moldable, teachable, loving hearts (week 7)

Jesus is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo incredible!

I had such an amazing day! The lecture was so challenging & convicting in the best way possible! I've been filled with a joyful repentance!

Our speaker for the week, Brian Brent has been speaking about teachability, & humility (so far). I absolutely love his style of teaching. He doesn't sugar coat the hard stuff at all, yet he doesn't teach in a condemning, or guilt inducing way. He uses a lot of scripture (YAY! finally!!!!!) & he's got real good jokes! 

The Lord has opened my eyes & revealed so many areas to me through the teaching. I have been so  challenged, it's not comfortable, so I know it's gotta be good for me! 

There was a deadline for getting a discount on the airline tickets for outreach today. So, they made an announcement & asked people to donate to teams that didn't have all their funds in yet, so we'd get the discounted tickets. My outreach team was one of those & we needed $2,700 to get the deal! Within a matter of minutes, the Lord provided the money! Miraculous! I now only need to raise something like $3,500 (I think!) for outreach! So amazing!

Please be praying for the Lords direction & provision! For a humble, teachable, steadfast heart for me!

Here's a few shots from my weekend adventure!! It's a long story!! Once I edit the video I will explain more! I will give a short summary though! 

Six friends jammed into the back of a rusty old truck. (awesome, minus the smell of the exhaust)

Super sketchy driving (scary)

Getting lost (good photo opportunities)

"Hike" in the jungle in search of a view of lava flow (FAIL/worst decision ever/almost died/a million mosquito bites/miserable/I hated it/wild boar/more bugbites/LOST)

Black sand beach (epic/beautiful)

Malasadas (couldn't get any better)

More super sketchy driving in the rain (not awesome & more overwhelming exhaust smell/freezing

Hilo (okay)

Even more super duper sketchy driving (absolutely freezing & wet)

KRISTEN & I LOVING LIFE, NOT Aneliese WHAT WE WERE GETTING OURSELVES INTO...

MY AWESOME CANADIAN ROOMMATE, ANELIESE & I. LOVING LIFE  KRISTEN GETTING EAT'N ALIVE MOST BEAUTIFUL HIBISCUS I'VE EVER SEEN!!

 THE GIRLS! 

 THE HIKE DOWN TO THE BLACK SAND BEACH!

 STUNNING VIEW FROM THE VALLEY!

 ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICTURES FROM THE DAY! SO PEACEFUL!

THE BLACK SAND BEACH!

HALFWAY THROUGH!

Woot!!! Woot!!! Another week has flown by!! I literally cannot believe how quickly time soars here! Week 6 has already come & gone! I am half way done with lecture phase already! Such an amazing time I've been having! This has been such an wonderful time! I am so blessed!


God has been doing a lot of magnificent work in my life! I am so grateful for all of the miraculous transformation He is doing! Learning to trust, trust, trust, trust & trust Him some more!! There is SO much freedom in trusting! His love and His control are SO much better than my stumbling & striving!!! I just feel so free! 


The past few days I have been so encouraged meditating on the fact that the victory has already been won! Jesus conquered sin & death on the cross! Therefore, I do not have to strive! In my submission, He works everything together for my good! It is mind-blowing!!


Since I am at the half-way point I am working on another support letter of sorts (if you'd like to receive that-email me your address! paticonde@gmail.com), but I thought I would also extend an invitation to you to partner with me in reaching the people of South Africa on my blog!! I ask that you would pray, pray, pray!! If the Lord lays it upon your heart to support me (financially, or through prayer) in loving on & sharing the gospel with the South Africans. The total cost for my time in South Africa is around $5,000. (So far I've raised a little over $500, So I currently need $4,500). That $5,000 will cover all of my costs while I'm there & it includes airfare.


If you'd like to donate there is a link on this page, to the right to deposit directly into my paypal account! 


I also have made some jewelry that I am selling on my Etsy account! The link to that is also on the right! Any amount of prayer support, as well as financially that you can give would surely be a blessing!


Here's a video that I made from my adventure last weekend! My friends & I rented mopeds from a guy on campus for super cheap & had a BLAST!!! 

It's WEEK 5... ALREADY!

Another week almost finished here at YWAM! Today was pretty great.

Almost the usual Thursday! Woke up late & missed breakfast(not usual part), interesting class, super bomb snack, gross lunch, pretty cool time in prayer room, fun at work duty, gross dinner, loooong Thursday Night Meeting, hangout time, .....soon I will go to sleep. Which I'm getting behind on and really need! Hence me missing breakfast this morning! :)

Speaking of breakfast...this is what I ate since I missed it.......awesome.

We've had a very interesting speaker this week. HA. Again! Not much to say except I've really grown to love drawing/doodling... This is a little picture I drew in class copying a picture I took at the Muir Beach Overlook!

I'm gonna be the first to admit it, Fire & Fragrance is not the DTS that I would have specifically chosen for myself! Obviously Jesus has a far greater plan than I know about right now! He is so GOOD! Even in the midst of the fog & delirium here! As much as I am not stoked about certain things, I am still very confident that He has me here for a purpose. Which, is SO exciting. I had two huge fears in coming here: the first being that I wouldn't like it/that I would want to leave because of that & the second being I would have some major anxiety like I did when I moved to Florida & it would cause me to leave. Fortunately neither are overwhelming, or even really affecting me. It's amazing to just know & trust, especially in the midst of an uncomfortable situation. I definitely see & feel myself growing, even though I may not feel like I'm really opening myself up to(or even try)!  

Kristen and I went to the pier yesterday... Super fun. Got delicious food!

Another doodle from class today. It's a little sketch of my friends & I who formed a "band". Haha! We play "disney songs" at the open mic nights, or at least we plan to! I'm uploading the video from last Friday onto youtube right now! 

...this may be the link for it once it finishes uploading! I will check in the am to be sure! 

  We went into the Innovision Studios today & got some awesome photobooth pics!! We got a good laugh out of this one...

 & this one too!!!

 Kristen, Jeremy, Aaron & I are renting mopeds this Saturday to go on an adventure!! I was testing driving one tonight to make sure I felt comfortable riding it! So much fun! Be praying for safety! Ha! I'm nervous about driving it in traffic!

Pure Heart Pt. 2

I'm going to try & get this DONE! I keep starting posts, then falling asleep! I've literally  worked on this post FOUR times and I still haven't posted it!

Last week was AWESOME!

I don't know exactly where I left off in Pt. 1! So I'm just gonna pick up on my favorite day! WEDNESDAY! The absolute highlight of my time here so far!

Wednesday was True Femininity & True Masculinity! They did the girls & guys teaching hand in hand, which was geeeeenius! Donna Cole started off the morning with the teaching for the ladies on femininity! Super good!!

(Sorry if this next paragraph is a bit rough to read... It's a lot harder to explain via writing, then I thought it would be!!)


Then we moved into a time of ministry, it was SO powerful & healing for me! 
They started off the time by separating the girls in the front of the "classroom" to ask the Lord to reveal areas that needed healing & the female leaders came & prayed for us. While the boys went to the back & prayed/repented for the ways that they had objectified & disrespected girls in the past. After a bit, they had some of the ladies come & share on the mic what the Lord was revealing to them. That was intense. Some of their stories were intense. We all sat for awhile longer and just soaked in the things the Lord was revealing to our hearts. As the time continued the guys began to speak out blessings & apologies outloud. That was nuts for me. I think it was equally nuts for the guys to see the real sensitivity of the Female heart & how damaging that disrespect & dishonor is. After some more time, the guys began to repent on the mic for the ways that they have disrespected, or objectified girls (nothing awkward or inappropriate) & some of them prophesied over us. I think that was one of the most impacting parts for me. Hearing my brothers in Christ apologize on behalf of the boys/men who hurt me in the past, was so insanely powerful. Words were spoken by brothers that I barely know, that my heart has been aching & longing to hear. I was SOO blessed by them. I am SOO thankful for them. My heart was so softened & broken in that time so much!! After that they had us girls get up, turn around, face the guys & look at them. Super hard.
It was so ridiculously, amazingly awesome.
Then we switched & the guys had their own ministry time. I don't have the energy to type all of it out. It was amazing as well. 


We also had a time where we spoke out blessings to each other as brothers and sisters! That was epic as well! Never quite experienced anything like that. IT WAS AWESOME.


After lunch, prayer room (where the Lord did some more amazing work in my heart) & work duty, I hitchhiked with a group of friends to COSTCO for pizza!!! It was pretty epic!

 I was just puttin' on a little deodorant...

delicious costco pizza! 

On the way back all 7 of us climbed in a truck bed! It was hilarious/scary/super windy cause the driver was going hecka fast! Here are some awesome pictures of that!

laughing super hard! 

The guy drove so fast... that it made my hair look SUPER awesome! 

 On Friday night we had Open Mic Night. My friends Jeremy, Rachel, Aaron & I played Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas! I will upload the video of that soon!!

We put on a little war paint! 

 Beach on Saturday!

 First Scandinavian Shave Ice!

Pure Heart Pt. 1

It's Pure Heart week! Officially the best week by far & it's only Tuesday!!!


The Lord is doing some profoundly deep work in my heart! Seriously some intense stuff! It is quite difficult to put into words! Yesterday & today we went through "mother"/"father" wounds & confession. Processing, praying and releasing junk from our lives. I seriously cannot get over how kind & gentle the Lord is! He has been breaking in & flooding healing into so many places. I have never felt such peace in the midst of total chaos.


In class yesterday morning I felt like there were some huge hurts relating to my parental wounds that needed to be healed. But, I was bummed out that I didn't have any colossal breakthrough like I really, really I wanted! I felt the Lord ever so gently speak to my heart "Don't make an idol out of some big breakthrough moment, wait on ME. Don't force it. Wait on MY timing. It's so much better." So I just sat down, bummed out, but trusting.


Then in the prayer room that night I still didn't have some epic breakthrough, BUT the worship was seriously heavenly. I honestly always struggle a lot with focusing in the prayer room. The music/all the people tend to be really loud and chaotic. So, I usually have a hard time connecting or even to the Lord, let alone think! But, the time last night was so different. There was a period of time that I cannot even really express. All of the instruments dropped out & it was just the voices. It was such a holy heavenly moment. All I could think about was the holiness of the Lord. It felt like heaven, or heaven on earth. The voices were so beautiful singing out our own songs, but all the notes blended perfectly. I want to say SO much more about it, but I literally cannot catch the words.


John Thurlow from IHOP was leading us in and out of this song:



So, that was pretty amazing. People were saying that they heard angels singing. I can't say that I know what an angel's voice sounds like(haha) but, it was one of the sweetest, most powerful moments I've had in a time of corporate worship.


I'm too tired to write anymore, so I'll write about today & more later this week!