A fresh blog is a beautiful thing. The only conundrum now... What to write?
Why don't we start with introductions. Hi. My name is Gabrielle, but it used to be Emily. Most people actually still call me Emily, but I'm not at all offended. I love Jesus more than anyone or anything else in the world, but I love a lot of other people too. And India. Oh hey, if you ever find a heart just sitting on the streets somewhere in India, let me know will you? I think I left mine there.
About the name, a couple months ago I started a study on Daniel, and one of the first points was the significance of a name. It talked about how King Neb changed the names of Daniel, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah to names that honored Baal instead of God. In the rest of the book, Daniel is still referred to by his Hebrew name, but the other men accept the pagan names. Which TOTALLY reminded me of how I was named. God gave my mom the name Gabrielle for me. My grandma didn't want her name me Gabrielle because she was afraid everyone would call me Gabby. So. My mom named me Emily instead. I started praying about changing my name back to Gabrielle, which means "God is my strength" and "woman of God". When I mentioned to my grandma that I wanted to change it back, she thought it was a great idea! Which I found strange because it had previously been a subject of conflict in our family. So when she approved I knew it was God moving her heart to accept the name He meant for me. As soon as I got home from a recent visit to her house I changed my name on facebook, but not legally.
So that's one cool thing God's done in my life recently. Another cool thing, is that He's called me to staff The Abolitionist DTS here in Las Vegas at the YWAM base! I moved onto the base on the 31st of July, spent a week in staff training, and the school began on August 8th!
Already God had been teaching me new things in this role of leadership, such as sometimes having to be the bad guy, but always being the one others can go to with problems without fear of becoming the victim of gossip. I've always sort of lived that go-to person role, but being the rule enforcer is certainly new to me. I have so much to learn in that area.
Other than turning into a meany, I've been so inspired by the students of this school who are so very passionately pursuing close relationship with God. This group of people is just so driven in the area of justice and God's heart for the oppressed... I'm beginning to think that my heart needs to step its' game!
A few people have asked me why I chose to do this school, so I guess this might be an appropriate place to answer such a question. Originally I had planned to go back to India sometime in June and spend the rest of the summer in a village of Chennai with some of the most amazing people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. But God being God, He had a different plan for me during this season. I first heard about human trafficking when a brother of mine posted a link on Facebook about a fundraiser he was doing with Love146. If you've never heard of them, I encourage you to look them up at www.love146.org and see what they're all about. After watching the videos on their website, I couldn't recall a time in my entire life that I had cried so hard or had my heart so broken. I joined the fundraiser myself, and researched more about human trafficking.
Soon afterwards, some friends at the YWAM Las Vegas base told me about a school that God had put on their hearts to run... The abolitionist DTS. I thought that was great and all, but there was no way I was going to staff a DTS. Later that year (last year) I went to Colorado to attend a friend's wedding, when my friend Andie took me to her church, New Life, for a youth night kind of thing. We didn't end up going to the youth event, but instead we went to an artifact night hosted by iEmpathize. Another fantastic organization fighting the human slave trade. I knew after that night that I could not just do nothing with this heart that God had given me for the voiceless, so I decided to staff the abolitionist DTS.
Quite a few other 'God things' happened that made all the details fall into place, and now here I am. Not really sure at the moment what I'm doing, but I'm actively making myself available for God to use to give hope to the hopeless and discipling more young people in their relationships with God.
I have so much more to say, but for now I bid you goodnight. God bless you, and may He be your strength.
Why don't we start with introductions. Hi. My name is Gabrielle, but it used to be Emily. Most people actually still call me Emily, but I'm not at all offended. I love Jesus more than anyone or anything else in the world, but I love a lot of other people too. And India. Oh hey, if you ever find a heart just sitting on the streets somewhere in India, let me know will you? I think I left mine there.
About the name, a couple months ago I started a study on Daniel, and one of the first points was the significance of a name. It talked about how King Neb changed the names of Daniel, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah to names that honored Baal instead of God. In the rest of the book, Daniel is still referred to by his Hebrew name, but the other men accept the pagan names. Which TOTALLY reminded me of how I was named. God gave my mom the name Gabrielle for me. My grandma didn't want her name me Gabrielle because she was afraid everyone would call me Gabby. So. My mom named me Emily instead. I started praying about changing my name back to Gabrielle, which means "God is my strength" and "woman of God". When I mentioned to my grandma that I wanted to change it back, she thought it was a great idea! Which I found strange because it had previously been a subject of conflict in our family. So when she approved I knew it was God moving her heart to accept the name He meant for me. As soon as I got home from a recent visit to her house I changed my name on facebook, but not legally.
So that's one cool thing God's done in my life recently. Another cool thing, is that He's called me to staff The Abolitionist DTS here in Las Vegas at the YWAM base! I moved onto the base on the 31st of July, spent a week in staff training, and the school began on August 8th!
Already God had been teaching me new things in this role of leadership, such as sometimes having to be the bad guy, but always being the one others can go to with problems without fear of becoming the victim of gossip. I've always sort of lived that go-to person role, but being the rule enforcer is certainly new to me. I have so much to learn in that area.
Other than turning into a meany, I've been so inspired by the students of this school who are so very passionately pursuing close relationship with God. This group of people is just so driven in the area of justice and God's heart for the oppressed... I'm beginning to think that my heart needs to step its' game!
A few people have asked me why I chose to do this school, so I guess this might be an appropriate place to answer such a question. Originally I had planned to go back to India sometime in June and spend the rest of the summer in a village of Chennai with some of the most amazing people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. But God being God, He had a different plan for me during this season. I first heard about human trafficking when a brother of mine posted a link on Facebook about a fundraiser he was doing with Love146. If you've never heard of them, I encourage you to look them up at www.love146.org and see what they're all about. After watching the videos on their website, I couldn't recall a time in my entire life that I had cried so hard or had my heart so broken. I joined the fundraiser myself, and researched more about human trafficking.
Soon afterwards, some friends at the YWAM Las Vegas base told me about a school that God had put on their hearts to run... The abolitionist DTS. I thought that was great and all, but there was no way I was going to staff a DTS. Later that year (last year) I went to Colorado to attend a friend's wedding, when my friend Andie took me to her church, New Life, for a youth night kind of thing. We didn't end up going to the youth event, but instead we went to an artifact night hosted by iEmpathize. Another fantastic organization fighting the human slave trade. I knew after that night that I could not just do nothing with this heart that God had given me for the voiceless, so I decided to staff the abolitionist DTS.
Quite a few other 'God things' happened that made all the details fall into place, and now here I am. Not really sure at the moment what I'm doing, but I'm actively making myself available for God to use to give hope to the hopeless and discipling more young people in their relationships with God.
I have so much more to say, but for now I bid you goodnight. God bless you, and may He be your strength.
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