DTS Update (10/14 - 11/8)

Hello everyone!

So, it's been a month since my last blog post. Oops...
I can't believe it but, I'm already on week 7 of my DTS! Last time I wrote we had just finished up week 3, Justice week with Amanda Noyes.
Our topic for week 4 was "A Lifestyle of Repentence" with Peter Ilian as our speaker. It was a good subject and I learned a lot.

One of the most awesome weeks of DTS so far was definitely week 5. The subject was on Worship, but what really made it extra special was our speaker: Kenny Peavy. Kenny Peavy is a worship leader in Los Angeles on the weekends, but the week days he has dedicated to missions work. He is filled with the Holy Spirit and God uses him in amazing ways! It is amazing what God will do with a person when they are completely open to Him. God gives him prophecies for people and also shows him the right things to say to touch peoples hearts. Wednesday of that amazing week I got just desperate to hear God's voice. I felt like I wasn't hearing him and it was really frustrating. In class Kenny had all of us stand up who felt like we weren't hearing God. So I stood. Then he had us just tell God what we wanted, tell God how awesome he is, and then just listen. So I did, and God just starting speaking truths to me. It was absolutely wonderful :). The rest of the week was awesome, and I got to finish it off with a quick visit home for the weekend. Woohoo! If you'd like to listen to some of his music, you can at: http://www.myspace.com/kennypeavy.

Last week (week 6), we had a wonderful, joyful woman named Brenda Lewis come and speak to us about Destiny. Basically, walking with Jesus is our destiny. Of course he has a plan for us, but our relationship with Him is the most important thing about our lives! Jesus is our purpose. The teaching was great, but this week personally was kind of a hard week for me. God has really been pushing me to have Him as number one in my life and the complete center. I need to trust that He knows what He is doing. It's not always easy to do what God wants. DTS is not an easy carefree time. God is working, and sometimes when God works, it hurts. God has taken me out of my comfort zone, and it is hard! I'm working on trusting Him and making Him my comfort zone. God is really the only secure thing that there is.

DTS Outreach! 
If you haven't seen on facebook, I found out where I'm going on outreach! I am going to... drumroll please... Haiti and the Dominican Rebublic! I am so, so excited to go :). The way we decided where we were going was pretty cool. We were given two colors, silver and gold. Each color represented an outreach location, but only two of the leaders knew which color represented what. We were each given a piece of paper and were given 20-30 minutes to pray about which color we should choose. I was automatically feeling like gold was the one to pick. So I prayed about it, and due to my original feeling of gold, I chose gold. Gold just felt right. Anyway, when they announced which color was which, I was so stoked! Haiti and the Dominican Republic were totally the places that I wanted to go, and it was so awesome to know that God wanted the same thing :).

Last week I found out that outreach is going to cost $3,000 USD. And guess what! Due to the amazing generousity of all of you, I have my outreach fees in full! Thank you so much for all of your support, I feel so incredibly blessed by it. Thank you!

So far we only have a basic plan of our outreach. It all begins around December 17th, when our entire DTS will be flying to Mexico City. We will all be in Mexico City together for Christmas, (it's going to be so weird to not be home!) and then on January 1st the Haiti/D.R. outreach (my outreach) will be getting on a plane and flying to Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic. From there we will take a 12 hour bus ride to Haiti. We will be in Haiti for 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. From Haiti we will take another 12 hour bus ride back to the Dominican Republic, where we will be working from another 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. Then on February 7th or 8th we will be flying back to San Diego/Ensenada for our last few days of DTS.
I am so extremely pumped for outreach and I can't wait to see what God has planned for us! 

As we are preparing to go/when we are on outreach, please be praying for these things:
*finances for those who still need them.
*protection from sickness.
*for the hearts of the people of Mexico City, Haiti, and the D.R. to be open to Jesus.
*for the cholera outbreak in Haiti.
*for the people affected by Hurricane Tomas. Luckily, Haiti only got a glancing blow, but there has still been some flooding due to it. And these people have dealt with so much already.
*unity in our group
*and for all of our personal relationships with Jesus!

Thank you so much for reading and for your prayers :)

Love you all,

Kayla Knowles