| Una Aventura Nueva |

God is good

2010-04-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

All the bridesmaids at Tricia's wedding...
we had way too much fun!

So I've been home for about a month.. right? And I have to say adjusting back home has been so much better than I thought it would be! I was the maid of honor in my best friend Tricia's wedding right when I got home, God has blessed me with an amazing house in Carpinteria with girls from Reality, a great job teaching at El Montecito Elementary school in the fall, and amazing friends and family who made coming back home so welcoming and fun. Seriously He is so good! It's so fun living in here with my sister Kelsie so close, and Blake and my cousin Christian will be starting at Westmont in the fall, so some good Harper family times in SB are ahead!

I want to say thank you to everyone who read these posts, kept me in their prayers, and supported me in extending God's kingdom in Chile... it truly made the difference and God heard every prayer and blessed me over-abundantly. Thank you!

...I will keep this updated sporadically, but mostly use this blog for travel/missions so don't expect too many updates.

God is good! (All the time)

Email me, skype me, find me in Carpinteria,

Perfect Love - Hope for Chile

2010-03-16T10:57:00.001-07:00

"Perfect love casts out all fear..." 1 John 4:18

God gave us this verse for our DTS these past weeks, and it speaks for itself. His perfect, undying, unending, untiring love casts out all our fears, every single one, no matter how big or how small. From aftershocks to figuring out what to do with our lives to not having a roof over your head, this love is pure enough and strong enough to defeat our fears.

So I have to correct my last post: from last Thursday to Friday, we experienced EIGHT earthquakes over 5.0 and over 200 aftershocks. One out of every eight Chileans is without a safe, secure place to live. Did I mention that? If not, here it is again. But there is hope for this nation, the ruin and destruction will not overcome the salvation and the praise to the living God.

One sad example of the affects of this was seen in a YWAM family that works here every summer, whose home fell down in the first 8.8 quake. They had just recieved a new loan to keep paying off their house, but have 18 years left to pay it off. Without a good insurance system here, the family is left to pay off, for the next 18 years, something that they can't see, they can't touch, and has absolutely no use or value to them; an invisible house that lies in ruins on the floor. Our base is helping them rebuild in these next few days, but the reality of their payments for a house that doesnt exist won't be erased so easily. Thank God we can come alongside them and rebuild with them, God's provision and hope for this family will replace the destruction.

Isaiah 60:18 was the theme verse for the entire school, and I have to admit when they announced it and put it up on the wall in January, I did not see the relevance. But the Monday after the earthquakes when we were mourning the loss of lives and homes here in Chile and praying together, I looked up and saw it written on the wall and thanked God for His authority, wisdom and sovereignty. When you read it you will see why:

"No longer will violence be heard in your land,
nor ruin or destruction within your borders,
but you will call your walls Salvation
and your gates Praise."

God's plan is a plan of hope for this nation, which overnight went from being one of the leading, most respected, most economically sound nations in South America, to a pitied nation crumbling in ruins. His plan is a plan of hope and life.

As I get ready to come home in a couple of days, I've been thinking about how faithful God has been every minute of this time. How truly immense and great He is. How BIG he is. And how His perfect love really does have the power to cast out our ALL fears. So bring on the aftershocks, my God is bigger!

Hold still earth!

2010-03-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

The house we helped clear the debris out of last Saturday. We prayed with the family and sang with them, brought them clothes and toiletries and blankets... its so sad because they have to demolish their house their father built out of mud bricks and rebuild completely. With the cold winter season coming soon, they only have until the end of May before the rain sets in so they need all the help they can get.

Hanging out one of the many bonfire nights (if there's no electricity and nothing to do but wait for the next earthquake, might as well have a bonfire party!)

YWAM team helping a work crew pulling things out the the rubble

My friend Marta in front of what used to be all the shops along the beach... the wave just washed all the kiosks up, carried them about 300 meters and smashed them against the restaraunts and shops on the other side of the street. It's sad to see these all destroyed, we knew some of the shop owners, and most of them had all their lives' work in their little shops.

The night of the BIG one - waiting in the dark while the people ran past yelling tsunami... but we were praying and singing and hanging out... even the dogs took refuge with us!

Hold still, earth! That is the thought that keeps running through our minds these last two weeks – the ground seems to be constantly moving and rolling and shifting, and we are definitely tired of it. We had another BIG earthquake Thursday morning, a 7.8 with an epicenter only 20 minutes away, so it actually felt bigger than the first one (which was 8.8 with an epicenter 8 hours away). It happened in the morning when we were in class on the second floor of the DTS building, which is not the most stable building in the world, and let me tell you IT MOVED. Like seriously shifted back and forth and up and down, for about a minute. We all stood up and freaked out, some girls running down the stair screaming (and falling – running down stairs while the whole building is lurching back and forth is generally not the best idea, just for future reference), some people hit the floor. I mostly just froze where I was (in front translating – whenever a tremor comes I freeze and wait for it to pass and so they all watch my face to see if it lasts longer and if I freak out, they freak out… so I try to just pause and smile then keep going so no one panics. But this time, it was genuinely scary, I remember thinking the building was going to fall and crash in. But it eventually ended, we went outside and everyone was ok. So it was like take two of earthquake: power went out again for a couple days, it keeps cutting in and out, we set up camp again, people took refuge in the hills and on the base again, baking bread every meal in a brick oven we have from the 80s on the base.. it feels like a creepy, eirie replay of last week. But this time we are more stressed and more on edge, waiting for the next aftershock. They happen every 20 minutes, sometimes up to 7.5… which is technically an earthquake. Apparently we had 15 full-fledged earthquakes (above 5.0 I think qualifies as an earthquake, not just a tremor) Thursday, with about 100+ tremors, and our region is officially a "catastrophe zone". We’re still feeling seasick, dizzy and stressed from always being tense and waiting for the next tremor, sleeping very lightly, some people sleeping in clothes and shoes, waiting to see if its just a tremor that stops after a few seconds, or if it keeps going. Then there is the question of the electricity, feeding 200+ people, if there is a tsunami alert or not, getting in touch with family (especially family members here in Chile when cell service goes out after a quake it’s stressful for everyone trying to see if their family is ok), not to mention all the emotional stress of planning on leaving for outreaches, teams traveling, etc… basically we need a lot of prayer for peace, tranquility, trust in the Lord and in His plan, and wisdom for administering the resources God is providing here. God has a purpose for all of this, and we are trusting in Him for His plan and what He wants to reveal through these circumstances. But God is working to raise up resources to help His people here…

The good news is, teams have been coming in from other YWAM bases, from Home with Hope, from churches, from Operation Mobilization, and individuals wanting to help, and we are currently getting things ready to start a Homes of Hope project here on the base, complete with a mass-production home construction workshop where we can create more homes in less time and transport them to areas in need of shelter. The guys have been chainsawing down trees and clearing out their beloved soccer field (sad day! but worth it) to create an area to start to create this mini house-building-factory, investors from the States were helicoptered in Thursday right after the earthquake to talk about backing up this project, and churches are already asking how they send teams and begin supporting the relief efforts. I will be in contact with the project leaders when I am home again, so if there are people who want to come down to Chile and help Homes of Hope, let me know – they will be accepting teams starting Easter week. God is giving us all a peace from His hand, even when there is a lot of fear and tension an stress from everything that’s been going on the 2 weeks, and we know He is bigger. This whole experience has given us a new sense of how awesome and mighty our God is, how helpless we are without Him, how much we depend on Him, how even His creation is so powerful and awe-inspiring, how fleeting life really is, how we can work our whole lives for something and lose it in an instant, how the Lord gives and takes away, how he calls us as leaders in times of crisis to bring others hope…. But mostly just how our God is so HUGE!

Please pray for continued peace, for safety, for administration of resources, for wisdom, for travel mercies, for electricity to come back and stay on for good, for clear communications, for Homes of Hope to get up and running, for the government of Chile to be prudent and effective in this time of crisis…. For God’s purpose for all of this to be revealed and people would come to know Him through all of this.

update

2010-03-05T06:26:00.001-08:00

UPDATE:

Thank you again for your prayers, I talked to Teresa today FINALLY and she is fine, her and her whole family are in their house in Concepcion, in the neigborhood that got hit the hardest, but their house is fine... they have no electricity internet or running water, but they have cell service, candles, and a little food the police are bringing them day by day. It's really dangerous in their city, people are ransacking all the stores, setting fire on the businesses, robbing everywhere, so the police are patrolling all the time and they aren't allowed out of their house from 6pm-sunrise. It's crazy. Keep them in your prayers please! They sounded very stressed and scared but they know they are in God's hands. They went through a terrible three days after the earthquake because they couldn't find their grandmother, and finally found her alone three days later, I don't know details but I know it was traumatic. Keep them in your prayers, but thank God they are all alright. Daniela and her family are fine too, I havent talked to her but I know she is alright and with her family. Thank God.

The base here is starting to organize resources and teams to start building long-term housing and short-term shelter and do clean-up, relief efforts, etc, here in town and throughout Chile. If anyone wants to get in contact with the director of the base here, Mitch Anderson (who is from Santa Cruz, California, is a total surfer Calvary Chapel guy, went to CC Santa Barbara for years and years and is an amazing man of God with a heart for Chile and transforming society to reach people for Christ), let me know, I can get you connected to him to send resources, teams, equipment, finances, whatever. Thanks for your prayers and support!

As the death count rises here (803 as far as I know), we are covering Chile in our prayers, asking God for His provision, protection, quick rebuilding, wise management of resources and aid, as well as remembering Haiti here and how the corruption and roots the country was founded on (apparently the Haitians dedicated their island to Satanism in "exchange" for freedom from French colonialism... so they basis the country was founded on includes lots of slavery, withcraft, Satanism, child prostitution and human trafficking for slavery, prostitution and organ sales - these cultural and spiritual elements in Haiti are really making rebuilding difficult... keep praying for the power of Christ to set people free and bring light, hope and rebuilding to Haiti, and that Chile can avoid that corruption in the relief efforts and inflow of volunteers and resources and finances. Thank God the country here has a much more sound government, with a lot more regulations and checkpoints the money will have to pass through, and will evangelical and Catholic roots the people are going back to now. It's heartbreaking to see this country I love so much hit so hard with this disaster, but I know God has a plan and is bringing hope here already... I personally have talked to many people who thank God for their safety and are turning back to their roots as Christians or Catholics and leaning on the Lord in a time of crisis... He is working...

Love you all, thanks for your prayers!

8.8

2010-03-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

I am alive! Thanks for your prayers, I am safe and sound in the YWAM base still in Pichilemu... God definitely protected us and had His hand over our base the whole time because we didnt suffer any injuries, deaths or even damage, only a few broken glasses that fell off the shelves, but it was pretty scary and intense... Ok wanna hear what happened?

So here is my story...

We were obviously all sleeping at 3:34 am when it happened, and it started off slowly like rumbling underground, then picked up in intensity.. the 10-year daughter of a DTS student who sleeps below me started screaming for her mom, and I hung down over my bed and told her to give me her hand, I told her it would pass (thinking, "I am from California, I know earthquakes"), but it DIDNT PASS it got worse and worse! So I was hanging off my bed, yelling, "Give me your hand! It will end soon!" but I was falling off my bed so I changed to, "LET GO OF MY HAND!" I had to pull myself back on the bed and hold on for dear life, things were falling and breaking in the kitchen and chairs and tables were falling upstairs in the classroom, which made it sound like the roof was caving in. It lasts 2 or 3 minutes (I actually just read on Google News that scientists are saying it was so strong the earth's axis was shifted 3 inches and the day was shortened by like a milisecond! what??) But we were fine, we all went outside, and the earth was cracked outside the house, everyone on the base gathered in front of our house, we checked to see if everyone was ok... then the panic started...

All of a sudden hundreds of people started running up into the base, past us, and into the hills, dragging crying kids behind them, yelling, "RUN! TSUNAMI!", which freaked some people out, but we were already at one of the higher points of Pichilemu, so we stayed put, sang praise songs and prayed as everyone ran past us. That night no one slept, we stayed outside and prayed, and people filled the hills behind us and had bonfires all over the hills in the following days, which was crazy and also caused a lot of worry for robbery and violence... but nothing happened, it was fine. We heard crazy rumors ("Hawaii is underwater from a tsunami! Los Angeles suffered an even bigger earthquake than here! Japan and China and the whole Ring of Fire suffered earthwquakes and volcanic activity!"), but we had no news or any way to contact the outside world, and all roads had closed by the morning, so we just prayed and hoped it wasnt the end of the world as it sounded like.

We were without water, electricity, internet and phone service until today... we never ran out of food because God KNEW we would need it and we happened to have food stored (which we NEVER have because we run on a day-by-day payment basis and basically buy our food three times a day before every meal since we never have extra money sitting around to stock up, plus there arent really Costco's around town if you know what I mean).. so it was honestly a miracle we had 25 kilos of flour sitting around to make bread by hand for the whole base (150+ people for 3 days), since the supermarket was flooded and shut down and the roads and bridges were out (the bridges were literally out, almost all the bridges in Chile fell down), so God provided for us which was amazing... we also were told the water would run out since the whole town uses a tank system, so we filled every bucket pot and pan on the base, but apparently so many people fled town the first hour or two when the roads were open, so there was enough water for everyone who stayed in town. Apparently a lot of people were hurt and missing and unaccounted for who left town, so it was much better to stay put.

The town of Pichilemu didnt suffer much damage from the earthquake, but a tsunami did reach the town center, which is about 150 meters inland, and destroyed all the little beach houses and shops and restaraunts along the beach, they are all flattened and filled with sand and dead fish and totally destroyed. I heard one fisherman who was drunk sleeping in his boat did die, but we havent heard of other deaths. Really Pichilemu was spared most of the damage, I'm sure you have all heard news and seen pictures of all the destruction throughout Chile. There are lots of big cities without light, food, water, internet, phone service, with lots of robbery and violence and skyscrapers that are going to fall soon so they are clearing out the neighborhoods, the supermarkets are ransacked and empty and the Chilean special forces are bringing in flour and emergency kits to the towns...

We are still having lots of aftershocks (some up to 6.3 on the Richter scale) which last for about 2-3 second, and we all stop whatever we're doing, hold our breaths, look around and wait to see if it lasts longer than 4 seconds before we run outside... it keeps us on edge a little bit, some girls couldnt sleep at all and wouldnt go in the house the first two nights, some people (including me) are still dizzy and off balance and feel almost seasick because it's like the earth is constantly moving under our feet as it all readjusts and settles in after the earthquake, it's a weird sensation and I feel like I'm in a boat, but hopefully it will end soon and the earth will be solid ground again! We started classes again, which is great to have something relatively normal, and when I am interpreting and an aftershock comes, I try not to freak out but I grab the podium and close my eyes, and wait for it to pass, its kindof funny though...

I have heard from Daniela, my friend from my DTS, and she and her family are fine and staying with family, but their house could collapse soon so it is very stressful obviously and scary. I havent heard from Teresa at all so PLEASE PRAY for her and her family, they are in Concepcion which is very close to the epicenter and Teresa lives in the area which suffered the most damage. A tsunami did reach inland and kill many people, it is still an tsunami watch... be praying! Over 800 people are said to have died, so pray for all the families and all of Chile - for comfort, for provision, for food, for strength... it's so sad, I love this country, and it's so sad to see it in such pain.

Thanks again for all your prayers, God had His hand over us and protected us and provided for us in every way (we even had hot showers the day after!), but Chile is in shambles and needs a lot of prayer. The base is helping bring truckloads of clothes and supplies and food to the next town over which is completely flattened, and we are cancelling the next DTS to bring truckloads of supplies to nearby towns to start building houses, and helping people on the beach sort through their buisinesses that are totally gone... God is working here, the day after the earthquake we had an impromptu service here and prayed for people (one person was saved! whoo hoo!).. interesting side note: a girl in the June DTS here on the base had a vision/prophecy about "pain coming from the coast to Chile" which would break people's pride and bring them back to the Lord... so be praying this comes true and brings people back to Him! Also Friday morning a girl in our DTS had a vision in her quiet time of a very very low tide on the beach and a sun that was a different color, and trees falling over, and she recieved the verse in Romans 8:22 which says all of creation is groaning in birth pains waiting for Christ to return... so God was telling us ahead of time what would happen. It's been amazing to see how everyone comes together in a crisis situation and how God provided for us and guarded us from harm.

He is good, He is faithful, He protected us 100%! Thanks for your prayers!! Love you all, I am still coming home March 18th, pray that the airport and runways are repaired by then!

Brooke

Read Psalm 46:2 - it was our theme verse for this weekend!

Baptism and Crazy Horses

2010-02-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

DTS highlight = baptism of 7 students

beautiful day for a baptism

with Rosy after her baptism!

Horseback riding on valentine's day.. I was a little nervous because my horse was a bit independent-minded, but it turned out to be fun! That's not me in the picture by the way.

Aaron's date

oh gosh.. I always get the crazy horse

It was a fun v-day, except I missed my sister on her birthday! Happy 20th TJ!

Diving In...

2010-02-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

So it's been about a month-ish since my DTS 2.0 started up, and I have to say it's going amazingly well! I love being a leader, even though I am sooo busy... between interpreting classes 3 hours in the morning, helping with worship, interpreting the intercession and services Wednesdays and Fridays for the whole base, teaching drama and dance class, English class and leading sports time... I am booked! But we have a team of 12 staff members, so we cover all the bases (the bummer is only Lindsey and I speak English so one of us has to be at every single event every minute of the day to interpret - busy!). The base is absolutely full to the maximum, with a School of Grace underway (first ever in South America! God is setting this UP!), another DTS, sports DTS, counseling school, and kids camps going on all at once. Wait till the swim meets start coming along, then I won't be able to find a place to sit and eat my lunch! And no, I am not going to repeat last year when I found out I was swimming in the meet against the little girls division. No thanks.

As we dive deeper and deeper into the DTS, God is continually challenging me to step up as a leader, work harder than I have before, and be an example... in a process I just went through myself one year ago! It's been a little bit difficult to be a disciplinarian and draw the line when I myself barely followed all the rules and was always late to class when I was in my DTS... but by God's grace I am learning how to lead. We have some students that I swear are trying to be the death of me: some days I feel like half of the girls are here to gossip and go on vacation at the beach, and half of the guys are here to flirt with us girl leaders, but overall we really do have a group of young people (or people young at heart!) who truly want to seek the Lord more and follow His will for their lives. It's amazing to be part of the process, and in the meantime I am trying to learn how to be a firm, steady, wise leader who also has compassion, understanding and a sense of humor. I'm not there yet, but that can be my goal :)

We had an amazing small group time today actually, and some of the girls started opening up about things they have never shared before, and there are some intense issues in this DTS that the Lord is already healing: abuse, rape, parent's infidelities, heartbreak, anorexia, depression, suicide attempts, family members murdered... please be praying for God's sweet mercy and grace to rain down on each students' heart as we seek Him more and press into Him. Only His character, truths, love and purpose for each of us can truly bring healing, that is my prayer for each student here.

We had one intense moment a little while ago when a student found out through a casual conversation that her classmate was the brother of a girl whose horrific murder was sensationalized throughout Chile in 2007. She had been brutally raped, tortured and buried alive by her university professor, who was only given 14 years in jail for this, after first being let free and finally retried when Chileans protested his release. When this girl who is now in our DTS heard the news, she cried for days and prayed that God would give her an opportunity to meet the girl's family, pray with them and hug them. God heard her prayer, because two years later (last week) she was able to hug her classmate and pray for him and his family to be filled with more of God's grace and healing and peace. He is the last student you would this this has happened to, because He is truly filled with love and forgiveness, its amazing to see. Our God is a God of details, and tender mercies like a caring Father... I am in awe of what He is doing in the students' lives and character here, and this is just one example of His faithfulness!

On a lighter note, we've had some fun, like on the banana boats, and going downtown as a group, although I am always a little worried about little Rosy. She's so sweet and quiet, and the boys here all love her, but I'm always afraid she'll get lost or accidentally get whisked away by someone because she doesnt speak any Spanish and just nods and smiles a lot so I'm afraid someone will ask her if she wants to go to Santiago with them and she'll nod and smile and be gone. Gotta put a GPS on that girl. Actually the one who needs a GPS is Myriam, this six foot tall Swiss girl who is freakin hilarious and always running around and getting lost, especially because she is now on super strong painkillers which make her hyperactive and verifiably loca... last time we went to the grocery store and she was literally running around, trying on hoodie-towels with Bart Simpson on them, throwing anything and everything into the cart, only to get to the front with a FULL cart of imported American and European food and candies, to realize her card doesnt work here and she couldnt buy anything. I told her she is such a sweetheart but if you're on crazy pills you gotta stay home. If I had to stay home on my crazy strong painkiller happy pills, you do too Myriam!

Please pray for:

-Health (living with a bunch of sick girls is not exactly helping me stay healthy, and interpreting ALL the time is not good for the throat - but don't worry mom I am drinking tea with lemon and honey every day)

-Energy, wisdom, guidance, patience to be a godly leader

-Continued strength and help from the Holy Spirit to be able to interpret well and communicate His Word to everyone

-For each student to be open-hearted and ready to be molded according to God's plan for this time - for His healing, for new habits to be formed, for a new generation of workers in His kingdom to be raised up!

Thanks for being part of this journey with me, love you all!

2010-01-31T06:19:00.000-08:00

Everybody comes out for Panera

Harper girls tea party (plus Trish! honorary Harper)

Cousin love

Old friends, new baby

This is what, month TEN of my south american experience, and I JUST NOW went on the banana boats??

I wasnt too sure about it, mostly because the kids driving the boats looked about 12

Barbara liked it apparently.

Some of the DTS students think they are male models. Really.

Sunny days

Conferene tent in Santiago... also known as "the oven". It's like when you want to steam vegetables in a foil pocket. Meaning we were the veggies. Great worship though!!

Our amazing DTS!

With my "mama" Maria Elena, who always yells at me to stop eating ice cream and never leave the house with wet hair (South American superstitions!)... and Rosy my beautiful one on one

Beach day with my small group

Hahaha highlighting Lindseys hair, which turned out surprisingly well! I get lots of interesting jobs here, from cutting and dying hair, to lifeguarding the pool during sports time (someone should tell them that just because I'm from California doesn't mean I'm a lifeguard!)

Our campsite area during the conference

DTS 2.0

2010-01-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

Week One

So we spent one super hot (like dripping-sweat, Death-Valley, step-out-of-the-shower-and-still-be sweating-hot) but amazing week in Santiago for the YWAM south American conference, I translated a lot and it was so fun to meet people from all over and see all the ministries of all the bases and see what God is doing. It was incredible. We spent a lot of time looking at the New Wave of Missions, which will be a multi-generational, global, cross-cultural,socially-inclusive wave of missions.. everyone plays a part, it was cool to learn about. It was especially funto have Daniela and Teresa come join us to lead worship, we slept in tents covered in ants but it was the best week!

Now the DTS is beginning, and its so much work! I am translating all the time for classes, which I love, even though its suuuper tiring talking and thinking double time for four hours at a time... but I do love it! I also help with sports time, drama (just directing, which is much less intense as to avoid breaking my nose again or any other extremities), one on one time, academic time... Rosy is my one-on-one and she is the cutest, shy little English girl, all the guys here are in love with her case she's like this delicate little flower.. I think God will bring her a lot of confidence y identidad I also lead a small group with Fernanda, from Chile, and Anaira from Venzuela.. we have four girls, three Chileans and one Swiss. It's fun cause the Swiss girl understands very little English and Spanish.. so it's like charades meets Spanglish. Luckily I know how to say "shut up" in Swiss German, so you can imagine how our meetings go.

This week we learned about Spiritual Warfare, so lots of us have had bad dreams and headaches, I remember during my DTS when I was going through it! Pray for us lots!! 'll write more soon, thanks for your prayers.

Fractured noses aren't so fun...

2009-12-31T13:00:00.001-08:00

Home again! It's been an incredible time home with friends and family, I've been hanging out with my mom and sister lots, I got to go to Disneyland with the Duddy's, have lots of hang out nights with my San Diego friends, Tricia came down to stay with me - highlight was going with Trish Jessi and baby Owen, Jessi's 5 month old, to the zoo! can you say panda? the slobbering camels were actually the surprisingly cool animal... my computer stayed in Chile to help out the base communications director, so I dont have any of my pictures with me now, but I think there's pictures of some of this fun stuff on facebook, and from the end of my time in Chile, which included two weddings! Amazing!

As I look back on the Counseling School I just completed before coming home, I am honestly IN AWE of my God, how BIG He is, all the miracles He has done in my heart and in the lives of others around me, all the ways He has been pushing me, stretching me, comforting me, giving me new dreams. Really it was a time of falling in love. With Him, with His Word, with Spanish, with worship, with worship IN Spanish, with Chile, with His dreams and plans for my future. He is so good, always, in all ways, all the time. At the end of the day, He is all that matters and He is all I need. I have so much to process and journal still, so when I have time I will try to be less vague. Or should I stay all vague and mysterious? It's kind of fun.

So news about my nose. Yes, my nose:

After a long process of accepting the challenge to go to Bolivia, getting a visa and vaccinations last minute, and searching for plane tickets, I am actually not going to Bolivia at all! Instead I am recovering from surgery!

Long story - basically I got punched in the face in Chile doing a drama and messing around with friends, one guy "pretend punched me" in the face, and everyone thought it was very realistic because I swung around "acting"... but when I came back up covered in blood, I was like "guys, I'm not that great of an actress! this is reeaal!", of course he felt SO bad, but it was as much my fault as it was his.. so I got some x-rays, basically it was fractured and wasn't healing right, so when I got home for some amazing Christmas family time, I went to a doctor here who told me I needed surgery. More specifically, I needed rhinoplasty to correct the deviated septum and nasal passage... yes, rhinoplasty! Sorry YWAM, can;t go back out on the missions field cause I'm getting a nose job! Haha but its so great I was here and able to get in to Dr. Stephen Cohen, one of the best nose surgery doctors in the nations, last minute. God worked every detail out.

I actually just got home from the hospital a while ago and feel good. It was a 3-hour surgery, I was nervous about going under for so long but it went smoothly. Now I just have to rest and heal for the next ten days so I can head back down to Chile Jan. 10th. I will not be joining my team in Bolivia; I will be back at the YWAM base in Pichilemu, which is super full and busy during the summer (their summer is Jan-March), and I am still praying about where exactly I'll be serving, but the options are working with a new DTS, King's Kids summer camp, women's counseling, interpreting, worship, all the summer sports complex outreaches, and possibly helping with a German-Spanish counseling school (the students who speak German all speak English too so I could help interpret there also). All of these options sound amazing to me, and I am figuring out where God might use me until March. When I come home again for Tricia and Ryan's WEDDING!!! Whoo hooo!!

Keep praying for guidance for me.. I want to be flexible to serve the Lord at the base wherever He leads me. I am excited to go back and see my friends, learn more Spanish, and pour back out on the base, which has been such an amazing place where I've grown in my faith and learned SO much. Vive Chile!

Also pray my nose heals quickly and won't be a burden when I go back - I can't run, swim, lift anything over 5 pounds (including baby Elisabeth! ahhh not fair!), sneeze out my nose, go on roller coasters... hmm what else? Mostly just take care of it and be mellow, so pray I remember all the instructions and be a good little nose job post-op patient :) Thanks!

New plans...

2009-11-28T14:04:00.001-08:00

Change of plans….

Last night was a really interesting experience interpreting for the Friday night church service…. It was one of those nights where everything was going wrong with worship and lots of technical difficulties and everyone up front knew it, but we faked it and smiled and stalled so no one in the audience knew. Gotta love those moments. Everything went well with interpreting, it’s all calm and quiet and everyone is listening and the speaker pauses to let me interpret… but then come the announcements which is always chaos. Whoever has an announcement to make for their school or ministry stands up and yells it out, and I have to interpret them from up front… which makes it a little difficult when everyone is laughing and clapping at what they said in Spanish, and when I interpret no one can hear and all the English speakers and straining their necks to read my lips. It’s chaos, and I can barely hear sometimes. Which makes for some interesting interpreting. Like when one girl stands up and announces she cuts hair (“corte de cabello”) and cracks a joke so everyone who understands Spanish is laughing, but I can’t hear her finish and I interpret that she is going horseback riding (“andar de caballo”) and the bilingual people who hear me start cracking up and it’s even more chaos. Or like when everyone is tired of standing up and sitting down, and someone starts praying for the offering, and they say something like “I know you’ve gotten your exercise for the night, but let’s stand up again to pray” (exercise = “ejercicio”), but I am trying to fix my broken microphone and think she’s praying and getting all spiritual and passionate, and I say all passionately “Ohhh yes Jesus we exalt your name” (the words for exercise and exalt sound similar) and Lindsey starts cracking up in the front row and so I lose my concentration even more… good times. My vote is that we make a newsletter or something for the announcements. Please.

Ok so two weeks left of this school, which is CRAZY. I have loved living here during this school way more than during the DTS, I think because I am used to how things work here, the things that were weird and hard for me before (like their lame washing machines that don’t really wash your clothes, or eating the same thing every week over and over, or the strict schedule), and my Spanish is better, and I love my leaders this school (didn’t really connect with my DTS leaders as much). This time has been so much revelation, so much healing, so many promises from the Lord… He has really revealed Himself to me in new ways and I feel closer to Him than ever. Having His Word as the guide and the foundation to everything in my life and the final say on all my decisions, big and small, has really changed the way I think and my priorities.

Something else new is… I’m going to Bolivia! After a LOT of prayer and even fasting, I decided to finally listen to what I knew God was telling me a while ago, and I am going on the outreach with my school from January to mid-March to Bolivia. I LOVE my team, I am really excited to go to Bolivia and work in the home for abused children there, and with the YWAM base in Santa Cruz, I’m excited to see the next step of this process and I know it’s not over yet. Yes, I am coming home for Christmas for 2-3 weeks (Dec. 15^th-end of Jan.)… but no, it’s not over yet. It’s been the most amazing time of my life here, in friendships, in learning Spanish, in investing in the base and the kids here, in discovering so much more of who I really am, who my God really is, what He’s done for me and who I am in Him. The last thing I was to do is cut this process short because it wasn’t in MY plans to go on the outreach. Isaiah 42:6-7 were the verses that really sealed the deal for me… “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.” This verse is not just for the outreach but for my life! When we have the truth and light of who God is and the freedom we have in Him, when we are healed and whole, we can bring this freedom, light and healing to others and restore relationships, families, cultures and nations. I believe that, and I want to fulfill my part in that calling.

Please pray for me to finish strong, to keep focused and not be homesick (I CANNOT listen to Christmas music here yet or I wont make it!), to soak in everything God has to teach me now (it’s not over yet!), for finances, health and travel in preparing for the outreach (for every team and every student and leader). Also pray for all the couples here who are getting married in the next two months (there’s 4 in my school, and my friend Maia is marrying her Brazilian love Beto in two weeks – crazy).

Thanks for your support and prayers!

2009-11-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Anyone feeling generous?

My friend Daniela Vargas wants to go on the outreach to Bolivia with our school, but she cant afford to go. God used her in huge ways, she has a powerful worship ministry and a servant's heart, but she needs help to go. If anyone prays about this and feels led to give some to help her go on a two month outreach to Bolivia, which will minister to street kids, work in orphanages, help raise up a new YWAM base, and evangelism, let me know ASAP. She needs to start paying this week for the outreach, and she is praying and fasting to rely completely on the Lord to provide for her if He wants her to go, the cost is $500. Let me know TODAY by emailing me at jharper0921@gmail.com, thank you for praying about investing in extending God's kingdom!

Hailing?

2009-11-18T10:04:00.001-08:00

So it's hailing today, which is really weird since it's been really sunny... but thats okay it's kind of an interesting change. What's up, Pichilemu? I don't get you and your weather pattern bipolarity. Get it together.

Anyways, after a long weekend of writing a 10 page research paper on purity in the Bible (which I wrote 100% in Spanish, I must proudly add!), we have begun a new week studying spiritual gifts and ministries. I love learning about these because you really get to know yourself better, your strengths and weaknesses, how God can use you, what to avoid in using your gifts, and you can also explore and understand other people much better when you study their gifts and how they are different from yours. I am finding I have gifts in the areas of teaching, encouragement, mercy, leadership and creativity... my weaknesses would be in areas of service, perseverance, follow-through and plain old hard work. I always thought I was a hard worker when I apply myself, but seeing how some of the people here have worked so hard and dedicated so many years of their lives to difficult and time-consuming projects and ministries puts me to shame. I've loved working with the kids here and doing Sunday School, which has been interesting teaching it in Spanish with few resources, but God meets us where we're at and its been a great time. I love learning all the old Sunday School songs from my childhood in Spanish, even some old Barney songs thrown in there... good to know! Gotta love it.

Last week studying what the Bible says about money was also very eye-opening! The Bible mentions money over 2,800 times (salvation: 300; prayer: 500), so it's obviously something that matters to God. It's a necessity in our world, so we can't ignore it and treat it like something "secular." How can we truly glorify God with our finances, not only by tithing and giving to missions and the church, but also by trusting His provision for EVERYTHING?? Our American culture of individualism, self-made-man, I-earned-it-so-it's-mine mentality really does undermine our ability to recognize that EVERYTHING, even just the ability and health to work, and the opportunity of a job, comes from the hand of God. He provides everything. We do nothing on our own and we achieve nothing on our own. Tithing is one way of demonstrating this in obedience to God, but also being wise stewards and seeing our money as God's money is a way to glorify Him with every penny. It's a touchy subject; money is viewed as something very personal in our culture, and its especially a touchy subject here because sometimes it feels like you can divide the rich from the poor on the base by the color of their hair and eyes. But its something very applicable and practical we can learn in glorifying God, and He sees the heart, not the color of our hair or the amount in our bank account, and thats what really matters. Learning that there is healing God wants to do in the financial area of our lives is freeing - our imprudence and selfishness, cultural view of money, sin, ties to debts, love of money, greed, poverty and needs have left us wounded in this area, but the truths of His word bring healing when we put them into practice: by tithing, trusting in God for everything, being generous, recognizing His sovereignty, and being obedient in every little detail. It's definitely something I am still learning but it's been a good couple of weeks studying this subject!

The difference between living in grace and in the law is also something that God has been bringing to my heart lately - the extremes between living legalistically and following every rule but not knowing God Himself or His grace, and the extreme of living in grace and using your liberty as a cover for sin ("I can sin now, God will forgive me anyways"). Truly understanding this grace and walking in it, with wise limits set by His truth and Word, is life-changing.

Hmm what else is going on here... I am having issues with my neighbor's puppy, whose name is Dominico, because one of my leaders is named Dionicio... imagine the mayhem when Dominico tries to follow me to church and gets his head stuck in the fence and starts freaking out right when I go to say hi to Dionicio... am I to blame if I sometimes say "Dionicio, stop being so stupid and get your head out of the fence you idiot!"... or "Thanks for the great sermon Dominico" ?? I really dont think I should be held responsible, but the confusion has been considerable. Really this puppy follows me everywhere, he's like my little shadow. It is kind of funny cause I will talk to him in Spanish and he will listen to me and obey me, but when I speak English he pretends like he doesn't hear me... I swear! He knows where he's from. Or maybe he's an egocentric racist English-hating puppy. Still not quite sure.

Alright off to do some more work, there's always something...

Prayer requests/praise:

-Guidance for the future - I am praying if I am going to come back to do the outreach from January - March with the school. I feel led to do it (Isaiah 42:6-7) - keep praying for guidance and clarity for me!

-For the counseling of the high schoolers here, it's been a challenge to get it up and running...

-For finances of the school - many students cant pay for the outreach, for God to send the finances they need to go bless the nations we will be sent to...

-The base might start building an elementary school soon for the kids and neighbors of the base, which is really necessary since the schools here are pretty shabby. We prayed over the land as a school and now the owner might donate it to us instead of selling it to us! Right on.

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Prov. 4:23

March for Jesus

2009-11-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

In the high school with some of the girls...

After an honest talk about eating disorders and sexuality.... with a Biblical perspective! We could NEVER get away with this in public schools in America!

The entire counseling school.. my family for these 3 months

With Daniela

Juliette, the base director, and her daughter Katrina.

Mitch, the base director, praying in front of the government building to bless Pichilemu

The flamethrowing was actually pretty cool, and no one burned their face off!!

Emily holding her cute little sign. Doesnt she look excited? Contain yourself girl!

Teresa and Javier

A few of the Brazilians

Flower Power

This weekend we had a big march with the entire base to "reclaim Pichilemu for Jesus", which was super entertaining and fun and a little big ridiculous. We all dressed up in bright colors, painted our faces with our country's colors, wrapped ourselves in our flags and marched around singing, dancing, chanting, flame-throwing, drum-beating and did dramas all around Pichilemu. Ahhh good times. Babies, grandpas, leaders, students, dogs... EVERYONE in the base marched around the whole little city and it was so entertaining to see the looks on the peoples' faces as we went by. Classic.

GOOD NEWS!

The school program was amazing, the kids were super receptive and involved, we got to give each class of freshmen and seniors a teaching on drug prevention, eating disorders and sexuality (from a very Christian perspective!) and we even got to give a gospel message at the end which was unexpected but amazing. Over 30 kids requested personal counseling from us, which we will start this week, and the school principal invited us to come give the sophomores and juniors the teachings also! We might even start a Christian club on campus, which would be so cool. God opened up doors beyond what we even imagined! Keep praying they will be open to receive Christ as well as counseling, that's the end goal.

Pray:

-for friendships and communication in leadership (we are all being tested in this area since that's what we are working on in the school - communication and leadership skills - and of course so many little conflicts and problems are breaking out in these areas!)

-health (I am getting better but always a little sick - my body just doesnt like all the changes in climate here)

-guidance - for the future, for clarity, for purpose, for making future plans!!

Thank you!!! Love you all!!

2009-10-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

beach day

Thank God this girl is in my life!!

With some of the Chilean police force on Sept. 18th - keeping the streets of Rancagua safe

All the kids dress up in the traditional Chilean outfits and dance!

A beautiful sunrise marking a new chapter....

Prayer Requests:

-for health and restful sleep

-for my Spanish!

-for unity and focus among students of the school, to listen to God's voice

-for financial provision for students in the school

-for Pastor Britt Merrick's 6 yr. old daughter, Daisy, who has a tumor and just had an emergency operation to remove it (visit http://prayfordaisy.tumblr.com/ for updates almost hourly). It went well but she is in a lot of pain and may need chemotherapy in the coming months for cancer treatment... PRAY!!

Prayer and PRAISE...

Also, I sent out an email to some friends and family asking them to prayerfully consider financially helping students here complete the school. Many are from very poor areas of South America and could barely pay their bus fare to get here, but came in faith knowing God would provide. My good friend Teresa Sepulveda (of Chile) has been blessed with some donations from some of you, but she still needs $400 by the first week of November more to finish the school. Praise God for His provision for her, thank you for blessing her if you helped out, and let me know if you would like to donate funds to invest in God's kingdom through this opportunity of missions training. Thanks!

Chilean again..

2009-09-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Ok so this is a very basic recap...

Arriving in Chile Sept. 15th was perfect because we arrived in time for their weekend-long national holidays (like their fourth of July), and I feel so Chilean after four days of dancing their national dance, eating empanadas, going to the fair, learning their national anthem, and basically becoming Chilean. So fun!

I had a great bday - Lindsey made me french toast (improvised with weird chilean bread and weird syrup someone had on the base, but it was good, and she brought starbucks coffee just for my bday!!) and it was our free day before the school began so we all hung out, reconnected, made brownies, relaxed and enjoyed the sunny day. Really it was the best way to spend a bday here I loved it!!

I am LOVING my time back here, it has been sooo amazing to be back on the base and I immediately felt so at home again. There are tons of people here I knew from other schools happening when I was here before, there are new people who came to take schools when we told them about YWAM during out outreach in Peru, which is so cool to see the fruit of our labor, and lots of new new faces to meet. I live in a cute, brand-new little house in the middle of the base with 7 other girls, and besides a little bit of cold and one girl who has allergies and is snoring a little bit, its really nice. We have automatic hot water, which is such a luxury because we dont have to get matches out, go outside, turn on the gas water-heater, light it, come back in and then shower. It just comes out hot! I feel like I'm in America! We had our first classes today, which was great especially because we are the first Escuela de Consajeria to inaugurate the brand-new building. They put in the windows yesterday, the walls, floors, roof and everything is very basic, the walls are just wood and the outer part but its cool to be the first school to pray in the new building. The base is super green as we enter spring here, and there are horses all over the place grazing in the fields of flowers - its a lot more picturesque here in the spring and I love it! It's been so great to reconnect with the friends I already had from my DTS, we are like a little family and we finally reunited. Daniela, the crazy Chilean, is the only one of my old friends that they put in my house with me, which is a miracle since we thought for sure they would separate us since we are too loud and always late together, but she sleeps right next to me. We recorded the girl snoring on her camera last night and almost woke her up we were laughing so hard, so things are feeling like old times very fast. I pray Daniela can come to the states one day!

Classes began today and I can already tell God is going to do great things here. The whole theme of the school is seeking Him more for your calling and ministry to bring truth and light to the nations. I am praying for more of His clarity and more of His direction for my future, and I know He will bless this time and be pouring into us all. Keep me in your prayers, for my heart to be open and willing to hear His voice, and for focus and purpose. A theme for me this summer has been "His dreams for us are always great than our own" and "Blessings always follow obedience", so we will see what else He has in store for me!

I have lots of pictures I will upload soon, it just takes forever. Miss you all!!

Mzungu returns

2009-08-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

Recap Africa... as if I could...

So my team of 12 from Maranatha Chapel, my home church in San Diego, went to Entebbe, Uganda for a couple of days, then to Nimile, Sudan for 2 weeks. We worked with Far Reaching Ministry, which is an amazing ministry that works in Africa, Russia and China training native people to be pastors and ministry leaders to change the countries from the inside out. The base we stayed at is training 300 chaplains right now to be pastors in the army, which has already changed the Sudanese Army since it began (over 500 have already been trained). It's an incredible ministry that is so effective and powerful, since these men will have to fight soon (another war is about to break out in Southern Sudan between the northern Muslims who attack the mostly Christian south, or from the Lord's Resistance Army, the rebels who kidnap children to force them to be child soldier against their own people). Pray for FRM!

We worked with the chaplains to do a 3-day VBS in a local school, which was so fun and brought the gospel to over 600 kids. I had my own class of 90 kids and they all ate it up and prayed to accept Christ with me.. it was definitely amazing. The chaplains translated for us (they speak like 6 languages: English, Arabic, Swahili, and like 3 or 4 tribal languages each), but some of the kids spoke some English, too. One time Annie (my cousin who made the trip insanely fun) and I were trying so hard to sing a song with them and we thought we were learning their language, Mari, and we were so excited singing "beeah parling ooobly"... but when we asked a chaplain to translate, he was like, "umm it's in English!" and we realized they were totally singing "we are marching slowly"... and we thought we were so cool singing in African. Ha! The poor kids were jammed into a tiny little hut all day, sitting on benches which were just sticks resting on pieces of wood (ow, thats gotta hurt the bum) and it was sooooo HOT but overall the best time of the whole trip! I love those kids and never wanted to leave!

We also had 2 women's conferences, which focused on Jesus' character... local women from the villages who attend the churches FRM has started came, and we always danced for hours (more on that below), then they presented us with a goat or a chicken. Good times. The women were sooo appreciative of us, and I got to give my testimony too. It was heart-wrenching to hear the women's stories, some of them are so poor and so alone and have no value in their society as women. I have a whole new appreciation for the women's movement, even if I am not into feminism... we are not viewed as simply property here like the women in Africa are treated. It's not God's plan for them and it's been so cool to see how Far Reaching Ministries has been slowly helping the women of the villages realize His true purpose for them as women and not as property. His Word really is changing their society, one person at a time.

Overall it was an amazing trip.. we never got sick and nothing too terrible happened. The best part was seeing how much God is working there, with the people, with the kids, through Far Reaching Ministries and through the Calvary Chapels we visited (in Kampala and Entebbe, Uganda, and Nimile, Sudan). Pray for their ministries, God is using them in big ways. I hope I return to Sudan soon, back with the monkeys and flying over the Nile in little bush planes and holding African babies... there are few feelings better than being surrounded by little African kids calling you Mzungu (white person) and teaching you songs about Jesus in their language!

Thanks for praying for me!!! The best adventures are yet to come...

The tkuls (pronounced too-kle) the villagers live in. Wes told us a funny story about a man who got saved because there was an earthquake and he was afraid his tkul's roof would fall on him and kill him so he became a Christian the next day... Wes was like "a straw roof killing you? are you serious??" but now the guy goes to church so it works.

With the amazing women of the kitchen

Crossing the Nile

We got to visit Calvary Chapel Entebbe in Uganda, which was so encouraging. They just finished their new building (they met in canvas tents before) and have a Christian school.

The women of CC Entebbe taking tailoring classes to generate income. The women there have virtually no way to make money if their husband dies, leaves them or takes another wife, which is common, so the church wants to help them earn money for themselves.

Bye kids!

After giving the kids their Love Covers packages.. each kid got a backpack, a school uniform, a t-shirt, a mosquito net and a notebook.. they were soooooo excited! Some of them had never ever had anything new in their lives, it was so fun to watch them open their backpacks!

happy

The babies always found me!

At the women's conferences (we had two), the women always sang to us and presented us with a chicken or a goat... good times! Really though, the women DANCED for hours before and after each service, like serious booty shaking dance wars. It was insane. Annie (my cousin) and I were always in the middle of the circles laughing like "how did we get here??"

We bought food and supplies to bring to a struggling family of the church, and it was an amazing time. We went to pray for them and visit their home, and God also gave us a chance to minister to a neighbor who was there. Lily was a single mom whose husband took another wife from her same clan, which her dad didnt approve of, so basically she is disowned by them both and now has her brother's kids since he died recently. She told us she cant make ends meet and has thoughts of giving the kids and herself a poison to end it all, and we got the chance to pray with her, give her some answers from the Word of God, and helped her get a job on the missions base we stayed at, so she is now working and has support. God is good!

Some of these kids came to the base everyday to practice worship songs for Sunday, because its the only safe place they can sing and be in the village. So cute.

The chaplains are trained to be pastors in the army so when they have to go fight (theres always wars going on between the Muslim north attacking the more Christian south, or from the Lords Resistance Army)... and they live on the base, are trained for a year, and are prepared to do childrens and womens ministry, as well as trained in church planting and evangelism. Basically they are the most amazing men ever, they are willing to die any day to protect their families and villages, yet turn around and pick up crying babies and play with the kids with such tender hearts.. in a society where women and children have little to no value, this makes them true men of God and examples in their country.

We were in the schools for a few days, doing VBS and Love Covers (with the backpacks). It was the best time, we sang, taught them who Jesus is, and led them all to accept Christ. I honestly can't think of anything more fun or meaningful I have ever done in my life. One highlight was hearing like 500 little African kids all singing (actually screeching, they dont really sing as much as shriek) a song that goes, "I am a winner in the Lord", which they pronounce as "I am a weiner", which is honestly one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. Classic.

Africaaaa

2009-08-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

Since Africa was unexplainable, here are some pictures and I will try to describe it later...

Our tiny little bush plane... kind of scary!

The chaplains, my new heroes! They are being trained by Far Reaching Ministries to be chaplains and pastors in the army so they are ready to influence the army for the Lord when the new war breaks out (which they think is soon). They were always with us with a million huge guns to protect us, translate and work with the kids. It's amazing to hear them say one minute how they would die for Jesus and fight to the death to protect their families from the LRA, but the next minute they can pick up a crying baby and minister to the women (who are usually treated like property in their culture). God is doing a huge work with FRM and the people in Sudan!!!

This is the Indiana Jones truck we always rode in, complete with armed chaplains on top. Wes Bentley (head of FRM) would pray with us before we left to go to the schools each day, saying "Lord protect them from wild animals, protect the car from rolling off the cliffs we drive over, and if there are bandits or evil doers, I pray our men see them and shoot first." Seriously.

Ruby and I in our little plane...

Monkeys by the airport, waiting to greet us

Next stop... SUDAN!!!

2009-07-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

Serving God is always an adventure... and here comes another surprise..

I am going to Africa in one week.

Yes, you read that right. Yes, Africa. Yes, in one week.

So I need some serious prayers!! Get this: I leave July 25th and I am going to be in Sudan for 2 weeks. A crazy opportunity came up, and someone dropped out of a trip my home church from San Diego is going on, and my uncle (the pastor) called me and asked me to join. They really needed someone to fill in, since they will be working with kids at a missions/ministry base in Sudan called Far-Reaching Ministries, and they have hundreds of kids to do a program with, and very few workers. My uncle wanted me to come since I just had missions training with YWAM, and worked with kids a lot in Peru and Chile, and of course it would be easier to join last minute since I am related to half the team (my aunt, uncle, and two of my cousins are going!). Whatttt???

So I prayed about it and told God if He wants me to go, He had to make it very easy for me to go, since I found out about it like 5 days ago, and He had to make it cheaper than normal since I am not working right now, and He has to make it clear that I am needed to go. He made all of that possible, but I was still waiting to hear about a plane ticket at such short notice, as of this morning. The church was working on finding a ticket, and today as I was waiting in the doctor's office for my shots and pills and vaccines (leap of faith!) I found out they got me a plane ticket and I am going. I am going! Sometimes you gotta just take the leap of faith when you know God is sending you. He is better at working out details like plane tickets anyway. I mean, who would really get their way if it was between an airline personnel and God Almighty? Really?

It is so amazing because as some of you know, this summer I wasnt working and was asking God for direction and kind of goals for this time, and seeing all that my sister went through in Africa (she worked with an orphanage and her group discovered the director was embezzling money and not caring for the kids in order to spend the church sponsor's money on BMW's and prostitutes), God gave me a bigger heart for Africa, especially for the kids. And then He gives me an opportunity to go love on the kids of Sudan for Him!! Wow! It's insane but God is so cool like that. So faithful. He was sooo faithful during my time in Chile and Peru, and His past faithfulness demands my present trust... any Maranatha youth groupers remember who always used to say that?? :)

So please be praying for my team, for my safety and health (we have to go on a little tiny plane from Uganda to Sudan), to hear God's voice clearly and learn what He wants to show me through all of this, and to have lots of energy and love to give to the kids.

Thanks so much, you are all important to me and I appreciate your prayers so much. Let me know what I can pray for you specifically for. Love you all!!!

XOXO

Brooke

Isaiah 12!!!!!

One more picture I love...

2009-07-10T17:54:00.002-07:00

Vive Chile!

Lindsey and I carried in the Chilean flag for our graduation... we don't really know why we were chosen, but we ended up with the honors! Our graduation was an amazing time of celebrating everything God did in our DTS, all of the things He showed us and used us for. He is GOOD!

Back in the EEUU

2009-07-10T16:01:00.001-07:00

which means Los Estados Unidos (America) by the way. Learn it.

Update since I've been home:

Praying over one of our leaders, Jason, who was a mentor and big encouragement to us Americans on the base. He and his Chilean wife and four children are moving to Pennsylvania in Nov. to possibly raise up a YWAM interpreting school. Pray for them!

The six who were always in trouble. In our Peruvian beanies. I miss them already - these girls were like sisters to me! Most of us will be reunited in Sept (read on for details!)

Most of the DTS together one last time, with our flags. Some of the most amazing times were spent worshipping together in all our different languages. It's really a piece of heaven on earth!

After two or three weeks of spending time in southern Chile with Tere's family, Canada with my family (so fun with aaaalll my millions of cousins), Santa Barbara briefly with friends and Reality, and being home for a bit, I am finally sitting down to write on this thing. It's been amazing to see my friends and family, to be home and to get back into the swing of things in California. Life here really is VERY different from my life for the past few months. Its an adjustment but learning to live in all circumstances is a gift and a challenge so I better start adjusting.

As for this summer, I will be in San Diego with my family, saving money and preparing to go back to Chile in September. God made it clear to me before I left the base in June that I would be coming back, and the Ministry leadership school in Sept. is exactly where I want to be. It's another bilingual school on my YWAM base in Pichilemu, and I think 12 or 13 of my DTS friends are coming back to take it with me! God changed my heart (I originally was the one very set against it; I already had my life going in SB and wanted to get back to it), and I know He has even bigger plans for me through this next step. I am reading the New Testament in Spanish this summer and staying in contact with all my friends down there so I dont forget my Spanish.

Looking back at the 6 months I spent in South America, I can definitely say it was life changing. It was an equation of 6 months, 2 countries, 28 students, 8 cultures, 5 languages, hundreds of bus rides in tiny Peruvian buses, dozens of meals of rice, chicken and potatoes, 10 different church families, dozens of dramas and kids' programs, 4 trips to the hospitals, 2 flu injections, 1 swine flu scare, 1 mystery meat scare (dog? alpaca?), all 150 Psalms, and lots of antibacterial hand gel and baby wipe-showers to have an unforgettable experience that changed my heart and perspective forever. God truly worked miracles in our health, in our hearts, in our language abilities, in our relationships in our team and with family members of people on my team, in our callings and faith in Him, in saving people in Chile and in Peru, and in giving us new dreams and goals in serving Him. His plan is always better, His dreams are always bigger!

Thanks for the warm welcome home, and all your prayers for safe and healthy travels. If you're reading this it means you are important to me and your support (especially prayer!!) is VERY appreciated. Let me know if there is something I can pray for in your life...

my email is jharper0921@gmail.com

2009-06-09T18:26:00.000-07:00

We made it back to the base! I feel like I am back in my second home! Its been sooo fun to all be together again as a DTS family, to have time to relax together and tell all our outreach adventures and show pictures and eat a million empanadas. Thursday after the graduation, Maia from norcal, Michele from Switzerland, Louise from Germany, and I are all going to Conception (a big city 8 hrs south in Chile) to stay with Tere and Daniela´s families. Their moms keep calling and asking what food we all want, and how they can welcome the gringas! Their churches are all excited to welcome us too, it will be really fun. I am excited to know they families more and to see Conception with my girls. It will be our last time together!

Tomorrow we have our graduation which will be so great, we are walking in with our countries´flags and singing songs in all our different languages. Its been good to hear from actually a few of the leaders here that our DTS is one of the most united, intermixed DTSes that the base has seen in a really long time. Apparently a lot of the DTSes lately have stayed separated according to culture and language, but ours is sooo mixed in and everyone is friends and everyone is trying to learn all the different languages, its awesome. God has been so faithful to our DTS! There are some crazy stories from the Brazil-Argentina outreach, which I will relay later when I have more time.

As I am reflecting back on my time here, I can´t even begin to grasp all the things God has taught me and all the ways He has worked in my life. He has done so many miracles in my life, in the DTS, He has given me new dreams and new passions I never could have imagined. I will start to tell you guys some of those as I process things a little more, but for now I only have time to say that He is bigger, He is greater, He is more faithful than we can ever understand. He has bigger dreams for us than we can ever imagine are possible, and He only has the best for us.

Keep praying for me, and pray especially for my sister Kelsie and her team in Africa - they are discovering that the orphanage they were working with was run by a very very corrupt man and now the orphanage is falling apart, they have no one to trust, they feel very alone but they are safe and they know God has a purpose for them to be there and show mercy and love to the kids. Its heartbreaking to see but I know He has them in His hands and He has a plan for it all. Pray hard.

More Medical Adventures in Peru.....

2009-05-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was quite the medical adventure.... a couple of the girls here had the flu this week, and I started getting it yesterday... not very fun. So luckily Lindsey was allowed to stay behind with me and we decided to go to the medical clinic down the street, which our host lady said was safe and reliable.....

And apparently not very clean or hygenic. There was vomit ALL over the entryway and waiting room, which was also suuuper overcrowded with cranky Peruvians who were all arguing over who was next in line, and finally after 25 minutes they cleaned up the vomit. I ended up with an injection (which a nurse gave me in the bathroom since it was so crowded so she took me to the tiny, dirty little bathroom and gave me the injection, weird and kindof unhygenic, but okay) and almost passed out, I got all lightheaded and dizzy and had to sit on the curb outside. It was pretty funny cause Lindsey thought I was going to pass out, and I was so loopy I didnt know what was going on. Good times in Peru!

I was also pretty sure everyone in the clinic waiting room was thinking, ¨oh great, this stupid gringa is going to give me the swine flu¨, since it´s all over the news here that it originated in the US (which isn´t even true, right?) and the first case of the swine flu here in Peru was brought here by a Peruvian who was in NYC last week and only discovered she had it after she disembarked her plane ride and put 150 other passengers at risk. So now all the stores here (like big supermarkets where lots of American tourists shop) have all the employees wear SARS masks, which kind of makes me laugh, except when they all look at me every time I cough like ¨go home gringa, we dont want your swine flu¨, while I am thinking ¨first of all I havent been in the states for the last 6 months, and second of all it would be your medical system here that would contaminate you, NOT me¨... Man, Peru seriously needs some good doctors and medical practices... any medical missionaries up for improving the medical system here?? Come on over!

But it was definitely a good move to get the injections because when we cross the border to Chile on Monday (ahhh! Monday!!), there´s no way they would let an American with any kind of flu cross the border. So now I am getting much better and I have to go back for one more injection in about an hour, so let´s just hope theres no vomit on the floor and everything will be fine.

The good news is we got to stay in the YWAM base/house by ourselves all day and watch American chick flicks in Spanish without subtitles, so we worked on our Spanish while falling in love with Julia Roberts all over again. It´s hilarious to watch American movies with weird, fake, really corny voices dubbed over in Spanish (including a horribly, horribly corny laugh, which is espcially lame since her laugh is the thing that makes Julia Roberts Julia Roberts). It´s just not the same.... but we did improve our Spanish and learn lots of new phrases!

Ohhhh my gosh and the funniest thing happened to Lindz and I when we went to buy bread in the morning! This older guy, probably about 55 or 60 years old, who we´ve never seen before in either of our lives, ran up to Lindsey, kissed her on the cheek and literally yelled ¨How are you! I´ve missed you! Where have you been??¨and started asking us a million questions and was absolutely convinced he knew her. When he asked us what food we liked here, and if we liked a certain dish, we told him we hadn´t tried it, and he launched into a full-on recipe discourse he had memorized for this octopus soup dish (still yelling, mind you), and of course Lindsey is trying to listen politely, while I am cracking up and had to walk away because I was about to cry I was laughing so hard... so finally he says he has to go, after like half an hour, and asks her for her name again and thinks she says Nancy, so he´s going on and on saying ¨Now Nancy if you just call me, we can go dancing sometime and maybe make some dinner, here´s my number, Nancy; just call me later Nancy¨ and I am dyyyying laughing and no help whatsoever to poor Lindsey, who is trying to tell him her name isn´t Nancy, she doesn´t know him, she will not be calling him, and she doesn´t want him to make her octopus soup... ohhhh man I am still laughing about it.

Ok injection time, much love and besos (kisses) from Peru.... I´ll be home before ya know it.....

Keep us in your prayers for safe travels, for a good time reuniting with everyone at the base, and for soaking up every last opportunity here and learning every lesson God has for us

You know it´s time to leave Peru when...

2009-05-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

...your whole team is pretty sure the church fed you dog meat for lunch. Seriously, those bones were NOT from a cow, sheep, pig or even a horse. At this point I dont even want to know, I just think that means it´s time to get outta Peru!

..you´re excited to go back to the almost-YWAM base for the last week, solely because there is actually a working TV and maybe there´s a chance we can watch a movie! Unless the granny who owns the house wants to watch a Brasilian soap opera, then she gets dibs. Or sometimes she decides to sit and drink tea in front of the TV in case she maybe decides she might possibly start thinking about considering watching TV in the near future, therefore preventing us from usurping her supreme power of TV-watching privileges. She´s a sneaky little granny.

..... a litte boy gives your team the ¨thumbs down sign¨while you´re doing a dance to start the program for kids at the church. Really? A thumbs down?? I know we´re not Lord of the Dance or anything, but come on!

...youve had the same meal twice a day for three days this week: bread, butter and jam. But we have coffee here too it made things all better :)

Ha I am not dying to leave here, these are just some funny happenings that made me laugh this week. I will miss you Peruuuuu!!!!! Yesyerday we went out to a small village that doesnt have light or water yet, and did our kids program for them, and it went so well, the kids all wanted to pray with us and we gave them kids Bibles... thats when I remember why we are here!

Rio Seco.. the ¨Dry River¨

2009-05-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

Traditional Arequipa hat and a fuzzy Alpaca hat... I want it!

Waiting for the sheep to cross the road.. normal

Monkeys in the fruit market.. also normal

We went to a mission dental clinic to support some missionaries from Ohio and Virginia.. I don´t know why but they trusted me with a tooth polishing machine and let me, Tere and Lindz clean Peruvian´s teeth. It was fun and now I practically have my dental license.

This is how almost all the women here carry their babies.. in a bright colored woven blanket tied to their back. Apparently it doesn´t hurt at all and is way easier. I would only be afraid that I would accidentally hit my kid´s head on the doorways and walls when I turned around.

Tere cleaning teeth

Beautiful Arequipa

This is a really bad picture of some of us at and English school we went to.. we talked to them for an hour, got to know them, asked them basic questions in English, and at the end prayed with a few of them to accept Christ. All in all it was a good day!!

The beginning of the end....

We only have 10 days left! I am running out of shampoo, sunscreen, bug spray and I probably have like three articles of clothing that aren´t totally covered in paint, stains, or aren´t ripped and torn. I can´t remember the last night of good sleep I´ve had, and anyone who knows me can guess that I would kill for a CBTL Southern Blend. I´d say it´s about time to be done with this whole outreach thing.

But... I am definitely not ¨over it¨. On the contrary, I am starting to get sad when I think about this thing ending! I can´t imagine not living with my team, who I share every second of every day with, and I can´t imagine coming home so soon! I know God still has more to teach us and more to show us... even though this last church is very small and they all work so no one is here to work with us during the day. So sometimes we´re a little bored, especially since staying at the future YWAM base was sooo busy, but it´s nice to have some down time in the mornings. This town is called Rio Seco, which means ¨Dry River¨... hmm interesting name choice, guys. Feeling oxymoronic?

The other day we were walking by a police training building and heard gunshots, and saw men in a car with black masks on... turns out they were doing a hostage situation simulation and invited us over to watch them. It was so cool! It was like SWAT team training, and they had guys in ski masks drive into the complex with a hostage, bring him into a room in the building, then all the police guys ran in with guns, rappelled from the roof to break into the windows, and get the guys out... we felt like we were in a James Bond movie! But with a Peruvian James Bond.

One thing we are learning that it´s always the times we feel least equipped and least energetic, yet we say yes to what God wants us to do, are the times He uses us the most. For example, yesterday we waiting around all day for someone to come to the church and take us to a plaza to work with youth there. But no one came. We were really tired and not wanting to go, but finally someone came at 4 pm (not 9 am like they told us!) and took us to the plaza, where we ended up doing dramas and prayed with a bunch of people to accept Christ! Shea and I prayed with a group of kids who were so open and receptive, it was amazing to see. It´s honestly so much easier and more effective to let God work through you than do anything on your own power.. it´s always through His power anyway!

Ahhh only ten more days then back to the base, then to Conception to Dani and Tere´s houses, then to Canada with my family, then home in July, then up to Santa Barbara again someday.... I can´t wait!!! It´s always an adventure...

Pachacutec and Arequipa in technicolor...

2009-05-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Giving the girls facials! We are so dirty all the time that when we actually put on makeup or do our hair we say ¨wow you look really outreach pretty today¨ because theres really only so pretty you can get when your on outreach!

In the Plaza Espana - very pretty!

In front of the Palace of Justice, which is kind of the joke of Arequipa because it´s a city known for a very corrupt justice system. Basically if you have money, youre free, and if not, you might end up in the prison for a long time.

Ha Lindz and I with our awesome makeup. Ahhh gotta love it!

In between dramas and evangelism in the plaza...

The gorgeous Andes

This little boy, Jose, had been waiting to find out if he needed another operation, and when we came back to visit him the next week he was on his way out and we JUST caught him in time to pray for him. He was leaving to go to Lima for the operation, we were so thankful God brought us back in the nick of time to pray for him!

Me and little Zahid

Me and Lindz in front of the beautiful Andes, even though in this picture you cant see them!

This is a really pretty Catholic church, but it´s suuuper creepy inside - it has all these sculptures of demons and Jesus all bloody on the cross and Mary dying in her bed. It´s very into images, which is a huge problem with the Catholic church here. Almost everyone we talk to says theyre
Catholic and pray to their saints and images, so we´ve been trying to give them the truth to free them from this idolatry!

This is after the infamous night of sleeping pills on the bus. This is Lindsey saying ¨Brooke last night my hands were numb!¨

One Brazillian and three blondes = party time at the wedding!

My first Peruvian wedding!

hahaha Tere and I going for the bride´s bouquet

Marc, Andre, Lindsey and I holding CUY! its like a little South American hamster that they eat here all the time. we still havent tried it though, which is okay cause theyre so cute I don´t really want to!

2009-05-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

Arequipa, the ¨White City¨... some thoughts....

I wonder if they call Arequipa la ¨cuidad blanca¨ because there are so many American and European tourists here. Or maybe because of the white snow-capped mountains that surround the city? Either way, its pretty here and we are enjoying not being the freak show walking down the street, hearing ¨gringos!¨everywhere we go. For whatever reason Arequipa is called the ¨white city¨, its a win-win.

After almost two weeks here, it´s been a really productive, really busy, really fruitful time. We have had a crazy schedule, leaving the house every morning with two or three stops and returning when its dark outside, so the time is flying by! We are living in a nice house which will be the YWAM base here when they establish the base next year. We each have our own, real bed and there are three bathrooms!! Usually we have one bathroom thats dirty and without real running water for all twelve of us, so this is a big step up.

-This city is soooo beautiful with amazing architecture, fountains, plazas, and cathedrals that reminds me a lot of Paris, Berlin, Italy or Geneva... it´s the European city of South America, which explains why so many Europeans come here. They can ¨travel South America¨ without feeling like they´re actually IN South America.. and they don´t even have to learn a word of Spanish to vacation here! I am surprused by how defensive I am of South America; when I see gringos here who clearly dont speak Spanish or try to know the real culture at all, I´m like ¨why are you here? buy your souvenoirs and go home!¨, but how many times have I been in their position? At least it makes me feel like a South American more and more :)

-We´ve been visiting hospitals and prisons to pray with people and share God´s Word with them, which is super emotionally draining, but a powerful way to bless the city and bring light into the darkness here. Some of the people I´ve prayed with have been crying and telling me their stories and it´s really sad to hear them and see how the medical system is so poor here. We basically just walked into the hospital, said we wanted to visit people, and were able to go anywhere, without being checked or having to wash our hands. Don´t want to think about how many germs and bacterias WE probably got from going there! One girl we prayed with was only 15 and had kidney failure, mental handicaps, and has an 11-month old baby. Another can´t afford to stay in the hospital and out of work longer so is going home without recvering from their operation correctly and will probably get an infection, but they have no other choice. One woman broke down crying when we told her God loved her and had a plan for her, and it turned out she didnt believe in God or that a God could love her because she had abused one of her 6 children. All we could do was pray with her, and she accepted Jesus as her Savior, but it´s hard knowing we will never see her again or be able to encourage her more. It´s in God´s hands now.

-One interesting thing about the city here is that it´s much more traditional, the people come from the Incans and still have some of the ¨conquered¨ peoples´ mindset. For example, when you talk to them, they barely look you in the eye and they speak veeeerrryyy softly and mumbly. I seriously can never understand them. Only a small percentage of the people speak Quecuah, which is the native Incan language here, and they think it will be a dead language within ten years. Everything is wayyy cheaper here but we´re also all going broke so thats a good thing!

-I preached in Spanish! To the youth group at the church we´re working with.. and I´m pretty sure they actually understood me! It was a message about our identity in Christ, and I had planned on giving it in English with a translator but at the last minute I decided I shuold try in Spanish and it went so well... its amazing how big God´s plans to use us are if we actually let Him use us how He wants to. I´ve also prayed with a few people in Spanish to accept Christ which has been really cool to experience! Thanks God!

-We are trying to finish strong as a team, we´ve had some interesting culture clashes lately but nothing some prayer and Bible verses can´t handle. God is good! He also healed my stomach (we thought I had a bacteria or something cause I was sick for a while) so that´s made a big difference in quality of life here. Thanks God!

Thanks for your prayers, keep praying for health, unity, to finish strong and keep laying the foundation for a YWAM base here. For protection and guidance.

Image update

2009-05-05T15:20:00.001-07:00

Here are a few from someone else´s camera, I will post mine soon too.

Our Pachacutec family! A fun night of learning Peruvian dances and games ended in a dogpile

Some of my Pachacutec family

Eating on the patio - do you see my face?

(hint: it´s the really white one amidst the sea of Latinos)

I thought we´de never make it...

2009-05-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

Well after an 18 hour bus ride through the desert, over treacherous moutain passes and past beautiful beach cliffs (which we thought would be the end of us all), we made it to Arequipa alive. But let me back up a little bit.

This last week in Pachecutec was my favorite week so far, probably because it was kind of a ¨rest week¨ and we were in my favorite place so far. We thought we were going to be in Arequipa a week ago, but this is YWAM and nothing is certain until it happens, so we stayed an extra week in Pachacutec. It was so nice to have some down time, invest in the church by cleaning, painting, building, and helping prepare for the church´s first wedding!

One of the pastor´s 12 kids was getting married, and basically we were the guests of honor! One person from our team read a poem for the couple, one girl from our team sang a song at the reception, and we all danced and played games all night. It was really fun to experience a wedding in another culture, especially feeling like we were part of the family. I will miss our cute little pastor who called us all ¨hermana¨ or ¨hermano¨ (sister/brother) cause he couldnt remember our names after two weeks! The night before we left we had a ¨culture night¨ and all made food from our countries to thank them and give them a taste of our cultures. Lindsey and I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and now everyone reaaaally wants to come to America. These people don´t know what real desserts are, they only eat packaged cookies or rice pudding! I feel kind of bad cause maybe we should have let them live in blissful ignorance, but it´s too late now. Plus WE wanted to make the cookies for ourselves too :) Then we all sang songs in all our different languages and taught them kids songs and games from our countries. We even taught them the Chicken Dance and they loved it, then did Brazilian dances and sang in Swiss-German. It was a very ¨It´s a Small World¨ kind of a night.

After a long, tearful goodbye to everyone and writing out our emails like 1000 times to every little kid in town, we piled into three cars and literally raced across Lima, weaving in and out of traffic and barely missing mopeds, to make it to the bus station on time. But we weren´t on time, we were ten minutes late and the bus was pulling out of the station and one of the cars with our team members wasn´t there yet. So half of us were on the bus, all our luggage was on the bus, Felipe and I were saying bye to the guys from Pachacutec that drove us there, and the bus literally started pulling out of the driveway and into the street. So Felipe and I are running after it yelling in the driver´s window ¨please, please, give us five more minutes!¨, and I figured this was a good time to play the blonde American card and I start saying ¨we´re missionaries here from seven different countries, we´ve traveled so far to bless your country, I´m all the way from California, and we need our whole team, they are girls and shouldnt travel alone, please please please!¨ and they actually stopped and waited! So the other car finally arrived, ran onto the bus as it started moving again, and we were off. Lindsey and I took sleeping pills which made us both really loopy and made our hands feel weirdly heavy and useless and weak, like we couldnt open our bags or flex our hands. In the middle of the night I spent some time in the semi-darkness of the bus staring at my hands trying to flex them, thinking ¨what the heck is wrong with my hands?? they arent moving! These aren´t even Peruvian sleeping pills, theyre from Target!¨ but in the end I slept ok and I am happy to report that I now have full control of my fingers.

Overall our team is doing well, we of course are tired and running out of steam, but last week was a little bit re-energizing and restful. Only three and a half weeks left, and out of all the things God has showed us so far, I can only imagine there is much more in store. My prayer is to stay focused and motivated to keep loving and serving the people here, which is hard if the end is in sight and we all are excited to go back to the base in Pichilemu. But I know God has more to show us, and more to work in us and more to do in the churches and people here in Arequipa. One thing He really showed me through the church in Pachcutec was service and dedication. The pastor´s family is all so loving, so dedicated to serving the people and the church there, so strong in hard times, and God is their Rock above all else. Even though they live humbly, and we were there to serve them, they gave us so much and loved us so much, and it was a blessing just to know them.

Also keep praying for our health, somebody is always sick, which usually includes me since my stomach does not like Peru very much, but overall we´re good.

I have some really good pictures I promise I will post soon!! XOXO love you all

CRAZY stuff happening in Comas

2009-04-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

CRAZY HAPPENINGS IN COMAS...

Listen to this...

So the other night we were doing our drama and evangelism thing as usual, in front of a church in the street, when a weird looking drunk guy came stumbling up and started talking to some of us girls. We immediately called over one of the guys, and this man started telling them he would destroy this church because he had legions of demons encamped around it, he hated them and would kill them, and he knew all about their past. So by then we realized that not only is this man drunk, but he is definitely possessed. He was making really creepy signals to us girls, like pointing at his eyes then pointing at us, and we called over the guys with the church to get him out of there. We had already started the dramas, so we switched over to a drama that shows the power Jesus has over the power of darkness, and this man started coming closer and closer to our group. After a guy from our team explained the drama, he asked everyone to pray for more of the Holy Spirit´s power over the church and over the place we were at, and when we were praying our whole team was praying directly at this man. The whole time he was making these weird signals and looking DIRECTLY at me and my friend Tere. So we started praying even louder things in Jesus´name, and every time we said Jesus´name this man would kind of cringe and shake his head and put his thumbs down.

By this point some of the girls were getting freaked out and upset, but the man turned away and walked down the street. We could just feel this spiritual struggle going on as we finished up the program, and Tere and I saw the man watching us from around the corner one block down. Sure enough, when we started leaving, all walking very close together with guys out in front, the man jumped out in front of us and started speaking really weird, slurred language that was barely even Spanish. Andre, Mark, Felipe and the pastor with us blocked him from us girls, we went around the corner down the street with other members of the church who were with us, and the guys started talking to him. Basically they started rebuking the spirit in him and praying over him and telling the spirit to get out of him. The man wasn´t acting dangerous anymore, he was kind of weak now and on the ground rolling around sometimes, but this went on for about an hour while us girls were praying around the corner.

In the end, the man actually accepted their prayer, rebuked the spirit inside of him, and prayed a prayer accepting Jesus as his Savior. Our God is THAT big! There is so much power in His name!! But even though this guy prayed with them, he was still acting weird and trying to follow us when we left. There were even police nearby that told us they would take care of him if he followed us, but when we turned around, they were gone and the man was still behind us. So we kept walking faster, and Felipe took us girls back a different way to the church, while Andre and the pastor went a very long way hom to lose the guy. We prayed A LOT that night over our team, over our safety, over our minds and spirits after seeing all of that happen, and over our sleep and dreams. After seeing something so intense and so spiritual, if you have a spirit of fear it can definitely open doors in your heart and mind for the enemy to attack you, but God has been protecting us so much, both when that happened and since then.

It was such a crazy experience that opened our eyes even more to the reality of the spiritual warfare going on around our team. Sometimes the enemy is attacking our unity, sometimes our health, sometimes our energy, sometimes our willingness to serve, but this time the enemy was directly attacking us through this man, and the power of the name of Jesus was really our only weapon. But the victory is already ours, and His name is all we need.

Besides that crazy night, we have had lots of other struggles here, including lots of sicknesses (all of us Americans are still sick and having problems with the food), sick of living out of the suitcase and always being sooo dirty from the dirt roads and lack of real showers here, LOTS of sleeping problems, a hard time working with the pastor of this church, and just tiredness. We are SO tired. Seriously pray that God gives us energy!! Doing two or three programs every day, plus not being able to eat what we want, when we want, plus being sick, plus getting poor sleep for the past two months has taken it´s toll. Also pray that God decides to strike dead the roosters here. There are actually three or four gigantic roosters living IN this church with us. Yes, you heard me right. The live inside the church with us, and the only thing separating the room where we sleep from the rooster´s home is a tarp which is supposedly a wall but really its a tarp. And that guy I told you about earlier is not the only thing demon-possessed around here, because I am convinced the roosters have evil spirits inside of them because they DO NOT STOP CROWING. It´s actually incredible how much they crow. Like every five minutes from 3 am until midnight. It´s insane. That´s why we havent slept much here! We are definitely learning how to rely on His forces and asking for the joy of the Lord to be our strength.

On another note, we are all really excited because we´re leaving Monday and staying in Pachacutec with the last church we went to, until Tuesday when we leave for Ariquipa! By the end of our week in Pachecutec, we all fell in love with the people there and all us girls cried when we left, ha! They were the most generous, loving, fun, welcoming church we had been to, and I really didnt want to leave. Basically the whole church is one big family, literally, because the pastor has 12 kids, and along with half of them being married and having kids, the whole church is all related. Plus they all loved us a lot and didnt want us to leave, all the kids in the town loooved us and we had so much fun working with them. The last night there was the most fun - after a concert by a Christian rapper from Dominican Republic which was amazing and brought 15 or so gangster kids off the streets and converted to Christ (so cool! I am bringing a CD home, don´t worry you will all be rapping in Spanish soon), they had a goodbye party for us and taught us all the traditional Peruvian dances and games. It was such a great time of sharing stories with them, learning more about their culture, and feeling like a part of their church family. A few of them actually drove here (two hours away!) just to visit us yesterday and conviced our leader Felipe to agree to come back to Pachacutec Monday until Tuesday night :) It will be a huge relief to leave here even one day earlier, especially because the church here consists of nine people in TOTAL and the pastor has been really hard to work with. Pachacutec here we come, then onto the home stretch of the outreach in Ariquipa!

If there is one thing this outreach has been showing me, although there are thousands of things I am learning, it is APPRECIATION!!! It really is true that you don´t know what you´ve got till it´s gone... even just a hot shower in a clean bathroom would be an unbelievable luxury right now. Having toilets that work, having clean clothes, going out to eat in a restaraunt, walking down clean streets that aren´t covered with barking dogs, dead dogs, dog poop or tons of trash, watching real, non-bootleg movies in English... all of these are simple things I will definitely be ready to enjoy again when I come home. But on the other hand, these are the conditions that these people live in every day, and they won´t be able to escape this reality at the end of the outreach and go home like we are looking forward to doing. They are home. This is their life.

Sometimes that makes me feel really hopeless, sometimes I feel very snobby and almost superior against my will simply because I can say ¨Only one more month then I can go home and be clean again¨ and they will never live in a clean place. In the end, the only thing we can do is our part. Love them while we are here, serve them, bring them the gospel that will never leave them hungry, and keep praying for them when we leave. Sometimes is doesnt feel like enough, but we are called to do our part and God is also showing us that we can´t save the world and it´s in His hands. Thank God for that! He is holding our team together, He is working in us and through us...

Ok time to go because I am finally talking to Kels on Skype. Love you sister!!

Pictures!

2009-04-17T10:38:00.001-07:00

Finally pics loaded!

The graffiti in Lurin was beautiful!

Working with the church, painting in Lima.

We visited an anorexia and bulimia rehab center for young girls. It was so cool to talk to them, pray with them, share more of God´s perfect love for them in their time of healing. By far one of my favorite experiences.

Yep, dead dogs in the road. Watch your step.

The church´s feeding center for children in Lurin. Sometimes the only meal they eat all day.

A fun day swimming in our clothes at the top surf spot in Pichilemu, Punto de Lobos, before we split up into our outreach teams. Les extrano!

Freedom!

This is what the streets looked like in Lurin, lots of dogs, brick houses side by side, and dirt roads.

Wow. The buses in Lima... wow.

Pachacutec

2009-04-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit these pictures aren´t mine, but they will give you an idea of what it looks like here...

This is our view from the top of the hill in Pachacutec. I got this picture off google images because it takes an hour to upload from cameras onto these computers, but this is exactly what my pictures look like so here you go. It looks like this as far as you can see, these shacks absolutely cover the hills all the way down to the beach and in the valleys.

A beautiful view of Lima´s main City Hall type building. Some sort of government building. Or maybe it was a Catholic church? Actually I never found out exactly what it was, but I know it was pretty!

Mototaxis! These things zip around Lima sooo fast and nearly knock you off your feet if you step off the curb without looking. Next time you´re in Lima, I advise you to look both ways, and keep any wayward children on a leash.

Obviously I did not take this picutre, but we went to this plaza above the beach and I actually had a STARBUCKS FRAPUCCHINO. Thank you God.

Here is a picture of the pastor and some people from the Calvary Chapel church in Lurin we stayed with... their website is http://www.calvarychapelvida.com/Lurin-eng-donde_estamos.htm if you want to look them up!

Update wishes granted....

Last week we were in the city of Lima, living in the church downtown, which was really fun! We slept on these thin pads, which was not good for the back but oh well, and families from the church would bring us food at the church. The pastor and his family were soooo wonderful, their son and daughter both did their EDE in Pichilemu, so they totally understood what our purpose was there and set up a whole agenda for us to do. Which was really really helpful and effective, I was thankful for their planning so we could use our time more effectively. We went around to lots of elementary schools and did kids programs with dramas and teachings and dances and stuff, The pastor really liked me though and kept telling me how his son was single and was a man of God and is praying for his wife and wants to marry a gringa, and I was just like ´take it easy pastor Luis!´ But don´t worry mom, I made it out of there single, with no plans to move here for good. Plus none of them could even say my name so that might not work out so well.

Then again, the pastor at the other church still thinks my name is Bread because he couldnt say Brooke, and my friend Tere thinks Chase´s name is Cheese, Blake is Black, Ron is Rum, Cheryl is Cherry and Kelsie is Calcium, so basically she thinks its the funniest thing in the world that the weird American families name everyone after food (and one color) and altogether we make a complete meal. Everytime we talk about my family Tere starts laughing so hard and asking me if I am talking about Cheese, Cherry, Rum or Calcium. Hahah ohh man.

So now we are now in a town called Pachacutec, which is about an hour outside of Lima. Its such a crazy place with a short history, there are thousands and thousands of blocks of these shacks and small homes all built up on hills which are kind of more like sand dunes because this whole place is a desert. But its also near the beach, we have a great view of the ocean and of the faraway mountains in the distance and its actually really beautiful. The whole area was purely desert, with no houses, no anything, only nine years ago, and the government opened up the land to build homes for people who had no homes or couldnt make a living in the cities. Then nine years ago they all moved here and within about one year the whole valley was filled with houses as far as you can see. They have only had electricity and water for a couple of years, before that they used lanterns and generators, and a truck came around and pumped water into cisterns for them each week. Seriously life is hard here. But the church we are living at has been growing, and they are SOO excited we are here. Every day we go eat our meals at a different house, and they are so welcoming and generous. It´s actually kind of heartbreaking because you know they are giving to us from what they don´t have. Like they might not eat the next day because they are bending over backwards to give us everything they have today. We pray over their houses and for their families, and they are always really thankful for our prayers and for just having us there.

Gos has been teaching me a LOT about seeing things through His eyes, and how privileged we really are back home. Some of these people work so hard all day, and the fathers don´t even see their children because they all leave to go on a bus at 5 am for two hours to start work in the city at 7 am until 7 pm them get home at 9 pm when their kids are asleep, all so they can buy enough food just for the next day. But the church here is building up the community and they people are encouraged, it´s been cool to just hang out with them, encourage them, do some drama programs for them and bring in some new teachings for them. The church is mostly pretty young, they have a rock band and seriously BLAST their spanish versions of Jeremy Camp and Hillsong and Chris Tomlin louder than any church I have ever been to because its a small room but they play it soooo loud! Its fun though. You can hear the services starting from a mile away, literally. We are trying to get the youth here more grounded and firm in their faith so when we leave they will still be dedicated, because a lot of them are coming just to see the gringos or to hear the music.
Monday we leave for Lima again, and then moving onto Ariquipa, which is farther north. I think it´s more in the country and kindof a poor area like here. Supposedly it will be colder there, which is good cause its soo hot here during the day.

Keep praying for our team unity, we´ve definitely been dealing with some cultural issues lately. We have seven different cultures on our team of 12 people, so its been interesting. Some little tiny things that you dont normally notice about your culture, like how comfortable you are with interrupting, or pointing out other´s faults, or how you view hospitality, are all magnified when we´re living and travelling together in a new culture. For example, some of the South Americans are a lot more comfortable interrupting or being more open and confrontational than North Americans or Europeans are used to being, so we´ve had to all give and take a little to not have tensions or have an ´us and them´ situation. There are so many things we have to renounce about our culture and we´re all trying to live above our cultures. Sometimes people use their culture as an excuse for a character flaw or even a sinful attitude or habit, and there are lots of things God is teaching us all about ourselves and our cultures as we live together and learn from each other. Sounds corny, but its really a big part of what we´re learning!

Also pray for our health, someone on the other team, Alex from Canada, had a bad fever a few days ago and we thought it was yellow fever but I guess it´s not and he is improving. Four of us here have gotten pretty sick from the food, myself included this week, and we lived in the bathroom yesterday, which is super fun with all 12 of us have only one bathroom, haha! But God is healing our group, the pastors prayed over us and today we´re all alot better.

One other thing that has been sooo funny here is riding the buses! Way more than half the cars on the road are either taxis, buses or vans converted into mini buses, and seriously they drive like CRAZY people. And the buses dont really have bus stops, route numbers or anything, you just read on the front of the bus where its headed, and wave it down and it stops for you, then the little man who stands in the entry way yells SUBE SUBE SUBE which means GET ON GET ON GET ON, and you cram into this tiny bus and usually youre standing up, holding onto the bar with your armpit in the face of some Peruvian person sitting down, and when they drive youre falling all over everyone cause traffic laws are more like guidelines here, and then when you get to your destination the little man yells BAJA BAJA BAJA which means GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF and you get off as fast as you can cause they take off after like two seconds. I am so glad I have made it on and off every time our team all crams onto a bus, cause sometimes if youre the last person youre literally running next to the bus, jumping on as its moving. Ahh South American public transportation, there is nothing like it!

Alright I will try to put on pictures soon but it takes forever to upload here. thanks everyone again for your prayers, they help in ways we will never know. Yesterday I was feeling horrible and not loving being here sick, but even then I had a sweet time in God´s presence and seeking Him for our team, and later at night the pastor prayed over us and I could feel His presence again. Then today I had an email from my sister telling me she took a walk yesterday and prayed for me to specifically feel God´s presence radiating out of where I was. How cool is that? God cares for us so personally and intimately! Thanks Kels I love you!

Jesus is King over Lima and Pichilemu, Poway and Santa Barbara, Chicago and Montecito, today tomorrow and forever :)

Some things to think about...

2009-04-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

As we walk around the dirt streets here and see shacks made of cardboard in litter-filled lots right next to huge, air-conditioned, gated houses, where kids are walking around in shoes two sizes too small, with nothing to eat for dinner and no one to clean the dirt off their faces, there is a lot to think about and lots of questions flooding my mind.

One of my Westmont buddies from Page Hall days, Ryan Zoradi, recently went down to El Salvador for a few months after graduation to discover for himself how he can make an impact on the poor and needy, and an email he wrote expressed a lot of what I am thinking and figuring out here. So instead of trying to re-write it, I am going to share some of it with you all. I you are impacted as much as I was.

¨I would love to insert a clean little conclusion here about all that I have learned over the last six and a half months, how I figured myself out with all this time to think, and how I can tangibly measure all that I have done in this community. The reality is living in poverty, and poverty itself, is messy. I'm always asking myself: What is the best way to help my friends in need? When does charity become reliance and manipulation? Is it ok to even call my friends here poor? Likewise, judging my personal growth is equally challenging. Have I become more selfish or less since arriving? Will I indulge in American comforts more or less when I've gone this long without them? Why can I only see how far I have to go as a person when I feel like I´ve come so far?

Clearly I will leave with more questions than answers, but I prefer questions because they elicit dialogue—and this is where you come in. I would rather talk to you one on one about my questions and what I've learned than try to explain it all here. Dialogue is a two-way street and allows both of us to question, receive feedback, and see themes from a new angle. And honestly, a one-way sermon via email will so quickly turn into me pretending like I have life figured out and/or you swiftly hitting the "back to inbox" button, so let's not go there. With dialogue in mind, I am going to list off a few questions that we can try and answer together next time we talk or email. Also, they will help you avoid the ole "How was El Salvador?" question (but don't feel bad if you still ask it).

What is the importance of consistency in relationships?
What is the difference between top-down community development and bottom-up?
Why is it so important to do the little things well?
What is competition's place in the world of nonprofits?
Can we grit our teeth and force ourselves to act more like Jesus through habit or a change in environment?
Why is serving others so unnatural?
What is a biblical view of globalization? Where do the cross and outsourcing
meet?

I want to leave you with a quick story, something to hold onto until we get a chance to talk more in depth. It is a story of God redeeming me and working through me, of Him taking a heart that has been hardened by wealth and apathy, and softening it through one pair of big brown eyes. I have to back up a bit and first clarify that I came to El Salvador to learn how to care about the poor. Because honestly, I don't think I used to care. Halfway, three-quarters of the way through my trip, I desperately wanted to dwell with the poor, I really wanted to care, but I avoided them. I knew which neighborhoods were most impoverished and I just didn't go there. I picked up Mother Teresa's My Life for the Poor, which can be read in an hour, and didn't finish it for almost three months. The book was too convicting, too true, too simple, and too messy. Even starting to love like she did would turn my life on its head. I want to control things and surround myself with people who make me feel loved and popular, who have something to offer me, not those who drain my energy and take advantage of me—the outcasts, the dirty, the needy, the weak, and the abused.

Then God starting doing that thing that He does. I went to Nicaragua and saw sons of prostitutes, daughters of drug dealers, and children who just couldn't safely go home anymore, cared for and loved. I read Robert Lupton's For Theirs is the Kingdom (a very highly recommended, brief read) and listened to my friend Micah say at the Thanksgiving table she was thankful that "God is with the poor, that they are special to Him." I ran into some kids I used to hang out with whose mom can't consistently put food on the table. Then I saw those big brown eyes. They belonged to a dark-haired twelve year-old girl and I don't even know her name. Tattered clothes. Dirt from head to toe. Knees bent unnaturally inward. Huge smile. By her mumbling, I could tell she was mentally challenged, she couldn't make out a word, but her eyes spoke for her. She was fixed on me, maybe because I'm a gringo, but I think because she was hoping I would love her. I then watched in disbelief as her little brother beat her over the back with a three-finger-thick stick. The other kids laughed, claiming it was ok because she didn't cry, and therefore, she must not feel pain. I ran to her, fighting through the stench of feces and threw my arms around her, saying "No, ella es bonita…ella es bonita." I then noticed a piece of string resting on her foot. At first, I thought it was just a piece of rope that got caught on her while she was running barefoot. Then, I realized it was tied around her ankle and there was another piece attached to it, dragging a few feet behind. Her family kept her tied up. She didn't feel pain and she needed to be tied up, I don't think they considered her fully human. I do think that she needed that hug, and so did I.

Mother Teresa once said, "It is Christ you tend in the poor. It is his wounds you bathe, his sores you clean, his limbs you bandage. See beyond appearances, hear the words Jesus pronounced long ago. They are still operative today: What you do to the least of mine, you do it to me. When you serve the poor, you serve our Lord Jesus Christ." I´m convinced it wasn't me running to help that girl, it was the Holy Spirit answering my prayer and working through me. The Holy Spirit in me tended to the presence of Christ in her. The perfect love of the Trinity, in action, right before my eyes. Because of this experience and countless others, my time in El Salvador, was worth it. ¨

Wow. I have many similar quesitons and experiences that have been swimming around in my head, and Ryan you put them into words far more eloquently than I ever could. We are Christ´s hands and feet on this earth, and when we care for the lost, forgotten, lonely, dirty, hungry and unloved, we are caring for Christ Himself. Thanks for your example and words Ryan, I needed them all the way down here in Peru...

2009-03-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

LIMAAAAA

I am officially in Lima. Well actually about two hours outside of Lima, in Lurin.

We are at the pastor's house right now-It was his daughter's birthday andwe had a pinata and cake. So we're excited. We were all sitting around watching the daughter and her friends do the pinata, trying to hold ourselves back while they all ran for the candy, but when Lindsey yelled "THERE"S GUM!" we all pushed the kids aside and went for the gum like our lives depended on it. All this to say, gum is hard to come by in these parts, but right now I am chewing some so I'm set for today.

Things have been going well here, our team is working well together,the church was really prepared to have us here and planned a lot for us to do, and the kids love having us here. It's been so cool to see what theyre doing here, with the church and they have a feeding center that gives kids food during the day in between school sessions(sponders from churches in the Us "adopt" kids to pay for their food to keep it running) and there are missionaries living here from a Calvary Chapel in Ft. Lauderdale. Actually the church we are with here is a Calvary Chapel church so I love seeing the dove behind the pulpit and when the pastor wears a Hawaiian shirt I am REALLY at home. They sing a lot of the same worship songs as churches in the states, but of course in Spanish so it's been fun to learn those.

Living situations are hard here though - we do have matresses, and we eat a LOT (they watch you to make sure you eat everything, because they really do express love and hospitality through serving food), and we scoped out where they have Coke Zero (hard to find Diet soda), so we're figuring it out. But overall its very poor, with dirt roads, brick houses, dogs running around everywhere, dead dogs in the street, cockroaches, lots of mosquitos, its really hot, and we cant drink the water so if we forget to buy enough we kind of just have to deal with being thirsty and dehydrated. So as you can tell, its been tough living here, and we all miss Pichilemu, the base, the other half of our DTS class which is in Argentina right now, but overall things are good here.
We've been doing a lot of evangelism and the people are really responsive to us especially because we stand out so much and are different. We had dramas in the plaza last night and people stayed around talking to us all over the park for almost two hours after, we gave lots of people information about the church here, played with the kids forever and prayed with some people, too. God is definitely working here, even if it seems slow sometimes. I can't imagine how these missionaries gave up so much to live here, taking cold saltwater showers with water from the ocean, walking around in the dirt all the time (someday I will post a picture of our feet, I have never been so dirty), being so poor here and still seeing so much need here. Some of the kids don't eat any meals during the day except the ones they get from the feeding center. But the church has already changed the community, one family at a time, and are building up the youth group in the church so they are seeing some fruit.

Today we went to the beach and it made me feel more at home, yet more homesick at the same time. Miss everyone! Please keep praying for us, we need it:

-for UNITY - we are nothing if we aren't unified. the enemy is using any tactic he can to tear down our team or wedge between us, but we are praying a lot for unity and living together 24/7 has been hard but God is the glue, so it's stronger!
-for open doors for evangelism - for the peoples' hearts here, for tirelessness
-to see things here through God's eyes, for perserverance
-for tough stomachs (we eat chicken and rice every day, which is fine but sometimes we have cow stomach and we have to eat it, some people have gotten pretty sick so pray God will give us tough stomachs!)
-for the church here, the missionaries living here, protection over my family back home :)

love you all, thanks for reading and being here with me in spirit in Lima

Well....

2009-03-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

So here's some more updates.

- The base is busting at the seams: we have two DTS's back from outreaches, a Counseling School about to start, an English school and then my DTS is about to head out next week, so the base is super full right now. Which I love! We are hearing about all the other outreaches, where they went, the miracles that happened, the crazy stuff they ate.. it's getting us excited! The past week God has done some amazing stuff here with our team - I think God provided for about five people who didnt have any money for the outreach, freed them of job obligations at home, worked on their parents' hearts so they would have their blessing to go on outreach instead of go back to school right away... we feel like God is testing our faith a little bit every day as if we are products in a factory being tested before being shipped out to actually be used. But we still have quite a few people here with no money, or who don't think they can go. One week left. More than enough time for a few more miracles.

-We had a HUGE swim meet this weekend with over 400 people from all over Chile competing. I was an official timer (why do they trust me so much? they gave me so much power over these poor Chileans' destinies), and it was so cool to see the base filled with new faces. One funny part of the story is that my new friend Cody, who is the younger brother of my friend Caitlin from Reality in SB, came to the meet too. He is studying in Santiago and randomly came to the base to help out on weekends he has off, and he convinced one of his friends from school to compete in the meet with him. They happen to be on the Stanford swim team, and Cody's friend happens to be Peter Marshall, who placed fourth in the US Olympic tryouts and held five world records in swimming last year. So we had an Olympian competing, and the Chileans went nuts for him of course (it was so entertaining to watch all the Chileans crowd around this really tall, really white guy who speaks ZERO Spanish, asking him to sign their speedos and swim caps), which was a cool opportunity to give him the mic and let him preach... he would announce a record he had broken, they would all go crazy cheering, he would say the Olympic-level achievements he's made, they would all scream... then he said "Yeah God has blessed me for sure. I've had the opportunity to achieve many of my goals. But I wanna ask you a question... can you tell me who held the world record for tehe 50-meter backstroke last year? Or five years ago?" And all 400 people went silent. He said, "I didnt think so. That stuff fades, the only thing that will last is your relationship with Jesus Christ"... it was an awesome weekend of hard work and welcoming tons of new people to the base, but in the end those five minutes of Peter giving the glory to the Lord was what it was all about. And I didn't have to swim in this meet, thank God!

-God has been doing some intense healing and work through our classes these past couple of weeks. Some topics have been: pride and humility, service, relationships, spiritual parenting, worship and praise, spiritual gifts, identity... here are some of the things that stuck out most to me:
*The only way we can know our true identity is to know who God truly is. Then we can rest in how He created us to be, what His purpose is for us, where we're headed. It's so freeing!
*Spiritual gifts are just one grape on the whole cluster of ministry... their purpose is service to Christ and to the body, not for our glory or to be our "church credentials". But the grape cluster should be flavorful, multi-branched and enjoyable for others, grapes arent made just to look pretty - you eat them! Serve where you are, with what you have, and your service will have purpose and fulfillment. If you're not serving (reflecting Jesus) in the church (His house), why are you there? To sit there and look pretty? Get up.
*Humility is part of your true identity in Christ because He is the personification of humility. Pride is the opposite of humility, so pride is reflecting the opposite of Jesus, so pride really reflects the character of the enemy. You can't have pride in any form (even false/fake humility) and be reflecting Jesus at the same time. It's literally impossible. Are you reflecting the perfect Creator of heaven and earth who died for you, or the devil who is just a bully with no true power? Your actions will speak for themselves.

-God has really been pouring out his mercy and blessings on us - the first half of the DTS was kind of where God breaks you open, you see how much you need to be healed, he cuts out the wound you kept putting band-aids on and it hurts so badly to see it for what it is, but the second half has been when he heals it deeper, pours out goodness and peace and the more we are seeing who He is, the more we trust Him to really cut out and heal our wounds. Then he can give us pretty, new hearts that He can actually use.

-Love is definitely in the air here. We have two new couples in my DTS alone, who are under strict probation since you're not allowed to date during the DTS (which I think is a good rule- this time is for seeking the Lord, not a husband/wife), not to mention all the leaders who are either engaged or reuniting after one was on outreach... its pretty crazy to see all thse multi-cultural marriages and couples (this base has seen 56 inter-cultural marriages since it's existence 15 yrs ago!). It comes with it's own set of problems and complexities to work through, but I love seeing their ministries as a couple go beyond the barriers cultures and languages usually present. Of course on the outside it seems impossible when a Korean girl and a Brazilian guy start falling in love, to the world it's insanity and will never work, you have to overcome differences in your languages, your cultures, your families, raising your children, balancing your families and parents' influence, your church upbringing.... But I say, whatever, God is
bigger. Get over it. All the half-and-half kids running around here are so cute too!

-I think I am a little bit in the second and third stages of cultural adapation: the Honeymoon Phase where you're still draped in the safety and comfort of your own country's flag while admiring everything about the new culture is transitioning a little bit into Culture Shock phase. That's when you have to give up some of your own culture, take off your flag more to actually take on the flag and culture of the new place, and of course there are bound to be clashes. Some examples: there are so many little differences in the way cultures ask to borrow things! some cultures here just take it without asking, some are offended if you even ask, some are offended if you DO ask and don't consider everything they have as yours (its saying youre not family, you're strangers), some consider everything of yours belongs to them too... I could go into detail about the historical background and cultural context that shapes each culture to have those concepts about borrowing and sharing, but basically this is just one example of cultural contexts that we're all learning to work through as we live together, study together, do everything together 24/7. Another is the way different cultures follow rules, prepare meals, clean (you would be shocked if I told you the way some of these people "clean" here. seriously, you have to use a different towel to dry the dishes. you can't use the one you cleaned the bathroom floor with. i know it's a crazy concept, but I am going to put my foot down about this one), sleeping habits, thinking about family and friendship, asking questions, obeying authority, speaking up if you need help... the list goes on and on.

And then basically the third phase of cultural adapation is the Working Phase, when you have to put in the time somewhere, learn the language, study the history, learn the customs, and give up a part of your culture to make room for absorbing all this new identity of the new culture. We are a little bit in this phase, but living in such a multi-cultural base makes the Culture Shock and Working Phases a bit softer, because everyone is adapting together to many culture (you're not alone, we have translators, everyone is in the same boat, you're not thrown completely into a new culture all at once and totally submerged in it, it's like baby steps), but it also makes it more difficult and complicated (you're adapting to 45 different cultures at once, hearing so many languages all the time). I am loving the tension an challenege of it all, and I truly believe you have to give up a little bit of your culture to gain the amazing new perspectives from a different culture. It's worth it. It sounds so corny, but you really will learn so much more from someone different from you than you can ever teach them. A lot of Americans come in with this cultural superiority or clinging to their culture, and you really have to shed a lot of that if you want to be embraced here and if you want to embrace the new place as well. To paraphrase a quote by somebody that I saw somewhere this one time someplace, "Life is a book; if you're living it without travelling to different places and sharing in different cultures, you are only reading one page."

Ok this has been long enough. Thanks again for all the loving emails and prayer :)

2009-02-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-02-18T15:04:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-02-06T14:07:00.000-08:00

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....

2009-01-24T11:07:00.000-08:00

I have some prayer requests for you:

-for unity in our group- we are together 24/7 so we need grace and patience with one another to be an effective team!
-for health and physical strength - many of us are sick and worn down... please pray for headaches, sicknesses, fatigue and more rest!
-for guidance in preparation for our outreach, and our mini-outreach in San Vicente, Chile in February
-for language acquisition and absorption of information
-for strength in persverance - to keep going and learning everyone God has for us! To put fear and doubt aside and know His calling for each of us

Thank you!!!
Brooke

2009-01-24T10:21:00.000-08:00

Mas fotos:

Working on our set list so we can take it to the road... teaching them some songs in English and joining the band

Jam sesh

We're with the band...

Hanging out after class...

Maia mi amor

lunch with the entire DTS and staff

Thanksgiving Chilean- style

Me and Ana Paola, Daniela and Terea... my partners in crime!

Meet Danielita, my long lost Chilean sister! She is as crazy as I am, and we are always getting in trouble for laughing in class or being late. This was during a particularly interesting dance party...

Andre and Teresa serenading me...

Cute chicas

power! the cutest chilean in the world

Teaching our Chilean friends some new songs... these brothers are amazing musicians (the ones who let us join their band for an afternoon). We learned a lot from them and will probably see them in San Vicente on our mini-outreach

Joel, our interpreter's adorable son. He now calls me Tia Brooke because I got him ice cream once. I am winning him over one candy at a time.

Such a fun day at the beach with friends from San Vicente, South Korea, US and Chile. Mini, in the front with me, is here practicing her English and picking up one Spanish phrase a week. Right now I think all she says is ""Muy bien! Gracias!"to any question in the highest-pitched voice possible. So cute! This is also the day of the dead penguin sighting.

Helping our old man friend make our empanadas.

an intense week!

2009-01-20T18:44:00.000-08:00

Pictures: 1) my roommates singing worship songs in three languages, so beautiful! 2/3) some of my kings kids campers :)

Wow. I don't even know where to start. So much has happened, God has done so much in the last week... so here are a few of my thoughts, memories, events, things I have learned, new revelations, funny moments, etc. of recent days in no particular order:

-King's Kids, a youth camp most YWAM bases have during the summer, ended this weekend - which made me really sad because I got super-attached to some of the kids and loved learning all the worship songs in Spanish with them... learning more Spanish from them, dancing with them, playing with them, praying for them.. it was a special week and God is always stirring more desires in my heart to work with kids (Spanish in particular?)

-this week a few of us girls stayed behind after lunch and taught the worship band Blessed Be Your Name and sang with them while they showed their amazing musical talents in an impromptu jam sesh - some of us could barely understand each other's languages, but when we are singing praises together it doesnt matter! It was such an amazing, special few hours which immediately transitioned into guitar lessons, which I have been practicing each day and can now play the chorus of that song :) I am on my way!

-things I miss: Reality and Sunday School, Home Group and Mon. Night Prayer, my house, my bed, Target, Coffee Bean, Nordy's Cafe, having free time, driving on the freeway, sleeping in, obviously friends and family

-things I dont miss AT ALL: traffic, my cell phone (NOT ONE BIT), wearing shoes (I never do here), paved roads, all the trashy music, TV shows, movies and commercials we're surrounded by, buying gas, American money, my all-white, all-English, wonderbread bubble... I am starting to see the world more and more through God's eyes, without the lines on the map and the language barriers that are only a result of man's sin and desire to glorify himself (think Tower of Babel)

-praying Korean-style is awesome! hearing prayers in Spanish, English, German, Korean, Portuguese, and South African (I forget which language exactly) all at once is so beautiful. I truly believe hearing people pray in other languages reveals a different side of God's character to you. He made that culture and that language different for a reason and it shows another side of His heart to you!

-we are learning about the Father heart of God and how sin in the world distorts the lens through which we see God. He is slowly changing our lenses so we can see Him for who He is - true, just, loving, all-knowing, forgiving, perfect, holy, mighty, righteous, etc.., not who we think He is because of how people are or how sin makes us think. What is holding you back from truly believing God is who the Bible says He is? What parts of His character are hard for you to accept? Try answering these honestly, its really hard.

-our teacher for the week, Claude Bonjour (such a cute French name!), has asked God to send him to a different country each year for speaking and missions and teaching. What a cool request, and God is answering it ten-fold.

-I discovered that none of the dogs I has been training are named "Pulgas". I kept hearing people say that when I played with the dogs, and when I woke up covered in small red itchy bumps I found out pulgas is Spanish for fleas. I am 99.9% sure my bed has fleas now, but I bought Raid so hopefully that will terminate the pulgas. Now I know. Puppy training is over.

-we had an interesting discussion about why God wants us to intercede, if He is all-knowing and all-powerful. the best analogy for me is thinking of Him as a father making cookies with His child - it takes a lot longer, it's a lot messier and He may have to re-do it, He could do it better and much more easily without us, but it's the time learning and spent laughing together in the kitchen that He really delights in and longs for

-learning a new language IS spiritual warfare because we are learning Spanish (or English for some) to serve the Lord's plan, so of course the enemy will attack. But I am asking God for Spanish and He is faithful!

-Chile has never heard of Splenda. It's a difficult cultural barrier to overcome, but I have discovered Dur-Sul, which is basically liquid splenda. So I'm okay now.

-we are learning some interesting dramas to do on the streets for outreaches and Brazilian dances. I am also learning to play futbol Brazilian-style, which is like a dance itself

-sitting in class staring at a world map behind the speaker all day has an effect on my heart and mind all its own. Just seeing it in the background is powerful. So many people who God loves and wants them to know Him.

-I am in love with the name of God Almighty in Spanish - Todopoderoso. Literally translated it says: "all" (todo) "can do" (poder) "one who" (oso)... one who can do all things! Me gusta mucho.

-praise God for who He is, not just for what He's done for you. His character alone is enough to praise forever. all He's done for us is an undeserved bonus reason to praise Him. dont make your praise selfish.

-the other day a dead penguin floated up from the south of Chile (which is really cold and has glaciers, who knew?) and landed on our beach, where the native children proceeded to pick it up, carry it around and play with it to make it waddle. while their mothers watched and laughed. seriously?

-Our church has literally 20 people, 8 being from my DTS. It's run by a family in their home and the worship leader is straight out of Napolean Dynamite, with his glasses and short pants and fist held up in the air very awkwardly as he sings to very old school organ music that grandma plays from the living room. classic. gotta see it to believe it.

I will add pics soon! and I have many prayer requests on the way.

three surfers and a llama

2009-01-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

Although I had heard the stories, I didn't quite believe them. But yes, it has been confirmed: llama-sightings on the beaches of Pichilemu. Maia, Lindsey, Carlos (from Chile), Andre (from Brazil) and I went with our Brazilian friend Beto, who is covered in Hawaiian and Brazilian tattoos, has super long dreadlocks and never ever wears shoes, to go surfing... and we finally saw one! My llama was all dolled up for pictures because it's tourist season here, the beaches are packed, and nothing is free during tourist season (you have to pay to take a picture with him!). The water was cold, but Maia, Beto and I braved it and even caught a few waves. Sort of.

estoy aqui!

2009-01-13T11:52:00.001-08:00

Pictures: Summer missions camp on the base, our multi-lingual leader ship team, my room and the girls common room

Here's the basic rundown: I am here safe, after a long plane ride next to a chatty Christian lady from Oklahoma and a four hour car ride with a Canadian and two Chileans. Everything with customs and luggage fell into place very easily. The only way to describe the base is to imagine you're at camp. And you're here! There are cabanas (cabins), staff houses, a comedor (cafeteria), a chapel, etc.. The class is very multicutural and we begin tomorrow, today we are just getting to know everyone. Everyone is way too nice and I already feel like my Spanish has doubled! There are four Americans, two Brazilians, six Chileans, one Canadian, one Dutch, two Swiss, two Argentinians and one kid who grew up in France but has lived in Burkina Faso for the last ten years! So shoutout to Chase. The couple who is running the DTS are Chilenos, and another German family is staff with the DTS but are both fluent in Spanish and their kids speak English,German and Spanish too- they are pretty awesome little kids!

Our group is very diverse (15 girls, 9 guys) and everyone is always learning each other´s language and trying to speak Spanish or Swiss or Portuguese - which makes some veryinteresting conversations! The weather is warm here during the day,but until lunchtime it is actually really really cold because we´re so close to the water and the marine layer is very cloudy. I am wearing the same jeans and my Uggs every single day until lunch so hopefully I can find some other pants or socks to buy here because it will only get colder when we enter fall. But the base is nice, its all dusty and dirt roads and it feels like Kids Kingdom in Mexico meets Hume Lake, but without all the lake activities at a camp. We are really close to the town area, and there are horse-drawn taxis, little carnivals (we went on a spinny ride at a carnival last night - very shady), the beach and a boardwalk with lots of tourists and surfers because its summer here. It´s a cute, colorful little town and everyone is really friendly.

They definitely put us to work here! We have a very rigid schedule of classes where international speakers or past YWAMers or pastors come and talk about our topic (right now, how to hear God´s voice), or anall-base chapel service where we sing worship songs in Spanish and each verse again in English so we can learn all the words, work time for two hours a day (trash duty, cleaning, kitchen duty, etc), "study time" where we do our assignments or read, then we have ten minutes each to shower and then lights out at eleven. But we do have two hours of free time each day, and an internet cafe, a pool, soccer field, volleyball courts, and there are like fifteen dogs here that my friend Lindsay and I are teaching to fetch. Lindsay and Maia are from Oregon and Sacramento respectively and I am so glad theyre here - we all get so tired of thinking so hard to say one simple thing in Spanish and its so nice to relax with them and speak English without thinking and talk about music or Starbucks or things no one else here understands! The work is hard, and we are expected to do anything they need help with, but it´s cool to know we´re a part of something that a lot of amazing people have given their life to build up. There are sooo many families here that have been here for years and their passion is building up youth to know God and take His message all over the world. Everyone here has like ten jobs and they work so hard expanding the base and reaching out to the community, but they are so happy to be here and so excited about everything going on here that its encouraging and amazing to be a part of it.

The best message I have been learning to far was from a lesson about God´s voice - the speaker reminded us of all the ways we can hear God´s voice (the Bible, Holy Spirit, conscience, thoughts, dreams,other people, circumstances, history, memories...), and she said that whenever you think God hasn´t been speaking to you, look back at the last time you heard His voice and see if you obeyed it. If not, why would He be telling you something new to obey? If you havent been obedient in the small things, why would He entrust you with bigger dreams or ministries? It´s a good message, and I am applying it to little things here I am trying to be thankful for, like when there is sugar for the coffee in the morning, or if the water is hot for my shower (it usually is, thank God!), and by working hard in the little things like trash duty, if I want God to use me in bigger things or teach me deeper truths here.

The Spanish thing is very interesting here, I am happy to report that I am not the worst Spanish speaker by FAR. I am actually able to keepup here because they know we´re slow and stupid gringos, but I speak so much better than they other Americans and Canadians. There are two Swiss girls who speak Spanish about as well as I do, and we´re the top three gringas. Yay! Thanks Los Arroyos! It´s been amazing to see how much I can soak up and improve in just a week here. I think a huge factor is that the entire DTS is bilingual, so everything we do (class, worship, chapel), has a Spanish speaker and a translator who repeats each section again in English. Hearing it and seeing it side-by-side does wonders for my language acquisition!
Alright time to go eat the empanadas I helped make for lunch. They are very creative here with the little food they have, but they actually make decent meals here. Breakfast is usually bread, jam, real dulce de leche, coffee and tea; lunch is soup, rice and chicken, or a sandwichand fruit; dinner is actually American-style a lot, like hamburgers,hot dogs, etc. I will update more soon!

Love you all! Miss you too

A Motion Begins...

2009-01-03T18:52:00.000-08:00

Time to go! I am finishing some last minute emailing and packing, but I am ready... really ready. I have my passport, airline tickets, Spanish books, bilingual Bibles, sunscreen and bug repellent loaded into a tiny roller suitcase which is bursting with everything I will possess for 6 months.

Here is how this crazy trip came about:

When I first decided to go to Chile, it really was a whim. I wanted to travel, go somewhere new (originally to more comfort-zone-friendly Australia), meet new people (who spoke English)... then I asked God what He wanted me to do. He always has a better answer! He put me in a job where I could learn more Spanish in one week than I ever learned in high school, and I became friends with so many incredible people working there. So I asked God for some opportunities to tell them who He is, and He opened more doors than I could follow through with (keep praying for my friends there and visit them at Los Arroyos if you're in SB!) It has been so amazing to see God working there in the personal relationships I formed there - He has His eye on some hearts there He wants for His own!

The harder I tried to apply for YWAM bases in Australia, the more rejection emails I got (those seem to be much more popular for American and European YWAMers and fill up faster), so some friends named Tricia and Kevin asked me why I wasn't going on a DTS to a Spanish-speaking country since God had obviously been laying it on my heart to learn Spanish for some reason and giving me witnessing opportunities with my Mexican friends. I didn't have a good answer to give them, so I applied. The first base to get back to me was Pichilemu, so I confirmed. And in the following month and a half, I quit my job, said bye to Reality and my Sunday School class I have taught on and off for four years, moved out of my cozy Santa Barbara apartment I have shared with the best roommates ever, said bye to my friends and family in San Diego who made me who I am today, and I am heading off to a small surf town in Chile where I know absolutely no one, have no idea what it will be like there, what the food is like, where I will be living... but I wouldn't have it any other way. I do know I will have internet there, so I will try to keep you updated.

I feel like the journey has already begun though: God has also been preparing my heart in so many ways through my women's prayer with Reality (thanks girls! keep praying for me please!) and my insanely awesome Reality HomeGroup (don't forget to adopt me!). He has given people around me some really powerful visions and words of encouragement that keep my eyes focused on Him, but they also reveal to me that this is something bigger than just a simple 6-month foreign exchange vacation. He has begun a motion in my heart towards missions and the Latino countries I am headed and I don't know if it will look more like the classrooms full of Spanish-speaking students I have been teaching back in SB or something entirely new and different in a new and different place, but it's all part of the journey towards finding where He wants to use me. And the surprises and twists along the way are so much more fun!! I keep saying this is like a romantic getaway the Lord is taking me on, away from all the distractions of day-to-day life where I can really fall in love... with Him, with His Word, with prayer, with the culture and language and people there, with life!

So to answer the questions I have been asked over and over: :)

-I don't know yet where I am going on my outreach. I will tell you when I know... It will be with a DTS team of ten or so others from my base in Pichilemu.

-I speak only conversational Spanish... but I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself and ask a million questions so I hope to learn quickly!

-I am coming back to San Diego July 1st, then back to Santa Barbara for the fall. Absolutely no job plans yet.

-I will be traveling around Chile and neighboring countries on some free weekends and the tail-end of my trip in June.. any destination suggestions or travel companionship offers?

-Yes, I can surf. I am not very good. At all. But I can!

-And yes, there are llamas that hang out on the black-sand beaches there. No, I don't think I am allowed to ride llama-back. But that doesn't mean I won't try.

Love you all!

My Prayer Newsletter

2009-01-03T18:46:00.000-08:00

Friends and Family,

Pray! I am leaving January 4th, 2009 for Pichilemu, a small surfing town in the middle of Chile, where I will be living from Jan-March. I will be part of a DTS (Discipleship Training School) with Youth with a Mission, an international Christian youth- and missions-oriented ministry, and taking classes with students from all over the world in missions training, Biblical studies and ministry. Then the real work begins! Each DTS team is sent to a different country in South America or Africa to minister to a school, orphanage, church or community that needs practical aid but mostly just needs love and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God has already begun a great work in me in Santa Barbara by giving me an obsession with learning Spanish, which He has already used to tell people I work with who He is - it’s so cool how God uses every little random experience and opportunity to His glory if we let Him! Now I am so excited to go somewhere new, learn more about His heart for the nations, do His work, surf and learn more Spanish.

Breathe a sigh of relief: this is not a support letter, God already provided everything I need to go to Pichilemu... but I NEED your prayers.

Please ask the Lord:

-for safety, smooth travels, health

-language acquisition :) por favor!

-my time in Pichilemu: friendships, classes, drawing near to the Lord

-my DTS team: unity, guidance to the right project/country, effectiveness

-my outreach: (either in S.America or Africa) : for soft hearts in all the people we will work with

-for everything to be done for God’s glory and bring people back to Him

Thank you so much for your prayers and love!

| Brooke |

2008-12-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

Coming soon!