It's been a while since my last post, so this one might be a little lengthy! Our schedules are getting busier with additional reports to write, books to read, Bible studies, and 'outside of school time' volunteer opportunities. It's all good but it is going to get tiring! Please pray for us that we will manage our time wisely, be excellent students and continue to soak in the Holy Spirit.
  So, last week we went on a retreat with our Revival Group. We stayed at a place called Springs of Living Water Conference Center. It is located in Chico, which is a town about 1 hour from Redding. A most beautiful place situated on 500 acres. The history of this place is that it was built in the 1920's and was a Hotel for the movie stars of that era. A place where they could 'get away' from the city life. It was then purchased in the 1940's by a wealthy SanFranciso christian business man, with the intention of turning it into a retreat center. This same man then donated it to YWAM in the 1980's and it has been operating as a YWAM base/ retreat center ever since. Pretty cool place with the COOLEST elevator I have ever been on! The time with our Revival Group was sweet and so was the food! Oh ya'....the Holy Spirit also came along and He treated us to His presence in a powerful way. It was also a great bonding time for all 65 of us!
 This week has been busy with the usual incredible teaching but we also started what the school calls AMT's, which stands for Advanced Ministry Training. There were several of these that we could choose from, but I wanted to focus on the Prophetic and Dave signed up for one on Healing. Our first class on these topics took place Tuesday afternoon. Incredible! Can't wait to absorb, practise and continue to learn from these very gifted teachers. We are also being broken up into small groups which we will meet with once per week. There are 5 girls in the one that I'm in and next week I get to lead it. I'm also 'testing' out the choir. There is a 'grace period' that I get as a student, so if in a couple of weeks I'm finding it's too much, I can gracefully bow out. Nice to know when you have no idea what your schedule might look like in a months time!
 These last couple of days we were taught on Purity by Kris Vallotton. This was a very frank, honest teaching on what the Bible calls Purity and how, we as christians, ought to be living this out. Believe me when I say, there was content that would have made people blush and feel extremely uncomfortable! I can also say, this was stuff that I wish I had heard 25 years ago. Kids need to know how God views sex, not as a bad, dirty thing but as a gift that He created and meant to be shared between One Man and One Woman within the confines of marriage. I know that concept seems rather 'elementary' to those of us raised in the church but how much do we actually teach it and teach it like we mean it?!
 The other awesome thing that we had to look at, was choosing where we might like to go on a Missions trip. These are not happening until March, but there are 60 places that Bethel takes it's students, so we had to read about each one and then try to make a decision. We had to pick our top five because there are no garantees we'll get our first choice. Dave and I spent some time looking at the options (which wasn't an easy task) and we both decided that Thailand was our first choice, then Mozambique, then Israel, then Lebanon and then New Zealand. Why was Thailand our 1st choice? Because it's a part of the world that suffers under huge amounts of sexual bondage often times selling children to satisfy the ugly, dark side of the sex trade. This is an area that causes our hearts to ache and it's an area that needs to know the freedom that exists in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ultimate Bondage breaker and the devil doesn't stand a chance but we must be free of our own stuff and our own fears to really be effective. It is my prayer that our Lord will use us and that we will step into this arena and trust God for everything including the added finances to get us there.
 Every day spent here is another day filled with revelation, drinking in of the Holy Spirit, and the creation of new friendships. Some day I want to travel to Australia and Scotland and visit our new friends!
 Time to wrap it up for tonight. We leave shortly to go to SOZO training. SOZO is a greek word for inner healing and deliverance which we will definately need if we go to Thailand!