Settling In...Again

Last night, a girl from Sweden arrived. Her name is Emilie. Today, Emilie, Eva, Jill (one of our staff), and I went to Target to pick up some needed items. When we got home, one of the guys and two more girls were here. It's so weird being back. I don't think it's hit me yet. Anyway, I still have my own room right now. Kate and Derek from my DTS get here sometime today. I'm very, very excited for tomorrow, when everyone is here and we all meet each other and become a family.

I got to see Emily from my DTS today. Actually she's sitting in the computer lab behind me.  Eve, my roomie, is here too, but I haven't seen her yet. I'm hoping to see her at dinner or something.

I started a diet today. I realized that I need to be in shape for the next season of my life. I think a lot of this realization came from realizing that I'm worth something. I downloaded an app for my Kindle Fire called LoseIt! It counts your calories and tracks you exercise and helps set your goals. My goal weight it still far away, but it has me there by 25 May, 2013.

I hope to be able to post at least twice a week to keep you updated as much as possible.

Peace.

Safely Arrived

I made it safely to the base. Since I'm here so early, I can't stay in the trailer for CSBS. I have to stay in the Mission Builders trailer, since I'm considered a Mission Builder right now. I can move into the CSBS trailer on Saturday. There is a girl from Germany, Eva, who has been here for four days now. She's also doing the CSBS. We're sharing a room right now, in the MB trailer. I'm not sure whether we will share a room in the other trailer or not. From what I can tell, we get to choose what rooms we're in.


I was talking to Katlyn (from my DTS), who's on staff here now, about how I need to find an apartment here in the LA area. She said that she does to, so we might end up getting an apartment together. Emily (also from my DTS) lives in Burbank now, and had sketchy housemates, so Katlyn said that she might want to share with us, if we end up getting an apartment together. Which is great, because it will, obviously, make the rent cheaper if it's split three ways.


Anyway, I'm really excited about life after CSBS, and during, as well.


That is all.

8 Days

As you all know, I am doing a CSBS with YWAM LA. Mom was able to pay off the first quarter, but there are still three other quarters that will have to be paid off by the beginning of each quarter.  Then there is the issue of doing my laundry. The base is not able to have machines on base for the students, except in rare cases, so we have to do our laundry off base at a nearby Laundromat, which cost money. There are times that we will be out doing ministry, and will be out for a long time. Most of the time, ministry times will go longer than planned or expected, bringing about the need to eat a meal out. Since these are unplanned moments, the base is unable to pay for the meals, since it wasn’t budgeted. So the students have to pay for their own meals. Most of the time, several students will put their money together to be able to pay for a larger meal that they share. There are times when a student doesn’t have a large group of people who they know will be able to support them, both spiritually and financially, so we, as a family, will all try to pitch in and help in any way we can. So there are a lot of reasons that YWAMers need to be supported.

If you feel led to send money for my tuition, you can send it through this website:

http://payments.ywamla.org/

If you want to send money for any other reason, you can put it into my PayPal account. The email address for it is chefmadelinebelle@yahoo.com. Or if you don’t have a PayPal account, you can send it to my wonderful mother, who will put it into my account.

If you just want to send me an email, the address is MadelineBHendley@gmail.com

This coming year is going to be awesome. I can feel it. I don’t know what is in store for me, but it’s going to be great. I’m excited for it, and ready to be in a new chapter of my life. I also get to see several of my DTS friends, as some of the staff from my DTS will be staffing my CSBS, Katlyn, and Viktor are on staff on the LA base, although I don’t think that they are staffing CSBS, Kate and Derek will be my classmates again.

I want to thank you all again, for being my loyal followers, even when I haven’t been blogging as much as I could have been.

Memory

Yesterday, I found out one of my closest friends was killed the day before at the hotel she worked at. I was shocked. She lived in a small town in Oregon, whose biggest event each year was a rodeo. “A real wild, wild west town,” was how she described it to me.

Even if you were meeting Amyjane Nicole Brandhagen for the first time, she was immediately your best friend and you loved her like a sister. She was the warmest, kindest person you could ever hope to meet. She always did her best to cheer you up when you were down, to hang out with the people who were by themselves.  She had a huge heart for God, and was always talking about how she wished she could do more and more for Him. During our DTS, she would schedule weekend ‘soak sessions,’ where she and whoever wanted to come would sit for hours in the Prayer Chapel, praying and soaking up God.

Whenever Amyjane was around, there was never a dull moment. She was the life of the party, easy to laugh with, and easy to love. There’s no way anyone who knew her could ever forget her.  

I know that right now, she’s dancing and painting and laughing at the feet of Jesus, and she’s happier than she was here on Earth.

Dedicated To:

Amyjane Nicole Brandhagen

1992-2012

Spies and Ninjas

I'm a spy surrounded by ninjas. I can't see them. And they seem to be winning. Constantly tripping me, throwing things at me, spilling water on me. All that stuff might kill me. Actually, I started another book. One that might possible contain ninjas. Which might not be helpful for the writing of the spy book that I'm writing. It doesn't really work out for either main characters. I don't was Karina Hunter to end up having amazing martial arts skills, and I don't want Whirlwind to end up being an American spy. I should stop writing multiple stories at the same time, huh? Then again, since Whirlwind and Karina are from completely different worlds and are have totally different personalities, it might be hard to mix them. It would ruin both stories. Anyway, I keep forgetting what I'm going to have Karina do next and all I have to do is finish the chapter by having her break into the office of the man she's supposed to be protecting from the bad guy and then have a little 'chat' with the bad guy who broke into the office just before her. And now I seem to remember how I was going to have her do it. Quick, the the write-mobile!

I know it's been a while since my last 'real' update, but I've had a lot of stuff going on. I won't go into all the details, but my parents are now separated, and I'm living with my mom, little sister, and little brothers, at my uncle's house in San Antonio. Fortunately, Mom has been searching for a job in or near Fort Worth, so that we can live near our amazing church, and she might have found one. I quit my job at FMI and am waiting until we are settled into our new place to look for a job for only a month or so until it's time to move to LA. This is a really hard time for my family, so prayers are appreciated.

In brighter better news, I bought my plane ticket out to LA, and I already have about $1500 sent in.

I shouldn't be so busy, so I'll try to post at least once a week.

My Support Letter

Saturday, 7 July, 2012

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Madeline Hendley, and I have recently been accepted into the Chronological School of Biblical Studies of Youth With A Mission in Los Angeles.

CSBS is a secondary program for those that have been through the Discipleship Training Program. CSBS is a nine month inductive bible study going through the entire Bible in chronological order. There are outreaches to the surrounding communities, where students in this program are able to teach what they have learned. Near the end of the program, there is an outreach to another country. While I do not know what outreaches will be available this year, outreaches in the past have been to India, China, and the Middle East.

Having done my DTS at this particular YWAM base, I want to continue here, where I already have relationships.

In YWAM, everyone is required to raise their own financial support.  For this program, I will need to raise $8,100 USD and I need to have it to the base by September 15^th.  Anything you could do to assist me in this way would be greatly appreciated.  It would allow me to continue my own work in missions while serving the people of Los Angeles.

Upon completion of this program, it is my hope to remain at this base and continue in the homeless ministry there.

Thank you for your consideration,

Madeline Hendley

8407 FM 1861

Eustace, TX 75124

MadelineBHendley@gmail.com

www.ywamla.org

www.csbsla.org