From 4 Months Ago. Merry Christmas!

I just found this blog that I had started writing over Christmas but never got around to finishing and posting. Here it is.....four months later. Ha ha

What do you do in the middle of the night when everyone in the house is awake crying, throwing up, and bustling around mothering? I guess write a blog. It is time to recap How the rest of the DTS outreach went anyways. I left off when we had arrived in the hilltribe mountain village of Doi Muser. Our team was able to spend just about 3 weeks working in Doi Muser with pastor Worrechet and his wife and had such a wonderful time. We daily went from house to house talking with the villagers, encouraging, praying with and discipling if they were Christians or doing simple things like shucking corn or sharing an impromptu meal in the street while talking and getting to know any of the non-Christians. Pastor Worrechet has quite a big job as even the majority of people who have accepted the Christian faith, are still entrenched in ancestor worship. There is an age old animistic world view in the Lisu and Lahu tribes that desperately needs to be replaced with the teaching, understanding and embracing of a biblical world view. We were also able to spend a lot of time at a small orphanage with 33 children in it. We fell so in love with each and every one of those kids and saying goodbye to them was definitely the hardest part about leaving. Many of the kids in the orphanage attended the Doi Muser school where we taught english most weekdays. All of the children were great, but of course we had a tendency to publicly praise our orphanage kids as often as possible for their brightness and ability to learn quickly. I will include some pictures of our kids. I was able to use my love for photography to bless them by giving each one of them a portrait of themselves. They loved it and so did I!



The second half of our time in Thailand took us from the lush, misty, mountainous jungles of the north to the chokingly crowded, busy metropolis of Bangkok. I LOVED IT! What a city. The other times I have been in Bangkok it was only for a few days and I didn't go far from where we stayed on the outskirts of the city. This time I learned how to use the sky train, bus and even river boat systems. Boy did I explore on our days off. I found that Bangkok, like most big city's, has little pockets of every region of the world scattered about. There is the Arab section, the Indian section, little Europe and so on. One day I sat in an Irish pub eating a delicious plate of Sunday pot roast with all the wonderful sides and by the looks of the place, the patrons and the live band playing Irish fiddle music, I could have been in Ireland. I just had to refrain from looking out the window at the huge billboards in Thai, the scooters zooming past and asian food markets. Oh ya, I had to try and put out of my mind that the entire Irish fiddle band were little Thai men.
So the ministry we worked with in Bangkok is called the MST project. MST stands for "Males and the Sex Trade". This ministry reaches out to the hundreds of thousands of men who come to Thailand as sex tourists every year. A lot of these guys are broken and hurting inside even though they do a good job of not showing it. We would be down in the red light district almost every night until 1 AM talking and praying with some of the guys. You really have to ask God for the right heart and attitude towards these guys as it would be so easy to judge and hate them for what they are doing. But when you see them as God does, you know that they are just as deserving of God's love and grace as anyone else and they are His son's.
I will bring this to a close as it is getting very long. To sum things up though, God put His love for the nation of Thailand in me and was so faithful to all of us through every step of the outreach. I learned new things, fell more in love with Jesus and was blessed immensely over and over again. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us during the time there. Until next time....

In Thailand

We are in a National Geographic photo spread! Our group has traveled into the lush green mountains outside of a town called Tak in north west Thailand. This area is populated by the Lisu and Lahu tribes and we are the first team of foreigners to serve in the area. So far we have spent a lot of time teaching english in the charity school here as well as the very populated orphanage. The pastor and his wife who we are staying with have taken advantage of our growing skills as english teachers as well and are surpassing us in the race to learn each others languages. We are also spending time with members of the burdgeoning church who are thirsty for discipleship and teaching. They are all still very steeped in their tribal practice of ancestor worship. So we are busy teaching basic Christianity and what it is to have a true relationship with Jesus. Pray for health as one after another we have been coming down with colds. The mountains are much colder than what we were prepared for. The guys love it, not so much the girls. Look for another update when we come down from the mountain again on the 6th of October. Blessings!

Indonesia (old post)

Hey everyone, greetings from J-city. Unlike the Mexico City team that hit the ground running with ministry, we have hit the ground praying and praying and praying. We've also been praying in case I forgot to mention that. The city we are in is a very closed city as far as our Father goes. And the predominant faith here is currently celebrating their most holy season…Ram./adan. Yesterday we were with some leaders of the flock in the Fathers house and were able to encourage them immensely. Each one of us shared a word that was being spoken to us by the Lord and we all prayed and worshiped together. Everyone was filled up! In the evening we played a little soccer with children in a slum. The kids are very shy and it took awhile for them to not run screaming down the street from us. The desire to see pictures of themselves on the camera’s LCD finally won them over though. This morning we are teaching English in two schools and will speak about our family’s and the love that leads us. Lot’s of prayers please! Love to all -J team

Pray for us

The following message is an email that my friend Craig wrote after I spoke with him on skype. Craig, thanks for writing all of this down and getting the word out



Good Morning,

I just had a Skype call with Felicia this morning. She contacted me requesting our prayers. Here are some notes from our conversation:

She and the team are in good spirits. Morale is excellent, and they are in intense prayer and worship daily.

They are experiencing some spiritual oppression at times.
- Liz had a very intense dream and had the impression of a heavy weight on her chest. She was unable to speak above a whisper. Thankfully, another team member heard her struggle and immediately moved to intercede for her and the oppression lifted
- The team was able to enter Asia's largest mosque and walked through praying and interceding. Afterwards, they met at a nearby catholic church to debrief and continue praying. At the church, Felicia felt an intense heaviness and felt like a hand had been placed over her mouth. She couldn't breathe or speak. She even blacked out for a moment.

The MegaCities coordinators hooked our team up with a local pastor. However, the pastor seemingly doesn't have any time for them. The team feels a bit like a burden to the church. The church has only set up a couple of "outreach" events for the team--mostly teaching English in an environment where they're not allowed to share the gospel. There is a real timid feeling about evangelism among the believers there. The church is unable to provide translators.

The church appears to be going through some difficulty. Some young people that are interested in evangelism and outreach have left the church. Felicia feels torn, because she wants to support the young people's vision, but also wants to honor the leadership of the church.

The team has gone into a slum area on their own on at least one occasion. They pray intensely going in and going out. Without any translators, they have been able to play soccer with some kids and make some connection there. She also shared about how fun it was to help a woman with her laundry, even though there was no way to communicate. Can you imagine what it may have been like for this woman where some strangers from far away and no way to speak spent time... Let's pray that somehow God's message of goodness is expressed by this team...

Okay, that's the extent of what I remember about our conversation. Felicia requests that we pray for them as much as we can. So I encourage you to join with our DTS and ask God for favor and blessing. The team will be in Jakarta for the rest of the week, and heads to Thailand on Saturday. Pray for their continued safety.

I shared with Felicia an impression about generations. I was reminded that God often works in generations--He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Maybe the body of Christ in Indonesia is in a wrestling kind of season, like Jacob wrestled with God... and that sometime in the next generation there will be a breakthrough, but that this generation is required to wrestle for their blessing. If that resonates with you, feel free to pray along those lines.

Felicia asked that we pass this info on to the other team from our DTS, but I don't have any contact info for them. BC, can you get that info to me, or can you make sure that this message is passed on to them in a timely way?

Thanks!

Dean Sherman, Ensenada, photos and FOOD!

The San Diego DTS made the move down to Ensenada about a week ago for an action packed 9 days of activity. Our first stop was just across the border at one of our accountant's parent's home in Tijuana where we were blessed by a mouth watering smorgasbord of mexican food. This began the theme of the week for me... eat a lot of authentic Mexican food!
We then continued down to Ensenada arriving just to fall into bed after a long week of class. We were up early the next morning ready to build a house for the Ramirez family. We arrived at the build site and realized we were about to be the all time largest homes of hope team ever! A little side note here, more people does not translate into finishing the house faster. It usually means that there are a ton of people on top of each other, in the way and a generally slower house build. This time it ended up being the most wonderfully diverse group of people ever. We had our DTS which is mostly American with a token South Korean thrown in and a Mexican girl. Along side a few Mexican staff, I was the representative Canadian in the bunch. Then we had two family's from New Zealand one of which had about 8 children. Then there was a good sized handful of British to round us all off. What fun we had. We all walked away from the weekend richly blessed (especially by Blancas delicious empanadas) having made special new friendships.
Monday ushered in the legendary Dean Sherman. Spiritual warfare. Come on you guys! and a few arm jerks every now and again to encourage us to "think outside the box". Another thought provoking, life changing week of hearing from God through one of our speakers. Dean brought a message to our entire YWAM San Diego Baja family on wednesday night that I so wish we could have recorded. It was a milestone message for us I believe and completely prophetic. Dean called us out so to speak. He told us that at different times in the history of YWAM, certain bases have been in the spotlight. And that right now we are in that spotlight, so we had better be careful. What a huge thing to hear from Dean Sherman, what a humbling thing, and in a way, what a scary thing. It's true, if we are in the spotlight we had better be careful to make sure we are every day asking God's presence to go before us, every day be consciously clothed in the armor of God and looking to be in the center of His will. It's an exciting word too! I am extremely fired up over this and yes, humbled to be a part of one of God's movements, one of God's special projects.
We capped today off with some mandatory fun at a water park south of Ensenada and have some big things in store for the rest of the weekend. More to come later...

Homeless Ministry

5:15 am on a Saturday morning and my alarm reminds me to sacrifice a little. Myself and my two roommates roll out of bed and drive through the gray marine layer that has settled thick over the city. We head for the office to start making coffee. In a slight state of grogginess I prayerfully go about the task of making pot after pot of coffee. Eventually we fill a ten gallon cooler with coffee, pile into the vans and head downtown to Harbor Drive where the homeless are beginning to wake up for the day. Some of us end up on the street across from the Convention Center where the homeless crowd is a little older and reserved while the rest of us end up on the other side of Petco Park with the rowdier party crowd. As most people start to wake up they are really grateful to wake up to a cup of coffee and a muffin they don't need to go looking for. And everyone is looking forward to just having someone to chat with. I spend quite a bit of time talking with a guy named Chris who's always been on the street. If I had run into him anywhere else in the city I wouldn't have had a clue he was homeless. Nice guy, articulate, well kept pretty balanced sort of person. Somehow the coming DTS outreach to Thailand came up and he asked all kinds of question that opened the door for me to share why we would go half way across the world or even come downtown to help people. The love of Jesus. So it was the beginning of one of many new relationships made again this past weekend. A chance to step outside of my comfort and sit in someone else's living room (sidewalk) for a bit. One of many

"The Manor"

The hallway smelled like urine and the doors to each room were stained with years of dirt. Through open doorways I could see frail bodies crumpled into balls on cots. As we followed the director of the nursing home down corridor after corridor, my heart was wrenched with sadness at these forgotten peoples lives. The worst part...I wasn't in some third world country, I was next door to my home. And when I say next door, I mean next door. I can see into the concrete courtyard of the nursing home from the windows of the apartment where I live with all of the DTS girls.
For over a year I have walked by, driven by The Manor and felt a stirring in my heart to help in some way. The morning I finally walked in there to offer the help of 16 young people, the activity's director threw her hands up and said, " I prayed for you all this morning!"
So there we were pushing wheel chairs down the hall, serving coffee, juice and cookies and just listening to people who were desperate to be heard. I listened to a Mexican man named Bernardo tell me over and over again how him and his wife had worked really hard all their lives to have nice things and how they never even had children because they just wanted to work hard. Now Bernardo's wife is gone, he has no children and he sits alone with only an occasional cigarette to look forward to.
So here we are, being used to bring a little light and love into ordinarily dark and lonely days. Here we are taking blind people for walks when they would normally just lie in bed all day every day. My heart hurts for these forgotten ones, I wish I could spend hours upon hours with each and every one. For now I'll do the little that I can and pray for more hearts to be touched to come and give a little of their life and their love.

Broken Legged Lamb

Here comes a renewed effort to post weekly updates on my blog...
The first ever San Diego DTS has been in session for almost a month now and let me tell you, it has been something special. With a group of 12 students and 4 staff, there is a very family oriented flavor to this school. We have been hearing amazing, life changing teaching and spent a lot of time praying and interceding for different areas of our city and world together. I have been thrown back into extreme community living with a vengeance as I am living in a 3 bedroom apartment with 9 other girls. It's been crazy and fun.



On a personal note... I have been walking through a very difficult season of life for awhile now as a result of a few different things. For a long time I have tried very hard to keep up appearances and be all things to all people or live up to the expectations that I imagine people are putting on me. But eventually that all falls apart and we come to a place of complete and utter dependence on God's grace and mercy. Which is where I find myself. I have been so comforted by the truth of Jesus being our shepherd. Right now I am that lamb that strayed away and the shepherd had to bring me back and as shepherd's do, break my legs and carry me on his shoulders to have me grow so intimately accustomed to His voice. It is a place of pain yes, but also of a real closeness to my Lord and savior.
I really do apologize for my extended silence. It seems that it is always harder to communicate when one really needs to in a time of difficulty, than it is in good times. But I am coming back again. Much love to all.