Testimony

The following testimony is not mine, but was shared by our speaker at this week's community meeting, and was so awesome that I just had to share it!
There is a girl who lived in Haiti when she was little. She and her siblings lived in an orphanage, but they were not orphans; their parents simply couldn't take care of them. They were able to go visit their family, but they were cared for at the orphanage. One day the girl was told that a family had come and they were going to take her to America. Whether because of her age or a language barrier or because someone was hiding the truth, the girl didn't realize that she was being adopted. She thought she was only visiting America, and had to discover over time that she wouldn't be going back. She would never get to see her family again.
I don't know how old she was when she was adopted, but by the time she was in junior high, she had learned to love her new family and ended up going to the youth group that our speaker works with. After the earthquake last year, the girl was devastated. She came to youth group the following week and cried and cried, trying to come to grips with the fact that her family was really gone. She had seen which areas had been affected the worst, and knew that they couldn't have survived. That night at youth group some girls prayed that God would give her peace as she dealt with the loss. One girl bravely spoke, "God, if her family is still alive, show her somehow. Let her know that they're alright." The next morning the youth leader got a call from the girl from Haiti. She was so excited that she hardly made sense, but the youth leader understood, "My family is ok! God took care of them!" She asked how in the world she could possibly know that, since communication out of Haiti was pretty much nonexistent at that time. The girl said, "Have you seen TIME magazine?!" The issue had a special report on the earthquake, and inside was a picture of her family digging through their destroyed home.
How awesome is our God who cares so much for this girl? Having studied the Gospel of John this past week, I'm more convinced than ever that he cares this much for each one of us. His love is so much bigger than we can comprehend. If you're still not convinced, click here and read another testimony that made me cry this week. God is good. ALL the time.

Belated-- Back from Break

As you probably already know, we were able to go home for 2 weeks for Christmas break. If you didn’t get a chance to read the story of our adventure back to Montana, you can read it here or scroll down to our previous post.

We had a great time getting to be with family and enjoy the Christmas traditions that we missed out on last year. Here are some highlights—

Decorating gingerbread houses with the Davies/Jarvis kids

We had Christmas Eve with the Shevenell Clan

Christmas Morning with the Davies/Jarvis Squad (some of whom weren’t quite awake)

Christmas Afternoon reunited with the Shevenell Clan for a trip to see the extended family (who didn’t make it into any pictures…it was a big group)

In the week following Christmas Jesse participated in Naomi’s study on the effect of ice baths on inflammation, which included Jesse doing a 40-minute downhill run followed by a 20-minute ice bath (in water that really was 0^oC).

Brent kept him company to keep his mind off the pain.

We were welcomed back to Montana with three major events:

First, my laptop died only a few hours after our arrival. Our homework is done completely online, so living without a computer isn’t a very real option. I lived in the library for a week until our insurance money came through (Praise God for insurance! YAY!) and...

TA-DA! Picked up my new laptop yesterday. This is also my excuse for not having updated since coming back from New Hampshire. I was a bit out of sorts for a few days there.

Next, we studied FOUR books this past week. (I really did LIVE in the library). We covered 1 & 2 Peter, Jude, and 1 John. This coming week we’ll be doing the Gospel of John, which is the first large book we’ve done since Luke…which was sometime way back in November or something. We’re expecting to feel a wee bit stressed pulling ourselves back into things.

The third event that welcomed us back to Montana was…Welcome to Montana night! 

The first Friday of each new quarter, the base puts on this huge dinner (usually super awesome burgers and such) for the whole base, and everybody dresses up in Montana-wear, and there are competitions between all the schools (this time we had tug of war and a hideous game in which someone had an egg duct-taped to their forehead and someone else tried to break the egg by swatting at them with a dead fish. Mm. It looked pretty gross. THEN after dinner a guy comes and teaches everyone to square dance! It’s a super fun night and a great start to a new quarter. Here we go!

It's a Long Story.

Once upon a time, on an unseasonably warm December 31^st, I went online and purchased two one-way bus tickets to Logan International Airport. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:30 am on New Year’s Day and the bus would leave the station at 2:30 am, getting us to the airport at 4:15 am. After some anxious second-guessing, we agreed that 45 minutes would be enough time to check in, get through security, and get to our gate in time for boarding. We carefully chose shoes that could slip off easily, and went without belts so that we could hurry along through security.

And so, after a wonderful New Year’s Eve gathering and subsequent late-night talk with Mother/Mother-in-law, we drove to the C&J bus station in Portsmouth, bursting through the front door with our bags at about 2:25 am. I already felt an anxious need to HURRY (though we were on time and we had no control over how quickly the bus would reach the airport). We sat in the waiting area with our bags for several minutes before resting a worried gaze on the large clock, which tick-tocked its way slowly to 2:45. 15 minutes late. What? I hurried over to the front desk and was informed that the bus didn’t leave until 3:00. HOW COULD THAT BE? I checked and re-checked the bus schedule so many times! It was a holiday AND weekend. There was no chance that I had confused the regular schedule with the weekend/holiday schedule. As I nervously thought about arriving at the airport at 4:45, I was already starting to wonder if we could somehow take a later flight. We weren’t going to make it. In an effort to help the concern he saw on my face, the nice man behind the desk clarified, “The bus leaves the Dover station at 2:30 and gets here at 3. It will be at the airport by 4:15.” Then angels came down from heaven and rested on his shoulders as they sang a heavenly song. I’d been looking at the DOVER column! We WOULD be there on time! Hurray!

That problem settled, I returned to my seat and waited, then boarded the very full bus right on time and proceeded to sleep (not particularly soundly) until the driver announced that we would be stopping at the first check-in terminal. We had already established that we would be stopping at the third terminal-- the big red and blue “U” symbol (for United Airways) confirmed this as I looked at my printed-out itinerary. By the time the bus made it to the third terminal, it was almost 4:30, and I could see huge lines at the check-in counters inside. The anxious feeling was returning. As soon as I hopped off the bus I grabbed the two small bags that had been pulled out from under the bus and left Jesse to get the others while I secured a spot in line. I ran in, huffing and puffing (wearing my big winter boots and warm new winter coat—because they wouldn’t fit in the suitcase, of course), could not figure out for the life of me which line I was supposed to be in, and received very unhelpful help from the lady who appeared to be directing traffic and finally landed myself in a line I was pretty sure was the right one. It was huge. And mom’s hairdresser was in line behind me! I was, however, too worried to feel like making small talk and did my best not to make eye contact. Jesse eventually joined me in the line and we finally were next in line for the counter, meaning it was our turn to use the kiosk to print out our boarding passes. I hurriedly poked at the screen, found our itinerary…and was promptly told that this kiosk could not check me in because my reservation was with another airline. WHAT? I repeated the process and received the same message. FREAK OUT TIME.

PAUSE. Somewhat relevant to the story: Naomi and I had planned our long run for Friday (New Year’s Eve day). We’d planned on doing 10 miles, thinking we were not quite prepared to go that far, but we were really determined that we were going to do it. It was a glorious run, except for the wretched stiffening that happened between miles 6 and 8. The last 4 miles were pretty terrible, as was the heaviness in my legs the rest of the night and the irritated, chafed-up parts of my body. When we returned we learned that we’d actually gone 12 miles instead of ten. No wonder it hurt! Note also that I hadn’t slept since that adventure. My legs were like lead…very STIFF lead…by the time we got to the airport.

Resume freaking out. I pulled out my printed itinerary and saw with horror the fine print under the gigantic “United Airways” symbol: “Operated by US Airways.” Horror of horrors (which I did not mention to Jesse)—I actually remembered at that moment that the confirmation email HAD in fact said at the top, “your check-in will be with US Airways” but that part hadn’t ended up on the print-out. AHHHHHHHH. We ran up to the nearest airport employee and asked where the check-in counters were for US Airways and we were told that it was all the way back in the second check-in terminal. So we ran like the wind, with sore legs stuffed in big boots, wearing our warmest set of clothes and with my hair flying everywhere, each of us wearing a backpack and dragging two bags behind us. We ran. I wanted to curse the day I bought my glasses which aren’t quite small enough and kept sliding completely off my face as I ran along. The layer of sweat that was quickly forming wasn’t helping either. My exceptionally foul mood was beginning. I think it took us a solid ten minutes to run to the other terminal. There were dimly-lit little hallways and escalators that didn’t seem to get a whole lot of use and I was wondering if we were still going in the right direction when we at last saw the check-in counters coming into view. So with my hair in a tangled mess and the front part all sweaty and sticking to my face (and with the unsettling realization that my sweatiest parts were not likely to dry out for several hours—and who in the world enjoys sweaty jeans?) we joined the line. The first kiosk that we made it to rejected us. I tried again and it let us pay for our bags, but didn’t give us boarding passes. The nice lady directing traffic did not seem concerned that we were only five minutes from boarding time at this point.

After finally checking our bags, we took up running yet again, this time in the direction of security. Of course, OF COURSE, my backpack got stopped and they had to look all through it and send it back through the scanner 55 times before finally letting us go. As we ran toward the gate we could hear them calling people to board the plane. Then we stood, panting, sweaty, and not in any mood to smile…for like FIFTEEN MINUTES waiting to get our seat assignments from the ladies behind the desk. So we didn’t need to run and get sweaty and angry and tired? Darn.

Flight # 1 was uneventful for the most part. We flew, we slept, we conquered.

At our layover in Philadelphia, we discovered that we then needed to go back to the United Airways terminal, check the screens to find our gate, and print out our boarding passes. This too, was uneventful, and we soon found ourselves with two hours to fill. So, still in foul moods, we staked out an area on the floor and curled up (quite uncomfortably) to sleep.

Flight #2 came and went.

In Chicago, we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the airport was (we’d heard less-than-appealing rumors) and enjoyed our slow meandering to our gate and the short amount of time we had to wait until our next flight.

Flight #3 was almost 4 hours. It felt long, but again we slept for pieces of it, I read some of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Jesse started a suspenseful movie about a runaway train called Unstoppable. We landed in Spokane, called our friends who were going to pick us up, and then made our way down to baggage claim. None of the carousels were marked so it took us some time to figure out which one was ours, but people seemed to retrieve their baggage quickly and soon we were just about the only ones left standing around with our eyes glued to the empty belt. We looked at our baggage claim tickets and noticed a possible problem, which the nice guy behind the counter confirmed. Our bags were left in Chicago.

Thankfully, he could confirm that they really were there, and he had us fill out a quick form and told us that our bags would go straight to the little airport in Kalispell and someone could bring them right to our house! PRAISE GOD! And thankfully we left plenty of clothes and toiletries and things at the house, so we’d be fine for a day or two without our bags. We still had our carry-on bags (including laptops, Bibles, books, makeup! and such) and the only thing I’ve really missed so far is deodorant. I’m an eensy bit disappointed because I was planning on pulling out my new cookbook (thanks Mom & Dad!) and trying a recipe or two, but alas, I’ll have to wait till next weekend.

So anyway, our friends picked us up and brought us back to their house for a quick break before heading out onto the road. Spokane got a couple of feet of snow over the past two weeks, so our car was pretty buried. While the men cleared it off I sat inside with the girls and had gingersnaps and talked about crocheting (which I don’t do, but they were all happily stitching as we talked). Finally we got ourselves back into the car, drove about half an hour before stopping to do our grocery shopping for the week (because Spokane is the only place with a grocery store that we’d pass during the whole four hours and we didn’t want to have to go into Kalispell on Sunday) and continued onward. I never thought four (or five) hours in the car could feel so long! It feels a lot worse AFTER a day of flying than before. I kept having flashbacks to when I was in sixth grade and mom would take me with her to pick up Naomi and her friends from youth group. She always said that she’d bring me because my constant chattering would help keep her awake. I was just positive that if I didn’t keep Jesse entertained he would fall asleep (because I was having a hard time keeping myself awake). So we drove…and drove…and drove and drove and drove…and this one road that we were on for 40 miles was supposed to be a highway but it looks like an abandoned back road (hey! Like Route 140!) and Jesse saw a big yellow “Deer Crossing” sign and was just about to comment that it was kind of unusual that the sign didn’t say “For ____ miles” when he just about jumped out of his seat as the headlights hit a couple of elk on the side of the road RIGHT next to the sign! Haha, just like they were intentionally crossing at that specific spot! When we were almost done on that road we couldn’t handle it any longer and stopped at a subway to go to the bathroom and get a chocolate chip cookie and some iced tea then settled our tired, depressed selves back into the car. When we made it home we were pretty dead tired. We brought our bags inside and pretty much INSTANTLY fell asleep. It was awesome! I didn’t even crack my eyelids open until 9 this morning (at which point we’d been sleeping for a solid 11 hours) and I showered and had breakfast and I’m just now feeling human again. Whew! Thanks for your prayers for safe travels! So glad to be here!

Reflections on the First Third

Today marks the end of first quarter (SBS is three quarters long) and it’s hard to believe how fast it’s gone by! Last week the Titus Project teams returned from outreach with some great stories of God’s faithfulness as they taught pastors how to study the Bible. The DTS has left for outreach—teams are in Guatemala, Haiti, Turkey, Brazil, and Thailand. Today we had our last test of the quarter and an hour later half of our classmates had already jumped in their cars and started journeying home. We’ll be taking off tomorrow afternoon! It’s hard to believe we’re already one-third done!

This quarter we studied Philemon, Titus, Ephesians, Galatians, Acts, Mark, Luke, 1&2 Thessalonians, Philippians, Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Hebrews, Colossians, and 1&2 Timothy, and James. This past Monday we did our student teachings on the book of 2 Timothy. I wish I’d gotten some pictures; they went really well! We have a lot of strong teachers in our school and it’s really fun to get to hear our friends speak and share what God is teaching them.

In these three months God has been challenging me to trust him more—with our finances, with our future, and in trusting that he’ll use me in huge ways to bring people closer to him. In each case I know in my head that I can trust him, and I might say that I already do, but he’s teaching me more and more to truly put all of my trust in him.

Jesse’s been really struck by God’s power to use us for his glory—even in our weakness. ESEPCIALLY in our weaknesses. Paul wrote, “he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (1 Corinthians 12:9). As God’s been guiding us toward our future after SBS, it’s easy to get caught up in all the qualifications we don’t have; but God has been saying loud and clear that he’ll use us no matter how inadequate we feel.

It’s been an awesome three months. We’re looking forward to great Christmas break spent with family, then jumping right back into the studying!

Some random pictures of our last couple of weeks:

Getting the car stuck in the church parking lot (the day I brilliantly decided to wear slippers to church…AH!!)

The Titus Team in Mongolia

Our SBS Christmas party-- graham cracker house contest

My first experience making meringues

Teaching

In one of our posts we talked about Titus Project, which is one of the things we’re considering doing after SBS. As we’ve talked to people about our desire to do more teaching, we keep hearing about another school—the Biblical Teaching and Preaching School. This one is a 6-month school, which includes a combination of lecture and outreach/application weeks, part of which includes a church internship.

There are still a million unknowns in the future, and the possibilities of what we COULD do after SBS seem to keep multiplying. One way or another, though, we know teaching will be part of whatever we do…and our next opportunity to practice is in just two weeks! Each quarter of SBS (actually, each THIRD, but each third is a quarter of a year long) we’ll be preparing and presenting a teaching on one of the books we’ve been studying. If I remember correctly, this quarter’s teaching will be on 1^st or 2^nd Timothy, just before Christmas break. We’ll be sure to let you know how those go!

Holiday Weekend

The last couple of weeks were spent studying 1^st and 2^nd Corinthians, marking the end of our 9^th week in SBS. Thanksgiving was an incredibly welcome break from routine! Some things we’re thankful for:

Wednesday night we got to spend some of our extra free time playing cards with an awesome couple who are the closest thing we have to parents while we’re here. Over cards and pumpkin pie we got to talk about dreams of the future and hear their wisdom on the subject. He was a pastor at 21 years old and they’re now YWAMers who work to help this base stay connected to the churches in the community. They’re a huge blessing!

It’s been snowing for almost two straight weeks

We got to be in America, enjoying a big American Thanksgiving this year!

We got to decorate the house for Christmas this weekend! We caught the tail-end of some Black Friday deals (just before the stores closed for the night) to get some decorations, and spent Saturday decorating and making gingerbread men and skyping with the Shevenell side of the family while they decorated too!

Aaaaand last but not least, I (Amy) am especially thankful for a return to routine after four days off! This week we’re studying Hebrews and we'll have Ron Smith teaching us. He and his wife, Judy, founded the SBS back in '81 and now they live/work on this base. We’re super excited for the week! 

Good Memories!

The promotional video for DTS Equip is finally finished! (Note: We didn't make this video. The awesome YWAM Montana Video Production team did!) For those who need a little memory-jogging, DTS Equip was the 6-week leadership seminar we did over the summer. DTS stands for Discipleship Training School, which is the 5-month school that is the entry to all things YWAM. Equip has specific training for DTS staff and school leaders, but also had some super awesome all-around leadership pointers.
So, without further delay, check out the video! (Yes, we're in it!)

DTS Equip from YWAM Montana on Vimeo.