the beginning of a new adventure

     I watched sleepily as yet another van pulled out and took its passengers to a new set of adventures. Another set of goodbyes had been said and the all too common sadness of knowing that good friends were gone for a time. I walked back to the room to collapse into my bed until the next goodbye.

    Wednesday and Thursday were tough. Five of the eight DTS teams left those two days meaning most of my school is now gone. The worst part was that each goodbye lasted about an hour and for someone who hates goodbyes to begin with it was quite the traumatizing experience. (okay that may be slightly dramatic but you get the idea.) For three days we hung around the very empty base, wishing we were on airplanes instead of a tropical paradise. It didn't help that on Thursday we went through a refugee style line to pick up all the food we would have to eat for the next three days. That paper sack full of food didn't quite make it to Sunday. :) 

     On the bright side, those last few days were an awesome time of refocusing for me. The last three months have not just changed my life but also have changed me. Lecture phase was an incredible time of just focusing on God and receiving from Him. One of the biggest revelations for me was just the grace of God. Not just in receiving salvation but receiving anything from God starts with undeniable grace. I used to struggle so much with knowing God, with loving the infinite being that somehow said He loved me as an individual. To be honest it just doesn't make sense. What I soon came to realize is that to love God I had to receive God's love. Kinda of a weird paradox but it honestly does take God's love to love God. The brilliant thing about God's love is that there is no end, you can keep diving farther and farther into the grandness of its never-ending depth. 

     It's such an amazing thing to not just feel but know the love of God. That love has the power to change people, to change nations, to change everything we know. It's a love that isn't based on feeling or knowledge but is based on the truth of reality. God is love. boom. So much wonder and power in that simple phrase. How often I went through life without a realization that the God of the universe loved me without reservation and with more love than I could ever handle. 

     Three months isn't a long period of time but in those three months I came to know some incredible people. People who were not satisfied with the Sunday morning Christianity but want the radical, wild, Christianity that permeates every moment of ever day. These people inspired me by the hunger and desire they had to seek God. I watched and grew with them as we dug deeper into this infinite God. I can't thank the people of this PhotogenX community enough for the impact they have had on my life. God has used them all to change my life. I saw what walking with God looked like by watching these incredible individuals walk with Him every day. I will never forget this community of people and the incredible journey we took these three months. 

     It was an incredible blessing to be here in Hawaii receiving for the last three months. A blessing that I owe so much of to all of you at home. Your prayers and support have helped make these past few months life changing. You have a share in the inheritance of everything God does through me because of your incredible generosity. Thank you. I am so blessed to know all of you. 

     I couldn't finish this wrap-up blog without thanking the number one person that deserves all the glory and praise for what has happened these last few months. God has walked step for step with me. The faithfulness of God has a whole new meaning to me now, it isn't just in the physical that God is faithful, it is in every emotion, every thought, every expression that God shows His faithfulness to us. I don't know what these next three months are going to hold for me. I can count on challenges and opportunities; on joy and pain; on times of fruit and times of desert; and in a God who will always love me no matter how much a mess up or struggle. A God who will be faithful through every step I take. A God who simply desires to be with His kids.
      So here I am on my way to Egypt for three months. There are no words to describe the excitement and anticipation I have for these next three months. Just to give an idea of what we will be doing there, for the first week we will work with various ministries to see which one God is calling us to work with. Ministries like: working in Garbage City, ministering in refugee camps, working with the poor, encouraging the Christians there, etc. So many amazing opportunities and options for us! God is going to do amazing things! I would really appreciate prayers as my team leaps into this adventure! Some things you can pray for are:
1. That in every situation we would seek to bring God glory first.
2. That our team would be based off of love and unity
3. That we would be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves as we work in this Muslim nation.
4.  That we would find the right ministry to work with and our team would be unified in that decision.
5. That we would base our time there off of seeking God's will for our time there and not our own desires of what we want to do there.
6. That we would be bold and willing to be stretched. Always remembering that we are not doing this for ourselves but for God and the people of Egypt
7. That our photography would give a voice to the voiceless to Egypt

Pure. Simple. Revelation.

Joy. Pure, simple, yet explosive joy. Maybe it was the pure exhaustion of the last two days mixed with a sense of accomplishment of what we had just done, but I think it had more to do with the amazing revelation that had come to us. It was Sunday night around midnight and a group of about ten of us had read the Bible, almost cover to cover in one weekend. (we skipped a few books since it was physically impossible to read it all in a weekend due to time.) It was exhausting but some of the most pure revelation I've ever had. There is an amazing beauty to the story of the Bible. Its so rare that we are able to experience it in its entirety in a short amount of time. So often I feel like the Bible is like a huge painting, usually we are standing so close that we are only seeing a small part of the larger picture. That small picture is beautiful but often we feel like we are missing something. Like this section of the picture just doesn't fit the other sections we've seen.
      Reading the whole Bible is like looking over the whole picture. We remember it so much better, and while we lose a lot of the details, we get a better glimpse of the larger story. So it was at the end of this weekend of reading the Bible that I got such a better glimpse of the grand love story. The Old Testament can look like a book full of wrath and anger, but when we look at the large story we see the love and pursuit of God. We see a Father who so desperately wants to be with His kids and will do anything He can to be with them. You see a story full of the creation rejecting the Creator, of God coming to man and saying "Even though you turn away from me, even though you reject me and destroy my creation, I am here. If you turn to me I will save you." It's the story of faithfulness.
     Old Testament laws make so much more sense when you come at the perspective of a loving father looking out for His children. God telling His children to wipe out nations makes so much more sense when you see what happens when they don't. The teachings of the New Testament make so much more sense when you see the relation between them and the Old Testament. It was an awesome experience. It's not often that you get done with spending a weekend full of reading a book and want to do it all over again. But when you see the depth of revelation that can be had by seeing the Bible in its entirety you can't help but want more. You can't help but want more revelation.
   

More than the Experience...

     Am I living for the experience of life or for the purpose of life? It's a question that will ultimately determine the focus of our lives. Are we willing to give up the desires and the feelings--the experiences, to live for something that is so much more glorious and important than the present moment?
 
   Looking back on my life I am sorry to see how many times I was focused on having the experience of something instead of having a purpose for having that experience. Much to my dismay I see that so often my relationship with God is based off of this experience mentality. I worship God because I want the experience of His presence, not because He deserves every ounce of praise I can give Him. I go on a mission trip for the experience of a new culture and the stories I'll have to tell.

What a horrible and empty way to live.

Experiences won't satisfy.

    They only leave us void and under the illusion that the next one will give us the "high" we are so desiring. What if we threw off the lie of living for the sake of experience and started living for the purpose of our creation. To glorify God. What if instead of waking up in the morning and thinking What's the best experience I can have today or How can I get the most pleasure out of this day; We woke up and said "ok God, what is Your will for me today."

     Sometime's God's will is for us to do something amazing and exciting, and sometimes it will be the most boring and monotonous thing you could think of, but its for His glory. The best experience we could ever possibly have is the moment where we come into the presence of the living God and He looks at us and says "... 'Well done, good and faithful servant!..." (Matthew 25:23)That is what I want to work towards. 


     It's not wrong to do cool stuff but if thats all we are focused on how are we bringing glory to God? Maybe the only purpose of the experience is to witness the beauty of God's creation, so when we see it lets make sure we praise Him for it. Maybe it's to hang out with friends, then lets make sure we uplift and encourage those friends. 


     In everything may we live with purpose and love. May love be the experience of our lives. Love with purpose, love with passion, love with action. Corinthians 13:4-7 talks about what love is:  Love is patient,  love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,  it is not easily angered,  it keeps no record of wrongs.  6 Love does not delight in evil  but rejoices with the truth.  7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  


That is a list of actions, a list that requires work and purpose. You don't just experience protection, you have to have a purpose to protect. You don't just have an experience of trust, you to have a reason to trust. My challenge, to live a life that is full of loving purpose. Love God, Love Others, Love Yourself. 

Drinking from a fire hose...

     What do you do when so much of what you believe is shattered, not once, but repeatedly? How do you process radical change when it happens every single week? Sometimes it feels like I have one great revelation of who God is and I don't even have time to truly realize that revelation because He hits me with another one. It's awesome and insane at the same time. DTS has been amazing, period. Like anything in life its been challenging at times but so incredibly worth it! My school leader likes to use the analogy of drinking from a fire hose. You receive so much information it's impossible to swallow it all. Thats partly why I haven't blogged much, for me blogging is like trying to spit some of that water out while still sucking on the fire hose.
     So instead of going into too many details about all my amazing experiences (its too many to go into in one blog.) I figured I would give a rundown of my average day here in YWAM Kona. Here we go:

6:20: I wake up and sleepily try to avoid tripping over my Tahitian roommate who chooses to sleep on the floor instead of his bed. I'm usually the first one up in my room which means I always get the shower first, a nice privilege in a room with seven guys. My roommates are awesome and I've loved the community we have in our room. It's a crazy group and although the smell can get bad at times (thankfully I have a bed by the window so its not too bad!) we truly do love each other and it makes living in the same room a lot easier.

7:00: I grab a breakfast of yogurt mixed with granola, an awesome combination that I eat every day. I spend the hour before class with God eating breakfast and reading my Bible. I also always grab a cup of milk at breakfast for my mid-morning coffee I always make. (yes my parents have rubbed off on me)

8:00: On Monday mornings we have worship at Ohana court (the main campus meeting area), on Tuesdays and Thursday we have prayer/intercession in the prayer room, and on Wednesday and Friday we start class at eight.

9:00: Class starts, every week we have a new speaker and topic. So far we have had:

• Week 1-The mission of PhotogenX and hearing God's voice
• Week 2-Freedom 
• Week 3--Corporate week (all the DTS's on Base met for teaching by Loren and Darlene Cunningham on knowing God)-we also had a weekend session on restoration and healing
• Week 4-Holy Spirit
• Week 5-The Father heart of God
• Week 6-Revival and Reformation
• Week 7- Biblical Worldview

12:00: Lunch, nothing too exciting here, usually spend it trying to recover from my mind being blown away during the morning lecture.

1:15: Media training. This consists of us learning practical tools and techniques in Photography and journalism. This has been a really amazing part of my time here and I really feel like I have learned a lot.

3:00: Work duty. In YWAM everyone pitches in too help out on the campus. This helps keep the cost of coming to school here lower since everyone helps do the work. For the last month and a half my work duty has been transcribing old videos from YWAM before but this past week I've been able to help build the first set for a new film by David Cunningham called Day of War. It's been really awesome and the set is this amazing maze thing made out of twisted pieces of wood. Really cool!

5:00: Supper. Once again not too exciting. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the food here isn't too bad and I've liked almost all the meals. The best part is they have PB&J's at every meal so if the worst comes to worst there is always something.

     The evenings vary, on Monday nights we have whats called Ministry Night, basically a time of worship and prayer. On Thursday nights the whole base comes together for basically a big church service. This is usually a lot of fun and features people from all over the world coming to speak or perform. This past week we had an actor from Broadway come and act out the book of Luke word for word. It was probably one of the most awesome things I've ever seen, it really made the Bible come to life.
Weekends are free and sometimes our school does trips around the island which is amazing!

     I love my life here, the community is amazing, the island is beautiful, and God is radically changing me and showing me more of who He is. I hope to blog more in the near future about more of what I've been learning and experiencing but hopefully this gives you a taste of what my life is like here.

    Oh, and I guess I should give a quick update on outreach. My team and I are going to Cairo, Egypt. We are leaving on July 1, and will arrive in Cairo on July 4th. (yeah its a long flight). As of now we are not sure what ministry we will be working with in Cairo but there are a lot of different options. My teams amazing and I can't wait to spend two and half months spreading Jesus's love with them! Hopefully I'll have more information in the near future!
   

A long awaited newsletter...

The breeze blows through my hair as the truck chugs down the familiar highway. I could get use to this I think as I enjoy the luxury of riding in the back of a pick-up-something that’s illegal back in my home of Lancaster PA. The road follows the glistening coastline as I chat casually with Andrew and Sarah, two fellow YWAMers. Today we are going to a Children’s beach to try out some snorkeling. The sparkling waters of the Pacific offer a more inviting prospect of swimming than the dirty waters of NJ’s Beach’s at home. This is living, I smile quietly to myself.
    It’s 3:00 am, I tiredly pace the floor that has become so familiar in the last nine hours. This is for you God, this is my sacrifice. I declare for what feels like the  hundredth time, sometimes I think more to remind myself than to tell God. I’ve been in the prayer room for nine hours, and it’s been intense. Following a week of incredible, yet exhausting teachings on the Holy Spirit, the YWAM base is holding a twelve hour burn. Twelve hours of worship and prayer, from 6pm until 6am, and after nine hours I’m completely exhausted. My quite declaration is about all I can muster as I pace the floor once more trying to stay awake. This is why I am here, to radically pursue the heart of God. So I keep pacing, as I look around the room I am met with tired faces as some struggle to keep their eyes open as they read and others lie exhausted on the floor.
   As I walk out of the room to use the bathroom I suddenly realize that my mouth has the horrible taste of stale coffee. yuck I think, almost too tired to care, but suddenly unable to think of anything else. Suddenly my eyes catches a vending machine with Skittles. dude, Skittles would be awesome right now. I think, but I soon realize that the only money I have is money I need to pay back a roommate I borrowed from earlier in the day. As I walk back to the prayer a thought strikes me, buy the Skittles. I quickly try to remind myself that I don’t in fact have the money. I’m giving them too you. Suddenly I realize it’s not me who is saying this, really God? you want to give me Skittles at three in the morning? I ask back. Yes, this is my gift to you for pursuing me tonight. He replies. But God, I don’t have the money. I respond. I’m giving them to you. He says simply. Alright, I think, I wonder how this is gonna work, I can’t imagine God would want me to use the money that I need to give someone else. I reach in my pocket and pull out the money, to my amazement not only do I have the money for the friend I owe, but I also find four quarters. I had only gotten change back once this week, and that had been only a few cents. I have no idea where the four quarters came from. In fact, I had been looking for quarters a few days earlier and hadn’t been able to find any. It was such a simple thing, a pack of Skittles to cover up a bad taste in my mouth, but I was once again reminded of God being like a loving Father. A father who doesn’t just give us the things we need, but loves to dote on us and even gives us the things we want at times. As I sat there and ate my bag of Skittles, I got to watch one of the most beautiful moons rest over the ocean and simply enjoy the presence of God.  
    It’s moments like that that have made my DTS so amazing so far. It’s been amazing to be in such an incredible place like Hawaii, but what God has done in me and through me has been even more incredible. Since being here I’ve seen healings (not the, I have a cold and it feels better now, the kind where people’s feet grow out and pain that has haunted them for years is suddenly gone), I’ve seen hunger for God like nothing I’ve ever seen before, I’ve watched as a room full of people get the same word from God for someone, and people step out be who God created them to be--something that is rare in my generation. God Is here, He’s moving, and I get to be apart of it. You as my supporters and friends are also part of the amazing things that God is doing and the blessings He has given me. So thank you once again! I know God is going to bless you for your generosity, and the fruits of it are coming out now! God has grown me more in the last four weeks than in the last four years. Calling me into the man He created me to be. It’s been the most life changing experience I have ever had. It’s been tough, some days I feel like I haven’t changed at all, but then I look at what I have done, the things I’ve said, and the new found confidence I have found, and I know I have. God has worked during this time in ways I never thought possible, and the best part is, this is only week four! I still have two more months until outreach!
    Outreach is going to be crazy exciting as well! My team of 7 (six students and one staff), will be heading to Cairo Egypt to start off. At this point not much is known about what all we will be doing but I know God has amazing plans and He has blessed me with an incredible outreach team.
I love you all and pray you are doing well! I apologize for not getting a letter out sooner but life has been insane here (in an awesome way)!
Blessings,
David Barnett

Living in Paradise...

So once in awhile God decides to bless someone in an amazing way. For me, He decided to send me to the beautiful island of Kona, Hawaii. I've been here for a little over 2 days and its amazing to see how God has moved. I got here and instantly fell in love with the laid back Hawaiian culture. For those of you who know me, I'm usually the cold rainy/snowy weather type of guy. So for me to like any place that is incredibly hot and humid, it has to be pretty awesome. But as I got to spend more time at the YWAM Kona base I began to fall in love with this place in another way. The presence of God is so present here. Over the past few months I've felt distant from God. My relationship has been one of just trying to get by. I'm done with that. I'm so happy to be able to close that chapter in my life. After spending only one full day on the base I feel so much closer to God and so much more alive. This place isn't just a beautiful tropical Island. It's a  spiritual haven. A place where people can come and really spend time focused on God. A place where we can forget the worries and troubles that we so foolishly hang onto and simply cling to God. I know it probably seems easy to do that in a place like Hawaii. But to be honest I think the reason I feel God is so close, and the reason I'm able to let go of all those things I've been holding onto, is simply because the people here know what it means to love God and each other. They know how to live in community. They are able to reflect God's love and make this place a safe and secure place to grow in faith. I know that life here is going to be far from perfect. I still have a long way to go, but I also know that God has brought me here to spend time with Him and really learn to love Him. I've never felt so full of purpose and so hopeful of the future as I am right now. God is working here and I get to be apart of it. Yeah, its pretty fantastic

View from my bed, yeah I've had worse views to wake up to. (Its cloudy now but normally its got a sick view of the ocean.) 

Blessed by the Impossible

     As I pulled apart yet another air conditioning unit, my mind struggled to grasp how I was going to make it through another month before my DTS. The basements dark and smelly presence did not help my attitude. Is this really what I'm supposed to be doing God? I had planned and worked for the past two months and while I felt God was with me, I wasn't seeing much action. My bank account continued to increase at a snails pace and as I watched gas prices climb, my outlook on life was in danger of free falling. But as I tore away at the AC unit in frustration a phrase God often spoke in my times of frustration continued to run through my mind. Just do the possible, and I'll take of the rest. 

      

     The possible, it was all I could do, and believe me it was quite enough of a challenge. My life seemed like an endless cycle of working, sleeping, and eating. Sometimes changing slightly but not enough to make me feel like I was "breaking up" the routine. It was in these moments that I began to feel God challenge me. A challenge to go deeper. To stop trusting in the worlds version of sense, and to say, "alright God, you said you would provide, and I know you will".  

  

     So slowly as the month wore on I began to give, little by little, my worrying about finances to God. In the end, reason was actually one of the things that made my mind up for me. Either God was going to provide or He wasn't. I couldn't change my situation. And I felt such a strong sense that this school was where I was suppose to be. So March went on, and people began to give, it started out small, a few people giving. But as I look back I can see how God's hand was in the amounts people gave. He was building trust. Slowly I handed the situation over to Him. By the end of March I was resigned to the fact that God was going to be building my faith during my DTS by giving me only part of the money I needed. But the awesome thing is, I was totally at peace about that. I felt confident that God knew what He was doing and that He had a plan.

     Fast forward to 36 hours ago. I was flying pretty high. God had provided 4500 dollars! Only 1500 under what my school said the maximum amount I would need for outreach! I had done the possible, and God had filled in the rest. What I didn't know was God was far from done, in fact He decided He hadn't done enough impossible yet. So in 24 hours I received 1300 dollars.  

     To some that may not sound like impossible, but to me it was. To me it was God saying, well done, you did what I asked, you did the possible now you get to watch me do the impossible. It was the final boost I needed to know that God was saying, GO! I've never felt so blessed. Blessed at the enormous generosity of the people God has placed in my life, and blessed by the incredible journey He has taken me on through these last few months. I wouldn't trade those long hour days, when I felt like life couldn't get more dull and uninspiring, for anything. It was in those days that I truly learned relying on God means sacrificing relying on ourselves. It means saying I'm not strong enough to do this, but you are God. So thank you God! and Thank you to everyone who has prayed and supported me. I couldn't have done this without all the amazing friends and family God has placed in my life. You guys are awesome! Thank You!