Skate Event Update

It's been awhile now since the Revolution Youth Ministry skate event, but I did promise that I would put up some pictures and give an update on how it all went down. So here you have it. For months prior to the event Omar and Stephanie put many, many hours into organizing all the little details that must be covered to legally shut a street down in downtown Ensenada. As you can imagine there were piles of redtape to work through that kept on going right until the end. They found out only days before that they had to hire an ambulance and police officers to work the event in case anything happend. Permits were needed, Business owners on the street had to sign a release allowing the event to go forward and so on.



Finally the day came, the pro skaters with King Of Kings Skate Ministry(KKSM) arrived in San Diego where I met them and hopped a ride. It was time to set up the ramps. KKSM brought a trailer full of ramps down that they donated to the Revolution Ministry which was an awesome blessing. Thanks guys! Finally the skating began. A lot of local talent got to show their stuff and we had a great competition. The KKSM skaters did a demo for quite awhile and Zac set the pace displaying some crazy talent. We even had a suprise guest show up that added to the whole night. Danny Way and his brother were wandering around downtown when they came across the event. If you don't know who Danny Way is, Google him. He is one of the biggest skaters of all time and is best known for the fact that he jumped the Great Wall of China on a skateboard. Incredible. He put up a $100 bill to judge an improptu trick comp.
Side note-I ended up running into Danny a few weeks later in Ikea and stalked him for 45 minutes while he talked on his cell before I was able to chat with him. I told him where I had seen him and thanked his for stopping by and let him know how cool that was for everyone involved. He was really stoked to hear about the skate ministry and offered help if it was ever needed. Good guy.
The night ended with Eli sharing his testimony and giving an awesome gospel message of grace and love. A bunch of the kids there came forward to pray and invite Christ into their lives. It was a really beautiful time. Praise God for what He did!

Photography is fun

Hey everyone! Here are a few pictures from last weekends house builds in TJ. We did 3 houses with a company from Chicago and had a great time. All 3 of the family's were absolutely lovely as usual and will have a very special place in everyones heart's. One of the family's even made roasted chicken for the team which made me so happy after I talked about how much I was craving roasted chicken all weekend. The best part of the weekend for me was that a man who received a home last month came and worked harder than anyone else all weekend because he wanted to be a part of blessing someone in the same way he and his family were blessed. I remember when we were saying goodbye to him last month, one of the team members said to him, "this home is a free gift to you from us and a demonstration of God's love for you. But it dosn't stop there, now it is up to you to spread the love and the blessing to others who are in need." To see this man serving another in his community was such beautiful proof of how God touched his heart. I was training my new friend and roomate Chrissy in doing the team photography which was a lot of fun.



Coolest space toys ever!








Many people's living conditions












Airborne and lovin it










One of the precious and deserving family's receiving a home












Handing over the word










Figuring out the funkiest electrical job ever...4 hours later












Looking into the future











Welcome to my life











Teamwork












Border town












Dreamin











Hecho en Mexico












Bird in captivity











Drink up

Summer Update

I have to say I really admire and look up to those people who faithfully update their blogs. You would think it should be a very easy thing to do, but somehow it's just not. At least for me. Life is good and busy and full and communication just seems to slip away from me. So this may be a long one as I have a lot to catch up on. Kudos to you if you read the whole way through.
The last time I wrote it was a letter written on behalf of Kaiden. Obviously that was a very difficult time that I am continuing to work through on a daily basis. I struggled with a lot of doubt and confusion and anger at what seemed and still seems at times to be God's silence. So many times I felt like I was just staring at God's turned back. Of course the pain of losing Kaiden remains, but life also goes on and is filled on a daily basis with God's grace and blessings! One day at a time.
Once the funeral was over and it was all said and done, I felt even more alone because Steph and Omar moved back down to Ensenada. They had become my life in a way and I felt at a loss as to what to do with myself once they were gone. So I set about focusing on some badly needed me and God time. I will admit it is a little difficult to have you and God time when you are a little perturbed with Him (just being honest), but it was good anyways. The summer months were wonderfully relaxing for me as the Mission Adventures program was going on at our ministry locations in Ensenada and Tijuana. This meant that I didn't have house building teams on the weekends to be with as well as office work during the week which is the norm for me throughout the rest of the year. I was able to get caught up on a ton of administrative things that tend to slip away from me throughout the building season.
Now I am back in the midst of a very hectic schedule which I love and thrive off of. I am enjoying my work more than ever right now, even the office stuff which is definitely a God thing. It seems that every team that comes down is more wonderful and every family we build a home for touches my heart in a deeper way. This "job" never gets old and I continue to cry at the expression of God's love lived out during the house dedications.
Please continue to pray for my friendship with God and that my life will be centered in His will every day. I desparately want my relationship with Him to grow stronger lately and pray for a deeper understanding of God.
I will post pictures of the Skate Competition that Omar and Stephanie planned in Ensenada a few weeks ago. There was an amazing turnout and God's word was proclaimed and heard in the downtown core of Ensenada. Awesome!

Kaidens Goodbye

Hi all, yes it has been awhile but with good reason. For those of you who weren't aware of what my life has revolved around the past few months, let me fill you in.
Last July my best friend Stephanie who is from Idaho and her husband Omar who is from Ensenada had their first baby, Kaiden Ezra Murillo. Kaiden was born in Boise as planned and then was to return promptly to Ensenada with his parents where they are missionaries. This plan changed when Kaiden became ill enough to be admitted to hospital only days before the Murillo's were to drive to Mexico. This began a long 10 months of hospital stays, blood transfusions, evasive surgeries and much much more. In all this time Kaiden was not able to eat as the main problems were with his digestive system not functioning. Kaiden was eventually transfered to the children's hospital down here in San Diego some time in Feburary. Since then I have spent any time out of work with Steph, Omar and Kaiden. At the end of March things just got worse when Omar was deported from the US on a technicality with his visa. This left Stephanie in San Diego with out her husband to help with the many medications that had to be prepared and given to Kaiden daily, the doctors/hospital visits and so on. Needless to say my time was dedicated to helping and supporting my sister/friend and being with Kaiden as much as possible. Praise God Omar was finally given a one month emergency visa on May 7th because Kaidens health soon took a turn for the worse which eventually saw him being air lifted to another hospital in Los Angeles. Omar and Steph spent days camping out in the hospital room until they were given a room at the Ronald Mcdonald house but were soon camping out in the room again when Kaidens situation worsened dramatically and he was moved to the ICU. At this point the doctors had no hope that Kaiden would survive even though we all still clung to the promise of God's healing. On Sunday May 27th I was building a house in Ensenada when I recieved a phone call that I needed to get to LA without delay. Stephanies parents and little sister had left Boise that morning and also drove straight for LA all day. By that evening Omar's parents and Stephanies parents had arrived at the hospital. By the next morning the doctors were telling us there was nothing else they could do and it was only a matter of hours. We prayed for a miracle, cried on each other and loved on Kaiden throughout the entire day. Around 5:45 that evening we stoof around Kaiden, holding on to each other as he went home to be with Jesus. It is still so hard to comprehend that our little warrior has left us. Stephanie still starts when she thinks to check on him at night, I still think I need to be quiet so as not to wake him when I walk into their room and I am sure that will go on for a long time. But I also rejoice that he is no longer in pain and is getting love from Jesus.
Thank you all so much for your prayers over the past months as we have gone through this difficult journey. If you would like to see Kaidens blog go to www.kaidenmurillo.blogspot.com. I kept the blog as if Kaiden was writing it and there are a bunch of pictures of our little man. The following is Kaidens last letter to everyone. Lot's of love, Felicia








Dear beloved friends,
This will be my last letter to you and I am in fact writing it from heaven. I really want to attempt to put your hearts and minds at ease even though I know you are all missing me so much. Thank you for the outpouring of love that each one of you has lavished on me and my family during my little life. Thank you for the many, many prayers on my behalf, on Papi and Mommy’s behalf. I know that your faith has been stretched immeasurably and some of you may wonder for what. I want to say that nothing has been fruitless and that God is so pleased with all of you. You have held onto God’s promises even when nothing made sense and now “the Lord will give strength to His people, the Lord will bless His people with peace.” You may never know what my journey, and your involvement in it, was all about until you get to the end of your life and look back at how it helped you or strengthened you in some other area of your own journey. In spite of the pain you are all going through, God is good in all His ways, He is faithful, He is loving and He is kind. And don’t I know it!
Now I get to be with Jesus.
Dear friends, I am finally whole and it feels so good. I can move freely and without pain and on top of that these Kaiden cheeks that you all loved to kiss so much are getting more than enough kisses from Jesus. So don’t worry about me anymore. Now I want you to take care of my Papi and Mommy. I can’t be there to brighten their days with smiles so I need you all to love on them like crazy. Pray for their hearts, hug them, cry with them, talk to them and share your best memories of me with them. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” I love you all so much, you are in my heart and I will see you again some day soon.
Blessings from Kaiden in heaven.

A blubbering, sobbing emotional wreck

You would think that building houses for Mexican families would eventually get old. Well somehow it just keeps getting better and sweeter with time. I just got home from Tijuana where I was coordinating 2 house builds for a Canadian team. Two more families now have a real floor and a roof over their heads; a home to call their own. As well, 40 well to do Canadians have been touched deeply by the joy and love they witnessed in these family's with "nothing" despite their circumstances. Here are a few pictures of the weekend, they can do the talking.

Rain, Rain, Ahh Sweet Rain

Ok, so I am a little late, but you must admit, a month and a half is a lot better than what I had going before.
As I write this I can hear the pitter patter of rain on the roof begininng again. The last few days have seen a miraculous amount of rain fall in San Diego. We sure have had quite the weather lately. 2 weekends ago we were snowed on in Ensenada! That weekend was our Baja Vision event and we had 5 house building teams out in the colonias. Everyone froze to the bone as they were not prepared for snow in Mexico. Despite the terrible weather we all managed to have a wonderful weekend and God really moved hearts to support what we are doing in the northern Baja. One of the participants pledged 2 million dollars to our mission. Praise God! He is always faithful. This was such a wonderful answer to prayer as my department had really felt convicted to do some house cleaning as far as our relationships with donors goes. It was hard but the Lord rewarded us for our leaders obediance.
On a more personal note, I had a very nice weekend in Seattle a week ago visiting friends. I went to do wedding photography for some great YWAM friends of mine and was also able to see some of my adopted family in the Seattle area.
For those of you that have been following the happenings of my best friends baby, Kaiden, I am happy to announce that Omar, Steph and kaiden are on the road from Boise to San Diego as I type. After another round of surgeries and trauma for little Kaiden, his gastro intestinal doctor referred them to a specialist at the childrens hospital down here in SD. Needless to say I am absolutly thrilled that I will have them so near me for the next little while before they head the rest of the way down to their home in Ensenada.
Other than this I look forward to finally going to church this weekend. There is a church called Cornerstone that seems to continually be popping up wherever I turn so I am planning on checking it out on Sunday. I am dying to be connected with a church body again. It feels like it has been so long. Pray that I get plugged into the right place.

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.