GO GOD

PASSION
- Love that stirs to action
- Uncompromising commitment
-Willing to Sacrifice
- Can't keep it inside
- Without distraction
- Doesn't get old
- All consuming emotional interest
- Fire
- Focus creates more focus
- Loses rationality
- Creates desire to bring more people into it
- Undignified
- Brings hope
- Brings freedom
- Willing to waste your life on it

"God is most glorified when man is fully alive" - John Eldredge


Passion provokes desire for change. Passion creates a desire to want MORE of it. What does it look like to be passionate about Jesus?
There is no formula for passionately loving Jesus - it's a relationship that is unique for everyone. He wants to spend time with us, talk to us, live with us. The way we include Jesus in our every day lives is where it all begins. He is our lover and friend. Let His passion to love you pull you IN.
        Our speaker this week has been Dan Baumann. I have never witnessed a more passionate person in my life, and I am not exaggerating when I say that. He is literally one of the most inspiring people I have ever been around. Dan was imprisoned in Iran for 9 weeks - beaten and interrogated. It was the darkest time in His life, attempting suicide and feeling like God could not have been farther away. When he was standing before an Iranian judge, knowing that he was imprisoned for his faith, the Holy Spirit filled him and as he stood on the witness stand he proclaimed the gospel for a half hour to that judge. The day he became imprisoned he asked God how long he would be there and God said 9 weeks. The day the guard came in and told him to gather his belongings was 9 weeks to the exact day. God is faithful. "Go God" as Dan says all the time.
       Dan lives such a simple yet adventurous and exciting faith. He goes through his every day with Jesus, talking to Him like He's walking right next to Him. I've heard this before and experienced the closeness of Jesus, but the way it has been presented to us this week, makes walking with God every day so much more tangible and real. Being passionate about Jesus and living out what He has for me doesn't mean every day is going to be happy go lucky, but it means accepting that God is more faithful and committed to fulfilling His will for my life than I am to finding it. I might have days when I don't feel like living a Christian life, when I feel like my flesh is overriding "being a good Christian" but that doesn't change how God is feeling about me, He is the consistent one. There isn't a day when He isn't passionately pursuing a relationship with me. He doesn't give up. Not a day goes by that He isn't waiting for an invitation to be in every situation with me. HE ISN'T GOING TO CHANGE! God is doing things in my heart that I can't explain, and it's all good because I serve a good who at the end of EVERY day I can say He is good and He loves me this I know. Seek Jesus, the man who took all your sins on the cross with him. Seek the relationship with the lover of your soul, who knows your every deepest struggle, dream and desire better than you know it yourself. He is good, He is good, He is good.

           Last week we were in Bellingham Washington on our "Mini Outreach." The trip to WA took twelve hours and that car ride was my favorite part. I was so relaxed and mellow, it felt amazing to just be, especially when I was surrounded with a van full of people who I love spending time with and am building those relationships deeper. In WA we had the opportunity to do some different service projects around the city for an organization called rebound. My favorite day was when about 15 of us went to the site of a house that had been rebuilt for an eighty year old man named Wayne. Wayne's house had been condemned and the house was already rebuilt but we got to work on his front yard, spreading gravel to make a driveway and shoveling dirt in the front yard so that grass can be planted. I had not really ever done manual labor or construction, but it was really rewarding! God gave me such a heart for this man, and a love and compassion for his life. At the end of the day we all stood on the big dirt pile to pray for his life and the new house Wayne is about to get. Bellingham was a super cool town to be in, aside from all the rain and mud at the camp ground we stayed at. Bellingham is a very earth friendly and granola type college town. The down town was so much fun to walk around in - lots of antique shops and boutiques. The last night when we were walking downtown there were some people with a pickup truck full of snow they got off of Mount Baker. We had a snowball fight in the streets!
          There's a little update about what has been going on in the life of Eliza lately!

Pictures from the week

Just a beautiful evening on the Lake

I found this Nala hat in the boutique(like the goodwill of YWAM except free) and I just had to have it

The photographers(Daniel and I) on our skateboarding adventure last week

The next ones are from the Base harvest party we had last saturday. There were candy apples, pin the tail on the donkey, chili and corn bread, a fire pit, hay rides and great fellowship. This little man is the cutest elephant I have ever seen

Amy and I loving our carmel apples

How in the world could I pass up this challenge?

Andrew and I

We were created to be friends

                              Ben and I with the most adorable little Lily the Cow.

          
                       Brazil Ladies with our faces painted!(Me, Lisa and Leah)

Adorable little prairie girl : )

Photography by Kaari

My precious friends

Josiah - He is in my dance track and always has something hilarious to say or is talking in a voice you would never expect - always making me laugh!

Oh how blessed I am

So you want the 411 on how great God is? Okay i'll give it to you

      First off - God is GOOD! I think it's almost becoming tradition that those words cross the page each time I blog, but it becomes more and more evident to me every day.
      I want to share a little bit of His goodness that was revealed to me tonight during worship. Tuesday nights are night class. We start out with worship at 7 and then it moves into the speaker for that week doing a night session of his or her topic. This week we are talking about prayer and hearing God's voice. The things that Mike Phillips has to say are resonating with my soul in a way that I need so badly.
    Okay so take it back about two weeks during "angels and mortals week" - Randall a staff member had me as his "mortal" - so during that week He blessed me in different ways. One of the ways as I think I mentioned in an earlier blog was leaving a big orange pumpkin in front of my door. Little did he know, I had been wanting a pumpkin and was planning on going to buy one that weekend. My pumpkin has continued to become quite the part of me in the past weeks. His name is Stanley and has sat in my room for the past two weeks - gotten punctured by a pen and fixed with a band aid, as well as laid on like a pillow [breaking his neck(stem) off]...Needless to say we have been through it all together in the past weeks.
      Fast forward to tonight in worship. We had been singing for two or three songs and Randall comes over to me because God had laid something on His heart to tell me. He starts off by saying "I think God wants to give you a pumpkin tonight Eliza." We both laugh, because he was saying it symbolically to emphasize that He felt strongly God wanted to give me what I wanted tonight, and just bless me with what I desired from the Lord spiritually. He said he had no idea what looked like, but He just felt God was going to do it. Worship continued on and ended up being one of the best times of worship I have had so far here. God gave me what was on my heart tonight along with other confirmations and just a great time of being at the feet of Jesus worshipping Him for His goodness. Mike goes on to speak and an awesome service finishes. Afterwards I walk up to my room and what do I find but a little miny pumpkin on my doorstep! Our God is SO COOL! Randall didn't put it there, it was just there! With a face drawn on and the name Bernie written on the bottom. Man oh man, God just loves to take us literally sometimes and show His sense of humor. He is so great. I cannot stop praising Him right now. He will give us the desires of our hearts, even in the little joys like a pumpkin on your doorstep. God took a symbolic object someone used to encourage me and turned it into a literal sign - He is RIGHT there waiting for us to respond, waiting for us to love Him back.
       God isn't hiding from us. This journey called faith isn't a big game of hide and seek where we'll find the love of Jesus if we're lucky. So many of us have it turned right around to think there is some formula that can be followed, or a perfect prayer to be prayed to earn the love of our Father... God has created us with free choice - he stands at the door and knocks, LET HIM IN!

His Grace IS enough

Life here is pretty much go go go during the week. This weekend was the first time I've truly just relaxed and recharged since being here. The tiredness was finally catching up. The weather was gorgeous here this weekend. I went for a long walk and ended up down by the lake. It seems to just call my name anytime I am walking outside. It's one of the most peaceful and wonderful places I could ever want to be. Sitting on that dock and just listening to the silence or chatting with friends never gets old. Jessica, Lisa, Kaari and I went to the Somer's Bay Cafe for lunch and I had a super yummy wrap - GOOD food. After I had an even longer walk, up around the curve of the lake, next to all the lakeside homes. Listening to Regina Spektor and Misty Edwards finished out my walk by laying on the end of the dock. The cool lake breeze is the best feeling in the world. I wake up almost every day with sore abs - a combination of dancing and laughing all the time. God's grace and righteousness was the topic of teaching last week and some solid points made by Chris Lautsbaugh are still sinking into my heart. This next week we are talking about relationships - dating, marriage, friendship and with God. I am pumped to see what God has to teach me this week! Here's some pictures to show just a little bit of what life is looking like for me right now : )

Desserts at Blue Canyon Restaurant with the girls

Walking off of the dock

 This past week was called Angels and Mortals weeks. Pretty much like  secret santa. We all had the name of someone else in the DTS school and had to do something thoughtful for the person every day for the week and then guess who it was at the end. Randall one of the staff members had me and one morning I woke up to this "Fairy Conversion Kit" on my door step, it was complete with all of the above, chocolate, fake flowers and glow sticks. Pretty exciting I must say. But the icing on the cake was the last morning when he left me a pumpkin in front of the door. I screamed I was so excited!

This is my wonderful small group

                                     This is Lisa - We were separated at birth

Early morning sit at the dock

                                           Hiking at Glacier National Park

Beautiful Beautitful Lake at Glacier

More Glacier

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.

Fun and Listening

The past three days have flown by and God is moving in every way possible. Today we talked about the power of pride and how it subtly creeps into our lives when we aren't expecting it, unannounced and takes over so many areas of our thinking and heart - without even realizing it. I am learning so many new things and getting a new perspective on lots of the characteristics about God. Trusting God with everything is becoming a bigger and bigger  factor in my life and truly asking Him what it means to give Him my everything without conditions. Best meal so far - hazelnut, pumpkin and mozerella cheese sandwich - PURE and UTTER bliss. mmm. Here's some pictures from the last week!

The Amazzzzzing cookie we had at the tamarack

          
                                       Gorgeous rainbow the second day!

So we went and jumped in the Lake on Wednesday. It was absolutely freezing but the most refreshing thing ever, The water was around 50 degrees probably. I screamed the first time I jumped in - the whole way as I swam back to the dock. But then I jumped in again, such a blast

Rich love, Powerful presence

The Lord is SO good. Just in one day, He is already overwhelming me with His presence and intense love. This a God who does not want to be on the sidelines of my life but he wants to be the complete center and be in the middle of everything that ever happens to me. He is showing me the intense love He has for me through the people He has placed in my life. I've known these people for what three days? It's so insane how much love is permeating around this campus 24/7. It's not a love that is out of obligation or because people feel like they should be nice. This is the true genuine love of Jesus that has effected the lives of the staff and everyone that has been brought here, and they all want it to explode off of them into the lives of others. God is SO GOOD! Tonight after dinner was "How I got to Montana" night, and all 52 DTS students had the opportunity to stand up and explain the way God brought them to Lakeside Montana. Whether it was a simple story that they applied and got in because they lived nearby or a story that evolved in someone's life since 6th grade, it was so obvious to me that God has destined these exact 52 people for this specific time and place. None of it was by accident or chance, but the God of the Universe took the time to prove to all of us why He needs us here and the ways He wants to moves in our lives. I have so much more running through my head, but it's time for some sleep!

Captivated

Free as a Bird

                     I'm so excited to fall even more in love with Jesus this fall and learn
                     more about loving how He loves!        

                                                  
                                              Now dear Jesus help me pack!

Saturday...THIS Saturday???

 ‎"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile." ~ Mother Teresa


The days are getting busier, time is getting shorter and I can't believe that in a little more than 72 hours I will be getting on an airplane to fly to Lakeside Montana. I am now selling braided bracelets along with the headbands, so making all of those to be sold makes things just that much more hectic. I love the busy pace though and I know it will only pick up more when I get out to Montana and the classes start. It has been amazing in the past weeks how much God has confirmed my coming months. Almost every day He places something or someone in my path that has to do with Montana or YWAM.  Saturday it was a friend texting me that she saw a Montana license plate, the next day I saw a Montana license plate myself. The following two consecutive days I met someone that had either done a YWAM dts or knew a lot about YWAM. Even when I took a college tour on Monday I had the most random run in with someone who asked what I was doing this fall and they knew all about YWAM! They know dozens of family who are in the ministry with YWAM and are going to stay a new base that's starting in Ukraine next year. It's amazing how just three months ago I was so unsure about where I was supposed to be this fall. It seemed like an eternity that I waited on God's timing and my own. But now that I know I am going where He planned for me to be, He confirms day in and day out that I am doing His will. I truly have no idea what the Lord has in store for the next five and half months...just that I need to learn more and more every day what it means to be walking in faith and dependence on my God. Getting supplies today and as I pack up different things continues to make my journey that used to be "YWAM is what I'm doing this fall" to a present reality of me saying "YWAM what I'm doing this week." God is good. He holds me in the palm of His hand and I want to have an open heart to everything and everyone He puts in my path.

Headbands for Sale!

I am selling these headbands my mom and I have made to raise money for my travels. They are braided fabric and look really cute with any hairstyle. One headband is $5, two for $8 or three for $12. We've been working on them for a while and I have most colors, so let me know what you want! If anyone in Maine wants some, I am still figuring out sending them there and receiving money back. But whoever wants some let me know and I will get them to you!