Hey everyone! Well it's been a while since my last post, and a lot of things have gone on since then. Everyday im falling more and more in love with this place and more and more in love with God. We've been through 2 weeks of lectures with some amazing speakers so far. The first week was on the father heart of God with Jack Cody as the speaker. That was a pretty awesome week. One thing I really want to share from that week with everyone is Hebrews 1:3. It goes a little somethin like this: "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." This really came alive to me and started a transformation in my heart. Its been really easy throughout my life to read the Bible and hear stories about Jesus and to put a face and a personality on him. Right down to the wavy brown hair and peace sign that he really likes to do in stained glass windows. But God has been a real mystery to me. I had always known that God and Jesus were one and the same, but it never made too much sense to me. But when Jack shared that with us it finally clicked! Its been so much easier to understand who God is and how he works now that my older views of him have been made complete. I knew in my heart that he was a loving God, but at the same time was so scared of who he was and of the punishment he could bring upon me if I wasn't living just right. Even though he is still someone who needs to be feared, the confusion and misconceptions about him have gone away, and it feels awesome.
Week two we talked about the injustices going on in the world, primarily focusing on human trafficking. That was pretty intense. During that week we went to the red light district of downtown Ensenada and had a prayer walk, as well as discussed things we could do to help out besides prayer and intercession. Amanda was the speaker, and one day during class we took an hour break to think of something to do to spread the word about a certain injustice going on in the world. Some people wrote blogs, some made posters, and 2 songs were written. Me and my friend Paul wrote a song about child soldiers. It was weird to think that something like a song, blog, or poster that you make in one hour could potentially find the right people in the world and change millions of lives. That was something I really gained from that week. Whenever you feel burdened to fight against some injustice going on in the world and want to help, one hour of your time could change someones life forever. So that's something you can think about next time you ever want to help out but aren't sure what kind of power you have or if you could even do anything at all. We have more power and influence than we think and above all, we as believers have a direct line to the man who is in charge of everything. His heart always breaks for those without a voice and he will always respond to someone who comes to him with faith and full expectation that God heard him and will answer his prayers.
So...tonight we had to decide which outreach destination we would go to in December. The choices were Mexico City and Pechuca or Haiti and Dominican Republic. At first I was really leaning towards the Haiti outreach. But Tym, the leader of the DTS, surprised us all when he said we had to pray between 2 colors. Silver and Gold. I was like....dang. So at that moment it really didn't matter how I felt about either outreach. Because whatever color was put on my heart was where I needed to go. After a while of praying and reading my Bible I found Proverbs 2:3-5. Which says "and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God." I was like YES silver means Haiti! But after everyone had written their color on a piece of paper and gave it to Tym, he wrote all our names on the board, some under gold and some under silver. Needless to say I was pretty shocked and confused when I found out that silver was the Mexico city outreach! ........one of my roommates is snoring so loud right now....i can't beleive he isnt waking himself up with that snoring. Oh how I love community living =) But anyways, I'm going to Mexico City and Pechuca for my outreach phase. Its not at all where I thought I would be going and not exactly where I wanted to go. But tonight I told God that I wanted not my will, but his to be done during this time of my life. As if he hadn't already decided it would be that way =) So yeah! My life was kind of turned upside down today. I'll be heading to a different outreach, away from the new friends I've made and in an unfamiliar place in a different country on the other side of the continent. I couldn't be happier. God is teaching me to walk by faith and not by sight, and is everyday changing my heart and showing me who he is and what his heart is like.
Thanks for reading and I'll update again soon!
