He has risen

may easter be a reminder to live every day in celebration of His victory and grace.
not just easter sunday.

a reminder that we carry the same power of the resurrection in our on veins, giving us strength to be triumphant in all things. 

may it be a time to celebrate to endless love and constant grace we have over our lives.

may it be a reminder that every day should be lived in constant awe and thanksgiving to our Maker.

so laugh at everything, sing while you're walking, give thing to strangers, write letters to your grandparents, make telephone calls to your friends, give flowers away.

let the whole earth shake with jovial celebration that we are free and He has risen indeed.

an update & a need!

to my lovely friends & family,

here is a much needed update from kona, hawaii!

i am so excited to take a team to NYC, but am still in need of finances and without your help i won't be able to go! please feel free to share this with others and click the donate button on the right side!

thank you all so much!

xoxox

liberation & praise

the forty days of worship at davids tent has come to an end.

it has been a long month and a half, full of sleep adjustments, living with our marvelous moon rather than our sun, exploring a new city, finding the best burger and shake in all of dc, meeting beautiful people, hearing stories, learning new instruments, and endless nights full of praise to our poppa.

all of these things have shaped my life in a beautiful way. it's wild how six hours in a tent in the wee hours of the morning can impact you immensely.
i didn't have many expectations coming here, and i suppose it's because i didn't have much detail as to what exactly it was that i was going to be doing.

but it's when you're sitting in the low 30's weather, sick of peanut butter and jellies, sick of cold coffee, sick of the power going out, sick of the same songs being sang and the heat warmers failing your toes, that your heart gets stretched. 
you come to an end where you realize that it's not about your comforts. it's not about your surroundings. it's not about how many socks you have on or who is president. you come to the point where you realize your brokenness and desperation for your creator and his grace to fall upon you. and when it does, oh, how sweet it is. how sweet his tender adoration is for you. 
that he could love you, broken as you are, and see you as a complete, holy creature. and you are undone.

how could you not give him all of your worship with every breath you have?

and it's with this that i realize that no human is whole.
regardless of who is president, they will never be able to wholly, fully, and completely lead us into freedom.

a wonderful man name shane claiborne says this:

// Governments can do lots of things, but there are a lot of things they cannot do. A government can pass good laws, but no law can change a human heart. Only God can do that. A government can provide good housing, but folks can have a house without having a home. We can keep people breathing with good health care, but they still may not really be alive. The work of community, love, reconciliation, restoration is the work we cannot leave up to politicians. This is the work we are all called to do. We can’t wait on politicians to change the world. We can’t wait on governments to legislate love. And we don’t let policies define how we treat people; how we treat people shapes our policies. //

may God's love radically consume your heart and overflow onto the communities around us. may we be the hands and feet of jesus, bringing liberation and peace to every person we meet.

let us not wait.

let us sing praises from our lips as we dance about the streets.

for he is worthy.

it's been a delight dc.

now if you don't mind, i'll just be hopping on a train unto the mountains.

next stop, north carolina!

and then of to my beloved kona on the 13th.

xxx

a

connect

friends!

if you'd like to get a taste of what's going on in the tent over here, you can live stream our groovy corporate sets every night from 7-9 pm eastern time. you can also check out our webcast to see clips of previous nights and hear some rad testimonies. click this link yo!:
http://new.livestream.com/DerekPackard/events/1601418

if you want more information on David's Tent, what it's about, etc., here is our website that talks all about that and what's going on over here:
http://davidstentdc.org/

in recent news, hurricane sandy is headed right for the east coast & we have relocated to a local church for the next couple of days until it passes. keep us in your prayers!

i'm not sure this video will load (you'll need facebook), but a week ago our leadership track spent 12 hours of the night (7pm-7am) together and circa 6am-ish, we jammed hard. here's a little sound of the wild grooves that were made:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151122840222428


ps // we are now on the 1am-7am watch and the transition over has been rough but so full of goodness. we are hoping our bodies will adjust even more and be completely healthy and would appreciate prayers for that as well! only 11 more days!

all my love!

awake in the night

this is my home. the top left window is mine.

this is David's Tent during the night watch (the only time i'm there). & the beautiful full moon.

these are some pretty faces on my team.

Jason Hershey kicking off the first night. it was a full house and so beautiful! we observed Yom Kippur together for the first 24 hours.

the Washington Monument in all of its isolated eeriness.

we watch the lights go off in the White House every night. one time we had to evacuate the Ellipse (all that grass) because the President wanted to walk his dog.

professional.

learn more here at: www.davidstentdc.org

right now our team is split up into two night watches. i am currently on the 7p-1a watch and my other friends on the leadership track are on the late watch from 1a-7a.

come monday we are switching!

please pray that we will have an easy transition and all the energy in the world to lead sets through these late hours. 

all my love!

a

zombies, vampires, & jesus

the east coast has swallowed me up in it's goodness.

last night was my first time down to the Ellipse where our tent is set up, and i had to take a moment to let it soak into my bones.
how funny that a bunch of cement and metal can be so surreal.

i could throw a rock from our tent at the Washington Monument, and to be honest, maybe i've thought about it. i'm not very keen to it's red eyes that blink down at me and it's cold body that isolates itself from the creation around it.
maybe it's just lonely. maybe the grass and i aren't tall enough to admire it the way we should.

as i walked around our space looking at all these historical buildings rich in stories, the sun set right above the Lincoln Memorial. right above the man i share a birthday with.
and i think maybe it was then that i fell a little bit in love with DC.
it was then that i realized i would call this place home for a little bit. 

downtown is a bit different from where we live. 
the window next to my bunk bed sounds a bit more like Chicago, cop cars & ambulances talking late at night, and people hollering into the wee hours of the night.
i was told not to buy candy bars at the corner store across the street because they melt and then remold and melt again. most everything is behind glass and bars, but the people are warmer than the buildings. i like Anacostia's character. it has culture i'm familiar with.

to all my pen pals and wanna be's, this is for you.
if you would like to send me a letter, it gets sent right to me at our house of prayer.
if you'd like to send me a package, you'll have to put down a different address because the mailmen aren't very keen to them here.

FOR LETTERS:                FOR PACKAGES:
1300 Good Hope Rd. SE       2340 Q St. SE
Washinton DC, VA            Washington DC, VA
20020                       20020

can i just say that i didn't know i was in the state of virginia?
i can't tell you where i thought i was, but lord knows i need to study my states a bit more.

we did our first night watch last night in the tent from 7pm-1am and for some reason i am feeling like a zombie. it's not much of a vampire schedule yet, but i think the cold and the long day we had calls for a nap.

all is well.
the new mumford & sons album is on my ears and hot tea is on my tongue. 
all is very well.

a new adventure!

What a year this has been.

With your help financially, emotionally, and spiritually, I was able to follow God’s call to Kona, Hawaii to be a student in Youth With a Mission’s Discipleship Training School.

The time spent in Hawaii and months later in Cambodia, changed my life.

God’s presence was so tangible and He spoke so clearly to me in that time. I was called out of comfort to live a life radically for Jesus. His love and grace has touched my heart in tremendous ways, and through faith I saw it radically transform peoples lives as I traveled.

I know Jesus as my Savior, my comforter, an incredible provider, and as my deepest friend.

Through worship sessions, hours spent in prayer, intentional discipleship, close knit friendships, hundreds of healings and salvations, and incredible lectures in class, I know that this is the life that God is calling me into.

I am overjoyed to tell you that I have been invited to staff YWAM this September. My heart is so full of life & joy to be able to have this opportunity. Through much prayer and confirmation, I have decided to accept that invitation and run with YWAM for the next two years.

This journey will be absolutely beautiful. It will be full of life, love, growth, long plane rides, challenges, friendships, visas, stamps on my passport, financial provision, music, and laughter.

The next nine months of my life will be spent in intentional leadership training, preparing my heart and mind to lead students further into their relationship with Christ & walk into the fullness of their destiny. Come September I will be spending forty days in Washington DC, leading, and managing 24 hour worship in a tent behind the White House leading up to the election. After those forty days, I will be traveling back to Hawaii to continue growing as a family in leadership and in the Word, working in the community, and on the YWAM base. After Leadership Track is finished, I will then staff the Fire & Fragrance Discipleship Training School from the months of January through June, where I will lead a team to another country to do missions.

Knowing what’s ahead, I am overjoyed to be laying my life down to be doing missions work for the Kingdom. With this commitment comes a lot of sacrifice, but so much life and an abundant amount of fruit.

None of this would be made possible without the love and support of my community. So firstly, I want to thank you for all of the love, encouragement, and support you have already given me. If you feel lead to continue walking with me through this journey God has given me, there are many ways to do so.

Firstly, I am living a volunteer lifestyle. I will be living day to day by the support of people who feel like God is leading them to financially support me. While staffing YWAM, I need to raise $600 a month for rent, food, health insurance, and other living expenses. If you feel like God is putting this on your heart, please let me know! Even If you spare your money on a meal once a month, a coffee a week, or feel lead to be a monthly supporter at any cost, it would be GREATLY appreciated & help tremendously. But most of all, I want to ask you to partner with me in prayer, for hearts to be radically encountered by the love of God, and for this world to be transformed through his grace and mercy.

All donations, letters, questions, and support of any form can be sent to my address at:

Ariel Frey

2641 Albert Dr.

East Grand Rapids, MI

49506

If you would like to donate online, my paypal email is:
ariel.jenae@gmail.com

Once again, I am so extremely thankful and full of joy to be sharing this journey with you and can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve already done for me.

I am truly blessed.