Fifteenth Week

Tis the season!!! Merry Christmas and almost a happy new year. So in just four days... Or less my friends will be leaving for Thailand and Vietnam. Oh my God!!! It's still so unreal to me, but hey got to be jolly! So this week has been centered around Christmas. We did something new this week for the ministry at the base. We get to wash people's feet. It's a new thing and some of the people is still uncomfortable with that, but I hope that this will continue.

So since it's Christmas the base also feels like it and our ministries kind of feel new even though it's the same routine. We do the usual like hot chocolate and goes out to the streets to just evangelize. What makes this Christmas special is not that I get to spend it with some other "mini-missionaries" but I get to spend it in an American way. Breakfast with everybody in a Christmas setting, presents (I got a pajama!), and it's my first time spending it away from home.

BUT!!! My family came on the weekend and I finally get to see them. I was happy and I definitely miss them. I've been blessed with my mom's friend, which I call Aunt Judy. She's just an amazing woman of God and I wish her the best with her journey with God. I'm also blessed to spend my Christmas with my family in San Francisco.

This is a short blog and I just want to wish you guys a Merry Christmas and don't let your passion for God stops in Christmas. Let it burn throughout your life so the others may see. Have a blessed week and thank you for all your support! See you next year!

Fourteenth Week

Two more weeks and then my friends will be leaving for Thailand and Vietnam. I knew it when I came here. At first it wasn't a big deal, but now I truly understand that I've grown attached to them as partners in ministries. It will definitely be different without them being here, but life will move on and I'll look forward for what God has in store for me.

Sorry for getting ahead of myself there. Just thinking out loud... So a quick look of what has happened this week. Everyday has been raining and it won't stop until the end of the year. Another forecast is God's blessing will also keep on raining. So a lot of this week has been focused on unity as a group no matter what. A lot of students here also have trouble financially and as the day is closer we can feel that the enemy's attack is getting fiercer towards our mind. There are some tensions among the group because of this, but as we address the problems and just speak our mind towards each other we can just feel a sense of security and a little bit more peace.

So to make things short our ministries this week are focused on our group. It may sound selfish, but it was needed. Outreach won't get easier, especially for them overseas. So the least I can do is also pray with them and just be there to support emotionally.

The weekend has been exceptional. My friends came to visit me here and we even performed in a church. I get to meet new people and I also get to share what I'm doing in San Francisco and what YWAM is all about. They were so blessed to hear something like that. I was happy that I could just be a blessing from my testimony. They knew how bad the community that I was living in. They even told me to be careful. So I'm thankful for the protection that God has given over me all this time.

I guess that's all for this week. A lot of interns have gone back home so YWAM is kind of short-handed with people. Some of us have to work in the ministries at the base. It's all good though. Thanks for reading and please keep on praying for me. Thank you for all your support. I love you all and I definitely miss you.

Thirteenth Week

Lucky thirteen!!! Well... This week is probably the most interesting week so far. Not only that we're finally immersed with ministry fully, but we also had an interesting weekend. This saturday we were woken up at 6 o'clock to find out that we're doing a "Homeless Plunge". It's simple. We're going to be homeless for the whole day. We went out with no shower. No brushing your teeth. No wallet. No money. No electronics. The only thing you have is the clothes that you slept in.

We were divided into groups. I'm grouped with Jason and Kelsee. We were still tired from the activities we were doing. So we decided to go to a hotel lobby to read the Bible, but we get kicked out cause it looks like we were about to sleep (Well... It's most likely me.) We decided to get a breakfast in the homeless shelter just like other homeless people. It was just humbling to know that what we're experiencing is not even half of the experience that these people experience. We're only out for eleven hours. We were told that if we really want to see how it feels like we should at least do it for three days out in the streets.

After we took our breakfast we went around the city, and it was a little bit raining so we try to find some cover and ends up just talking to each other. We were lucky to be in the mall, because we don't LOOK like a homeless person. We simply looked like teenagers goofing off. The homeless people aren't so lucky. They were quickly judged and discriminated by the way they look. After that we decided to get lunch at another homeless shelter, but we decided that it's better if we volunteer to help them distribute the food.

It was a blessing, because the place that we volunteer at is christian-affiliated. They house some people from the streets that are recovering from addictions. They also give them free education. Those people are given free housing, food, and clothing. They repay them just by helping them. They knew how hard it was to live on the streets and they want to show the other homeless people that they've been through what they've been through. It was a touching moment.

Kelsee and I volunteered with some other people that volunteers to wash these people's feet. At first, I was disgusted to wash these people's feet. Some of them probably has foot infection, but as I wash their feet. I realized that these people are human too. I end up talking and I developed such a compassion for this people. At the end of the day I realized that I'm not even disgusted. I love these people with the love of God.

I guess that's all for this week. Thank you for reading and I'm excited also because this saturday, some of my friends are coming from San Bernardino to visit. And please keep praying for me spiritually, emotionally, and financially. I miss you all. If any of you would like to Skype, don't hesitate to tell me. I'll try as hard as I can when I get the time. God bless you all!

Twelfth Week

Here it is!!! The first week of outreach finally ended. It was so fast for me.I can't believe it went by just like that. It's been such a crazy experience and a humbling one at that too. The whole week has been an adjusting week as we transition from our lecture phase and its pretty cool. We've been bonded together and tested a lot. It was just pure intenseness.

On Wednesday, Mike and I was just asking God where to go and just let us talk to someone. The whole day seems to be pointless as we walk around and just had a prayer walk around the city. Mike and I ended up talking about how great God is and how thankful we should be for what He's doing and stop thinking on what He's not doing. It expanded to just describing how great God is. As we were talking about how creative God is, we accidentally walked to a place called the Palace of the Fine Arts, which was amazing. It looks like a Greek building and we were just amazed at how detailed the building is. If a human is capable of doing that, how amazing is God capable of doing much more than that. We ended up seeing an artist who's painting the building. We asked God to give us the courage to talk to the man, and we did. Talking to him also brings a lot of revelation of what we've been learning.

Hot chocolate ministry is also good. There was a team that came from Montecito and I'm in a group with two of them. It was good to just show them what we do in YWAM San Francisco. We met two old ladies and it was good that they appreciate what we do and it encourages me to do what I do. They are just thankful that we would go out and do something for the less fortunate and especially shocked when we told them that we just want to love them.

On Friday, we had a scavenger hunt, but this time it's different. We're divided into groups and we're not given any clue. We're supposed to pray and ask God for the clues. So, Jason, Kerttu, and I prayed to God and we got these words:
- Go left
- Random bus
- Gas pump
- Palace
- Fields
It didn't make sense, so we decided to pray to God and after that we went outside and went left because we got the word left. We got to a bus stop with perfect timing and took the random bus and decided to sit until the end of the destination. We arrived at Fisherman's Wharf, which is a tourist spot and we decided to have a prayer walk and just walk around. As we walk around we saw a statue of a person standing next to a gas pump. We were just surprised and decided to go inside the building and talked to people. We did and we also get to pray for them. We kept walking and we found a place called "Neptune's Palace". We just sat there for a while before we talked to another man and we heard about his daily life. It was just good and it strengthen my faith that God can work with just simple words like that.

The atmosphere is beginning to be tensing up because of the outreach. So I ask you guys also to pray against any enemy attacks. I also want to thank everybody back home who's supporting me by prayer or anything else. I can't wait for the second week of outreach to get started and I hope you guys will keep praying for me. Thank you! God bless all of you!

Eleventh Week

Wow... Lecture phase finally ended... I still can't believe it feels that short. Well our speaker is an Australian, but lives in India, so he dressed like an Indian. Imagine that... Well our whole week is basically about thinking outside U.S. goggle. What I mean is to basically try to see outside the U.S. culture. Our speaker, Graeme, knows what it's like in the front lines of the mission. He seems harsh, but he just wants to make us realize that we're fortunate to be living in U.S. But in general I love the way he teaches, not just that it's out of the ordinary, but it also challenges me to think. I haven't been using my brain for a lot of thinking and this week just got my brain started again. It's exhausting, but I love it.

Graeme gives us case studies that we need to discuss as a group. Personally, it challenges me a lot. Some of it goes against of what I believe in, but I need to learn how to adapt to the situations. Graeme is a person who process everything before he speaks. People would think he's a quiet person, which is true, but he also got a lot of things to say. Graeme speaks only when he needs to.

Graeme is also a cooker and he loves to cook. He bakes a lot of cookies for us during our class time. He also made some Indian food and last time he required us to eat it with our hands. And since it's thanksgiving, Graeme also helped with the thanksgiving feast. The thanksgiving feast was really enjoyable. There are parents that came to see their child in DTS and the homeless people who we invited. It was just a massive celebration, it's my first time I guess having a REAL Thanksgiving day and I enjoy it.

Schools are out in holidays, so there's no basketball ministry. Outreach in San Francisco is starting this week. I can't wait for it to happen already. Lectures have blessed me so much, and now it's time to use those blessings to bless other people. So I hope you guys would be praying for me and intercede for me.

I also ate lemper. If you're Indonesian, you should know that. I think that's the best food I've eaten so far in my time in San Francisco, other than mie goreng. I saw some people from back home and they prayed for me, which made me really happy. It was good to hear that people actually supports my being in San Francisco. My ministries here are the same as what you guys do over there. Me being here doesn't mean that I'm better than all of you. I just seem to have more opportunities, but our ministries are all the same, and that's to just to show God's love to other people.

So this is it... First week of going to outreach. I don't know what to expect, which I somehow like. Since I don't know what to expect, God can just blow my mind with what He wants to do. I have no plan of what to do, and that leaves Him more room to do something. Last, but not least, I'm thankful for God, and my family. I'm also thankful for the support that you guys have been giving me, whether it's financially or spiritually. I really am. I'm having the time of my life here, and I'm grateful that what I'm doing is for a good cause, if not THE cause. So thank you once again.

Tenth Week

So here it is! The eleventh Week! The last week of lecture phase! After this? Outreach all the time in San Francisco, but before we go to that I'm here to say some things about what's been happening in the tenth week. We had our DTS Director, Steven Binnquist talks for Monday and Tuesday, and then we have one of the staff here, Ruthie Kim, to talk.

Steven focused more about the unity of our group and how he felt that the group is slowly being individualistic. I think it's true, because I was convicted by God that I've been trying to isolate myself from other people thinking what's the point of building relationship when I'm not going to see them again. It was something I struggle with for the last two weeks, but it's been better now. I'm trying to get outside and invest to other people, because it turns out that God brought all of us here to be a blessing to each other and if I don't try to get to know people, I'll be missing out on God's blessing. It was even more true when one of our friends had a vision that we're all walking our individual path. In that vision I can see myself as the one being left behind because I don't want anybody with me.

We confessed what we're struggling and I did also. At first I don't want people to know what I'm struggling with because I don't want to burden them, but that perspective soon change. I should let this family of mine knows what I'm struggling with because we'll be walking together and instead of giving my burden to them, we'll pick up each other's burden. That's what family is all about. I'm trying to do a one-on-one with the girls, because it just seems that I barely know anything about them. It's good to know what they're struggling with because it helps me what to pray about.

The scary thing about Wednesday was that Ruthie was talking about how we should stay together as a group and stop walking individually. She didn't even know what we talked about on Monday and Tuesday. It really is from God that He wants us to be united and be transparent to each other.

Ruthie also talked about the life of David. We were looking at the part of David and his sin with Bathsheba. I asked myself why does God leave Saul who sins merely for disobeying and He stays with David when he committed adultery, murdered someone's husband, and be a hypocrite. It just doesn't make sense to me, until I realized that David has the heart of repentance. Not just a normal repenting saying, "Lord forgive me. I won't do it again." That's good too, but David repented like it was the end of the world. He mourned and cried for his sin. He truly repented. It might go something like this: "Oh Lord... I've sinned greatly against You. I'm not worthy to be called Your servant. I'm truly sorry that I've disappointed You. I just ask that You would forgive me and that You would just clean my slate and helped as the days go that You will give me the strength to overcome my temptations." David's repentance is genuine. It's not just an act. He lives it out.

I'm currently rereading the 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel and 1 Kings and 2 Kings. I really want to learn more about David in depth. It seems there's much more than just war and a man after God's own heart. I want to know why he's called a man after God's own heart.

Ministry was stagnant this week. The weather has been cloudy or raining and it's hard to get out the building. We had a community night this friday and it's basically a brief worship night in the building and everybody is welcome. It also gives representation of what YWAM San Francisco has to offer.

I've been learning a lot and I can't wait for outreach already. So much people to be loved. I'm still asking God to break my heart for these people. I just want a compassion for these people. It's still a work in progress, but I can honestly say that I've been willing to change.

Thank you for all the support and prayers. It's been great knowing people back at home is praying for me. I really appreciate it. It's been a good emotional support for me. I thank you once again. I also would love it if you guys have any prayer request. I'll gladly pray for you and intercede. Keep praying for me and have a blessed week.

Ninth Week

It's the ninth week, and there are only two more weeks of lecture phase and we're off to do a full outreach in SF for one month. How amazing is that? Sure there's a lot of bumps, but that's what makes my journey in DTS exhilarating. It keeps me reminded that I don't have control over my life and that God wants to just show that He can get me out of my hardships by His power and not mine.

Well moving on! This week was all about discipleship and its nature. The first thing know about discipleship and probably the hardest is to really understand God's love. It's hard to imagine an unconditional love, because there's no such thing in this world. Sometimes we try so hard to live so God will love us, rather than living because He has already loved us first. The Bible is prove of His love to us. His love is not just a story in the Bible, it's THE story. It's basically about how humans is rejecting His plans and God keeps trying to reach out to us.

Discipleship should be a transformational process by which we learn how to live, act, and think like Jesus. It's not a "sometimes" thing. It's an ongoing process. One quote that stuck to me this whole week is, "Our direction, not our intention, will determine our destination." BAM! I probably wouldn't forget that anytime soon or later. We can have so much good intentions, but it doesn't matter unless we do it. Whatever we're doing for God won't last long unless there's an intimacy with God, because that's what will sustain us. Our desire and love would only last so short.

Everybody knows the story of David and Goliath. In a part of the story Saul questioned David's strength and David answers something about being in the pasture taking care of his sheep and a lion came and he tore that lion apart with his bare hands and the same goes with the bear. The point of the story? Before we start defeating our giants, we need to deal with our lions and bears first.

Okay... that's what I got this week. Now to ministry... My friend and I did a prayer walk around the Castro, which is said to be the central of the homosexual community in SF. Prayer walk can seem so pointless, because people think it's just a prayer. My friend and I got our hearts re-broken by God. We walked around being silent asking God what to pray about and God just starts revealing us what He wants us to ask of Him. We prayed for restoration, whether it's hurt, family, or their self-image. We also prayed for the restoration of an image of Christians in their mind. Statistics says that people tend to think Christians are judgmental. Nobody is to be blamed for that, but pray for the restoration of the image of Christians if you will.

God has put this in my heart for a while. I came to DTS at first hoping to change and transform the city. My thinking was completely wrong at that time and I learned that my ministry is not to save people and to redeem them. That's God's job. My job? It's simply to love them like how God would love them. This city just needs to be loved and if we don't do it then who will? God wants to use us and the simplest thing we can do is to love people. You'll be amazed how much you can change a person with just love.

I guess that's all for this week. I will be updating all of you again next week. Thank you for reading and please keep praying for me and also for the support. I miss you all back home. I miss Indonesian food. I miss eating rice everyday. So yeah... Don't take those for granted. Have a blessed week.

Second Month/ Eighth Week

So It's officially two months. Can't believe I haven't seen you guys for a complete two months. Sorry for anything that I didn't reply during the week. I was fasting any social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, and etc. I was surprised at how much time you can use to just use it just to be still and quiet in the presence of the Lord. No music. Just be quiet and still and enjoy His presence and what He's been doing. Even if you're in the storm of life, enjoy God's presence and you will see through the storm there's God in the midst of it.

This week was all about transparency. About being humble. The meaning of humility is to be known for who you really are. No hiding behind our walls of life. As humans we lean more towards rejection than acceptance. As an example... When I finished a performance there will be compliments coming, but one time a person criticizes it and guess what stuck to me? The criticism. As humans we can be a people pleaser sometimes and that distracts us from who we're really supposed to please. We don't need to please anybody other than God and to please God doesn't take much. Just take off your time and just dwell in His presence and do His will.

During classes we were challenged to reveal our darkest secrets/sins that we've done in the past and haven't dealt with. Imagine that! I was feeling squeamish, but I eventually came out in the front and confesses what I've done. It felt good to just take off that mask that's been in the way of seeing God face to face, but another thing I learn about confession and forgiveness is that it's not a one-time thing. It's a process and an on-going thing. We should ask ourselves every time we have the chance what the Holy Spirit wants you to fix in your life or what to deal in your life. No matter how small it is, ask for forgiveness if you feel convicted. It might be a small thing to you, but it's big enough to bug your conscience.

I was alone and was asking the Holy Spirit the same thing and one that stuck out to me was to ask forgiveness to my brother and to forgive him. I have a jealousy towards him how he does so good in school and I don't at all. I also asked for forgiveness towards him for not being a good example as a big brother and it would be my biggest regret for not being a good big brother. And good thing he forgave me. What a relief.

We had a homeless friend of ours who receives Jesus Christ. We never really evangelized to him, but the way we live our life was enough to show God's love to him. It was a good experience to just witness that God's love can change somebody's life through our life. God is just so great for doing that.

A lot has been going on for me and I would appreciate it if you guys would keep me in your prayer. Thank you so much for everything. The emotional support especially. I love you all and I hope you all have a blessed week. 

Seventh Week?

This is the seventh week right? Okay... Well to start off the week we had the DTS team from LA to stay with us for a week. There are 45 of them and that's only half of them that's here, the other half is in another DTS base. It was just unreal to me to have that many people doing the same thing as me, but in the same time it's great because that means more friends. LA base have more international students. They have people from Finland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Sweden, and somewhere else that I forgot, but it was really cool.

The speaker this week is Peter Iliyn. He's a Russian descendant. He starts the first day with the story of his dad's childhood. It was really heart-breaking to hear it. I'm going to try to make the short, but here it goes. His father lost both of his parents when he was only four. He was adopted to a family and worked making whiskey. His brother kidnapped him and brings him back. He's adopted again to a family, but the lady of the house wants a little girl not a little boy. He works in the farm and the barn. He has to be awake four o'clock in the morning to collect chicken eggs and if he miss one he gets beat up, which happens very often. Remember that he's still four when he does all this. He lives with the lady for four years and when her husband died the lady brought him back to the church and said in front of the congregation that he's a good for nothing and all he does is make trouble. He got adopted again by a family and he works the same job as he did before, but this time the family really wants to adopts him. But an unexpected thing happen, his brother found him and told him that they're uncle is going to adopt them. He had to make a choice and decided to go with his brother.

Peter's father always tell his life story when he used to be small, but instead of planting the seeds of bitterness to Peter, his father planted the seeds of gratefulness. THAT left me speechless. The life that he goes through is enough to leave God, but it didn't. He was grateful. You can focus on "I" and you can be bItter, or you can choose to focus on "Emmanuel" and you can be bEtter. Tragedy happens and it's up to us if we're going to live in it or move on and let God do great things through it. God can take the most broken people and turn their life around. Would you want to be that person?

I just finished my book report and the book is titled "Blue Like Jazz." "Our behavior will not changed long with self-discipline, but fall in love and a human will accomplish what he never thought possible." God changes our character with the passion of His love and the statement above shows that we can’t do anything without Him. It’s hard to do something for someone when we don’t like the person, and when we fall in love with God, only then do we have the fuel we need to obey.

God is so generous. The fact that He gave His son only was proving enough, but one thing from the book that stuck out to me how prideful we are sometimes to think that we don’t deserve His love. “In exchange for our humility and willingness to accept the charity of God, we are given a kingdom. And a beggar’s kingdom is better than a proud man’s delusion.” That statement just described what I want to have and the only way to have that kingdom is to be humble and be willing to accept His love.

Well... Now moving on to ministry... Basketball ministry is making a really good progress. We're able to finally talk to the Chinese kids. It was hard just to talk to them, but now they're starting to open up a little bit more. The goal by the end of DTS is just to be able to pray for them.

Today is Halloween and we're going to have a dance party for the people in the base. We made our costumes and I'm dressed as a sack of potatoes. It's going to be fun and it's been a great time. I heard that next week will be the best lecture week. So I'm looking forward to do that.

I love you all and God bless you all. Thank you for reading this and thank you for the support and prayer. I will be seeing you soon.

The ACTUAL Sixth Week

First of all I just want to apologize for last week's title. It was supposed to be the fifth week. Sorry again... Well... Moving on... So this week was definitely different than the usual week. Our speaker got the date wrong and didn't come for the week so he/she is coming this week. So our DTS director, Steve, improvised. He invited two local pastors (David from Reality and Aaron from Icon). He also asked Tim Svodoba, the director of YWAM San Francisco and one of the directors for the YWAM international, to speak.

This whole week was completely focused on the church and missions. Aaron was very passionate about the church. He plays with numbers and statistics and shows what's San Francisco all about. San Francisco is #11 in the most influential city list, but they're number one if we're talking per capita. America is the most influential nation. I know this sounds cliche, but if we change America we can change the whole world. Aaron also gives an idea what if all the churches in the world tithes. Ready for this? It would eradicate extreme poverty. The next question? What can we do in the second year?

There are 800,000+ people in San Francisco Bay and there are only 8,000 people who goes to church. The statistics said that 99.5% is unreached in San Francisco and how many missionaries are in here? Virtually NONE. Zero. This city is completely messed up, but the good thing about that is that there's so much we can do. So please pray for the .5% people so that God is able to use them to reach the lost. The statistics also strengthen the reason why I'm here. It wasn't a mistake that I'm in San Francisco doing my DTS.

David talked about the kingdom of God and how it transforms this world. He also talked what's God's mission, because God is a missionary God. God wants to restore people back to Him. David also talked how the churches are usually inward and focus on themselves. Churches is supposed to be about movement, influence, and discipleship. A lot of people would be willing to die for that, but not that many would be willing to live it out. The kingdom of God requires a response. Are we willing to respond to it?

Tim talked about missions. Mission starts with us allowing God to break our heart for what breaks His. Sometimes God called us to a place that's not our place. To a place that's really different than us. We come to this this world not to be Saviors. We're here to love them with the love of God. As humans, its hard to just love someone unconditionally. I'm trying to learn to love like how God loves. I want to love this city like how God loves this city. I went to San Francisco State on Friday to do a prayer walk and I realized that the more I get to know San Francisco, the more I fall in love with it. I want to love where I am.

Tim also talked about self-righteousness. The thinking of, "I'm okay and you're not okay". Well... That's not how we're supposed to be. The right thinking is, "I'm not okay. You're not okay... But that's okay." It starts with being humble and being teachable.

Basketball ministry is starting to grow. There are more people that comes regularly. It's just good to start building relationships with those kids. The hot chocolate ministry this week was probably the best that I've ever done and I hope it will become better. My partners for the night were Audrey and Bethany. We were able to make a new friend, named Ethan. We just talked to him and another person comes up to Bethany and started talking to her. A couple minutes later Bethany pulled my shirt and I looked back and saw the person who's talking to her, Jeff, started crying. Turns out that his friend is really sick and he really cares for him. So Jeff asked if we can pray for him. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Ethan asked if he can pray with us also. We prayed for Jeff and his friend. After the prayer I gave Jeff a hug and he said that he's going to have the best sleep ever. It made me happy knowing that just a prayer can make him that happy. He also told us not to stop doing what we're doing and that he wished that he can go back in time and do what we're doing in such a young age. It was a great encouragement. We also prayed for Ethan's friend who has cancer right now and is currently in the hospital. I might go out with him for some coffee this week.

Well that's all for this week I guess. Today is the first time it rains the whole day and yesterday the Giants won!!! They're going to the World Series. I got hooked to baseball here, because all the staffs are Giants' fan, but yeah I guess that's all. Please keep me in your prayers and thanks for all the support. Thanks for reading this also. Have a blessed week and I will be back next week. God bless all of you.

Sixth Week in San Francisco

Can you believe it? It's been more than a month since I've been here. If something were to happen right now and everybody get sent home; I would say it was all worth it to spend this past month just knowing about God and His love for the lost. I think the one thing that I get is that God's love is unconditional. I know that most of us know that, but do all of us embrace it? For some reason sometimes I felt like I don't deserve that love and I have all right to feel like that cause in fact I don't deserve it, but by God's grace He loves me even though I've broken His heart so many times.

I'm sure the parents know what I'm talking about. A lot of us kids, especially teenagers, have caused you grief and sorrow a lot of times. It's somehow hard not to rebel for us teenager, but in the end of it all. You parents wants the best for us. Even though sometimes we kids don't understand. Us kids can feel like we know what's for us and maybe us kids are right, but that doesn't change the fact that our parents wants what 's best for us. I realized that this week and I'm still realizing it. So... First of all... Thanks Mom and Dad for your guidance. I'm grateful for what you've been doing.

So... Let's talk about what has happened this week. We learned about Spiritual Warfare. I know, I know... First time I heard it I thought it was going to be those weird stuff with casting out demons. Well... It's still like that, but I'm talking about the Spiritual Warfare that's going on in our everyday life. GASP! We fight in Spiritual Warfare everyday? Yes! It shocks me as much as it shocks you. As a Christian, we're walking opposite of the world, that itself is a Spiritual Warfare. We're being attacked by the enemy on our walk with God. Sometimes we let them gets us. One example is letting what the world tells us becomes truth. What the world tells about us is a lie.
Ex: You're ugly, you're not worth it
Sometimes we let those lies get to us. How do you fight those lies? By simply speaking the truth. God made us to be wonderful. He died for us! If we're not worth it, then why would He go to all the trouble to die for us? One thing to keep in mind that I learn this week is not to focus on the enemy. Keep your focus on God! The enemy is real, but he's not greater than God.

Well... That was intense... On a happier note, ministry went well on Friday. Mike and I went to do our usual prayer station. We walked out of the building and we barely passed 2 blocks before a woman stopped us and asked for prayer. How great is that! When we didn't expect anything, God brought somebody in need. The rest of the day was pretty hard. A woman came up to us to give us money. We told her that we don't play for money and that we don't need it, but she insisted so we got one dollar. We used it to buy a drink.

Basketball ministry on Wednesday is still a hard work in progress. There are more kids coming and we're starting to build a connection with them. I'm just happy that they want to play with us. And on Saturday, we had a Chocolate Galore for the woman in the area. There are at least 100 woman that came. We just simply give them chocolate, hot chocolate, and let them make their own jewelry. We also have a prayer station so they can be prayed. We were just being a blessing to these people.

Thank you for reading and I'll keep updating. Please keep praying for the people in this area. They're still fighting with addictions. Only God is able to change this city. Thank you for the support and the prayer. You guys are welcome to visit also. Just kidding... Well if you guys want to, I'll try to meet you guys. Thank you once again for the support and the prayer. God bless you all!

Fourth Week in San Francisco

            This week has completely given me a new passion for bible study. I never thought bible study could be exciting.  I’m currently studying the book of Jonah. It’s still in progress, but it’s been a new whole thing. Most of us see Jonah as the guy who gets swallowed by a big fish, but as I study it, there are much more than saving Nineveh (the city that Jonah was sent to by God).

Art (the speaker this week) is a really great man. He is really generous. He kept treating us to In-N-Out. He bought us donuts also, but that’s not what makes him great. He has such a passion for bible study. It’s contagious! He gave us a Message Bible, which was really good. I use it for my devotional; it’s just so much easier to understand. Art also told us about different Bibles and why there are so many.

Every Friday we’re released to do ministry on our own. We’re given a partner to do it. My friend, Mike, and me did something different for our ministry. We cut a piece of cardboard and write, “Free Prayer”. We were making a prayer station. We also decided next time that we’re going to bring our guitar so we can attract people. We’re going to do worship songs. So please pray for us and the other students with their ministries.

My friends and I found a new type of dancing from France. The movements are random and fluid. It’s called tecktonic. We have fun doing it, even though we don’t know what we’re doing. We looked silly, but that’s the point. We laugh at each other.

I also met a friend that I haven’t seen for almost 5 years. I get to see her on Saturday. I basically spent the whole day with her in an Indonesian community eating BBQ. This week is also Fleet Week. There are fighter pilots flying around doing aerial acrobat. It was a good day.

Tomorrow, we’ll be studying about spiritual warfare. I really don’t know what to expect. I heard that the speaker is really good. Well… Learning new things everyday. Thank you for the prayer support. Miss you all. God bless!!!

Third Week In San Francisco

So... The third week is finally over. Can't believe I've been here for almost a month. Well... I found out that I've been bitten by some kind of insects every night. So every time I woke up I have a huge bite mark. Yeah... You can laugh at that if you want.

So our speaker this week was Gayle Keapproth. The topic was "Hearing God's Voice". I learned a lot. Why do we talk to God?
No... It's not for guidance. It's for relationship's sake. God is a communicator and all He wants from us is our affection for Him. He wants a love relationship and love relationship's nature is to keep growing. Relationship without communication is a bad one. I've been spending my quiet time with God in the playground. I just feel like I belong there. I'm starting to enjoy just being in His presence. My biggest challenge this week was to start discerning which is God's voice, and which is my desire. I love the fact that it's been another wonderful week.

Me and my friend Mike was chilling at Coffee Bean. We saw a woman in front of us and we decided to help her. We bought her a drink and food. She started talking about her life and we prayed for her. She started crying. I believe that God has touched her. Ministries like this happens everyday to each of us. It became our lifestyle. God has truly changed the way I see everything. I'm learning to see others through His eyes.

This coming week we're going to learn about the Bible. It's going to be amazing once again. Every day I'm learning something new. We're not perfect as people, but God is and that's why He's matchless. We're serving a God like no other. Nothing compares to Him. Praised be His name.

I hope that you guys will keep me in your prayer, because the spiritual stronghold here is strong. Thanks for all the support and thanks for reading.

First Actual Week for DTS in San Fran

Intro week was amazing, but this week was the first actual week for me and it was definitely an adjustment.
This week we had a speaker named Karri Manning who is an absolutely a gifted and anointed speaker. This week theme is about "Characteristics and Nature of God. It blesses me in so many ways. It gave me a whole new insight of who God is. A couple points that I got are:

- God is not the REFLECTION of our earthly father, rather the PERFECTION
- When you feel God is being silent, don't be discouraged, just enjoy His presence
- All God wants is an affection from us and He's all about relationship

That's not even half of what I got from her, but it's been a blessing and I've learned that this time in San Francisco is not about information, but transformation. I'm learning to look everything through God's eyes.
Another example that can be put to practical use is to do this:

1. Get a paper or something to write
2. Write "The world says..." (Write everything what the world said you are in their eyes)
3. Write "But God says..." (Write what you think what God would say to you)

This is what I wrote... "The world says that I'm too young to be an impact for God, but God says that I'm a capable man of God"
When I saw what I wrote I was actually moved. The world may say that we are a mistake or that we are a liar, thief, or anything, but in God's eyes we are perfectly and wonderfully made.

This Wednesday we started our outreach outside of the Tenderloin (the district that I'm currently living in and where it holds more than 20,000 people, which most of them is homeless). I'm in the basketball ministry with my two friends, Mike and Kyle. We go to Mission High School and play basketball with them after school, basically building a relationship with the kids in the school. It was a joy to do something that I like and use it to serve God.

On Friday, we started a two-man ministry around San Francisco. My partner for the day was Kayla, a girl from Minnesota. We went around the northeast of San Francisco basically talking to people about San Francisco and what they like. It seems like a slow movement, but it's a start. The highlight of the day is when me and Kayla were waiting at the bus stop and I talked to a total stranger named Marvin. We started talking and slowly with God's help the conversation turned into conversation about the Bible. He shared his thoughts about it and I shared my thoughts. It may not be much but it was a start. I talked to a lot of strangers that day, and I'm getting used to get out of my comfort zone. God is helping me to do it and it's been an amazing journey so far.

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. Me and my friends were invited to do a test for a tour. It's called a spy game. The owner goes to the same church as I am and he invited me to test it. There were 8 people in the game for testing and we're divided into 2 groups. Each group have a leader and have an objective. We are given a gun (lazer tag) and some cool spy equipments and we have to stop the other team to finish their mission. There are no limits to where you can go. The whole San Francisco is the battlefield. It was crazy and fun. There's an offense and defense team. The defense is supposed to stop the offense objectives and they're given a 5 minute headstart to position themselves and take out the offense team. My team went to the Jewish Community Museum and were met by two people who were shooting at us and we eventually ended in China Town.  The tourists were confused of what's happening, and we're hoping that the game would become popular. There were lots of missions and I gotta say that it was breathtaking.

I also did my first laundry (so Mom... be proud).

So that's all for this week. Please pray for this wonderful city and for me and the people who are doing ministry in this city. I'm sure you all feel the same way as me. I'm tired of seeing San Francisco being seen as a broken city. In God's eyes San Francisco is another place for His love to be shared upon and I want that to happen. Keep me in your prayers. Thank you and God bless all of you.

Intro Week in San Fran

So... The first week just passed by in San Francisco. It's been an amazing time and I've had so much fun.
I met some new amazing friends in here and I also met a couple people outside the town who are less fortunate such as the homeless people. I've been befriending them and basically trying to make a connection with them. Hearing some of their stories just breaks my heart, because now I know that the city is just so broken that the only one that can heal their brokenness is God.

The staffs here are amazing and we're going to have a speaker this upcoming week and I'm thrilled to hear what she has to say. It's about character, which I really need. So... yeah... It's gonna be amazing.

The first week is also busy. I'm trying to get used to the schedule also. So it's an adjustment week for me, but I think the highlight of the week is on Friday, when all of us were out at night just giving hot chocolate to random people and asks them if we can pray for them. It's a new experience, but definitely a good one. There's one lady who came to us not asking for hot chocolate, but wants us just to pray for her. I had the privilege to pray for her that time, and it's such a blessing.

We also toured San Francisco in separate groups on San Francisco, and it's a beautiful city. I get to go to the Golden Gate Bridge for the very first time and we went to China Town and we ended the day with In-n-Out, courtesy of YWAM San Francisco.

On Sunday, I went to a church called Promised Land, which I think a church that really fits me. It's serene and I just feel really welcomed there. The worship is just... Spirit-led. Everything is just Spirit-led. I can just feel the Spirit of the Lord in the room.

Well... There you go for my first time blogging. Not bad right? Well... I'll be blogging every week to tell you guys what's been happening. So... Thank you for the support and prayers. Without you guys and God this wouldn't be possible.

I miss you all and God bless us all.