Oh Yikes!

September 22 to December17 without a single update. How does that happen? I really don't know. Well here I am again and I will say that I am making a pre-New Year's resolution right now. That is too update this thing on a bi-weekly basis. Maybe I will eventually make it to a weekly update but we won't push anything yet. I will briefly cover the last 3 and a half month's. Highlights only because I know I can be long winded.

September was mostly me trying to get a handle on my job while getting settled into the house I am living in. I live in a truly international house right now. I have two permanent roomates, one from Fiji and one from California. We also have two "refugees" staying with us for the moment. One lady is from the Dominican Republic and the other is from Columbia. Both of these ladies are on staff down in Ensenada but have been kicked out of Mexico for the time being as our bases in Mexico have had some problems with immigration lately.
October really picked up as we had constant house building teams week after week. My energy went specifically into the business teams that our major financial donors come from. Most of these teams consist of corporate big wigs that don't understand the concept of a "mission's trip". They come to take part in a humanitarian effort and stay in 5 star resort's while in Mexico. It is a wonderful thing to hear the conversation in the van's morph from complaining about their house keepers to marveling at how fortunate they are by the end of their "effort". The funnest part is when they realize that none of the YWAM staff who are with them are payed to do what we do and we then get to explain why we do it. I've had some wonderful times of sharing Jesus and what He has done in my life with these people.
October also saw us hosting the week long DNA conference at our Ensenada base. over 300 YWAM'ers came from all over Mexico, the states and latin america to hear from Loren & Darleen Cunningham (the founders of YWAM) and David Hamilton (a strategic genius on world wide missions). For me it was a special time of seeing old friends, reviewing core curriculum from the LEadership Training School I did in '04 and God bringing new wholness to area's of my life.
November was when I learned how far I can push myself before I crash, and I did crash. I needlessly pushed myself too far in my work load and saying yes too one too many things before I woke up with the migraine of my life that caused me to vomit repeatedly. I'm still trying to figure out how to lay those boundries down before I push myself over the edge and am still recovering from too much. I actually came home from work just last week, layed down and woke up over 13 hours later. I guess I needed sleep. Thankfully I have a wonderful boss who gives me the freedom to stop when I need to. She has learned that she needs to tell me to stop at times now also.
For now I look forward to being home with my family for Christmas. The last 5 Christmas's have been spent in New Zealand, Mexico or India. So this will be a change and I just may freeze to death. My sister and I are planning on doing a special Christmas Eve ethnic feast of tamales, curry and egyptian food (my brother spent the past year in Egypt) to honor the cultures that are so much a part of my life now and I know I will miss dearly this Christmas season.
Thank you so much for reading and expect to hear from me again the beginning of January.
Feliz Navidad y Dios te bendiga (Merry Christmas and God bless)



I'm a bit of a diva

My Life Now

I drove and I drove and I drove some more. The landscape began with rugged forested mountains and lush green hills which gradually gave way to tawny prairie landscapes and then cactus littered desert. Along the way I marveled at the diversity and beauty of land that God created seemingly for my enjoyment alone.



From Calgary to San Diego I stopped often to spend time with dearly loved family and friends. After about 30 hours of driving and many U2 albums later I arrived in my new city of residence, sunny San Diego.

I am beginning to love this time of stepping into a whole new adventure with God. These times of leaving the blessings of the past behind and turning to the unknown blessings of the future.

I have now been officially at work in the development office of YWAM San DIego/Baja for the past two weeks now. The adjustment has been a little slow as far as finding a church, figuring out how I fit into my old friends lives again (they are all engaged or newly married now which throws a different spin on things) and so on. But I am finding all kinds of other things to do on my own that I always wished I had time to do. I finally took up knitting so now I can use up the balls and balls of yarn I bought the last time I was in India. I've been enjoying running more than ever before, and reading up a storm. Now I just need to find a tennis partner and I will be set.

In the office I have been busy preparing for all the house building teams that are starting to come down to build houses in Mexico for so many family's that are in need. There is a lot of work that needs to go into making things run smoothly so that this wonderful ministry of mercy can continue. Please pray for a sharp mind to absorb all the information and tasks flying around in my mind.

In other news I am so happy to be a double aunty now. My sister had her first baby, Katelyn, on June 14th and my best friend from Idaho had her first baby, Kaiden, July 13th. They are both an absolute joy to my life! Please be praying for Kaiden as he has been in the hospital for the past month and a half. If you would like to know more about his condition please check the blog that I have been updating daily for him. www.kaidenmurillo.blogspot.com


Aunty Felicia


Katelyn June Hildebrant

Kaiden Ezra Murillo

Extended Family

I have realized lately what an incredible circle of support and love I have around me. So much so that I am comletely humbled and floored at the the people God has put in my life to lift me up and gently push me forward. Not only do I have the most precious and loving family and friends spread across many provinces and states, but I have my parents cicle of friends who I am increasingly greatful for. These are couples who have been a part of my life for many years, who have watched me grow up and loved me along the way. I am so blessed to have grown into not only someone they are proud of but someone I can call friend. I spent the evening having dinner with one of these couples that have known me since I was a baby. When I left the husband siad, "I may not be able to hold you on my lap anymore, but we sure are proud of you and love you still." God really never leaves me alone, He provided all that I need and has surrounded me with more spiritual family than I ever could have imagined. I am thankful.

Home again

Hi everyone. Ryan and i are both home safe and sound in Canada now. For the time being that is. Very recent developments have come about which will see me moving to San Diego to continue working with the YWAM ministry that I first was involved in years ago. I will give a concise update about this a bit later but just wanted to put that little bit out there for all to know about. Thank you SO much for all of your prayers while I was traveling. They were felt, dreamt about and appreciated.

Sleepless Whining

Well I seem to be doing really well at the forced jet lag game we are playing. For some reason we all decided to make ourselves stay up ridiculously late and then sleep in for the last week we are in Cairo. This way we won’t have so much jet lag to get over when we get home. I’m winning right now. It is currently 2:47 in the morning and I have had a lot of coffee to drink today. Speaking of coffee, normally I drink coffee to keep myself from getting a headache. But today coffee gave me a headache, or shall I say buying a coffee gave me a headache. I must start this story by saying that I had already woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning (doing puzzles until 2am may have had something to do with this) and then we made the unfortunate decision to visit the Pyramids. The first sign that this outing was to be a disaster was the fact that the Pyramids are crawling with camels. They are everywhere; even if you close your eyes to block the hideous sight of them you can still smell their stench. Then you have the owners of the camels who desperately want to charge you an outrageous amount of money to sit on their stinking animals. These camel drivers follow so closely at your heels mostly because they really want to see their camels step on you. They get quite a laugh out of this. On top of the camels, there are a lot of very forceful men who want to sell you something, give you something even pay you to buy something. It really can be wearing on the nerves. Once we finished with the Pyramids and I was now able to say that I had actually seen them from somewhere other than the Pizza Hut across the street, we took off for the mall. As the guys were shopping for guy clothes and I was shopping for girl clothes, we decided to split up for a bit. This also proved disastrous for me because every shop I went into was being “manned” by a man. This meant that I had Egyptian guy’s eyes boring into my flesh the whole time I perused the store. And then if I wanted to try something on, well that was a whole other level of awkwardness. By the time the three of us met up again I had nothing and they each had a couple bags of clothes. When does that ever happen? As we left the mall I remembered seeing a nice looking coffee shop across the street and decided to grab a cup of java to go. That’s when things really got messy. What should have been a fast and easy process ended up not only frustrating me, but I ended up making the well intentioned greeter/waiter/barista angry to top things off. I think it all went wrong when the nice guy was trying to help me decide which kind of cheesecake I REALLY wanted to have because I “looked hungry” when all I wanted was a regular coffee. He was pretty in my face at first and after all the other in my face I had had so far today, I gave him the hand. It was pretty much a blur after that between paying an outrageous price by Egyptian standards, finding out that I paid extra for whip cream when I can’t stand the stuff and just wanted cream and scaring all the employees with my frustration at the whole day. I think tomorrow I might need to go back and take them flowers or something to apologize. They will probably all run and hide though when they see me coming.
Besides today we haven’t done anything too eventful since we got back to Egypt. We are all pretty big readers I think, so we sit around and read a lot. The first day we were back we were so lazy we didn’t even leave the house once. We even ordered in McDonalds. Can you believe that? What a truly great civilization this is. Speaking of ordering in McDonalds and other ingenious conveniences, when I was in Israel I kept seeing Blockbuster DVD vending machines on the street. Why do we NOT have those in North America? Someone needs to get on that.
Tomorrow we are going to the deaf unit that Ryan’s WONDERFUL host family runs. I am really excited about that, it should be a sweet time. I’ll update you on all the exciting things to come in a few more days. In the meantime, here is a smattering of pictures from the past couple weeks for you to enjoy. Thank you for reading and good night.


Bedouin garage.


This is our friend Soodeya from South Korea and a Bedouin woman that I passed the breeze with for awhile.


Here is the monastary at Petra. If you look real close you can see a person standing in the doorway. That should give you an idea of the size of this structure. It is completely carved out of the mountain.


Oh I wish I could post this one bigger. It's genius. Matt is really just holding his hand up so that it appears he is holding a tiny flag of Jordan when really the flag is massive and 15 miles away.


Ryan and Matt goofing off on some ancient architecture at Jerash.


Little kids in the Jewish quarter of the old city.


Japanese CIA, Israeli CIA and soldiers hanging out below my balcony awaiting the arrivel of the Japanese Prime Minister. Never a dull moment at the Petra hostel.


Surfers in Tel Aviv


Palestinian kids showing off their superbe diving skills.


A view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa


The dome of the rock and the wailing wall below. It is PACKED on Friday nights. I was in happy tears watching all the dancing, rejoicing, praying, hugging and general comradrie of everyone all evening long.


A view of our hostel, the legendary Petra hostel just inside Jaffa gate. I found a book of 19th century photography of Jerusalem and there is a picture of this hostel with the same iron balconys even. My balcony is the second in from the left where there is a girl sitting (my friend Johanna from Sweden. The boys slept on the roof


The front dooe of the Church of the Sepulchure and a Armenian priest in the background


A Pelestinian kid I met in the Arab quarter of the old city. We had a heated disagreement about Zedane's little head butting incident during the final World Cup Game and played a little soccer.


Jewish kid at the wall.


Guy at the wall.


Prayer Shawl


Orthodox man.

Out Of Control

It seems like the last few days have been crazy. The most crazy being what I am sure you are all watching on the news over and over. Israel and Lebanon are close to being at war with each other, rockets are being fired back and forth and all seems to be normal here in Israel. Yesterday I layed on the beach in Tel Aviv all morning while army helicopters and planes flew north up the coast one after another. It was such a strange feeling to know that an hour and a half north of where I was getting a great tan, rockets were flying back and forth. (I hope my mom isn't having a heart attack right now) Yes there have been less people out and about the past couple days, but life seems to go on as usual here. I had quite a chuckle when I got back to the hostel last night to find about 30 people glued to CNN and on the phone trying to book flights home at the last minute. Jumpy I tell ya. Another fun event I got to witness was the Japanese Prime Minister coming to the old city. His entourage showed up right inside Jaffa gate under my balcony. It was a circus of Israeli soldiers, Japanese secret service and Israeli secret service. Craziness.
Today I went to the Holocaust museum. It took me 5 and a half hours to get through it all. I can't even put into words the impact it had on me. Everything was done so beautifuly/tragically. The rest of the afternoon has been a bit of a write off for me now. Have to go. the internet cafe is closing.

Where Am I From?

Today has been a shopping day today. I am officially cut off now, no more buying clothes for me for two more years! Well, It wasn't that bad, but pretty bad. Aunty Felicia took over for awhile too when I entered a baby clothes store. Ohhhh Katelyn, be excited. As I have perused streets and shops, I have gotten confused about where I'm from. Between over a dozen Israeli shop keepers telling me they could have sworn I was Israeli after I looked confused by their questions posed in Hebrew, too many Palestinian shop keepers saying, "I don't believe you are from Canada, you are American, too Spanish tourists asking me in spanish how to find Jaffa gate, I am getting really muddled in the head. And that my friends is the beauty of Jerusalem! The whole world is here and is one big mish mash, every culture blending and melding into a beautiful chaos. I love it. I am going up to Tel Aviv to see my Finnish friend Andreas in two more days. I did my DTS with him in New Zealand 5 years ago and haven't seen him since. Since my DTS I have actually only seen my fellow DTS'ers here in Israel, except my best DTS friend Clayton, I saw him for 10 minutes at Tim Hortons near the airport, Awwww, I miss Clayton. He has a great laugh, the throw your head back and put your whole body into it laugh. Everyone should meet him sometime. Maybe if I ever get married, him and his wife will be there and then you could be there and you will have to find the skinny Saskatchewan boy with the great laugh and introduce yourself. Bueno! Shalom to all.

They Are Everywhere!

They really are, YWAM'ers that is. I can't stop running into them over here. As we were leaving my brothers church last week, a group of hip young people came walking in. They stood out to me because they looked a little out of place amongst all the older ex-patriate types. As we walked down the street Ryan asked me if I had seen the YWAM'ers from Perth come in. This caused me to turn and go back as I had been trying to get in touch with anyone from Perth that was going to be involved in the city wide youth ralley that the Perth base was spearheading. Friends of mine were scheduled to speak at and participate in this event meant to get the local Christian young people fired up for Jesus. Very exciting stuff. Anyways, I got talking with them and sure enough a bunch of us had mutual friends so I was able to pass messages of greeting on to those I know that were on thier way.
Then again when I was wandering around the ancient ruins of Petra I spotted a young lady wearing a Mission Adventures backpack. We got talking and she told me that she was there with some other young couples who had all just moved to Jordan to learn Arabic and teach for 4 years. I later ran into the whole group at my hotel, we were staying in the same place. One of the guys happened to have staffed my best friends DTS in Orlando 6 years ago. It was so exciting to see so many coming to this part of the world that desperatly needs people that love Jesus and these nations. Praise god!

I Have Stooped

It's official, I have gone down to the depths of lowness that I never thought I would end up at. I am a tourist through and through. For some reason I have always had an intense aversion to becoming one of the tennis shoe wearing, camera carrying, loud voiced, awkward, out of place tourist types. This is the first time in my life that I have traveled for no other reason than to travel. I AM a big advocate of being in a place, learning the culture, language, knowing the people, knowing simple things such as where to get the best tacos, shwaerma or chai tea and how much to pay for it, how to get around town and where things are. I don't like to be a spectator, I want to be involved in my surroundings. Well today Matt informed me that I sound incredibly American. Apparently there have been a few times where Ryan said something to a local in a fairly clear and concise way only to have me back it up with a shouting voice accompanied by a southern drawl. 'Does this guy speak English?' How did this ever happen to me? I am absolutely mortified. So this week I am going to try and concentrate on becoming a little more Canadian again. I've noticed that no one here believes me when I say I am Canadian. Why is that? Just because I don't have a flag on my bag dosn't disqualify me.
In other news, we had a beautiful time in Petra the other day. I was blown away by the history, and craftsmanship of the place. If you have never heard of it look it up and read a bit. Here are a couple pictures from the day, the boys being goofy and suprise suprise, a camel kissing his boy. Despite my extreme aversion to camels I can't stop taking pictures of them. It's sickening! OK, sighing off for now. Felicia

Those Darn Camels!

I had almost forgotten how much I HATE Camels until last night when I was climbing Mt.Sianai for the second time. I believe my distaste for these poor miserable beasts began the last time I climbed Mt. Sianai and had them breathing down my neck in the desert darkness for 2 hours. It was the same thing again this time, coming around a corner only to stumble upon one of the silent creatures eerily staring me down. The only warning of them was the stench of their manure coated hides. And then the worst part of course is the Bedouin men whispering in low startling voices, "want to ride a camel? want to ride a camel?" I will dream those voices in my head for awhile. I really don't like those camels very much at all.
Besides that Matt and I had a very enjoyable hike up the mountian with our new traveling buddies Alex from Baltimore and Peter from Hungary. Ryan didn't come as he was having some slight bowel problems. Speaking of my cutie brother, he got some swimming lessons in the Red Sea today from Mr. Matt. He even made it out to where his feet couldn't touch bottom anymore without panicking. Such a good little swimmer. I had my camera ready to take pictures in case he started stuffing empty water bottles into his swim trunks to help him float after the example of Ahmed, the kid that was having alot of fun swimming by himself for a very long time. I got to lay out in a bathing suit today which made me extremely happy.
In other news we should be heading to Jordan tomorrow by boat where we will see some sights and then off to Israel!
Love to all who read this!

Back In Egypt

Yay! I'm here again and boy is it hot! I had a great trip, flying through Amsterdam where I had a 9 hour layover. I took advantage of such a chunk of time and got out of the airport to tour the city a little. I got to see Anne, Frank's hiding place, see how wooden clogs are made and even clunk around in a pair among other things. It was a very beautiful city and the tour made me want to go back for a real visit. I arrived in Cairo at 4am where my poor brother was waiting for me. We have been going going going since I got here and my jet lag is worsening over time. Hopefully I will get some sleep tomorrow. Today Matt(my brothers friend and now my friend) and I went downtown to get re-entry visa's and then hit the Cairo museum. I could not believe the amount of ancient artifacts that were in there. So mnay that some stuff was just propped up in corners and other random places. I found my favorite Shwarma stand today and ate up. Shwarma is this seriously delicious grilled beef with grilled tomatoe and onion and tahini sauce to top it off. mmmm. Tonight at church we had some lively African worship which I didn't get to fully participate in because I am wearing a very full skirt that was picking up all the airflow of the 89 ceilling fans whirring above me. Needless to say I had to keep my hands at my side to prevent my skirt from going over my head in the middle of the service. What a disaster that would have been. Tomorrow morning I will be sure to wear pants so I can groove to the music. Sorry this isn't very funny or entertaining right now as I am still in a bit of a sleepless daze! Peace ya'll!

Iced Tea Anyone?

Ok, so first I want everyone to go to www.hollhil.blogspot.com to see all the beautiful pictures of my new neice that I posted on Holly's blog. Now for the subject at hand. I am officially a freak. When I came home to canada I realized that all I ever drink at any resteraunt I go to is delicious, American unsweetened iced tea. But all you can get in Canada is that sickingly sweet syrup junk. Yech! I just can't handle it and I missed my unsweetened iced tea so badly that I developed my own way of getting what I want. When I go to a resteraunt or coffee shop now, I order two glasses filled to the top with ice and nothing else. Then I order a regular tea with only half the normal amount of hot water. I let the tea get really strong and then pour it over the ice to create my beloved unsweetened iced tea. ohhhh so good. But I can't tell you how many waiters and waitresses i have absolutley confused and befuddled by this process. None of them can ever figure out what in earth I am trying to do or even why I would do that. Ahhh, the pain of being misunderstood. I will do anything for that blessed tea though. And that's about all I have on my mind right now.

I'm An Aunty!

I don't have time to write but here are a few pics of Katelyn June Hildebrant. She was born at 12:51pm on June 14th. Weighed 6 lbs, 6oz and was 19 1/2" long. We love her!

Up Up And Away

Time to travel again. That's right, I bought a plane ticket to Egypt a few days ago and will soon be off on another adventure, this time with my brother. I'm not sure about you, but I find that there is something so wonderfully euphoric about the thought of getting on an airplane to fly half way around the world to another land. You never know what will happen along the way let alone once you get there. Just think of all the fascinating people there are to meet between here and there. The stories, the conversation, the crazy outfits, the people in love, the people running for who knows what reason. I find that airports are a veritable people watching paradise. Much the same way my mom could sit on the front porch watching birds and their habits for hours, I could sit in an airport and observe people for hours. How they move, the way they look around, their little fidgety habits, how their demeanor completely changes on the phone. It is all very fascinating to me.
Then there is the simple act of flying. Oh I love it so much. I always say, "the more layovers the better". That feeling of picking up speed on the runway until you are going so crazy fast that your body is being pressed back into your seat and then the feeling of weightlessness in the pit of your stomach at the moment the plane leaves the ground. There's nothing like it. Except for maybe diving off a cliff. That's also a spectacular feeling.
Just thinking about the Middle East already has me drooling as I remember the taste of fresh pita, roasted lamb, hummus, the biggest, juciest Israeli peaches imaginable and so on. Everything about the ME is delicious, not just the food, but the sounds, the smells, the language, markets, insane driving, history that blows your mind. What a culture, what a place!

Oh Where To Go?

Well my friends, I have once again come to another cross roads in my life where I am left wondering where I am going on this magnificent journey with the Lord. In leaving Idaho God showed me very clearly that that season of my life was over, He had done completed His purpose in me for that time and wanted me to move on. As I have spent time in prayer and constantly thinking about where to move on to I have learned more than ever the importance of just being content in God's presence. It's so much more important to be happy in relationship with Jesus than to have a plan or be "doing". All God really wants from us is our friendship, our closeness. I think that He brings us to places in our lives where we may feel like the vehicle of life has stalled and we can't get it restarted. Those times of stalling are times that God wants us to look at Him and realize we've been overlooking nurturing the most important relationship we can or ever will have. Life with Jesus is too sweet to miss out on. I don't even want to waste a single day with my Jesus. So in this time of waiting on the Lord for what's next, I pray that I will grab and cling to every beautiful moment with God that I get, that I won't just wait for those moments but seek them out as precious silver. In the meantime, please pray that I will hear very clearly from the Lord concerning His will for me in the next season of my life wherever it may be and however long it may be. Enjoy seeking the Lord.

My Phone Is My Friend!

The best news of my life just came to me. My little Roxanne still loves me. She still wants to be my friend. Oh glory hallelujah! I just called Verizon(my cell phone provider) to have my service put on hold for the few months that I will be in Canadia. It was my understanding that if I used my phone in Canadia I would have to pay like 60 cents a minute. Well my angel of good news, Juan the Verizon guy, informed me that I was dead wrong! So Roxanne is back in action ya'll! Call away, I want to talk my face off!
In other news, I took my little mama for a walk yesterday. We had a gloriously sunny day to celebrate mothers day. Halfway down the driveway we actually turned around to get sunscreen and tank tops. Can't waste good tanning time. We eventually headed off for the good old Priddis View & Brew. The PV&B is a wonderful little cafe/ice cream shop/video rental/deli/local arts & crafts place. I actually worked there for a short time waaaaay back in the day. As I entered the PV&B yesterday, I had this overwhelming sense of nostalgia and community as the place was packed with local Priddisites and a few townies on their way back to the city from some jaunt out to Elbow Falls or Allen Bill Pond. I felt a starnge sensation of wanting to spend some time working there over the next couple months. Actually, it would be more like relaxing and hanging out. Well, sure enough, the owner Larry came on in and first words out of his mouth were, "are you going to work for me while your home?" Heck yes I am. PV&B here I come!
And I forgot to mention, I got another job offer on that walk. Looks like I'll be helping out around a flower nursery at the end of our road. The lady that owns the nursery even has a big old Golden Retriever named Raymond. Life couldn't get more perfect than that! the Lord is so good to provide above and beyond! Praise His name.

Even You Can Comment

So I was recently informed that I had my blog set up so that only people who had other blogs could comment. That is no longer the case! Anyone can comment now. So comment away my friends. It's what will keep me going and encourage me to write more. Awesome! Hip hip horray for sunny days in Calgary!

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

this is in Boise-notice the nice little geese, the sunny blue skies and the green trees.


So I started a love affair with biking two weeks before I left Boise. Ah haa! I left Boise. It makes me sad to say it. I decided as gas prices soared that it would be better to let Deirdrie rest and use my own two legs to get me around town for awhile.So I borrowed a bike and started riding. Over those glorious two weeks my legs gradually became stronger and leaner as I explored nooks and cranny's of Boise that I never knew exsisted. I found magical bridges and pathways along the green belt and even went out on 5:30am forays to Meridian for breakfast with friends. My bike riding feats became legendary as friends started to call me the crazy one. My bike truly did become my best friend. Then I came home to Calgary, the home of long rolling hills and incredibly unpredictable weather. Boy oh boy. The first day that I made the trip from south west Calgary home to my parents house was gruelling. I was riding an old school white, purple and aqua marine blue mountain bike with fatty tires and a stuck break pad. I didn't even have a helmet with me that day and got a killer look from one of those super profesional road bkier types as he came towrads me on the highway. The second day was much better as I rode my dad's tricked out road bike. Please imagine this bike with me. The silver frame was found leaning up against a dumpster ready for the dump. This frame was then fitted with old mountain bike handles, new roadster aloy wheels, a saddle pack on the back and the extended arm rest pads and middle hand grips that professional bikers use. Attached to the top of the hand grips with hockey tape is an old gold wrist watch face. I am actually growing quite fond of this crazy hodge podge of a bike and would probably want to steal it from my dad if the frame wasn't too big for me. Oh! the toe clips, I forgot about the toe clips! Because the frame is a little big for me, I sometimes have a hard time with getting going and getting my toes in to the toe clips at the same time. This is a delightful thing to see as I wobble my way across intersections in front of amused drivers. Let me also comment on the difference in weather from Boise to Calgary. In Boise, it seems that every day was heaven sent. Spring has been delighting Boisians for a couple months now. There is nary a cloud in the sky, well, sometimes. But for the most time everything is fine and dandy. Calgary on the other hand is a big city with big weather. We sit at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. those Rocky's like to mix things up as weather patterns come over the mountains. Yesterday as I began my ride home, a sudden torrent of rain drenched me within 1 minute flat. With that driving, stinging rain came 60 mile an hour winds straight at my face. The wind was so strong that I couldn't get any air in my lungs, or it could have been that I was pushing uphill straight into it and was pushing my body to it's physical limit. One or the other. Rush hour traffic on the highway started to back up as people slowed down to stare in disbelief at the psycho biker that was being pumled by the elements. Oh how glorious. I ended up back tracking to the nearest 7-11 to wait out the storm. Don't like the weather in Calgary, wait 5 minutes. Sure enough, 5 minutes later I pushed through a milder wind to make my way home. In the following picture please notice the retreating storm clouds in the distance. I only wish you could see all the mud on my legs that passing vehicles spit all over me! Oh the glory of it all. I was made for the Olympics. Wait for it! You WILL see me there one day.

No More Coffee!

I must admit to having nothing short of a love affair with that earthy dark force of life called coffee. He held me strong indeed but I have once again wrenched myself from his grasp in an attempt to be independent. For those of you who have never tried to quit drinking coffee, let me attempt to explain the sheer agony of such an endeavor. The first day you wake up and go about your day as normal, ignoring that nagging in the back of your mind that you are overlooking something of infinite importance. You shake it off knowing full well what you are missing but choosing to shove it to the innermost recesses of your memory. Very soon your actions, and words begin to slow down. The inspiration of your life is not there to spur you on and things just get tough. Towards the end of the day you begin to feel a dull aching behind your eyes. This very well could be a result of fighting back tears of loss all day long. Who really knows? You end up going to bed early in an effort to shut the loss out of your memory. Sleep sweet sleep. It doesn't help. Instead you dream of Coffee all night, the café’s you’ve sat in together, the road trips you have taken together, the beautiful times of communion with Jesus that you spent together morning after morning. The love of Coffee torments the soul. But wait! Day two begins.....I feel like I am dying, for real. It's as if somehow in the night my whole pillow got stuffed through my ears into my head. The dull throb of little men with jack hammers in my head won't stop and my whole body is shaking. I drag myself out of bed only to drive an hour and a half to a staff meeting in the dreary land of Cascade. The whole meeting seems to be conducted in monotone, the small amount of sunlight that exists in Cascade is glaring in my eyes and the normally adorable Sadie won't stay off me. I eventually tell my leader that I just can't find a reason to care about anything he is saying to me. I head home and sleep the rest of the day away to escape the agony. Well people, let me tell you, I am very thankful that I am now on day 4 of "No More Coffee". Life is looking up again, the sun is shining in Boise and the birds sing to me, yes, to ME! One day I may meet Coffee again, but for now, he is a pleasantly distant memory......except when I wake up in the morning and my roomate has just brewed a fresh pot of smooth Goldcoast and has French Vanilla creamer. AAAHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGG!

The Hines

Look at this cutie face! No, not mine, Tristan's. i just spent some days in Salem, OR with my mom's cousin Gary and his wife Susan and their little cutie patutie. Do you have people in your life that you rarely see but when you do it is as if no time has passed? Not only that, but the second you see them you have your hearts layed out on your sleeve with no reservations whatsoever. This is Gary and Susan Hines. I don't think they posses the ability to have surface level conversations. There is no holding back, just dive into the murky, muddy mess of lives and get to the root of it all. I was blessed by them in so many ways as I spent time with them. Even just ears that wanted to hear my struggles and confusion that can sometimes come with a life of serving God. So Gary and Susan, thanks for the love, the talks, the coffee, the baby love, the realness, the comfy bed, THE CAMERA! and so much more.

at the conference

Hey there. If your reading this, please take a minute and pray for me right now! I am at a fundraising seminar in Salem Oregon and it is going great. God is teaching me all kinds of wonderful new things. But I just keep feeling attack after attack from the enemy. Everything from body things to emotional things to questioning God's call on my life. So pray that I will really hear everything the Lord wants to share with me this week, that I will be like a spunge just soaking it all up and that I will be able to enjoy the beauty around me and the old friends who are here. Pray for protection for me and the others doing the seminar. Love you all! Blessings, Felicia

Fund Raising is Fun!

Do you ever find that you begin something with such dreading and reluctance only to find that very thing turn into such a wonderful journey of blessing and joy? Well, that is where I find myself at now. 2 weeks ago I was telling people that I HAVE to go to a dreadfully boring support raising conference in Salem, OR. Now I am telling people with great excitement about the incredible conference I have the PRIVILEGE of attending in Salem. I am part way through the book that I need to read as part of my preliminary homework for the conference. The book is called "Funding Your Ministry" by Scott Morton. Every sentance seems to be an enlightening gem of truth that I only wish I had known before I became a full time missionary. Scott talks about how I am not asking people to support me but I am asking people to give to what God is doing through me. He talks about the importance of praying on a daily basis for the people that make up my support team because they are just as much a part of what I do as I am. We all work together for God's glory. There is so much good truth in this book it's incredible. I am working through the bible study in the appendix about biblical support raising. The first section of the study is about "calling", how different people in the bible were called into ministry by the Lord and taking a look back at how I was called and what I was called too. I was asked to write down the scriptures that guide me, the ones that the Lord has used to call me out into His service. As I look back at God's leading and direction in my life I am so excited to go forward on this amazing adventure with Him! So check out my life scriptures and be blessed to be used of the Lord no matter who you are and what you do. Gen 1:27, Isa 61:1-3 & Rev 7:9

El Salvador

Oh man, I am terrible at updating ya'll on what is going on in my life.
EL SALVADOR! It was wonderful. I had such a fun time with my dad and the team. There were 8 of us ranging from 27 to 55ish years old. the team built 2 houses while we were there as well as installing water filter's on 5 huge water tanks that are for use by the community. I didn't do alot of the physical work on the house but spent alot of time just talking to the local people in the village and translating for the other team members. My brain was so full of spanish by the time the trip was over! Ok, that was just a very quick update for now. More soon. Peace my friends!

A New Home

God is the coolest all the time! Last week as I drove to college group at my church in Boise I told my mom over the phone that she needed to pray for a place for me to live up in Cascade because I would be heading back up there 2 days later and still had no where to go. I got to college group which is held in the house across the street from the church. This house is the parsonage of Boise Valley Christian Communion (BVCC), my church. As people were milling around in the living room, pastor Montie came in and made an announcment that they needed someone to come live in that house free of rent for the next couple months. My heart lept at the thought of living in Boise with all my dear friends and everyone else seemed to think it was a good idea as all eyes turned on me. To make a long story short, I checked with my leadership and everything has worked out perfectly for me to remain in Boise for the time being. I am able to do the work I need to through phone and email and driving up to Cascade once a week for staff meetings. Being able to live in Boise is freeing me up to get involved in a few things I have had on my heart since I first moved to Idaho, one is the Boise rescue Mission, and the other is my church here in Boise. I have already been able to help out at the church a bunch and am looking forward to getting even more involved. I have also talked with one of the men that runs the Boise Rescue Mission and it seems there will be alot of opportunity for me to serve them during my time down here. For more information on them and their ministry, check out www.boiserescuemission.org . Other than that I am busy working on the next YWAM Idaho newsletter as well as following up with prospective DTS students for our fall school. It has been so nice to have alot of tie on my hands to be in the word and read, read, read. I love it! So praise God for once again taking care of all the details better than I could ever hope to do.

New Life

New season, new look. I decided I needed to change the look of my blog from the dark deathy feel to something new and fresh and full of life. It's a bit of a reflection on where I came from to where I am now. It's just how I feel in my spirit. As much as I love the nation of India, there is the penetrating darkness that gets in everything, especially your heart. I have spent the past week in Boise with some dear friends relaxing and basically having no agenda whatesoever. It's been beautiful. I feel like I can breathe again and like something new is growing in my heart. I'm not quite sure what is growing, but it's likely to be something amazing. I have been reading "Hinds Feet On High Places" this past week. it is the story of a girl named "Much Afraid". She sets out on a journey to the high places with her constant companions Sorrow and Suffering. They help her along the way as well as the Shepard who she can call for at any time. I have seen many times through out the book that God has so faithfully brought me through many of the trials that Much Afraid must go through to reach the high places of glory with the kind Shepard. God is so faithful to provide what we need when we need it. Even though it is just a book, I have been able to cling to the lessons God has taught me as he has taken me through both low and high places . This is what I need when I am in yet another transition phase where I so easily tend to start doubting God's call on my life to take people to the nations and GO to the nations. I look forward to what God is growing in my heart next.

Pad Thai Please!

Let's talk about food for a moment, let's talk specifically about Thai food shall we? I've just spent 4 of the most gloriously culinary fulfilling days in the great city of Bangkok. As I write I appear to be pregnant from the amount of delicious Pad Thai and Thai tea that is filling my belly. Earlier today I feasted on the most incredibly delicious sushi, the freshest I have ever had. I somehow feel sorry for the poor shmucks in my team that have wasted precious cultural meals by giving into the lust of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and the like. Why waste your money? Not much else has happened while here in Bangkok other than the customary market visits and pool time. I feel like I have barely even touched the surface of this amazing culture and I certainly have not even attempted to figure out anything about the people of Thailand in the short time I have been here. But I am left yet again in awe at another beautiful people and culture that God has created. I am thirsting for more. God bless Thailand, she has been good to me.

It's been awhile and too much has happend to catch up with. There seems to have been alot of heartbreak lately. I was in a village where a few of us found this precious little girl named Regeni. We thought she was a baby of about a year and half old. But as we treated a gaping wound on her forehead that was infested with flies, we learned that she was actually 5 years old. this little girl had lost her mother at the age of 4 months and been left to lay in the dirt by her father for the past 5 years. Her grandmother does all she can to care for her but is so blind and frail that she can hardly care for herself. Regeni's perfectly healthy, cared and provided for 6 year old brother attepmts to give her food sometimes. But she is so terribly malnutritioned and full of worms as a result of eating dirt that there is little to be done. When I picked her frail little body up I could feel her lungs rattling every time she sucked air into them. We were broken and ready to do anything to help her. But the greatest tragedy is that her family refused to let us help. Refused to let us pay for a doctor or even bring a doctor to the village. The situation became dangerous as tempers and words flaired and we were forced to leave the village. Now all we can do is pray. It seems like so little yet I know it is so much. I actually pray for Regeni to be in the arms of her heavenly Father, free from her suffering.
Suffering, such a prevalent thing in this place. I have a friend Onita who lives at the Mother Theresa house. A few weeks ago I held her while she writhed in pain as my friend Silvina dug worms and magots from her open wounds. Onita is healing so well now and her smile is returning. Her body is still skinny beyond what you can imagine. But as I sang a Christina Aguilera song to her yesterday about how beautiful she is, she couldn't stop grinning. It was truly beautiful. Onita bonita, it rhymes so well. Still more suffering. I lost my Aunty Pam. I really love that woman. But as my mama said, she has gone home to be with the Lord, she is done with earthly pain and suffering, no more for her, only paradise and praising the Lord. Yes my heart aches and my tears have been my food for days now but I will yet put my hope in the Lord and lead the people into the house of the Lord with shouts of joy and singing.

Smells Like Curry

My hand that is. I know it sounds sick, but my right hand has this permanent odor of curry wafting around it that I just can't seem to scrub away. It kind of cracks me up how I indulge in the guilty pleasure of eating with my hands with such gusto. At every meal time I find myself glancing around to make sure dad isn't going to get on my case for not having proper manners. Hee hee. Well, ministry has finally been picking up since we got through the busyness of Christmas and trying to move house for the YWAM base director here. Yesterday I spent some time at the Mother Theresa house here in Kanpur. It houses mentally and physically handicapped adults. I was able to help my nurse friend Silvina dress a womans wound. This woman Onita who I was able to pick up with one arm has an open wound 10 inches long down the front part of her right leg across her foot and under the foot. Her bone is completely exposed all the way down as are the bnoes in the side of her foot and her pinky toe. Last week Silvina dug magots and worms out of the wound for a half hour with tweezers. This week the wound was much better and we only needed to clean it. I spent some time helping Onita move her legs. She needs to do this because her feet are completely swollen due to a lack of movment. I feel such a burden to help the faithful nuns who are so overwhelmed with to much to do and not enough time to properly take care of their patients.
I have still not had the chance to visit my friend Soni who I met when I was last in India. Soni's husband had tried to burn her alive so that he could getanew wife. Silvina and I found her and got her into a hospital where she was able to recover somewhat. Silvina told me that Soni's throat is much worse though. The burns fused her chin and neck together and she needs an operation to seperate them but of course her family can't afford it. Please pray for Onita and Soni. I am looking forward to spending more time with them and sharing more about my Jesus with both ladies.
So new years day I got to go to a party with a bunch of Hindu college students. It was unlike any college party I could have ever imagined. Think ballons, musical chairs, guys dancing like monkeys, a 70's dance floor complete with color block lights, hindi dance mix and chowmein. Very junior high in some ways. Happy New Year!