TOMA! TOMALO! TOMA! TOMALO!

and, now i'm officially back in mexico! after my short jaunt over to the beautiful guatemala i'm ready to get back together with my dts family. i've been with the staff from our base for the last two weeks, and it's been great with them, but i miss the other students.

*this is a photo i took from up on one of the mountains looking back down at the town of San Miguel Chicaj. we took some time to pray for the seven spheres of influence there.*

we were in san miguel chicaj guatemala to do a week of what we call "Mission Adventures". this is a YWAM ministry that is aimed at allowing youth to have a personal encounter with Jesus and to expose them to missions. we had a lot of set backs and difficulties while trying to do this though. there was some miscommunication with the churches, and sometimes it was something small like not being able to practice worship before a session, but sometimes it was something big, like them not understanding that we were planning to do our own service and not just attend their regular children's service. so yeah, it was a little hard to stay positive. but we did! and it paid off!!

*this is where we had the sessions, note the sweet logo/decor i made. probably my greatest personal contribution to the event.*

we had three small services wednesday-friday nights, and had social time with the youth that were there. we invited all the youth we could find, visiting every church earlier in the week, and ended up with over fifty youth coming on the weekend to our Mission Adventures camp (that's a lot considering how small san miguel chicaj is). it was all day saturday and half of sunday. we had worship, preaching, games, taught dramas, performed dramas, and prayed a ton! it was AWESOME!! the kids were really affected by it. they said they all loved it and had fun, and a lot of them had some real spiritual breakthroughs. i was very proud of our team and especially ashley, who is on staff there in san miguel, who did a lot of the work. i love her! it was really good for me to see that staff again, because i loved getting to know them back in march when i went there, and they are great role models and amazing women of God. i learned a lot working with the staff (as opposed to the fellow students i usually work with) and am so appreciative of them dealing with the (white) student tagging along on their trip.

*worship with the youth, they really got into it all screaming and jumping around!*

*these were some of the youth that particularly enjoyed my poor spanish and company. i'm pretty sure the one on the right (Harold!) had a crush on me. they were so sweet though!*

we had the last couple days "free" meaning we've had to travel back to mexico. i spent a day in Antigua, Guatemala, which is adorable. i really liked it there and wished i had more time (and money) to spend there. and then we had a 15 hour day of bus rides to get back to Tuxla, Chiapas, Mexico where we had a free night in a 5-star hotel that we got with our plane tickets. it was SO good to relax. though i don't feel quite rejuvenated since all we did was basically sleep here, but it was nice. i took a bath for the first time in months, it was glorious! haha.

*me and the beautiful Paloma afront the beautiful fountain at the center of the beautiful parque in the middle of beautiful Antigua*

*with tita and anabel who are also on staff enjoying a (much desired) warm brownie sundae at Monoloco in Antigua*

and so now i leave for the airport to meet back up with my mexicanos there. right after another game of "what i miss, what i don't miss"!

what i miss:

   american deserts (real ice cream, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies!)

   consistent showers/laundry machines

   driving

what i don't miss:

   paying more that $6 to stay in a hotel

   studying

   not having the excuse that i'm a missionary to have clothes that don't match and messy hair.

second time out of mexico in four months.

I've officially left my DTS team in Mexico without their precious gringa.

This is because I'm in Guatemala with the full-time staff from our base back in Tecate. It was really sad to leave my team, but it's also going to be really fun working with the staff. We're in Guatemala City tonight, and head over to SAN MIGUEL CHICAJ tomorrow! WOOHOO!!! That's where I went over spring break, and I'm SO excited to be going back!

This last week we did some touristy things in Pachuca. We went to a little town that reminded me eerily of a mexican version of Salzburg. And then we went to the Teotihuacan Pyramids! That was really cool. Then we headed to Xochimilco, Mexico City. There we stayed at a church and did some street ministry, a church service, and then did some hardcore labor at a house that the church bought that they're hoping to make into a rehabilitation center. It was really cool being at the church, because one of the women who work there has the gift of prophesy and far before we were planning on going there during outreach, she prophesied about our group coming. It felt good to have that sort of affirmation about what we're doing.

brazos de misericodia

this week has been amazing for me! i LOVE working with youth. and that's what we've been doing. we did a mini-DTS for some youth at a local church. they were so great! we spent time each morning sharing some testimonies and giving teachings about what we've learned during our DTS. and then we taught them some of the dramas that we learned so they can continue to use them in their evangelism. it felt so good to be discipling so directly. it was really rewarding because they were so receptive. tonight we had a service at which we had them perform all the stuff they learned, and one of them gave her testimony. i was so proud to see them using what we taught them. and we went door to door to invite people, and it was good to teach and encourage them in that way as well, because although i don't particularly like door to door evangelism, we need to learn to be more willing to talk to anyone we meet about Christ, and that was a good step.

BAWLS!

so last weekend we made the trek from San Quintin all the way down to Pachuca. this meant three days in a van with fourteen people through the mexican desert in the middle of summer. yes, it felt like hell, quite literally. we were miserable for most of it because there's no A/C in the van and we were all cramped and only stopped to go to the bathroom and get gas. however, we did stop in Mazatlan at one of our staff, Ana's parent's house. we had some good eatin' there and ended up spending the night because our drivers were too tired. this was a blessing because we were able to take showers there (PTL)! and then we headed on the rest of our journey. i was able to use my excellent creativity (mixed with that of my friends) to keep some of us decently entertained during a lot of the ride. we played all sorts of games, from "I Spy" to "GHOST" to "Truth or Dare" (which was surprisingly effective in a van full up of people) to a game we invented called "BAWLS" and even more. it was bood (a word we invented that means something is so bad it's good). we got to Mexico City pretty late Monday night, and got lost finding our way from there to Pachuca. we ended up getting pulled over by the police (which happened a lot on this trip) but in the end they decided to give us a police escort to where we needed to go to get to Pachuca. then we just had to find our way to the YWAM base there, which happened around two a.m.

this week, we're doing a sort of mini-DTS for some youth at a local church.  we've been sharing what we learned during our lecture phase, and just some of our experience with missions and serving God in general. i'm doing some teaching this morning. we've also been teaching them a couple of our dramas and children's songs/dances that they can use in their ministry. we're taking them out tomorrow to actually put it all into practice. i'm excited!

OUTREACH!

Sorry it's been so long. A lot has happened and I haven't had much internet. But this is my quick attempt to update.

Our last two weeks of lecture in Tecate were great! We had Donna MacGowan come and talk to us about the fear of the Lord, which was amazing, she was amazing! She used a lot of good techniques to have us teach each other, and share what we thought which was very engaging. she also spent a lot of time with us which was good. we baked together, she taught us some good exercises from the ywam fitness school in Denver (where she's from) and she even let me dye her hair (i'm starting to seriously consider the first ywam beauty school/tattoo parlor idea).

Then the next week we had Edgar from Monterrey cone and teach us dramas and dance. I LOVED THIS!!! even though i got nasty bruises and scrapes and unbelievably sore, it was so good! after four intense days of that, we had NIKO. I can't really talk about NIKO because it's a hardcore bootcamp missionary training thing that's kinda top secret. But i can tell you that it sucked. Well, I was pushed past my physical limits, and someone got sent to the hospital so we had to end early. those two things kinda made it a little less than amazing. But i'm sure someday I'll see what all I learned from it. It did have it's good points though. a bit of insanity on my part. but it was alright.

During that week two more of our team went home. two of my favorites. Courtney and Israel. This has been REEEEEALLY hard for me. I'm still dealing.

And now we're on outreach. We're just wrapping up our first week that was spent here in San Quintin and we leave tomorrow morning for Mexico City. We've been sleeping on a cement floor in an "apartment" with a toilet that we fortunately fixed and a cold shower. but hey! there's running water. no electricity, but who needs that when you've got a guitar. me and Dina have been getting sick, so we could use some prayer for our health. and sleeping on a cement floor that just won't stay clean doesn't help. We've been eating amazingly well! Julio, our leader, is from here, and we're staying very close to his parents house, so his mother makes us most of our meals. Otherwise the churches and daycare we've been at have fed us well.

We've done two church services, two VBS style ministries, one day of labor at a daycare painting furniture, and two huge evangelism programs in the migrant camps here. One of them had over 1,000 people living there, and more than 600 came to our program. 50 people gave their lives to Christ. Our programs usually consist of a lot of children's songs and dances, puppets, and such. then a couple dramas, a testimony and a message. Sometimes even a video. I've dressed up like a clown almost every day at some point, which is actually really fun. the kids love our programs. it's completely exhausting though. especially because i'm in a lot of them. I'm the main character in one of our dramas to the song "The Clincher" by Chevelle (i know!) and basically I get beat up the whole time. Literally thrown to the ground. I'll have to upload a video of it if I can. I don't have my camera because I think I left it in the van going to San Diego, but someone has the video of it so we'll make it work. But it's so good. We made people cry. yessss! I love Jesus!

So outreach is starting off well. I've been having fun even though my body feels terrible. But the Mexicans and I are happy. OH! and we have another American, John Paul. He did his DTS last winter in Switzerland (a snowboarding DTS!!!) and he and his dad were called to Tecate, so they showed up the week before we left, and we all decided that he should come with us. So now there are TWO gringos and a bunch of Mexicans again. he's very cool and makes it a lot of fun here.

We have another church service tonight, and then we head out tomorrow morning for our three day straight drive (only stopping for the bathroom) to Mexico City!!! I'm excited, but it's gonna be rough. We have 11 students and two staff now, with all our luggage for 2 months all in one van. we barely fit, we're literally sitting on each other. and we're adding two more staff before we go to Mexico City. yeeeah. it'll be tight. for three entire days. that's a long time. pray for me! haha!

i'm a princess!

sorry it's been a while. i have a legit reason for that. i'll explain later in this update, which i'm warning you is gonna be long, so brace yourself.

a lot has happened since my last update. first off, that week we had an AMAZING speaker come. David Ter
án from another Mexico base came to talk to us about relationships. As part of this though, we have to address our own identity in Christ. this ended up taking the whole week and we didn't actually talk about relationships. but it was SO good! he had us share the biggest dream that God has given us, and i actually felt really embarrassed to tell mine, even though i included it in my testimony when we all shared those at the beginning of our DTS. for those of you who don't know, God called me to missions about six years ago, and has since been giving me a path to follow specifically for that. this path just happens to fit perfectly together with my gifts into a dream that i got from God. it took me a long time to feel confident enough to share this with people, but i know it's of God, and if i will just continue to obey Him, i can do it with the strength and wisdom i receive from Christ. i want to eventually go to Africa and fly myself in an airplane to the areas that are difficult to get to, and where people don't want to go due to political unrest and war, and provide whatever minimal healthcare i can and share the gospel. David was glad that i had such a specific dream, because most of my classmates were either following a vague call to missions or the church, or they claimed they didn't know. then when David asked what i was doing about the healthcare part, and i told him that i'm one year away from graduating nursing school, and then one of my classmates shared how i'm also four hours away from getting my pilot's license, David was very impressed with the fact that i was so actively pursuing this dream. he said that it showed how confident i am in my identity, and that being an identity found in God. it was so good to hear that. because i really do feel confident in who i am and what i am capable of with God's help, but there are so many things that people and the world say to me, telling me who i am, that sometimes i lose that confidence.

i felt very reaffirmed during that week, and has some great quiet time with God asking Him to continue leading me with this dream and helping me along the way with motivation and wisdom. during the week we were also preparing for a fundraiser event we had that saturday. it was called "Ferialuz" or "Fair of Lights". i was one of the leaders for it, and we named it for Isaiah 51:4 about how God's justice will be a light for the nations. the focus was on our outreach to southern Mexico and Guatemala. i was specifically in charge of the drama we were going to do and making a video presenting our team and talking about why we're going and what we're doing on outreach. just a few days before the fair, our team decided that they thought we should do a different drama. i was a little hurt, but i prayed about it and God said that we should do the drama that one of the students knew. it was in spanish and i didn't know it at all, and so i was no longer able to help with the drama, losing that part of my leadership role. but i kept working on my video during the whole week. the day before the event, the four leaders were meeting, and after we prayed for the event and our team as we prepared, Efrain said that he thought i should dance during the program we were going to have. he said how he was really blessed by my dancing, and the God wanted me to perform for everyone. this was kinda funny, because only earlier that week i told one of the other leaders, Dina that while i was praying i thought God was telling me to do a dance at the event. we took this as clear confirmation and so we decided to add that in. that was good for me, because only about an hour before the event started, one of my classmates tripped on the power cord to my computer, breaking it completely. i was still putting the finishing touches on the video at the time, and my battery was really low. but we were planning on playing the video off my computer. so with 20 minutes of battery life left, i frantically had to try and finish the video and save it onto an external memory drive. unfortunately the battery died before i could get the video off my computer and so we weren't able to show it at all. so not only was i upset that my computer was broken (the reason i haven't been able to be on a computer long enough to update this in so long) but we weren't even able to show the video. i felt like between the drama and now that, i was a total failure as a leader. but i still danced during the program. everyone seemed to enjoy it, and i was glad to be able to share a little bit about worshiping with everything you have with the people there. here's a video Courtney took of my dance.  and a photo of the three of us all dressed up for our fundraiser.

the next day we had free, and i was able to have a girls day with the other two girls in my school. now that there are only three of us, it's pretty much the three of us together all the time. i love them both so much, and we had a lot of fun together going to Burger King, and then going to see a movie, and just walking around doing some shopping for stuff we're running out of. it was our brother Israel's birthday so Dina and i wrote him a song (which you can watch our video of on my facebook profile), with a chorus of "happy sad birthday, Israelito" because we weren't able to go to his birthday part due to some miscommunication. but it was great to really just relax with my sisters. here's the three of us princesses:

on monday we went back to tijuana for a week with the speaker Tom Bloomer. another DTS was there, as well as the School of Ministry Development from LA. it was fun to get to know all the other people. i made some amazing new friends (one of whom invited me to visit her up in San Diego for my birthday next weekend, and i'm going to try with all my power to make that happen), and had a good time. Tom is the director of the University of Nations which is what all the YWAM schools are through, and it was great to get to hear him speak. we talked about having a world vision, and a lot of people had their ways of thinking adjusted. i again felt very reaffirmed in many of the ways i already thought. he was interesting though because at each lecture he would share some princess story or the like that was an allegory to the gospel. it was a different way to look at it all, and i really enjoyed it. he again talked about how our identity is influenced by what we hear from the world around us, and how we have to take every thought captive and see if it's of God before we identify with it. this all went along really well with the book we're reading right now (and just turned our book report in on) called Making Jesus Lord written by Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM.

now we're back in Tecate, and we have the other DTS that was with us in TJ here for the weekend doing Mission Adventures stuff. it's fun because they are a mostly Korean group, so we have more diversity here at our little base. oh and some of you would be proud to know that i've been cooking a few meals here, and i'm doing really well! this afternoon i made lunch with some of the mexicanos, and i was in charge of the rice and salad, and both turned out well! now i'm going to go over to the base and help them make dinner too, because we're having enchiladas and i need to learn to make more mexican food while i'm here in Mexico.

a rough patch.

so i'm not going to lie. i'm apparently hitting a bit of a rough patch personally right now. i'm still enjoying mexico immensely, but the things that have been weighing on me since i've been here (and some from before) all seemed to crash in together on me this last weekend. we got back from ensenada, and i really liked it there. there were more english speakers, more people in general, more room, more beach, more relaxation, more worship, and more support. overall, i had a lot more there than i do here in tecate. and that made coming back (although it felt a lot like coming home) a bit disappointing.

i feel really disconnected from home, and i've been really having a hard time feeling completely at home with my dts family. i've been trying to work on my spanish, but really this just means i don't talk as much at all. which wasn't so bad, until i started totally pouring everything out on the few people who understood what i was saying to them. they claim that it's okay that i tell them everything, but i hate that i feel like i can't have real conversation with most of the students here. i fortunately was able to have a decent conversation with one of the guys, israel, today while we were painting over some graffiti. it felt good, because he's one of the people here i feel closest to, but he doesn't speak a whole lot of english. i tried to speak as much spanish as i could, and was moderately effective. turns out we have more in common than i thought, so that was a little encouragement that i needed.

three of the students in our group went home this week. most of the mexicans have been having problems with financial support, and two of them had to go home because they no longer had enough money for this lecture phase that we're in now. we're praying so much, because the rest of the students have exhausted their financial resources to pay for this part of the dts, but they still have to pay for the outreach phase, just like me. this week, i'm working on writing for support for my outreach, because we're getting closer, and i still have to raise a lot of money. and of course, all of this thinking about finances is bound to bring spirits down a bit, so we're all feeling very weary and discouraged.

i've also been experiencing a lot of failure on my part. this is so trying on my spirit, and the devil is using this to really make me feel unworthy of the things God is calling me to. i've never felt as in tune with God as i do right now. i've been able to share words and visions from God with people, and hear Him more distinctly than ever before. and it's amazing because YWAM has such a biblical basis, everything we do and learn has a biblical reference, and so beside my quiet time with God, i'm constantly in the word for other reasons. the binding on my Bible actually broke i've been reading it so much. i've been receiving a lot of scripture during intercession and worship as well, and it feels so good to have God constantly reaffirming me. lately though i've been struggling with my purpose here. why specifically God wanted me at this dts, now. i'm definitely learning more about Him, and thus myself, but i want to get more out of this experience than i currently see myself receiving. and i know to get more i have to give more. the problem is i keep putting so much effort into things, and they keep failing. not all of them, but it's been a pattern.

on top of all of this, as many of you know i have really bad luck with bugs. i was doing so well on that subject until i went to ensenada. i don't know what i have, but i have some sort of bug bite or allergy rash all over my arms, neck, stomach, back and some on my legs and face. the other girls are getting it too, but theirs is a little different. my theory is that we all got something from our room (not sure what) and i just happened to be more susceptible to whatever bugs in ensenada bite. 'cause it started as soon as we got there, and got different when we left. now i just have a sort of rash, i'm not getting any more big bites or whatever they are. but basically, if you've been around me in the last nine months at all, you know this is not a surprise. you also know that whatever it is, i'm dealing with it. but you also should know that it's really consuming. i'm just so itchy all the time! and i'm sick of being this way!

so as you can see, i'm in need of lots of prayer. i was hesitant to write any of this on here, because some of it's really personal, some of it i'm ashamed of, and i honestly want you all to know that i am sincerely loving it here. but i do need prayer, my whole group does. we're not sure how many people will be able to go on outreach because it's so expensive, and we're already struggling with financial support. and we're really in need of some unity, especially after losing some of our sisters and brothers who had to go home. so prayer is greatly appreciated at this point. we're about a third of the way through our school, and it's starting to get trying. but we're hopeful and looking to God in every moment. and thank you so much for your prayers so far. i love you and miss you all very much!

and on the eighth day, God created tacos...and it was good!

first of all, thank you katie for the comment lovin'. i am more encouraged to write on here if i see that people are commenting, because i dunno if y'all are even reading this, so leave comments. and if you do comment, feel free to ask about certain things, or say what you think is interesting so i can make this a better read.

anyhoo...this week in ensenada so far as been AMAZING! it's been very relaxing for me, because God did a lot of work with me over the weekend to get me to an extremely peaceful and joyful place with Him. the speaker this week is focusing on the character and nature of God, which is always an optimistic topic, and it's been very fun so far. we've had a lot of worship time already (especially since we're with the school of worship ), and we've been doing something called "harp and bowl". this is a very powerful and intense practice of a combination of musical worship and intercessory prayer. it's based on the passage of Revelation 5:8-10. side note: it's been really interesting how much God has been speaking to me through the book of Revelation lately.

today, for the first hour of class (after our time of harp and bowl), we went across the street to the beach and each on our own searched after getting to know God better through His creation. it was a really lovely time for all of us. i ended up writing a song for Him that I just kept singing over and over. it was amazing. i was really encouraged too, because one of the SOW students came up to me at the end and said that he wanted to tell me that God sees my heart for Him and to never let go of that passion I have for him. when we got back to class some people shared what God told them during that time. it was cool to hear all the different ways that God was moving in us.

on another positive note, God has been working in my heart a lot on the area related to fear. i realized that the spiritual attack I experienced two weeks ago was because of fear. the presence of the enemy ignited fear within me and he used that fear to attack. but i've been praying about God taking that fear away from me and He's been working fast. for one thing, I prayed (almost nonchalantly) because i didn't really expect anything to come of it, for God to cure me of my fear of balls and sports involving balls. now, if you know me at all, you know that this has been a crippling fear in the past. causing me to cry, and run away, and hyperventilate sometimes. but our speaker mentioned something about how fear can keep us from our destiny, and i thought about all the times i haven't ministered to someone because of my stupid, irrational but completely legitimate fear of balls. so i prayed. and yesterday afternoon we had exercise time. and guess what we were doing...that's right! volleyball. so i prayed again, because volleyball is probably the sport that i have the least amount of fear in playing, and i went out, and played for hours with NO FEAR. ever! it was amazing. and unexpected. then today I played again. and the guys were throwing a football around for a while and i was right by them...and no fear! so that's my sort of lame, but really practical testimony of how God can work in our lives.

another thing God has done is teach me to worship. i almost always feel led to dance during times of musical worship. and i almost never do. why? because there are other people all around, and i don't want to look like a fool, and i don't want to distract, and i don't want to look like i'm putting on a show. but God has taken that all away from me. He told me He wants to see me dance for Him, so this whole week, i started dancing more and more during worship times. today i danced during my quiet time in the morning, during some worship time later, and then again tonight when we had our community service with worship. it's so amazing, and it's worship that i can honestly do solely for God. but on top of the breakthrough it's been i had two people come up to me and tell me that they were blessed by seeing me worship God so openly and wholly, and encouraged me to do that more!

No, I do not have the swine flu.

Neither does anyone I know for that matter. Last week I was in Tijuana, at the YWAM base there. It was a phenomenal week. Our teacher, Dwight Hansen was inspiring! He had so much wisdom to impart on us. We focused the week on worship, and though I feel like I have a pretty good perspective on worship, I learned new things and walls I didn’t even realize were there were broken down. I was able to really get at the heart of God during the week and it felt amazing! We shared the week with the School of Worship from Ensenada, which just reinforced and allowed us lots of opportunity to practice what we were learning. They were a cool bunch from all over, Holland, England, Japan, the Philippines, Canada, etc. We get to go to Ensenada for the next two weeks, so we’ll get to spend more time with them.

There was one major issue pressing on my heart the whole week. My small group leader, Tita, has an illness that she’s had for years, but it’s been getting worse the last six months. Her doctor said she wouldn’t be able to do missions work, but she’s been fine as she’s done just that in 23 different countries. She is an amazing woman of Christ and has been discipling me well over the last couple weeks. She ended up in and out of the hospital during week four, and was gone all of this week. She’s returning tomorrow and is doing much better (PTL!). But I spent much of the week in Tijuana in prayer for her healing, and peace in her heart as she goes through this. I ask for your prayers for her as well.

The weekend between weeks four and five we had off. Unfortunately, I live a decent flight away, and so the other American and I (and three other people who live too far away in Mexico) stayed at the base the whole weekend. I think it was a good idea, because we were able to rest and relax (and do some hardcore cleaning/gardening), and because of what happened Friday night. I went to the church that two of my classmates from here in Tecate are members of, for their youth service. During the service I was overwhelmed by a spiritual attack. It was really scary, and I’ve had them before but it still caught be off guard. I was subsequently shaken up most of the weekend. But I prayed about it a lot, and I’ve been able to get even closer to God because of it.

So this week (five) we had Barry Houser come to share some Biblical Foundations teaching with us. He taught us a lot. We learned a systematic approach to studying the Bible, and we went in depth into a few passages/topics. It was very educational, and enlightening. I especially enjoyed it I think, being the, hands down, biggest nerd in the class. But I definitely got a lot out of him being here. Each week here has provided great speakers, with life-changing things to share, and I feel so blessed.

real missionary training.

this last weekend was an intense one. i keep using that word to describe this DTS experience, but it's the most accurate word i can think of. friday afternoon the fifteen of us students and three staff left for the Cumiai Comunidad of the Neji people. they are an indigenous tribe who are displaced from their homes and now live in whatever they can put together in this area about an hour away from Tecate. part of the purpose of this trip, besides ministering to the people and doing construction work, was to practice leadership. we were split into three groups and each day one of the groups would be leading and making the decisions. we all did pretty well, but i definitely think we need more practice with the whole teamwork leadership thing. we were camping out the whole weekend, however, there was an outhouse we could use (PTL!). it was horribly freezing at night though. the second night i think i slept a total of about an hour. but other than that it was a pretty great weekend. we spent friday night having worship and sharing a message with the people there. i helped out with the children's ministry. the kids were so precious. it was getting really cold so i had children all over me trying to use my body heat to keep warm. it was special, and they still enjoyed themselves. later we had a bonfire, which was a good time of getting to know each other even better and sing some more.

saturday was our big work day. we collected the sand, rocks, and crete to mix together and pour for the foundation of one house. it was a lot of work, but it was good. the floor turned out great. we ended up having another bonfire that night too because it was so cold. this time though we played a game where each girl picks one of the guys and then the guys have to go one at a time and formally ask out whichever girl he thinks picked him. she's supposed to lead him on, and then if she did pick him accept (giving the boys a point), and if she didn't, turn him down (giving the girls a point.  then you reverse roles. it was HILARIOUS! really, these mexicanos are nuts!

following that was a sleepless night, of which i got up extra early to go hang with the guys that kept guard overnight (from animals and such, which there were a lot of) and help out with making breakfast. then we had more worship and i gave the sunday message.

(oh, btw i led musical worship for the first time ever on friday morning. even though it was just my class and the staff, i was really nervous, because i'm not known to be a very good singer. but it felt good to lead. i'm probably going to be doing more of that in the future.)

after breakfast we had to wait for some people to get supplies, and while the rest of us cleaned around our campground, one of the Neji men came over with his horses and we got to do some horseback riding which was a wonderfully random morning activity. shortly thereafter we went to go start the foundation on another house, but on the way to walk over there (after about five steps) i hardcore wiped-out and twisted my ankle. i'm pretty sure it isn't anything serious, but it still hurts, and so i was out for the rest of the work day resting my foot. later in the afternoon we packed up and headed back to Tecate for dinner and showers and more packing. we were all very in desperate need of some limpiar.

now tomorrow morning we're leaving once again for Tijuana. we're going to be there for a whole week this time, so it'll be good to spend some time getting to know the people at that base better. i'm just glad we don't have to sleep on the freezing ground again.

ZUMBA!

so i just finished with my mandatory exercise time. which is probably good because i wish i would work out, but i can never get up the motivation to actually do it. i've gone running in the morning with a couple of the guys here too but they're really hard core so i dunno if that'll keep up. what i do now is that extreme workout video in spanish. it's fun because it's like dancing. (yay!) but my whole body hurts now between working out, working construction, other random things, and sunburn. yes, i got some good burning on saturday even though i wore tons of sunscreen the whole day. some of it's really bad, but i'm hoping most of it actually turns into a tan which would be new for my skin.

this week has been fun so far. we had Robert McAlpine come to speak. he and his wife are at the tijuana base, but their from canada. he was very cool. we had some good talks. and he's going to be working with my good friend susie this fall so it was exciting that we both knew her. and actually susie's boyfriend was around most of the weekend as well. he too works at the tijuana base, and he led the construction for homes of hope this weekend. it was good to get to know him.

we turned in our first book report today. apparently, compared to the rest of my DTS, i'm an overachiever. it was decided that this is because i'm a gringa. i wrote way more than we needed to, and in formal APA paper format. i also read the entire book in like two days 'cause i got mine later than everyone else (since i signed up late and needed it in english not spanish) and some of the other students were still finishing it last night. it makes me feel better about myself that my usual procrastination is actually ahead of the game here. plus we have memory verses to do each week. (I got 100% on last weeks!) And I've been memorizing the verses in english AND spanish. impressive, right?

speaking of speaking spanish, i'm struggling! i know it's only my third week, but i'm no good. i can't roll my r's at all! we haven't even made it all the way through the alphabet in my class yet though, and i'll be here for a few more months, but i want to speak it now! i'm picking it up little by little though.

i have to head over to the base soon. we live in a house that's about two blocks away from the base, so it's nice that we're close, but we have our own space to hang out and relax. we eat most of our meals and have class over there though. it's SO hot though! i'm not going to make it through this summer with the heat. it's just intense 'cause it was such a drastic weather change. as of last week we were still shivering and layering up sweatshirts. now shorts and a tank are too much! well, it's not quite that bad, but it's hot.

i'm going to play a quick little game that i learned from my friend bethanne called what i miss, what i don't miss:

what i miss: good ice cream, having a closet, and air-conditioning

what i don't miss: television, white people, and speed limits

addy:

i said i would put my address up on here for anyone who might want to mail me something. this action is greatly appreciated. also, if you know you want to donate money toward our outreach you can send checks made out to "YWAM Tecate" (and you can write my name in the memo line if you want) to this address:

YWAM Tecate Spring DTS

Samantha Pierz

100 W. 35th Street, Suite C

National City, CA 91950 USA

(this is not my physical address, but where we pick up our mail from 'cause mexican mail is way too slow.)

begin week three...

These first two weeks of my discipleship Training School (DTS) have begun well, with some great speakers. On Monday, Sean and Janet Lambert came to talk to us about the history of the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) campuses throughout the San Diego/Baja area. They were ideal for this topic, because they started the first base in San Diego and have expanded the reach of YWAM from Ensenada to Tijuana and now Tecate, where I am doing my DTS. It was encouraging to hear their original hopes for this area to produce missionaries to reach throughout the world with the love of Jesus Christ, because that is why I am here. I am proud to be a part of the legacy they have started.

The next speaker was Brett Curtis who is part of the leadership for YWAM in San Diego/Baja. He shared with us his thoughts on sin, preventing sin, overcoming temptation and seeing sin as God sees it. This was especially powerful because Brett felt like our class really needed to here about this topic even though it was not planed. And we were all very interested. One part of his lecture that I was particularly interested in was the fact that there is always a way out of sin. Before we fall completely into a habit or lifestyle of sin, there are multiple points where we can stop and turn to God. This is something that is often overlooked or forgotten, but can save someone from future sin and bring him or her closer to God. I also think it is important for us to see sin as the repulsive thing God sees it as, because that is what it really is. I ask God constantly to break my heart to the things that break His.

Brett continued to speak to us the following few days about intercession, which is basically praying on behalf of someone else, but is something I know to be amazingly powerful. We have been interceding for Tecate, asking God to move in this city and reclaim each person here as a member of His kingdom. We also had Mitch Carlson talk to us about cultural sensitivity, specifically between American and Mexican cultures, because those are the two cultures that we have living in community together for our DTS (even though we only have two Americans in our DTS and thirteen Mexicans). On Friday, Kody Spang came to talk to us about the love of God, which is such an amazing thing to discuss, because God IS love! I pray that every person can learn the peace and joy that comes from knowing that God loves you. That knowledge is what keeps me going from day to day. That first weekend, we went out in groups in one of the neighborhoods here to tell people about the Homes of Hope ministry we have and to pray for them. My group found out about a seven-year-old girl there who was very sick with cancer. We ended up finding her home, and spoke with her brother. He told us that she was in a hospital in Tijuana because her anemia from the leukemia was getting worse. We prayed for her and her family through that hard time, and thanked God that she was able to get some treatment.

We just finished up week two, which started out with Tim Kemp coming to speak. He is in charge of all the YWAM schools in Ensenada. He spoke about a few things, but what I really came out with was the reassertion of what it means to live like Christ. We need to live every moment and say every word as Christ would. This is so vital, because if we do not do this, we are misrepresenting Christ, and we are not doing what He calls us to do. Stephanie and Omar Murillo, also staff from Ensenada, came for two days to speak to us about forgiveness and restoration. Forgiveness is a very important topic for all Christians because we are meant to forgive each other and the forgiveness we receive from God is our salvation and allows us to be restored. Our class even took some time in small groups to go through everyone in our lives and pray for God to reveal if we need to forgive any of those people or ask them for forgiveness. This was very emotional, some of the students here have had very traumatic events happen in their lives and have not been able to forgive the people who hurt them. We finished up the week with Mitch Carlson coming back to discuss quiet time with us. Quiet time is something I do all the time, but I set aside special time in the morning to meditate on scripture and sit in stillness and listen to God. My quiet time is usually a time of worship to God for who He is, thankfulness for what He is doing in my life, and waiting upon Him to give me specific direction or answers to prayers. Since I’ve been here in DTS it’s been a lot of praise for the peace and happiness I have been blessed with, and waiting for God to speak to me about what specifically He wants me to do in missions.

This week we also spent a lot of time preparing for Thursday when we put together a “Night of Missions” at the YWAM center in Tijuana. It turned out well, with worship, a speaker, displays and a drama. We presented seven countries to focus on in prayer and their need for missions. I represented Fiji with Dina, my new sister (not to replace my other sister named Dine, but just a Mexican version of her). Then on Saturday I got to go with a few other students from our class to build a house with Homes of Hope along with a group of teenagers here doing a Mission Adventure program. It felt so good to be doing construction work again. I really miss ASP. But I'm so glad I got to help build a house for that family in the name of God, even though it was hard work. They had a bunch of adorable little kids, and a baby that I managed to find lots of breaks in my work to go play with. I love that it is totally culturally acceptable here to just pick up someone else’s baby here and hold it or play with it, because I love me some babies!

Today we’re going to do some evangelism and try and raise some money for our outreach in a few months. This is something I need your help with. We need to raise $3,000 per person, and most of the students here don’t have that kind of money and do not have support like I do to raise that money. So I need your help in praying that we can raise the funds for us to be able to all go on outreach, and pray and ask God if He wants you do donate money to our outreach. If you are willing to financially support my team or me please email me at spierz@iwu.edu and let me know. I will be sending out some letters in the coming weeks to ask for support, but it’s a lot of money to raise. And about our outreach, we were originally supposed to go to India for our outreach, but God has changed that plan. I’m honestly really sad I don’t get to go to India yet, but instead we’re going to Guatemala, including one month in San Miguel Chicaj, which is where I just went over spring break with a group from DRL at Wesleyan! This is so amazing because I almost didn’t go on that trip, and God has placed San Miguel Chicaj on my heart and I’ve been praying for them and now I get to go back!

what's going on...

Hola!

So hopefully I’ve told you this first bit, or at maybe you just heard about my recent movement from a friend, or at the very least you read about it on someone else's facebook. If it is either of the latter, I sincerely apologize, but hopefully after this explanation of why I have a blog will help you forgive my lack of communication.

I’ve been praying for the last six years about following God in his plan for me to be a missionary. This has been a very frustrating journey, because I’ve known God wants me to do long term missions ever since He told me when I was in high school. Since then I have followed Him to nursing school, ASP, short term missions including South Africa last summer, and even flight school (that's right, if you haven't heard I’m getting my pilot's license!). In each of these ventures as well as my everyday life God has been preparing me to be a missionary. It’s been amazing! However, the last few months have left me frustrated and disappointed that God wasn't putting me to better use. I have not been taking any classes at school this spring semester because I have to retake a class that I took in the fall next fall, and then finish up two other classes next spring. This was a devastating situation for my morale because it didn't seem fair. But I know now that God had a much larger design for my little life.

This situation has caused me to make some crazy seeming decisions. For example about a month ago, I decided to join the group from the Christian fellowship on my campus (DRL) that I am a leader in on their trip to Guatemala. Five days later I was on my way there. Many people didn't even realize I went until after I got back. But it was a life changing experience. The biggest impact the trip had on my life was reaffirming the feeling I had that God was sending me somewhere soon. I came back not knowing where (though irony would have it that a certain missionary there told me to be careful what I prayed for when I mentioned that I would love to go to India) or when. Right after I got back from San Miguel Chicaj, I lost a really promising job opportunity because the woman that I would be working for passed away. Though this was obviously very sad, I was angry that I was out of the one thing that might make me feel like I wasn't totally wasting my time. I basically spent the following week alone with God trying to figure out what was going to happen. Then my friend's Tiffany and Josh gave me tickets to a Chris Tomlin concert that weekend to attend with my best friend, Leah Huffman. It was an amazing concert, and sort of just broke me down. I spent almost the entire next day searching online for opportunities to continue the mission training God was slowly having me go through. I looked at returning to either of the places I went last summer. Either back to Sarah Fox Children's Convalescent Hospital in Cape Town, or the Lighthouse Children's Shelter in Rustenburg, South Africa. I also looked into Watoto, a mission in Uganda that I was interested in volunteering with or at least donating money to.

After searching all of these and more possibilities I kept ending up back at a list of discipleship training schools (DTS) through the organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM). This is the group I went to Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama with in the past. When I first heard about the DTS program four years ago, I decided I wanted to do one has soon as I had the six months to spare, assuming that would be after graduation. Then when I ended up not in school this semester, it seemed perfect, except that I had to pay rent and decided to take the “safer” route of working instead. Obviously, this was not working out very well for me. I kept hoping that I would find a DTS at one of the YWAM bases that would end before school started again in the fall, but none of the dates fit in. I went to bed angry and lost and praying that God would just send me out already.

The next morning I awoke to an email in response to one I had sent to a YWAM base over a month before asking for clarification about dates. The registrar for the YWAM San Diego/Baja base apologized saying that my email went to her junk folder, and that if I was still interested in the DTS that would start the next week that I should call her. A few hours later she let me know that the program would indeed end in time for me to get back to school. As we prayed over the phone my heart was decided, but I gave myself twenty-four hours to pray about the decision. On Tuesday, with two days until I left for a previously planned trip to New York with Leah to see our friend Sebastian from Munich, I excitedly started trying to figure out how I could just up and leave my life, and move down to Tecate, Mexico that Sunday.

At this point if you’re shaking your head and thinking about how crazy I am, I don’t blame you. That is basically the response I’ve gotten from everyone. It’s true though that when you unquestioningly follow God’s call, it looks a little crazy to other people. But I knew God knew what He was doing, even if what He was doing was sending me to a place where I didn’t speak the language, where I’d have to spend the money I hadn’t been making, where there were increasing numbers of murders due to drug wars, and where I’d have to be in less than a week.

After a lot of goodbyes, a heartwarming surprise send-off party, a special weekend in New York and a lot of traveling, I’m now enjoying the YWAM base in Tecate, Mexico. I’m really overwhelmed at how intense this whole deal has been, as well as the language barrier going on here. Though it’s not going to be a barrier much longer. That’s right, I’m learning Spanish! Haha! Right now I’m just struggling, but it’s kinda fun! I’m also overwhelmed at the fact that I am so different from the rest of my team. This is the first DTS staffed completely by Mexicans, and the students are even all Mexican except for me and one other girl. It’s strange being the only person with blonde hair and blue eyes. Not to mention the fact that I’m taller than, I’m pretty sure everyone else here. It’s so great though! I’m already making friends. I can tell we’re really going to be a family here. Everyone is so kind and loving. And I’m already growing in my faith as well.

This discipleship training school is basically working as direct training for me to become a missionary. We’re spending the next three months here in Mexico, and then we’re hoping to do two months of outreach in India as well. This I am SO excited for, however, we cannot go if we do not raise enough support. We are raising this support as a group, and we will have a specific goal soon, but I want to through out the request that you start praying now about whether you are willing to support us as missionaries on our outreach in India. If you do not feel led to donate financially, I ask that you pray for all of us down here. We’ve only been here for one day, but it is so amazing what God is already doing and what He has planned.