Colton's international adventure

My precious, amazing, special, gifted, humble, God-fearing younger brother Colton is on a 5 month long mission trip right now and this is his most recent email back home. His is working with YWAM (Youth With a Mission) and he will be going to 3 or so different countries in a 5 month period. I love and miss him dearly and I wanted to share this email! I will be posting updates about him more regularly, but if you want to receive these emails regularly just give me your email address and I will have him add you to the list. =)

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Dear Friends and Family,

From the Dominican Republic I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
It's been about two weeks now since I arrived to the Domincan Republic and things are going great! It's really hot here compared to Washington weather, for example its about 80 degrees at 10 o'clock in the morning and it's also very humid. I'm starting to get used to the weather and don't really mind it. It is true that literally everybody here loves baseball. The Dominican is huge on baseball and especially San Pedro, the city we have been in the last two weeks. We saw our first wild taranchula the other day too and it was...well...big. There is another DTS group here on base from Denver doing there Outreach too. So altogether there are 40 people on base and 5 staff. It's a small base so it has a really busy feel to it right now which I like especially over the Holidays.

So far we have been doing a lot of ministry with kids from the ages of 4 to 18. Our team goes to different churches and poor communities everyday and we teach lessons and share our testimonies. I've had the opportunity to share a message with a group of kids and also shared my testimony a few times. It is sometimes difficult to go day after day and pour yourself out to these kids when it's hard to see if there is any fruit but I was really encouraged when I heard a boy about 10 years old singing. He was singing "Christo es mi Superheroe" which means, Christ is my Superhero, to see the joy on these kids faces as they sing about Jesus is amazing. We have also been doing about two dramas everyday which have been really good, except on our first time where my friend Gabby broke her toothe during the drama. No one knew it happened until we finished and she got it fixed the next day. So yes the dramas do get pretty intense sometimes!

Here in San Pedro there is a lot of witchcraft and voodoo going on which was a surprise to us because we thought that was mainly in Haiti. It isn't something to fear but we have been praying a lot over this area and base and taking authority over those things in the name of Jesus. I know God has big plans for this YWAM Base here in San Pedro, which is only 9 months old, because this city definately needs the light of Christ and this base is bringing that light.

We'll be going to Santo Domingo, the capital, on the 2nd and will be there one week working with a pastor. Then we return to the base here in San Pedro for one week where we will be building houses for families. Then on the 17th we fly out to Oaxaca, Mexico.

Please keep my team in your prayers, to keep seeking God's heart and giving our all to the ministries we are part of. Thank you all for your love and support!
Also I've attached some pictures as well to this email.

In Christ,

Colton Faverty

I love gay people!

Will anyone be offended if I'm extra blunt today? If you are, well that's too bad. Sometimes the truth hurts. Just saying. (Of course everything I just said was in a sarcastic tone) ;)

I want to talk about stereotypes. Isn’t it easy to judge people based off of their religious beliefs? Or their style of clothing? How about their skin color? Their family background? Their accent? Their weight? Their sexual orientation? Their financial status? How do stereotypes even get started in the first place?

All it takes is one.

One person to start a trend.

One person to start a rumor.

One person to start a movement.

It saddens me that most homosexuals don't feel welcome in churches. We gladly welcome alcoholics, couples who are sleeping together outside of marriage, drama queens, liars and gossips into our churches, yet we look down on gays? That doesn't make sense. We need to stop looking at homosexuality as a big scary issue. Is it a choice or is it not a choice? Is it only sin if you act on it or if you're just thinking it and trying to not think it? What if you've always felt this way since you can remember? Honestly I don't know all the answers! I don't know if anyone will. But what I do know is that homosexuality is just sexual sin. Just like porn, or sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend, or cheating on your significant other. It's all sexual sin and that's the issue we should be addressing. I know that the generation before us was raised in a more conservative way regarding homosexuality, but I say our generation should be the one that reaches out to the gay community in love. They should feel welcome in the church. They should not be afraid to go to church because people "will judge them".

It's time for change. We need to change the way we see homosexuality, how we react to it, and what we're doing about it. If you're reading this and you're gay, I want you to know that I LOVE you (and of course I LIKE you too, lol) and you're welcome to come to church with me any time. Or if you just want to hang out that's okay too. ;)

I don't want anyone to feel like I'm targeting gay people, I just think Christians have made a huge deal out of homosexuality when it's just sin. Just like my sins that I struggle with every day. Everyone justifies their own sin and tries to make other people's sin look so much worse. I mean, isn't materialism a sin? And I would say almost every single person I know has completely given in to that sin. Who really needs a 4,000 square foot house? Or even 2,000? We could be taking the money we spend on our mortgage every year and give it to the millions of children dying of starvation in other countries. Just a thought.

Anyway, to sum everything up, we're all jacked up. Every single one of us. Some of us are just much, much better at hiding it. That's why we're saved by grace. Because no one has all the answers, and no one is going to get it right every single time. If you're messed up like me, say AMEN! Lol

I hope this post was thought provoking.

Faith.Hope.Love.

Chelsea Rae

Just DO it

You know what I did today? I bit the bullet and I applied at Pierce College. I am learning something right now that I thought I already knew. Obedience. But you know when you "know" something but you don't really know it? You know something to be true but you don't act on it. Well...that's where I've been for the last year and a half.

During my second year in MI (Ministry Institute) I sat down with God and asked Him what He wanted me to do after the program was finished. Was I supposed to stick around Puyallup, move to another state, work full time, go to a four year university, do another internship at another church somewhere, enroll in community college while working full time...there were so many choices! I felt very strongly that I needed to enroll in school. Didn't matter where, just go to school. Well it's been about two years and guess what I haven't done?! Wow. My stubbornness and stupidity amazes me sometimes. I've been asking God for months, "What do you want me to do now? My life isn't going anywhere, I'm not moving forward. Why aren't you directing me? Why aren't you telling me what you want? Hello? Are you even listening?!" What a whiner! But He already told me what to do and I ignored Him! I've known all along that's what I need to do. Do you ever do that? Just push aside the voice of God hoping He'll stop pestering you? Well, let me just inform you, HE DOESN'T GO AWAY. If God wants you to do something, He will keep whispering in your ear and bugging you until you do it.

Not to make it sound like God is annoying, He just knows what's best for us. The morale of the story is this: If you aren't getting any direction from God, take a look into your past and see if you did the last thing He told you to do.

I haven't even started classes yet and I already feel a weight lifted off my shoulders! Chad Veach once said, "Obedience brings confidence." When you know for a fact that you're walking in the will of God you just feel better. There's a reason God says He desires obedience over sacrifice. Because He knows all the benefits of being obedient. It's easier to smile, easier to be generous, easier to resist temptation...you literally feel lighter. I would encourage you to try it.

Well, it definitely felt good to get that off my shoulders! Now, take a look in the mirror, my friend. Are you being obedient?

Faith.Hope.Love.

Chelsea Rae