Everything Gets Better with Age

"And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

Luke 1:45

What a wonderful story I have to share! Or rather, a wonderful week.

To start off, this week has been my Birthday Week. That right there automatically makes it good right? 19. That is how old I am today. Sunday. The beginning of my last year of a teenager....eh. Whatever. I'm not that dramatic about ages. I don't think I ever will be...I look forward to getting older. They say, "Everything gets better with age." I believe that to be true. With wine. With cheese. With relationships. With life. With love. Yes. Love should get better with age. Love and life.

"And we all, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18

Mondays are always hard days. I mean, they've got to be hard days for anybody. Our Mondays happen to start 1 hour earlier and go a few hours longer in the evening. We do get an hour of free time in the afternoon though.
This Monday we went to Life Center for 1 hour of work duties before class, like every Monday, and the custodial staff at the church surprised us with DONUTS!

Yup. There is my donut. Tell me it doesn't look delicious. It totally does. Let us not deny truth. 

That is one good looking donut. ;-)

So right off the bat, Monday started great! Our teacher for Monday and Tuesday was one of the base staff here named Jeremy Curry. He is legit. A man with a fiery heart. You can feel it when he speaks. He is one of those guys with a slightly Lou Engle-ish voice that would totally love to just pray all day. He reminds me of Brian. Only instead of wanting to pray for America's public schools and California all the time, Jeremy's heart is the nations. He taught on Song of Solomon in relation to the Bridal Paradigm of God and the nations. It was quite stirring. Tuesday he even dove deeper into God's heart for the nations. How 86% of the world has no relation to any type of Christian and America has become so over-exposed to Christianity, it is rejected. 

"Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be reverently feared and worshiped above all [so-called] gods."

Psalm 96:3-4

Monday night we had Ministry Night again. This week wonderful! Again we all broke out dancing and laughing. We also took time aside to pray for whatever nation we were going to for outreach. 

Here is a little clip taken as the dancing began (sorry it is so dark):

Also this week was interesting week of miracles. As the final amount of our school tuition ($2,900 total) and our outreach deposit was due ($1,000) on Thursday, everyone was sending out as many support letters, emails, text messages, phone calls, facebook updates, twitter updates, instagram updates, and any other way to contact people seeing if anyone could sponsor even $10 towards what God has called them to.  

Monday morning I still owed about $2,050. I then was sent $100 in the mail and another $200 in donations. My total was brought down to $1,751. Tuesday I was surprised with a $500 deposit into my bank account. I only needed $1,251. That evening I received an email that someone had donated $1,255. MORE than enough to cover the rest of my school fees! 

After PayPal fees, I still needed $33. Wednesday morning came around and I went downstairs.

"Did you check your mailbox yet?" One of the boys asked me.

"No. Why? Should I?"

"A few of us found envelopes with money in ours. You should go check!"

Another girl and I ran over to our mailboxes and sure enough...

I found $25.00. I was still in so much shock from the previous night and then to wake up to $25 more? It was like Christmas to pay off school. Everyone was bumping into provision miracles.
Wednesday morning at the beginning of class we updated our Finances board showing how much everyone still needed. I still needed $8.00.

So we broke up into pairs to pray over each other and when I went back to my seat, I found a crumpled $10 bill stuffed into one of my purse pockets. 

Yup. Jesus had come through. And He used many people to do it, that He could bless them even more in return for their generosity.

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all contentment in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:8

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we had Dan Baumann as our speaker. If you haven't heard of him, you NEED to check him out. This man is so hilarious, so entertaining, and he so knows what it means to be a friend of the Lord. He's a quirky guy with a lot of INSANE stories. I'll share a little bit of his story here...

Dan has been with YWAM for 25 years. Dude is a legend. About 15 years ago, he gets imprisoned in Iran for 9 weeks with 2 death sentences against him because he is a Christian and they think he is an American spy. ****SPOILER ALERT**** He gets out alive.****   

He told us a bunch of stories of how God miraculously led him to Afghanistan, Taiwan, China, and eventually  fulfilling a promise that he would go to Ashkabad over the course of 9 years. You should check out his teachings on the website. (Dan's haven't been posted yet, but hopefully soon they should be up.)  

You can also check out his book,  Imprisoned in Iran, or his other book on discipleship, A Beautiful Way. Dan is definitely an amazing person with amazing stories; I encourage you all to check him out!

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Thursdays work duties were fun because.....

I got to see the absolute cutest toilet in the whole entire world.

It was in the church toddler room.

It is so teeny tiny!!! I HAD to take a picture with it.

Friday night we had a birthday for our base leader, Jeremy Bardwell. His birthday is the day after mine and his wife wanted to throw him a party here. It was a lot of fun because most of the people here chipped in to get him a Nord keyboard as one of his dreams is composing music like Inception. It was a lot of fun to see him open the gift - he was in shock.

This is a bunch of us before the party squeezing the majority of girls in our DTS on the couch. :-)

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Saturday morning the South Africa Team met downstairs for breakfast to see how everyone's week went. We made pancakes and then realized we had no syrup. I don't recommend eating dry pancakes. They may  make you gag.

This also happened to be our very first Team Picture. But we are a good looking bunch :-). Afterwards we went to the second floor common room for worship (and you can see I took a picture while we were eating). It was fun because we had never done worship before together, so it was nice to see how well it flowed and it is only going to get better as we prepare for our journey to South Africa.

After the worship set, 5 of us went out to Red Robin as lunch celebration of my birthday one day early. It was fun celebrating with the family I had acquired and it is hard to believe that we have only/already been together 1 month!

Saturday night was a lot of fun too! One of the guys here is in a band called October Wedding, which is sort of like Mumford & Sons style with blatantly obvious lyrics about Jesus. So if you like Mumford & Sons and you like Jesus (or not) you will DEFINITELY like October Wedding. So anyway, October Wedding was playing at a benefit with Caitlin Jane for Compassion Water, a non-prof whose mission is to bring clean drinking water to high poverty countries. 

So his wife took me and another South African Team member to go support him and we had an awesome time!!

I was able to speak to Caitlin later as well upon learning that not only is she a firm supporter of Compassion, but also a woman who walks firm in standing for LIFE. (Check out her song "Unborn" on iTunes.) 

It was definitely a wonderful way to spend a Saturday night. :-)

Today has been equally as wonderful and eventful! This morning began with church....

....enjoying fall (and the possibility of hurricane-related storms)....

....and then I went to lunch at this new place that literally just opened up called Tomato Pie Cafe. I highly recommend it if anyone is interested in going!

I had the Pesto Chicken Panini (above).




And a chocolate brownie with a layer of peanut butter dessert spread topped with a layer of chocolate ganache and crushed peanuts (right).

Afterwards we went to a thrift store and I picked up a few things for the ever changing weather of Harrisburg. Then we came home and I sort of relaxed for a little bit until...

One of my roommates came into the room asking if I could help get stuff from her car since "it was beginning to rain" (we are expecting to be hit by the storms from Hurricane Sandy). So I go downstairs with her and most of the lights are off (I assume everyone was in other parts of the house) and all of the sudden the lights come up and everyone shouts, "SURPRISE!!!!" It was definitely surprising. Apparently, the house had planned this all behind my back. They also made me a cake (above). Yellow cake. Chocolate frosting. You can watch the video below and see how it happened. :-)

All in all it could definitely be said that this has been another wonderful birthday as my last year of being a teenager begins. I am so freaking excited. God has some crazy things in store that I currently have no idea about...and we are gonna see it all unfold together :-D I can't wait!!!!

Oh...before I go, I have one more thing I want to share with you!

ONE VOICE PRAYER IS HOSTING OUR FIRST EVER CONFERENCE! 
Campus Ablaze will be held January 4, 5, and 6, 2013, at Houses of Light Church (19408 Londelius St. Northridge, CA 91324). 
You know why you should really go? Because JESUS is going to be there. Holy Spirit is going to be there! Creator God of the Universe is going to be there! I don't know about you, but I want to be where He is. 
And on top of that (as if you really need another reason but Jesus), there are going to be amazing men and women of God there wanting to impart anointing and knowledge of how to be a missionary on your school campus at any grade level.
And if you did need another reason, the speaker line--up is Sean Smith, Pastor Netz Gomez, Brian Barcelona, Chris Scoz, Marcela Garcia, and Pastor Philip Muela. They are all going to be amazing and I can testify that each speaker individually is going to drop some major gear. I honestly cannot even pick a favorite from that list. Each one of them has changed and impacted my life in a different way. Each one is special. I love every one of them (especially Marcela and Philip and Chris and Pastor Netz and Brian and Sean). I know you will too. They are legit.
Double Portion, Houses of Light, Kenny Peavey, and more are going to be leading worship which will totally be amazing because they are all anointed! AHHHH I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!!!

Anyway, check it out! Invite your friends, you churches, your youth groups, your moms, your grandmas, your cousins, your sisters, your brothers, your dogs....Well, maybe not the last one. But you get the point. GET TO THE CONFERENCE. YOU WILL PROBABLY REGRET IT IF YOU DON'T. But don't worry...no condemnation. ;-)


Okay, I probably should go for real though. I only have like...a quarter of my homework done.
Alright, well, I love you all!
Thank you to everyone for making this week wonderful and my birthday so special!


Xoxo,
Cheryl

"And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

Luke 1:45

P.S. I found this picture with one of my absolute favorite scriptures on it...I recently have discovered (a nonprofit?) Good Woman Project. I haven't checked all their stuff, but so far these women seem pretty classy. I like class.

P.P.S.
If the videos I added don't work, don't be alarmed. I had trouble inserting them so I will keep working to figure it out and fix it!

Joy, Pray, Faith

Hello, everyone!
I have been struggling for the past two hours on starting this post. I feel as though no matter what I write or how I phrase things, nothing I can say would do any justice to what God has been doing here. All I can do is do my best and hope it gives you some sort of idea because this week was absolutely wonderful...

I REALLY HAVE TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU.

I now have a favorite spot in Harrisburg. Well, not really. I have not actually been at this place. I really only love it because I think the name is freaking legit. So actually I found the place in Harrisburg that has the absolute most awesome name I think could ever be given to such an establishment in all the world...

I feel like its slogan should be something like, "For the broken and hurting..." or something. Plus, that would totally work because its a hospital. 

*I just Googled the history of this hospital, and believe it or not, this hospital was founded in 1963. I'm not gonna lie, I'm trippin' out a little. That is pretty darn cool. (Prayer was removed from the education system in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O'Haire.)

I shall share more later.

This week was a week of joy.

Monday was our first Family Ministry Night that was just students and staff. Most of our staff was actually missing. So we had 2 staff on guitar and 1 on a djembe and we just gathered in the living room and worshiped for a really long time. The joy of the Holy Spirit broke out and everyone was laughing so hard many of us couldn't stand up and the room was so far beyond happy that joyful is the only word that can describe the atmosphere. 

Speaking of joy, Monday night might have had something to do with the fact we had Charles Stock, the senior pastor of Life Center, as our teacher this week. Life Center is the local church we attend here that reminds me of Bethel. It was such a HUGE honor to have him with us for four consecutive days! This man is, like, equivalent to having Bill Johnson. Actually, he mentioned that he is good friends with Bill Johnson.... There might be some connection to why it felt Bethel-ish is a good way. 

Well, Charles carries such an extravagant amount of the Lord's joy. It is quite lovely to just be in a room with him. I believe his smile has been permanently stuck on his face and at the most random times he would burst out with a little chuckle that left him kneeling over and needing a moment to recover before going back to teaching.

This is our DTS and School Leader with Charles Stock on his last day with us!

He has been such a father to the Fire and Fragrance family here, as well as the answer to many prayers by Andy Byrd and Sean Feucht (F&F founders) and it was just such a blessing to have Charles this week. He prayed over each one of us and Holy Spirit began to release joy bombs in the room. Many of us began to laugh uncontrollably in silent fits of laughter as the joy bombs exploded. Once people began to recover they would look at others who were beginning to be affected and then we all started laughing again. It was fun.

You can never laugh too much.

Laughter is the second best medicine. Jesus is the first. :-)

"And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."               Nehemiah 8:10

The prayer room continues to be one of my most favorite parts of the day. We spend 2 hours in the prayer room after lunch Tuesdays-Thursday and yesterday was a particularly powerful prayer room sesh.

We began with 1 hour of straight adoration, no intercession, and just in the first hour the atmosphere felt different than it had been that last few weeks. Holy Spirit broke out in more joy. Everyone was laughing and shouting and dancing around fully engaged in the church theatre we use. As we transitioned into intercession, we were trying something new today. Instead of being scattered throughout the room, we would stand in a circle and pass the mic around the circle. As we transitioned, I felt such a drastic shift in the room.

Our topic for the day would be the Education System of America. 

My heart began to break.

The mic was being passed around the circle (think a clock...I was at 4 o'clock) and as I heard each student pray, my mind began to be flooded with everything I have spent the last 2 years of my life on. My mind was filled with images of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the statistics, the photographs...and my heart was sad. I recalled the two other court cases, one of which Madalyn's was consolidated with, and how an entire generation of Christians let this woman remove God from our schools. I began to cry. Why hadn't anyone stood up? The mic came to me and I prayed forgiveness on behalf of those who stood silently by in the 60's.   Then I passed the mic off and continued to cry and as more students prayed my mind continued to be filled with words from the Lord I had spent hours contending over the last 2 years. 

If one atheist woman could remove the Almighty God from all the schools of America, how much more could 1 intercessor do with the Almighty God on his side?

I remembered watching an interview with Madalyn Murray O'Hair and she said, "It does not matter whether I win or lose, but that I tried..." 

O, that a generation would arise with the same cry and the knowledge that they are conquerors over all things because they have Him who conquered the grave!!  

I flashed back to countless nights at City Fire when everyone in the theatre would be on their face contending in prayer. My mind raced with so much more I should have prayed. I could have prayed it by myself, but I knew I needed the room to be in agreement. I wondered if the prayer leader would let me pray on the mic again...

Then at the 8 o'clock mark one of the school leaders got the mic and prayed a prayer that wrecked me in itself. He said, "God, I thank you for the [insert friend's name] and Cheryls who brought the Kingdom of Heaven to earth on their campus." That hit my heart. I had never before truly stopped and realized the gravity of what I had spent the last two years of high school on. Everyone acknowledges that you are impacting the Kingdom of God and changing the world, but

  have you ever stopped to really meditate on what that means? 

I joined in agreement with the rest of his prayer. I would go back to what his prayer meant later.

I chimed in with others in agreements and as I did I began to remember everything we had really done on my campus. I remembered the House of Prayer we began every Friday night for 2 hours with 15 kids, which turned into 3 hours with 30 people, which turned into 5 hours with 100 people. I remembered doing the "Everything" drama and one to Casting Crowns "Set Them Free." I remembered the theatre filling every week as hundreds students packed in to hear about Jesus during both lunches on Wednesday afternoons. I remembered gathering in groups around sections of lockers 3 times a week to prayer that the Lord would encounter those students.

My heart stirred with so much faith.

"For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Revelation 19:10

"God, I have seen you do it! You did it on my campus. You can do it across the nation!"

My testimony prophesied to the nation. The testimony to what I have seen God do in the high schools of Elk Grove was a prophecy over the schools of this nation! I quickly grasped this as the mic went back to the prayer leader at 12 o'clock. Many students were on their knees; I could see they were getting the burden.

"We are going to stay on this topic of the Education Systems," she announced. "We are going to keep passing this mic around---." I raised my hand. She said I could pray first and instructed everyone to get in a line behind me. I asked if I could say something. With her permission, I began.

"I don't know if any of you know this, but in 1963 one woman, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, fought and won to have prayer and Bible readings taken out of school. One woman, an atheist, fought an won to remove God from our public school system."

I shared more on Madalyn, on the 22 word prayer that was removed from schools. I shared the statistics. How for the next 15 years everything considered "Biblically immoral" shot up anywhere from 200-900% immediately starting the year prayer was removed from the schools. I shared on abortion. How exactly 10 years after prayer was removed, abortion was legalized. Since then over 54 million lives have been lost. It is the government-approved Holocaust. I shared about Lou Engle. How the 22 word prayer for the LIFE bands was modeled after prayer removed from schools and there is a connection between the schools and LIFE. 2013 would be the 50th anniversary prayer was removed; the 40th for abortion's legalization. I shared words we on the West Coast had received from the Lord and were believing for. Then I prayed. I prayed like I hadn't prayed in a long time. I prayed with absolutely everything that was inside of me. And you know what? God heard. He heard us all. And He was listening. He took our prayers and He sent angels out at our words.

He added our prayers to the bowls that are filling. 

"And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." 

Revelation 5:8 

The day continued to get better. I went to Target after work duties to get my groceries and literally everything I needed was on sale  and/or had a special deal. So I have enough food for the next 2-3 weekends (maybe even a 4th) all for $20.40. All I need to buy is almond milk.

Jesus has my back. :-)

The day still got better. Even after all of that glory. 

Remember that car accident I wrote about in my first post? If not go here.
At 9:21p my mother called me last night. Our conversation went like this:

"Hello?"
"Hi! Did you get my text?"
"No."
"Oh, okay. Well, I decided to call you because I had to tell you the news!"
"What news?"
"The court ruled you NOT GUILTY for the car accident!"

Oh my goodness, did I cry! I definitely did NOT see that coming! I am going to be honest. God said a lot about this car accident, including that I would have the victory over this in the natural realm as well as the spiritual. I believed Him, but I am not gonna lie. It was HARD. You can ask anyone who went to church with me. It was a rough time. I believed that God was gonna come through, I just didn't know when. Because I didn't know the "when", I did the practical, trusted Him with the prophetic, and never let go of what He said even when everything else told me otherwise, including people. Even now, His promise is only half fulfilled. The rest is coming as is more rejoicing. I am still on crazy-freak-out-surprise from last night.  God is sooooo faithful. So so so so so so so so so so faithful! He's wanting to show me that. :-)

Well, my loved ones, I had hoped to post this before midnight, but it is now 12:27a. I guess this post took me a few hours to write...and then technology started weirding out on me.
I love you all! Sleep well tonight!

Xoxo,
Cheryl

P.S.
I found this on our cabinet earlier this week...I love living in this house. I wanted to share it with you too, because it applies to you as well <3

Jesus, we pray you would end rebellion and restore prayer back into the campuses of this nation.

Jesus, I plead Your blood over my sin and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to America.

Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee and beg Thy blessings upon us, our teachers, our Country.

Amen.

His Presence is Our Priority

Well, what a week it has been!! (I'm sure I will be making a similar statement every week...)

This week, I believe, was a bit busier in particular though...

We began the week (or ended last week) on Sunday Night. We had Family Night and the ever-so-wonderful Sean Feucht came for a little indie worship night at our house! 

You should all check out Sean's music...He has a new album called Songs for Nations he wrote while actually in each nation. He asked God to give him a song for each nation he visited and this is what came of it. [there are two different links...my favorites on the album are "Finish What You Started (North Korea)" and "Make Me a Lover (Norway)"] :)

So anyway, Sunday night we had Family Night. We had Sean and some people who are friends to Fire and Fragrance here in Harrisburg. We also had a bunch of people who are pioneering Tab (Tabernacle of David) over and then our little school of 21. All in all it turned out to be around 60 people or so gathered in our house for a potluck and then a worship sesh in one of the living rooms and leaking into the entry way. It sure was glorious. And hot. We had to open up all the living room windows. And they didn't even open all the way because we have little stoppers that keep people from breaking in through the windows. Hahaha. All that to say Sean carries a joy in his worship that I have not seen before...I love it. 

 Here is a little snippet of the *Glory* that went down. This is only the very first 2 minutes, so if you have ever been in a Holy Spirit worship service, you know it just gets increasingly better ;-)

Then the week was wonderful as well...

We also had the amazing privilege of having Chris Burns from Burn 24-7 be our teacher this week. He shared the floor with our 333 House Dad teaching on Identity, Intimacy with God, the Secret Place, and (my favorite) the Tab of David. (This wonderfulness might also have to do with my not being sick anymore...XD )

Because we were so honored to have Chris with us all week, we went to New Jersey Monday afternoon/evening to support him at Resting Place House of Prayer where he was also speaking. Let me just tell you, Chris spits fire. I mean...the dude drops. He carries a depth into the message of Sonship that I have not heard before (and that is a topic that a lot of pastors like to cover). He continues to be one of my favorite speakers...

One of the more profound things he said that struck me this week (now the religious spirits are going to be upset) is that the goal on earth is not to get people saved. Let me repeat that: the goal on earth is not to get people saved. 

What does that mean??

The goal on earth is to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, live a life centered around the presence of God in intimacy with Him, and salvations should become a byproduct of that. 

What does that mean??

When you live a life centered around the presence of God, your presence begins to shift atmospheres because you have Holy Spirit on you. Every Christian has Holy Spirit in them, but not every Christian has Holy Spirit on them. The Holy Spirit on you is what makes you attractive to those who don't believe. When you have Holy Spirit on you, you have made yourself a resting place for God's presence. When you have Holy Spirit on you, He is not just in you, but also with you and others can feel Him to. But getting people saved should not be the priority. The priority is loving Jesus. The priority is bringing His presence to earth.

The priority is His presence.

One time, I was at CSU East Bay and I was with a few friends walking around looking for students to pray for. I had a FREE HEALING sign that I was carrying, and my friend A. was a little ways ahead of me. He began to talk to a guy walking past him, and the guy walked straight up to me, got about 6 inches or less from my face, stared me in the eyes for a good 5-10 seconds, stared at my sign, then looked back up into my eyes peering closer.

"NO!" He shouted storming off. No one had said anything about Jesus. No one had asked to pray for him. I hadn't even said a word to him word.

This sounds very strange, I know, but I knew the second that boy walked up to me that he was sensing Holy Spirit and something inside of him was afraid. Normally I would freak out at someone so close to my face, but when he looked at me, I just smiled back. Even when he inched closer and I began to think, "What the heck?? This is weird..." Holy Spirit quickened me. "Look him straight in the eyes." So I did. In fact, I opened my eyes a little wider, still smiling. I knew this guy was going to see the power of Jesus in me and he did.

Wow. Why did I tell that story? I dunno... Oh well.

This is a picture from the church parking garage. I just thought it was pretty and wanted to share it. :) 

Something else we touched a lot on this entire week is what it means to truly be a lover of the Lord. What does it matter if you have all the riches and the King of all Kings doesn't even know your name? What does it matter if you became the next big pastor, preacher, evangelist, etc. and Jesus doesn't even know who you are? Because you didn't share yourself with Him. 

It was said this week (and I believe this is true) that what if God purposely chooses not to "know" certain things about us because He wants us to tell them to Him. God knows every bit about you, but He also wants you to share yourself with Him. He knows what you need, but He still wants you to share those needs with Him. He wants to hear you say it. He wants you to lay down your pride and acknowledge your need for Him. He delights in our dependency. He wants you to share yourself with Him and delights when you do.

It's kind of like when you are in love someone and you want to spend as much time with them, getting to know them, letting them get to know you...but in order for that to happen, you need to spend time with Him. I need to spend time with Him. We all need to spend time with Him. 

Anyway....so have I told you about Work Duties yet? If I have....I'll tell you again :D

So every day (except weekends and Wednesdays) we have Work Duties. Mondays and Thursdays the work duties are at the church. And just as I knew would happen, I was put on one of the Bathroom teams. That means we clean the bathrooms, which actually is not as bad as it sounds. It sounds absolute horrifying, but it really isn't. Everyone I have ever spoken to about work duties has said that there is so much glory in cleaning the bathrooms. Haha. I just Sheila Shine everything (stall doors..trash can..paper towel dispenser..door handle)....and sometimes mop.

The work duties at the house are a little different. One day we all clean our rooms. Another day we clean whichever part of the house has been assigned to us (I'm on Second Floor and Dining Room) and then other odds and ends around the house when you have finished. Here we were going to begin cleaning out the Maintenance Room (we ended up not finishing).

Yesterday, I ended up in the Carriage House (where most of the boys live), making the guest beds and straightening up the rooms for when we have guests stay with us. I had to laugh because I had a flashback from prepping for August 6, 2011, the first One Voice Prayer Gathering, when I was in the barn cleaning up the guest rooms and making the beds. I always end up on hostess duty. I enjoy it :)

I know I just left out, like, the majority of my week in what I said, but it is so hard to encompass all of the teachings and the rest of our fully busy days... A little insight will have to do...

Well, everyone, I love you very much! And to Germs and Shadow...I miss you the most. (haha.)

Until next week!

Xoxo,

Cheryl..

Exciting News!!

Let me start by saying that I do not intend to blog as frequently as I have this past week... I guess the excitement of getting the necessities taken care of gives me quite a lot to share as things progress. Anyway....

I HAVE WONDERFUL NEWS! 

Today I found out where my outreach location is! Let me begin the story...

Wednesday we found out where the options were: South Africa and Harvard University; Ireland/UK and Dartmouth University; and Nepal and Yale University as well as Brown University. 

Then we were told to write our top two choices on a piece of paper and turn them in. My first choice was Ireland/UK and Dartmouth. My second was South Africa and Harvard. I would have been happy with either choice. The options were announced by playing cultural music from each country. When South Africa was announced as the first option, I thought, "This could very easily be it...but I should wait and hear what the rest of the options will be." Then came Ireland/UK and finally Nepal. 

Yesterday evening one of the staff members came to me and she asked how I would feel about South Africa. She said the staff had been praying and that is what they were sort of feeling, but nothing was confirmed yet. I told her that I didn't have a major pull towards Ireland or South Africa -- they were 50/50 to me. So I prayed that God would give them clarity as well as myself. Ireland made me nervous. It felt too much like a ME decision and not so much a GOD decision.

Then there was the dream...

Last night, I had a dream that the staff came to me and said I was going to Ireland. They gave me a map of Ireland and said, "This is where you'll be going." In my dream I began to panic.

"No! I can't go here! I need to switch!"

"Be happy!" They said. "You got you're first choice!"

"No! You don't understand! I need to go to South Africa!" I shouted.

The dream was so real to me that I woke up feeling guilty if I were chosen to go to Ireland.

So this morning instead of class, we played Heads Up Seven Up and then had an imaginary instrumental band sesh. Then came the fun part!

The Scavenger Hunt

We were each given a piece of paper with our name on it and an animal.

Then we were to act out that animal charade style to find the other person who had the same animal as we did. Immediately I scan the group, lock eyes with one of my roommates, and we both did an elephant trunk with our arms at the exact same time. Super funny. So we grabbed hands and ran over to one of the staff members, who gave us our first clue:

 We open the envelope with the First Clue and bolted out of the church theatre to the downstairs bathroom. Taped on the mirror, we found the Second Clue:

As soon as we read it, I ripped the plastic bag out of the garbage can --- "There's nothing in here!!"

We began to think. Where do you take out the trash to? THE DUMPSTER!

We found the closest staff member. "WHERE IS THE DUMPSTER?" Down the hall. Out the doors.

We ran down the halls of the church and out the doors. We see this large dumpster-looking thing.

Nothing. We stopped for a moment.... It's the recycle dumpster.

Where is the trash dumpster??

AROUND THE CORNER!

Taped on the dumpster was the Third Clue:

GO! GO! GO!

We ran all the way back through the hallway and into the first youth room. There's nothing in this room!!

We ran into the second youth room and found 3 DTS Staff Members and another pair of students. One of the staff members was playing African music on the laptop and another was banging on a djembe.

"So where do you guys think you are going for Outreach?"

"SOUTH AFRICA!"

_____________________________________________________________________________

Needless to say I am very excited. While I would much rather go to Ireland and the UK, I know God has something amazing planned for South Africa. Something that requires my participation. Something that He is preparing me for. 

I am even more thrilled that this year we get to do both an Ivy League college and go over seas. My heart is for the schools of America (hence, the campus ministry back home), but even before I came here I felt as though the Lord was going to call me overseas. This way I get to do both. ;-) I will be spending about 1 month and 3 weeks in South Africa and then come back to America to spend 3 weeks at Harvard University. God is truly doing something amazing!

Well, tonight is family ministry night, so I must get going.

I love you all! I am so thankful that I get to share this journey with each and every one of you as it slowly unfolds. Thank you for your prayers and support! I pray blessings over you all!

Xoxo,
Cheryl

P.S.
If anyone is interested in donating to my schooling/outreach fees, you can do so on the Support Me page via PayPal. I would greatly appreciate it and I believe the Lord will bless you sevenfold because I asked Him to do it since I cannot. I have a testimony of a donation from a family member and within a week she was blessed EIGHT times over. God loves generosity, He honors those who trust Him, and He gives back in abundance!
-----> All money donated will go to schooling fees and outreach fees and minor living expenses. Again, see the Support Me page for more details!

More Swirl

This first week of classes has been absolutely INSANE. The knowledge and revelation these speakers drop blows my mind. Just when I feel like my brain can't handle anymore, I hear a voice in my head that screams, "MOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!" And then more revelation + more brain can't handle it + more voice in my head = repeat. This, my friends, is what you would call, "Swirl." My new favorite word.

One of the greatest things I have learned this week is that anyone can disciple. You don't have to have gone to Bible college, have a degree, or be a pastor. You just need to love Jesus. And even if you don't love Him yet, you can! And then you can disciple! Discipleship does not come in a leadership status. It comes from love. I met Love Himself and now I want you to meet Him too. You met Love and now you want other people to meet Him too. They meet Love and now they want even more people to meet Him too. So on and so forth. And then everyone grows together. We make mistakes together. We learn together.  We give each other grace, correction, and wisdom. Not because one of us has this "Christian thing" down better than the other, but because I have something to offer you and you have something to offer me. Community. And everything is done out of Love. I want YOU to grow because YOUR growth causes me to grow too. It's like "being selfish in the right way" (Chad Dedmond). I want YOU to Love Jesus more because the more you look like Jesus the more I want to look like Jesus too which makes you want to look even more like Jesus!

That is how you know you're doing something right: 

When you make other people want to look like Jesus.

So all you high school kids on your campuses, GET AT IT! Just because you aren't the Christian Club President or your youth pastor (although we do need to honor these people) does not mean you can't  make a difference too! You have a voice. You can use it.
One of my high school teachers had a poster that said, "If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing." I often remember that. You might not be good at speaking, but neither was Moses. You might not be perfect, but  neither was David. Only God is perfect. Jesus is perfect. Holy Spirit is perfect. You might not be perfect according to human standards, but you are perfect for God to do something where you are at. It is so cliche, I understand. I apologize for not knowing how to make accents for letters on here. But really, like, can I get real? Can I be serious? Nobody can fulfill your destiny better than you. Not even Bill Johnson, or Misty Edwards, or Mike Bickle, or Kim Walker, or Lou Engle, or whoever.. They are all rocking their destinies. That, my friends, is why they are so freaking amazing. Because they are just loving Jesus and doing what He made them to do best. So go be amazing! Go do what God made YOU to do best! Did He make you to be a doctor? Go ahead! Did He make you to be a pastor? Go ahead! Did He make you to be a worshipper? He made us all that way. Worship is a lifestyle. Worship Him in everything you do. Worship is not just the music on Sunday and Wednesday (shocked yet?). Ahhh...I am trailing off...
My point is: Listen to Jesus, do what you do (to keep yourself closer to Him) and then just Love Him.

Anyway, on another irrelevent, exciting note, we got the Outreach location options yesterday! Each team will be going to a country and an Ivy League college. Super excited!! I really wanted to go to the Ivys, but I had a feeling God was gonna send me out of the country. This way I get both! ;-) Anyway, so the options are Irelend/UK, South Africa, and Nepal. I turned in my top 2 choices today and tomorrow I will find out for sure where I will be going. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

Well, I must get going...I need to finish my homework (reading the book of Mark) and on top of that, I have been feeling not so well these past 2 days.

In the words of my friend here, "Do what God says and do it swirled." Get swirled. (And if you still don't know what "swirled" means, totally cool. It's probably better anyway.)

I love you all!
Xoxo,
Cheryl