Springtime!

Pichilemu!

Can you find the gringa?

MY BABY! I am in LOVE with Elisabeth, she is the cutest baby EVER and she loves me too! When she hears my voice she tries to jump out of her mom's arms, and I am one of the only people she will fall asleep with. She is always smiling and laughing - I am basically obsessed with her.

Konichiwa! (I have no idea how to spell that)

Translating! ...In front of everyone! ....with my face painted like a geisha... cool.

"And here you can see the points we will pray for in China..."

I forgot to mention: please keep my health in your prayers - I've had a cold/sore throat for like three weeks and it won't go away no matter how much lemon and honey I drink and no matter how many days I don't talk... although, let's be real, that is no going to work out so well). I think it's interesting that I lose my voice right when I start serving in worship and interpreting ministries. Coincidence? or not?

I am also part of a team working with the public high schools this week and next week presenting classes on sexuality, drug prevention, anorexia and bulimia. It is a miracle they gave us six days ALL DAY to teach these kids "positive messages" (we can't really mention Jesus but we are going to sneak Him in there anyway)... please pray for our presentations (I am making the power points - all in Spanish of course, which is a challenge with all the technical terms and definitions and big words that I don't know very well yet)... and also for next week when we present the classes:

-for the kids to be open-hearted and willing to listen

-for the directors and teachers as well

-for the schools to be won over for Christ

-for counseling and continued opportunities in the school (we will be giving counseling hotline phone numbers and offering free counseling to students from the YWAM base)

Thank you!!

The Chinese blondie

The past two weeks we have had a guest teacher from Uraguay, whose ministry in deliverance has made a huge impact on many lives, including my own. Tio Daniel (Uncle Daniel) as we call him, is a tiny man with a mighty anointing – he is not afraid to speak the truth and his messages on the spiritual reality we live in are very eye-opening. The main point of the two weeks was that the spiritual reality is more real than the physical reality we live in, and only by bringing light to the darkness (truth to the lies) can we truly walk in freedom. Jesús cast out demons and told us to cast out demons in His name, and I think we can all agree that the devil has a huge hold on all aspects of all societies all over the world. He has twisted what God created for good into something evil and perverted, and with the Holy Spirit we can untwist them and live free! By taking the truths of the Word of God, declaring them in our lives, cutting ties with the enemy, renouncing things that the enemy has a hold on in our lives, and walking in the truth (remaining in the truth!!), we can live in the freedom Christ died to give us.

It was in intense week with a lot of healing, confession, memory- and soul-searching, crying out to the Lord, studying the truth of His Word, fighting intense and deep-rooted spiritual battles, and the class came out of the two weeks in victory – the last class session ended with a worship time where we were literally dancing and yelling out praise in victory to our God. He is so big! Honestly these two weeks have been very transformative, and God’s strength, grace and gentleness in healing keeps surprising me.

This week has also been really fun since we had an Asian Dinner to celebrate a missions trip a school from the base took to China. We all dressed up Asian (which was super funny because the average South American has never even met an Asian, and all they know of Asian culture is from Pokemon, Mulan, Hello Kitty and anime. Their ideas about Asian culture are pretty hilarious!) I actually won third place in the costume contest, and am now known as “China Rubia” (“the Chinese blondie”). The School of Biblical Studies showed a slide show of pictures from their trip, informed us of Asian customs and culture, made Chinese food for dinner, and had an open-mic kind of talent show. The traditional dance by the Columbian students was amazing!

But the best part of the night was actually a surprise to me – they called me up to interpret at the last minute. I was nervous at first, since it was in front of the entire base, including the directors and leaders, and all the “real” interpreters, but it ended up being so great to practice for real and see that I can do it! I even translated from English to Spanish for a few minutes for a girl from the States who was explaining the drama her group presented in the show. Didn’t think I would be doing that dressed as a geisha! At least my face was painted white cause I’m pretty sure my face turned red more than once when I messed up or couldn’t think of the right word. But everyone said I did great and two of the interpreters who are like spiritual dads to me both told me I should keep praying about it as a gift and something God can use in the future.

I have been praying for the Lord to open my ears, sharpen my mind and loosen my tongue so I can do the job well, and also for more opportunities to interpret if He wants me to do it. And the next day I was called up again to interpret something for the main interpreter! It was so fun, I absolutely love doing it. There is something about bridging the communication gap and making the information accessible to everyone that I love, and God has given me such a real LOVE for the Spanish language.. I am honestly in love with it and want to keep learning more and more. We’ll see where it all ends up!

Keep praying for our school as we study occults, new age, Free Masonery, and world religions this week. It keeps us on our toes. Also keep Daisy in your prayers as she continues radiation and chemo this week. She is only six and SO precious, I can’t stand the thought of her going through chemo, losing her hair, being in such pain. PRAY!

Her family’s blog is at http://prayfordaisy.tumblr.com/.

Also please pray for me for guidance for the future… I have been praying about coming back here in January to work as a staff with a DTS and interpreting… also the outreach for this school is going on from Jan- March, which is a possibility, and of course my original plan of coming back to Santa Barbara and “settling down” at least for a few months. It’s in God’s hands.

My Chileans

Pichilemu sunset

My lovely Chilean roomies, Damarice and Daniela

Cleaning our cute casita

The view of the ocean from our porch

Where we live - "La Casa Blanca", the White House of the base

Welcome - introducing ourselves

Andre drinking Yerba Mate, this weird herb stuff South Americans love to drink. You put it in a little hollowed-out gourd and pour hot water in it, then drink it through a straw with a filter on the bottom. It's their water!

Arabella Daniela and I

Spring on the base is so beautiful!

First day back with everyone!

This is our classroom - we live here. All day, almost every day.

TGIS - Thank God it’s Saturday. Even though Saturday means classes ALL day (double class sessions on a sunny Saturday and I can see the ocean from the classroom window, it’s just not right), it has been an amazing week and I’m thankful we had classes today because they were the best classes so far. We studied the Israelites’ temple and altar, which ushered in the presence of God in their midst, and how their process of rebuilding the temple and altar mirror our process of rebuilding your heart, mind and life to be in God’s presence continually, which was a really incredible comparison. 

First the Israelites came out of captivity and slavery to their enemies because of their repentance, which we need to have in humility and brokenness to be free from sin and turn back to the Lord. We have to be broken down in order to be rebuilt.

Next they were attacked and intimidated by their enemies, who told them they can’t rebuild the temple, which the enemy always wants to do in our lives and prevent us from being in God’s presence. They stopped for 16 YEARS then finally got a word of encouragement and got their faith moving again and rebuilt the temple. 

But the Lord’s presence couldn’t be with them until they made a radical change. They had disobeyed God and taken foreign wives, so they had to remove them from their land. Basically they had to kick out tons of their own wives and children in order to be true to God’s commandment of being set apart. It was sacrificial, painful, and seemed cold-hearted but it was worth the pain to have God’s presence back among His people. 

The question was, “What do you need to radically renounce in your life, no matter how painful it may be, in order to be set apart for the God who took you out of slavery to sin and made you His child? What do you need to clean our of your heart so God’s presence can be with you and give you the abundant life you were created to have? How long have you stopped rebuilding your heart as God’s temple because you listened to the lies of the enemy?”

Good class. 

It takes heart-searching and giving up and breaking points, but to have God’s presence in your heart and with you day to day is worth whatever lame thing you need to give up that only hurts you and others anyways. So worth it.

We’ve also been looking a lot at emotions, and how living by your emotions will only destroy your life. Emotions are real but they aren’t always the truth. We are called to live according to the truth, which is God’s Word and character, led by His Spirit, followed by our minds and emotions. Imagine if we did. How different our daily life would be, instead of riding a roller coaster of emotions, trusting His truth and his Spirit, obeying and enjoying the good things that He has for us.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord”... Zechariah 4:6

PS- leading worship actually went great. I knew all the words - I think I practiced them in Spanish so much that I knew the Spanish verses better than in English!

The sun is shining and everything's alright....

Today I had a crazy morning. Every first Thursday of the month, all of YWAM has a morning of fasting and praying for God's voice and guidance within YWAM, which is so cool and I love it but I gotta tell you I am SO hungry by lunchtime! So I am trying to keep my stomach from growling really loud during the intercession meeting for everyone on the base, and I am literally pulled on stage at the last minute to help sing some of the worship songs in English.  I was told the words were going to be projected on the wall, which would have helped, but... they definitely weren't. It went okay but it was unexpected and kind of made me nervous because for the songs in Spanish, I know most of the chorus but some of the verses I don't have yet, so I'm trying to act like I'm not standing there with a microphone in front of the entire base not knowing the words... my strategy was to stick to the English parts and sing only the chorus into the microphone during the Spanish part and it kind of worked I hope. Oh well what are you going to do?? I guess it went okay because I am going to be singing again for the Friday night service on base. Some of you who know me well are probably laughing because I am NOT known as the singer AT ALL, and I definitely laughed too, but I am willing to help if they need me and it's more about your heart than anything right? Ha pray for me Friday night! It is actually so cool to be able to sing the worship songs in Spanish, it adds a new dimension to the songs you already know. "Mighty to Save" is even more amazing in Spanish, it has this whole other layer to it with the way its translated, I love it.

The first week of classes flew by, we have amazing professors and are focusing on some intense topics. Here's a brief recap of highlights:

*Divine Plumb Line (taken from Amos 7) - God put a plumb line against a wall showing Amos there is a line of what is right (only found in His word) and when what we construct with our lives doesn't line up to it, there comes a time when He will no longer tolerate it. God's justice is part of who He is, and He can't and won't use us if we aren't build "right" according to His word and His standards, not the worlds' standards.

*Personality Profiles: We are learning different types of personalities than come from either rejection or rebellion in our life - it's so interesting to see which parts of every profile applies to you, to see the bad parts and also how God can redeem those things that sin has stolen. The four personalities we are studying are Defeated, Complacent (both from rejection) and Competitive and Critical (from rebellion).

*Worship: We've been looking at all the healing and freedom there is in worship because it is exactly what we were created to do... when we worship freely and in truth, with a clean heart, we are being who we were made to be and finding our true identity. So true.

Praise - Daisy's operation went well, she recovered quickly and they removed the entire tumor. But keep praying, she has stage 3 cancer and begins chemo and radiation this week. At only 6 years old, you can imagine how difficult this is for her and her entire family. Pray!