IT'S TIME FOR AFRICA!!

Wow! I can hardly believe it! The past three months just flew right on by. Now, my group of 26 students and leaders will be flying to South Africa tomorrow morning! This has been a crazy journey and God has revealed so much to me! It was hard and at sometimes painful but overall the best, most exciting experience yet! I am so ready for Africa and all the crazy things that God is going to do there! Tomorrow morning we will be flying to Atlanta and from Atlanta we have a 15 hour flight to Johanesburg, South Africa. After spending 16 days in South Africa, we will be taking a 28 hour bus ride to Dondo, Mozambique! We will spend three weeks in Mozambique and then take another 28 hour bus ride back to South Africa and fly back into the states! We will mostly be working in orphanages and doing a lot of street ministry. We will also be teaching english, doing dramas and skits and maintenance work. Thank you all for your prayers and your support as I went through this life changing journey. I appreciate everything that you all have done for me! Your continued prayers will be appreciated as I step into the next part of my journey in Africa!

Prayer requests:

-Safety as we travel

-Unity amongst our team

-That the people of Africa have receiving hearts and ears for what we have to say

-That God’s love will overflow from all of us and onto the people in Africa

-For God’s grace when times are hard

-Health amongst our team

The Africa Team!!

Have a blessed day,

Amy

Evangelism and Life in the Spirit

Last week our DTS class was blessed to have an awesome speaker, Dudley Winer to come speak to us! He and his family live in France and have started an YWAM base there. It’s safe to say that we were all truly blessed by seeing God speak through him to us! Here are a few main points from last weeks teaching:

*Sharing Jesus with others isn’t complicated, we are.

*Only when were faithful in the revelation that God has given us will He give us more.

*We were created for adventures! God likes surprising us!

*We are the place where the kingdom of Heaven connects with this world.

*God is just waiting for us to press into Him!

*The safest place in this WORLD to be is WITH GOD, WHEREVER He wants you to be.

*When we become GENUINLY interested in people’s lives, they open up to us and invite us in.

*Are we trying to make converts or are we sharing Christ’s love?

*We shouldn’t have an agenda for the gospel; God is not in a hurry!

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement He will show him even great things than these”-JOHN 5:19-20. This verse really stuck out to me because it creates FREEDOM! I will only do what my Heavenly Father tells me to do. It takes off the burden and stress of wanting to do everything. I will go and do and speak just like my Heavenly Father does.

We also studied the first church in the book of Acts. It was really interesting to “take apart” the Bible and do an in depth study of it! We really looked into the story of Philip and Ethiopian. I learned two important things… 1. Philip first listened to the Lord 2. After listening, Philip fulfilled a need.

Dudley was such a blessing to us last week! We learned that evangelism and life in the Spirit is natural and all we have to do is be obedient! There is no secret recipe! Thank you all for your prayers! There is no secret recipe! Thank you all for your prayers! God bless you all!

Love,

Amy

Relationships week & L.A. week!

Hello Everyone!

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while! I’ve been really busy lately! My DTS just got back from Los Angelo’s, CA late Saturday night. We were there for one week (which I will talk about later!) I have learned so much in the past two weeks, it’s crazy! Two weeks ago, our topic was on relationships. Our speakers were Jeremy and Keeley Lange. Their family is on staff at YWAM Denver. It was such a blessing to have them as our speakers! They were so down to earth and had such patience with us in answering all of our questions and opening everything up for discussion! They covered every topic of relationships from our relationship with God to our relationship with the opposite sex. It was encouraging to see Jeremy and Keeley living out what they were teaching us about! A few key points I got:

*Unconditional love is self-less

*We don’t like being rejected and neglected, neither does God

*LOVE IS AN ACTION

*”Unconditional love flows when you choose to love others for their sake, not your own”

*True love is what is pleasing to God, not what is pleasing to me

*Talked a lot about submission and humility

“Let us not love with words and tongue, but with actions and in truth.”

-1 John 3:18

As I mentioned above, my DTS went to L.A for a week! It was such a great trip! We stayed at the YWAM Las Vegas base on the way to L.A and on the way back! We arrived in L.A last Sunday night. We stayed on the floor of a church all week. The church was in a little town called Arleta, outside of L.A. Our topic for the week was the Holy Spirit. Our speaker was Ben Gort. He and his family is also on staff at YWAM Denver. Ben was kind enough to take a week away from his family to be with us and share his revelations and part of his heart with us! Here are some highlights from the trip:

* Tuesday and Wednesday we worked with the Dream Center. My group distributed food to the low income, poverty stricken parts of L.A. We also had a kids ministry time where we hung out with the kids and played games and did crafts with them. On Wednesday night, we worked with the Jonah Project. We did street evangelism and service on Skid Row. Skid Row is a couple blocks where a lot of the homeless people live and a lot of drug users go to. This place definitely needs the light and the love of God to shine! We walked around and talked to some people and did a lot of prayer walking and handing out coffee, etc. It was really cool and amazing to see God’s love pour out of us onto the people living there.

*Thursday we went to Venice Beach! It was so beautiful! Our school leader decided to do baptisms in the ocean on Thursday. So I got baptized! It was such a great opportunity to declare a new life in Christ! Although the water was really cold, we still had fun! Then, we walked around the boardwalk and talked to people and prayed for people. Once again, people saw our light shine and wondered why we were doing what we’re doing. We had lots of great opportunity to share the love of the Father with people and see the smiles on their faces!

Along with all the exciting activities we had, we also had two full days of class time as well! I learned so much about the Holy Spirit and God really showed me some cool new things!

*”We need to be natural and let God be supernatural” –Stephan Hugo

*The Holy Spirit was in the Old Testament

*When we live in full submission to Him, He does MIRACULOUS things through us!

*Our actions don’t define us, our FRUIT defines us”

*God wants us to desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit

*”Is your faith in God or in something miraculous happening?”

*God’s order is not our order…so therefore we shouldn’t judge when we see something that might look “strange” to us (manifestations, etc.)

*Instead of judging we should ask God “what is going on here” so we know how to pray for that person and what God wants to reveal to us

God really showed up to me this week during our worship times! I never felt His presence so real as I did then. It felt like God was sitting next to me, holding my hand! It was an amazing expierence and the Holy Spirit really did move! God is really making a “platform” for my faith. I was challenged to find my own opinions on things and not base my faith off of what others believe. God is so good and so faithful! I keep learning so much and He NEVER lets me down!

THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS!

BE BLESSED,

Amy



Downtown L.A.!!



Venice Beach!!



Chelsea, Sarah and I on Venice Beach!!

  

Spiritual Warfare!!

Hey Everybody! Happy late Valentine’s Day! I hope everyone had a great day! I feel like I say this every week, but this past week was awesome! Our topic was spiritual warfare and our speaker was Peter Warren. Peter and his wife, Linda run YWAM Denver! He is a really intelligent man and has tons of experience in dealing with things in the “spiritual.” I learned so much this week about spiritual warfare and that we are constantly battling in the spiritual, every day! There were a ton of things that stuck out to me this week and that I learned! Here is some of what God taught me:

*EVERYONE knows the truth about God’s existence because of creation and their conscience

*Then why don’t people turn to God?? Because they suppress the truth and their eyes are veiled because of the Devil and it keeps them from seeing clearly

*God gave us free will so that we could CHOOSE to be in a love relationship with Him

*If Jesus defeated the Devil why is he still around and powerful?? He defeated the Devil legally or in principle, but God has chosen to work through us to help battle against the Devil

*NOTHING and NO ONE limits God

*Not everything that happens is God’s will

*God is entering into a sequence of time with us. God will get his way in the end and some things in history are set, but our free will means God is subject to getting hurt by our actions

*He valued our LOVE over CONTROL.

*He could have eliminated all the suffering and the junk in this world but that would be taking away our free will. He loves us so much He valued our love relationship. If there is no free will, there is no love relationship.

*God gave us weapons of warfare to fight the Devil!!

*PRAYER CHANGES THINGS!...intercession is reasoning with God

*God sometimes changes His mind in the Bible for two main reasons…Repentance and PRAYER!

VERSES THAT STUCK OUT TO ME:

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in his heart.”

-2 Peter 3:11-12

“He holds victory in store for the upright; he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.”

-Proverbs 2:7

“Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”

-Romans 12:21

This week just opened my eyes a ton to the spiritual warfare world. Every day we wake up it’s a battle for our hearts and our minds. We need to be aware that we have the authority in Christ to beat the Devil and his kingdom. We can’t be naïve Christians because this stuff is real! If anybody wants more information on the things I mentioned just e-mail! Peter also gave us scripture to back up everything he taught us so I have scripture for the points mentioned above as well! Thank you guys again for your continued prayers!

BE BLESSED,

Amy

Some of us girls decided to dress up to celebrate the love day!! Here are a few pictures...

Chelsea and I sharing the love ( :



Rachael, Sarah and I sporting our red and pink very proudly ( :



KINGDOM OF GOD!!

What a beautiful day in Colorado! Today was just perfect weather and a great day all around ( : This week our DTS joined the boarders DTS at their base which is about 20-30 minutes up the mountain. It is so gorgeous up there with the fresh snow and pretty trees and such! Well this week was a real eye opener for me and I know for a lot of other people as well. We had Don Stephens as our speaker and he taught us on "The Kingdom of God." It was such a powerful teaching and God really showed up and revealed new and awesome things to me! There is so much to share about this week, but I will try to pick out some of the highlighted points that stuck out to me!

-God's glory is EVERYWHERE!!
-God created me to reflect His glory, I am made for HIS GLORY.
-Our goal is to bring the glory of God to people
-Are we living in a relationship with God or are we living with the view that He just judges us?
-We are called to live in the love of Jesus..am I loving God, am I loving others?
-If I truly love God, I will WANT to obey Him.
-Don taught us about many different worldviews including Islam, Post-modernism, pantheism, new age, Marxism and gnosticism and lastly the biblical worldview
-What is the Kingdom of God??...
*Every place where the will of God is being done
*Jesus reflected in anything (movies, books, art, conversations, homes, etc)
*Anything true, anything that glorifies God
-The Kingdom of God grows by little things like buying a meal for a homeless person, holding the door for someone, surprising your friend with a gift, feeding an orphan, etc.
-Satan has twisted this world to a world of darkness when we do things to glorify God we bring that dark kingdom CRASHING DOWN!!!
-Our agenda should not be to make "converts" it is to LOVE. And by our LOVE they will see Christ's LOVE.

This week was crazy awesome. I realized I was perceiving the world through a lens. God wants us to see the world through His lens. It was so awesome to have Don come speak. He is a very smart guy and really awesome. On Monday, we had our small group time. My small group decorated journals and ate popcorn and just hung out. It was so fun! On Wednesday we watched a documentary called "The Finger of God." If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It is a very powerful documentary about God's power and the Holy Spirit. After the movie ended, one staff member, Temp, stood up and said "if you need healing, come over here." "We have the power to heal and the authority to do these things because Jesus has given us that authority when He left Earth." So many people got healed on Wednesday! It was so amazing and awesome to see the God's power working through my own hands! I always thought that preforming miracles was something that Jesus did in the "bible times." I never understood that as Christians, we have that power too! It was such an amazing night and I had a revelation of God's amazing power and the power of prayer!!

God is so good, so amazing, so powerful, so merciful and so gracious. Everyday I am just renewed by the fact that He loves me, just as I am. He is awesome and everything He made and everything He does is so beautiful and so glorious! Thank you Jesus!!

"Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven..."
Thanks so much for your prayers everyone!
Be blessed!
-Amy

Character of God

Hey everybody! This past week was awesome. Our speaker, Blake Mattocks is a pastor at a local church here in Arvada. He taught us on the character of God. Everything Blake said he backed up with scripture which was really cool! I learned so much from the things he taught on. God is so awesome and revelead so many things about His character and how my character should look as well. On Friday, we had a lady named Simmone talk to us about our identity. We made "self boxes" that reflected how we looked on the outside and how we felt on the inside. Although I'm not very creative, this was a really cool exercie and God actually showed me a lot through doing it! Here are some main points from Blake's teaching:

*The goal of Christianity is transformation (Romans 12:1-2)
*Courage is choosing convictin over compromise
*Courage is focusing on God, NOT your situation
*Forgiveness brings freedom
*Forgiveness is a GIFT
*Hearing God's voice requires TIME. Trust-Invest-Meditate-Exercise your faith
*We have to learn to enjoy the process of walking with God, to be CONTENT
*If you love God, you are obedient to Him ALWAYS
*Obedience is costly. It is MANDATORY not OPTIONAL
*My thoughts must be 1. captured 2. challenged 3. changed
*We cannot outgrow our "monsters" we must CONFRONT them.
*Only with the TRUTH and the LIGHT can we confront our monsters and get rid of them

Awesome verses that stuck out to me:
"I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every sitation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."
-Phillipians 4:12
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- His good, pleasig and perfect will."
-Romans 12:2
"He has showed you, o man, what is good. And what does the Lord reqire of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God"
-Micah 6:8

God is so good!! He is rocking my world! I have learned so much in the past week about how God wants me to live. He is changing my character to match His and He is teaching me new things everyday! I now have a relationship with God like I never did before and it is so beautiful the things that He reveals to me!
Thank you for all your prayers! I appreciate everything! Prayer request for this week:
- Saftey as we comute back and forth to Eagle Rock for teachings. (Eagle rock is 30 minutes up the mountain.)
-God would be stirring in the hearts of people living in Denver as we get ready for outreach on Wednesday.
-Churches in Thailand..for unity and for saftey and boldness

PS. I HAD A WONDERFUL WEEKEND WITH MARLANA, MISSY AND JENNY!! WE HAD SO MUCH FUN AND THEY ARE SUCH A HUGE BLESSING IN MY LIFE! THANK YOU JESUS FOR AMAZING FRIENDS!!

"Father Heart of God"

Hey everybody! I hope everyone had a good week and a great weekend! Wow, the teaching this week was incredible. We had a very well-known speaker, Jeff Pratt. He taught on the “Father Heart of God.” I learned so much but I will try to hit the main points of his teachings!

*God’s love for us is so immense and so great; we will never fully comprehend how much God loves us.

*Jesus took all the pain and the suffering for ME, so I wouldn’t have to feel that pain. HE LOVES US THAT MUCH!! I had such a revelation of God’s love for me this week. It was amazing and it’s still blowing my mind!!!

*”If loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength is the greatest commandment, then NOT dong it is the greatest sin”

*Jesus is LONGING to do LIFE with us, to be our FRIEND!!

*God loves us as we are RIGHT NOW, not as we think we should be!

*Brokenness is not a bad thing…it is knowing what our sins still do to the heart of God…

*What is your need for mercy?? What are the bricks around your heart separating you from feeling God’s love? We talked a lot about the different “bricks” around our hearts. A few are bitterness, pride, hurt and pain, guilt and shame and many more. We had a day where we completely “tore down” our bricks and cleansed our hearts. To say the least, it was amazing!

*Jesus’s blood can only cover what’s been UNCOVERED…when we humble ourselves in front of God and others and stretch out the “ugly parts” of our lives

*In dark seasons there are treasures to be found if we KEEP PURSING HIM!

*The greatest blessing of all is us DECREASING and GOD INCREASING.

Jeff Pratt was an amazing speaker and I could probably go on for a long time about what I learned this week! Here are a few verses that stuck out to me:

“If we are faithless, HE remains faithful, for HE cannot disown himself”

-2 TIMOTHY 2:13

“HE was pierced for our transgressions, HE was crushed for our inequities, the punishment that brought US peace was on HIM, by His wounds WE ARE HEALED”

-ISAIAH 53:5

--This week has been amazing. On Monday, we had our community outreach. My group went to an old peoples home. We played cards and talked to them, it was a lot of fun! On Wednesday, our downtown Denver evangelism got cancelled due to snow. On Friday, my small group tye dyed shirts and had a girls day! It was awesome!  I’m so looking forward to next week! I know God is going to keep transforming my mind and my heart!! Thanks for your prayers and support, it means so much to me!

God bless you,

-Amy

Front of the base

View of the base from the back

Hiking a few weeks ago overlooking Arvada!

A piece of God's handiwork (: