You know, I didn't come to YWAM for a life-changing experience. I just came here for a learning experience. Do you know what I learned? Encountering Jesus IS a life-changing experience.

Well, hey..

So....

I had to make a big decision this week about the University of Washington, which is my DREAM school. I was going to just send in my acceptance, but I realized I needed to consult the Big Man first. I prayed and prayed- others were praying as well- for clarity and confirmation. The day before my decision was due, I fasted speech (which means I didn't speak in order to hear God more clearly) and God made it quite apparent that He wasn't going to TELL me what to do. He wanted me to take a step in faith. So... I prayed more. And... God still didn't tell me. BUT. I believe He pulled my heart in the direction I was meant to go. Through a lot of hard conversations and difficult reasoning, I finally came to realize that I'm not meant to go to UW this fall. It was such a hard decision to come to. You have to understand- EVERYONE in my family is counting on me to go to school this September. Almost every one of them supported my YWAM endeavor but needed reassurance that I was planning on going to school immediately afterward. I knew, most of all, my parents would be incredibly disappointed with me. Knowing this, knowing that by going to UW (which, by the way, is a super great university) and earning a degree in just two short years there I would have almost complete financial security, knowing that by refusing my offer to attend the UW this September I was pretty much forfeiting any hope of getting in to the school, I made the decision not to go. That's a huge part of knowing that I made the choice most pleasing to God. For the time I've been here, God's been showing me that He is faithful and that I can trust Him to take care of me. I know that the choice I made is what God wants because He wants to show me (and probably everyone around me) that He is TRULY the provider and will always care for His people.

During a conversation with Luke, He reminded me of Matthew 6:33-

"Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what He requires of you, and He will provide you with all these other things." (Good News Translation)

The morning of the mailing of the letter, God prompted me to look through the entirety of Matthew chapter 6. The last half- verses 19 through the end- really caught my attention.

First, I looked to see what "all these other things" referred to in the verse. Verses 25-32 are the "Do not worry" verses (If you don't know what I'm talking about, I strongly encourage you to look them up) in which Jesus tells us not to worry about what we eat, drink, or wear because God will take care of us... BUT the section is concluded with verse 33, which tells us that God will provide for us when we are "concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God".

Then...

6:19-21
"Do not store up riches for yourselves here on Earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are."

6:24
"You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

^^ These verses especially were confirmation of my decision. The only thing I really felt God saying to me about UW was "Why?" My answer essentially boiled down to financial support for myself. These verses were God confirming to me that He would take care of me, that I didn't have to worry about it as long as I'm pursuing His will. 

Man. What a tough decision. God gave me a lot of confirmation though.
I called my parent to tell them, and, needless to say, they were immensely disappointed. I spent a lot of time crying and crying out to God, apologizing for making the wrong choice (which was silly, really, considering the amount of confirmation He gave me). I had the worst morning. I finally started to feel okay again when I felt God ask me how I came to my decision. I answered that I made it in an effort to please Him, and He told me He knew that. Then, I was talking to Luke (again. He's really good about making himself available) and I checked to see if maybe my parents had sent me any texts or called or anything. Lo and behold, I had a text from my mamma telling me she had prayed and God had helped her to accept my decision and have peace about it! I was so excited I started crying. I didn't need the confirmation from her, but it was such a blessing. God knew I needed it. Man. I was, I AM, so stoked.

SO! The big question- what happens next? Next as in after DTS ends in August. You know, I have no clue. It isn't up to me, though.

When I mailed my letter in, it was so symbolic. God asks us to lay down our lives for Him, to give up everything for His sake. I mailed my future away. I mailed my security away. I mailed my earthly success away. And you know what? I'm more excited now than I was at the thought of going to school. God is good. He is SO good. I'm not saying I'll never go to school- for all I know, it's in His plan for me to earn a degree some day. I just know that for now, He's proud of me and my choice to put my whole life in His hands, and His hands alone. He has total control, now. Ooooo buddy. I'm SO STOKED! Keep praying for me to stay focused. You guys have been so great so far, and I'm incredibly thankful.

Our finances for the lecture phase are due tomorrow- as a school, we owe about 7K as of right now. If you feel prompted to give, please do! Don't give to me, though- give to my school mates: Isaac Spencer, Azaa Lkh, or Asma Yousaf. Just click the link in my sidebar, type in one of their names, and give what God tells you to. We would be honored(:

God bless.

<3

OH MY GOODNESS!

God has been blessing me and us as a group SO ABUNDANTLY! I have to admit, I've been pretty distracted, so even though God has been faithful to me the whole time I've been here, I can't say the same for my faithfulness to Him. Finally, this week, I let God take my distractions from me and I've been experiencing Him so much more fully. I'm so stoked(: I think that's pretty apparent through my blogging.

Today, we had this INTENSE time this morning, and Isaac just totally opened up to us, and it was INCREDIBLE. So so awesome. We as a family have been growing so close to each other. Satan is definitely going to be attacking those bonds, so please be prayerful of that.

Another great thing that happened this morning is that we prayed against each others' specific strongholds so that God can more easily work in and through us, and that brought us closer, too. Just the degree of openness we already have with each other just after a few weeks is so so great. God is going to do such WONDERFUL things with our group!! Oh, so anyway, last night, when us ladies had our small group time, one of our leaders (Dani) told me that God didn't bring me here to test my faith but to show me His faithfulness. Then today, He proved it. I asked (please, everyone, don't freak out, I think this is fairly normal) that my group pray a spirit of purity over me because I, like many other people my age, have struggled with a lot of sexual stuff, so we prayed it out and blessed me and it was awesome and lovely and I felt heaps better afterward. Then, just at random, I told God it would be cool to get a purity ring. That was this morning, remember. Tonight, we were at the skate park in Sunland/Tuhunga, and one of the girls, Kaitlin, gave me this really beautiful ring out of nowhere. I didn't realize it until a few hours later, but that was TOTALLY God proving His faithfulness. What are the chances that I'd ask for a ring, then on the same day that a total stranger would hand me one that's exactly my size? God is good- I'm telling the truth.

Oh! Tonight, we went to the skate park, like I said, and I met SO MANY PEOPLE! We were there for more than four hours just hanging out, building relationships, loving on people. It was so much fun, such a blessing. I met so many people who remind me so much of the kids at my skate park back home. Initially, before we even left the YWAM base, I was absolutely terrified. I haven't been so overcome with fear since I got here. I felt sick; I felt weight in my spirit. Dani prayed for me, and off we went. I was scared, by the way, because the skate park back home was my old stomping ground. That's where a lot of my mess grabbed hold of my life. I'm not really that far removed from my old ways, I guess you would call them, so I was freaking out a little about being thrown back in to such a familiar and, for me, fatal environment so quickly. God just had His hand on me, though, and I was blessed to meet probably ten people in the time we were there. Not just introduction stuff, either- I started relationships with people. I'm stoked because we go to the skate park every Friday, so we'll have an opportunity to continue on the relationships we began today in the future. If you would keep Kaitlin and Jack in your prayers, I would appreciate it greatly. They're two girls I got to spend a little time with tonight, and they both just grabbed a place in my heart.

Man. I've been typing a lot of words these days. Feedback is great. Love you guys(:


OH! HEY! I TOTALLY FORGOT THE BEST PART!
For outreach, we're going to.................................................

CHILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOOP WOOP!
Please start praying for finances! We need a collective of about $30K :o God will provide, though- none of us are worried(:

For everyone's information, there is no such thing as a "typical day" at YWAM.

That's because we don't serve a typical God.

(:

Last night after I finished up my blog post, I went back to the house where all my sisters were up talking. What started as a pretty average (well, average for YWAM) conversation, soon erupted into a prayer sesh when Azaa burst in asking for us to pray for her. We discussed for a while, then began a beautiful, wonderful Ghana/Korea style prayer where we all prayed simultaneously in our own languages. It was awesome. Then we started worshiping, which was wicked cool. We moved up to the prayer chapel and were there just praying and singing until almost one o'clock. It was grand(: I love YWAM(:

If you'll turn your attention to the right sidebar, you'll notice that I've added links to some of my fellow YWAMers' blogs and some other sites you might want to check out. There's also a link to a webpage where you can make donations online(: I really encourage you to browse around the other blogs- it'll be a really good way to find out how you can be praying specifically for us and to get different perspectives of the DTS. There are a lot of things I don't write about here, so you'll also get a chance to understand more fully what's happening. I'll also put a link up now of the DTS website, the YWAM site, and the University of the Nations site.

For those of you who didn't know, YWAM is through the University of the Nations. DTS stands for Discipleship Training School, and it's actually a course applicable to a degree from the U of N. Check out the site for more details- I don't actually know all the logistics yet.

Luke just got Vegemite and Tim Tams he ordered from Australia(: I'm going to be cultured. I pinky swore I'd keep trying Vegemite until I like it, or throw up. Wish me luck! Luke is stoked. ((:

Stay in touch(:

Also, I'm moving to Australia. (:

Good evening, good evening, good evening.

God is good, number one.
My dad's going to be healed, number two.

Number three: Jesus Culture makes the most wonderful worship music. If you don't know who they are, please do yourself and everyone around you a favor and listen to the whole Come Away album on repeat a few times. The Spirit can't not fill you up when you do that. Ohh man. Ohh man. God is so good, you guys. I can't even tell you what kinds of crazy things have been happening and are happening here!

But to give you a little insight- Asma is here from Pakistan FINALLY! By God's grace and nothing else, for sure. She didn't even have issues at the airport or with customs or anything. Praise God(: We're so stoked to have her as a part of our family here in LA. I can already tell she is going to be a valuable attribute to our mission, and I'm super excited to see what plans God has for her and for us now that we've got the whole team assembled(: If you think of it just life up some words of thanks for her arrival- it's seriously a miracle and an answer to a LOT of prayers.

God is so SO good; I really CANNOT emphasize it enough. He is a pursuer, and He is chasing His children down to smother them with His amazing AMAZING love.

God gave me this verse today from 2 Timothy 1:7

"For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, His Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control."

A few things I learned today from this INCREDIBLE kid Ty which were reinforced by our awesome Benjie:

1) 2 + 2 = a horse
    How? How does a blind man receive sight? It's Kingdom math.

2) Along the same lines: We are called to act in obedience before we understand, or, as Ty said- Walk it out, don't work it out

3) God doesn't look for ABILITY; He looks for AVAILABILITY.


Our speaker this week is Conrad from South Africa- he's speaking on the father heart of God. It's already been INCREDIBLE, you guys.

Man, I just wish I could bring all of you here so you could experience everything that's happening. God speaks SO LOUDLY and clearly sometimes. If you don't think our God is a conversationalist, BOY are you missing out! He is SO eager to get in touch with us, and all we have to do is tune in.

Ah. I'm just so stoked on this right now. YWAM is already proving to be the best decision of my life, without a doubt. I'm going to be absolutely WRECKED for the ordinary before I leave here. Just wrecked.

<3

HELLO!

I'm sorry it's been so long! We've been swamped this week working an event for Cisco in San Diego as a fundraiser for our outreach. 

So... the week of April 9th-13th, a man named Mark came and talked to us all week. He was super intelligent. He taught us about communicating with God and about how we are ambassadors for Christ, so we can do things, like miraculous things, in Christ's name. (: We liked Mark. 

Then, Sunday, we left for San Diego. We were pretty stoked, and training went really well, but it was a really long week. We worked all sorts of different positions- directing executives to their next activities, letting them in to events, providing information, holding signs... It was a week of long days and short nights, but now we're home in LA and it is so so good. We have the weekend off to recuperate, refuel, and relax before another exciting week at YWAM. 

Thank you for your continued prayers(: Please be praying for the kids in my group, too:

Elisabeth, Sarang, Azaa, Asma, Isaac, Luke, Ryan, Pat, and our leaders Johnny, Nina, Dani, and Big D. 

God bless!

Hello! Sorry it's been a few days; we've been incredibly busy since things got started....

We have a group of nine here, now, and our tenth family member had her visa appointment today, so we're praying that God has been graceful and she'll be arriving here soon. It's so amazing to me how close we got so quickly. We skipped right over the awkward getting-to-know-eachother phase and jumped right into becoming a really unified group. It's beautiful. The staff here is crazy awesome; we're just surrounded with incredible spiritual leaders who are so sold out to God. Fun fact: YWAM is entirely faith-based. Everyone who staffs here is unpaid, from the very lowest staff to the top of the line, and they have to pay to live on base. Everyone is funded by the Christian community- you guys are the ones who make YWAM possible. This isn't just here in LA either- YWAM as a whole functions the same way. No one makes money here. It's so cool to hear about the ways God has been a faithful provider to all of these men and women who are living to serve Him and expand His Kingdom.

We've been talking a lot this week about the fundamental values of YWAM and about prayer. Today, we spent the majority of the day just praying over the city and the nations. It was so cool. Intercession is a big thing here- for those of you who don't know what that is (I didn't before this week), intercession is basically just praying to God on others' behalves, be it nations or individuals or causes or whatever. It's "standing in the gap" between God and whatever you're praying for, and it can be incredibly powerful. 

On that note, for you prayer warriors out there, please keep me and this phenomenal group of young people I'm with here in your prayers. Really be praying that our purposes are revealed to us and that our hearts and mind stay open to everything that's coming our way. Pray for a spirit of joy to be prevalent in our community so that we can better serve each other and God. Also, keep greater Los Angeles in your prayers, that the strongholds of this city be broken so that God can infiltrate and heal this city. We've been discussing how LA is the modern day Babylon. I was reading Habakkuk today and noticing the crazy similarities there. God said Babylon would rise up and, basically, conquer the world, and that He would destroy their reign to show His power. Think about how much influence Los Angeles has on the nation and the world as well. In a more metaphorical way, LA is conquering the world, and we believe the time is coming for God to break through that and show Himself. Pray that we see what our role in that is and will be. 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! If you'd like to mail anything, address it to me and send it to:

11141 Osborne St.

Lake View Terrace, CA 91342

Please include a return address so I can write back! 

God Bless, 

Ash