Hello Family,
I am doing well in San Francisco!
During  my 'off season' with DTS I am working allot in our main Drop in center , called the Ellis room. I really like connecting with the people that come in daily and building relationships with them. Everyone knows me as one of the girls that's been here forever. Even tho it's only been four years it sometimes feels like I've known these people forever!
I like being able to stay in San Francisco for a good amount of time this spring/summer. I'm looking forward to our staff retreat this year, spending a weekend in the woods fellow-shipping with one another and having some great quite time with the Lord in some trees!!!!


Also last October God was speaking to me about putting earthly things before the Lord. I was praying and He was speaking loud and clear that something I often put before God is FOOD! I used to go to food for everything, when I was sad, happy, mad and even rejoicing...always food...not going to God instead, or second. And that's not good. So i decided to change my eating habits for the Lord, because I also knew that what He's called me to do ( going over seas and serving ) I need to be at my best! I started a diet/ life style eating changes the last week of October. With a 1 1/2 month over the seas break. I am proud to announce that I have reached my first goal of loosing 54 pounds!!!!!!
yay!!!! My first goal was fifty pounds and now I'm on to my next goal ( with a 4 pound accomplishment) of loosing another 50 pounds!!!!! Just thought everyone should know. It's all for God, He wants your all and all and nothing should go before God, even something so little as food....
Thanks for the prayers and support!!! :)
love Carrianne

OUTREACH IS OVER.....

Lets start out with some pictures of our wonderful 2012-2013 FALL DTS OUTREACH!

**Starting from the bottom up- our time in LA and Thailand! 

( baking cookies,passing out tracks on the eve of the "end of the world",selling Christmas trees @ywam LA, washing vans,more Christmas, group shot in Thailand, Teaching English with juice boxes and Thai friends!!!) 

Anyway, you can tell by the pictures that we had a wonderful outreach overseas and even right here in good ol' California ! Los Angeles !We stayed in Hollywood working with Oasis of Hollywood for three weeks.

We were able to help work with after school programs like kidz clubs in the schools teaching bible stories as well as working with the youth in the area having a safe place for them to come and hang out on Friday nights. Its called club Zion and its a safe club for the youth of Hollywood to come and hangout , dance and listen to a message about God. IT was a wonderful time we were there because we helped package over 300 presents for the kids. We also were able to help at the Christmas tree farm raising money for YWAM LA. it was all so fun and we only had three weeks in the lovely city of LA until we traveled on CHRISTMAS DAY to Thailand! 

Thailand was amazing as always. We stayed at the YWAM base there and  worked with the different ministries We spent about 5 weeks in Thailand and another 3 weeks in Vietnam teaching English and putting together children shows where we were able to share God with the Vietnamese children! 

It feels so nice to be back ! I love chilly San Francisco and of course the comforts of my own bed and all!!! :)

I started work today. I have an office shift right now, answering phones and replying to emails and of course sending off my blog:)

I am excited to start working with the Ellis room ( our drop in center ) a few days a week as well as meeting about our upcoming DTS starting up next September! I guess good news is IM LEADING THE NEXT SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow!!! Super exciting and really challenging as well :) BUT GOD is soooo good and i cant wait to get trained and learn more about how to disciple and actually lead a school. 

GOD BLESS!!!! -Carrianne

This is our fall DTS 2012-2013 group!!! 

And we're off!

We leave for LA, Thailand and Vietnam for three months this Monday!

Please keep us in your prayers! We are still trying to raise about $7,000 for the rest of our outreach fees and  just getting last minute stuff done. I am the outreach leader this year with 4 other staff and 14 students joining me! I'm very excited about what God will do with us on this trip. We have some wonderful opportunities while on outreach. 

For LA we will be working with kids clubs that are involved with kid gangs and we also get a chance to serve the YWAM LA base and work in the Christmas tree lot , talking to people about Jesus and telling them what we do with YWAM. We will also be involved with  Water for life in LA that serve places in Africa (building wells). I'm pretty sure we will be digging ditches and working with pluming at the YWAM LA base. 

Our time in Thailand we will be working with two different miniseries. One is involved with Children and a justice base ministry. The other ministry will be working with the college age students at the campus teaching English playing games and hopefully inviting them to bible studies and sharing with them about our Lord, savior! please keep us in your prayers through this time. Most students, family's and just the Thai people are Buddhist and if the students give their life to Jesus they might be kicked out of the family- its a very hard decision but knowing our God , He can do anything and help them once they make the decisions to fallow Him. We would love to be a part of seeing this happen but most of the time the Lord using us to plant seeds while overseas and then the YWAM base and friends in Thailand will do their job in working along side these students and the Thai people to disciple them in their walk with the Lord! 

Our last stop is Vietnam. We will split the team up and going to the North and the South to love the Vietnamese people! We have underground youth groups to join, prayer walks, teaching English and  working with Orphanage. This is a closed country and your prayers will be much appreciated! Last year we had many great opportunities to share Gods love with the students that we thought English to and we hope we have the same opportunities this year as well!!! 

Thank you so much for your love and support through prayers and fiances and just keeping an eye on what I've been up to :) Ill return February 20th and hopefully write a quick update on our wonderful trip- I say wonderful because I know that God is going to do AWESOME things, miracles and such!!!! ;)

GOD BLESS and Happy Christmas too!!!!!

Hello friends,

Happy thanksgiving!!!!

I’m so sorry I haven’t written in a while. I guess staffing this school and preparing to lead an outreach is a lot  more work then I thought J

I actually am really excited for outreach. We will be doing some stateside outreach this year in Los Angeles. We will be there for a little over three weeks. I've been trying to connect us with the local ministries already there.   We are also going to be spending three weeks in Thailand as well as four weeks in Vietnam! There our team will be split up in the North and the south of Vietnam. I don’t think our team has split up before in our pasts visits to Vietnam , so we are super excited to see what God will do with this.

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel for a little less than three months. We will be traveling to Thailand on Christmas day so I’m sure the students might be a little sad to not be with Family but stuck on a 16 hour flight.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. I will be committing two more years with YWAM in SF in June just to let everyone know! I feel like this is where God has called me. I love living in the Tenderloin and making friendships with all kinds of different people. I also love walking alongside students as they learn to hear Gods voice and grow in a deeper relationship with Him. I also am growing every day and God teaches me so much! Thank you for being a part of my missionary life.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas!!! God Bless!!!!

Also please pray for finances because our team and myself are in need of allot of money for our outreach trip! 

Carrianne

Our coming up Discipleship training school starts this Fall ( September 17th 2012)
I will be helping staffing this school in San Francisco and possible leading the outreach portion to Thailand and Vietnam!

If YOU or  if you know anyone that wants to grow in their relationship with God and have a hands-on experience in knowing God and making Him known then this is the school for you!!!!

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http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/dts.html

Out of the overflow from our relationship with Christ, comes the ministry. Our DTS allows students the opportunity to grow with God alongside daily ministry experience. Our streets are filled with people longing for truth, which inevitably creates open doors. Each week every DTS student will choose a ministry that engages their passion and gifting. Previous schools have worked with at-risk youth through an after school club, lead Bible studies in our Ellis room (homeless drop-in center), reached out to female prostitutes (Because Justice Matters), shared art with street kids, evangelized university campuses etc.

Outreach:

DTS students will spend  three months in target nations doing daily ministry with a strong emphasis on evangelism and mercy ministry. Outreach enables students to put into practice what they have learned through practical, hands on involvement. Both the Fall School and the Winter School visit different cities in the world and focus on different ministries. In previous schools, the teams have ministered in Vietnam teaching English to college age students, visiting Thai slums, building a school in Morocco, visiting university campuses in Rome, working on projects to reach those caught in sex-trafficking and using performing arts in the famous piazzas of Italy. The possibilities are endless! Click below to find out more about the schools and their specific focuses.

BY the way...................................I graduated my DTS Equip and now I'm back in San Francisco! I loved my time in Montana, it was so refreshing and peaceful! 

During our 'lecture' portion we read 4 books and did reports, ( i loved reading boundaries- it really helped me thinking about the future DTS and what boundaries mean ) presentations and taught on the values of YWAM. It was really neat to learn more about teaching and learning the confidence to do that (: We also had a huge exam on all the teachings for our  six weeks being there---- it was open book but we all spent hours going through our notes and working hard!

And we all did good and graduated

At graduation dessert 

Katie, Me, Raegan, Tara and Alisha 

I had SO much fun and made some good friends during my school!

( we had a FREE car wash for our Lakeside friends and were able to share with people what we were doing and what YWAM is.....so cool)

i saved the best for last...... I met Loren Cunningham ( the founder of YWAM) on skype! (: Yay!!!!!

Hello everyone!!!!
-or should I say Howdy since I am in Montana!!!! ; )
Well I made it here safely , after our bus didn't show up and spending a whole night on the floor of a greyhound station but that no big deal! right?!!

Kayla and I have been here for 2 weeks already, I cant believe time is flying by so fast! I'm really having a wonderful time! First of all its so beautiful I cant stand it!!! And we are learning so much DTS stuff to better equip and empower us for what God has called us to do! I love it! Its been really redeeming and refreashing to be in nature and get a new feel for other YWAM bases (in the country& I LOVE IT!!!!) I've spent some time by the lake already reading and doing my homework with my new wonderful equip friends, so nice.

Well that's just a quick update about Montana!!! (: Have a wonderful Summer ya'll !!!!

Carrianne Frances Leigh Barr

Hello Friends!

These last few months being home in San Francisco have been so nice! I have enjoyed working in the Ellis Room ( our drop in center) and serving at my church here in San Francisco, IKON. I help out at IKON on Tuesday mornings with kinda odd jobs (: I pick up the mail, deposit the offerings, add people who attend the church in our data base and i sent out the quarterly thank you cards to our supporters. It has been really exciting to be able to serve while I'm not bogged down with DTS stuff. Yay!

I only have one more month in the Ellis room before I leave for Montana! For those of you who didn't know, I leave June 23rd for DTS Equip. This is a secondary school for people who want to learn better in leading schools ( which I hope to help lead the next fall school in the outreach phase ). I will be in Montana at the YWAM base until August 3rd. I'm very excited but also nervous about the 2 day "road trip" on grey hound to get there! haha!!! 

Once I get back to San Francisco I will be back working with DTS, preparing for the Fall school. Which I'm happy about staffing another school  but I've really enjoyed making new friendships in the Ellis room and building these relationships to just leave again. BUT God is good and things will work out just perfect!!!

Lindsay (top right in picture) will be my new room mate, she actually moves in this weekend.... so excited about having a roommate again because I've been kinda lonely without one for a whole month!!!! (:

The picture is from this weekend. What a memorial day weekend miracle!!!some of the YWAM sf girls , drove to Mt. Madonna took a little hike, picked berry's at Gizdich ranch and ate some yummy pie and drove through Santa Cruz, ending the day with a lovely dinner hosted by the best mom and dad ever!!! MY great parents!!! (: It was super fun and nice to get out of the city too!

Much love.

Carrianne

I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO

Cambodia pictures

So I have added some pictures from Cambodia and YES!!! the grey hair is MINE!!!! i know outreach does that to you (: Enjoy

Vietnam with friends from a local church. (:

Friends,

Sorry for taking so long to write. While in Vietnam we were not aloud to use the net and now having some free time Ive decided it would be nice to update everyone! The DTS staff gets 10 days off after the DTS graduate to finally relax and take a breath. I unfortunately got sick for more then half of my 10 days. But the good thing was I was visiting my mom and dad and my mommy got to play her mommy role and take care of me. ( She wanted to , so I thought I would be nice and let her) Well now I sit in a little cafe in North beach, back in my lovely city of San Francisco!

Let me just say ....it feels soooo good to be back!!! Three months over seas was a little to much for me.

So I think I updated everyone pretty well with what we did in Cambodia and don't worry when I find time to upload pictures I will soon have those on here. I found one from Vietnam on Facebook. I'm really bad at uploading pictures first thing when returning into the country....haha!

Vietnam was amazing! I really enjoyed returning there, I went on MY DTS in 2009 and didn't have the best of times. But being able to go back was good. The first week and half we spent in the city of Saigon. I actually lead the team during that time. I learned allot of new things about leading. We got to do some ministry opportunities with a local church group. They were so sweet and invited us to go with them to different people houses and bless them. It was Tet which is the Vietnamese new years and so it was a huge thing for them to bring us along. We joined them with allot of things that week and also did a prayer walk around the part of the city were we stayed.

We then had two weeks in Hanoi which was amazing!!! We got to help teach English in a university and on Valentines day gave the students valentines with words we got for them from God or verses, it was really awesome that we had that opportunity in a closed country like Vietnam. We spent allot of our ministry time at that university but we also were able to hangout by Ho Kiam Lake which was near our hotel we stayed at. Some of the students made friends and connected with them on our times off or played guitar and sang worship songs. God has been doing amazing things in Vietnam and He was able to use us during that short time there to share His love to HIS people.... How wonderful that was!!!!

The DTS graduated last Thursday and even tho I was sad to say goodbye to them I know God's going to do AWESOME things with each of them. Please keep them in your prayers because they say in the next 30 days after a DTS is when it either makes or breaks you. ( not to sound mean) DTS was just a stepping stone for them and now they are on there own making decisions to have devotions or to stay on the path that they set for themselves during the last 6 months in DTS.

Well I'm so glad to be back. I'll be staying in San Francisco and working in the Ellis room ( our drop in center) during our DTS off season. I also will be going to Montana June 26- Aug 3 for a DTS equip school. This is a training school for myself so I can better learn how to lead DTS'. I was excited for the opportunity that I had in Vietnam leading for a week and half and I might have the chance to lead part of our outreach to Thailand. (: So this school will help me and I'm really excited to see what God does during this time. YAY!!!!!He is sooo good to me!!! That's everything new and exciting in my life and I'll try and put up some pictures soon from my last adventure.

GOD BLESS and thank you for everything!!!!! (: