True Worshippers

Have you bowed the knee to the ruling Greek culture, or are you a son of Zion who will stand against this culture which says that it is all about me? This is just one of the topics we covered this week of teachings on worship with pastor/songwriter Saul Morales. We talked about what true worship is and how we could be transformed into true worshippers. True worshippers are those who seek first and foremost the glory and majesty of the King. The problem is that in our culture which is majorly Greek it is taught that the only thing important in this world is oneself. What’s more this culture has also infiltrated the Church in some points and taught us that worship is about what we can get out of it when in all reality this view is completely unbiblical. We are to worship Him for His Glory because He is worthy of it, not because of what we can receive.

On another note we have been talking more and more about Outreach and had our first Outreach team meetings this week. In our meeting we shared a bit of the vision for the base plant and a little bit of what the Outreach would look like in relation to what we have to do for the plant. This Outreach is going to be different from most others in that we will actually be working on getting a brand new base started and as such we will be doing things a little different. For instance we will have a lot of needs starting this base and we will be asking everyone to use the resources available to them to help provide for these needs. We will also be asking the students to help us do things like talk to realtors and get settled in our new base location. Although we know that parts of this Outreach will be difficult, we know that it will be good because this is what God is calling us to.

So now that we know the locations and teams we can all start raising the money we will need for the Outreaches, which will be another step of faith for all of us. Please be praying for all of us to have all the financial provision we need for the work God has put before us. The Mexico City Outreach cost is going to be 15,000 Pesos, which is about $1,200 US. Please pray for God to provide this amount (and more) for me and also please ask the Lord if He would like to use you to provide for some of this need.

Lectures: Week Two

This week for lectures we had the base director (Brent) come in and talk to the students about the Character and Nature of God. It really opened up a lot of doors to see into our hearts and minds. Talking about His Nature allowed us to ask the Holy Spirit to search us and tell us where we had been believing lies that are contrary to His Character and Nature. Many times we start to believe things, sometimes even things we are taught in a religious setting or things we are taught about the Bible, that are contrary to His Character. God desires for each of us to have a correct understanding of Him and who He really is so that we can begin to reject the lies we've been believing and replace them with His Truth.
Also this week we announced the Outreach teams. For the September 2011 DTS we will be having two Outreach teams, one going to Mexico City and one going to Haiti! The DTS staff who are also helping plant the Mexico City base (which includes me) will be staffing the Mexico City Outreach and Tasha (one of our DTS staff people) will be going on the Haiti Outreach. The Mexico City Base Plant team will be commissioned from here in Mazatlan and will be sent out in December before Outreach. After that we will go on Outreach with the team during which we will be doing most of the normal things people do on Outreach along with some of the things we need to do to get ready to plant the base such as finding a location. After the Outreach the Haiti team will come meet us in Mexico City for the last two weeks for graduation and debrief. Then after that the base plant team will be staying there and officially starting the YWAM CMC OP-LOC (Youth With a Mission Centro Mexico City Operating Location). I am so excited to finally get started on this!

-On a side note there was a woman here to speak to the WISE school named Katherine who I had the opportunity to speak with a few times who is really amazing. As I was talking with her it came up that I was a worshipper and a worship leader. When she heard that she said that I should go to Cuba sometime. After she said that I couldn't seem to get Cuba out of my head for a couple days and still haven't really been able to. I wonder if God has Cuba in His Plans for me sometime in the future. I guess only time will tell...

And so it begins....

This week was the first week of lectures for our school and for our first speaker we had one of our worship leaders for the base speaking on hearing the Voice of God. It was such a challenging week for every one of us in one way or another. Some of the students began with classes this week saying that they had never heard the Voice of God before. Others (myself included at times) simply weren't always sure if they were hearing His Voice when they were trying to listen to Him. But by the end of the first day I believe all of us heard Him beyond the shadow of a doubt. The very first day we had an exercise where we all just listened to worship music, got in the Presence of God, and then asked God for an adjective to describe what He thought of us. That led to many people hearing Him tell them something that was different from what they believed or knew about themselves and I believe many people were set free that night. By the second day we were having the students hear God's Voice for someone else in the room, write it down on a card and then we gave it to them. By the end of the week we had a teaching on intercession and were hearing God for loved ones who were unsaved and even for the whole nation of Mexico. It was really incredible to watch how much the students grew in the matter of just one week. These students are really taking the things they learn and running with them. This week was such an amazing start to this phase of the school and showed us just a glimpse of the great things God has in store for us.

Week 1

Well, the first week of the September '11 DTS went really well. We now have almost all of our students, though we are still waiting on one married couple as we pray for their finances to come in. But as for now, we have all our other students in and the rest of our team together. Our team is very diverse with equal amounts of students who only speak English and who only speak Spanish and many students who can speak or at least understand both. Our students also range from 17 years old up to mid-thirties and are from all over Mexico and the USA. Each member from our team is very different from the next, but together we make up a very strong, very unified team.

This week with the DTS we mainly focused on orientation for the students and on bonding. We had class sessions almost everyday when we talked with the students about the rules, policies, values, and purposes of the base and their DTS. We also worked on binding the team together through the staff giving their testimonies, bonding games and activities, girls' and guys' nights, and just spending time together. The thing I liked the most this week that we did both for bonding and to teach dying to your rights was something we called simply "the 18 Hours." This was a time we had planned that we knew would challenge our students and get them out of their comfort zones so that God could work in us as a unit. Basically what we did was the whole base went out to Stone Island (an island just outside of Mazatlan) and had a beach day where we swam, ate dinner, and just enjoyed time together. Later, however, instead of leaving with the rest of the base our DTS stayed there on the beach for the next 16 hours. We had told them that they were only allowed to bring their sleeping bag, a towel, a water bottle, and another item of their choice. This caused them to have to either think of others or think of themselves because they could bring something that would benefit the whole group or they could bring something that would just benefit them. Basically we spent 16 hours out on the beach just figuring out how to survive together which really showed us a lot about each other and how we work together as a group. It was rough and I only slept about 3 hours because I was so itchy, but it was really good for us! Some of you might be wondering why it was called the 18 hours when we only spent 16 hours on the beach. Well when we left we told the students that they had the rest of the day free until 5 when we would meet up and go finish the last 2 hours we still had left. We got the students together at 5 and then took them to a house here in Mazatlan where the staff had prepared a nice dinner for the students just as a way to serve them. We had a great night eating and talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly of our time "roughing it." It was a great time of growing for all of us and an amazing start to what I know will be a great school!

The Week Before It All Begins....

Well, in some ways this has been just another regular week. We have worked on things around the base, had meetings, and had new staff orientation. However, this week has also been very different because we have been preparing for the YWAM Mazatlan 2011 Fall DTS. We have such high expectations for this DTS. We truly believe this is going to be different than any DTS that has come before it or will ever come after. We know that God is going to pour out His Spirit in a huge way and that we are going to experience the Finger of God as He opens up the Heavens over us during this time! We have some great plans for this DTS, but we know that He has even greater plans than anything we could ever hope or imagine!
Yesterday five of the DTS students arrived here in Mazatlan and just from spending part of the day with them we can tell already that this is going to be a lot of fun. When we were at the airport picking up four of them we had all gotten into the van to leave when Tosha (one of the other DTS staff) told me that we actually had to pay for parking inside before we left. So we told the students to hang tight and that we would be right back after we had payed for parking. When we got back out to the van we found that they had all circled up to pray that the Lord would really move in the DTS. It was a small thing, but it was just one more sign that this is truly going to be a life-changing time for all of us! I can't wait to see what God is going to do!

First Couple Weeks Back in Mexico

Well, I am finally back here in Mazatlan, thanks to God and all my supporters! The weather here is HOT, but God is still good and gives us cool breezes from time to time. The first couple weeks have been awesome. God has been showing up in big ways! Only a couple short days after I got here to the base in Mazatlan the whole base packed up to go on the annual Staff Retreat. The staff retreat was in a small town called Mazamitla which is a small town right outside of Guadalajara. There the weather is cool, even cold at times so it was a great change of climate. We brought in a speaker from Louisiana named Ross who definitely carried with him the joy and anointing of the Lord. He was an amazing speaker for the Staff Retreat. He definitely allowed the Lord to use him to speak into each one of our lives and his teaching helped a lot of us figure out a lot about God's calling on our lives and the areas we are gifted in. It was a great time of reflection and refreshing for me!
Now we are back living on the base in Mazatlan and it's back to work and Staff Training for all the new staff. So I have been going to Staff Training classes each morning and then I usually have a meeting about the YWAM Mexico City Base or the DTS in the afternoon. We have been planning great things for the DTS I am going to staff and I am getting so excited! This DTS is going to be a real growing opportunity not only for the students, but I can tell it will grow the staff as well. I know that I will be growing in the gifts God has given me as I disciple the students of this school and as they disciple me! Please pray for this school as it starts in only one short week. Also pray for me that God would continue to prepare my heart for the great things that He is about to do in my life!

Goodbye, Indiana

Well, there is now less than one day left before I leave to go back to Mexico. My time here hasn't always been easy, but it has been good for me. In my time here I have learned a lot but one of the biggest things God has shown me again is that He is Faithful! He will never leave us and He will always come through, though many times not in our timing but His! He has provided for me in so many ways during this time in the States. Though it has been good to be back here and I will miss my friends and family here, I am excited to get back to Mexico to the work the Lord has for me there! I look forward to what the Lord has for me, I know it will be great!