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!!!!