this is the end...

1. praying for a family in the Nicaragua Dump community

2. after a prayer meeting at the center of all the Americas in Honduras

3. ministry at an awesome school in Honduras

4. ministry at the Old Folks home in Bocas del Toro, Panama

So our DTS graduation was last night and now one by one everyone is leaving...

Some are staying in Costa Rica or going to Panama to travel for a little bit but some are going home and getting ready for the next thing God has in store for them.

As for me I am here with two other girls and we are going to be traveling around a little bit and helping out our friend with her wedding.

I know you all like to read short quick updates so I'll try to do that. It's nearly impossible to try to explain that transformation that has gone on inside me in these past 5 months but i'll give it a shot.

17 people from 6 different countries go to 6 countries in Central America to speak out for the voiceless and stand by the broken. More importantly... TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE GOD KNOWN.

The change was so subtle but then again so fast. By the grace of God I have learned things that it takes years of trial and error to learn. He knows what I can handle and He will never give me more than that. From intimacy with God and relationship week to biblical worldview and spiritual warfare week I have built my house on a rock and no longer is it built on the sand. I've seen some things that have broken my heart here in Central America but I have also seen things that have shown me how special we are that our God loves us so much He would make a world so beautiful just for our pleasure. I not only have my blood family, I now how my DTS family who are from all over the world. This organization is so well thought out and such a blessing from God there is no way to turn back after what we have seen and experienced. I want to thank you so much for all my supporters. You didn't just supply me with living and school expenses you funded a five month long Divine Appointment that will forever change my life. Thank you so much, I am so blessed to have people like you guys in my life who could have made this all possible, who always stood by my side and believed that I would make it. I am not the same person I came to Costa Rica as on July 10th not only am I no longer a child but an adult(legally) I am not a person living for this world I am living for a God who will never leave me nor allow me to go back to the living Hell that I was in. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

MINISTRY:

Nicaragua... (1 week. Total of 16hrs traveling)

-Evangelism

-Hospital ministry

-Kids ministry

-La Chureca ministry

-Library work ministry

-Served the base

Talamanca... (1 week. 6 hrs traveling there)

- Local Church ministry

- NIKO... all I can say. ps. NIKO means "to overcome"

Puerto Viejo... (2 days. 45 min traveling from Talamanca)

- Spiritual Warfare

- Local Church ministry

Panama... (1 week. 6hrs. to Bocas 10 hrs. back to San José)

- Nursing Home ministry

- Picking up trash

- Painting nursing home

- Painting city benches

- Spiritual Warfare

- Kids ministry

- Relationship building

Honduras...(2 weeks. 16 hrs. traveling there)

- Prayer meetings

- Assemblies at 2 different schools several times

- Homeless ministry

- Poor community ministry

- Feeding programs

- Street Love ministry

- Kids ministry

- Local church ministry

- Participation in youth groups

and so much more...

El Salvador...(1 week. 8 hrs. traveling)

- Kids ministry x3

- Scavenger hunt

- Assembly ministry

- Church participation ministry

- DEBRIEF AT A BEAUTIFUL BEACH!

Guatemala...(3 days. 3 1/2 hrs. traveling)

- Went to an orphanage Thanksgiving Dinner put on for their supporters

Then traveling back to El Salvador to catch a bus at 3am to go to Costa Rica. 20 hrs. on a bus and finally we made it back to Costa Rica Tuesday.

We have successfully completed our Discipleship Training School with Youth With a Mission!

Now it's time for the next step. For me it is....

Check this out! This is where I will be starting January 10, 2011 God willing.

http://childrenatriskschool.com

As for now...

being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philipians 1:6

Bless you all! Thank you for all your prayers and financial support!

If you have the time check out these pages for more pictures...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=574281&id=607835117

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240189&id=500417053

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001255764833&v=photos&so=45#!/profile.php?id=100001255764833&v=photos

birthday

Wow I was a little nervous about my birthday being down here. I didn´t think we were really going to celebrate it too much but when I woke up one of my team memebers gave me earings and a very cool bag from here in El Salvador. Then another girl gave me a princess kit full of earings a ring a wand and a crown which I am required to wear all day otherwise there will be consequences. What the consequences are I am not too sure but all I know is that if I don´t stick out already by being the only white blondie now I have a crown on my head too!
I am really enjoying the time down here as well the hospitality is great once again. I really hope that all the hosts of missionaries that come to the states treat them with as much respect and love as they have been down here otherwise I will be very embarrassed. I am looking forward to the end of the DTS but I will miss these places more than anything. My next step has already been revealed to me and I will be going to Tijuana Mexico for a Children at Risk school on January 10, 2010. Last night I found out that I will need to have the $3,100 before the starting date but my team reminded me today that as He provided the way and means for me to do this all before I turn 18 how much more will He continue the work that he is doing inside of me and provide the money for me to do the next school he wants me to do. The hardest part for me is the asking. I hate asking for help and I hate asking for money. But what I have learned in the Christian community is that you need to ask for help from your friends and family. We are all brothers and sisters we are all children of God. A few people have already told me they want to support me so that it making it much easier on my mind. The stress is diminishing little by little and my family is really supporting me.
Anyways today we have two ministries. One we are doing an assembly at a public school and the other is participating in a church service tonight at the church we are staying at. I am really having a great time here. Thank you all again for your advice, support, and encouragment. I miss you all and would love to see as many of you as I can before my next school starts in January. Love always
nina

Sonsonate, El Salvador

We have safely made it to Sonsonate, El Salvador. This country is much different then Honduras, well at least where we are right now. The boarder crossing was so much easier than Costa Rica-Nicargua. All they did here was have two guys come on the bus and check our passports. Immigration was done in like 2 minutes. We got into San Salvador at about 8pm and a fellow YWAMer who happens to be the brother of one of our leaders and one of the students came and picked us up along with their other brother and another girls cousin. This is the home town of 3 of the people on our team. It must be nice for them to have the comfort of being so close to home. They still have to sleep in the church with us because we often have meetings and they need to make sure that everyone is able to drop everything they are doing at any time and do ministry and with the girls staying at their homes that would be nearly impossible. This city reminds me a little bit of mexico but this city has paved roads.
Today we have 3 kids serivices at the church we are staying at. We had one at 9am and another at 3pm and 5pm. We are settling in and resting because we have been on the go go go for the past 3 weeks and the amount of sleep we are getting is really not helping me get over my cold quickly. We were all really exicted to find out that we get to go to Guatemala as well. One of the girls´parents run an orphange there in Guatemala so we are leaving here Friday to spend a few nights there and help out. I heard it is very close so that traveling day wont be too difficult.
Leaving Honduras thought was very difficult. We have made so many great ministry connections and friendships that I will never forget. I love the people there and I enjoyed all the ministries so much. Luckily God has given me the gift of being good and goodbyes, probably because of the boarding school I was at we had to say goodbye to people all the time, so it wasn´t as hard for me as it was for some of the people. Another great thing is that technology has made it so easy to keep in contact with people. I have probably 30 new facebook friends from people in Honduras and I love it. I was told I HAVE TO KEEP IN TOUCH or many people will be angry and they have invited us back at any time. I think we have also planted the desire to do a DTS in many hearts there. We had an awesome connect there who put everything together so perfectly! He organized EVERYTHING from the sleeping arangments and food, to ministry and transportation it made our time there much easier but for him I´m sure it was even more tiring since he was in charge. One day someone suggested to him that we go and feed these children so we all were ready to go and once we got there it turns out it was a homless feeding center and it was all older men. Now we all joke around about the day we ¨fed the children¨that was a geat day and a huge lesson on how to run ministry. Anyway due to all of his help and skill he made it so that we got to save $1,500 of the cost that we had budgeted for our time in Honduras. With that money we gave an offering to the church and were able to pay all of his lecture phase cost for the DTS that he is planning to do in Costa Rica in January. It was such a blessing to us that we were able to do that and he was so excited about it. God defintely favors that man.
So I got to go now but I will try and update more soon.!
Thank you all again for all of your support and prayers.
lovenina
MY BIRTHDAY IS IN 3 DAYSSS !

honduras I love you

This country is by far my favorite. It has somthing to do with the amazing people the crazy passionate youth and the great weather. We are having such a great time here we hardly notice that there is barely any free time. Right now we are just here for a short time in the internet cafe before we have to go to a classical concert that we were invited to. God is spoiling us to the max. We were also blesssed on Monday very much. One of our leaders here in honduras´mother is the owner of a hair salon and she blessed us with free haircuts and then in that same night the owner of a great tipical Honduran food reastaurant told us that we could eat there for free! It was so delicious I wish I could remember the name of what we ate. It was some kind of tortilla that was similar to a regular tortilla but it was thicker and more tastier and then you put on a bunch of different ingredients. So yes that is just a little bit of the blessings that we have recieved.
The ministry we are doing here just keeps getting better and better we have seen God work in ways I didn´t even know he did! We have done more relational things at a local school and went to an orphanage along with more street ministry and the feeding center. Ahh I don´t like how rushed we always are. I have to go now hopefully I will be able to actually elaborate on what we are doing more when we have our free day but for now know that we are having a crazy wonderful time down here and God is moving so much. Please keep us in your prayers!
I will try and write more soon!
love always nina
MY BIRTHDAY IS NEXT WEEK!yayyayay

update from Honduras

We are about to go to another ministry and I don´t have much time to update but I wanted to let you guys know what is going on down here. We have been packed full of ministry from working in the streets with addicts and prostitutes to school assemblies and a children feeding program in a poor community.
It has been such a humbling experience once again seeing how so many people live their lives and I get reminded everyday of why I want to be doing this. Last night my heart broke. We were doing a ministry called Street love with people from a youth group. They go out onto the streets and talk to the addicts, homosexuals, and prostitutes. They started three groups called AC- addicts for Christ, HC- hombres for christ, and MC- mujeres for christ. Its such a cool ministry and the people really enjoy it. Last night when we were working with the AC a 15 year old boy came to watch us and he was obviously very high. He sat down and started talking with a few of the people and all of a sudden he fell back and started overdoseing. He was shaking and his eyes were rolling back in his head. Luckily we have three nurses on our team so we were able to help him with what we could but they knew he was going to live. His heart rate was at 116 a minute.... when he was sitting down. We layed him on his side and finally he came to. As soon as we did he huffed some more of the paint thinner he has been getting high off of. That is a very popular thing to get high off of down here. Paint thinner and glue. It must be because its cheap and lasts a long time. I cannot believe that this boy who is so young is so caught up in the lifestyle of drugs and living on the streets. If he is only 15 what is he going to be like when he turns 18? Will he live to be 18? Thats why we´re here. We talked a bit with him and I really felt God pushing me to tell him my testimony. I told him some of my story and he began to pay attention but as soon as I stopped talking about the bad part of my life he stopped paying attention. He wanted to know that other people have been through the same things he had but he felt so bad when I started telling him about how good I´m doing now because he doesn´t see a way out.
Thats why we´re here. To show them a way out. God has been doing so much more in the time here but that is just one of the many things that as affected me so much! I am really looking forward to going out again tonight and doing the feeding program again today.
I want to thank you all for all your prayers and support! It is so encouraging especially when things start to get tough and you feel absolutly dry. But I am so greatful for all the people that are backing me up in this time.
I am also really looking forward to a huge birthday for me on the 17th of November it is my 18th birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. FINALLY hahah.
well i love you all so much and I will write more soon. I have people yelling at me to hurry up!

love always nina

slow down

Ok now I have a little bit more time to write.
So we got back the base last Wednesday and had a good time there but on Thursday night I started to feel bad. I had a throbbing headache and my lower back had crazy pains. I am a sarcastic person so I started pretending like I couldn´t walk and doing a bunch of things to just make it seem worse than it really was so no one really took me seriously in fact I didnt hink it was too serious. Then my head got worse. I went to sleep that night hoping it would be all better the next day, boy was I wrong. I spent the night tossing and turning not being able to find a position that would not strain my back. When I started to hear others arise the next morning I got up a well to find that I was in way worse shape that before. All of Friday I dealt with this horrible back pain. We were planning on leaving for Guanacaste on Friday but somthing happened with the ride and they postponed it to Saturday, lucky for me. Friday night I started getting bad and not just a little bad but to the point where I could no longer stand up. Then the worst part hit me, vomit was arising in my throat. Oh no. I was laying down trying to keep it down but I couldn´t hold it any longer. Friday night I spent throwing up every hour or so. I finally drank some tea and took some pills to try and make it better but that night of sleep was even worse than the one before. Two other girls were throwing up as well so I didn´t think I had anything special we thought we just caught a bug. Saturday our ride came at 6 to come and pick us up. I wasnt doing good at all. Katie and I, who was also sick, layed in bed all of Saturday until our ride came. Lucky for us our team really stepped up as our parents and was waiting on us hand and foot. Very nice of them. We made it to Guanacaste without throwing up and by the time we got there it was late. So we went upstairs and tried to go to bed. When I woke up I was doing a little better but not to much. Okay sorry guys Im making this way longer than it needs to be. It goes on and on and eventually a few days later we decide that I need to go to the clinic. Just to let you know where we were staying was in the country so the closest... anything was an hour away. So one of the base leaders where we were staying at drove me and another one of my leaders to the clinic. Turns out I had a kidney infection that wasn´t getting better. After they did some blood and other tests they told me what was wrong and what I needed to do. The funniest part about it all was that the doctor didn´t care as much about what was wrong with me as he did that I didn´t speak spanish! I was baffled when we went in to talk to him he started asking about our missionary work before he said even how are you doing. At the end when we were filling out papers he started asking the questions for my medications. He asked did I drink I said no he asked if I smoked and I said no and his response was.... BORINGGG! I was seriously shocked. I couldn´t believe it. For so long I have been dying to say that proud and then he tells me I´m boring. My leader told me...¨you should tell him that you used to do that but not anymore¨I was a little to upset to try and share my testimony but when we walked out of the room I said hey you know, this was in spanish, I used to smoke and drink but I don´t anymore and I have a great fun life! He was shocked I even said anything! haha
It wasn´t about shoving it in his face because that was not the point at all the point was that we could tell he was lost. I don´t think he really knew anyone like us. I don´t think he had ever met people who didn´t spend their life living for the night time. I don´t think he had ever had a good experience. So we showed him love and kindness despite the way he treated me. The way I told the story didn´t make him sound too mean but boy it was crazy how he treated us. I haven´t seen that in a long time. It wasn´t kind or right but thats how this earthly life is. But we need to be lights. We need to be the change. We cannot retaliate. Forgive always and in ever circumtance. Never drink poisen and hope it will kill your enemy. Thats what bitterness is. Thats what unforgivness is.

Anyways I am doing much better now. They gave me a shot in... an unpleasent place and a few medications. I am now able to walk and talk and laugh! Everyone said they hated the sick nina, that she was boring and lifeless. haha. So I´m back and I will be around the internet more so I can update you. While in Guanacaste we did Bible distribution. I wasn´t looking forward to it but it turned out to be one of my favorite weeks! It was so incredible to actually see the Bible trasform this communities lives. The base that we are at is pioneering the movement to put a bible in every home in Guanacaste Costa Rica. They have already handed out 5,000 they have 89,000 more to go! So if anyone feels called to watch God reach families by the Bible they need as many teams as they can to help them out. We saw 15 salvations. One drug addict was saved and got a job in just the week that we were there! These people are hungry. They wan´t God and they want that life. If anyone would like more information on the Bible distribution ministry let us know. Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, has really felt from God that we are supposed to put a Bible in every home on this planet and YWAM is starting that job. Costa Rica is striving to be the first country and they are well on their way! We are the country that began before Loren even said anything to anyone so lets do it!!!!! but we are going to need help.

Tomorrow is our freeday and Katie and I are hopeing to go to the beach but we need to buy bus tickets and they will probably close.... soon so I gotta go!!!! But I will update soon. Tomorrow is freeday in Liberia, unless we leave somewhere else, then we go to Honduras on Sunday!!!!

PS. I GOT ACCEPTED TO THE CHILDREN AT RISK SCHOOL IN TIJUANA MEXICO! I am so excited starting Jan. 10, 2010 I will move to a YWAM base in Tijuana and work and learn about the risks and injustices going on in the world with Children and then going out and trying to stop it! I am really going to need your support the school is more expensive than I would like but I know God will provide. Please keep my finances in your prayers! I need to raise $3100. Thank you all so much!!!!!
I hope you all enjoyed this
Pss. MY BIRTHDAY IS IN 19 DAYS

nicoya to liberia

this week has been great I just wanted to write somthing supper quick we havent had email and we are about to catch a bus. I got a kidney infection and I wasnt able to be of too much help this week but we distributed bibles in Guanacaste, Costa Rica and it was was more impacting then I ever thought it would be and I am so greatful for this experience. We saw such incredible transformations in peoples lives and has several blessings poured out on us!
Ill write later I dont want to miss the bus!!!!
Love you all
nina