San Francisco

Yay! This is us in San Francisco. This picture has been edited by the talented (and also world famous) Paulina. This is an absolutely incredible group of people. Absolutely incredible. Jonathan and I were talking about it it this evening...we have lived together all these months and there isn't the sense of kattiness that you would expect from this many women living this close together. Each and every one of these people contributes to the group as a whole. Gosh, these people are so amazing...or in the words of Michelle...AWE-some...

It has been FAR TOO LONG since I made a post here. There is so much to tell, so I will try to keep to the highlights.

First, the big news: we are going to India and Thailand! I have been so excited to go to India since my captain spoke that over me...oh...over a year ago. "Go to India," he said with a certainty that we both knew was from God. God has confirmed this in so many ways, and it is coming to pass!

Another highlight for me was our trip to San Francisco. Something I have been wrestling with and praying against since, oh, two years ago has been abject fear. We have been praying for God to deliver me from that fear, and I felt that He wanted me to call one of the people from that painful event two years ago...and that somehow through that phone call He would set me free. It was good to speak honestly, to ask the questions that have been on my mind, and to treat this person with love. The next day, as several of us were walking to the bus stop, a homeless man was walking the opposite direction and caught my eye. It seemed he wanted to tell me something...almost with the same tone of certainty that the captain had told me to "Go to India." So I stopped and listened as he said over and over, "Be anxious about nothing. Do not be afraid." I prayed to Jesus, Okay...I hear you...I accept it...I accept... and in that moment I felt something lift from me! Many beautiful things unfolded from that moment forward, showing the subtle but profound shift in my life, and I believe that God has more for me in the days ahead. I would not be surprised to one day learn that that man was an angel.

We are putting together our art show on Monday. I have spent most of my weekend putting together my project, which is coming along nicely. We will have the opportunity to show our art and advocate and inform people about sex trafficking and child soldiers in several different venues in March.

I am still in great need of support. I have come to the conclusion that this is one thing I will need to learn if I am going to be a missionary...and I believe that is where I am headed. At this point I still need about $2500 for our trip overseas, $120 to register my car (which has been a huge blessing to many people on the base) in California, as well as keep up on the insurance and pay my phone bill. Please pray for me as I learn the important balance of trusting God for money and inviting others in to support God's work.

Many Blessings,
Beth

We've been here three weeks so far, going into our fourth week.  So far the topics we have covered have been Orientation, the Character and Nature of God, and Hearing God's Voice and Intercession.  Our staff as a whole spoke to us on Orientation, we had a speaker from the YWAM base in Scotland (originally from Sierra Leon in Africa) named Olu for the Character and Nature of God, and our very own leader, Cody, from Calgary, Alberta spoke to us on Hearing God's Voice and Intercession.  Our leaders for the Social Justice and the Arts DTS are Stephanie from California, Paulina from Sweden, and Cody from Canada. 

From what was relatively a life of isolation, I have burst into a world of living, learning, leaning on, and working with over 30 other people.  Being in community is sooooo wonderful, and is truly where God is taking my life, but there are also...adjustments...that I need to make.  There are about 12 people living in each house, plus the staff.  It's a lot of people.  In my other life as a flight attendant, I have time to draw away, to think, to listen each time I am given something to chew on.  I'm really missing that pace.  We spend 2-4 hours in lecture every day, surrounded by worship, intercession, and outreach.  I begin every day with some time alone with God.  I think I need to make a practice of stealing away more often.  Will you pray that God will help me find a rhythm and a pace, and also that I will sense Him calling me away from time to time throughout the day?  I'd really like that.

One of the most exciting things about this week has been learning more about speaking in tongues and what is called a personal prayer language.  I know that many traditions have different beliefs.  It has always made sense to me that when God speaks to me in my heart it is not exactly English, because sometimes I cannot come up with an English word to describe what He has said.  The idea of me myself speaking in another language never really sat right with me, until these last couple weeks.  When I would pray silently, I could feel my tongue and mouth making different shapes.  I felt that something within me was stirring, and talked to Stephanie about it.  When she prayed for me it felt like someone stuck a nine-volt battery to my tongue.  I could taste the electricity and feel it in my whole tongue and like there was a ball of electricity above my sternum.  I even ate ice cream and could still taste the electricity!  I went down to the beach and spoke to Jesus in a language I did not know.  I heard proper names come out of my mouth...like twice I heard myself say Elijah, and when I was praying for Philip I heard a variation of his name.  It's so cool.  When I hear Cody speak, every once in a while I hear him say a word I know from Latin.  It's just wild, I tell you.  Wild.  I feel like God is telling me that He is teaching me to use this gift more accurately, that there is more.

What if?  What if there's more?  Natalie Grant's song has been haunting me the past couple weeks.  "What if there's hope you never dreamed of hoping for?"  It makes me think of our memory verse this month from the third chapter of Ephesians.  "Now to God who is able to do immeasurably more than you can ask or imagine, through is power which is at work within us, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations..."  More than I can imagine...that's a lot... :-)

Oh!  Dance class was wonderful.  We went to a contemporary class on Tuesday and lyrical on Thursday.  I'm looking forward to technique on Wednesday.  Yay!  I am researching exit ministries for human trafficking this week, gathering art supplies, and taking pictures for our photography class.  Our lectures will be on World View and Biblical World View.  

Thank you all!

Bethy

*happy sigh*

This week has been so full.  I am finally getting some rest, and waking up at the same time in the same place every day is doing me a world of good.  Being a flight attendant, switching my mornings and evenings depending on my schedule, hopping from city to city has been far more tiring to my spirit than even I realized.  I feel more whole now.

I think the highlight for most people this week was our silence and solitude time on Tuesday.  I curled up in the cleft of the rock (literally) as waves crashed against my little hiding place, eagles and butterflies soared overhead.  For me it was a day of stillness and peace.  I have had so much stirring around inside of me, and yet God did not seem interested in speaking to me about any of it...in fact, I felt He stopped me from bringing it up myself...it was a day to just be.  One of the coolest things about this day was seeing the change in some of the guys...they seemed transformed the next day.  Something in their spirits was calmed, centered, more focussed throughout Wednesday.

Another thing from Tuesday was that I chose to take a stand against the self-contempt which I mentioned in my last post.  I felt that God told me I would see the fruit of those prayers in two to three days.  Sure enough, a couple days passed and the self-contempt which I have been wrestling fell away like chaff.  I think that my prayers on Tuesday were a major part of that, as well as the prayers of my friends, and simply talking about what I was struggling with.  Being honest with the people around me, bringing the struggle into the light siphoned off the death grip it had had on me.

OH!  Excellent news!  Tomorrow Zarha the Stara and I will go to a dance school to talk to them about classes!!!!!!!!  Yay yay yay yay yay.  They are very reasonably priced, and our leaders are searching the budget for funds to help us out in this endeavor.  It feels like such a miracle to me as I have been desiring to be in dance class for years but unable to carve out the time and find the money.  If you are interested in helping to support this dream, please contact the YWAM school or me and let us know.  Yay.  Did I mention yay?

I have more to tell, but I think that is enough for now.  Love you all!  Thanks for coming with me on this journey,

Beth