Baptized...

Hey! I was baptized today! It was awesome, and cold because I was in the ocean, with shorts and a t-shirt... and it's February. But it felt good to declare to the world my love for Jesus and my desire to follow him all the days of my life :) I'm excited for this new life! What an incredible God I serve! One who died for me so that I might live, and loved so that I might love others :) I'm happy to be his servant :) 

Valentines day at YWAM Biarritz!

Valentines pastry :)

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I'm not sure how to put it, except to say that Ladies, you are WORTH it. Worth being honored, 

worth being respected and pursued! And I'm not sure that I can put into words what it's like to feel worth it! I can only say that last night I felt it! I want to give a huge thank you to all of the guys here at YWAM Biarritz because they are truly the standard of what real men should be like! 

The other day/valentines day, all the guys spent the entire day reconstructing and transforming their apartment into a five star restaurant! Complete with new wallpaper, candles, wine glasses and to top it off... live jazz music! (they put all of there furniture out on one of the balconies!) I could barely recognize that it was the same place! This of course took... hours! but whats more they even cooked our entire three course meal! We started off with a delightful spinach salad with sliced strawberries and walnuts :) The main course was rolled chicken stuffed with asparagus, sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese! (or some type of cheese!) with a small side of asparagus and rice all drizzled with an amazing sauce! :) for desert we all got either a raspberry or strawberry tart with a light powdering of sugar drizzled with Chocolate and a side of whipped cream! Oh the yumminess! It was truly delightful, complete with Champagne a.k.a sparkling cider! :) If that wasn't enough already not only did they serve us the entire night but also played live music for us! There was allot of dancing ;) 

     I have never felt so cherished and special than at the moment that they opened the door to the apartment and each man escorted each lady to her seat and gave her a rose! I may have cried! It was so touching and beautiful! Something I will never forget! At the end, Dan, the leader of our base got up to give a brief speech about how we deserved every moment of the night, and that we are indeed worthy! I can only say that the bar has been raised for all men! It's not necessarily something that is hard to achieve, but it's something that requires a man who is rooted in God and is committed to following and loving Him! The guys that served us last night are truly that! In love with God, and passionate about showing that through their actions. 

     God loves all of us unconditionally! There is no question about that, so it follows that this is the way we should love others, Love Expecting NO Reward, a selfless, beautiful love! That is what valentines day is about! Loving each other the way that God loves us. This is exactly what those guys did for us! You don't need a boyfriend or girlfriend to celebrate 'Valentines day' or be completely and selflessly loved! You just need God, and an understanding that EVERYONE deserves to be honored and loved no matter who they are. 

      I feel it's important for women to know how special and worthy they truly are, because so many of us have such low self esteem! Ladies you are worth so much! Don't ever accept anything less than a man (or friend for that matter!) who is committed to God and to loving and honoring you the same way that He does! :) 

Happy Valentines day!!! Love you all! :)

Here are a few pictures from the night, I hope to post more pics soon! :)

Getting ready!!!!

Kaylyn (my leader for my outreach phase!) Shanda, Linda, Katalina, Savannah, and Elizabeth :)

Mariah, Me, Shanda, Linda, Amy and Stephanie in the very front :)

So much makeup and hair stuff!!!!

Mo and Shanda... such models!

Leah (our wonderful DTS leader!) Lindsay and Kaylyn :)

Lillian and Jaimee :)

Sarah and Amy (amy's my roommate:)

We are all ready to go! (I live with such babes!)

Brittany with her rose :) so beautiful!!! :)

Just a small example of the exemplary service we received last night! Peshë is looking so smooth with his bow tie! :)

They did good with the choice of wallpaper and decor :)

JJP (Josh John Paul) giving some refills :)

Below is the most beautiful sight I've ever seen! I'm referring to the salad of course ;) modeled by the gorgeous Jaimee :)

Yes I was informed by Matt (not the guy in the photo below... the guy in the background) that the Champagne (Sparkling Cider) was the year 1984, a very good year for Cider apparently ;) :)

Yes we were very elegant!

Part way through the evening I decided to get a breath of fresh air and cool off on the balcony :) Linda told me to look out over my kingdom so... thats what I'm doing :)

Ok so below is one of the most amazing people I know! HELENA! she is awesome :) she is one of the girls staffing this DTS and she is so much fun! :)

Oh! and here is Linda my BFFF :) looking out over her kingdom!

She was my date :)

Oh the elegance :) Good times :)

the motto for the night:

Love

Expecting 

No Reward!

The three girls who are staffing the DTS Helena, Amy, and Kaylyn, and Sarah who is not staff... :) (after helena)

It was a wonderful night! But only possible because of the awesomeness of these guys!

Pierre (Pechë), Matt (Mitt), Adam (Leah's husband), JJP, Dan (base leader), and Erik is lying across their laps! Love these guys so much they are so amazing :) 

Happy Valentines day Toute la monde! hope it was as wonderful as mine :)

Little video of our trip to San Sebastian Spain :)

First month of YWAM Biarritz JDTS 2014!

 
Oh dear! I was hoping to do a weekly post about my experiences in France but it doesn't look like that is going to happen, so once a month it is! :)

So much is happened since I arrived that I don't think I will be able to tell it all, but I will try! So here it goes!

I arrived at the YWAM (youth with a mission) Base late on a Thursday the 2nd of January. For the next couple of days I just hung out, got unpacked and welcomed new people who were arriving for the DTS (discipleship training school) everyday :)

School started the next Sunday on the 5th with Orientation!

Leah Thompson is the leader of our DTS, she is married to Adam Thompson who is going to be leading a music DTS later this year, and they are literally the cutest couple EVER!
There are 21 girls on my school, not one boy! They are all super awesome! Most of the girls are either from the US or Canada but we do have 6 French girls, and one Finnish girl as well! I wish I had time to tell you about them but 21 is quite a bit, so just believe me when I say that they are awesome and I can't wait for what these next few months will bring! There are also 3 girls helping staff my DTS, Kaylyn, Helena, and Amy... all of them are from Canada! So naturally they are the sweetest people on this earth! :) besides the staff for the school there are a few people who just staff for the base. There is Erik (also Canadian/Dutch) who is our accountant. Matt is from New Zealand and he is in charge of the sports ministry here. Pierre is from Switzerland and speaks Swiss-German, German, English, and French... so he's our translator! There's JJP who... I don't actually know what he does but he's pretty cool :) Then of course there is Esther who is the most AMAZING cook of all time! :) Then of course there's our base Leaders Dan and Kate who have two beautiful daughters (Elle and Lilly) and another on the way! All of these people are amazing! I hope I didn't forget anyone... :)

Ok so... Check out how beautiful it is here!!!!


This is a normal, everyday house :) Always an off white color with Blue, Green, or Dark red shutters and trim.

This is le petit lac Marion about five minutes from the base :) It's a great place to go for a run, or a quiet time :) (those two lovely ladies are Jen and Shanda, they're such models!)

This is the Beach :) just 10-15 minutes from the base It's so beautiful! I'm looking forward to surfing here!

Welcome to the City of Biarritz! It is beautiful here! With tons of cute little cafes, bakeries, and random little shops! As well as an amazing little bookshop! This book shop looks small, but it's actually three stories high with lots of secret little rooms and tons of cute little books! I was thrilled to find this (of course!) but whats even better is that there are two comfy couches on the upper level next to a big window overlooking the street. Across the street is the most amazing bakery and coffee place in the world! So I can pop in, grab a couple macaroons (those lovely colorful pastries) and a coffee and go read a french book! How magical is that?!

This is most of us! My team :) Since we are awesome for the second saturday that we were her we went to a Rugby game in Bayonne! Despite the fact that we live in Biarritz we were rooting for the Bayonne team because we know someone from the team! It was an awesome experience (even though we lost!). Below is us getting ready with war paint! We are Awesome...

Lillian and I are practicing our warrior faces! (and yes there is a handprint across my face!) :) 

So the next weekend we went to Bayonne (the most stunning city ever!) for a day. I have never seen such beautiful architecture before! It was like walking through a midevel city!

Yay! So if we hadn't had enough fun already the next weekend we went to San Sebastian (which is in Spain btw... no biggy!) It was amazing walking around and experiencing a little bit of Spanish culture :)  On the way we stopped at a cliff to look out over the Spanish coastline.

These are my friends Katalina (middle) and Brittany. Both such amazing people :)

    Lindsay :)        

Meet Sarah and Mariah (left to right)
I love these girls!
Thats Jennifer the forever model staring off into the distance in the back round. She is so gorgeous!










Below is My BFFF (best finnish friend forever) :) She is amazing and beautiful! She is also my new workout buddy and she's helping me to stay fit throughout this school! I love her so much!

This is Sephora, She is from France! She's so sweet and wonderful, and she helps me with my french... a lot! :)

I love my friends!













The Spanish coast!









We were very hungry after our car ride down so we stopped of at a little restaurant to have some food, and we devoured it!

This video pretty much sums up this trip and... my life here :)

Pretty Spanish Cathedrals :)

BTW 'The rain in Spain falls mostly on San Sebastian!' it was very wet!

The Class room! 

School has been Great! The topics for this month were
1. Hearing the voice of God
2. God's character
3. Repentance and Forgiveness
4. Worship and Intercession

All of these have been amazing! It's like one revelation after another of who Gods is and what it means to follow Him! I've been able to dig deeper into God's character and what he has for my life! I'm not gonna lie, I've never really enjoyed just sitting and waiting for God to speak to me, but now it's so much easier! I've realized these last few weeks how much God has pursued me throughout my life, and I didn't even know it! God has spoken to me in so many ways that I have not recognized until now, all of which have led me here! (thanks for that God!!!) I've realized that it would just be plain stupid not to follow a God who has given everything only to have a relationship with me. And I don't want to just follow him, I want Him to be my Everything! How could you not fall in love with someone who has pursued you from the very beginning and given up everything just to be with you! I've definitely fallen in love these past few weeks of learning about who God is! I've also realized that if God's only gonna be one piece of my life, I might as well just give him up! I guess I've always just put him in the neat little pile of all the things I want in my life, I guess Gods a little bit to big to share space with the other desires of my heart. So knowing how good God is compared to other things I've wanted in my life has made me realize that I'd rather walk through life holding my Fathers hand than chasing after things that can only make me happy for a little while! I've had to give some things up, plans for my future, things that I want, but it's all worth it! He is my All, my Everything, my Creator, my Redeemer, Friend and King!

Ok I kinda got carried away with that but it's understandable since I was listening to the Once soundtrack, plus praise will never end for an eternal God! :)

So! That has been school! There is allot more but I'll stop there since that's the gist of what I'm learning :)

'You are my prince of peace and I will live my life for You!!!!' 

Love you all!

:)