Week 1

We finished our first week of class! We are creating new friends, routines, and learning many new things! We are all so excited to start this amazing journey with God and “Grow to Go”, the theme for the semester. In class this week we had a few staff from the YWAM base come and speak. Amy McGee, our school leader spoke about our relationship with God and His character. We learned that God reveals himself through creation, His word, relationships, signs & wonders, and His spirit. Andy Yaxley, spoke to us about hearing Gods voice. Many times throughout this week we practiced hearing Gods voice, and we are excited to continually do this to experience and create deeper relationship with Him. As we prepare for the journey over the next six months, Jason Treadwell spoke to us the remaining of the week about living in community and forming strong unity. One of the key verses that stood out this week was Colossians 3:12-17. It tells us to clothe ourselves with virtues like compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, and forgiveness. With Gods love, they bind us together in perfect unity. As we continue to apply this, we pray for Gods help.

My birthday turned out to be wonderful! Thank you for all the birthday cards! The girls surprised me with lots of balloons and a big sign on my door. I was also surprised with a delicious brownie cake. Be proud grandpas, Josh had flowers sent to the base for me. It was also an exciting day because it was the revealing of the locations for outreach!

Our school is going to send two teams to different places. After the locations were revealed, we were not expecting to make a decision on the location that night. As one of the leaders started to quiet our excitement, she asked us to go and pray about what location Gods is calling us to. It was silent, everyone was shocked. No one could talk to each other! We sat in prayer and wrote whatever God was telling us on a piece of paper. The leaders then prayed over the locations and picked the teams. Josh and I ended up being on the same team. (A relief for the parents.) Oh yeah.. WE ARE GOING TO THAILAND! We don't have a lot of detail at this point, but we are leaving on March 24.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to walk downtown Salem and hand out cups of hot chocolate to people on the street. It felt like home as it reminded both Josh and I of Vriesland's Hope Bus. Whether students just gave one cup away or whether they sat and listened to testimonies, God was there. I actually talked to three individuals for at least 15min each and they opened up to me about there life story, and allowed me to pray for them. It was amazing what a simple cup of hot chocolate can do.

Thank you for the prayers and support. Josh & I are so blessed and we can't thank you enough!
This week please pray that we continue to hear Gods voice. Also for the leaders as they set up travel arrangements for the outreach.

-Danielle

Some pictures are posted below, and you can click on the pictures to make them larger. Yesterday some friends on base that live in Oregon took us to the Silver Falls. Living in Oregon we have learned that we will do things whether rain or shine! Pictures can't come close to describe Gods beautiful creation!