:::Hawaii and Schedules:)

The verse you see up there, Joshua 24:15, is the verse that the leaders felt would be the 'DTS' verse for this semester. It really hit me hard, and I'm really excited about this and what we will be learning this upcoming season of my life!! The other pictures are hanging in what we call "The Tin Cathedral", the large meeting place where we have prayer, lectures, worship, or just full DTS meetings. These kind of describe the focus and passion of YWAM and DTS. I love it.

Being here for the past 3 days has been AWESOME. I LOVE the DTS staff, and love the students even more. It's awesome to be in a new place, and KNOW that everyone else is in the same, vulnerable, nervous position that you're in. I know I'm going to love having different cultures, life stories, and backgrounds collide with mine over these next 6 months. So far I've heard stories of girls struggling with eating disorders, fathers dying a couple years ago, girls being trapped in drinking and party scenes, and lives literally falling apart in a matter of days. We're all combined here with new EVERYTHING, and its great getting to know everybody from point blank:)

Everybody here is so beautiful. I'm LOVING getting to know everybody, especially the girls. They're all so sweet and out-going, and there's something so BEAUTIFUL about every single one of them, it's awesome to see their differences in personalities and preferences. Its been so fun. :)

We met yesterday and went over rules and legistics a little bit. Got folders with our weekly schedules in it, and heres a copy of it for those of you who really care enough to know what I'm doing at what time during the day. :) (REmember, I'm 4 hours behind so it's a little bit of a difference for sure.) :)

My DTS Weekly Schedule:
Monday
7 am - Breakfast
7:30 am - Quiet Time
8:30 am - Base Worship
9:30 am - DTS Intercession
10:30 am - Lecture
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:30 pm - Team Time/Work Duty
5:00 pm - Dinner
6:30 pm - Lecture

Tuesday
7 am - Breakfast
7:30 am - Quiet Time
8:30 am - Book Reading
10:30 am - Lecture
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:30 pm- Team Time/Work Duty
5:00 pm - Dinner

Wednesday
7 am - Breakfast
7:30 am - Quiet Time
8:30 am - Community Outreach
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:30 pm - Community Outreach/Work Duty
5:00 pm - Dinner
6:00 pm - Worship
7:00 pm - Lecture

Thursday
7 am - Breakfast
7:30 - Quiet Time
8:30 am - Base Intercession
9:30 am - Bible Reading
10:30 am - Lecture
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:30 pm - Work Duty
5 pm - Dinner
6:30 pm - Community Meeting

Friday
7am - Breakfast
7:30 am - Quiet Time
8:30 am - Break Out Groups
9:30 am - Bible Memorization
10 am - Video Time
10:30 am - Lecture
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:30 pm - Small Groups
5 pm - Dinner
6 pm - Evangelism

Sat and Sunday we have off except for church. :) It's pretty chill here over all, no curfews, a lot of freedom. They figured since we're adults, they're gonna treat us like that. Which is nice. :)

They've given us 3 books that we're required to read while we're here and write reports about. "Is that Really You, God?" - by Loren Cunningham (the man who's the founder of YWAM):::: "When Heaven Invades Earth?" and "Imprisoned in Iran" - by a YWAMer named Dan Baumann, which is a true story of his experience in an Iranian Prison. The week of October 17th, my DTS is flying over to Kona, the Big Island, to have joint classes with all the Hawaii DTS's, and Dan Baumann is coming to speak to all of us while we're there! I'm so excited for that. :)

We have the "Manoa Market" about 5 mins walking distance from where we live which is really nice. There's a Safeway, Starbucks, Subway, and McDonalds there.

Yesterday morning, we had worship session with the whole school for the first time, which was AMAZING. The first song we sang was "You're Grace is enough" from Chris Tomlin, then "King of Glory" from Chris Tomlin, then "In Your Freedom" by Hillsong (favorite!).... it was so cool to have all these different cultures and people, from all over the world, joined together... in Hawaii!!... worshipping the same God with the same worship songs and in unity. Amazing!!

God is so good. I feel so free to worship Him here. I feel so comfortable and I feel like there's so a yearning in everybody to be real with Him, to know Him, and to make Him known in the world. There are so many amazing testimonies here, it's amazing. God's done some pretty amazing things, like deliver drug addicts, alcoholics, people with eating disorders, etc. Into freedom.

The verse in Joshua, "Choose for yourselves, this day, whom you will serve," really just forces each of us students to come face to face with a decision. Who am I going to serve? Who will be my primary audience in my life? The world? Myself? or my Savior?

On the plane ride over to Hawaii, I was re-reading a book from my friend Mark called "Pursuit of Man," by AW Tozer. It was amazing. It talks about how incredibly vital it is for a Christian to view God correctly. In other words, the way a Christian views God really shapes the way they live thier lives. For example, if they view God as an angry, mad person who's ready to strike lightning at you with the first mistake you make and who will hold a grudge with everything you mess up on. Or they can view God as a God of love, and He just LOVES us, but can also overstretch it to the point where you take advantage of His Grace. "Oh, its ok if I get drunk tonight, its ok if I sleep with this person tonight, because God knows I"m a sinner and I'm not perfect, but God'll still love me."

God calls us to live a life of freedom, but He doesn't mean freedom in that sense. I feel like He's been speaking that so strongly in my life while I've been here. I'm not sure exactly where's He's taking me with that, but I want to learn how to properly live in His freedom and rest in Him.

I dunno. Its getting late and I'm tired, but I'll definitely elaborate more on this later. Count on a blog coming up here soon.... :)

Anyways. Loving Hawaii. Missing Colorado. Trying to find out how these two worlds can mesh... Gods good and I know He has it all in His good, perfect timing. Praise Jesus. :)

Love and miss you all, so so so much!! Praying for you. Keep in touch!! :) (21jocelyn@gmail.com)