SBS and BCC

The sound of raindrops outside the feel of humidity in the air. Yes I am still in Hawaii! How do I get so lucky? Serving God definately has it's perks. But there is the occasional, sometimes more frequent, difficulty. But with this post we'll just stick with the positive:)
Less than one month left to go in the Bible course. I am proud of how far the students have come and how much they have learned. They have really worked hard and have gotten a lot of understanding from the time spent in the word. I myself have learned a lot with grading, staffing a ywam school and speaking for a week. I had the chance to teach an Old Testament overveiw with Will a fellow staff member. It was a great experince and I really got to see a lot of God's character more clearly. I think the biggest thing that I learned was how BIG God's love is for us.....there are no words to describe it really other than it's impossible for mankind to fully understand the depth of God's love for us, His creation! It blows me away again and again whenever I look at the exodus or the kings and how God's chosen people constantly turned their back on Him and yet He still chose to love them. He still choses to love us even when we screw up again and again and make the same mistake over and over again. Out God is truly amazing and is worthy of our love in return.

I love the 3 month ywam Bible course. It is a great oppurtunity to dig in and focus totally on the Bible. I would highly recomend it to anyone who has done a DTS. You get to learn so much about the Bible using the inductive Bible Study method. I know this is a pitch for the BCC but thats ok:) Seeing as I'll be leading the next school in Tijuana this September I would love to see you come. God Bless and I hope to see you there!!

First time being an A builder!!

“I’ve got a secret. This was my first time being an A builder.”
I said this, this past weekend at the dedication of house build that I had the privilege of leading for the first time. I was pretty nervous as you can imagine! Before the team arrived I planned, asked many questions, prayed, hoped for the best and lost some sleep. Many of my questions had to do with doing the electrical. I’ve never done any electrical before so I was a little nervous going in. The team was from Orange County California and they built 4 houses here in the Tijuana area. There were more than 20 people on the team that I lead and they were from the ages of 10 to 60. Families who came down to serve and to have a family experience together. The family we built for consisted of a mother her grown son who is married and a sister. The married couple had some hard times. She was very pregnant and he just had an emergency surgery to have his appendix removed. So they both needed help getting around.
Thanks to the team from Orange County they got a brand new house with tight corners and a leak proof roof! Praise God. And God answered my prayers and their turned out to be an electrical engineer on the team so all the electrical was done right! I suppose this was the first of many more A builder jobs for me. The best part was that during the dedication it started raining. A christening of the house kinda.


Since then however is hasn’t stopped raining! We have had 4 days of rainy and stormy weather with power outages here and there. It’s been an interesting couple days!

Faith Theme

During the course of this Bible school I've noticed that there have been a couple of theme's running through every book. Whether it's Genesis, Philemon, or Kings their has been a red thread connecting them all. They have all been speaking to me specifically about faith, trust, waiting and seeking God. The Faith theme has really stood out though, more than the others. As I look back through the course the most impacting story has to be Abraham. Which is not surprising seeing as he is credited to be our father of faith.
I have really fallen in love with Abraham's story. The faith that he had is something that I want to have and strive for. I was challenged by Genesis 12:1. God didn't tell Abram where he was to go He just said move out of your fathers house to the land I'll show you. And Abram left, He moved. He didn't wait for confirmation, he didn't wait for God to say where, he just packed up his family and possessions and moved. People must have thought he was crazy! But that didn't matter. I think to often I get caught up in being sure of things. I realized I'm partially scared of the unknown. I want to be sure of my future. Where I'll be, what I'll be doing, when I'll be going and who with. I want to be positive that the next step is the right step. But I've realized that sometimes God doesn't give you all the answers. Sometimes He just wants us to walk in faith while He gives us one step at a time.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard this message but finally I get it. It's one thing to hear something preached but it's another to live through it.
I'm not positive what's next, and I'm not sure how I'll get there or when it will happen. But God has the master plan and I have faith that He will direct me on the path. All I have to do is to continue walking and seeking Him first, listening for His direction.
Thanks for your prayers and support!! They've been greatly appreciated, more than you know!! God Bless and I'll talk to you soon:)

Hungry!!

As we are nearing the half way mark in this Biblical Core Course I am realizing how much I don't know about the Bible and God but also how much I want to know. So far we have done the books Philemon, Ephesians, Mark, and now Acts. It is incredible to understand the historical background of the books. For example the book of Philemon is a personal letter to Philemon from Paul. Why is a personal letter in the bible? Well if you look into it and take time taking the letter apart and looking at history you will realize that Paul is calling Philemon to be a loving brother who shows no favoritism. Paul says to Philemon to welcome Onesimus as he would him(Paul) which is amazing because Onesimus is supposed to be Philemon's slave. (Look it up in a Bible Dictionary) And Onesimus is inspiring in this book. He puts his life in God's hands and basically says ok God do with my life whatever you will. Pretty trusting I think.
This week is Acts and the golden nugget I've taken away so far from the teachings this week is the new and old wineskin's. A wineskin in those days were made of letter and when a new wineskin was filled with new wine it would expand because of the gas that formed inside. Then after time the leather would become hard and stiff. So once a old wineskin was emptied it wouldn't be useful for wine anymore because if it was filled again it would burst because the leather was already hard and stiff and it wouldn't stretch like a new wineskin would. So how are we living today? As new wineskin's, open and willing to be stretched or are we like an old wineskin that is stubborn and stiff necked unwilling to change or be stretched. Are we being stretched or do we need to burst to change. I hope its stretched because bursting sounds painful:) God Bless everyone! Thank you for all your prayers and support! Miss you all!

What did I get myself into!!!!

God has sure taken me for a ride the past couple weeks! I went from staffing the DTS in Tijuana to finding out there wasn't one 5 days before it was supposed to start. So what next God? But God always has a plan and its always better than the one I have. Thank you Jesus! So after I found out that I was no longer staffing the DTS I felt God leading me to do the Biblical Core Course that was starting in Ensenada on September 27. So after a very short but intense process I ended up packing my bags and headed to Ensenada in time for the school to start.
There are nine of us students taking the school and we all think that it is a challenge! We are now in the third week of the school and it has been a huge blessing and encouragement to me. Last week we studied the book of Philemon. Philemon is only 25 verses but there is a surprising amount of timeless truths in it. We are learning how to study the Bible by inductive study method. Which is observing the text thoroughly and researching the historical background as well as the culture before making an interpretation of how the original hearer or reader would have taken the text. Then we make an interpretation for us today. There is a lot of work but I am really liking it so far.
The biggest truth that I got out of Philemon was trusting in God. Onesimus ran away which can be punishable by death. So when he returned to his master Philemon he was trusting God with his life.
This week is the study of Ephesians. I'm looking forward to what will be revealed to me this week. Thanks for reading, praying and your support! God Bless.

Responsibility

This week I have been in training for Discipleship Training School staff. It’s amazing to think that 2 years ago I was attending a DTS and had no thought of ever staffing one. Go d has a funny way of leading you to places where you least expected to be.
The whole idea of discipling people makes me a little nervous but anything is possible with the strength of Jesus Christ. This week has been really good. Are speaker this week is Art Collins and he has been teaching us to really act what we say. The importance of integrity in discipleship is key. I am learning how much of a responsibility discipleship is and I’m not even in the process of discipling anyone yet. But I know that God will be with me every step of the way and if I walk with Him and obey Him then I can’t go wrong.
Are DTS starts in less than 2 weeks and so far we have 10 students. 3 are from Mexico, 1 from Canada and 6 are American. God has good things in store for this DTS and I am excited to see God move and work in the students’ lives. Even in the staff. It should be a great time of learning and stretching for me personally and probably for the rest of the staff and students. Please pray that I will be able to show Godly character to each and every student. God Bless.

30 red shirts

Smiling faces, the sound of laughter and a museum! When I was in school, I found museums so boring. I could focus for a little bit but it did not take long to feel bored and want to leave.
Circulo Andante (the children’s ministry here in Tijuana), decided to bless the children that attend with the opportunity to go to a museum, with their parent’s permission of course. Around 10 staff from the YWAM base and about 20 kids ranging from the age of 4 to 12 from Circulo Andante, left in 3 vans to go to the Tijuana Science Museum. Only one student had ever been to a museum before, so everyone was excited and it was extremely hard to keep the students from running in the museum.
The kids took part in almost every display. There were displays showing how to make energy, bubbles, human anatomy exhibits, music, mechanics, sea life and many others. There were smiles on every child’s face, none of them could contain their happiness. To end the museum experience, everyone got to see a 3D movie about dinosaurs. We all loved it! After that we had a quick bite to eat and headed back to drop the children off. Many of the smaller ones fell asleep on the drive back and one little girl, Nancy; I had to carry back to her house. Hopefully the museum accomplished more than just bringing happiness to children. I hope it planted ideas in their minds that expanded the possibilities of what they can do with their futures. Lord willing, this experience helped break the chains of poverty. Thank you to all who helped and prayed! You made a difference!