Tuesday, June 24

Yesterday (Tuesday) was filled with lectures, it was mentally tough trying to remember everything and sit still for long periods of time, but we definately learned a lot about being a part of a team, living in different cultures, culture shock, you name it–we learned it.

Today was an interesting day, breakfast is usually at 8, and we had planned on it being the same today. But to our surprise, at 7 this morning Katie comes to our room banging on our windows and screaming at us to “GET UP!” “You have FIVE minutes to put on a dress, the men are waiting!” She repeated over and over. We thought either we had over slept or there was a fire or some sort of emergency. So quickly (and angrily I might add) we oblige and put on a dress. We are told to put a black headcover on (called a veil), stand outside the door and look/speak to no one. Turns out its Muslim day in training. It’s a simulation to better learn about the Islamic culture in the Muslim world. Our rules were to only speak when spoken to, look no man in the eye, always sit and walk behind the men, we were to eat and sit last and clean up after ourselves and the men. In some ways it was scary, whenever the guys called one of us over for an errand, even though they are all respectful, lovable guys, we all trembled in fear that we might see a different side of them since their tone was authoritative. But at the same time, it was fun to be able to serve them. They never abused their power over us, not even as a joke and they did their best to be as polite as possible within the circumference of the rules. We also learned different ways of worshiping God in different cultures. Then after dinner the Muslim simulation ended (to our relief!) and we were finally able to talk with the guys (something we never realized we enjoyed so much!). We had to re-establish our trust with them though because part of us was still afraid to some extent. It was a very soft process, and we all were so appreciative to our guys for showing us such gentleness after that tough afternoon. We watched Luther and ate pizza then had a night of Worship in music and song where all of my stress from culture shock, YFC and college disappeared. Today was probably the best day so far.

Monday, June 23

To catch you up on things: basically I am in training at CBU until Thursday when we leave for Germany. Today is Monday, the second day of training and even so far it has been hard. As soon as we checked in at the Globe at 3:00, we walked through the doors of the Yeager Center, a simulation began that lasted all day. Our teams were challenged with walking around all day with our luggage. The simulation included challenges forcing us to get along in VERY tight spaces, watch out for each other’s items, never taking our eyes off of luggage, bartering for taxis, being questioned about our purpose, being confiscated, and just trying to survive outrageous circumstances. Yesterday was hard, but today was harder. A 20+ hour day starting bright and early at 7:00, we ate breakfast in Kyle’s room, then off to the courtyard for 5 hours of 110 degree, fun in the sun, Olympic games. The purpose of each game was to teach us to pay close attention to detail, communicate with our team without losing our tempers, listening and working with each other, and trusting each other. Then off to lunch and back to another “team testing” game which was a campus scavenger hunt. Then finally we came inside from the grueling weather for about 3 hours of extremely interesting lectures/sessions mostly taught by Kristen White, we all loved her sessions and greatly looked forward to them. Then back out for dinner, chapel, ultimate frisby and we thought that was all, but to our surprise another simulation took place. The leaders had put together a simulation re-enacting the persecuted church in China and we got to experience the intensity and fright of being a part of it. All of our eyes were opened to the reality of the persecuted church and it changed our outlook on freedom for sure. After this, it was about 12:30am and we were past pooped. It was a rough day

I’m baaaack!

Hey all!

I’m back! I kept a journal to fill you all in about what happened day to day. Some of it might be a little impersonal simply because we only had aproximately 30 minutes to ourselves each day, and that 30 minutes was usually spent in the shower or in bed. But I will post each entry for your (hopefully) eager eyes to see.

The time has now come

Hi everyone.

I’m sorry I haven’t been writing much, I’ve been very busy. But now the time has come for me to depart for Germany. I leave tomorrow for training and the takeoff is on Thursday. If anyone wants to come, there is a commencement service at CBU in the Wallace Theatre on Wednesday at 7:00pm for everyone to pray for the teams.

My preparation spiritually, emotionally, and even physically has, in all honesty, not been good. Life with God is hard, let me just tell you now. But something that God has been consistently showing me for the past week or so has been on my heart to share with you all. Here is a passage from Oswald Chambers’ book “My Utmost for His Highest”

“Jesus did not say to make converts to your way of thinking, but he said to look after His sheep, to see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Him. We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate…, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, “If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me.” A person touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says, “Now I see who Jesus is!” -that is the source of devotion.

Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to do the will of His Father, not only to the needs of people–the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a “doormat”. The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that “falls into the ground and dies”–it will spring up and change the entire landscape (John 12:24).”

This is just what I needed to hear before leaving for Germany. I was losing the whole reason why I was even going. As Chambers said, I was losing my love and passion for God. I didn’t have any reason to go anywhere or do anything, nevertheless go to Germany to make disciples! But then I realized why my passion had died. It was because I was expecting God to be devoted to me. Not the other way around.

So now, even though I am still painfully spiritually unprepared, I know my purpose. My purpose isn’t to “get people converted” not even to make friendships, or share the gospel. My purpose is to be devoted to Christ. And everything else is simply a “result” of my devotion.

Anyways, please pray for my team as we are all struggling to be devoted to Christ. I won’t be writing until I get back, but I promise to keep a journal of what happens every other day or so. I’ll fill you in later.

Devoted under the Mercy,

Christabel

“It seems to take all I am to believe in the Mercy that covers me.” -Daley Hake

I am now officially graduated!

That’s definately something to worship about =]

Under the Mercy

How to Worship

So here is a video from church a while back. My friend Anthony and I are singing the song “How to Worship” which is a song I wrote, and he, of course, came up with the accompaniment. I know a lot of you missed it, so my sister recorded it for all the youtube and myspace world to see. You can’t really understand the words very well because it’s all muffled. So I’ll post those below in case you want to follow along. Enjoy, and worship.

It is not to appear more holy/or to lift myself above those around me/but so that I may better understand the greatness of Your glory.

Chorus: Teach me how to worship oh Lord my God/ let me be broken/ and pick up my cross/ so that everyday my life will praise your name/ and bring you joy Oh Lord/ teach me how to worship

With my life I want to worship in all I do/ and learn to praise Your Name and know it’s all about You/ and so that I may better understand the greatness of Your glory/ Chorus/

Bridge: I desire it not for the sake of myself/but rather through me/your name be upheld

Please don’t steal the lyrics or the song itself. It’s very rude. But hey, sing it all you want, as long as it’s to the Lord.

Under the Mercy,

Christabel

The Little Liquid Wrench

Having nothing to do with Germany, here is a fun little short film I created a while ago. Enjoy!

Another Meeting

Well another meeting for GS2 was tonight.

Its such a nice thing to get together with the other people, I seriously have the best team; I am very blessed to have them with me.

A few new things have come up: We get to go to Paris and New York on our way there and back, but only for short amounts of time. I think I may have already told you all this, but I forget. Also, washing clothes in the sink is going to be a regular practice for us the entire trip (which is cool, but sucks at the same time). Our team name has not been decided yet, but we’re thinking of going with “Dumbledor” (or however you spell it) from Harry Potter, since it goes along with “Dusseldorf” So it would be the Dumbledor’s of Dusseldorf. We all got a kick out of that.

Keep reading, keep praying for us: we have a lot of fundraising and preparation to do.

Under the Mercy,

Christabel

It’s been a long time coming

Sorry I haven’t written in a while. Thanks to all my dedicated readers, I really appreciate you for reading. It is kind of a reassurance that I am not writing in vain =]

Well a few bits of news. I graduate in 3 weeks (hallelujah!). I only have 2 more school assignments due, except I still need to finish math and economics, but that should be a breeze once school is over.

I get to go to Paris and New York while on the Germany trip (due to flight schedule). So I may not see much of either, but at least I can say I’ve been to Paris which is a cool thing in itself =] haha

I have had 2 meetings with 2 mormon guys, one on Friday and one today. I am totally drained by it. Never have I experienced such attack from Satan, never have I seen genuine belief in something so bizarre. I thought I had the arguments down, but man, Satan is good. He knows just how to get thoughts and arguments in the right place where there is “no evidence” either way. My hatred for Satan has never been so strong before. But never have I met such people as these two Mormons; so wonderful, smart, funny, moral, and caring. My heart is so broken and so full of hatred towards Satan for taking such innocent people. I can’t imagine how badly God’s heart is broken in comparison to mine.

I would expand on this a little, but I am frankly tired of thinking about it. I feel so defeated and so broken about this its almost unbearable to write. My whole soul is broken, my body is weak, and I have not been able to recover since the first time they visited my door. But God knows, it was not in vain. I pray that more good was done than harm.

For those of you who read this within the next few days of its publishing, please pray for me. I am weak and I need God’s strength to recover.

There is my news. Until next time-

Under His grace,

Christabel

(ps… GO DAVID ARCHULETTA!!!!)

Life is a Highway… or a Freeway

I drove on the Freeway for the first time today. Yay!

Have a good day!

Under the Mercy,

Me