Everywhere is YES until God says NO

WEEK SIX

2007-02-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

Okay everyone, this email is going to be in a new format due to the fact it is about 35 degrees outside and i'm dying... So instead of a day by day breakdown of what happened in the last week it will be more of the high notes:

So this week began the teachings of Mr. Pete Warren, he is a crazy guy, his lecture topic was spiritual warfare. Not as exciting as MARK PARKER but a very interesting class and very useful teachings. He really challenged us to see our true potential. He also had very many views and some of them were a little interesting so he also challenged our faith individually to decided what we thought was truth and were not. Some things I was not too sure about and maybe as I continue to grow in faith I may have a better understanding or opinion. Eight principles from his teachings were:

1. Mans sins have consequenses

2. The devil is not omnipresent - just God is - so he can only be in one place at a time

3. Darkness attacks man when we give it permission
4. God has given us weapons of warfare to fight with

5. We can be clothed in the full armour of God to fight against the enemy

6. When we praise God it acts as a weapon

7. God limits his power to give us freedom

8. Jesus was God's rescue plan to redeem us

This week I felt just really challenged to know the full armour of God: Eph. 6:13-17

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Even though I had said it at each BG Club meeting it is really something I would like to know. So that was our teaching with Pete. He also had to leave early so we had a free day on friday and we all just used it to realax and work on our journals!

This week our outreach teams were announced!! This is something we had all been waiting for, so here are my details:

I am on the Indonesia/Jakarta team!!!! So I will be going directly to Jakarta for 5 weeks, Bali for 3-4 weeks and then the rest of the time will be spent on the east side of Australia doing high school ministries!! It is sooo exciting and just amazing. Here are some prayer points if you feel like helping us out in prayer. http://www.gmi.org/ow/country/indo/owtext.html and http://www.24-7prayer.com/ow/country.php?country_id=25 . Our team really needs the prayers because we will be the first YWAM team going to Jakarta and really we have to connections there yet. We are all praying and trying to find places to go and different ministries to work with. And so my team consits of:

Landry-leader

Dayna

Shannon

Michelle-the girl i live with

Middie

Abby

Christine

Christina

Hannah

Chris

Parker

Ben

Keith

For friday night meeting we had on of the IWT directors come and talk to us, He hadn't slept for 36 hours so it was a little interesting... and then on saturday morning we had more IWT training for being a local link. So basically when people give their lives to Christ at the IWT preformances we will be at the front stage getting their information praying for them and just being someone to talk to and answer questions. So it will be our job to contact our link within 24 hours and then within the week to meet with them. So its all pretty exciting.

So that was my quick rundown of week six! hope you enjoyed it!

Have a great day!

ashleigh

WEEK FIVE

2007-02-23T17:50:00.001-08:00

WEEK FIVE!!

So I am actually in such a good mood so I thought why not listen to some worship music and write a letter home! haha but really that is exactly what I am doing in this moment.

Let me now try to recount the events of last week. (Oh and if you wonder why I send these weekly... or at least try to... its because I have to for school, but I just tend to write a tad more than others... haha lucky you!)

So, I actually left out something really exciting I did in week four!! And so on Friday I described it as "Friday: This friday was just a normal friday. Nothing out of the ordinary just non-stop, exciting, and pretty much incrdible!!" and while it was incredible there was nothing ordinary about it! actually on this day all of YWAM Perth base went out and shook cans for Australian Relief Mercy Services (ARMS) so there I am on this random street corner all by myself and I shook my can and talked to people about ARMS and YWAM and just stuff like the weather... Where I was placed it wasn't very busy but I still saw God do soo many amazing things. People were coming up and being sooo generous and they didn't even know what we were talking about. They just were ready. It was a day I will never forget. We saw 17 000 come in on that day through people shaking cans... just ordinary people giving and offering so God can do some pretty darn amazing things in Perth, I can't wait!!!

Okay so now back to WEEK FIVE!!!

Monday: so once again back to exercises in the morning... and the awful lunges are after me again!! I can't get away from them, they are everywhere!!! They are just making my knee soo sore that it gives out on me like every 5mins, my roommates think its pretty funny contrary to my belief... Anyways that was my morning. Still doing morning chores in the lounge with sven some crazy surfer from South Africa, its pretty fun. So this week our lessons are with MARK PARKER on LORDSHIP and you might wonder why MARK PARKER is capitalized and the answer is because he yelled all the TIME!! just randomly he would start SCREAMING!! He was just soo unreal! certainly never fall asleep in his class. He was just soo amazing to be around, such a blessed man. Yea so then we go on to lunch, work duties, dinner and such and back again for lectures and I don't really think MARK PARKER runs on the same time as the rest of the world because he NEVER let us out on time. Really lunch would get out at like 1:15 and we would speed eat for 1:30 when work duties would start. So anyways we didn't get out of our evening class until 10:30 and NOT 9:30 so good old quenton let us sleep in and not do exercises!! no more lunges!!!

Tuesday: Okay so once again a pretty normal start to the day except the whole sleeping in thing which was amazing!! we went on to doing more base intercession which I am really starting to love! and more lectures with MARK PARKER. Here I was thinking that this week wouldn't be as emotionaly trying as the other. Like really how impactful is lordship, well its VERY IMPACTFUL and probaly the hardest thing i'll ever do for my entire life!! But it will also be one of the most rewarding. Man o man am I ever thankful for that wonderful cross, and for my Heavenly Father that sent down His son for me, my sins. So I am getting sooo much out of this week. And this is also a small group night and I did a chapel talk on who God is dependable. I went alittle over the time limit but I think I learned more than anyone else because the topic I was talking about lead me to choose my outreach location!!!

Wednesday: OUTREACH OPTION DAY!!! so here were our choices--->

1. India- angel, maegan, sam, pablo

50-60 people - together for 5 weeks then seperate

Hyderabad

2. South Africa - janine, rob, ko

25-30 people - Durban 6 weeks

split- a)rob- Cape Town

b) KO- Piet Ritief

3. Australia and Indonesia - alicia + jess, landry

25 people - australia> 3 weeks IWT follow up, then to Bali

a) alicia+jess> Flores

b) landry> Jakarta

4. Mongolia - landon

10 people

So I don't know if any of that makes sense to you but those are our options with the location and team leader. So be thinking about where you think I will go. But you won't find out until next email because technically I didn't wrtie it out until then! The rest of the lectures with MARK PARKER were exciting for the day, and then it was a free night so I just went home and had a relaxing night.

Thursday: Once again a normal day, did exercises and went to lectures and stuff... did evangelism tonight, it was amazing. We sat around and sung worship in the little grassy area and then continued on our journey to read the entire bible all over the streets of Northbridge.

(its like 12am here and I have to get up at 8am so my days are going to begin to get smaller and smaller...)

Friday: Now this day had quite an impact on my life. When beginning this week I didn't think it would change my life in any huge way but MARK PARKER had other plans. So we began lectures at 8:30 and we did not leave that room until 7:00pm no food no nothing. You could go to the bathroom if you needed and water was supplied. This was a day full of laying things down. Declaring His lordship in my life. Most likely the hardest thing to do in my life. I learned this is not a lordship week but a lordship life! Each thing I laid down I have to lay it down each day. We began to be taken through the tabernacle. I won't go into huge detail of what happened in that room today because it was extreme but i will tell you the places we went and steps we took.

1. the gate

2. the court

3. the alter - cross

4. the bowl - clensing

5. candlestick - holy spirit

6. the table of showbread - communion

7. alter of incense - prayer and intercession

8. veil - our sin

9. ark - covenant

So after our 11 hour fast of food and strickly prayer worship and repentance it was a friday night meeting. So we got a sneek peek at our next speaker Pete Warren, he was pretty good too. So after the meeting I was dead and was just ready to go home. I was soo ready just to fall asleep and relax that I almost forgot it was our night to do the 24hour prayer. Here at ywamperth they have had prayer for the base every hour for about 11 years... i think most likely more... anyways we signed up late so we cover the 2-3 in the morning time. It is soo hard not to fall asleep. But we made it through.

Saturday: Well I was planning to have a beach day but that didn't quite work out for me so I ended up spending the day writting in my journal so that I wouldn't have to do it on Sunday. So I pretty much just sat around all day watching season on of grey's anatomy and finishing my journal. Not very exciting but it was nice and relaxing.

Sunday: no sunday to tired...

2007-02-23T17:47:00.001-08:00

Week 4!!!

sorry if this is confusing to read i wrote really late at night...

once again I am sorry this is so late but it was just such an intense week for me that I wasn't sure if I was ready to write it down and re-live it again. Some things I really wanted to remember and others still scare me. But know that things are going well with me and the stuggles I have gone through this week have only added to my testimony.

Monday: This week I chose to do exercising for morning exercises. It was actually really enjoyable and no more lunges... well... but anyway I'm really enjoying it this week at least. Base worship was really really amazing as always. We also began our father heart of God week with Richard Jones. Now I walked into this week thinking it was going to be easy, well not easy but not as intense as the weeks I had just had. I was strongly mistaken. God wanted to show me new revelations of His character, nature and love for me. I'm not sure if I was ready to receive this but by the end of the week I can certainly say that I call God my Father and I am proud to be a amazing daughter of His that will run into His arms like a child! keep reading to see how... We also get some bad news our house is going up for sale and the man is coming to take pictures of it on wednesday!! soo crazy!!

Tuesday: Today started out the same as most mornings up at 5:45 and now exercising. Yay for crunches! haha pretty sure we do 200 a day! no joke! i'm coming home with abs of steel! haha well we'll see what outreach does. So we began Intercession for the city of Perth. God has given me such a heart for this town. Just the area He has placed me in is absolutely challenging but the challenge makes me cry out more for the salvation of this town! I want to see change brought to Perth through IWT. Lectures were amazing again Richard just has such a calming voice and such a caring voice, I could pretty much listen to it forever and when He prays I just want to be rocked to sleep. He is just soo incredibly gifted. This week for small groups we hung out in the classroom preparing to write a certain letter. This letter was to my parents. It was a praise letter for everything they have done for me and a forgiveness letter for everything against me. It was a letter to let go of the reliance I have in them. That I can not continue to take all my problems to them and that for me to grow in God's will for me that I must put the cross between my parents and me. That I need to take all my problems to my Father God and not to my parents. (this letter is not a diss to them in any way it is just acknowledging that God is my father and He gives the love that can come from Him, which I have! But I also have my love from my parents and love them still, they just cannot be the people I turn to first, because that is not what God wants for me. So then I came home and did my new routine of soaking my feet in hot water and just getting rid of my gross summer feet while having some quite time with God and just reading my journal or writting in my diary. But on this certain night I just so happened to be reading Matthew 10 and God really spoke to me:

³⁴"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn
" 'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
³⁶a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'^[e]
³⁷"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

After reading this I knew what I had to do... and this lead me to ...

Wednesday: So more stupid exercises and they are just getting old now, I can't wait for them to end! Anyhow morning chores were exciting today we played 007 and I would explain it but it really would take forever! but its soo much fun. Okay so during school worship I knew what I had to do... It was time for me to truly acknowledge God as my father, my provider, my counsellor, my everything! This was my own personal time to give this over, this was truly a great time of worship and one I would never forget. God really met me there that day. So I was pretty much on a spiritual high all day, and it was surly tested in the hours to come. So me and michelle go home to finish cleaning for the realtor to come and take pictures. When he arrived he brought a friend along with him and at the very beginning i just got a bad vibe from him. So I brought them the house and as soon as the scary friend walks in he points like 2cms to my face and says Romans 8:16 and I was just terrified... Then a few minutes after he begins talking to me and Inga and I just felt a spritual war happening over us ( why didn't we have this week yet!!) so anyway we find out he is a practising evangical buddhist and he straight out says he hates ywamer's and I just pretty much wanted to cry. We talked for quite a long time and I just felt his questions battling my spirit, it was not a pleasant experience to say the least. But after Inga prayed for me and the house and just that he didn't leave anything in our house. Alot had happened and it wasn't over yet... So if many of you don't know this about my house but I live on a street were quite a few prostitutes are but more of this will be in my next email just keep that fact in mind. So that night I go to do my soaking of the feet and started to just cleanse myself of my day and I overhear a huge fight and certain words were spoken that I ended up having to call the police... not a great ending to such a powerful day for me, oh and i definetly got prayed for before I went to bed.

Thursday: no morning exercise for me, it was a sleep and rest morning and i really did need it. I then came to class and proceeded to read my letter and just acknowledge the change I had already placed in my life. I'll try to keep this one short. On evangelism we go to Northbrige the party side of perth and just read our bibles. We are doing this to saturate the area and just begin preparation for IWT and all the changes God wants to see happen in Northbridge. We also had some worship in the little grassy area oppose to the big grassy area where we read. Some people stood and watched some others wanted prayer. It was a great night where we just got to praise God for his glory and power and just everything He is!!! and I walked home with Girvo and Fiona and found out that Fiona hated the word poo and I just thought it was funny...

Friday: This friday was just a normal friday. Nothing out of the ordinary just non-stop, exciting, and pretty much incrdible!!

Saturday: ZOO DAY!! oh boy this was a great day. It started out with going to McCafe for a slurppee the only place I have found! and then we walked down to the river, and took a little ferry to south perth, it was almost like the lund taxi but not as unsafe. So then we walked to the zoo and it was just sooo cool!!! I loved it. We walked around and just saw so many cool things and the zoo was set up so it really felt like you were in the jungle everything was so overgrown in a cool way and yea I was pretty exciting!!

Sunday: Well I slept in, went to church and then I cooked dinner from 1-530 not the best way to spend my day but it was my turn to help so I did it with a smile and had a pretty good time.

Kay so I'm sooo tired!! iAnd I know i left soo many stuff out just because i'm tired and i'm sorry!!! 've been pretty much in prayer and worship from 830 this morning till around 730 and i'm kinda dead. Oh and while I was writing this email I was listening to the livev concert of roger from pink floyd from across the street. When we were walking home there was this huge pink pig balloon, like the size of a house and they just let it go into the air... it was soo weird...

anyways thanks for the prayer
week five is on the way... hopefully tomorrow...

Ashleigh

WEEK THREE

2007-02-23T17:46:00.001-08:00

So here is my weekly update of weeks two and three!!! Sorry I was really busy these last two weeks so they are combined... but I hope you enjoy!

So week two begins "Hearing God's Voice/Intercession/Worship" week and our speaker was Ruthie Byrne. She was our first speaker from off of our base and boy was she AMAZING!! She was just so full of energy and was really able to connect with us. I loved this week.

Monday: This week I choose a brisk walk for my 6AM morning exercise and boy was that a bad idea... So here I am thinking oh a brisk walk I do that about four times a day home, base, home, base.... So when I started my brisk walk I thought it was all going to be fine and dandy. I was keeping up with the crowd not sweating enjoying my worship music then all of a sudden there is this HUGE ramp for the train station and we have to LUNGE up it. Not a fast lunge but a each knee better touch the cement type a lunge up a steep incline. By the time I had got back home I'm pretty sure my body stopped working my poor knee just couldn't do anything. But, I didn't give up and I certainly did finish that exercise all the way through the week! I suffered through the pain and worked my body. By friday I was feeling pretty good about myself knowing that normally I would have just stopped and changed stations, but the fact that I stayed really ment something to me. So then we began our monday morning worship like most mondays buy hugging 5 people around you, and it was amazing, like always. A guy from Simoa? lead us and I learned two new songs on in African(some language there it just says african) and it was called there's no one like Jesus and we learned a dance to go with it. The other song was Jesus rocks the party and at first people really didn't know what to do with it but we all just let down barriers and danced for Jesus and laughed and just worshiped together. Then we broke for lectures and we got to meet Ruthie and fall in love with her because she is so great. She also told us the story of how she married her husband, and amazing story but far to long to talk about. I only wish I could have such a story... haha one day!

Tuesday: Once again my day begain with the dreaded exercises!! This Tuesday we began to participate in base intercession and at first I didn't think that I would have anything to pray about in groups of three for a hour. But, it was amazing the time flew by and we just really a great experience and something to look forward to twice a week. Lectures carried on as usual, learning something new each day and just really growing in my relationship with God. Dinner tonight was dessert night so that just made my day that much better!! Work Duties is as hard as ever... The countdown is on for IWT and man oh man we really need some prayer in the donations office. Still need alot of things to come in. We also had small groups this night and we went down to the river and sat around and showed each other photos from home and just talked about the things that were happening in our lives, it was just an altogether good day.

Wednesday: Day went on as usual, crazy busy until dinner time then I just came home and worked on my journal. It was a relaxful evening and just a day of much needed rest.

Thursday. So once again day started as usual but that changed in class. We began intercessory prayer and saw miracles in our classroom preformed. One of the girl's bone grew three inches, another's shoulder pains were healed. Today was a really really amazing day. God really talked to me and just gave me so many revelations about His power and love for us. Went to work duties and dinner and then started evangelism... No one really knew what to expect during this night. We were broken up into about 9 teams. My team was one of the largest in Northbridge. It is a part of Perth where people go for the party life... a lost part of town. So we were broken up into teams of three and were told to go find a place in the town where we could just sit and wait for what God wants to say to us about Northbridge. I felt that He just wants to see the families brought back into the city and Himself welcomed along with them. We were also told that the basis of our time would not be to talk to people about Jesus but if they came up to us we could talk to us but our goal for the next 5 nights is to, between our entire group, read the entire bible on the streets of Northbridge and also have some times of Worship. We only had 5 more nights because IWT was coming and we would be helping out there instead of normal evangelism nights.

Friday: Day went on as usual. Had some amazingly, intense times of prayer in class. Just really growing to love prayer and see it not as a chore but something I jump at the chance to do and is just enjoyful. Tonight was also AUSTRALIA DAY!!! So we all headed to the river at about 4 and just walked around and saw some interesting things. There were sooo many people!!! Australians are very patriotic on this one day of the year so the flags were everywhere and on everything. There was also alot of "Aussie, aussie, aussie" "oi,oi,oi" getting screamed out. When we were there we were scared people were going to ask us where we were from but we said Canada and they loved us as long as we didn't like America. So we had a pretty fun night just hanging out in a big crowd and just having a good time. The fireworks came and they were just amazing. But, honestly, I still love them at PR. So after the fireworks we had to walk back to the base, it was about 20mins away but walking in the big mob of people it felt like forever!!!

Saturday: I spent all day working on my journal and essay on the book "Is That Reall You, God?"

Here are eight principles I learnt this week through my lectures:
1. God wants to speak to us continually about our lives and choices.
2. If I seek God, He will change me.
3. God will help us use everything we have to understand His message.
4. God will confirm His word - It is not immature to ask for confirmation.
5. Guidance from God will be according to the effort of our commitment to do His will.
6. God always works with what we have and give to him.
7. The three ways God speaks to us.
8. Worship= directs us up
Intercession= directs us out.

Also on Saturday we had a talent show, which I did not participate in but certainly enjoyed!! Our hosts were Landry(one of my staff) and Richard (a super cool guy and such a shame he's married) he is on the media staff. But really I think they should have won best prize, they were amazing!! soo funny!! Just a great night!

Sunday: J9(my staff)'s Bday, which also meant free pancake breakfast!!! The day was just crazy hot so I didn't feel like dying at the beach and decided to head into town and go for an adventure by myself. I actually ended up getting lost... but I found the body shop and got a loofa which I really needed and I also found a really cool art musem that is air conditioned and free so I hung out in there and got lunch and just people watched for the day. It was a good relaxing day for a busy week.

So Michelle, one of the girls I live with really wants the computer so i'm going to give it over and this week's email will be following shortly so keep waiting....

WEEK TWO

2007-02-23T17:44:00.000-08:00

>>>>>>>>WEEK TWO<<<<<<<<

Okay soo this week has gone by sooooo quickly! I can't even believe it considering how long my days are. The weather here is kinda funny, first it can be really hot and then it can be cold but it was just so hot that it feels like its freezing. This week though has been a pretty amazing week. Great things have happened and really just gave me a firm feeling that this is where I am supposed to be.

So Saturday started out with us sleeping in for about as long as we could knowing that on monday we would be getting up at 5:45AM!!! Quenton organized for all the YP to go to the beach for a nice little outing together. So we tried are best at sleeping in but its just soo darn hot in the morning that we were up at around 9AM. So instead of just waiting around doing nothing until lunch we decided to go into Perth and do a little shopping. So after the shopping we grabbed something to eat and headed for the train, the train being a main transportation here, and I keep calling it a bus and everyone gets mad at me, but hey we don't have TRAINS in powell river! So anyway we go to find the train but the train to cottesloe isn't running so we ended up having to take a bus. We were kinda scared because there were just 4 of us and we didn't really know where to get off for the beach. Anyway, we ended up missing our stop but one and we had to walk about 15mins back to the station so we could take the shuttle bus to the beach. Once we got to the beach it was soo nice. There were about 100 of us all sprawled out over the beach. Then the way back was just as much of an adventure. We finally made it back to the base, we were a little late but there was still good for us and it was dessert night so that made us all soo happy!!! And when we got home we went out on a little adventure to kings park that place is sooo beautiful i have a few picture to show you all of it. And then it was time for bed.

Then on Suday we were all beat and didn't wake up in time for church (but don't fret I made it there today). So we began our day with sleeping in until lunch time and then made our way to the base. Sunday dinner is also the night our journals are due so everyone was running around trying to get that finished. We also found out that there was going to be a Perth soccer(football) game happening so we thought it would be pretty entertaining to go watch one of those games. When we were there it was just soo much fun. We sat just looking around at all the crazy people dressed up and sining crazy perth songs. It was just pretty funny. So by the end of Sunday night we were soo tired and were really dreading getting up at 5:45 the next morning. We decided to go to bed early but that just didn't really work out and we ended up watching a movie with the rest of our house.

Then it was finally monday morning and we were most definately getting up at 5:45am!! So for morning exercises I ended up picking ultimate frisbee which really was not a good idea since who has very eye hand coordination after only being up for 15mins, no one! But we all made it through our first week of morning exercises only 10 more weeks to go! Then when we went to the base for morning chores and base worship. The worship here is pretty amazing, I feel really comfortable here and free. So then our new week of lectures began. It was the forgiveness and repentance week with Shirly Brownhill, our last speakers wife. No one really knew what God had in store for us this week but we all had a little bit of excitement and just a feeling of being ready to let go of everything keeping us away from God, and boy did we ever. And life went on around the base as usual.

On Tuesday we did our normal schedual, and getting deeper into our lectures. In these lectures I learn soo much. I love it because it really teaches me alot about myself and really allows me to grow, and boy oh boy do I can't wait to go deeper!! But, Tuesday was also our first small group night. So at 7:30 we all gathered to break into our groups. I am with alicia she is soo amazing, and i really enjoy speneding time with her. She is also from BC!! so many people here are!! So in my small group there are 11 girls and they are each soo amazing. Its really fun getting to spend time with people from all different nations. So we just sat around in the park and played different games getting to know each other and before we knew it it was time to head home. Then once at home it was straight to bed because it is just soo exhausting at the end of the day.

Wednesday was a good day. Did the usual all day but our evening was free and really needed. So we just relaxed all night and ventured out into Mt. Lolly (thats not how its spelt but what it sounds like) and got a ice cream sundae from hungry jacks which in canada is known as Burger King... we had a bit of an adventure getting there. It was pretty much just me making a geek out of myself and everyone laughing, but it was a fun night of just relaxing and enjoying ourselves in this beautiful city.

Thusday came very quickly! Day went on as usual and by the time lectures came we all had alot of questions. We all had heard different stories of how our application day went and we just wanted to know what to expect, but our questions still weren't answered we were just asked to bring two lists, one of people we needed to forgive and ask forgiveness from, and the second was a list of sins we needed to repent of. So our day was full of going into the depths of our hearts and asking God to show us what we have hidden there that is keeping us from Him. Some things went on my list that I thought that I had delt with and others that I didn't even remember. But needless to say I did not have a very peaceful sleep just with things running through my mind and having oto write it down.

And then Friday arrived... everyone not sure of what was happening. I was in my pjs and brought a blanket because I didn't know how long we were going to be at class today. So finally lectures started and we were told what was going to happen. There would be one large semi-circle and at the front would be a chair and whoever felt like they needed to repent infront of all 110 of us would sit there and pray out to God for forgiveness. There would also be someone to pray over you and their leader (we also would be praying for them the entire time). When they were finished they would take there lists to a cross and nail them to it. So after 5 people had done repented it was about lunch time and had taken over 2 hours. The leaders decided that it would take days to finish if we stayed in one group so after lunch we were broken up into 4 groups and about 36 in each group. So It was my turn after dinner and I was just full with soo many different emotions but once i sat down on that chair it was just me and God, not a room full of 120 people. And after I was prayed over I felt free, and so close to God. Then by the time I got to the cross I was ready to be rid of those sins FOREVER. The groups went on for some time more and we all ended with about a hour of worship while more people were still getting prayer. So our application day had began at 9:30 and went on to 12:15 quite honestly the longest time i've ever spent in prayer! But it was a day that I will never ever ever ever forget. Our group just feels closer now and much more free. Needless to say I had the most amazing sleep that night that I had ever had.

And now its back to the weeked. Saturday I slept into about 10 and just sat around until lunch time. After lunch we came back to the house and headed out to a little park where we worked on our journals and just relaxed. It was amazing and we went back to the base for dinner and also dessert night. It was just a perfect day!

Now its Sunday and I went to church this morning and it was very differnt... but it was a good message. So now a lot of people went to the beach but I stayed because i'm not finished my jounal and I really should be farther in my book. I'm just sitting down in the living room with the fan on me and watching tennis. Enjoying some alone time. But now its time for me to work on my journal so I hope you all enjoy your day!

Sorry for it being so long...

Have a great day!
Ashleigh

2007-02-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!

I thought I'd send a email about my first week of adventures in Perth!!! It is such a beautiful city here. There are palm trees everywhere and grass but the grass is really scratchy and sometimes yellow because they are going through a drought. Anyways, this town in amazing and the town in sooo clean!! There's no garbage anywhere.

I'm just sitting in my house right now getting ready to go to morning chores but at least morning exercises haven't started yet or I'd be waking up at about 5:30AM and not around 7AM like I have been lately. There are sooo many YPers this year that me and two other girls are living in staff housing. So there's about 11 girls all living in one house with three bedrooms. Oh, and there's also only one bathroom so it's a little interesting in the mornings. The other girls either live on the base or there are also 44girls living in 228 and there are pretty much no walls in the whole house, I'm pretty excited that i'm not living there, but I miss the interaction.

So lets begin with my journey here from good ol' PR. So my plane rides were pretty interesting. They were my first time every flying so I was really quite scared, but everything worked out for me. The first one was 14.5 hours long!! It was sooo terribly long that I was going crazy. I sat beside a women that kept burping and a couple with a small baby who didn't stop crying the entire trip!!!! Oh, and I also got sick when we were landing but I wasn't allowed to stand up so I had to puke in my blanket while I was sitting next to all those people! It was sooo embarassing. My next flight was much better. I didn't even get sick!! But the food was the worst.

We arrived in Perth at about 8:30 9ishAM. After that we all got together and realized we had travelled with quite a lot of other YPer's all the way from Vancouver. A lot of us had kinda suspected we were all going to ywam but nobody really spoke up. So then we all rode into where our houses are. Me Kari and Michelle all live in the same house. Its about a 8-10min walk from the base. Oh, and we walk tons here!! at least 1.5 hours a day, just back and forth all the time. My bed is on a top bunk and it makes sooo much noise. Okay, enough about the house. After we got settled in we walked to the ywam base for lunch. Then after lunch we went to the BEACH!!! It is such a beautiful beach. We just ended up sitting around and didn't really attempt swimming today. After the beach we headed back to the base for dinner and then came back home. When we got home we did a little adventure into town and got some food and such and also had a little welcome to Perth party.

(I'll try to keep my days a little smaller)

On Sunday we were all a little too tired to find a church to go to so we just slept in and ended up going back to the beach and this time we went swimming!!!! It was great!!!! And then dinner a small adventure and back to sleep.

Monday we had base worship. I learnt a really cool new worship song with actions!! Then out 2 day long orientation started. We had a little free time then back to dinner. We also went to Kaio, its a coffee shop part of a ministry at ywam perth. When we were there we broke into small groups with one of the staff and shared our testimony.

There was some more orientation on Tuesday and a lot of free time. Spent some time walking around town and went to the park.

Wednesday school finally started!! To start off our day there were morning (family) chores. So each morning we go and do cleaning in a certain part of the base so that no one needs to be hired to help with the upkeep. I'm part of the outside crew so that means I do sweeping and such. Class started. Our first subject was the character and nature of God and our speaker was Peter Brownhill. He really opened my eyes on who God is and really taught me how I was seeing him. It was amazing!! I hope I am touched as deeply in each week as I was in this one. Then we had lunch dinner and more free time.

Thursday was more morning chores and lectures from Peter Brownhill. We also were given our work duties... My duty is working with Impact World tour ( www.impactworldtour.com.au ) There were five girls choosen to work with the tour and it is our job to make most of the arrangements. Sounds easy... I don't think so. The tour really doesn't have enough money to buy all of the equipment so we phone businesses in Perth and ask them to donate stuff such as 1240 screws, 580 sheets of plywood, cell phones, baseball bats, and soo much crazy stuff. And we really need all this in about a month. So please be praying that all this will come together for the youth of Perth.

On Friday everything went the same but we also had a Friday Night Meeting. It was really amazing worship and more great words on God. After that we went on a bit of a journey to Kings Park. Its about a 45min walk from the base. But once you get there you can see all over Perth and the trees are all lit up and it is just beautiful!!!

So heres a quick rundown on my days now that I am past the first week of school!!!!

My days start at 6am and go till about 9.

Monday
exercise
morning chores
base worship
break
lectures
lunch
work duties
dinner
lectures

Tuesday
exercise
morning chores
announcements
creative presentation
break
lectures
lunch
workduties
dinner
small groups

Wednesday
exercise
morning chores
school worship
memory verse
break
lectures
lunch
workduites
dinner
study night

Thursday
exercise
morning chores
intercession
creative presentaion
break
lectures
lunch
workduties
dinner
evangelism

Friday
exercise
morning chores
school worship
break
lectures
lunch
workduties
dinner
friday night metting

So I promise this will be the longest email i will send unless something amazing happens!

But I have to finish writtin in my journal thats due tomorrow night at dinner.

Hope everything is going great with all of you!!!

Bless you,
Ashleigh