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

PICTURES FROM FOOD PANTRY AND A FEW FAMOUS PEEPS!

........fall

Hello everyone,
Since I last wrote, a lot has happened. I started working the Mission Adventure (MA) teams all by myself, and it's really exciting. I work weekends from Fridays thru Sundays. Last Sunday while out with my team, we saw my old Sunday school teacher while passing out homeless sack lunches .... Miss.Debbie! ( she wasn't homeless, nor is she old! hehe) She was on her way to see Wicked at the civic center. (: So with my new schedule, I now have Thursdays off. Last Thursday was really tough. We always have food pantry on Thursdays, and my friend Rachel and I always deliver two boxes- one to a lady and the other to a man; neither of them can walk very well. We set aside a box for each of them and then deliver it to them after the pantry is over. Last week we went to the mans house- his name is Don ....we didn't get an answer and after talking to the hotel manager they gave us the key to his room. They figured he had been away for several days and we could leave his food on the counter. We walked in to find that Don had passed away. It was really hard to realize he was dead, and to walk in and find him like that was terrible for both of us. Don had shared a lot about his life with us, and we were able to pray with him often, as well as just let him talk and be his friend. I know I'm really going to miss him and his stories of serving in the Viet Nam war. I didn't really know how to deal with it and it's been kinda hard on me, but God and my family and my friends here really got me through it. This Thursday's food pantry was really fun though. We had a couple of celebrities come and help us out. One of my favorites was David Arquette, from Scream, Never Been Kissed and 8 Legged Freaks!!!

It was really cool. (:
So right now, I'm a little sick with a chest cold, but hopefully that will go away by this weekend before my teams get here. Fall is here and thats my favorate season. I LOVE FALL....I bought 4 mini pumpkins and decorated my room very nice and AUTUMN-ISH!!

(:

Thanks for your support, love and prayers- it is really helpful to know you are with me in this way! Please let me know what's going on in your lives and what I can pray for you for!!

Hello everyone,
So starting in October I will be running MA teams with Kaitlyn. It will just be her and I and it looks like it will be really busy. BUT I am so looking forward to starting MA up again. All of October-December is filled up already.(: The new DTS for fall 09 are here.... It's really strange to think that it's been a year already since MY DTS last fall.I'm so excited for all of them, because I know how great DTS was for me! Yay.

I'm growing some pumpkins, peas and carrotts outside my window ....they are starting to grow and Im sooooo excited. yay!!!!

Please keep me in your prayers and make sure you pray for baby ryder as well. He has a hole in his heart and will need surgery at 3 months. Also a boy on the DTS needs to get his green card in order to go on his outreach ...please keep him in your prayers along with me and ministry starting back up in October. Thank you.

(:

Hey guys,
Oh wow.... time fly's when you are having fun! It's been amazing being here and making friendships with the people in the storefront. One day when I was in there I noticed that there was nothing on the walls that indicated we were a Christian organization...and that made me a little worried , so I went out and bought some canvasses and a couple people helped me paint them and wrote really pretty scriptures on them. They are now in the store front and even a Mexican man was looking up in his bible to translate the verses! (: How wonderful the Ellis room/storefront looks now!

Well for the month of September there is no MA groups coming. They begin again in October, and then it's just Kaitlyn and I leading these weekend groups. I'm a little nervous that I might get burned out but also excited to be leading teams again. God will do so much work in these students lives just being here. Now who wouldn't be excited for that?????

So the last week in August was really exciting for me, I got to go on the yearly staff camping trip/ retreat thing. It's just once a year where all the staff can get away from the city and focus on God and be together as group. We went camping (: SO FUN!!! Then the same week baby Rhyder was born ....so I got to go visit him that weekend.... YAY for babys!

It's been so wonderful and such a blessing to be here.
God bless. Love alwayzs, Carrianne

Great week

Hello everyone!Things are going wonderful here. I am enjoying being on staff here so much! I got to lead a MA team for the first time last week. A team of 22. They got to experience different ministry's like Hot chocolate night, homeless sack lunch, homeless plunge , prayer walks ,serving food at ST. Anthony's and a couple other really awesome ones! The homeless plunge is really neat because they get to experience first hand on what it feels like to stand in line at Glide for food and be kicked out at 6am until4pm with only bus fare for 1 way. I really enjoyed leading this team, and it wet really well. It was the last team for the summer until October when only Kaitlyn and I will be leading teams of about 50.

I cant wait to start running teams on my own. I also have allot of background/office work to do until teams start again.

Last Thursday evening I got to return home after the teams left for the weekend! It was so nice to enjoy my weekend at my 1st home in Morgan Hill. I got to see baby Tyler and Catrina before she gives birth next week, also my mom and dad!!!! (:
It was wonderful. Next week is the staff camping trip, that should be really fun and I'm SO looking forward to it !


Here's a couple pictures on our website of the woman's day event , that I talked about a couple postings ago. ( I'm in one of them (: hehe )
http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=110&gid=3
Have a good week guys!!! (:
Carrianne