Spiritual Warfare

Week 7 (I messed up last week!)


Week 7 was an interesting week, because the students got their lecture from a video. Thankfully Dean Sherman was our speaker, because even though he isn’t present he has kept the classroom alive with comments and questions from the students.
Majestic Monday, our day got started off with worship and bible meditation on Psalm 42. Then our first video lecture got kicked off by Dean Sherman going over Ephesians 6:10-20, which in the bible is the biblical foundation of spiritual warfare. He dives into each verse and explains what each verse means. The best question asked this whole DTS has been from Dean Sherman and he asked the audience, “What would I do to ____ if I was the devil?” Then in the blank just fill in your name, family, church or a nation and then you will know what to pray against Satan’s strategies. Dean makes a subject so complex, so easy to understand. Later at night the students had created a secret Valentines Day gift exchange and everyone gave their Valentine their gift.
Tubular Tuesday, was a day with lots of rain! By now you can hear some students whispering prayers to God about having warm sunny days. The beginning of the day had a nice rainy prayer walk and worship. Next class was initiated by Dean discussing the topic of gates and what they meant to the Jewish people, explained the symbolism and logic. Then he went over how to properly open and shut different gates to the spiritual world. When someone is shutting a gate they are being personally defensive against Satan, but when they are opening a gate it is an offensive way by praying over kings, nations, church, etc. The day passed quickly and then at night we had intercession over our outreach in Italy!


Wacky Wednesday, we joined the staff in the morning for a staff meeting and after did our own personal devotions. Then it was back in the classroom for the students and to sit attentively listening to Dean. In lecture he spoke about angels and how present they were. Dean also said that angels were warriors, messengers, and worshipers. After class we were dispersed to go do our ministries.


Thorough Thursday, was initiated with intercession for an old ministry that might be brought back up called Hunter’s Point. Bible meditation on Luke 14:25-35 and Mark 10:29-31 came next. Then in class Dean went over God’s authority over the devil and discussed how we can exercise those powers. It was so exciting to learn how to squash the devils temptations! Soon after lecture the food pantry opened up for all our neighbor is the Tenderloin. The food pantry gives us such joy to bless people and just make relationships with them. Sometimes our neighbors help us with the work!

Fantastical Friday, sadly it was our last day for our Dean Sherman videos. Before lecture we did intercession for our ministries that we are in. Then lecture started with Dean speaking on why the devil attacks you and how. He also taught on how to wage warfare and you can do that by intercession, living holy lives, going to places where need prayer, preaching the gospel, fasting, unity, loving servants, endurance, worship, etc. Dean speaks very biblically and knows his stuffs, so readers I recommend that you go buy these spiritual warfare videos! Later that night we did the hot chocolate ministry and on Saturday we did a prayer walk at Hunters Point.



Meet Mindy Reyes!


Mindy Reyes Rocks! This sweet young thang is from Dallas, Texas and she doesn’t have an accent! Mindy is quite the nutritionist and athlete. Whenever someone needs help with their diet and learning to eat right they seek out Mindy. She is always open to talk and has the best advice. By way have I mentioned that she is the best Aunt ever! Fun Fact: She loves sushi!

Dangerous Daniel Reardon!

Daniel is from Vacaville, California which is also in Northern California. He plays the guitar very well and is very humble about how good he really is. Daniel is such a joker and one of my personal favorites goes like this: What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear! Fun Fact: His evil twin has a mustache!

Arrivederci!

Holly!

Eager to Evangelize

Week 7



Ciao! Finally the weather has cooled down and it’s been raining a lot! It has been six weeks in and our little team is becoming a family! This week on the agenda Danny Lehmann has been expressing the importance of evangelism! Danny is so passionate and spunky I miss him already! The Pismo DTS team joined us for a week and it was great sharing Danny with them.


The most perfect way to start off a Monday is to worship the Lord our God! Then we did a bible meditation on Psalm 23 and asked the lord what he wanted to reveal to us. In lecture Danny started it off by asking us our fears or anxieties about evangelizing. Danny loves statistics and he told us that 85% of people that get saved is through one on one evangelism. After he told us about 7 different witnessing styles and they are intentional, interpersonal, intellectual, invitational, testimonial, demonstrational and supernatural. Evangelism means to give the good news in Greek! Why wouldn’t you want to give good news to someone?


Tuesday, was an amazing day for everyone on our discipleship training school! We had the privilege to intercede for the issue of human trafficking, in different small groups we prayed for the victims, corrupt traffickers and policemen, the Johns, more
aftercare help and much more. Then we helped Tax Aide, a company that gives free help with tax returns, and we passed out flyers for them. Next was lecture and it
was about the messenger who is evangelizing about the gospel. That night there was an intense worship session! We were all singing our hearts out to God and just desiring to be close to him. Steven Binnquist then asked us what is keeping us from drawing close to God. Every student asked God what it was and searched their hearts. After those areas of our lives were revealed we literally nailed those things on a cross and gave them to God. Then Steven told us to say sorry to someone in the group that we might have wronged or forgive those who has hurt us. Soon after that different students started praying out loud and crying out to God. It was one of those moments that could change our walk with God if we meant what we said.


On Wednesday morning there was a family meet where we discussed issues and the outreach portion of our DTS. In Rome, Italy there is a need for us to go there and be present in the community. When we are there we will be making the community aware of human trafficking, evangelism, talking with the people of Italy and finding out their needs so YWAM can be affective in Italy. This is going to be a pioneering outreach since much isn’t established and God is going to do wonders in our lives. Within the next hour we had our devotional time. Then lecture quickly came and we learned how to effectively share the gospel with nonbelievers. Throughout the rest of the day everyone scattered off to their different ministries.

Thursday, we sang worship and bible meditation on Job 36:22-37:24 came after. Lecture got started quickly and Danny went over the motives for us to desire to spread the gospel. After the food pantry started and the rest of the night was free.

Friday the 13th came along and nothing crazy happened, because superstitions are made up! First, we started off with discussion groups on the wonderful topic of worship. Some students thought of an idea to create our own worship session! Then we interceded for San Francisco and for God to have mercy on the city. Sadly it was our last day of lecture with Danny Lehmann and he wrapped up his week with talking about different methods of evangelizing. Soon after there was small groups and then hot chocolate ministry.

This weekend was the annual Pillow Fight in San Francisco!








Meet Andrea Wilson


Andrea comes from the little town of Los Angeles, California. \. She loves getting swept away by watching old movies. Miss Wilson has a talent of taking pictures of ordinary things and turning them into a work of art! Fun Fact: Andrea feels that she was born in the wrong decade…I’m thinking the 1920’s.

The Aussie!


Just kidding Mom, I mean Eva Kuczborska! She is from Perth, Australia and the only other foreign student besides Seng Jun. Everyone likes to call her Mom, because she is so maternal and a nurse! Eva’s occupation back at home, but she still acts like one here, by attending to sick people here. Fun Fact: She calls people chicken as a term.

Arrivederci!

Holly!

Prepare To Be Disciplined!

Disciplining our Mind, Body and Souls.


The fabulous fifth week has been radical! The last thing we thought that we would love was to hear about being disciplined. Mark Scandrette, our speaker, was a blessing to have at our base. He made every meeting have some activity whether it was stretching, hugging each other or doing the hokey pokey!
Monday morning we dove right into worship and then bible meditation on John 14:6-7. After the morning routine Mark spoke on the disciplines of Jesus and our bodies.
Then he went over different ways we need to have physical self-control and the areas that we learned to regulate were sleep, eating, fasting, exercise, personal care, healthy sexuality, managing stress and Sabbath-keeping. Mark explained to us that if we didn’t stay on top of all those areas of our life it would affect our ministry/witnessing to other people.

Then on Tuesday we had morning worship again and then traveled to Mark’s house for lecture. He made us feel at home in his house by just being his loving generous self. That morning we traveled through the disciplines of the mind. Then Mark gave us different ways to spend time with God or to train our minds to be more Christ like, a couple examples were to sit in silence and solitude, breath prayer, gratitude, discipline of the eyes and asking God to examine our hearts and minds. Later at night we had intercession for purity, God transform us to be a selfless and caring generation. It ended up with us repenting to God for all the things that we idolize and put before him. Therefore, we all wrote on a piece what we wanted to give to God and threw it into a bucket. Then afterwards we confessed with everyone what we idolize so we can keep each other accountable in those areas in our life.

Wednesday, is always an exciting day, because we get 2 hours of alone time with God! Everyone practiced the new techniques we learned the day before with Mark. Then in class he went over how to be disciplined with time and money, which we all needed to hear! “Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity…” it says in Ephesians 5:15-16. Mark gave us this good scripture to think of when dealing with our time and money. Later we did our weekly ministries!
Thursday is one of my favorite days, because in the morning we have intercession with the staff. We interceded for Madagascar and the terror they are in. Then we had lectio divina on Psalm 150 and it was all about different ways to praise God. Therefore, the students did different expressions of praise whether it was through a poem, art, or song. Mark’s lecture came next and to start it off we did an interactive poem together. Then we learned about….. After lunch the food pantry was up and running.

Friday bright and early we kicked off the morning interceding for each other. This time we all picked numbers, so we didn’t know who we were interceding for. God totally spoke to everyone about the person they were interceding for and it was insane! Then we rapped up the morning with Mark’s last lecture about the Jesus Dojo, missional living. Later there were small groups and then the students were free to roam, because it is our first off weekend!!!

Meet Seng Jun Hong.

He is one hip dude from San Ramon, California. Seng Jun has been teaching some students the Korean language and culture. His wife makes the best Korean food and his kids are precious. Fun Fact: He is starting up his own YWAM in San Ramon!







Introducing Allie Mickey!

Allie is one cool cat from Oceanside, California. You can always count on Allie to make a funny face, sound or talk in weird voices, if you are feeling down just go hangout with Allie, because she will turn your frown upside down. Fun fact: Her real last name is not Mickey!



Arrivederci!

Holly!

1st Outreach Week!!!!

Hello readers! The fourth week has come and has been exciting to all of us, because it is our first official outreach week. This DTS in San Francisco is like no other! It isn’t anymore 3 months of lecture and 2 months of outreach, now it is a total of six months that is intertwined with lecture and outreach! We are trying to focus more on the community.
Monday, was not a usual day in the life of a DTS student. All the students were kicked out of their beds at 6 am and got put out on the San Francisco streets till 5:15pm! The staff wanted us to just get a taste of what it was like being homeless. Let me tell you the students definitely did! Some students slept on the streets, kicked out of businesses, literally got kicked, recycled for money or panhandled. That night the Fall DTS students arrived at the YWAM base for their last week.
Tuesday, both DTS schools joined together for an hour of worship. Then the students walked around the Tenderloin offering coffee, conversation and prayer for people. That afternoon we split off into two groups. The first one was worship evangelism and the other was called the prayer station. Both groups met amazing people and had great conversations. Later at night we had intercession with God about encouragement for ourselves and each other.
Wednesday morning we did prayer walks and then passed out hot chocolates. The main focus on our day was preparing and doing our ministry. It was a very relaxing day where we could just have some amazing alone time with God.
Thursday, there was prayer time with the staff and we meditated over the Lord’s Prayer. After that there…. Then after lunch we the food pantry was up and running again. This Thursday was very emotional for the fall DTS, because it was the day everyone was graduating. That night there was the ceremony where there was great food, worship, laughter and tears for the students and staff.
Finally Friday came and we did a morning meditation on Psalm 119:9-16. Then we did open ministry and that’s when we ask God where we should witness. Some people wrote out scriptures and then left them in places for people to find, witnessed, prayed, and supported small businesses. After lunch there were small groups and then hot chocolate ministry at night.
Saturday, in the afternoon the students split up into three groups to go to different cathedrals and spent four hours alone with God. It was very nice to reflect on what God has been teaching us this past month. That’s right we are 1 month into our Discipleship Training School! Arrivederci!

Holly!