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