Aloha,
My name is Elena Barnreuther and I am in the process of preparing for a 7 month Discipleship Training School called the Circuit Rider Experience in Huntington Beach, California. This school is an official YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Discipleship Training School run through the ministry of Circuit Riders.
During my time at the school, I will spend three months in Huntington Beach for our lecture phase. This phase will contain daily training sessions, corporate prayer and worship, weekly outreaches, small group discipleship, and hands-on skill set training that will equip me to reach my generation with the gospel. I also believe this to be an opportunity for me to draw closer to God, and experience Him in deeper ways.
Following the lecture phase we will spend 3 months on outreach. This outreach is called Carry The Love. This is a campaign for geared towards reaching the university campuses of America and the nations. On this outreach we will hold evangelistic events, do one-on-one evangelism, hold evangelism trainings, lead small groups, and serve local communities across America and Europe.
I am currently eight weeks into my Circuit Riders DTS and more has happened than I could have ever imagined. The true friendships I have been gifted from God are encouraging, loving, inspiring, and most of all, fruitful. I am finding what it means to have a true relationship with God and how obedience leads to His glory and grace.
Important Moments/Revelation:
1. Coming to Huntington Beach I knew I would have a bit of a culture shock and be faced with many new perspectives, compared to growing up on an island. In the beginning, I was very expectant for what God wanted to do, but then realized “my expectation” for the time here almost limited me to what God was really trying to teach me. GOD HAS SO MUCH MORE FOR YOU THAN YOU WOULD THINK! God has been pushing me to walk rightly and let go of things and people that are holding me back even when it’s difficult, which has been an important lesson to learn.
2. Something else that I’ve learned has been understanding I am not only created in His image, but that He has created me to live in my original design. To be fully honest, I knew I was made to live with a heart for others, to be kind, honest, and smart, but I never understood that God wants me to have his heart for others. Not to bear other people's burdens and traumas, but to walk along side them and leave the weight up to Jesus, because the weight of our sin and pain has already been paid and covered by what He did on the cross.
3. Another thing was the realization that God has been with me even when I couldn’t see Him face to face. Which leads me to how He has been teaching me to have discernment in my walk with Him. He is in every difficult and challenging situation I find myself in, and oftentimes we don’t recognize the fingerprints of God because the expectations we have for Him looks different. I should be looking for what He has for me, even in difficult situations, and not just want Him to solve the situations in ways that I think best.
Overall, it has been a wild ride of getting to know my Heavenly Father. The community here at Circuit Riders is so welcoming and loving. I can’t believe I am here and how fast it is going by. Being here has been a good reminder to be obedient to what God is asking of me. His plan is always right and his timing is perfect even when at times it may seem uncomfortable.
My next big Step!!
The Circuit Riders DTS is a two-part school, the first part being from October 1 to December 15. The second part will be our outreach phase, which will go from January 10 until around end of March. During our outreach we will be sent all over the U.S. and to other nations to host events and preach the Gospel.
Originally, I was expecting just to go around the mainland on outreach, but God had other plans! God has been doing so much preparation in my heart only to find out I'm going on outreach to SOUTH AFRICA! This is definitely God and I am going to learn so much through this next season.
Our main focus will be going to a many of the high schools in South Africa and being substitute teachers while preaching and teaching the Gospel. We will also be doing street and living room evangelism daily. Our outreach will only be the second one Circuit Riders has done in South Africa so far. We will be continuing the work the first outreach did, and the ground work and movements we will be starting will continue even after we leave by the next January DTS, coming to South Africa after us. It’s an honor to be apart of this mission and I am so extremely grateful to have this opportunity! I am humbled that God will use me to change lives, and I know my life will also be forever changed.
This change in outreach plans of course has also made my original budget for my DTS inadequate, as it's quite a bit more costly for my travel to and from South Africa. I will need a new sum of $4,500. Half of this new amount will go to my flights and the other half will go to food and travel within South Africa.
MOST OF ALL, THANK YOU!!
I want to thank you so much for caring about me and my journey! I feel humbled that you are interested in what God is doing in me during this phase of my life. If you would like to support me financially in any way, that would be greatly appreciated, but the main reason for this letter is to communicate what God has been doing in my life these past couple of months, and ask that you would consider praying for me during these next three months. I can’t wait to write again with all the things God has done and let me be a part of.
Many blessings
Lots of Love,
Elena Marie Barnreuther