Life as I know it.

Boredom? Wanderlust? What can it be?

2012-01-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

Bored. Bored. Bored. I am bored. So so so so, sooooooo sooooooo BORED.

With what, you may ask? Well, um, hm. Let's see...EVERYTHING!!!!!!

(Well...Let me explain).

I have always been a person that gets bored very easily. I am a do-er. I enjoy doing things, I enjoy being busy, I enjoy going places, I enjoy the feeling of "doing." All my life I've been this way, but most recently (as in, the past three months) I have had this continuous, over-whelming feeling of boredom ALONG with the need to travel. When combined, they seem to equate into something very odd. Wanderlust.

Wanderlust (Definition): A very strong impulse to travel. Yes, my friends, I have been itching to travel again. To go places! Do things! Ahh! I even get crazy thinking about it. Ever since YWAM, I have been content with just packing my bags, getting on a plane, and leaving. But about three weeks ago when I made the choice to go ahead and stay where I was instead of getting the heck out of here, I've felt slightly off. I am itching to go out into the world once again, to get out there and to start what God has in store for me. But, my problem is, I am ready to go like, right this minute. And the thing is, God seems to be thinking a little differently right now. Remember my last blog, when I talked about my need for patience? Well...yeah. I have a feeling that that is exactly what I need to be learning right now. How to stay put, sit quietly, and wait on the Lord. Maybe then I will be ready to hear (and act upon) exactly what He has in store for me! And that should slowly cure my need to get OUTTA HERE! Then again, saying all of this is a little too easy, but doing it couldn't be harder.

I am also always in need of the reminder that a life with God should never, ever be boring! By just being in his presence and spending my days solely with him, I have already found the cure for my case boredom without even realizing it. While this is also easier said than done most of the time, I have now created a small list of things to do for myself and for God in these next couple of months, and will begin my newly inspired "Me & God" journey! My small list consists of simple things such as spending time in my journal and bible when I am alone, keeping God in all of my daily activities, and beginning some of my new-found passions (like photography)!

And it seems that I have written enough thus far--so I will update you all again soon!

Love love love,
Kelci

A season of patience.

2012-01-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

I would like to let all of you who have been checking up on my updates (since I've been home) know that I am not going to the School of Evangelism any longer (at this point in time). I had an intense couple of weeks with God to really figure some things out, and have decided that right now at this point in my life, I do not need to do this school yet. A few weeks ago, I was really struggling with the idea of dedicating myself for another five months towards SOE, or just staying home and seeing what God could have in store for me here, because I wasn't really feeling any clear direction from God. My main question was, do I stay here or do I go there? I prayed and focused and sought God for so long, that I began to feel like he wasn't answering my questions. But through confirmation after confirmation, all he had been saying to the entire time me was:

Kelci, you may choose either path. Neither decision is wrong, neither is perfectly right. But either way, I will honor you in your decision if you continue to seek me. I will be with you no matter where you go or what you choose to do. I will never leave your side.

I had been SO scared that if I didn't choose SOE that I would not feel as close to God during these next five months. As if, going to SOE meant growing with him but staying at home would make him farther away from me. But, that's such a wrong way of thinking on my part! Although I am positive that I would grow with him during SOE, that doesn't mean God isn't here for me at all times no matter where I am! God is everywhere! I don't have to go to a YWAM base to feel his presence...I just have to continue to seek him, and he will always meet me, right here. (Not that his presence isn't strong on the YWAM tyler base- it most definitely is- but you know what I mean I hope ;)

And during this entire process, I had also been doubting his awesome plans for me! Staying home doesn't mean that I'll be doing nothing, it just means that God now is opening doors to things he has for me here at home! Speaking of which, he has already opened up so many doors and he continues to reassure me everyday of the awesome things I will be doing here back at home as well. I know that in my heart I was created to go places, to see the world and God's people, and to spread his love- and trust me, I am not the type to sit around and do nothing... but I know that I know that I know that in the near future he has some crazy things in store for me, even if I am called to a season of "patience" and waiting on him for more of what's coming next, for now.

I promise to keep you all updated on those things!! But for now, it looks like I will be focusing on work, maybe a photography class or two, and the awesome community (you guys!) around me. I'll try and get a fun video up soon for everyone or something, but we'll see ;) I hope that all of you have had a great start to your new year! Love you guys!

Love love love,
Me

DTS Newsletter for you all.

2011-12-23T14:08:00.000-08:00

Here is my newsletter! (it's only the first two pages, sorry about that)

DTS Newsletter (2)

And here is a link to my first VIDEO UPDATE! (please excuse my awkwardness in it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epu_qOZB760&feature=youtu.be

A special thanks to Bob Humphrey for shooting and editing it :)

He blesses us abundantly.

2011-12-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

The abundance of blessings that we constantly receive from God make me smile. His timing is impeccable and the blessings we receive are always exactly what we need at that given moment. From the smallest to the biggest things that we need, he always, always meets us there.

The reason why this was on my mind today is because I just got done having a coffee date with Brandi, a friend of mine, this morning! (Actually, a very recent friend of mine. We knew each other in high school, but both of us did something through YWAM post high school...so that's kind of what brought us together :) When I first got back home we talked about catching up over coffee and so we planned it, and, what do you know? Today, we spent a couple hours at Jericho Coffee talking about God and our adventures and our plans to come...and it was such an awesome blessing! God has placed a new friend in my life and is opening so many doors for the future to come.

I am so grateful for the way that God watches over me, and I thank him for all of the blessings that he places in my life, constantly. He has reassured me thus far, that with every decision I make in life--whether it be going to college or getting a job or going back to YWAM--he will always provide with what I need. Every step of the way is a big step, and I am overly happy that I get to take those steps with him. :)

I wanted to write this post on blessings because it is the Christmas season, (a season that many like to separate from the rest of the year--by making it that time 'once a year' to give, love, be jolly, and be grateful for what we have.) But I feel like sometimes we are all in need of being reminded of the blessings that take place in our lives constantly, and to remember to be thankful for them no matter the time of year. It's hard to always be grateful for those blessings when it seems that we aren't receiving them, or that God isn't providing. But, as I remind myself alllllll the time, God does know what he is doing and does know what you need when you need it.

Many crazy decisions have been made and many crazy things have been happening in this past month and a half of being home. But, seeing as my insanity has not been cured (kidding), it looks like the School of Evangelism is still currently on top of this crazy list of things to do. I am still in need of support towards this next school, and have exactly two weeks and three days until I need all of my tuition. Yes, that's right. I have until January 8th (or the 7th, more of less) to have alllllll of my tuition to go. Haha! No, I am serious.

God is good, eh? ...And slightly crazy? Yes, but that's why I love him :)

If you would love to read my newsletter (I know you would) and haven't received it through email or facebook yet, LET ME KNOW! My email is kelci_b@hotmail.com and I would love to send you a copy. If you would also like to stay in contact and keep up with all of my updates, send me YOUR email--I would love to have you in my regular contacts list. :) Guess this is all for now, folks. Talk to you soon!

Love love love,
Kelci

My facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kittyykat93

My email: kelci_b@hotmail.com

My YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/SpreadHISloveee?feature=mhee

He knows the plans that he has for me.

2011-12-12T16:09:00.000-08:00

So, as time continues to pass and January 8th slowly (but surely) creeps up on me, I begin to think more and more about what I am getting myself into. There are many thoughts running through my mind. Many, many thoughts running through my mind.
So far, it looks like I am getting myself into:

"An experience that costs over $6,500."
"Even more time spent not doing college."
"Another five months away from home."

"The next step down the path God has set before me."

I think I like the last thought the best. Because, in all honesty, although I will have to sacrifice the things named above--such as money, college, and being home--in the bigger picture, it is so much more worth it to follow the path God has set me on! Whether or not that path excludes the comforts of home, a car, a job, family and friends, etc. for a short amount of time, I know that God knows what he's doing. And with that, I am confident that those other things will be okay without me for a little while longer too. He knows the plans he has for me, and so I should not be worried or dismayed, for it will all work out according to his plan, right? Well, heck yes! But, that doesn't mean I am not still a little nervous. For now, while all of this busy stuff is out of control (fundraising, mostly) I would love for you guys to keep me in your prayers. Mostly just for a smooth process going back into another YWAM school, and that fundraising would go well so that I will still be able to GO to the school!

I want all of you to be apart of this journey alongside of me, so, as promised--I will continue to update you guys as much as possible! Thank you all for everything.

Love you guys!!
-Kelci

Busy, busy, busy!

2011-12-06T13:25:00.000-08:00

So, I've been home for almost three weeks now! Weird. And it has been interesting, seeing as half the time I have no time on my hands, but what feels like the majority of the time, I have way too much time on my hands. Anyway, I am writing to discuss what I am doing with my "busy time" lately.

For all that do not know, I am planning on going back to the YWAM Tyler base to do a School of Evangelism (SOE) in January. It is basically a "part two" to the Discipleship Training School that I just finished, and it looks like that is exactly what God wants me to do at this point in my life! I do have mixed emotions, seeing as I will be leaving for another five months... but, I could not be more excited for what God has in store for me! I am thrilled to further my experience in the ministry and am so excited to continue with my passion of working relationally with people and telling them about an awesome God that we have!

Now, to explain what my "busy time" consists of: I will be doing some intense fundraising for the next month and a half, because I need $3,500 by January 8th for this school's tuition!! I am giving up my car money fund, (money that has been in my savings waiting to be used on a new car of my own) so, that now leaves me with $1,000 that I need to raise by January 8th. Not too bad, eh?

To update you all on what I will be doing for the next week or so:
-Bob Humphrey, a close family friend of mine, and I will be shooting a video on friday to show you all more extensively what is going on with my next school and what God has been doing in my life lately, and it will go up on YouTube soon!
-Along with the video, I will be sending out my newsletter (via Internet) to update you all on what happened in the last five months in my DTS.

So, that is it for now! I hope that you all are enjoying the Christmas season, I know I am. :)

Love,
Kelci

Picture update!

2011-12-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures from my Philippines outreach!

Doing our clown skits for a barangai! The children loved them :)

A few of the girls from the girl's home that we went to.

They were so precious! So beautiful.

Our trip on a tiny canoe across the river to get to another barangai.

It was an interesting experience!

My girls from the youth camp we hosted. They were shy at first, but so much fun to be with! They had a hunger for God that made me so excited! I enjoyed working with them.

To the left, you can see Katherine and I entertaining the kids with some songs and dancing. It's so much fun being silly! We had a blast working with these children.

Katherine and I with some of the children from the same day as the pic above ^

They LOVED being in pictures with us :)

So that's just a piece of what I experienced in the Philippines. My newsletter is coming soon to update you all again on what God has in store for me next!

Oh, the good things in life.

2011-07-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-07-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-07-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

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