New Beginnings!

 Hello everybody,

I am so sorry I haven’t been able to get online since here in Madison, Wisconsin!
Our first week of DTS is over and it has already been an amazing week. All the kids here are so friendly and it hasn’t been very hard to meet people and spend time with them!
I want to share a little bit of what we have learned during this week:
Our week was about hearing God’s voice, and during the days we were sent outside to spend a lot of time with God.. it was challenging because this week I have had a hard time focusing, and getting plugged in with God. I don’t know why it is like this but it made me sad a lot of times. I kinda felt empty, when hearing my classmates sharing how God spoke to them through the wind, or sitting on the cornfield, or reading bible and I had nothing to share.. Nothing during the quiet time..

But it changed when God showed me a scripture in bible during our last quiet time in between classes..

Isaiah 29:13 says:

„ The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been thought.“

This made me realise that maybe my heart hasn’t plugged in, and it made sense cause I didn’t really prepare my heart while in TX, so it made sense..

But when I look back on the lesson time, I think of the book we had to read this week, it is called „ Is that really you, GOD?“ by Loren Cunningham.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it was so exciting to read about his visions for YWAM before the school was formed. All the amazing things that God did, gave me goosebumps. It made me think how Big God can be when He has so big Ideas for our lives, and for him, Loren, who got his first glimpse of what God had planned for him, when he was only 13 years old. You have to read this book to understand and experience those moments yourself. Whoever is interested in the story how YWAM was started, should read this book!

What I really liked about our lesson in hearing God’s voice was, that God has a way to speak to everybody in their own special way. Like God knows how to talk to you so that You could hear him!
What I learned also from the lesson this week was that you have to understand who is in charge of your thoughts and ideas. There is a saying that: When God closes a door, he’ll open a window, or something like that. But you have to know God, and his character to recognize if it was him who opened the door or closed it. It could also be Satan, or you yourself.
SO it really helped me because now I want to get to know him and his character real good in order to understand his plans, and to hear His voice not mine or Satans!

THis week we also got our one-on-ones : A person we will spend time with (a staff member) and talk to and pray with! WE will also have small groups where we will discuss our lessons, and share our stories, what God has told us this week etc.
What was really awesome about this week was that, even though it was our first week, we were so open to share our stories, or memories of what happened to us when we were younger. Some people really opened up and shared personal experiences with everybody. It was nice to get to know people through their happy moments or something sad that has happened to them.
I enjoy listening to our stories, it makes you feel like one big hamily! And we are, one big family here in DTS!

I hope I am able to keep you guys updated as much as I can.
PLease keep me in prayers, I will be very thankful!!

Prayer request!

My dear friends,

I ask you to join me in prayer. Since I've been here in Texas, everything has been so wonderful. All my friends have been so nice to me and so caring! It is so hard for me to sometimes understand the love God wants to show me through my friends!
There is just one little thing that is bothering me.. after talking to my friend about what is bothering my heart, she told me to post this here so people could pray for me.
So I turn to you my friends, please pray for me as I will be leaving for YWAM, Madison, this coming Sunday, pray that I can overcome these little obstacle's I have with my visa.
When I made it to the customs in Atlanta, they had told me I can only stay here in the US 6months at a time, and because I came 2 weeks earlier, my visa will end about 2 weeks before my training program will end in Madison. I wrote my school about that fact and they told me it is ok if my visa will end before, that I would get enough credit to finish the program and turn home earlier then everybody else. Hearing that, made me so sad. I really had hoped for a different ending to my program here in Wisconsin, and it was hard for me to see that I might have to return home earlier, unless... after spending time out of the States for a month or so (before my 6 months is over), and on my return, visiting this office, I might be given an extentsion. But this might not be happening.

So my prayer is that God would do a miracle, I really want to stay here until the program is over. And I pray for trust in Him, that if He brought me here, he won't bring me back before my time is over. Though I don't know what God has planned for me and maybe returning home earlier is part of His plan in my life..
Please pray with me that whatever happens with the Visa,
#is it a miracle that I can stay here until the program is over, go back to Texas and spend a bit more time with friends, then return home;
#or leaving the program earlier then others,
that I would still bring glory to him, in everything, in every situation!

Thank you for being supportive and thinking about me and praying over me!
I am so blessed to have my brother's and sister's in Christ!

Liis