Week 1

A morning walk to the "first bridge"

Correction from our last blog post:  THIS is the lodge where we live.  the other picture is of some guest houses, but I was so frustrated with trying to get the computer to load my photos that I didn`t notice.  haha...

Our team, waiting for orientation class to begin on the first day

The nannies taking a break in the hallway while the little kids are napping.

Dave`s "secret" devotions nook. 

    This first week has passed by very quickly, and we are enjoying spending time with our team and living in the Lodge all together.  We have started working on creative journals, which is required by our program, but is also just a really cool way for us to hang out doing "scrap booking" together as a team, and write down everything that has happened each week.  We have a whole room in the lodge dedicated to our journals, with a big table, bins of supplies, and magazines to cut pictures from. It`s been fun to see even the guys getting into it. 
     Z is doing well with Katie so far, and has gotten used to sleeping in the same room as Dave and I.  Adjustments from our old normal to this new normal are quite extensive, and I know that it`ll be another week or so before we are really settled... but that being said, I am really enjoying living here, and I am so happy that the Lord called us to do this. 
    During our time at Homewood, the Lord had given me a verse to cling to in the difficult days.  I asked Him for a new verse for this new chapter in our life... and had felt discouraged when each day in my devotions I couldn`t find a new verse that I felt He was giving me.  Then, on the first day, I was given a verse, written on a pretty piece of paper, that one of the staff ladies had felt was for me.  It was my verse:  the same verse that God used to encourage me through a difficult time when I was 16, and it was perfect for where I am in life right now.  It was such an affirmation that God has called us here, and that He has a plan in all of this.  I just can`t wait to see what He is going to do in our lives through being at YWAM!!! 

   “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
    With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel.
    You will again be happy
    and dance merrily with your tambourines."   - Jeremiah 31:3-4