DTS Update (Part Two)

I wanted to break this into two parts because I know that it can be a lot of reading and I wanted to make it easier!

Okay so week eight we talked about Biblical Worldview! This week was super interesting and we learned so much. A big part of this week that I gained understanding of is that I don’t want to just be “happy”. Happiness was something I craved in life, especially while I was healing/working through my depression (I still am in some ways). But I realized that “happiness” is cheap and at the end of the day what I really want with God is “wholeness”. This really spoke to my heart, and I have been really working on with God how to be “whole” again. In order to be whole I have to walk through my past darkness and find where Jesus was in those parts (because He definitely was) and finding all of those pieces will help me become whole again. So instead of focusing on “happiness” I have grown with Jesus in piecing back together my wholeness and finding contentment in whatever season I am in.

Woohoo! Week nine! This was probably my favorite week of DTS so far and has really changed the way I view relationships.I learned so much during this specific week, but I am going to focus on the part that spoke to me most: singleness. Singleness was always something so daunting and scary to me. I always thought that a relationship would fix everything or make me happy. But after this week I realized that isn’t the case at all. I learned about how important singleness is, especially in my walk with God. I have so many things I need to heal from and grow in with God and I am honestly so excited about it. I need to know my identity in Christ and the dreams I have and go for them! If you would’ve told me even a few months ago that I was actually going to be excited and happy to be single I would have told you that you were crazy! But this is a season that I am really looking forward to.

DTS Update (Part One)

Hey everyone I know that I am a little behind but I am going to go over what has been happening these previous weeks at my DTS. I cannot believe that we only have two weeks of lecture left and then me and my team will be off to Mazatlan and Panama!

So, the topic for week five was about destiny by design/our identity. We thought back to what we loved to do as a kid and how that can guide us about what we want to do now or in our future. I learned that my dreams aren’t just from myself but that they are from God! I realized that my passions and gifts are from God and that following in obedience to God will help guide me to my future. Sometimes (and still today) it stresses me out to think about my future, but since I’ve learned that God is the one who really has control it has allowed me to loosen up and truly live my life in the present and to trust in Him that my future WILL come!

Week six we learned about Lordship! This week was so convicting, I realized that there are many areas of my life that I needed to surrender to the Lord. A couple of key pieces I took away from this week that really helped me understand this topic was that I can find more peace and freedom in God than leaning onto my own power and that we cannot be friends with Jesus unless He is first our Lord. An area of my life that I realized I needed to give to God was about my future. I have been so worried about college, my future career, my future husband, where I am going to live etc. that I was really missing out on life and just being in the now. I have definitely felt so much more freedom in my life and I have just trusted Him that He will guide me to where I need to go. While I am still not perfect at surrendering this all of the time and there are still days that I stress. I know that my future is something God has control of.

Week seven we talked about spiritual warfare. I was a little nervous going into this week because if I am being real here, the whole enemy thing freaks me out. But this week I really learned about how to not be scared because we as Christians have the authority against the enemy. I took away a lot of things from this week that really helped me grow in this topic. I realized that I don’t have to be afraid because we are fighting a battle that God has already won! This just brought so much peace to me personally because I realized that the Holy Spirit is in us and that we have the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-13) so I don’t need to be afraid of the enemy.

DTS Week three & four

Time has been flying by so fast!

I have been processing everything we have learned these last few weeks and I just have been feeling so blessed to have this opportunity to do nothing but go after God for six months straight. Week three was about learning the full story of God through the bible and week four was about the holy spirit so here is a recap of everything I learned!

Week three really changed the way I view the bible. Before coming to DTS I was always so confused honestly how to read the bible and where to even start. The speaker for week three went so in depth with the bible and how it really applies to the life we are living today. The day that spoke to me the most was when our speaker broke down the book of Genesis. I did not realize the depth of Genesis (and all of the other books of the bible) and the life lessons that can be learned from it. One of my favorite things the speaker said this week was “the enemy calls you by your sin, but God calls you by name”. 

There are so many meaningful things I took away from week three that helped me develop a new understanding of what the purpose of the bible really is. This week set my heart on fire for scripture, something that I did not expect to happen. I get so excited learning the history and purpose of each book, then thinking about how it applies to my life. Some of my favorite free time here is sitting with one of my friends on the deck and just reading/dissecting scripture. It has honestly felt like I unlocked a whole new door to learning about God and realizing how personal He is. In a few weeks I will be teaching the book of Phillipians to a small group (big shout out to the bible project on youtube, it has been a game changer!)

I’m also going to be studying the book of Ephesians with my outreach team!

Our lecture topic for week four was on the Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts.

I first want to talk about the speaker this week. She was so vulnerable and real from the very first day of teaching. She shared her whole testimony and it was very eye opening for me because I actually related a lot to it which made me realize that I am not alone with what I was struggling with. After sharing her testimony she told us that the power of our story can help point others to Jesus and I am starting to see how my story can do just that. 

To be completely honest I wasn’t really sure who or what the Holy Spirit was. But after this week I definitely have a way better understanding of the Holy Spirit and in what ways He works. I can now see how the Holy Spirit is present in my life and that I can have a relationship with Him! I understand the Holy Spirit's role in the trinity and what the purpose of the trinity is. Something that clicked for me is how the Holy Spirit is in me and how we are partnering with what the Holy Spirit is doing.

Another thing we learned about was our spiritual gifts which were very insightful! We learned that no spiritual gift is better than the other and that the purpose of these gifts is to put God's glory on display while serving others in love. My top gift is mercy, which is to feel empathy and care for others who are hurting in any way. This was really significant for me because these past couple of years I feel like I haven’t been merciful with myself or others. I really had hardened my heart and become numb to my emotions. So to have that be my top gift gave me a lot of hope that week because that is the person who I know God created me to be. This is something God has really been working on in my heart because each day I can feel my heart becoming more tender like how I know it used to be.

A couple of the biggest takeaways from these weeks was that fact that God created me! So He knows my heart and the person I am slowly but surely becoming.

DTS Week one & two

Alooooha!

Wow these past two weeks have flown by. I did a little update on my instagram (@adventures.with.jules) about my first week here, but I promised myself to keep up on my blog! Everything was so crazy I forgot to do a post last Sunday, so I decided to just put both the week one and week two update on one post, but for the future I am going to make sure to do at least one blog post each week!

Week one was so surreal, everything was so new. From moving to Kona, having roommates, being in a new community, and meeting so many new people. At home I was definitely more of an introvert, so having to introduce myself and go out of my comfort zone to talk to new people was new for me. But being uncomfortable has forced me to grow in so many ways already and it was only week one! It has been exciting and eye opening to meet people from different cultures and backgrounds. I also came to DTS very new in my faith and just really starting my walk with the Lord. It has been a little overwhelming but also so fun to learn everything, and Monday night ministry is my new favorite thing! My Uncle Sean actually taught one of the lectures in the first week of class! We talked about all of the different ways you can hear from God and about God’s character. We also learned about the history of YWAM Ships from Brett and Karen Curtis! I was also assigned my work duty/practical ministry during week one and I am working with Ignite studios! This has been such a fun work duty. I am learning about editing videos (something I have always wanted to do) while also hearing some really cool testimonies! Week one was an adjustment but so exciting. 

During week two it was starting to feel more real that I was in Hawaii. The topic was Father Heart of God! I have been learning so many things about the Lord, I think half of my notebook is full already! I feel like a sponge just trying to take in all of the information that I can! I also know that while I might not understand everything now that it’s okay, and I will always have my notes to look back on later. Living in a community has been so new for me but also so good. At home I am such an introvert, and I don’t know if it’s a defense mechanism or something but I have become such an extrovert here! Something I prayed about a long time before coming here is friendship and wow has the Lord blessed me. I have been able to feel comfortable to be my total weird self and it has been so freeing to not feel like I need to put on a mask or act a certain way. These girls have also been my number one cheerleaders and supporters when stuff gets hard. I already know the friendships that I’m making now will definitely last a lifetime. 

Why am I Doing a DTS (part two)

Let’s jump to Early Spring of 2022, I was 19 years old, graduated from highschool (Class of 2021!) and was finishing up my Associates Degree from running start at Centralia College. I was excited to be done with school and the constant load of homework, I loved spending time with my family and I was going to a life coach who I still go see to this day. 

But I was also feeling very overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life or who I even really was. I was feeling so lost and scared about the future of my life I would throw myself into relationships looking for guidance, expecting some sort of different outcome, but would come out empty handed every time. While I would still pray from time to time I did not really have a relationship with Jesus at that point in my life at all. I was broken hearted from yet another desperate attempt for help searching for guidance in my life. I was depressed because I was scared of being alone (since I did not know Jesus at the time). I genuinely did not know what I was going to do.

That’s when I got the message I desperately needed.

Grace texted me.

If you don’t know Grace, she is my role model in life. Growing up I would always announce that she is my cousin from the Big Island of Hawaii! Which is so cool to say, but it also meant we did not get to see each other as much as cousins usually do, so when my mom would tell me she was coming to Washington to visit, it was a BIG DEAL and visits from the cousins were the highlight of my summer.

Besides the fact she is from Hawaii, Grace is always guaranteed to make you laugh, she gives great advice and she has her heart set on fire for Jesus. I had the best times with her growing up and she is one of my best friends, and like I said earlier, one of my role models in life. I aspire to have the kind of heart Grace does for the Lord and I could go on and on with a huge list on why I love her so much. So, at the age of 19 a text from Grace was definitely still a big deal.

Grace was home from college for a couple of months and she asked if I wanted to come visit her, and of course I said yes. My time in Kona for those couple of weeks really changed my entire life. I was able to spend a lot of time with Grace and my Auntie Jill and Uncle Sean. We were going to the beach, shopping and watching movies almost every night.

Also during that time I was able to catch up with Grace and talk about life. I was able to tell her how I was feeling at home, and about all of the stress and anxiety I was going through. That is when Grace brought up her DTS in Mazatlan, Mexico. 

She was so excited to share with me about her experience with YWAM in Mexico and told me how amazing it was for her. It led to multiple breakthroughs in her life and solidified her career path in Nursing. She told me about how you get the opportunity to experience other Nations and go out and help others. All while learning the gospel, maturing in your personal faith and worshiping Jesus. After our conversation I was super interested in doing a DTS myself. 

I remember always visiting the cousins in Kona growing up, I always felt so connected there and I also felt hungry for Jesus whenever we would visit. But this time when I visited by myself I was able to go explore wherever I wanted and after hearing about Grace’s experience in Mexico I was interested in learning more. So on my last day of my trip I was able to visit the YWAM Kona, Hawaii Ships base, with the help of my Uncle who is a part of the staff there. I loved the campus itself, (including the coffee shop of course) and I was able to actually sit in on a lecture which honestly redirected my life.

I was listening to this speaker and she was talking about Identity in Christ. I remember wanting to soak in all of the knowledge I was learning and I loved listening to her own story on her walk with Jesus. I will go into more detail later, but during the lecture I was prayed for, which really opened my eyes and I actually felt a spark in my heart for Jesus again. After the class I remember sitting outside by myself crying and asking God “Is this why I am here?” “Is this why you sent me to Hawaii?” and I remember feeling so happy and relieved knowing that this was God who was always guiding me in my life even though I couldn’t see it. And now I can chase after Him again and rebuild the relationship that I truly needed all along. I can say I was so confident in that moment knowing that God was calling me to do a DTS in Kona, Hawaii. 

About just a little over a year later I am now here. After I got home from that trip I was still figuring out what I wanted to do school-wise but knowing that I felt called to a DTS I was a little conflicted. I told my family how I felt and they were so happy and excited for me to do a DTS. Which was a sign from God that I was taking a step in the right direction. 

I still needed to work at the time and I needed time to sort things out to make sure I knew I would be prepared to make the decision to go for it. I could always feel my heart pulling towards this and about a month ago I applied to the Life and Liberty DTS in Kona, Hawaii and was accepted! I will be leaving this September and I genuinely cannot wait to go.

This is where I know God wants me to go. This is why I am doing a DTS.

Why am I Doing a DTS? (part one)

Welcome! I am so excited to be writing my very first blog post! I thought I would start out my first post by introducing myself.

My name is Julia Comisky, I am 20 years old. I have lived in a small town called Chehalis, in Washington State my whole entire life. I currently live with my Mom, Jodi, my Dad, Matt, and my (not so) little brother Charlie! In addition to that, I have a two-and-a-half year old corgi named Harlow who is my best friend in the entire world. I am a waitress right now at a breakfast place in Centralia called Judy’s Country Kitchen. I also enjoy surfing, snowboarding and spending quality time with my family.

Okay, now that you have a small glimpse into where I am at in my life, I am going to get into what some say is the “nitty gritty” on this blog. By this I mean I want to be honest and be able to share who I really am and what God has created me to be (which I am still figuring out). So with that, I am just going to dive right into my story and how the Lord guided me into doing a DTS this September. 

When I think back on memories from my early childhood I remember always knowing who God was. At that age, I knew that He created the Earth, saved all of the animals on Noah’s arch, and that He created me and loved me always. I would attend church with my family, go to fun christian summer camps with my little brother, learn and sing about God at school and watch all of the Veggie Tales movies I could. I remember feeling so embraced in His love for me and I was hungry and excited to know Him. 

As I grew older I got more into sports, excelling in school, and a social life (aka, boyfriends). I suddenly had loads of homework, soccer practice all of the time, with games on the weekends, and loads of stress. With all of this though I have always had my family to strongly support me, love and help guide me along the way which I will forever be thankful for as they still support me to this day.

But in my heart deep down I knew I was also missing that love and support from Jesus. I really had no time or honestly enough energy to continue growing my relationship with the Lord. I became estranged from Him, depressed and growing with anxiety as I got older. Being distant with God is not something I never really thought would happen or something that I am proud to admit, but it just was one of the things you don’t really know what happened until it hit you

And let me tell you, it hit me.