A Day Ahead

The First Hike

2004-10-23T16:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went on my first real trip into the outdoors with the base. This was the second trip that had happened but the first I was able to go on due to my bad knee(see past post for more info on the knee). The trip had two different hikes that you could do. The first being a trip to the top of Mt. Isabel and the second a shorter hike up the mountain to a waterfall. I choose to do the second because I was not sure just how my knee would do. Wow I am so glad that I choose the shorter of the two because I am so sore today that it hurts to get up out of a chair let alone climb a set of stairs or something like that. The trip up was hard and I found it hard to appreciate God's creation as I spent the whole trip up trying to find my breath in the air directly under my nose. It was definitely worth it though because the waterfall was amazing and was small enough to stand in. Wow the water was so cold that I could not stand in it for more than 10 or 15 seconds with out my head feeling like it was going to explode! We then ran back down the trail in fine form yelling our lungs out to God the entire way down... So like I said it was great and I am looking forward to all the trips to come, also my new hair feels great when I run so I am looking forward to doing more of it in the future. Bit of a side note I will being finding out my outreach team on Tuesday and am very excited to find out who else will be with me.

Transparency

2004-10-21T01:35:00.000-07:00

I am writing this late at night on Thursday the 21st of October. Tomorrow morning we are going to have the opportunity to come to God and lay something at his feat that we are holding on to, or something that is keeping us from him. We will confess this thing or tell of this thing to the rest of the school and then go and pray at the foot of the cross and let it go in God. I want you all to be part of my confession because it is something that I have hid from most of you for almost two years now out of shame and fear of what you would think of me if I told you. Today God, my father helped me to overcome that fear of rejection and the fear of man. So hear it goes, I am laying my sexual immoralities at the foot of the cross and giving it up to God. I have already repented from it and received healing and forgiveness for it but yet I continue to hold on to it and it continues to weigh me down. I have had perversions in my life for last eight years or so in the form of pornography, masturbation, and lust. But the event that sticks out the most is the night when I lost my viginity for the first time. This is me I am no longer a virgin and I ask of your forgiveness for hiding this from you. Please pray for me that I can finally let go of this past sin that has been such a burden in my life for the last decade. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ has put on my heart to lay at his feet he spoke to me very clearly that he wants to take this burden from me and all that I need to do is confess it to you all and maintain tansparency in the lord so that he may continue to work in my life. So take at that and think what you may but I am a sinner no better than the rest of you, and am only saved through the power of Jesus Christ who died that all may have life. Also the Father has put it on my heart to cut my hair as an outward sign to all that I have given up controlling my own life and have dedicated it to serving the Lord. So I have always wondered how I would look with a Mohawk, guess we will find out...

Please Pray For Strength and a Non-judgmental Attitude towards others,
Preston

Try #2

2004-10-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Ok once again the website, www.geocities.com/jondlovell/ for some reason it wont let me link to it so just copy and paste it.

Ashley's Gorge

2004-10-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, that's Tuesday down here, was a beautiful day and one of great time with God for me. In our small group time (2:30-4:30 on Tuesday and Thursday) my group went up to a river in the hills at a place called Ashley's Gorge. The idea is that we would be like Christ go out into the wilderness for a while and think about all that God has been teaching us in the last couple of weeks and just think about all the ideas that have been presented to us through the speakers. Cause if you don't think about it and review it chances are you will not remember it. So we grabbed our Bibles and notebooks(yes we take notes in the lectures) and went out into the wilderness for the afternoon. I just started walking down a path that eventually led me to the river and a spot where the water came right up to the banks edge, but right before the water was a level rock that stuck out over the water for a couple of feet and was almost perfectly level. This was to be my chair. I sat down and opened up my notebook and the first thing I saw was a list of names of people back home that I had felt I should pray for during the school, both Christian and Non-believers. So I did just that on my little spot on the rivers edge with birds all around me and a small waterfall directly across from me I prayed for almost the entire time. I hoped for some, I rejoiced for some, and I cried for some(yes I cry at times). It was amazing and I truly felt God there with me while I lifted up my friends and family to him. If you would like to be on this list of people I pray for please send me an email of leave me a post here at the site with your name and what you would like prayer for and I will lift you up as often as I can. Hope to hear from you all. This DTS is changing my life and helping me to grow in God at a rate that I never have before in my life. I would very very very strongly encourage all people who call them selves a Christian to look into doing a DTS with YWAM, you will not regret it that I can grantee! If you want to read more about what we are learning here, some of the others who are in the school with us, and see some great pics and video from here check out this web site

One bad knee

2004-10-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

Well remember how I told you all a little bit ago that I was starting to get into rugby and even play a couple of games myself... Rugby is not the most gentle of games, that's for sure. In my very first game I got thrown hard to the grown and all my force and weight landed on my right knee. It hurt for a sec but then kinda went away and I figured that I would have a bruise or something the next day. Next day comes around and no bruise on the knee, good news sense I have another game that night. I play in the game that night and do ok but towards the end of the game my right knee starts to hurt when I sprint or cut back real sharp... This is not good... That was a week ago as of yesterday and my knee has never gotten better but only worse. The more I use it the worse it gets. Last night was sports night and we played a pretty good game of soccer for almost two hours and by the end of the game I could barley walk home. So it doesn't hurt that bad this morning and I will try to rest it all day(Because I have another soccer game tonight)and see if it will feel ok later. However all your prayers are greatly appreciated and please continue to email me when ever you have the time.

So now the text

2004-10-02T01:47:00.000-07:00

So I had Sam actually publish the pics cause I can't and now I will fill you all in on the words that go with them. That's all though I did finally get to go snowboarding today!

Top) This is basically my view from my bedroom window, assuming that you cut down all the eucalyptus trees that are in the way.

Middle) Taken from the inside of a fast moving van at the countryside surrounding my little sleepy town of Oxford, there are flipping sheep every where!

Bottom) Ahh yes my warm little bunk house/class room. Actually it's freezing cold inside most of the time cause there is no central heating system. Fortunately we have eleven guys staying in a room together to help heat it up. Oh and "my" room is basically the right side of the house from the door over.

Pictures

2004-10-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

Quick Update

2004-09-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone just thought that I would let you all know that currently it's f-ing cold down here and I wish I had all my snowboarding stuff cause it's snowing like mad today! It's amazing how fast he weather can change and kinda fun at the same time. The worship time is amazing down here, better than any concert I have ever been to. It is all about 35 younger people ages 17-30, yep that's right I am not the youngest after all, just pouring there hearts out to God together and making beautiful music, I love it! And I am having sam work on the comment section so soon you should all be able to comment!

The Last day

2004-09-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well the time has finally come for me to say goodbye to America, get on the plane and pray that nothing goes wrong and that I don't miss you all too much... This will be my last posting from here at home and no that the time is hear I am both very excited to get out on my own and sad to say goodbye. I will try to do my best in keeping everyone up to date on my adventures as I go.

On a bit of a side note I am just amazed at home much smaller my backpack and suitcase became as soon as I started to put stuff in them! Either they shrank or the stuff multiplied cause all the sudden they were both full and I still had crap all over my floor. Oh well I guess I cant take everything with me, although Kendall thinks I should just take her and leave all my clothes here. I tend to agree with her but even though it would be funny, I some how see the airport not laughing at the naked guy with the girl in his suitcase. So that's it, talk to you all soon from the south island of the nation of New Zealand!

Sorry

2004-09-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

Well this is to address a problem that has been brought to my attention by a good friend of mine, that being that you can not post a comment on my site with out a blogger profile, so if you want to post for now you will have to make one. Just click on post a comment on the comments page and it will take you to a sign in page. There you can choose to set up a new account or something like that. Once you are done creating that you will be able to comment all you want. I will see if there is any way I can change this so keep your fingers crossed and you can always email me if you don't want to take the time to set up an account.

Day Two

2004-09-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well today I went and got my new hiking boots and my plane ticket, then went to Tj max and was checking out when something interesting happened. I looked up and saw a woman I knew shopping there also, however she did not see me. I know this woman cause her family goes to my church and she has a daughter that I am friends with. However her daughter was not there with her, thus the struggle with in my begin.
Should I go over and say hi to her just because or should I wait and see if she says hi to me. And then there was the problem that I was there buying underwear and do I really want her to see me buying underwear or would that just be strange. Also there was the problem of what if her daughter who I used to have a crush on walks in while we are talking about what underwear I just bought. This was the point at which I decided to just let her say hi to me. Well she didn't and I left the store feeling like an idiot, but dang I like these underwear!

Numero Uno

2004-09-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Well this is my first post and not yet actually having left for New Zealand I am not totally sure what to write about at the moment. However as the time for me to leave comes closer and closer I want to go more and more. I think this is a combined effect of several things. The strongest of which is that I have nothing to do here at home due to the fact that the majority of my good friends have already left for college and most of those still here are still in high school, ergo they are busy all day. However I will say that I am not totally looking forward to leaving the country for six months as I will miss both my birthday(Nov. 22nd), Thanksgiving, and Christmas! Not to mention my favorite time of the year, snowboard season! I guess having a year of summer will be cool enough though.

I realized something today while talking to a friend at church. I will effectively lose one day of my life by flying to New Zealand. No I am not talking about the un-holy amount of time I must spend on a time to get there, but the fact that as I understand it sometime in the very early morning of Sept. 24th I will cross the International Date Line and jump to the 25th completely losing those 20 or so hours of my life! Well there is something to think about, it has had me freaking out for several hours now...