connect

friends!

if you'd like to get a taste of what's going on in the tent over here, you can live stream our groovy corporate sets every night from 7-9 pm eastern time. you can also check out our webcast to see clips of previous nights and hear some rad testimonies. click this link yo!:
http://new.livestream.com/DerekPackard/events/1601418

if you want more information on David's Tent, what it's about, etc., here is our website that talks all about that and what's going on over here:
http://davidstentdc.org/

in recent news, hurricane sandy is headed right for the east coast & we have relocated to a local church for the next couple of days until it passes. keep us in your prayers!

i'm not sure this video will load (you'll need facebook), but a week ago our leadership track spent 12 hours of the night (7pm-7am) together and circa 6am-ish, we jammed hard. here's a little sound of the wild grooves that were made:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151122840222428


ps // we are now on the 1am-7am watch and the transition over has been rough but so full of goodness. we are hoping our bodies will adjust even more and be completely healthy and would appreciate prayers for that as well! only 11 more days!

all my love!

a new adventure!

What a year this has been.

With your help financially, emotionally, and spiritually, I was able to follow God’s call to Kona, Hawaii to be a student in Youth With a Mission’s Discipleship Training School.

The time spent in Hawaii and months later in Cambodia, changed my life.

God’s presence was so tangible and He spoke so clearly to me in that time. I was called out of comfort to live a life radically for Jesus. His love and grace has touched my heart in tremendous ways, and through faith I saw it radically transform peoples lives as I traveled.

I know Jesus as my Savior, my comforter, an incredible provider, and as my deepest friend.

Through worship sessions, hours spent in prayer, intentional discipleship, close knit friendships, hundreds of healings and salvations, and incredible lectures in class, I know that this is the life that God is calling me into.

I am overjoyed to tell you that I have been invited to staff YWAM this September. My heart is so full of life & joy to be able to have this opportunity. Through much prayer and confirmation, I have decided to accept that invitation and run with YWAM for the next two years.

This journey will be absolutely beautiful. It will be full of life, love, growth, long plane rides, challenges, friendships, visas, stamps on my passport, financial provision, music, and laughter.

The next nine months of my life will be spent in intentional leadership training, preparing my heart and mind to lead students further into their relationship with Christ & walk into the fullness of their destiny. Come September I will be spending forty days in Washington DC, leading, and managing 24 hour worship in a tent behind the White House leading up to the election. After those forty days, I will be traveling back to Hawaii to continue growing as a family in leadership and in the Word, working in the community, and on the YWAM base. After Leadership Track is finished, I will then staff the Fire & Fragrance Discipleship Training School from the months of January through June, where I will lead a team to another country to do missions.

Knowing what’s ahead, I am overjoyed to be laying my life down to be doing missions work for the Kingdom. With this commitment comes a lot of sacrifice, but so much life and an abundant amount of fruit.

None of this would be made possible without the love and support of my community. So firstly, I want to thank you for all of the love, encouragement, and support you have already given me. If you feel lead to continue walking with me through this journey God has given me, there are many ways to do so.

Firstly, I am living a volunteer lifestyle. I will be living day to day by the support of people who feel like God is leading them to financially support me. While staffing YWAM, I need to raise $600 a month for rent, food, health insurance, and other living expenses. If you feel like God is putting this on your heart, please let me know! Even If you spare your money on a meal once a month, a coffee a week, or feel lead to be a monthly supporter at any cost, it would be GREATLY appreciated & help tremendously. But most of all, I want to ask you to partner with me in prayer, for hearts to be radically encountered by the love of God, and for this world to be transformed through his grace and mercy.

All donations, letters, questions, and support of any form can be sent to my address at:

Ariel Frey

2641 Albert Dr.

East Grand Rapids, MI

49506

If you would like to donate online, my paypal email is:
ariel.jenae@gmail.com

Once again, I am so extremely thankful and full of joy to be sharing this journey with you and can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve already done for me.

I am truly blessed.

the vision

So this guy comes up to me and says,

"What's the vision? What's the big idea?"

I open my mouth and words come out like this...

The vision?

The vision is JESUS: obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army.

And they are FREE from materialism -they laugh at 9-5 little prisons.

They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice.

They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the West was won.

They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations, they need no passport.

People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.

They are free, yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.

It makes children laugh and adults angry.

It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.

It scorns the good and strains for the best.

It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.

It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.

This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.

A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great..

"Well done" of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.

They don't need fame from names.

Instead they grin quietly upwards

and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"

And this is the sound of the underground,

the whisper of history in the making,

foundations shaking,

revolutionaries dreaming once again.

Mystery is scheming in whispers, conspiracy is breathing...

This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed -young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.

The tattoo on their back boasts "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.

Winners.

Martyrs. Who can stop them?

Can hormones hold them back?

Can failure succeed?

Can fear scare them or death kill them?

And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking,with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and great barrow loads of laughter!

Waiting. Watching: 24 - 7 - 365.

Whatever it takes they will give:

Breaking the rules,

shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide,

laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs,

laughing at labels, fasting essentials.

The advertisers cannot mold them.

Hollywood cannot hold them.

Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.

On the outside?

They hardly care!

They wear clothes like costumes: to communicate and celebrate, but never to hide.

Would they surrender their image or their popularity?

They would lay down their very lives,

swap seats with the man on death row,

guilty as hell: a throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears,

with sleepless nights and fruitless days,

they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings.

They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.

Don't you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdos!

Summon the losers and the freaks.

Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes!

They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow,

Mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.

Their prayers summon the Hound of Heaven

and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be.

It will come to pass;

it will come easily;

it will come soon.

How do I know?

Because this is the longing of creation itself,

the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is His today.

My distant hope is His 3-D.

And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great "Amen!" from countless angels,

from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself.

And He is the original dreamer,

the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

say yes

will you follow me without having to have it all figured out?

"come.

follow me."

Noah said yes. 

He built a boat for 100 years with unwavering trust.

Abraham said yes. 

He was willing to sacrifice his only son.

are you ready to follow without understanding?

YES.

this past week has been a full on free fall. 

let me just tell you that i believe my DTS family has fully heard the voice of God. we have heard that whisper. we have felt His heart beat for us. 

it is His call that has brought us together. He has brought us from so many different backgrounds, so many different journeys, so many sicknesses, so many accidents and trials, so many bankrupt moments, so much brokenness and met us there. He met us there and said child, come follow me. and he continued to pull us out, to provide for us immensely, and brought us together as one family with the same desire. to be on fire for Him.

and each one of us is a warrior. completely on fire for God. completely in love & hungry to know our Maker more. we have heard!  through simple obedience we have followed! and now we lay down our lives together, a complete surrender, because what else do we have!? He is our inheritance.

"come follow me. come. come trust me, come fall into my arms. let me love you. let me show you your true identity. come."

this past week has taught me a tremendous amount.

it's taught me humility.

honor.

the UNFATHOMABLE amount of love that He has for me. i've felt it. i've been completely rocked by it.

i've learned God as my Lover. that He cherishes me. that i am the apple of His eye. 

i am learning daily how to chose His love, & not the false things of this world.

i am letting Him consume me. i am understanding how to dwell in His presence. how to linger. how to stay a while. 

i am learning that He is everything i have ever desired. 

that I AM NOT DEFINED BY MY SIN. WE ARE NO LONGER SLAVES OF SIN. i am defined by beauty.

how to live without fear, without inhibitions because it's THERE that deep intimacy lies. 

how to live in the urgency of the hour we live in.

what i yield to is what i operate in.

i am a new creation.

& i will follow Him into the darkest places.

the big reveal...

& the outreach location is...

CAMBODIA!!!

so the winners are my lovely friends Kirstin & Hillary (and my mom)! send me your addresses and you'll receive a nice little gift from Hawaii :o)

& for those of you who were trying to guess the two i put down for my top two choices, they were Cambodia & Mozambique!

it was so fun to hear where all of you thought I would end up. i wish i could go to all them.

but in the meantime, I AM SO EXCITED TO GO TO CAMBODIA!!! I felt God's voice whisper Cambodia to me everyday in almost everything i did. I definitely don't know what's in store, but I am so excited to experience the beauty of this nation. SO EXCITED.

please be praying with me for the country of Cambodia. for the people, for their hearts to be stirred & hungry for the love of Jesus Christ. for a new revelation of Christ's love for them to overwhelm their hearts, their minds, their souls. for protection as we travel, for unity, that we may understand what a true family is among each other, for boldness, for forgiveness, and for everlasting compassion.

HERE. WE. GROW. thank you Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

following His call

today has had such an energy about it, there's been an electricity among the campus that's filled us with anticipation & so much excitement. 

today is the day that they released the outreach location options. 

because our DTS is so big, we can't all go to one outreach location. imagine about 120 people being dropped in a foreign country...so overwhelming! so the staff prayed well before we came for God to reveal to them places all around the world that are yearning for love, that are in a deep need for light to flood their nation and be overcome with God's grace and compassion.

so can you imagine all of us!?
we were freakin out.

i almost jumped out of my seat when they passed out the sheets in which we were supposed to write our top 2 choices. i think we all almost did, we were hungry to know what places God had in store for our group. to hear His voice lead us to one specific location, the intimacy in His call towards a whole nation! and we get to listen. we get to follow. He has placed a nation in all of our hands to surrender all to.

how beautiful.

& since we are so large, we had to choose two possible outreach locations, just in case there are too many people in one and we need to get moved around to create balance and unity among us.

so how about this.

i'll list the countries & you can take a guess as to where God will lead me. if you get it right, i'll send you a nice little package from Hawaii! 

staff is praying over each one of us & will place us in specific locations (based on the two we wrote down) in a few days, so hopefully i'll be able to reveal where i'm going by Friday! you can also try & guess the two countries i wrote down...here we go!

Japan
the East Coast of the USA

Honolulu

Turkey/Iraq

China/North Korea

Nepal

Cambodia

Amsterdam

Berlin/Poland

Mozambique

South Africa

i'll keep you posted!!! good luck ;)

living close to You

Stir up our hearts, O LORD, that our trust in YOU would speak of YOUR SON. Grant us, YOUR people, the wisdom to see YOUR purposes today and the openness to hear YOUR will, that we may witness to CHRIST’s coming and so prepare HIS way; through JESUS CHRIST our LORD, who lives and reigns with YOU and the HOLY SPIRIT, one GOD, now and forever.

Amen

this prayer rings so true, the words are exact for the desires in my heart towards my time in Advent & also my journey towards YWAM.

there's selflessness that comes with this, humility, an act of surrendering your life over to be open to the call of our Father. a willingness to be the hands and the feet of our God here on Earth.

for He is coming and we were created to live for Him.

this holiday season has been the first time where i've really understood what it's supposed to be about. what being thankful looks and really feels like. what Advent means & how it should be reflected. 

it's not about the crunch time to find perfect gifts, how much money is in my bank account, what date everyone is coming into town, or all the times of parties and dinners and shows. & although i already know that's not what the Holiday season is about, it's what seems to be the consistency of the conversations and actions leading up to the arrival of Christmas day. we have this eagerness and anxiousness during Christmas season. we want to finish finals and have a breath of fresh air, we want to get home and spend time with our families, but this isn't the right anticipation in our hearts.

there's stillness, bountiful amounts of joy and excitement, tender moments that are alive with beauty that could only come from our Father and a deep understanding of what God is doing in the weeks leading up to Christmas. do we experience this everyday? or do we experience stress?

we need to slow down

to quiet our hearts & minds and sit with the Lord

to ask for wisdom to see His purpose in today 

to prepare the way for the Lord for HE HAS COME, HE IS HERE, AND HE IS COMING.

what could be a better time to live this out than now?

it's so evident how shackled i was, even weeks ago!, with doubts and fears of my future. I was not still. i was not meditating on Him. my mind was racing through every possible option of what could happen in the future, believing that I needed to have everything figured out and I could do that all on my own. I was not trusting.

BUT GOD HAS RELEASED ME. there has been a transformation in my life (isn't it amazing how He keeps renewing & restoring!?) i am listening. i am surrendering my doubts, my fears, my desires, my life, over to Him and my mind is refreshed! i am ALIVE and only breathing in excitement. 

He has been making all things possible for me, from giving peace & acceptance to my friends and family, to delivering incredible amounts of income overnight. i am going. & i give SO much of my thanks to all of you who read & are moved by what God is doing, He is showing tangible pieces of his love through your donations and kind words. He gives so much encouragement through them & it's so evident how supported I really am. thank you. from the bottom of my heart. for reading, for giving, for praying, for loving.

He gives and He gives and He gives and He gives.

living close to You

we shall see Your hand

Your purpose

Your will through all things.

-St. Ignatius

may we all continue to live close to Him

to be fully present in the work He is doing right now

to be open & willing to hear Him

to let Him use our hands & feet for His Kingdom

to be a strong warrior 

& to forever give glory and praise to Him

for a daily piece of meditation this Advent season, check out Beautiful Advent & soak up the good Word of God. He is coming.

stillness

i have a choice. 

everyday i am confronted with a decision. either to fall into worry & disbelief that the journey ahead of me will happen, or to trust, wholeheartedly, that God can do all things. that He can provide. that He can make YWAM happen.

& i have to remind myself this. daily. 

it's as if my mind tries to destruct all of this strength I have. as soon as I get up on my two feet, right as things are clear & i finally understand and believe, my mind finds every possible excuse, lie, or worry to replace all of the goodness and trust that was just planted.

but God is an intimate & all knowing God. this is when He does really beautiful things that just make me laugh at how silly my thoughts and actions are sometimes.

it's seems only right that i am experiencing these emotions right now, it's as if God has this witty little sense of humor reminding me that this is the time of Advent.

I need to still my heart.

stillness

do you know this word? have you experienced this in your heart?

there have been pure moments in the past few weeks where this tangible peace, this overwhelming sense of stillness has come over my heart. just a little reminder to quiet the thoughts in my head. to fully trust Him.

"remember, there are two things which are more utterly incompatible then even oil and water, and these two are trust and worry...when a believer really trusts anything, he ceases to worry about the thing which he has trusted. & when he worries, it is plain proof that he does not trust." Hannah Whitall Smith

"Jesus has come, Jesus is here, Jesus is coming"
i believe this.

I need to live my life acting like I believe this.

watching for Him.

living for Him.

being radically obedient for Him.

He has called me to go forth. to be a disciple to the Nations.

once struggling with a burden, my dearest friend Frances said this to me: "in that moment, when you choose other than to follow Christ in that decision, you are saying that He is not enough."

when i give in to worry, when i give in to fears and lies and deceptions, I am saying that my Maker is not enough. The one who made me. the one who sacrificed His whole life for me. so that i, a worthless sinner, could live. 

I need to make the choice.

to fully trust in Him.

i'm 1/3 of the way there financially. God provided an immense amount of money to me within a matter or two days last week to get me to this point. i'm 1/3 of the way there.

i can do this.

we can do this.

i will trust him.

i will quiet my mind.

i will still my heart.

i will be like Phillip & radically obey Him.

i will follow Him.

take heart

"isn't it a great thing to feel the indwelling of the Holy Spirit permeate your entire being? and then follow his guidance into the unknown?

it is a ball of fright, passion & humility.
it is something that will impact the rest of your existence here.
don't forget about the journey it took to get to this point. Don't forget about the actual experience, the sentences you'll be living will end in a chapter. And don't forget to continue to let the Holy Spirit guide you as you heed his call -- even after this chapter is complete, you still have a whole story to live."

may the Holy Spirit guide your thoughts and actions. may you fully trust in the one who made you. may you relinquish all control to experience the freedom that openly awaits you. may you find joy and peace. may you die to yourself so that you may bring true life.

all things are possible through Him who dwells in me.

take heart, oh child.

come my child, follow me

this is the beginning.

something brand new.
something fresh.
exciting, exhilarating, joyful.
here is where i put one foot in front of the other. 


here is where i trust, whole heartedly, in my Maker.


quite a while ago i heard a whisper deep inside. it sat in the back of my mind, in my bones, in the bottom of my heart and i pushed it aside until it grew. and it did not stop until i listened.


this whisper was a call.
& it has never been so clear to me that is was the voice of my Poppa, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 


come my child, follow me.


this voice was with me for weeks, tearing my walls down, rattling my bones, shaking me to my core.


Jesus had a different plan for me. 


It no longer involved the concrete plan I had made for myself. He was asking me to drop the safety and comfort of my world and follow Him. 


So I am.


here marks the beginning of a journey to something I know God has  so deeply rooted in my heart. a seed that is growing so tall, so strong, and I want to share it with you.

come my child, follow me.


follow me to a new place, something different then what you intended. so I am embarking on a new journey towards YWAM. Youth With a Mission is an international volunteer movement dedicated to serving Jesus Christ throughout the world. Here I will have the opportunity to be a part of a ministry that is passionate about seeing authentic communities centered on the presence of God raised up around the Earth, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ through discipleship, sharing the unconditional love of Christ, and experiencing His grace. 


i have the opportunity to follow his call to this Discipleship Training Seminar in Kona, Hawaii from January to June of 2012. I am SO EXCITED to be a part of a community that pours out the good word and love of our Father. through this movement I will also be learning about God's character and nature, His voice, growing in my knowledge of the Gospel, worship & intercession, and being a disciple in God's kingdom. Another amazing opportunity I have through this Discipleship Training Seminar is the last two months. This time will be spent on an outreach phase overseas where we will be spending time building relationships with communities and showing light in areas that have never seen it.


I am SO EXCITED to follow my Father's call!


although I do not know what lies ahead for me, i do know to trust in my Fathers plan. I have the opportunity to know my Maker more, to study His word, and to use the gifts and passions He's given me all over the world in order for people to know who He is & fully understand His love.

this is the beginning.
this is me dropping my net and following Him.
this is beauty.


so my friends, family, and even the many of you I may not know, i ask you to keep this ministry & I in your thoughts and prayers for i cannot do this alone! It is only through Christ that YWAM may be made possible & for beautiful relationships to grow from it. I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for Him. He makes beauty from ashes. 


if you would like to help me financially through my journey, please feel free! I need to raise $9,000 by January, so any amount you feel lead to donate is GREATLY appreciated. Checks or cash can be sent to me (so shoot me a comment or email at Ariel.Jenae@gmail.com and i'll send you my address and other details) OR hit the DONATE BUTTON on the right side of the blog & donate to my cause! Most importantly, I just ask for your prayers with this ministry and with every person involved.


Once again, I am so excited to be able to share this with you & can't wait to see how God is moving in all of our lives. Please come back to read more about my journey & feel free to pass the story along!

for in everything we do, we are able to create Heaven here & now.

into your hands i commit my spirit