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/
Friday, March 23, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
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.
• 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.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, March 12, 2007
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.
Friday, March 9, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
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:)
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:)
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