What's happening in Chico

Here's a real life update finally. We only have 3 weeks left of our lecture phase of CDTS. I can't believe how incredibly fast it has gone and don't want it to be over yet! The teachers have been fantastic, most have been teaching around the world for decades. We still love being here. It's even more beautiful now, we've had some rain to bring out new grass on the mountains and the trees are gorgeous. The temps are still in the high 60's and 70's during the day so it feels like summer to us but with the shorter days and red trees it looks like fall...how confusing! The kids are still loving school and life here. I think they would be happy to stay here forever.

There's been a change with our outreach due to flight availability. We leave on Sunday, Nov 22 for Fiji and couldn't get a flight back until Tues, Jan 12. Because of this we won't be able to minister to homeless people in San Fransisco. That's disappointing but it gives us more time to work with people in Fiji. We still need $3,800 for our outreach expenses, this includes airfare plus transportation, lodging and most meals in Fiji. We'll be staying at the Sandalwood Inn in a town called Nadi which is near the airport and the coast. We've heard the beach there is muddy but hopefully it's not too gross. Since we'll be there in their summer it'll be 80-90 degrees in Fiji with high humidity. Sound good? Another thing, women AND MEN should wear skirts in some areas (like villages). They are called sulus and we'll have to buy some when we get there.

We still plan to drive to the YWAM base in Creel, Mexico to visit when we are done here. As much as we love this place and the people here, our hearts are still for the people of Mexico. Please keep us in your prayers during these last weeks of teaching and preparation. Please pray that our finances come in (as well as our team's finances) and pray for wisdom and we prepare puppet shows, dramas and songs for outreach. We so appreciate all the prayers, words of encouragement and financial support that you've sent our way. Praise God!

Week 3

Our scheduled week 3 speaker, Donna Jordan, had to cancel due to Dengue fever. So a little rearrangement of our schedule had to be done.

The first part of the week was covered by Dale Harrison, the base director that spoke during week 1. He continued with Intimacy with God and a couple of other things.

Dale described the original intent of the altar as portable, so that people wouldn't have to travel in order to worship God. God designed it, but it had to be constructed by man. After the coming of the Holy Spirit, man became the altar to continue in the portable nature of it. We do not need to go places to worship God, we are able to worship Him where we are. There were different types of altars described in the Bible. They were made out of four different types of materials: gold, bronze, stone, and earth. The gold altar in the Tabernacle was only for the priests to use and only incense was to be burned on it. The bronze altar was for the sacrifices, very bloody. Stone altars can be built anywhere, and symbolize what we have become. In Exodus 20:25 the instruction for constructing a stone altar were given. They were to use only uncut stones, meaning only natural stones that haven't had tools used on them. God doesn't want us to dress up ourselves. He wants us to use the messes of our lives to build an altar to worship Him with.

The rest of the week was taught by our class leader Carlos Penning. He spoke on the character of God. God inspired the Bible to show us His character. He wanted to be transparent with us. He wants us to ask Him questions regarding His character, He is big enough to handle them. His character shows us that He desires a relationship with us. Our relationships with everything else, people and things, are only to be a compliment to our relationship to Him, not a replacement. We have chosen to replace that relationship with God, and seek after relationships in other places. We have made an abomination of what God desired. Indescribable horror has occurred due to our selfishness. Murder, rape, child molestation, and the list could go on and on. God could step in and stop these horrible things, but then His perfect justice would require Him to stop all sin, even mine and yours. That's not to say that He doesn't sometimes do that, but only when His people intercede for change. God has chosen to limit Himself to using His people for now.