"Here we go! do do do do do do do" haha
That's a line from a song that was sung WAY too much during the January DTS, but that will forever be stuck in my head. That's the song I found myself singing as I walked to the security line in DIA to get back to San José.
Central American Adventures: Round 4 is about to begin. SO HERE WE GO!
I always feel so bittersweet when I leave. I hate saying goodbye. Those of you who know me even a little bit know I'm SUPER bad at goodbyes. So after yet another goodbye to the people I love the most in this world, I journeyed on. And here I am now at gate A 36 waiting to get onto the red-eye flight back to Costa Rica. It's funny. When I first left people would ask me how I felt about it and I would say, "Well, I'm not excited to leave, but I can't wait to get there." Hopefully that makes sense. Anyway, after all this time, that's still how I feel. I love Colorado and my family and friends here and I hate leaving it. But I also love Central America and the people who have become my family over the past year and a half.
I'm super stoked for the upcoming DTS. It's going to be smaller than the January school, which will add a little twist. God keeps on reminding me that I don't actually have things figured out, even if I think I do. There's still so much more to learn, and the thing is...there always will be. I'm never going to have this crazy thing called life figured out. But I am going to learn about it. I already have learned a lot about it. And with every day that passes I learn more. So here's to learning! Here's to processes! Here's to God completing the good work that He started! Only He knows where it's all going to end up...!
So there's a quick glimpse into my life for ya. :) Thanks for reading! God bless!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I'm back!!!
Wow...it's been over a year since my last blog post.
Sorry about that, I was on this Facebook note thing for a while. If you want to catch up with what God has been doing since my DTS, check out those FB notes!
So here I am back in Colorful Colorado for a couple of weeks. I'll be going back to YWAM San José to staff the DTS that starts in July. I'm really looking forward to it. God has so much in store for me and the students (we're expecting 10 as of right now) and the other staff. Can't wait to see what He does! He did a lot in the January DTS, like SO much! And it was so incredible to be a part of! I co-led a team of 16 people with my boyfriend to Cartagena, Colombia. And I saw God move like I never had before....
We started our month in Colombia with a week in the prayer room...which we started off with 24 hours of strait worship. Then for the rest of the week there was always somebody there praying. We signed up for 3 hour slots and prayed that God would give us His strategies to reach Cartagena. During that first week, we only did 3 ministries: a kid's program in a really poor barrio, sports on the beach, and one afternoon we raised awareness against sexual exploitation/evangelized. The next week we picked up the intensity of our ministry. We put on a missions conference at a mega missionary church that hadn't sent out any missionaries. We put on or helped out with 6 church services in 3 days. God gave us His strength and blessed everything we did and had a very successful time there. For the next couple days we plugged into some of the ministries that YWAM Cartagena has. Then we went to an island called Bocachica. Some people call it "Little Africa." I haven't been to Africa (not yet at least) but this small island community totally matched my imaginings of Africa. We were there for several days helping in a practical way by doing physical labor. We tore down giant concrete walls with sledge hammers and normal hammers. We "mowed the lawn" of the YWAM base's property with machetes, rakes and brooms. It's interesting how they get things done...not necessarily the most efficient way, but it gets done.
Then we began out final week of ministry. We were going to local churches to do sessions on Inner Healing. Needless to say, we knew it was going to be an intense time. We prepared by fasting and praying together as a team the day before we started and got some practical tips and training from the base director. We did two sessions each day for 3 days, one in the morning and one in the afternoon/evening. The people were so hungry for what God had for them and He responded in BIG WAYS! Some of the subjects we taught on were sin, the power of words, walking in freedom and forgiveness. Along with the teachings, we did a couple of symbolic activities. We finished off the whole deal by offering to pray for the people of the church for any petition they may have. So we did. And I am writing to you today to proclaim the goodness of my God!! HE HEALED SO MANY PEOPLE! Eyesight restored, pain taken away, shoulders fixed. What a mighty God I serve! It was so cool to be a part of. It was totally, 100% God. It has everything to do with Him. He just gave us the privilege of working alongside Him and it was incredible!
After those 3 days of incredibly powerful ministry, we began to wrap things up. But we weren't done yet. We still had one more ministry. We decided to put together a Love Feast for the homeless people of Cartagena. It was a miracle we pulled it off. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but the whole thing went off without any complications. We prayed for God's favor that morning. And He gave it to us. We had favor with the homeless, with the police, with the community, even with a news crew that came by! They wrote an article about what we were doing and put it in the paper the next day.
And that was how we finished our time of ministry in Cartagena. We went out on a high note to say the least.
We went back to Costa Rica for graduation and then everybody went their separate ways. I came back to Colorado for Kelsye's high school graduation. I'll be here for a couple more weeks and then it will be back to good ol' San José, Costa Rica!!
So hopefully that got you a little more caught up with me and my life! :)
Please keep me in your prayers!
God bless!
Sorry about that, I was on this Facebook note thing for a while. If you want to catch up with what God has been doing since my DTS, check out those FB notes!
So here I am back in Colorful Colorado for a couple of weeks. I'll be going back to YWAM San José to staff the DTS that starts in July. I'm really looking forward to it. God has so much in store for me and the students (we're expecting 10 as of right now) and the other staff. Can't wait to see what He does! He did a lot in the January DTS, like SO much! And it was so incredible to be a part of! I co-led a team of 16 people with my boyfriend to Cartagena, Colombia. And I saw God move like I never had before....
We started our month in Colombia with a week in the prayer room...which we started off with 24 hours of strait worship. Then for the rest of the week there was always somebody there praying. We signed up for 3 hour slots and prayed that God would give us His strategies to reach Cartagena. During that first week, we only did 3 ministries: a kid's program in a really poor barrio, sports on the beach, and one afternoon we raised awareness against sexual exploitation/evangelized. The next week we picked up the intensity of our ministry. We put on a missions conference at a mega missionary church that hadn't sent out any missionaries. We put on or helped out with 6 church services in 3 days. God gave us His strength and blessed everything we did and had a very successful time there. For the next couple days we plugged into some of the ministries that YWAM Cartagena has. Then we went to an island called Bocachica. Some people call it "Little Africa." I haven't been to Africa (not yet at least) but this small island community totally matched my imaginings of Africa. We were there for several days helping in a practical way by doing physical labor. We tore down giant concrete walls with sledge hammers and normal hammers. We "mowed the lawn" of the YWAM base's property with machetes, rakes and brooms. It's interesting how they get things done...not necessarily the most efficient way, but it gets done.
Then we began out final week of ministry. We were going to local churches to do sessions on Inner Healing. Needless to say, we knew it was going to be an intense time. We prepared by fasting and praying together as a team the day before we started and got some practical tips and training from the base director. We did two sessions each day for 3 days, one in the morning and one in the afternoon/evening. The people were so hungry for what God had for them and He responded in BIG WAYS! Some of the subjects we taught on were sin, the power of words, walking in freedom and forgiveness. Along with the teachings, we did a couple of symbolic activities. We finished off the whole deal by offering to pray for the people of the church for any petition they may have. So we did. And I am writing to you today to proclaim the goodness of my God!! HE HEALED SO MANY PEOPLE! Eyesight restored, pain taken away, shoulders fixed. What a mighty God I serve! It was so cool to be a part of. It was totally, 100% God. It has everything to do with Him. He just gave us the privilege of working alongside Him and it was incredible!
After those 3 days of incredibly powerful ministry, we began to wrap things up. But we weren't done yet. We still had one more ministry. We decided to put together a Love Feast for the homeless people of Cartagena. It was a miracle we pulled it off. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but the whole thing went off without any complications. We prayed for God's favor that morning. And He gave it to us. We had favor with the homeless, with the police, with the community, even with a news crew that came by! They wrote an article about what we were doing and put it in the paper the next day.
And that was how we finished our time of ministry in Cartagena. We went out on a high note to say the least.
We went back to Costa Rica for graduation and then everybody went their separate ways. I came back to Colorado for Kelsye's high school graduation. I'll be here for a couple more weeks and then it will be back to good ol' San José, Costa Rica!!
So hopefully that got you a little more caught up with me and my life! :)
Please keep me in your prayers!
God bless!
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