yes, i am a mermaid!

so every week we have a speaker come and teach on a certain topic. they speak monday through friday at our lecture times. this past week we had a guy named danny lehmann come and talk about evangelism and spiritual discipline. he was really funny and he had a really cool testimony. he worked as the base director here for a long time, and he has written a few books. he had a lot of interesting and knowledgeable things to say, so in the end it was beneficial!!

on friday nights the whole school splits up into different teams and goes to evangelize at different places. theres a street downtown that is filled with prostitutes, and homeless people. and thats where ive been the past two fridays. last week i went and met a lady from rockwall! it was a divine appointment i am told. she was looking for her boyfriend and asked me to pray for sobriety for the two of them, and she gave me her number. she was really sweet. it was funny too cause i told her i was from dallas becuase i figured she hadnt even heard of rockwall, but to my surprise she was from there! 

this weekend i got to go again, with danny lehmann and another guy from the school. it was cool to be able to ask his opinion and get some insight on some deeper things i was curious about that he didnt touch on in lecture. also, since he wrote books on evangelism, i was excited to see God work through him. he really does live out what he preaches on, which is great to see.

yesterday i went to bellos beach, its the beach in the pictures that i first uploaded. it took an hour and a half to get there by the bus. its way worth it though. the waves werent as big, but the people who went were funny so it was fun (that sentence sounds weird). hopefully next weekend ill be able to go to pearl harbor. im not sure though because we are always doing something, the only time off we get is on thursdays, saturdays, and sundays. and im tired so i usually sleep. 

today i went back to the first church i visited, Christ Fellowship, where the pastor and some other people are from texas. it was fun and interesting because two of the guy staff spoke. one on being lukewarm, the other on fear of the Lord & man. i wish everyone back home could just come here and experience all this with me! there is so much faith and trust in God here. but we definitely are in a bubble, and im scared to come home because i know how different it will be, as well as challenging. even though thats a far way away, it still freaks me out. anyways, when the sermon was over they had an opportunity to get prayer, and i decided that no individual can have too much prayer. i walked up to a lady, a little hesitant, but once i told her what i needed prayer for, she told me that God told her she would be praying for someone with the exact needs i had. so that encouraged me. i get a lot of that here. like the things people say to me and pray for me is EXACTLY about whats going on in my mind and in my life that i need to hear and get help with. there is A LOT of encouragement on a daily basis. i love it here. but i am sooo homesick. i hope no one forgets about me!!!

please keep praying that:

1. i will know truth 

2. for discernment 

3. that i will be set free from all the struggles im dealing with!

4. and that i will not give up once throughout this whole experience.

here a few pictures:

           covered in sand

bored.

       HOMESICK

i havent updated in a week, and im sorry! but thanks for reading it and supporting me. i really appreciate it. i dont have a lot of time to update because monday through riday we have pretty much every hour planned out for us.

its late here and we have church in the morning so i will update when i get home!

first off i just want to say that today has been an amazing day, and satan is trying to completely robbing me of my joy. so please everyone pray against that everytime you think of me.

but we havent really been doing anything this week! we had worship last night and it was really awesome. the staff here rotates leading worship, even if they dont have the best voices, and i really like that. but we just sang and one of the leaders read the verse about Jesus washing His disciples feet, and how He did that to serve them. so the leaders made it clear to us that they were here to serve us, and be here for us over the next six months, as well as our whole lives. so it was really cool to see them do that and get that message across. oh yeah! and yesterday was my first day of work duties. i have kitchen prep on tuesdays and thursdays from 2:30 to 5:30. its not what i thought it would be at all, but its a good time to talk and get to know people who have an amazing relationship with God. 

and were about to have dinner in a minute i just wanted to update. about ten minutes ago i prayed with a few people and God really revealed some AMAZING EXCITING things to me. so please everyone seriously pray that i will not give up in my times of struggle. IM NOT KIDDING!! i need it.

so thanks for reading and ill upload more pictures once i get my camera!

Yesterday we went to the beach! on the way the view was crazy gorgeous. we passed this beach called sandies, which is the beach where the most necks in the US get broken. but we went to a beach that was farther down, the waves were still really big though. i got in expecting nothing to happen but the waves brought me under and almost drowned me, so i decided to get out. it was really fun though. the water was so blue! here are some pictures.

on the way to the beach:

 At the beach:

stephanie and i

yeah i know youre looking at those pictures and feeling a lot of jealousy. but i did get sun burnt, so did everyone else on the team. one kid has bllisters all over his shoulders because he thought he didnt need sunscreen- i think we all learned that the rays here are much more intense. after the beach  everyone came back and i went to the mall with a few people. then we came home and went to sleep!

and today the staff gave us a list of churches to choose from, and i went to one called Christ Fellowship. and it was very ironic because the people who started the church were actually from denton, and the pastor ha a sister that lives in rockwall. so it was cool to talk to them. after church me and two other girls walked to mcdonalds, and the drive thru had a conveyor belt that ran through the ceiling of the restaraunt and connected to the little take-out window. it was weird. here's a picture

but now everyone is just back at the base relaxing. the sun has really worn me out.

i hope everyones not getting bored with reading this! and i still need prayer. my mind is racing so i really just ask that everyone will pray for peace and understanding, as well as patience for me. thanks again for your support! it still means the world to me :D 

Hello from Hawaii!

As many of you know, i am doing a program with Youth With a Mission in Honolulu, Hawaii for six months. for three months i will be training with other people in the school, learning about missions and studying the Word on a daily basis. after that, everyone at the school will split into different teams and go on a three month mission trip to various countries around the world. many people helped me get here, so i decided i would keep a blog about everything that goes on while i am here. enjoy!

Tuesday was a day to just relax and settle in, we walked around the base and the shopping center in the valley. There's a starbucks, McDonalds, and a other random stores. i ended up going to sleep really early, around 8 due to the fact that i have been really sick and the time change just made me worn out completely.

On Wednesday me and one of the girls in my room, madison who is from washington, went to a local beach and a HUGE mall. to go to every store in the mall, it would prabably take three full days. the beach was gorgeous, the water was soo blue. it looked like a picture. so i was very thankful to be able to walk around and just enjoy the scenery. after the beach madison and i had to walk a good mile or so to the bus stop. we knew we were supposed to take number 6, however we didnt know that there were two of them. so of course we got on the wrong number six, which took us around the whole opposite side of the island. we were on the bus for about two hours when it should have only take 15 minutes. but it was fine because we got to see all the weird shops and people who live on this gorgeous island :D .  again, i went to sleep pretty early after a few skype sessions. 

Thursday was the first day of the actual school, since everyone had been landing in hawaii at different times over the past few weeks. so we woke up at 7, ate breakfast then went to the " tin cathedral " to get introduced and learn about what were going to be doing over the next 3 months while we are here. then we all went to the beach for a cookout. it was nice, but very hot. After dinner a few of us made the long trip to walmart, which ended up being great because i had been CRAVING a dr. pepper since the moment i left dallas. i was completely satisfied for the night. 

On friday we did this scavenger hunt around waikiki beach, i honestly expected it to be really lame, but it was actually fun. there were six teams, and the staff just dropped us off at the beach and left us. we had to find various things, and in the end we had to find our own way back to the hotel. one of the teams actually hitch-hiked back to the base. in the end we had a lot of fun getting to know each other and the area. after we got back to our houses, we just hung out and listened to the director of the base talk about evangelism. because every friday night all the students and  staff go to different parts of the island to talk about God on the streets. so he was just telling us what to expect from the people in this area. after that i just went to sleep!

now its saturday and we are going to some beach, so i will post pictures when i get back!

i do have a few prayer requests. i have been SO homesick its crazy. and i have been getting really distracted thinking about friends and people back home, and it's frustrating because it makes me not be able to focus on the things that are in front of me. so im really asking that everyone will pray for a change of mind for me, that i will be able to focus on the good things God has in store for me, and that i will be able to really open up my heart and my mind to this whole experience. because i am REALLY having a hard time with that. ive been pretty negative while ive been here and its starting to annoy me. haha so please pray for me! 

i love everyone who reads this! and i will be updating it all the time so please keep reading it!

heres the scenery walking to the market

random surfboard fence.

pretty tree

beach pictures (not very tropical )

Pictures of the YWAM base

office building

My house

My bed

Random!