The first month!!

10/11/25

Hi everyone! I can’t believe it’s already been four and a half weeks since lecture phase started! It feels like I just got here, but also like so much has already happened in such a short time!

Getting here was definitely an adventure! I had three flight cancellations, got stuck overnight in New York, and ended up missing the first two days of orientation. But honestly it all worked out and was a sweet blessing! My cousin who I have not seen for like 9 years and my aunt let me stay with them. They even drove me the rest of the way to Boston the next day. My housing got canceled and changed because of the delay but God provided right away! My new housing ended up having a slight bug problem and I had to end up moving two more times. Normally I feel like I would have felt stressed but I surprisingly was not too much. I just could tell the enemy was trying to throw things off because he knew what God was going to do in this time during DTS. Of course the enemy does not want me here. But he was not going to win!

Now the fun stuff!! There are 17 of us in my DTS and we are from several different places. We have some from Colombia, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, and all over the U.S. There are only four guys in our DTS and the rest of us are girls. My friend Camilla and I are the two oldest in the group. It makes things fun in its own way. Although we definitely feel old sometimes hearing the others talk or saying things like they were born in 2005! What that’s crazy!! Everyone is so different but we have already grown in friendship and cherish this time together! We have four creative arts tracks visual art, dance, music, and theatre. It honestly has been really cool to see how God has been speaking to each of us through our gifts over the last several weeks!

Every week we have a different speaker who comes in just for a specific topic and our mornings are spent in lecture hearing teaching that goes deep into it! Week one felt like a bit overwhelming for all of us as it was information overload from our speaker Jimmy! Day one we had like eight pages of notes!! It was just so much good content!! But honestly it was such a great way to start off the lecture phase and now we are always excited to find out what the next week is going to be like!

Week one’s theme was christianity 101 and even though that sounds like basic foundation it actually went much deeper than I expected! Our speaker talked about the gospel in a way that made everything feel new again in a new perspective! He talked about not just what Jesus saved us from, but what he saved us into! We went through salvation, repentance, grace, the authority of Jesus, and what it means for him to really be lord over our lives and not just someone we call on when we need help. We talked about how we don’t have to strive to get more of God or wait for him to show up. God isn’t holding himself back from us we already have full access to him because of what Jesus did. We are not working toward closeness because we already are living from the closeness that’s already been given!!

Week two we had a new speaker who taught on the father heart of God! We spent the whole week going through scripture on how God relates to us as a father. He is not distant. Actually quite the opposite! He is not passive or angry. He is so kind, and consistent, and safe, and intentional! We talked about what it means to actually live as his children! We should not be living in a place feeling like orphans trying to earn his love. It was an awesome week realizing and understanding better that God doesn’t just love the whole world he loves us personally and knows us by name! There was a big focus on moving from knowing this in our heads to choosing to live from it in our identity!

Week three was all about the nature and character of God! We spent time looking at who God actually is. We did not look at just parts of it but  his full nature as revealed in scripture. We went through his holiness, his goodness, his justice, his mercy, his faithfulness, his jealousy, and his unchanging heart toward humanity. A big take away this week was that God doesn’t just choose to show certain characteristics at certain times. He is those things all the time! For example God doesn’t act loving when we behave well and then does not act loving when we don’t. He is love so everything he does whether we understand it or not flows from that nature. We talked a lot about how our view of God shapes the way we respond to him and to our circumstances. If we see him as unpredictable or far away we will in result live guarded and fearful.

This week made me more aware of how much peace and comfort there is in knowing his character is always the same! I can read scripture after scripture where people were in hard situations but Gods nature stayed the same! He was faithful, present, compassionate, and just! It made me encouraged that I don’t have to look at situations for proof of who he is. And I can stand in his truth of who he is and has always been! That should be the want and the foundation for everything else in our lives! Ahh just so good!

Now we are in week four and we are in Philadelphia right now with the Pittsburgh and Philly YWAM bases. We are doing lectures together in the mornings and going out into the city for street evangelism in the afternoons. More details to come as we get more into the week!

Beyond lectures our days have been full of worship, work duties, intercession, and Encounter production practice as we prepare for outreach! I am on the hospitality team for work duties which has been a beautiful way to serve! Intercession has been powerful! we have prayed for the nations, the unreached, the city of Boston, and even for the arts and more! Worship has been another highlight! We attended a citywide worship event called 10 Days Boston, and even hosted two worship nights at base. Every Friday we have family night and last week we made homemade ice cream! My team won most Creative!

We also got more details about our outreach phase starting in January! As of now we will be traveling from Boston all the way to California, stopping in 42 different locations over six weeks. We’ll be leaving earlier than expected to accommodate all the locations! It is a lot but we have started getting ready for tour and are all excited for what the Lord has in store for it and how hearts will be changed for him!!

Overall I just feel grateful! There have been challenges but there has been so much peace and joy over the last few weeks! And I’m excited for this week in Philly and the coming weeks with the Lord!

Thank you so much to everyone who’s been praying and supporting me! Truly, it means so much! Please keep praying as we continue this week in Philly, the upcoming weeks in Boston, and as we prepare for outreach. I will plan to share more in a couple of weeks! The plan is to try and update every two weeks! So stay tuned! Praying and trusting for you all to have a great week!

Best

Elizabeth Sheeler