#musicdts2018

[mybravesong]

Week 6

Hey Guys! I’m switching the way I post. I’ll focus on posting about the highlights of the week from now on! :)

DAY 38 Monday (13 August) We started the day with morning exercise - walked round nib stadium, played scarecrow. 

For Quiet time, God said you are good. And I said I am good because you are good. And I got the song, let the king of my heart. I ask God what his mission was for me today? It was to look after a friend who was recently heartbroken. How? To love and care for her. We had worship with the whole ywam.. it was all about the goodness of God which was exactly what I had during quiet time!! The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him. Nahum 1:7 NLT. We had a very productive band practice and started tweaking things here and there! :D Also we started on our weekly topic, “Holy Spirit” by Rachel Mcgirr. 

We also did rehearsals at night as usual for dance numbers! Also I saw that Abby from priceless had left me a note <3 So much loveeeeee! miss her

DAY 39 Tuesday (14 August) During Qt.. God was reminding me to move away from slave mentality to child of God mentality. It occurred to me during lecture the day before that I still retained aspects of a “slave mentality” instead of relying on God and pursuing a more purposeful relationship with God. Today was also my turn to do a “God Talk”. It’s basically you teaching your small group about an aspect of God. I was really thinking of what to talk about even to the day. That morning, God wanted me to repent of greed of money. I had thoughts of wanting to keep donations for myself so that I didn’t have to pay more for outreach but God said it’s not for me. So I repented and made sure all went to David and Abigail. He reminded me that He is the God of the plentiful. God our provider. And that was what I decided to talk about in small group. The bunch of us went to Emma’s.

The Gist was... When we say let’s keep it for ourselves you are telling God, God u are not enough for me. When we aren't generous - we withhold the blessings that another person could receive, we aren’t being channels of blessings. And I ask them to spend some time and ask God to reveal to you areas of your life that is stuck in this slave mentality.. It was pretty cool because God talked to through of them from this God talk. They also had that mindset. 

I sang with Caleb and Gyu which I had not ever done before after dinner! That was fun! Also spent some time updating the team newsletter. We ended the day with song rehearsals and the learning of a new dance for greatest showman.

DAY 40 Wednesday (15 August) During Quiet time: God said I am enough so you are enough. I said You are enough but I am not and He said you are enough for me. Your everything is enough for me. I felt a hug from the back with one arm across my shoulders and the other across the top of my head.

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 1 John 3:1 NLT

Brought to mind, my dad and I our relationship. He doesn't want anything else accept to receive my love in return. God doesn't ask for anymore than who we are. Children of God. Like when I heard them from God, I had an image of my own father squatting down with arms wide open and with a huge smile just waiting for me to run into his arms. It might be tear a lot! <3 During worship, we did something different, there was a part where if God was asking you to lay something down, you lay it in front of the cross. God told me to lay Unworthyness down. My greed, my not enoughness - The root was unworthyness and I needed to proclaim the truth of God's word in my life. During lecture Rachel said this - The only sin you're not forgiven for is the sin u don't want forgiveness for. Forgiveness is for us. Unforgivenness is like drinking poison and wishing for the other to die. Things to really think about.  I had one on one with Abigail that day and as we reflected, I came to the conclusion that I want to know Holy spirit as a person instead of just His function. How to tell him apart from Jesus, spiritual authority and father or some sort of energy. 

DAY 41 Thursday (16 August) During quiet time, I was asking Holy Spirit... Can I separate holy spirit from the trinity in my mind? He said No, we are one in the same. I reflected and realise that Holy Spirit is wise .. He reminds me of the book of proverbs. He doesn't give the whole picture but he gives nuggets of wisdom to prompt u in the right direction. It was also Sarah’s bday the following day but her birthday table was set up today! So after dinner, we went down to IGA and I bought her fudge!! - Her favourite! :D

DAY 42 Friday (17 August) During Quiet Time, Holy Spirit convicted me to apologise to David and Abigail about being pushy for the newsletter to get out. David was under the pump to get ready to Camp and I wasn’t a little fustrated that I was trying so hard to get the newsletter out earlier in hopes, to get our info out to send to others and see if we could finish our funding! I had no time to edit the night before so I went to the base early this morning. After I ate breakfast, I went back to the dorm and felt that I needed to kneel and thank God for David, Abigail - they sacrifice so much to staff the DTS and all I was doing was a newsletter. I apologised to them as well and thanked them for their hard work! :) Today was also application day, we repented and made right with people. It was like repentance week all over again. We also had a choice to go up to Randy (Trust Fall), Cristine(Breaking Generational Curses) and Rachel(Receiving of gifts of the holy spirit - tongues etc). I prayed and felt like I needed to do the trust fall. I feel that I trust God but still not completely. You’d have to climb up this stack of chairs and shout God I trust you (as a public declaration) and fall backwards. Randy would catch you. It was hard for me because I am afraid of heights and when I got on, the stack of chairs almost toppled. But I did it anyway and I felt like a burden lift. I also got to pray for Karmen and Emma for healing so that was cool! They got healed by the Holy Spirit. It was also Evangelism day, so Alex and I paired up. She asked me if I just wanted to stand along the street and shout out my testimony. I must say fear really gripped me. I didn’t feel prepared for it. So we walked on, I was praying all along the way. God was saying.. Do you trust me? I said yes. Then do you know I have good thoughts towards these people? I said Yes I do. Then He said, all I want you to do is share My love for them. And I said ok. We did talk to a couple of people. Prayed for some. I was prompted by this lady so was a little disorientated. But I beckon her to come to me after she had walked away and I asked her if I could pray for God’s love on her and she said yes. And I prayed. We also talked to this chatty lady along the street and we talked with her for a good 1 hr 30mins. She was very concerned about her friend and the Holy Spirit prompted her to ask us about the friend in question. Surprisingly, the answers we gave her were based on what we had learnt during the week. About, how choosing sin is saying no to God. and if she is a follower of Christ, she must choose. In the end, we had dinner together and went back to base. I had time to finish my journal and went for friday service. The dude, Mark talked about the Hebrew education system and greek education system. That was interesting!

DAY 43-44 Saturday & Sunday (18-19 August) CAMPING TRIP!!! We brought our stuff to the auditorium at 9am and had breakfast. Packed and left, reached about 11ish? Just before Lunch, Emma Leonie and I went for a walk - we found money on the floor, saw some horses and made friends with the doggie who lives in the opposite house. Little did we know, the dog followed us back to the campsite. Ben had to bring him back to the neighbour hahaa! We had a quick lunch and went down the childow town centre - hung there til about 4ish. Came back for dinner and played capture the flag. It was very fun but at the same time, Tim got a broken collarbone, Kate scrapped her knee, Jonathan split his toenail, Kevin scrapped his knee and so did Noemi. After that, we sat by the campfire which was so good because it was literally freezing that night. After that, showered and slept like a log.

Woke up really early at 7am the next morning, freshen up and walked around the campsite, smelling the fresh air and admiring God’s creation. I was a little concerned about our finances for outreach and God says to lean on me for the finances. So I said okay I will. We had breakfast and I was on  breakfast clean up duty. After that, Leonie and I walked to the Lake! It was beautiful, on the way we saw these little duckies and also got to pat some horses. That was fun. After that, we came for lunch and started to pack away our stuff. We also had to clean up the campsite. I was on toilet cleaning duty. Unfortunately for me, someone had taken a huge dung and it clogged the toilet... so guess who had to unclog it? Yes, yours truly. We packed and left. The heat was crazy though and throughout the whole trip I sat on the sunny side. After coming back to the 228, I literally put on my sheets back and changed and took a one hr nap. It was sooooo gooood.. then I came back to base for dinner and finished up this online journal! :D

Highlights from the Weekend below!!

#ywamlife #musicdts2018

[mybravesong]

First Week of YWAM

DAY 3 (9th July)

We started early - 6.45am breakfast! It was simple and we went right down to worship and then straight into the official orientation - with words about what the school was about followed by a word from Peter wren! We segway into a video - God made the missionary. And the realisation that every one who is here has chosen to give up a part of their lives to come and be trained to serve the Lord really touched my heart because every single person has their own experience and encounters with God. And that led them here in YWAM. It’s crazy and mind-blowing when I think about God’s timing and His perfect plan for every one of us. We went for lunch and you know it - being the music DTS there’s always bound to be singing and loud thumping!

DAY 4 (10th July) We started our 5:30am wake up call. 6am at the classroom. Cliff shared about the importance of quiet time. It was also registration day! Pretty exciting! We got to pick out the books we were gonna focus on for the duration. I picked up The Father Heart of God & Transforming the Nations. After, we jumped into some exercise - Dance Dance revolution! That was so fun! We all danced together. I love that about YWAM. There is much communion. At night, we had dinner and I got to talk to the Sports DTS staff- Molly about her story. After that, most of my school went to play games in one of the buildings but I stayed back wanting to get started on my journal (we have to do a weekly journal with a couple of questions to answer.) In the end however, I felt like God had other things in mind. I ended up talking to Christine (one of the older ones in our group) and got to hear how she came to DTS. I also got to talk through with Hannah (from sports DTS) about assignments and clarified some questions she had about them and I also got to chat with T(from priceless DTS) about the book we’re all reading - God is that really you. Even though I didn’t get to read my book, I felt refreshed and excited that God was doing something in each of our lives.

DAY 5 (11th July) It’s non-stop here. We’ve started our lectures on the topic - Hearing God’s voice. Chenaniah shared with us and also shared how he started. We also got to spend the day in the city looking for last minute things we needed. We also took a walk to Officeworks to grab notebooks to start our journals that are due weekly on Sunday night.

DAY 6 (12th July) We started our work duties and morning chores. Work duties - I was assigned to Lunch duty so we had to pack everything.

(a ton of stuff to organise before it going into the kitchen for washing) For Morning chores - I was assigned to cleaning our chairs in the dorms. It’s not too bad! On top of that we also got to know our 1-on-1′s. They’re basically our mentor of some sorts. That night, we got grouped into our small groups as well as everyone in the group had a chance to share deeply their life journey and how they ended up in Music DTS! It was very precious. God really is good to have brought all of us to this point.

DAY 7 (13th July) We had our last lecture with Chenaniah. We got to practice hearing God’s voice by picking a name out of a hat and asking God to speak for this person. I got David - our staff. The word I got was He is quiet but God calls him a mighty warrior. He has a gentle heart but at the same time, his heart beats strongly and violently for Jesus. After that, we had prepped to go to Evangelism in the city. We had to make our own sandwiches to bring along and you could choose between 3 modes of transport to the meeting place. 1. Bus 2. Train 3. Walk.. I chose to walk. We spent a good 2 hours at the city just singing and praying for people.

It was great because Evangelism isn’t getting people to receive Christ but more taking them just one step closer to Jesus. We went for maccas after and walked back to base. The rest of the night I spent just trying to do part of the journal.

DAY 8 (14th July) WE GOT TO SLEEP IN! By that I mean, we woke up at 8:30am for breakfast. Tess had organised a picture hunt in the city for us. Even though it was raining, we saw a double rainbow and made our way to Perth City!

We spent a good time running around the city and looking for parts of the city that match the photo hints provided. The hunt led us to Elizabeth Quay and we couldn’t resist taking an epic group photo.

(Above: Our whole Music DTS 2018)

After the hunt, we made our way back to base in the rain. Our lovely staff prepared a sausage sizzle for us! <3 Feeling so much loveeee! The rest of the day was spent finishing up the journal.

DAY 9 (15th July) We started the day at 8:30am but I was already wide awake at 7:00am. I wonder why (lol i attribute this to Sunday Services at FCC). We went to Metrochurch to check it out with Iel and Emily. Dena and Noemi joined us attempted to go hillsong but made a turnaround and joined us a little later. It was a small cozy crowd, it was a simple message but for many there was a revelation and a deeper understanding of God’s grace. We made our way to the city after to Kakula’s for some foods. I got some dried apricot & roasted chickpeas! Iel, Emily and I went for some sushi while Dena and Noemi went to grab some tea from Woolies. We took the bus and landed back at the dorms. I noticed L a girl from Priceless sitting on the couch. She had not had the best week, feeling extremely sick. I asked her if she was alright and she told me she had blacked out in the shower. I grabbed some bread and water for her and told Laura (another girl from Priceless about it). Laura came in to talk to L and my group left for the base. It started pouring and I got really wet. But we made it to the base - And here I am now.

#ywamlife #musicdts2018

[mybravesong]

Week 2

DAY 10 Monday (16th July) Good morning, Morning Exercises. We rose at 5:30am when the sun could not be seen and started with interval training - push ups, steps, planking and star jumps! Right after, we had quiet time. God was speaking to me:

“But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and owls, too, for giving them water in the desert. Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland so my chosen people can be refreshed. I have made Israel for myself, and they will someday honor me before the whole world. “But, dear family of Jacob, you refuse to ask for my help. You have grown tired of me, O Israel! You have not brought me sheep or goats for burnt offerings. You have not honored me with sacrifices, though I have not burdened and wearied you with requests for grain offerings and frankincense. You have not brought me fragrant calamus or pleased me with the fat from sacrifices. Instead, you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your faults. “I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again. Isaiah 43:18‭-‬25 NLT

The revelation I got was - In my own way, I deep inside think I know it all. Think I know better than God. Hidden pride. I had to repent and tell God sorry. I also repented just telling Him my sins and faults but not taking the time to get to know Him better. He has new things for me, that I should embrace.

After that, we had breakfast, did our morning chores and went into our first lecture of the week on the topic, “Character and Nature of God”. Ari was our speaker. 

There was lots that were covered, I’ve got them typed into my notes haha. We went into lunch and had our lunch duties. After which we had a class on how we learn things - visual, hearing and kinetastic. That was rather interesting. Dinner was next and we had a lecture at 7:30pm, talk about late! Afterwards was a blur, I think I went back to the dorms, showered and went straight to bed. 

DAY 11 Tuesday (17th July) For some reason, we started the morning rehearsing a dance routine to the song, “Never getting back together”. LOL! That was interesting. During quiet time, I was asking God what He wanted to tell me and I felt like He wanted me to kneel and put my head on the chair I was sitting on. I did it and God put a royal purple transluent cloth over me while I was sitting down. God wanted me to be in a posture of listening to Him - like when Mary sat by the feet of Jesus (Job 33-34). The song I got was Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, There’s just something about that name. 

After Breakfast, we had morning chores and then intercession, we prayed for our family! <3 I really enjoyed it cause I got to cry out to God for my family - God do not pass my family by! After that we had the lecture from Ari and had lunch. We were also told about “auditions” to put us into our bands. I had mine that day. That was quite exciting but nerve wrecking at the same time, I cried after I finished singing - I felt like I had overcome my fear just a bit from singing in front of people with all attention on me. After that, my phone was facing issues for part of the week so I had hardly posted on instagram. But.. FIXED IT! praise God. I might have done laundry with Leonie and gone for dinner. And then gone back to the dorm to read the book, “Is that really you, God?” in preparation for our book report.

DAY 12 Wednesday (18th July) We started the day with a 6am run, woopie! After that I stayed by the swan river and had my quiet time. I just sat in nature’s silence which wasn’t really silent. You’d hear the wind blow through the trees and over the water, at regular intervals, you’d hear the train pass by. My mind drifted off and I noticed the juxtaposition of the noisy tracks and the calm still water. The wind could blow all it wants but the water didn’t make a sound. Then it occurred to me that, it is only undercurrent below the water that could make it sound, crash a wave. The word that came to me was, start living in the truth. Just like the calm water, we can be unaffected by noisy train tracks in our life if we allow God to be the undercurrent of our lives that drives us. 

We went for breakfast, went for morning chores and straight into worship time with all the DTS’s. Bec released a vision she saw of Jesus walking down hay st and He was looking for a place to sit. I invited Jesus to come sit with me during worship and I sat on the floor and felt His arms on my shoulders and His head leaning on me. It was really good because I had put God at a distance unconsciously sometimes but God’s always ready to sit close, to be close - if only we’d let Him. I also got prompted to pray for unity.

After Worship, Ari came to speak again on the same topic. I had lunch, lunch duties and had my first one on one. One on One is kinda like a mentoring meeting where we meet one of our staff and talk through our progress in understanding the lectures, adjusting to dorm life etc. It was pretty good. I had Abigail - she’s super cheery! It’s contagious. We had a good chat about where I’m at. We talked about a good 2hrs? I was a little naughty. I had a cookie and a matcha latte. Shhh. We had dinner at 5:30pm and went to Cafe Leadman. They were holding a little welcome party for all new DTS students. There was free popcorn! I could not resist. After that, we had class at 7:30pm. Before that, Cristine announced that one of the students, Christine had decided to leave the DTS which was kinda sad. I had thought she would have stuck it out but perhaps it wasn’t the right season for her. Cristine also told us that we weren’t having morning exercises for the next two days - YESSS! (it was mainly because everyone in our DTS was sick). We went on to class and we did exercised our vocal chords with the song, “Holy is our King”. (click link below to hear the song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xum79ifowtE

It was AMAZING! I had chills - literal chills! I felt the unity within our team! It was very exciting. 

DAY 13 Thursday (19th July) YAY to no morning exercise, however I still woke up at 5:30am hoping to do my quiet time but I drifted off to sleep and God spoke to me but I forgot :( I had picked up noodles the day before and ate at the dorm. I only came into the base at about 8:30am. I can’t remember what we did after but we had lecture at 10:00am to lunch and then lunch duties. It honestly wasn’t anything I had not heard before but the take away was that you have to start somewhere. At one point during the day, I had ask God, “Why is it that when I pray, I don’t see victory in people’s lives?” Then God said to me, “We can pray for people in truth and grace but if we don’t treat them in the truth and grace that Jesus has for people, it can hinder their revelation of God.”. God was reminding me to see them with the same eyes God saw when He sent Jesus to die on the cross. I had to wash my clothes with Karmen. Then I went to do my journal. After dinner, I just continued to write my journal and went to sleep.

DAY 14 Friday (20th July) I had a dream that night. A group of us were sitting down for a meal and one of my friends had asked me if I wanted more. Jesus had given me a portion of good looking food so I turned down my friend. I had enough, I said in my dream. When I woke up in the morning, I did my quiet time, I believe God was saying to me that I am enough for you. There was that sense of belonging.

During worship that day, I felt God was speaking to me about fear. I was telling God I don’t want to be fearful anymore. Naturally, the tears rolled down my cheek (I’ve not had a day that I’ve not cried mon- fri for the last two weeks) and I felt a tap on my shoulder. Tess had come round to give me a word. She said she saw a bird at the edge of the cliff, wanting to take off. For a long time, I’ve been hesitant but was very happy to usher people off into flight. But this was a way I was hiding my fear. It was a confirmed word for me and I thanked God for it. He told me, “Lynn, you are a child of God. You don’t have to stay at a distance, you belong to me.”. 

Ari finished the topic, “Character and Nature of God” that morning and I prepped my sandwiches for dinner and had lunch. After that, we had a short class meeting and they released the possible locations we’d be going to. We had the weekend to pray and tell them by Monday.

4 Teams, all will go to Nepal but we’d have to pick a location from the 4 - Japan, Manila, Uganda and PortHedland/Kimberley.

These were the Staff’s thoughts Randy - unreached ppl groups. He wants to give it a crack. Ephesians 3:20 - his desire to do amazing things.  Raquel - shibuya crossing everyone was passing, toocan from fruit loops. As she was standing, the toocan flew over and fruit loops (colours - God's love) dropped into the crossing everyone stopped and looked at it. The word was go I am with you Thoughts from Leaders: They are bringing to unreached places - where the Bible has not be preached before David - Matt 5:14 operating your identity in Christ, to let our light shine before man. Steward the light. How do I shine? God is the vine and we are the branches. Abigail - Matt 10:16 behold sending u out as sheep. God will be with us when He sends us out. Thoughts from Leaders: Manila is a harvest waiting to be picked. Alex - 1 Peter 3:1 our team will be as a wife and husband are. Close.. they will be won over by our closeness.. it will be a representation of God's goodness. Emma - loud Australian birds, we are the loudly, openly. The holy spirit will be with us and sing with us.

Thoughts from Leaders: Rythmn strong partnerships strong evangelism.. partnering two couples on the ground, both graduates of ywam Tess: raising a team of warriors to fight to see freedom in ppl eyes 2 cor 3:17 - proclaim of truth against spiritual attks etc, passion, going hard against the enemy. Brandon: 2 kings 1:4-7 Elijah and widow. Elijah told her to sell the oil.. rely on the holy spirit and things we don't see. The holy spirit to meet us. Thoughts from Leaders: The time for the breakthrough is now.

After that we went for evangelism. We worshiped at forest place. I was still nervous, I didn’t know how to approach it. I felt prompted to talk to every person on the side of the road just basking or asking for money. I went walking with Jacob and Alex, had a picture of London Court so we walked in that direction. Jacob had people who look downcast. We tried talking to first, a lady who’d lost both legs but she didn’t want to hear us. We tried talking to this indian man too but he had to catch a bus. Then we walked to the park and we tried yet again but the man who was sleeping at the bench was not interested. We walked further up and we met a peculiar man. He introduced himself as daraffell. He said he was a lover demon and had a very weird theology about corruption etc. Jacob approached him while Alex and I stood at a distance praying. Everytime Jacob wanted to speak, the man would put across his point ignoring Jacob but when Jacob prayed, the man turned silent and put a hand on Jacob’s arm. After which we made our way back to the meeting point. We definitely felt the guy was off and had to bind and break all soul ties after. 

Our group split after that, I went with Alex who went to Taka. I ate the sandwiches I had made back at base. We had a good chat about how we ended up in YWAM and I got to hear her story back in the staff room. After dinner, we headed into the base for friday night service. Rod was speaking. The word he gave hit straight into my heart. - When we choose to accept Christ into our hearts, there is an implication. A lot of the time, many have refused to believe in Christ because it implied they’d have to do something about it now that they know the character of God. You can’t remind unchanged, and a lot of people are uncomfortable with that idea. Jonah knew the character of God, that’s why he was unwilling to go to Ninevia. He knew God would save them if they turned from their wicked ways but Jonah wanted justice, revenge. The lord is calling us to change and respond to His prompting. Jonah knowing the character of God had to change, there was an implication to forgive and he had to come to terms with it.

DAY 15 Saturday (21th July) I had breakfast in my dorm - instant noodles and worked on my journal most of the day and started my book report on “Is That Really You, God?”. Sat by Sam as she played her instrument.

I got to meet Ursala from Hawaii just before dinner. She does school of communications which was great - we had a lot to talk about! After which, I got ready to go to Josh’s 21st birthday. Woooo! Fried Chicken, dripping beef goodness!!

We went for dessert after and my sister bought me a Matcha Cone! #touched

<3 I ended the day there, went back to the dorm and fell asleep.

DAY 16 Sunday (22th July) Decided to go to Metrochurch. Went to the city for a bit, came back for lunch and I’ve been sitting here for the last 4-5 hrs updating you guys on what’s been going on! It’s been swell!

#ywamlife #musicdts2018