NEW HOUSE

I am excited to announce that our base does have a new house for the new year! It is in the same neighborhood as our old one, making moving much easier, and also meaning that we'll still have access to a good sized park in the neighborhood for those times when thirty people living in tight quarters need exercise or breathing space. We will be renting this house, but in the next couple of years we will still probably need to find something bigger if the base continues to grow as it has been. Thank your for all of the prayers during our frantic search. It is wonderful to have to time to move in and be ready for the new semester starting the middle of January.

The Amazons

Well, we’re back from the ends of the earth. At least physically, but my heart and mind often find themselves wondering back to the breathtaking amazons.

Our team spent a total of four weeks in communities and almost four weeks in the city. Some of the time we were on the Brazil side (where they speak Portuguese) and other times in Colombia. In the city we did a lot of teaching in the churches and counseling sessions. In the communities it takes a bit more creativity to do counseling because it’s not really in their culture to open up that much or to tell strangers about their problems. We did a lot of work with youth, sometimes teaching, sometimes playing, sometimes doing small group style conversations. It was an amazing time!

But more than anything, us four girls grew personally. We all had our own giants to face. For example, Lorena is scared of preaching or public speaking, but she did it three times on outreach. Stephanie’s hardest thing to learn was that she herself is trustworthy and has authority to counsel and teach. My growth was discovering lies that I’ve believed for years and lead me to do things I know aren’t logical. We are different women now, more mature and yet more silly (you would be too if you spent two months hanging out with this group of girls!), with more integrity, and clearer plans for our futures.

I always tend to feel most connected to places where I have grown a lot, and the Amazons is no different. I miss the heat and the sunrise over the river. But I also miss the open style the people have of sitting around and talking, wanting to honor us with dinner invitations and gifts. I miss the youth who are so hungry to learn more but don’t find discipleship in the church. It is a beautiful, rich, and needy place. One day I hope to spend more time in the communities.

Now, for the stories I'm sure you've been longing to hear:

Our second day in the Amazons our group and another group loaded up all of our bags and all 12 of us and got into one small boat to travel about an hour and a half down the river. It involved many of us and many of our things getting wet. Then we arrived in a community where they speak an native language and Portuguese. We couldn’t really understand the woman in the house where we were staying and her husband, the pastor, seemed to change his mind frequently about what we were doing and what we shouldn’t do. There’s nothing like stepping off on the right foot! Our team had a series of unfortunate embarrassing moments there. Des happened to walk out the back door, which was the way to the bathroom, to find the pastor’s wife there… right there, bathing. Another night Stephanie was talking to the man of the house and his little daughter Sara runs up and throws her arms around Steph’s legs, resulting in her pants falling slightly…

For a while it has been Stephanie’s dream to hold a monkey. She had an opportunity, actually two. The first time she is holding it and I’m petting it’s head. It took a good 3 minutes to decide that we actually were the enemy and it needed to go into defense mode. AKA pee on Steph’s shirt which actually is borrowed. So, she had high hopes for the second chance she got to hold a monkey. Different monkey, different community, different country actually. It still peed on her shirt, and again, it wasn’t even her shirt.

Later in the outreach, in Macedonia, Desteni and I were walking to the little store by the river and a man walked by us. Now, it’s the amazons so people walk by with fish all the time, some are alive and some less so. Well, Des and I were walking and I turn to look at the man passing us and ended up jumping right into Desteni when I saw he was carrying a baby alligator. I guess it was my bad for not expecting to see one.

The last epic takes place in Macedonia, where there is no electricity. So we use candles after 6:00. Our team was helping with an event for pastors in the area and so there were a lot of people sleeping in the building we also were sleeping in. Since we all had to be at the devotional at 5 am, showers were going to be a problem. Thinking ahead, we decided to get up at 3am, shower, and then go back to bed. Desteni got up first and then would wake the next girl up. When it was my turn, I sat up in bed and felt like I was entering into some weird horror movie, I even got goose bumps. Now what you should know about Desteni is that when she goes to sleep she lays on her back, places her hands on top of the blankets on top of her stomach, smiles at the ceiling, and sleeps. Desteni at this point has gone back to sleep (picture that in your head), but left two candles lit so we can see. She placed one candle on each corner of the head of her bed. I have never seen a site that looked so much like corpse in that dim light. I was scared to check if she was still breathing or not, and then I remembered that I’m an adult and a counselor and a missionary and deal with tarantulas and peeing monkeys, so of course I can deal with my pasturing sleeping with candles at her head. However, if I had had a mirror to talk into I might have been forced to give myself self-counseling, but I’m sure that would have been even more creepy to the other girls than Desteni sleeping in the first place.

The things you learn on outreach!

I will be back in the states from December 10th until January 12th. I can’t wait for Christmas, cold and all! And a late Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Outreach Counseling Style

We have finished the theory part of our counseling school! The last two weeks are known as the sleepless weeks... they involve a paper writing out the 15 sections of a class called “The Divine Plumb Line,” end of the school journal, and presentations. Each outreach team has to practice teaching the divine plumb line, but we have to pretend like we are in a church and have ministry time and everything. Our group did very well, we have some good teachers! And now we are finally catching up on some things like sleep and talking to friends!

Tomorrow I leave for Armenia to visit a friend, Katerine, for a couple days. Armenia is the smallest department in Colombia, but it is the heart that grows a lot of coffee and plantain. Then Sunday we leave for outreach!!!! We travel to Bogota (the capital) by bus and Monday fly into Leticia. Then we get into boats to go up the river to spend two weeks at a community off the Amazon River. We will be spending some time in communities, and two weeks in the city of Leticia, and also some time in Tabatinga (it is the same city on the Brazil side).

A counseling outreach is going to be different from anything I have done before. We work in the churches teaching themes like family systems or identity or restoration or things like that. Then, daily, we also have times for counseling where people will come to us or we might go to visit families in the communities. The counseling is a bit scary to all of us, but we will work in pairs, and the game plan is to just listen to people and be totally dependent on hearing God.

This is what our team looks like: Our leader is Desteni! Amazing counselor, translator (in Spanish and Portuguese) and hilarious best friend. There are only three students in our group: me, Lorena, and Stephanie. Lorena is 20 and her family has pretty much grown up in the base. This is a big growing experience for her, but also wonderful to be able to grow away from her family and let her beautiful, funny self come out of her shell. Stephanie is my Colombia little sister. She is only 17, but an amazing teacher and woman of God. We are all good friends and also have seen eachother’s vulnerable, inner side. It will be an exciting group, but we are also very young and all female. So, please pray:
•Safety for our team
•Wisdom from God in counseling sessions
•My ability to understand and speak Spanish in counseling sessions
•Our leader Desteni, for wisdom, support, peace, ect.
•Insight for what themes to teach in churches and what age group (in some communities there might be great need in the youth and sometimes we might be working with kids)
•Group unity and communication
•Spiritual awarenes

Rain and ice cream... a few of my favorite things

Sometimes the world just seems to have so much need that you don't know where to start and the only answer is to eat ice cream and run in the rain. But then in the prophets I read promise after promise of coming restoration. Actually, Isaiah 49:8-13 is going to become part of the DNA to our ministry. That's I remember that there are things to be doing now, but even so God never asked me to save the world, he just asked me to love him and obey him.

I always get into the sad moods when I'm alone, and it only takes a good 47 seconds being with people to come back to life. God thank you for friends... and for rain and ice cream.

In about 6 weeks we will be leaving for a two-month counseling outreach. Nothing is finalized but hopefully I will be going to Leticia!!!!!!!! Leticia is the city that is on the boarder of Peru and Brazil and is in the Amazons. From there we would enter Brazil. I'm so excited, and there is so much need for family counseling there! Plus I would have to go with my friend Desteni because she'll have to translate into Portuguese! Going to the Amazons has been a dream of mine for 6 years; ever since geogrophy class when my professor lectured about it. What exciting news!

P.S. Random thought for the day: If anyone has a grand piano laying around and can come up with a way to get it to Colombia, I would be happy to receive!

Esperanzas de Vida

Ana Cristina Rincon and I have been praying about starting a ministry for pregnant women considering abortion for a year now. The dream would be to start there and expand the ministry to include adoption programs, working with prostitutes and family counseling. After so much prayer it seems like things are finally starting to happen...

BIG NEWS: This week the director from the similar ministry in Tyler, TX, is coming this week to visit with us and do a conference with our school!!! We have started saving to buy a house or a farm to house girls during their pregnancy so we can give them counsel and a safe place to live while they decide if they want to keep their baby or find a family to adopt. Friday Cristina and I lead intercession for our base, and afterwards two students said they want to commit to our ministry and as we're starting they want to study majors that will be useful (like nursing).

Today I set up an email for the ministry. Just doing that made it feel like this is for real, more than a dream. But it's also a bit overwhelming, we don't know where or how we're going to start meeting women. So please pray:
• that we will have guidance and that our time with the Tyler director will give us good ideas
• an opportunity for Cristinan to visit the ministry in Tyler
• support from local churches and ministries in Medellin
• for more workers
• #1, that soon we would meet our first pregnant woman to start loving and supporting

Walking with the Wise

I feel like the counseling school is something that should be require for life. These two weeks we have been looking at the walls we build in our heart, why, and how to build the “wall of salvation.” It’s such good information, but between all of the application in our notebooks and pastoral time it hits home too.

This school is wonderful! Last school was kind of stressful for all of the staff, but this is like a breath of fresh air for us. There are problems and many things to work on for sure, but it’s just like the house is filled with the presence of God, with safety for openness, and a desire to grow.

Today I was thinking about how blessed I am with the community I get to live in. I have some wonderful friends that are equally passionate about missions (although in different areas of society). There are the kinds you laugh with, cry with, and hold accountable. It made me think of the proverb, “If you walk with the wise you will grow wise.” The proverb doesn’t say don’t hang out with any one but wise. What it does say is “walk” with with wise, like spend your time and let yourself be influenced by the people who are walking in the same direction, the people who are on a path towards God. These are the people we grow with, learn with, we essentially walk with spiritually. Another reminder how God meant for us to live in community, and with good reason.

Story: Desteni and I had to go fix some paper work in DAS (where we go to register our visas and stuff like that). My temporary ID says I’m a male. But they had my real one ready! I was so excited, it feels like I’m official now. But as soon as the lady left the office I noticed the little, bold “M.” Out-loud I said, “Des! I’m still a man!” Then I realized that there were three English speaking men outside of the office, listening. Even in English I don’t communicate what I mean!

Chech out some new pictures from this summer.

FARC

I have finally finished the first week in the counseling school. We have notebooks to do each week that take up all of our time. I think I used all of my creativity in the first week, who knows where my inspiration will come from next week? But it will be so good. We are having great classes about how people build walls of rebellion or rejection. I love the counseling school because the classes are great, but the school is set up so there is a lot of time to personally process all that you're learning. I'm so excited!

I need to update about the situation in Colombia. One of the biggest rebel groups is called the FARC. It claims to be "for the people" but it actually is a pretty violent group against the government. They kidnap many people, and the numbers are growing. Just recently 11 of 12 politicians that had been kidnapped about 5 years ago were killed. The FARC played it off saying that they were killed in a military attempt to rescue them, but, again, that they really are trying to protect the people. There was no military presence involved thought, these people were just outright murdered. In response to this, Thursday there were peace walks in all of the major cities in Colombia. People came out to pray carrying the Colombian flag to show the government and the world that FARC is violent and does not have the people's support. This group has done a lot of damage, there is not a person in Colombia that has not been personally affected, either in their own family or in the family of close friends. One of our neighbor's wife was kidnapped and they paid ransom for five years only to find out that they had killed her in the first month and continued to make money off her. Please continue to pray for this situation and wisdom for our government.

At Home

I'm back in the states! My best friend got married last weekend... So now I have pretty pictures, funny memories of line dancing, and a lonely feeling. It's so good to be with family and have some time to rest but I think I'm getting tired of the resting part. It's good for a while but then I start to get lazy. Tomorrow I get to share at my church and my dad and I are going to team preach on Sunday, it's fun to be able to teach without a translator although it's kind of scary too. Having that other person standing by me is kind of like a security blanket. My family is going to back to Colombia with in a week for a visit which should mainly be fun, possibly a little challenging for them with the language. I’m so excited to share my world with them and to spend some more time talking and being goofy.

I'm really excited about the next semester. I'm doing the counseling school... which doesn't exactly teach you how to be a good counselor. We do have classes on family systems and counseling but most of the time is really spent crying... which I'm a pro at. In the three months we spend at the base, we learn about counseling by working through things in our own lives and healing, then we use the classes as well as the personal experience to teach and counsel on outreach. I think I’m ready for it even though I expect to be an emotional roller coaster some weeks.

Thank you for all of the prayers during outreach. It has been amazing to see how God has taken care of us in little and big ways. One thing’s for sure, we were never alone! But more than just being with us, God really empowered us with courage, creativity, opportunities, and unity that couldn’t have come from us. But even the little things we needed, like a mother’s hug when we were sick or money for medicine, God provided too. I guess that’s what makes the Christian life so exciting, you never know where or how you’ll see God, but you know it’s going to be something extravagant and perfect.

New Pictures!!!

Check out the pictures from outreach!

Ending of Outreach

My outreach is over. I got dengue and it all went down from there. Dengue is a mosquito transmitted disease that makes your blood really thin, gives you a fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and makes food disgusting. For more fun facts please refer to Desteni's site desteni.blogspot.com/ I was getting weak enough that I had to return to Medellin by airplane. That left one leader with four students, and then our last leader got dengue too. We must have been the sickest team in the history of YWAM Medellin! I'm getting better, I even ate some crackers and jello today. But please keep Lorena in your prayers because she is too sick to travel home just yet.

It has been pretty crushing to have to cancel our last church and come home early. Our students will finish the last week working in our houses for displaced kids and the leaders will rest and recuperate in the base. But even though the end was a downer, we loved our time on outreach. We did a lot more work than in my outreach. We did a variety of things: camps for the youth, mini-schools, classes for new Christians, VBS for the kids, started a town wide youth group with three different congregations, and lots of teaching. It was a wonderful time and I think we did some good things in places as well as saw our students grow up a lot.

The countdown until I'll be in the states has started! 6 days!!!!! And my best friend gets married in only 10! Life just keeps flying by!

Crazy Leaders

Changes have happened in our team. Now Lorena, my best friend who is my age, and me are the team leaders! Our original leader, Desteni, got really sick from a misquito transmitted disease and had to return to Medellin. Another one of the students had malaria, and even though she got better it was too high a risk for her to go to the next location that is known for having malaria as well. So now we are a team of 5 people.

Lorena and I are so excited! God must have a lot of faith in us to let us be responsible for three weeks of outreach! It's going to be a good challenge for us. But we also need a lot of prayer so that we make good decisions and pastor our students well.

Last week and this week we have been in the same church. We are working with all age groups, but a lot with the youth. This week we're starting a city-wide youth group that the youth pastors of three different churches want to continue with after we leave. It's really exciting to start something that has so much potential and to get different churches working together!

God has been so faithful with us! Even though we've had some big challenges we've also really seen God do some cool things with us. One night we were suppose to have a church meeting, but we really didn't want to have it because Desteni was leaving and I was suppose to preach but hadn't practiced with the other girl who knows a bit of English. Maybe it wasn't the most missional minded thing to do, but we prayed for rain so that people wouldn't come and we would have more time to prepare. And it started raining, but then stopped and we were all frustrated and scrambling. Then it poured for a good two hours and only about 10 people came to the church, so we had a good time of worship and a devotional and that was all. God has been so good to give us rest when we need rest and strength when we need strength, creativity when we need creativity and always a lot of work for us to do. God is good.

The Middle of Nowhere

First of all, praise God that we have had coffee! It seems funny, but it really was like a gift from heaven these last two weeks. And, Des and I discovered that everyone of our teammates likes coffee... why we we made to work together!


BRIGADE: Our time at the brigade went better than I could have dreamed. We had so much impact in that community the three days we were there, it was so hard to leave. My evangelism team worked with many people in the community and left a lot of youth who had made the decision to live for Christ. There is a young pastor there who is conintuing to disciple them. Members from our team also worked in physical therapy, counseling and worship and all were equally pleased with their results.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for protection for us! We were more than protected, our first day there the military and the police ask how we were doing. The police added a special watch so someone was on duty 24-7 where we were working and they even let us use the police station bathrooms so we could shower. God was really looking out for us!


CHURCH 1: Though the first week was wonderful it was even better to be united working together as our team. The first week we did a "mini-campo escuela" for the youth and the second week we worked with families. Again, there was a community-wide response in both youth and families. Time at this church was also a good stretching for Desteni and I. We were both adjusting to our new positions as leaders after being students the last semester. And we both had more speaking responsibilities than we've ever had before (me with the youth and her with counseling families). But now we can say we've personally seen that God is faithful to do more in us than we can do ourselves.

This place we were in, it really is the middle-of-nowhere, otherwise known as El Palmar in Cordoba,Colombia. In this place they peal their own rice, kill their own meat, and take big homemade hats and machettes with them when walking more than 5 minutes out of town. They have more mangos than you can imagine; there are even different kinds of mangos, if you didn't know: cow mangos, heart mangos, sandle mangos, ect. There is no running water and electricity is sporatic. Where we stayed had a dirt floor and we slept in hammocks. I learned to rope cows (although it's easier to aim at the 8-year-olds teaching us), milk a cow, and ride a horse. I called my mom for mother's day/dad for his birthday from a cell phone hooked up to an antena and repeatedly had to interrupt them to chase the pigs out of the house. It was the experience of a life time! I can't help but smile at the memories and thank God that I get to live a life of adventure, it's the best kind!


Right now we're in a "city" for two weeks. Our first week will be working a lot with youth. The second week we'll be with a church plant that has a lot of new Christians. Please continue to pray for unity in our team and that we will bless the churches and communities.

Everyone who has prayed for us, thank you so much! So far on outreach we have been in awe at how God has been answering our prayers with much more than we even ask. We prayed for protection and we had the military and police as personal body guards. We've even asked God for little things we miss, like coffee and salad, and gotten them not just once, but every day afterwards. Please keep praying because, trust me, God hears!

Curtain's Up

Next Tuesday morning we're leaving for outreach in Cordaba. I'm so excited for outreach! It's so wonderful to have time just for evangelizing and blessing churches. The first week will be spent getting ready for the medical brigade and the first weekend having the medical brigade. After that we'll be spending about two weeks in each church. I don't know where we'll be for sure yet, hopefully it will all get finalized this weekend. Please pray for safety during the brigade and that God would help me lead evangelism and impacts.

And here's a little blurb about the people on my team, please be praying for all of us:

Desteni: our fearless, brave, strong leader! It'll be a bit of a stretch for her to lead, but it’s not her first time and she'll be great at it! The two of us have started a support group for our fellow coffee addicts (joking). She will also be my translator when it’s my turn to teach. And I’m her side kick for crazy, caffeinated escapades.

Lorena: my best friend who did her DTS with me. The two of us are assistant leaders for the outreach. She is a great teacher and leader but doesn't have a whole lot of confidence in her own abilities. When Desteni can’t be found Lorena is my side kick for crazy, nighttime drama!

Paula: professional student. She has many healthy problems: like in her knees and wrists. She's a bit shy, but hopefully she'll feel free to be her funny self with us. She’s the oldest, but doesn’t have much experience teaching or in front of people.

Claudia: professional student. At first we thought there might be problems having a leadership team younger than her, but she will be so helpful in counseling and teaching. She's also our resident physical therapist :)

Ingrid: 18-year old. Great girl who has shown she's willing to try to change when called out on things. Usually she’s up for a challenge, but she was really disappointed to be on our team because she had her heart set on a different place. I hope she clicks with our team even though they are no other girls her age, and that her attitude will change when we begin.

Juan Daniel: 19-year old. He's the best guy at drama and dance; he’s also a great worship leader and plays about 5 instruments, so I'm excited to have him. He's also got experience working with youth and will be great to help out and protect us girls. Pray that he doesn't get distracted by girls in the churches, a weak area for him, and that he can get the pastoring he needs from us three crazy, female leaders.


Pictures and updates coming when possible....

Outreach

Instead of rewriting the information here, please read what Desteni wrote about our time at the medical brigade and pray for us. And yes, we do ride in those canoes to get to the brigade:) What an adventure!

desteni.blogspot.com/

NIKO (shhhhhh....)

I just spent my week at NIKO. It's a camp that I'm sworn to secrecy about for the most part. It's a leadership camp, but the entire time you have to work in team. It was difficult for some. For me it was a little challenging, but almost everything was stuff that I love to do. It was restful even though we were wet a most of the time. The funny thing that was a big lesson for me was having to eat sardines. I really hate fish: don't like looking at them, don't like smelling them, and have only eaten them a few times when force fed. They were all we had for lunch one day, and I took one bite a gagged. The guy on my team gave me this look like, “Rachel, are you serious? You have conquered in everything so far and you’re not going to eat this...” I did eat about 2/3 of my share without hating it! Good thing too, because my outreach is on the coast where we’re going to have to eat fish a lot.

It’s funny the ridiculous things we think we can’t do and let get in the way of good experiences. “Thoughts have consequences.” A 13-year-old girl on my team didn’t enjoy any of our walks and adventures because she thought we always walked too fast. She cried every time we went walking (which was a good portion of 4 of the 5 days). It brought our whole team down because we all had to be encouraging her instead of getting the opportunity to enjoy the beauty around us or feel victorious at what we were accomplishing. She was healthy and DID everything, but didn’t want to enjoy a minute of it. It made me think about what stupid little things I pridefully let get in the way of enjoying my experiences or my life.

I love living in Colombia, wouldn’t exchange my life for an instant. The things I get to do and the ways I’m stretched more than make up for the cold showers, different food and language difficulties. But would I allow a plate with a fish on it put me in a bad attitude and hurt the feelings of a host on outreach? It was such an important lesson for me. One little grateful “thanks” can immensely bless someone and one sour face can make a heart sink. I don’t want to be that stuck up girl, I want to make choices to make the most of my time for myself and for the people I effect. I need to spend time searching for more things in my life that I decide to let get to me, and for that ruin the opportunity in front of me. Not many people have the same challenges as me, but I’m sure you have challenges daily too. I hope you decide to be a conqueror, an adventurer, a joyful disciple.


EASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m scandalized that they don’t really celebrate it. This was “holy week” but a big celebration is only for the Catholics. Most people were tired after NIKO and didn’t even go to church! Don’t worry... I got up and went to church. And my mom sent me and Desteni little egg candles that say “Happy Easter.” The two of us couldn’t help but be our crazy, American selves this morning:

We went out to the park and had an egg hunt. We got one of our friends to take the pictures, I think he was highly amused. For those of you who look at them, I know it’s hard to tell but we tried to spell “Happy Easter.” :) Hope you all had a wonderful time with God thinking about the new lives we can live.

Las Locas

I just ran like a wild woman to the kitchen to get two of my girls. I told them to come quick! And they came but dragging their feet wondering why I act like I'm on drugs sometimes. So I pulled them along with me and then ran outside into the rain. Now they're thinking I've finally gone insane and they should get back to work. But we went up on the roof and they got to enjoy the most beautiful rainbow ever with me! (I posted pictures) My girls asked if we have rainbows in the states, because that would be the only logical reason for me to be so excited about one. I've never see one so low, it's like it's right in the city. Even after a hard week God is still blessing us with his infinite beauty. I love his little gifts like rainbows!

Today we were assigned to our outreach groups. I'm going to the coast but first we're going to be working a week in a medical brigade. I am ecstatic for my team. I'm leading with my two best friends: Desteni and Lorena. I didn't believe it possible that I would get to be with both of them! I'm also with my crazy student that's like my sister and that smashed the cake in my face on my birthday. There are a total of three girl students, two guy students, and the three leaders. It is a wonderful group as far as worship, dancing, drama, teaching, and exciting/crazy adventures! O thank you God!


*** Someone has my camera right now, so I can't update my pictures. But if you want to see a baby picture please refer to my friend Desteni's site: desteni.blogspot.com/

Emergency Prayer Request

Guys... our base needs prayer. Today I was on the bus coming back from my Spanish class and I just felt the weight loading on. When I enter our house I feel this emotionally high strung, warfare environment. Here are some of the immediate concerns:
• This weekend three of our underaged guys drank beer at a bar.
• We have two pretty serious couples within the students. They're not kidding anyone with the friendship act. The six months of the school is a time for knowing God, not for relationships. Today I talked with one the boys and he admitted that he had thought marrying this girl and had almost asked her at one point last week. I talked to him a lot about protecting his mind and be responsible with his thoughts and about the priority of the school. He promised me not to act on anything until the school is over... but it's still a present temptation and distraction. (Having a girlfriend/boyfriend from the school doesn't sound that horrible, but the students did make the commitment to stay single if they entered single for the duration of the school. And it's a dangerous thing because all of the students are having the same experiences and are growing so much in the same ways during the time of the school that it can heighten the emotions; but when the school is over they find out that it can't work and that discovery comes with pain and guilt for not focusing for the short time they were in the school. I want to protect my students from that experience and to help them get all they can out of the experience.)
• An overall rebellious attitude that makes it difficult for the students to accept correction from the staff.
• Disunity between different ministries at the base. Right now there seems a big division between King's Kids (that disciples with jr high and high school students and teaches them communications, dance and drama) and the schools.

Please keep us in your prayers. Right now it has exhausted the staff and we're wondering how we are going to make it on outreach. But we can depend on God to give us the strength we need. Our students need God to work in them too.

Colombian Scandals

WE HAVE A BABY! Two of the leaders: Alvero and Jocabet just had their baby, the first one at the base. Everyone's healthy even though Joca is still in some pain. I've never been around through a whole pregnancy and birth! It's so exciting! The baby is adorable, huge eyes and lots of dark hair. Pictures coming soon.

Desteni was going to visit the baby today... and that is the motivation for this post. Needless to say, Des and I were amazed and some myths we discovered. It made us realize that there will be some fun surprises for us when we marry Colombians... (not saying that we are anywhere close to marrying Colombians. It's more just the hope that we will get married someday and we live in Colombia, even though we're desperately without prospects at the moment).

1) You can't hold a baby when you're on your period. (Des and I considered this and even searched the internet... we have no idea what it could possibly do to a baby).

2) When you're sick to your stomach you should eat pork.

3) If you have a cold you must dress in warm clothes from head to toe and wear a scarf around your mouth. (If you noticed in my birthday pictures my friend Edinson was wearing a scarf even though it was a warm day. Remember, we live really close to the equator).

4) You should always lay a baby on it's stomach because it's the best thing for it.

5) When Alvero is hot a sweaty he should take off his shirt and put the baby in his armpit. (Not kidding, folks)

6) It's slightly debatable, but commanly believed that you really can't still be a virgin if you use tampons.

7) Never take a shower after dark, it's how you get sick.

8) Reading in a bus or moving vehicle will ruin your eye sight.

Sometimes I just have to laugh at this culture that I love so much.

Heartbreak Day

Today our third student decided to leave the school. This school... sigh. With some student we're seeing major growth and with others they just make the decision to not learn and it ends up affecting the entire atmosphere here. All in all, it's an immature school. And right now it's like we're going through a time of sifting; they need to decide they want to be here or it's time for them to leave. That sounds so harsh that it makes me cringe, but I think it's for the best before we leave on outreach. Please pray for our students and even more for us pastoral staff and leaders.

Dia International de la Mujer

Have you ever woke up one random morning and found that the entire day was a celebration for you?

Colombia has some cool holidays that don't exist in America. One of them is the International Day for Women on March 8th. It's just a day to celebrate us. At 5am the boys of the base played and sang to us from the hallway. Every morning we have a devotional time where one student presents an attribute of God, so this day all of the guys together presented God's amazing creativity in making the woman: his best creation. At breakfast Juan Daniel read a poem he wrote that was also an acrostic for "Mujer." In the night they had a presentation where they played songs for us, gave us all flowers, chocolate and dishes of ice cream and took turns either reciting a poem or telling us why they appreciate us. (Note that we have 23 women in the house and only 14 men to do all of this). It was just such a beautiful day. Desteni and I didn't know it was coming until we woke up in the morning. We love God for blessing us with these little surprises!

~~~

This week has been an amazing break through. Last week the staff felt like there was climaxing tension with disrespect and breaking rules and little arguments breaking out among the students. Something changed this week. Now there is like a climaxing of growth and maturity that we haven't seen before. Oh thank you God!

My favorite example of this, and about the cutest story ever: Juan Daniel is obviously the cutest guy student, so of course the girls flirt with him. He's been called out on his behavior in response a couple of times by the staff. This week he was sitting outside and playing guitar with a group of people. One girl came and sat really close to him, but I didn't want to call them out for that. Then she laid her head on his shoulder. Juan Daniel immediately leaned his head towards hers to acknowledge her and then gently lifted his shoulder so that she would sit up straight again. He didn't even know that I was watching, but I saw and told all of the staff. I couldn't believe he went from a flirtatious dreamboat to such a responsible leader overnight. And then later that same day I had a prophecy for him about his calling to be a leader for men in his teaching, examples, worship, and relationships. When I told him how proud I was of his example with the girl he even teared up because he had been feeling like he had just been doing one wrong thing after another. God is just so faithful to tell us what we need to hear to grow closer to him.

These kind of things have been happening with a lot of our students, even some of the real troublemakers. Please pray that it doesn't just happen once but that it's the start of a change within our community, that our students will be ready to be leaders on outreach.

God's been doing this for the staff too. There were some negative things happening among us that was hurting our unity. But this week has been the turning point in that as well.

For me personally God made this week beautiful by talking through me. Sometimes I let doubts creep into my mind and wonder what I'm doing here or if I can really help anyone. And then in a time of ministering to our students God gave me a specific word for four of our students (one of them being Juan Daniel). I don't know who I am that God would decide to talk through me; it's just another one of those amazing blessings I can't adequately say "thank you" for.

Never Leave the Presence of God

Random: Today we got a flier for an "Authentic Chinese Restaurant." The first three meals on the menu included potatoes and arepas (both very typical Colombian foods. Arepas are flavorless, corn tortillas that I don't think exist anywhere else). Some Colombians just don't get out much.


This week has been like a break through for me. I love how even though I'm a "pastor", I get to work through things and have pastor time for me every week with my pastor. This week my pastor and my best friend that was in my school were talking about identity. There are a lot of things I know are true about myself: like I have value and I am beautiful, but even though my head knows it my heart doesn't believe it. My pastor, Claudia, told me that to move info from my head to my heart I need to pray for some divine revelation and let God make the truth come alive for me.

It was one of those things that I can’t pinpoint the moment when it happened. It wasn’t a flash of lightening, but every moment of my day is different right now than it has ever been before in my life. For example, in devotional time one of my students was sitting in the living room with me. I was praying and would just be so filled with joy that I would keep bursting out laughing. She would crack up too just because it was so funny to watch me. Then another one of my students in a different room came and asked us to be quiet so they could concentrate. I think she was surprised that it was me making the noise. But living in the presence of God is so real that I have to really work to keep from laughing at times.

I don’t know how God did it, but I shouldn’t be surprised because he is God after all. I know the love of God pouring through me. Another cool part is that I listen to him telling me so many more things that I wasn’t attentive to before. When I just listen, God tells me so many things that are going on in people’s lives, and sometimes even things from their past that I couldn’t know without being told. It’s kind of feels like being Neo from “Matrix” when he starts seeing everything in those green number/letter columns because he knows the real world; and what he’s experiencing isn’t it. Then I know how to approach people or what they need: encouragement, challenging, love. God is so wonderful! But recently he’s also been giving me many promises for my own life. He doesn’t have to tell me about my future, but he has been. I guess he just wants to give me assurance of his love and plan for me. Who knew living in the presence of God was so intimate and so constant?


This weekend the King's Kids are going to be in the house practicing (an extra 40 people). I still haven't had a free weekend, but I can't pretend I'm not busting with excitement for King's Kids. They are teaching new kids, so I won't be very far behind. And this week some of the King's Kids in the school worked on some dances with me. I'm working on sending a movie they made of King's Kids so some of you can see it. They're just awesome. But I think the leaders who make up the dances are on something because I've never seen "adults" so hyper or move so fast! I'll let you know when this grenga gets some latin flavor in her style:)

Staff vs. Students

The students in this school have a lot of problems. There are many respect, relationship, and discipline issues we have to help them grown in. But despite some immaturities I love them all so much! I feel almost like they are my own kids. This week has been so hard for me because other staff members have been coming down hard on MY kids. Maybe the students need it, but many of them have come to me crying or had really down days because of how staff has approached them. We all need a lot of wisdom to lovingly disciple them. Please pray for us leaders (and it wouldn't hurt to pray that I can exercise self control keep from strangling harsh people... just kidding). But I do need help to respect other people's pastoral styles.

But my Sunday was beautiful. Today one of my friends that lives in the University student house went to church with me. We had such a good time bringing comic relief to our weeks. But we also get a kick out of entertaining our entire bus with our expressive Spanglish. We get more creative in communicating all the time! Church was so good!!! And I knew all of the songs; it's easier to worship when you don't have to think really hard to understand what you're singing. I'm learning more Spanish and it makes me really excited. But learning a culture is so much more fun than just learning the language!

Have a wonderful week. And make sure to let someone know how much you love them oddities and all!

21-year-old Princess

My birthday here was the best I have ever had in my life! I felt like a princess all day long. For example: I wanted flowers, and not only did I get flowers, but I got four bouquets; my entire day was like that. God just made me feel so beautiful and appreciated.

Some of the highlights from my party:
* my American friend Desteni and some Colombian guys reinacting the "Thriller" scene from "13-Going-On-30"
* having two Colombians serenade me with two songs that I didn't understand a word of... but I'm good at smiling and nodding
* the student I'm closest to deciding not to leave for Puerto Rico, but finishing the school here (this was the best present I"ve ever been given!)
* another really good friend calling me even though he's in Venazuela
* getting a notebook that everyone wrote in: my qualities and how I've impacted them
*** Having a cake smashed in my face

My Amizingly Musical Kids

I feel like I am a band geek again. In this school the kids are so talented. Whenever they have free time they sit around and take turns playing guitar and singing. It's like a never ending worship service. One of the first assignments for creativity time was to come up with something creative. Most drew something cute... but Juan Esteven wrote a song. WROTE a song!!! It's actually really good with a chorus and a part he raps. I think I'm going to try to record it onto my computer with him and one of the girls singing harmony. They inspire me to pursue more of the creative things I love like music and drawing and writing.