Valentine's Shenanigans

 

Thought I'd share some pictures from our fun Valentine's after dinner party!

 

My GORGEOUS roommates!

 

The January DTS!

 

My outreach team!

 

 The lovely Kirsten.

 

 Fun night! I am already pre-missing all of these wonderful people! :)

Exciting News!

Hi everyone! I've got some super exciting news to share with you all! Our outreach destinations have been revealed and my team will be going to...drum roll... Marseilles, France, then flying to Banja Luka, Bosnia, and then to Ireland! We will be leaving at the end of March, and coming back mid-June. I am super pumped of course and I have a great team I'm excited to bond with. Our team leader is Timo, from Germany, and there is me, Cassidy from Oregon, Christian from Washington, and Hanna from Hungary.

In Marseilles we will be joining up with another team and will be working with kids with an organization there. In Bosnia, we are going to teach English to orphans, and in Ireland we don't have a specific plan yet, but Timo is working on it! Haha! I just have pretty vague information right now about what we will be doing, but I will continue to update as we go and when I find out more.

The past week we have had some really nice weather, as well, so that has been nice for a change. The teaching by one of the base leaders here has also been incredible this week. Every single day I just think I am so blessed to be here and so thankful for life. On the average week-day here we wake up at 6:45, or more realistically we roll out of bed at 6:59 for breakfast at 7am all together. Fresh baguettes and muesli are always for breakfast. Then we have time to start the day with Jesus and get dressed and ready for morning chores at 8:30, and we do that until around 9 and we start lectures shortly after. We learn in the classroom until lunch, with a few tea/baguette breaks in between! Then after a delicious meal cooked by the base staff we usually have free time and various chores we are designated to do. (I am in "hospitality" so my day chores would usually involve laundry, card-making, or baking for special events! Others are spread out between chores like dinner dishes, property maintenance, lunch dishes, dinner prep, etc) If the sun is shining, though, we usually try to kick it outside and go for a walk into the city after lectures or play volleyball or something fun outside. Dinner is at 6:30, and we could have movie nights, game nights, free nights, or dance class- one of the students is a ballroom dance instructor! So there is lots going on usually, and it's awesome. Also each day of the week we usually have another "event" that happens weekly, like for example, Mondays are small group meetings, Tuesdays we have Europe cities project, Wednesdays we have evangelism, Thursdays we have community blessing, and Friday mornings are worship. So as it is Friday night as I am writing this, I am very excited to sleep in tomorrow! Tired for sure!

So yeah! I am super excited for my outreach that's happening somewhat soon. And life here is going great as you can tell from my updates!

Here are some pics I took recently!

 

Fireplace in the classroom!

 

Just a random house we passed.

Crepe time!

Update!

Hey everyone! Time is flying by here in Biarritz, already at week 5! Last week lectures were on repentance and forgiveness, by a Ywam leader from Perth. I thought I'd share more specifically what kind of things he talked about, I'll highlight some things from my notes:

-True repentance is not just about confession, but about allowing Christ in and being truly willing to change.
-Our greatest need is to know God.
-Repentance is about a changed life, from self centered, to God centered.
-God wants us to have a transformed heart that wants to make the right choices for the right reasons. Why have we decided to follow Jesus? We talked about some of the primary motivators for many Christians: blessings, and discipline. Though God can use this, they are not sufficient because they are self centered. Our primary motivation for following Jesus should be a deep revelation of the worthiness of God and the un-worthiness of self.

Personally it was very good to dwell on the simple thought: Why am I a Christian? I appreciated that the speaker highlighted how good it was to be honest with God and how much God loves honesty. It's not about earning God's love, it's about a genuine relationship. And no matter how many times we are unfaithful, God will always be faithful.

So as much as this week was a more serious one, I was very encouraged and learned a lot and realized a deep need for growth in my relationship with God. I could write pages and pages of what we talked about but I won't. ;) Instead I'll talk about the awesome trip we took to the PYRENEES mountains! Lectures last week ended on Thursday, and so we took Friday up to the snowy mountains of France, and it was so much fun. Getting there, however, was a bit difficult, as our chains kept breaking, and we kept stopping to help others get up the mountain, too. But after carefully winding our way up the snowy roads, we made it, all 3 vans and one car of us -all the staff came too! It was nonstop snowing all day! And it was so beautiful! We had choices to ski, snowboard, sled, or just hang out, and I wanted to do it all, but in the end I chose to snowboard. Best decision ever! It was my first time, as for a few of the other snowboarders, so one of the leaders, Timo, helped us learn. It was so much fun! Most students just went sledding, but a couple went skiing and a few of us went snowboarding. So yeah, we stayed there for lunch and then headed home around dinner time. So it was an awesome time, and I hope I can snowboard again before I leave!

This week is on relationships by Leah Thompson one of the base leaders here! And we are planning to go to the outdoor market in Anglet on Saturday. Should be a good week, and I'll update again next week. Ooh we also find out our outreach teams and places soon I believe. I'll keep you posted!

Update!!

Hey everyone! Sorry for a lack of updates lately! Time is starting to fly by. This last week the lecture topic was on worship and intercession. Adam Thompson is one of the base leaders here, along with his wife, Leah and he was speaking on it this week.

 

Our next speaker is arriving tomorrow and has to leave on Thursday, so instead of having a Monday-Friday morning lectures we are actually starting lectures Saturday night, tomorrow night! So it's been a busy week and will continue to be busy, but it's all good.

 

Today in some free time after lunch me and a few other friends went out for a walk. It is so cold out but it's still beautiful if you can get past the numbing fingers and toes! The base is also very cold, it's not heated. However, we have individual room heaters we can turn on, (that is if the electricity doesn't cut out) and it warms up eventually. It's pretty funny, but our house actually has tons of problems at the moment. Both the sinks upstairs broke, the van needs fixing, our washing machine has been broken for a week plus, and a man came to fix it yesterday, but now when there is a load running, it literally sounds like it's going to explode! So needless to say we need some clean laundry asap. Our room also has mold which has been mostly cleaned out. But honestly these things don't really bother me that much and it's fun going through it together.

 

Here are some pictures of the little outing today, if I think of anything else to write, I will! Right now I'm heading down, one of my roommates is a ballroom dance instructor back in the US and she teaches us dance lessons once a week! She's in the picture with me the two of us! Love her!

 

 

 

 

One Week

Friday morning our DTS leader and speaker this week, Leah, told us that instead of having lectures we were going to head down to San Sebastian, SPAIN which is only like a 30 minute drive. She then said she would give us each 2 euros and we were to buy a little gift for a game later. (We played like a little gift exchange on the beach! Very cute.) And the weather was..AMAZING! Sunshine and around 16-18 degrees. It was gorgeous! Such a blessing of a day.

Stunning churches.

Stunning city, definitely going back one of these weekends free!

This week the lectures were on hearing God's voice, how to hear God's voice, and what things can hinder us from it. I think what stood out to me the most is how much God wants to speak to us and that we are never a bother to him. He desires intimacy, and if we seek him, we WILL find him. When we draw near to him, he WILL draw near to us. We serve an amazing God.

Life in Biarritz

    The past few days have been primarily spent exploring, resting, and meeting the other DTS students that continue to arrive. Today was the official start to the DTS and we have everyone here except for two students who will be arriving later in the week! I have amazing roommates from the U.S., Canada, and Finland. (5 girls) and another 5 girls in the other room, and 4 girls on DTS staff in another. Aaaand we all have one shower and toilet to share. :) It hasn't been that bad though! The guys live in the basement, and the 2 guys on DTS staff live off base. It's a full house! 

We walked right across that bridge and out past the Mary statue there and the waves come crashing up onto the rocks and splash up! It's just around 15 minutes walking from our house to here.

This is the view from on the bridge.

   Lots of cool places near us. Loving Biarritz! Thanks for all your prayers! Since we are so close to Spain we are going to take a trip there one of the weekends coming up, as well as to the mountains near us here in Biarritz to snowboard or skii! I'm also planning on learning to surf here while I can, there is a German guy here on base who has done a surfing DTS previously who says he will take some of us out the next time the waves are "beginner" enough. So, lots of stuff to look forward to these next few months, as well as learning tons on the biblical side once we start getting more into routine. 

Until next time!

Alive and Well!

YEAH I made it here after what seemed like forever! I left around 11am on the 31st and arrived in France around 7pm New Years Day! I was literally self destructing after being awake for 30+ hours straight! But was picked up by some of the base leaders and drove home, had some dinner, met the staff and 2 other girls that I will be rooming with so far, and slept until 1pm the next morning.

Just got back from a walk around the city and I can say I am SO PUMPED! The city is gorgeous. 15 minute walk to the beach, there's cafes, boutiques, and restaurants everywhere. The base is a great location to take the bus or walk into the city anytime. I can't wait to continue meeting the people that are arriving (10 girls and 6 guys I am pretty sure.) Tonight is movie night, and I believe tomorrow night we will walk into the city to see the light show over the ocean and get some hot chocolate. 

So there's my mini update, and a some pics from the walk today.

The base front entrance!

The surf and snow DTS that our base runs is currently on outreach, and their boards and suits are in the back.

God is Good!