a year later...

It's been a while. More precisely a year, since I returned from completing my DTS in Mexico. And I still miss it. I want to write to reminisce, but I fear that may take all my time, so I'm going to allow myself a small recollection of joy and learning from my time in Mexico each day. This is coming as a study break as I spend my last week attempting to prepare myself for the NCLEX. That's the exam that I take next Tuesday to become a REGISTERED NURSE! I'm feeling far less than confident in my ability to pass the first time, but they let you retake it if necessary. So as I study here in my room, I feel like I'm going slightly insane. A little bit of blogging may just remedy that.

You may have noticed the change in appearance here, or perhaps this is your first time viewing, either way, the photo at the top is going to be the focus of today's tidbit from Mexico.

In the Discipleship Training School I attended in Tecate, Mexico through YWAM, we were fortunate enough to spend some time at their mission bases in Tijuana and Ensenada as well as our own. We were blessed with the opportunity to spend some of this time with a School of Worship (SOW) that was going on during the same summer. While in Ensenada one week, the SOW shared their lectures with us. It was great to see the ways that God was working in them as they focused on different forms and styles of worship. This was one of the most influential part of my DTS, as we learned and experienced harp and bowl worship. It changed a lot about the way I worship and pray, and I became more aware of God's presence and the power we have through Him in prayer. It was amazing, and we had some time to go out to the beach and just pray and see what God wanted to tell us. It was amazing to purposefully just wait upon Him and listen with no agenda. I made my way to the sand just out of reach from the waves, and was overwhelmed with feelings of love from above! It blew my mind. I started drawing pictures in the sand and ended up drawing a huge heart in the sand and sat down inside it, in the same way that we are held so dearly inside God's heart. I listened to God as He told and showed me how He loves me SO much. How much He gave for me and how much He forgave in the name of Grace for me all came rushing through me and my Spirit was on fire with love in return.

The entire feeling reminds me of the song "How He Loves" (written by John Mark McMillin) which always gives me "Godbumps" and really expresses the way God makes me feel. My favorite line from the song is "If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking." Which is exactly what hits me whenever I look back on that photo of me praying on the beach, and honestly every time I see the ocean. Needless to say, this is one of the reasons I miss the coast so much.