"Gist" enough to get by.

What an interesting week I've had so far! Here's the gist of it:

Sunday, 2AM: Power is out.

We live in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, our power is not a priority. Also, when our power dies, the water system calls it quits, as well as the wifi and most people's heating. So the base woke up to cold, dark, parched isolation on Sunday morning.

What an adventure it was! We were blessed blessed blessed with a non-centralized heating system that held up through the storm (we had a few people leech the heat) and a gas stove - the latter coming especially in handy as we roasted marshmallows for s'mores and toasted bagels with Nutella by candlelight - using chopsticks as skewers. What a great time!

We definitely socialized more, which is sort of sad to see that the internet really does suck time from us, but we played boardgames with the guys and watched a movie on the remaining
batteries of a couple laptops and roasted more s'mores than we needed. It was really fun!

Partially due to the power outage, and partially due to some family stuff he needed to be home for, we only had this week's speaker for two days! This was our week on spiritual gifts, important stuff, so we just doubled the class time on Tuesday and Wednesday and then said good bye. Ken Bluemel, a pastor of a church in Sacramento, was an excellent speaker for the time he was here, and we all were for sure encouraged, built up, and inspired with his teaching and application. We talked about baptism of the Spirit, the purpose of the gifts, and identifying gifts in ourselves. It was really fun, and my life was spoken into in huge ways yesterday.

And that's the gist. As for random snippets of information: We have another 300-or-so-attendees conference over this weekend, beginning today, and we had a tornado warning last night, which turned into some gusty wind, and not much more. Hoping to see some sunshine before we leave, though; January was a lot nicer weather than what we've been experiencing this month!

Two weeks until Spain, and we're excited and a little apprehensive. God is still working through some things, we're still working through some things, and plans are coming together. I'll post some more stuff about what outreach is looking like when it's not dinner time!

Ciao :)

March Madness

It's been a long while since I've blogged. Sorry for the gap! I didn't want to force a post.

So, first things first: Yes, we moved! Turns out that the Lodge was, well, sinking, and we weren't allowed to live in it. It's not "condemned," it just needs a little elbow grease. So we heard, "We're moving!" one evening, finished packing a couple of hours later, and moved the next morning. Fun change :)

We're in this great little house behind and down the hill from the big hotel. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an open kitchen and living room. Michaela, Paola, and I upgraded! Our room is much bigger, and our attached bathroom is as well. The two ESL girls, Elaine and Rachel, have the other bed-bath combo, and Nelita and Kenzie share a smaller room. We love having a "real" kitchen with a stove and cupboards, and our living room (although we lost the real-wood fireplace) is cozier and perfect for movie watching.

My favourite part = the porch swing out front.

Things are getting set for outeach. We now know our destinations: Madrid, Sevilla, Málaga, and Torremolinos/Grenada. We're finally in contact with YWAM bases, churches, and ministries in each of those places, and things are getting set. One pastor is getting in touch with a gypsy pastor of a gypsy church in his city for us, which is thrilling: we weren't ever certain that we would in fact even meet a gypsy on this trip, being the "scouting" trip that it is.

God continues to speak, move, challenge... Challenge. I'm so glad for this. I'm so thankful I don't belong to a passive God. It's good, though; one major way God is changing my relationship with Him is the way He's affirming me, as I am. I love to find the flaws, find the fixable things, and look for solutions the way I see them.

Maybe I shared this earlier, but a type of breakthrough for me earlier on in the school was during the Father Heart of God week. One morning before class, I was reading somewhere in Paul's letters, and admitted out loud, "God delights in me?! I don't believe that, not really." All that week we learned how integral a part of His character that very thing is - His love for me, His joy in who He created me to be... it's not just true, it's true for me.

Hahaha. The Dr. Seuss book Oh, the Places You'll Go just jumped to mind. It's so wonderful. I came thinking I had a pretty good grip on this whole Christianity thing (and often still find myself thinking that), but the more time I spend looking for God instead of doctrine, service, or even worship music and Bible reading, the more I realize the shallowness of my faith and relationship with Him. Then I look to the promises I've been given (in His word and also ones spoken over me) and I have this mix of anticipation and bewilderment. Really? I'm going to be able to find You? encounter You? know You?

I can't wait for the places I'll go while I'm walking with Him. But that's another thing I'm being schooled in these days... be present. God's grace for me - it's not from yesterday, it's not for tomorrow - it's for the moment I'm in right now.

OK, and on top of all that, another little update: the team's learned (quickly!!) two YWAM dramas as well as two DRIMEs (thanks, Mr. Z!), I'm leading our small group tomorrow, and we all need to have a 10 min. "chapel talk" (mini-sermon) prepared for preaching in Spanish churches. Fun! We learned our second DRIME just this afternoon (Liquid, for those of you who are familiar with them), and we'll be practicing both in about 15 min. (The other is Silence.)

And that's enough of that!! Love you, probably miss you, and please keep OUTREACH FINANCES in your prayers... there's a bit of a mountain to climb for the family to be able to come with us.

Words [almost] fail me.

I just wrote out an entire blog post, but I hated it, so I'm trying again. That post was a redo from one I'd started maybe a week ago.

Rachel, one of the most lovely people I've ever met, and a South Korean ESL student living with us in the Lodge, just handed me a Mallo Cup. Thanks, Rachel!

I had one of the most encouraging days today. Our speaker for this week, Stephen Bell, was up past 3am this morning because God kept him awake as He spoke to him about our DTS. He handed me a letter of prophetic encouragement and really wonderful words from Jesus that made me cry. In my last attempted blog post, I got into that a bit more... but I'm not really feeling like defending my stance that it was the Word of God for me or explaining what it all was. Most of you are probably relieved :)

I really, really love God. At least, I'm starting to in a real way. It's awesome, in the original sense of the word, because just yesterday I was talking with God and I specifically asked Him, "God, help me fall in love with You." There's all this stuff in my head that can tell me 101 reasons why I should love God, maybe an 8-step outline for being closer to Him, and enough sermon archives to keep me pondering His works for ages - but as for the Person of God... I know this is so classic. I know this is so YWAM. I know this is so "every Christian's struggle." But this isn't something I want to be a struggle for me; knowing God isn't meant to be a struggle. Why do you think Jesus died?! He's the One who tore the veil. He's the One who reconciled us to God. Done.

Back to what I was saying, loving God is becoming a reality. He's winning my heart. It's not as if He has to do anything more than He's already done, with the whole sacrificing-His-Son-for-me thing. But He wants me to know Him, love Him, talk with Him and hear from Him, more than I want it all. And He gave a man I've never met a letter about my heart and His heart for me as for that sake. I asked. He can love even this divided heart.

That's all I really have to say. I deleted some more stuff that I'd said. Give me an email or FB message or... better yet... a REAL LIVE LETTER (!!) if you want to get a bit more/bit deeper from what's going on down here.

Love you all. Thank you so much for supporting me, regardless in what form (even if it's just by reading this blog post!), in my journey that got me down to little Chico, CA!

***Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha. An add-on, here: I was talking with Brittni, from my home church, the Abbotsford Vineyard, and she mentioned that church was "really good" yesterday. I said, "Oh, really? Awesome! I was praying for our church during church yesterday. Specifically I was praying for freedom in worship. What happened?" Man alive. They did sermon first, then worship, and worship went on and on and people were up front and just singing their hearts out and staying late. Lingering in the presence. Amen and amen. So cool that God set that on my heart to cover it in prayer. GOD IS SO GOOD.

Not something to be grasped.

Beautiful day.

I'm trying to figure out how open I "should" be on a blog like this... I sort of just want to dump everything out on here, but perhaps there are things I should only "ponder in my heart" for now.

I do want to share about my excitement over spending time with God... more time than just "morning devotions," which is sometimes the extent of my regular times with God at home (especially when I let myself feel busy). Today I had times of just being, and times of praying, and times of honesty - those, I realized, were a bit different from how I normally am with Him. I know you're supposed to be honest, and tell Him everything (even though He already knows everything), and share your feelings and whatnot, but it's so easy to let bigger, more important things, like praying for people, take precendence. And then I never really take the time for the simple stuff, other than squeezing it between "real life" activities so that I can be a "real Christian" who "prays without ceasing."

But what about friendship with God? Talking and listening and opening my heart about things that don't carry much weight on the scale of eternity? I know, I've sung all the songs about Jesus being my best friend, and I can quote scripture all across the board about how God wants friendship with us, about how we aren't servants of His but friends, about how much He delights in us and about all the joy His presence brings... but really, friendship with Him has been much more of a here-and-there type of experience than something I live in.

So, the more time I'm able to focus on God and converse with Him, of course, the better - and for me to spend quality time with God, I generally do have to be by myself. Somewhere quiet. Sometimes I need the lights off, too. And lately I've been taking time to do this more and more... and loving it. I think I had a bit of a rant there [sorry!], but the point was things are good :)

In other news, our "Tuesday night base meeting" [basically church with everyone on base, which happens Monday mornings and Tuesday nights] ended just really nicely, for lack of a better term. We were praying out whatever'd been put on our hearts, and finished by singing "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful" a cappella. I'll say it again: really nice.

There's so much more on my heart, but this is long enough, and I'm not feeling all that coherent tonight. So I'll leave you with a THANK YOU to each and every one of you who has supported me, financially, emotionally, or prayerfully. I'm confident in what God's doing here and so excited to be a part of it. Big undercurrents of change rushing through this place... just a SWEET season at Richardson Springs here.

SDRAWKCAB?

A rundown of the last couple days.

It's the weeekend, and we've had some fun. Friday night, Michaela, Kenzie, and I watched Red and Hot Rod over at the boys' house. Really liked Red! Claimed all the glory for Hot Rod as it was filmed in beautiful British Columbia! Reppin'.

Then yesterday, had some work duties stuff to take care of, switching over and cleaning through the speaker cabin to prep it for this week's speaker (we're doing Spiritual Authority this week - nice!), and then I stayed back home while the rest of the girls went to town. That was a good choice for me. I know that generally, it's easiest to sort of shove my time with God in between "my" schedule, so I felt like setting some time aside for Him would probably be a good idea.

So I had a lovely afternoon! Almost everyone around here was in town, so I had time to myself that I don't usually get. I journalled, I played soccer (read: attempted to play soccer) with the base kids, I played guitar and read my Bible and prayed. Why don't I always set aside big chunks of time for stuff like this?! It was really wonderful, and I got to settle some things in my spirit that I felt had just been sitting around surface level. So worthwhile.

Then, last night, Sam (a guy on staff) had a birthday party at the staff girls' house, so we stopped in for food and fellowship. [Michaela and I were craving some Fellowship of the LOTR sort, but... it wasn't our party. Maybe next weekend.] We talked and hung out and whatever for a while, and things had started winding down when Joel (another guy on staff who leads street ministry on Friday nights) suggested that we had some time for prophesying into Sam's life. So we gathered around and prayed and prophesied, and it was good, and then we began to speak into each other's lives.

And it was very good :) We gave and received words, we prayed for healings, and I anointed something with oil for my first time! Haha. It was cool. This went on for a long while, and some people were really getting hit hard. We finished the night off with homemade ice cream cake. Nice touch!

I personally just heard a lot of what I've been talking to God about, so I was really affirmed and just blessed by it. I know this isn't a "YWAM thing" at all, it's just a "life with God thing", but one of the things I was really thankful for yesterday afternoon was being in a place that so facilitates setting aside time for God, that emphasizes intimacy and KNOWING Him, and knowing that I was specifically called to be here - now.

This week will be good; excited to share some more [and deeper] thoughts with you guys.

An All-American SUPERbowl.

I feel like I've undergone some form of American initiation rites - I have now attended a massive, food-stuffed, hootin'-and-hollerin' Superbowl party, and I loved it.

In case you were somehow unaware, Aaron Rodgers, QB for the Packers, grew up in this very town, Chico, CA - so, obviously, the majority of us were rooting for the Packers... and we picked right!!

Such a good game. I know in reality that I'm terribly ignorant of football, but today I watched an entire game through, and actually enjoyed (and sort of understood!) it. I was even able to appreciate the beauty of our second touchdown - yyyyeeesss interception!

This morning at church, of course, the SuperBowl was incorporated: we watched interviews of both Aaron Rodgers, and that Troy guy with the long hair on the Steelers, talking about football and their faith. It was cool seeing them both playing such big parts on their respective teams in the big game after hearing them talk about God and stuff.

Church this morning was "Matthew's Cafe" - for you Vineyardites reading this, it's set up like Table Sunday every week - and it's cool because at some point in the sermon every week, we sit and discuss things about the message with each other and try to process it with one another. Good community focus.

It's been really cool going to different churches every week. Of course I'm excited for when we get to pick the church we'd like to commit to, and hopefully become a part of, but back home, I don't exactly church hop week to week, and it's interesting seeing what else is going on in the Body :) I do miss both the Vineyard and CLA, though!

K. This one must remain short [to compensate for that last one].

Happy Superbowl Sunday, everyone!!

Climb, climb up sunshine mountain.

Well hello there, everyone! It feels so nice to be back on the blog... we have just undergone the trauma of a two-day, involuntary internet fast :)

It was our own, hand-picked consequence for a messy room... Splitting Paola's and my bed in two sure cluttered up our room.

Yesterday was Australian Michaela's 21st birthday! As the "hospitality student" (my work duty), I was in charge of the celebrations. So, two days ago, my work duties time was spent driving into town with Kenzie and hitting up the dollar store for cake mix and a birthday crown. Then yesterday, I baked a chocolate cake for the party. The ESL joined in the party with us, and Elaine from Brazil made a Brazilian dessert (don't ask me to pronounce or spell it) that was like a really thick, rich chocolate pudding, while Marcelo, also Brazilian, and Rachel, from Korea, helped decorate. The party was great. Music and dancing and cake-in-the-face and popcorn and desserts. Michaela, as usual, headed to bed a little after 8, but we kept it going with Apples to Apples and playing guitar with one another.

Now today: today was a favourite of mine. (Also feels nice to see that good ol' Canadian spelling.) It was our last day with Joe Ferrante, and goodness me - that man has won a place in my heart. It was uncanny the way he consistently spoke on things that had been on my heart and in my prayers just before his class, and on Wednesday, his words even echoed my "one-on-one" conversation I had with Nix the day before. He brought up things like shame, condemnation, pride, selfishness, performance-driven faith, and bringing the love of God home into our hearts. For those of you who know me well (and probably many of you who don't), you'll know that I need some work of the Lord in all of these departments :) He just spoke right to my heart in a way that doesn't happen often, and I was so encouraged by it.

After our last session with him, we ate lunch, and then it was time for "small groups." Our small groups = Jake meeting with David, our only male representative on the team, and Nix meeting with all of us girls. Although it's not much different than any other team meeting in that way, it's always my favourite part of the week.

Today, Nix had us come in "activewear." Now, Nix used to be a personal trainer, so I was shaking in my sweats. When we all gathered together at the top of the outdoor stairs, she had a grin that was making me nervous. These stairs are long, and these stairs are steep. We were to do 5 sets. Lucky for me I traipse up these stairs at least that many times each day during work duties, down to the DTS office, up to the cabin, back down to the office, up to the hotel, and so on.

So I loved it. (And yes, I know that 5 sets of stairs isn't that big of a deal, but keep it in your DTS frame of reference... food > exercise, in a big way.)

Once the last of us had finished that, Nix announced that we were now doing the longest of the hikes at the base - up to Lone Tree Rock. Again, I was pumped, but there were others that didn't share my sentiment. I was darting up the rocks (really excited because I hadn't done this hike yet), and again, we were all coming from different places, and eventually, we were all sitting on top of the mountain, looking out over the whole canyon, a little smoggy, but sunlit and beautiful regardless.

Now, I don't point out my speediness with pride, because this next part is crucial. When we did make it to the top, Nix had some [expected] questions:

What did you notice about yourself when we were doing this stuff? (Me: That I need to be more of a team player.)

What did you notice about others as we went along? (Everyone else: That Makaela's really competitive.)

Ha! Of course, there were other things said, but yeah, that's what I got out of it. I don't really know what I want to say about it... I just knew that if I talked about the hike, I'd have to be fair and point out that I got a bit rebuked during it! Others were watching out for each other, waiting for each other... all that feminine, soft-heart-of-the-Lord goodness. Gotta work on that :)

Also (yeah, this is a long one - skim-reading's OK by me!), while I sat on that mountain top looking over the California goodstuff, I was thinking about how I can be competitive, sometimes even driven, but how when it comes to important things, I really need to be pushed. So, I'm so thankful for the community I have, here, and especially at home, of people who really want to see me grow into more than I am now. And yes, a lot of the pushing has to come from me.

OK! Finished! Thanks for sticking with it! Happy February to you all :)