Spiritual warfare

This week we had a group of special guests from Kansas City come down to Mazatlan. IHOP, coupling with the Call Institute has begun sending out "Strike Teams" to different strategic locations around the world, partnering with YWAM to be able to greater reach the world. Last year IHOP sent a strike team to Culiacan (the capitol of Sinaloa) and before that they had sent a team to Juarez, so this year they are sending a Strike Team to Durango to finish off enclosing the Golden Triangle in prayer. The Golden Triangle is the area in Mexico between Juarez, Culiacan, and Durango where the majority of drugs from Mexico are produced and sold. This means that this area is quite possibly the largest stronghold in Mexico. So this last week we had the Strike Team staying here at the base before they launched out for the strike. We shared some great times of worship and intercession with the IHOP team and we also received teachings from Sam (the leader of the team) on spiritual warfare. He is a phenomenal teacher and has lived a lifestyle to back up every one of his teachings. His teachings really pushed me to live more of a lifestyle of prayer and fasting and made me rethink how I do spiritual warfare and how I can improve on it in the future.

Also, Monday was the first of three days of prayer here in Mexico. The government has gotten together and realized the situation the nation is in and actually called on the Church to fast and pray for the welfare of the country. This is huge! We fasted, prayed, and worshiped for 12 hours along with hundreds and maybe even thousands of other churches all over the nation. When things like this begin to happen we can see in the Bible that things start to change, and I believe that is what is going to happen here too. This is the beginning of the tides shifting here in Mexico!

Finally, my parents left here on Monday. They were here for about 4 days and it was really a good time for me. It was a little taste of home and a taste of rest as well. I am grateful for their time here, but sorry to see them leave.

Sozoed

This week was phenomenal. A team from Resurrection Church in Greeley, Colorado came to our base simply to bless us. Their church has started using a type of ministry called "Sozo." The word "sozo" is a Greek word which is most commonly translated as "saved" in the New Testament, but the true definition of the word also includes, "to be healed," "to be delivered," and "to be made whole" and this team really sets out to do all of that. In this ministry, groups of two of the team members sit down with someone who has requested to be ministered to and lead the person through an encounter with God that could literally change their life. The person who is being ministered to is lead through asking the Father what He thinks of them, what the Son thinks of them, and what the Spirit thinks of them. The leaders can then see from the responses which one of those connections is strong and which one is weak and then they go deeper from there in order to renew a good connection with the whole Godhead. This usually involves God coming in and healing wounds from things that have gone on in the person's life. This is an amazing ministry and I know that I came out completely changed.
This team came in not only to do this ministry with everyone on the base, but also to teach us how to implement the ministry with others. That meant that for the first part of the week most of the staff and the WISE school sat in on classes which taught us how to lead people through Sozo. The classes were fun and the team really brought new life to the base. Through God working through them I believe this base experienced a move of the Spirit which will keep growing from here.

Relationships

Have you ever thought about guy-girl relationships? Have you ever wondered about how a proper marriage is supposed to be? Have you ever thought about what the right way to lead people is, and then on the other side what it is to truly follow someone? I'll take that as a yes.
This week our speakers were Doug and Jan, a couple that has been coming down and doing work in Mazatlan for years. The teaching they gave this week was about relationships of every kind. We learned about male/female relationships, leader/follower relationship, relationships within the family, and many more. The students were really receptive to the teaching and I believe each person on staff received something new from their teaching. Although I have heard this same teaching before I got new things out of it, whether it was actually new information or simply being reminded of things the Lord has spoken to me about before. One big thing God spoke to me about this week was honoring those who are placed as an authority above me. We also talked about how there is freedom in Christ if you have gone too far in past relationships. We had a great time of ministry on Friday when we all had the opportunity to break soul ties we have made in the past and to get set free from lies we have been believing. It was an amazing time!

Please be praying for our students. We have met the deadline for all the Lecture Phase fees to be in and some of our students still don't have all the money they need. Also, we are all trying to raise money for our Outreach and I still need $1,200 so please pray about supporting me.

Family

This week began with me heading off Sunday morning to Guadalajara for the YWAM National Leadership Conference. The National Leadership Conference is a time when people in leadership from all of the bases in Mexico get together to cast vision and to talk about what the Lord is doing in the country. This year the main focus of the conference was family. We talked about how we need to embrace the family unit as YWAM Mexico and also how we have been called together as a YWAM family. I could feel the sense of family within YWAM Mexico at that meeting as each base shared what God was doing in their area and as we all got to know each other and praised God for what He has been doing and asked Him to do more. It was also a special time for me and the YWAM CMC base plant team because at this National Leadership Conference we were recognized as a team and were prayed over and commissioned to do this work God has put on our hearts. It was amazing to have all these people who have given their lives to furthering the Gospel here in Mexico praying over us as a team. I could really tell from the conference that all of YWAM Mexico is behind us and wants to see us succeed. It was great to feel the support of our YWAM family.