Hi!

Well we have been here for two weeks.
We have survived culture shock. We have learned what noise is again. What cafeteria food is…ew! That 300+ people on base means that you only have to do chores twice a week rather than several hours every day. That that there are lots of new people to meet…but that means you have to actually talk to them. That knocking is a rarity. But mostly that it is very weird to be here without my family. This is the same base that we were here on five years ago…I was in my last year of high school so I did not participate in the DTS…which is why I am here doing it now.
No, overall the other staff and students here have been extremely welcoming and gracious towards us. They have known that we were coming since the beginning of the school so that is a blessing that we are not too much of shock for people.
The first week were here was full of confusion, meeting our team that we are going to Thailand with along with the rest of the school…it is a smaller school which is a blessing…only 25 people. I am still learning names though...there is a library here so it really can’t be helped.
Our first week here, a pastor named Nick spoke on evangelism, wow he was overwhelming…in a GREAT way! He had a whole booklet of notes for us to go through… notes that I am still absorbing. God has used him a mighty way over the years. At first, because of his upfront personality I was actually a bit scared of him. But then he came up to me one day and started to tell me things, that there is no way he could know unless God had told him. He started praying over me, praying the exact same things that four of the previous speakers had prayed over me. I was soo amazed/blessed. On Friday all of the staff surrounded each student and prayed over each of us individually…I cried more then I have cried in years! God has been speaking a lot lately and I am excited for the future!
This week we had our first women speaker…Mrs. Reona. Mrs. Reona was originally from New Zealand and she has been with YWAM for 47 years! She is a legend of faith! She spoke of spiritual warfare. She knocked my socks off. She was very intense, detailed and organized. We spent hours on dissecting the Amour of God…she explained the significance of every piece in such detail, with scripture to enhance each idea. She quoted scripture like some people talk about the weather. Many of us found ourselves say...”When I grow up I want to be just like her!”
For horsemanship up here we are loving on some lonely horses that have been pastured all winter, some of them have never been broke and none of them had been groomed of months. So we have had our work cut out for us, fixing fences, tearing up deer eaten water lines, grooming, and Laura has been shoeing and breaking them.
I am adjusting well and am actually starting to like it here! It still feels weird being here without my family, but God is all over us being up here…so there is no place I would rather be! We only have two more weeks before we leave for Thailand so pray for our team that we will grow together in unity and preparation!