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.