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Happy Thanksgiving! I am enjoying my thanksgiving break in American right now - 5 days off school in total!! - so am finally taking the opportunity to write an update while the pace slackens a bit. I had a lovely Thanksgiving day itself...in the morning I volunteered at the homeless thanksgiving meal that the church annually puts on...several hundred people came through the doors. The rest of the day I spent playing games, watching movies and munching food (and playing hide n seek!) with good friends. Play the video below and you´ll get an angelic serenade.!

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Bethel thanksgiving meal for the homeless. It was fun!

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Bethel thanksgiving meal for the homeless. It was fun!

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My car...the one that was stolen...twice!

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My car...the one that was stolen...twice!

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Many of you knew that my car was stolen again almost as soon as I got back...well, it was recovered (again!) and now a simple steering lock seems to be making all the difference! I remain very grateful for my car. Wednesdays for example I have classes in 3 different locations several miles apart from each other and from my house.

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This was our fancy dress party at the beginning of the school year. Revival groups consist of 60-70 students. My pastor is Carrie Lloyd who is also a writer and life-coach (http://www.carrielloyd.org.) She is so amazing and so are our wonderful interns...so loving and committed to each one of us. I feel in very safe hands! At this party Carrie led us in communion wearing a panda suit! Classic!!!

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I am really loving second year at BSSM and feel so grateful to be here. The classes are more personalized, we have more choice in what we study and the emphasis shifts to leadership development. This break for example I am preparing for ´preach week´ next week. We continue to receive world-class teaching from the likes of Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton amongst others.

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There have been some unexpected surprises so far as I have prayed over which classes to take. I´m taking a track (tracks just means a class over the whole year as opposed to an AMT short for ´advanced ministry training´ which is a trimester.) called ´Heaven in business.´ It´s really opening my eyes to bringing kingdom principles into the workplace and partnering with God for strategy and creativity. Just a couple of weeks ago I attended a secular ´start-up weekend´ for entrepreneurs. My pitch wasn´t chosen to be worked on over the intense 48 hour period (sort of a relief really as I was there to learn not to direct a team!), but the team that I formed part of as market researcher - ´Elevate Adventure´ - providing gourmet meals for outdoor adventurers - did win!  We went into the next round and are now awaiting results for regionals. Business is not my primary calling but I do have plenty of ideas, and my vision is that ultimately this will help financially support the other things I want to do, namely documentaries and film making and missions.

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In addition to ´core´ school which is uniform for all students I am also taking a Creative track focusing on film, taught by a local film-maker who produced the web-series ´The Backpages.´ This was extra-curricular to school, but I was the Artificial Inteligence voice of ´Jaqueline´ in the episode ´Dust to Dust´, and Agent Reed in ´To Belong´ (photo below.)

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My favourite AMT is ´Supernatural Missions´ with Will Hart - Will works as an itenerant speaker (www.hartministries.com) and is Chief Operting Officer for Iris Global. This class has literally blown my mind. This guy is so crazy passionate and just literally lives out of love for Jesus and will go and do whatever God calls him to. It´s really challenged and inspired me and re-ignited my fire for missions. He spent many years in The Congo amongst others. I´m not saying (and neither is he) that we all have to be in the most dangerous places on earth or missionaries in the traditional sense of the word, but the principles he teaches and the stories he shares from his own life about dying to self, and humility, and obedience are, I believe, applicable to all situations. As believers I think we should be prepared to take what the bible says seriously about taking up our cross (which pre-Christ was just a symbol for an instrument of torture implying we must be prepared to suffer for Him if necessary) and not love our lives until death. It goes against the grain of comfort and safety but we´re here for something so much bigger than ourselves. I don´t know what that means for me but I do want to get to the point where my ´Yes´ to God is swift no matter what he´s asking me to do or what the risks or discomforts are.

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I have been accepted onto a missions trip to Costa Rica! I wanted to be brave and use the Spanish that I worked so hard to learn while in Spain. This will be a great opportunity to be activated in the amazing things we´re learning here and to step out in risk. We will be meeting local needs working alongside a ministry - helping with construction, leading a church conference, visiting orphanages and loving on the kids, visiting rural villages, going to the slums, and going out on the streets just hearing peoples stories and sharing the love of God. It´s gonna be a fast-paced trip. With no pressure or expectation, I attach the link in case anyone wants to donate! https://trips.ibethel.org/transactions/new/23156

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Another memorable experience was volunteering at ´RH Ranch´ for all of the school retreats. It was freezing at the higher elevation but a beautiful place and  serving together with other students and permanent staff was a blast! I worked mainly in the kitchen as a ´roundsman´ - meaning I´d help out with whatever was most needed.

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And just to throw a random photo in, some pumpkin carving never goes amiss...!

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And just to throw a random photo in, some pumpkin carving never goes amiss...!

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At the invitation of Carrie (my pastor) I and others in our revival group embarked upon a ´noise´ fast before Thanksgiving. I  literally spent 7 days without having a single verbal conversation. I have written about my experience, and would encourage everyone to make space for a bit more silence and stillness in their lives!! To read about it, click https://padlet.com/carlathraves/gmei7vn3tjbt

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... all for your friendship wherever you are in the world!
Love and God bless, Carla xx