This week’s lecture was on Hearing God’s Voice by Mike Phillips. Once again it was incredible! We learned a lot on prayer and intercession. One thing I found really amazing was this: “In the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26 (NIV) Have you ever heard the idea that you shouldn’t ask someone how you can pray for them or if they have specific prayer requests? Yea that one was new to me too. This verse, however, tells us that we don’t know what we ought to pray for, so rather then asking people, we need to ask God what to pray for others. We also need to ask him what to pray for ourselves. In class we did an exercise to show us what this looks like, Mike gave us the names of a couple, said they were missionaries in some other country (I forget where:/ ) right now the husband is there and the wife is in the states. That was all the info he gave us. Then we were supposed to listen to what God told us, then pray out the things we felt led to pray about for them. Then we shared with the group what we had prayed for. The amazing part? By the time we were done we had an idea of what was going on in this couple’s life, and Mike confirmed that the facts were right. (He knows these folks) WOW just WOW! God really is amazing. I always knew he was big and powerful and more then I can ever comprehend or imagine, but having him speak directly to you is simply amazing, it makes his presence so much more real and powerful. He becomes more then just facts you know in your head to someone who’s presence you FEEL in your heart. And him speaking to you doesn’t just happen when you are praying for someone else. You can ask him anything at any time and if you are willing to listen, he is willing to speak to you. Here’s a challenge: Ask him how he feels about you. You don’t need any special skills or anything at all: JUST ASK!:) Another reason why it’s so important to listen to God’s voice is so you know how, when and where you should do something, because if you do the ‘right thing’ at the ‘wrong time’ it still makes it WRONG! Another thing I found fascinating was the fact that most people have lies that they believe, but don’t realize they believe them! Do you think: Something is wrong with you? When you need them people will leave?  You cannot be loved? You don’t need people? Or they will let you down? This is some of the lies we don’t no we believe! So if u find yourself in one of these categories take it to God and ask him to show you the root of this lie. Then ask him to help you process it and to give you the truth. Receive the truth and let go of all bitterness, sadness, and anger in the original memory. And thats what we learned this week:)

This is Kenzie’s opinion on this place:) Although she is liking it more and more!

 Each week this place feels a bit more like home, even though each week I miss home just a bit more. Next weekend we will be packing up and heading to portland, Oregon for one week. It’s what they call mini outreach. Its a 10 hour drive, and we leave next saturday and come back the following friday. Other then that I don’t no many details yet. This week Lakenzie had a head cold and an awful cough so once again she didn’t have the best week but she still did really good. Every morning she went with Kristina willingly. (The candy trick is still working:) One morning before it was time for them to leave, Gabby, one of the DTS students gave Kenzie some skittles, after that Kenzie couldn’t wait to leave because she knew she couldn’t eat the candy till she left me. It was rather funny:) Getting to know all these knew people is interesting, they come from all kinds of different backgrounds and cultures. They have different accents, different beliefs (we are all christians but every denomination has different strong points). We are all so very different but are all here for the same reason. We love Jesus and have a desire to know him and make him known! So yea getting to know all these folks is a lot of fun… And I believe that concludes week three! Be Blessed!