Monday, October 3, 2011

And here we go again..

Well this post is going to be short due to the fact that my bed is calling my name, but I really wanted to update my blog so here it is.

So I am back in the beautiful Denver, Colorado once again. I arrived saturday morning and spent the weekend with some friends from my dts that are also here and working with ywam. It was a very fun weekend of just catching up on life. So then came monday and the moving in and settling in part of things. I must say the first week of introductions and adjusting wasn't my favorite thing but I suppose it has to happen. This time around I am down at the main base which has its good and bad points. It was definitely a bit of a change from being up at eagle rock which is where I was last year this time. Also I am living with about 7 other girls in my room which was a bit different than the 4 last time. But I am getting to know people better and I think its going to be very good. So last week was mainly just going over how things work and getting into the routine of living in a community again.

I also finally got to begin the journey that is the school of social justice or ssj for short. There are a total of 15 students in the school and they're all girls. Its a very fun group and I have really enjoyed getting to know them better. We also got the basic over view of what the school is going to look like from week to week. Each week we will be studying different topics such as the spirituality of justice, poverty and urban injustice, human trafficking, and immigration and refugees. Those are just a  few of the topics we are covering. Its going to be some heavy and hard hitting material but I know that God has placed me here to learn these things for a reason. Already He is teaching me so much and we are just starting "official" class time.

So I think that's going to do it for now. I know its short. But there will be a longer one coming soon. This week is going to be full of good stuff to tell you all about. If you have questions or just want to hear more about what I am doing for these few short months seriously please feel free to call me or facebook me or whatever. I love talking about all this good stuff and sharing my heart.
Thanks for the prayers! you rock.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

reflections.

wow. 2 weeks ago this time i was sitting in the worship center at the ywam base eating ice cream and watching the office with Lena, a good friend whom i miss dearly. It's crazy how fast these past 5 months have flown by and i feel thats something i'm gunna be saying for the rest of my life. So as i've been thinking back on what the heck happened over these last few months I have been trying to find words to describe it and i've got a few.

FAITHFULNESS
This word describes the whole experience but most specifically my time on outreach in colombia. There were times where i just didn't feel like continuing. I was exhausted both physically and emotionally. Some mornings i would wake up earlier than i wanted to and just lay in bed thinking, how am i going to make it through today without either breaking down or snapping at someone. So i would go to God and say, well you're gunna have to carry today. This happened a lot. And every single time God did just that. It was amazing. I would find myself at the end of the day thinking how the heck did i just pull through today? And it was only by God's grace i made. God had no reason to respond to my calls i mean there were many times that i was frustrated and angry at God. But he was always there, just waiting for me to drop all the stuff i was carrying, so that he could take for me.

PASSION
God reawakened a lot of passion in me. He started it during lecture phase and continued through outreach. Its a passion for a reawakening of what it looks like to follow God with everything i have and to see the church discover that same passion. I was able to witness this beginning to happen in Colombia. The youth there are digging in deep and they have a lot of fire for their country. They want revival to come and its definitely coming. Its a contagious thing and i just pray it will continue to spread not only within Colombia but to other nations.

UNITY
One thing that God has really shown me while looking back on the 5 months is why this short time was so powerful. I've been trying to figure out why I was able to form such good relationships in such a short time. I only was with some of my good friends for 3 months because they went on a different outreach but I still formed such solid friendships. It was because we were all pursuing one goal: a closer relationship with God. We all wanted our own personal relationships with God to grow deeper. For a few short months we were able to solely focus on that and it led to eternal reward. I heard a quote and i'm not sure who it was by but it kinda helps explain what i'm trying to say: if you aim for heaven you get earth thrown in but if you only aim for earth thats all your gunna get (thats a paraphrased version). So it was in our pursuit of God that we grew closer. If we would have just focused on getting to know each other we really wouldn't have gotten very far. It's so awesome that I was able to be apart of something like this. I can't thank my dts staff as well as my dts itself for putting God first in our time together. It's what made it so amazing and life changing.

LOVED
This was a defining word for me. Its what God chose to call me during the whole experience and its what I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life. God showed me just how crazy he is about me and it was life changing. Theres no other way to describe it. He also showed me love through the new friendships I made. I will never forget all the love they showed me and thats what made goodbyes so stinkin hard.

So i think thats it for  now. If i think of anything else i will be sure to post it :). Thank you all again for all your prayers. They helped ways i don't even know.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

another quick update from pereira

So I must apologize for my lack of blogging. so much has happened that i dont even know where to begin...
i´ll just start :)
we moved locations just this past weekend. we left cartagena on sunday evening and arrived in pereira on monday night. it was a pretty long and cold bus ride. for some reason the one bus decided to have the ac on full blast for the entire trip. i didnt get it. but anyway we arrived safe and sound in the beautiful city of pereira. the mountains here are so incredibly beautiful. i love all the scenery here and its actually green! the cities are built into the mountains and there are coffee plantations every where. it doesnt get much better than that.
going into this next location our team was aware that the spiritual presence i guess you could say was much more thick and prevelent in this city and once we arrived our team could definitely sense it. This city has opened itself up to a lot of satanic and occult type religions so theres a pretty dark presence here. The first day here we spent the whole morning pretty much in worship and interceding for the city. i dont know how to explain it but there is definitely something brewing here. I feel like God is getting people ready for something big. 
We are spending the next three weeks in and around this city. so heres a basic schedule of events that will be going on:
this week we are spending time connecting with leaders from different churches and prepping for a mini dts camp that our team will be staffing
next week we will be living at a local farm type area outside the city and the team will be running a mini dts for youth from all over colombia. this is going to be a huge time for my team and i think god is going to move in a powerful way
then our last week here our team will be ministering to villages near pereira. we´re still not sure what all we will be doing in those villages but we are hoping to be able to do some flood relief and stuff like that.

These next few weeks are going to be very busy and intense. I´m excited to see what else God has in store for the team. God has really been speaking to people about how pivotal this generation is and its starting light a fire in our team and those around us here in pereira. So if you think about just keep my team in prayer. here are a few things you can pray for:
       good health
      Wisdom for our leaders
      god´s protection
      that our team will be able to maintain focus on whats at hand
      against spiritual attacks
     that we will be able to take back ground in this city that the enemy has stolen and claim that ground for God

I appreciate all the prayers that you have already poured into the team. They make such a difference.
God bless!!