YWAM 2.0

Hello again from Maui!

As most of you know, I am back at YWAM, and just beginning the School of Biblical Foundations and Missions [SBFM]. God has worked in incredible ways to provide for this school and to allow me to attend and I feel so overwhelmingly blessed to be a part of it.

I have already been on island for over two weeks and it truly feels like only a few short days. We started classes on the 12th and have been going at full tilt ever since. My typical week consists of about 20 hours of lecture along with worship, intercession, work duties and lots of homework! We are reading roughly 30 chapters of the Bible per week as well as several other books

simultaneously: Knowing God by J.I. Packer, Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer, When Skeptics Ask by Norman Geisler, The Compact Guide to World Religions by Dean Halverson, and The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. We will have a few more books added as the weeks progress. We are also writing essays each week based on our reading, outlining a teaching for a specific target audience, writing commentary of current events articles, and answering questions based on lecture content. All in all its a bit of a juggling act, but I am truly loving it!

Of course, being on Maui has its perks! I am currently living about a 5 minute walk from the beach, so I love to go down when I can find time, even just to sit and read. It's so amazing to look out over the teal water and just meditate on God our creator and His awesomeness. If there is one thing I have gained from these last two weeks, it is a renewed sense of wonder and 'fear' of God. Particularly in reading A.W. Tozer; he has such a way of breaking down the constraints we consciously, or more likely, subconsciously, attempt to place on God. His book Knowledge of the Holy, continually focuses on God's limitless power and magnitude. I have come to see more clearly that not being able to fully understand or comprehend God is part of what makes Him so wonderful!

Tomorrow is Sunday, Sabbath day, and I am very much looking forward to church in the am... speaking of, I should be off to bed! Thanks for reading, be blessed!

-Chels

"Our God is greater, our God is stronger. God you are higher than any other! Our God is healer, awesome in power! Our God! Our God!"

end of one chapter, start of another.

Okay, so the last time i blogged was in Pokhara... craziness! The time has been flying by so quickly i can barely keep up and now here it is the end of DTS all together.

We finished up our last couple weeks in Nepal and then headed out to Bangladesh where we worked with the YWAM base in two different areas. Half of our team worked with campus ministries with one of the largest colleges in the capital city of Dhaka, doing friendship evangelism and the other half [which i was a part of] worked in the YWAM offices there, helping prepare for the 25th anniversary of YWAM Bangladesh, making some 250 folders from scratch [no Staples around the corner there] and doing a few other different tasks to help them get everything they needed done before it started. While there we stayed at a hotel only a ten minutes walk from the offices which made it a super convenient location and also had a lot of fun exploring the city. We were only there for about 11 days, but we did have the chance to visit an English speaking church in the city, which was wonderful, and were able to see God, alive in the body of Christ there.

The last three days were spent at the conference center about an hour outside of Dhaka where the conference was held. We slept in long barracks-like rooms on mats under mosquito nets [note: mosquitoes LOVE Bangladesh apparently] to avoid being eaten alive in our sleep with about 50 other woman. Guys had the same set up. At the conference we worked as conference childcare, allowing the missionaries and YWAM staff who attended to enjoy the conference without having to find other arrangements. We had an awesome time with the kids, doing crafts, playing games, and singing songs.

We left to head back to Maui on the 17th and arrived on the 18th a little worse for ware after about 30+ hours of travel, but all in one piece. We spent the first couple days just settling back into "normal" life here and then had our first session of debriefing [which will continue all this week] this morning.

Tonight we had "Testimony Night" which is an awesome time for each team to share what God did through them on their outreach and to encourage the next outgoing school. We finished up the night with an amazing time of worship which really just put the focus completely where it needs to be... on Jesus!

Once we got back to base we weren't quite ready to be done so a big group of us grabbed a guitar, and a jembay and headed down to the beach for another worship session and some intercession. So AWESOME!

i really cannot believe that this chapter is about to end, and the time is coming when we must all move onto what God has for us next. 4 more days... unbelievable.

This has been a life changing experience to say the very least. it has changed my relationship with God and brought me to a place of deeper intimacy than ever before, it has changed the way i interact and communicate with others, it has given me direction for my future and a deepened passion for global missions, and its had an impact that will last for the rest of my life.

The other day someone asked me to give them a one-word summary of outreach and the closest thing i could come up with was "everything"... it definitely had it all!

This Friday will be the graduation ceremony for our Fall '09 DTS and then on Monday i am headed home. i will be leaving behind the amazing "family" we've become here, but i will be reunited with my beautiful family back home. Talk about BITTER-SWEET! my goodness! i know this was just one step in my future in missions. i am planning to come back April of 2011 to do the secondary school, SBFM, offered here in Maui and then going wherever the Lord so leads. We'll just have to wait and see... so for those back home, see you soon and i cant wait to share more! :)

love- chels.

just a quick update!

So at this moment I am in an internet cafe in Pokhara, Nepal.
We were first in Bangkok, Thailand as some of you know where we met our contacts and also did some ministry in the redlight district. Our next stop was Kathmandu where we stayed for the last three and a half weeks. While there we did a lot of prayer and intercession over the city as well as evangelism and passing out Bibles at several of the temples around the Kathmandu valley. The last two days we have been in Chitwan, Nepal where we had a wonderful time riding elephants and seeing a very different aspect of Nepal than I had expected, the jungle. We were able to do an elephant back safari where we saw several rhinos and some other animals as well. Now for our current location, Pokhara. We will be here for a few days in the city [which is much cleaner and nicer than Kathmandu] and then we will be heading out for a ten day trek through the lower part of the Himalayas. Along the way we will be staying at lodges in the mountains and we will be doing evangelism at each place. Once we return from the trek we will be going back to Kathmandu for about a week and then we will be flying out on Feb. 2 to Dhaka, Bangladesh. In Bangladesh we will be doing college ministry and then the last few days we will be working with a YWAM conference there.

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue in ministry!

Love in Christ- Chelsey.

life on this island...

So, I know I promised to update my blog often but sometimes things are just so hectic that promise is easier made than kept.

Life in Maui has been amazing. I've talked about how awsome the lectures are and how incredible the people are as well, but to neglect to note the absolute beauty of the nature and scenery here would be a discredit to God's creation. I am awed everyday. Whether its the rocky shores with waves crashing against them, the spray twenty-five feet above me or the green mountain vallies hanging with rain clouds, there is just no end to the spectacal of it all. I am going to miss the rain we get almost daily [I love the rain] and I'm also going to miss the wind. It is always blowing, and not just a breeze but in gusts. I love it! God speaks to me in the wind. When I feel it on my face, in my hair, rushing through my hands I feel him surrounding me with his presence. I feel free.

I will miss waking up to the sound of the rain outside the open window above my bed.

It is unbelievable to me that we are already leaving for outreach in ten days! I feel like I just got here few days ago and here it's already been three months! I am so excited for outreach. We will be spending the first ten days in Thailand and then the next two months in Nepal. The last three weeks of outreach we will be in Bangladesh. It is going to be an amazing life changing experience, I'm sure.

When I start to think about outreach I have found myself just burning inside to share the gospel. I want to be found worthy of the high calling I have recieved through Christ Jesus. I look at the apostle Paul. His letters give me new fire to run the race and to finish the course [if I may quote]. I want to be one who is willing to keep the faith even unto death. I don't want to keep my life for my own sake. If I try to keep my life, even in simply the sense of direction and purpose, I will lose it. I have been learning a lot lately about dying to myself daily. That was a phrase I grew up hearing constantly from my dad, "die to yourself, Chelsey." I hated it sometimes, my flesh would get the better of me, but I see that in trying to be an effective missionary, placing yourself as a priority is absolute poison. It is all about Christ, everything, everyday. Without his redemptive work I am just lost and wondering and speaking words. But through his work I can walk in confidence knowing that I have recieved salvation and in that salvation, the power of the Holy Spirit. By Him, we have all authority over every power and scheme of the enemy! It's so awesome!

I know I will never be able to repay him for what he's done, but I just want to give him everything because of it. He's so worthy.

I've also had the burden of the importance of prayer before we leave, layed heavy on my heart. If we are not in prayer, asking God to prepare appointments and the hearts of the people for the gospel to be shared, we will hinder our own ministry efforts. Without the revelation and preparation by the Holy Spirit we cannot effectively minister to the nations.

I came across the passage in Collosians last night and it just struck me so profoundly on this topic:
Collosians 4: 2-4 -
"Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should."

It is so important that we pray for our ministry. Here Paul is in chains for preaching the gospel and he is praying for doors to be opened and to preach clearly. My first thought was, 'well obviously you're preaching clearly if you got arrested for what you were saying." But then I realized what this passage was saying. Regardless of what you face, or the punishment you endure, Christ must still be preached and we should pray for open doors in every circumstance and situation! Dang, I love Paul's devotion. I have to admit he's kind of my 'bible hero', [haha]!

Well, it's getting late and I am absolutely exhausted. I'll probably add another blog tomorrow with more details about the upcoming events!

PLEASE PRAY FOR TEAM NEPAL/BANGLADESH! thanks and God Bless you!

ps-All of my outreach funds have been provided for by our wonderful, faithful, loving Heavenly Father! PRAISE THE LORD!

God's Plan is Perfect.

As most of you know, I have been planning for a very long time to go to China with YWAM; over a year and a half to be exact. It was the place I first felt a pull to go and that pull was the main reason I chose to come to YWAM Maui specifically [its one of their main focus areas] but I said all the while that if God lead me to another country I would gladly go. Little did I know how I was about to be tested.

When I arrived I still had every intention of continuing with that plan. I talked about my desire to go to China with many other students and some of the staff and during the days leading up to and following the outreach locations being revieled my mind remained unchanged... almost. On the day they finally told us what our options would be we had to play a game of hang-man to guess the names of each country's capital city and then from that the name of the country. They came out to be Indonesia, China and Nepal. The moment Nepal was written on the white board something in my spirit stirred; a soft, nearly inaudible whisper, saying that I was supposed to go there instead. Immediately I resisted, shoving that thought to the very back of my mind and saying that it was an invention of my own head and not the Lord speaking to me.

Over the next two days I continued talking with the staff about my plans to go to China, and each time I would hear that voice telling me that if those plans remained unchanged I would be making the wrong decision. I would even say I was at peace with my decision to try and convince myself that I was and each time that voice would whisper "no, you're not". I continued to resist. I avoided talk of Nepal [when it was the subject of dicussion that whisper became much louder] and tried to stop thinking about it all together, I did not want to surrender my plans. I did not want to have to try and explain to people both at YWAM and back home that after a year and half of planning to go to China, in one afternoon my mind was changed and I was going to a country I knew nothing about. I couldn't comprehend it, that just wasn't going to happen.

Then a speaker named Marie came to lecture. She spoke on having greater faith and that greater faith requires greater testing. She also said that when you tell God you will do something He will take you at your word and test you in that as well. I continued to think of Nepal and the fact that I'd said I would go wherever God lead me. He was leading me there. I was immediately convicted. I would either choose to surrender and lay down my own plans and follow God's or choose to be a hypocrite. A suddenly felt a fire begin to burn in my chest I wanted to surrneder. She then gave a call to stand up if we wanted greater faith... I knew that it was going to take greater faith to follow God to Nepal [a country I knew nothing about] than China a country I'd studied and gotten to know over the past year or more. With tears pouring down my face I stood; then and there I gave my plans up to God and asked Him to confirm that going to Nepal was truely His will.

I felt suddenly light, but I still wanted God's confirmation. I called home and talked to my mum, asking her if she'd heard anything from God since I'd first told her the outreach locations. She orginally said she'd been thinking of China because it had been where I wanted to go for so long, but she was actually feeling more of a pull from Nepal. I couldn't believe it! Confirmation. I went a step more and asked her to [without saying anything about our conversation] ask my dad the same question. He said the exact same thing she had said! Confirmation twice! Then my mum told me that she had also talked to our pastor who had immediately said "He'd have a hard time knowing that it wasn't himself but God calling him to Nepal." He'd said it jokingly but that just happened to be the EXACT place I was now. Three times!

That night I wrote Outreach Location Choice #1: Nepal on my paper and I felt a peace I had not been able to find when my mind was still set on China.

And so, just to let everyone know, I am going to Nepal and I couldn't be happier! Himalayas here I come! Lord lead and guide me into intimacy and greater faith in You through this experience.

We're Back...

Okay, so I know I said that I would fill everyone in on what happened during Exodus, but I've had a change of heart. I will say it was amazing, enlightening, challenging, hilarious, adventurous, and WAY outside my comfort zone, but thats all I'm going to give.

Why? Because I know a lot of YWAMers look up the blogs of people who've already gone to see what the experience is going to be like and I don't want to give anything away. It is an experience that needs to be had without prior knowledge... it simply makes it that much better.

If you want to know more I can send you a private message with more detail but I'm not going to right about it in my blog to make sure it stays a surprise for future DTS's.

It was an experience I will never forget. It opened my eyes and changed me forever. Exodus is AMAZING! the end for now.

Tomorrow starts our first actual lecture and I am so excited to see what we will be studying. I've been told that no matter how many times a person sits through the lecture phase they will always be challenged and impacted, so I'm sure it's going to be incredible as its my first time! Can't wait to update on all God is doing and how I am changing!

Goodnight and God Bless!

EXODUS!

Day two of my YWAM experience began so amazingly. With the time change and all I ended up waking up at 5:13 this morning, laying in bed, unable to fall back to sleep. Okay, so that doesn't sound amazing at all but the amazing part came after. While I wondered what I was going to do at that hour I suddenly felt the urge to read Ephesians 5:13. I don't know exactly why, but I felt like the Spirit was leading me to do so. I fumbled around in the darkness as quietly as I could and found my bible and notebook, deciding to read that verse and start the day with a quiet time with the Lord.

I opened up my bible and began to read from verse 13 to the end of the chapter and I couldn't believe how perfectly it fit the starting of a DTS. It says the following

Ephesians 5:13-21

But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is the light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said, "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every oppertunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

I feel like the Lord really wants me to understand, that to truely walk in the Light of Christ and therefore to shine for Him, I have to wake up out of any spiritual ruts I've let myself fall into. He wants me to consider all my words and actions and make the most of every oppertunity to share the gospel with others, He wants me to seek His will in all things, He wants me to pursue Him that I might be filled with His holy presence. He wants me to use my gift of music, and to do it always for His honor and glory, and He wants me to submit myself to the service of others, becuase that is what Christ himself did.

I finished reading and just sat for a while taking it all in. I know God is going to do some amazing things and He's going to test me and stretch me in ways that will sometimes be painful and difficult, but they will bring me closer to being the person He wants me to be. A person more like Christ. That is the prayer of my heart and I can't wait to see Him move.

And so, that journey begins at 6 am tomorrow morning...

Tonight was the opening ceremony for the Fall 09 DTS. Everyone dressed up nice and was brought to a church in Paia. We walked in the doors and were waiting outside of a second set of doors that led to a fellowship area. Suddenly those doors were opened and all of the students were welcomed in by cheers and applause from all of the YWAM maui staff members! It was an incredible and overwhelming feeling, it was a feeling of celebration! After a few words from the YWAM maui base leader, the SBFM leader [my cousin Trevor Hilman] and a word from Ben, the Fall 09 DTS leader, we were all introduced and brought to the front to recieve a beautiful le'i of yellow flowers.

After the introductions there was an announcment for the SBFM people about what they would be doing tomorrow. Then came the announcment for us DTSers! We were told that we would be doing what is called an "Exodus". We were each given a very short list of items which we had to pack. They included the following: 3 pairs of underwear, 1 pair of socks, one shirt, one pair of shorts, one pair of pants, a pair of tennis shoes, a pair of sandals and a sweatshirt. A camera, a hat, contacts and eyeglasses, a sleeping bag, a bible, a notebook, and a pen. No toothbrush, no shampoo, no phones, or ipods, or makeup. Now we're all wondering what exodus includes, and well, thats just it. WE HAVE NO IDEA! All we know is that we will be in the woods without showers, toilets, or electricity and we'll be there for... who knows how long? It will be at least three days, most likely more. So, we're heading out tomorrow morning into the great unknown that is Exodus.

I'll give an update when we return [whenever that is] and fill you in on what I've been up to, but as for now I just don't know! I can't wait! It sounds absolutely amazing and I know by the end we'll all be smellier, dirtier, and grungier than we've ever been. But I also know that this is going to be an amazing time of growth and change for everyone! So, here I go... more later!!