Oh, the good things in life.

So here I am, sitting in the Starbucks that is almost a half an hour away from the YWAM base, with Kristin and Katherine- enjoying an iced grande toffee nut latte for the first time in two weeks! I am almost too delighted for words. I cannot express to you how problematic my current life has been without the gloriousness of my regular Starbuck's drink. The drink that I, in a normal week back at home, drink on average: three to four times a week. I sitting here smiling like a crazy person at this heavenly human-manufactured item, and think to myself, "Oh, the good things in life. I might be suffering while I'm here, but at least I'll have Starbucks at my dispense once I get home. I mean, at least I can have it every once in awhile while I'm here, that's not too bad. ....God's just teaching me patience...probably...kind of. Right?
      
Wait - it's not bad to want Starbucks, is it?? God made it possible for coffee addicts, such as myself, to enjoy the beauty of Starbucks, right...? So it's perfectly okay to obsess over a trip to this all-too-familiar coffee shop..... RIGHT? 

As I sit here pondering all of these arbitrary, nonsensical questions, I come to the sudden realization that it isn't bad to want a Starbucks. It is not as if Starbucks is the devil. I am not being led by temptation to drink it. It's just that it really isn't of much importance in the long run. There are people all throughout the nations that do not have half of the "good things" that I get to enjoy in life. It's not like I cannot enjoy it if I have the chance to, but I really don't need to. I again come to another realization- I chose to come here to YWAM to put my focus on the God that made it possible for me to even enjoy this coffee- and for the past day I have been literally obsessing over the fact that I get to make a trip to Starbucks, not God Himself. For the past twenty four hours, I have put more thought into this coffee trip, than in God. Well, shoot. Thoughts of sarcasm begin to quickly fill my mind. How wonderful... I now understand completely, and I feel like an idiot. Everything makes sense now. Just because something in life is by your own definition, "good," doesn't mean that it should necessarily be a significant or consequential factor in your everyday life.

Do you have to wake up in the morning asking yourself if you can proceed through your day without a heavy dose of Starbucks? If your answer is, "No, I cannot survive the day without my grande iced toffee nut latte," then I strongly advise you to reconsider your daily needs. Because, my hope (and frankly, God's desire) is that you would actually be waking up in the morning asking yourself if you could proceed throughout the day without a strong dose of God, Himself. And your answer should hopefully be NO to the second question- not the first.

Because, in all honesty, do we really need any of these material things we constantly surround our lives with? The simple answer is: no. WE DO NOT NEED ANY OF IT. Do we want it? Well, sure. Do we need it? Well...no. But hey, it took me a whole blog post- and God's loving patience and guidance- for me to figure it out for my own silly self. So, just remember to think about the actual "good things in life" before you look to those "extra things in life." Because, trust me when I say this: Starbucks is never going to taste as good as God's love does.
:)

This won't happen very often.

Hello everyone,

Just thought i would blog and update again, seeing as in the next few days I guarantee that I will not have even five minutes to spare towards free time.
        So, the staff members are finally getting up to the point where they know the outreach options...which means only THREE MORE DAYS until we all find out where we are going on outreach! I am so excited, yet anxious and nervous to find out where God wants to send me. But more news on that later!



Anyways, as all of Facebook (and probably you) know, I...am...HOMESICK. The "honeymoon phase"- as the other more experienced YWAMer's call it - is most certainly over, and now reality has hit the fan. As in, things are really beginning to make more sense now. Ohhhh yes, so much more sense.
For example,
If you had asked me within the first week of being here, "Is being here in Texas a major culture-shock for you?" With confusion, (because in all seriousness, I didn't really understand the concept of this so-called, "culture shock" that was going on...) I would reply, "Not really. Besides the heat, it hasn't been too bad."
But if you had the guts to ask me that very question now, I would first glare with extreme annoyance, and follow with something along the lines of, "The food sucks, I'm getting fatter, it's way too hot, there are bugs everywhere, my bedroom is the size of a closet, half of my dorm speaks a different language, and I WANT MY OWN BED BACK!" ...So, yes. I am now aware (and a victim) of "culture shock." And I am here to report that this is not always going to be easy.

But- not to worry! My suck-ish and quite all-of-the-sudden "culture shock" is definitely not putting a dent in my experience here at YWAM. So many different things have been happening lately- I literally have to write down all of what I want to tell you guys so I'm able to remember everything! But one thing that God has really blessed me with during these past few weeks are all of the new friendships I've made here on base. What's random and kind of funny? The first three girls I became close to are named Kristen, Katherine, and Kayce. We all laughed when we introduced ourselves to each other. Imagine how the class speaker's feel when all four of us are sitting next to each other and they have to try and memorize our names! So we have now become "the four K's." And in that same week, I also met and became very close to a girl named Lauren, and two guys, Jesse and Nathan. We all hang out and for fun on the weekends, go to Dairy Queen for ice cream and then tour Wal-mart (as if we haven't all been there before). But as weird as that sounds, it's still tons of fun! Getting to know all of these people who are in the same exact boat as me, have the same passion and love for God, and all have amazing personalities has been quite an experience. I look forward to growing closer to them in these next four months! And- since you probably have no clue who any of these people are, I have been posting pictures on Facebook to update you, so take a look at them! I'm positive that I will be putting more pictures soon as well :) (and even though these people have been the ones I have gotten the closest to, I have been growing closer to my entire DTS team these past three weeks too. We are already a really strong, close-knit group, and I am so excited to be learning and experiencing new things with these amazing people!)

Wellllll......time to go and finish a couple of letters and make some phone calls home. I'll write again soon!

Love you and miss you,
Kelci

Hey guys!

So I have decided to (finally) start a blog of my own! It’s for all you guys out there that are interested in how God is working through my life in my YWAM DTS! I’ll be sure to update everyone as often as possible; letting you guys know how living away from home has been, to how awesome it is growing in relationship with God. Things have been crazy, and it’s only a matter of time before they start spinning out of control! (in an amazing, life-changing way, of course )


I am getting adjusted to many different things being away from sunny Roseville, California to hot n’ sweaty Lindale, Texas. But…..

For starters I am:

-Learning how to live, community/dorm style! I live in a tiny bedroom along with four other girls, (two of which are South Korean and are still in the process of learning english), complete with bunk beds and close to no space to hang up our clothes. It’s been interesting, to say the least.

- Trying to get used to the heat here in good ‘ole Texas. Walking outside feels like a sauna, and I believe the high a couple days ago was 115 degrees. BUT, walking into our classrooms feels pretty much like Heaven, because they keep it down to what feels like 20 degrees in there. So that is a definite plus.

- Slowly learning how to let God take hold of things in my life. By nature and personality, I am one who likes to be in control – of myself and other things surrounding me – and the process of letting go and giving that part of my life to God has been a toughie.

- Now understanding what it means to genuinely miss people of importance of my life. Yes, i have gone periods of time without seeing loved ones, but this is my first adventure being away from any of you guys for longer than….a week. Mmm, yep, sounds about right.

And even though there are more things that I have been learning to “adjust” to, that seems to be all for today. I’m off to go on a bike ride with a good friend, Kristen (yes, she’s a new one)  and then i’ll be going to Family Night (a fun church-like, get together with everyone on base) later tonight. So I’ll see y’all around!


Love you and miss you,

Kelci