Birthday Time!

Blessed...

Sorry it has been a while since i last posted, lots has happened in the past few weeks. I have now completed 5 books, just finished Acts yesterday and we are starting on Luke tomorrow and we are having a guest speaker that is apparently amazing-so this should be another great week. These past few weeks have been pretty crazy, lots of reading, charting and exploring God's word. Before come to SBS i was so nervous as to if i was smart enough, or if i would get my work done and amazingly and only by the grace of God i have been learning so much and retaining what i am reading--its so awesome, like i feel like the Bible is coming alive and that I am able to myself into the reader and hearers point of view-learning about the history and what was happening back then and really understand what the speak meant, and what God means. The bible is so easily taken out of context if you don't look at what is happening at the time, it has really blown me away.

I have also been learning a lot about distractions and i have really been trying to put aside things that consume to much of my time. I really want to be here and be devoted to getting to know myself and knowing who i am in Christ, and know his word so much better. As a result i have deactivated my facebook account for a while. So if you would like to contact me either respond to the blog or email me at breclaassen@gmail.com. And i love getting emails so if you have time to write, i wanna know what is happening back at home, if there is anything that i can pray for and yeah its good to hear about what is happening-i kind of feel like i am in a bubble here a bit-just because i am not close to home and we don't leave the base too much.

God has really been teaching me about the Holy Spirit-especially in acts-the story of Stephen and him being stoned and then the Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. I found myself getting quite emotional when reading Stephen's speech and plea, and then how at the end when he is being stoned he says "Lord do not hold this sin against them"...i know sometimes i think being a christian is easy and when really we are to stand up for what we believe in and we are to proclaim the gospel even if that means suffering and persecution. God will never leave us nor forsake us and we have the Holy Spirit will grant us power to stand up, and stand firm in what we believe. The story of Philip and how he is so sensitive so the spirit and goes up and leaves on the road towards Gaza--which from Jerusalem is a really long road-and listens to the prompting of the spirit and goes and talks to the Ethiopian Eunuch-who just happens to be reading Isaiah and Philip is able to explain things to him, share the gospel and then amazingly he was baptized!! I really want to live like Philip and do whatever the spirit tells me, even if it seems crazy or scary. I need to get over the fear of what others will think and i need to live by faith, walk in the Spirit and proclaim the Gospel in boldness and confidence.

God has just been so good-i feel like i have been able to rest in his spirit and the whole idea of overflowing with love and blessings--knowing that God want to fill us with the Spirit and no matter how much we give away he will keep filling us...which is so amazing :) i think i can be so selfish sometime and only think of myself and my needs but really i need to have the mindset of giving, unity and a community--like the church in acts 4-and how they have everything in common and there is not a needy person amongst them because the give of what they have-just so amazing!

I am really loving it here-the people are so awesome, living in community is so much fun, my roomate is a sweetheart, i have a great small group and everyone is just wonderful. Christmas is going to be awesome when i come home because two girls from Korea will be coming home with me-they are pumped to see Vancouver and experience Christmas in Canada.

Oh and also i was able to have a great thanksgiving last week. One of our staff members is from Canada and his family is living on the base right now and his mom made all the Canadians a great thanksgiving dinner--so good turkey, mash potatoes, yams, cranberries...pumpkin pie--so good :) such a blessing and it was really refreshing to be with a bunch of canadians and celebrating-was a bit like home :)

Well it is sunday morning-i am finished my work duties for this past week-so starting tomorrow i can actually get up at 7 and not 530, which will be great :) Today is a girls birthday-so we are going to decorate her room, and we are going shopping for some of her favorite things-she is from Nepal, this is her first time to north america and its so awesome to get to know her-she bring so much joy. I love how the school here is so international with people from literally all over the world. We had an international day last week-where we had a room filled with a bunch of tables and each country had a different tables, it was so cool. We did have a canadian table with tim hortans coffee and nanaimo bars:) everyone loved it.

Well i should get going-i am going to take some pictures of the base here and post them soon hopefully :)

--Bre

3 down...63 to go

well as you can see by the title i have completed 3 books!! woot woot-we are told to celebrate when we complete a book. I have done Philemon...Titus...Ephesians and i just started Galations-read it out loud and am currently working on paragraph titles and doing horizontals (main idea charting). It feels so great to be accomplishing these things. Tonight as my friend and I read Galations out loud by the creek, and it was so awesome reading it. I feel like i am getting to know Paul-learning about his character, seeing him upset, excited, proud and disappointed with the churches. While reading he mentioned Titus-and my friend and i both were like--ah we know Titus (cause we already completed the book). And as i was reading i found a great verse and shouted ah that should be my key verse-i love it! I love how everything is starting to coming together and once SBS is completed it will be like a complete masterpiece!

This last week was pretty overwhelming-with a few minor breakdowns and crying sessions-but its good. There is no way i could do this all...without God. He is my strength, i continue to pray for a hunger for the word and a mind that can stay clear and comprehend. I pray that i will be able to apply everything that i am learning to my life-my relationship with God, friends and family.

I feel so blessed..i went to the office to ask how much i still owed for the school, and the lady was like wow well actually we owe you money! so many people had helped me out with paying for the school that i had overpaid when i brought in my money order, how amazing is that! thanks to everyone who helped me out financially, i appreciate it so much, and feel so blessed. its so good to not have to worry about school fees for the rest of the year. I love how God works out every tiny detail. Currently i am still figuring out a few things with student loans that i had taken out last year for school-i am just trying to prove to them that i am attending school-YWAM is an accredited university so i am just working on some paper work-if you can just pray that it all works out.

Another thing that i am learning is to be quiet before God and listen. Sometimes during worship i always felt that i needed to sing every word out an move around but i am realizing that God wants to speak to me and i need to listen and be sensitive to his prompting whatever that may mean. In Ephesians while i was reading about the armor of God some things came to my mind. Firstly i know that whenever i thought of the armor of God it was like oh if i am going through a difficult time i need to put on the armor of God and ask him to cover me-not that that is wrong but i am realizing that in order to put on the armor of God i need to know him. In order to have the sword of the spirit i need to know God's word and read the bible often, to have the shield of faith i need to have faith and trust in God....and so on. I think the armor of God is something that i am striving to have, for we are in a constant battle with evil and in order to stand up against it we need to know God, understand his works, his word and go for it! Also the major theme of Ephesians is unity and realizing how we need to work together as a body-all with different parts none not more important or less than another. God uses us all. And of course we covered the wonderful verses of wives submit to your own husbands....and i have a better understand of that chapter and what Paul is meaning.

I could write so much more but i really need to concentrate on Galations now, i cannot wait to see what God is going to teach me in this book!!

miss you all....