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.

Last week in Maz

This week we had a speaker come in from a closed country to teach on the school (for his security I will not use his name or the name of the country he is working in.) This was the first time I have ever met him, but he is an old friend of many people on the base. He taught our school on evangelism and foreign missions. One of the main points that he made was that evangelism isn't just going out to the streets to tell people they need Jesus, but that a big part of evangelism is your lifestyle. He talked about how in the country he works in that the Lord told him that one of his strategies would be to keep his house clean and to show hospitality. He told a story about one of his friends who worked in the same country and about the first person he was able to lead to Christ. When he asked the person why he came to Christ he said that one of the main reasons was because he could see the difference in his life based on the way he kept his house and the way he showed hospitality.
During all of the teaching you could see his passion for the people group he was working in. In everything he did and said you could see that his heart longed for that people group to come to know the Lord. I pray that the Lord will help my heart to be as much for the Mexican people as his was for that people group.

This week we also did a lot of getting ready for Outreach. We saw God work in some amazing ways as the Haiti team got in all their money for their Outreach. It came down to the last day, just hours before the absolute last moment they could turn in money. If they didn't have their money they wouldn't be able to go, and the outstanding amount was thousands of dollars, but an anonymous donor paid for two girls to be able to go on Outreach just in the nick of time. It was amazing to see how God worked in every situation. God has been faithful to us up to this point and I know that He is going to continue to show His faithfulness in even more, bigger ways as we go on to plant this base!