Dear Saints,

Hallelujah for the Full Time Training! From what I have been enjoying, this feels like the best place on earth! Right now, we are covering the visions of Ezekiel in the Wednesday night ministry meetings. In Eze 1:4, we see a storm wind from the North, bringing in a great cloud with fire flashing incessantly, and in the midst of the fire, is glowing electrum. What a wonderful picture this is! The storm wind is the Spirit (Acts 2:2) and "from the North" indicates the source of the wind is from God (Psa 75:6-7a, 48:2). The cloud is the Lord's presence (Exo 40:34-38), the fire enlightens (Exo 40:38), and then it is the burning power for purging, purifying, sanctifying, and motivating in God's move. Finally, the electrum, which is a shining metal made of gold mingled with sliver, signifies the redeeming (silver) God (gold).

From such a picture, we see that our spiritual experiences begin with a violent wind from the North, that is, the Lord blowing upon us as the Spirit to enliven us, and even turn us upside-down in our current situation. This blowing wind brings in the presence of God in the form of a heavenly, brooding, overshadowing cloud. Here we just enjoy the Lord's presence with His care for us and to show favor to us (Prov 16:15). Within the cloud, that is, when we are in the Lord's presence, there is the fire, firstly to enlighten us, then to burn away everything other than God, for only God can pass through fire. What remains in the midst of the fire, is the glowing electrum, the redeeming God. As we experience the burning of the consuming fire, God himself is manifested in us! Hallelujah, a storm wind from the North has brought me to the FTTA, and here, I am just enjoying the brooding, covering cloud. "Thankfully" there hasn't been too much fire yet :), or if there has been, the Lord's care in the cloud has been so enjoyable that I haven't noticed it.

I'll tell you a little bit about my daily life here, which begins at 6:00am, and ends with lights out at 10:30pm. We have something scheduled, essentially for the whole day, having only a 1hr and 15min break. Every morning, we have to clean the house (I'm responsible for vacuuming the whole house), and we are inspected once a week on an unknown day. If we don't do a good enough job, we get an outline. Breakfast starts at 7:00 am, and from there, we have 12 different classes/meetings per week, plus the prayer meeting, a Friday night home/college meeting, the Lord's day morning prophesying meeting, and the Lord's table in the evening. Each day, we get home around 9:30 pm, have a short house prayer/meeting, and just enough time to get ready for bed. We do have a day of rest beginning Lord's day evening and ending Monday evening.

I have been assigned to the church in Mission Viejo, and am serving on the campus at Saddleback College. I am very much enjoying the church life in Mission Viejo, which is a relatively small church. We meet in the different homes of the saints for each meeting, so every meeting is an enjoyable home meeting. The team of trainees who I'm serving with at Saddleback is also quite small. I'm the only 1st term trainee to join them, making me the 7th member. There are four sisters: Amber, Brenda, Jenny, and Patrice, and three brothers: Matt, Ryan, and myself. Normally, each trainee has one gospel partner, but I have two (the two brothers). Last Thursday was my first day preaching the gospel! While, no instantaneous fruit, one has already invited us back to talk with him some more. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoon, we serve on the campus, and Friday we get to help out with Bibles for America.

There is so much more to say, but I would essentially have to give you a minute-by-minute report if I wanted to include everything that I have enjoyed thus far.

I hope I can see many of you here for the Winter and Summer trainings. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.