Week 6

Dear Friends and Family,

Every time I sit down to write there is so much that has happened, that it is impossible to tell all. So like every time, I will just tell the highlights. It’s so hard to pick those though. Oh Well, here I go.

Our speaker this week was Barbara Sandiford. She is a really great speaker. We were blessed to have her speak to us. She talked about ‘The Divine Plumbline’. The author of ‘The Divine Plumbline’ is DR. Bruce Thompson.

A plumbline is a simple instrument made of metal used by a bricklayer to keep the wall straight. God has his plumbline for our lives. If we follow that line, our walls will be built straight, on the cornerstone of Jesus. A lot of time though, we build our walls not on Jesus, and they are crooked, they do not follow God’s plumbline. We build our walls out of Rejection or Rebellion or sometimes both (A swinger). She also talked about how we needed to forgive those people who are the reason we built our walls.

Monday through Thursday we talked about all this stuff (and more). On Friday (today), we had a ministry time, where we all tore down all the walls that we had built. This is a continual process. It’s not something you can just do once, it’s something that you have to work on and maybe do again. But speaking from me, it felt so good doing it. Some bricks on my wall I didn’t know they were even there, others were quite obvious. It felt so amazing to get rid of them. They were hindering my relationship with Christ, and needed to be gone. This doesn’t mean all my bricks are gone. I am sure that I have a few still there. But I am going to be working at getting rid of them as well. Something she said is “Focus on God and we become like him”. This is the whole reason I am here at YWAM. To focus on God. There have been some tough weeks here, but I can see myself changing. All the hard times here have been good for me, a time of growth.

One of the bricks that I dealt with was fear, fear of the unknown, fear of man. I have so many fears. And they did not come from God. 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control”. This does not mean that I have no fear in my life, but that I am dealing with it. I am still afraid of things but God is bigger than my fear. And with Him I can get rid of my fear.

Update from Homework Helpers. We had less 4^th & 5^th graders this week. Only three of them. But they worked hard and completed their homework. It was a good and fun time.

On Saturday we had an event called the Howdy Hoedown. It was so much fun. My cousins Andrew and Tasha came. We did square dancing, that was awesome. After that was over the school had its own little dance party. We had a great time. :)

We went to a conference called Daybreak. It was about human trafficking. It talked about a lot of the things we learned last week and served to reinforce my opinion that one cannot just sit around. Find out what God would like you to do about it and then do it. You can do something, it is possible. If we sit around and do nothing, than we are helping the enemy. I am still figuring out what is my spot, where is my role, to play in ending human trafficking. But rest assured, I am not gonna sit and let the enemy when. If all you can do is pray, you are still playing an important role.

Prayer requests: That more kids show up for Homework Helpers, that the kids that come will be diligent with their work, Funds will come for outreach, Growth, the ending of human trafficking, and that God’s love will just shine out of us.

I love and miss you all. Thanks so much for supporting me. You can’t imagine how much it means to me. I am sending to you all, love that I have received from the Father; I am giving it to you.

Love,

Haleigh 

Dear Friends & Family,

It’s official. I have been here at YWAM for almost a month. Tuesday will make it a month. :) So much has happened. I thank God for all of the changes he has made in my life already. And I know that there are more changes to come.

This week we learned about Social Justice & God’s Goodness. Karisse Schilling was our speaker. She is an amazing speaker. God has really given her a heart to end human trafficking. Social Justice covers a lot of injustices but we mainly learned about human trafficking because Karisse is most familiar with that subject.

For those who do not know what human trafficking is I will start with the definition.

Human Trafficking is:

- The recruitment, transportation, or harboring of a person

- By means of threat, force, or deception

- For sex, labor, slave-like exploitation, or the removal of organs

There are over 27,000,000 victims of Human Trafficking today. That’s more than any other time in history.

Trafficking victims are generally young, seeking opportunities and/or poor. A lot are trafficked by a close family member or friend. Trafficked victims are usually taken into an unknown culture.

We learned a lot of statics this week. But we also learned that we just can’t sit around and do nothing. This is a big problem and for it to end we have to play our part.  Something Karisse said is “the enemy’s tactic is to overwhelm, paralyze, and distract us”. Doing nothing about this, is just what the enemy wants us to do. And there are a lot of things you can do, even if it seems little, it is worth doing. We learned of someone who taught some villages how to grow food. And because there was no longer a hunger issue they were less at stake for being trafficked.

Something you can do right here at home is make sure what coffee and chocolate you buy is slave-free. A lot of cocoa beans and coffee beans are harvested by slaves. If you look, there are some out there that say they are slave-free. There are not a lot, but now there are at least, now there are some. You can also write to companies like Hersey’s or Nestlé’s and tell them you want to know that the chocolate you are eating is not produced by slaves.

My challenge to you is to do something. Research this problem. Tell your friends about this. Facebook about Human Trafficking. Do what I did, write a blog about it. There is something you can do. We are all pieces of a puzzle, and in order for the picture to be complete, we all must play our part. Every part matters. Find your part, and do something. Human trafficking is not something that can be ended overnight. This will take time, but it can be ended.

On Tuesday I did my local outreach with homework helpers again. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy math and like to helping the kids figure out they’re math problems.

A Praise report: on Thursday we learned the plane ticket prices, instead of being $2,200 like we thought they would have to be. We now have plane tickets for $1,600. This is a really good price for the season we are flying in. And plus we leave 5 days sooner. :D So that means we leave for outreach on the 12^th of December. We also thought that we might have to fly in like pairs, but we get to leave as a group. This is totally a God thing.

Prayer requests: Funds for outreach (I cannot say enough how we need prayer for money to come in. If you are in a place to give, and God tugs on your heart, please give. If you can’t give, pray for God to tug on someone who can give.), the kids who attend homework help (for them to be diligent working on their homework and that we have opportunities to share the gospel with them), for good health, and that outreach prep would go well.

My blessings and love to all of you. I miss you all.

Haleigh

Dear Friends and Family,

The end of three weeks has come, and the fourth is starting this Monday. Time has gone so fast here. It's really been AMAZING!

The subject this week was the Holy Spirit. David Melander was our speaker. He was really good. Holy Spirit week was different as one couldn't take as many notes. Half of our class was lessons, and the other half was waiting on the Holy Spirit. It was a really cool week.

I have learned so much this week that it would take forever to tell you all of it. One of the big things that God told me is that I need to delight in him. He gave me the verse Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." God really wants me to delight myself in him.

On Sunday I got to go to my Grandparent's house and celebrated my Grandfather's 85th birthday. I had so much fun with my family. We ate a lot of stew and just hung out together. :)

On Tuesday I did my local outreach. I am with the Homework Helpers at a trailer park. It is a lot of fun. The kids are really cool. I enjoy helping them. Sometimes it is hard for me to explain math because I understand it so well. So I guess I am learning too.

We went street evangelizing last evening. It was really cool. We prayed to God before we left, looking for things that would lead us to treasure (people). We did and it was cool to actually find some of the stuff. We brought hot cocoa with us to hand out. We ended up sitting on the sidewalk with a guitar and singing. Its really cool how guitars bring people. There was this one person who ended up playing us a song. He was really good. Well there was a couple people who played songs for us. It was super neat.

Prayer requests: funds for outreach, for joy as we do our work duties, that everyone would be in good health, that everyone would grow in the Lord, and that outreach planning will go well.

I am sending my love to all. I miss all of you. I am learning so much, thank you for supporting me.
Haleigh

Dear Friends and Family,

This is the end to my second week at YWAM! On one hand it’s crazy to think I have been here so long, and on the other, I can’t believe that it has only been two weeks. I am truly enjoying my time here.

The speaker this week was Jeff Herringshaw. His topic was ‘Pursuing Right Relationships’. And while this included romantic relationships, it also covered your basic friend relationship. His definition of love really stood out to me. It was: Love is choosing to give the highest good to God, to others, and to myself. In today’s culture love equals feelings. What you do is based on what you feel. But what you feel can change rather quickly. Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” So you can’t even really trust your heart. He drew us this picture of a big semi-truck. At the engine he has the word ‘will’ and in the trailer the word ‘emotions’. Our life is supposed to be driven along by our will with our emotions trailing behind. A lot of people drive their truck backwards at full speed, something that is really dangerous, as well as scary. And in realty that kind of love is not truly love, it is a selfish love. And selfish love does not give the highest good to God, others, and myself.

Last night we had a banquet that raised money for our staff. None of the staff get paid to be here, they all pay money. This banquet helps them to have lower fees. It was a formal occasion, so we all dressed up. It was a lot of fun. This is all us students. Aren't we a lovely bunch?

On Monday we all had to make a decision on where we would go on outreach. The choices were to Peru in the Amazon or to South Africa. We were presented the options, than we went to God about them. I wrestled with God on this, but in the end I followed what he was telling me. I am going to South Africa! :) It was a hard decision to make but once I made it, I became super excited to go to South Africa! 8 people are going to the Amazon and 15 are going to South Africa. The family is going to South Africa so we get 3 little kids with us!

I have a local outreach that I help out with. I am helping out with homework at a local trailer park. I do this every Tuesday. Last week we just went and spread the news. This coming Tuesday we will start. :)

Prayer requests: for health (I am getting a cold and I am worried about losing my voice), that everyone will have money for outreach, and that everyone will grow in the Lord.

Sending my love,

Haleigh

My First Week of YWAM!

Dear Friends and Family,

I have just completed my first week of YWAM. It was AMAZING! I have already learned so much. And this is only the beginning. Can you imagine how much I will have learned after 3 months? I am excited to learn and grow.
There are a total of 14 students here. A family is here doing their DTS. :) So we have three little kids here as well. They are adorable. That was one thing that I was praying/hoping for, kids.
Our speaker this week talked about ‘hearing God’s voice’.  Something that really stuck out to me is that ‘God wants an intimate relationship with me’. He doesn’t want just a one sided relationship. He wants to communicate with me. And that how I view myself makes a difference in order to be intimate. If I look down on myself, than even believing that God wants to talk to me is hard. And if I don’t believe that God wants to talk to me, than I am not listening for God’s voice. And if I don’t listen for God’s voice, then I can more easily miss what God has to say.  Listening for God’s voice is something that takes practice but it is well rewarding. I had heard some of this before but this time it really made me think.
My favorite time during the day is ‘Time with the LORD’. We have an entire hour to spend time with God. And that’s not just reading and writing in a journal time, but doing whatever that gives you time with God. Some people take walks with God; others praise God and spend time with him though taking pictures. I have been playing hymns on my pennywhistle (Which my family had to send to me. Thanks family!) ‘Time with the Lord’ is right after breakfast, early in the morning. It is an incredible way to start the day.
Prayer requests: For growth, that great friendships are built, that we can live well together in community, that everybody’s funds come in for outreach, and that God shows up and really takes us places.

 Love,

Haleigh