Hokay, so.

Here's the blog!

So, first a quick sum-up of the local outreach week before I get to the awesome Wales week. We got involved with a local outreach called the Besom. Basically, the Besom connects the church in York with those who are in need in York, whether the needs be time, money, or things. We painted the bedrooms of the children for a family who actually live just four doors down from us! It was a great opportunity to get involved with the local community. We now have the kids-- Kieren, Kallum, and Millie-- come around to play! Through them, we have also been introduced to some of the other neighborhood kids. How awesome is God for providing the chance to serve our neighbors!

Alrighty, on to Wales!

So, before we left, we were talking about the woman who was going to be the speaker for the week, Mariette Louw. We were sitting in the living room and Rob said "She brushes her teeth with demons!" While hilarious, this was also intimidating. So, we loaded up the and set off with me, at least, not knowing what to expect!

We arrived at the YWAM base in Wrexham, Wales, and were immediately welcomed by the wonderful staff and DTS students! For that week, it really felt like we were one big DTS, not two separate. The Wales students, Shelby, Leah, Chad, and Mike, had all been on the DTS since September, but they weren't exclusive at all, which was such a blessing.

Man, I learned so much that I'm having a hard time focusing and knowing where to start! Our topic for the week was Spiritual Warfare. Because the York DTS hadn't had the week on the Holy Spirit yet, Mariette took time out to have a special "Intro to the Holy Spirit" session with us, which was really awesome. One of my favorite things about the week was definitely her reference to the Holy Spirit within us as our "Spirit Man"!

How refreshing to know that our spirits can never be separated from God's. How silly of me to sometimes try to separate it! 1 Corinthians 6:17 says "But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him." We have a living, active connection with God. All the time.

Woah.

We confronted a lot of lies this week. Individually, I confronted a few poisonous ones. We learned to battle them with proclamation: basically, finding a passage of scripture that states truth, and declaring it aloud. Interestingly, when you do this (at least I found this to be true), actually hearing the truth makes it more real. I feel like this is a tool, maybe a chisel or something, and I'm chipping away at the unrefined block that is my relationship with God. I'm working to remove the impurities and anything that weighs me down, and eventually I will become a beautiful sculpture, worked to His design.

Thank you, Jesus.