( If there are typos it is because I am typing on an ipad)
Wow what a whirlwind the last two weeks have been! I feel like I have already experienced so much- I have eaten Chili peppers and crickets. I have heard from God in beautiful new ways, and I have seen His heart for the hurting people of this world. If this is what I have experienced in two weeks, I can’t even imagine what the next few months will have.
The typical daily schedule Monday – Friday includes waking up before 6 am to get ready for quiet time with the Lord. We eat breakfast at 7:30. A school wide or base wide event happens each morning after breakfast and these can include worship, intercession, devotions, etc. Classes run from 9:30 to 12:30 ish everyday. Each week is a different topic and a different speaker. We have about 30 students in our class. Starting this week (week two) the afternoons consist of ministry, work duties, track classes and free time. Evenings vary and can include community nights, ministry, worship, small group, one on ones, and class game/activity nights.
When I signed up for this Discipleship Training School (DTS), I chose the compassion track/elective. The other options are Storytelling & Photography/Media, and Trailblazers. I immediately chose Compassion because I did not want to “blaze trails” and hike. I would have enjoyed the Photography track but did not feel like God was putting me there. The staff shared a little description of each track and gave us the choice to change to any we wanted. All I knew was that I did not want to hike everyday.
We had to turn in sticky notes with our final decisions.
I wrote “compassion…eh… trailblazers..no compassion, I will do compassion I think.”
The Trailblazer track is not actually hiking (Thank you, Jesus haha), it is evangelism to the unreached. This scares me because I do not feel confident in sharing the gospel and going up to anyone to pray. I felt like this is job for someone else. But God has reminded me that this is a task for all of us who follow Jesus. So, this is a task for me. Why not sign up for the track that scares me the most so I can grow the most. I will still be sharing compassion with those I encounter, but now with the focus on sharing the gospel in a personal way to those who may not have ever heard the name of Jesus. I am excited to grow in confidence in this area! Please pray with me in this. We are the smallest track/elective in the DTS with only five students in Trailblazers – meaning I cannot hide in a large group and I will actually have to participate and be challenged and evangelize.
We had our first Trailblazers ministry outreach on Monday. We went to the red light district of Tijuana. Our Trailblazers group is partnering with the School of Evangelism and some staff to go evangelize. On Mondays we talk to people, share about Jesus and invite them to Hope Zone on Tuesdays. They are all welcome to join Hope Zone where the compassion team works with them in more practical ways.
When we got to the Hope Zone location on Monday, we prayed in small groups, put our personal belongings in a safe and then separated into groups to go love on people with the focus of reading scripture over the area. I was placed in a group of strangers. I wanted to be with Travis, a dad who is strong, safe, and my friend. But I was placed in another group. Thankfully, one of the main staff of Hope Zones was in my group and she goes to this place multiple days each week. She checked on me every 5-10 minutes making sure I was doing okay. As we would walk down the street, all I saw was brokenness. I could see brokenness in the eyes of women waiting for work. I could see brokenness in men and children. The biggest thing I noticed was broken bodies. So many bodies were just beaten down and worn. The posture of the people was defeat. While walking, my right wrist was hurting and I shared that with the group because it could have been God saying someone needed prayer for this. Once I shared, it stopped hurting. We read scripture aloud declaring spiritual renewal in the area. Right after praying Psalm 23, a loud argument was taking place next to us. It was full of anger and accusaution. We could feel the tension in the spirit around us. I listened in on some conversations and heard the defeat in voices. At the end of our time, a man asked me for food. He had a wife, a 3 year old daughter, and a young baby girl. I had literally nothing on me because we locked everything up before going out. He began to share his situation with our team and we learned that they were living on the street with one bag of all their belongings. Because he could not pay rent, he was beaten up and they were thrown out of their home. His RIGHT hand was beat up, marked up, and his pinky finger bone was partly out. Wow God. This was a good reminder to not limit the voice of God. We were able to pray with the family, lead them in the direction of a shelter and get their contact information to follow up to help them get to a safe place. God is just beginning to break my heart for what breaks His. This makes me nervous and excited to see what He does!
Last week, our lecture phase was on the nature and character of God. It was an exhausting week. I was beginning to compare what I thought about God with what the Bible says and shows about Him. I am beginning to relearn some parts of His nature that I have not fully acknowledged and believed. Every morning during my quiet time, I felt like God was meeting me where I was and showing me something new about Him- even in scriptures I already knew! How great it is to be in a season where I have the mindset of a learner so I can be open to what God wants to say. Pray that this learner mindset never goes away.
This weeks lecture has been on hearing Gods voice. I have been in lectures similar to what I have heard this week and God continues to amaze me and speak to me in new ways. I want to be better at acknowledging when God is speaking to me and then obeying Him by doing what He says. I am growing in confidence to share things from God that are for other people -this scares me because it can be so, so random. Obedience is good though, I can do this!
The food- I have a sensitivity to Mexican/oily food and I currently live in Mexico! How am I doing with this? Eh, fine. There are breakfast options I can eat everyday. As for lunches and dinners, I eat lots of toast, peanut butter and banana or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I can eat the dinner maybe twice a week. Tonight I am eating rice and tortillas 🙂
Finances- Thank you all for your generous, generous support. I am continually being humbled and encouraged by all who have shared, reached out, donated, and cared for me. I see you and I thank you! If you are still interested in giving, please reach out to me , or look at the donation page on my website for more information/my Venmo.
I will hopefully give out updates every other week. The time escapes me as I am spending a lot of time in reflection with Jesus, learning in class, doing ministry, and living in constant community!
I am very happy to be here 😄
