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