Happy Memorial Day! I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday. We have the day off today, so no classes! Woo hoo! We also had no curfew this weekend, so we were able to stay up as late as we wanted. I didn't stay up that late, but I definitely got a chance to sleep in. I didn't wake up until 10am this morning. That makes up for my breakfast duty that I've done for the past eight weeks.

The lecture phase is about to wind down. We will leave for Brazil in exactly three weeks. Last week, we received teachings on spiritual warfare from Dean Sherman who has been with YWAM for many years. He gave us some practical and Biblical insights on spiritual warfare, which I believe will be very useful on our outreaches. Spiritual warfare is more then casting out demons. It's about knowing your authority in Christ, and knowing that we has Christians have the power to excercise the authority that Christ gave us when He left the earth. Now how cool is that?

This week we do not have teachings, but we will be preparing for our outreaches. All day every day we will rehearse dramas, and meet together as a group in the evenings. We've been meeting together at least once a week to pray over our respective countries, and to pray for humility and unity for the team. The Brazil team is totally awesome, as you can tell from the picture :). We have such strong leadership and prayer warriors in the group, and I have a feeling that we are going to take Brazil by storm.

There are three areas that I would like for you guys to pray over; for Brazil, for the team as a whole, and for myself on a personal level. Please pray over these items in the weeks to come as we prepare for outreach.

For Brazil (these have been taken from Operation World, personalized with our specific outreach):

• The favelas (slums), a blight in every major city. This is definitely the case in Fortaleza, where we will do city ministry in the last half of our outreach. Millions live in the favelas where poverty, crime, and disease takes a toll on their lives. Pray that we will just lavish love on them as if Jesus was with them.
• The little settlements along the many rivers in the vast Amazon jungle. We will begin our ministry in Manaus, and from there we will do river boat ministry up the Rio Negro. These villages are poor both physically and spiritually. We plan to build a well and a skatepark for these villages, and share the Gospel through our actions and our teachings.
• Millions of children who have lost all or most links with their families. We will minister to children at orphanages. A lot of these children live on the streets, and prostitution, drugs, and AIDS are the normal ways of life. We will do various teachings, including music! Pray that Jesus will ultimately reach out to these children.

For the team:

• Unity. Pray for team unity, and that there are no divisions amongst us through the whole duration of the outreach.
• Humility. Pray that we will lay our pride down, and love each other through humility and cooperation.
• Health. Pray that the Lord will bless us with excellent health. Digestive problems seem to be the most common problem on outreach, as well as vomitting. Pray that no one will be sent home due to illness.
• Kingdom focused. We ultimately want to focus on bringing God's kingdom to Brazil. Pray that we will never loose that focus despite the cirumstances, and that we are able to move on for the glory of Christ.
• Strength. We need spiritual, emotional, and physical strength. It's going to be rough on the Amazon, and we'll probably do some extensive hiking. Pray that we will ask for God's strength each and every single day.

For myself:

• Finances. The final payment for the outreach is due on June 1st (Thursday), and I am still $1088 short. The Lord has sent me blessing upon blessing with finances throughout this DTS, but now is crunch time. If you have not given to the Brazil outreach, I would like to encourage you to prayerfully consider giving. It's an awesome and rare opportunity, and I'm super excited to share this with others. If you would like to give, please make checks out to YWAM and send it to this address:

Samantha McDaniel

Spring DTS 2006

c/o YWAM Denver

12750 W. 63rd Ave

Arvada, CO 80004

• Humility. I need an extra dose of humility! I will probably discuss more about this in my next blog entry.
• This might seem silly, but I can't swim! Yet I decided to do ministry on the Amazon River. Pretty crazy, right? A few of my teammates are willing to give me a few swimming lessons before I go. Please pray that I will put my fears aside, and learn to swim so that I won't drown in the Amazon.

Thank you so much for your prayers! I encourage each of you to keep on praying. Through prayer we have keys to the heavenly kingdom, and we excercise our authority in Christ. And I fully believe that Christ works through us through prayer, and it has definitely been a powerful tool in my life. So keep on praying! Thanks!