"I only need Jesus Christ!"

This week we had Troy Sherman in to speak about "The Cross beyond repentance." The idea of the teaching this week was that the Cross was not just about ensuring that we could all go to Heaven, but that it compels us to so much more! Because of the Cross we are compelled to live a completely new life. We are called to love our neighbor and truly follow the principles Jesus set up for us in the Bible.

We talked about how applying the principles of the Bible could actually solve many of the world's problems, including world hunger and giving clean water to all people. There are two reasons for this: first, all Laws in the Bible are simply descriptions of reality and two, because God gave us the Laws and principles in the Bible because He loves us and wants the best for us. Because of this we should be trying to apply the principles in the Bible because of God's Love, and the ultimate demonstration of this was at the Cross.

We also talked about how the Christian actually has some great responsibilities. God gave man authority on the earth and a freewill, so a lot of the things we blame on God are actually our responsibility. One example is that 80% of all violent crimes are committed by men who grew up without fathers. So someone might blame God for a violent crime, such as rape, committed against them or their family, but that was never in His Plans at all. That same person, however, might be having sex with their boyfriend outside of wedlock which is the number one reason for fatherless children. God did not intend for this to happen, but man has made this problem because of our sin, not His fault. But God is so good that He still sent His Son to die for us to answer any questions about His Goodness! The Cross says to us, "I love you and would never do anything against you, but even if you do have anything you think you can blame on me, I died for that too!"

Troy also really challenged the YWAM Centro Mexico City as well. He is the son of a man who has been one of the key players in YWAM since the beginning, so he has seen tons of behind-the-scenes stuff and has seen bases rise and fall. He told us just how hard pioneering will be and that we really need to be ready for the storm. He also challenged us with commitment because, as he said, "Most of the key players in YWAM will tell you that they aren't the best or the smartest or the most spiritual, but rather that they just stayed when everyone else had left." So I have really been rethinking my one year commitment. I am trying to get my heart to a place where I can truly say to God, "Ok, Lord, I will stay here as long as you want." I am not sure what is going to come out of this, all I know is that God is good and the things He has in His plans for me are the very best things for my life!

As I was thinking about my commitment and was praying about my call to Mexico City I decided to take a walk. I was just wandering through the streets asking God to give me a stronger "yes." As I was walking along the Malecon (the boardwalk which overlooks the ocean) a man came across the street on crutches asking me, "Hey man, what are you looking for?" I told him I wasn't looking for anything to which he responded by offering me some marijuana. I told him I didn't smoke weed so he offered me coke, pills, "whatever you want." I told him I didn't do drugs, so he offered me a prostitute. I said I didn't need any of that because I have now found Jesus and He is better than all of that.

When he heard me say that he had me sit down with him and he began to apologize. He told me that he knew what he was doing was wrong, but that he was doing it because he had no money at all and was just trying to make it in life. He then told me that he really knew how bad it was because he had hurt his knee one day when he was high and drunk. To that I asked him what was wrong with it and he said that he just woke up off a high one morning and couldn't walk and was in tremendous pain. When I heard that I asked if I could pray for him. He said that I could, and then I told him that Jesus died to take away our pain both physical and spiritual. I then laid my hand on his knee and prayed a simple one or one and a half minute prayer for healing and then asked him how he felt. He said his pain was gone, so I asked him to get up and see if he could walk. He got up, took a few steps forward, and then looked back at me smiling and laughing. He started jumping up and down saying that he was healed and that he could walk again! He was probably more excited than anyone I have ever seen after they were healed! I then asked him if he had eaten, he said he hadn't, so I took his crutches up on my shoulder and we walked back to the base for dinner.

When we got here to the base he and I sat down with the base director and he began to share his story. It turns out that he had been a drug mule since he was 12 years old, had been on drugs for years, and hadn't been back to his home in Monterrey in three years. He then took out a bag of weed that was about the size of a sandwich bag and threw it away, saying that he never would need weed again! By the end of the night we were able to buy him a bus ticket back to his home in Monterrey where he had a Christian mother who had been praying for him all along. He called me when he got to Monterrey telling me he was safe with his family, that he was planning on doing the January DTS at YWAM Mazatlan, and that he, "doesn't need weed, pills, or coke, I only need Jesus Christ!"

Faith

When Brent and Heather Madson (the base directors for the YWAM Mazatlan base) had only recently finished their DTS and had not yet really stepped out in leadership in YWAM, someone came looking for them to ask if they would help lead a DTS. That man was David Stephenson, or as most people affectionately call him, Steve-o. Steve-o is the director of the Newcastle base in Newcastle, Australia and I would truly call him a man of faith. He came to teach the DTS on the subject of faith and really what taught us more than anything was his life. His teachings seemed to be perfect for this point in my life and the lives of many of the students as well! He taught a bit about trusting God with our romantic relationships and said, “If you trust God with your romantic life, you probably trust God [in general].” He also used the story of Abraham and Isaac as God asked him to sacrifice his son and from that taught us about how God many times requires of us the things we value most in this life. At that point we have to have faith in Him that He will be found trustworthy with what we give over to Him.

He told us many stories about his life walking with the Lord and how he has been in cases which required great faith and come through to the other side. I was encouraged even more by him when I got the chances to actually sit down with him and listen to some of his stories and encouragements for us to keep strong in our faith. He sat down with the YWAM Mexico City base plant team and gave us some words of wisdom and encouragement as well. Overall it was a great week for my faith to be strengthened and for my vision for the future to be deepened.

We are also getting ready to go to Mexico City and we are all very excited! We have been doing some planning for the Outreach and for planting the base there. Please be praying for us as we get ready for this great adventure. Also, I still need about $1,200 for this Outreach so please ask the Lord how He would like to use you to provide for this need.

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.

the Father's Heart

God is a Father. However He's not a father who will leave us and fail us like our earthly fathers. No, He will never leave us or forsake us and everything He does toward us is only out of love. This is just a small bit of what the DTS learned about this week with Ricardo, the base director for the YWAM Pachuca base. He has a son and a daughter and really loves being a dad. He has such a father's heart and when he taught you could really feel it come through. He is such a loving man and really cared about each one of us. He was praying for us even before he came to the base and you could really tell in his compassion for us. The teaching was so good and Ricardo teaching it just made it better.
One of the main purposes for teaching on the Father Heart of God is that we as humans naturally seem to link God to our ideas of our earthly fathers, which leaves us believing false things about God. If our father was abusive we may believe that God is going to hurt us as well. If our fathers were hard on us and demanding we may have trouble believing in grace and that our salvation is not by works. During this week we went deep into these beliefs and pulled up our false ideas at the roots. Because of this I believe everyone received healing in one way or another during the teaching and ministry times. It was amazing to watch as God worked in all of our hearts! I can’t wait to see what He is going to do next!