Encounters with Jesus and Hawaiian Advenures

It has almost been a month since I have been here and I am bewildered at how fast it has gone! These past couple weeks have been intense but so good!!

My roomates and I are having a lot of fun together and getting closer as the days go by. I went with a couple of the girls on Sunday to a snorkelling beach! It was beautiful! The sand is black because of the volcanic rock on the island. I had fun laying there picking out pieces of coral, shells, lava rock and other super cool things that were in the sand! We rented snorkel gear and went out into the water and I was not expecting to see so many fish! So many colours! I was in awe as my friend Danielle and I explored together. God is seriously SO creative! I wish I had an underwater camera to take pictures with and show you all. I am very thankful to have these opprotunities to do fun things like this while I am here :) I will post some of the pictures we did take when they get uploaded, so stay tuned!

This past week we had a speaker named Brian Brennt. He was hilarious and also so life changing in the things he spoke about. The main thing he spoke about was origional design. Who God says we are and showing His love to the people we come in contact with. We did lots of prayer times with each other, to hear from God and see what He says about each person in our groups. We sit in our outreach teams in class, so I have gotten to know my team more this past week through all the prayer we did over each other. There is so much more on the teachings of Brian, so if you are curious at all, email me (smith.dani12@gmail.com) and I can elaborate a little more for you.

We had a women's conference this past weekend on the topic of Brave Love. It was life changing. Brave love is loving people how Jesus loved. So they spoke into how Jesus loved and how Him dying for us is the bravest kind of love the world has seen. Then they went into talking about what brave love looks like for us individually. Some people's brave love was starting churches in their hometowns, being a journalist and bringing to light stories of those who don't have a voice, being a missionary in Africa and showing God's love or starting their own brave love conference. It was so cool to hear what God has laid on people's hearts and that He wants to dream with us! I have a brave love booklet that goes into depth what the weekend was all about so again, hit me up with any questions and I can share more with you.

This week is family week here on campus. Which means all the DTSs going on gather together for class instetad of individually like normal. We hear from Loren and Darlene Cunningham, who founded YWAM and live on the island, and other amazing people that do missions all around the world.  Michael Ketterer, who leads the band United Pursuit,  is leading worship all week. He is so talented and I can't describe in words the atmosphere of worship we had this morning! SOO thankful God has brought me here!!So that has been a glimpse into my life in the past couple weeks.

My outreach team has met up quite a few times I am loving this group of people that will become family! We don't know a lot of details still about our outreach, so if you guys could pray about that, I would appreciate it! My group leaders are amazing, I am beyond blessed to have them.  I will write another update specifically on outreach in the next week or so when they know a bit more.

I am having an amazing time here! Learning so much about God and who He says I am, it is so life changing. I have beautiful friends that I know will be life long frienships when we leave after these 5 months of being together. We are soaking up every minute of it!

I wouldn't be here if it wasnt for the people who supported me, so thank you!
 Please email/text/facebook me! I love talking with people!
Love you all, hopefully I know more about my outreach soon!

Pictures!

I know some of you don't have Facebook or haven't seen any pictures since I've been away.
Here are a few of my favourites!

These are a few of my roommates! (Left to right) Sarah, Sarah, Alex, Danielle, Teanna, myself and Abagail! 

 

 Frozen yogurt dates are a regular thing with us! Sitting along the sea wall makes it 10x better!

The Sarah duo and me at the Iron Man volunteer Mahalo (thank you) dinner 

Every Friday night is Ministry Night. Our DTS goes into the prayer room and the worship team ask God what He wants to do in that night. Last Friday we worshiped and prayed, allowed His presence to wash over us and give us rest. It was absolutely amazing and I'm looking forward to going tonight!

My view of the sunset from supper! 

Holly and I! She's such a joy to be around!

All my beautiful roommates except 2! 

Teanna Alex, Holly, Danielle, Me!, Sarah, Rayn and Abigail! 

Our Fire and Fragrance tent! Where all the magic happens :) 

The company here is so good!

One of the first beach days! 

A few of the many girls in my DTS! 

This is my AMAZING team going with me to PNG (minus the two leaders)! I am so excited to get to know them more and more over the next couple of months! 2 of the girls are my roommates which is such a blessing :) 

OUTREACH REVEAL!!!

Aloha! Yes, I am using Hawaiian lingo now :) 

I have already been here for 2 weeks and it has been incredible! My roommates and I are getting closer and closer as each day goes by. Much laughter, dancing, prayer times, deep conversations, frozen yogurt dates and beach days! It really is a blessing to be surrounded with a group of girls who genuinely care about you and know how to have a good time! 

Last weekend we had the privilege of volunteering at the Iron Man World Championships here in Kona! It was such a blast and it was so cool to see all the different athletes participating and how incredibly hard they worked to get to that point! There was a thank you dinner on Sunday for the volunteers which had good music, even better food and came with the company of some incredible people! 

We are in the swing of things in regards to classes which is amazing so far! Tom and Donna Cole, a couple who wrote Pure Heart, have been speaking to us this week on the book. They get to the roots of your heart and reveal things that have hindered your relationship with God that you didn't even know existed! There have been lots of tears, but of healing and then joy...and it is only the end of day 2 so the rest of the week can only get better right? 

We have times of intercession every other day, which are prayers that are rooted with a passion for others to have breakthroughs in areas they are struggling. Whether that being unreached people groups in the Amazon Jungle or family members who aren't saved. It has definitely been a learning experience for me but I am so excited to see how God increases this area in my own life! Ever since going to IHOP in grade 12, people there prophesied over me that intercession would be a huge part of my life. I had no idea what that would mean or what that looked like, but I feel like God has begun to reveal that to me since being here in a place that focuses on that. 

Sooo...now to the moment you have been patiently waiting for as I have been rambling about everything else! OUTREACH LOCATION!!! We had a scavenger hunt tonight to first figure out who we were going with, then they revealed where we were going and who our leaders are. In December I will be going with a team of 11 (or 12, I don't 100% remember how many) to PAPUA NEW GUINEA!!!! I don't know a lot of specifics yet, but I do know we will be going with YWAM Ships some of the time to reach people groups that cannot be reached by any other way than a boat. People will be giving medical attention and stuff like that, but our group will be ministering to the people being helped. I will let you all know more as the information comes, but for now I am super excited with where I am going as well as the people I am going with!! We all feel like we have a group of really strong people, who of which I can't wait to get to know better in the next few months! 

I am so excited to share this with all of you! I will update you on how much I will be needing for outreach fees when they tell us! Thank you so much again for all of your support and encouragement! It means so much to me and I wouldn't have gotten through the last week without it! I am doing a lot better in regards to begin homesick which is such a praise God moment! I feel way more at home and comfortable with the people and environment! So thank you for your prayers! 

If you want to ask me any questions, you can email me at smith.dani12@gmail.com or however else you want to contact me! I love hearing from you guys! 

Miss you all!! <3 

Day 1

Hello everyone :)
I made it!! Just finished our first day here on campus. It's incredibly gorgeous here and also very hot!
The people in my DTS are so friendly so getting to know people isn't an issue at all.

So today was basically an orientation day. We had a welcoming ceremony, Hawaiian style. It's amazing to see all the different cultures and nationalities God has brought to our campus. There's over 40 countries represented on the base right now, not including staff.
We had a little session with my DTS leaders today. There are about 150 people in my DTS which makes it hard to get to know everyone, but they are an amazing group of people hungry for more of God and wanting to make Him known. My leaders are also amazing and I can't wait to get to know them more. They gave us a rough outline of what our days will look like (very jam packed) and what speakers will be coming throughout the next 2 1/2 months.  Next week we start having a more routine schedule but we won't really get into the swing of things until week two.
We had a corporate worship service tonight with all the people on campus and it was such an incredible experience. I love worship and it's my biggest way of connecting with God so to be in a place that values worship and is so on fire for God is a really eye opening experience for me. All the people here encourage you to pursue The Lord and not to be afraid of opening up and being honest.
I have a couple girls I've been hanging out with most of the time and they're really fun and I can't wait to get to know them more!

It's been an extremely long feeling day that never seemed to end :) but I am so happy I'm here and I know this is where God wants me to be. Even though it has been a rough day in regards to being homesick. So please pray that I won't be homesick and dwell on the fact that I'm really far away from friends and family. It finally hit me that I am here and it's expanded into reality where before YWAM was more of an idea that I was preparing for. I know it will get better but it's been an emotional day.

Thanks again to all who have helped me get here! I am extremely blessed by all of you.
Much love :)