Some updates/praise reports/stuff to ponder ..

-There are a number of YWAMers from Latin America with visions to build a spiritual bridge between S.America and the Middle East.. one of the interpreters/DTS leaders here, Alejandro Flores and his wife Naomi, are planning on moving to Afghanistan in the near future. Their dream is to tell people who Jesus is, build up communities spiritually, teach English, encourage churches, etc. They are an amazing family who dedicate a lot of themselves to help students in each DTS encounter who God is and what His calling is for each student –while raising their two beautiful children are Joel (3) and Elizabeth (1). Alejandro and Naomi are hoping to live in the US for a few months later this year to prepare for their move to Afghanistan, speak at churches about their projects for support, and so Naomi can learn more English. If anyone knows anyone who has a heart to open their home up to one amazing family committed to serving the Lord with everything they have, the Flores are looking for a place to stay in the states sometime soon… spread the word, tell your church, ask God if you’re part of His story in the middle east in 2009?

-As we’ve been praying for Israel, Afghanistan and the Middle East, God’s given us some really beautiful visions about His work there: visions of a dry, barren desert land that is so spiritually dry it breaks God’s heart (this is the land where Jesus was born, lived, walked, taught, died!), yet the colorful contrast of the flowers there draw attention to their beauty. They may be few and far between, but God has already planted the seeds long ago, and He is faithful to water them with the rain of our prayers falling over and over on the dry land. Keep praying! We also have a couple from a church here going to Egypt soon to open a restaurant they want to use to (illegally) tell people about Jesus. A vision we had for Egypt was about chains and a reversal of the bondage that God’s people experienced there – now the people of Egypt are in bondage, especially intellectually because Egypt is called “the mind of Islam” – and God wants to reverse that curse and free the nation that is now part of His family too.

-A good quote: “A vision without commitment is pure illusion.” Dreams take hard work to become reality.

-YWAM Pichilemu is planning on building a school here to transform the community even more to grow in TRUTH – they are hoping to build the school within the next 14 months, already have the land, and are working on government/building code logistics, drawing up plans, and getting money and materials ready. The ministry YWAM has in Pichilemu with the Pura Vida swimming pool has done some amazing things in the community and in so many individual lives here, and a school would bring even more kids and families to know God’s power and love… change one family at a time and the whole town can follow! If you have any interest in supporting, through money, prayer, or coming down here to work on the school, let me know – they are starting to get ministry teams from churches in the states together for short-term work trips to help build, and it would be a privilege for anyone to come down here and be a part of what God is doing here in a practical way. Plus you could surf a lot.

-We had a time of dedicating something that represented our country of origin the the throne of Jesus, as well as pray over a map of the nations and dedicate them all to the Lord. It’s easy to say “You are King over all the earth Lord!” but harder to lay down your own credit card and say “You are Lord over every single dollar and blessing you’ve given me, You can rule every detail of my life.” It was a beautiful time of praying in all languages for all nations, declaring God as Ruler of all.

- We also prayed blessings over all the nations of the earth, and put our names on the map over countries we feel God has placed in our hearts to bless, in individual and unique ways. In Galatians 3:13-14 it says we have inherited the blessing of Abraham, which is a calling and promise to bless EVERY nation (Genesis 12). In other words, every Christian has already been given a seed of blessing for every single nation to bless those people in a unique, beautiful way. Whether that be through missions, supporting missionaries, schools or ministries there, adopting kids from that nation, hosting exchange students from there, telling people there who Jesus is when you travel there on business, or praying as hard as you can for God to bless that nation, God has a specific way YOU are supposed to bless EVERY nation in a way no one else in the universe in all of history can do. Only YOU can fulfill that individual calling, no one else will or can do it for you. How cool is that? When you see how big and sovereign God is, you see it as a blessing, not a burden.

-We found out where we’re going for our outreach! My group is going to Lima, Peru, and another town in Peru called Ariquipa I think. I am soooo thankful because almost all of the girls I am closest to here are in my group. Thanks, God! Except for Maia and Daniella, who I will miss so much.. We are am hoping to get Daniela out to CA soon! But my group is amazing, and all we know is we are going to Peru, we leave here sometime between March 17th -20th, we have to take a 3-day bus trip to get there, and we will be working with YWAM people and churches but not on a YWAM base. We also know we will be 5 weeks in Lima, then 4 weeks in Ariquipa. So like our mini-outreac h, we don’t have much info beforehand but it’s more fun and definitely more YWAM-esque that way. One thing I have learned about YWAM in general is that overall, they’re not the most organized or well-planned out bunch, but they know God so well, follow His voice so closely, and serve Him so fully that it’s usually better they don’t plan everything out because God changes their plans anyway! I like their style, and it’s been so cool to have speakers from YWAM all over the world come teach us, tell us their incredible stories and testimonies to God’s faithfulness, and see how much God has done through this organization. Do a DTS!

-This week has been a time of such grace and joy in the Lord - He has been moving in BIG ways in everyone's lives in the DTS as we finish up these last couple of weeks (only two left!). For some, this is a time of extreme trust in God for finances for the outreach, since it's really expensive for many people who live here, and for others it's a time of figuring out what God wants to teach them and use them for on the outreach. For some people it's a letting go of finances as God asks them to give more to help a classmate go on the outreach. This is something God asked me to do, and I've been learning how true it is that you can never outgive God - He will always bless you so abundantly if you take the challenge to give Him your all, whether that be financially or with physical resources, or with the joy and contentment of knowing you're serving such a big and such a good God!

-HUGE praise report - So many of you have been praying for my migraines and physical health, and we have been praying over it here, too... and God is the Ultimate Healer! Relying on Him for my strength is enough, but He also answered my prayers and I havent had migraines for this past week. Seriously now I can actually sleep and pay attention in class. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement, it really does mean so much to me.

-Keep my Reality home group in your prayers as well, they meet on Wednesday nights and I wish I could be there! Last season was such an amazing time of new friendships there, good time together in the Word, some fun bbqs and potlucks, a Thanksgiving dinner in the park for the homeless, and some intense spiritual growth for our group. I am there in spirit, guys. Keep me updated and keep sending me prayer requests :) Save a seat for me for when I come back. Also pray for the Lord to keep doing His work in the girls of the Monday night prayer group from Reality - they are prayer warriors and taught me how to pray last year. I miss you girls, keep me updated on what's going on with everyone.

vive. chile.

Swim meet extravaganza

I am literally saying "How did this happen?" as this photo is being taken.

And why are my hands so big?

Getting ready for the big meet

Swim meet magic

For all you gringos out there, this means "STOP" in English

On the bus to El Tambo with Michelle my swiss miss and daniela

Dancing with Tere at the empanada stand (we are regulars there)

Girls of the DTS unite

Michelle Linds and I

Beautiful Pichi sunset

livestrong

my fav graffiti in Pichi

Last bus out of El Tambo.... and the only blonde!

My three novios (boyfriends)

My little Tambinos

Finally painting the church

Our amazing group - ew yes I had to wear face paint. I don't want to talk about it.

El Tambooooo

VBS kids! In reality they all had fun and loved me,

the people here just don't smile for pictures. So I know it looks like I am forcing them to pose with me with face paint on, but really they liked it. I promise.

Me in the back of the pastor's car for the two-hour drive to another church..

yes I am sitting on a box.

Instead of garages, why don't we just grow grapes above our cars?

Good idea honey! Let's do it!

So I was talking to our pastor and he was like "hold on I have to go outside real quick"... five minutes later we heard all this squawking and came outside only to find our happy little pastor is killing all the chickens in the front yard of the church so we could have chicken lunch... just an average day in the life in El Tambo. And they were good, too.

My house!

Well I survived El Tambo. Let me give you some background about this town. Its a tiny town (and by tiny I mean I could see the population sign change as we passed the town limits, right Dad?) of fruit farmers (100 houses maximum), with no stores, one tiny park, completely surrounded by fruit fields. Our group of nine brought the only black guy and blonde some of the kids had EVER seen in their life. Yes, I am that blonde - claim to fame! We were there for nine days and let me tell you, some days it felt like 29. It was about 700 degrees and during the day absolutely everyone in the town leaves to work in the fields so its a ghost town all day. Which is frustrating when you have a team and a plan to evangelize and work with the church for 9 days. One example: the first day we tried to go out during the day to find people to talk to just to get a feel for the town, and my group encountered about 7 people in one hour, 4 of which were Catholics and shut the door very quickly, and one of which was an old grandma who had no teeth and couldnt hear a word we said. When we finally heard some voices and got excited to find life in El Tambo, we turned the corner to meet some Tambinos, only to find it was another group from our team. Go figure.

We tried to ask the pastor what we could do to help the church, and discovered the interior needed to be painted. So we asked. He said yes. But since life moves at the speed of molasses in El Tambo, it took five days for them to come show us where the material had been sitting in the church storage all week so we could begin painting. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Every new idea we had was met with many problems and obstacles. So we finally had only one thing left to do: pray. We had an intense time of praying over everything and submitting it all to the Lord, confessing pride or man-made motives, and asked for God to do what He wanted with us there. An hour later we created a VBS program to put on with the kids in the park, since they were left alone all day while their parents worked, and of course since it was God's idea it actually worked.

We played games with them, played soccer, taught them songs, had some mini-teachings on prayer and Sunday School stories, I taught an English class to some of the older kids, and we painted their faces. Which is something kids all over the world love to an unnecessarily high degree that I dont understand because I personally think face paint is annoying and it creeps me out because it reminds me of clowns but that's just me.

The church we stayed with was also very loving and welcoming, and we stayed in pairs in their homes all week. I now have a family in El Tambo who I invited to CA but I doubt they will ever come because I'm not sure they have ever gone farther than the bus stop at the end of El Tambo. It was really interesting to see how the churches in South America differ from our churches, because we got to visit some other towns nearby and go to their churches, and we go to a local church here in Pichilemu every Sunday as well. And let me tell you, they are all pretty much the exact same church. It's crazy how similiar they are! Our churches in the states are all so different compared to how alike they all are here. For one, they all have the same songbook they all sing from, and all the songs are numbered, but by the time I figure out what song we are singing and find the right number the song is always over. Also they just keep all the kids in there running around the whole service, laughing and talking (Little Tambino kids are nuts!)

One interesting tradition they have is "Gloria a Dios!", which is a phrase the whole church stands and repeats three more times whenever the pastor or someone in the church yells it out. During worship, during the sermon, during the annoucements, seriously eighteen times per service. I think they do it just to keep us awake, because I will be sitting there getting something out of my bag or finding a pen and all of a sudden everyone is standing up and I pretty much always miss the first one by by the third "Gloria a Dios!" I am right on track. Or sometimes when I stand up late and hit my head on the elbow of the person next to me (did I mention you raise your hands while you say it?) then say "Ow" too loud then get the giggles (thanks for that Chase and Mom). I am the worst member of the congregation but I smile a lot so they like me.

Another tradition I found... umm... interesting is called a "point". The whole church lines up in pairs to march around the entire town singing songs and stopping at different "points" to stop a preach. Like we're in Jericho or something and if we do it six more times the city just might fall down. So I found myself walking around the tiny town, paired up with a little grandma who kept yanking me back to stand next to her if I walked one step too fast, singing songs I don't know in Spanish, and everytime we would stop I would get so nervous... because you don't know who is going to preach till you get there! Literally you stand there and wait a minute and the pastor (who is like the Godfather, he controls the whole town and his word is law) says "Hermana Lorena, Dios te bendiga" which means "Sister Lorena, God blesses you", which means "it's all you baby!" Then sister Lorena would step out and preach in this really monotone voice to absolutely no one because everyone in the town already knows who goes to church and who doesnt, and they do it every Wednesday down the same streets (two out of four of the streets of the town). So I'm thinking "Please don't say my name, please don't say my name!" every time we stop, and everytime we keep going to a new point and the pastor didn't call on me I would think "There IS a God and He DOES love me!" because I am so not ready to preach in Spanish. I guess it would have only been for the dogs so maybe they would have forgiven my incorrect verb conjugations. But I was ready: I decided if I heard the pastor say "Hermana Brooke, Dios te bendiga", I would say "Y usted tambien, mi pastor!" which means "you too pastor!" and just keep walking and smiling!

Overall it was a really really hard week because I got migraines, it was so hot, our group was very discouraged the first few days, I started getting homesick for the first time so far... but all of this is to say God is faithful. We had to rely on Him for everything, and He always provides. In El Tambo, we realized it wasn't about the work we could do, or the things we wanted to get done (even if they were good things in His name), God wanted us to know Him better first and foremost; He wanted our attention so He could speak to us. He didn't want the actual sacrifice, He wanted our hearts. Friday we also had a street evangelism in the park, where we did our dramas and prayed over the town, and pretty much the whole town was there. Street evangelism isn't really my "thing", but we built good relationships in El Tambo throughout the week so it was powerful to be a light there and encourage the church. We got to share Christ's love with the precious kids there, experience life with the families of El Tambo, finally paint the interior of the church the very last day, and we also got to eat a ton of their homegrown amazing fruit!! God is good.

Back at the base in Pichilemu, we have a lot going on here, a lot of construction, the previous DTS coming back from their outreach in a couple of weeks, an English school going on, new speakers coming in every week, a national swim meet in a couple weeks... keep the base in your prayers. I would also appreciate prayer for ongoing headaches I've been having, spiritual warfare, and God to be preparing my heart to recieve more of Him, especially as we prepare for the big outreach in one month. I need so much more of Him to do anything useful!

I love you all, your prayers mean so much to me.

Tambo Jambo

My group of eight leaves for Tambo in the morning - we are going to this tiny village two hours away for nine days to work with a church there, run some sort of kids camp, do street evangelism, and... I honestly don´t really know what we will be doing there, so I guess I will have to be ready for anything! We have about ten dramas to perform in the church and on the streets, which I thought would be lame but they are actually really powerful (I got goosebumps when I first saw a couple of them - they all show Jesus´redeeming power in different aspects of our lives) and now I´m excited to do them. My team has one German, two Americans, four Brazilians and two Chileans, so we all bring different cultures, languages and perspectives to the group in such a beautiful way.

Please PRAY for our outreach - for effectiveness, ministry, health, travel, unity, protection, God´s message to be heard...

I have some pretty funny pictures of me in a swim meet I will post soon. Yes, I was in a swim meet here. Don´t ask how or why, I still don´t understand how it happened. One minute I was standing ready to help be a timer at the swim meet because they have the only public-use Olympic-size pool in Chile here at the base and use it for lots of community outreaches like swim meets, swimming lessons, kids camps etc (which is the best way to reach a community in a meaningful way, build something they will actually want to use ALL the time!). Then the next thing I knew, I was standing on the diving block in a swim cap and goggles diving in for my race! I got talked into competing for the girls since it was a male vs. female summer meet and they needed more girls. As you probably already know, I am NOT a swimmer (I can get from point A to point B by flailing around but there is no technique involved, I am a runner), but I was willing to try, so there I was. Who would have thought that I would be racing against 12 year old Chilean girls, being cheered on by 200 voices in Spanish all around me... and we tied! There will be a re-match when we return from the outreach, which will be so fun because all the Pichilemu kids get really into it :)

Some updates:

-spiritual warfare has been very real here for many of us in the DTS, from headaches and stomach problems, to sleep problems and nightmares, to dark presences in the house - but the name of Jesus is way bigger and we have been praying over every room in our house, singing worship and reading victory Psalms.. the enemy cant be here when we are praising Jesus, he knows the victory is already won

-I am starting to understand a tiny bit of Portuguese (only when I am hearing it, I can only say like three sentences myself), which is so cool! And I have been interpreting a tiny bit for some other English speakers (from Spanish to English) in our small group - it´s like trying to break a code as fast as someone is speaking it; you´re trying to come up with the right word as fast as you can and keep the meaning of the message intact while switching languages back and forth in your brain... it kind of gives me a little thrill. Maybe someday I will learn enough to interpret?

-I miss the food from home. a lot!

-God is showing us all some "open doors" we have in our lives due to sin, disobedience, abuse, ignorance or hurts of the past, which leave a path open for the enemy to come in with guilt, blame, more sin and more abuse. It´s really sobering to identify these in your life and take control of them again- close your open doors!

-For the past couple of weeks I have been painting the pool-covering which has 280 beams for work duty (it takes about two hours to paint three beams), and I have some permanent green specks of paint on my legs and in my hair that I dont think I will EVER get out. Don´t worry, I´m sure they will still be there for you to see when I come home.

-My sister is going to Malawi Africa with Westmont in May to work with an orphanage there.. keep Kels in your prayers. I am so proud of you sister! I think we will have a very colorful family portrait in the future ;)

pictures coming soon....