Christmas time is here!!!

Yay!! Here I am with several of my favorite people (other missionaries in YWAM) in front of the Rockerfeller Center in NYC! The lights are lit, it’s time to celebrate everyone!!! I also got to see set within the beauty of Saint Patricks Cathedral a life size version of the nativity scene I grew up with in my beautifu home, I was moved to tears because I am so homesick for the wonder of christmas in the Northwest, and the nearness of my precious family, but seeing it in person was like a special pre-christmas gift from Jesus!! We also got to wittness the perposal to our school director Kelsey Smith (so talented and only 24 years old!), from her longtime sweetheart Johnny Koslowski!! He asked her on the ice next in front of the Rockerfeller center, after he prearanged having the ice cleared and their special song played (crashing cars, by snow patrol) the whole Mission center got to be there and throw roses on the ice to surprise the bride to be!

Congratulations, what an effective couple they’ll be!

DTS Yes!!! (a minute in my discipleship…)

What it is! DTS=Dicipleship Training school. YWAM=Youth With a Mission

Click this to see a video of our producton promo!!!

I am a missionary, training to reach the youth in America to Know Jesus intimately and make him known!

I miss all of you all the time so I thought I could invite you to come over! I would like to invite you to take a minute and peek into my life here in New York at the Missions center I am currently working and learning at in New York! Here is a picture by picture story of what I do and what I am learning! Enjoy dear friends and family!

I try to spend as much time as I can in the city, one of my favorite places in the world…

The hang out foyer at the YWAM missions base, a lot of talking and relaxing happens here in our very little down time! here I am with my Australian friend Ange!

Sometimes we get a little crazy!! Jumpin’ around in the girls dorm room with my dear friend Jacqui!

Every week we spend at least 15 hours in lecture with incredible missionary speakers from all over the world, this is a picture with Wick and Jan Nease they have been in YWAM ministering for over 20 years and they began Streams of Mercy a ministry for Orphan and poor children in third world countries. They taught on Destiny and God’s heart for missions, what an incredible couple!!

Worship Nights!! We have these periodically over the course of the month, a time to really press into the Lord as a family and focus on him alone. These times really build the unity of our team! Our school is all about missions and performing arts so worship is a very creative experience here! The leaders always make the room really beautiful and Christ centered to help us focus in on Jesus, often with places to dance, read the word, take communion, journal, or just sit in his presence.

I get to play cello for worship I love that!

One day during our prayer time we all were asked to draw pictures and write scriptures relating to our personal Destiny and Calling…

We are also required to do creative journaling every week about the teaching that week and personal growth in the Lord.

Student lead worship is also a weekly thing, here I am leading with my friend Lizzy, yea I really did play the piano a bit!!

We also have weekly rehearsals of the production we are preparing for our two month US missions trip No More Victims.

I play one of the popular girls, and I sing in the band!

Here I am with the other popular girls in the middle right of this pic!

Small groups~ we meet with a small group of the students weekly to build relationship and share what we are learning. Here is a picture of me and all the girls in the group including our two leaders: Katie Haliday and Taryn Wolfe

Back: Katie, Rose, Me, Karie, and Ange. Front: Taryn, Ali, and Elizabeth.

East Coast Conference in North Carolina! November 11-16 We went on a road trip as a school and all the staff to the YWAM East Coast DNA Conference, what an amazing time that was! We even got to have Loren and Darling Cunningham (founders of YWAM in 1968) as the Key Note speakers at the conference!

Host homes~while we are on outreach in Indiana we will live in host homes from town to town, while we were driving across 5 states to go to the conference we had a taste of this experience, I stayed with the Sayles’ and they were so lovely to me and the other 4 girls that stayed with us, what a wonderful blessing is the body of Christ!

This is me with David Hamilton one of YWAM’s most known and respected leaders, he co-authored the book Why not Women and he also spoke several times at the conference, he is incredibly gifted and an absolute genius leader and innovator in missions! One night he got a group of about 60 of us together and we read the entire book of Mark aloud together, wow it was fun!!

Me and an old friend from Seattle! Heidi is living at the YWAM base in Orlando Florida!

Getting to see Loren Cunningham rite after reading his book, Is that Really you God?, and working with this ministry since I was 10 years old was such an incredible experience. One of the nights at the conference he went through the entire bible book (old and new testaments) by book, telling where Jesus fits in to each book of the Word, and how Jesus is the word, so it’s vital as Christians that we love and know the bible!

Here is Loren with my YWAM New York Director and his wife, Nick and Rozzane Savoka. They have known each other for years! I really love Nick and Rozzane too, they have loved on me so much throughout my training here, they also drove me home to New York from the conference with them a day early, because I had to catch a flight to Mexico, and the rest of the people from the New York base weren’t leaving until the next day, so that was quite a special experience on the way home!

Thanks so much for taking time to see a glimpse of my life over here, and know that I so appreciate your prayers and support! I love you all have a wonderful day in the Lord!