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.