Our speaker Paul Hawkins' promise was that by the end of this week, our brains would be completely exhausted from thinking so much. And he pulled through pretty well, I'd say! His teachings kept me thinking and rethinking, as he taught on God's Character and Nature. Be careful before checking out what this guy has to say though because, as he so aptly put it, "when you walk in the conscious reality of who God is, it will change the way you live".
This week, I have discovered that while God's Character and Nature and often used in the same context, they are not the same thing. God's Nature are his intrinsic qualities that He possesses simply because He is God, and therefore are qualities that none possess besides Him: infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent etc. His Character are the qualities that He chooses to possess, and that He wants us to possess as well such as His love, His righteousness, His justice, His faithfulness etc... The thing about God's character is that we can't accept one of its many facets but not the others. We either believe it all to be true or we don't.
And if we accept it all to be true, it changes the way we live. If we truly believe that God loves us with an agape love, a love that always chooses the best for its object, then is there any reason for us not to want His will for our lives? If we truly believe that God is faithful, which we logically should, considering, He has never once broken a promise or failed, then is there any reason for us not to believe that He will continue to fulfill His promises? If we truly believe that God is good, not by necessity but rather by choice, then is there any reason for us not to trust Him implicitly?
"When we walk in the conscious reality of who God is, it will change the way you live". No joke!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Why you should send me a letter and/or package
You may be one of those people who thinks that thanks to the miracle of the internet and Facebook, hand-written letters are obsolete, and stamps are only good for collecting. You may be right, but this doesn't change the fact that I absolutely LOVE getting mail!
If you have ever thought to yourself hmm... I wonder how I can bless Emily and let her know I've been thinking of her, search no more! The secret to making me happy lies in an envelope :) Nothing brings a smile to my face like opening my mail box and finding a beautiful rectangular piece of paper with my name on it. In case you are not convinced, I have compiled a list of reasons why you most certainly should send me a letter/postcard/package:
1. It will let me know you care about me.
2. I will most likely write you back and then you too can experience the joy of receiving mail!
3. It supports the US Postal Service!
4. You get to lick a stamp... No feeling like the feeling of licking a stamp...
5. You can give me things no matter where you are in the world! You can't give people things over Facebook. Fact.
6. Hand writing a letter, stuffing the envelope, licking the stamp and walking to the mail-box burns calories! You can show me you love me AND work off those pounds from the holiday season...
7. Paul wrote letters. And Paul was an immitator of Christ. So Christ probably wrote letters. And we should be like Jesus. Soo... yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. But Jesus would want you to write me a letter.
So what are you waiting for? Go send me some mail :)
Emily Crane c/o Youth With A Mission Winter DTS
11141 Osborne Street
Lake View Terrace, CA
91342
If you have ever thought to yourself hmm... I wonder how I can bless Emily and let her know I've been thinking of her, search no more! The secret to making me happy lies in an envelope :) Nothing brings a smile to my face like opening my mail box and finding a beautiful rectangular piece of paper with my name on it. In case you are not convinced, I have compiled a list of reasons why you most certainly should send me a letter/postcard/package:
1. It will let me know you care about me.
2. I will most likely write you back and then you too can experience the joy of receiving mail!
3. It supports the US Postal Service!
4. You get to lick a stamp... No feeling like the feeling of licking a stamp...
5. You can give me things no matter where you are in the world! You can't give people things over Facebook. Fact.
6. Hand writing a letter, stuffing the envelope, licking the stamp and walking to the mail-box burns calories! You can show me you love me AND work off those pounds from the holiday season...
7. Paul wrote letters. And Paul was an immitator of Christ. So Christ probably wrote letters. And we should be like Jesus. Soo... yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. But Jesus would want you to write me a letter.
So what are you waiting for? Go send me some mail :)
Emily Crane c/o Youth With A Mission Winter DTS
11141 Osborne Street
Lake View Terrace, CA
91342
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Twenty-two things about Week Two
1. Joseph Avakian, our speaker for the week, is an Armenian born in Lebanon who fled to Cyprus during the civil war and lived in Germany for quite a while who speaks 7 languages- so yes, he is kind of my hero. :)
2. He spoke on hearing God's voice, by sharing from his own experience how God has spoken to him throughout his life. A few points that stood out to me:
3 - God doesn't just want to be involved in the "big decisions" of your life (such as, "God, should I move to Timbuktu?"), He wants to be involved in every part of your life! (So yes, ask Him, "God, how long should I cook this salmon?). If you remain open to Him and His spirit all throughout the day, He will continually reveal Himself to you in all sorts of ways.
4 - The spiritual world and the physical world are not separate! Humans have become so in-tune with the physical that we have lost our awareness of the spiritual. But God uses both to speak to us so we need to be "listening" to both.
5- We often put ourselves in "boxes" that keep us from hearing from God. Following this metaphor, just as boxes have six sides, there are six strongholds that get in the way: fear, comparison, criticism, egoism, arrogance, control. To counter these, we can take hold of: love, identity, exhortation, generosity, humility and freedom. :) I am working on breaking out of my box!
6- On Friday afternoon, I went with some of my new friends to Santa Monica where we walked around the Pier, rode the ferris wheel and ate dinner on the 3rd Ave Promenade to celebrate my roommate, Holly's 20th birthday!
7- Saturday, we went for a lovely (yet surprisingly strenuous) hike in La Tuna Canyon. The weather was lovely and I do believe I have the beginnings of a fantastic tan :)
8- I have decided where I will be going for Outreach! *drum roll* As I prayed about it and spoke with my fearless leaders, Benjie and Megan, I feel confident that God is calling me to Haiti! He led me to Isaiah 61:
"He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.... And they shall rebuild old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities." While I know it won't be easy (for one thing, our team is by far the smallest, with only 4 students including myself and two leaders), I am clinging to the knowledge that God has something big for me to do in Haiti :) Needless to say, I am excited!
9- Ok, so that's only 9... But I got people to hang out with, stuff to learn and love to spread!
2. He spoke on hearing God's voice, by sharing from his own experience how God has spoken to him throughout his life. A few points that stood out to me:
3 - God doesn't just want to be involved in the "big decisions" of your life (such as, "God, should I move to Timbuktu?"), He wants to be involved in every part of your life! (So yes, ask Him, "God, how long should I cook this salmon?). If you remain open to Him and His spirit all throughout the day, He will continually reveal Himself to you in all sorts of ways.
4 - The spiritual world and the physical world are not separate! Humans have become so in-tune with the physical that we have lost our awareness of the spiritual. But God uses both to speak to us so we need to be "listening" to both.
5- We often put ourselves in "boxes" that keep us from hearing from God. Following this metaphor, just as boxes have six sides, there are six strongholds that get in the way: fear, comparison, criticism, egoism, arrogance, control. To counter these, we can take hold of: love, identity, exhortation, generosity, humility and freedom. :) I am working on breaking out of my box!
7- Saturday, we went for a lovely (yet surprisingly strenuous) hike in La Tuna Canyon. The weather was lovely and I do believe I have the beginnings of a fantastic tan :)
8- I have decided where I will be going for Outreach! *drum roll* As I prayed about it and spoke with my fearless leaders, Benjie and Megan, I feel confident that God is calling me to Haiti! He led me to Isaiah 61:
"He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.... And they shall rebuild old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities." While I know it won't be easy (for one thing, our team is by far the smallest, with only 4 students including myself and two leaders), I am clinging to the knowledge that God has something big for me to do in Haiti :) Needless to say, I am excited!
9- Ok, so that's only 9... But I got people to hang out with, stuff to learn and love to spread!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Week One: The Transformation Begins
For some reason, I predicted this week to be a time of easing in to my new surroundings, a week of welcome speeches and tours. I most certainly did not foresee that by Friday of Week One, my life would already have begun begin transformed at its very core. But this is YWAM we're talking about here, so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised.
We had our first speaker on Monday morning, before we had even had a chance to read through our welcome manuals or adjusted to the time change. The topic? "Making Jesus Lord/ Giving up your Rights". Powerful stuff for Day One, right? Our speaker, Werner Pfau, the base leader and a tremendous man of God, talked about how our culture's standards of greatness differ from Jesus'. While our culture (myself included!) places a high value on achieving, climbing the corporate ladder and having authority over as many people as possible while being under the authority of as few people as possible, Jesus' standard of greatness was how many people you serve. What really gripped me was that serving isn't the means by which we achieve greatness- it is greatness itself! We don't serve so as to eventually climb to a place of greatness in one way or another- by serving, we have already received our full reward. Serving is greatness!
Werner continued to talk about how Jesus willingly gave up His rights so as to serve us and serve His father, and began to challenge us to think about what that would look like for us! To give up something that is bad for you is a challenge, but a good one. To give up something that is wonderful and a gift from God, however, is a sacrifice. Things like the right to an income, or the right to a spouse, or the right to an education are God-given and wonderful! But He asks us if we will give them right back as an outpouring of our love, that we might truly be free. Funny concept isn't it? Give up your rights so that you can be free :)
Our school leader, Benjie, shared about the importance of Thanksgiving and how it helps us to rise above our present circumstances. One of the founders of the base spoke on the power of intercessory prayer and urged us to open our hearts and minds to discern what exactly it is that God wishes us to pray about. As I learned to practice these three lessons- laying down my rights, thanking God just because, and opening my heart to the leading of the Holy Spirit- I began to encounter God in ways I never had before. The Holy Spirit has been moving among us here, healing the brokenhearted, liberating the captives and revealing the pure joy of being in communion with Christ through community with each other. Lives are already being radically changed (I know mine is!) and it's only Week One!
Praise Jesus: We are all required to spend 8-9 hours a week doing a work duty to help out on the base and give us opporunities to serve. My work duty consists of two beautiful "mocha-frappuccino" girls: Lilly, age 4 and Sadie, age 2. Papa knew I missed my sisters horribly and these girls have been such an encouragement to me!
Please Pray: The location options for outreach have been announced! Ghana, India, Turkey and Haiti are the contenders. Please pray for wisdom and discernment as the leaders and the students try to figure out God's will for each one of us.
We had our first speaker on Monday morning, before we had even had a chance to read through our welcome manuals or adjusted to the time change. The topic? "Making Jesus Lord/ Giving up your Rights". Powerful stuff for Day One, right? Our speaker, Werner Pfau, the base leader and a tremendous man of God, talked about how our culture's standards of greatness differ from Jesus'. While our culture (myself included!) places a high value on achieving, climbing the corporate ladder and having authority over as many people as possible while being under the authority of as few people as possible, Jesus' standard of greatness was how many people you serve. What really gripped me was that serving isn't the means by which we achieve greatness- it is greatness itself! We don't serve so as to eventually climb to a place of greatness in one way or another- by serving, we have already received our full reward. Serving is greatness!
Werner continued to talk about how Jesus willingly gave up His rights so as to serve us and serve His father, and began to challenge us to think about what that would look like for us! To give up something that is bad for you is a challenge, but a good one. To give up something that is wonderful and a gift from God, however, is a sacrifice. Things like the right to an income, or the right to a spouse, or the right to an education are God-given and wonderful! But He asks us if we will give them right back as an outpouring of our love, that we might truly be free. Funny concept isn't it? Give up your rights so that you can be free :)
Our school leader, Benjie, shared about the importance of Thanksgiving and how it helps us to rise above our present circumstances. One of the founders of the base spoke on the power of intercessory prayer and urged us to open our hearts and minds to discern what exactly it is that God wishes us to pray about. As I learned to practice these three lessons- laying down my rights, thanking God just because, and opening my heart to the leading of the Holy Spirit- I began to encounter God in ways I never had before. The Holy Spirit has been moving among us here, healing the brokenhearted, liberating the captives and revealing the pure joy of being in communion with Christ through community with each other. Lives are already being radically changed (I know mine is!) and it's only Week One!
Praise Jesus: We are all required to spend 8-9 hours a week doing a work duty to help out on the base and give us opporunities to serve. My work duty consists of two beautiful "mocha-frappuccino" girls: Lilly, age 4 and Sadie, age 2. Papa knew I missed my sisters horribly and these girls have been such an encouragement to me!
Please Pray: The location options for outreach have been announced! Ghana, India, Turkey and Haiti are the contenders. Please pray for wisdom and discernment as the leaders and the students try to figure out God's will for each one of us.
Monday, January 10, 2011
LA in Three Days
My dad and I flew into LAX on Thursday, January 6th- three days before school was scheduled to begin. No sooner had we gotten our bags and picked out a rental car than we were headed for the beach!
We had lunch on the Santa Monica pier in beautiful 70-degree weather. We then walked down to Venice and strolled along the boardwalk where we were met by all manners of pot-smoking, board-short-wearing, palm-reading, tree-hugging, hippie artists. The strange mix of people there was already beginning to give me an idea of what a melting pot of cultures and classes LA is. As the afternoon dwindled, we cruised down the coast of Malibu, catching a gorgeous sunset over the Pacific. We grabbed dinner with an old friend and recieved our initiation into LA traffic as we foolishly tried to ride the 405 North at 6. After an excrutiating 40 minutes of sitting on the on-ramp, we finally got going at a steady 20 mph and made it to our hotel in only two hours.
On Friday, we set out to explore Hollywood. Our first stop was Griffith park, where we hiked up part of the way to the Hollywood sign and got a nice view of the sprawling city that would be my home for the next three months. From there, we made our way to Hollywood Boulevard where we checked out all the stars and their handprints (or wandprinst in the case of Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson). We hopped onto Sunset from there and cruised down Historic Route 66 through Beverly Hills. We ended the day at the Getty Center- an art museum in the Bel-air area, home of Van Gogh's Irises, a few Rembrandts and some Monets as well.
Saturday, we checked out of our hotel in Simi Valley and paid a visit to the Ronald Regan Library (which is really more of a museum than a collection of boring books and far more interesting than it sounds). There, we got to check out an amazing 50-foot "miniature" White House, saw a large chunk of the Berlin wall and toured Air Force One. Then, we grabbed lunch and made our way to the little town of Sylmar where the YWAM base is located.... and that is where the adventure truly begins!
We had lunch on the Santa Monica pier in beautiful 70-degree weather. We then walked down to Venice and strolled along the boardwalk where we were met by all manners of pot-smoking, board-short-wearing, palm-reading, tree-hugging, hippie artists. The strange mix of people there was already beginning to give me an idea of what a melting pot of cultures and classes LA is. As the afternoon dwindled, we cruised down the coast of Malibu, catching a gorgeous sunset over the Pacific. We grabbed dinner with an old friend and recieved our initiation into LA traffic as we foolishly tried to ride the 405 North at 6. After an excrutiating 40 minutes of sitting on the on-ramp, we finally got going at a steady 20 mph and made it to our hotel in only two hours.
On Friday, we set out to explore Hollywood. Our first stop was Griffith park, where we hiked up part of the way to the Hollywood sign and got a nice view of the sprawling city that would be my home for the next three months. From there, we made our way to Hollywood Boulevard where we checked out all the stars and their handprints (or wandprinst in the case of Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson). We hopped onto Sunset from there and cruised down Historic Route 66 through Beverly Hills. We ended the day at the Getty Center- an art museum in the Bel-air area, home of Van Gogh's Irises, a few Rembrandts and some Monets as well.
Saturday, we checked out of our hotel in Simi Valley and paid a visit to the Ronald Regan Library (which is really more of a museum than a collection of boring books and far more interesting than it sounds). There, we got to check out an amazing 50-foot "miniature" White House, saw a large chunk of the Berlin wall and toured Air Force One. Then, we grabbed lunch and made our way to the little town of Sylmar where the YWAM base is located.... and that is where the adventure truly begins!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Why YWAM?
As the time drew near last year for me to make a decision about what I would be doing after highschool, I knew college was what was expected of me, but a memory kept coming to mind of a group of young people that had visited my youth group a year before. I couldn't remember the name of the organization they were with but I knew they were on a 5-month tour of Africa, stopping in over a dozen different countries to learn and reach out. The more I thought about them, the more I realized that that was something I really wanted to do- and college might just be able to wait :)
So I put my favorite search engine (Google- in case you were wondering) to good use and began searching for the name of this organization, and this is how I first became acquainted with Youth With a Mission. Initially, I had no idea of how global they were (in fact, for a short time, I was under the distinct impression that they were based out of Denver and only did tours of Africa), but as I dug around, I discovered their hundreds of locations all around the world and became acquainted with their Discipleship Training School.
In this program, the students spend the first 12 weeks doing classroom-type instruction on who God is, how we determine his will and how we can fulfill the great commission, and the last 8 weeks living out what they've learned on an outreach trip.
I began looking into various locations and ones that immediately stood out to me were: Australia (because of the accents mostly), Chile (awesome surfing), Haiti (the devastation caused by the earthquake really gripped at my heart) and Los Angeles (they offered special Focus Tracks during the classroom phase in areas that really interested me such as Worship, Media and Justice).
After a little bit of thinking, I realized that cool accents and awesome surfing couldn't be the reason for this decision- it had to come down to where God could use me the most and where I felt I could grow the most. I contacted the people in Haiti and shared my desire to help, and they recommended that I check out the school in LA, because they often send teams to Haiti during the outreach phase.
LA had already been on my radar so that pretty much sealed the deal. I filled out an application and was accepted in late September.
And so I will be leaving for Los Angeles on January 6th, with hopes of ending up in Haiti during the second half of the school (though I will not be making this decision until the second week or so of the program and am still quite open to whatever God has for me).
Between now and then, I have a crazy amount of packing that must be done, and a whole lot of painful goodbyes to say. The most difficult will undoubtedly be my family as this is the longest I have ever been away from them and they are such a huge part of my life.
How You Can Pray:
* Pray for me as I "tumble out of the nest" and make my way out into the world on my own for the first time. I will be needing all the wisdom and grace I can get!
* Pray for the relationships that God has in store for me at YWAM. I admit I am a little nervous that I might not connect well with anyone.
Praise Jesus!
* The last of the money I needed to cover the tuition of the school came in last week. Thank you to all of you who have supported me financially- you are a tremendous blessing to me! I am overwhelmed by the way God has provided for me through you.
So I put my favorite search engine (Google- in case you were wondering) to good use and began searching for the name of this organization, and this is how I first became acquainted with Youth With a Mission. Initially, I had no idea of how global they were (in fact, for a short time, I was under the distinct impression that they were based out of Denver and only did tours of Africa), but as I dug around, I discovered their hundreds of locations all around the world and became acquainted with their Discipleship Training School.
In this program, the students spend the first 12 weeks doing classroom-type instruction on who God is, how we determine his will and how we can fulfill the great commission, and the last 8 weeks living out what they've learned on an outreach trip.
I began looking into various locations and ones that immediately stood out to me were: Australia (because of the accents mostly), Chile (awesome surfing), Haiti (the devastation caused by the earthquake really gripped at my heart) and Los Angeles (they offered special Focus Tracks during the classroom phase in areas that really interested me such as Worship, Media and Justice).
After a little bit of thinking, I realized that cool accents and awesome surfing couldn't be the reason for this decision- it had to come down to where God could use me the most and where I felt I could grow the most. I contacted the people in Haiti and shared my desire to help, and they recommended that I check out the school in LA, because they often send teams to Haiti during the outreach phase.
LA had already been on my radar so that pretty much sealed the deal. I filled out an application and was accepted in late September.
And so I will be leaving for Los Angeles on January 6th, with hopes of ending up in Haiti during the second half of the school (though I will not be making this decision until the second week or so of the program and am still quite open to whatever God has for me).
Between now and then, I have a crazy amount of packing that must be done, and a whole lot of painful goodbyes to say. The most difficult will undoubtedly be my family as this is the longest I have ever been away from them and they are such a huge part of my life.
How You Can Pray:
* Pray for me as I "tumble out of the nest" and make my way out into the world on my own for the first time. I will be needing all the wisdom and grace I can get!
* Pray for the relationships that God has in store for me at YWAM. I admit I am a little nervous that I might not connect well with anyone.
Praise Jesus!
* The last of the money I needed to cover the tuition of the school came in last week. Thank you to all of you who have supported me financially- you are a tremendous blessing to me! I am overwhelmed by the way God has provided for me through you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)