We have been going and going and going! I finally had a free weekend on the 9th/10th and I used that for homework. First, I slept in and then stayed in my bunk until noon. It.was so nice to do absolutely nothing. We only get hot breakfasts (eggs, meat, pancakes, etc) on the weekends but doing nothing was worth missing the hot breakfast that day.
For my Japan team, Breanne and I were responsible for researching traditional values, customs, and religion in Japan. I also had a research project for my Trailblazers track where I had to choose an unreached people group to present to the team. Preferablly, this place would be somewhere I would go in the future. The Joshua Project website was the resource for this project. There were so many unreached people groups to choose from and it took me a couple weeks to finally decide on one. One afternoon, I quickly remembered that when I was in Thailand, I worked with the YWAM base there for Bible distributions. I had also gone back to Thailand to serve with the YWAM for a few weeks another summer. These memories led me to choose to focus of Northern Thailand. I do love it there and I would totally go back. I will share my report on 11/20. I also finished my book report on Making Jesus Lord by Loren Cunningham. It was successful weekend!
Last week, the topic was the POWER OF THE WORD. I loved this teacher so much because he did not make me feel stupid or guilty for not knowing the whole Bible. Instead, he has made me excited to study it more and really understand it in the context that it was written and how it applies to me. It was a week with a lot of information. I asked what I thought was a quick question and it turned into a 30 minute answer. We really dove into the idea of understanding the context of the Bible and who it was written to. We learned some motions and words to help us talk through and remember the Old Testament. I “tried” to remember but need a lot more practice because it was so long and sometimes it was taught in Spanish. The speaker, Daniel, taught a lot on Genesis. I feel like Genesis is taught on a lot but I always learn new things!
Monday Trailblazers ministry was great. Monday’s keep getting better and better! We had sunflowers to pass out to people in the streets to share God’s love and to remind them of their identity. My group went to the park and I went on my own to a young lady and was able to talk to her Spanish and I think (my Spanish is not that great) that I invited her to the Tuesday Hope Zone ministry. We stopped by the homeless shelter and gave some men flowers. At one point, someone on my team wanted to talk to a lady who owned a little street shop. Somehow, I became the translator and the lady we were talking to actually understood what I was saying. I was not saying anything crazy or huge, but the simple sentences I was translating was understood. I even stopped in the middle of my translating to celebrate my Spanish. We passed that lady at a later time and she was waving when she saw us! I find it easier to speak Spanish when there is no translator around so that I have to actually try – although it is nice and important to have one nearby.
On Wednesday of that week, we fasted breakfast and lunch and went to the YWAM base in Ensenada (an hour away) for worship and intercession. We prayed for the persecuted church, specifically the top 5 most persecuted. It was a great time of worship and prayer. It was also fun because we knew we would be spending the following week there!
On Monday (11/10), we packed up and headed down to Ensenada to spend the week there. It was a smaller base, but a safer area, so we were allowed to leave more – to the beach, restaurants, etc. Our rooms were pretty fancy and the hot water never ran out- luxury! The topic this week was on relationships- any and every kind of relationship. Every relationship is meant to bring glory to God and to make us more like God through sanctification. There were a lot of conversations about what makes a good friend and we were challenged to really look at the character of others and ourselves. There were some hot takes on relationship and some of the conversations were really entertaining. This week felt like a vacation. Since we were on another base, we had less responsibilities. During our application time, we had some crazy worship and expressed our joy and freedom by running around and dancing.
I went surfing one afternoon and it was a lot of fun! I never really caught good waves but I did get up on the board a few times. I had more fun watching the others and taking videos of them. I played pickleball on the base, volleyball at the beach, and went for walks by the ocean. We cannot go in the water by our base so we were by the water a lot during this week! When we got back to base on Friday, we were all so exhausted! It felt like we were gone for a month- I missed my bunk so much.
Thursday was my favorite day this week because we did ministry in our outreach teams (Japan for me). It was the first time we have done ministry in these teams. Every time we get together, I remember I am going to Japan and I start getting excited! Before we left for ministry, we prayed and asked God what he wanted us to do. Some people got people, activities, things, or places. I got a picture of this place we passed when we entered the town on Monday but I could not explain it well. Our leader took us to a place that included a lot of what everyone got when they prayed. It turned out to be the place I was talking about! A lot of cruise ships stop in Ensenada and we went in front of the port. We decided to do hug ministry where we held signs that said “free hugs.” I was on the ground writing the words and I looked up and there were two security golf carts and lots of security people watching us. We were told to leave the area because it was federal property. We went in front of the gate and it was actually better! When we lifted up the signs, we were already getting hugs within one minute. A family (that spoke English) asked what we were doing and I shared that we were just giving out free hugs and the husband said that his wife needed a hug. I hugged her and asked what they were doing there and they shared that they were there for medical reasons and I got to pray for the situation. I went with our leader to buy a meal for a man in need and while we were buying the meal at Carls Jr, I saw some people wearing Red Cross sheet things and I was reminded that I saw that when I was praying before ministry. I had ignored that because I assumed there was no Red Cross in Mexico. I learned that the Red Cross was the emergency help in Mexico. I talked to the first responders and they spoke pretty good English. They were excited to share about what they were doing and were really appreciative of me praying for them. I have never prayed for someone in front of the pop machines of a fast food place and that was pretty random and cool. When they left, they gave me big smiles.
The best part of the day was watching Breanne pray for someone for the first time in the street. These two girls saw our hug signs and were excited to hug because they have seen the hugging videos on YouTube. After they hugged us they walked away and I heard one say “I really needed that.” Breanne had been talking about how she wanted to pray for someone and I told her to go pray for these girls. They were in their early 20’s and from California so they were English speakers and that makes it easier. I walked over and Breanne kind of came but then she was not coming. I was just in her position on Halloween so I knew she could do it with some gentle pushing. I told her I was going with her and we went to them! She to seeld them what we were doing and then asked if we could pray for anything specific. When it was time to pray, I told her that she was going to pray for both of them (hehe). She prayed great and we hugged the girls again. The same girl that said she needed a hug, hugged me again and really gripped my arm. I am proud and thankful for Breanne because she was brave and shared God’s love. It was so special to be a part of it. I, of course, took a picture so we could both remember her first time praying for someone in the streets.
When we came back from Ensenada on Friday, we went right to a meeting with our Japan team to share our research projects. We learned about the politics, pop culture and food in Japan. On Monday, we will present and learn more. On Saturday morning, our lovely Japan leaders, William and Dorothee, hosted us for a yummy homemade breakfast. It was a fun time hanging out and bonding with our Japan team. We also confirmed locations and plans for Japan!
Oita for a few weeks, Tokyo for 12 days, and then to Yokohama for the rest of the time!
The only thing I know is that Tokyo is really big. I am excited to do some more research and GO! We also got our plane tickets. We leave on December 7 and have a direct flight from LA to Tokyo! From there we may take a train or plane. We are still waiting for some funds to come in for a few team members and we are believing with them that God will provide! We are also waiting for one team member’s passport renewal process. They have had some obstacles that were unexpected but we are believing with them. So please pray that God will part this “Red Sea” for them.
I am needing a few things for travel to Japan so I made a pretty small Amazon wishlist if you are interested! I need all items by December 1st 😀 Make sure the delivery address is my YWAM address – should have a lot of words and a San Diego address ( I am pretty sure I programmed it in)
https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/7G2DOK742J0P
Link to my YWAM account for donations:
https://ywamsdb.my.site.com/app/donation?contId=0038W00002HoaETQAZ
Thank you for reading! I love sharing my journey with you and I feel like you are all on the journey with me!