LoveWithAMission.com - January 2007

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Happy New Year!!
My youth group sang a song for me on New Year's Eve (actually it was very early morning January 1st...) and it was really, really special to me... These are the lyrics:

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
Can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter in your life is through

But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never 'cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go, in the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long, to live as friends

They also prayed for me, and I realized how precious their friendship is to me. There's a reason the two most important commandments are to love God and to love your neighbors... Spending time with friends is important, and yesterday (or the day before) was very special. I'm going to miss them a whole lot... (If you guys read this, ig ha öich uu mega gärn!!)

Ok, it's the beginning of a new year and that of course involves New Year's resolutions... I hadn't really thought about it before, but I read this just now and this sums it up pretty well:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.
And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends on from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven.
Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don't become weary and give up.

Hebrews 12:1-3

I want to follow God's guidance in this new year, I want to be bold for His sake, to get rid of all wishy-washy-ness, and to get to know Him much more intimately.

(P.S. Yeah, I've changed this part of my site a lil bit. This is now an actual blog which means you can leave comments if you like (!) and, um, it looks more professional..? I won't be writing every day anymore though, since on Thursday (only two more days!!) I'll be leaving for Hawaii and won't have all that much time anymore... I'll try to write at least once a week though (and will, of course, also include pictures if I can.) Did I mention that you can leave comments!? ;-))

Christmas spirit...
We were invited for supper at some friends of ours, and on our way there and back I noticed all the Christmas lights that hadn't been taken down yet. At first I was almost annoyed since Christmas is officially over, but then I started thinking... Those lights are actually quite beautiful so there's no need to take them down. And Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, though most people don't seem to realize it, and His birth is the most gloriously wonderful thing to happen to us humans, so what's wrong with celebrating a little longer? Actually, wouldn't it be great if we could celebrate it all year 'round? Instead of just being a little more solemn at Christmas and Easter, why don't we honor Him every day? I don't mean by bathing the living room in confetti and breaking out the champaign every night, but by celebrating in our hearts, by feeling the joy of His salvation every single day, not just once or twice a year.

Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. (So we shouldn't drink too much champaign...) Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. Then you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts.
Ephesians 5:18-19

But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Galatians 5:22-23a

So run from all these evil things, and follow what is right and good. Pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.
1. Timothy 6:11b

Ok, I chose verses to drift into a different seeming subject, which would be the "fruits of the Spirit," meaning the changes the Holy Spirit does (or should) affect in our lives. But it's not really a different subject, because when we carry the joy of Christ in our hearts these things automatically happen. Where there is love, peace, patience, kindness, etc., there is also joy. And this joy comes from God. Whoever doesn't know Jesus doesn't know this joy, the only truly fulfilling joy we can experience on this earth. It's not just a feeling. It's knowing deep in our hearts that He loved us, still loves us, in fact He loves us so much that He died for us to make us right with God. It's the faith we have that we are saved, not just in this life, but for eternity.

Merry Christmas... :-)

Comment: Ephi: d wiänachtsbelüüchtig wird gloub aubä dobä glah, wöu am 6. januar 3 chünigstag isch. wiä söuä di armä cheibä de d chrippä ohni stärnli u chlöis fingä :-) häb de morn ä guätä start i dis neuä abentüür. grüässli vom chliinä dickä mit äm lockigä haar... psaum 121, 5-8

Bye...
Before I leave in just a few hours and before I try to squeeze in a little bit of sleep, I just wanted to let you guys know how much you mean to me! I've been really blessed by all the friends God has given me... I wrote a couple of days ago about the song my Jugi sang for me, and a couple of very special people also gave me gifts; a dear old man from church gave me chocolates for my journey; today I visited the people at work and I got to say good-bye to a couple of very special women there; three people came by to say good-bye to me today which was also very special; my parents helped me get an adapter for our digital camera (they also helped me with lot's and lot's of other stuff as well...); several people also sent me short-messages, one that I didn't expect at all (which made it all the more special); I talked quite a long time with a couple of our neighbors and they told me all they knew about Hawaii; a friend of mine wrote a comment with a very encouraging Bible verse (*pokes the comment from the last entry*); etc., etc.

All of you guys are so unbelievably special!

I feel almost a little foolish making such a big fuss... Five months seems like an eternity to me, but the last five months went by quite fast, so... But I just want you all to know that I love you all very much and am going to miss you! (Yes, I know I'm going to miss you because I already miss you now...)

God bless you and may He lead you to writing me tons and tons of e-mails... ;-) (Click here to e-mail me!)

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.
Ephesians 3:20

Aloha!
I'm in Hawaii!!! :-) It's hard to believe, but I (finally) made it! The flight was excruciatingly long, though enjoyable (even if I wanted to, but couldn't, sleep sometimes.) I got panicky once, in LA. The flight was more than an hour late, and I had to get my luggage and go to a different part of the airport (I had to go outside to get there), and then I didn't know where to go (some nice people helped me though), and I was terrified that I would miss my next flight (to Kona, Hawaii), but God was merciful and I ended up waiting half an hour before I could get on the plane.

When I landed it was completely dark (I didn't even realize how near we were before we were a couple of meters over the ground), so I didn't see much before I landed. The airport was quite funny though, most of it was outside (though it was covered) and there were plants and palm trees everywhere. We (me and all the others that arrived around that time) were picked up by a couple of mini-buses from the University of the Nations (they were recognizable by their UofN logos.)

It is beautiful here! There are huge plants and trees everywhere that are either covered in all different kinds of blossoms in all different colors, or in fruits. I'm sharing a room with five other girls. (We haven't had any cat fights! ...yet.) By the time I got to my room it was around 11pm, so they were all sleeping. (Most people arrived in the morning or afternoon.) I've been to the ocean twice so far, once yesterday morning after breakfast, but we didn't find a sand beach, but one with lava rocks. And today the people from my Discipleship Training School (I'm doing one called "Classic", there are two other ones, "Impact Pacific" and "IT/Global Communications") went with the mini-buses to a beach about a quarter of an hour away, and it did have sand, but at the water there were more lava rocks (and tons and tons of sea urchins...) Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to go to a "normal" beach. (The lava rocks are really beautiful though, but not very nice to walk on...)

Remember I promised to put the pictures I make here on this site? Well, that might not be possible... Most of the computers are kinda slow (and old...) If I can't put them here now I'll do it when I get home.

And by the way, if for any reason someone would like to send me something, the address is

Alessandra Salvisberg
Classic DTS 07
75-5851 Kuakini Hwy #429
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
USA

and remember to say that it's AIRMAIL, otherwise they might put it on a boat and it might take more than three months to get here...

Ok, now about my school. The lectures haven't started yet, I think they will on Monday or maybe on Tuesday, but we've had several meetings together with our staff, and even just in these few days a lot has been said. What's most important to us is that we do this with all our hearts. We want to be completely commited to what we're doing and not do anything half-heartedly. We want to give God all of our hearts. All of our staff is really commited to what they're doing, and they all have a passion for God.

It hasn't all been picture perfect though... I had a picture in my mind once during one of our "meetings", and it was of a yellow heart. It kept moving quite fast and expanded and grew smaller again, it was very lively. I first thought it was kinda nice. But later one person annoyed me quite a bit, I started feeling dislike, angry, then almost hate... I think yellow is the color for hatred. And a heart can be poisoned by hatred... The devil is constantly trying to screw up our relationships, to get us to start fighting and have evil thoughts about each other. I think that picture I saw was a warning, that if I didn't watch out my own heart would be poisoned. So I prayed a whole lot and asked for God's help, for Him to help me be patient and tolerant. And He did help me. I'm going to continue praying for that person, and hopefully He will both change that person as well as my attitude towards them.

Ok, enough for now. Feel free to e-mail me very often! :-) (...only if you want to of course.)

One thing that's sure is that this time here will definitely change my life. There is so much happening here, and I'm trying to be as open to God as I can be, so it's basically impossible that nothing will happen. I'm really excited to be here! :-)

Comment: Mom: Hi Aless Thanks so much for such a newsy report and for being so transparent about what the Lord is doing in your life! He has a plan for your being there and the devil would like to disturb that plan but the Lord is in control! He put it on our heart to pray intensively for you to catch your flight in L.A. much earlier in the day, and woke me up in the night (here) just during that time. I FELT the stress you describe, and that can only be the Holy Spirit!!! Praise Him!! Much love, Mom and Dad

Pray..?
My mom called me a little while ago and said that my dad had had some bad chest pains and had to throw up, and she called an ambulance to pick him up and now he's in the hospital. They both told me not to worry, but I still do of course... So if you read this, would you mind saying a little prayer for my dad?

My dad...
I wrote yesterday about my dad having to go to the hospital, and we know now that he had a heart-attack. I think he had two blood vesels that were clogged up, and they "un-clogged" one of them and will do the next one soon, so he should be ok. Thank you for your prayers! God really does answer our prayers, and He can do the most amazing things when we just expect Him to, when we truly believe that He can and will do miracles. (On a side-note, isn't it special that my heavenly Father is taking care of my earthly father? :-)) If you'd like to, please continue praying for him, he's still going to be in the hospital for about a week, and when he leaves he's really gonna need to change his eating habits, so yeah....

I just wanted to share that with you, and I'll write more about what I'm doing this weekend. :-)

Love,
Aless

Pictures!!
Yay, I've figured out how to put pictures on these computers, so prepare yourself for a whole bunch... ;-) First off, some pictures that make me homesick every single time I look at them...

Pictures of me, my dad, my mom and my godmother...

My dad and I...aren't we a cute couple? :-)

Here you can see two amazing women...actually it's just one, but my mom's amazing enough for two people... ;-)

That's me and my godmother, Rosemarie. She's a real Israel fan, like my mother (and me)... :-)

These are pics of my Jugi (Youth Group) I took on New Years Eve...

This is Aendu and Lueku, brothers in blood, spirit, and sense of humor... :-)

That's Annelaure, she's usually pretty wild, not sleepy like that... ;-) (That is the most amazing sofa by the way! You could practically live on it...)

This is Ephi. He recently premiered his first (very scary) movie! (It's called Pentagramm.)

Maenae and Boesi... Aren't they cute? :-)

This is Simu. (That table he's sitting on is, for some reason, very comfortable...I think I almost fell asleep on it once...)

This is Taebae, our sweetheart, who is just longing to sing a solo in our Jugi-band... *hint* *hint* ;-)

Ok, now on to pictures I made here in Hawaii...these are from our first official evening on the YWAM base.

This is in the Ohana court. (Ohana means family.) We were welcomed by real life Hula dancers!

Sorry it's kinda blurry, but that's the best one I could make... That's a Polenisian dancer, and he's dancing with a kind of stick that's on fire at both ends, and he danced sooooo incredibly fast, it was impossible to get a better picture...

There are people from all over the world here, and every nation that's here was represented by it's flag. Of course this one was the most important one... ;-)

We prayed over all the nations. The part that touched me most was when we worshiped, one guy from Palestine (he's the first palestinian who's ever come here!) took the Israeli flag and sang while he was holding it! That was really special...

Fwee, my first time at the beach!!

Yeah, sorry, that's my finger on the top left of that picture... :-\

Most beaches here are kinda rocky...

...and full of sea urchins! (Quite a few people have already stepped on those...)

We went there with all the people from the Classic DTS (the one that I'm doing.) We were about fifty people or so, including staff. (Yeah, I know the horizon's not straight...)

A night on the town!

These are two really special room-mates of mine... :-) (They're all special though.)

Fwee, we had fun that night! From left to right: Minna, Jeremy, Linda and Ephraim (he's Swiss!)

This is in the Arcade. Linda's showing off her talent on the DDR (Dance Dance Revolution!) ;-)

We went to the water front. I thought all the lights from the shops and restaurants we're really pretty for some reason...

I don't know why that came out so weird, but it's kinda cool in a way...

Our room...

I'm the only one sleeping on a bunk bed, and that's a picture from up there... (Yeah, those are my feet... :-)) It's a girls room, so it's kinda messy...but that's ok, it makes it homey. :-)

Beautiful beach...

No comment. :-)

This is really the nicest beach I've been to so far...

Heh heh... :-)

I went there again with (left to right): Rebecca, Abbey and Cynthia

Ain't it pretty?

Intercession...
I really want to share something with you from last week... We learned about intercession, and what happened just blew me away.

One of our leaders (Johnny B.) defined intercession like this: Intercession is trying to seek God and what His heart is, and to pray that back to Him. So we prayed, and we were silent for a time just giving God time to speak to us, and I got Psalm 51, but I thought my brain had just somehow randomly thought of a book and a number, but when the others started sharing what God had told them I was shocked, this chapter fitted perfectly... (*pokes picture underneath* Those are all the things that God told us...

(I hope it's legible...) If you'll look at all those things, you'll notice that most of those things have to do with being pure and having a clean heart. Then someone started confessing, and in the end almost everyone had confessed something (including me), and it was amazing! I felt like the devil was screaming his head off out of anger because he was losing his hold on us! We can't serve God wholeheartedly until we are pure. God wants us to be holy, which means without sin, and I think that also means past sins, like He wants to clean us from our sins, but we have to let Him. It was an amazing time, and what made it possible was that we listened to God and let Him guide us. That's when it starts to be fun... :-)

Intercession #2
I actually wanted to write more yesterday, but they came and kicked me out of the computer room because it was after midnight...

Anyway, the other thing I wanted to share is a bookmark. Yep, a bookmark... It has stuff written on it, and the title at the top says Principles for effective intercession. We used these when we practised intercessory prayer that day, and I was blown away by what God did during that time, so these principles really do work, and I'll just put them up here and I encourage you to use them! They really work and it's amazing what God can and does do!

PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE INTERCESSION
(these are PRINCIPLES not steps or rules)
let the Spirit lead

Praise God for who He is, and for the privilege of engaging in the same wonderful ministry as the Lord Jesus.
Hebrews 7:25 "He ever lives to make intercession for them."

Make sure your heart is clean before God, by having given the Holy Spirit time to convict, should there be any unconfessed sin. [this should be done regularly in your own times as well]
Psalm 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me."
Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting."

Acknowledge you can't really pray without the direction and energy of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:26 "The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we know not how to pray as we ought."

Deal aggressively with the enemy. Come against him in the all-powerful name of Jesus and with the word of God.
James 4:7 "Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you."

Die to your own imaginations, desires, and burdens for what you feel you should pray.
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Lean not on your own understanding."
Proverbs 28:26 "He who trusts in his own mind is a fool."
Isaiah 55:8 "My thoughts are not your thoughts."

Praise God now in faith for the remarkable prayer time you're going to have. He is a remarkable God and He will do something consistent with His character.
Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to please Him."

Wait before God in silent expectance, listening for His direction.
Psalm 81:11-13 "But My people did not listen to My voice; Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. O, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!"

In obedience and faith, utter what God brings to your mind, believing.
John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice...and they follow me."

If possible have your Bible with you should God want to give you direction or confirmation from it.
Psalm 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

When God ceases to bring things to your mind to pray for, finish by praising and thanking Him for what He has done, reminding yourself of Romans 11:36 "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen."

PRAY IT UP!
Copyright 1985 - Joy Dawson

Week two...
I am in the Computer Lounge and I have people sitting near by who've been re-playing the gingerbread-man scenes from Shrek ("Do you know the muffing man?" "The muffin man?" "THE MUFFIN MAN!!" "Yes, I know the muffin man...who lives on drury lane??") They're a lil bit distracting, but it's funny... :-)

Anyway, I want to write a lil about all that I've been doing here. I know some of you think I'm just here on vacation, and I am having the time of my life, but it's definitely not vacation... So, this is my typical day:

I usually drag myself out of bed around seven, have about ten minuts to get myself to the breakfast buffet to put three cups of coffee on my tray before they put it away. Then we usually have class or worship or intercession at eight. (Yes, the coffee does tend to kick in and sometimes I have trouble concentrating because I'm pretty sure the bathrooms know my name by heart and keep whispering it temptingly...don't know why I just wrote that...oh well...) We usually then have class until twelve, then there's lunch (I tend to eat too much...but it's really good...but I'm getting better...) Then sometimes we have class or small groups from one to three, and at three I have work-duty. (Yes, work duty!!) My job is to clean at the ECEC (Early Childhood Education Center), that includes dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, cleaning icky tables, toilets and sinks... It's not bad, though one time there was a dead gecko lying in the middle of the floor covered in ants which I had to somehow get rid of, but other than that it's been ok. After those two hours I'm slightly more tired than I was before though. (There are tons of geckos everywhere by the way!) Then there's supper and sometimes we have night class (from six 'til...whenever.) I love class, I don't think I've come out of a single one completely unchanged. And the people who come to speak are all amazing role models! I love everyone here. :-)

On the weekend we don't usually have anything, except on Sunday there's church. There's no church on campus because YWAM wants us to get involved in the community, but they provide shuttle buses to most of the churches in this area. I've been to two churches so far, the first one was the Mokuaikaua Church, "The first founded & oldest Christian Church in the State of Hawaii." (The thing I liked best at that church was the doxology sung in Hawaiian... "Hoonani i ka Makua mau, Ke Keiki me ka Uhane no, Ke Akua mau hoomaikai pu, ko keia ao, ko kela ao. Amene." :-)) The last two Sundays I went to the Calvary Community Church, and the first time I went there I felt so at home that I almost immediately made up my mind to go back there. The worship is amazing and the one sermon I've heard so far (today they had some kind of a church business meeting, so we, the YWAMers, left after the worship and announcements) was really personal and heart-touching and they let the Holy Spirit lead them, so yeah, I love it. (And quite a few people have either been to or are planning to go to Switzerland!)

One other thing that I want to share with you that happened to me this week is that I think I've heard God's call for my life. (I'm excited! :-)) Ok, this may sound crazy to some or most of you, but I believe His call for me is to, eventually, go to Russia and help the unwanted children there, children from orphanages or that are homeless, and maybe other homeless people as well. I believe He wants me to go there and build homes for them where they can live and experience the love of other humans (if they're unwanted children they might never have experienced that before...) and especially the love of God who promised to be "a Father to the fatherless." I need to pray about this some more though, since I can only do this if it's really what God wants me to. Without His blessing, all the work that I might do there will be worthless. I want to do what He wants me to do, and if He wants me to go to Russia, then that's what I want, too. (The guys are watching "The Mothman Profecies" now by the way, which is creepy and very distracting...) I read through the book of James today, and one part spoke to me is where it says Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us ...as well as... Dear brothers and sisters, what's the use of faith if you don't prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can't save anyone. And one more: So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls. God has planted this in my heart, and I'm going to keep on praying about it, and if it's really what God wants, then that's what I'm going to do. God will give me the opportunities to do what He wants me to, and He'll provide everything I need. All I need to do is to have faith. (If you'd like to, your prayers would be most welcome... :-))

So, if there's anything else you'd like to know you're most welcome to e-mail me and ask me more. :-) My e-mail adress is asalvisberg@belponline.ch. (The movie's really creepy right now by the way...and it smells like popcorn...)

I'll probably add more pictures next week, I didn't make a whole lot this week...

Ok, that's it for now, I'd love to hear from all of you guys and I if you write me I promise to write you back as soon as I can!

Comment: anonymous: ^_^

Is it just me or are the weeks going by super super super fast?.. 8(

It feels a lot like home here actually.. I love this environment... and I love our classes / lectures or whatever you call them.. I kind of dont want it to end 8|..

I actually did my own laundry for the first time like a couple days ago ^_^ yaay me!..

And yes that movie was pretty creepy, but I like those kinds of movies heh.. I dont know, I've noticed that I have a fascination for things that cant be explained or part of the spiritual realm...

well thats all I can think of right now... oh yea.. my email is likwidwizard@hotmail.com 8]

The character & nature of God...
Hey, I just have a whole bunch I want to share with you guys, and I can't wait 'til the weekend, so I hope you like to read, because this might be long...

Our speaker this week is Trent Sheppard, and, fwee, he's fun. :-) The way he bounces around and gushes over his wife, Bronwyn, (I don't know if "gush" is really a word...) and especially the way he lets the Holy Spirit lead him and the fire he has for God, it's awesome!

Anyway, I want to mostly share with you what he shared with us this morning, but also some of the things from yesterday and the day before. This may all sound like a sermon, but it's not, it's just all the things that managed to get me excited and have changed the way I see God. And remember that these aren't my thoughts, these are the things I've picked up from Trent. So, here goes...

First off, in Genesis 1:26 (this already looks "theological", doesn't it? Oh well...) it says: Then God said, "Let us..." It's a trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Trent asked us the question "What was the Trinity doing before the beginning?" (Before Genesis 1...) It's something we can't know and probably won't know until we see God and can ask Him, but some people started thinking (me included) that maybe They were lonely and wanted friends to be with, and that's why They made us. NOT TRUE! Jeff, a guy from my DTS, (all three of our DTSes have their lectures together this week, but my DTS is special...) had the idea that maybe the trinity was/is like a family, like Jeff and his wife, Loren. They have a son named Josiah (cute lil baby.) Jeff said that when he and his wife got married they were complete, they were one, and when their son was born it wasn't because they were lonely or wanted a little friend, Josiah was born out of their love. Josiah didn't make their lives more complete, he was simply born out of their love and added to their lives. He said that maybe that's how we were created, too. Maybe we were simply born out of love, out of the love of the Trinity. That makes much more sense than thinking They were lonely, doesn't it?

Ok, moving on. Humans are relational, right? That means we need and desire friendship. Ok, and we're made in God's image, right? Then doesn't that mean that He's relational, too? Friendship is at the heart of God! He created us to have friendship with each other and with Him! God wants to be friends with us, He doesn't want to sit on His throne and rule over us, He wants to get to know us and for us to get to know Him! The character of God isn't "I'll punish you if you sin" but "Come join our dance!" (The Trinity is sometimes described as a dance...) Sometimes we think of Jesus as being kind and gentle and loving, and of God as being the mighty ruler who wants to punish us for doing wrong, but you know what? Jesus IS God! God IS Jesus! Jesus is exactly like God and visa versa! If we want to know what God is like, we just need to look at Jesus. All of His character traits are God's character traits.

And God doesn't look at sin the way we usually think He does... When we suffer pain or sickness or abuse, we sometimes think that this is God's punishment, that He wants us to suffer for some reason. But He doesn't!! He created us for Eden! He designed us to never know disease, death, hate, abuse, or anything at all bad! Pain is NOT God's plan for you! He doesn't want you to hurt or have pain or sickness in your life! The reason those things exist are because sin entered this world...

Trent showed us something else. The first evil that happened was not when Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it was when satan, in the form of a serpent, accused God in front of humankind, when he said "Did God really say that?" Accusation is judgment, and when we accuse each other, we're judging each other, we're putting ourselves over the person we're judging, and that's sin...

Anyway, what I wanted to write about sin is this: When God gave Adam that rule that he shouldn't eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He didn't say that simply to test him or because He knew that he would or for any other stupid reason like that, He did it because eating from that fruit would lead to death... (If we had never eaten from that tree there would be no death...) And the reason that tree even existed is because He gave us a free will. If that tree had never existed, then us loving God would never have been a choice, we would have been like robots, but love is something inexplicable, it's something that can't be forced, which is why He gave us a free will. Without free will there is no love, and without free will there can be no relationship.

Ok, one more thing about sin: it's a disease... Trent drew us a picture of two trees. One was rooted in LIFE one was rooted in DEATH. The tree rooted in life gave fruits such as PEACE, LOVE, KINDNESS, JOY, etc., the other tree gave fruits such as MURDER, LIES, ABUSE, ADULTERY, etc. The sources of those trees (life/death) is what causes those fruits to grow... The reason God gave us rules to follow is NOT because He's a cruel God who just wants to give us a bunch of rules so that He can judge us by whether or not we obey those rules, it's because NOT following those rules leads to death!! Trent illustrated this with a little story...

Say a bunch of people have a huge space-ship and decide to blast off into space to explore the universe. The man who owns the ship says that they can go wherever they want, except fly straight into the sun. "Do NOT fly straight into the sun!" (Duuh...) Ok, so they lift off, have a bunch of adventures, see a whole bunch of things, 'til someone says "Hey, why don't we fly to the sun?" Someone else says "Umm, isn't that what we're NOT supposed to do?" Then someone else says "Yeah, but what if that guy was just holding out on something? What if there's something on the sun that's so great, so magnificent, that he didn't want us to see that?" Ok, so they decide to fly into the sun, and guess what happens? They burn up and die!

That's how it is when God gives us laws, He doesn't want us to die... The main thing the laws actually do are teach us how to love one another! We should love others because God loved/loves us! God says "I loved you, I took care of you, so love and take care of others! Be like me!"

God is the source of life, God is relational, and God is humble (!).

I know I just wrote a lot...sorry! Well no, I'm not actually sorry... :-) But one more thing I want to share with you is this: Following God is not only the right thing to do, it's the BEST thing to do!! God not only wants what's good for us, He wants what's BEST for us! And sometimes He wants us to give some things up that are good, like a relationship with someone from the opposite sex, or a comfortable life, because He wants to give us something even better! Trent told us how he had once dated someone, and eventhough she was a Christian, he just felt that God was telling him to let go... They did eventually, and now he's married and I've never seen anyone so happy!! God may also call you to give up your comfortable life and maybe go into missions in Africa, and you may have to give up EVERYTHING, all your money, your house, your possessions, your dog, everything, but guess what? God has soooooo much more in store for you! What He wants to give you is so much better than anything you could possibly imagine!

I'm excited, aren't you? :-)

Comment: Dan-Dan:
wow.. you must take really really good notes, or.. have a really really good memory... or both.. haha

your blogs help me a lot actually.. thanks what you wrote is basically the whole lecture or sermon whatever... awesome!!

I think Trent is so awesome!! words cant explain it.. he reminds me of an Irish Warrior... like from Braveheart or something... I picture him being one of those guys thats first to run into battle or something.... or him blowing a bagpipe hahaha..

well. I thought id have like a whole bunch of stuff to write about..but like everything just went bye bye in my mind

yeaa i feel special.. yaay
guess that was my queue to go to bed...since its like.. midnight right now sooo ill talk to you later..

Some more pics... :-)

These are two of my room-mates, Jessica and Linda, on the...dance-thingy... (I've never tried it, and I probably never will, but I guess it's addicting... :-))

And that's one of my other room-mates, Minna, whackin' her heart out! :-) We went to the Arcade again, but we were only there for a few minutes when someone got a call on their cell phone that we had to go back to the base because there was a tsunami warning... Yeah, I was scared... <:-( But in the end nothing bad happened, we just had really big waves, and the tsunami ended up going in a different direction so we weren't hit.

The first gecko in our room...yay? Mindy named him/her Bob... (Mindy's given everyone nick-names by the way... Our room-mates all have princess names, we have Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Jasmin, Thumbelina, Mulan, who wasn't a princess but she was cool anyway, and I'm Snow White...of course...)

Another gecko... They are really all over the campus... Thanks goodness they don't bite... (They're actually really, really shy.)

This is Kona...isn't it pretty? (No, it's not ALL of Kona...)

They have really cool, really huge trees here...

Heh heh, YWAM's been around for a while... :-)

Me and Linda...and the tree... :-) (For some reason I hardly ever like the pictures I take of myself...or the pictures other people take of me...or pictures of me in general...)

Our campus sunset view...

That's Mindy, Jeremy and Linda. We went to town and had ice-cream... (YWAMers get a discount at Dairy Queen! :-))

Injustice against women...
On Thursday evening and on Friday we learned about injustice against women (no, it has absolutely nothing to do with feminism...) and I learned a whole lot and I want to share a few of those things with you...

Did you know that...
...an estimated 4-5 million women are victims of Female Genital Mutilation every year? That's an average of 11,000-14,000 women daily... (WHO)
...more than 5,000 brides are burned to death annually by their husbands or in-laws due to unmet dowry demands, or to marry again and collect another dowry from a new bride's family? (UNICEF)
...2 million girls, between the ages of 5 to 15, are forcibly sold each year into prostitution by parents, male partners and human trafficking? (UNICEF)
...in Johannesburg, South Africa, a woman is raped every minute? (World Vision)
...5,000 Muslim women will be killed by relatives for the sake of defending family honor this year? (UNICEF)

Did you also know that every year up to 3 million women lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence or neglect?

And the injustice against women doesn't end in the eastern cultures... In our western churches so many women have been denied leadership roles because they are seen to have less value than men... (If you think that's not true, go to different churches in your area and see how many women pastors you see...there probably wont be very many...)

All this injustice against women originates from the very first woman's (Eve's) trouble with satan... It says in the Bible, when God rebuked satan (in the form of a serpent) He said that from then on the woman and the serpent would be enemies, but He didn't just mean snakes (though lot's of women really don't like snakes for some strange reason), He meant satan. Satan has a special kind of hatred for women, for one thing God promised that out of her womb a man (=Jesus) would come who would defeat evil, which could be why that there is so much sin involving sex/childbirth... There's abortion, prostitution, adultery, sexual abuse...through all these things satan is trying to make sex dirty and immoral, even though it was something created by God to be wonderful and bring life.

And then there's the other issue, that men are supposedly superior to women... If that's true, then why does it say in the Bible that man and woman were created in God's image? It doesn't say that man was created in His image, it says that man and woman both were created in His image. We are both absolute equals. Someone might argue that man was created first, so it would be logical that he would be superior, because he was created first, right? Well, Loren Cunningham pointed out that yes, man was created before woman, but the frog was created before man, so... Actually, when God was creating life, each creation was more beautiful than the one before, and woman was the last creature He made... *hint hint* ;-)

Then it says that woman was created to be a "help-mate" to man, which sounds a lil degrading. Well, the same word (in the original texts) was used to describe Egypt when Israel asked them for help, and God Himself was described as a "help-mate" to Israel, so that word is not in the least degrading, rather the opposite...

Then there's those passages, for example where it says that women are supposed to be silent in church. Actually, another translation for "be silent" is to "not chatter"... (Yeah, women like to talk...a lot...) And another reason Paul said that is because the women there were uneducated. They were not allowed to have an education, so, for example, maybe a women didn't know what the word "resurrection" meant, and in the church service she would ask her husband, which would kinda disrupt the whole service. That's why Paul told the men to educate their women at home, which in itself was already revolutionary since women were legally not allowed to be educated!

Paul also said that women should be co-workers in the church! ("They contended at my side...")

Loren Cunningham (in case you don't know, he's the co-founder of YWAM, he founded it with his wife Darlene) told us a really cool true story. The pastor of the biggest church in the world was asked why that God had blessed his church to be so big. The pastor replied without hesitation that it was because their church released women into ministry. The same goes for the biggest missionary organization; they release women into ministry, and they're all over the world! (That's YWAM by the way. :-))

So...I'm learning a lot. :-)

By the way, on Sunday I'll be leaving to go to Honolulu. Our Classic DTS is going there for a week to work together with the DTS on the YWAM base there. I don't know if I'm going to have any opportunity to check my e-mail, so if you e-mail me and I don't write you back, it's because I haven't been able to... (I'm really excited about going to Honolulu by the way...they have beautiful lava-free beaches there... :-))

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