The Presence of God

I never know where to start these posts, so I'm just going to talk about the weather! It's the rainy season here, and it really does rain a lot! Today, we had a really cool storm, and the thunder was super loud! It was awesome, but it really came down hard, and I was glad we went to the store after lunch!It definitely keeps it cool here, and it feels great! We don't have central a/c or heat here, so whatever is going on outside, we feel it. I think it was the 2nd or 3rd day I was here, and it rained super hard, and it got really cold! I wasn't expecting to sleep in my fleece here ( brought them for outreach in Europe), but I'm glad I have them! I went to the cheap store Pali today with some friends here, and it was a neat experience. The store is about 15 minutes away on foot. The corner market that is a bit closer, is called AM PM, and it's just like a mini mart/gas stations store, and it's really expensive. I was looking for some laundry soap, apples, bananas, and totally forgot to get yogurt! I just remembered that...AHHHHH! I can't eat the breakfast here most days, except the fruit. I brought some gluten free granola and was going to eat that with yogurt instead. I will have to go back I guess!!! We are pretty busy during the day, so it's hard to find time to go to the store, except after dinner maybe. By that time, it's dark, and usually raining, and Pali is closed. Work duties are hard, but I'm glad that I only have mine during the week, and I have the weekend off! We have more free time on the weekends, and we are already talking about checking out the beach. I have had such mixed emotions here, and it is driving me crazy. One minute I want to go home, and the next minute, I never want to leave! We have felt the presence of God so much in the last 2 days, it has been amazing! We didn't even have a lecture or sport time today, because He had another plan for us! Carol, the only married girl on the team, was awakened at 2am to pray for all of us. She left her room, and went downstairs to our classroom and prayed over every seat. She said the Lord spoke to her about idols in our lives, and how He wanted to fill us with His Spirit and His gifts, but He couldn't do so, until we cast down our idols. So after she shared this with us, we were told to go spend time with God, and ask Him to show us our idols. I told Him I wanted to lay down these idols, but it may not all happen right away. My idols are: The right to be married & have a family, impressing people, sexual desires, obsession with food, judging people,and I'm sure there are more that He will show me later.I was so impressed with one our young guys, as he was writing all of his idols on the board, when I walked in. For a moment, I thought we all had to do that, and it freaked me out for people to see my sin. We ended up called out our idols anyway in a circle, so Satan cannot get a foothold. We had an amazing time of worship, prayer, and hearing from God. There have been so many tears in the last 2 days,and not only from me. I believe that God is breaking down walls and idols in many of our hearts, so we can be free, and be filled with Him. We also had our first time of intercession as a base, and as a team yesterday. As a base, we prayed in groups for another YWAM base in Central America. My group prayed for the Panama City, Panama base. In our team time, we prayed for God to show us where we are going for outreach in Europe. I thought this was settled, but we are still waiting for God to speak. We are going to Germany for sure, and possibly Norway as of now. Please pray that God would show us where we are to go. We had our first family night last night, and we worship God for about an hour. Then we fellowship and eat! Our snacks were: a cake with no icing, have fruit, bread, and popcorn. This afternoon we had our first small group as ladies, but next week we will split up into 2 groups, and begin discussing the lectures. Today we talked about several things, but we set a time to turn the lights off in out room and be quiet.Lights off at 11p & we start to get quiet, with whispers, at 10:30 We had a hard time deciding the time, because I want to go to bed early, and the older lady, and younger girls want to chat half the night. Satan already tried to divide us on this issue, so please pray for us. I am a night owl typically, but here I am really tired, at least until I get into a groove, and want to get my rest. We go non stop here and breakfast is at 6:30, as I mentioned in my first post, so getting to bed early is key to staying awake in class, and receiving what God has for me. We were given the night off today, but we will normally have a bible study on Thursdays. About the food, I think I'm going to have a hard time losing weight, because all we eat is rice, beans, chicken, and salad. I am trying to not eat seconds, even though I'm hungry. I plan to eat an apple as a snack after dinner, and not eat a second helping.  My favorite meal so far was a lasagna made with plantains(bananas) instead of pasta! Wow, it was so good!!!The food is delicious, but I can't even eat all of it. We had pasta at lunch and dinner today, so I ate a snack from the store I bought. I found a little cake thin, made from corn instead of wheat. It's not very sweet, but it will hopefully agree with my insides, and I can have a treat when the others are eating are the sweet breads here. I brought some Gluten Free protein bars, and peanut butter as well to eat with a banana and tortilla if I get hungry. My friend Sarah wanted to know what books we are reading, but I only know about the first book at this point since we were only given that one. It's called Is that really you, God?: Hearing the voice of God, by Loren Cunningham. He is the founder of YWAM, and is 75 years old now. What a godly man he is, even from a young age, he heard the voice of God. I'm really enjoying the book, and can't wait to read more! I will close for now, because I want to get ready for bed, and read a bit. Bye for now.... I love you all!