Holy Spirit

So much has happened in the last two weeks. Last Sunday I went into London with a few people from the school to go to Hillsong, I also went to Holy Trinity Bromton where Nicky Gumble, the Alpha guy preaches. They both were great, in HTB a pastor spoke who runs a church in Baghdad. Some of the stories he told were crazy, he has over 20 personal body guards. As far as the actual school, it is also going great. At times it has been really hard living and spending so much time with people so different then myself. There have definitely been a few conflicts, however I can honestly say that things have gotten way better over the last week. We are really starting to come together as a group, it has been amazing how God has been working in each of our lives. I wont go into too much detail but this week we learned about the Holy Spirit and had some amazing experiences with Him. To be honest a lot of the changes in people came after some encounters and Baptisms with the Holy Spirit. It has been a really good week and I learned a lot too. The week before we learned about discipleship, we looked back at the culture during Jesus’ time. It was really interesting to hear about what it meant to be a disciple during those times. In those days a disciple would follow their Rabbi day and night and literally try and learn how to be exactly like that person. I found that to be profound because in church we always throw around the word disciple, “go into all the world and make disciples…”, I am on a “discipleship training school”. But it wasn’t until that week that I really understood what that meant and honestly I am still learning what that means. Other than that life has been really good, I am very happy right now and even when I am dealing with problems I just feel a joy and excitement for the future. Thanks again for all the prayers! -Colin

Freedom

sorry i've been slacking. Like Colin said last week was quite an encouragement for the school. The week was lead by the "freedom team" here on the campus. The teaching is all about being saved by God, finding your identity in him and living free from sin (especially sins we don't necessarily tag as sin). The coolest part of this teaching (in my opinion) is when a group of the staff ask God what his original design is for each student. As a leader I got to learn and practice being apart of actually prayer for each student which was really cool. I was one of the people who prayed for Patch (Colin's roommate). It was hard at first doing something like that cause it takes a lot of faith and confidence that it is God who is speaking to you, but each time I did it my faith grew as the words I received was very similar to what other people in my group received. It was especially rewarding this week getting to see the students begin to really engage with God and take this time here seriously. Many students identified some of the things that were holding them back from getting closer with God and prayed for freedom from that.
On another note I am beginning to get really tired and kinda sick. We spent a lot of time outside this week, but we are officially FA level 1 coaches in football (soccer)!

Original Design

This week we learned about Gods original design for a person’s life and about the strongholds that hinder you from living the way God made you. I won’t get into too much detail but I would like to share with you two personal testimonies. One is mine. Growing up my mom continually reminded me of a prophecy she got while she was pregnant with me. A lady told her that I was going to be like John the Baptist. So she reminded me of this often and more than often I told her I think the lady got me and Keith mixed up. So this week we each had four leaders from around the base pray over us and ask God to reveal to them our original design as well as some strongholds in our life. For me it was awesome to see four people who don’t know me at all tell me exactly the kind of person I am and the strengths I have. It just really made it real to me that God made me the way I am for a reason and it wasn’t just by accident that I am the way I am. But the coolest part was one of the guys told me he was getting a verse from the bible for me about John the Baptist and how God made me to be like John the Baptist, that I would in a sense prepare the way for Jesus. Sparing you from what that means to me I found it to bet a major faith builder. You can write some things off to coincidence but things like that there is just no way.
If that doesn’t encourage you my roommate Patch got a word from someone a month ago while being prayed over at his church. The lady told him she saw him riding into battle on a white horse like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. A pretty specific word if you ask me. Then when he was being prayed over by the people here someone told him they saw him riding on a white horse like in Lord of the Rings when Gandalf comes and saves the day at the end of the second movie. I love when things like this happen and God makes himself so obvious you know it is Him, which has been happening a lot this week. Anyway I hope you enjoyed that. We will try to write posts more often, especially some from Gina.

It's Snowing! 2-10-10

Don’t worry it hasn’t stuck yet. The school has been going for just over a week now. So far it has been great! Everyone clicked right away and everyone seems to get along pretty well. Our group consists of thirteen students, four girls, one from Switzerland, Samoa, America, and England, nine guys, two from America, six from England, and one from Rwanda. Then we have 7 or so leaders, Gina and Jeremie, two guys from England, one from New Zealand, one from Brazil and two other girls from England and Ecuador. As we mentioned before we have a sports focus on this DTS, which has been awesome. Right now we are in the process of taking a FA level one coaching clinic for soccer. Meaning when we come home we will know how to coach, we may even throw in an English accent. In case some of you are wondering this means on top of taking classes on topics such as intercession, honesty, forgiveness, humility, ect., we also play and learn how to coach different sports and how to use sports to love and outreach to people, especially young people. This is awesome because as we talked about in class today it is important to connect and relate to people where they are at and with what they like. Now if we think about it, people may not like going to church but it’s rare to find someone who isn’t passionate about some sport.
Another thing, in case you are curious, this is what an average day looks like, generally. We have morning workout from 7-8, breakfast from 8-9, class and/or small group from 9-1, lunch from 1-2, sport training or study time from 2-4, work duties from 4-6, then dinner from 6-7 and then finally depending on the day we have church, more sports or just free time. Obviously things change around depending on the day. For example tonight we booked a gym to play some basketball so we pushed dinner back an hour. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what we are up to. Gina’s schedule is a little different but she can share that with you in the text post.

Thanks again for your continual support in prayer. We miss you all!

Hello America!

I made it! I arrived in England yesterday just in time for my little cousins birthday party. It was perfect, I got to see almost all of my family all at once. I have another week before I go to the base to start my DTS. Before that I have a few things planned. Tomorrow Gina is coming down and we are going to go into London for the day (hopefully we will have some pictures up of that soon). Wednesday I am going to visit my aunt and uncle in Scotland for a couple days. I am also trying to get tickets to a Watford soccer game but that might not be until later next month. Other than that I am just anxiously awaiting the start of the school. Thank you for all your prayers.
Love,
Colin

HELLO ENGLAND!

hello everyone! I arrived in Harpenden, England on Friday, January 7th to a whole lot of snow, and the snow has continued to hang around. Its very beautiful but very cold at the same time. I'm hoping to get a picture up soon before it melts away. Anyway I spent my first couple of days getting over jet lag and settling into my new "flat." I'm going to be living with two other girls one of which is here and the other should be arriving on Friday I think. So far this week I've been attending orientation type things, lasting all day and although they are long most of the things I'm taking in are important for me to know as a resident on the base and member of this community. I will be sure to post a more exciting blog soon.... but for now I just wanted you all to know I'm here and safe and loving it! -Gina