We are here! Got here around noon Thursday December 11. Just thought I would let you all know that I will not be doing updates on here anymore because we have very limited wifi and we have also been asked to use caution about what we post on social media for various reasons. So we can still receive emails and we love receiving them:) So if you really want to know whats going on here in Thailand just send us an email and we will TRY to email you back with a brief update:) Email address is thelmagracestoltzfus@yahoo.com May God bless you all!

I think I spent a full minute looking at this blank page and I have no idea where to start or what to write. Why? Because this week was SO AWESOME! Our speaker was John Goodfellow and I think it’s safe to say that he was my favorite speaker yet! He has a way of totally engaging his audience and he was funny and the more his audience laughed the more fired up he got about his story.:) He taught on evangelism. What is evangelism? Is it the kind of thing where u set aside an hour or two and go tell people about Jesus? Yea, maybe. But what if… what if evangelism is just simply living life? What if we go about our days with God on our mind and a prayer in our heart that says: Here I am Jesus. Use me today in whatever way that best fits your plans. What if you go to wal-mart on your own time with no plans except to grab a couple things you need, but your heart is open and you’re saying; Lord I’ll do whatever you want. What if you meet a random person and somehow strike up a conversation with them that lasts an hour or more? What if you spend all that time and never even get around to asking if they want to accept Christ as their Savior? Does it matter? Did this person walk away feeling blessed? YES! Probably if they gave you that much of their time anyway, they could ,after all, have walked away at any minute.:) This is what John taught. Yes, we do want to introduce people to the God that we serve, but sometimes the best way to do that is to simply live life. To simply be a friend, a listening ear to someone who might not have anyone else. Listen to what God is telling you about a person. If he says tell them about me then by all means tell them about Jesus! But if he says: Their hearts aren’t ready. Today they just need someone to show them my love. Then just be a friend. Just show them the love that Jesus pours out so freely. John 4:37 Thus the saying ‘one sows and another reaps’ is true. Not everyone we meet and talk to will be willing to accept God’s love but we can sow seeds in their lives by simply showing love.

I think my favorite part of DTS is the fact that you get so many different opinions. Ok just to make this clear: ALL our speakers agreed on the main points of the christian life. But on the little things that the Bible isn’t as clear on, we had a variety of opinions. One speaker said: When you’re praying for healing for a person, ask them how they’re feeling, that way you know how to pray, if you should keep praying etc. Another speaker said he doesn’t ask how they’re feeling because God doesn’t always work in that moment. The person you prayed for could go home with no physical change but wake up the next morning completely healed! So there was different opinions on things like that and that was awesome because one speaker would tell us one way to do something and we’d be like yea! That makes sense. Next speaker tells us a different way to do it, and we are like Oh! That makes sense too. Yea, thats the advantage of 11 weeks of lectures and different speakers every week because you aren’t just hearing one person’s opinion but a variety of them so that means: We pretty much have to decide for ourselves what we are going to take or leave from these three months.:)

John also ended almost every lecture with ministry time. Whoever wanted prayer could go up front and he would anoint them with oil and pray for them. Why did he use oil? He never really specified on that other then James 5:14 tells us to anoint the sick with oil. He also said a couple times that its something he likes doing. So wether you use oil or not isn’t that important but in this case for the DTS students… God moved in a powerful way this week! Many students could give you testimonies of how God set them free from hurts of the past that they didn’t even realize they still carried! This was fascinating to me. A christian cannot have demons but a christian can be under the oppression of demons. It is finished. Jesus won the battle when he died on the cross. He won. The devil lost. And he knows that, but that doesn’t mean he gave up. Instead he is doing everything in his power to take as many people down with him that he can. When you became a friend of Jesus’ you also became an enemy of the devil. He will hold over you anything he can, fears, past hurts, lies. But in the name of Jesus we have the power to be set free! We can be set free from everything that holds us back!! WOW!:) Praise his name!

This was our last week of lectures and we are super excited to go on outreach! This weekend we went to church but other then that we enjoyed a lazy weekend here at the base because the next couple months will probably be crazy busy. We will be doing something 6 days a week and then we get one day off. We don’t know exactly what our schedule looks like but through December we will probably be doing a lot of skits etc. And in January we will be teaching english in schools somewhere. So yea we leave here on Tuesday and should be in Bangkok Thailand on Thursday. We will stay there till Sunday night then we’ll take a bus (12 hours) to our final destination where we will be staying for the next 7 weeks (I think:) they keep warning us that the schedule could change, there’s no guarantee of anything:) So this week will probably be a little crazy and overwhelming! (Please pray that Kenzie will be ok with the craziness:) And maybe us too:) We are super excited to see what God has for the next couple months. Thanks to everyone who has supported us financially, through prayer and through encouraging words and notes. Also a huge THANK-YOU to my friends (You know who you are:) that sent a big box of goodies with my parents. Yes the food was good, but it was the kind thoughts behind it that melted my heart!:) And thanks to everyone else that sent stuff with them for us. We were blessed!:)

And that concludes week 11! (11 down 10 to go:) Be Blessed:)