Burn

Last week was so much fun...and I hardly have any pictures. But that is okay. God is still good.

As in my previous post, I wrote about Love Feast and all the glory that was. What I didn't tell you was
A) I learned how to make kimbap (a Korean Roll) and B) What the boys did.

So, I have a friend here who is going on outreach with me. She is Korean. And she's a fireball when she prays. Gosh. I love her. Anyway, so before Love Feast (like an hour before) she decided that she was too hungry to wait to go to Tomato Pie so she decided to make kimbap, which is NOT sushi even though it looks like it. It is just a roll. Apparently because it is a roll does not mean it is sushi.

So my lovely friend here sauteed spinach and carrots, cooked rice, fried egg, and toasted seaweed to make this delicious roll without a bamboo roller thing which is apparently how sushi rolls look nice when they are rolled. Then we dipped it Soy Sauce and if we weren't going to Tomato Pie, I would have eaten a whole roll myself. When I go home, I am going to try and make it myself...only maybe without the egg.

After Love Feast, everyone was so full of energy and excitement (having spent most of the day getting all dressed up) and we all just wanted to stay awake together. We came home and a bunch of the girls had a little dance party in the living room (which I heard turned into ballet stretches instead). I quickly lost dance party enthusiasm so I went upstairs to read and then ended up knocking out for a couple hours. I woke back up and I don't remember what I was doing and then one by one my roommates traipsed back into the bedroom the later it got until the last one came in at midnight.

We all stayed awake tossing and turning and for some reason I could not go to sleep. One of my roommates got in the shower and I decided to go downstairs to get a glass of water.

I open the door and I see this:

"What is that?" might you ask?

This, my friends, is a

Balloon Door.

Yes, that is right. The boys took the leftover balloons from the Harvest Party and some LIFE tape to make a balloon door that blocked the entrance way. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. So what did we do to get them back? We took the balloon door downstairs and had another boy stick it on their doorway...and maybe some other things later too....but I can't share that yet. :-) 

But what gets me isn't the balloon door. No. I do not understand how the heck they taped it to our bedroom within minutes after my last roommate came up to the room (after midnight) while we were all awake and quietly reading or something. How did we not hear them?? I don't know.... Well played, boys. Well played.

Among other shenanigans, we had our Orange County crew up here for the week. Do you remember Brian Brennt from Convergence weekend? Well, the O.C. crew lives with him. A lot of people back home know Sammy (from Manteca - heeeey!), Jack, and maybe Chase. 

So the first couple days, Sammy, Jack and Chase traded off speaking on different things. Sammy went through breaking off entitlements with us, Chase taught on original design (asking the Lord His original design for someone and speaking it out to them), and Jack shared on things the Lord has taught him. 

 So these dudes are like YWAM/F&F/Circuit Rider legends. Like...everyone knows them. Straight up. Everyone. So it was totally a family week having them with us and hang out with us and do ministry night with us. Sammy also shared some stories with us, one of which involved going to Sprouts to get green smoothie gear (heeey!) and then getting a word of knowledge for the cashier who ends up freaking out that he knows about her life. Then him and some of the missionaries he lives with kept buying things so they could talk to her while she was checking them out. She gets saved. On their way to the car they get a word for the guy who gets the shopping carts from the parking lot and he gets saved! All in one trip to the grocery store! 

The harvest is ready! The harvest is now!

But for real, these dudes are legit.

Crazy evangelists.

On Wednesday, I came home to a wonderful surprise from my mother! She sent the 333 House a delicious Merry Christmas box of Petit Fours from Swiss Colony! Everyone went crazy for them!

There was lemon cake, raspberry chocolate, vanilla, mint chocolate, an orange-y one, and a chocolate one with white creme frosting! Oh...for those of you who don't know what Petit Fours are, they are like little, tiny 3 layered cakes with frosting in the middle. Mmmmmm!

And then when we returned from delivering photos from the Harvest Party during Community Outreach, we found our house to be ready for Christmas!

Also on Wednesday, Danny Silk from Bethel Church in Redding, CA was here talking a little bit about his new book, Powerful and Free.

(sorry the lighting is bad)

Then he spent the rest of the time talking about dreams (not when your asleep) for the future and how important it is to dream things. It was really good. He had an altar call with some BSSM students with him so they could put into practice things they had been learning at school.

oh, hey. this is the room where we found out we were going to Africa.

On Friday, October Wedding had another fundraiser for Nepal and this time they made about $1,800!! I was so happy for them!

Daddy Jesus got that ca$h money flow....We live in the Blingdom Kingdom.

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Also on Friday, our Base Director Jeremy had a Base meeting where he told us that he has never in his 9 years at YWAM see a DTS need so much money so close to the deadline (about a week past the financial due date). Friday afternoon we needed about $60,000. The elders of the Base got together and spent a lot of time praying and asking God what should be done. The week before, Jeremy had heard the Lord say, "They need to go. They will go." With such struggle financially, they were asking God if this is something we really needed to contend for. He said yes.
The decision was to hold a 60 hour Burn at the 333 House in our prayer room. Everyone signed up for shifts. The school staff, the base staff, the students..everyone. Each outreach team took a Night Watch set and everyone else signed up for at least one extra set as well. We gave it everything we had. Even that night we began to see breakthrough. I myself got a message saying i was being given $1,000.

A long with the Burn, everyone in the community agreed to fast something, whether that meant food, social media, whatever it was. Friday night, South Africa had the 12a-2a night watch set. Saturday night, we had the 4a-6a and I also had signed up for the 6a-8a set.

...the wine I have,

the world didn't give it,

and the world can't take it away...

Sunday night, we kicked off the last 12 hours of the Burn by the entire community gathering in our living room at 8pm. We worshiped for a few hours and then - BOOM - the joy of the Lord broke out and about half us were drunk in the Spirit for around 40 minutes. Just laughing and laughing and praying and laughing and laughing and laughing and praying and laughing. We ended the set and moved it back into the prayer room and the Breakthrough Breakfast would be held at 8am. After Jeremy announced it, he said, "And I don't think cooking breakfast is a woman's job! Men, how about we get up early and cook for all the ladies?" And they did :-) We woke up Monday morning to scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs with cheese, fried eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, plain pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and fruit. It felt like Christmas morning. We ended the last moments of the Burn singing, "I will not allow sleep to my eyes until I have made a resting place for You..." We prayed. We ate. It was glorious. Then we were released to get ready for class and then we went to class.

It was so wonderful hearing the worship blazing in the prayer room all night. I remember waking up at 3:03 and hearing voices singing, "Holy. Holy. Lord God Almighty" from the prayer room. I sang it in my head as I rolled over and fell back asleep, smiling. I am telling you, when you sleep in the Prez, people notice because I had a bunch of people telling me I looked refreshed like I swept well...and wood floors are not comfy.

There's never been a time when 

You've ever failed me

There's never been a time when 

You've let me down

How amazing this weekend was! In those 60 hours of blazing, about $30,000 came in to our base for outreaches. God is not a man who does things half way, either. That Monday and Tuesday about $10,000 came in (making our total $40,000). One of our girls from the Ireland team felt the Lord told her not to go and the leaders felt it too. A boy from the Nepal team also found that the timing was wrong as well. Their outreaches together came out to just under $10,000. Our new total was just over $50,000. Wednesday afternoon we found out that late Tuesday night an anonymous donor gave the base $10,000.

We had reached the $50,000 goal and I know more money is coming in for the last bit needed.

 He is faithful to the end. He will finish what He starts and this He has indeed started.

Monday as our finances were due (again), Daddy Jesus was releasing that ca$h money flow because someone left $18 on my pillow that brought my total down to $1,100.

And even at this moment I am writing it still owing that $1,100 and I know that by the time you read this, I will be in South Africa. Wow.

He is faithful to the end. 

He's faithful to my heart....  

Xoxo,
Cheryl