Brazil it is!!!

Ohhh goodness gracious. All i can begin by saying is wow wow wow. Class tracks and picking my country has kept us all going very busily and there is hardly time to do much besides what is going on here at base. This whole YWAM experience is unlike anything I ever have or will do in my entire life. I am surrounded by over two hundred people a day who are bustling around campus, but all with the same vision and goal in mind - to walk with Jesus. Yes it looks very different and unique for every person - from the preschool teacher of the YWAM kids to the School of Biblical Studies students to my DTS classmates. We are all seeking God and trying to worship Him in our own way depending on what we are doing. It's amazing really, that God can call so many diverse people all in different ways to come all the way up here for a YWAM course. Last Thursday, the five target nations were revealed. Guatemala, Haiti, Thailand, Brazil and Turkey. We then were given an hour to go pray and listen to the Lord about what country He has in store for us.  Can I first say that in that moment the mix of emotions goes from sheer panic to elation about the journey ahead. It's a scary yet exciting feeling when you have no one to tell you what to do except God. Just listening to His voice and waiting for Him to reveal where He wanted me to be was a trust and patience growing experience. He is so good and faithful and I loved the opportunity to just trust in Him to speak to me - however intimidating it may have been at the moment. Something I am continually learning at a deeper level about the Lord is the personal level we can talk to Him at. I've learned about prayer and talking to God my whole life, but in the past week, the way I talk to God and think about talking to Him has taken a different tone and it's the most freeing thing ever. I feel like I'm just at the tip of the iceberg of what He wants to reveal to me about prayer, but it's definitely a new spark in my heart that understands better than before what it is to just talk and trust in God.

           ANYWAYS. After praying we were supposed to write down our top three choices and turn it in on a sheet of paper. I didn't have any big revelation or vision about why I was supposed to go to Brazil, God just began to solidify it in my mind and give me words like "life" - that represented both the culture to me and also the colors of the flag - green and yellow. I kept praying and finally wrote down my choices, putting Brazil at the top. Our teams were not revealed until the next Monday, so the whole weekend of waiting was SO LONG! Some people were asked to switch or pray about going to their second choice, either because of the staff not having peace about where they had written down or just for numbers sake to make up the teams for a little more even number. Brazil is the biggest teams - there will be 12 team members and two leaders. We are going into the Amazon jungle for hopefully the first month of the trip. Sleeping in hammocks in the rainforest and riding on a boat into where we have to get. Please be praying for God's hands to be on the Visa process as our team tries to get those sent in and processed. The process for getting a Visa accepted from the US to Brazil is pretty complicated so we really need prayer that it will all go smoothly and communication between YWAM and the agency we are using will be clear so that everyone's papers can get in on time. My team is AWESOME. I am so excited about everyone going on it, and I think God has some really cool things in store for those two months.

            Montana is gorgeous, jumping in the lake is refreshing, laughter has filled my life to the brim, friendships are deep, the Love of God is everywhere, just simply living life and enjoying people is precious and easy here, dancing for Jesus is taking on a whole new meaning and God confirms more every day that He has me exactly where He wants me.