catchup time

ok i have decided that i super suck at blogs....i tend to get side tracked by one story and then i never actually end up informing you about everything. so i am going to give a quick run up on all i have not said without going into to much detail.
so after my last blog we had a speaker called Luba she was speaking on Hearing Gods Voice it was an ok week i think others got more out of it than me. honestly i was super tired and struggled to stay awake during the lectures. i can't remember what we did during the week as fun but i'm sure we didd something.
ok next after that we had Jeff Pratt (we had his brother Tim Pratt on one of our first weeeks). He spoke on passion for God, it was an awsome week. he is a really funny speaker and tells the best stories so you are perminatly in captivated by what he has to say. He spoke on many things within this topic one part was about hard times. Here are my top three points:
-Healing does not mean we forget the whole memory but just we can remember without the pain.
- when we are in hard times, count your stones of rememberance...this meansl look back on the good times and reasons your have to be gratefull.
- The cross we carry is never as heavy as the chains that have come off us in our life.

i could go on about it but i am determined not to go off on a tangent.

the week after that was a series of local speakers, it as a relaxed week with no particular topic. we went up to san diago for a day and got to do some shopping=super fun.
one of the speakers didn't really give a talk but just showed video clips from you tube about certain topics and then we discussed what we saw. most were from comedians. it was a fun day the last clip he showed was really powerful and Anna (youth leader) if your reading this try and see if you can see you can look up willow creek church 1000 questions (it could be 100 questions i'm not sure) it is really powerful and will inspire the youth of the church.
we then had last but not least Tym Kemp a fellow Englishman who helps run the base. he spoke on different denominations of the church and the strengths and weaknesses of each denomination. it was interesting. i enjoyed it as it was a non biased point of view and didn't condemn anyone but simply encouraged unity between the divides.
After that week we went away for the weekend for a silence of solitute weekend. we went to a cabin and got to go off for the day on our own nothing withus but our bibles and journal. 8 hours on our own just to hear what God had to say. in the evening we had a bonfire and just played guitar and ate marshmellows. it was an awsomme weekend i went up to the mountains and wandered climbed trees etc. it was soo much fun.
Yey now i'm up to date. This week we have had a speaker called Brenda Lewis talking about destiny. she has been amazing...really challenging what we believe and debating things out with us. She is redefining our thinking into the belief that its not that God has a plan for our lives that we need to follow but more that in a relationship you choose things together and its a journey. If you have pure motives and a pure heart why wouldn't it be ok. We just explored our dreams and encourage to remember things we had disregarded as things we could do in our lives. it was fun and liberating to just feel like you could do anything. it has helped me realise how much i want to work with people and the love i have for people who are hurting. i got to have lunch with the speaker and just hear a bit about her. she is inspiring. a woman who has gone through a hard divorce amoung other things and can sit infront of you saying she never regreted her marriage and wishes her husband every luck in his new one. She sees the positive in everything and can recognise how if the divorce hadn't happened she wouldn't be doing things in India and helping the thousands of orphans out there.
it has been a fun last few weeks, we have had a valentines day party...i taught everyone musical statues and bumps...lots of fun and of course i won the game!!! haha. there has been a birthday ..Coray turned 18. cinema trips...i really recomend slumdog millionaire. And this weekend is our free weekend i have gone out and bought hair dye so soon i shall have bright red and blue streeks in my hair. we are having a girly night on base and making our own face scrubs and sleeping over with movies...yes woop fun fun fun.
i have enjoyed hearing from people and what is going on back home so thank you for the updates.
i am going on out reach in four weeks to columbia time is going so quickly. pray for us to be a super strong team and that we will be prepared for outreach.
love you all and am missing good old England.
am off to the beach now though so don't regrete being here hahaha
Ruth xxx

ok so last post was super spiritual as i got side tracked by sweets. we have also been up to some super cool stuff...starbucks is not far away so when we get bored we often go for a drink. One night we made a massive bonfire on the beach...then we all had a go with fire poi. It was lots of fun we had a whole thing of gasoline and wrote things in the sand and set it alight. really immature but sooo much fun. it was an awsome night. the pictures are up of facebook ...i think most of you have seen them already.
we have also done local ministry at the rehab place, we painted and then hung out with someof the kidz that live there. it was super fun and we are going to be going everyweek for a while which is cool. This will give us an opportunity to build relationships with people. Last Weekend we had a Napoleon Dynamite and NachO Libre night with home made milkshakes was soo much fun. as you can imagine there are random quotes going around the base lots.
anyhow again i need to fly off as its a busy day today and i lost track of time. At the moment we have the class who are graduating this week back. they have been giving us advise and telling us about there outreach/mission phase. they have been in peru and mexico city. tres interesting
anyhow really need to run.
hope everyone is well
loves xxx

Week 5

Ok so i haven't written in a while- sorry guys. been super busy.
So its kinda hard to know where to start.
Week 4- we had a guy called Dean Sherman come and Talk about relationships. It turned out not to be the relationship talk that everyone expected (birds and the bees) but was actually about loving one another.

The root of his talk came from Matthew 22 v 37-40. This is when someone asks Jesus what the most important command in the Bible is. Jesus answers with two commands..."Love the Lord you God with all your heart mind and strength AND love your neighbour as yourself."
If Christians are seen as a judgemental sect then we have forgotten this command. We should not be people who divide ourselves from anybody. Would we like to be judged on our actions? no so why do it to others.
There are two commands because we need to understand Gods unconditional love for us in order to then show that to others. The second commandment doesn't fully work without the first.
Also as christians we shouldn't become people who are so involved in religion that we are unapproachable. Jesus was extremely social most parts of the bible show him with people; he did not come to the earth and pray all the time.
If Gods command is to show love to others then we are pleasing his heart by giving people time.
i could go on forever on this week...i loved it! its totally where my heart is...no longer a religion that is known for being judgmental and to caught up with trying to be a perfect person but becoming people who devote ourselves to others.
i am just going to go to the local shop now and get stupid amounts of candy yes i said candy. i live off films in the evening which requires a good amount of munch. i will continue this in a bit xxx