So much has happened in the past 25 days! The School of Ministry has been an amazing experience so far; I've learned a lot and I'm excited for everything yet to come. I'll try to summarize a week-by-week recap for you.
Week 1 went incredibly well. My dad and sister accompanied me on the 7 hour road trip to Toronto. I was able to quickly settle into my dorm room with my three roommates. Sarah, from Canada, Hope, from Nashville TN, and Kate, from New Zealand, are fantastic roommates and I'm so blessed to know them. There's such a wide variety of students here, too. There are people from not only the US and Canada, but all over - a few places to mention would be Singapore, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Slovenia, and Holland. It's such a fun culture to live in. Everyone here is really friendly and open and in love with the Holy Spirit. Even by the second week, we all felt like we'd been good friends for a long time.
Our weekday schedule is breakfast at 8, worship at 9, then teaching until 12:30, followed by either another teaching from 2-4:30ish or small group time. The first week we had Mark Virkler speak on hearing the voice of God. While I've grown up in a church that's very familiar with this topic, I feel like Mark was able to bring a number of interesting points to the table that expanded my view on the matter. One of the biggest takeaways from that week was the value of two-way journaling.
Week 2 covered the Father Heart message with David and Faith Dalley. They each have such strong anointing in Father and Mother Heart, and were really able to show us how deeply God's love affects us and how much we need it. The whole school was really able to get a lot out of that week.
That weekend, a large number of us went on a trip to Niagara Falls. It was an awesome, packed day - we were able to go on the Maid of the Mist, which is a boat ride that takes you into the horseshoe falls (while simultaneously giving you a shower); eat lunch from 775 feet above the falls in Skylon Tower, giving us an amazing view; hike a gorgeous trail to a glen by a huge river; and just have a fantastic time with fantastic friends.
Week 3 was busy, but still awesome. The first half was taken up by the Dream Culture seminar. This was taught by Andy and Janine Mason and focused on the goals and aspirations each one of us have, in relation to the plans God has for us. Everyone came up with lists of things we really want to do, regardless of how "significant" they may or may not seem. My list ranged from seeing the Northern Lights to getting married to becoming a strong and wise woman of faith. It was really interesting to see the variety of goals and desires everyone has. The seminar taught that God wants you to live for him through doing what you're passionate about. It also gave perspective to the underlying heart desires behind your aspirations. Overall, great seminar!
The second half of the week was the Catch the Fire Conference! All the School of Ministry students were given duties during this, so from morning til whenever the Holy Spirit decided we should get some sleep, we were either working behind the scenes or soaking up as much teaching and worship as we could. The speakers included Joshua Mills, Duncan Smith, Steve Long, John Arnott, Patricia Bootsma, and Heidi Baker. They are all so filled with Christ, and I was able to get a lot out of the teachings. Every night the School of Ministry was on the prayer ministry team, so we all got experience in the practical guidelines of praying over someone, and many of us were able to get some good spiritual stretching in that area. The last night of the conference, though, we got to do fire tunnels. For anyone unfamiliar with fire tunnels, it's where a lot of people form two lines facing each other, and everyone else walks through getting prayer and blessing from either side. It's such an awesome way that God moves, and it's so much fun. By the end of it, almost everyone in the School was totally overwhelmed by the Spirit. The joy that Christ has for us is so amazing!
That brings us to week 4. After a much needed Monday off, we had the privilege of learning about the prophetic from Ivan and Isabel Allum. I love how strong and steadfast they are in their walk with Christ - they both are completely overflowing in blessing and anointing. They both have very different teaching styles - Isabel was able to tell us about the joy and wonder and miracle that listening to God's voice can bring, while Ivan was able to give us basic principles that can keep us from straying from what God has for us in the prophetic. We got to do so many prophetic word "games" where we all got to bless each other with words from the Father. The Allums also prophesied over each student individually. As always, they were full of blessing and encouragement and wisdom. Unfortunately we only had them for a couple of days, but on Thursday we got to hear Patricia Bootsma share her testimony on the House of Prayer. She's a very gifted speaker, and is really able to move you to recognize the importance of fulfilling the destiny God has for you.
Friday we had a day off to relax, and that brings us up to right now, Saturday morning. Already my time at school has made it clear that this was the best decision I could've made. I've really been ridiculously blessed here and have already grown a lot. God has put so many wonderful people in my life and put me in a place still soaked in his favor, even 18 years after the revival here. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible, from the bottom of my heart.
Also - for those wondering - we get to find out where we're going on our 3 week mission trip this Monday. I'm super excited, it's like waiting for a cast list all over again. I'll let you know when I find out where I'm headed. Until then, thank you for taking the time to read this, and many blessings!
