The end of one leads to the beginning of another

December 15th, 2009 I officially graduated from the very first year of Ignite. I have gone through two difficult, challenging, growing, scholastically challenging semesters. This was the night that ended it all, but also put into motion the next step in my life, transferring into another school. I had originally had set a solid plan for the next 3 years of my life; I was going to go home and work full time somewhere while working on full time Distance Learning courses through Life Pacific College. From there I would transfer stores (from wherever I was working) and begin Life Pacific College- living on campus. But once again I should have learned from past experiences to have an open mind and a sense of adventure. The director of Ignite, Mike Larkin while taking a photo with me and his wife Roxanne whispered in my ear, "I need to tell you something when this photo is done." I told him okay, and when the photo was done Mike and Roxanne turned and looked at me, Mike began to tell me that he wished I would change my mind about starting in the Fall and start in the Spring, a month away. He said that he already talked to my parents, and that I needed to sit them down and have an adult conversation with them about coming in the Spring. I promised that I would, and that I'd let him know the decision soon. Two days later (Thursday 17th) my mom called and woke me up and asked me if money wasn't an issue would I go to LIFE in the spring. I told her oh heck yes, no doubt in my mind that'd be the first thing I would do. She said, okay, now I need you to contact the admissions people and see about getting stuff done to get you there. So I contacted them as well as Mike & Kristin and got emails back with instructions as to what I needed to do; the deadline: Friday 18th at 12pm. Great, I had til noon the next day to get transcripts, write an essay, fill out all the dorm forms, applications and such. I had written my essay and filled out the application and emailed it to Admissions, and got emails back saying theres more to do. So with the help of the head of Admissions I got unofficial transcripts sent in, dorm application and the money all sent in, the last thing I had to do was the placement essay and Bible knowledge test. I got everything done, all by noon Friday 18th. Several hours later I got an email from the head of Admissions with a list of my classes. :]

So for right now I'm on a new course, (again...) and it is leading me to LIFE in January with 12 units. My biggest concern right now (prayer point) is money, paying for everything. I am going to be looking for a job so that I can work during school, and my concern right now is how I'm going to get to work when I do get a job, because I have no car and there is no bus around school and everything is a mile or more away from campus making it difficult to get there especially if and when there is a change in the weather (rain). So please be praying that if I find a job, that I'd get transportation and that I'd be able to have a schedule that is flexible for my school schedule and that I'd be able to balance school,work and church.

Thanks for reading! I'm excited to be starting on this new part of my life

Hey everyone! So i leave for spain in the morning at 520! I wont be able to do email or updates via phone so when i have a computer with internet ill update you with pictures and video if possible. If you want an email sent to you, leave a comment on this post with your email and i will email you the updates:) thanks for your prayers! See you in july!

Ethnographic Project

Hey again for the third/ fourth time in a day hahahaha most i've written to you in quite some time huh ? haha well here's the last thing i am writing for today (or the moment ;) )
this is my ethnographic paper for my class with Mike Larkin. enjoy :] again

This semester I have been privileged to be involved once with Adopt-a-Block from the Dream Center. We took the bus to Crenshaw Boulevard and split into three groups; one who passed out food on the sidewalk, one who took kids to the park and played with them, and one that went to each apartment complex (that allowed us) and passed out flyers which is the group I was involved in. At first it was very difficult for me to go up to strangers homes and tell them about a ministry that I’m not involved in and pray they respond to me, but it got easier as the time went on. I believe that day we hit around 150 doors, which is about four or five apartment buildings. That is a lot for me, but for those who went there weekly, it meant more because at that time they were having difficulty getting enough volunteers so when our group showed up to help they were very thankful. It was an uplifting point for me because I didn’t know that they were low on volunteers and that they were praying for volunteers, and that we were an answer to their prayers.

We finished early because of how many of us there were so we decided as a group to go to this newly remodeled apartment complex the next street over and see if there were any people there. So we took some candy bars and flyers and headed over there and found a few people living there. We were able to talk with one family who was Muslim about coming to Angeles Temple and they were enthusiastic about it which was really encouraging because while we were on the other street, we didn’t get any real response from people and this was the first positive response that we got. It surprised me even more because I didn’t expect to be getting a response from anyone because no one answered the door at first but then they answered the door and we gave the candy bars we had to her and her kids. The look on the woman’s face when we gave the kids candy bars was one that was really touching because she had this amazed look on her face about what we just did and then continued talking with us and agreed to come to Angeles Temple the next day. Even though I will never know if she and her family did end up going I know that we touched their lives in a way that prayerfully will never be forgotten.

A unique aspect of the Adopt-a-Block ministry is the intense way in which they drive themselves to meet the needs of the community. They meet you face-to-face and see what it is you really need. Not just what you want because someone is asking, but what you really need because you can’t live without it. The Dream Center’s thing is that they are trying to get you to find God in all of it life, no matter what their history or background is no matter who you are, where you are from, what you have done they want to accept you into God ‘s family. The fact that they do it every week no matter the weather or economy is amazing to me, which shows me how serious they are about building relationships with the people. I was very blessed to have been able to reach a people I didn’t know, with different religions, lifestyles and cultures than I have experienced. One thing that hit me was when you accept their children you are essentially accepting them and their faults and short comings. Its something I saw in several of the families that were visited. When you know their kids by name and give them something they might not be able to do that brings joy to the kids, it brings joy to the families which in turn brings joy to you because you have just began to provide for someone’s needs other than your own. And that for me is the ultimate reward for serving a people other than those that I am used to being around.

Life Mission [Revisited]

So heres some more of my papers....hahaha probably boring to some but to others it could be insight into whats going on here :]
so here now is a 'paragraph' on what my life mission is: once again enjoy :]


At this point in the semester I believe that my life mission is to serve God in everything I do, from serving with kids at church, to handing out flyers in Crenshaw Boulevard to feeding seniors at Senior Love and pulling weeds in the rain at the Mobil Home Outreach. Other than serving in those ways, I have never been able to have a definite plan for my life, I have tried and tried (mostly to get my way) to find out what it is I’m supposed to be doing with my life but it is constantly changing. In the beginning I have gone from wanting to be a future Ignite leader, to helping plant other Ignites’ in other places to planting a church in Vermont and being a missionary in Spain, Norway and Angola. The most current idea that has been the most prominent and has been confirmed the most amount of times is something that came out of a project given to my quad by Mike Larkin. As of this moment my life mission is to finish Ignite, complete the rest of my college years at Life Pacific College and then move to Atlanta, Georgia and begin a non-profit organization called Doors of Love. It would be for teenage girls who are pregnant and are in a difficult situation where they are either homeless or something to that extreme and we would help them get a job, education and housing as well as the knowledge they need to begin to raise their child(ren) as well as gain healthy relationships. So that’s what I see as my life mission, as one that cannot be pinned down especially when I’m the one that is trying to say whats what. So I’m learning to just go with the flow, one day at a time, leaving my hands, heart and mind open to the things which God has for me.

Ministry Paper

Hey there everyone! sorry its taken me a while to update you on everything, its been crazy trying to get multiple papers done every week and then be able to digest everything and write it out to you in an understandable format. so i guess the closest thing for me to do is to show you some of the stuff i've been working on...so here is one of my many papers due this coming week: its our debrief on this semster serving at our church Sunday mornings... enjoy :]


For the past few months of this spring semester at Ignite I have been a in the C.I.A. which unlike the name it stands for Children In Action; just like in the CIA the kids are to be active, but in a different way they are to be active in their walk with Christ. I was a teacher’s assistant in the first and second grade Sunday school class at Lighthouse Garvanza. Every Sunday I would assist the teachers in getting the snacks ready, taking all the supplies for the classroom over to a building across the street and then set up our classroom with tables and chairs. Once the class started I would assist the teachers with the curriculum as well as helping the kids with their crafts and workbooks. Then when class is finished I would help put away the tables and chairs away as well as the craft supplies, workbooks and the containers we used for snack.

The two gifts that I was able to use during this time were serving and administration. I was able to use my gift of serving while I was helping teach the kids, while I was setting up the classroom, making the snacks, and helping setup and create the crafts and the games. I was able to use administration while I was helping organize crafts and games.

One of the things that God spoke to me about during this semester at Lighthouse was that not every church does church the same way as I am used to. I have been given the chance of seeing how people run services and how they work with their children’s ministry. It made it an even better opportunity because I was able to be in the midst of it more than once so I was able to get a pretty good look at how they structured everything. There were times where God was also teaching me was patience, because not only was this a new church, but the person in charge of C.I.A. was also new so he was beginning to setup the infrastructure of the entire program. There were times where we gave input and times where all we were able to do was just follow instructions given. During my time at Lighthouse God also spoke to me through the lives of the kids I helped teach. They were each very different in the way they were brought up, some were raised by a single parent or both, and one of the kids was in the foster care system so he was unable to be there every week. It was also hard because there didn’t seem to be any continuity between teachers and discipline because each set of teachers had a different view of how the discipline should be so. In all of this I have learned how to be flexible and patient and I am learning how to deal with each new system people have setup for their program.
In this internship I have interacted with the people the best I know how to, I have tried to learn all their names which is harder than I thought especially because I only got to see each person once a week. I have tried my best to get to know everyone that went to that church what God has done in their life. During the duration of this internship there were many people who extended such amazing hospitality even from the first week till the last week. They invited us to their homes for holidays, dinners, and weekends for real homemade Mexican BBQ’s and pool parties in the summer; and that was only in the first Sunday there! Recently we were told that if once we were done with our internship at the church and still went to the church he would take us out to lunch! I have been beyond blessed by this church, I have been to the pastor’s house for a BBQ, the pastors have taken all of us to lunch and invited us to their house for lunch on Easter. These people have the biggest hearts and such a gift for hospitality that its no wonder I felt welcome ever since I walked in those doors that first Sunday.

I learned that the way I’m used to something being done isn’t the only way that something can be accomplished, that others have a way to do something and its sometimes works better than the way that I am used to. So I have learned to be open with new ideas which is sometimes a hard area for me to grow in, but the good thing is, is that I am growing in being open to new ideas. I was also able during this time to give my past experiences and ideas for games and such as well as learning new games and such to remember for my home church. My view of ministry hasn’t changed; it has only grown bigger in knowledge as well as in experience. Again, I have learned that my way is not the only way nor is it always the right way to do something.
I believe that I did well in the area that I was serving in considering that every week there were between two and eight kids with two teachers and two helpers. I felt that that there were too many teachers per kids just because of space and what we exactly did but it was not the way I’m used to things being done but that’s what is so good about getting different points of view in ministry. There were days that I had a really hard time with the fact that I had nothing to do because of how small of a class there was with four teachers but that’s how the process of figuring out what to do with the amount of people has to deal with.

Outreaches & Updates

hey everyone sorry that i haven't updated you in a while, so heres the updates :)
Mission Trip Information:
they are buying plane tickets for all of us (who have the plane ticket money) on monday/ tuesday of this upcoming week; i have my plane ticket money, its estimated for about $700- $800 but the only part i have left that i need still before i leave is about $250. That would be covering the rest of my trip from food, transportation, field of minisry school fees (madrid, spain) as well as lodging. The total cost of the trip has been estimated at $3500, and as you can tell i have almost all of it; and that is only because God has so graciously given me a church family who loves and supports me (and Ignite) so much that they chose to bless me with the amount i have. Its mind blowing at times to see how much i have, at first i didn't realize that i had that much but once i found out i was beyond esctatic that i had that much. The only thing is, now that all of that money from the scholarship (church) is going toward my mission trip, i still have to raise money for this winter's trip during my second semester at Ignite. I have not gotten the exact amount of that yet but i know that i currently have none of it, for the mission trip or for the actual school aspect of it. So if you are reading this and God has placed on your heart to bless me in this journey that God is taking me on you can send money to:
Elizabeth Ricketts M-31
1100 W Covina Blvd
San Dimas, CA
91773
***you can write checks out to Ignite, but for IRS purposes please do not put my name anywhere on the check, thank you.***

Current Future Plans
At this point in my life I will be going to Ignite for the second semester, and then transferring straight into Life Pacific College for the remainder of the 4 years. I am not sure yet what i will be majoring in, but i believe i might major in Cross Cultural Studies (ie. missions). After that i am not sure what i am going to do but i can see myself studying abroad maybe in Norway, Spain, or Morocco, but i have no idea what God has in store for me so its all just up to Him to let me know. After that point i am not sure what i would be doing but i will share with you a pretty awesome thing that happened to me that might indicate what i will be doing sometime down the road, if its in God's plans for my life. So here it goes: The last Sunday that the Hattem's were in SB, CA (well at least pastoring) i was somehow talking with my mom as well as Pastor Jim Scott and we got on the subject of how Vermont has only one foursquare church and that there was something with 30% of VT thinking something negative about church or christianity but i honestly don't remember... But anyways, so he looks right at me points his finger in my face and says, "you will plant a church in Vermont. go tell Mike Larkin to get a team together and prepare you." and that was it. so i took it to heart and wrote it down on my hand and after service i went back up to him and showed him, he grabbed his wife, Melinda Scott and they prayed for me. I then showed Mike later that night back at school and told him the story and he told me that he will get me ready if i am willing and i said yes and he said okay we'll get you ready. so thats my story and so i don't know what God's plans for my life are now because its always changing so my current plan is just this: Live each day waiting for what God says and just go with the flow of what he is saying. that could mean that i could be a missionary somewhere as well as plant church(es) in vermont...who knows...well actually, God knows, so its all good.
Outreaches
Tonight (April 10) around 26 of the Ignite students went to something called The Oasis, in Hollywood. Its basically a place where inner city kids go on friday nights from 7-11 pm and hang out (listen to music, dance, play video games, air hockey, basketball, football...) theres a snack bar where you can buy sodas, chips, cookies, and candy... and then for about an hour theres someone who speaks (sometimes a testimony-like tonight a testimony from a woman who was a former gang member with an amazing story) and then they hang out more then its done. Its a lot of gang members, wanna be gang members, inner city kids, homeless kids, and more who go there, so its sometimes hard to get into conversations with them but when you do its great. I got to talk a little with some people who were just talking about relationships and then another girl we talked about ear/ facial piercings to find a common ground (which is always helpful). its hard but its fun once you get talking with them.

Spring Break!

So tomorow (saturday march 7th) i leave for santa barbara for spring break!!!
so exciting, just finished packing everything for the week... :]
i'll be home from the 7th through the 16th and then i'll be coming back the 22nd for the day and the 28th-29th for the installation and the goodbyes...so happy sad times but i'll be there!!
see you soon!!

How to Hear God- VisionS from the Lord

So there is this class (optional) on tuesday nights after dinner for an hour. it was my first time tonight and it was amazing. At first i didn't want to go, but i am sooo glad that i did. if you have ever wondered how to hear God then just be in total silence for 15 minutes and then pray for 30 minutes, thats what i did, its different though for some.
To guide our time the leader gave us 2 questions: "who have You (God) created me to be?" and "How can i become more like Christ?" And it took a while but then the Lord gave me this vision
I saw like a stadium packed, like a baseball field with people in every seat and covering the field, so much so that there was barely standing room. All of the sudden one person stand, raise their hands (like in victory) as if they are releasing chains (bondage). Then all of them stand and there are chains on their hands and each and everyone of them stand and the chains break and fall to the floor.
Then a little while later i was wondering who that first person was, and the Lord told me that it was me. and that "Their bondage will break just like yours will" in those exact words. I began to cry because it was the first time that i had heard the voice of God that clear; it was mind-blowing. Then when i was asking, who have You created me to be He said, "I (me) will be a powerful woman of God"... it was amazing, again he spoke to me with such clarity.

Since Tuesday night i have had 5 images/ visions...the first was the one above, then there was one of a man standing in a boat casting a line (fishing) out of a tiny boat and everytime he throws the line out he comes out with a fish, but the fish looks like a person. There are mounds of them (fish) in this tiny boat...Then i felt like the 'fish' were being given a second chance to redeem the missed opportunities by being taken out of the ocean (current situation).

Then the next was, i saw from someone's perspective standing facing a wall there were some missing pieces of it and they desperately wanted to be through the wall to the other side. through the missing pieces i could see a worn path with grass and a full tree with shade. then the person began to take one piece off the wall and it fell completely down and then it ended. i didn't get to see whether the person walked over the pieces to the tree or not, but it was like bondage being broken down and then freedom was at the tree but you still had to walk the path to the tree.

Monday (February 16, 2009) I saw a picture of what bondage looks like. It was a person standing and overtime b/c of actions/ lifestyle a weed very slowly attached itself to the person starting at the toes and moving up until eventually the person couldn't move. The only thing was it that they couldn't remember when it began so they didn't know how to stop it. When they were eventually cut off from the bondage it was the weed at their feet that was cut from the root and eventually the weed was dead and it fell off the person but it wasn't immediately. and the root was still there able to re-attach itself, so the person had the choice to walk away or to stay and allow it to come back , unless they allow God to yank out the root and destroy it to the source.

Right after that one i saw another. it looked like a sign that my quad has on our door, but in the vision i couldn't see what it said but i know it is important. It was a sign with words and overtime somehow someone used whiteout and did it over the words, but at such a slow pace the people didn't see the change even though they saw it everyday. And then one day once the sign was completely white, someone walked up and wondered what happened to the sign...This is how bondage is if you don't pay attention.

Drum Roll Please.........

alrighty. here i go. i'm about to tell you where i am going on my mission trip.



spain & morocco


how awesome is that?
so some tidbits of information about spain & morocco:
**Spain**
-> we will be staying in World Base
-> we will be learning about the Muslim culture for when we go to Morocco
-> we will be helping out with events and such at World Base, i.e. passing out Bibles and such

**Morocco**
-> we will be staying with muslim families in their homes
-> going to mosques
-> girls must have their heads covered
-> morocco is 99.8% muslim and .2% christian (catholic) so it will be more than difficult to spread the gospel
-> praying is just about the only thing we will be able to do

so basically please pray that we will be able to communicate the Gospel to others and that our faith in God will not be shaken (Islam/Muslim religion i have hear is scary close to Christianity in the truths but is missing stuff but people don't know that) and that when we are questioned where ever we are that God would meet us there and give us the words we need to be able to express why we follow Christ.

thank you
elizabeth

Foursquare Executive Council Summit

So Tuesday, January 27 Ignite was invited to a very exclusive meeting for the leaders of Foursquare. They were pastors, district supervisors and tops leaders. And they invited us, a brand new program of college students to join their meetings for the day! It was such an honor to even be considered to join the meetings, and 40 of us went for the day, and they paid for a gray hound bus, and gave us each $25 cash for dinner after it was all done! It was such a blessing, but one of the big things that i learned there was not exactly in the meeting but after. 10 of us went to P.F. Chang's for dinner and when we were just sitting waiting for dinner one of the attendee's, who happens to be a chair on the board of Life Pacific College, from the summit walked over to our table and talked to us for a minute and then said, "i want to bless you guys, so heres something to help pay for your dinner." and then he placed something on the table and walked away. We were shocked enough, but then when we saw what it was we were even more shocked. it was a $100 bill. we all thanked him profusely b/c we didn't realize exactly how much our dinner was going to cost us. it ended up costing us each $7 including the tip. it showed us just how much God provides for us, and this time in such a tangible amazing way.
After we had dinner we split up and 5 went to a movie and 5 went walking, we picked up one more person as the night went on and we went down by the pier and took some pictures. heres a few of them. thanks. enjoy!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

So our quad leader, Lauren was gone on a trip to San Francisco and the day she came back was her birthday. My quad decided it would be an awesome if we threw her a surprise party. We also needed a photo of our whole quad, all 8 of us, so we decided to dress up (crazy) and take photos. Below, are some of them, but the majority are on facebook. When we we threw the party it was just our quad and Lauren was so surprised that when she found us hiding in one of the rooms she screamed and backed into the ironing board that was hanging in the hall! Enjoy!

Here's me and my roommate, Diana

Here's our entire quad (sans Lauren of course)

Ceci, Me and LaQuisha

LaQuisha, me, and LaQuisha's roommate, Eliza

The Beginnings of Church Serving

Friday all of Ignite went over to our director of Ignite (mike larkin) 's house and it was a BBQ like hamburgers and pool and hottub that fits like 20 people and it has lights that changes colors...so much fun and its just well so much fun...but yeah that was friday and then on saturday.....
So Saturday Jan 24th my quad and another quad led by Lauren and Brian finally found out which church we will be serving every Sunday morning from now until we leave for our mission trip. Our church is the Lighthouse Garvanza Foursquare Church in Los Angeles, CA (http://www.thelighthouselovesyou.org). So Saturday we (the two teams- quads) went to the Lighthouse and it was their cleaning day, what they were cleaning was everything. They were re-painting the downstairs (its one large room) and fixing the ceiling tiles and then cleaning and re-organinzing the kitchen which is also downstairs in the large room i think its the youth room. and then upstairs there was vacuuming, pledging all the wood on the pews and cleaning the bathrooms. outside (even though it was raining off and on) they were cleaning and re-organizing the POD cleaning off round tables and chairs and re-stacking them inside... my quad got there around 9:40 while the other quad got there around 7:40. we were there until 3:30 so it was a long day but it was fun because then we got to know a lot of the people in the church.
Sunday morning we go as a group (the two quads) and we serve the local church which for us is the Lighthouse Garvanza and we will be serving them in any way they need from worship team to children's ministry. but this week we sat in service, which was really good too. And then after the pastors invited us and all those college age (to 30) to their house for a big Mexican BBQ.
IT WAS AMAZING the food was soo good there were beans, rice, tortillas, and carnitas that were amazing. we all sat in the living room and watched the basketball game (what is it with pastors and basketball? every pastor's house we've been too they have a b-ball game on) and then we played Shout It Out; its a game on a dvd where they play songs or show lyrics with one missing or piece together album covers and you have to SHOUT who the artist/band is before the other team does. Team #1 (my team) lost :[ but we were winning by a landslide till the last question.... sad sad sad. but it was so much fun and they pastors remind me so much of my pastors in santa barbara (love you guys).
so thats an update of the fun stuff

Quad Life

Hey everyone so last night several of the girls in my quad were really bored so we decided to play around with Photobooth...Here's the result of that boredom .
enjoy.

Dorm Room Life

So if you were wondering what my dorm room looked like...well here it is!!!
theres plenty of food :) parents brought costco to us!

i'm working on the closet space, too many clothes for such a small closet...and on the top shelf is a large box with more food in it! (on the left)
the very nice full desk of lovely stuff....my desk is metal so the notecards are held up by magnets with buttons, shells and such on them :)
heres the view of our room from the other side of the room...my roommate's desk on the right and mine on the left
heres our lovely "living room" complete with two beach chairs, an awesome rug, 2 thrift store curtains, a table and 2 (1 seen) tv trays and an amazing bendy lamp

heres the bunk beds, (my roommate is on the top- you can see a tiny tiny bit of her haha)
another desk shot...
and the amazing fridge and food and fun stuff like that :)
send me your photo and you too can be on my fridge to be seen everyday <3
here's our door...our leaders hand made each room a sign for who's in it...(the sunflower is mine...its a clip attached to the sign) pretty sweet

Bootcamp

Hey everyone,
so today we just got back from our bootcamp in valencia, ca. it was 2 1/2 days of intense obstacles and PUSH-UPS.
THE BEGINNING
we (ignite team) took one of those huge buses and drove to Havenhouse and the moment after we took our stuff off the bus we had to run to this field to get into teams and to meet our drill instructors (DI). once we were put into 4 teams the head DI put the other DI's into the teams and my team, team 1 (T1) got the head DI...we were freaking out. he was the oldest and the scariest looking. so of course we were scared to move or talk. the first thing they told us is, the only way to answer them from now till friday night was "sir no sir" or "sir yes sir". they made us find a rock the size of our fist in 2 minutes and then run to your team and stand one arm length apart. We also were given one piece of rope that symbolized unity. and all the time that we were on the obstacle course we had to (unless otherwise stated) had to hold on to that rope and Jesus (rock) every where we went.
JESUS (rock)
they then had us show them the rock compared to our fist. they checked them and if yours was not the right size they took it and "rewarded" you with a slightly bigger rock (to their discretion). the rock symbolized Jesus. so we had to take Jesus (rock) EVERYWHERE we went. Food, bathroom, obstacle course, bed. EVERYWHERE. and if they saw you without Jesus or if you told them (honesty) or if you dropped it or threw it, they would do two things.
1. reward the ENTIRE group of us (44)
2. find you a bigger Jesus (rock)
so obviously you wouldn't want that. i however among several people had at first gotten the wrong size rock so that time since it was the first time we just got bigger rocks.
OBSTACLE COURSE
There were 10 obstacles courses that we had to complete 3 times. once on thursday and twice on friday. The obstacles were:
"electric fence": this was the second hardest if not the hardest of all. we had two people on our team injured because of this obstacle. one had jumped off wrong and severly sprained her ankle and another climbed the pole and jumped but slipped and fell 6 feet to the ground hard, unable to breath for a minute with back and head pains. So it was two poles that had an orange net strung across it, the net was an "electric fence" that you couldn't touch and if you did you had to start completely over (the whole team). The two poles that held it up you could use and it had severl medium size screws to put a foot on but it was very very hard to stay on them. and so some of the guys would climb the pole and then jump to the other side and then those on the side not gone yet would "crowd surf" the others by lifting them completely up and over the fence.
Monkey bars: a set of monkey bars to cross them you had to go OVER the bars. (but the bars were loose so couldn't hang on them.) and it was far from the ground, over 6 feet high. we had someone on their knees so we could stand on their back and then someone right next to them so we could get a foot up on the next person so we could stand on their shoulders. then you had to figure out how to get your knees on the wood bars on one side and hands on the other than crawl side-ways to the other side then onto someones shoulders and then down.
trust fall: stand on the side of a hill 5-6 feet high then with the group right below they'd lock arms and then you'd cross your arms, arch your back and head then fall. it was about a 3-4 foot fall, scary but you had to trust your team.
team jump rope: one really long rope where two people would turn the rope and the rest of the team would be ready to jump as one. there was about 11 of us in this rope plus 2 turners for a total of 13 people per team. our team got 17 good jumps in. i think it might have been the record of all groups. fun stuff there :]
barrel jump: there were 3 large black barrels, 2 were about 4 feet high and 1 was about 3 1/2 feet high. you had to figure out (as a team) how to get each person in each barrel (separately) and the out and through all three in sequential order (1, 2, 3) and it was hard because they weren't that wide.
forest walk: a group of trees that had minor hills and some rope tied about 1-2 feet high around some trees to make us go over them. for this course we had to hold onto the rope and Jesus (rock) through the whole exercise. its harder than you'd think b/c of how narrow the path was and all that was in our foot path.
uphill carrying: this was possibly the hardest one of all b/c we had to walk (rope & Jesus-rock) to this one up minor hills, through trees, past broken bottles, through narrow pathways to get to this hill. the rule was, each person must be carried up this hill to a specific rock and then down the hill. my team had 5 strong guys who carried just about everyone. a few of the girls were able to carry each other which is amazing to watch.
pole to pole chain walk: there was two poles and attached was a metal chain links and each person had to cross, so we had two people (mostly the tall guys who could hold us up) and walk across this chain
"toxic waste" rope swing: the next was a rope swing that had an orange net laying across a part of a hill (on the ground) with a rope circle (barely big enough for 10-12 people. we had 13.) you had to act as though the net was toxic waste and the rope circle was safe. you had to all be behind a stick that started the "waste" and then figure out how to get the rope pulled back to you (we found a long stick to pull it back with) then one by one each person had to grab the rope and stand in one loop and swing to the circle with people catching you. it gets harder when its almost full and you can't step out of the circle or you all start over.
tree to tree rope walk: there were 3 trees with 2 ropes strung tightly across them one for feet and one up high for hands. the foot rope was about 4-5 feet off the ground and then from there there the hand rope was about 4-5 farther. so we stood on someone's back to get up and then walked across to the middle tree climbed over it and the to the other tree and touched a knot and a second person would start and the first would head to the middle tree and wait for the second then switch positions and touch the knot at the beginning and be done.

Lesson Learned
our team learned that we need to focus if we are going to be successful in what we are doing. we need to focus on the task at hand and not get distracted by things so easily as talking. we had to learn this lesson the hard way. 4 TIMES! once at the electric fence we weren't paying attention to how one of our teammates was getting down and she fell and severely twisted her ankle. it swelled up instantly to the size of a softball. we carried her through the majority of the courses. the second time was we went too fast and didn't pay attention to getting people across the fence but how fast and so another of our teammates went to fast slipped and fell 6 feet to the ground on her back. the third time on the tree to tree rope walk on the way off a teammate's foot got caught on the rope, but we caught him right before he hit the ground. the fourth one was also at the rope walk. except she was walking holding to guy's hands with feet forward and not side ways , she slipped and hit her legs between the rope.

Negative Experience
my overall experience was amazing but there is always negatives. the physical pain is still there, tons of bruises about 20 covering my legs! The DI's came flying through the halls banging on all doors yelling "EVERYBODY UP.EVERYBODY UP.EVERYBODY UP." Over and over until we were outside. it honestly is very scary and is seriously a nightmare when ever i hear those two words. because we were woken up suddenly an hour after we had fallen asleep and shaking so bad because it was so cold, that i was physically unable to stop till the next morning. I got so sick to my stomach because of being waken from a deep sleep so fast i (kinda gross and lots of info) i upchucked :P a little.

POSITIVE EXPERIENCE
this experience was amazing. the time spent with teammates was amazing, the time spent with God was beyond words. on saturday morning we had split into our teams again and by team went into one of the caves on the property that hadn't been collapsed (its been reinforced with concrete and supports). when we were in the cave we took communion, to give us an idea of how the early church gathered, it is something that i will always remember. then as a team we walked a steep hillside to a cross where we prayed together. the view from the cross on the hill was breath-taking. and one of our leaders (and teammate) pointed out that the symbol of being hung on the cross is a humiliating and awful thing. but the Lord turned it into something to be revered and in wonder of. he also said that anything that is awful and bad in our own lives if we give it to Him, He can turn it inoto a good thing too. we just need to die of ourselves and give it all to Him.

Bootcamp was about allowing God to break us, in the physical, mental and spiritual way as we have started anew we need to break of our old selves and our old habits and mentalities and begin a fresh with what he has for us.

I would most definitely do it again. even with all the pain, the breaking the God did in me was something that i will not forget. i will not allow myself to forget. this is what this blog is about, yes its to give you information about what is happening in this season of my life but its more for me as a public reminder of who God is and what He has done in me that i will stay forever changing to His image and not slide back.

What is Ignite?

Hey everyone,
So this is my blog for Ignite and all that encompasses it. For those of you who don't know what Ignite is, or have partial facts or just want to know more about it this is the blog for you.
Foursquare IGNITE is a leadership and ministry development program, through discipleship and education, practical hands-on local church involvement and training, and global mission outreach. The purpose: to ignite the next generation of Foursquare leaders towards their life-mission: strengthened in personal character and discipline; educated in biblical truth, understanding, and personal application; and focused on the expansion of the kingdom of God. There are two separate 3.5 month Life-Mission Ignitions (semesters) Each offers four college level courses with a value of three units each; meaning i can earn 24 units.
There are two mission trips upon completing the semesters, the first of which is about a 40 day out of the country trip to which is not 100% certain as to where it is, there have been many countries named but for right now we don't really know. The second will be in the States and will be for 2 weeks.
Ignite is housed and held on the campus of Life Pacific College in San Dimas, CA.