Three down, two to go.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of working with a program here on the YWAM base called Homes of Hope. Every year they build hundreds of new homes for poor families living in the colonials (impoverished areas of Ensenada). I have grown up on construction sites with my dad and I loved the idea of building a home here in Mexico! The way Homes of Hope works is that these families come and apply for a home and go through interviews to select families most in need. Then churches, families or even businesses will come down to Ensenada for two days to build a home. Several of the students paired with these groups and headed out! The two days were filled with painting and hammering! All of the neighborhood kids were running around and playing with us when we should have been working! I loved just spending time with them though, we played games, told stories, and just loved them! It broke my heart to see that the house we were building was triple the size of the shelter they were living in! When the home was finished, the family was given a new bed, table, curtains and food staples. They were also given a Bible. Tears were in my eyes as the father kissed it and lifted it into the air! It reminded me how often I take the Bible for granted when there are hundreds of people who long to read it. Definitely an experience I won’t forget!

Christmas is right around the corner and it’s beginning to feel like it here on the YWAM base! Last week we had our Christmas party and my friend Courtney and I made a German chocolate cake to take! It was quite an adventure trying to find all the ingredients in a Mexican Walmart… we even had nuns trying to help us! There wasn’t anything you could do but laugh as we led a train of people through the store trying to communicate with limited vocabulary and lots of hand motions! We finally found our ingredients and had a blast getting in the kitchen and doing a little seasonal baking! Then we had to work on our costume for   the party! 

A group of us headed to several little shops called Segundas which are a lot of little second hand stores! I pieced together a little lady bug outfit and my friend Shelby made a bumble bee outfit! I loved the opportunity to get a little creative! Since there is no snow on the ground, it helped to put everyone in the Christmas spirit! We even had a typical Mexican Christmas meal… Tamales!

This Wednesday I leave for the outreach portion of my DTS! I can hardly believe that the time has come! I know I speak for every student when I say it is very bitter sweet! On one hand, I am so excited to go into the community and put into practice everything we have been taught! On the other hand, I am so sad that the school is going to be split into two different outreaches! For the first month my team will be staying here in Ensenada working with several local ministries from December 17^th to January 6^th. On Christmas day, I will be working with a children’s ministry putting on a Christmas program! I know it is going to be hard to be away from my family, but when I sit back and realize where I am and what I am doing, it puts everything into perspective.  For the second month of outreach, I will be heading to Belize! For that portion, we will be doing extensive school ministry. Not necessarily doing evangelism, but more on a relationship level. I am so excited for what God has in store! I will only have limited internet connection, so I will try to keep as connected as I can! 

Estoy agradecido.

I am so thankful that I get to live on this beautiful base
with all of these amazing people!

Wow… another thanksgiving has come and gone! This year was a little different for me. Most years, I spend my day with family sitting around the table feasting on turkey, stuffing, yams and all the other wonderful thanksgiving delicacies. In the afternoon, after playing outside (often in the snow) we would head back into the cozy kitchen still warm and fragrant from baking the turkey.  For me, this year was a little different. Yes, there was all of the typical food but instead of hanging out with family, this day was spent with friends and mentors. Though it didn’t feel much like Thanksgiving, the real point of this holiday isn’t about family is it? I am so thankful that God has brought me to this YWAM base at this specific time. I have had so many opportunities to grow not only spiritually, but also in my talents.

The Long Sands band.

Last Saturday, we had an opportunity to put on a concert. Two local worship bands came in and the DTS students played songs in-between them. Several weeks ago, we were broken into groups of about five people and challenged to write a song for outreach. My team really struggled with it. We finally came up with a melody for the lyrics and were trying to write the final part of our song, the bridge. In a couple of minutes we had written a powerful bridge… the only problem was that it didn’t mesh with the melody of the rest of the song. So here we are with two parts of a song that are both great, but don't go together...at all!  We made an executive decision to scrap the melody of the song and re-write it so it blended with the bridge. That’s how much we loved it! In under a week, we wrote a song and produced it for performance! At times, it was super stressful and frustrating but that is how we learn. I did love the process of making everyone in our band blend… from practicing our song to making sure our clothing style was the same. Our performance wasn’t perfect, but so much fun! I couldn’t wait to get on stage and didn’t want to walk of it! I can’t believe we are going to get to do this all the time on outreach!

 

Speaking of outreach, that is coming up in two weeks! As excited as I am, I a still a bit nervous! The next two months are going to be an amazing experience serving the Lord and furthering the gospel. I also know that they are going to hold some of the most stretching moments! Everybody on my outreach team has a job. Mine is to buy and prepare food… surprised right? I am super excited to have this responsibility even though I know it is going to be difficult. I have to buy food on a weekly budget and make sure that there is a meal plan for each week. I’m sure we are going to be eating a lot of pasta! I’m already starting to draw up a meal plan which is easier said then done. Bring... on... the ... challenge! Every week we have an outreach dinner prep, you may remember the delicious cow intestine soup? Basically, our leaders serve us food that we may encounter when on outreach. This week we were served four ham and sourcream sandwiches... one or two I can handle but four? All of the students found secret ways of stashing away the sandwiches when the leaders weren't looking, a little piece in a hoodie, a sandwich in a back pack and many more shoved into bags. We did everything possible to not eat those sandwiches! Who could blame us? It made me think though. Here we are trying to throw away these sandwiches because we didn't want to eat them when there are people living right outside that have nothing to eat. I have to admit that I felt a little guilty. I definitely have a perspective change about these dinners. Even if what we eat is disgusting it is still something. There is so much to be thankful for!

The amazing ham and sourcream sandwiches!

Enjoying the Silence.

Silence and Solitude… sounds like a punishment doesn’t it? Telling someone that they have no music, not internet, no phone… nothing but their thoughts for six hours would be frightening! Last week I did just that. After packing a paper bag lunch, my outreach team was driven to a mountain by the ocean. With no other instruction than to not talk with anyone, we were free to hike wherever we wanted to be alone with God. There was a beautiful view of the ocean, so I hiked down and out to a little rock island. After having a time of just thanking God for everything He has done for me and having a good argument with Him (which I lost), two hours had past! It was so easy to lose track of time when I was sitting thirty-five feet above the crashing waves on a rock cliff! I felt so free to just hang out with Jesus and explore! The scene was like you would imagine in a movie… huge rocks out in the water, waves crashing into them and spraying up. I scrambled out as far as I could go on the rocks in between the spraying water. I found this amazing sea pool that was about a nine foot circle and eight feet deep. I sat perched there for quite a while just looking. Looking into the crystal clear water you could spy fish, crabs and sea urchins! It was so beautiful! I didn’t bring my camera along for this trip, but I am almost glad. It was such an intimate time of just hanging out with God that I am glad that I am the only one who will experience that! I can not explain how refreshing it was to spend six hours of silence with God. If you haven't spent a day like that with Him I would encourage you to! So good...



Hannah, Me, Karin, Courtney and Shelby!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to travel to San Diego! I was super pumped to go to the states and just relax! Hannah, one of my good friends, was going to meet her dad there who was in town for business. He booked a hotel room for us and even took us out to dinner! The weekend was spent shopping, hot tubing, hanging out as friends and smuggling muffins/ bagels from breakfast to our room.   You become so thankful for the little things when you don’t have them. Being able to flush toilet paper, being able to speak the same language, sleeping in a bed that didn’t have sand in between the sheets… I could go on, but it’s such a good reminder! I don’t know about you, but I take many things for granted until I don’t have them. It was nice to have a few normal days! On our way back to Ensenada, we took time to stop and drive up a mountain. The view was amazing! We got there just in time for the sunset! I know I have said this before, but there is no way to capture the beauty of a full Mexican sunset on the ocean… especially on top of a mountain! Love all of these girls so much.

This weekend there is a concert everyone gets to participate in. There are several local worship bands coming to play and each of the student’s co-writing groups will perform a song they wrote. On top of writing a song in Spanish, my group is adding a whole band. It is a challenge getting so many people to play smoothly together but I think we can pull it off. Last night, the six vocalist sat in a bedroom and worked out the harmonies for the gang vocals for about two hours! It’s a lot of work, but totally worth it… especially when we get to rock out on stage this Saturday! Really looking forward to it!

My time here is flying past and I can hardly believe I will be in the outreach portion of my school in several weeks! I am so excited to be able to reach out to the community and put into practice everything I have learned over the weeks. We are going to be able to lead worship, share our testimony, and even preach. I can’t wait!!! I know it is not going to be all easy, but totally worth it.

What's for dinner?

I am three weeks over due on this blog! I guess that is my way of saying how busy I am! Let’s get started!

My amazing team!
'The Knights who say Ni.'

A little over a week ago, I went on an amazing hiking trip through the Mexican mountains for my DTS’s team building week. We started on Monday morning and put in almost an eighteen hr. day hiking in the mountains and valleys of Ensenada! It was one of the most physically demanding weeks of my life! Hour after hour of trekking uphill took its toll not only physically but emotionally. We were broken into teams of approximately six people and through the week we had to learn to work together to finish each hike. After eating rice and beans that were made over a fire, we would sit around and have a little Bible study led by one of our leaders. When we were finally allowed to go to bed, we would finally drop onto the tarps that covered the rocky ground exhausted. Despite the urge to close your eyes immediately after getting snuggled up in your sleeping bag, it was impossible with the incredible view of the stars. With the exception on the dying campfire and a few flashlights shining, there was no light on the mountain. The sky was filled with twinkling lights that demanded attention. You couldn’t help up lay there and be humbled by the beauty of God’s creation.

The view above the clouds!

 One morning, I woke up early and realized that the night before, we had climbed above the clouds! The previous day had been a struggle but it was so worth it to view the clouds from above! I felt this so often. The struggle to climb up sucked… it really did, but the view from the top was completely worth it! During the many hours of walking, I had time to think a lot about this! I couldn’t help but compare it to our Christian walk. We often are in an uphill struggle. Just when we think we can’t go on, we look up and there is an even bigger incline to climb. Overwhelming as it is, we just put one foot in front of the other knowing that is all the strength we have. Many people give up along the way and many people lose their passion but those who make it to the top are overwhelmed by the view. You don’t realize how far you have come until you look down over the path. If we knew how long the struggle would be I know personally I would have just given up. God has a gentle (and yet sometimes annoying) way of pushing us past our limits doesn’t He?

Our "feast" at dinner!

This is all the detail I can go into! Our DTS team was asked to keep the details in secret so that other students wouldn’t know what to expect. All I can say is that week was for the most part not fun. Looking back, it was a great learning experience and a time I will never forget with many activities to push us out of our comfort zone. If you are curious, which I know you all are, you will just have to do a YWAM school too!



The view from on top of the mountain.

I loved coming back to the base and getting back to normal! Last week was filled with lectures and music workshops. This week we were learning how to copy write/register your song. I absolutely loved learning the business behind music and the practicality of it. I was over all an amazing week!

Every Sunday night, we have an outreach prep dinner. Basically they give us food we may have to eat when we do our outreach. We aren’t supposed to make faces about the food and eat everything on our plate. Last night we had Manudo. Take away the fancy word and you have cow intestine soup. Yep… a nice big bowl of nastiness! It was an oily watery base with chunks of intestine in it. For those of you who have never had the enjoyment of trying Manudo, the chunks of meat are half jelly fat and the other half is meat that looks like you could pet it. I may have gagged several times, but I am proud to say I managed to eat every bite! It still gives me goose bumps to write about it! It was definitely humbling to know that for many people, this is a normal meal. After dinner, I rewarded myself with a Nutella sandwich. 
 
 
 

I can't Belize it!

For those of you who haven't kept up with me, I am here in Mexico for three months of discipleship training, followed by a two month missions outreach. I didn’t know where the outreach portion of the DTS would be before I came but I just found out last Sunday!

As a back side to the story, we knew there were two choices… either to go to Belize or stay in Mexico. To help us determine which outreach we felt called to, the leaders of each team chose a color. The students didn't know which color correlated to the outreach destination and would have to rely fully on which color God asked us to pick. Anyway, this is my experience in choosing......

 A few days before the colors were revealed, I had been praying that God would direct me to the right outreach location. I hadn’t been praying for a color, but immediately the color green popped in my mind. I was like "OK, cool. Maybe this is from God but then maybe I am just being a little too imaginative." I prayed a little more, and then fell asleep. The next day I couldn't remember which color I had thought of.  So I started praying again and the color green popped in my mind again. I remembered that was the color that came to mind the day before. I was pretty cautious about it because I thought I might be making it up and just trying to have a color picked out. Keep in mind, they hadn’t revealed the colors to us yet. Anyway, the next day at dinner, I was talking with friends when all of a sudden I hear, "David, what is your favorite color?” “Definitely green!"  I wasn't even listening to their conversation and yet, I heard that comment crystal clear. The word green came to mind, over and over again. I tried to think it was a coincidence and not get my hopes up.  Later, we were worshiping together before finding out the two color choices and I was really trying to pursue God’s presence rather than an answer. The color green kept coming to mind but I just tried to shove it away. I looked up near the end and one of the girls had on a green skirt and it seemed to shine neon. I was really thinking my color was green at this point. Nick, the Director of our school, started praying before he revealed the colors and I got really nervous. I was unsure if green was the color and if it wasn't, how would I know which color to pick. As I began to panic, I looked down and guess what color my Bible is? Green! I just had to laugh and whispered, "God, if there is not a green color up there on that white board when they turn it around, I am going to be super confused!"  Low and behold when they revealed what was written on the white board, there was the color green. I knew without thinking any further, that was the one I needed to pick! God made it so obvious!

You can imagine my excitement when they turned the board around!
 Green!

I could write story after story about the amazing ways God is speaking not only to me, but to the school as a whole. I know this was a short blog and I am about a week late, so I will try to update you with more soon!

So much to say, so little time to write it.

I am sitting on an old couch in my classroom. There are several people jamming on some instruments, writing book reports, or just chatting. I am finally sitting down with the few minutes I have this morning to process everything that has been going on!

The beginning of last week was extremely stressful for me. It started out knowing that I had to write a song for this weekend. Yep, I had to write a song. It was really hard, because almost everyone here plays piano and there are only two keyboards on base. I struggled to find time where I could get on the piano and get creative. I definitely felt (and still do) intimidated by all the amazing musicians here. There are some incredible songwriters/performers in this DTS and I was struggling to let go of my pride and just play what I had wrote. It ended up that instead of playing on Thursday, I was in the half of students that are playing today. I am so glad because I am a little more prepared to perform. Still a little nervous but I will let you all know how it goes!

Saturday, we went to Segundas. It is a whole bunch of second hand clothing shops with super good deals.
Our group stopped for a popsicle break!

 This past Friday night, I had the opportunity to go on a prayer walk in the red light district. The group of us started out with prayer on the roof that God would direct and protect us. Several students stayed behind to worship and intercede for us. The rest of us split into three groups and headed out. We walked around the block as we felt the Holy Spirit Lead. Walking past these bars and clubs with prostitutes standing outside broke my heart. Some of the buildings were guarded with security and had such a dark feeling about them. Several times my group felt the need to stop and pray over a building. We would pray for healing, for peace, that God would break down the walls, anything that He put on our heart. It was such a different experience to pray with your eyes open looking at strip club street taking in all of this sin. I felt like a soldier in the middle of a battle field. We did this for a little under an hour before heading back to the vans. While we were waiting for the last group we began to sing Our God is Greater as a declaration over the city. On our drive back we continued to sing praises over that area.  All the teams met again on the roof and told everyone what had happened within our groups. The worst street dead ends onto a tourist street and the one team felt the need to pray for a wall of angles to protect the innocent people walking past. The second team said they we praying over a specific building when this pimp ran up to them and started to yell. He began to curse and scream at them to leave. “You need to go… NOW!!! You are not welcome here! Go away! What are you going to do… start a church?” Over and over again the man ran around the circle yelling curses yet he never physically touched the group. As they began to walk away, the man followed. The team crossed a street and looked back. There stood this guy with a blank expression on his face, mouth hanging open. Excitement washed over the group as we realized that he had hit the wall of angles! God confirmed that evening that in the future a church would be planted on that street. So many things happened that I could fill a book with details. I hope that I have another opportunity to go again.

Surfing is harder than it looks like! Try, try again.

Yesterday, I tried surfing for the first time! I tried so many times, but I could never stand up completely and wiped out more times than I care to admit! I really want to try again so I can say that I’ve surfed in Mexico. Right now, I have basically just floated on a surf board. Haha… oh well, everything takes practice. :)

How did I get here?

Last week I flew over 2,000 miles to embark on a brand new adventure! When I arrived in Ensenada, Mexico for a Discipleship Training School, I wondered what in the world I was getting myself into! Whether I like it or not, I was stuck in this place with a little under 30 students for the next several months! You may be asking why I am here, so let’s back up a bit…

When I graduated a year early from high school this spring, I was collage prepped and ready to go. Everything pointed to the traditional education; I already had several music scholarships without even applying at schools. With quite a few nurses and doctors in my family and everyone expected me to go that direction but part of me always felt a tug to do ministry. There came a point where I had to start applying for collages. I felt like everyone expected me to know what to major in and I became so overwhelmed with the decision.  I was looking at different majors, but nothing seemed like right fit. I felt such a burden of needing to know where I should go. One night, I fell face down on the ground and poured out my heart before the Lord. I cried out for direction and guidance and after a few moments, a peace that I had never felt before washed over me. Part of me was so happy that this weight was lifted and another part of me was beyond frustrated that God had not answered my questions! I knew He would direct me; I was just tired of waiting on Him. Tears streamed down my face as I walked slowly over to my bed happy, yet disappointed and picked up my Bible.  As I began to read, God smacked me in the face with His answer.

Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” 

I immediately had my answer. God took that moment to teach me to wait on Him day by day. He might not reply when you think you need it, but when He knows the timing is right. I have never had such a clear word from Him. He had perfectly directed me to what I should do.

I decided to skip collage this fall and take a year devoted to getting to know God better. Long story short, I ended up applying for a Music and Missions YWAM base in Mexico and arrived on September 18th for 5 months.  When I first walked into the courtyard, I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed! The past few days have flown past. I have made so many close friends that we all agree it feels as if we have known each other for years. As much as I miss my family and friends back home, I absolutely LOVE it here! God has given me so much peace it only confirms that this is exactly where I am meant to be.



We had a mariachi band come to play for us the first night!
 

 

The other day while I was reading, I began to realize how complacent about the gospel I have become.

Galatians 5:7, “You were running the good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”



 What a powerful reminder. I think a lot of times we get too carried away with our busy lives… traveling to work, taking care of our families, hanging out with friends. Don’t get me wrong, all of these things are important, but if we let it, it often drains us of our precious time. How often do I waste my  time on insignificant things?  I have talked to many people in my 17 yrs. and I have heard the same thing. Your drift away from God is gradual. It doesn’t happen all at once. I’m not talking about going of the deep end, but it is so easy for God to become second in our lives. I know I was not pursuing God with my whole heart and I am so excited to fall more in love with him.

Anyways Mexico is amazing and I am absolutely loving every minute. I know I didn't put to many details...

I live right next to the beach!

 
but there will be more updates to come!