Week 1

Dave Sr - A++++++++ for the first week.  Exceeded our expectations.  How?  Why?

Well, we really hit the ground running in our first week.  So much for easing into things.  Our schedule is so rigorous and rich, I've found it hard to take the time to update the blog.

Our speaker all week was Donna Jordan, a 72 year old woman that has been LISTENING TO and walking with the Lord for 40+ years.  We often say people are "walking with Jesus", but she is doing it a level few of us ever reach.  Everything Donna does she asks Jesus for direction.  What cloths to wear in the morning, what to say next, what speaking engagements to accept, what to throw away out of her closet, etc. etc.  Sounds kind of crazy doesn't it?  I thought/think so too... but after spending the week with her, I feel more able to hear the Lords voice in my life.  It's really as simple as asking Jesus the answer instead of asking myself.  I'm asking Jesus to direct my day in a way I never have before.  Its amazing, peaceful, fun and energizing all at the same time.  At a minimum I feel an increased consciousness of Jesus in my everyday decisions, direction and choices.  At a maximum Jesus is speaking and I am listening.

Donna is one of the early settlers of the University here in Kona.  She moved here in 1976 and when she arrived Darlene (co-founder of YWAM and "Mother" of this movement) approached her and said, "We've been praying that if you showed up here, you would know with certainty that God had sent you... because we don't have any room for you to live her on the base."  Donna and her husband Peter ended up living in a tent 10 miles up the hill with four children.  Her husband was a successful pilot and business man, that first came to know YWAM while serving on the board of a Canadian YWAM base.  They gave it all up to simply let Jesus direct their lives.  As she said, I gave up everything, but now in my older age I have (YWAM) family all over the world and houses all over the world (her friends' homes).  She was leaving us to fly to China to speak to YWAM'ers there.  They teach our DTS school in China, though it is technically illegal.

A favorite quote from Donna that I felt summed her up... with tears in her eyes she said, "If I ever thought He stopped speaking to me I wouldn't want to go on.  For the past 40 years it is all I've known."

I could go on and on.  It was a week of great learning, great application and great emotion.  A few points...
- I was expecting great Knowledge from Donna, some "secret tricks" to hear God.  I did receive very solid knowledge and bible study... however the greatest learning came from the application exercises.  Listening to God is like any other exercise.  Gets better with practice.
- Storing up knowledge and learning in our brains is at minimum a great waste.  At maximum a sin.  What good is it to know much and apply little?
- I am sensing that God wants me to more "have the mind of a child"... the world can seem "sophisticated, smart, sexy, Hollywood worldly",  What good is it?
- The greatest miracle is a changed heart.

Finally, you might think I sound a bit like I've joined a cult :)  At times this week I wondered the same :)

But, as my good friend Jim S said before I left... "Sounds like a cult, but I guess its the kind of cult you wanna belong too!"

Love and Peace to all.  I write this sitting in my room on a Saturday night with my kids playing at my feet in our humble one room home.  Jess and I spent a good part of the day working in the kitchen serving others.  Probably first time I've worked a real labor job in over 10 years.  Jess works again tomorrow morning at 6am.  Our backs are tired but our hearts are full.