HOLA!!!

I wanted to write a little update to let folks know what I have been up to the last few weeks. Several of you have told me you enjoyed the updates from Costa Rica, so thanks for that! I am a detail-oriented, passionate woman, so it’s hard to express myself in a brief manner! If you can get through those 2 posts, you are a champ!

 In my last post, I mentioned that I was looking for a job while I’m stateside. Well, a few weeks ago, I just so happened to be in the right place at the right time in one of the  H-E-B grocery stores near my parent’s house. I stopped in to catch up with an old manager friend, and I told her that I was trying to get back on with the company. The admin walked up in the middle of our conversation, and one thing led to another, and she told me to come to the group interview the following week! I used to work with the admin at one point when I was in HS, and saw her a handful of times over the last several years when I was recruiting for H-E-B’s new stores or shopping. It was a total God thing, and after making it through the group interview last Tuesday, I received a call back that evening to have a interview with the Service Director. I met with her on Friday last week, and received a job offer immediately following the interview! I was hired as a cashier ( I did this for years as a teenager and college student and can do this job in my sleep), so my schedule and the number of hours I will work will vary from week to week. Now, I’m just waiting for my offer to go through HR, and they said it takes longer when you are a re-hire. At first, I was frustrated that they haven’t called yet, but then I realized that God is giving me more time to rest and heal! He knows that I’m not ready to stand on my feet for several hours each day!

Just in... an UPDATE on the Update - I just received a call this afternoon while finishing this post that I am scheduled to come in for new hire paperwork this coming Thursday evening!! So, please pray that I can be 100% better by then or at least by my first training date ( no schedule yet).

 Some of you know that I have been experiencing some pain on and off for the past 3 weeks. All you need to know is that I need healing and I need it fast. (The details are too personal for the web BUT... If you REALLY want to know details, I’ll share through e-mail or FB with you.) I’m on day 3 of bed rest (per Dr. Stephanie aka “me“) and have experienced pain more so this weekend at certain points in spite of the rest and home care. I am totally bummed because I really wanted to attend the singles retreat with my church friends this weekend. Over the last 3 weeks, I have completely modified my diet (except for some birthday treats), have modified my workouts ( including not do some at all), and used many home remedies, but I’ve only experienced temporary relief. I have even fasted and prayed.

You are probably wondering why I won’t just go to the doctor. Well, A) I am an all natural sort of gal ( I’ve been reading a lot about this and discovered that my body can do things on its own with good nutrition and is even more amazing than I realized!!!), and B) I have zero medical insurance and very little funds in the bank account right now. I am tired of having to SLOW DOWN!! It’s really annoying for a high energy girl like me!!!!  I am so desperate to feel normal again it’s not even funny! I told Jesus please tell me what lesson I am supposed to learn, so I don’t have to do this again! OUCH…. I do not like pain…. At all!!!! Basically, I told the Lord that I would go to the doctor this week if I didn’t feel better by Monday morning. So, tomorrow I will start making phone calls and try to get an appointment ASAP if I’m still in pain. (PS If you know if a doctor who will give me a missionary discount, please let me know by e-mailing me...stephanielovesjuiceplus@gmail.com)

On the upside of things, I had a very exciting Skype call this past Friday with one of the base leaders at YWAM Hamburg. Steve asked me if I would Skype with him a few weeks ago, and we finally managed to sync our schedules in spite of his busy schedule and the  7 hour time difference. We talked for almost an hour about the ministries they work with, base life, etc. Steve and a man named Jim co-pioneered this base together, and I absolutely love what Steve had to say about  their view on community. They really want to live closely, like a family, even though they are all working with different ministries and have different responsibilities on the base. They don’t want anyone floating out on the edges, and not connected with the team. So many things he shared just resonated deep in my spirit!!!!

 He said he will check to make sure my final reference came in tomorrow, and if they have everything, the leadership team will meet and begin to pray about me coming on board as staff. If all goes as planned, I should know something later this week, and will begin to make plans to either head back to Germany, to Costa Rica, etc. I am really excited about the possibility of heading back to Hamburg, but more than anything, I want to be smack dab in the middle of God’s will for me! I will send out an update as soon as I hear something.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

 * For 100% healing in my body

* For God’s provision to pay for bills, especially medical bills etc.

* For God to speak to the YWAM staff in Hamburg about me joining  

   or not joining their staff team

Thanks and God Bless!!!

Update Post 2 of 2 from Costa Rica

WARNING!!!

Be prepared…. It’s LONG!!! Come back tomorrow and read some more if you get bored!!!

 

As many of you already know, I was a student once again in Youth with a Mission’s Biblical Core Course from the end of September through mid December of this year.   The 12 week course is well known for being life-changing, yet very intense. I was at the same base in San Jose, Costa Rica where I did my Discipleship Training School (DTS) last fall. I would like to share about our typical weekly schedule, and then maybe you will be sympathetic as to why I didn’t blog for the past 3 months. J

 

Life on the Base

 
Breakfast is from 6:30-7am each weekday( 8am on weekends), and quiet times are scheduled in for us from 7:00-8am. Just like last year, every Monday we had base worship from 8-9am, and every Wednesday we had base intercession during the same time. Even though I had a hard time getting up some days, I always looked forward to these special times where all students and staff would get together and praise God and intercede in prayer for our base family and needs around the world. There’s just something super exciting about being with your family and worshipping our Awesome God together! The other mornings from 8-9am all students would share in a time of intercession or worship with their particular school. Last semester there were 3 schools going on at the base: The Discipleship Training School (DTS), The School of Foundations of Community Development (FCD), and my school, the Biblical Core Course (BCC). The latter 2 schools are secondary schools, and are typically smaller than a DTS at the San Jose base. The DTS this semester was comprised of 18 girls and 1 boy. The base was nothing short of exciting with all the 18-22 yr. old girls running around, plus Sam. I was very freaked out when I heard about this bunch of young ladies, plus young man, coming to do their school at the same time I was doing my BCC. I honestly thought they would either be wonderful young people, or wild and crazy, and I was hoping they were not the latter! I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised once I got to know most of the girls and Sam, and I really enjoyed each of their cute little personalities. I will share more about some of these amazing young people later in the post.

 BCC Students and Staff

My class consisted of 5 girls and 3 guys, including 2 full time Latino staff members, 3 Canadians, a German, and 2 American girls. The youngest was 18 and I was the oldest at 32. We all had very different educational backgrounds and life experiences, but we worked well together. We were all there for a common purpose: to know God more by understanding His Word. We were privileged to have 2 amazing staff, Douglas and Paty. Douglas and his wife Karen were called to Costa Rica several years ago, and they have 2 sweet little boys.  Douglas went to Bible college and is more than qualified to be the director of the BCC. He is a very gifted and knowledgeable teacher, who is also on the main leadership team at the base. He runs the school with great patience, has a heart for discipleship, is spirit lead, and is a man of prayer. Karen is amazing and is like a mom to most girls on the base, but since she and I are close in age, she was more like a sister to me! Each day before class, Douglas and Paty would pray for our time together. Paty is in her early 20’s,  is from Honduras, and has an amazing heart for God, for His Word, and for prayer. She was my one-on-one, and almost every week we would share a meal together and pray for one another.

 

The Inside Scoop on the BCC

 

With the exception of the first 2 weeks, and a few other days, Monday -Friday, we would have a lecture in the mornings, and do our assignments in the afternoons and evenings. Every Saturday, we would read 3-6 hours of the Word, and we either read in one group or two. In the beginning the native Spanish speakers read together, but the last few weekends of the school, they wanted to be with us. ( In order to read through the entire Bible in 3 months, we had to read about 6 hours a week.) We were given a reading sheet with the historical context for the book, and had to answer 3-5 questions about each book. We read the entire Bible, but we only had time to study 14 books in depth.  The books that we studied in order were: Acts, Philemon, Hebrews, John, 1 Peter, Titus, Romans, Genesis, Revelation, 1 & 2 Kings, Esther, Jeremiah, and Haggai. About 2/3 of the way through the course, we had to preach, teach, and lead a small group Bible study. We had to preach from one of  Paul’s prison epistles ( Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, or Colossians), and we could teach and prepare our small group lesson from any of the books we had studied up until that point. I preached on Philippians 1:20-21 ( emphasis on to live is Christ and to die is gain), taught on Romans 12, and lead a small group on Romans 12:1-2. Amazingly, my small group spent 45 minutes discussing just 2 verses!

The BCC teaches students to study the Bible through the Inductive Study Method. Each week we did the same assignments, with a few variations. For each book we studied, we color coded ( people, places, ideas, connectors, etc.), did our own paragraph, section, and division titles, looked up the historical context, including a biography on the author, and everything we could find about the original audience, when it was written, why the book was written, etc. In addition, for the book we were studying, we had to had identify the structures, law of composition, and genre. For each book we also did some sort of observation, interpretation, application, and proclamation assignment (s). To “proclaim” what I learned, I usually wrote a poem, a sermon, or a rap. We learned how to do horizontal charts, vertical charts, character studies, and word studies. Each week we also read 15 Psalms on our own, and completed an inductive study on one of those Psalms, along with a personal meditation and illustration. Additionally, each week, (in groups of 3), we read 3 chapters out of the book of Proverbs, and selected one proverb to do a personal meditation and an illustration of the wisdom we took from the proverb. Each group then had to prepare a skit to act out the wisdom they got from the proverb. Every Tuesday morning we would perform our skit in front of the class, quote the proverb from memory, and share the wisdom behind the proverb. Now, hopefully, you understand why I didn’t blog for 3 months!! You are probably wondering when we actually took a break. Each Saturday after our reading, we had until 6pm to finish our assignments from the week. We were not allowed to work past 6pm, but I did sometimes and  to be honest, I still didn’t complete all of my work! I would work on the assignments that carried higher weights before I would work on say my Proverbs or Psalms meditations. ( Yes, we did get grades, and had a final !) So, we had Saturday evening and Sunday to rest and chill. How did I spend most of my time off? SLEEP!!!!! I think my record from one Saturday night to  Sunday afternoon near the end of the course was close to 13 hours, with some RR breaks in there! I was absolutely exhausted from getting up early and staying up till midnight sometimes doing HW so all I really did during my time off was sleep and do laundry!!! Pathetic, I know! But, that's what happens when you get older! I had to laugh because all of the young folks in my school would get up and go out for coffee or visit with friends on the base, and I could barely get out of bed before 1pm on Sundays! 

It was a miracle that I even got up on Saturdays too! The only reason I got up was because the base serves Gallo Pinto (a Costa Rican traditional dish made of rice, beans, Salsa Lizano,  herbs and spices) with eggs, and sometimes fried plantains! I have to confess that I told the Lord that if there was no Gallo Pinto on a Saturday morning, then I was not going to get out of bed ( I would've cried too)! And, do you want to know that every Saturday morning during my school, that there was Gallo Pinto!!! Sometimes, in the past, the people on weekend kitchen duty would forget to soak the beans the night before, so they would make pancakes ( not gluten free, so I skipped Sunday breakfast) on Saturday, and Gallo Pinto on Sunday. God was so faithful to provide a big, yummy breakfast for me on Saturdays so I had energy to work on all my HW until 6pm! ( It wasn't the healthiest of meals, I know, but hey, my brain needed carbs!) I love how He is involved in the little things that will sometimes just make or break us!!!

 What I Learned

 
If I were to write everything I learned during the BCC, you would fall asleep after reading this post that would be more like a book! I learned so much about God and His character, but one of the most powerful things that I saw was the fact that He is so compassionate, loving, patient, and gracious in dealing with the people He created! I really noticed this while reading through the Old Testament. I think sometimes the perception of God can be that He is a gracious, loving God in the New Testament, but He is harsh and full of wrath and judgment in the Old Testament. This is absolutely not the case! God was very clear with His people, and time and time again, He told them that if they obeyed Him, they would have life. If they disobeyed Him, death and destruction were sure to come. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we had to color code where there was “HOPE” for the people at the time. I honestly didn’t think that I was going to be coloring much of anything, but I was totally surprised to find the opposite. There are several portions of the book that speak of HOPE for those who would turn from their wicked ways ( mainly idol worship), and turn back to God. Throughout the book, the LORD spoke through the prophet Jeremiah repeatedly about Jerusalem’s destruction, but the kings stood by while the people of Israel and Judah continued to offer sacrifices to other gods. Before long, all the prophecies came true, and King Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans destroyed Jerusalem with fire, including the house of LORD, and the Jews were sent into exile.

I also really enjoyed studying the Bible in context and found that every word is written for a reason. The author was communicating with his audience in a very specific manner that they would understand. During the school, we had to put ourselves in the shoes of the original audience ( interpretation) before we could even think about applying it to our own life. One of the best examples for me was in the book of John. Since I spent so much time doing my assignments, I copied the next paragraphs from my historical background research. I think you will understand why John uses the language that he does after reading this section:

            The book was written to Jews who had left Israel, and who had adopted the Greek culture. They had strong faith, but mixed their beliefs with the ideas around them. Greek philosophers heavily influenced their ways of thinking, and schools of thought like Gnosticism and Docetism dominated. The Greeks had the basic idea that a good god created the spiritual world, and a bad god created the physical world. Furthermore, Plato said that matter was corrupt, and the spirit was good (pure). A bad god was as corrupt as his creation. The knowledge was the secret key to salvation. Gnosticism started around the 2^nd century and Gnostics believed that the only way to escape the “bad world” was to receive secret knowledge  Only the Gnostics could actually receive this knowledge.  A sect of Gnostics known as Docetists believed that the body of Christ was not flesh and blood. They believed he was simply a spirit or a hallucination. As John was writing the book, he specifically addressed some of these ideas with parallel statements to describe Jesus. While Gnosticism says that only a select group of people receive “secret knowledge,” John says in 1:9 that the true Light (Jesus) enlightens every man. While no good god would come to a physical world, Jesus “ was in the world (1:10).” And even though matter was bad, Jesus became flesh and dwelt among men (1:14). John repeatedly addresses that salvation ( eternal life) is by believing in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Some references are: 3:15,16,36, 5:24, 6:40,47. He doesn’t mince words, because salvation is clearly available to all men if they believe.

 I hope you enjoyed the historical context from the book of John. Every time I read in Scripture now, I want to know what was going on at the time.

  

Highlights of the Last 5 Months in Costa Rica

I really enjoyed developing relationships with friends I had made previously in my DTS. Whether staff or students, I met quite a few people during my DTS in 2010, and it was fun to get to know them more. One of the girls from my DTS also came back and did the BCC with me, and she was just such a blessing to me. Even though we only really talked at meals and on breaks, Jody aka “granny” on the base, and I had this cool connection. We already knew each others’ history, so we were able to encourage one another and love one another in a really special way. About once or twice a week we would jog together around 6am, and it was just nice to have a partner to get up with me at the crack of dawn. She and I were always giving each other big hugs, and many times we snuggled up right next to each other during our reading times on Saturdays. I’m super affectionate, and she loved getting hugs too, so we just shared the love and were happy!! Jody wasn’t the only one  was huggin’ on! I must have gotten 20 plus hugs a day on the base, not to mention all the love from the kids during the summer during ministry! It’s unbelievable how many people are huggers on that base! (Man, I miss all that love!!)

The BCC was a huge challenge for me in many ways, but God gave us an amazing weekend away for our Bible reading retreat that really blessed me. (Some of you saw the pics that were posted on Facebook of the house and the view of the beach from our front door). Talk about AMAZING!! It came at the perfect time for me because I was really feeling the stress of not having balance. The retreat allowed me to refresh and make it through the last 5 weeks of the course. Unlike the previous schools, we got to go to the beach. Our assignment was to read the first 5 books of the Bible over the weekend. The moment we left, we started listening to Genesis on a CD in the van. A few followed along in their Bibles, but I think most us would get car sick if we read. Once we got to the beach house, we finished Genesis, had a lunch break, and started reading Exodus. After dinner we decided to knock out the book of Leviticus, so we just had to read 2 books on Saturday. We finished around 2pm Saturday afternoon, then ran to put on sunscreen and swimsuits, and we all played in the ocean for a few hours! We read about 13 hours, so we had some major energy to release! The weather could not have been more beautiful, and we had a gorgeous house for the weekend with free wi-fi and a wash machine. (It may not sound like a big deal to have these things, but as missionaries we get excited about the little things in life!) Our staff even cooked delicious meals for us, all we had to do was read, rest, and have fun! Douglas and Karen brought gluten free pancake mix so when they made the other students banana chocolate chip pancakes, I got to have the same, but a GF version! I was stoked!!! God LOVES me so MUCH!!!

 The Next Steps

 I have been back in Houston for over a month now. I spent the first 2 weeks sleeping (A LOT) and getting some rest. Actually, I’m still sleeping A LOT… hummm? I guess I’m taking advantage of having my own room for a while! It has been nice to be back and I have enjoyed visiting with family, many friends, and former students. I am here to raise monthly support to continue in missions full time, and I am waiting to hear back from YWAM Hamburg in the north of Germany where I have applied as staff. If the Lord opens a door there, the plan is to head to Hamburg as soon as I have raised all of my monthly and one-time support (airfare and language school ). I would then work as staff on the base part time while attending language school. I could be doing anything from helping with meals, cleaning, and/or doing youth ministry, etc. I am praying about staffing their iDTS (Integration Discipleship Training School) in September, but am totally open to anything that God may have called me there to do. My passion is to disciple teen girls to walk in their true identity as daughters of the King, especially by walking in purity. I could work with teenage girls anywhere in the world, but when I met 4 amazing 18-19 year old German girls at the base in San Jose last year, something stirred inside of me. I had totally planned on coming back to Costa Rica and working with Metro Ministries after raising monthly support. I honestly had no idea that girls their age in Germany had such a desire to know Jesus like they did. I was super encouraged by watching them pursue Christ during their DTS more and more every week. The more I got to know them, the more I loved them! They all taught me German words and phrases and we laughed and  hugged a lot! One poor girl who shared my work duties with me got attacked several times with some big Texas hugs and kisses!! They were just all so adorable and I couldn’t help but love on them!! One day I thought to myself, “I could go back to Germany and work with YWAM there.” As many of you know, I spent 5 weeks in Germany last year as part of my DTS outreach. I got totally into learning as much German as I could during that time, and I have been learning more over the last year since I returned from DTS. I have a German worship album on my laptop, along with the lyrics, and I have been learning by Google Translating. Yes, I am a nerd, but God has given me the desire to learn languages and embrace diversity, so I just go with it!!

 
If the doors close to Germany, then I will more than likely apply as FT staff at the San Jose, CR base. While I’m in Texas, I am trying to triple my customer base with Juice Plus, as well as find some more distributors to work on my team. Everything I sell will go towards my ministry, however, that is not a whole lot right now. I really enjoy learning about health and sharing what I have learned with people. Right now I am reading 2 books, ProMetabolics by Dr. "Smokey" Santillo, the genius behind Juice Plus, and The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murray. This year, I want to grow spiritually and be healthier as I'm sure most of you do. I am looking for work to help with gas and other expenses, as well as my airfare and language school. Please keep me in your prayers for a job opportunity to present itself soon, and that God would provide for me in His ways and His timing. God has already been faithful in this area because some friends from church have given me money that I was able to use towards renewing my passport and gas. I have no idea how long I will be here, but I know that God is faithful to provide for me each step of the way. I also know that he needs to prepare me and do some things in my heart before He will send me back overseas. He has already begun to show me some areas that I need to work on, so I can either go with it, or fight Him on it. Personally, it takes way too much energy to fight God, so I have learned to surrender, and get on the operating table so He can do some more surgery on this little heart that still needs Him to heal some pockets where pain lingers. If I become stubborn again along the journey, He loves me enough to humble me, reminds that He knows best, and I just surrender all over again. (This happens more often than I care to admit… I’m just hard headed sometimes!)

I will post updates here and there, including what He’s teaching me in this season!

 

Thanks so much for your love and support!! Please send me a quick e-mail and let me know how you are doing and how I can pray for you!!

Trusting Him,

Steph

Stephanielovesjuiceplus@gmail.com

Update Post 1 of 2 from Costa Rica

Please accept my deepest apologies for not blogging for the last several months. I know that some folks read my blog, and they mentioned that they kept checking it and were disappointed to not find anything posted. So, I’m finally posting again now, and I hope you enjoy.

This first post is from last summer. Yes, I know it’s kind of weird to back-post, but it would take a ton of work to re-type everything in present tense!! I had a hard time getting onto my blog, then I started school, so it just never made it into cyber space. This summarizes my first 2 months this time around in Costa Rica.

August 24, 2011

I have to apologize for not blogging for a long time! I have been enjoying the company of the many amazing people here at the YWAM base and have been busy with ministry, not to mention that I just started bible school. I get to bed later than planned many times, and balancing rest, time with people, and time with God has been a challenge. Since I don’t visit with folks at breakfast, I try to make the most of lunch and dinner by enjoying the meal along with great conversations. There is always someone to talk to about something, whether it be something serious or fun. Some people are here for years, some for months, some for days. I find myself constantly hugging, kissing( the on the cheek, but not quite a kiss, of course), and laughing all day. Sometimes, I’m being encouraged, and other times, I’m encouraging someone. It still amazes me how people from different cultures and different backgrounds can be great friends in such a short period of time. What a blessing it is to be a part of the body of Christ!

 I’m absolutely crazy about the Latinos naturally, and I obviously connect with the North Americans, but I’m super excited about my European friends. I observed many Europeans in Spain years ago working with college students, and many locals and others from Europe living in Germany on my outreach in January of this year. It is truly awesome to see Europeans with hearts on fire for Jesus, and I can’t explain how it blesses my heart to work along side them here in Costa Rica. The cultural differences are immense, and yet they adapt and embrace the culture here and thrive in it.

The majority of time here is spent with one amazing German, the director of the kids ministry. Renate has been a huge part of my relatively easy transition here, and I had no idea how well we would work together. She has been carrying the burden of the kids ministry here for over a year here with few regular and committed volunteers. I think the emotional support alone has been huge for her, and we have seen God answer her prayers yet again by bringing a man to work along side her in the ministry! Jose has committed to working with Metro for one year, and he has a heart for evangelism and discipleship. Over the past month, I had the opportunity to visit the homes of some of the kids with Jose and Renate. Typically during visitations, a group of people play with the kids in the street or on the poli (soccer field/ basketball court), and Renate visits some of the families in the community. It’s a great way to not only reach out to the kids who attend Metro weekly, but to minister to their family. I had had been playing with the kids during the visitations for the first month, but I was so blessed to visit some of the homes with Renate and/or Jose. A few times, we visited a family where a young mom (28 years old, I believe), was so ill, that her children were taken away from her. She couldn’t work to provide for them, so her kids were taken into custody. She lives with her mom, siblings, and cousins, and they take care of her, as best as they can. They don’t have much income, and live in a small house, with pretty much only beds for furniture. It’s really hard to see families like this struggling, and she can’t get better because they have little money for food, let alone healthy food. We prayed with them, and ask the Lord for healing and provision. Last week, we prayed for one of the young men to get a job.

One of their neighbors is another mom with several kids. I can’t remember if she is single, but most of the families we visit do not have a husband/father. If there is a man in the house, many times he is not a good provider or role model. (One family shared that the dad left for 3 weeks and did not leave them any money for food). Out of all the visits, this family impacted me the most. The mom shared that her son, about 8 yrs. old, has had some eye problems. He had really strong glasses, and they were just given another prescription that was even stronger. His pupils are triangle-shaped, instead of being round. We also listened to a 14 yr. old young man, I believe he was their cousin, about his experiences in their neighborhood. They are a lot of drugs in the area, and when he was 12, the drug dealers wanted him to be a part of their local group, but he refused. His punishment? They beat/whipped his back, and as he lifted up his shirt to show us the scars,  I cringed. This young man went on to share how the Lord had spoken to him, and shared more of his testimony. He loved Jesus, and you could tell his faith was genuine. We prayed for God to heal the little boy’s eyes, and for their family as a whole. When we finished praying, the teenager wanted to pray too. As he prayed for his little nephew, he placed his hands over his eyes. That prayer was so beautiful, and I knew the Lord was there with us, and heard our cries. I was deeply moved by the prayer, and couldn’t hold back the tears. We have seen the boy a few times since then, and he said his eyes were a little better.

God has taught me so much in the past 2 months, and has humbled me yet again. I complain about not always having a hot shower, that bugs are in my bed, etc. The fact is, I’m spoiled, and seeing how some of these families live, has really made me appreciate all of the blessings I have. Sometimes I long for my old apt. back in Texas, and the comforts that it brought. I miss my all natural foods, and the convenience of dropping by H-E-B or Whole Foods to get hummus, almond milk, or a gluten free treat. However, the Lord has been showing me that my home is in heaven, and until I get there, I will always long for the comforts of “home.” I will never call a house a home here on this Earth, because home is where the heart is, right? And, my heart is in heaven, where my treasures are being stored (Matthew 6).

Overall, I have really enjoyed working with Metro Ministries. I have received so much love from the kids, and made tons of new little friends! They truly bring so much joy to my life, and I will miss them terribly! When I told one of the toddlers that I wasn’t coming back for 3 months, you could tell he wasn’t exactly excited, but he gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then gave me an Eskimo kiss!! This little guy is about 3 years old, and he always gives me lots of kisses on my cheek, sits on my lap during the lesson, and dances with me during our worship time. Last Saturday, I sat down next a sweet little girl (she was about 7 yrs. old), and she reached over and held my hand for a few minutes!!! How sweet is that? Also, there is one girl in particular that my heart breaks for in Santa Ana. She is so angry, and her mom and another lady shared that she is always fighting with other kids. She and I developed a neat relationship, so I hope to see her again soon. I’m excited because I think I will get to attend at least one of the Christmas events that Metro will do before I head back to Texas in December. ( I did get to see the kids again and say final good-byes. It was hard, but I was so blessed to get to see them one more time!!)

In Him,

Steph

Mother's Day and blessings!

Pura vida!!

Thank you for all of your prayers and I’m so excited to share that our Mother’s Day event was a wonderful success! Renate and I started our day around 6:30am in the kitchen with a great group of volunteers from a short term team from Colorado. We went to the church Friday afternoon with a volunteer from the community to set up the tables and decorate because we had a lot to do to prepare early the next day. This is one of the many great ideas from the director (Renate) of Metro Ministries, who is super organized! It was also such a blessing to have so many students and staff from YWAM come with us and love on the moms and kids. We could not have done it without them!

We had about 30 moms and 37 kids show up for the event, and had more than enough food, gifts, balloons, and suckers to go around! The moms were served a nice big breakfast, complete with ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit salad, cinnamon bread, coffee, and juice. We originally had bananas and cookies for the kids, but they ended up getting the leftovers from the moms, and to be honest, they didn’t know what to do with all of the food and juice we gave them! Considering the food we gave them might be their only meal of the day, it was great to see God’s provision for them and their moms. One of our staff women shared some encouraging words with the moms, and then we had several ladies lined up outside to do their nails. They even got a hand massage by one of my Discipleship Training School friends and she prayed for them and their families. Before they left, they received a beautifully package coffee mug, stuffed with a few beauty items, a piece of jewelry, and some candies. Almost all of the items for the gifts were donated, including 12 really nice mugs with a Bible verse on them from a Christian card and gift company here called Pechi. Renate had originally contacted Pechi to donate about 100 small cards with Bible verses on them to attach to the gifts, but when we showed up last week to get the cards, they brought out the mugs, in addition to about 50 agendas that we are going to give out this coming Saturday at the second Mother’s Day event. Renate and I were so excited to see God’s blessings that day!!!

Karen( a student, long term missionary, and Aggie) and I were in charge of the kids program outside. She is fluent in Spanish and is absolutely amazing with the kids. We did a normal Metro program, with the exception of several more games and the food. We had a blast singing songs and doing a puppet show before we brought the snacks out and they decorated cards for their moms. We split the kids up into 2 groups for games, and the little ones played with playdoh, and colored, while the older kids played games with balloons. The kids were super excited, and after the water balloon toss, we just let them grab water balloons and launch them at each other ( and us). Some kids were so polite as they asked Karen if they could smash one on her head!! How cute is that???

We all had a great time with the kids and moms, and I was really excited since Renate got to spend the entire time with the moms. Even though she does visitations each week in that community, she by no means gets to see every mom each week, and spend quality time with them. They all hugged and kissed her as they were leaving, and told her that the event was really nice. All of the hard work was truly worth it to see the smiles on the mom’ faces! We both took a nap once we got back and had a bite to eat. I got a lot of sleep this weekend, but please keep Renate in your prayers as she is ill, and can’t sleep at night because she is coughing so much. I went over to her house this evening and cooked a nice vegan meal for us. I brought some quinoa, and have really been wanting to make a pilaf with it like I do back home, so it was a win win situation for both of us! I bought some spinach, and she had some veggies, so we also had an awesome salad. We had a great time of fellowship, and then I left around 8pm so she could get some rest. As most of you know, no one can rest when I’m around, so we made it an early night!!

Renate and I have a lot in common, and we make a great team. I honestly never imagined working with Metro would be so amazing! She is not only a co-laborer, but she is one of best buddies here! I am incredibly blessed to not only have Renate as a new friend, but many other girls here on the base as well! God is truly blessing with “sisterships”, not just friendships. One of the girls here is only 20 years old, but she has a poise and spiritual maturity beyond her years. She and I give each other the biggest and longest hugs ever! She went back to Colorado for her grandpa’s memorial service, and I asked her if she would get me some gluten free granola if I gave her money. I asked her to bring back 2-3 bags if she could fit them in her luggage, and she brought me back 4 bags! This may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is huge to me! I’m eating primarily vegan (no animal proteins) and gluten free, so that limits my food options significantly. This is one of the many blessings in the last 3 weeks, and it has been so neat to see that God cares about the “little” things that make me smile! I also needed to get a very special card, and get it to the PO ASAP.  God brought me right to Pechi where I found an awesome card, and Renate needed to go to the PO to pick up packages soon after, so I was able to mail it quickly.

God has also been so faithful to provide for me through friends back home, and through my Juice Plus business. He keeps reminding me that He is my Provider, and if put Him first, He will take care of me. Sometimes I am tempted to send out e-mail to prospects for the business before I spend time with Him, but Matthew 6:33 keeps coming to mind, where Jesus says that we are to seek Him first, and will He add everything unto us. Please pray that I would seek Him above all things, and that I would trust Him to take care of all of my needs. Also pray that I would have the self-control to eat vegan, and that God would honor my food choices and heal my GI tract. God has been so awesome to place vegetarians and my other vegan buddy, Montana, here on the base, so we can encourage one another to eat healthy.

I will have to post some pics from this past weekend another time, as it is already late here, and I need to get some sleep.

God Bless your week!
Living for Him,
Stephanie

Mother's Day and blessings!!!

Pura Vida!!

Thank you for all of your prayers and I’m so excited to share that our Mother’s Day event was a wonderful success! Renate and I started our day around 6:30am in the kitchen with a great group of volunteers from a short term team from Colorado. We went to the church Friday afternoon with a volunteer from the community to set up the tables and decorate because we had a lot to do to prepare early the next day. This is one of the many great ideas from the director (Renate) of Metro Ministries, who is super organized! It was also such a blessing to have so many students and staff from YWAM come with us and love on the moms and kids. We could not have done it without them!

We had about 30 moms and 37 kids show up for the event, and had more than enough food, gifts, balloons, and suckers to go around! The moms were served a nice big breakfast, complete with ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit salad, cinnamon bread, coffee, and juice. We originally had bananas and cookies for the kids, but they ended up getting the leftovers from the moms, and to be honest, they didn’t know what to do with all of the food and juice we gave them! Considering the food we gave them might be their only meal of the day, it was great to see God’s provision for them and their moms. One of our staff women shared some encouraging words with the moms, and then we had several ladies lined up outside to do their nails. They even got a hand massage by one of my Discipleship Training School friends and she prayed for them and their families. Before they left, they received a beautifully package coffee mug, stuffed with a few beauty items, a piece of jewelry, and some candies. Almost all of the items for the gifts were donated, including 12 really nice mugs with a Bible verse on them from a Christian card and gift company here called Pechi. Renate had originally contacted Pechi to donate about 100 small cards with Bible verses on them to attach to the gifts, but when we showed up last week to get the cards, they brought out the mugs, in addition to about 50 agendas that we are going to give out this coming Saturday at the second Mother’s Day event. Renate and I were so excited to see God’s blessings that day!!!

Karen( a student, long term missionary, and Aggie) and I were in charge of the kids program outside. She is fluent in Spanish and is absolutely amazing with the kids. We did a normal Metro program, with the exception of several more games and the food. We had a blast singing songs and doing a puppet show before we brought the snacks out and they decorated cards for their moms. We split the kids up into 2 groups for games, and the little ones played with playdoh, and colored, while the older kids played games with balloons. The kids were super excited, and after the water balloon toss, we just let them grab water balloons and launch them at each other ( and us). Some kids were so polite as they asked Karen if they could smash one on her head!! How cute is that???

We all had a great time with the kids and moms, and I was really excited since Renate got to spend the entire time with the moms. Even though she does visitations each week in that community, she by no means gets to see every mom each week, and spend quality time with them. They all hugged and kissed her as they were leaving, and told her that the event was really nice. All of the hard work was truly worth it to see the smiles on the mom’ faces! We both took a nap once we got back and had a bite to eat. I got a lot of sleep this weekend, but please keep Renate in your prayers as she is ill, and can’t sleep at night because she is coughing so much. I went over to her house this evening and cooked a nice vegan meal for us. I brought some quinoa, and have really been wanting to make a pilaf with it like I do back home, so it was a win win situation for both of us! I bought some spinach, and she had some veggies, so we also had an awesome salad. We had a great time of fellowship, and then I left around 8pm so she could get some rest. As most of you know, no one can rest when I’m around, so we made it an early night!!

Renate and I have a lot in common, and we make a great team. I honestly never imagined working with Metro would be so amazing! She is not only a co-laborer, but she is one of best buddies here! I am incredibly blessed to not only have Renate as a new friend, but many other girls here on the base as well! God is truly blessing with “sisterships”, not just friendships. One of the girls here is only 20 years old, but she has a poise and spiritual maturity beyond her years. She and I give each other the biggest and longest hugs ever! She went back to Colorado for her grandpa’s memorial service, and I asked her if she would get me some gluten free granola if I gave her money. I asked her to bring back 2-3 bags if she could fit them in her luggage, and she brought me back 4 bags! This may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is huge to me! I’m eating primarily vegan and gluten free, so that limits my food options significantly. This is one of the many blessings in the last 3 weeks, and it has been so neat to see that God cares about the “little” things that make me smile! I also needed to get a very special card, and get it to the PO ASAP, and God brought right to Pechi, and Renate needed to go to the PO to pick up packages.

God has also been do faithful to provide for me through friends back home, and through my juice Plus business. He keeps reminding me that He is my Provider, and if put Him first, He will take care of me. Sometimes I am tempted to send out e-mail to prospects for the business before I spend time with Him, but Matthew 6:33 keeps coming to mind, where Jesus says that we are to seek him first, and will He add everything unto us. Please pray that I would seek Him above all things, and that I would trust Him to take care of all of my needs.

I will have to post some pics from this past weekend another time, as it is already late here, and I need to get some sleep.

God Bless your week!

Living for Him,
Stephanie

Preparing for Mother's Day Event

Pura vida !! I’m doing great, and enjoying life here on the base with my YWAM family! It’s still so surreal to me that I’m a missionary, and I’m incredibly blessed to be surrounded by such awesome men and women of God! I’m inspired more each day to be a woman of vision, and I’m praying that God shows me how I fit into the awesome things He wants to do through YWAM San Jose.
This week has been super busy as my director and I have been preparing for our 1^st Mother’s Day event this month on Saturday. We will also do our normal kids program, so the work has been endless. We are determined to everything with excellence, and are very excited about blessing the moms in this community in a very special way. They will be served a nice breakfast and will hear an uplifting word from a staff member. Some YWAM staff ladies will be doing manicures and hand massages to finish the event, and we have purposely left some time in between the encouraging word and the manicures to pray and minister to the moms if the Lord is speaking to them. Each mom will also receive a special gift as she leaves. I will be working with the kids program this week, but next weekend will be with the moms.
I will share more on Sunday or Monday about the events and about how God has been blessing me over the past week. I am super tired, and would like to get as much rest as possible the next two days, as we might be doing a full day on Saturday. Every other Saturday Renate works with a local church and is training them to take over the Metro program in the near future so we might be heading over there after the Mother’s day event.

I would like to finish with some prayer requests. Please pray for the event this weekend and that we would finish all of our preparations in a timely manner. Pray that God would already be stirring the hearts of the ladies who are coming, and that they would be encouraged, healed, and would receive revelations from the Spirit. Many are single moms struggling to provide for their kids, and have been in abusive relationships. We just want to show them the love of Christ, and our prayer is that they will come to know Christ personally and make better decisions for themselves and their families.

Also pray for my friend Pedro, as he is having some health issues. He has not been feeling well for the last few weeks, so he went to his hometown here in Costa Rica to have some tests run.

Have a great weekend and I’ll post an update from this weekend in a few days!

Living for Him,
Stephanie

Back to the Mission Field

Wow! It’s so surreal to be in Costa Rica again! On Thursday I will have been here for 2 weeks, and I finally feel like I’m settling into my new home here on the YWAM San Jose base. The “base” is an old coffee factory which has been turned into a compound of classrooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, a full service kitchen, a dining hall, lounging areas, and guest rooms. We are surrounded by beautiful mountains and lush green vegetation, but we are in the city with access to all sorts of stores and cafes. We are in the rainy season, so sometimes it rains a lot and other days just a little shower. If it rains all day, it’s super chilly at night. It’s typically around the mid 70’s during the day with a nice breeze some days. At night we sleep well, as the temp. is around 60 degrees. Overall, the weather here beats out the humid and intense heat of Houston any day!

I have enjoyed catching up with old friends here, and have met people from all over the world! I have already made some great new friends, and met people from Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Estonia, the UK, Bolivia, and all over the USA. I’m super excited about meeting people from different parts of the world and learning about their cultures!

We currently have 2 schools running, a Discipleship Training School (DTS) and a Children at Risk school. The summers are busy around the base and some teams are here for a week and others for several weeks on their DTS outreach or as part of a summer program. (Some of you may remember that my outreach was in Germany). We just had a group of high school students and several adult sponsors here from a church in Salisbury, NC that were working with our Homes of Hope staff to build a house for a family. We also have a group of teens here from Montana for a month. They are part of a 2 month fine arts program and some perform dances while others play instruments and/or sing, and some do mini sports camps around the city. I also had the privilege of doing kids ministry with a group of Korean students this week from New York. They are absolutely amazing young people, the youngest of which is 11 years old. This group has also done homeless ministry and manual labor on and off the San Jose YWAM base.

We also have a DTS here that started in New Zealand. They are a part of the “Around the World” DTS, so they travel to several countries over the course of 5 months. They will meet the rest of their team who are traveling around the world in 4 other groups in Madrid this week for debrief, and will graduate on the Mount of Olives in Israel. How cool is that?

As for me, I got to do kids ministry and visitations this week with my awesome Metro leader, Renate! She is about my age and is from Germany, and has a huge heart for kids at risk and their families. It is such a privilege to work with Renate in this ministry, and I know I’m going to learn so much from her in the next 2 months. She is the only full-time staff member in this ministry and plans out every detail. She gets the lessons from Metro Ministries in Brooklyn, NY, and translates them into Spanish. She works endlessly to prepare each week. We travel to 2-3 communities a week doing a full kids program in the Metro Ministries truck. The side of the truck folds out into a stage, and we bring balls, and play games with the kids before the program starts. The program consists of 2-3 energetic worship songs, teaching a Bible verse in Spanish (then the kids come up and recite it)a mini-Bible lesson, and a game.

We also do visitations in these communities on a weekly basis. During visitations, we don’t do a program, we just go visit parents and kids, assess their needs, pray for them, etc. A group will also simultaneously play with kids during this time. For the majority of programs and visitations we will be accompanied by either a few DTS students or some of the students in the Children at Risk School.
In addition, Renate plans out events like VBS for 6 days this month. Currently we are planning out events in 2 communities next month for Mother’s Day. We will have a nice breakfast and Vanessa, one of the FT staff here will share an encouraging message with them. We will also have a craft in one community and manicures in another.

Many of you are probably wondering about what’s going on with Pedro and I, but this blog will not share details as this is to update folks on what is going on in ministry, as well as what the Lord is teaching me or doing in my life. If you want to know more, you will have to e-mail me! For those of you who do not know who Pedro is, I will share that we met here in San Jose in our DTS last Sept. We are getting to know one another slowly, and we are still praying about dating. He is a very special man, with a beautiful heart for God and people. We both want to honor God if we are going to be in a relationship, so we want to be sure that this is truly God’s will for us before we jump into anything serious.

Please stay in touch and keep Metro in your prayers. I am already so blessed after just 2 weeks of being with the kids. I really want to make a difference in their lives in these 2 months, and will be praying about joining Renate FT in the ministry in January. I will not be able to work with Metro once I start the Bible Core Course here on Sept. 23. The course runs through the middle of December, and then I will head back to Houston for about 2 weeks for the holidays. I am planning to return to work FT with YWAM San Jose in January, but will wait for the doors to open here and see what the Lord wants me to do. I was reading in Proverbs yesterday and found a great verse that speaks of this:

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21

Please also pray that the Lord would be very clear about a possible relationship with Pedro and that He would provide for me in every way. I will be living by faith more than I ever have, completely relying on His Provision. Please let me know how I can pray for you too!

Feel free to e-mail me or set up skype a date with me! I want to stay as connected as possible with family and friends from the USA and all over the world!
Living for Him,
Stephanie
　

Hamburg farewell

We are absolutely amazed at how the Lord has been working here in Hamburg. We have been blessed to work with the ELIM church and participated in the same ministries with them this week as we did last week. I have so much to share but am super tired so I will have to debrief more later. I got to share my testimony at Chic & Satt this Tuesday like my sister Jody did last week. I was so blessed when a young Christian from the church told me that what I shared was " the right message at the right time." She had converted from Islam a little over a year ago. I won't share the details about her story, but I was able to share truth with her and pray with her. She added me as a friend on Facebook, and I wants to stay in touch. I was so discouraged about my message, but even if she was the only one impacted, it was worth it !!

Today we speent the morning with some kids at a local school, and I was so excited to be back with tweens nad teens. I'll share more later. Please pray that I would be able to sleep well and that my sinus infection would clear up. Thanks!!!

We leave this weekend for our final week of ministry. I'll will update you once we arrive and have access!

New city, new ways for God to move

Hello from Hamburg! We have officially reached our 2nd city here in Germany to do ministry for the König von Königs and Herr von Herrs (German for King of Kings & Lord of Lords)!

We arrived Sunday about 1:30pm and three people from the ELIM church were there to greet us at the train station. I was so excited to see them waving a Costan Rican flag and smiling! We continue to receive warm welcomes from the Germans we are partnering with here, and it has blessed me immensely. They prepared a wonderful lunch for us, and then we had time to unpack and rest a bit. We attended their 7pm service with awesome worship in German and English.

I can't rememer what we did Monday morning other than a time of debrief from our time in Berlin. The days seem to go so fast here! A group of us went to do a prostitute minisry later that night. I had never done a ministry like this and actually been able to talk to the girls. We meet girls as young as 20, and talked to older women ( in their late 30's, or older). We had a time of worship and prayer beforehand as a large group, then we split into groups of 3 or 4 men, and 3 or 4 women. The women took chocolate and our group even had hot chocolate to offer. I guess the guys just prayed as they walked the area, and kept an eye on us girls. My group met ladies from Romania, Venezuela, and a few other nations. We offered to pray for them, but none of the ladies accepted our offer. They seemed to be afraid, and might have been being watched by their pimp. We got to encourage 2 older women from Venezuela in Spanish, and told them that God had better plans for them. After we talked to each lady, we walked down the sidewalk a bit, and stopped to pray for them.

Tuesday was a super day as well, as I got to take part in 2 ministries. Half of our group went to a ministry with the ELIM church ( also where we are staying) to serve food and hot drinks to homeless folks and drug addicts. We started out with worship, and then made sandwiches and passed out pastries and drinks. I had a great conversation with a lady from Poland who spoke great English. Later that afternoon, we returned to the church to help the rest of our team distribute food and clothes to folks in the community. This ministry is every week, and is literally translated in English as "Fashionable and Full". A member of our group shared her testimony, and many were moved in the small audience of about 100. Women shared with her afterwards that their story was like hers. Praise God, right! She was able to connect with several people in another culture, what a miracle!

I meat some very friendly people that I look forward to seeing next week. I am excited to see Tina from Singapore, and Meena from Afganistan. Please pray for fruitful spiritual conversations with these ladies. I am continually amazed at how many nations we are impacting here!

Curfew is at 9pm, so I gotta run. I had a great free day today with my new German sister Jasmin. We became friends within about an hour on Sunday. As weird as it sounds, it's like we have known each other our whole lives! What a blessing she is to me! She's 34, single, and affectionate, so we can really relate!

Costa Rica night

I'm not sure when I'll be able to post since we will be staying at churches for the next 3 weeks. We were so excited to have a handful of new people we met come to our party, along with most of the staff here at the Berlin base, and a few friends from Jerusalem church. We were super excited to see a few friends from the park come including the young man my small group prayed for and a dealer! I was so surprised that our new friend, with time, got into the party. He even danced with us! He took a few smoke breaks and we made sure one of us was out there so he wasn't alone. One of guys had a really good conversation with him, and once the party was over, he just hung around. He seemed like he just didn't want to leave. So we gave him some left over soup from dinner, and a few folks sat down with him. They shared the Gospel with him, and he asked how he could have that in his life. So,as far as we know, he received Christ as his Lord & Savior last night!
The dealer was super nice and had conversations with many of us. I think he felt the love from our group, and we even stopped the party when he left to pray for him! Even though we only had a handful of guests, I know we impacted them in a huge way. A few folks we invited in as they walked by, but they only spoke German, so I couldn't talk to them.

I will post when I can!

Hamburg bound!

Well, I wanted to blog about the last week here before we head to another small town tomorrow. We are going to the city of Brandenburg tomorrow for the weekend. It's about an hour or so away from here, and we are going to a prayer house run by our new German friend from Jerusalem church. We will leave for Hamburg on Sunday and stay there for approximately 2 weeks.

I'm excited to see new cities, but sad to leave Berlin. We have a really nice YWAM base here, and we had great ministry as well. Monday we went back to park to give coffee and tea to drug dealers and others we met. A large group also prayer walked around the park again. The park is in between a mosque and a Buddist temple. We prayed for worshippers in these places to come to faith in Christ. We specifically prayed that the veil over their eyes & hearts would be removed. This time I went with one of the groups that handed out coffee & tea. We were able to talk to a handful of people. We met a young guy who was super open to us praying for him after we talked to him for about 15 minutes. He needed some direction in his life, so we prayed for opportunities for him to pursue his dreams in music and the arts. He spoke really good English & Spanish, so we could all communicate with him. I'm still amazed at how many languages the Europeans speak. We all went to lunch, then came back to the park to pray and worship where we put the stake in the ground. It was gone, but we knew what we had done in the spiritual realm. Some guys even came up there and before long they knew they were gone. One of the guys told his friend something like " we can't do this here." We could already tell that the atmosphere of the park was changing! While we were singing, we could faintly here a voice on a loud speaker. I'm not sure where it was coming from, but it sounded like a call to prayer or worship in Arabic. We wanted to keep singing to declare truth even as they were praying to their god. A group also went back to Teen Challenge. I was bummed that Gabby didn't come back. Her friend said she was sleeping. I met many friendly guys though, mostly from Lebanon, Lativia. Most of the people we met seemed to be okay with the fact that we were American. They even said Americans are friendly. A few Swedish folks came to give a mini sermon and the young girl sang a few songs. The staff were really impressed that the people stayed for the preaching and worship. One man even received Christ! What a way to finish the week out here! I'll write a bit more later...

Types of ministry

We have done several types of ministries sinced we have arrived here in Germany. We have split up in a few groups each day. Some of my team worked with a kids hip hop dance ministry, while others have worked with teen challenge or a youth group. I went to teen challenge Tuesday night and really enjoyed building a friendship with Gabby. This ministry is open several nights a week and they serve food and coffee to street folks. They also go out on the street to love on people. Even though the name denotes teen ministry, we only saw older folks. We had praise & worship & they also prayed for some folks who requested it. There was a man there who had been a drug addict for 40 yrs. & he wanted prayer. Praise God! I think we get to go back next week, so I plan to go because Gabby wanted me to come see her again. I can't even tell you how many hugs she gave me before we left. Michael, one of the YWAM Berlin base directors said she is never that open & friendly. A few guys also had a great conversation with a guy in English. Michael said he was so pleased with our work that night & he said the atmosphere was full of love. We also went to the train station again Wednesday with our free hugs sign , guitar, & drum. Another group went out with 3 question surveys. Some of us were successful, but my partner and I were rejected a lot. It was super hard to be rejected over and over again, but I had to remember that they were rejecting Jesus not me. We asked 2 questions about their culture & the last one was how has God influenced your life? Each person read all three
questions, & all but one said they couldn't think of any answers. It was so weird to hear that no one could think of anything positive about their culture ( question # 1).

We also have done a lot of prayer walks. They want to start a new
ministry here in a park known for drug deals. We served coffe to drug dealers yesterday & the groups that went said they couldn't believe how nice the people were. Most of the people they met were not Germans, & it was just a job to support their family. I was in the group that prayed the whole time. We even went to the highest point in the park and put a stake in the ground to claim that park for God's kingdom. Well, it's really hard to blog from my phone so I'll write more later. Keep praying for us & for the Germans. It's super hard to watch their faces full of bitterness and pain.

God has clearly gone before us

We have just been so blessed to be in Germany for the last week of our outreach. The culture here is the complete opposite of the culture (& climate for that matter) in costa rica. Even though the people are not as friendly here, I know God can change their hearts. We have already noticed that initially folks are reserved, but they open up once you get to know them and they can trust you. The language barrier is definitely present, so please pray that we would be able to supernaturally understand & speak the language. Many people speak English, so that is a plus. The hard part is just getting them to open up.

A little story of God's provision.

When we first arrived in Frankfurt, we spent new year's eve at a church. We cooked lunch and took a nap, and attended their new year's eve service. A woman from the church brought about 18 really costly jackets for our team, not to mention German chocolate & towels. The winter coat I brought was great for Texas, but not Germany! I have a new jacket that is so warm & has several pockets to hold all of my stuff for the day! What a blessing!
We arrived in Berlin Jan. 1st without a place to stay & our leaders heard the Lord say are you willing to give up yours rights to sleep tonite & pray for Berlin at the train station? We had worship at the train station & prayed about what He wanted us to do as individuals. Someone in our group made a sign that said free hugs in German & English, so a few people gave hugs and we also talked with several peole who wanted to know what we were doing. A young guy came over & said he felt positive vibes from us. He mentioned Bob Marley, but we knew where our "vibes" were from! He even played his harmonica to the worship music! We attracted many people with our guitar & cajon drum including a Christian woman. We got to talking with her, & mentioned we didn't have a place to stay. She called her pastor and they opened up their prayer house for us to sleep & pray! They were absolutely wonderful & we are excited to have started a new
relationship here between them & YWAM! Some of us went to their first prayer service on Wednesday and 2 latinos shared their testimony of how They got here & a word of encouragement for the church. They had a guest speaker from the USA, he prayed for each of us. He blessed us and then spoke a powerful over us. He said that I would receive all the desires of my heart, so I was stoked! We are going back to the church this weekend to spend some more time with them & attend their saturday service.

Germany!!!!

Hola from Berlin! After many hours
of travel we arrived in Germany safely at 6am new year's eve. We flew into Frankfurt and spent the day resting and bought some groceries. We went to church that night, and had a little party to ring in the new year. Some folks went to see fireworks but I spent my first new year's eve in bed for the first time in several years. I just didn't have the energy to stay up that late. I was blessed to see God provide for me specifically with food. Our contact here in Frankfurt knew exactly where to take me to buy some gluten free items. We have sandwiches for lunch almost everyday on outreach so I was hoping to find some GF bread and some other treats. Praise God I was able to find several healthy GF items, including bread to get me through the 7 hour train ride to Berlin. We are tired, but thank goodness they had us on a prayer walk today so we could stay moving. I'm excited to share how God has blessed us in amazing ways already, but I'm tired and want to rest.
Happy new year!!!
More to come...

First week of outreach

Here’s some information to catch you up on the last 2 weeks…
Our final week of lecture phase was spent traveling, cleaning, and teaching.
Wednesday -Friday each of us prepared a message or shared a testimony with the team. It was really neat to see how each of my teammates has grown in the last 3 months. I felt lead to speak on “The power of words.“ We looked at several scriptures in Proverbs and a few in the new testament and Psalms. The overall theme verses were Proverbs 12:18 and Proverbs 18:21. The first one says,
“Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”Proverbs 18:21 says,
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”I shared with my group that I was preaching to myself about this. I struggle with my mouth so much, and even here have said unkind words to people. Whether we are surrounded by Christians or non -Christians, we are all prone to speak harshly with people if we don’t guard our mouth. I used to pray Psalm 141:3 over my mouth on the way to work the last few years, but for some reason, I stopped doing so until a few weeks ago here. It says, Set a guard over my mouth O Lord, and keep watch over the door of my lips.” Another Proverbs says that the man who guards his mouth, keeps himself from calamity. AMEN ! We actually had a huge change of plans for the last week of our lecture phase.
A few weeks ago, our survival camp ( known as NIKO) was cancelled. We were supposed to leave 12/15 for the camp for 5 days. Most of us were super excited about going to the jungle together, but a few are happy that we don’t have to go without showering for 5 days! I was actually excited about NIKO, and was prepared to have a great week even though we would not be able to shower. I was told it was a pretty exhausting experience, so I think God worked everything for my good. We are all really excited about leaving for Germany tomorrow, and we will arrive there late evening on New Year’s Eve.
First week of OutreachOur first week of outreach was amazing and full of great ministry. Most of our group had to renew our visas, so we made a quick trip to Nicaragua. We arrived Monday night, and left Tuesday morning. It was pretty hectic getting across the border both times, but we managed to get in and out, pay our taxes, and get back to Liberia safely. We were staying with some friends of our leaders there in a house that was empty. We were all going to sleep on the floor in our sleeping bags. I spotted a huge scorpion on the wall in the bathroom and thought I was going to have a panic attack! There was no way that we were going to dinner and leave that thing in our home! So, we knocked it off the wall, beat it with the curtain rod, and then I took it outside where we dropped a few rocks on it. Praise God, I got to sleep in the home where the family stayed, and on a bed! I don’t think I would’ve slept that much in the other house, knowing there could be more scorpions! We waited about 2 hours to get back to Costa Rica because of the holidays. I enjoyed myself by dancing and singing with some other teammates to the loud music that playing nearby. We took a bus back to Liberia, and met up with the rest of our group at the church we were going to be working with for the week. The girls stayed at another pastor’s house, while the guys stayed at the church. Two of our leaders are from this town and church, so it was neat to meet their families and friends. We ate dinner and a hour or so later, we were on our way to our first kids ministry in Liberia. We typically do a few fun dramas, games, and maybe a story with the kids. My favorite moment all week was when a little boy ran up to me there, and just gave me a big hug! He took me by surprise, but I wrapped my arms around him quickly, and hugged him back! We also did kids ministry with the pastor who opened her home to the girls one night, passed out cookies with bible verses, and did some evangelism in the park our last night in town. I made some connections with a few little girls and they asked when we were going to return. I told them that I didn’t know when we were going to come back, and you could tell they were bummed. I love how kids just hold your hand and hug you when they first meet you. They don’t have any shame in showing that they just want love.
We also hosted a dinner for the homeless in Liberia on Christmas Eve. What’s neat about this dinner, is that we partnered with the government, and all we had to do was show up. We did a little more than that though to make it a special night. We bought soap and some other toiletries to pass out, and since it was at the local soccer stadium, they had access to showers. We also were able to collect some clothes and shoes, in addition to serving them a tasty meal. Some of our group even washed their feet! The government was going to provide vehicles to go pick up the homeless, but it didn’t work out. Our guys went to pick them up in our van, and brought them back load by load. I think we had about 15 or 20 folks show up. Some of our girls met a lady in the park the day before and invited her to come. She said that her birthday was on the day of the event, so we all pitched in a dollar or so, and bought her a cake. It was so awesome to see her face when they brought the cake out to her, and we all sang happy birthday. Some of the people were drunk, but for the most part, they were very attentive, and we had great conversations with them. We performed a funny drama and a serious drama while they were eating.
We will spent Christmas Eve with one of our leaders family, and it was such a special time for our group. It was so nice to meet Rossela’s family, because in addition to being my leader and one-on-one, she has been an amazing friend to me here. She and her mom cooked an amazing meal for us, and we exchanged gifts with our Secret Friend.
We spent Christmas day on 2 different beaches. We have one day off each week on outreach, and it was optional to go. I was tired, but I knew I could rest there. The beach has always been a place of rest for me, and a place where I feel close to God. The beaches were gorgeous, especially Conchal Beach, where the was no sand, just fragments of shells. The water was clear, and the tides were strong enough to carry you back and forth, so I just let the water take me with it!

More to come... getting on the van!!
　

Weekend in Nicoya

Wow! It’s been too long since I have been on the blog. I have been busy trying to finish up the lecture phase of my Discipleship Training(DTS), and it’s been super hard to sit still at night without falling asleep!
We had a long weekend, as we traveled to a wedding about an hour away for 2 of our fellow YWAMer’s on Saturday, then drove another 4 hours to Nicoya. Heidi just completed her DTS, and Isaac is on staff but just finished his Children at Risk School and Outreach. The wedding was so beautiful, and it was really neat to see how God brought these 2 faithful people together. There were about 250 people there, most of whom were YWAMer’s.
Nicoya was wonderful, even though it was considerably warmer than the weather we are used to here in San Jose. We went from wearing beanies and jackets, to tank tops and shorts. It’s been pretty chilly here, and apparently it’s never this cold at this time of the year. One of my teammates mentioned that he believes that God is preparing us for Germany with the weather here in San Jose. Some of the German missionaries went home for several weeks and have returned saying that it is very cold there.

I really enjoyed this weekend in Nicoya which is in the Guanacaste province. It was absolutely beautiful as we were surrounded by huge mountains. We were out in the middle of nowhere, like out in the country, but with hint of jungle. For the first time ever, all 3 YWAM bases here in Costa Rica got together to fellowship for the weekend. There were a ton of kids, and since there were so many of us, some folks camped on the property in tents. We had a BBQ Sunday for lunch where the choice dish was pork smoked to perfection and deliciously seasoned. I rarely eat pork, but I decided to eat some to get full. They bought the pigs from a local farmer and slaughtered them the day before ( gross, I know).

A group of locals came by Sunday morning to take us on an optional hike, so I decided to go to get some good exercise. I was tired, as I had to be up at 6am to help with breakfast prep, I but knew it would be a great experience. I had no idea how hard the hike would be, but discovered later that the mountain was incredibly steep. I have never been on a hike for that long and on a mountain that steep, and I honestly was afraid that I was going to fall and hurt myself. We had an option to not go further at the first lookout point, and the guide told us that he had to go to work and needed to finish with us quickly, so he said we would not be able to stop the next leg of the hike. He warned us that it was really steep, but I wanted to go anyway. Well, I wasn’t prepared to hike fast and steep since I am not an experienced hiker, nor am I in great physical shape. However, I really wanted to take on the challenge, and almost had a heart attack a few times when I slipped, but… I made to the top!!!!!!! (The guides had machetes, and one cut me a good sized stick to give me some leverage. It was super helpful, but your legs are still doing a lot of work.) The view was amazing, and totally worth the trip! As Pedro (teammate) and I reached the top of the mountain, one of our friends said, “Vale la pena!” ( worth the pain!) I took a few pics, but they don’t compare to the live view! What a blessing to see God’s handiwork from the top of a mountain that we climbed!

 I was also totally stoked to see monkeys for the first time here on the way to the mountain. They were just sitting on tree branches way up high, and once we started making some noises, they talked to us. They were really cute, but too high up to get good pictures. While we were hooting and hollering at the monkeys one of the ladies on the hike yelled at us from up ahead to be quiet, as the locals heard bees. They told us to walk quietly past the area where they believe they heard African Killer Bees! I immediately got quiet and my heart jumped to my throat!! I have spent way too much time watching Animal Planet, and I knew these bees are extremely dangerous. Thanks to God, we left the area without seeing one bee.
 


 

Another group wasn’t so lucky later that day. A large group, including several kids went to see some local waterfalls. I wanted to go, but was wiped out after hiking for over 3.5 hours. We were on our way to eat dinner, when we were informed that the group had encountered a hive ( still not sure if they were bees or wasps), and several people were stung, including a few that were stung over 4 times. I think one little girl got stung 7 times! Evidently it was pretty scary, because the kids were the ones who came upon the hive first and started screaming. Their parents immediately ran ahead, but once they got there, they yelled for the rest of the group them to turn around and run the other way. It was really a dangerous situation, and apparently they group had to split, because they were not able to pass by the hive again since the trail was so narrow. Then, one group got lost, had to cross a river, and finally were able to find the other folks. As far as I know, everyone is ok, but are dealing with some swelling and itching. One of our staff here at the base was telling me today that she has some major swelling, so she may go to the doctor in a few days if the swelling doesn’t go down. Another staff member was going to take her kids, but at the last minute decided not to go. She was so glad that she listened to the Lord when He said not to go because she is highly allergic to bees and wasps.

The weekend was tiring (traveling by car makes me sooo tired!), but worth every minute! We had worship around a bonfire both nights, and the sky was absolutely gorgeous as we could gaze upon all the stars. We even had smores on Sunday night! God seemed to be aware of our songs, as we saw shooting star after shooting star. One of our teammates said she saw 33 shooting stars between the 2 nights! I enjoyed spending time with people, but I was so tired after the hike Sunday, I spent most of the day by myself. In addition, God was dealing with me about something( and loving on me too) , so I just wasn’t in the right mindset to be with people the whole weekend. That is one thing that is really hard about being with people 24/7. I love people, but sometimes, I just don’t have the energy to be with them. It’s hard to choose between God and people, especially here. Please pray that I would have a good balance of time with God and time with people.
More to come…

Getting ready for outreach

I have been so busy enjoying life here that I haven't blogged in a while...sorry! There is always something going on around here, not to mention all of the awesome people here on the base from all over the world! I am doing great for the most part, and trying to enjoy this season of my life to the fullest measure.

Friday night was really neat because I spent so much time in prayer. We are gearing up for outreach, so each night during dinner (from 6-7pm) we have prayer to cover our trip to Germany. I was so full of joy after praying Thursday and Friday night. We can either fast the nights we pray, or have the kitchen save us a plate and eat later. We have different stations including tables where we can write notes of encouragement to each other, and write down our fears for outreach, and then tear them up at the foot of the cross. There is also a station with a map of Germany and a map of Costa Rica where we can write prayers or scriptures for the perspective nation. We have an Operation World book at the station that gives several facts about the country and also lists some specific ways we can pray for the people there.

I also prayed with my both of my prayer partners, Carol and Ryan. Ryan is praying for me until we go on outreach, and Carol is my new partner until we complete outreach in Germany. She and I share how our day has gone, what we we are struggling with,what our praises are, and then pray. Then I had tea with my South Korean friend, and we prayed for each other. She prayed for me in her native tongue, and it was awesome!

This week is our last full week of classes, and we are learning about Evangelism. We learned today that evangelism starts with places of closeness with God ( i.e. hearing His voice). We have several teachers this week, 2 YWAM German missionaries from our base, one volunteer YWAMer from Switzerland, and and we are Skyping (webcam stream) with John Stenson, a YWAM staff member from Wisconsin.

Please pray for our team to be unified as we head into outreach. The enemy is trying to come between us in small ways, so pray that we see his schemes and talk our frustrations out with each other instead of gossiping, and becoming bitter.

That's all for now...