Week 3: Intercession

Week 3 was a big challenge for me. Here's an overview of what we did...

Monday
Our teacher for the week was David Voncannon, and he taught on Intercession. The first day, he taught mostly on what intercession is, why it's important, and examples of it found in the Bible. About halfway through class, David noticed I was having a bit of a hard time, and he had everyone circle around me and pray for me, which was very helpful. He also gave me a drawing made for me by a girl in the El Salvador DTS, where he was teaching last. (At the end of the week, he has everyone pick a student from his next group and draw them a picture and write them a note. More on this for Friday.) It was amazing how relevant it was to what I was dealing with.

Monday afternoon, I went on my first hike with Luke, Robert, Ryan, and Mirjam. It was amazing! I thought I wouldn't like it very much, but it was great, and so ridiculously beautiful.

This is the biggest freaking leaf I've ever seen in my whole life.

Here are some pictures from our view while hiking.

However, on the way back down the adventure came to a sudden stop when Robert twisted his ankle. We finally got him down, though, with the help of some staff and some Guatemalans in the area. When he got back to the base, though, David prayed over his ankle and he was healed enough to walk! He said it still felt tight, though.

Tuesday

In class on Tuesday, David taught on renewing our minds, which was a very helpful lesson. Then, a few minutes into class, David asked us to finish praying for Robert's ankle, and this time it was fully healed. It was amazing to be a part of that. After our break, we discussed hearing God's voice. David gave us tips for hearing Him and a list of some of the ways He can talk to us; some of which were obvious, such as through the Bible, but some were less obvious, such as through situations and art. 

Tuesday night was another peaceful night at the base.

Wednesday

In class on Wednesday, we talked about faith. We discussed what faith actually is, and why it's important. Then we talked more about the steps and effects of intercession.

Wednesday night we watched a movie called Father of Lights, which was very good and thought provoking.

Thursday

On Thursday morning, we talked briefly about spiritual warfare; what it is, and how to deal with it. Then, we closed our week on intercession with a prayer walk around Ciudad Vieja.

That evening we watched a documentary about Guatemala, which was very enlightening and interesting. Then we had worship practice for the following morning. As you can see, we stayed very focused the whole time.

Friday

On Friday, for intercession, we each picked the name of a student from David's next group and prayed for them. Then, we drew them a picture and wrote them a note on the back. It was a really cool experience, especially because I know how much my picture from David's last group impacted me. Then we had worship, quiet time, and small group time, as we do every Friday. Then, after lunch, we went hiking again, and were completely shocked by the path we found. It started out normally, a dirt road going up the volcano, but then it turned into a rainforest and the path was almost completely volcanic rock! It was different than I'd seen before, though. The volcanic rock I've seen before is black or red and full of holes; this rock was gray-blue, sparkly, and completely solid. We climbed over rock walls and around cliffs and I lost any fear I ever had of falling. It was one of the most amazing experience I have ever had in my entire life, and I cannot wait to go back on Monday.

That night, I hung out at the base and talked to Mom and a friend from Pacaya, Guatemala. Then we had a bonfire on the roof before we went to bed.

Saturday

Today I've stayed home to catch up on homework, blog posts, photo uploading, laundry, and sleep. It's been a great and very productive morning.

Week 2: Intimacy with God

I'm missing a few journal entries from this week because I was so busy, but here's the gist of what happened:

Monday
On Monday, I met our teachers for the week: John Paul and Rochelle Ruiz. They are such amazing people. They work in the healing rooms at Bethel Church in California, and they are incredibly gifted in leading worship. We did some getting-to-know-each-other activities, some worship, and started class with the topic of how to read through the Bible and the importance of knowing the history of someone you're intimate with. John Paul shared some tips with making sense of the old testament, then after a short break we talked about the most important love story: how God is pursuing us. We discussed needs and attributes of intimacy, and how God wants to have the same relationship with us as he did with Adam and Eve in Eden.

Monday night, JP and Rochelle led our English Worship Service, and it was amazing. They are truly gifted people who really understand the art of worshipping and loving God.

Tuesday
On Tuesday, Rochelle taught us about how God desires an intimate relationship with us, and two important things that we have to do to achieve that: being honest with Him, and making time for Him. That evening I hung out with Kalissa, our DTS leader who is pretty much the sweetest lady who's ever lived, and we played checkers and listened to the Spanish bible study class downstairs.

Wednesday
Wednesday's class was two days packed into one: before the break, we talked about the fruits of intimacy, and after we talked about God's love letters to us, or His word. The fruits of intimacy can be broken up into categories: God, You, Others, and Worship. From God, we get access, protection, and revelation. For ourselves, we get identity, gifts, and a destiny. For others, we have the strength from God to love and help them. And then there's worship, which JP describes as "realigning our focus back to God." After the break, we discussed many aspects of God's word, or His love letters to us. His word is settled; it will never change and will always be true for everyone. Then we discussed four truths from the Bible: we are what it says we are, we have what it says we have, we can do what it says we can do, and we are God's forever.

On Wednesday night, we went into Antigua and I had my one-on-one with Kalissa, who, I reiterate, is the best ever. We had coffee and talked for a couple hours while the others were doing Soup Run, a homeless ministry that YWAM runs. It was one of those great times where you can just share your heart with someone; everything from your life dreams to the plot of your favorite book. It was wonderful.

Thursday
Thursday was our last official day of class with JP and Rochelle and we talked about something incredibly important: how our relationships with others affect how we see the Trinity. Our view of the Father, obviously, comes from our earthly fathers. But the other two, I'd never considered; our view of the Holy Spirit is influenced by our mothers, and our view of Jesus is influenced by our siblings and friends. We spent a lot of time in prayer and worship, dealing with past hurts and asking God to show us who He really is. It was a wonderful day of healing and forgiveness.

Friday
Friday morning, the Ruizes led worship for us and then we had prayer time, quiet time, and small group time. It was mostly a quiet, peaceful day at home.

Saturday
Saturday, I went into Antigua again with the group. I bought some sweaters and a new huipil, which is the blouse of the traditional Guatemalan dress. We had lunch and came home and hung out at the base.

Sunday
On Sunday, we went to church, went to Pollo Campero for lunch, went to the grocery store, and I dyed my hair bright red. It was a lovely, peaceful Sunday of preparing for the week ahead.

Thoughts on my first week...

What a week it's been. Because it'd be impossible to cohesively describe everything together, I'll break it up into days.

Monday
Classes began Monday. The week's topic was the Character and Nature of God and it was taught by Bruce Ahlberg. We discussed the importance of knowing God and what our beliefs about Him affect, such as our relationships with Him, with others, with ourselves, and with creation. We also talked about different views and misconceptions about God from other religions. We ended with God's incomprehensibility—how we cannot ever know Him fully or completely (Job 26:14; Isaiah 55:89)—and the ways that He does reveal parts of Himself to us, such as through Scripture and creation (Romans 2:14-15).

That night we went into Antigua for an English worship service at Iglesia del Camino. It really stood out to me the way the people there worshipped God: with absolutely no reservations. They gave their all to Him with confidence and paid no mind to any distractions. I want to learn to worship God as freely and fearlessly as they do.

Tuesday
Tuesday I got up early and went to the roof to read Psalms and watch the sunrise. It's indescribable how beautiful it is here, especially early in the morning. In class, Bruce began teaching about some of the attributes of God, such as how He is self-existent, immutable, eternal, omnipresent, undivided, infinite, and transcendent. These are what we call His incommunicable traits; ones that we cannot cultivate in our own lives. We learned that He also has traits that we, as we are made in His image, can have, such as having emotions and being creative and relational. We closed by discussing the ever-recurring question of the ages: Why does God allow suffering? Why does a good God allow evil? We found many answers to this question: it makes it so love must be a choice and therefore is more valuable, it can produce dependence on God, it can help develop godly virtues and deter us from sinning, and it can prove and purify our faith. There were more reasons discussed, but there are the ones that stood out most to me.

Tuesday night was peaceful and spent here at the base. We had a bonfire up on the roof and it was great just to hang out with my new friends and get to know everyone better. Also, the volcano (I think it was Fuego?) erupted a bit and it was very beautiful.

Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, the class was primarily about God's love, grace, and mercy. We also touched on His patience and holiness and justice. My favorite part of the lesson was about John 3:16, which was broken down as follows...

For God, the greatest lover,
so loved, to the greatest degree,
the world, the greatest number,
that He gave, the greatest act,
His one and only Son, the greatest gift,
That whoever, the greatest invitation,
believes, the greatest simplicity,
in Him, the greatest person
Shall not perish, the greatest deliverance,
but, the greatest difference,
have, the greatest certainty,
eternal life, the greatest possession.

That afternoon was one of the highlights of my week: Tom the German asked me to read our assigned book with him so he could practice his English pronunciation. So we went up on the roof, and Santiago, who is from Colombia, joined us as well and we read through a couple chapters. It really affirmed for me that God has called me to teach and has given me a passion for languages. That night there was a ministry called Soup Run, in which people take soup to the homeless and talk and pray with them, but not everyone in our group can go at one time, so the rest of us went into town and hung out in a café and in the central park.

Thursday
Thursday we discussed more of God's traits: He is jealous for His people, has wrath in response to sin and rebellion, and is generous, humble, omnipotent, and sovereign. Until this class I had never realized the true meaning of sovereignty: absolute rule over creation. He is in control of the whole world, in everything down to our own individual lives. We closed the week's class with talking about God's "summary attributes": He is immanent, perfect, blessed, and glorified. Everything in all the earth is designed to bring glory to God!

I don't remember what we did Thursday night because I didn't journal much about it. I think we began our Creative Journals, which are required for our schooling.

Friday
We don't have classes on Fridays; we have worship and prayer time in the morning, then time set aside for quiet time, small group time, then work or free time depending on our own assignments, then exercise time, then free time, then dinner, then "family" time.

Prayer time was a great experience. We split into pairs and went on prayer walks throughout Ciudad Vieja. Next, all the girls and some of the female staff went into Antigua to have ice cream at McDonalds and have our small group meeting. This time is designed to be a safe environment for us to discuss the week with each other, pray for each other, and talk about the lessons. When we came back, we had lunch and then I had free time because I have my work time in cooking breakfast and cleaning up after lunch and dinner, which I spent reading with Tom. I'm so proud of him! He's already making a ton of progress and after five months of practice he's probably going to be the best German English-speaker of all time. That night we had family game night, which was also really fun. Some of the best times are getting to know everyone here.

Saturday
On the weekends, we have very few requirements: have all your work done, be inside by curfew, go in groups, and go to church Sunday morning. So Saturday morning a bunch of us went into Antigua for shopping at the Artisan's market and lunch at a crepe restaurant. Then I came home, took a nap, and FaceTimed with Mom, Mamaw, and Aunt Sandy. That night there was a ministry called Soul Patrol, so Tom and I went into Antigua to help with that. We meet in Central Park and then Mark begins an illusion show, with tricks such as floating cards and disappearing objects. After he draws a crowd, he transitions into sharing the gospel with the people and asking if anyone wants to receive Jesus as their Savior; last night, 12 or more people did! Many things about it were amazing to me: the boldness of the people to come forward, how they stayed to listen even after the show was over, and the respect and reverence they had in coming before the Lord. We also prayed and talked with people in the park, and I got to translate for the first time here. This experience showed me that I still need a ton of practice in my Spanish.

Sunday
This morning I got up early and went to church in town with Emma and Renzo, two of the staff members here. Then, since we went to the early service, we got back early enough to attend church in Antigua with the rest of the group. After, I stayed in town with Mirjam and Christoph and we went to lunch and to sit in the park for a while. Then we went back to the base, and dinner will be soon. After that I have a lot of homework to do for tomorrow! It's been an absolutely wonderful week here, and it feels like I've been away and been with these people for months already. I can't wait to continue getting to know them and growing closer to God.