week 10

The tenth week of DTS took place along the beautiful scenic Buffalo River in Northwest Arkansas. It was a great week to process our minds from weeks of teaching. It was also a week of adventure, teamwork, and enjoyment of Gods wonderful creation.
Monday and Tuesday we hiked 3 miles of trail along the river. As we walked around towering bluffs and through diverse forests, we occasionally passed mid-1800 graveyards and historical farmhouses. We enjoyed a diversity of wildlife, plants, insects, and beautiful scenery.
Wednesday and Thursday we canoed 28 miles of river. The scenery was awesome and the river tested our abilities to work as a team. It was a good variety with calm peaceful stretches and fast moving rapids. Each bend brought a new view and a new challenge.
Throughout the week our meals consisted of MREs (meals ready to eat), oatmeal, and power bars. The weather was great with only one rainy night. The rain forced us to build a flimsy makeshift tarp shelter where everyone huddled under to eat our evening meal and devotion. It was great fun. After 31 miles of trail and river, everyone rode home safely in the van.

Just Go With the Flow

The little 5 year old boy with big blue eyes looked up at Brian and said in the cutest southern accent: "If you wanna get to my house just find the bumpiest road in Arkansas, then you'll turn left. When you see my momma's van you can just park next to it and you're at my house!" We spent that morning at the daycare in a Baptist Church in Ozark and had a lot of fun telling the story of Jesus allowing the children to come to Him. The children were all attentive and seemed to enjoy our visit as much as we did.

Generally our days are very consistent with a well structured schedule. This week however has been quite the exception. Not only did we visit the daycare, we had several other field trips as well. A week ago we were having intercessory prayer for the city of Booneville Arkansas. A large factory burned down resulting the loss of 800 jobs; however, no one was injured or killed. During the intercession we were in two separate groups and when we came together we learned that both groups had felt called by God to go to Booneville and pray. On Thursday we were obedient to God's call and spent the afternoon praying over the city, people, and workers who lost their jobs.

This week we were blessed to sit under the teaching of John Ray, discussing the issues of the world and what the answer is. (You'll have to find that answer yourself!) I don't believe any of us understood how deep an issue this really was; it was certainly exercise for the brain. On Friday we had another field trip to his house and met with his family and had more in depth discussions. Even though we were somewhat disappointed that we would not be having class on the camping and hiking trail because of weather, we still learned so much and were very blessed. It has been a very eventful week, with many changes, and opportunities for growth. I'm sure next week will be even better.

Abby Whitmore

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Our New Blog

Hey we at Ywam Ozarks wanted to keep people updated about what we have going on here in Ozark Arkansas. So we will be posting weekly blogs for everyone to read. Thank you for being interested in what we are doing as a ministry.

God Bless,

Ywam Ozarks