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 could 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

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

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