This week has been crazy, every evening we have been busy turning our typical 10 hour days into 12-15 hour days. Our speaker this week spoke my intellectual love language. Dry humor, very lacking in expression, just his voice going louder and softer. The topic this week was Biblical World View. We discussed topics such as dinosaurs and other giant animals, giants, Noah and the flood, the exodus from Egypt, aliens, atmospheric pressure and the end times. Every topic was presented as a lovely cake: the cake itself being historical facts and accounts, then covered with the frosting of Biblical accounts, then sprinkled with extreme sarcasm all forming the exact food needed to satisfy my appetite.
I struggled at the beginning of the week understanding the importance of the information. Why do I need to know about the Nephilum or about alien abductions in the religious view points? Who cares about matching science with the Bible when discussing the flood and extinction of everything big? Probably not orphan children in Nepal who are hungry. But of course I need to know this. These are the arguments of people yet to be believers. They will pick out parts of the Bible or parts of science and history and demand an explanation. Where there is obvious proof of something, for example fossils or palm trees found frozen in the Arctic, there must be an explanation. It was very exciting for me to have a speaker take the "secular" and turn it into the religious. There is no such thing as a secular-spiritual divide, and God is continuing to make that very clear to me. Science is nothing without the Creator of the world. Evolution is not possible without the Creator of the world. My life is nothing without the Creator of the world.
Wednesday evening we had a free prayer outreach. We went to Fremont, a downtown area, the so called family friendly version of the Strip, there is no such thing however. A guy dressed as Elvis approached me while I was holding the 'Free Prayer' sign. He told me right away that he was an atheist and asked me what I was doing. I told him we were praying and asked him if I could pray for him. He said, "Sure. It wont do me any good because there is no one out there, but if you want to." Let's get this straight, an atheist approached me and allowed me to pray for him even though "there is no one out there". It was such a neat, encouraging and joy filling situation. His eyes had a twinkling in them, saying much different things than his words.
Other highlights:
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| My amazing YWAM family. Just cause we live in the hood, don't mean we can't look good! |
- Monday night there was praise and worship night led by some amazing people from a church here in Vegas called Grace City. These people are highly invested in YWAM because they believe in championing young visionary missionaries. It was about two hours of music just sitting in the presence of the Lord.
- Tuesday evening we watched the Daniel Project. It is about the fulfillment of prophecy in today times. Did you know Jesus fulfilled 360 Old Testament prophecies just in the last 6 days of His ministry? Unfortunately I napped through 3/4 of the movie. The 1/4 I did see, however, was very good!
- Friday night I rocked a two and half year old for about 45 minutes during a babysitting outreach to a foster care family. So good to cuddle!
- Friday night was also karaoke night followed by a midnight o'clock Denny's trip. Lots of sugar, little sleep, and very early morning hours all combined for a priceless ab work out from lots of laughing!
- Saturday morning the speaker gave me a ride on his sports motorcycle. First time on a motorcycle, and it was way fun.
- Saturday evening we, as a YWAM family, went out on the town all fancied up to the cheesecake factory. We had a two hour wait that allowed for some adventuring on the strip and through Caesar's Palace. There was also lightening!!
- This afternoon I got to Skype with my family minus Isaac :(
- This afternoon me and another of my YWAM sisters, Hannah, were adventuring in the arts district of Fremont called Container Park. We walked past this salon called Doll House, and they offered to do our hair for free. I left with a very fancy braided up do and a lifted heart. I felt like a princess, like a very special grown woman. I have never had my hair professionally done before.
God is doing so much work at transforming lives here in the city. I am falling in love with the 50 shades of brown that surround me. The ghetto does not scare me, but is my home. My home is on the corner of F and Washington, passed by by prostitutes, drug dealers, school children and working adults every day. I love my Daddy, my Abba, who brought me here. He has an amazing imagination that is beautiful when it comes to life!
With much love, peace and grattitude,
Livia Pezley
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