Just another day

You know, I was thinking today about friendships, and wondered how many of them are real. What’s the difference between asking someone “How is it going and how are you doing?” Quite a difference if you ask me. I cannot say I’ve ever been asked more than a handful of times, “how are you doing?” Not just the kind of asked where people expect the classic – I don’t actually care I’m just being polite – how are you, but the kind that actually cares. How are you – no really, how are you truly?

On another note, have you ever heard of Korean style prayer? At home, we usually do popcorn prayer or something of the sort. Well here at the base Korean prayer is the norm. As a base we do a lot of intercession, and essentially, the more people who pray the better. It usually goes like this; everyone is told who or what we are praying for and then one person leads in prayer and everyone joins in all at the same time. It’s quite interesting, I didn’t know what to think at first. But I like it, and suggest it’s worth a try.

Love love.

Monday night we went as a group to a park where Pablo and Ingrid minister to the prostitutes. Tony was telling me that 80% of the tourists to Costa Rica come to be involved in the sex trade. And that Costa Rica is like Thailand of Central America. I went with the intention of being shown different areas of ministry where we can be the hands and the feet. To see what it looks like and to pray over the ministry that is already in place. What I did not expect was to feel such empathy for these people. I found myself sitting there and looking at my feet, wondering if anyone’s feet had stood in the exact same place as mine. If they had, what kind of hurt must have consumed them? It’s sad to think about how much of God’s love exists – an infinite amount, yet his love is the furthest thing from what anyone searches for. His love is right there, you can go left and find his love, or turn right and try to run away. And at the next crossroads you will be faced with the exact same situation. No matter how many times you choose to turn right he will always be there, on the left, waiting for you to choose his love.

God’s love. This week we are learning about the Character and Nature of God. No matter what point is made, it always comes back to God’s love. He did not need us; not our company or our help. He created us because he had so much love that he wanted to pour it out on us. Perfect love already existed within the trinity. Father, Spirit, and Son. Each a lover, each a beloved. His love is so immense there is no way for us to possibly comprehend and ever be able to love as deeply. We learned that there are two basic longings of the human soul: the need to love, and the need to be loved. God fulfills both of those in us. When I fall in love with God it is a result of him loving me first.

And so it begins

So it seems about time I finally take the time to update everyone at home. I realize now I really should have started this much sooner, since so much has happened I am bound to miss a lot. As of today I have been here almost a month, time has flown by. It’s all so strange really, because enough has happened that in one way it feels like it’s been six months of classes, and of living with all of my roommates. And on the other hand our first night, hardly feels further away than yesterday.

Honestly, so much has happened. At first I started to write about specific events and then realized it was already two pages and I was still on the first week. I am going to try again, and this time just give an overview. Each week we study a specific topic during our class time. Our first week was on hearing the voice of God. Our second week was on Intimacy with the Father. The third was what they call the “Plumb Line.” (Amos 7:7-9) And this week we are leaning all about the Father heart of God.

To try and explain to you all that I have learned would be nearly impossible. What I can say is that our DTS has such the most amazing hunger and passion for God. More has happened in these past 4 weeks than in my lifetime of being a Christian. Words honestly cannot begin to describe the events that have happened in our classroom. One thing that I am really learning here is how very real the spiritual realm is. Sure, I always believed it. But to be honest, was not very aware of it. And if anyone was ever telling demon stories I did not want to hear it, because it scared me. Now when I look around, I see more outside the physical. And the thing is, wherever you are reading this – it’s just as real where you are.

That is just one of the many things that I have learned since coming here. But, I won’t go into to much detail about our classes yet. Life here is all about living in community. All together there are about seventy people living on the base, including people from my DTS, another school here and all the staff. We spend most of our time on the base, and occasionally go out on evenings off and weekends. I live in a room with 9 others girls, we make up the ten not married girls in our DTS. These are the girls that I will spend 24/7 with for the next five months. Thankfully, God has brought us together as a very tight knit group. United as one is something we are constantly striving for as a team. If you want to keep us in your prayers here are the names of each of my roommates:

Jody (Junior) – Winkler, Manitoba

Hannah – Colorado

Nicole – Washington

Mel-anny – Guatemala

Valeria – California

Mayim – Minnesota

Johanna – Costa Rica

Stephanie – Texas

Jody Jordan - Vermont

To give you a glimpse of what my life is like here I’ll share with you a typical day. Breakfast is served at 6:30, which as I am sure you assumed I sleep through every day. Our schedule includes one hour of quiet time with God every morning from 7 to 8. Then from 8 – 9 everyday we have base activities such as worship and intercession. The rest of the day we are split up into our individual schools. DTS has class every morning from 9 to 12:30, when we break for lunch. Mmm lunch, rice and beans every day. Oh and dinner is also rice and beans everyday. They do a good job of making the rice taste different all the time. Classes resume from 2 to 4, and at 4 everybody has their trabajitos – or work duties. It’s basically like chores that everybody does to keep the base in tip top shape. We have dinner at 6, and then every evening is different. Sometime we have classes, family night, or free nights.

So basically that is a bit of what the last month has been like for me. From now on I will try to update more regularly, so that I can go deeper into the lessons that God has been teaching me and share them all with you.