Prepping For Outreach

We're starting our first week of outreach on Monday! My group is going to Santiago until Friday; VBS type programs on Monday and Tuesday, and then whatever the pastor has for us the rest of the week! The last two days have been planning and skit practicing, they have flown by. I am really excited about outreach, but know it will go super fast. Please pray for our two groups as we split up. Also, there are two girls who are really sick right now, they have been to the doctor and have medicine, so it's only a matter of time. Pray that God heals them quickly!! Also, there are some people that have not been able to raise the money to go on outreach - pray that God works miracles.

Where Has Time Gone?

I’m really struggling with how to share what I learn in class during the week without going through the whole class over again. I’ve never been very good at summaries, and this proves it again.
Spiritual warfare week (3 weeks ago) wasn’t so much about demons and rebuking the devil as it was about making sure there are no doors of opportunity in our own lives for the devil to work in. We have spiritual battles going on in our minds every day, whether there are sins or not; Satan hates the purpose of this DTS and will do as much as he can to hinder our progress in Christ. People here are struggling with family situations at home, sickness, doubt, and fear; there are nights where no one sleeps well at all, we’ll pray the next night and sleep fine, but restlessness is back the next night. We are all learning the real power of prayer.
Last week was Divine Plumbline – measuring ourselves up against God’s straight line to discover where we placed a brick wrong or are not straight in our thinking. We had a time of confession and sharing on that Thursday, and all of us girls agreed that we feel closer and deeper in friendships now. We were able to pray for each other and share burdens, ask forgiveness, and release things that we have been carrying around for a long time. Me, as well as many of the other girls, feel lighter as we finished the week – just talking about things helps the healing and processing process.
Like I said, this week was Biblical Studies. Basically, the teacher took us through a method to actually study the Bible, not just read it. We studied 2 Timothy through the inductive process, something similar to the spiritual warfare week when we studied Ephesians, but a little differently. The teachers know each other and are familiar with both methods, which helped our understanding. We were able to build off of the first time and do 2 Tim. much faster.
It’s about to rain, and I’m super tired. Kind of a bummer day…yesterday I was super happy for no apparent reason, so for today to be any less is kind of a bummer. I smell the Swiss and German food cooking for our Celebration of the Nations dinner. Each week one country is celebrated with food from that country and intercession for that country. Ramona (German) and Nathalie (Swiss) are making dinner tonight; the two countries have similar food, so they are doing both tonight. It smells amazing, and I know there’s chocolate mousse for dessert!! I’m really excited about that part.  The fog is moving down the mountain toward our little base – so gorgeous. There are really no words to describe it, and I would need a super wide lens to capture the full effect, so I guess you’ll just have to fly out here to visit so you can see this amazing work of God…
We have one more week of class, and then we have one week of DR outreach (one group to La Vega, one group to Santiago). The following 2 weeks are class again, then 3 weeks of DR outreach (#1 San Juan, #2  San Pedro); one week in Puerto Plata for the 50th anniversary of YWAM conference (yes, at a resort, but classes and meetings all week—not much time for the beach); the last 3 weeks we are in Port au Prince, Haiti (all together). There are 2 days of debriefing back at the base, graduation, and then I fly out on the 12th of December! It seems so close when you break it down by weeks – that’s only 87 days – almost ½-way done (official ½-way is in 2 weeks!). I will see everyone sooner than you’d think. Time has gone by so fast.

Isaiah 55

Today’s devo passage was from Isaiah 55, and I have claimed it for myself. As I was reading it, I realized that many of the parts of the passage describe ideal situations that I want for our outreach. Verse 5 commands us to summon the nations that we do not know – Haiti is unchartered territory in my book, especially now with all the destruction; we are going to Port au Prince, right in the middle of worst destruction. Verses 8 & 9 are God reminding us that his ways are not our ways, his ways are higher, better, stronger, and more effective than anything we can ever think of. One of my prayers for this trip is that we are sensitive to what God desires with our time, our work, our words, and our intercession. I have never really evangelized before, and I am only slightly nervous (ha.), so verse 11 encouraged me a lot: the word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. How cool is it that God promises that our words will not be empty! Realizing this helps prepare me for the scariness of the unknown. We are also commanded to go out in joy and be led in peace (v. 12). What this looks like, I’m not exactly sure. “Going out in joy” seems to me that I need a good attitude, no matter what I run into – sleeping on the floor, no showers, little food, funny smelling water, bugs, hot weather, language barriers – being “led in peace” is to continue that attitude throughout all 3 weeks. Verse 13 is also an encouragement: it says that pine trees will grow instead of thorn bushes. At the very end it declares that all of this will be for the Lord. Amen. Please pray that we will follow God’s will, that our words (and dramas) will impact lives, that joy and peace will fill us the whole time, and that thorns will not create a barrier.

Lost and Found

What I left behind: Real milk, brushing my teeth from the sink, understanding how my friends think (I’ve had to start over), water warm to shave my legs without butchering them, my boyfriend, my family, Ivanhoe’s, anytime internet, constant highway traffic noise, tornadoes, daily mail, bad allergies, dessert, coffee (it’s too strong here for my stomach ), normal driving rules, seatbelts, dryers, Mexican food, China One, my hoodie (oops), sitting in the grass (too many mosquitoes), apples, corn fields, flat nothingness, taking showers barefoot, being able to cook/bake whenever I wanted, going places by myself, driving, Polar Pops

What I have now: 16 best friends that will last for (hopefully) the rest of my life, Coke in a glass bottle, a bedtime, limited internet access, taxi rides for only $1 (once the whole group splits the cost), riding in the bed of a small pickup truck with 9 other people, street dramas (there’s something cool about dodging motorcycles as you portray the message of Jesus), bleach-stained clothing (we use a LOT of bleach here), clothes that smell like gross rain (our clothes never dry fast enough to avoid the rain in the afternoons), hurricanes, expensive phone calls, palm trees, fresh coconut milk (yum!), constant music of various genres, daily use of bug spray, BON ice cream, hand-washing clothes, white rice, brown rice, rice with corn, rice with beef, rice with veggies, rice with chicken, a padlocked front gate, tostones (fried plantains), beautiful mountains