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!