The Prophets

It is the start of the third week in this quarter, and my time the past twenty-four days have been absolutely incredible. This current DTS is incredible and I am learning more about the character of God and my purpose in where I am in this moment. I am continually remembering exactly why God called me into the SBS and it has been a very comforting time.

This quarter we are studying the prophets. Thus far we have studied Amos, Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah. This coming week we are studying Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Obadiah.  In the books that we have studied this quarter, Hosea was my absolute favorite. For those of you who do not know the background of that book, the Lord commands Hosea to find a wife from whoredom. His wife cheats on him and at one point completely  It is a parallel to the Israelites and how they are repeatedly cheating on the Lord with other gods. While I was studying the book of Hosea I kept thinking about this.

"I would have told Hosea to leave her. No one should have to hold on, I’d say, to a heart that doesn’t want them back. No one deserves a straying soul, a fleeting kiss, someone who devotes themselves more to the dirt than ever to him. There are better woman with less stains on their clothes, I’d convince him, they will love you like you deserve. You shouldn’t have to crucify your sainthood for the sake of her. I would have told Hosea to leave her. But I’m glad he wouldn’t have listened. Because, how many times have I deserved to be forsaken? How long have I fought off my destiny of being loved unconditionally?  Since my first breath, born with clenched fists, I’ve lived half in the shadows, half in my idols, half in the worth I find by giving myself away to temporary places. How many times have I been an imperfect bride? I’m a goner, I’m Gomer, and I would have left me a long time ago. But instead of moving on, God never did, for His grace covers me more than my mistakes ever could."

Our God is a forgiving God who never stops chasing after us. No matter what we do He will always run after us and chase us down. He is relentless. It overwhelms me and gives me an unexplainable joy.

I am excited to see what else I will be learning in the coming months and how I can apply it to my life. The SBS is certainly not something I thought I would ever see myself doing but now that I am in it, I am incredibly thankful. Thank you once again for all your prayers! As of right now, I do not have any specific prayer requests. I would suggest maybe just to pray for good health and endurance to keep pressing on. 

January Quarter

Today was the first day of class in the New Year! As some of you may know, I was originally scheduled to start class on Monday, January 11, but due to some issues we started on the 16th. I have a classmate from Canada and he happened to have some troubles with crossing over the border, but thankfully he was able to cross yesterday and flew in last night. 

Since we started later, I was able to have a few days to myself. I was quite thankful for it especially because a few of my friends from my DTS flew over and surprised everyone on base. I was able to hang out with them for a couple days whereas I would not have had time to had school started up again right away.

We started studying Amos today, and I must admit it is a little difficult to get back into the swing of class and the homework load. After having almost an entire month of not having to do any mental work, almost everything sounds better than having only one day off per week. I am sure though that I will have a better attitude about it as time goes along. This coming Tuesday we will be starting the book of Isaiah, and I must say I'm rather excited for that.

I would appreciate your prayers for me that I may be able to get back into the swing of things quickly and that I will get used to my schedule and my amount of free time. Thank you once again for all your support in this. 

Christmas Break

I have never been so excited for a break in my life. It has been an intense 3 months, but it has been a time of growth. I currently am in the city of Dallas on a four hour layover waiting for one more flight before I come home to the lovely Grand Rapids. I will be home for the duration of December 19 through January 7. When January 7 rolls around, I will be headed back out to Honolulu until I return home briefly for my brother’s wedding in mid June. 

From September 22 to December 17, I studied sixteen books. Those books were Jonah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Psalms, Kings, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Job. That is also the order in which we studied them. I have learned so many different things that I never would have thought of prior to doing SBS. 

Thank you again for all your support. Hopefully i will see all of you while I am home for these few weeks, but if I do not get the chance, Merry Christmas! Your prayers have meant the world to me and I know that I would not be able to get through this intense school without your prayers. 

Christmas break is on the horizon

My apologies on not updating lately! It's been a busy month. We have gone through Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 &2 Kings, and Psalms in the past five weeks. I have gained so much knowledge and truth in what is actually going on throughout the books. As of yesterday we started Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes. 

I am so excited to be home in less than two weeks! A break is very much needed for me and I am thrilled to be able to see you all again, if even only for three weeks. Pray for me as these last two weeks are still filled with an ample amount of homework as well as a test. Thank you all again for all your support. I would not be here without you! 

Wherever You Are, Be All There

"Wherever you are, be all there." - Jim Elliot

Stay focused, trust in God, and keep learning to believe in yourself and the value you have.

Recently a friend messaged me this, telling me it had been on her heart the past few days to share with me.  Upon reading the message, I broke down into tears. It may not look like much, but it was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.

The past month of SBS has been tiring but also extremely beneficial. I have grown so much in knowledge with only the first five books of the Bible. Seeing how everything relates back to the Pentateuch is actually surprising. It is a lot more than I would have prior thought. So with my studies, I have been rather busy and I apologize if I have not responded to your messages or texts in the past little bit. It is not intentional. I have a deadline each weekend where I have to turn in that specific book that we are studying that week, and then usually the next day I have to do my first reading on the book we study the following week. My days off are generally filled with sleeping in my hammock, watching movies, and going to the beach. 

I have learned a lot in the first five weeks of SBS, and most recently I learned that "wherever you are, be all there." That may not make much sense to some people, but for me it means so much. Though I have been here studying, my mind has recently been everywhere else. Every week it seems as if a new distraction makes its way into my mind. Things in my past, things happening here on base, and even friends from back home. So when I received that message, it meant the world to me. God came in clutch. The work in this class is tough and requires a lot of focus and studying. I have been worn out. But I need to stay focused and trust in God especially through this because He brought me to it for a reason. Do not get me wrong, I do actually love this school. I love everything I am learning and seeing how it ties together. I have discovered that I am actually a Bible nerd now. It is fairly enjoyable. 

I ask for your prayers for my distractions to disappear, and also that I will have an ample amount of energy. It is unbelievable how much harder it is to get work done after sleeping all night and still not feeling rested. Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement! It means a lot!


Also I love receiving letters during this time, so if you would like to write letters, do not be afraid to do so! My address is

2707 Hipawai Place
Honolulu, HI 96822

CSBS

In case you have not heard, I made it safely to Hawaii on the 17th. I have been loving every second of being back in this beautiful place. The Lord has been confirming over and over that this is what I am supposed to do, and has been blessing me in little ways. The immeasurable joy that I cannot explain has me with this dorky grin on my face that I just can not wipe clean. Life is way too good.

I started class last Tuesday, September 22. By the end of the week, we had had thirty-four hours of class, and done about eight to ten hours of homework. It was a bit overwhelming to do all that in such a short amount of time, but it was good. From Tuesday to Saturday morning, the only thing I really did was sleep, go to class, do homework, and drink coffee. Such is life I suppose.

I have heard from my mother that many of you have been wondering what our study method is here in the Chronological School of Biblical studies. Well....it is a lot. 

We start with reading the book of the Bible that we are currently studying, and when we read it we have to either read it out loud or listen to an audio of it while reading along to it. Once read, we have to go back through and make a paragraph title to every single title in said book. The title cannot be longer than four words and the four words must be taken from the text of the paragraph. The title needs to give one a summary of the paragraph just by reading it. After doing those two things, we do horizontal charts. In this step, we have to separate the book into what we think the chapters should be. This is a step that takes a bit because we have to make sure that everything we put together fits well. Shortly after doing that step, we begin charts. Charts are split into three segments. On the left of the chart, we put observations into the list. In the middle of the chart, we insert in all the words we don't understand and what we have questions on. Which in some books happens to be a lot. On the right side, we put timeless truths and questions/answers. The timeless truths are things that could go as a proverb on a calendar. After we are done with that, we have to put a summary on the bottom of the chart explaining what it is we learned from the chart. We have several charts throughout each book, and it all depends on the size. Jonah had four charts. Every book is different.

So this is a little more knowledge on as to what I have been doing the past week of my life.
As you may have been able to see, my life is rather hectic lately with balancing school and friends, so I would greatly appreciate your prayers. Thank you so much for your support in all of this! 

Two Weeks.

One fortnight. Two weeks. Fourteen days. Three hundred and thirty six hours. Am I really this close to returning to the beautiful island of Oahu? These past six months have flown by for me. I have spent my time working at Cherry Valley Greenhouse, Russ', and for my parents on our farm.

In case you have been unaware of what my plan is for the following year, I plan to fly back to Honolulu on September 17 and participate in a school called the Chronological School of Biblical Studies (CSBS). No, it will not be a vacation as some may think. I will have little time to go down to the beach. I will learn about the context, culture, and history of each book of the Bible. It will be a time consuming school and I will be spending the majority if not all my time studying. The school will be nine months long, and there is an optional two month outreach following the completion of the CSBS.

You may wonder what weaseled into my mind to make me want to do something as crazy as this is. Why would I want to go study in-depth for nine months in Hawaii? When I arrived at DTS last September and met the students who were currently in the CSBS, I vowed to never participate in that school since I hated studying and could not imagine why one would willingly decide to set apart nine months of time for that dedication. God seemed to have another plan for me though. When I was in India, I was doing an ample amount of praying about what I should do after my completion of DTS in March. He had just started to give me a desire to do the CSBS, which I was quite nervous about. One evening I was praying and asked God to just give me a dream about what I was supposed to do. That night, I had a dream about heading back to Hawaii for a school and somehow I knew that it was CSBS. I woke up the following morning with a peace and I knew that this September I would be returning to YWAM Honolulu to continue my studies.

To all who have donated money-THANK YOU SO MUCH. I would not have this opportunity to go and learn without all of you. I am so incredibly appreciative of it. If you would still like to support me, I am still in need of at least $3000 for this school. Prayers are another big thing I will be needing for the duration of this school, seeing as it will be extremely challenging for me. Pray for the continued desire to learn more and for motivation to not get discouraged when it becomes hard and I am tired of studying. Also that I would have a great support system to encourage me and to press on as it talks about in Philippians 3:14. "I press on toward the goal to win the prize which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

I am immensely excited to be able to return back to the YWAM Honolulu base to continue my studies. To be able to truly know what the Bible is saying and not just what I take from it will be a gift and I cannot wait to increase in knowledge. Once again, thank you!