean Sherman for FIVE DAYS, which makes me very happy!  I will tell you about that later :)

Love and miss you all!

Coolness....

So today is the beginning of my first weekend here at Twin Oaks Ranch.  Yesterday I found out I had three weekend work duties (on account of a lot of confusion between the 5 schools that are going on now!), and I was a little bummed because that meant I couldn't go to church OR family night (which I had planned on being my subsitute church since I couldn't go).  But today I found out that I have tomorrow off from my hotel duties, and so I don't mind missing family night, cuz I'm working with the kids, and I love doing that anyways :)

And by the way- quiet times make such a difference.  When I was home, I got myself to busy to have consistent quiet times, and since I've been here, I've just been having quiet time after quiet time, and I feel sooo good!  I was expecting the homesickness to hit awhile back, but I'm really trusting Jesus that this time I will just run to Him when I don't feel great.  I know my weak points now, and am kind of prepared. 

DTS mainly taught me where I fell short, and so now I know when to go have a quiet time and when to not isolate myself with my music and when to just get away from it all.  I was a painful not very fun process, and I was apologizing every day for my attitude, but I came out of it knowing myself much better.  I'm still not all the way there, but I am moving in the right direction. 

Well I want to go watch the SST's practice 'TurnAround" (ask me about it sometime), so I will talk to y'all later. 

Kelsey!  I miss swingdancing with you!

I miss Nick, too.  I want him to come home from Kenya so I can call him :P

Aubrey~

Slightly Tired, But Pretty Much Satisfied

We were assigned work duties on Tuesday, and me and Ashleigh were assigned to clean the hotel on the base two hours a day seven days a week.  I really like the job, it's not hard, it's repetitive, and the only drawback is that I don't think I can attend church.  It does take a lot of time to get done, but I like it- it's airconditioned and it smells nice, what more can you ask for in Texas? 

Leland Paris ended his sessions on Revival yesterday after walking us through the lives of John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, and Charles Finney.  It was very fun, we got to talk about different theological viewpoints, and such, which of course, I loved.

Then yesterday afternoon, Roy and Barbara Sandiford came in and started teaching sessions on giftings and spiritual giftings, and it has been very fun.  A lot of information, and some homework that really makes you think. 

Tomorrow will be the first base prayer I have attended since I've been here, and I'm looking forward to it. 

I'm really focusing on knowing God, and trying to hear Him better- two years ago, during the summer, I really feel I was hearing very clearly, and God was confirming a lot of things, and I haven't felt that way for a long time now.  Too long. 

Good bye to you all :)  Talk to you later :)

Summer Has Officially Begun

Summer is here- I know this because this is the first time of the year (or ever, I'll have to try and remember) that I have worn shorts and tanktops for three days straight.  W00t!  Maybe I'll even get a tan, but don't count on it.

Today was our first day of class, and Leland Paris (the director of the base) taught on Revival.  I got a lot of notes out of it, which is usually how I judge how good a teaching is- by how many pages of notes I get (The most I have got is 10- this man was talking about Islam), and I got four, which is pretty good. 

I still don't really feel so comfortable with being in another school than Purposeful Passion.  I really miss my old classmates, and it's really weird to be here without them.  Thank goodness Jessica is here!  She is my good friend from DTS, and she waited to come to this SOE, too. 

I'm not so homesick, I just miss my old school.

Well...that's all for now.