Hello August~ Good bye summer!

There's been so much happening that it seems like ages since I last wrote...
Last Sunday we had a wonderful bake sale at Daloris park to raise money for our staff camping trip which is at the end of this month. We baked all night Saturday, making all kinds of goodies..such as Walnut chocolate dipped cookies, peanut butter cookies, Carmel apples, snicker brownies , lemon bars and much more. It was such a beautiful day out and a successful bake sale at that. Made around $200 for our camping trip(: Yay.....

Next week is our last week of teams for the season which sadly means my lovely Summer of service staff will be leaving soon. We are having a goodbye dinner on Saturday night to thank them for such a wonderful summer of service(: I will miss them. On Friday night at the Sugar cafe here in San Francisco we are having a fundraiser and silent auction to raise money for our Ellis room and our new ministry 360. The Ellis room , as many of you know is our drop in center ( at our ywam building ) that's open to the public Monday-Friday. 360 is another ministry connected to the Ellis room that we are just starting up. It's meant to be a discipleship program for some of the regulars that have been coming into our base for years and we have built relationships with. Please be praying that this auction will go well and that we can get the funds needed to provide a wonderful ministries for our friends. Also if you want to come and join in on the fun, 20% of all drinks and food will be given to our ministries at YWAM SF. How exciting is that?!!!

See you all soon. God bless!
Carrianne Barr
357 Ellis st.
San Francisco, Ca 94102

JULY

Hello everyone,
I hope everyone had a wonderful June! Mine was wonderful and so far July is looking to be just as nice as last month. I have really enjoyed our summer teams that have come through here and our summer staff are doing AMAZING! Since I have been leading teams for a year now , it's been really nice to be overseeing the teams and letting the sos (summer of service staff) lead. They are such a good bunch of students...we have another kitchen summer staff joining us this week that will help out a lot with our 90+ students that are eating here. (: Last weekend two of our staff members got married, Katie one of my DTS leaders looked beautiful walking down the aisle! We danced all night long... my favorite song was party in the usa! heheh! The wonderful thing about last week was everyone was back...all my good friends, it was sooo nice to see everyone.

I really enjoy getting to go back home on some weekends. I loved seeing everyone and having a wonderful 4th of July in the most awesome town ever....what a blessing that I live so close to home to get to return on my days off. I LOVE YOU ALL!

I know that it's been a year but because some of my supporters were committed just for a year I'm asking if you all could pray about financially supporting me. (: Thank you for all your love and prayers!

my new room #14

I want to start blogging to you all in video for a bit just so you can get a better glimpse of where I live and what I do a little more clearly....thank you all

love carrianne

Summer!
Well everyone, summer has started! My short term summer staff are here, we have had one full week already of training and this week is training as well. We kicked it off with a big Hawaii theme welcome party... it was super! Next Monday summer officially starts for us because that's when our first team arrives for the season. I am very excited to teach my summer staff. They are so wonderful and such a great bunch. We have six so far and two late arrivals come in a couple of weeks. It's going to be an awesome summer.

I changed rooms a couple of weeks ago, I am now roommates with my dear friend Laura and am located in room 14 next to the laundry room. Our winter DTS should be returning home on Saturday but sadly we have lost a few loved ones.... Amanda Evens my darling friend since my DTS has left to join LAs Vegas' ywam team and Jake and Amanda - Our part time staff will be leaving us to return home to Texas on Wednesday. So sad! :( I miss them all already!

I have been her for a year now.... on June 20th will be my 1 year mark... wow.... I love it here more everyday, Yes I miss my family and friends and even Morgan Hill but I couldn't see myself anywhere but here. I know God's blessed me so much just being here... I have life good...and I'm a missionary... hahahah (:

We started every Monday night a community night with all our friends that come into the storefront, we have dinner and fellowship and it's been great. It's ending for a couple months while our busy Mission Adventure schedule starts up but its been so wonderful to have it.
I love that YWAM has different ministries within itself but when community night goes on we can all join in with the people we love in the storefront and have family time together!

I feel like Gods telling me this season to pursue Him more and dig deeper into the word more, which means giving up 'free' time to be with Him and read the bible more. So if y'all don't mind to pray for me that I will do what He told me to do. (: LOVE YOU ALL and thanks for everything you all do.
Love, Carrianne

May.....

Hey everyone,
Guess what? A short time ago I wrote about spring teams starting and how I'm looking forward to that....well spring teams are over now and summer is just around the corner. We have had some interesting things going on around the base. Last month one of our staff members heart just stopped beating in the middle of work. Some of our staff performed CPR on her and shortly after she was rushed to the hospital and had heart surgery, she is doing better now but still recovering at her sisters house in LA. This was really scary for us who work here, also, it made us realize we should all be certified in a CPR course.

Just this last week about 30 people flew and drove in for a WAVES , Mission adventures conference. Each year the northern bases gather up for a conference to talk about mission adventures and how we can better serve the students that come to our bases. Every other year we have a WAVES conference internationally , last year they went to Germany. ( I came a month after so I missed that little gathering.. ) It was really exciting to see other people going through the same things that you go through during MA. Monday I spent all day picking people up from the airport and preparing for the conference. Then we spent Tue-Fri 7am-10pm in conference meetings,ministries,praying and worshiping. It was a fun filled week. Tomorrow Tia and I are meeting Kaitlyn in Southern California for the Urban Youth Workers conference for a week. When I return I will have 2 weeks until my Summer of service staff get here.I'm super excited for the short term summer staff. I am the coordinator this year and as time is getting near it is seeming more and more real.

Hope all is well. Please keep Mission Adventures in your prayers: that God will bring the right staff and summer of service short term staff here and that God will prepare these students hearts before they come this summer. We will have around 100 students each week during the summer. WOW! Prayer for my family that they will find a more stable place to live and for my monthly income to increase as well as I will be more focused with my gifts God gave me.

pushing forward in your walk with God and leaving the old behind you

Pushing forward, leaving your sins that hold you back from pursuing God.....and FORWARD we go in our walks with Christ!

Our theme this year has been wonderful so far, last night I witnessed 50 students "pushing forward" in their walks with God. Every Thursday night we have 'expressions' which used to be called commitment service, but we like the call it CRY NIGHT. There we have a couple different stations that the students can go to.

• The cross, this is where people can write down anything they feel like giving to God and they actually can nail it to the cross.
  
• We have mirrors on the wall that you can look into and see how God really sees you.
  
• We have a foot washing station
• Journals that past teams have written in and you can see what people have written and you yourself can write a journal entry.
• A coffin that is filled with water with stones on the side that you can write that thing that might be holding you back from pursuing God and throw it into the water-filled coffin, it actually disappears and you can see how God just washes those old things away like the water did to the stones.
  *this is a new addition to expressions night because of our theme.

I watched a team last night resolve things with God , each other and past things that held them back. We all held hands at the end in a huge circle and prayed about the things that they just gave to God.

I read through the journals of past teams that some date back from 06 and wrote down all the cry/prayers to God so that I can pray for those students in my quite time later that week. It's so wonderful to see students come here week after week to serve the people of the city.

Thank you for your prayers and support in making this happen each week. Enjoy your Easter(:
Love, Carrianne

Spring and wonderful friends

SPRING HAS ARRIVED!
Well we are finally here, and to think it's been 9th months since I have been on staff... each time I write I will probably write how long Ive been on staff, haha! So spring is here, I should know; I had to set my clock forward and wake up an extra hour. Well I got to spend an amazing weekend with my mother&father in Morgan Hill for my moms birthday, I brought Laura ( my best ywam friend) with me. We had a wonderful time...thanks parents! So week long teams started officially 2 weeks ago. I also started going to a new church, its so great, allot of youth full people go there.. and I made some really wonderful friends from there.

So Laura, Adam and I have started a really great friendship with a guy who comes into the Ellis room, ( our drop in center) let's call him 'John'. John came here with the intentions of jumping off the bridge and ending his life. He made some friends and decided to postpone his visit to the Golden Gate bridge. He sometimes comes over after closing hours and we watch movies with him. His birthday we made him a cake ( Adam and Laura..I can't bake) and had him over for dinner and a movie... we have a great opportunity to witness to him. He started coming to our bible studies on Wednesday afternoons also. He pinkie promised us that he will not visit any famous bridges here for at the rest of the year. Please keep him in your prayers , our wish is that he will get a job and start having something to live for ... Jesus!

Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Carrianne

My Thailand trip...

Sawadee ka,
That's hello in Thai! [:
Well allot has happened in this month of January! I left for Thailand on the 10th and returned on the 20th. IT WAS AMAZING! I flew in and joined up with the DTS that were there on there outreach. I was very thankful to see all my Thai friends from last year. (and some new ones too) It was like I was never was gone. I got to hangout with the BJD girls and boys again and enjoyed playing sequence and ultimate uno every night with them. We did allot of the same ministry work as I did last year, such as teaching English, campus work and working in the slums. I was so sad to leave my sisters and brothers in Thailand but knowing that I will return made it allot easier to say goodbye. Thailand is so wonderful, the people have an amazing heart and I am praying about one day working with the YWAM base there. SOOO another exciting thing that happened on January 22nd was my 22ndGOLDEN birthday!!! I had an amazing time here with my friends and got allot of FB comments witch made me happy, so thank you for all the love~!

Mission Adventures has been going well and some week-long teams are coming up soon, so I will be very busy running the teams and the ministry. (:
GOD is wonderful and is so good. Thank you to all my supporters for giving me the opportunity to serve Him in SF and the wonderful people in Thailand as well! God bless and have a wonderful rest of your January! (:
Carrianne

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well well looks like it's that time again for an update! It was last year since I last have. HAHAHA!!
So I am actually sitting here on my couch in good ol Morgan Hill.
I have been here for 10 days and return back to San Francisco tomorrow after church.
Even though I have enjoyed my time here relaxing and spending it with my friends
and family I can not wait return home. As soon as I get in I have to start planning for the summer ,
I will be in charge of a program
Summer of service, I will be in charge of training young adults who will be leading teams just
as I do but for the summer. I will also be getting ready for my trip to Asia. As many of you already
know I will be flying out January 10th-20th to
meet up with the fall DTS of '09 and be a part of everything they do ministry wise. Even though
San Francisco is my calling, part of my heart belongs to Asia, therefor I will take any opportunity to
return back to Thailand, Bangkok.
I am very excited and I know that God will do many things though this trip.
I can not wait to reconnect with all my Thai friends that I was so blessed to meet last year.
Thank you for all of your prayers (: Well I hope you all have a wonderful New Year !!!!
Love Carrianne

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

hi everyone,

i have been so busy, Mission Adventure Teams every week and it's a lot of work, but it's been a blast! so much has been going on that time just kept flying by and i just realized i hadn't blogged in a long time. i hope everyone had a great thanksgiving with their families and friends! we had a wonderful time here at the base.. my mom and dad came up and had thanksgiving dinner with us! most of the staff and DTSers invited one local person to dinner, so we had about 70 + people here! it was really great with lots of food and desserts. there were at least 7 different types of turkeys, huge pans of potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (yum!), corn casserole (thanks, mom!), two different Tofurkeys, vegan gravy , rolls... i baked 3 pies and loads of other sweet things- and oh yeah, can't forget the great coffee and flavored creamers! mom and dad brought bags of persimmons from home and branches of rosemary bushes and i had candles, so we decorated all the dinner tables really pretty! we had a wonderful prayer before dinner, and my parents got to meet a lot of my street friends here, as well as other YWAM staff members. after, we all went to a nearby park and played football! well, i didn't play football, i played on the monkey bars! anyway, i got to go back home with my family until Tuesday evening, when they brought me back to the city- my new home! it was a great thanksgiving, and i have so much to be thankful for! hope yours was great! :)

baby Rhyder update: his heart surgery was scheduled for dec 1, but it was postponed and will now be done this tues, dec 8. please pray for him! :)

Today the new DTS group will be doing their outreach in viet nam and thailand, just like i did for my DTS last year. i had an opportunity to go for 2 weeks in january, so i am going to thailand!! i will be doing everything the DTS are going to be doing - ministry work ,with the local YWAM group that i got to spend time with last year. i am so excited because i truly fell in love with that beautiful country and the beautiful people there, too! i wanted to let everyone know something... when i started my 2 yr commitment in june, i sold my car. i put that money in the bank, and have used it occasionally for some 'extra' things i have needed while i was here. one of the things i've used my money on is my trip to thailand. since it's a personal choice for me to go, i didn't want to burden my sponsors- everyone who supports me already has been so generous and i appreciate every one of you- and every single dollar you give to support me and my ministry! i love doing this, and i couldn't do any of it without you! i did want you all to know, though, how i was paying for this trip, because i didn't want there to be any concern as to how i was spending your finances. anyway- i just wanted to be upfront and let you all know what's going on and stuff like that!!

please keep me in your prayers, and please pray for baby Rhyder, too! please also send me your prayer requests! me and the other staffers get together every morning and pray- so i'd love to pray for you!! thank you for your love and support- it means so much to me. hoping you all have a safe and happy Christmas! love always, carrianne barr