Lessons

There are so many stories to tell and I am not sure where to start.
Last week's lectures were about hearing the voice of God. Yes, He speaks to us! How else do you communicate with someone you are in a relationship with? Many times I ask God to speak when I need His direction or guidance but I have learned that He wants to tell me so much more than that if I will just be silent and listen. John 15:12-15 explains that Jesus no longer calls us servants, but friends. A servant listens for instructions, but a friend listens to the heart. We are able to know the heart of God because His Spirit lives within us. So, we had a night of asking for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and man did He show up! The joy and powerful presence of God filled the room. Some people laughed, some cried, some were on the ground, some danced around, some spoke in tongues. I know that not everyone who reads this believes in these things, but I am just giving you an honest account of what occured. Needless to say, it was very exciting! The Father is so loving! He does not withold good things from His children and when we know His love, it makes us want to love Him in return.

We finally went on our first little backpacking trip last weekend. A group of 16 of us hiked Lewis Pass and then hiked to Douglas Lake where we camped in a hut/cabbin or tents. The trees were so green and the distant surrounding mountains were capped with snow, it was so gorgeous! For a few people in the group, this was their first time summitting a mountain! We sang hymns on the way back down and I will never forget the experience. When we hiked to the hut, we met a small group of fishermen who were staying in the hut as well. While I prepared dinner for the team, some of my friends used the opportunity to have good conversations with the fishermen. In the morning 3 of us sat on the dock of the misty lake and read scriptures out loud to eachother- another moment I will treasure forever.

This week's lectures are on evangelism. Our teacher is Len Du Preez who has been a backpacking missionary with his son for 10 years. He has been all over the world sharing the gospel and has the most amazing stories! He has taught us to rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us in the best way to share Jesus with each person we meet. He gave us various methods, questions, tracks, and practical ways to share our faith/testimony, but the Lord will be the one to guide each opportunity. I can't wait for outreach phase where our entire purpose everyday is to share the Gospel with whomever we meet!

God is so good!!! I just want to love Him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength!
Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure  :)

We are so excited to be going backpacking!

The distant snow covered mountains visable from the base of Lewis Pass

I made it to the top with the guys...the Lord is my strength! 45 minutes later the rest of the ladies joined us. From that day on they call me by my trail name "Gazelle" when we hike.

We were in a cloud when we first got to the top, but then the cloud slowly rolled away and the view was glorious! Praising God from the top of the mountain!

This picture give a bit of the perspective from the top. So many green hills!

Photo bombed while sitting in a tree.

Trees!

This was the "hut" on Douglas Lake. There is no electricity, only a wood burning stove, bunk beds, running water, and counter space...I call this luxury camping!  For cost-efficiency I slept in the tent outside to the right of the hut in the picture.

The lake in the morning when the fog had lifted

Backpacking for Jesus!

Two baby goats with mama. See how tiny they are!!

I couldn't resist.

Typical New Zealand... this view never gets old.

Never seen a sign like that one... not sure why he's driving a tractor...

Our guys made a German meal for everyone. It was delicious!

New Zealand sunrise

My small group: Rachel, Chloe, and Katie. We enjoyed some real hot chocolate.

Spring time snow! And I thought I would be missing winter this year ... I've had more winter in two days here than all season in San Diego.

Springtime in New Zealand

It is time for some pictures of the gorgeous land I live in. Let me preface this by saying that God is so good!!! Daddy gives the best gifts for His kids to enjoy and I just love being a child of the King (James 1:17 & Matthew 7:11). Not only do I get to observe the beautiful green trees, sheep pastures, and majestic mountains, but this last weekend I got to go sea kyaking and horse-back riding. I am so blessed!!!!! And I can't keep it in! Praise the Lord oh my soul, praise the Lord!

 This is the art in Christchurch Airport. I knew from then that I loved this place! (not to mention the awesome safety video played in the Air New Zealand plane, look it up on you tube if you've never seen it)

Springtime in New Zealand means baby animals everywhere! We saw this new calf nursing while on a walk about a block from our base.

Minature poney! Not a baby animal, but still small and cute!

This is Marty Emmit, the speaker refered to in my previous post. In this shot he was teaching the importance of the Bible being our helmet of salvatipon. Know the Word!

These are my friends David, David, David, and Lilly. And yes, there is a giant world map in our main lecture/worship room. Which is sweet as! (the Kiwi way of saying "cool")

This is one of the staff houses on base. See the gorgeous trees! To the left behind the house is an area we call the Field of Dreams where we play outdoor games and slack-line.

This is the front driveway entrance to the base.

This is another view of our base. The group you sitting at the table are in intercessory prayer.

The building on the left is the office, dinning hall, and main lecture/worship room. The building on the right is called the "main house" and has been here for over 100 years. This is where I live upstairs with my roommate Donna. (pictures of Donna to come). Other girls live in the rooms upstairs and then downstairs is the library and student lounge.

Little lambs and fluffy sheep! I love them so much!!!

This is a few of us students in a tree at a botanical garden in Christchurch.

This beach is called Taylor's Mistake (I have no idea why it is named that), but behind me taking the picture are rolling green hills. It was here that we spent Saturday surfing and Kyaking in very cold water! I didnt get a picture of my friend Keegan and I kyaking, but lets just say that the waves were crashing down on my while we tried to paddle out and I got soaked through my rain gear! Still had a very fun time!

Tears and Trembling

I don't know how to put into words everything we are learning and experiencing, but I want to share it with you anyways, so I will do my best.
I am in what is called a YWAM BDTS (Backpackers Discipleship Training School) this includes 3 months of discipleship training at the base in Oxford, New Zealand. The purpose of this training time is so that we will know God better in order to be able to genuinely make Him known during the second 3 month outreach phase. So, right now I am at the base with 2 other DTS schools (justice/mercy and rock climbers). In all there are about 40 students and staff here. Our days consist of a very organized schedule that looks something like this (with a few variations depending on the day):
6:15 work-out (optional)
6:45 breakfast
7:15 work duties (my job is hospitality ie. welcoming speakers, making thank you & b-day cards, brewing coffee)
7:45 personal devotional time with God
8:50 announcements
9:00 worship
10:00 lecture
11:15 tea time
11:30 lecture
1:00 lunch
2:30 lecture or community work project
6:00 dinner
7:30 free time or lecture or small groups
9:00 free time till lights out at 10:30

Weekends will be spent on local outreach/ short backpacking trips.
So, now that you know a basic structure of my day-to-day life, I will fill in the details with God's amazing work in these first 3 days.

On the first day of worship, we walked into a big empty room (no chairs) and a few people in front playing guitar and piano. It was free-style worship where God was the only member in the audience. We were free (and encouraged) to worship God however we thought would please Him most. Some people were dancing, sitting, standing with raised hands, laying prostrate, waving flags, etc. Wow! Standing there, singing & dancing out of joy to Jesus, the presence of God fell. For me, personally, when the Holy Spirit shows up, my physical response is often tears and trembling. Now let me tell you that I am not a very emotional woman in everyday life, but when the Spirit of God is ministering to my heart, the tears just start a flowin'! The words of the worship song went like this:
I lean not on my own understanding
My life is in the hands of the Maker of Heaven
I Give it all to you God
Trusting that you'll make something beautiful out of me
I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open
There is nothing I hold on to
All glory to God forever amen.

It was awesome! I have not felt the presence of God in a worship service so heavily in a while and I was also aware that the Lord was just beginning to reach into some tender places in my heart that need His healing touch.
Oh man, first day of DTS and God is already starting to shake me up!
On the second day we were introduced to our fist speaker, Marty Emmett. Marty is a Kiwi (native New Zealander) who is passionate about repentance and freedom. I wish I could summarize his entire lecture, based on Hebrews 1:3, but I think you just had to be there. He challenged us to "get the hell out of our lives" that is to say, get rid of all the lies we have allowed to define our understanding of who God is and who He made us to be. By the end we were all standing on our chairs, yelling at the top of our lungs, shouting out all the lies we have been believing, asking God's forgiveness, and receiving the freedom of God's truth. Again, the tears and trembling came. But my reaction to the Holy Spirit was quite minimal compared to some students around me. God was doing a major work releasing people from the bondages of shame, anger, doubt, fear, ect. Oh man, lives were changed, faces were being lit up as the Father freed His sons and daughters. The rest of us would stand around whoever was going through this and pray for them and share words of encouragement that God gave us for them. It is a beautiful thing when the church uses the gifts to build herself up.
The third day there were similar occurrences. Today worship time was what we called prophetic-worship. Someone would share what God revealed to them about Himself during the previous day and then the song leaders would start singing and praising God for that attribute of Himself and the rest of us would join in. For instance, if God set someone radically free from the shame they have carried and revealed to them that He has made them pure and clean by the blood of His son and brought redemption to their life, we would start singing something like "You free us from shame and redeem us by Your name." We let God's character, as revealed on a personal level, inspire our worship of Him. Incredible!
During lecture today Marty taught about our self identity becoming God's identity of us by Romans 12:2 and breaking down strongholds of 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Then we stood on our chairs again and shouted out the lies of passivity that we have been living by and asked God's forgiveness. This one was especially for the men because Adam committed passivity when he watched Eve eat the forbidden fruit and ever since then, it is a sad characteristic of many men. Two more people in our class were absolutely broken by God and set free from bondages and strongholds. I have a sense that my day is coming and I will tell you about it when it does because radical transformation leads to radical transparency.
I hope that all made sense, but please understand that it is very difficult to put into words such an incredible spiritual experience. Suffice it to say that God is making His true self known to us and is lighting us up with His Spirit so that we, in turn, might go light up the nations with the love of Jesus.

One more quick story. Something else we are learning is to hear and recognize the voice of God. This morning during my devotional time I asked the Lord to speak to me. I then had a clear thought in my mind which was simply "unveiled faces." So, I looked up that verse and read 2 Corinthians 3:12-18. I was so amazed to find that this section of scripture summarized the previous day's lessions and I was in awe of God. (I plan to memorize these verses now (quiz me on it, Dave)). Yes! Jesus is answering my prayer and speaking to me like He promised to do. Ahh, God is so good!!! All glory be to our amazing Father who loves us so much and His Son who sets us free! Be encouraged by the work of our living Lord as you read these stories and may your faith be built up!

(pictures to come soon, I promise)

Love

Well, the past 12 weeks of summer have flown by! I have been a nomad since returning from Colorado, living at various friend's and family's houses. One thing I have been reminded of is that God has a purpose for everything. He is so very intentional as sovereign King of the universe and Lord of my small life. I have always been encouraged by Proverbs 16:9 which says "the mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Thus has been my experience this summer. When I planned out where I would be staying 4 months ago, only God knew how He would use me to encourage those I lived with and met with in times when they needed it. I love being God's vessel of love. I recently watched the video "Father of Lights," a documentary on the heart of God. One thing that struck me in this film was the method of evangelism which completely focused on loving people rather than trying to convince them of their sin and need for a savior. This love approach emphasizes the grace and mercy of God over His judgement. It is His kindness that leads us to repentance. Think about the way Jesus did ministry, He simply loved people, healed them, met their needs and then told them to repent. It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict the world of their sin and our job to show them the love of Jesus. It was the religious leaders whom Jesus was calling out on their sin. Within the church, we are certainly to be holding each other accountable, but outside of the church it is a different story. This perspective has been challenging me and my interpretations of verses like "make the most of every opportunity" to love them rather than talk them into the faith. I know I have learned this lesson before, but for some reason Jesus has stirred it up in my heart and mind again as I spend time with members of my family who don't know Him yet and prepare for the next  six months on the foreign mission field.

I leave in 4 days. Please pray that the Lord will continue to teach me the ministry of love and compassion.
I would also appreciate prayer for traveling to New Zealand. In 24 hours of travel through 4 airports please pray that both me and my luggage make it to our destination safely.
Also pray for unity as I meet my teammates for the first time and try to remember their names. :)

Back from the back-country

Well, I made it through the wilderness and came out alive and well! I am now a NOLS grad and WFR certified! I want to thank those of you who were praying for me while I was in the back country. I definitely experienced the result of your prayers as God gave me miraculous strength, joy, and protection when I needed it most. I also got to have many worthwhile conversations about Jesus and faith. I pray that those seeds that were planted will grow and bear fruit of salvation and righteousness.

I will do my best to summarize my NOLS experience for you. There were 15 students, ages ranging from 18 to 35, and 3 instructors. We hiked in the Absaroka Mountains and some in Yellowstone National Park. We had 2 re-rations where a horse-packing team brought us a resupply of food at a designated date and location. The second re-ration point was at the Thoroughfare which is the most remote point in the continental US (furthest distance from a road). We traveled through mud, rock/scree, dead fall log obstacle courses, snow, marsh, rivers, peaks/passes, meadows, dense willows, and much more. Our first night out we encountered a thunder storm where lightning struck a tree a quarter-mile away from us and started a small fire. Praise the Lord the fire went out in the night and did not spread! There were no major injuries on our trip and no one had to be evacuated. My only ailments were sun-bumps and blisters on my hands despite my best efforts to keep them sun screened and covered. I also had about a thousand mosquito bites, but that is to be expected when you are as sweet as I am (just kidding!).
We had 80 hours of WFR training in the field which included medical classes, rescue scenarios, and testing. Each student also taught 2 classes throughout the month (my classes were on the 4 leadership roles and poison ivy/oak/sumac). We practiced outdoor leadership by becoming a Leader of the Day (LOD) which included the responsibilities of mapping our route for the day, organizing self-sufficient hiking groups, making group decisions, keeping track of time, selecting our camp and kitchen sites, and so forth.
In addition to the medical training, some of the practical skills we learned were:
Elegant backpack packing- avoid the void in the pack, go as light as you can (many items you think you can't live without are actually not necessary) ounces translate to pounds. everything should be rain proofed at all times. keep maps, rain-gear, snacks, and water easily accessible. store a pair of sacred socks at the bottom of your sleeping bag
Back country cooking- we never ate freeze-dried food and learned to utilize spices to make delicious meals in a pot and fry-bake. Some of my favorite dishes were calzones, gado-gado, apple cider scones, and cake.
Navigation- using topo maps, compass, and checking our accuracy with a GPS for on-trail and off-trail hikes)
Leave No Trace principles- proper waste disposal, hiking on durable surfaces, fire maintenance, respect wildlife and other humans, etc.
Pooing in the wilderness- digging the dukie dungeon. since we did not bring any TP we had lots of practice with alternatives such as rocks, sticks, leaves, and snow (my personal favorite)
Bear safety- making bear-calls, carrying bear-spray, storing food and scented items in a bear-fence or bear hang
Fly fishing- I never caught any fish, but at least I know how to fish
Gear repair- how to fix a MSR whisper-lite stove, speedy-stitch the pot parka, replace the zipper on a tent, splint my spork, etc.
And so many more lessons that I will discover when I find myself in the wilderness context again.
I posted pictures on my Facebook, but here are a few for those of you without Facebook access (posted in no particular order):

Thanks for reading! Please comment if you have any questions. :)
Joy and blessings!
~Amy