Cozumel, a little late ; )

FEBRUARY 7


It was 1 a.m.We needed to leave for the ferry in 4 hours, and I still needed to pack a few things.  I rubbed my eyes and tried to keep the numbers from blurring so bad as I finished balancing the finances from our stay in Cozumel and get my brain around how to handle them on the six day drive ahead of us. Our final location during the trip, Cozumel, was beautiful! A Caribbean  island just a ferry ride from Cancun, it had that laid-back, no hurry, what happens happens island feel. While we were there, we had worked with several different churches, doing everything from childcare during a regional pastors' conference, to street evangelism, to cleaning up the neighbor's yard, to the pre-program program for a Costa Rican Mariachi Evangelist's 3 day crusade. The rainbow colored friendship bracelet dangled  across the calculator for a moment. In the first church, we had presented our program in a local neighborhood soup kitchen and then came back the next Sunday to participate in their service. We got to hang out with the youth group (13-19 year olds) several different times during our 10 days there, taking them out for ice cream, playing soccer, or exchanging stories.  Discpleship happens in relationship, and I feel like we really got to know these young people. They even came to several events we did with other churches, just to hang out. One of the girls showed up to the pastors' conference with a bunch of these bracelets she'd purchased, and with a warm smile and a big hug, tied them around the wrists of the girls on our team. 


Even with all of the ways we'd been able to pitch in at the churches, I knew that we were all ready to get back to Ensenada. Sleep in beds instead of the vans the guys had been sleeping in for the last week and half when our rented space ended up being smaller than we expected. Or see the classmates and friends that had their own adventures from South America to relate. Maybe even move past graduation and DTS and on to the next step. Personally, I'd be glad to stuff all these receipts and bank notes into an envelope and had it off to the finance department. But glancing around at the girls giggling, sleeping or jamming final items into their backpacks, I knew I'd miss each of them when they flew off to their other lives. Focus, Amy. Now how much is the ferry going to be per vehicle and passenger again?


All of the sudden, a few guitar notes broke the low murmuring in our room, joined quickly by young voices singing worship songs in Spanish. We stuck our heads out of our curtain door to discover that the youth group had come to serenade us farewell! As we all piled out into the narrow hallway, grabbed hands with our new buddies, wiped a few tears, and lifted our voices to our Daddy, I felt that bittersweet goodbye feeling come, accompanied by peace. He was pleased with us. With this. With me. And that's what outreach and DTS and finances and life is about. Pleasing Him.

Chiapas

As we drag ourselves out of the vans into the humidity of Palenque's January evening, a hoarse, angry cry bugles from the thick jungle around DIF's compound. A few raised eyebrows note it the first time, but in the bustle of grabbing our backpacks and pillows it's easy to push aside. However, after the third or fourth cry, a team member finally asks our guide what the commotion is. "Changos," he replies. Monkies- the big, mean kind. Being greeted by ferocious calls from la selva was just the beginning of our adventure in Chiapas. It started out in Palenque, a small bustling town signifigant for the Mayan ruins just outside the city. For the first half of the week, we got to work with a church in the evenings using our kid's program, dramas, choreographies, and testimonies to do different types of services. 

One morning, we went to the local Red Cross to clean up the facility and help sort donated clothing. But after working there for part of the morning, the director took us to a near by school, offering willing hands. They needed some railing and the gate (puerta) painted, giving us the opportunity to serve them and get to know them a little bit. When they heard that we had a kid's program, they invited us to present it for their student body. So on the spur of the moment, we presented our Christ centered program to a bunch of adorable brown eyed elementary kids and their parents in a public school we weren't planning on being in. God moment, anyone? 

Fast forward a few days and you have me attempting to teach an arts workshop in Spanish to a group of young people that I found out I was teaching about 2 hours before we left!  It was so cool to talk about one of my passions and then help the DTS students teach our dramas and choreographies to them. By the end of the day, they were doing our dramas better than us! That evening, we joined forces to do 2 evangelistic outreaches in neighborhoods in Palenque. Watching these 12-18 year olds reaching out to their communities using the tools we'd just passed on sent chills down my spine.

After a day off and a pick up soccer game with some local guys we met the night before, our team loaded up and headed southwest. We stopped for a long lunch at Las Cascadas de Auga Azul, a beautiful series of waterfalls, and then wound and twisted and peuked our way up the mountains to our next ministry location- San Cristobal de las Casas, a city nestled in the evergreen blanketed highlands. Our team of 25 ( including 2 of the YWAM Cancun staff) bunched into a 3 room unfinished house. The first night was a flutter of hanging tarps on window frames, buying fleece blankets, hanging curtains over the bathroom door openings, and trying to figure out how to keep 5 young kids warm with no heat, tile floors, no windows, and air you can see your breath in- on the inside ; ). It was definitely culture shock from warm, humid Palenque to the extremes of San Cristobal. 

In the mornings, I went out to wash my face in the icy stream running outside through the middle of the colonia, and watched as the women in their bright skirts and braids walked their uniformed children to school, chattering the whole time in a language that neither my English nor my Spanish helped me understand. Chiapas has the highest population of indigenous peoples in all of Mexico. One of the pastors we worked with spoke his native language of Tzeltal, Tzotzil the language of the indigenous groups in San Cristobal, and Spanish, the language of the colonial conquistadores. We worked with 4 different churches, picking up garbage, visiting people from the church, prayer walking, painting inside and outside, and doing services in the evening. Considering our lack of running water, we were very blessed when 2 of the pastors offered us hot bucket showers. A couple of the churches even cooked us meals- they make some delicious soup in San Cristobal! God surprised us with the discovery that one of our friends from the YWAM base in Monterrey was also leading a DTS outreach in San Cristobal, so we worked it out with her and her team and got the DTSs together a few times during our 10 days there. It was fun and refreshing for everyone to see new faces and be with our extended YWAM family!

Everywhere that we have gone, God has set up crazy cool appointments. Sometimes, we see how God sent us to bless and encourage other people, whether it be staff in Chapala or the women we prayed over in San Cristobal. Sometimes, He's sent us people to lift us up when we're exhausted, like pastors who offer their personal showers to 25 people or random encounters with friends in far away places. He knows what His kids need. 

Right now we're spending a weekend off in Cancun to refresh and get ready for our final leg of the outreach- Isla Cozumel. Please keep us in your prayers, that our good attitudes will continue and that we'll press in to everything that God has to do in us and through us in these final few weeks. I can see the maturity, growth, and deepening that students (and leaders ; ) have experienced. We want to finish well!

Hey! Wow, the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind. After leaving Ensenada on December 21 and staying with friends in Hermosillo and Mazatlan, we arrived in Guadalajara on December 23. The YWAM base we worked with is just outside the little town of Chapala, about a 45 minute drive from Guadalajara proper.
During our ten days in Chapala, we got to work several days with an orphanage for adolescent and teenage boys, playing soccer and doing VBS, helping with some painting and other projects, and hanging out with these amazing young boys.  Jorge, one of the men who runs the home, explained that in Mexico, boys and girls can only be together in orphanages until the age of 8. Unfortunately, there are not many homes that take older boys. Many are placed in juvies and rehab centers because there is no where else for them to go. It's hard for me to realize that without this home, many of these sweet, energetic, bright-eyed young men would be placed in very difficult places. They blessed us with their enthusiasm and warmth!
 Some of the staff from the base in Chapala are building relationships in a small village called La Pila, where they have a desire to do development and reach people with God's hope. In a village of around 300 people, there are only a few Christian families (the entire state of Jalisco is only 3% evangelized). Our team split into small groups for the afternoon and went out to milk cows with different families in La Pila, finding out about a different way of life, attempting to help the families with their chores, and drinking warm milk straight from the udder- believe it or not, if you mix in a little Nescafe and sugar, it tastes like a latte! In the evening, we did a program in the little plaza in the center of town with our dramas and kid's songs and testimonies. We were treated to homemade carne asada, beans, hand made corn tortillas, and cinnamon tea by one of the Christian families. Singing worship with them under the stars on a very chilly Mexican night encouraged everyone involved.
After spending a day doing work projects around the base, we spent New Year's Eve and day hiking and camping up on a high ridge over looking Guadalajara and Lake Chapala. While we were on the mountain, the team was split into groups doing teambuilding exercises and intercession for the base in Chapala. And yesterday, our final day of ministry, we drove into downtown Guadalajara and went to a cultural market where many young people go to spend Saturday afternoon. There are booths set up with everything from Hell's Angels T-shirts to metaphysical books to tatoos to bead weavings. Our heart was to talk with people and pray for this area, as the Chapala base would like to set up a booth and become a presence for ministry to these young people. It was amazing to hear about the divine appointments that God set up for member of our team there. Last night, we got together with some of the staff from the base, most of whom are just arriving home from Christmas vacation. We spent a couple hours praying and worshiping together, remembering Who all this is about and with and for.
Many of us felt God's presence in a very tangible way during our time in Chapala, as well as the staff we worked with from their ministry.It was cool to see as we reach out to bless other people, God shows up and surprises us with how much He can bless us.
Now we're on a 3 day drive to our next ministry location- Chiapas! As I sit in a hotel lobby very early in the morning and reflect on the last 2 weeks, I'm humbled and blessed by what God's already done in my students, through our group, and in me. I'm excited to see what else he's got up his sleeve!

 Prayer Requests:

-That the seeds that were planted in Guadalajara will continue to grow and be watered, and for blessing for the base and staff there. They went out of their way to spend time with us and help us out!

- Our vans! They're well loved and well used, and are feeling it! We've had some problems with the ball joints and weird clunking sounds that I don't really understand. Thankfully, Jake one of our dads on the team, has a lot of mecanical experience and has been doing constant work. We've still got a lot of miles to go, so please pray for wisdom for our drivers and mechanic, and for safety on the road!

- Continued growth of relationships and unity in our team.

- My co-leader Giezi has been having some minor respiratory stuff going on in the last couple days and my  stomach's been having some issues of it's own for about a week, so if you can be praying for health for us and the rest of the team, that'd be awesome.

-We're still short on our budget, so continued financial provision and wisdom in how to direct the finances we have.

-For clear direction from God as we minister in Chiapas and willingness to obey!

Impact a Generation

Monday, December 7

Scattered here and there over chairs and the floor and shoved together on the couches, our Mexico outreach team chatters in the few minutes before Giezi calls the meeting to order. After handing it over to me, we begin with a few minutes of prayer. I know there’re a few things we need to talk about, but I sense that I need to let the prayer time go a little longer. And people begin to pray, one at a time. There’s a quiet excitement in the air, but I can also sense the tension of our situation. We leave for Guadalajara, our first ministry location, two weeks from today. And we are thousands of dollars short of our budget of $45,000. With our base struggling financially, there are no backup funds available if the support for each of our students does not come in. But even in the limbo, I can sense something else: hope. I can hear it in their voices and words as they pray. I hear in the conversations I’ve had with: 

Jake and Rachael Christensen, as they look at bills to pay back home and 4 young daughters to feed and keep healthy. Even with thousands of dollars of need staring them in the face, they committed to pray faithfully that God would provide. And they’re already seeing Him do it, a few hundred dollars at a time. Their faces radiate their growing faith as they trust God and take baby steps out onto the limb of obedience.

Fernanda, Ever, Said, and Martin, whose families are trying to support them in their call to missions. In a culture where the church is used to being the mission field, it is often difficult for Mexicans to raise money from their church families. But with their culture’s emphasis on family relationships, they know that their families will do their best to back them up. Fernanda says, “I trust in God and that if my dad says he will get the money together, he will.” Her faith is amazing in a country where many only make a hundred dollars a week.

Tim and Ruth Powell, who take every opportunity to pray for the team and research the areas we’re going to. In a time when they took a step of faith to follow God from London to Ensenada, they’re excited that for the first time in their lives, they can give to others. And they do quietly, at every opportunity they get. 

There are so many more. And as I sneak a glance around as they take turns praying, all of a sudden my heart swells. I am so honored to have the chance to walk a part of these people’s journeys with them. To watch as God plants seeds and surprises them with who He is. To have their trust. To learn from them.

I’m inviting you to be a part of their journey, too! After living, talking, discussing, eating, praying, challenging, dancing, learning, and laughing with them for the last 11 weeks, I know they are worth investing in. Each of them is responsible for $2,500, the cost of driving, living, and ministering for 8 weeks in Guadalajara, Chiapas, and Cozumel, Mexico. We will be working with so many types of people, from the wealthy foreign tourists in Cozumel to Mexico’s poorest people groups, the marginalized indigenous people of Chiapas’ highlands. You have the opportunity to be blessing to each of those touched in the next 8 weeks through our ministry and to be a part of training the next generations’ worship leaders, activists, missionaries, pastors, youth workers, and parents. 

“HOW CAN I HELP?”

1) We are in urgent need of funds! If you feel led to partner with us financially, please make your check out to Youth With A Mission and send it to:

Youth With A Mission San Diego/Baja

100 W. 35th Street, Suite C

National City, CA 91950

IMPORTANT: Please include a note indicating that it is for “Ensenada Fall ’09 DTS Mexico Outreach.”

OR:

Go online to www.ywamsandiegobaja.org and click the green button titled “Donate” at the top of the page. Select “University of the Nations Student Outreach Fund” from the drop down list and click on Make a Contribution or Payment. Fill out the short billing information form on the next page, making sure you put that it is for the Ensenada Fall ’09 DTS Mexico Outreach in the Description box at the top of the page. Complete and submit the form.

Note: All financial gifts are tax deductible.

2) Pray for our team as we’re on outreach! Nothing can happen in the physical until it’s happened in the spiritual. Your prayers are a huge blessing and support to each of us.

3) Keep updated! I’ll be posting as regularly as possible during outreach, and we are in process of setting up a YouTube channel where you can meet the team and see videos of what we’re doing. I’ll be sending out the link as soon as we have it all set up!

Week 9

As I let the phone drop into the receiver and Giezi and I continue our brainstorm, a hidden knot in my insides releases. After a week and a half of playing phone and email tag, we've got all of our main outreach locations set up. Knowing that we have a place to sleep for our team of 24 people for the next 2 months is huge!

For the first ten days of outreach (excluding driving days), we'll be in Guadalajara, a principal city in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Then for 2-3 weeks, we've arranged to work through the base in Cancun to reach 2 cities in the southernmost state of Mexico, Chiapas. From there, we'll travel through the Yucatan peninsula and ferry to the island of Cozumel for the last portion of our formal ministry time. Altogether, it's a distance of over 6,250 miles. As our team has been praying, we've felt that God has led us to focus on orphanages, kid's ministry, sports ministry, and worship. He's also reminded us that our outreach begins as we leave Ensenada, not when we get to Guadalajara. We're excited to see how He'll put it all together!

And I've been learning what it means to let Him be in control and not trust in my own ability to organize or communicate. God knows how to push my buttons, and I'm trying to let Him. I have to realize that I'm not as smart as He is and  all my worrying and planning won't determine the success of the outreach. That's up to Him. Easier said than done. But worth it : ).

Please pray for our team, that God will begin to prepare each of our hearts for what He wants to show us and do through us on outreach. That He will give us His dreams for the people we'll meet and our fellow team mates. Pray for Giezi and I as we learn to how to lead this team together and with Him. And pray that we will be able to take everything that God wants us to have out of these last 3 weeks of lecture phase. I know He's got cool things for us in the moment and in the not so distant future. Thanks for being a part of what He's doing.

As I sit here in the DTS office listening to the printer slowly churn newsletters out, I try to keep my eyes open and focused on the screen. The last several weeks have been amazing- so intense, but so incredible. I'm exhausted, but the good kind. Let me share a few of the highlights. . .

Week 4: An electrifying peace thickens the classroom as one student sings out their own phrase of worship. Across the circle someone picks up the words and puts notes to it. Within a few moments, all 37 or 38 people in the room are singing a unique and never heard song as the simple chord progression thrums underneath their voices. Worship is the theme of this week's teaching, but the students are learning that worship is not defined by songs and instruments. It's defined by trust, repentance, and obedience. A lifestyle, not an hour every Monday and Thursday morning. They have risen to that challenge this week, and I can see the change in their faces. Some have called parents and been transparent for the first time in years. Others have acted on hearing God's voice in their personal lives, even when it was awkward and painful. Some have asked forgiveness from each other. And now their words come from experience as they sing their new song to God.

Week 5: Nervous titters and anxious looks dart up to the front of the room where a couple staff members are sorting through the slips of paper the students just turned in. The names that have "Gold" written above them are scribbled on one side of lined notebook paper, and the ones that say "Silver" across from them. Tonight's presentations of our outreach locations has also been an exercise in hearing God's voice. After hearing the locations, the students were given about 15 minutes and asked to pray that God would give them one of these two colors. Now they are anxious to hear not only who else is on their team, but which location those colors stood for. But the leaders are in for a surprise as well- due to two student leaders receiving "Gold" instead of "Silver", we have a quick prayer session of our own. At the end of the night, 14 people get together to pray for their new focus: Chile and Argentina. And my co-leader Giezi and I watch as our team of 18 students and the five kids run over to the world map and point to what is now the focus of at least 30% of my thoughts for next 3 1/2 months: extreme southern Mexico. 

And today, at the half-way mark of lecture phase, I look around at the girls in my small group, flopped at every angle over the couches in the worship hall. They laugh and exchange embarrassing stories and paint their nails as I pepper them with questions about their experiences so far and their opinions about this week's lecture on the heart and relationships. Some readily and stongly voice their feelings, while others have a little more trouble. While they have formed a rhythm and place to express themselves, I can sense a deep tiredness and a little frustration in all of us. It's normal at this stage of the DTS to come out of the "honeymoon stage" as we all find the pattern of life and the newness of people and surroundings wear off. 

But as I gather the last of my newsletters and pack up my mochila for the day, I recognize that God's got so much more for all of us in the next 6 weeks of lecture phase. He'll be settling some lessons deeper into our hearts and revealing new things. But in order to be awake enough to enjoy them, I'd better head to bed ; ).

Never Leave a Man Behind

Several hands shoot up as one of the students states her opinion during the debrief of the balance beam exercise. Across hot, sweaty cheeks, lively and cautious eyes, and sprawling bodies, the discussion about individual participation versus team responsibility rapidly criss-crosses the DTS classroom. Some readily interject their opinions, others observe attentively, while a few sit wide eyed. Emotions are running high and personalities are rising to the surface. And after this week, everyone knows how to recognize them. Four days of sharing, taking personality tests, intentional games, and physical challenges has aimed at getting this team to become exactly that- a team. Not just a bunch of individuals going through the same program, but healthy group that work hard for trust, honesty,effectiveness and relationship.  Our masks are beginning to wriggle off and the team is learning how to process "real". It's good. It's just the beginning of a molding and integrating process.

As he was praying for our team, our speaker Tim Pratt was reminded of the phrase used by the U.S. military: "Never leave a man behind." And he's repeated it several times in the last four days, trying to get us to grab it and weave it into the make up of who we are as a team. For situations like the one that's sparked this discussion- when someone either got left out of the exercise or chose not to participate and not many people noticed. The way that we process as a team in the classroom will determine how effective we are as a team outside of it- and whether or not we model Jesus' love to each other and others in real life. So I hope we learn well, and choose our actions and words carefully. It's beginning here. And in our brokeness and free will, there's no guarantees we'll be a success. Success will depend on how much we choose to trust each other, how humble we're willing to be, and how much we listen to and obey our Team Leader. As Tim and many others have said, the point is not the goal- it's the journey.