New News :P

Well hello everyone! So much has happened since I last wrote...I hope I can remember it all haha :) Last week we had a wonderful lady, Joe, teaching us on relationships. It was an amazing week and we learned a lot about how we as individuals process things and how God wants to be in relationship with us. It was really eye opening to realize what was holding us back from that relationship with God. I also got a chance to meet with Joe on a one on one basis and that was extremely helpful to be able to have a chat with her. She was such an amazing and understanding lady...I was sad to see her go at the end of the week.
That weekend a group of us girls went into Glasgow for a sort of combo birthday-day haha. Kari and built up some birthday money from a week prior, Eileen's birthday had been on Friday, and Hannah's birthday was on Saturday (although we were under strict instructions not to celebrate that one lol). It was a very productive day and a lot of fun! I found some amazing skirts at some charity shops which was the highlight of my day :) At one point we were in the west end of Glasgow and Kari and I spotted a Cold Stone Ice Cream shop!!! :O We were so excited we just had to get some cake batter ice cream...however we went in to find they did not have that flavor nor any other of the ones we loved so much :( It was very sad ;) haha!! The next day was spend mainly relaxing and getting some practicalities done like laundry, letter writing, etc.
Monday we were starting the new week with classes on spiritual warfare. We were supposed to have a speaker, Paul Bell from the US, teach us but when he arrived his visa was the wrong sort and he got deported :( So instead of that we have Mariette back (the lady who taught us in week 3 about the Holy Spirit). But before we get into that I want to take you back to Monday morning with me. Every Monday morning we have base worship...not my favorite thing to do for reasons I will not totally get into at this moment lol. In a nut shell I have had a really difficult time since the start of DTS feeling like there was something not ok with the way I worshipped God because my participation level had been questioned (I'm not very loud). During the worship service one of the base staff members came up to me and said that she felt God was leading her to tell me that (and I am paraphrasing) I do not need to feel insecure about how I choose to worship Him. That he just wants me to worship Him and spend time with Him and that is all that matters. I was absolutely amazed! I could not believe that that had just happened, because that was exactly what I needed to hear. I actually had tears come into my eyes. God is so good you guys! I was struggling so much and I have been praying a lot since I got here asking God if what I was doing was wrong or if I needed to change something...and what does God do? He answers me through someone I have never even spoken to about my insecurities! Amazing :D
Anywho...so Mariette is teaching us on spiritual warfare, or spiritual authority as she calls it. It has been an interesting week. Mariette and the rest of my class are very good at getting side tracked so the week has been very scattered and unorganized. I have been learning a lot but it has also been somewhat difficult because I have a hard time focusing when things are all over the place lol. Tomorrow is our last day on the subject so I am pretty curious as to what will happen in the 4 hours of class tomorrow.
Friday starts the long weekend!!! Yay!!! Kari, Hannah, and I are going to Edinburgh for a few days and I could not be more excited. I keep hearing what a beautiful city it is and I cannot wait to see for myself what everyone has been telling me. I'll be sure to come back with lots of pictures for you all (since I hear there are beautiful castles)! Well I am off for now but I will update again when I get back from Edinburgh hopefully...or at the very least I will post all the pictures on my facebook :) Loving and missing you all like always...God bless!

-Kaitlyn

P.S. only 2 weeks until we leave for Turkey!!!!

Midterm Outreach

Hello everyone!!!

Well this last week has been extremely eventful to say the very least. Last Saturday my DTS split up into 3 groups to go out into Scotland for our midterm outreach. My group was 7 people(including the leader) and we went to Benbecula. It is an island way up north in Scotland and it took about 11 hours of travelling to get there haha. We actually had to leave at 3am on Saturday so we could make our ferry that would take us to the island. The drive there was quite interesting because Joakim, our leader, does not like to slow down at turns...and pretty much the entire drive was windy roads haha. We were all trying to sleep but our heads kept getting slammed into windows and were being thrown around! It was pretty funny to talk about later on once we arrived in Benbecula.
We met up with a lady, Sylvia, who helps out at the local church and with the youth clubs on the island and she helped us get settled in. Our group was split into 2 houses(both were very nice) and oh my were we spoiled the whole week. Everyday we had home cooked meals and dessert twice a day. All of us were making each other do sit-ups cause we were eating so much haha!
Sunday was a pretty average day...just went to the church and met some of the members which was very nice. Monday was when all the fun started :D We got to meet the senior youth club, and they were so amazing! They were so welcoming and were just a lot of fun to be around! That night we just got to know each other a little bit and then played telephone pictionary and we had giant sumo suits so that was hilarious. My favorite was in telephone pictionary my phrase somehow went from "a giant falling from the sky" to "the pelicans are hijacking the ferry!" hahaha...it was brilliant :D
The next day we did a program with the junior youth club called 'rocky road'. We helped with playing games and telling the story of the Passover. That was pretty fun although some of the kids were extremely hyper-active and were very difficult to keep in line. After 'rocky road' the senior youths came to hang out with us again, but this time a lot more showed up with was fantastic :) The majority of the night was spent playing music. Dylan, one of the senior youths, is really talented at the guitar and singing and some of the others like Haley and Nicole love to sing along with him. By the end of the night we were all singing along with Dylan to a bunch of random songs...it was a good time :)
Wednesday night we were helping run a bible study for the church. We were all really sad cause we wanted to hang out with the senior youths again, and then Sylvia called us and said that Dylan and Mando wanted to come to the bible study! I was kind of nervous because I had never done a bible study let alone helped run one before, but it wound up being a lot of fun! Monica, Jess, and I were in the group with Dylan and Mando during the bible verse discussions. We were having such a good time talking about God and how great He is, and at one point Dylan looked at me and said "I think we are the only ones having fun...I just looked at one of the other groups and they all yawned simultaneously" haha! When we were getting called back together in one group Dylan was saying to me that it was really awesome to have people who could laugh and have fun while talking about God. He is so used to it always having to be this completely serious, down, stone faced matter. He also mentioned that he really appreciated that we weren't pressuring him to talk during the discussion. I was so excited when he told me this because that is what we were trying to convey throughout the trip so far! We were wanting to bring the Joy of the Lord to Benbecula and that was immediate confirmation that God was doing just that :D It seemed very evident that almost all of the young people on that island had a view that to be a Christian means you have to be old and boring haha...so I'm very happy that we have started to break that stereotype.
Thursday we worked with 'rocky road' again which was much easier that day thank goodness haha. We talked to them about Moses crossing the red sea. That night we got to be with the senior youth club again...and that night miracles happened :D It was again just an average night with them. We were goofing off, playing games, playing music, etc. A group of the teens were playing football and right near the end Dylan got tackled and seriously injured his leg/ankle. He could not put any pressure on it, couldn't walk, and was in a lot of pain. Sylvia gathered us all together and said that this would be a good time to pray for healing. I will admit I was skeptical but I said ok and went to pray for him. Right when I sat down to put my hand on his leg I felt like God was telling me to knock it off and stop doubting Him. I suddenly realized that I had been limiting God and after that I knew that it was totally possible for Dylan to be healed. While we were praying for him I started to get really warm which was weird since I wasn't moving and right when I thought that Dylan said that his leg felt warm! I later found out that Monica felt really warm too. After praying for a few minutes we asked Dylan how his leg felt...he said it felt good...then he got up, started hopping around on the injured leg, then ran over and kicked the football across the pitch!!! Ahhhhh!!! Haha God is so cool!! I felt like at that moment God was saying to me...'I did that cause I can!'. It was an amazing moment and God could not have timed it more perfectly...every youth was in the room watching it happen and seeing was God can do. Dylan was so excited he was jumping up and down with me(I could not stop smiling haha)and we were just freaking out about how awesome God is!
Later that night after we had all gone home Sylvia called us and told us that Dylan wants to start up a youth group (because the youth club isn't a christian thing) so we were all so excited to hear that!!!
Friday was our last day and that night we got to meet with the senior youths one more time. Fiona wound up singing some of her songs and a few of my group gave short testimonies about what God has done in their lives. After that was done we offered prayer for everyone if they wanted it in a prayer room in the building. I was so surprised cause a lot of them got up and practically ran to the prayer room haha! When the night was over and we were leaving we found out that 2 of the youths had given their lives to Jesus!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!! I was so happy!!! It was really difficult to say goodbye to them all...I will miss them so much :( But on the bright side we created a facebook page for them so that we can keep in contact with them all :D
It was such a great trip and it was really faith building for me. God is just revealing himself to me more and more each day and it is so wonderful :D I will be posting LOTS of picture on my facebook later today from the week if you are interested in seeing some of the amazing people we met. I love and miss you all more than I can say! God bless

-Kaitlyn

P.S. OH! So someone sent me a care package containing a black set of scarf/gloves with the American flag, a calendar, and stationary. I love it all but the problem is...is that I have no idea who it is from :| There is no note and no where on the box does it say who sent it. I would really like to thank you, who ever you are haha. so...Thank you :D

The weekend

Another weekend has gone! Friday was our day out since they had to cancel it last week due to weather and lack of drivers. They took out my DTS to Inverary...I'm pretty sure that is how it is spelled haha. We spend some time in that village up in the mountains and actually got to see a castle without scaffolding all over it lol! That is the castle I posted a picture of :) The gates to go up to it were locked so we had to make do with the zoom features on our cameras, but it was gorgeous none the less! After we left there they drove us to a few other smaller towns on the way back for some sight seeing and shopping. At one point we stopped at a place called Rest and be Thankful which I have been hearing people talking about since I arrived in Seamill. Unfortunately when we arrived at Rest and be Thankful it was covered in snow and ice and there were winds so strong that were actually knocking us over haha! It was absolutely beautiful at the look out but none of us lasted long since the wind and the cold were positively insane haha! When we got back to the base it was then time for the Battle of the Bands! The base was trying to raise money for the Gate house (a house right next to the base they are trying to buy) and I know they raised quite a lot of money by the end of the night..so Yay! There were 4 bands put together by the staff + students and they were all hilarious and amazing!!
Saturday Hannah and I went into Glasgow to see Alice in Wonderland! We were so excited we did our make-up all crazy and I actually managed to get some pig tails going on :P While we were waiting for the show to start we went around Glasgow and I got to buy some tea! Yay! Hannah found the complete works of Shakespeare in a small bookshop for really cheap so that made her day. Then the movie time came! First let me say that Scottish commercials are just odd. Hannah and I spent the 30 min of commercials before the movie with extremely puzzled looks on our faces haha! The movie was fantastic!!! I loved it...so much fun I advise you all go see it :)
After the movie we were heading back to West Kilbride and when we got off the train in town 2 Scottish guys started talking to us...which was actually quite difficult since they both had very strong accents and talked really fast! They kept trying to let them get us a cab and we kept having to convince them that we actually did enjoy walking haha! They were both very sweet...and also very handsome ;) It was a wonderful Saturday in all!
Today was very relaxing :) I have spent the entire day up until now reading and it has been so wonderful! I have not had a full day dedicated to reading since I got here so it was much needed! Well now it is time for bed because I am exhausted. I'll write again soon :) God Bless

-Kaitlyn

Eventful Times

This is a picture of a statue next to a war memorial in the village...I thought it was beautiful! :) Alright! So this week we have a guest speaker, Mike from Northern Ireland, who is teaching on the Father heart of God. Although...I wouldn't really call him a teacher, but instead a story teller :) This week has been so much fun! Mike has the most amazing stories about how God has provided, protected, and given him opportunities to minister(Sometimes all 3 at once haha). He was raised in Zimbabwe so most of his stories come from there and all of them are fascinating! He is brilliant at giving practical examples of how the Father loves us and it has been truly eye opening and a lot of fun. I don't feel like I'm going to class but instead to a fun story time :)
This last weekend we went out to Glasgow on Saturday and did some shopping and went out for pizza hut. On a side note, the people here have a terrible idea of what toppings on a pizza should be! We asked for pepperoni and olives and we got barely any pepperoni and one olive per slice. It was sad :( Not to mention that the pizza hut didn't have ranch...another disappointment for Kari and I lol. Then on Sunday I went into Largs by myself to go to the Charity shops. I didn't find much but while I was waiting for the train I got to strike up a conversation with a sweet lady, Rita, and talked with here for about 30 min. It was so awesome to meet a local and just chat with her :) And she told me I had a lovely accent which I found quite comical haha.
Other than that things around here have been quite normal. We have our midterm outreach coming up, and my team has decided to go to a place in Scotland called Benbecula. It is waaaaay in Northern Scotland and is actually an island. I am told it will take about 12 hours to get there. That was actually a moment where I realized the huge culture difference because all the Americans in my group shouted "ROAD TRIP!!! :D :D and the others said something to the effect of..."uuugghh" haha! I can't wait I hear it is beautiful there. Today we had our local outreach in Largs. Hannah and I went on a walk together around the town to try and meet some people. Hannah smiled at one man and he actually stopped and commented on what a lovely smile she had. We were so happy we stopped to talk to him, and then he asked where we were from. The moment Hannah said we were from the States this man had such a look of hatred in his eyes...it was shocking. He said that he was completely anti-America and if there was one rouge nation it was America and stormed off. We were so shocked...it broke my heart that this man could so quickly hate us after he was so willing to be friendly just because of where we were from. We wanted to find him again and ask for forgiveness for whatever or whoever made him feel that way but unfortunately we didn't see him again :( It was such an eye opening experience to be on that side of such a hateful prejudice. We spend some time after that praying for him while we walked around the town. Near the end of our time in Largs Hannah and I decided to go to the store so I could get some carrots for the ranch dip my mommy sent me (Thank you Mommy!) and we would up chatting with this older gentleman, James, for about 40 min haha! When I asked him if there was anything we could pray for him about he immediately started going off about how religion was a joke and if God loves us than why does he allow so much pain and actually went so far to tell me that my savior would not save me if I was about to be hit by a bus...which I thought was an interesting example lol. Hannah and I got to discuss this in a little detail but every time we would make a point he would change the subject. In fact Hannah and I said very little which led us to believe that James just needed someone to talk to...which was completely confirmed because we tried to leave at least 15 times (our leader was outside waiting for us to go back to the base) and he would just keep talking about the poor road systems and how alcoholism is a huge problem haha. It was sad we had to leave because he was such a nice man who just wanted time but in the end Susan(our leader) had to come and pull us away because James kept on talking even while we were walking away...it was sad but I'm glad God blessed us to be able to meet and talk with him. If any of you could would you please pray for James and the other man we met?
Well that has been my week so far :) Eventful and normal all at the same time haha. Missing you all like always and I will write again soon :) Lots of love and God bless!!!

-Kaitlyn