oh those morning drives...

Hi all,
I know. I'm not in some other country telling updating you on the latest adventure. BUT, I just really felt like writing about my drive to school this morning!

I left the house late to begin with... yeah, surprise surprise. So, I was clippin along pretty good when I saw the bus in front of me pass two little girls who were out by the road waiting for the bus to pick them up. And when I say little, they looked like about five or six years old...really little. So as I watched them in the rearview mirror it became evident that they were quite surprised to be left behind! They both dropped their jaws and threw their hands up and had this "what do we do now? we've been left behind!" expression on their faces. I guess I just couldn't get over it so I turned around to see if they were okay, meanwhile thinking "I can't imagine they are home alone..and even if I do give them a ride, where will they sit in my junk filled car??" Well, anyway, as I started down the road to their house, I saw another bus coming to pick them up. Well, that's a relief! I turned back around, thinking about those little girls--so precious and innocent. They thought for sure their day was all messed up, but it turned out just fine.

My next incident happened as I was driving passed the Angel's Crossing golf course and up that hill right before the train tracks. As always I was thinking about my family or the day ahead or whatever. I looked down momentarily (ahh yes, I was eating a chocolate CLIF bar and it was falling everywhere). When I happened to glance up, I was flying straight into the blinking railroad crossing gates that had started coming down when I was distracted. I shifted into neutral and slammed on the brakes, heart racing. As I calmed down I turned off the music and listed as the train tooted its horn. Thanks again, God, for always helping me to look up right when I need to, I prayed. Wheww.. As the train passed I thought about all the lives that have been taken at railroad crossings--probably a lot. They are one of the few things in our daily lives that are so powerful and virtually unstoppable at a moment's notice.Everything yields to the train. As I crossed the tracks I could see another train coming from the other direction, heading towards the intersection I was currently crossing. It's not too often there is more than one train..but I was certain everything would be fine. BUT I spent some extra moments hoping that the people behind me would look up in time to stop too.

As many of you know, the drive between Vicksburg and Schoolcraft is long and FLAT. So I was driving about the same speed as the train heading West. As I watched it, I was mesmerized. Just like a man on a serious mission, it charged through the countryside, leaving the beautiful sunrise in the dust.

The last 'happening' of my early morning drive to Western happened on the exit ramp coming off 131. As is common with this particular exit and this time of the morning, drivers were rushing off the highway, stomping on their brakes and piling up behind the stop sign. The problem was there was a freshly dead deer right in the middle of the exit ramp, so everyone was waddling around the poor thing, not really considering the freshness of the situation. After I had passed the deer and looked in my rearview mirror, I spotted the victim car parked on the side of the ramp, next to the deer. The accident had probably just taken place and the driver was likely still working on controlling their breathing. The vehicle that hit the deer was a pearl-colored Lexus, just like my mom's. The windshild was completely shattered and caved in. There was no way to pull over or stop or go back because of the traffic.
What I noticed was that every car that passed the deer and the damaged car just drove on by. I wanted to go back to help, but there was no way. What a devastating day for that person!

I guess I concluded one thing from my drive to school today. Life is SUPER fragile, yet so highly valued. Life is the one think we can lose in an instant unlike money, fame, etc. Are we living every day like it could be our last? This isn't some question that's just to get ya thinking. It's real life stuff...stuff that happened today to many people. It reminded me to thank God for giving me another day and to commit this day to Him entirely. I want my life to have value in eternity. Everything else would be a waste of time, something we can never get back.

We Made It!

Hey all my readers! I’m here in the states in case you felt like I left you hanging! The blog right below this one was just posted as well, and it explains what happened in the last weeks of outreach. I recommend you scoot down and read that one first. J

I wrote that other blog while we were still stuck in Argentina if you didn’t gather that. So, to put together all of the pieces, I will write one last blog and close this thing out.

So after missing our flight that took off out of Chile on the 20^th of June, we spent a couple more days waiting for the passage to open up so we could enter Chile. Remember, we couldn’t cross to Chile in southern Argentina because of the volcano and couldn’t cross in northern Argentina because of a massive snow storm.  The time we spent with the lady who took us in while we waited to cross the border was really blessed. God used us to minister to her heart through leading devotionals in her home for the first time ever and also just by talking with her and listening to her story. With no way to thank her with money, we opted to use our time cleaning her house, serving during meals, praying for her and leading worship in her house. God has a purpose for everything!

A couple days later, the passage to Chile opened up and we were able to cross the border (after waiting 5 ½ weeks!). We spent one night in Chile at another YWAM base. And I froze my buns off!! In Chile, they typically don’t have heaters in the houses. So, there we were bundled up, two girls to a bed..chilled to the bone. Let’s just say I didn’t get much sleep that night. Then, we headed off to the airport early the next morning. Santiago, Chile is a beautiful city surrounded with mountains. I enjoyed watching the sun rise over the Andes Mountains as we sped to the airport. Once we arrived and began the check-in process, Brando realized he had lost his passport. For a while, we were calm, thinking nothing of it. He would of course find it after a little looking around. Well, this didn’t happen.  So then we all began searching frantically while Brando ran to try and find a phone or internet to find the passport. Well, all of this stress plus the fact our flight was leaving shortly began to build. After I cried and everyone was all upset we began to pray. Miraculously, the airline allowed Brando to pass with only his equivalent of a license! He then was interrogated by the police for a while, and then barely made it for the flight! Wow. We were thanking God and thanking God some more, as we clearly were BEYOND ready to go home!!

With just enough money for each person to get a milkshake at the Panama airport, we sat slurping and playing UNO while waiting for our flight to Colombia. Since we had missed the entire week’s debriefing that the rest of the students back in Colombia were having during the week, our leaders gave us a quick 30 minute run down of what was discussed. That would have to do! As is typical of our group, we drew a lot of attention on the plane back to Colombia…hooting and hollering when we finally touched ground. If only our fellow passengers knew our crazy story…they’d be celebrating too!!

Once there we immediately felt the heat. By the evening of the first night we were all sopping in sweat, but content, as we had made it back in time for graduation. After graduation, Jesse and Laura (from Colombia) and I were picked up by Laura’s parents and began the journey to the beautiful town of Santa Marta. We enjoyed a fun weekend at a resort and on the beach before Jesse and I headed back and caught our flight to the States. And let me tell you…what a wild feeling seeing your home country after 6 months!! Talk about patriotism!!  

To continue on this theme of patriotism..we are truly blessed to live in a free country. I thought I was thankful before, but after six months of seeing thousands and thousands without proper homes, clothing, sanitation or hope of change,  I get the picture much better. Jesse and I had mixed feelings coming back to the States..of course we would miss Colombia and Argentina, but we were also just itching to see all of those special people we left six months ago.

I’ve been back at home for about two weeks now. For the most part, things are coming along really nicely. Thanks to God, I’ve been granted the grace to transition well. I’m still in the process of catching up with family and friends, but I’m sure that will be an ongoing process. I’m also excited to get involved at church, to hang out with our German foreign exchange student coming this fall, and to attend Western (except the first day of school is my birthday:P). Getting back into school and studying Spanish and Psychology will be challenging but fun, because these are two things God has put on my heart! Anyway, there’s much to look back on and to look forward to, but one thing remains: Jesus Christ is the center of my world, and my one desire is to walk with Him closer and closer every day!

Thanks readers and supporters and those who pray for me. God bless you!!

Chelsie

The Story

Well, it’s not hello from Chile as I hoped this blog would be, but neither is it hello from Bariloche. Rather..hello from Mendoza, Argentina. Our flight back to Colombia left at 4am out of Chile this morning. So, we aren’t exactly going as planned, but we haven’t been for 5 or 6 weeks now! If I could describe our experiences in the last weeks in one word it would be WAIT. We have done this more than anything else, but our time has not been wasted. Every day the Lord has something new in store for us, something more to teach us. Here’s the continuation of our story:

By the time I can actually put this blog on the internet, we will certainly be in Colombia, but I figure you may find the story interesting anyway. J

So after I wrote the last blog, we continued working in Bariloche waiting for the parental permissions to arrive in the mail, the post office to open after the repeated aftereffects of the volcano, waiting for the passage to Chile to open back up. The weather would improve and we would have power and hot water for a day or so, then the conditions would worsen with another storm. We called over and over tracking where the permissions were in the mail and why they had not arrived to Bariloche. The first problem they told us was that the address we gave them in Bariloche was not a house, so they would have to send the papers back. Then the problem was supposedly that the papers were in Buenos Aires but could not get to Bariloche because of the airport closure due to the volcano. Then we called them again and they tracked the papers and found they were mistakenly taken to Brazil! But we had to leave for the north of Argentina (Mendoza) because we needed to make our flight and the passage to Chile was open in Mendoza but not in the south where we were in Bariloche.

 So, the Chilean console said to have the papers sent to Mendoza and if they didn’t arrive in time we could probably use the emailed copies that the parents had originally sent to Chile 5 weeks ago. So we bought bus tickets with nearly all the money we had and road 10 hours, but because of a delay we missed our connection bus. So they left us in a bus terminal at 1:30am and said to wait for the first bus to leave at 8:30am. Miraculously a bus showed up and accepted us at 3am. So, we continued by bus for another 12 hrs or so until we finally reached Mendoza. There we found the friend of a friend who would take care of us for the night before we had our bus ride on Saturday to Chile. She met us with the permissions in her hand—praise the Lord! The pieces of paper that had held us up for going on 6 weeks! We got up the next morning and road to the terminal where we waited 3 or 4 hours before they told us that the entrance to Chile from Mendoza was closed due to a snow storm and no one could pass. We returned to the house, and waited until the next day and they said the same thing. That was our last chance to cross before missing our flight that left early this morning. The passage is still closed and the parental permissions expire today. Everything is closed today due to a holiday here so we cannot leave to do anything because all is closed and it’s Andres’ birthday. NEVERTHELESS, we are doing well! We have enjoyed our time here, celebrating father’s day gathered around a table full of people we didn’t know. It has been wild. But God has provided us with a place to stay, food, beds, warm showers all for free. We are still waiting on God and His perfect timing.

Rapunzel

Well, hello from Bariloche...still! We would be on our way to our third city in Chile if plans had not DRASTICALLY changed, but alas, here we are in the fine city of San Carlos de Bariloche starting our fourth week here.

The above picture captures our moment of deportation from Chile...photo with the police man. :) I tell ya, when God has different plans, He makes them happen! Here's the breakdown of our story:

So, we spent a very sweet, cute week in Bariloche--working at the base and a lot with a nearby church. This particular church has a lot of issues and pain within the body of believers, so we spent a majority of the time teaching, sharing our testimonies, and just encouraging them to keep moving forward. It's a hard situation because the pastor has diabetes and is in a terrible condition, unable to leave the house. So we went to his house...just beautiful by the way--log cabin style tucked into the mountains...and were truly blessed to spend some time sharing our testimonies with him and spending a time in worship. We intended to be there for a few hours but it turned into the entire day! I shared my life story for the first time in Spanish and it was a really special time for us all to connect and hear feedback from the pastor too.

Then, after that week, we packed up, said our goodbyes and road a bus for three hours to the Chilean border. There they did the whole bag search, passport check, paper fill-out and Mayra and I crossed into Chile. The rest of the group, however, got held up and were not allowed to enter because of some new law that requires they show parental permission when entering. Well, they had parental permission to leave Colombia, but when we left Colombia the border patrol took their permission slips because they shouldn't need them after leaving the country. So, you have to understand that at this point we had exhausted our Argentinian pesos and were left with only Chilean pesos and US dollars because we were crossing the border we thought! We spent a while stuck in the terminal there. Brando whipped out his guitar and we sang worship songs to the Lord, thanking Him in advance for his faithfulness. We attracted lots of attention along the way and were able to talk about Jesus to all of curious onlookers. :)

 So, eventually they granted us a free bus trip back to Bariloche (miracle #1) where we found ourselves stuck again in the bus terminal without a way to call the YWAM base there, without money for taxis and without an address to the base. Oh and by this time we had gone most of the day without food and had no money to buy food and no money to travel to a money exchange station to get money to buy food! Yikes! They then granted us free bus tickets to travel back to Chile the following Saturday when we would supposedly have the parental permissions (miracle #2). Then we scrounged around and gathered all the money we could find and bought one taxi (miracle #3). Two of the group went with the all of the heavy luggage in the taxi to the YWAM base, and the rest of us carried the other luggage and walked the 30-40 minute walk to the base. By this time I looked and felt like I was on the survivor show. When we got there they made us tea (I've drank so much tea in the last month that I think I could do without it for the rest of my life!) and bread. Ugh it felt like the end of the world!! :D Anyhoo, we then began the process of contacting the Chilean console and the parents and all of that to get the passports sent. They told us we could have them sent by email so we waited 4 days and then they told us that now they can't accept them that way and we have to have new original copies sent by snail mail. Well, that really put a damper on things as Andres' dad lives in Spain and would have to send his permission slip from there all the way to Argentina which meant we would be here until it arrived. With no money, we couldn't pay to stay at the base, so they decided to adopt us and allow us to stay here for free until we could leave--paying for food housing and all of that (miracle #4). Otherwise, we'd be huddling up outside on the street!

For the first few days we didn't have anything to do and we're rather disappointed to have been rejected from entering Chile. Then we discovered the first reason that God wanted us to stay here longer. We played a key role in allowing the YWAM base workers here to enter into a public school to give a presentation--of course without talking about God or anything. The teachers and students of the class were rowdy and skeptical of what we had to offer, but by the end, they decided to invite us back the next day to do two more presentations for other classes. The following day we did four more and were at the school from 8am until 6:30pm! God really moved in an incredible way and the staff of the school said they were already seeing big class-wide changes in their behavior. What was impactful about our presentation is that we talked to them about finding their identity--but we did it through sharing our own personal stories of hurts and hardships. And with us being of similar age to them, we were able to relate easily, even though the students in this school live REALLY rough lives.

This past Saturday, we gave the same presentation to the church we have been working with, as they still have many issues--lots of bitterness and apathy as a result of hardships. So while we were presenting this, I went outside to take my turn playing with the kids when it started raining powder! I was asking them in Spanish, what is this stuff? And nobody knew! Then we got news of the volcano in Chile and learned that it was raining and thunderstorming volcanic ash! This is where we discovered the other reason God did not allow us to enter Chile--as the place we were going to visit was very close to the volcano. Here in Bariloche we are 2 hours from the volcano which is on the other side of the mountains. We are stuck here in a declared state of emergency until things clear up a bit. We aren't supposed to leave the house much and so we feel like Rapunzel.

It's been a really hard couple of weeks as God has been shaping our characters and we have been spending a lot of time cooped up in close quarters with the same people for three weeks now. But, we know our work is effective as we have also been very attacked by the devil with different sicknesses for the past week. Currently Daniela and I are ill, but resting and on the road to recovery AMEN! Anyway, our whole team is greatful to God for His perfect plan, but also very ansy to move on from this place. So, we appreciate your prayers as we continue waiting for the post office to open so we can get the permission slips and then the border entrance to Chile to reopen so we can continue on our journey!! Hope to talk of Chile next time I write! :)

Love you all,

Chelsie

SOUTH!

Hello from Bariloche, Argentina Everyone! Finally I have a second to write you a quick update. We are beginning our fourth week of outreach tomorrow as we just arrived to the YWAM base here today after a 20 hour bus ride.

Man I don’t even know what to write!

The first week and a half we were working with a new church in a really rough neighborhood outside of Buenos Aires. We stayed at the Pastor’s house who is Brazilian. It was really nice to stay with them and get to know them and learn their ‘outsider perspective’ on the culture and different issues in Argentina. We worked a lot with handing out pamphlets with encouraging messages on them and the church contact information..to people in the streets. And we visited various other churches to preach and what-not. But the majority of our work ended up being within the church as most of the members are new Christians and need some guidance. We cleaned the church one day, we preached and led worship and did skits many days. We spent some time walking around and getting to know the culture while handing out pamphlets and stuff. It’s soooo different from Colombia! Almost everyone has piercings/tattoos. They all dress similar and even look similar physically…as general as that is. The culture here is a mix of latin american/european, so it’s a lot more like the  culture in the states than Colombia’s culture. For this reason, it hasn’t been a huge shock to adjust for me, but my team has had a few culture shocks. The culture here is very direct. When they think something or want something, they say it! They also operate on a VERY different time schedule. Stores open at around 10am..they have a small breakfast, eat lunch at 1pm, then all the stores shut down until 4 or 5 so everyone can sleep some more, then they open back up, people eat dinner around 9 or 10pm and go to bed at around 12am or 1am…So that was a little different to get used to too! Eating dinner at 11pm every night didn’t settle so well with us! But anyway, we are getting used to things now.

After our work there we traveled by train to Mar del Plata. And after this journey…I’m convinced hell will have not only fire, but ice.cold.broken-down.dark.scary. trains! What an awful experience! Sleeping was nearly impossible because I was cold and my chair was broke and my neck hurt and I had to pee and oh goodness. My neighbors on the train were odd too…one homeless man, and many who would just not stop staring! Well, anyway, we eventually arrived but then had to take a bus without heat. Then the bus dropped us off in the middle of no where with all of our massive suitcases and said he wasn’t going any further. So we waited outside freezing for another hour before another bus without heat came and dropped us off a little closer to the house and then we dragged everything the rest of the way all at around 5am. Ahh..glad that’s over. Now I can laugh, but then I was just so cold I ran around in circles like a crazy woman just to stay warm!

Anyway, we arrived to the base and settled in and warmed up quickly. What a divine place! You’ll really have to check out the pictures on facebook because I don’t feel like typing anymore about what we did at this moment. J However, in a nutshell: God is amazing. We laughed like crazy, worked hard, saw some beautiful sunrises and sunsets, a rainbow, the beach, a penguin… We spoke about Colombia, we visited a school and actually talked about God. The students were soo receptive and hungry for something real. We taught skits to the students at the base. We painted 15 blocks worth of curbsides…that was a day. We evangelized downtown Mar del Plata. We worked with kids. We led a church service.  And had some incREDible times of worship!

God is Awesome!! Okay, over and out my friends. Blessings!

Pray for a great week!

blink of an eye!

Good evening my loved ones!

I'm excited to tell you that I have officially completed the school portion of my Discipleship Training School in Cartagena, Colombia! I can hardly believe that I've been here four months!

The last two weeks were truly a blessing.

The first of the two included a pretty intense teacher who, before becoming a Christian was a guerrilla (like the FARC in Colombia) in Peru. He told us of all the horrid things he had done all the women they had raped and the people they had massacred. One day while with his companions, he found himself in a police trap. The police shot him twice as he was running away, and he could not walk any further. So, they captured him and took him to a prison and told him he would be killed the next day for his crimes. He prayed that night saying: God, if you are real please save me from being killed tomorrow morning, and I promise to serve you all the days of my life. So, the next morning the guards came to him and explained that the documents that proved he was guilty of all the crimes had been lost and he was free to go home. Needless to say this miracle got his attention, and he completely gave his life to Jesus that day. Ever since, he has been serving God with his whole life. He has some very tragic stories to tell, even ones after he became a Christian including losing his daughter, but his One True Love and Audience of One is the Living God even still. It was very encouraging to hear what he has been through and witness his love for Christ despite the hardships.

Oh and I forgot to tell you how the India night went! It was really fun! Everyone looked so beautiful dressed as Indians with all of their beautiful materials and make-up. We unfortunately didn't eat any food with curry in it, but we had some yummy sandwich type things with stew in them (all though the word 'stew' is repulsive to me, I did like this stew). We also watched some Bollywood (Hollywood India..check it out) videos and made up some dances. Lots of fun!

Then, on Thursday night Jim arrived late and brought us lots of love, hugs and food! He stayed with me at the base the first night and was able to see how every thing works there as we still had class and activities on Friday. And on Friday night we had a really beautiful prayer service with feet washing, praying for different nations, nailing letters to the cross and the like. It was really special to have him there and being a part of that. Many of the students were touched by his generosity and love. Many of the students only wish to have a wonderful dad, and I'm blessed enough to have two!! :) But anyway, Friday night we went out to dinner with Jesse and our friend Jonathan from Venezuela. Then Jesse and Jonathan went back to the base, but Jim and I stayed in our cute little hotel. Oh and the air conditioning was just so cold!!! I woke up four times in the night I was so cold! Isn't that funny? I'm used to sweating 24/7 I guess. Haha! But anyway, basically Jesse and Jim and I just lounged around all day in the hotel--just relaxing and getting some stuff accomplished before we leave on outreach. I have to say there were a couple things that were key during this weekend: a packet of doublestuff Oreos (which we later came to realize that Jesse and I ate the whole pack! Don't do it. But just between you and me, I still love them just as much as before I ate a half a pack. Oh, and try it with peanut butter.), someone doing a laundry for us, an unoccupied bathroom and ceviche (which is like seafood and other things uncooked but cooked with the acid in lemon juice or something like that) Oh my goodness, we had such a good time with him! It was at first difficult to try and mix my two lives together--Jim from home and then everything here.. But honestly, I was just amazed to watch him give and give and give. He truly came to just give us a break and to spoil us rotten--and that he did!

This past week, we had an American teacher named Dean Harvey-age 81. Wow, he had some really challenging things to say. What a knowledgeable man! He just really knew and studied the Bible. By the end of his first teaching we were all bawling. Coming with many new, deep perspectives on old teachings, he was difficult to follow at times. But all week we sat on the edge of our seats as he spoke because although many of his points were contradictory to what we had previously learned, he totally backed everything up with a thorough Biblical study.

Basically I received a new revelation of how much God's heart breaks when his loved ones die without knowing him. It gave me a new motivation to really work for God and His Kingdom during this upcoming weeks on outreach. I am sure that these weeks will have challenges and growth and difficult choices, but I have a better understanding of God's heart for the lost which encourages me to press on.

We watched the Passion of the Christ last night and took communion. Unlike most other Good Fridays, this one really touched me deeply. Normally, I want to be touched by what Jesus did for me more than I actually am, but this time God really touched my spirit. It's incredible the way He lived completely perfect and died for me--the pain he felt physically, as awful as it was, is nothing compared to the weight of all our sin on Him spiritually and emotionally. There's a song that has this verse in it: "carried to the table". It's talking about taking communion, and I just kept thinking of what a beautiful picture it is to envision Jesus suffering so much, raising from the dead and then picking me up and carrying me to the communion table to share with Him. What incredible sacrifice and love!

Well, times up again. Tonight we are saying goodbye and celebrating cowboy style! Yeehaw!! Better go fetch my lasso.

Who knows when I'll be able to write again as I will be leaving for Argentina in 3 short days! I appreciate your support and prayers while I am away, and I will update you as soon as I can!

Blessings,
Chelsie

Oh the Life of a Learner!

The past two weeks have been jam-packed full of stuff! Which, I guess, is always the case. The first of the two weeks was our second and last mini-outreach. My group ended up staying here in Cartagena. Working with a 24/7 prayer/praise ministry in our classroom, investigating child prostitution in the city, and going into various poor neighborhoods presenting a leadership campaign and a princess campaign (Don't worry, I'll explain.) The first two days Saturday and Sunday were spent in the hot-box of a classroom learning a new dance that we would be presenting to different neighborhoods every afternoon of the week. Saturday we spent 5 hours dancing in the sweltering heat. I...well...didn't have a super positive attitude during these first days and fought it a lot. Eventually God made it clear to me that if I was going to survive, I had to change my attitude, because, to be honest, it was far from what I would have wanted to do the day after a long week.

As I fasted and prayed, I made the decision to cheer-up and see things in a positive light. From that  point on, God really blessed me with the grace to carry it out. For the rest of the week, I continued in this way, walking in peace and joy! Now, it wasn't easy, but it was a real encouragement to see what God does when we give Him absolutely everything. I grew a lot in my ability to communicate with others in Spanish and got along well with my group.

Each morning we practiced the dance and had prayer and worship time with music and painting and dance (this was really cool). Then we worked on researching and coding a map of vulnerable areas in Cartagena for child prostitution and statistics of the like. In the afternoons we visited various neighborhoods in these 'danger zones' within the city. We presented young people and children with the idea that they CAN rise above their circumstances to be the leader, to be the change amidst generations and generations of hopeless destitution.

Later on in the week, God spoke to me about Psalm 45 which talks about girl of royalty and how the king was enthralled by her beauty. We developed this idea in an effort to minister to the girls of these neighborhoods--to resurrect the truth that they are highly valued princesses of the King of Kings! I absolutely loved this part, as did all of the precious girls we ministered to. We french-braided their hair, gave them lotions and spa treatments as well as painted their nails. And they soaked. it. up. Coming from nearly nothing, and being treated like a piece of meat by the people in their societies has taken its toll. Child prostitution with the young girls is common in all of these neighborhoods because it's a quick fix for a dire need. For example, often times, if the family doesn't have food, the mother of the house will trade her daughter's body for food to the guy working at the corner store. So, to be able to provide them with a new way of thinking, that their value is from God, was really a special opportunity.

On Friday night we went to the Center, the tourism trap, where you can find most of the prostitution and lots of drug trades. We walked in pairs covering the area with prayer from 12am-almost 3am. It was at first a great struggle to have the energy to go on, but God really provided us with encouragement and strength all the way. It's a place filled with desperation and longing, so our prayers were powerful!
On Saturday night (the last night) our leaders held a special banquet dinner for us as princes and princesses of God. It was a really fun time to dress up and to be pampered a bit. :)

Moving on to this past week. We had a couple different speakers. One couple spoke to us about how God has put a special purpose and gifting into our generation. They explained that this is our time to prepare ourselves for something BIG, because the world cannot wait for another generation to bring hope and change. So, I spent a lot of time in prayer for my generation but most of all for my family specifically...my grandparents, my cousins. Because I know God has something very special in store for my family and I love them oh so very much!! :)

We also talked about shaping our character to reflect Christ and remaining sexually pure as a testimony for God. All of this was also related to preparing our generation for what God has planned for us.

I enjoyed this week very much. We did a bunch of random stuff and it was more relaxed. I bought my plane ticket for Argentina which was quite the ordeal, but during the whole shin-dig I got to skip class several times AND I got to try this funny little fruit called mamon or something. You break open the shell and out pops this little sour jelly ball...but there's a big seed in the middle. Bummer. Oh and I also tried this incredible jugo de papaya con leche (which essentially is a papaya smoothie with milk). Oh it was just divine!

Another funny thing. We are now in the beginning of the rainy season...just like ya'll are experiencing right about now. And the mangos off our mango trees in the backyard are just LOADED with mangos! In fact I have something with mango in it almost every day! But anyhoo, about the rain. For the first time since I've been here, it rained a MONSOON! I've never seen anything like it! The street turned into a river and Jesse and I went running through the streets bare-foot! We could have white-water rafted almost!! Everything in the house was soaking wet, and I even did all of my cleaning chores in the kitchen barefoot...(they don't have safety rules in the kitchen..at all, haha!).

But, anyway, I have to go dress up like a girl from India now. We are having our India Alliance night. It should be interesting to see how Colombians fix Indian food. :) And they layed out all of these beautiful rugs for us to sit on and candles and mints...oh it should be fun!

And one more thing. I know I just briefly mentioned my outreach to Argentina and Chile before. But the time is coming fast when we will be actually flying out, 17 days to be exact!! Each week we will be in a different city of either Argentina or Chile, working with churches and serving other YWAM locations. It will be a crazy but wonderful experience I am sure! I know this is last minute and I don't want any of you to feel like you have to support me, but I think it's essential that I give you all an opportunity to be a part of what God is doing here. Those that go on the mission are no more important than those who pray for the mission and those that give to the mission. God wants us all to work together. So I appreciate your prayers and support. If you feel led to support me financially during this outreach portion of my ministry school, you can send money to my parents who will put it into my bank account.  Their address is:
Kemi Laing
15676 Poplar Lane
Vicksburg, MI 49097

Thank you all for taking the time to even read this blog! It blesses me greatly to have you backing me in all of this! Love you all!
Chelsie

every three weeks :)

Good afternoon!
How is everyone?

I'm finally blogging...it's like every three weeks I get a chance!

The first of the three weeks we had an American speaker who spoke on the importance of family intimacy. He was excellent, and God really spoke to our hearts! He was especially intriguing to me because He is a professional addictions counselor who also works for YWAM. Much of what he had to say was from a psychological perspective and it just got my blood flowin'!! I love it!!

He told us such remarkable stories of God's work in his life and in the lives of others he knows.  Here's a good one:

His son, when he was fifteen decided he wanted to go to Guatemala with TeenMania on a missions outreach. Before going he was in a public place with his dad (our speaker) and there was a bunch of people in this meeting or whatever it was. So Jim, knowing his son had a great passion to tell others about Jesus, encouraged his son to go forward and share the gospel. So he did. What he said was a complete mess of jumbled words that made little sense as it was his first time publicly speaking in this way. But, in the end, he closed with a strong "Come to Jesus!" and God moved in that place and 300 people accepted Christ as their Savior and a blind woman was also completely healed. Now that'll build your faith if you are wondering whether or not God will come through when you 'step-out-of-the-boat' and take a risk for Him! He's simply looking for people who have faith and desire to fulfill His word.

We also had a day where we learned about giving to others..and then we put it into practice by listening to God's voice and giving whatever He wanted to whomever He wanted. So I ended up giving a little goody bag to one of the girls in my class. But what was really moving was watching what people gave to others!! Man, everyone was crying! One girl gave her cellphone. Another guy gave his ipod to another kid. One of my friends gave me her all time favorite necklace! It was really cool!

The next week we had a teacher from Argentina. I decided not to use a translator, and ohh boy was that interesting. Argentinians have a completely different accent in Spanish and plus this guy was a fast-talking mumbler! So, I mean, I got the main ideas...nothing more. But it was a really cool week too. He talked about how much God wants to talk to us and give us revelation. During this week I decided to do my two-month outreach in Argentina and Chile. (!)

A couple of interesting things he had to say were that God has a special plan for this generation which means we will deal with more persecution.

Also, legalism/religiosity is like picking back up the bondage of the law that Christ conquered. Do not be at war with God's best for you! WE are free from the law of sin and death. There is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. We gotta stop living like we are trapped in sin, when we were set free when Christ died and rose again!

This past week was ULTRA busy. We had two separate teachers/schools going on at once as well as a test and a book report due. I literally had no free time. Not even time to fill my little, green water bottle.  Both teachers and topics were excellent! The first was on communications. So we learned about photography (yes!) and video making and all sorts of things and then we got to put it into practice!

The other teacher was another guy from Argentina. I could understand him lots better. He spoke about how it is our job to transform society..first through the way people think. By integrating ourselves in every area of society, we can do this. Those that are doctors, mechanics, teachers, law-makers..all have a mission. For example, we need Christian teachers to go into public schools and begin to challenge and change the things that are thought and taught to our little ones!

Anyway, the week started out pretty rough because I found out that Jesse (the other American girl) was not allowed to go to Argentina/Chile for outreach as she had wanted. She talked to our base director about it and it didn't go well. And all I knew was what she had been told which is that she had character flaws and things to work on and her and I together on the outreach wouldn't be good. So I was really upset because no one even talked to me about it. Then another girl who had planned to go on the trip said she didn't have peace about the leaders and how they handled it with Jesse and would not be going. So I spent a couple days fuming and making assumptions before I had a chance to talk to my leader about the situation. The problem was that they had asked us to seek God's revelation on the topic and I didn't like how they just told us (in the end) where we were going whether we felt led there or not. Then I found out that the girl who told me she wasn't going because of the leaders and the issue with Jesse lied to me, because in reality she was not allowed to go because she had used calling minutes at a near by store and had not paid for them... And the issue with Jesse, my leader explained, was not just randomly decided but prayed about earnestly. And they felt that God would not want us together because we are at different places in our growth and it wouldn't help us plus some other things.  So it got cleared up much more!

The rest of the week was busy but went very well and Then Saturday we got to spend the day at the beach playing volleyball and swimming and laying in hammocks. :) I got really burnt! But it was good to do something recreational for once! Oh and I saw a rainbow that encircled the sun!! How crazy cool is that!! Anyway, gotta go to a meeting!!

Arjona, Bolivar COLOMBIA

Alright guys, I know it took me a while, BUT I'm back to fill you in again! Except now another week has flown by, and I have more to write about! Goodness!

Okay, as I told you, my week of outreach in a town called Arjona was awesome! I'll give you the run down on each day as well as some exceptional stories. :)

ready go!

So here's the lovely team. Far left is Anita, behind here is Andres, next to him is Felipe, me, behind me is Javier, and Yurley. Wow, we are all so different! Ranging in age from 16 to 24 and almost everyone from a different place (even within Colombia there are many MANY cultural differences from place to place).  One thing that we all had in common was a bit of weirdness and a love for laughter! So, as we got to know each other--things got pretty weird throughout the week! :D Anyway, I was really blessed to get to know each and every one of them. Watching God work in each of us during the week was really special.

So, soon after arriving on Saturday, we led a kids program and did some songs and skits. Nothing too crazy. We then moved into our home for the week which was the home of one of the staff members here who's name is Ceasar. (funny name, right?) His family was incredibly gracious to us. What servants of God! Every day while we were gone Ceasar's mom cleaned our rooms and made our beds and cleaned all of our messes! We had clean, new sheets three times in one week! I don't know about you, but my guests probably wouldn't get clean sheets three different times in one week. Oh his mom was always feeding us too. As if we didn't eat enough already at the church, she provided us with juice and snacks in between every meal!! And when I say juice, I'm not referring to JuicyJuice strawberry/blackberry or something of the like. When I say juice I mean, she went and bought fruit every day and made the juice. It's a different life here. This I hope you are beginning to understand. :)

Moving on, Sunday started off a little rough, at least in regards to the breakfast. A little background: every day while in Cartagena (at school) we have a hunk of bread and juice for breakfast. yes. every day. So when we had breakfast the first day at the church and it was bread--harder, drier, smaller than the bread at school...I was like, ohh boy. Oh and how could I forget? Squeaky cheese. Here on the coast they have this awful cheese. It's spongey, rubbery, bouncy, and it squeaks when you chew it. So that was complimentary of them to add.  :)  But yeah after that church was good. Except the speakers were so loud I could hardly hear afterwards.  Then we practiced some skits until lunch, of which consisted of squeaky-cheese-soup and rice. Later we did our first evangelism outreach in a poor neighborhood. After a good hard rain, the walk there was so beautiful and fresh. It was remarkable to see the houses in this area. We walked through several garbage dumps, aka streets, on the way there. When we arrived we were invited inside an older woman's home to visit. Then we went door-to-door inviting people to come and watch our skits and listen to the message. Wow. That was an eye-opener. This area is far from the poorest areas around, but the people have very little. Some houses had broken cement floors with plastic chairs for furniture. Others had dirt floors. Peering through the back door of one house I could see a huge sow with a bunch of piglets nursing...just off the doorstep. The picture above is from this night.

Monday we did an arts class for different youth in the church who want to learn how to act. Then we rested in the afternoon and did evangelism at night. It, again, was a time where God really moved in the people who attended the outreach service. Many came forward afterward to receive Christ as their Savior. And this makes it all worth it for me. I don't really like to act..well, that's not entirely true. I'm learning to like it more and more. But the skits we perform are deep, life-changing. And people are receptive to such a profound message of hope. Praise God! It was wonderful watching God provide for us as we served Him throughout the week. Monday night was one of those nights when I was so thirsty, yet didn't bring anything to drink..so I assumed it would be three or four hours before I could get something to drink, but the people of the church provided our team with refreshments after the service. Mmm...God has been helping me to really appreciate the little blessings.

Tuesday is full of stories!! All morning we worked to learn this Colombian dance, to the song 'Colombia Passion'.  I'm not gonna lie, it's a really awesome song and dance...but really difficult to learn! Most Colombians have been dancing since they were 6 or 7 years old. Then there's me. I've never in my life had formal dance lessons!! So I'm sure it was interesting for them to try and teach me. They kept saying...move your hips more! haha. For lunch we had BONE soup. It was very funny because everyone just watched me eat the whole time to see my reactions when I suddenly found myself chewing on a bone or piece of jiggly fat. :D yummy. Then Tuesday night we had evangelism again. I went with two guys to invite people from the neighborhood, and while on this walk we encountered a guy carrying an IGUANA!! Perhaps you are unaware of just how big and ugly these things are. If so, you should do some research. Here, they are dangerous to people so this guy had caught him to get him out of the neighborhood. So he set him down four feet from me!! With his tail, this iguana was probably as long as me. U.G.L.Y.   Then we did our skits and I preached at the end in Spanish!! AHH! I prepared a sermon and read it, so it was a little awkward. But, as a foreigner, I had their full attention. And it was a huge blessing to have some people come up afterwards and tell me how it blessed them. Because from my perspective, it went pretty awful. This just goes to show that when we are week, God is strong. Afterwards we went out for ice-cream, which I had been begging to have all week. happy girl!

Wednesday was okay, our evangelism night was a night of learning and growing for the team. We had to communicate some problems within the group and we struggled to be present and focused during the outreach skits. So, in some ways it was disappointing, but that's how we learn, right?!

Thursday was mostly relaxing and evangelism...praise the Lord for rest! Such a huge blessing to have time to read and sleep for a while!

On friday we went to a school where we performed for kids. That was fun, but a stretch for me as I was put on the spot to translate and read aloud a passage in the Bible for all of the kids. It was from the old testament and so a bit more difficult to recognize the words in Spanish, but they got the idea.

and here are the precious little ones. We are in the back dressed up like kids for the skits..hehe. They all wear uniforms here. Oh and i got to ride in a motor-taxi for the first time! which is basically a motorcycle with a trailer of seats attached to it. ohh the transportation of Colombians.  Also, it's important to note how much food we ate this day--more than every other day. Since we had to wake up early and skip breakfast at the church, Ceasar's mom gave us each a hunk of bread and hot cocoa (a common breakfast drink here). Then, after our performance at the school, they brought us empanadas...which is difficult to explain but basically like a potato-meal crust with meat and veggies inside...like pasty sort of..but fried. THEN we had our actual breakfast which consisted of arepa, another fried corn-meal type thing, fritas (three hunks of fried something-or-other), squeaky cheese, and to drink 'avena' or basically hot cereal. WE WERE STUFFED. That night we went to the poorest neighborhood of the town...such beautiful people! All those dark-skinned kiddos running around in their underwear... :). We were truly blessed by a church family who hosted our service and provided dinner afterwards. The meal was HUGE. and contained this thing called yucca. Oh. my. word. Ya know how you feel like you have cement in your stomach after you eat potatoes? Well, this is like that except way worse. It's thicker, denser, drier...and prepared with this nasty cheese/milk sauce. Oh but we ate it all gone to show our deep appreciation!! ;)   When we left I was offered a ride on a moped!! AHH I've never rode on anything of the like--and it was quite a thrill. :)

Well, Saturday and Sunday were similar. We spent some time hanging out with our new friends from the church watching a movie and things like that. It was so sad when we left after church on Sunday...the week was just incredible.

I learned so much Spanish and God really spoke to me about taking risks and communicating even when it's so difficult.  Anyway, I have to go now that I've written a novel. I hope you are still awake!

This week was equally incredible and I will have to tell you about it soon!!

Okay bye for now!
Chelsie

She lives!!

Hey everybody! SOooo sorry for not blogging in FOREVER! I again have only a little bit of time so I'll have to blog in segments...hopefully again tomorrow. But I'll tell you a little bit of what has happened now.

Okay. To be honest, I really don't want to go into great detail about the first two of the three weeks I will write about. They were one of the hardest times in my entire life! I was greatly challenged spiritually. But God is faithful to never leave us or forsake us, and He proved Himself true during this time.

In short, the first week was called "inner healing". Which consisted of us all having to fast, pray and search our hearts for things that were holding us back from all that God has for us. The concept is good. The way they carried it out was not. For me, confessing sin and publicly forgiving a person, telling my testimony--all of these things are good at the appropriate time. But this seemed forced. Every student was assigned a group and within our group every person had to (after fasting and praying) go up in front of the rest of the group, sit with two leaders, and confess all your sins and forgive all the people you need to forgive and blah blah blah. I felt like I had to come up with stuff to say because I honestly didn't have much at all. I spent most of the week very confused and upset as to why we had to do that. BUT when it was my turn to go in front of everyone, it actually went well. I didn't talk about things that God and I had already resolved, so it was just sort of cleaning my heart before Him and also hearing some encouraging and prophetic words from my leaders.

So that was a very condensed/tame version of week 1. Now for week 2.  I though week 1 was terrible until I came upon week 2!! It was without a doubt, one of the worst weeks EVER, at least the first half. The beginning speaker is from this area of Cartagena and because of this he speaks a million miles an hour. On top of that he was very spontaneous and random with his words and stories...hardly making sense even to the native spanish speakers who were listening. So, because of this it was nearly impossible for someone to translate for us. In fact several tried with little success. But what we gathered from him wasn't what I wanted to hear. He claimed that all of us, even Christians, had dabbled in sin and had opened themselves up to evil spirits that they needed to be liberated from. So, you can guess where it went from there. We were, again, basically forced to fast for 2 days which I did not do the second day. And then everyone was "liberated" so-to-speak. I could not even stay to watch it was so strange. A lot of falling down on the ground and spitting up stuff and yelling.

I spent my time fasting and praying, not to be liberated, but to listen to God for His direction and clarification. And it came. I did not and do not believe that a Christian can have any other spirit within them besides the Holy Spirit of the Living God who permeates our whole being. I was completely uncomfortable with the speaker who did not bring peace or rest, but confusion. God showed me verses that helped clarify what I believed.

I do not write about this to scare anyone or make you worry about me. I write about it to show you how real the spiritual realm is...that we must be constantly on guard and walking in truth in order to know what is of God and what is not. We will recognize evil or good by its fruit. The only fruit I saw from this man was liberation of Christians from evil spirits which is not Biblical. My pastor did clarify for me that many times in places like this where the spiritual realm is much heavier and the people are undereducated as to what is Biblical and true, this stuff can happen.

I did not feel in danger during this time, nor have I ever felt in danger while here. So no worries! The best place for me to be is smack-dab in the center of His will! 

Anyway, enough on that topic because I'm tired of talking about it. But I appreciate your continued prayer in the coming days as we encounter new things and different speakers weekly. We need God's continual guidance!

Okay so after this speaker left mid-week, a man they call 'Papa Jack' came to speak about God's Fatherly Love. He is an american who speaks Spanish, so I was able to understand nearly every word because it was slower! It was ENTIRELY opposite of the other speaker and topic and wow what a blessing! His message was so calm and peaceful and comforting. One question he asked us is, "What would you do if God, the Father, drove up in your driveway at your house one day?" We spent some time writing out the image in our heads--which showed our idea of who God is. It was really interesting! I said, well first I would likely run to the bathroom to check my face in the mirror, then I would change clothes. Then I would run through the house and yell to Cole downstairs to TURN DOWN THE MUSIC, GOD IS HERE!!! haha! and then I would proceed to raid the pantry for anything I could possibly offer Him to eat. Then I would realize, as I typically do when looking in the pantry that there's nothing of interest (what a spoiled brat I am!) and then I would open the fridge and settle on some fruit. By then, of course, God would be at the door knocking. I would open it and probably start sobbing and hugging Him. Then He would say to me, "I already cut up the fruit. Come on, lets go down to the lake and talk for a while."  :))) Isn't if funny to picture ourselves before the Creator of the Universe?! I can hardly imagine it. But anyway, 'Papa Jack' had a lot of interesting insight. One thing he said was: ya know when you are doing devotions alone with God and you....oops..fall asleep? And you think, aww no, not again! So sorry God?! Well, God isn't mad! God is our daddy, so just as a daddy loves it when his little girl falls asleep in his arms out of complete peace and trust, God loves it when we are completely at rest in His presence.  aww. how sweet. :)

okay, I have to go super soon but I will say this: this past week, week 3, if you will, was absolutely incredible. I feel so so blessed by God to have experienced it, and my attitude about being here has greatly changed because of it.

I went with a group of six, myself included, to a town called Arjona outside of Cartagena. It was like a whole different world even though it's basically just over a little mountain! Where Cartagena is noisy, congested, unfriendly, and starless, Arjona is quiet, welcoming, spacious and the sky is peppered with starts every night.  Oh and it even rains there!!! Wow, how I missed the rain!

Okay that's all for now. I know, the best is yet to come--but it's like a good movie. Ya gotta have some suspense!  I love you all and will be writing again very soon to tell you about my week in Arjona!

Blessings,
Chelsie

ahhhh!

ahhh!! I don't have much time to type and I don't even know where to begin! Last week was nuts. Okay I'll do what I did last time and type like crazy and hope it makes sense :)..

Last week (week 2 of school) was all about pushing my limits...like whoa. I fought a negative attitude many times because I felt like I was forced to do everything, nothing was my choice or even worth discussing.
We did a lot of drama practice and as you may or may not know, I HATE acting!! So when they made us act (sometimes in Spanish!) for 3 hours every day in front of the whole group I was NOT a happy girl. So out of my comfort zone...and always when I was soo exhausted. The problem is that every day when everyone else has naptime, I have lunch clean up for an hour and then right after that I have to literally run to the "creativity class" or else I'll be punished for being late. I could care less! oh goodness, haha! But anyway, yeah so acting was interesting, and God has been teaching me a LOT through it.  Especially this: that I am a leader and I'm being watched, so whether I like it or not, I need to be obedient (with a good attitude) so others will follow my example. One day I chose not to have a good attitude and my whole group got dragged down with me and everyone got in trouble. Okay, God, point proven. :) 

Another day during "creativity time" we were told that we would be doing 'street evangelism'. At the time I was so tired I could hardly walk, I was hot, full, and not happy because I didn't really even like the idea of preaching to people on the street. Jesse, the other American, and I were discussing it and how rare it is that people do this in the US and how we didn't even get a chance to voice our opinion or think it through! Well, anyway, on the walk to downtown, I surrendered it to God and was like okay, not one part of me wants to do this right now, but please get the glory. And it ended up going really well...of course! We met foreigners from all over the place, and simply had the chance to hear their hearts and explain the love of Jesus to them. We met these two girls from Belguim who aren't Christians but have some friends who are. I was talking to them and one girl was explaining that she thinks a relationship sounds awesome for some people, but she doesn't feel like she is lacking anything. But it was really good because we gained their trust and walked around town with them and established trust. and we are going to friend them on facebook...so I'm praying for them because they are such beautiful, sweet girls and God loves them so much!

Okay what else, Friday night we canceled class and went to the beach instead. Oh WOW. I needed that!! I had no intention to go swimming but all the foreign girls got dragged into the ocean against their will, so needless to say I went swimming. It was so fun! And we had some cheap, squishy ham, cheese, mayo sandwiches that we have every single friday...and honestly they tasted so good! We had a bonfire and worship on the beach while watching the sunset and everyone roasted marshmellows. I was actually cold on the beach and I LOVED being cold for once!! :)

Okay what else, Saturday we deep cleaned the kitchen after I got in trouble for being a half hour late...I had no clue (I had no clue I was even supposed to help clean. this is a common problem because I miss directions when they talk in Spanish and then they are like...uhhmm where were ou??). But anyway, it was really fun serving with my classmates and listening to their crazy Colombian music! Then Saturday night we had a talent show..that was fun too.

Then Sunday was crazy...church in the morning was beautiful. They had girls dancing during the whole service! Then lunch, clean up and then I did homework for a couple hours. Then we had night service for two and a half hours and honestly, with a bad headache, it felt like the LONGEST two and a half hours of my life!! When the guy got up to do the sermon, we had already been sitting in the dense heat for nearly two hours and then he started, and all of the foreigners were like, "he's joking, right?!" Haha! Then Jesse and I decided we didn't want to eat the dinner which was the infamous skinny hotdog with this huge dry, crusty bun and if you want...pineapple jelly on top! So, instead we purchased pizza and ate some cereal. And since they really don't have milk here we poured this oatmeal drink on our cereal. We recently discovered it at a store and we both think it's sooo good, but everyone here thinks it's nasty...go figure!

But yeah, last week was hard, but really good too. This week is all about inner healing. So it's going to be pretty heavy. I missed class yesterday because I was sick. I slept from 7:30am until 12pm! and LOVED that sleep! Tomorrow we are fasting and seeking God for a while, gearing up for the next week when we will be fasting for 1, 2, or 3 days in preparation for a mini outreach we will be doing in the city for a week. Wow!! I'm enjoying God and how good He is to me. How well He takes care of me when I simply obey Him.

Okay I think that's all for now. I hope you all are well! Miss you!

new adventures

Hi Everybody! I bet ya'll wish you were here where it's warm! very warm!

Wow, one week of the school is finished. I'm so tired, but it has been good. They sure do pack a lot of things into one week. Yesterday (saturday) we had cleaning in the morning and then much of the afternoon I worked on this diary we have to add to every week (I can't remember whether or not I have told you about this). It's rather like a scrapbook,  I suppose. It's a lot of work, but I think it's a good thing to do because it provides us some time of reflection as to what even happened during the crazy week! We also have to read a book by Feb. 9th and do a book report, and we are periodically tested on our notes. Yikes!

Before arriving here, I was under the impression that latinos were a bit more laid back than Americans, ya know, they have siestas every afternoon and they move at a slower pace, etc. Well, boy was I wrong! They might take naps and do everything slowly, but they have no concept of resting! For me, this is difficult because I feel like, wow, I give you all of my attention and energy from 5:30am-10pm every day so can I please have some time to myself on the weekend?? But latinos are so communal. Even on the weekend they are doing stuff together. I feel rude if I just want to spend time alone--or spend time talking to family. Here all of the students are on their phones during the day talking to friends and family all week long. But I cannot do that. So, not really having time to rest and talk with ya'll back home during the weekend is frusterating to me. And often there isn't internet available if I do have some free minutes.

But, I'm learning to talk with God about these things that irritate me. He is blessing me over and over for having a thankful heart and for waiting on Him and His perfect timing for everything. We serve a BIG God and He is in control of everything! So, I'm learning that it's essential that I trust Him with even the little things like whether or not I'll be able to talk to my family this week.

Last night, a group of us walked downtown to an authentic Italian restaurant and had some real Italian pizza! The crust was super thin! I liked it a lot. I enjoy when we take little trips like these, because every time God provides opportunities for me to take risks and get to know people, to converse in Spanish. And everyday I am able to connect a little more. It's quite a task, learning this language. For every English word they have like three or four Spanish words! So, even if I learned one of them, they might not say the word I actually know! So, I have this journal where I write down new words..and let's just say, it's filling up fast!

Oh and last time I wrote I forgot to tell you about the water situation! Oh goodness. Apparently here it's a common thing for the entire city to go without water for 24 hours. I don't know the reason or when this occurs (and neither do the other people). Well, this happened with about 20 minutes warning earlier this week. So we had twenty minutes to fill up big pots and pans full of water to function for 24 hours! And that day was the day of the scavenger hunt where we had to stick our faces in buckets of flour and we were running and sweating ---and then no shower!! I still feel like there's flour caked into my face! BLEH!

Well, times up! Off to my next gathering... :)

wow

Goodness gracious where to begin! I only have a tiny bit of time so I'll just rabble and you can sort it out.

Today is Thursday and we have almost completed our first week of school! This week with all of the new people and the strict schedule has been difficult in many ways but also very good.

At times it's frusterating because I feel as if I'm being left behind during this 'get-to-know-everyone' phase because it's difficult for everyone to include me and Jesse, the other American girl, in when we don't really get what's going on. But, slowly we are getting to know other people through different groups we are put in and things like that. Many of the students are eager for us to teach them English so that's fun!!

yesterday we had a scavenger hunt all over the city basically. It was so crazy and fun! We ran most of the way, and now I'm sore. Because I also ran yesterday morning. Oh. I just have to tell you about the bay. Everyone has been talking about how beautiful it is, and yesterday I finally got to see it for myself! Absolutely one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen. Just before dawn it's still dark and brisk. A city landscape in the background of a harbor full of little boats strewn about, all with little glowing lights. And off in the distance huge cargo ships and cruise ships with lights popping on as everyone wakes up and begins their duties. It's by far the best place I've ever went for a jog!

Okay about the school, our daily schedule is pretty hectic. We wake up at 5:30 (5am if you want to run), devotions at 6:30, breakfast at 7:30, class from 9-12:30 and then I have clean up after lunch which lasts till about 2pm then we have another art activity at 2:30 then dinner at 5:30 and class again from 7-9pm and bed at 10pm. Jesse and I have a translator..it's a different person more often than not. Not gonna lie, it's really difficult for me because I can understand quite a bit in Spanish, and so I get caught up listening to the speaker. But then I get lost and start listening to the translator, but most of the translators have pretty strong accents, so they aren't real clear either. Anyway, it's all good stuff, but requires a lot of focus and energy just to listen.

God is teaching me all sorts of things...difficult things to learn! But I'm excited that He is working in my life through these classes and this school, because that means that He will be able to use me even more as I become more like Him. Many times I find myself getting frusterated with the rules here and the way this particular base operates. But today I learned that even though there are things that I don't agree with..it's okay because by dealing with them and working through those things it will make me stronger.

It has been a huge blessing to have another American girl here to talk with. We get each other's funny reactions to things, and this makes me laugh. Today she told me that she was in the laundry room, listening to worship music with her eyes closed, when she suddenly felt something bite her foot. She opened her eyes to see a nasty rat crawling away!! AHHHHHH!!!! there's a rat in the house!!!! And so I told her how today when I was walking with some people to the mall, I heard this huge crash and saw something massive fall out of a tree. I looked over and saw this massive thing. It looked like a mini dinasaur!!! and all the people were like..oh that's an iguana. They are everywhere.   Give me a break! That was a mini T-REX! Anyway, lots of funny stuff like that. 

But anyway, overall things are going well. There are so many weird things here, but it's kinda fun to watch myself adapt to them. :) I love and miss you all so much! Hope you are well!

Faithful God

Hello everybody!

Things are going very well here. The students for the DTS school are arriving today and tomorrow, so there's people everywhere!

God has asked for my complete attention and focus here during this school, and since then I have been enjoying getting to know the people here more and more. I actually understood two jokes in Spanish..that's big news people!! There's another girl from the US here now, which is great! She's from Oregon. I've been helping translate for her some, which I love.

During the past couple of days we have been working hard to prepare the houses for the students. So, scraping paint off of walls, painting, cleaning, moving an entire kitchen to another location...ya know, everyday stuff. :) We are blessed to have the opportunity to rent a beautiful yellow house for YWAM right now. This new place is where we will now have the kitchen and laundry. And its where I live now too! We have coconut palm trees, mango trees and banana trees in the back yard!! This is all good except the matresses are rather thin, and there are more mosquitos here, I swear! Six new bites in one night!

But anyway, I'm learning so much about relying completely on God, about trusting Him entirely with the perfect plan He has for my life. There have been times recently when I just wanted to go home with no desire to be here at all. But, God has made it clear that the best place for me to be is smack-dab in the middle of His will. And right now, Cartagena, Colombia is His will for my life. Since this is the case, I'm ready to do this school 100%! I'm very excited for what God has in the coming months.... Not so excited about waking up at 5am every day to share my shower with seven girls :).

So much!

Wow. I have "so much" to say! The past couple days have been very full, but very good.

During the day on Friday we traveled in these safari Jeep things to a poorer, more dangerous neighborhood of Cartagena for a get together with another YWAM site. What a different world over there! I was mesmerized by all of the people in the streets and the little shacks squished together on the hilltops. I remember seeing this from the plane when I first arrived. It is an incredible site. No wonder Latin America is like one big family. Everyone lives on top of one another!

We had a worship service and played games and ate yummy food. It all was very refreshing for me because I understood much of what was said and how to play the games. I enjoyed meeting another German girl there..she is simpathetic to my situation as she recently went through this stage of being new and learning the language, etc. I have now been added to the list of people who help in the kitchen and so my first time doing so was at this other YWAM location in a kitchen I had never even seen before! This was very frusterating because I didn't know what needed to be done or where things belonged or even how to ask! This is a common problem and then I get looks like "uhh why are you just standing there?" Its complicated though because often times when I ask questions to get clarification on something no one knows the answers to my questions. Its also a cultural thing--so I'm learning to watch and learn and go with the flow!


Friday night I spent the night with the German girls at an English teacher's house. It was nice to be away from all the crazy spanish speakers for a couple hours. HOWEVER, when I went to use the bathroom I had my first encounter, a very close one indeed, with a cockroach. He was as gross as I imagined and was chilling inside the toilet paper roll!! How does a person function in the bathroom with a cockroach??

Saturday was a challenging day. We did "aseo profundo" as they say. Which is basically deep cleaning at its very deepest. I was entirely overwhelmed by all of the latino people running around like crazy people babbling in Spanish to me and telling me what to do. Many times I had no idea what they wanted me to do, and that was frusterating. And other times I knew exactly what they wanted but didn't understand why they would ask me to do that. And then there were times when I had already done what they asked and they would just keep telling me to do the same thing! Whew. I'm discovering a new level of humility here. It's difficult for me to be in submission to these people I don't even know who speak a different language and live in an entirely different culture, especially when I don't agree with them on something. But, God has been teaching me through it--that I work for Him ultimately and to have an attitude of service and love.

On Sunday we went to a really big church called Rivers of Life. When I walked in there were thousands of dark-haired, dark-skinned people worshipping the Lord, not a blonde in the bunch. very beautiful!!  The worship and the message were very good and the overall workings of the church were similar to Valley Family Church so I felt at home :). 

Later on that day I was invited by a new couple from Switzerland (they will be students like me) to go to the beach with them. So I decided, "heck yes! get me out of this house for a while!" It was definitely an adventure. We went to a wind-surfing school and the couple was reunited with a guy they met several years ago. Since then, he has become a Christian and has a wonderful vision of using this surfing school as a ministry. He talked and talked about what God has done in His life. Praise God for giving me grace to understand almost everything he said in Spanish!! We hung out there and played paddle ball on the beach (the closest thing to tennis that I've played so far)---LOVED IT. When we started playing the guy I was playing against was like "just let me know when you get tired because I will just keep playing and playing!" So we played for quite a while and then I could tell he was getting so tired and so I asked him if he wanted to quit and he was like "YES you win." Haha!! Anyways, it was very fun and I got a lottt of sun. We then went to a restaurant and had some yummy food and pina con leche (a pinapple/milk drink).

Okay I think that's all for now. God is good!!

Sucio Pero Muy Contenta

The title of this post in English says "Dirty but very happy/content". I just got back from working many hours at another YWAM house scrubbing chairs and powerwashing them. It was so fun! But I'm covered in dirt and paint chips.

It's such an interesting thing now that I have been here for about a week and a half. People are slowly getting to know me and I them. I thoroughly enjoy watching their personalities emerge! God definitely knew what He was doing when making us all so different. Everyone has their own way of doing things and their own way of thinking.

Today we studied Ephesians 5 with small groups. I understood most of what was discussed, but I just wanted to sit back and observe the group. Some people were focused on writing down every word and highlighting it with a coordinating color. Others just wanted to get the task accomplished quickly and efficiently. haha..we are funny aren't we?

Anyway, I have enjoyed being myself more today.. Laughing and joking around...that's hard to do in a new place with a new language. But it's coming.

Thank you for your prayers!!

Only God

Buenas Tardes everyone!

I was just thinking about what I've learned during my first week here in Colombia. Many Many things are new to me, of course. But recently the main lesson God has been laying on my heart is simply this: He is my only guarantee.

In the Latin American culture everyone is more laid back, more communal and social, less organized and scheduled. So, as a "gringo" as they call us... this is very difficult to get used to. For example: there is no guarantee here that I will have internet when I want it. There is no guarantee that I will have a fan that works at night or toilet paper when I need it. There's no guarantee that I will have purified water or that I will go to the bank on the day that I planned to go there. There's no guarantee that church will start at the scheduled time or even within the hour.

Although these things are frusterating to me at times, they are also God's way of teaching me to rely on Him for consistency and reliability. It helps me to relax and to learn patience.

Anyway, things are going very well here. Everyone is gracious to me as I continue to learn Spanish.

We visited the beach for the first time last night. How absolutely beautiful!! Counting the people there would be nearly impossible. It was packed! And along the beach they have these little shack/huts that you can rent out. It was like renting a little room on the beach! The water was so warm and the waves were huge! But I hated the salt stinging in my eyes. That's something we don't have in Lake Michigan!

God Is Good!

Last night I went downtown again with many staff members. It was an incredible time of relationship building! Yesterday was a huge breakthrough for me and the language barrier. Many of the staff members realized that I am actually able to communicate in Spanish just slowly and with help! So I talked openly in Spanish with one person all the way downtown, another person all the way back and many people in between. I was so excited to connect with people!

It's was wonderful to be able to talk about what God has done in my life, how I got here, what I want to do after...you know, real conversation, in another language. This is what I mean by "La Fruta". My heart's desire is to be able to connect with these people on a deep level, to be able to understand what God is doing in their lives and to be able to easily speak about His work in my life as well. I want to bless them and get to know them. So, I'm incredibly thankful as God has stirred up the Spanish language in my heart and He goes before me in all situations. :)

This morning was a bit more difficult...

 I attended church with a Swiss girl and a Venezuelan girl. As many of you know, the latinos are very passionate and long-winded in their worship services. I love this, but it was frusterating because I had a very difficult time understanding what was being said and sung,etc. It was a bit discouraging; however, God is faithful in encouraging me and helping me to lean on Him during times of frusteration.

He showed me some really good scriptures today:
Psalm 20: 1-5 says "May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests."

Also, I spent some time reading over Psalm 107 which really speaks to my prayer for this city and country in Colombia. I believe God is doing some incredible things here.  

Psalm 107: 28-31 "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a shisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men." verse 36-38 says "there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruiful harvest; he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased, and he did not let their herds diminish." AMEN!!

Hey, good news I'm now at the point in my Spanish speaking that I am forgetting English words!! Haha! Sometimes people will ask me in spanish how to say something in English and I simply cannot remember the word for the life of me! how funny is that?!

Love you all :)

Day 4

Goodness goodness goodness..the things I am learning!

I love to think about all the new connections my brain is making by simply living in a different culture and learning a new language.

Last night and today was the start of the staff training here which I am included in for now. Markus has been preaching about the new year and our upcoming goals, the things God is calling us to, the negative attributes we must leave behind. Spending two and a half hours listening and speaking Spanish today has completely wiped me out. The people here say I am doing really well with the langauge...thank You, God! Every day I learn some new words, and my mind adjusts to listening more and more. Today I learned the word for peanut butter, which is a very important word in my life! :)

Before I forget I have to complain about this one thing: When I first arrived I was under the impression that they really weren't many mosquitos, because, in fact, I saw my first one just as I was typing this to you! The problem I have learned is that the mosquitos here do not make the buzzing sound!! So instead of having some sort of warning, the nasty little guy gets ya every time!! I'm not happy about this at all.

Okay here are a few photos of the place I'm staying at for those of you who don't have facebook!

Most of these are pretty self explanatory I'd say...

I don't have much time, but please pray for me because I am having some stomach problems right now. Thanking God for His goodness, healing and protection, I'll be just fine!! Thank you! !Chao!