Sunday, December 18, 2011

The most wonderful time of the year...

I am so blessed! I really think that I have the best family ever! I have only been here with them for a day, and already I have seen God's faithfulness and realized how wonderful my family is.
I left for AZ yesterday morning (12/17) and ended up having a layover that overlapped my sister's, so I was able to have breakfast with her. Then I ended up missing my flight because I read my ticket wrong... But they bumped me to the same flight as Jade! Then the flight attendant worked things out so that we could even sit together on the plane! :) God was really working out the details of my trip :) it was so awesome!
And this morning we had a surprise birthday party for my grandpa... He was so surprised, totally blessed, and was crying happy tears the whole time, which started everyone crying :) it was so fantastic :)
And I get to hang out with all of these awesome aunts and uncles and cousins and baby cousins, and siblings and mom and dad and grandparents for the next week! I love all of these people... Really, they remind me of God's goodness and his provision, that he would give me such wonderful people in my life!! We have had so much fun, already! :)
Thank you Lord for my family!
Hope all of you are blessed and able to appreciate your family during this holiday season!
Love!

Justine

Me and Jade at DFW airport together :)

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

chopsticks

Hey All! :)


Today is fantastic! I hope that today you are seeing God's faithfulness and experiencing His love! :)
I know I am... :) 


Especially with this new ministry opportunity: I get to go to Korea in January!! :)
We will be going to Korea as a department to teach an SST to the students there, and I am so excited! And encouraged! I haven't gotten my newsletters out yet, and God is already providing for my financial needs for the trip! 


So today, I thought I would start preparing myself... 



I gotta eat... right? ;)

So I ate my entire lunch today with chopsticks. :) 

And!! I'm really excited that it's almost Christmas!! :) I get to go home soon, which is so fantastic! I really miss my family!
So... I was feeling the Christmas spirit today. And decided that I would take my friend Meganne's advice and stir my coffee with a candy cane. 
Best. Advice. Ever.
So. Delicious.

I even found a green mug! :)

So that's what's on my mind today:
-God's faithfulness
-Christmas!!
-Preparing for Korea

What's on your mind today? Let me know how I can pray for you!

Love!

Justine

Monday, November 21, 2011

Recent Happenings..



Well, let me tell you people...
When you give your life to Jesus, you really don't have time or occasion for it to be boring! :)
A few of the things that have happened to me, as of late:


- I donated plasma. 
  Probably you either think that's really weird, really gross, or 
  really cool. Let me tell you, I was quite terrified. I had a few
  main reasons for doing it:
      1) My friend Meganne is getting married in March (woohoo! 
         :D), and she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids! So I 
         want to raise money to pay for the dress.
      2) I have a significantly large amount of debt from student 
         loans, and I figured out that with the amount I pay
         toward them every month, I'm covering interest and paying
         very little toward the principle. Super Lame! So I want 
         to try to put more toward that each month. :) 
      3) I am *terrified* of needles and have had bad experiences 
         with giving blood. So I have decided to conquer that
         fear! :)
      4) I'll be saving lives, of course! :)
  
  Well, let me tell you. It was really weird. Without getting too 
  graphic, I'll just make you aware that it is not very much like 
  giving blood at all. It's much more intense. 


My poor arm... this was after I took off the bandage. 
It's much better now :)

- I attended Love Feast! 
  Love Feast is the base's version of a family Thanksgiving 
  dinner. It's a really nice meal that we get dressed up for and 
  look forward to every year. This year everything was gorgeous, 
  and we had prime rib! :)
Fancy for the Feast! :)

My dear friends, Meg and Angie...love these girls! :)



Me and Meganne! :)

- I cut my hair.
  Yes. I personally cut it. It was quite awful. Like, I couldn't 
  even bring myself to take a picture of it because it was that 
  embarrassing. 
  But! Caitlin fixed it, because she's a hair genius! :)
  So here's what it looks like:



- Praying about going to Korea. 
  Our department leader asked me and Kathryn (the girl I work 
  with) to pray about going to Korea for two weeks to teach an SST
  camp! :) I am so freaking excited! I'm still praying, because it
  would mean I need to raise $1500 on top of my monthly support to
  pay for the trip. Please be praying with me! :)

So thankful today for who God is! 
He is my provider, my portion, my friend... and His joy is my strength! :)

Love!
Justine





The Call - Detroit 11.11.11

(written 11.16.11)


Wow. Just wow.
This was seriously one of the most spiritually-stretching things I have ever participated in! We were all gathered together at Ford Field to fast and pray for 24 hours for the city of Detroit and the United States. For 24 hours.
Now, I love Jesus. And I love prayer. I can fast. I can go without sleep for awhile. But I have never put all of those things together for 24 hours straight.
Basically, the three things I dislike a lot in life are: 1) being hungry and not being able to eat 2) being tired and not being able to sleep 3) being cold and not being able to do anything about it.
So there we were at Ford Field. Fasting. Praying for 24 hours. In Detroit in November.
So this was definitely not a fun little rally event. It was intense.
The longest worship service I can ever remember being at was three hours long. So after about four hours, I could feel myself tuning out. I went to sit down and observe, and the guy on the stage yells out, "come on people, get to your feet! We're gonna keep praising the Lord!"
It was at that point that I realized that I had never been in a situation where I had really pushed past myself to worship God. I had never been in an uncomfortable situation like that where everything in my physical body wanted to lay down and sleep, and I had to make the choice to turn my affection toward the one who is worthy.
It was a battle every 4 hours or so. You really don't realize how long 24 hours is until you try to do the same thing for that long... :)
But! The reward was so great!
A big focus in prayer was racial reconciliation. We had groups from the prominent ethnicities in Detroit leading in worship and prayer... Even native Americans! It was really awesome.
But the coolest part, and the most healing, was when the different leaders from those groups began asking the leaders of the other ethnicities for forgiveness on behalf of their race, for things that other races had suffered at the hands of their ancestors. So much openness and brokenness and humility!! It was the most awesome thing I have ever witnessed!! God's people walking through healing broken relationships and restoring unity in the Body of Christ. Walking out forgiveness and restoration like that in every level is the only way we are going to see revival in the United States. Those 3 or 4 hours alone were worth all the fasting and being cold and tired. :)
I have to admit though, that I wasn't able to fast for the whole time. Because I was drinking water without eating, I had to pee a lot. And if you've ever been to Ford Field, you know that from the ground floor to the bathrooms, there are at least 100 stairs. After the 12th time up and down, it was like 9am, and I almost passed out at the top of the stairs. So I ate a hotdog for breakfast :) And at one point before that, I woke up after an hour of sleeping, and the last thing I could remember was setting down my purse... :) but hey! I pushed myself, and God knows my heart :)
On top of all of this, we were sleeping at a church, and I was responsible for feeding 75 other people the day before the event. So the weekend, in its entirety, was quite a learning experience and a growth opportunity for me :)
And today, I am praising God for a day off! :)


Love!
Justine


Ready to head out for The Call! Jake, Seth and Me :)


 Me and Jake, waiting for the whole group to make it past security

The Body of Christ, interceding for Detroit!

 Getting tired and hungry...

 You can't tell from this pic, but there's a huge group of people up around the stage worshipping together in the morning. :)


Sunday, November 6, 2011

It's been too long!

I am sorry for the recent radio silence :)


Wow. There is so much I could say, but I don't want to write a book... :)


My little sister is married and has moved to Arkansas. Please be praying for her and her new life, and that God continues to pursue her heart. :)


I have been learning so much about working with people lately. I know that God put me here very specifically and with people who are very different that I am. And sometimes that is really difficult. 
But the best way that I've learned to handle it is to pray a lot, laugh a lot, and bite my tongue a lot. :) AND, most importantly, to remember that I am also difficult to work with sometimes. So remembering to have grace for people and doing my best to be loving. :)


A few fun things on the schedule:
- i just got back from a sleepover with my small group girls! We had so much fun :)


- I will be headed to Detroit on Wednesday for The Call 11/11/11! It's a fasting and praying event for the United States.


- Thanksgiving Love Feast is two weekends away. :) It's the base's version of Thanksgiving, as a YWAM family.


-I'll be going home for Christmas!!! :) I'm really looking forward to hanging out with my family. I miss them a lot...


That's just a quick update... sorry for such a long time between posts!


Love!


Justine



Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Blessings :)

Okay, so I love my job! :) I have my own desk, I get to tell people about not only Youth With A Mission, but Jesus! I get to read the Bible to start off work, and have a weekly corporate worship time with my coworkers. I live with a bunch of really awesome women who love God and care about everyone around them. It's so refreshing! I really do enjoy office work, which is what I am doing primarily right now. I work for the Alaso department, and we have a lot of awesome events coming up: a mini sst (camp) for catholic kids in October, possibly traveling up to MI for The Call in November...mobile teams are scheduled to head out in january, and we'll maybe be partnering with the Discipleship Training School's stateside outreach in january...we'll have a large-scale catholic sst in march...
All of that to say, I have a lot of logistical work to do :) but i love it! God has really blessed me and surrounded me with friends :)

Much love!
Justine

Sunday, August 28, 2011

"All things work together for good for those who love Him..."

This has been proven to me over and over again since I've been home! I've seen God provide so much! He led me to a nice, reasonably-priced car that I'm planning to buy (provided everything continues to go well), since I need transportation down to Texas, and something to get around in while i'm down there. I just felt this nudge to ask someone i was on the phone with if they knew of anyone selling a car... turns out, their son was selling his ford taurus! So awesome...
One of the requirements for coming back on staff in the department i want to work in is that we have a smartphone. I was able to purchase an iPhone at half the price that it would normally be, and i'll be saving $40/month on the plan because my parents decided to let me stay under their plan if I paid for my stuff.
I was in desperate need of a suitcase; mine was in bad shape.. so I put a thing on facebook and had two people contact me about suitcases that they didn't need anymore! :)
A family friend handed me $100 cash in church this morning and said she just wanted to help me. She is so sweet!
Basically, I have asked, and I have received. I have been so blessed by God and by the people who have responded!
I am believing that God will continue to provide for me, as I still need at least $200/month pledged support. Please pray about partnering with me in this way to accomplish God's purposes through my life! :)Thanks so much for reading!
Much love!!

Justine

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

I'm Home!! :)

Michigan is so beautiful! I almost forgot...
It's so good to be home with my family again :) We got a new dog... her name is Kallie, and she's really clumsy and cute and hyper. Jaxon isn't a fan...
I got to spend the last two days traveling with my good friends, Nate and Lauren and their new baby! He is so dang cute.
Now that I'm home... the work begins!
I would really like to join staff in Texas, so I'm going to be spending the next month at home figuring out if that's possible :) Please pray that God will make it very clear to me if this is what he wants me to do, and that I will trust him to provide. because he always does! :)

Love you all!!

Justine

Friday, August 5, 2011

oh, my life...

So I do this thing where I plan my life. And I think that God just laughs at me most of the time. Probably he's just wondering if I'm ever going to learn that when I make plans, he has other plans.

This time, I'm not really sure yet. I have been planning on returning to college this fall, but right now I'm just not sure that is where God is calling me to go.

I'm still praying about it, but I think that maybe God is leading me to join staff here with YWAM. I'm still praying about it, because it's a *huge* step. I would have to raise at least $650 of monthly support. Honestly, that scares the crap out of me. But if that's what God is telling me to do, I should probably do it. :)

So... I'm praying. If you would pray too, I would appreciate it! :)

Love!

Justine

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Back from Houston!

Houston was awesome! I always love doing ministry there... this past group of kids were really great, and it was awesome to see God working in their lives while they were here.

As you may have seen on facebook, Joel and I are no longer dating. We both decided that it was the most loving and wise thing to seek God separately, because we're not sure if our future plans necessarily line up anymore. But we are still really good friends, and we are both at peace about it. :)

i'll post pictures of outreach later... :)

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Don't worry, I'm still alive! :)

I survived two weeks of SST! It was so awesome and crazy and draining and.... just really good. I absolutely loved the group of kids that we got to work with, and I had a blast teaching the Clincher drama as well.

We spent one week here in Texas, where the students had classes three times a day, ministry prep time, intercession, worship, obstacle course time, and lake time. The schedule was packed! We were up at 7am and in bed by 11pm. crazy, crazy, crazy. :)

Then we packed into 15-passenger vans and headed up to Chicago. 20 hours later, we moved all of our stuff into the church we would call home for the next 7 days. :) The ministry in Chicago was focused around praying and interceeding, so we were really able to interact one-on-one with the people there. We were able to offer prayer to people walking past in the business district, write/draw encouraging messages and scripture on the sidewalk in parksa and pick up trash, pray for people on the public transportation systems, hand out hotdogs in a park, play soccer with Napali immigrants, and learn about Islam and Krishna consciousness (to better understand the people we were ministering to, and why they are drawn to other religions). It was a really great experience!
The craziest thing about Chicago was that I was in charge of food for the week. I planned meals, purchased the food, prepared it, cleaned it up, etc. I also had to teach a bunch of teenagers how to cook and clean... harder than it sounds, i promise :)

and yes. i survived :)

This week we have some time off... a few maintanence projects in the village. Next week is prep week, and the week after that, we start all over again with classes. Our outreach this time will be to Houston, which I am *so* looking forward to!!!

Thanks for reading! keep in touch!

Justine

Me and Meganne getting antsy waiting for the train... :)

Friday, June 10, 2011

Newsletters!! :)

My newsletters have finally come back from the copy place! :) I'm a little sad, because they're a little darker than I would have liked, but they'll accomplish their purpose :)
This is how they start:

Hello Friends!

That's the important part. I wanted you to see the picture... because that's really the only part that didn't turn out so good. :)

Anyway, today is the last lecture day! :(
It's been so good, I don't want it to be over yet! But today was the best day, by far! We had my favorite teacher!!! Her name is Heather, and she's just a really energetic speaker, and she knows a lot about historic Jewish culture.
And!!!
This afternoon, the one and only Joel will be teaching! Because his school is all about the Bible, and teaching. So he will be coming to teach my school :)

It's gonna be good! 
And to top it all off, we're having a Dwell night (worship service) tonight!
Hope you're having as wonderful of a day as I am! :)

Monday, June 6, 2011

So close!

So close to the end of my School of Evangelism! It's so crazy... I don't feel like I've been here for very long, but at the same time, I feel like I've been here forever. But definitely not long enough to almost be done!

So many thoughts...
It'll be nice to be home.
I will miss all of my incredible friends.
I'm excited to go back to college.
I would love to stay here and learn some more!
I'm excited to play on Kuyper's volleyball team.
I have had so much fun playing sand volleyball and soccer here every Saturday....
I really do miss my family!!!

It's going to be really good to be home, but I have learned so much from these amazing people! I really have appreciated the deep friendships and the openness and honesty we've all shared. It's been awesome. Wouldn't trade it for the world. :)

Anyway, this is the last week of lecture. Next Monday we will be starting to prepare for SST's (the high school summer "camp" programs..... they are basically very mini-DTS's (the first school I went through: Discipleship Training School) with a week of lecture and a week of outreach). I'm so excited!! :)
Please be praying that God will speak to students to come this summer and step out in faith to raise the support to be here this summer. He wants to change their lives! :)

Oh! I got a really awesome package from my parents! :)
I'll post pictures as soon as I can! :)

Monday, May 23, 2011

A small prayer with consequences...

It's a funny thing. when you ask God to humble you... he'll do it. sometimes by putting you in a community living setting. Sometimes by putting you under authority that gives you a curfew. sometimes by having you clean toilets.

And sometimes, by doing all of these things at once. :)
But the cool thing is, if you ask for it, you can't really complain when it happens :D

But you know what! God is faithful, he wants my highest good. So i know that if I'm scrubbing toilets, i'm serving him, blessing his heart, and learning humility. :)

Psalm 113:7-9
"He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy fromt he ash heap, to make them sit with prices, with the prices of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!"

My daily work duty: cleaning the girl's dorm bathrooms

My small group leader's baby shower! :)



Baked goods I helped package for a fundraiser for our school :)

Monday, May 9, 2011

Urban Missions Week!!

Happy May everyone! :)

Our school just got back from a week in Chicago, Illinois! Our focus for lecture this week was Urban culture and how to share Jesus with people in cities, so we packed up into three, 15-passenger vans and drove 16 hours to Chicago. It was such a cool experience!

I've been to Chicago before, but I had no idea there was such cultural diversity clustered throughout the city! There are literally complete cultural centers every few blocks... you can be walking along in a Pakistani district (they all speak the language, dress the same, have their cultural shops and restaurants), and cross the street into an Israeli district. The street names change and everything!

Needless to say, we got to eat a lot of really good ethnic food, and talk with some really neat people.

One day we went downtown and were just asking the people walking by if we could pray for them. We were rejected numerous times, but we were able to pray for over 300 people in just one hour! Imagine how many people were encouraged that day! :) I was able to pray for healing in a woman's back, recovery from a cancer operation for someone's sister, healing for a man's wife from crohn's disease, several court case rulings, the security guards of the plaza we were walking around in, and many other awesome people.

We also visited a nursing home in the city and met some precious little old people who were really lonely. Most of them were from India and had moved here to be closer to their children, but their children didn't visit them anymore. It was so hard to leave them! :( But we got to sing to them, pray for them, and hear about their lives. One little old lady told me to call her Nani (the word for Grandmother in her language) and asked me to sit and watch her soap operas with her :) they were all in another language, so she explained them to me. It was precious!

Our last day in the city, we visited the a "temple"? of krishna consciousness and a muslim mosque... The point of this time was to examine both religions and try to see what attracted people to them, and what they were clearly missing that Christianity addressed. It was a very eye-opening time for me, and really made me fall more in love with God, because of his love and his greatness... no other god compares! :)

Some awesome quotes from this week's teaching with Brad Stanley:
- " The enemy doesn't waste his time with things that aren't a threat to him...Where is he working overtime to steal, kill, and destroy, and what treasure is buried there that he's working against?"
- "It's more important to understand the redemptive gift of a place than the spiritual strongholds... We shouldn't be out chasing the devil and fixing things after he's made a mess. We should be taking hold of God's purposes and helping cities to realize their giftings as a city."

All in all, this was a really neat week! We were engaging in hands-on, applicable-to-the-moment learning, and going out to bless a beautiful city. I would love to do ministry in Chicago again sometime, and I might actually get the chance to lead the summer camp outreach there this summer for my outreach as an SST Staff person. :)

As always, thank you for being interested in my life! Love you :)

 Photo taken at "the bean"... by Kaitlin G.
My mohawk! :) Taken by Jake M.

Chicago at night! Taken by Meganne S.

The Krisna Conscious place taken by Meganne S.
 
Pizza at Lou Malnati's! Taken by Kaitlin G.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Unfortunate Mishap...

So. I had a fairly nice camera, a Canon something or other that had pretty neat features and settings. And over outreach in Guatemala, I learned how to use it and what most of the settings were for.

The weekend that I got back, my purse and all of its contents (including my camera) were soaked in brake fluid...

Alas, my camera is ruined. I don't think that it's still under warranty, since I've had it for three years. The lens won't even open. it's really sad.

So! If you hear of someone who's selling a fairly nice camera for cheap, or upgrading their camera and needing someone to take the old one off of their hands, please let me know! I would like to be able to take pictures so I can communicate better with you, since you're not here with me. Thanks! :)

Love you!

Justine

Huge Update! :)

Sorry for the long wait, ya'll :)

This past week of class was Financial Seminar. We learned the biblical basis on why it's okay for missionaries to ask for money and how to best go about that... we are to view it as "friend-raising" instead of fundraising. It was a very insightful week... God really spoke to me about tithing and really holding the money he gives me with an open hand...ready to give it when he asks.

Anyway, really busy, full week.

Last weekend I helped staff a mini SST (this used to stand for Summer of Service in Training, and now we just use the acronym... it's not called that anymore :D). It was really neat! I had the chance to get a taste of what I'll be doing this summer for my outreach, and I didn't really hate it, so I'm encouraged! It's going to be a good summer!

Maybe you're thinking, "wait... I thought she was going to Germany for outreach." well... I thought that too. But I realized that I hadn't actually taken time to ask God where he wanted me to go.
When I got back to the base here in Texas, I just felt uneasy about going to Germany, and then I heard that there were only 3 girls helping staff SSTs... so I thought I would take a little time to talk to God about it.
I had a little time of worship by myself, and then I just felt peace... that I knew that no matter where I decided to go for outreach, God would use me and provide for me, and it would all work out. I was outside, and as I began to look around at the ponds and sunshine and trees, I got more and more excited about being in Texas for the whole summer.

One of the many ponds on the base :)


Okay, here's the important part. Bear with me, because maybe you won't think this makes a whole lot of sense, or that it's a very solid reason to change my outreach, but I have to tell you... I *know* God spoke to me.

So I was sitting on cement that's got all of these little rocks in it, and there were two dark rocks, one closer to me than the other. And as I looked at them, I started to think that the one furthest from me could be a penny. It looked like maybe it was... calcified? or something... there was that white/teal stuff on it... in the shape of a head, i thought.
So I was thinking, okay. this is what we'll do. If it's heads, I'm going to Germany. If it's tails, I'll staff SSTs. And if it's a rock, then I'm a moron and I'm done with this whole thing. And I stopped and asked God if it was okay, and he said yes.
So... I walked closer, and it *was* a penny. and it was definitely tails up. So I flipped it over to look at the other side, and the whole other side was completely white, so you couldn't even see the head! :)

So... I'm going to staff SSTs. :)  And I'm actually really excited about it! I really enjoy working with youth. Rightly so, since my major in college is Youth Ministry :) And I love being able to speak into their lives and share my life with them and encourage them, because High school and Middle school can really suck. And I've had really bad experiences every time I went to camp, so I want to be moral support for those kids! :) haha.

So... I think we're up to speed now :) If there's anything that I forgot to cover, or something you would like me to write about/you're curious about, shoot me a message or an email or something...

Praying for you as I fall asleep... may God bless you this coming week!

Justine

Friday, April 8, 2011

So much!!!!

Hello Everyone!
Long time, no post... I know. very sorry... it's been quite busy here lately...
Quick updates that I will get into later hopefully:

- I received a very generous gift toward my school, which was totally led by the Lord! Thanks to everyone who is praying and supporting... you are all amazing! I'm so grateful that God has blessed me with you!

- I have changed my outreach... I'm going to staff the SST's this summer (high school summer camp program). We will be leading the students through a very condensed mini-DTS, and an outreach phase, which will be to Chicago, Houston, or Haiti. (I'll try to write about how God spoke to me about this change next week sometime...).

- I'm helping staff a mini-SST for a youth group this weekend, which is why i'm so pressed for time right now  :) I have to pack still, and i have class in 15 minutes... haha :)


Well, more later! But I wanted to write a quick overview so everyone knew what was going on! Love you all!

Justine

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Newsletter is Done!!

Good news everyone! :)
My newsletter is finally, completely finished! I was having trouble getting it printed and looking good. Trust me, it was worth the wait ;)
Hoping to hear from all of you... please, email me, facebook me, call me... i want to know what is going on with all of you as well!
If you're reading this thinking, "yeah, she's just saying that," or "She's not talking about me," I actually am talking about you! Really. I know that you are praying for me and being interested in my life, and i want to return that! I want to pray for you and be connected with you, even if I don't see you :)

So! God sent bad weather at just the right time! I was supposed to work tonight, but I'll be making a list of addresses and sending out newsletters tomorrow! Praying that my letter finds you well :)

~ Justine

New Haircut! :)

Monday, March 7, 2011

Newsletter!

Howdy Folks! :)

I just finished an outreach report newsletter, just for you! If you're reading this and you would like to receive a copy, please email me your mailing address or comment below. It's really sweet looking.. i'm proud of it! :)
Here are some of the pictures that will be on it:

Playing with kids at Tierra Nueva daycare
Blowing bubbles at Casa Shalom Orphanage
Giving my testimony at a church
Acting out the story of Elijah and the widow
Cute kids at Tierra Nueva daycare
Piled in the back of a van
Catching bubbles at Tierra Nueva daycare
Performing the Clincher drama at a church

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Home Sweet Home...

It's so good to be back home :)
Nice to see so many familiar faces, and thank you so much for being interested in my life, people! :) I would absolutely love to tell you about my time in Guatemala and Texas, but I don't want to push it on any of you... haha :) so if you want to hear stories, please ask!!

Guatemala was wonderful and warm... it's currently sunny here at home, but there's at least a foot of snow on the ground and a biting cold breeze.
We spent our last week in Guatemala at Puerto Barrios and Livingston... beautiful areas! very hot, very humid...lots of fun creatures that like to sleep with you (cockroaches, small lizards, fleas, mosquitos... etc.). We were able to put on a few services at local churches, worshiping with them and offering prayer at the end. Wow! there is power in unity and prayer!
I was also able to translate pretty well by this time... even translating English prayers into Spanish! ... God is so faithful. He literally gave me the words. it was so good.

My favorite, favorite thing was the last children's ministry that we did... we went to an orphanage, and the next day we went to the area school that the orphan children attended. While we were at the orphanage, I met a girl named Katherine. I did her hair for her, and we just sat and talked for awhile. And I felt this prompting to give her my promise ring (it's a silver ring that says "true love waits"). So... I did. It fit her left ring finger perfectly, and i explained what the significance was. and she was so happy she almost started crying... she hugged me so hard! and she wouldn't leave my side after that. :) We also bought all of the kids Happy Meals from McDonalds, because we wanted to bless them, and they hardly ever eat meat. They all ate their french fries slowly, one at a time. it was precious.

So the next day we went to the school and were pleasantly surprised to see those kids again with their classmates. And we were able to hold an assembly with all of the kids, and share some funny clown skits with them, which was so fun... doing the clown skits was one of my favorite things! And Katherine came to me and gave me a huge hug, and showed me the ring :) It was so sweet. I love that girl. She's only 14, but you can see wisdom beyond her years in the carefulness and jadedness of her eyes... she's been through a lot.
That same day, a few people on our team were invited to climb a coconut tree and throw some down for us to eat. It was so cool! we had to use machetes to open them and drink the milk... it was pretty good! :)

All in all, outreach was great! I really got to experience God's heart for the nation of Guatemala. Everywhere we went, I could feel God's love for the people we encountered. It was so amazing.
Now that i'm back, i've started working at a factory 50-60 hours a week, because here's my next step:
~ God is calling me to do School of Evangelism!! :)

This is a huge undertaking, and a big step of faith, because I have to raise $6,000... This Month!!  I'll be working as much as I humanly can, but I can't do this alone. Please be in prayer, that God will speak to people about supporting me...pray that he'll speak to you about how you can help! Whatever you do, please pray!!! I'll be sending out newsletters in the next week to keep people updated, and I'll do my best to keep this blog updated as well! :)

Thanks everyone! love ya!
Clown Skit!

The Clowns! (minus Andrea)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Final Stretch....

Wow... I can't believe we'll be leaving Guatemala for Texas in 8 days. This outreach has gone by so fast! I have loved the time we have spent here in Guatemala City!
Tomorrow we are leaving here to spend a week in Puerto Barrios, which is on the coast... hopefully we'll get a chance to hang out at the beach. I'm pretty tan now, but it would be nice to just relax at the beach :)
We have spent time at a lot of really cool ministries:
YWAM Guatemala, Casa Shalom, a soup kitchen....etc.
We were really able to be fairly consistent in our ministry because we got to return to the same places every week, so we really got to know the people we were hanging out with. 
The places that affected me the most were definitely the orphanages... wow! What precious children! If I had the means, i would be coming home with like, five kids. Each time we went to an orphanage or the garbage dump, i spent time with a precious, darling little child, and it broke my heart to leave them. The kids from the garbage dump were really dirty and starving for attention, and some of them were so emotionally wounded... I spent 2 hours trying to get this little girl to smile, and she had been hurt so badly by someone that she barely looked at me, and at some points she looked like she wanted to smile but she didn't know how. :( I finally convinced her to let me pick her up and swing her around, and she told me she liked it and wanted me to do it again, but you couldn't tell that by her face. Then I told her she could come sit in my lap, and she was really really hesitant... it was so sad. I told her i was her friend and i wasn't going to hurt her, so after awhile, she let me set her in my lap. She was sitting up straight and rigid for a full 15 seconds, and then she relaxed and leaned back against me, and eventually started petting my arm. That was one of the best moments of outreach!! I got to show that little girl that someone does care for her, and that God loves her. wow... still really makes me cry :)
There was a 1 month old little boy that i met at an orphanage, named Diego. His face had little white bumps scattered on it, and he had a few crusts on his head...i wiped him off as best i could, and just held him for three hours. He fell asleep, woke up hungry, i fed him and burped him, then he fell back to sleep. and he was the most precious little boy with the sweetest little baby laugh, and he was really ticklish :D I just prayed over him the whole time, that God would be preparing a family for him and keeping him safe... he was so sweet.
Before this outreach, our team was praying, "God, break our hearts for what breaks yours."
and he did. :) and we will never be the same!


Soup kitchen serving line :)

My friend from Tierra Nueva Daycare :)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Hello from Guatemala! :)

What a wonderful country! :) Everything here is so different and interesting and beautiful. We are blessed to have the most flavorful fruit i have ever tasted, for every single meal. I have really enjoyed being able to have quiet times in the hammock on the rooftop balcony. It's been sunny and warm almost every day. 
We've been working a lot with the homeless and with little kids, which has been really fun, really challenging, and really different. I think that ministering to the homeless is really difficult. We had the opportunity to hand out snacks, sleeping bags, and water to the homeless in Houston, and I just found myself really not knowing what to say. Now we're doing the same thing in a country where we don't speak the language. This is one of the many examples of how God is continually pushing on the boundaries of my comfort zone. :)
Today I gave my testimony for the first time on outreach, at a small church, and i was so nervous. Speaking through a translator takes a lot of the pressure off :)
Anyway, I really like it here a lot! I've had the chance to brush up a lot on my spanish, and learn (what feels like) a little. :) 
I also discovered that i have allergies to the black smoke/smog/exhaust that is all over in the city... my throat got really scratchy and my head is really stuffed now. I was getting headaches, but those have gone away, for now :)

Please be in prayer for:
- Andrea and Andre, a young mom and her son on the team. He has a broken arm and was struggling with a really bad cough for awhile, and it's really wearing on both of them.
- My health... it would be really nice to be able to breathe properly...i want to show off my soccer skills! :)
- direction for after outreach...
     -Come back for School of Evangelism
     -Work, go back to college
- Finances

Thanks everyone! I'll try to update more frequently! :)


We had to push our van after it broke down on the highway :)

Monday, January 10, 2011

Stateside Debriefing

Hey everyone! 
I'm back in Lindale on the base for today, then i'll be leaving for Guatemala tomorrow! So excited!

Houston Stateside outreach was awesome! We had the opportunity to minister in several churches and with several ministries reaching out to the homeless. I wish i had time to write about all of the great things that happened, but here are a few awesome things.


 Highlights: 
- I learned that quiet times are *imperative* on outreach. If i went without for a day, it was very obvious in how i acted and in how i felt. and each day, my quiet times were exactly in line with what i needed to hear to get through the day! it was amazing :)
- We were able to put on a vacation bible school after school in two of the poorer neighborhoods, and we were really able to love on the kids and show them God's heart for them.
- I also had the opportunity to pray for a girl (I felt like God was pointing her out to me) and she ended up crying because i prayed exactly what was on her heart without her even telling me about it. Praise God! She ended up bringing her younger sister up to me for prayer later on in the week because we did a chapel service at her school. God really brought a lot of healing through that!


All in all, stateside was really awesome! pray the same for Guatemala! :)
Love you all, and i'll update again as soon as i get a chance!


Photo of the Clincher Drama