Two Days… (Update #14)

Well, we have two days left here in Israel, then we head back to Colorado. We leave the 17th of May from Israel and arrive in Denver on the 17th of May.

These last two weeks have been so amazing. We as a team have been so blessed with these opportunities. We went to Masada. Masada is an area near the dead sea that King Herod and his people fled to when they were under attack. Its on top of a big rock, its about a mile hike to get to the top of the rock. We hiked it and got to see the whole area of where they lived as a group. After we spent a few hours at Masada, we went to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea was amazing. There is So much salt and other chemicals in the Dead sea that nothing lives in it. And because of the salt and other chemicals, it causes you to automatically float. Its not likely that anyone would drownd while in the dead sea. Its actually proven that the more body fat you have, the more you will float. It was such an amazing spot. The water felt like a baby oil substance. If you had any cuts, scrapes, burns, etc. They would burn and sting so bad. But you got used to it after a while.

A few days later we had an opportunity to go to the Arab side of Jerusalem and help clean it up. We got together with an organization called Citizens of Israel. We walked along a few streets (long streets) and picked up trash, garbage, basically anything that didnt belong there. We filled over 150 garbage bags. It was crazy, but such an amazing time.

A couple days later a few of us went skateboarding and we found a few spots to skate at. We ended up at a 12 stair. I tried to Kickflip the 12 stairs, after about 15 attempts, i really hurt my self. How i landed on my knee, it looked as if i blew out my knee. But i didnt. It did hurt extremly bad, but i dont think anything is broken or pulled. Later this night, it was Independence day for Jerusalem. We as a team went down to Zion square where hundreds and thousands of people were. we hung out with people and had opportunities to build on to our relationships with them.

The next day we as a team went to a bedouin camp in the desert. We helped them build a gazebo with palm tree branches as the roof. It was pretty sweet. That night we hiked up this hill and watched the sunset. The next day we finished the gazebo and then we as a team got to ride camels. it was so sweet. After the amazing camel experience we headed back to Jerusalem.

The next day we went to TheCall. Its a Prayer confrence. Its the Global Day of Prayer. We sat inside of the convention center in Jerusalem for 10 hours. 10 hours of fasting, praying and worshiping. It was crazy, but im honestly glad i did it.

The next day we went to sderot. Its a city one mile away from The Gaza Strip. We were in constant prayer the whole time we were there. We stayed two days and one night. We slept in a bomb shelter. The two days we were there, we picked up tons of trash and glass and we cut grass and cleaned up this whole area. The night we were there, a rocket was launched from the Gaza strip right outside of city we were in and killed a woman. It was a hectic time there. The city was full of hopelessness. At anytime the siren could go off and you have 15-20 seconds to find cover. No one knows when or where a rocket will be. Some people would say going to this city is suicide, they might say why would you risk your life for this. But think about it, It all started because of one man giving his life up. It all started because Jesus Christ died for the world. I am not going to sit back when the rest of the world needs to hear the Gospel and know Jesus. Im also not saying im going to be stupid and try to be killed. The bible says in Acts 1:8 – But you will recieve power when the Holy spirit comes on you;and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Thats about all the big stuff that has happened these last two weeks. Its been crazy.

Its sad that we are leaving in two days, part of me wants to stay, but part of my wants to come home. But i do want to continue to do missions in the future.

Prayer Requests:

1) Listen when the Lord speaks.

2) Trust and not doubt the Lord will provide.

3) Income when i return home.

4) Continue to Grow in my relationship with the Lord.

 

Thank you so much. All of you! I will update this when i return to the United States.

-David Bates

Crazyness (Update #13)

Hello everybody! I strongly appologize for not updating this sooner. Our schedule has been Crazy! Crazy crazy crazy!!!

Ok, continuing from where i left off. Our team left Jerusalem for the day and went to Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was more upgraded, more new buildings. We hung out on the beach for the whole day. It was our day off for the week. It was an enjoyable day off. I got a little burn, but nothin too bad. We were at the mediterranean sea. The water was amazing. so clear blue! I loved it so much. it was pretty cold, but nothing like oregon’s water. it didnt numb you at all!!!

The next two days, we got together and painted a 2 story house. Two days of eleven hours each. It was pretty fun, and i really enjoyed blessing all of the people who live in the house.

The next day we headed to an old folks home. We spent a few hours weeding and cleaning up the gardens and the walk ways, and everything else. We then went inside to hang out with some old folks. It was kinda crazy because some were halocaust survivors. I felt so bad and drained because of what they went through. I cant even begin to understand it. But im continuing to pray for them.  Later that day we walked so far to this hole in the ground that has flowing water in it. its only 4ish feet deep, but we got to swim in it for a bit. There were tons of old abandoned houses near the swim hole. we ran threw them and got pictures and stuff. We then went to the park and has shabot dinner. it was good!

The next day was the begenning of Passover! Almost everything was closed! The Jewish side was basically closed, but the arab side had some things open. Later this day, we ran into another team from YWAM. A team from England!! It was sweet to get to hang out with them and pray and worship and just love our God together! That night a group of us went on a “mission” and we climbed the old city wall and walked around it. It was dark and no one could see us, but it was so cool to see everything from that view.

We’ve been going to a church service at King of kings church in Jerusalem every sunday. its been awesome having a church to go to!

Ive been able to skateboard alot while ive been here in Israel. ive been using it for my ministry. Going to the skatepark and meeting the local kids, building the relationships with them. Its been amazing!

Later that week we got to go to the Halocaust museum! This was one of the coolest things i got to do in Israel. It was pretty big and there was so much to take it. I couldnt take it all in, but i was blown away by it all. i was the last one of our team to leave the museum, i was in there so long! i would love to be able to go back in the future. This night, we had a few hours with some kids. There was about 100 kids and we did skits, dramas, food, candy, puppets, baloon animals!! It was awesome. All the boys wanted swords, so that was sweet, it was one of the easiest things to make. I enjoyed this time with the kids so much!

Later that week we had one of our contacts speak. he spoke on History! he said its His Story. He shared his testimony and spoke some on what History really was and what it really meant. I was blown away, it was something new to me. Ive never heard that before.

The next 3 days were pretty hard! Our team went to A big open beach. There was that hippy fest. Boombomela (or something like that). there were about 25,000-30,000 people there. All younger people. Between the ages of 14 and 24ish. It was hard for me. There was so much drugs, alcohol, and nudity there. I was afraid going into it that I would be under attack and i was. I struggled with lust and i got really judgemental with alot of the people there. But i continued to pray pray pray! After the 3 days were over, i felt proud of myself. I didnt give into anything. ( Not that i would though). I had the opportunity to talk and share with alot of people who were lost and had nothing going in there life. Sex, drugs and alcohol was the path most of them went down. I will continue to pray for the people i met!!

The next day was our Director/ Leader on outreach’s birthday! We didnt do much, we just raised up some money and gave it to him so he could take his wife out to dinner! We had a mid debreif meeting. so a group of us and all the leaders got together. They asked us questions and wanted to know what weve gotten out of outreach so far, what our struggles were, etc. It went pretty good!

The other day our team met one of our contacts and he did the tour around the walls of the old city. Remember how i told you a group of us went on a “mission” and climbed the wall and walked around it. Well we did it during the day as a team. It was pretty cool. the Scenery was different because it was light out. But we got some pictures and we walked all around it instead of part of it. Later that night we broke off into groups of 3’s and went out with the idea of doing Random Acts of Kindness. We met 4 kids in the old city and hung out with them for a bit. We bought them Ice cream and then we went to a coffee shop to pray about what else we could do. Then 4 people walked in. We bought them all Coffee. They were all from Berlin Germany. We got to share our testimonys with them and we talked for 3 hours with them. It was amazing. Their names were Nancy, Thomas, Clouse, and Anya! They gave us there email address and we gave them ours. It was amazing. The highlight of the week.

Thats all we’ve done for the most part up till now. I once again appologize for not updating sooner.

Prayer Requests:

-Faith

-Patience

-Overcoming Sinful desires

-Having a Loving heart!

-Just Not regreating anything i do here. Not having regret with talking to people, or not talking to people.

 

Thank you all so much for praying and loving me.

I will update later! I promise!

-David Bates

Well, I’m Here… (Update #12)

Well, i’m here…

And it’s awesome!! I got here April 2nd at about 3:00am.

The first day was pretty sweet. We got to our hostle at 5:00am-ish. There were alot of people awake, getting ready to open there shops/markets/etc. The jetlag wasnt too bad, it took a few days to get over it, but its good now. I am ten hours ahead of Oregon.

So its been 2 weeks and we (the team) have done alot. We did some tourist things at first.

We went to:

-Garden of Gethsimine

-Mt. of Olives

-The Hezakiah Tunnels

-The Upper room

-King David’s tomb

-Mary’s tomb

-via dolorosa (where Jesus carried the cross)

-The area where Jesus was beaten

-Jesus Tomb

-Etc…

There are so many biblical things here, so much to take in. Its amazing tho.

Well, Evangelism is illegal here, but were working around it. We’ve been going to Zion Square (kind of like downtown) and hanging out with all of the street kids, and skaters, etc. We go there about 10:00pm and head home about 2:00am-3:00am. We are building relationships with alot of people. its amazing!

Just this weekend, we prayed about something we could do and a group of us guys bought some brooms and went to the skatepark. We spent 3-4 hours sweeping, picking up trash, etc. at the skatepark. It looks amazing. There was so much garbage and glass and trash everywhere. Another team went to a different park and picked up a ton of garbage for 4 hours, and then a few guys went to give food to this guy and hang out with him for a while. It was a really good day for everyone.

Today we just went to a grocery store and went down to the parking garage and made 600 boxes of food for poor/homeless people. it took about 7-8 hours, but it feels so good to have done that.

Coming up this week here in Israel is Passover….it comes once a year. Its basically Easter.

Its amazing how we have the opportunity to  be here for this.

Coming up in a week or so they are having a “hippy fest” on the beach for 3 days. Its called Bombumella (or something like that). Were going and we are hoping to have tons of impact on the people there.

I have bad news (which isnt really bad news), I and the whole Israel team are not going to go to Egypt, we’ve been praying and we feel like we should stay here and continue to work on the friendships and relationships we have started. Im a little bummed that we arent going, but im excited that i get more time with the new friends i’ve made.

I never thought hebrew and arobic would be so hard to read and understand. Its nothing like Spanish. Ha…thats easy to pick up and understand for the most part.

Shalom!

Thats the only word i know…it means Hi. It actually means Peace, but its a greeting.

Today is only april 14th and we leave May 17th. Im looking forward to the rest of the time here in Israel. When i head back to Colorado on May 17th, we will have a debrief week. All 3 teams will share about what they did, what the Lord did, etc. Then May 22nd i Turn 21 years old (yay) and then May 23rd, we graduate from YWAM.

There is so much i could probably talk about, but im kind of in a hurry. I will update next week for sure!

I love you all…

Prayer requests:

-Patience with the team and the locals.

-Servants Heart

-Energy for what lies ahead

-That i would spend more time with the lord

-That i would have open ears and open heart to what the Lord is saying to me.

Thank you very much for everything… Once again i appologize for a short update.

I’ll talk to you soon…

-David Bates

Two Days… (Update #11)

Two days to go!!! I cant wait! The Guatamalla team left friday morning and the Bosnia team left Saturday morning.

The Flight Itinerary for the Israel team is:

Depart Denver on March 31st at 8:20pm on United FI#0948 to London Heathrow

Depart London at 2:15pm on United FI#8816 to Frankfurt, Germany

Depart Frankfurt at 10:25pm on United FI#9122 to Tel Aviv, Israel land at 3:20am

Returning Itinerary for Israel team is:

Depart Tel Aviv May 17th at 5:30am on Lufthansa FL#0691 to Frankfurt, Germany

Depart Frankfurt at 1:30am on Lufthansa FL#0446

Arrive Denver at 3:55pm on Saturday May 17th

Im all packed and ready to go. This whole week has been going by so slow. I wish it was monday right now.

Starting monday my cell phone gets shut off till i get back into the country. The only way to contact me is

Email: christskater05@yahoo.com

Myspace – www.myspace.com/christskater05

I will have internet access possibly once a week. So feel free to send me an email or message.  My first priority is to update my blog before i reply to emails, so if i dont reply to any of you, im sorry! Please forgive me.

Tomorrow (sunday) is a team day. We do everything together as a team. Pray, eat, go over all skits and dramas, etc. Monday we do a quick clean up around the base, then we eat and then we will head to the airport.

 That is all the Info i have right now.

Once again, thank you all for supporting me! Thank you for being apart of what the Lord is doing in my life.

I will update the next chance i have…

-David Bates

Nine days and counting… (Update #10)

Yep, thats right! Only 9 days till I leave for Israel and Egypt. I am very anxious, nervous, excited and ready to experience what God has been preparing me for!

I apologize for the fact that i have not updated in a few weeks. I have been busy and when im not busy, the internet is either not working, or its really really slow.

So much has happened in these last few weeks. Two weeks ago Black Mattocks came back and he spoke on the topic of Bible Study. At first the week started off really slow, the first two days consisted of just reading. I was starting to come to the conclusion that this week was the most boring week yet, but it got better. We learned about doing inductive bible study. Ive never heard of doing inductive bible study before, it was a new concept to me. Blake had us watch a sermon someone gave and we were supposed to write down anything that we felt was ‘out of place’ – meaning, if we felt like the guy giving the sermon was taking things out of context, etc. Everyone had at least a full page front and back of stuff that came across to us as out of place. I wasn’t sure why Blake asked us to do this, but later he explained that it is our job to ‘chew on the meat, and spit the bone out’. He meant that there are some pastor’s, speakers, preachers, etc. that will preach on a topic and they could very easily take things out of context, and if we dont know what the bible says, we could very easily believe something that is not true, or is partially true.

Last week was by far the most amazing week here at YWAM. We had guest speaker Stefaan Hugo from South Africa. He came and spoke on the topic of Holy Spirit. He used scripture in everything he was speaking on, he had some amazing stories and testimony’s, and he was so creative. He spoke on the spirit in the old testament, the spirit in the new testament and explained how when Christ died, he gave us the Holy spirit (which lives inside us). This week was going really good, then it got even better. Stefaan planned on having a worship night starting at 7, but he said there would be no music and no singing. I was really confused. I know that worship is more than just music and singing, but i was confused of what we would do. Earlier in the day Stefaan told us to be praying about obedience, listening to the Holy Spirit. He said to be praying about what we can give away, and to whom we can give it to. This night was a night of worship, but we called it the giving night.

I prayed and prayed all day about what i could give and to whom i am supposed to give it to. I really wanted to be obedient to the lord in this time. I kept remembering this saying, “You must give what you need so God can give you what you dont have”. Over and over again this kept popping up in my head. 7 rolled around and everyone had backpacks full of things, etc. I will never forget this night, how i saw so much obedience from everyone, how i really saw the Lord working. The giving night lasted 3 and a half hours.

So many valuable things were given, meaningful things, expensive things, etc. Through out the night there were 13 snowboards given, 5 laptops, 7 Ipod’s, 2 wedding rings, 1 car, 1 motorcycle, alot of money, clothing items, skateboards, etc. So many things were given. I was so shocked at what was given. I praised the Lord so much because of seeing him work.

I gave shoes, snowboard pants, DVD’s, Ipod speakers, my Ipod, 150 dollars. I was really selfish and was holding on to these things, I really didnt want to give them away. But i knew the lord was telling me to and i kept remembering the saying, “You must give what you need so the Lord can give you what you dont have”.

Lets see, this week was Outreach Prep week. It was hard and fun. We learned skits, dramas, balloon animals, games, and puppets. The hard part was the skits and drama’s. The fun part was the balloon animals, games and puppets. We also learned how to prepare a sermon while on outreach.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. The Israel team is leading the Sermon on the hill (The church service at the top of the mountain at the Breckenridge ski resort). We will do worship, do a drama, speak about the drama a little and do a little sermon. They are expecting a couple hundred people to be there, so im pretty excited and nervous to perform infront of everyone, but its gonna be fun.

Well, that is what has been happening these past few weeks. I will update atleast once more before i Leave for Israel.

Please be praying for me and the Team.

Thank you once again for all of your prayers and support.

-David Bates

About One Month (Update #9)

Hello everyone. I apologize for the long delay of not updating my blog. I dont have any excuses, ive just been lazy.  Well, I have exactly 29 days (about one month) until i leave for Israel and Egypt. We leave March 31st. I am so excited. My heart is patiently waiting this amazing opportunity to go into the world and serve the Lord. We (the Israel/Egypt team) will be working with the street kids, the skaters, most likely work with orphanages, and whatever else the Lord wants us to do. I am going with an attitude to do anything and everything for the Lord without complaining. I sometimes struggle with this, but my heart is ready to do the Lords work. How can i complain about serving the Lord? Lets see, Three weeks ago we had Peter Warren as our guest speaker. Peter is the founder of YWAM Denver. He spoke on the topic of Missions. He talked some about traditions. Traditions in the church and how some churches will do this, but other churches will do the opposite. The thing he said that really stood out to me and stuck with me was, “If you cannot find scripture to back up tradition, then get rid of it”. He said, so many churches will do something as tradition, but why do they do it? What does it mean? What reasons? Is it because they once did it and then it became tradition? He really pressed on the fact that if you cant find scripture to back it up, then get rid of it. He also said, not all traditions are bad, but some you really need to understand the reasoning behind it.Two weeks ago we had Greg Devries as our guest speaker. He spoke on the topic Evangelism. He spoke strongly on it. I was sick for two of the days he spoke, but i got the notes from a room mate. For the two days i was in class, he really impacted me with some of the things he said. One thing he said to the class was, “Salvation…its not just a destination, its a process” This is so true and key in every Christians walk. I dont really want to go on about what this means, but if you really think about it for a minute, i am positive you will understand. Last week, we had world famous speaker, Dean Sherman. He travels all around the world and speaks on two topics. Relationships and Spiritual Warfare. He has been to over 80 different countries. (his son Troy Sherman leads dts’s in oregon at the salem base). Dean spoke on the amazing topic of Spiritual warfare. First i want to say, I was blown away and amazed by how important Spiritual Warfare is. It is important for every person, Christians and non-Christians. This topic is so huge and has so much importance, i could easily share with you all of my notes, but i am only going to share a few things that i really believe and want everyone to know and live by. Dean backed up everything he said with scripture. Everything! “People are not the enemy! We DO NOT fight people”. Here are some verses to back it up. Romans 12:18, Hebrews 12:14, Colossians 3:12, Eph. 6:12. I have heard this many times before, but Dean really pushed it. He said, ” Dont hate the person, hate the sin”. Please do not forget this. Every person is born with Sin, everyone sins. They might sin against you, but DO NOT sin back against them. Matthew 5:44.Dean said a quote that is a quote I want to live by. Its something that i think every Believer should live by. “Dont make a living, make a giving”.  We’ve all heard its better to give than receive, but i think that quote says it better.  Matthew 5:40-42, Matthew 6:3-4.Dean also talked about putting the Armor of God on. (Eph. 6:11)He asked the class if we have the Armor of God on right now. We weren’t sure. (Eph. 6:14-17)He asked us if we were saved, and we all said yes and we said it proudly! He asked us if that is salvation…we all said yes. Eph. 6:17 says to take up the helmet of salvation.   Since we are all saved, we have salvation. We are always always always wearing the helmet of salvation, so we always have Armor of God on. It makes sense.  We (Christians) are always in battle…ALWAYS! If we wernt, then why would we need to put on the Armor of God? The enemy is always attacking us, using all sorts of things. Anger, Judgement, Lust, Etc. He uses these things in our lives to attack us. Ask yourself, “What would I do to me if i was the devil?”The answer is easy…Whatever works. (What has the enemy used in the past to attack us?) If it has worked before, then you have to believe he will try to use it again.1 Peter 5:9 Spiritual Warfare is learning to:Recognize the strategies of the enemy.Refuse to cooperate with them.Resist them aggressively in the name of Jesus.  Satan does nothing by himself, he does everything with the cooperation of humans. This is something we all need to realize. He brings things up in our life, and we either stand firm in Jesus Christ and say no to them, or we give in to them. It all boils down to our choices and our decisions. “Without God man cannot, without man God does not” – We all have to choose to follow him. Everything is a choice.live by this saying, its simple and its strong. “Choose it”You gotta choose it. Well, that is some of the things that Dean Sherman spoke on and that is some stuff that i have learned. There is so much more, but i dont want to give a sermon on spiritual warfare in my blog.  The last thing i want to say is Eph. 6:18 – Live by it! This week we will have a guest speaker Blake Mattocks again. He will be back, but this time he is speaking on Bible Study. Im excited to hear all he has to say and really learn more about bible study. I want to once again Thank all of you who are supporting me. Thank you so very much. I also want to thank everyone who takes the time to read all of my blog updates to see what the Lord is doing in my life.I leave march 31st and head to Israel and Egypt, Im not positive if i will be able to update my blog, but i will try my hardest. Please keep me in your prayers.My requests are:1) Finances2) Taking the time to listen to the Lord (having open ears and an open heart)3) Giving all of my desires and wants to the Lord. Thank you once again. -David Bates 

Israel And More (Update #8)

Israel is where i will be going on outreach. Two months in Israel will stretch me, grow me, and teach me alot. I prayed about all 3 choices. Israel, Bosnia, and Guatamalla. I felt like God wasn’t specifically calling me to one country. I felt like God gave me the choice to choose, and I felt a peace about Israel. I am super excited. The Israel team will possibly go to Egypt for 2 or 3 weeks also. God came through and provided 1,700 for me. I still need a total of 1,700. I trust God will provide what i need.

Alright, so When we got back from the X-Games we had a guest speaker Blake Mattocks. He spoke on the Character of God. Then last week we had John Murphy speak on Relationships. Two very big topics. Blake shared alot of personal stories and had some amazing things to say. He had scripture to back up everything he said. He asked up if we were World Changers. He conviced us that we were. This gave me a confidence and attitude to go out and to not be afraid of the world. A big fear i used to have was ‘Fear of Man’. I always worried about what others thought about me, I always wanted to be accepted. But i dont have that desire anymore. I have a heart to do God’s work.

John Murphy talked about Relationships. He shared about relationships with friends, family, God, and romantic relationships with the opposite sex. This was something that i was really interested in hearing. with four days of speaking, i have about 10-13 pages of notes. The thing that John shared that stood out the most to me had to do with Relationships with the opposite sex. He said,

They should be Compatabl:

1) Spiritually

2) Mentally and Emotionally

3) Socially

4) Physically

He said that this is the order they should be in, but the world seems to do this backwards. They start with physically, socially, mentally and emotionally, and lastly spiritually.

I was glad to hear that.

Today is Saturday, most of the class went snowboarding, i decided to stay behind and get some things done. I really wanted to update my blog, do some reading, and relax.

Last week i was deathly sick, but now im great. I think i had food poisoning. I was throwing up all weekend.

Well my friends, I must go, but i will update soon…

-David Bates

X-Games And More (Update #7)

So much has happened in the last week and a half. We started out the week with another guest speaker. Steven Aherne. He spoke on Submission and Authority. This was a tough topic. It was kind of hard for me to take it all it. He had so much to say. I took a few pages of notes tho. Something he said that stuck with me was, “The battle is won or lost in the heart”. This really hit me. It made me think about my heart in all situations. I was really stretched this week, it was good for me. X-Games! They were awesome. We all had an amazing time. We got blessed with so many things. We got tons of SWAG (Free stuff), We got VIP spots in a few events (up close to the pro’s, we got to hug, high-five, and talk with them), We got on TV a few different times, and we had a special VIP time with Kelly Clark. We spent 30-45 minutes with Kelly Clark. Kelly is one of the worlds top Female Professional Snowboarders. We got pictures, got to ask all sorts of questions, and she shared her testimony. Kelly Clark is one of the few professional snowboarders who are Christians. It was an awesome time with her. We also got invited to a Red Bull party (we got tons of unlimited free red bull).We also had the opportunity to serve. We had 3 different outreaches. We had a bus outreach where we got into different groups and road buses for a few hours all around Aspen. While we were on the buses we had the opportunity to share with the people about Jesus, YWAM, and all sorts of things. Another outreach was Picking up trash at the X-Games and Downtown Aspen, this was a good opportunity to share with people, because people would ask us why we were picking up trash. And the last outreach was Random acts of kindness. We bought coffee for people, prayed for people, and gave FREE HUGS to people. It was really fun to do all of this. God really stretched me during the outreaches. He put me in uncomfortable situations and that caused me to step outside my comfort zone and share. It was good for me! Outreach decisions are due this friday. I have to decide if im going to Israel, Bosnia, or Guatamalla for my 2 month outreach. I am still not sure where i want to go. please pray for me and my decision!Also, would you please pray for me and my financial side of the outreach. I need to make a 50% deposite on friday of $1,700.Would you all please pray about supporting me financially. I know most all of you have given generously to me for YWAM. I am humbly asking that you would consider praying about supporting me for my outreach.Thank you all for everything!Im going to go shower, straighten up my room and do some homework.   -David Bates 

Wow (Update #6)

WOW!!! That is all i can say. Wow! I have only been here one week and i am amazed.

I arrived last saturday night, i stayed at the YWAM base in Arvada Colorado. I stayed at that base saturday night and sunday night. Monday we did registration and we all went up to the YWAM base in Golden Colorado; Eaglerock base! Ive been here since last monday and its been amazing. There are 46 students in my DTS (Discipleship Training School). 13 girls, and 33 guys. The base up here in the mountains is so beautiful. We have a really nice campus.

The first week was a bonding week, where all us students and staff got to know each other. Friday, saturday and sunday we went snowboarding. The mountains here in Colorado are amazing. We have a 5 mountain season pass. The 5 mountains we go to are Breckenridge, Keystone, A-Basin, Vail, and Beaver Creek. Snowboarding was really fun those few days.

We (the students) have to ready 6 books in 12 weeks. The book i am currently reading is called “Is That Really You God?” written by Loren Cunningham (the founder of YWAM). It is actually a really good book. I dont read books, but i am really enjoying it.

This week we have a guest speaker Jeff Pratt. He is such an amazing speaker. He is speaking this whole week on the topic ‘The Father heart of God’. He has been to 80 diffrent countries and he is really bible smart. He is so down to earth too.

This whole week ive been here God has been showing me, teaching me, and putting me into situations ive never been in. He is stretching me like ive never been stretched before. I am so glad i made the decision to do a DTS.

Next week all 46 of us are going to the Winter X-Games 2008. I am so excited. We will get to watch it all live, meet all the pro’s (including Shaun White) and meet tons of amazing people and companies. All of us staff and students will go around and pick up all the trash, share Jesus with others, and just show them Jesus through us. This is going to be a good opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone and do things i dont normally do. I am really excited for this opportunity.

Most of all, i am really excited to go on outreach. Israel, Bosnia, and Guatemalla (or however you spell it).

I have been praying alot about where the Lord wants me to go. I am not sure yet, but i feel its going to be either Israel or Bosnia. Please pray for me.

Well, i got to go now, i am going to go read my book and get some home work done. Thank you very much for everything all of you.

I am still short money for my outreach. I need a little more than $3,000. I am humbly asking all of you to pray about supporting me more. If you do want to help me and support me financially, i have a address here for recieving mail. My address is

David C. Bates
Youth With A Mission – Eagle Rock
3840 Hwy 46
Golden, CO 80403

Even if you do not want to support me, recieving a letter or a box of goodies would be good from time to time. Thank you for reading my blog and keeping up with me.

Good Night.

-David Bates

I’m Here And I’m Safe (Update #5)

Well, I am here and im safe! God is good!

So today was the first time ive been on a plane. It was cool, but i wasnt really missing much. I had about a 30 min. delay on my flight, but i made it.

I got picked up at the airport by one of my staff leaders Peter Bower, he’s a pretty cool guy! We talked alot on the drive from the airport to the base. It sounds like he has a pretty awesome testimony!

Class starts monday, and there is supposed to be about 50ish students doing YWAM with me. Right now there are only 4 guys (including myself) that are here. They seem pretty cool as well.

The weather here is pretty good. All roads are dry, but there is big piles of snow all over.

It’s only a 1 hour difference between Colorado and Oregon. Right now im pretty tired, its about 11:15pm and im exausted. Im probably gonna go to bed shortly.

I just wanted to let you all know im here and im safe. Thank you for all of your prayer! Please continue to Pray for me as i will continue to pray for you.

Monday is the begenning of a new journey for me! I’m excited, nervous and unsure, but ready! God is good!

-David Bates