School of His Eternal Glory

I'm HERE. 

The huge, blue Texas sky is full of sunshine, and the temperature is a warm (but not sticky!) 88 degrees. (sidenote: they say everything's bigger in Texas, and so far I agree with that when I look at the sky at night...man how the sky glitters and shines in every direction with those stars.)

Well, if you're wondering how travels went, look at Brittany's blog! She posted on the smoothness of our travels and how God has had His hand in all we've done to get here so far. I'm still a little speechless about it. (here's her blog, check it out! http://brittanyschwantz.blogspot.com/2011/09/texas.html?spref=fb)

So, I had hoped to take lots of pictures the first couple of days to have them on my first blog post, but we've been so stinkin' busy I haven't even thought about the fact that I have a camera--aside from random pictures with my phone that I've uploaded straight to Facebook. I'm hoping I'll have some pics up in here for y'all next time. (the y'all was a joke, people. a joke.) Brittany doesn't have a camera, so I'll get you some pictures she wants to share with you guys too.

I am currently sitting in a little cafe/lounge called The Substation drinking probably the best chocolate-banana smoothie I've ever dreamed of having. YUMM! I'm gonna savor it as much as I can, though, because starting tomorrow at this time instead of blogging and junk-fooding, I'm going to be working out in the weight-room we have here on campus. I'm really excited about that. It's definitely one of MANY prayers God answered in me coming here, so I'm going to try to honor Him in utilizing it as much as possible. At this moment most of my new friends/classmates are on their "work duty." We are each assigned special work projects to take care of every day here on campus (so that we don't have to pay someone on the outside to do it, and to build up our servant's hearts). My work duty is to clean the main office building with 5 others. We dust desks and vacuum floors and windex windows in the offices of the full-time staff who bless us every day by doing the behind the scenes office work. None of this would be here without them, so I'm grateful for the chance to bless the people in places like Accounting, even if only for an hour, by cleaning their office. My work duty is at 6pm every day, unlike most who start at 1pm.
Our daily schedule has been packed full of new information and crazy adjustment, but today I'm finally starting to feel like this is an adjustment I CAN make. Praise God.

I'm going to be honest with you: I wasn't really excited about this whole thing when I got here. I was so stinkin' excited in the days leading up to last Sunday, and on the plane/bus ride here I couldn't contain my anticipation giggles. But once I got my stuff unpacked into my tiny room, I was completely overwhelmed and very unsure of this whole thing for the next 24 hours or so. I didn't feel like I could belong and that everyone else was supposed to be here but me. And with perfect timing, of course, Anna (who is in D.C. right now and will come back to Tyler in a week!) texted me and asked me how I was doing and what I was thinking. "I kinda just wanna hide under a rock and dig my way home to MN," I replied. Then she assured me that everyone around me probably feels the same. And I'm coming to realize that's true. So I'm beginning to open up and be myself with the people around me now and am really excited about the friendships God is fusing together already.

There are  47 of us in my DTS class. That's a lot of names, faces, and personalities! I was incredibly overwhelmed on Sunday and Monday. But we're starting to get the hang of each other's names and are beginning to recognize some staff members as well. Today we got put into Small Groups, and I'm very excited about mine. There are 8 of us; Brittany and I are in the same group! I'm incredibly excited to see what God has in store for my friendship with her...she and Trent have blessed me in countless ways in the past 3 days, I can only imagine what else they can teach me in the next 5 months. I'm so honored that God has allowed me to be part of this time in their lives.

Gah, there is just so much to share!
I want some feedback: what do you guys want me to write about? Because I could either write about the physical and technical aspects of what I'm doing here on a daily basis, or I could just dive in deep and get into what I'm learning and what's going on in my heart. You guys are the ones who read this, so what would you like to hear? I desire to share both with you as best I can...but you know how long-winded I can be.... :) I'm going to try my best to have a balance of both. I'm just wondering if you'd like one more than the other? Let me know!

So, if you'd like to physically get a hold of me instead of just reading my silly blogs, here's my contact info!
Calling me: I have my "free time" (which I will usually be spending in the weight room) from 1pm-3:30pm, so if you'd like to chat, try calling me then! Otherwise, I have pretty open Saturdays and evenings during the week.
Texting me: Do it any time, all the time! I may or may not respond right away, but I usually catch them when they come. I'd love to see that notification from you. :)
My address: SEND ME STUFF :) I like it. My US Mail address (it's different for FedEx/UPS) is

Kelsey Rieland YWAM DTS

P.O. Box 3000

Garden Valley, TX 75771

I'd love to hear from you! I miss Minnesota and the people in it. And I'd love to share with you personally what God is doing here and how He's working in my heart.

My specific DTS has a class "name" or theme; we're called the School of His Eternal Glory. The staff has felt like our class was meant for the purpose of God's eternal glory and that we have something untouchable and heavenly to be a part of here. God's doing some really, really cool things guys. The Spirit is stirring and I'm speechless. I'll try to describe it in words to the best of my ability when I get more clarity soon. 

Be in prayer for us as we decide where each of us are going on Outreach this Friday. (We leave for Outreach Jan.2.) Trust me...I'll let you know where I'm going as soon as I find out... :)

Peace.