Well I wanted to start this blog off with pictures but for some reason I can't which is frustrating so I am sorry for that. I will give everyone a brief update of all that we have done here in Thailand.
We stayed in Bangkok for three days and on one of the days we did a prayer walk all over the city. We went to famous Buddhist temples all over the city and prayed over them. We prayed over parliament buildings and prayed over the riots that are taking place around the city. We saw a lot of the city in one day and it was amazing, but also sad to see how much idol worship there is here. There are spirit houses in front of pretty well every house and business, which are like tiny little houses where the Spirits can live instead of coming into the actual home or business (A spirit house would be placed similar to a mail box in the States, out front where everyone can see it). People place drink offerings and food offerings on these spirit houses to keep the spirits happy, its tough to see that everyone believes in that kind of stuff here. Never the less the people here are so amazing, they are like the warmest and most smile filled people ever.
After spending some time in Bangkok we took an overnight bus to Chiang Rai which was about an 11 hour bus ride, and the bus was so amazing haha. The seats reclined basically all the way down so we slept all the way here to Chiang Rai. We are staying at the base of a local pastor here in Chiang Rai, his name is Pastor Suphot he is such a great guy. We are outside the city a little ways but its really nice here. The weather is really hot, its been like 38 - 42 degrees every day since we've been here so I've been sweating a lot. Since being here in Chiang Rai we have been promoting free english classes at the church and been teaching them as well. This past weekend we went up to a hill tribe about 2 and half hours away.
While we were there we painted their church inside and out and we also shared testimonies and did woship with them. I also got the opportunity to do the Sunday service, which was a real honor for me. They made us so much good food, lots of rice haha. On Saturday the two pastors of the church of the church said they wanted to take us to a cave. We all thought it'd be some sort of tourist attractions or something off the side of the road, but it definitely wasn't. We hiked straight uphill for about thirty minutes through bush to get to this cave and it wasn't just a dinky little cave it was a massive cavern with millions of bats in it. It was so amazing, I've never seen anything like it before and they took us inside it. I forgot to mention i was in flip flops this whole time and its not easy doing rock to rock jumping and climbing in them.
When we got to an opening up in the side of the mountain we were looking out on the hills and we spotted a bear. As we were watching this bear walk around we saw it take off into a field that was full of farm animals and it started chasing them around, I'm not sure what it caught, but it got something. Meanwhile there was another bear on the main road where our van was parked and our pastors basically took off ahead of us back down the hill. There were a couple girls that didn't come in the cave so I think the pastors were worried that the girls didn't know there was a bear on the road where they would come out of the bush. They ran past them and down to the road, the girls said that the pastors were practically running down the hill that took us forever to climb. Now the story they tell is that when they got to the bottom they grabbed two huge sticks and started chasing this bear away and as they were chasing it one of the pastors hit it on the back. The bear turned around on them and reared at them and they hit it again, and it got scared off thankfully. When we got down to the bottom we heard all about it and I couldn't believe it, the pastors both said they had never seen a bear before haha.
Now we are back in Chiang Rai and today is a day off. There was talk of going to ride some elephants today but I think we are going to a waterfall to do some swimming and cool down from the heat. Tomorrow Songkran starts, which is the festival for the Thai new year. The way they celebrate is with a three day all out water fight. If your out driving or walking your fair game and your going to get soaked by trucks full of people with water guns and buckets of water. (We already have been the last couple days, this water fight actually lasts about 12 days, so if your driving your windows better be up cause people aren't afraid to get you in your vehicle) The water represents blessings and when you get splashed by someone it is received as a blessing for the new year, so the wetter you get the better. We have a huge flatbed truck with seats on it that we are taking out and for the next three days we are going to do some major water dumping. Its going to be a lot of fun!
I hope that you all are doing well and thank you again for your prayers and support, God Bless!
Adam
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Last Day In Los Angeles
Well, I think I'm well over due to finally update my blog seeing I'm leaving tomorrow to Thailand, again sorry for another delay. It’s been another busy couple weeks and getting ready for this trip has been draining and stressful to be honest. I've never really had to prepare for anything quite like this and its been tough for me because I really have no idea what I'm doing haha. None the less here I am and I can say that I'm ready to go and now that everything is done I can finally start relaxing slightly at least for our next two days of flying. Once we get to Thailand it’s going to be busy.
The last two weeks we haven't had a regular speaker which has been an adjustment, but we've been busy doing practical training for our outreach locations. Last week we had Bobby Bo our Outreach Coordinator for Thailand here teaching us about Thai culture and giving us a rundown of the things we will be doing once we get there. We've also spent a lot of time in prayer ahead of time for Thailand and the people that God is going to bring us in contact with. It’s crazy to think that I'm going to Thailand, I have no idea what 11 plus hours on a plane is going to feel like, I didn't even know planes could fly that long without stopping haha. Then we have a 2 hour layover in Tokyo and then another 6 hour flight to Bangkok. I think like any trip the best part is finally getting on the plane and knowing everything is done and you can just breathe for a bit and that’s what I'm looking forward too.
Once we get to Thailand we spend a couple days in Bangkok getting orientated and then we take an 11 hour overnight bus ride to Chang Rai in northern Thailand. We will be spending all of our time up North and along the Burmese border. We will be doing lots of different stuff while we are up there such as teaching the Bible, open air evangelism, doing dramas and teaching English. I’m sure we’ll be doing lots more than these things also, but we will get a better idea once we get there. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to get access to the internet while I’m in Thailand so my consistency with my blogs probably won’t look a whole lot different than it has been Hah....
Thank you all again for reading my blog it’s encouraging to know that people care about what I’m doing and want to keep in touch. I appreciate you all even if I’ve never met you, by reading this you are a part of the things that God is showing me and the ways I have seen Him move and work. I wish I had more to share with you but honestly most of the stuff I’ve been working through these past weeks is how to deal with stress and live out patience. Don’t get me wrong I needed these past two weeks to finally break my bad habits and prepare me for what this new adventure is going to bring. I feel that I’m ready, I still have a couple things to do before getting on the plane, but I truly believe that these last three months have been a time of refining to get me ready for this moment. It sounds like I’m going to war, which in reality I am. I’m not exactly walking into to an open country to Christianity with 0.5% of Thai people calling themselves Christians. Our team is up for the challenge and our God is bigger than any stats or percentages and with that we are ready to share His love and His truth to the people of Thailand.
Our team will definitely need your prayers and support. I greatly appreciate all you who have taken time out of your day to pray for me, I’m truly blessed to have people like you in my life. I’m not just saying this to sound spiritual or be pleasing with words. Without your prayers I stand alone and no man can go to war by himself and that’s why you are so important to me. Thank you for standing with me, thank you that you care, I wish I had something I could give back to all of you for that. I will be also praying for all of you, even if I don’t know all of you, but thank you again.
I feel like I need to just encourage anyone who reads this. Take advantage of your day today; cease any opportunity you have to pour out love on someone. Even if that person has wronged you, buy them a coffee or write them a letter of encouragement. You will truly be amazed at how God can use that in someone’s life. Love is the greatest weapon we have against the enemy and Love truly does conquer all things, Jesus’ life is a testimony of that. Don’t let little things get in the way of your friendships with people at work or at school, it’s not worth it, life is too short to waste time over silly things like that. Bless someone today, I challenge you with that. Maybe a co-worker, a friend you’ve lost touch with or drifted apart from or a family member or someone who may be driving you nuts. Go out of your way and bless them this week and just watch what God does.
Thank you all again, God keep you today!
Adam
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Past Three Weeks
Hey everyone, I've had a lot happen these past three weeks I’m sorry, I owe you all yet again another apology for not following through with keeping this blog up to date. I want to also thank you again for your prayers and support, it means a lot to know that I have people who want to be a part of the things I’m learning and going through.
I'll start back at how the Injustice Conference in Salem, Oregon finished off. It was a really rainy week up in Oregon, but the conference was such an eye opener as I shared in the previous blog about how we experienced Injustice the very first night. Throughout the rest of the week we learnt about different forms of injustice in the world and what our role as Christians is in bringing justice. One of the nights that really shook me up was when an organization by the name of Project Revelation came in and hosted an event. The main theme of their message was that the greatest injustice in the world is the fact that there are still 2 Billion people in this world that have never heard the name of Jesus once. It was a really interesting night and many people responded to this calling to go to all the nations. There was lots more that happened during that week, we took a trip up to Portland, and raised awareness on sex trafficking. The group I was in just so happened to get off the train in the worst part of the city, we had some pretty cool experiences from that night. We drove home the Friday of that week and got home Saturday night, everyone was drained from the travel and all the information we took in that week.
The following week my parents came down, and it was an amazing time with them to say the least. God showed me so much through their time here about myself. My mom decided to bring me a copy of my adoption story on a CD just for the heck of it, and gave it to me the first day they were here. I listened to it that night and that story has never come alive for me like it did that night. I wasn’t hearing it from just the perspective of my mom; I began hearing it from Gods perspective. To think that God loves us that much that he would pursue us so relentlessly. I really began to see God’s character through my parent’s story of my adoption and how He goes through the same things they went through to adopt his children out of the world and into a new life in his Kingdom. It was such an amazing night for me and I got to talk to my parents about it late into their first night here. It was a really awesome time for me to be with my parents and I’m learning so much about how I sometimes get so hyped up about stuff and act selfishly. I don’t think it’s a matter of not thinking things through, it’s just I get so anxious to make sure everyone else experiences what I experience, which isn’t fair since we all have different backgrounds.
I also got to show my parents around L.A while they were here and show them some of the over glamorized areas of the city. I’m so glad they got to come get a taste of what YWAM is all about because I know I probably wasn’t doing the best job at communicating it to them. They were here during our time with Art Collins who ran our lectures for that week on the topic of servant hood. He was a man of his message; he was very generous to us. Art bought us doughnuts every single day during our breaks and even took everyone out for supper to In-N-Out, which is the greatest fast food restaurant I’ve ever been to. It was a really great week for my parents to be able to sit in on our classes and I think they got a pretty good idea what YWAM was all about from it.
They left last Monday and that day our new speaker began teaching. His name was Stefan Hugo and he was from South Africa and he was teaching on the Holy Spirit. I think everyone in the entire school was nervous about this week because no one knew what to expect at all. The Holy Spirit isn’t a very common topic in church and I’ll share with you how Stefan opened up his teaching Monday morning. He pulled out a can of dog food and asked who wants some; I need to people to come try this dog food. Two people went up and tried it reluctantly and if they could withstand the taste they would have to go share it with someone else. Some people really liked the taste and others couldn’t keep it down. After we finished with the dog food he reached into his bag and pulled out a bag of chocolate and announced to the class that what we just ate was not dog food. He actually cut up some chocolate bars, mixed them into a clear jelly and put it in a can and printed out a label for dog food. Then he explained to us that this is how Satan deceives people when it comes to the Holy Spirit he puts an awful label on Him so no one wants to see what lies within. It was a pretty great way to break the ice about such a touchy subject and the week was amazing. I won’t go into detail for those of you that aren’t comfortable with this subject, but if you have questions or are interested in what happened send me an email at... (adamwowchuk@hotmail.co.uk)
Last Thursday, Charlenn (my girlfriend) flew out here, which I was so excited about and still can’t believe she was actually here. We got to experience L.A. rush hour traffic together which was wonderful, not to mention I was late picking her up because of traffic on the way there. I was so happy to finally be able to talk to her in person because I’m really not the greatest person when it comes to being consistent in my Skype calls or texts and she will attest to that. We had lots of great talks over the four days she was here and we actually went a lot of places as well. On Friday we went to Venice Beach together and took a homeless guy named Will out for lunch and got to hear his story which was so amazing. It was so neat to see how much he appreciated us taking time just to sit down and here his story. We got to share our testimonies as well and encourage him as well. We talked for about an hour and a half and then we prayed for him. It was so humbling to see how just taking time to talk with someone instead of just putting money in their cup and leaving them could encourage them. I know we’ll never forget that time with Will.
Over the weekend we got to do lots as well, we went to China town and the fashion district, which I really wasn’t a fan of. With our Justice Focus track here on our base we also helped put on a night of raising awareness at a local coffee shop on Saturday night. Sunday I took Charlenn to the church I’ve being going to since coming to YWAM and we spent the rest of the day with a girl named Kayla Carter and her Mom and Grandmother. It was really great to get to hang out with them and they were very kind to take us out for lunch and ice cream after church. We spent most of the day with them and they took us to Hollywood just to walk around for awhile and then we just spent the rest of the day hanging out in the sun at the base.
It was such a great weekend for me to finally just slow down and relax after taking in so much information and going through so much. We have two weeks left here in Los Angeles before we leave for our outreaches, which is crazy to think about. These next two weeks I’m sure will be the busiest yet in order to prepare ourselves for all that we will being doing in our separate outreach locations. I’m so excited to head over to Thailand, but the thought of being away from so many people I’ve become so close with these last three months is hard.
This week we have Graham Hackworth speaking and last night he took us to the beach to do his lecture under the stars which was really cool and one girl got baptized in the ocean, which was really neat. He is a very interesting man with a brilliant mind I have a feeling we are going to be seriously shaken up by his message this week about cultures. I have to get to class we start right away so I hope that you all have a great day and that God will bless you. Thank you again for your patience, I’m sorry I haven’t followed through on my word. You guys deserve better from me and I’m really working on my integrity of speech when it comes to keeping in touch with people. Thanks for your prayers and support!
Adam
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Salem, Oregon
Hey everyone, just an update. This week our school is in Salem, Oregon for a conference on Injustice. It was a really long trip up here from L.A, but it was still a lot of fun. I've never seen this side of the continent and so the mountains were new for me to see, which was really exciting. I'm sure thats old news for all of you, oh well haha.
Our first night here was so cool, instead of just learning about injustice we actually got to experience it, and my eyes were opened. We experienced what slave workers are put through in sweat shops, what unclean water tastes like and how so many have to travel so far to get it. We experienced what a brothel would look like and how prostitutes are treated in them. We also got taken and put in a situation where we were forced to kill someone (acting obviously) in being used as a war child. This one was really crazy because a truck actually came up behind us and we were blind folded and forced into the truck bed. We also learnt about abortion and the process of abortion, which broke my heart to see how its done and how often. We also saw how people are drugged at bars and clubs to then be used for their organs to be sold on the black market and left for dead. It was such a tough night for me to get just the slightest taste of what it would actually be like to be in these situations in real life. I think the thing that bothered me most is that my life should've been described by these acts of injustice, but thank God that He rescued me through my parents in Brandon by adopting me. So Mom and Dad thanks for adopting me! Anyway, this is just a brief update, we will be driving home on Friday night and back to our regular routine next week.
Hope you all have a great week and God Bless!
Adam
Our first night here was so cool, instead of just learning about injustice we actually got to experience it, and my eyes were opened. We experienced what slave workers are put through in sweat shops, what unclean water tastes like and how so many have to travel so far to get it. We experienced what a brothel would look like and how prostitutes are treated in them. We also got taken and put in a situation where we were forced to kill someone (acting obviously) in being used as a war child. This one was really crazy because a truck actually came up behind us and we were blind folded and forced into the truck bed. We also learnt about abortion and the process of abortion, which broke my heart to see how its done and how often. We also saw how people are drugged at bars and clubs to then be used for their organs to be sold on the black market and left for dead. It was such a tough night for me to get just the slightest taste of what it would actually be like to be in these situations in real life. I think the thing that bothered me most is that my life should've been described by these acts of injustice, but thank God that He rescued me through my parents in Brandon by adopting me. So Mom and Dad thanks for adopting me! Anyway, this is just a brief update, we will be driving home on Friday night and back to our regular routine next week.
Hope you all have a great week and God Bless!
Adam
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Update!
Well it has been an amazing week and I’ve got lots to share with you all. This past week the weather has been absolutely amazing, which I’m sure warms all your hearts back in Canada. I have never been pushed so much in my walk with Christ in so many different ways it has been so humbling since I’ve been here. I’m discovering a whole new meaning of what it means to be a Christian and what it actually means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I really don’t know how I lived without knowing Jesus this way my whole life; it is by His Grace I’m where I am today.
Last week we had a lady named Kristie Wilkie speaking on Hearing God’s voice, which is something I’ve thought I’ve always struggled with. I realized very quickly it had nothing to do with God’s inability to speak it was my inability to hear. Our God is a communicator I discovered very quickly, and it’s so cool to actually be able to talk with Him throughout my days. I’ll give you example of how God spoke to me this week, which was a memory I will carry with me all my life. Last week we were doing a lot of practice hearing God’s voice and we would ask God to give us words or scripture to share with a certain person in the room. I’ve never done anything like this before in my life, so it was such an eye opener that God can speak to anyone about anything at anytime. Anyways after last week I really wanted to talk on my own with God and not rely on someone else to initiate it. A couple nights ago we were in a worship session and it was spontaneous because the guy who was teaching our lecture just felt lead to put off teaching for the rest of the night to sing. It was an amazing time of worship, but the coolest thing happened for me just as we were about to leave to go back to our dorms. I got a word for one of the girls who stayed sitting while everyone else left for the night. The word was “Jump,” I can’t explain how strong I felt I needed to share this word with her, but my mind kept telling me I was making it up. I prayed about it just to make sure that I was not acting on my own behalf and I really felt I needed to share it with her. I wrote her a note and felt God needed me to tell her to jump because He was waiting to catch her. I left it in front of her and left to go get a cup of coffee from the dining hall. No more than a minute later she came to me and I honestly thought that I offended her by saying it just in the expression on her face. Then the first words that came out of her mouth were, “I don’t know how.” I was so surprised by her reaction, but it was so exciting to know that what I wrote her actually had meaning and I knew it was from God. We sat down and talked about it and it was just so amazing how God used that moment and conversation to humble me before Him and to encourage her to not be afraid to Jump into the life He has waiting for her.
That’s the really short version of the story and I can tell you that this kind of stuff has been happening all week here and I honestly can’t explain how it has changed my view of my Saviour. I used to think that God was only watching over us, but now I can see He’s also walking with us. When we eat, when we sleep, when we work, when we drive, in school, any situation you can think of He is there with us! Now I know people will say yeah I always knew that, but how do you live that out? For me I have been really focusing on thinking about Jesus as a person in my life, I know it sounds crazy, but bear with me. When I walk I talk to with him as if he’s beside me walking, when I eat, I talk to Him as if He’s eating with me, when I pray, I pray as if He is right there with me. Along with that, I have put pennies in my shoes, so every time I take a step I am reminded that He is with me, this was a cool idea that Kristie gave us all last week. I encourage all who read this to try it out; it’ll change your life. Once we finally embrace God’s presence we break the mould of just a thirty minute a day relationship with God. He doesn’t just want to speak to us in a thirty minute devotion He wants to speak to us in every single thing we do in a day.
Anyways I’m going to work on shortening my blogs so that I don’t have to keep trying to remember and piece together everything from the weeks past. I also will be sure to keep these blogs from turning into sermons, I’ve got such an information overload and I’m just waiting to pour it out, but I think that my blog would crash if I tried to get all my thoughts and experiences in one blog. Thanks again for your prayers and support, I love and miss you all!
Adam
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Outreach Location!
Hey everyone! Last night we were given our options for our outreach locations, which we will be leaving for the first week of April for two months. Our options were Haiti/Dominican Republic, Morocco and Thailand. After wrestling with God for an hour about this, I finally felt that Thailand is where Jesus needs me most. I have a great team as well and I'm so excited to start preparing for this new adventure! Hope you all have a great day!
Adam
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Busy, Busy, Busy, Sorry!
Hey everyone, I’ve really pushed updating this blog up for way to long, God has given me a lot to think about and work through. First of all the weather here has really started to warm up which is so nice after so many cold and rainy days. I honestly think I would rather have snow over rain. Anyways, I guess I’ll get right into getting you up to speed with what has been happening lately.
First of all, my roommate Patrick is no longer in the school, which has been something I have struggled dealing with. I’ve finally just surrendered it up to God in trust that He will take care of him where ever he goes. He didn’t do anything bad, but there were some personal health issues that lead to him leaving two Saturdays ago. He truly was the most genuine guy I’ve ever met, he would ask for prayer at anytime and anywhere. I really looked up to him for that, he had such a simple faith which was so cool to be a part of and learn from. This was really awesome for me to see what a completely genuine heart for God looked like. I also saw how the evil one can disrupt that, which broke my heart to see how much stress it put on him. For his privacy sake I won’t go into anymore details.
Two weeks ago we had a guy named Chris Lautsbaugh speaking who completely tore me apart in how small my view of Christ was. The main theme was Grace and Karma and then we took Grace deeper into Salvation. The easiest way to sum up everything I learnt is that the struggles of sin were bigger in my eyes than the power of Salvation. I wish I could sit here and type out everything he said because it would literally blow your minds, but I’d rather share it in person. Last week we had Dean Sherman here and he gave us a spiritual butt kicking which has been so awesome too! He was teaching on spiritual warfare and it is some serious stuff, it was really stretching for me. As a Christian it can be so easy to get stuck on Salvation, and Salvation is only the doorway into the Kingdom life. Jesus didn’t come just to redeem our souls but he came to redeem our lives here on earth. Salvation is only the doorway into the Kingdom, don’t let Salvation be the only evidence that you are saved, let your life declare it as well! His desire is that our lives would speak louder than our words to the non believers around us and sadly today the millions of lukewarm or pretend believers as well.
YWAM has already completely changed my life, if I were to pack up and come home today I would still be able to say this was the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I have never experienced God in such a way as I have here; I am so thankful that God allowed me to come here. We will be finding out where we are going to go on outreach tomorrow, I’m beginning to feel a calling to another country other than Thailand, but we will see how that all works out in time. We also picked our focus tracks two weeks ago and I chose the Justice track, which will be dealing with the human trafficking as well the whole sex trade industry. I would really appreciate your prayers for God to open doors for us to shed His light in these very dark areas.
I’ve finally started to learn that I will never understand how big God is and all that makes Him who he is. I’m reading this book written by the pastor of the church that I’m attending every Sunday and he describes it like this. If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. It’s so simple and somehow I have found a way to ignore this my whole life, which has lead to me to finally see God for what He truly is. I feel like a little kid here because everything is so new for me; I’ve never dug so deep into the word as I have here.
This past Friday we went out with our focus tracks and our Justice track went out raising awareness of human trafficking in Burbank. This was a lot of fun and we had so many people respond to it with a great interest in being a part of standing against it. The stats here in the USA are tough to swallow knowing that there are 100,000 – 300,000 under age children being sold into prostitution and the average age of those kids is 13 years old. People were blown away after hearing that and the coolest people to share this with was the young girls in the mall. They really expressed a deep concern knowing that it’s girls their age that are the targets for this industry. I’m not sure what we will be doing this Friday, but I know after speaking to about 150 people last time around I’m sure God has big things planned for this Friday as well!
This past Saturday was an amazing eye opener for me as I took part in a Boot Camp for kids at serious risk of getting into lifestyles that would most likely wreck their lives if not end them. We met all the LAPD officers that were running the boot camp and they warned us to be ready for what we were about to see and to know that they were only doing this out of love for the kids. There were about 14 people from our YWAM base that went and we lined up along the back fence just to observe. There were 70 kids lined up on a basketball court and these police officers came flying through the gates and just ripped into these kids it was really shocking for me. I had seen stuff like this on shows like Maury, but in real life it’s a whole new feeling. As much as you want to step out and stop it you know that these kids don’t listen to anyone and if no one disciplines them their lives will completely spin out of control. The first two weeks we will just be getting used to the environment just so the kids can get comfortable with our faces and two weeks from now we will begin mentoring these kids. I’m really excited to just love on these kids who have been looking for attention in all the wrong places; our team has such a big heart for these kids ranging in age from 8 – 17 years old.
This week Randy Thomas is our speaker and he spoke for the first time last night and he was so good. He is so funny I’ve never laughed so hard in a setting like that. Randy has spoken at hundreds of DTS schools and ran many of them; he is so good at what he does. He has a sense of humour kind of like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, I couldn’t stop laughing. We will be learning about the Nature and Characteristics of God this week from him, which I’m really excited to learn about. It’s been so humbling coming from home thinking I knew so much and now feeling like I haven’t even touched the surface. This is a feeling I’m sure God will always want me to have the rest of my life, because our minds can’t even begin to work like His. I got to get to class, have a great day everyone!
P.S I’m sorry about taking so long, I’ll get it back together!
Adam
First of all, my roommate Patrick is no longer in the school, which has been something I have struggled dealing with. I’ve finally just surrendered it up to God in trust that He will take care of him where ever he goes. He didn’t do anything bad, but there were some personal health issues that lead to him leaving two Saturdays ago. He truly was the most genuine guy I’ve ever met, he would ask for prayer at anytime and anywhere. I really looked up to him for that, he had such a simple faith which was so cool to be a part of and learn from. This was really awesome for me to see what a completely genuine heart for God looked like. I also saw how the evil one can disrupt that, which broke my heart to see how much stress it put on him. For his privacy sake I won’t go into anymore details.
Two weeks ago we had a guy named Chris Lautsbaugh speaking who completely tore me apart in how small my view of Christ was. The main theme was Grace and Karma and then we took Grace deeper into Salvation. The easiest way to sum up everything I learnt is that the struggles of sin were bigger in my eyes than the power of Salvation. I wish I could sit here and type out everything he said because it would literally blow your minds, but I’d rather share it in person. Last week we had Dean Sherman here and he gave us a spiritual butt kicking which has been so awesome too! He was teaching on spiritual warfare and it is some serious stuff, it was really stretching for me. As a Christian it can be so easy to get stuck on Salvation, and Salvation is only the doorway into the Kingdom life. Jesus didn’t come just to redeem our souls but he came to redeem our lives here on earth. Salvation is only the doorway into the Kingdom, don’t let Salvation be the only evidence that you are saved, let your life declare it as well! His desire is that our lives would speak louder than our words to the non believers around us and sadly today the millions of lukewarm or pretend believers as well.
YWAM has already completely changed my life, if I were to pack up and come home today I would still be able to say this was the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I have never experienced God in such a way as I have here; I am so thankful that God allowed me to come here. We will be finding out where we are going to go on outreach tomorrow, I’m beginning to feel a calling to another country other than Thailand, but we will see how that all works out in time. We also picked our focus tracks two weeks ago and I chose the Justice track, which will be dealing with the human trafficking as well the whole sex trade industry. I would really appreciate your prayers for God to open doors for us to shed His light in these very dark areas.
I’ve finally started to learn that I will never understand how big God is and all that makes Him who he is. I’m reading this book written by the pastor of the church that I’m attending every Sunday and he describes it like this. If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. It’s so simple and somehow I have found a way to ignore this my whole life, which has lead to me to finally see God for what He truly is. I feel like a little kid here because everything is so new for me; I’ve never dug so deep into the word as I have here.
This past Friday we went out with our focus tracks and our Justice track went out raising awareness of human trafficking in Burbank. This was a lot of fun and we had so many people respond to it with a great interest in being a part of standing against it. The stats here in the USA are tough to swallow knowing that there are 100,000 – 300,000 under age children being sold into prostitution and the average age of those kids is 13 years old. People were blown away after hearing that and the coolest people to share this with was the young girls in the mall. They really expressed a deep concern knowing that it’s girls their age that are the targets for this industry. I’m not sure what we will be doing this Friday, but I know after speaking to about 150 people last time around I’m sure God has big things planned for this Friday as well!
This past Saturday was an amazing eye opener for me as I took part in a Boot Camp for kids at serious risk of getting into lifestyles that would most likely wreck their lives if not end them. We met all the LAPD officers that were running the boot camp and they warned us to be ready for what we were about to see and to know that they were only doing this out of love for the kids. There were about 14 people from our YWAM base that went and we lined up along the back fence just to observe. There were 70 kids lined up on a basketball court and these police officers came flying through the gates and just ripped into these kids it was really shocking for me. I had seen stuff like this on shows like Maury, but in real life it’s a whole new feeling. As much as you want to step out and stop it you know that these kids don’t listen to anyone and if no one disciplines them their lives will completely spin out of control. The first two weeks we will just be getting used to the environment just so the kids can get comfortable with our faces and two weeks from now we will begin mentoring these kids. I’m really excited to just love on these kids who have been looking for attention in all the wrong places; our team has such a big heart for these kids ranging in age from 8 – 17 years old.
This week Randy Thomas is our speaker and he spoke for the first time last night and he was so good. He is so funny I’ve never laughed so hard in a setting like that. Randy has spoken at hundreds of DTS schools and ran many of them; he is so good at what he does. He has a sense of humour kind of like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, I couldn’t stop laughing. We will be learning about the Nature and Characteristics of God this week from him, which I’m really excited to learn about. It’s been so humbling coming from home thinking I knew so much and now feeling like I haven’t even touched the surface. This is a feeling I’m sure God will always want me to have the rest of my life, because our minds can’t even begin to work like His. I got to get to class, have a great day everyone!
P.S I’m sorry about taking so long, I’ll get it back together!
Adam
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
What I'm Up To
Hey everyone, I figured it's time that I just do a general blog now that I'm all settled in here in Los Angeles. I really didn't know exactly what to expect when I came down here, I knew it would be in some sort of way similar to a Bible college except with no marks and a greater emphasis on spiritual development. It has been an amazing change of pace for me being here and I'm really taking my faith deeper in so many new ways.
Anyways, as you can see in the pictures in my very first blog that we all live in trailers, staff and students. The rooms are pretty cozy, but being a guy it’s not such a big deal, for that reason I'm glad I'm not a girl because space is limited. I only have one roommate his name is Patrick Moore and he is from Venice Beach, California. He is a really great guy and we've just started really getting to know each other now that we actually have time to sit down and just chill. The first week was super busy I wasn't expecting it at all. The first couple days were all orientation and then we jumped right into our lectures. Our first set of lectures were video lectures on relationships by a guy named Dean Sherman. Everyone around here jokes that the Simpsons character Ned Flanders was inspired from him because when he made his first set of video sermons in the eighties he looked just like Ned with his moustache, green sweater and his old school pop can glasses. We watched some more updated videos of him and let me tell you, that mans sermons are so simple that they will send you through a loop because they still are so deep. I don't know if that makes sense, you need to see him to understand. He actually will be speaking live here I think next week on Spiritual Warfare which I'm really excited for. Unfortunately I couldn't find an earlier photo of him, but if I could you c
ould see how people may joke about him being the real Ned Flanders.
Monday through Friday we are super busy we are up usually around 6 - 6:30am and breakfast is served at 7:00am. At 7:30am we have a quiet time to pray and to seek the lord until 8:30am, which is really nice to have that time set aside for God every day. Then after that depending on the day we have worship or lectures. Lunch is at 12:30pm every day and then after that depending on the day we have lectures again or work duties. Everyone in the DTS has work duties; I myself am on the maintenance crew. Other duties include landscaping, kitchen work, administration or being a nanny. Dinner is at 5:30pm every day and then depending on the day we have lectures at night or free time or special base activities. We have to be in the dorms by 10:00pm, and that’s what a basic day looks like here. Weekends are pretty laid back we are all required to work one kitchen prep or kitchen clean up shift and then we are free for the weekend basically. Sundays we get to split up and go to churches in the L.A area.
Every week we have a separate set of lectures and a different lecturer. On the Friday of each week starting this week we will start our focus tracks. Our tracks are just specific areas of ministry that we will find out about on this Thursday. On the Fridays of each week we work with our groups in our specific focus tracks and after this Thursday we will find out what else we will be doing in them.
There are 33 DTS students here from all over the world and it has been awesome to hear their stories about how they ended up here in L.A. This week we are listening to a guy named Chris Lausbaugh and he runs a School of Biblical Studies in Cape Town, South Africa, which he has really caught my interest with as a secondary YWAM School. That’s a long ways away though so we'll see what happens I guess!
The Food is awesome here too, way way way better than Caronport cafeteria food that’s for sure. I still don't know where I will be going for outreach, which is really exciting. I still would like to go to Thailand, but who knows, I'll go where ever God leads me.
By the way, the weather has been crazy out here the last two days it has been pouring consistently, which is depressing since I was looking forward to lots of sunshine. Its supposed to rain all week, which is real unfortunate, but it's better than Manitoba weather. Anyways I hope this post will just give you a little bit more of an idea of what I'm doing. Thank you again for your prayers and support, God Bless!
Adam
Anyways, as you can see in the pictures in my very first blog that we all live in trailers, staff and students. The rooms are pretty cozy, but being a guy it’s not such a big deal, for that reason I'm glad I'm not a girl because space is limited. I only have one roommate his name is Patrick Moore and he is from Venice Beach, California. He is a really great guy and we've just started really getting to know each other now that we actually have time to sit down and just chill. The first week was super busy I wasn't expecting it at all. The first couple days were all orientation and then we jumped right into our lectures. Our first set of lectures were video lectures on relationships by a guy named Dean Sherman. Everyone around here jokes that the Simpsons character Ned Flanders was inspired from him because when he made his first set of video sermons in the eighties he looked just like Ned with his moustache, green sweater and his old school pop can glasses. We watched some more updated videos of him and let me tell you, that mans sermons are so simple that they will send you through a loop because they still are so deep. I don't know if that makes sense, you need to see him to understand. He actually will be speaking live here I think next week on Spiritual Warfare which I'm really excited for. Unfortunately I couldn't find an earlier photo of him, but if I could you c
ould see how people may joke about him being the real Ned Flanders.
Monday through Friday we are super busy we are up usually around 6 - 6:30am and breakfast is served at 7:00am. At 7:30am we have a quiet time to pray and to seek the lord until 8:30am, which is really nice to have that time set aside for God every day. Then after that depending on the day we have worship or lectures. Lunch is at 12:30pm every day and then after that depending on the day we have lectures again or work duties. Everyone in the DTS has work duties; I myself am on the maintenance crew. Other duties include landscaping, kitchen work, administration or being a nanny. Dinner is at 5:30pm every day and then depending on the day we have lectures at night or free time or special base activities. We have to be in the dorms by 10:00pm, and that’s what a basic day looks like here. Weekends are pretty laid back we are all required to work one kitchen prep or kitchen clean up shift and then we are free for the weekend basically. Sundays we get to split up and go to churches in the L.A area.
Every week we have a separate set of lectures and a different lecturer. On the Friday of each week starting this week we will start our focus tracks. Our tracks are just specific areas of ministry that we will find out about on this Thursday. On the Fridays of each week we work with our groups in our specific focus tracks and after this Thursday we will find out what else we will be doing in them.
There are 33 DTS students here from all over the world and it has been awesome to hear their stories about how they ended up here in L.A. This week we are listening to a guy named Chris Lausbaugh and he runs a School of Biblical Studies in Cape Town, South Africa, which he has really caught my interest with as a secondary YWAM School. That’s a long ways away though so we'll see what happens I guess!
The Food is awesome here too, way way way better than Caronport cafeteria food that’s for sure. I still don't know where I will be going for outreach, which is really exciting. I still would like to go to Thailand, but who knows, I'll go where ever God leads me.
By the way, the weather has been crazy out here the last two days it has been pouring consistently, which is depressing since I was looking forward to lots of sunshine. Its supposed to rain all week, which is real unfortunate, but it's better than Manitoba weather. Anyways I hope this post will just give you a little bit more of an idea of what I'm doing. Thank you again for your prayers and support, God Bless!
Adam
Saturday, January 16, 2010
An Amazing Start
I can't begin to express how truly excited I am after all that has happened since my last post. God has done many profound things here to all the students. It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one in this world that has every day struggles in the pursuit of knowing Christ.
First of all I realized I came to my DTS with the completely wrong attitude, instead of saying God what can I do for you I basically told God what I wanted. When people asked me what I wanted to learn or experience at my DTS I would answer, I want to be consumed and filled by God's Holy Spirit. The problem was I wanted that for my own edification and not for the glory of Jesus Christ. Following Christ is so hard at times because we can take our faith too serious and become religious like the Pharisees or we cannot take it serious enough and end up lukewarm. When I say religious I'm talking about people who think it’s our deeds that earn our salvation or they pray, fast, and speak only for themselves. That’s one thing that drives me crazy about Christianity down here. There are so many churches that are known as super churches that treat their services as some sort of show. I was flipping through a Christian magazine here the other day and each church advertised themselves like their leadership was the starting line-up of some pro sports team. Seeing stuff like that makes my stomach turn.
Anyways as frustrating as that may be the stuff I’m about to share is super exciting for me. I'm going to be honest I really didn't open up to anyone here the first two days because I was caught up in myself. It was all about me getting what I wanted from God with no distractions and it didn't take long for God to step in and put an end to my selfishness. I was laying in bed ready to go to sleep when one of the guys in leadership walked by and simply asked me how my day was. His name was Tony and I’m so grateful he came that night. Just from him asking me how things were I just unloaded everything I was dealing with and the frustrations I was having. In that moment it was like my heart was freed. The whole day I had felt so alone because I felt like I couldn't relate to anyone and then God sent me Tony. I'm not lying when I say this, but Tony's testimony was my testimony. I don't just mean it was close in comparison, I mean it was almost exact. I was dumbfounded by how everything I had been going through he had went through in the exact same way. He understood everything I was feeling and all the things that drove me nuts. Even though I looked good on the outside as a Christian there was one thing that we both lacked coming into our DTS and that was understanding how to love people unconditionally. Wow, did God ever wreck me that night I remember just being beside myself in how I could be so selfish and being so humbled to know that God was willing to pick me back up and set me straight.
Now if you think that our God is a God of one time wonder moments wait till you hear this. Tuesday morning we had a worship session set aside for God just to take control and lead. The profoundness of the way God moved that morning is something I’ve never experienced in my life. It started off with worship and just singing to God and after the night I had I was broken in His very presence that morning. I think I cried for an hour straight. Then after singing we watched a video, about the love of a father and his son who had a disability and how they ran marathons together. It was a beautiful video, and this led into a prayer for people who never had a father that loved them in that way. Now what I’m about to share with you now is something I've never considered the eighteen years I've lived. The DTS director asked if any of us had suffered from a father who never loved us or was never there for us to stand up. I didn't plan on standing up, but God opened my eyes and reminded me about my birth father. For those of you that don’t know I was adopted when I was about a month old. In that very moment I realized I had completely cut him out of my whole life and didn't even acknowledge that he was alive. I realized I hated him for what he did to my birth mom and how he abandoned us. I never wanted to see or forgive him, my heart was so hard towards him I had forgotten he ever was a part of my life. It was scary to think about the fact that he was practically dead to me. The truth is I am a part of him and he is my family. I've never felt so convicted in my life over anything like I did then. People prayed over me and I balled my eyes out asking for forgiveness for how blind I had been. Again the Lord freed me from another set of chains that were holding me back from his glory. Then I felt lead to share what had just been revealed to me and I stood at the front and shared. I still can't believe how everything happened so fast it was truly the most intimate moment I've ever shared with my creator to lift up my birth father in prayer and surrender to God for the very first time.
You know what the really cool thing is how God completely revealed to me how much grace he has given me in my life. I have the greatest adopted dad anyone could ask for and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. His love for me I know is something I need to thank God for every day. I think the really exciting thing is that God is only giving me a little taste of how much he loves me through my dad. I love my dad so much and if it weren’t for the way that he has taught me to be loving and considerate of others over the last eighteen years God would have never been able to break this barrier in my life because I would’ve been unwilling. God has blessed me in adoption twice, with an amazing earthly family and my heavenly family to come!
Then after I was finished speaking guess who comes and grabs me, Tony! Turns out he had a father that had hurt him too; God has an amazing way of working! We knelt and wept together and prayed for each other. I still can't fully explain to you what it felt like in that very moment, but I want you to know that in Jesus Christ alone there is restoration for the deepest wounds in our souls. I didn't even know I needed it! I truly hope that this doesn't sound like I’m trying to brag for what God has done in my life. What I do hope is that this will encourage all who read that our God is alive and well and He is waiting to meet with you and fully free you from your past.
As much as I wish I could share every little detail that has happened this week I really don’t have a whole lot of spare time. We’ve been very busy here, but it’s been so great. Again, I really don’t want this to become some sort of selfish blog when I share these things that God has shown me. I just want to share these things for encouragement that God has really been working here in Los Angeles! Thank you all again for your support and prayers may God bless you!
Adam
First of all I realized I came to my DTS with the completely wrong attitude, instead of saying God what can I do for you I basically told God what I wanted. When people asked me what I wanted to learn or experience at my DTS I would answer, I want to be consumed and filled by God's Holy Spirit. The problem was I wanted that for my own edification and not for the glory of Jesus Christ. Following Christ is so hard at times because we can take our faith too serious and become religious like the Pharisees or we cannot take it serious enough and end up lukewarm. When I say religious I'm talking about people who think it’s our deeds that earn our salvation or they pray, fast, and speak only for themselves. That’s one thing that drives me crazy about Christianity down here. There are so many churches that are known as super churches that treat their services as some sort of show. I was flipping through a Christian magazine here the other day and each church advertised themselves like their leadership was the starting line-up of some pro sports team. Seeing stuff like that makes my stomach turn.
Anyways as frustrating as that may be the stuff I’m about to share is super exciting for me. I'm going to be honest I really didn't open up to anyone here the first two days because I was caught up in myself. It was all about me getting what I wanted from God with no distractions and it didn't take long for God to step in and put an end to my selfishness. I was laying in bed ready to go to sleep when one of the guys in leadership walked by and simply asked me how my day was. His name was Tony and I’m so grateful he came that night. Just from him asking me how things were I just unloaded everything I was dealing with and the frustrations I was having. In that moment it was like my heart was freed. The whole day I had felt so alone because I felt like I couldn't relate to anyone and then God sent me Tony. I'm not lying when I say this, but Tony's testimony was my testimony. I don't just mean it was close in comparison, I mean it was almost exact. I was dumbfounded by how everything I had been going through he had went through in the exact same way. He understood everything I was feeling and all the things that drove me nuts. Even though I looked good on the outside as a Christian there was one thing that we both lacked coming into our DTS and that was understanding how to love people unconditionally. Wow, did God ever wreck me that night I remember just being beside myself in how I could be so selfish and being so humbled to know that God was willing to pick me back up and set me straight.
Now if you think that our God is a God of one time wonder moments wait till you hear this. Tuesday morning we had a worship session set aside for God just to take control and lead. The profoundness of the way God moved that morning is something I’ve never experienced in my life. It started off with worship and just singing to God and after the night I had I was broken in His very presence that morning. I think I cried for an hour straight. Then after singing we watched a video, about the love of a father and his son who had a disability and how they ran marathons together. It was a beautiful video, and this led into a prayer for people who never had a father that loved them in that way. Now what I’m about to share with you now is something I've never considered the eighteen years I've lived. The DTS director asked if any of us had suffered from a father who never loved us or was never there for us to stand up. I didn't plan on standing up, but God opened my eyes and reminded me about my birth father. For those of you that don’t know I was adopted when I was about a month old. In that very moment I realized I had completely cut him out of my whole life and didn't even acknowledge that he was alive. I realized I hated him for what he did to my birth mom and how he abandoned us. I never wanted to see or forgive him, my heart was so hard towards him I had forgotten he ever was a part of my life. It was scary to think about the fact that he was practically dead to me. The truth is I am a part of him and he is my family. I've never felt so convicted in my life over anything like I did then. People prayed over me and I balled my eyes out asking for forgiveness for how blind I had been. Again the Lord freed me from another set of chains that were holding me back from his glory. Then I felt lead to share what had just been revealed to me and I stood at the front and shared. I still can't believe how everything happened so fast it was truly the most intimate moment I've ever shared with my creator to lift up my birth father in prayer and surrender to God for the very first time.
You know what the really cool thing is how God completely revealed to me how much grace he has given me in my life. I have the greatest adopted dad anyone could ask for and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. His love for me I know is something I need to thank God for every day. I think the really exciting thing is that God is only giving me a little taste of how much he loves me through my dad. I love my dad so much and if it weren’t for the way that he has taught me to be loving and considerate of others over the last eighteen years God would have never been able to break this barrier in my life because I would’ve been unwilling. God has blessed me in adoption twice, with an amazing earthly family and my heavenly family to come!
Then after I was finished speaking guess who comes and grabs me, Tony! Turns out he had a father that had hurt him too; God has an amazing way of working! We knelt and wept together and prayed for each other. I still can't fully explain to you what it felt like in that very moment, but I want you to know that in Jesus Christ alone there is restoration for the deepest wounds in our souls. I didn't even know I needed it! I truly hope that this doesn't sound like I’m trying to brag for what God has done in my life. What I do hope is that this will encourage all who read that our God is alive and well and He is waiting to meet with you and fully free you from your past.
As much as I wish I could share every little detail that has happened this week I really don’t have a whole lot of spare time. We’ve been very busy here, but it’s been so great. Again, I really don’t want this to become some sort of selfish blog when I share these things that God has shown me. I just want to share these things for encouragement that God has really been working here in Los Angeles! Thank you all again for your support and prayers may God bless you!
Adam
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Sunday Morning
Hello family, friends and supporters, if you are reading this I would first of all like to thank you for your time and interest in what has been taking place in my life these past months. I have truly been blessed by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and He has called me to take part in a Discipleship Training School with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in Los Angeles, California. I flew out of Fargo, North Dakota yesterday and I have finally decided on starting a blog as my means of keeping in touch with all of you. I initially wanted to send out emails but I realized that I had no one’s email which was a bit of a dilemma. Hopefully, this way I can keep everyone in touch with a little more ease and although I know blogs are sometimes impersonal I will still do my very best to send more personal emails as well.
I arrived in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon and was greeted by three of staff leaders from the school. It was funny because the one girl who picked me up recognized my last name and I found out she grew up in Swan River, which I thought was pretty cool. It’s neat to see God subtle fingerprints in little things like that just give you a sense of comfort in knowing that our Creator is looking out for us. I've never been in a city this big where I’ve actually had to drive around and let me tell you for a prairie boy to come to 5 lane freeways where there really is no speed limit was a little scary. Also, being in Los Angeles driving in the night is crazy, the city lights never end, something you don't see in Manitoba that’s for sure. The campus or base here is so beautiful we are surrounded by mountains and horse ranches I don't think there could be a more peaceful place to meet with God than here. It's so nice to sit outside in shorts and sandals again; it was great leaving the -40+ we were having in Manitoba. I've already met a ton of new people and heard there stories about how God brought them here and its truly amazing how He can work to bring people to where He needs them and provide for them.
Today will be a very relaxed day, we will be waiting for more arrivals and then we will all get together at 3:00pm for our registration and kick off. I know this is a short blog, but I will be sure to fill you in with everything that the Lord teaches and shows me in my three months here in Los Angeles. After my three months we will be going to a place of outreach. I'm not sure where that will be, my initial desire is to go to Thailand, but if the Lord has other plans I will follow Him wherever he leads.
I hope you all have a great week and again I thank you for your prayers and support. May the Lord bless you all in all that you do!
Adam
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