November Update

Hi everyone,

I hope this update finds you well! I want to thank all of you who have been checking my blog regularly, it's been really encouraging to see how many of you take interest in what I'm doing. It's beginning to feel like fall around here. I always get excited when the first cold day rolls around... the air is so refreshing and I get to wear my hoodies again. I love hoodies!

Work in the Admissions department has slowed quite a bit since the last schools began. After the summer hustle and bustle it's hard to believe I'm working in the same department. But I'm also working part time with the School of Worship (SOW) and leading the dorm, so a lot of what I do is done in the afternoon or evenings. It's been great working with a secondary school for a change, as opposed to DTS. I lead one of the three cell bands in SOW. My role is simply to support them in any way I can... encourage them, guide them, help them with band dynamics, and connect with them individually when I can.

It's been really, really fun... seriously! Most of the students decided to come to the SOW in faith because they didn't play an instrument. Last week one of the guys just picked up the bass guitar and was playing with the band at the end of practice. One girl who didn't know how to play an instrument when the school started was leading worship with the keys last week! So it's been great to see progress both musically and spiritually. They're continually stepping out in ways they're not comfortable with and God is meeting them. Even some of the songs they've been writing are very creative and anointed.

I do ask that you would join me in prayer. There are a few students in the SOW that have had a really tough time in this school. Even the most encouraging student I've met is fighting depression. They are feeling spiritually defeated and numb to God. I've lived long enough to know that we don't live by our feelings or live under our circumstances but I would just appreciate your prayers for this school, and myself. I have been dealing with a degree of this too for the past few months and sometimes I'm really not sure what to say (or what not to say) when I'm spending time with them. So please pray that I would have wisdom to know how to minister to them and for the Holy Spirit to awaken hearts. Thank you all so much for your prayers and please keep praying for me and for the ministry of YWAM Tyler. I sense that God is at work in some big ways here and I'm really eager to see it happen!

I look forward to seeing some of you soon, I'll be visiting for a week over Thanksgiving... right around the time my first nephew is born. Ha ha : ) And there just happens to be a special friend coming with me. Blessings!