først uke

Our first "real week" of the dts was incredibly amazing, fun, exhausting, emotional and challenging.  Our teacher for the week was David McDaniel an American from Japan.  He leads a dts in Japan and he was so so funny! He has a huge heart for our dts and it's actually the only one he still teaches at. He talked about God's character in a way that was so eye opening and challenging. One of my favorite phrases that he used was "get out of Bible study mode"  It's so true how we can read the Bible and never really get what's happening.  I feel like so many truths were revealed to me in stories that I've heard my whole life.  David took the time to really get to know us and see the areas in our lives where we struggled.  He and I talked about perfection and Art and he really helped me to see where I was putting too much pressure on myself and caring to much about what everyone else thought about my work.  On Friday we had our first "creative Friday" and I really tried to create without expectation or pressure and it was so wonderful and for the first time I was really able to completely enjoy myself! It was such a great feeling! For our first assignment we drew a number and each number represented someone in the art track (but we didn't know who). We had to pray that God would show us what to make for that person and from there we had complete freedom.  It was so cool how everyone got something.  On Monday we're going to present them to each other and then see how God speaks to them through the art, I'm so excited!  Our studio is downtown Alesund in the balcony of an old church that was used for revival in the 1900's.  It was so beautiful and inspirational. I'm so excited to work there this year. On Saturday one of the staff, Emelie offered to take whoever wanted to join on a hike. Only 5 of us went. We went to this beautiful place by the sea with a light house and a bunch of colorful houses.  I was so happy that I went, even though I had been sick all week and was exhausted afterwards.  It was worth it to see another beautiful part of this country.  

Well, this week Francois Botes will be here from South Africa to teach about the Prophetic and the end of the week is arts gathering! I'm so excited! You can go here to learn more about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoG6yaeXGv8

peace & blessin's

Aubs