Mexico Missions trip

I have been attending a church in southern California called Calvary Chapel Canyon Hills. Through this church I heard of a missions trip going down to Mexico for a weekend to work at Jon Courson from Applegate church’s orphanage. There was a group of four of us Bible College students that joined the team as we headed over the border Friday. We got to serve at this ranch along side 30 students studying the Word and loving on the orphans there. The orphanage was started years back by Jon with the purpose of caring for children with disabilities. Each year students go for 9 months and study the Word of God and intern serving the orphans there. They live with them, help them get ready each morning, and get them to bed at night. The Saturday night we were there was Halloween and as we were having a bonfire and worship under the stars, little children from the town nearby came in their costumes saying to the Americans “tricky tricky Halloween!” The Spanish version in Mexico of “trick-o-treat.” So cute! After a day of getting to serve along side the students there, we sat around a bonfire under the stars worshipping an sharing what the Lord revealed to us that day. The day was such a blessing and so humbling in being able to help the orphans get dressed and ready for the day, going on walks and helping them brush their teeth and do their hair. As someone well put it during the worship; serving the orphans is a perfect example of our relationship with God. They are completely dependent on us to take care of them and care for their needs as we are to be dependent on the Lord to take of us and care for our needs. It was such a great weekend!

A visit!

Emily and Leslie came up for a day to the campus to hang out and catch up! It was such a blessing to be able to see them and hear what all has been going on in their lives. Emily got married almost 2 years ago and is now living in Alabama with her husband... soon moving to Tennessee for the military, and Leslie is in her senior year at Point Loma for nursing. What an encouragement they are! Leslie and I were accountability partners 3 years ago and Emily and I were in a summer Bible Study together. After spending the day chatting we decided to add a little adventure in and go ice-blocking; the adventure mainly being trying to drive around and find an ice block. New to ice-blocking? No worries, I was a rookie. It's pretty simple... you buy a block of ice (Albertsons if you were wondering), find a grassy hill, grab a towel to cushion the block, and sit down for a ride! Wa-la! It's kinda of like summer sledding! Please keep these girls in your prayers and the ways the Lord is going to use them!

Peru, ya vengo!! :)

A few weeks ago we had a guest speaker come. A strange thought passed through my mind that it would be cool to one day have the opportunity to be able to teach. I acknowledged that thought and my fear of being in front of people pushed it aside. It was weird though because this thought kept coming up. During the IHOP I was meditating on this verse as we all decided to do a food fast to seek the Lord during our time at the conference:
“May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Colossians 1:11,12
It was then that I noticed that the Lord kept giving me verses in Colossians as in previous weeks He put on my heart to start memorizing scripture. I decided to keep reading through the book over and over and as I did, the Lord gave me the desire to start a Bible Study through this book in Spanish as if I was going to Peru. The thing is, I have been praying for clarity in whether or not to go to Peru for break. My next semester will be my last for Bible College and with the Israel campus opening back up again (side note for Israel campus in another blog), I wanted to make sure it was of the Lord that I go to Peru and not my own desire that I stamped His name on. So my prayer has been if you have talked to me lately, that the Lord would make it known to me and that me going would bring Him glory. On Friday I stepped forward telling the Lord in my journal that I was going to prepare a Bible Study in Spanish in case ticket prices went down, writing in my journal a certain price, after tickets I had been seeing were a much bigger number than what I wrote (I had been checking almost every day prices and they kept going up and our internet kept going out before I could buy). Friday afternoon after writing this, I was in the Library doing research for this book and saw that the internet was back. When I went to go check prices, they were less than what I wrote in my journal, and lower than any other ticket I had purchased in previous trips to Peru! So I’m going!!! December 13th to February 4th… Christmas, New Years and my birthday! I’m so excited but my prayer still is that me going would bring glory to the Lord and that I could be a blessing to the people there. Please pray for me for this study, that my eyes would be opened more to God’s strength in me and not my own as I see Him move, and for boldness to share with people about Jesus! ;)
(first photo is Lili and I Christmas in San Francisco 2006, and the photo after is a friend Jen, Julia (Lili's mom) (lili's sister), and myself July 2006.. oh yes and Simon the dog)

IHOP

This last week our dorm steward, Jenni, wanted our dorm room to take a week fast from something that would give us the opportunity to bring us closer to the Lord and teach us spiritual discipline. Some girls fasted from internet, spending money, others gave one hour of their day for silence with the Lord, and then some of us did the Daniel fast (from the first chapter of Daniel, eating only veggies, fruits and nuts). It was definitely a difficult week with the flesh and I saw the areas where I am weak and where I needed to reply upon on the Lord. I am so blessed by so many things, but when I discipline my body and take away my everyday items I see the things I take for granted (meant, flavor, and BROWNIES). I never saw myself as a complainer but when eliminating things that I never take a second thought about having, I saw myself as a complainer in my thoughts and in my words. At the end of that week a group of us from the Bible College went to an event called IHOP... International House of Prayer. It was a conference with amazing worship and workshops about intimacy with Jesus. The Lord spoke to me and put so many new things on my heart... I will update you in the next blog! :)

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalm 51:10

Open Mic night!

Each semester there is an open mic night where people get an opportunity to share their talents, songs they wrote, poetry they have written, and share stories. I took a picture of each person, but I will add those on facebook and try to upload a 4 minute video of a group that did an amazing rap! (couldn't get it to work but maybe I will try to add this to facebook as well). Lots of talent from each person!! :) SO awesome to see how many gifted people there are on this campus!

Hi dad!

I have been lagging on updating blogs, but a few weekends ago my dad was taking a motorcycle training class in southern California and came the rest of the way down to come visit me!! It was so good to see him! When I first got to Murrieta, he drove me all the way down here only to turn around and drive the trip back to get back to work in time! I got to show hi the campus and have lunch with him! I love my dad! Look how handsome he is!!

Icecream Social... "T" Party!

Every semester the Bible College has an icecream social where we get together and hang out and, well... basically.. eat icecream! There is a theme each semester and this time was representing the letter "T." I have more pictures on my facebook to show how creatice people got... but just to name a few: Tattortot, toilet paper, thing 1 and thing 2, tuff guys, truckers, tella tubbies, togas couple, tela evangelists, toddlers, a table, tiger tamer, TV, tumble weed, twins... and us... we were a tribe of Indians. Icecream was good, pictures were fun, and people were creative! :)