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.