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.