Im in South Africa

hello everyone!!! I will not be writing blogs anymore...but you can follow my teams blog! The website is www.itstime4africaa.wordpress.com

Last Lecture Week

I have so many mix emotions. I'm thrilled that I leave in 7 days for South Africa. I cannot wait to apply everything I have been learning throughout the 10 weeks of lecture. Most of all, I feel honored to be apart of what Jesus is going to do in South Africa. He is up to big things! Besides all this excitement, I'm sad that DTS is half way over. I'm going to miss all my friends that developed over the past couple weeks, but luckily everyone will meet up again in Hawaii for the last week of DTS to share what Jesus did in the different Nations.

SO I don't know great detail about what exactly we are doing in South Africa. Here are some of the things I'm aware of:

-we will be working with a ministry that focus on children (the main thing we will do)

-serving a ministry by building and painting shields (the list goes on)

-teaching at public schools (subjects are geared towards health and Jesus)

We leave Hawaii December 17 at 10:30pm... and land in Johnesburg (city in South Africa) December 19 at 8:45pm

I'm not sure if I told everyone, but the first three weeks we are two hours away from Johnesburg (bush area) and the remaining weeks we will be in Capetown.

Things to pray for for this Nation:

-End all the violence and Rapes
-break off the spirit of laziness and apathy

-Holy Spirit to move throughout the Nation

-unity for the Nation (people are very races here)

Thank you!

-Kimberly

Hello folks! This blog is going to be very long because I have not written one for almost a month now. This month has been incredible! I don't even know where to begin, so bare with me.

Week Six- Faith Dutton spoke on Relationships. Faith talked about how there are only two standards in life, and we make a choice everyday of what standard we are going to live by. We have a choice of going by God's standards (love and humility) or Satan's standards (selfishness and pride). I don't know about everyone else, but I tend to make excuses of my selfishness or pride behavior by saying, "I'm only human or I can't help it." God doesn't set us up for failure, and if he made a standard for his children then we are able to do it. Another thing Faith talked about is how we should not follow our heart, but lead it. If we allow our emotions determined our decisions, we would usually make the wrong choice. Jesus tells our to love our enemies, but we can't do it if we allow our emotions to rule us. We have a choice to respond in a humility or prideful way, but before making that choice, we need to set aside emotions.

Week Seven- This week was "Destiny by Design" and understand the unique calling that God has placed on each and everyone of our lives. This week had been very difficult for me because I never really understood or known what my calling is for my life. I always felt like God was calling me to missions, and that is a big reason why I came to YWAM (Youth With A Mission). I always felt silly when I told people I felt called to be a missionary because I never been on a Mission trip. During this entire week, I wrestled with the concept that God actually might be calling me to be a missionary, but towards the end, I talked to the speaker, Gwen Bergquist, and I to the conclusion that I'm being called to be a missionary and work with children. My personality, interests, dreams, and experiences are design for this call on my life. God made me this way for a reason :)

Week Eight: Thanksgiving week! I hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving with family and friends! I'm bummed I couldn't be there with ya'll, but I was still able to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving with my entire class complete with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and pumpkin pie! We had a 3 day lecture on "Spiritual Warfare" and the speakers name is Kristen Williams. I learned a lot about the Holy Spirit and how we should make room for the Holy Spirit with no restrictions. There are Christians who want the Holy Spirit to invade them, but we need to invite the Holy Spirit, and once we do, the Holy Spirit will come in a powerful way. Kristen made an excellent point that many people focus on how corrupt and evil the world is. We shouldn't look at the devil... we should look at Jesus and nothing else. If we focus all our attention on what the enemy is doing, we will miss what Jesus is up to in our personal lives and the World. So its our job to receive the light (Jesus) and be the light for the World. (John 8:12 & Matt 5:14 & Philippians 2:15). Another thing I learned during this week is prayer shouldn't be an event, but a lifestyle because prayer is the foundation of everything. When you pray, you are exchanging back and fourth with the Living God. Prayer is not all about request. I used to hate prayer because I always prayed the same things over and over, and it just seemed all meaningless. I didn't truly express how I felt within my heart. After this week, I realized I didn't engage with the Holy Spirit and once I did prayer is now one of my favorite things to do.

PRAISE GOD

I'm sure all of you are wondering if I had received all my finances and I'm extremely stoked to tell you that I did! A day before my outreach fees were due a teammate on mine came up to me and said, "I will cover your outreach fees!" Let me tell you, I owned $908.90. Praise God! He is so faithful! Thank you for all your support and prayers

-Kimberly

Aloha

ALOHA my friends and family,

I have a lot to say to you all so bare with me... Its life changing!!!!!

So this week Matt Rawlins spoke about The Fear of God and I'm absolutely blown away by his message. I can go in great detail, but I decided not too because my blog would be 15 pages long. So the main idea I got out of this message is God is big enough and good enough in any given situation. And the works of the devil is to distort that view of God. He wants us to believe that "God is not big enough or good." We get all these pressures our flesh to think that God is not good... we are in Warfare all the time and we don't even recognize it! The crazy thing is Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil. ( 1 John 3:8)! If the cross doesn't answer your question "Is God good," I don't think it will every be answered. My favorite question Matt asked us is "Does your feelings have authority or does Gods Word have authority of your life?" This question expose many lies in my heart and I hope it does the same for you.

The weekend that just passed, my mother and brother came to visit me. It was so wonderful to spend time with them because every once in awhile I get homesick. I was very blessed to stay with them (off campus) and just rest. Of course we did a lot of activities, but my favorite part was to spend time with them! Just what I needed :) God is good!

One of my team mates on outreach is from Egypt and shared a word of God to our entire school, and God really spoke to me through him. In Egypt 90% of the population is Muslim, and if you preach the Gospel, you will get persecuted and will be put to death. So my dear brother, Mena, has to face persecution while I only have to face rejection from others. Hmm I feel silly to even worry about that...there is no comparison! So I'm thrilled to go back home and share the good news without the fear of persecution. Even if there were persecution, I will share the good news!!!

Crazy story- in the early 1900s there were missionaries that heard about an island that was full of slaves, but the slave traders would not allow anyone enter the island. So the two missionaries sold their freedom to become slaves so they can preach the Gospel on this Island. This story really made me meditate and I asked myself would I do this for Jesus? Its a difficult question to answer and I'm still trying to answer it.

I have 19 days to raise $1500 for my outreach and I'm asking you to pray, spread the word, and consider to donate. Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers. Please email me at KimberlyAltree9@yahoo.com if you feel like God is calling you to donate and I can give you the information on how to donate. Much Love

Kimberly

_Kimberly

Hello everyone! Last Saturday, I went to a beach called Magic Sand, and it was so beautiful! I can't even describe how wonderful the ocean is.. the water is so clear and blue... you can see everything! And out of NOWHERE I looked down and there was a enormous sea turtle underneath me and it was AWESOME! The turtle was so close to me that I could of touch it. Besides that....as you can see I boogie board on a wave for the first time in history! It was intense. :)
Weekends are our only free time and my beloved friend Sara, who is on my outreach team, birthday fell on Saturday. So a bunch of us got dressed up and went out for dessert to celebrate her 19 birthday.

I'm sure all of you are wondering what I have been up to these last two weeks and I just want to inform everyone that I'm having a lot of breakthroughs! So many lies that I believed in are being exposed into the light and I'm about to repent and move on. Today I rediscovered (in my heart) that the Gospel is simple, but we make it so complicated. Our job as Christians is to wake up every morning being convince of God's love for us and to respond to it throughout the day. AHHH How amazing is that?!?!? We can't do anything earn or prevent God's love for us. Its a gift! I'm so sick of Religion... We need to live by God's love in order to bring the Kingdom of God, but instead we live for God's love and it causes us to strive.

Exciting News: My total outreach cost is 5,500 and the remaining balance I owe is 1,400. I have until November 27 to raise that money and this is the first time ever that I'm not even worried about how I'm going to get it. God is so real and if I truly believe in the Gospel...it would be a slap to God's face thinking he can't provide that little amount!!!!! He is sooo faithful and I'm thrilled to see where or how that money is going to get to me. Please keep me in your prayers, and if you feel like you want to partner up with me, just let me know! Thank you all for your support and prayers! Praying really does change reality...He hears us!

-Kimberly

EXCITING NEWS

Hello EVERYONE! SO this picture to your left is my outreach team. The two people, who don't have paper on them, are the outreach leaders and they are a young married couple! I don't know them too well, but they're fantastic leaders.

oh yess...how can I forget?!?!? I'M GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA!!!!!

It wasn't my first pick, but as the week progressed my heart changed, and I had a strong desire to only go to South Africa. I knew I made a huge mistake when I put Mozambique/South Africa as my first pick. I'm so thankful that I'm on the team who is only going to South Africa!I have so much peace about this team! I love it so much!

Random Statements from the guest speakers:

"You do the possible and leave the impossible to God." -Sean Murphy

"We didn't bring Religion, but brought the kingdom of God." unbelievable story behind this....a city in the Philippines was transform by the Gospel...the whole city dedicated itself to God.

"You will always think you cannot do whatever God calls you to do unless you take a risk. You just need to take that first step and grace will fall in place." -Sean Murphy

"We base what we do to describe who we are, but we should look at ourselves in Jesus Christ to see who we are." -John Bills

Outreach locations

So today we find out all the possible locations for our outreach.
1. Myanmar
2. Japan
3. Cambodia
4. India/sri Lanka
5. Columbia/chile
6. Us virgin Island
7. Mozambique/south Africa
8. Rwanda
9. Cambodia/vietnam
10. South Africa

I felt like God told me to pick these three countries
1. Mozambique/South Africa (Mozambique is the poorest country in the world)! hahah this would be my first choice!
2. South Africa
3. Columbia/Chile

I find out where my outreach is on Monday....
I know I told everyone I wanted to go to Rwanda and I still do, but God directed me in a different way.

This week is Corporate Week and this means all the dts have lecture and worship together. The reason for this is because Loren Cunningham and his wife are here teaching the lecture. Its amazing! My favorite thing Loren said in the lecture was, "Your cross is when you give up your rights for the sake of Gods love." The areas I felt called to give up my rights were reputation, money, and marriage!
Also for this week the United Pursuit Band is here to lead worship and this band is fantastic. When they sang the song, "Break every chain," I literally felt like all my chains broke off. I felt so much Joy, Peace, and freedom as I worship the Living God. I was dancing and jumping and shouting, and the best part about it, I didn't care what anybody thought of me! It was awesome!
Fun Fact: Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM, has been to every country in the World! AMAZING!

I have so much to say right now, but I don't even know how to put what I'm feeling at this moment into words. SO much had happen in the last couple days, it's so overwhelming. It's only been a week and I have grown in my faith, my relationship with Jesus, and my character. My entire perceptive of the Gospel has change and I feel so free. It's really embarrassing to admit this, but I have been so religious about everything, but I'm proud to say I'm set free and will not live like that anymore. I'm so excited to say... the Kingdom of God will come, and I'm able to be apart of that story!

Yesterday I found out Maggie, a leader of compassion, is my small group leader. We have small group on Thursday every week. A small group is when a couple girls come together and discuss about what the guess speaking spoke about and ask any questions that you had. Its a time we go over the Bible and to just have fellowship. I'm thrilled to get the small group going and to build close relationship with seven other girls and my leader.

So every year Ywam has an opportunity to volunteer at the event, the IRON MAN! And I'm soooo doing that! My shift is at 6:00pm-12:00... so I'm going to be at the finish line cheering on the athletes and passing out water to them. And I get a free t-shirt!!!! haha I heard most people cry watching them finish and I will def. be one of those people!

Today we got to choose what workshop we wanted to be apart of and I choose Basic Health. I'll be in a 8 week class to be train to recognize and preform health care in the third world countries. Speaking of countries, in four days we find out what all the options are for outreach. We have 15 mins to pray about it, and then we have to pick the top two places we feel like God is calling us to go. At this moment, I have no idea where I want to go! I realized that it doesn't matter where I go because God cares about all nations. I'll keep all of you updated!

Love Kimberly

The life of a YWAM student :)

I'm sorry if I don't write a blog everyday...they sure keep us busy! Anyways, today was the second day of our lecture and this week our speaker is Don Stephens. He is speaking on Biblical Worldview! You can check out his website to see what we are learning www.donstephens.wordpress.com. One of the main thing I have taken from the last two days of his talks is everything reflects who God is, therefore, everything brings him glory. It brings God glory when you clean your house or when you sing/dance/work. When you have romance in your life or when you study science or English. The list goes on... This all reflects who God is. Its AMAZING!

On Tuesdays my entire class goes to the prayer room and we are lead in Worship and intercession. Intercession is when you focus on a issue and pray for it. So today we focus on Sex Trafficking and it touch my heart. The reason why we focus on this issue because the organization, voice of the voiceless, was here this week. This organization travels the world to get footage on this issue sex trafficking.

Today we found out what our work duties are and hahah my work duty is construction. They are building more buildings for housing and I get to prepare everything for the workers! Its pretty sweet!

Anyways Here is the schedule for Monday:

Monday- 6:30-7:15 Breakfast

8:00-9:00 Campus Worship

9:00-12:00 Lecture

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:30 Workshop

3:00-5:00 Work duty

5:00-6:30 Dinner

6:00-8:00 Open Worship

I would list everyday but they are very similar...only a couple things change. I just wanted everyone to see that they keep us very busy!!! On top of everything, we are required to read some books. At this moment, we are reading Is That Really You, God? by Loren Cunningham (Loren is the founder of YWAM). The other books we are reading during the dts are Crazy Love by Francis Chan, Royalty by Kris Vallotton, Foreign to Familiar by Sarah Lanier, and Compassion by Henri Nouwen.

Prayer Request: I want to drive in and rely on God for strength!

Today was fantastic! My entire DTS went to the beach for the day. I was able to make many connections with people through the games we played (capture the flag & football in the ocean).

I'm sure your wondering about what happen to my foot. Ha funny story behind that! We all were headed to a place to go cliff jumping. As I was swimming to the spot, a BIG wave came crashing on me and my foot hit a rock. It started to sting really bad so I went back to shore. I discovered my foot bumped into a sea urchin and I was told that urine would release the pain. AWESOME! lol

Aloha!

Aloha!!!

I would put more pictures up, but for some reason my camera does not seem to work. However, the picture to your left is called, "Plaza of the Nations (flags). Its so beautiful! This morning we had a welcome ceremony where each school presented gifts to the Native Hawaiian people and they welcomed us to their land. I have only been here for one night and I'm absolutely in love with the diversity that takes place here in Kona. The beautiful part about it is everyone respects each others culture and tradition. I had never seen anything like it before!

Today was the first day that we had lecture, and there I was able to meet all the students and staff/leaders. I was completely blown away! I cried every time when someone opened up and shared their struggles. It touched my heart. SOOO I decided I'm not wearing anymore eye makeup because the first day is nothing close to what it will be like in a couple weeks. Its going to be very difficult for me, but freedom will be the outcome as we, the students, face all our fears and addictions.

Here is the theme for Compassion

1. Restore

2. Rest in my love

3. Bring my River of life and hope to the hopeless

In Kona Hawaii

I arrived in Kona Hawaii today around one o clock, and immediately I had to run around and get all settle in before I could do anything. Lets just say it was HOT today (its going to take time to get use to this humid)! I still cant believe I'm actually here and this is actually happening...Thank you all for supporting me with your prayers and finances! :) God is at work! Also I wanted to post pictures, but my camera was and still is dead! I will take and put pictures up for you all to see. Its beautiful here! I love it! -Kimberly

Everything is falling into place

My Car Wash Fundraiser was a success because God showed up and provided in a few ways. The main reason why because at the end of the day I walked away with $651.00. How cool is that?!? Our God is so faithful to all of the promises he gave to us. Not only did he provide financially, but emotionally too. The devil was trying to get me down by putting thoughts in my head, "No one likes you Kimberly or why bother with this fundraiser? no one will show up and offer their time to help out." God totally smashed those lies into pieces and threw it into a pit of fire. Satan is full of lies, but God stands in victory, and nothing can change that. This Fundraiser was a success because God used it to give generously and to bring me closer to him emotionally. What a successful day!

I just want to thank everyone who helped out or stopped by to get their car wash! I also want to thank those who spread the word out to their friends and family about my fundraiser. And finally, I want to thank you all for prayers because God heard and answered.

29 days until I departure! and 29 days I have to raise 3000 dollars! Can God do it? Heck yes he can... no more doubting the Living God. I have been so foolish. How many times does God have to prove himself to me that he is going to provide for me? First, he provided a home for myself where I dont have to pay rent nor is it a stressful environment. Second, he provided a second job, so I can make more money. Third, this second job is a dental receptionist and my boss told me that my job will be waiting for me when I get back because I was honest about leaving in three months. Fourth, everything is falling into place to go on this 6 month trip! Praise God!

Love your sister in Christ,

Kimberly

Preparing for My Mission Trip

Hey everyone!

I can't believe I'm leaving in 56 days to go on this crazy adventure. It doesn't seem real. My whole life I just picture myself as someone who was not capable of doing anything with their life. Its a very depressing thought, but that is exactly how I felt. Now that God is in my life, (he had restored me) he is giving me these amazing desires to go to all nations and share the good news! And to just think that I'm actually doing this, gives me great joy and I'm not even there yet!

How I need to prepare for this 6 month trip:

1. People that I can count on for Prayer

PRAYER REQUEST

• Rely only on God's strength
• To be open and allow God to work in my life even if requires change
• for my Safety and health
• To have peace and comfort as I prepare for this trip
• I want to be stretch in my faith
• My financial support...Ask God to Provide
• To keep my focus on God

2. I need to raise $9,995 (its alot of money and it doesn't seem realistic, but God is calling me to do this and it requires alot of Faith) SO far I have raised $970...praise GOD! I have saved $3000 from my personal income, but logically I can't save this amount of money by the time I leave. I just ask you to pray about it and if you feel like God is calling you to donate to me.... this is how you can donate:

Go to-->https://apply.uofn.edu/OnlineAppDocs/OnlinePayment.cfm

Last name: Altree

First: Kimberly

Email: Kimberlyaltree9@yahoo.com

B-day: 08-21-1990

School: DTS-Compassion

Year: Sep 2011

Select outreach

I won't know who donates, so if you would like a thank you letter please let me know!

Thank you for all your love and support. :)

Blessings,

Kimberly