Transitioning

The outreach teams are gone and in Samoa, Haiti, and Thailand. I am really excited to hear what God is doing in those countries and how He is using the teams to be a positive influence in the people there.

This week, so far, has been quiet around the base as the students are gone and myself and the other staff are preparing for the new students to arrive for the Spring quarter, which starts on Monday.

Next quarter my jobs are reception in the morning and childcare in the after noon. I am really looking forward to getting into a daily routine of my work week.

Today, as I write this I am filled with lots of joy and excitement for this new quarter to begin and also to move into my new home. Tomorrow I will be moving into the furnished  basement of a family who just ended their commitment with YWAM Denver.  I will be living there with another girl on staff, Ilsa. Ilsa did her Phase 2 with me and we’ve been roommates with each other for the past 2 weeks, so it’s been good getting to know each other on a different level than just classmates.

I’m Finally Here

Three years ago I finished my first YWAM school, and I was finally 100% sure about the calling that God had on my life. I was going to be a full time missionary and start off in the states with YWAM, but I didn’t know where. Before I eagerly jumped on the band wagon I needed to be be patient because God wanted me to go to YWAM Denver to do a School of Worship. After completing that secondary school I didn’t know what was next. I didn’t want to come back to YWAM Denver, but God slowly softened my heart and I began feeling like I was going to be on staff with YWAM Denver. I worked to save money for the next school – Phase 2/School of Ministry and Development. Three months after graduating from my 3rd school with YWAM – I came back to YWAM Denver to join staff.

YWAM Denver has become my home away from home.

I am officially a staff member of YWAM Denver. I have committed to being on staff here for a year at a time. I am excited for the next season of my life: one that I have been waiting 3 years to get to. I know that God has great plans for me and how to use me. I am going to meet many people in the next year along with touching the lives of many people of which excites me to the core. :-) However with all of the positive things that are going to happen, I am aware that it is not going to be easy and I am going to grow and mature to a deeper level.

The next quarter doesn’t start until April 5th, so until then I will be helping out wherever is needed. So far I know that I will be helping out in the kitchen, childcare, and maybe housekeeping.

I will post another blog once I know what I will be doing for the next quarter and of anything else that God is doing in my life.

:-)

Going to Haiti: Sooner Than Later

It’s been 3 years since I went to Haiti for outreach and a piece of my heart is still there. I was first broken for Haitians when I went to a Haitian village in the Dominican Republic (DR) which was near a garbage dump. I was told that those Haitians were there illegally there hoping for a better life in the DR, but by the way they were living it was worse. They had no running water, in fact the water they were drinking out of was a barrel of standing rain water that would drain off of their rusted tin roofs. Flies and mosquitoes often congregated around these water barrels. I saw many children with hardly any clothes on and very few were wearing shoes, let alone sandals.  It was poverty at it’s core. 

     

These pictures were taken at the Haitian village in the DR.

 

After about 2 weeks in the DR, I traveled to Haiti for 3 weeks. I was completely humbled as I traveled from Port-au-Prince (the capitol) to Jacmel where I stayed with a YWAM base there. My heart was broken even more as I compared my life back home to the poverty I was seeing right before my eyes. I was intimidated for the 1st week of my stay because I didn’t feel like I was doing enough for that country, but as time went on I developed more boldness within my spirit.

It has been almost 3 weeks since a 7.0 earthquake shook most of the country of Haiti.  Immediately when I had heard the news my heart was broken for the Haitians.  As I was praying for the country I felt so helpless because I so badly wanted to go and help out in any possible way. But as I was praying God reminded me that what I am doing, praying, is doing so much that I cannot even fathom. Also as I was praying I strongly felt like I will be going back to Haiti sooner than when I thought. Since I went on my outreach to the Caribbean I have always had a feeling that I would be going back but never knowing when and thinking it would be in the distant future. But I felt like God was telling me that I’d be going back to Haiti (possibly leading an outreach team) sooner than later. As I continue to pray and watch/read the news about the devastation of the earthquake I am anxious to go back to Haiti and help, but only anxious for God’s timing.

 
The Palace now after the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti 
(picture taken by one of my missionary friends January 30, 2010)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
--- Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

A building in Jacmel, Haiti

 

A boy at an orphanage that my team and I helped at.
I got attached to this little boy.

2010: Great Expectations

As the end of a year approaches, I find myself and others reflecting on the current year and making plans and goals for the year to come. Sometimes dreams and visions get pushed aside throughout the year, but as a new year begins those dreams and visions sparkle and shine. Again hearts are captured and desires are stirred up, giving hope that something better will come for that new year.

It's New Years Eve and the commercials on TV encourage me to think about this past year and to make new goals for the new year. I am pleased with the things that I have done in 2009 and I look forward to 2010 with great expectations.

Last year was filled with lots of love and being patient for the next step in missions in my life.

As 2010 begins (tomorrow), I have great expectations for things in my life to unfold. It is hard for me to explain why I feel this way, and why I believe that things are going to unfold. The best way I can explain it is a feeling of anticipation in my spirit and I am standing on the promises God’s given me. I am really excited to see how God orchestrates His plans for my life throughout the year.

Home Is Where Your Heart Is

Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive. Home is about love, relationship, community, and belonging, and we are all searching for home. --- Soul Cravings by Erwin Raphael McManus

I am back home again. Christmas has come and gone and 2010 is just around the corner. It feels so surreal. It's always nice to be home even though I miss my friends in YWAM. While involved in YWAM I meet a lot of people from all over the world, but by the end of a school many of those people I will probably never see again. It's kind of depressing, but I have hope because in March I will be going back to YWAM Denver to join staff with 10 or more of my classmates. I will be signing a contract for a year. I may be there longer but I am talking it a year at a time. Right now I am not sure what types of jobs I will be doing, but I will know soon enough. Some of the jobs that I could be doing are the following: childcare, hospitality, housekeeping, helping out in the kitchen for meal preparations, miscellaneous personnel jobs, working directly with a school/disciplining students, and many other jobs. I will be working from 9 am-5 pm, Monday through Friday which leaves no time for another job. I will have several perks like being given vacation time, being with friends who are like family, etc. The biggest perk is doing what I love: serving people and loving people.

I am so excited for this next step in my life. Not only is Denver, Colorado like my home away from home, but I will be doing the thing that I have been wanting to do for the past 3 years --> to be a full time missionary. However, it is bitter-sweet to move out of my parents house and live almost 1,000 miles away from home. Nothing will ever take that feeling of love, comfort, family, and peace like being in the place where I grew up; the place filled with many memories of which I call home.