Short Update and a Special Announcement

On Saturday our WISE school family came back from an amazing week away in another state of Mexico called Durango. The first section of time was a part of the WISE school called Silence and Solitude. That was a time when we took a trip up into the mountains and spent time alone with God. In fact we spent around seven hours alone and quiet with God in the wilderness for three days straight, leaving after breakfast and not coming back until dinner. It was a phenomenal time to regroup and hear from the Lord.

The next couple days after Silence and Solitude we went into the city of Durango where we had a great time of outreach. We ministered in a youth prison, did some strategic prayer, took part in times of prayer and worship with a local church, and then ministered at an interchurch meeting. It was amazing! We saw so many healings, people being set free, and the supernatural Power of God at work! God is good and in that time He really made His Name great!

Lastly, I just wanted to keep you all up to date with what God has been speaking to me and what my future plans are. After asking questions and listening for God’s Voice I have made the decision that after the WISE school lecture phase I am going to be returning back to Franklin, Indiana for the next phase of my walk with God. I am not completely sure what all God has for me back in Indiana, but I am excited, knowing He has great plans for me. In order to finish out this school strong and return back to Indiana I need to raise around $650USD to cover my costs of toiletries, incidentals, and travel. Please continue in your prayers for God’s financial provision in my life and if you can, please give to help the continued work God is doing in me.


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Silence and Solitude

This Saturday we are going to Durango (another state in Mexico) and we will be there for about a week. The first part of our time there will be the part of the WISE school that is called Silence and Solitude. Basically this will be a time where we can get alone with God. We will be in the middle of the woods and we will be spending most of our time during the day out alone in silence. This will be a great time for all of us to spend time with God in a different, more focused environment. I know that it will be challenging for us at times, but this will be a very invaluable experience! I am really expecting to hear from God during this time about a lot of things, including my future. But more than anything I just want more intimacy with Him. I am very excited for this time to see what God has for me! Please be praying for me during that I will take advantage of it and that I will hear Him clearly.
Also, I am still around $250-$300 away from my goal to pay off my lecture fees for this school. I only have just over a week left before I am supposed to have all my fees paid off so please be praying for me in that, and if you can please give!

Spiritual Warfare

Last week was our first week of lectures in the WISE school and it was intense! We started out our lecture phase with a week of teaching on spiritual warfare with Harmony Brown from the base here. The teachings were so interesting and really changed the way I think in different ways. One thing we talked about was the principle of agreement. The principle of agreement says that if we do things to agree with a certain spirit we actually give that spirit authority in our lives and more power and authority on the earth. So one example we talked about is the fact that if we are overly judgmental of those within the Body of Christ we are actually agreeing with and giving authority to the Anti-Christ principality which is the same spirit influencing and participating in the martyrdom and persecution of the Church in China. When we start thinking in this way we can see that many things are related in the world that we never thought were. It was really interesting to learn about how the kingdom of darkness functions and how we can come against it by the power given to us by the Blood of Jesus!

Also, this week  God really started to do some serious work on my heart and my relationship with Him. Starting on Monday in worship God began working on my heart and bringing me to a place of repentance and intimacy with Him. Then in class that day we talked about the enemy being the accuser of the saints and we talked about the punisher that so many of us have inside of us accusing and condemning us. So God did a work in my heart taking away a lot of the condemnation I have come under and healing me. Also on Friday I got the chance to pray through some issues with Harmony's mom who is an amazing, anointed woman of God. During that time God helped me tear down some of the walls in my heart and break down some of the lies I had been believing about Him. It was amazing!

On another note, I am still around $400 away from what I need to pay for the lecture phase of this school and I have only 4 weeks left to pay it, so please be in prayer for me and if you can, please give.

A Good Way To Start Things Out

Well, I got back to Mazatlan to do the WISE school Saturday morning, and it feels a bit weird to be back. Although it is a little strange to be here and not there in Mexico City, I know God has some huge things in store for me here.

To start things out, yesterday Steve (one of the other students) came down to ask me if I wanted to go for a walk. I said sure and we started walking. Steve told me he wanted to pray for physical healing for people so as we walked we asked God to mark someone for us. God marked an older woman, so after a bit more prayer we went over to talk to her. She was with a couple other older women so we went over and told them we went out this morning jut wanting to love on people and pray for them if they needed it. We asked if they needed prayer for anything and right away the woman who God marked said that her son had recently died. So we prayed that God would give her peace and told her that God had not forgotten her and that He felt her pain as His Son had died too. She began crying and I could tell that God had done something great in her heart.
Then we asked if any of them had anything physical they wanted prayer for. One woman said she had bad pain in her legs. So we prayed for her and she got up and walked around and said the pain was gone! Next the two other women said they had diabetes and one said that her vision was really bad and was getting worse. So we prayed for them both together. When we were done both women said that they could feel a change in their bodies concerning their diabetes and the woman with vision problems said that she could see people out on the beach where before she could only see blobs! God is so good!

How Plans Change...

The last couple weeks have brought a lot of soul-searching, a lot of praying, a lot of listening to God, some pain and finally, a decision. While meeting with Harmony from the YWAM Mazatlan base when she was here for debrief after the DTS I realized that over the last couple months I have grown tired and honestly, burnt out. In a way I have really been "running on empty" for a while now and it has affected me in various ways.
So after talking with Harmony and my leader Chris we decided that something needed to be done so that I could be refreshed and rejuvenated in Christ. The first idea was that I would go to Mazatlan for a week or so and just get poured into. As we thought and prayed about it, however, we realized that that option might not be the right choice for now.
So as we continued praying God revealed that He wanted me to do the WISE school (the school of Worship, Intercession, Spiritual Warfare, and Evangelism) at the YWAM Mazatlan base. After I prayed and heard the Heart of the Lord about it, I decided to take the challenge. So late next week I will be packing up and heading back to YWAM Mazatlan where I will stay for 3 months. During that time I am expecting the Lord to do some amazing things in and through me and really bring refreshing and new revelation to my heart.
Please be praying for me during this time that God will reveal Himself to me more and more and that God will provide for the school financially as well. I am still in need of around $800 to complete the cost of the school, so please donate as well as the Lord enables you.

A Graduation and a New Beginning

Last week the YWAM Mazatlan September DTS came to a close. It was overall a very good DTS. There were many ups and downs, laughs and hard times, but when it was all said and done I believe people left here forever changed and in the end that's what really matters.
So the DTS left and now it is jut the staff here in the two apartments. So it is just the seven of us staff living here. This week as staff we have really been focusing on praying and asking the Lord to give us a heart for the city and show us why He has us here. We are really trying to push in to the Lord and know God's purpose for us here.

A Very Busy (But Amazing) Last Week of Ministry

Last week we kept pushing forward with our last full week of regular ministry during the DTS Outreach. We did quite a few different types of ministry throughout the week. One day we made arroz con leche (a rice-pudding type of dish) and brought it to a small community of homeless people who live right down the street from us. That gave us the opportunity to really just take some time and talk to them about what they were doing on the street, what their lives were like, and talk to them about the Gospel.
Another day during the week Uriel (also known as Figuritz) came to the base to go out and do some ministry with us. Uriel was staff at the last base that was planted in Mexico City before ours and has since closed. Now Uriel devotes himself to bringing joy to peoples' hearts through his clown ministry. So he came to our base and taught us quite a bit about his work and then helped us get on our makeup and outfits so we could go out to an orphanage and talk to the kids about Christ and just play and spend time with them as clowns ourselves. That was some of the most fun I have had in a while!
Finally on Friday the other Outreach team that went to Haiti met back up with us here in Mexico City. It is amazing to have them back! So they joined us as we joined an Outreach team from YWAM Guadalajara who were working with YWAM Pachuca ministering to the homeless and to prostitutes out on the streets here in Mexico City. It was a great time for us to feel united as a YWAM family as people from YWAM CMC, YWAM Guadalajara, YWAM Pachuca, and even people from YWAM Costa Rica who were working with them all joined together. That was an amazing day to feel the unity we all have in Christ!
To top off the week on Saturday we went a little outside the city to do a youth event for a church which a friend of ours from YWAM Chile who is in the city for now set up for us. When we got there we found out that the event was in a party hall. When I sat down and talked with the youth I found out it had to be in the party hall because there wasn't allowed to be parties, food, or really very much fellowship inside their church because they come from a very conservative church. But we had an amazing time with those youth as we shared dramas, testimonies, a message, and worship with them. I believe we made an impact on them and that they made an impact on us as well.

Happy Signs of Love

Last week was more or less a normal week here. We have developed a sort of rhythm to how the weeks go here at YWAM CMC. During a normal week we will take two days out of the week to simply work on things for the base such as buying things we need for the apartments, fund-raising, general upkeep and maintenance, and general set up as we are still relatively new here. Then we spend the rest of the working days of the week doing some sort of ministry outside of the base. Last week we did a ministry we like to call, "happy signs of love" where we make signs with messages such as, "smile," "be free," and "I love you." I had the sign that said, "smile." So we got our signs and took to the streets. As we walked along at first I got some bad looks and comments, but as we went oin it seemed like people took really well to it! Each time someone would walk by I would give them a big smile and they would almost inevitably smile back. Giving and receiving so many smiles you cannot help but to be happy! It was actually a very relaxing and uplifting time and a good break from the hard work we have been doing to establish this base. Also, although we didn't share the gospel outright the people I think we really did some good. Some people did get asked questions and were able to share a more in depth message with people, but I believe that all of us accomplished a purpose. Living in a city like this people can get very wary of people and actually depressed, just walking around, not talking to people and not seeing much hope. So sharing a message of hope and happiness can really change peoples' attitudes and make them much happier. I also felt like going out and doing this ministry was a way of us coming out as a base and saying to the city that we are here. And we are not here to condemn or shove religion down peoples' throats, but we are here simply to love people.

Making a home

The last couple weeks have been full of blessings and challenges. The first week after my last blog post our base director, Chris, got a call from the director of the Mazatlan base asking him if he could go on a pastoral care visit for the team that is on Outreach in Haiti. So that week the rest of the staff team were able to practice our leadership skills as we were in charge of leading the team in all the normal things we do as a base and as a school. That week was good in a lot of ways and also challenging at the same time. It was a bit difficult to take on the weight of what Chris has been carrying as our leader and this put some stress on us as staff, but we also grew as a team during that week. Needless to say, we were grateful when he came back. The next week we continued with the work we have been doing to set up the new base here in the city. We have been pushing to try and get donations of what we need for the base and it has been coming in, at times slowly and at other times all at once. We still need a few more things, like a living room set with couches and a table, a few more storage units such as shelves and dressers, and some other things to make our new base more comfortable. Though we still need a lot, we have really come a long way in furnishing our new home in only a couple short weeks. Thank you so much for your financial and prayer support! 

Great News!!!!!

Well, this last week was one of the most exciting weeks of our time here so far. This last week the Lord did some amazing things to complete His Will for us here in the city, and because of all the great things He did to provide for us, yesterday WE MOVED INTO OUR NEW PLACE! YWAM CMC now has it's own place! We signed a contract to rent two apartments in Colonia Centro for a year, which means we finally have a place to call our own! We moved in yesterday and spent our first night there last night. It feels great to finally have a place here in the city.

So now that we have a place we are trying to fill it and make it feel more like home. Today we are buying bunk beds for those of us who have money for one and we have bought some essentials like a refrigerator and a stove. We also received some donations from the local church like silverware, cups, bowls, spoons, etc. So this morning we ate our breakfast, had devotions, and had a meeting on the floor because we don't have a table or any chairs to sit on. So to try to make our house more like a home we are all trying to raise funds to buy some tables, chairs, sofas, shelves, etc. If each of us on the team raises $100 we will be pretty close to our goal and will be able to live a whole lot more comfortably. So if you are able to, please donate and partner with us in what God is doing!

the Search continues...

This week a lot of what we did was a continuation of the things we have been doing in the last couple weeks. We continued walking the streets in our colonia and trying to find a building. We went to meetings and looked at buildings and apartments, asked questions and considered how places would work for us. But this week it was a little different. This week I believe that we are closer to our new building than any other week we've been here. This week we prayed if we were to keep on searching or if we had already found the place and we felt that the Lord said it was within the maze of places we had already looked at. Later on in the week we looked at the available options and all of us felt really good about one of them, so we prayed if that was the place or if we should keep considering others. After we as the staff prayed we felt like it was a unanimous "yes." So we presented it to the students and asked them to pray. After some prayer we got the "go ahead" from the students as well. Now we are just waiting for a response from the director of the Mazatlan base as we have submitted the decision to him as well.

We also talked this week about what having these apartments will mean to us financially. After discussing this it was made obvious to me that my monthly financial support is lower than what I will need. So I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to please continue supporting me faithfully in finances, or if you are not already, please consider in prayer making a monthly commitment to the work God has called me to. Thank you for being such a blessing to me!

The Search

Well, since our last post we have been doing a lot of the same things. Walking the streets, looking for buildings, apartments, and houses, taking down information, and then making calls to set up appointments. We are really trying to press in hard to find out where God wants us and when we are going to get what He has for us. We have also been hosting the WISE school outreach, so they have been helping us intercede for our area and get spiritual direction. One day we went with them into Colonia Centro, went to the points of it, declared passages of Scripture over it, and then went to the center of the colonia to pray and do evangelism. We have also been praying as YWAM CMC staff about where He wants us and praying for Him to bring us into the promised land. As we were praying yesterday we heard the Lord say that the place He has for us is within the places we have already seen. But He also said that we need to keep looking for a building. It's really a case of "already but not yet." We believe that our situation is similar to that of the Israelites when they crossed the Jordan to go into the Promised Land. When they first got in, the lived in tents until they inherited the whole land. We realized that the Lord is calling us to live in an apartment until He prepares a larger place for us and gives us the building. So we are going out today with 4 different meetings for apartments to see what the Lord has for us. We believe we are going to be moving into our promised land very soon.

On another note, this last week has been very exciting for me because I have been spending more time in the city apart from the group and have been meeting more people. In one instance I was left behind by my group and I met a new friend in a metro station. In another, I met a new friend named Lalo who is from the city at a meeting we had who took me to a street of music stores and then we had lunch together and talked about our hearts for the city. Also, I went to a concert with a friend of mine from the city where he and some of his other friends were playing. All of these encounters have really helped me to feel more at home in this city. I feel like God is bringing me into a time of putting roots down here.

First Two Weeks on the Ground

Well, here we are in Mexico City. We got here last week by means of a long, 14 hour bus ride. The first couple days we were here we mainly just took some time to relax and celebrate Christmas. We celebrated Christmas with a special dinner and a Secret Santa gift exchange. We really enjoyed our Christmas together.

After relaxing for a couple days, it was straight to work planting YWAM CMC. We have started out our efforts by trying to find the place God has for us for a permanent base. As of right now we are staying in Iglesia Jerusalen, which is a great church with a great heart, but we are pushing in for the things that God has for us. So we started out this week dividing up the area (Colonia Centro) that we believe God has called us to and walking the streets simply looking for buildings for rent or for sale. We found quite a few apartments and buildings for rent or for sale. We went on to make some calls and begin to learn more and get inside these different places. We are not sure yet if one of these places will be the future home to YWAM CMC or if we need to keep looking, but this search has definitely helped us begin to dream of what God may have for us.

Please be praying for us as we try to listen to the voice of the Lord about where He wants us. We need His Guidance, because we don't want what seems best to us, but His greatest and best for us.