Relationships and more

Relationships and more

Last week one of the base leaders spoke on Relaionships.

I am a very relational person and really love human interaction so it was definetly one of my favorite weeks. It was one of those weeks that was just so practical and aplicable then and there.

We spoke a lot about the reasons we enter relationships. How we subconsiously hope for the other person to fulfill a need or want that we have. Putting these unrealistic expectations on other people is extremly detrimental for both of you.

I read the book "The Five Love Languages" a few weeks ago it really opened up my eyes to love and how to express it. The book speaks about how the high, "in love" experience lasts about 2 years generally. After that point you hear many people say that they just don't feel that they love eachother anymore or that the butterflies are gone. From that point love is a choice. Love isn't just a feeling. Love is a choice to surrender everything for someone else because you choose to put them in front of you. If we are in a relationship expecting the other person to fulfill us then we will always be dissappointed. Another problem is we build people up especially during that in love feeling and overlook all the little annoyances but as soon as the butterflies go away the only thing you can focus on are those things that annoy you so much. But relationships, of course, aren't all bad. We just need to make sure we are not going into them broken with those unrealistic expectations. I love people we are made to have interaction with other people in a healthy setting so lets do it!

I also got confronted with another reality. Dating. Why do we date? So we can claim that person for ourselves and not allow them to be with another person? So that it is socially acceptable to do more things with them? hmmm... I don't think it's fair to date someone when you know it will only last a short while. Sure it would be a learning experience but I don't want to open up doors to emotions and thoughts that will only bring me down especially when it comes to an end. I'm waiting. I'm waiting and I don't care how long it takes until I am 100% sure that the next person I date is going to be my husband. The funny thing is I didn't even want to get married a few months ago and now I'm talking about praying and waiting for my husband. I've given it up to God. If it is in His will for me to be single the rest of my life and continue ministry without a partner I am okay with that. I don't need someone to make me fulfilled I have Him and thats all I truely need to be fulfilled. Remember when I talked about the hole we feel inside that we try to cover with things like money, work, realationships, or mind altering substances well He is the only one that can fill that because He created us to be in comunion with Him and in order for that to happen His Spirit needs to live within us.

This is the last week we have here and it is so sad! The new DTS and secondary Foundations and Community Development school started this week as well so there are about 40 new people on the base and I am a tad bit upset that we are leaving now. I love people and I love meeting NEW people. It is really awesome hearing how everyone got here. One of the girls didn't have any money for the school or flight until 2 days before she was supposed to be in Costa Rica. But her parents knew that God would provide if it was His will, they did YWAM when they were younger, and sure enough the exact amount that she needed to the dollar was given to her!!! That DTS is going to Europe for their outreach. That would have been cool to go there but all of us planned on going to Central/South America so we brought warm clothes and having to get all our warm clothes down here or buying them would have been a fortune! well not really but pretty expensive.

Just got word that my computer will be ready to be picked up this friday! The day before we leave for outreach. How funny.

Well we're just getting everything all packed up and praying for our outreach to come. Other than that everything is pretty calm and nothing too crazy is happening. Today has been very uneventful besides the coffee being SO strong i couldn't even drink it:) I will update you and let you know more of what is going on as this week progresses!

I am really excited to go on outreach now!

Saturday: travel day to talamanca, Costa Rica

Sunday: church service with a youth group there

Monday: begin NIKO

Tuesday-Thursday: NIKO

Friday: end NIKO

Saturday: go to Puerto Viejo. rest day

Sunday: rest day

Monday- Sunday: Panama!

LOVE YOU ALL

nina

Jaco

Revelations

Once again an eventful week! The prositution ministry went great. We handed out some coffee and cookies and talked to some of the guys/girls. There were about 10 of us and we don't want to look like a big group taking pity on people so we take turns of a few people going out at a time talking to the people. Nothing too crazy happened while we were there which is good we just got to build more relationships which is essential in ministry and helping others. "They don't care about what you know until they know that you care" which is why such a huge part is getting to know the people you want to help and really letting them know they can trust you. Our last stop was the funnest for me. We went to the area where homosexual men were and talk to a few of them. One of them was an absolute character! He told me I looked like Amy Winehouse and was being absolutly hilarious. He only knew a few words in English but it was too funny when he would speak them because he would be making fun of us. "Whattt?? Oh my goshh no way! Like no way!" and other similar words like that but he knew all the popular musicians from the States. Which just shows that media is such a huge influence everywhere not only youth and people from the area they are in but also in other cultures where they don't even know the cultures. I'm so glad that people from other countries get to see shows we watch about people getting wasted and making fools of themselves and then listening to our popular music which does nothing but degrades women and talks about drugs and alcohol. I mean don't get me wrong I'm guilty of watching and listening to this music but I know that we are not all like that. The people in other countries assume we are that way which is such a bummer but I guess they will never know until they meet the good ones OR we make a difference we get people with good morals and aren't absolutly broken on the inside to get into the "role model" place so people look up to the ones that are going into the remote areas and helping others. But all I can do is "be the change I wish to see in the world" and I'm exactly where I need to be to do that in my opinion.

Sunday I went to Jaco, a beach on the Pacific side about 2 hours away from San Jose. The YWAM base runs a Children at Risk School which is 9 months long of learning about the issues children face and then doing an outreach to go and actually do something about it. There is one actually going on right now but they are on outreach in Jaco and have been for the past few months. They are working at this place called "the river" which is a bunch of houses on a water bank where in order to even get out you need to cross this river which at times can be a couple feet. There are houses on both sides and it is a very poor area. The children are living with abusive parents; sexually, emotionally, and physically. The ministry there started four years about with a church in Jaco and YWAM got in contact with them to do their outreach there a few years ago. Since then the Children at Risk School outreaches in Jaco and works with the Children there. Right now my good friend/roomate/team-mate Heidi's fiance and another guy are living in Jaco doing their outreach there. We wanted to go and look at the ministry again, I saw it a few weeks ago and Heidi spent some time there before she came to DTS, but another one of the girls in my DTS feels that God may be calling her to teach English to the kids there so thats what our primary purpose was to be there. We checked it out and met some of the people. We didn't spend too much time because there wansn't an organized ministry that day. Heidi and her fiance Isaac are actually going to be taking over that ministry once they get married so it is a really huge thing. Heidi is a nurse from upstate New York and Isaac is a missionary from a little village in Costa Rica. They have a crazy story of how they met and God has totally blessed that relationship. Heidi got called to missions and now let go of her right to have a job and make her own money to be a missionary for God and rely on Him 100% which is the main part of mission work for God. We need to be 100% reliant on Him and believe me He will provide, I'm here aren't I? They are the greatest couple I have ever met and have really talked me through a lot of issues that I have had to deal with due to my past. She is 27 and he is 28 and both are absolutely amazing! I wish you could meet them. They have both been to India and done mission work there. Their stories are incredible. They are getting married in December and I AM A BRIDESMAID :)

After the river we went on this beautiful hike up to a place that overlooks the beach. It used to be a very expensive resteraunt sometime back but not it is just the floor of it and pillars which held up the roof. It took a while to get up there but boy the whole way was absolutly amazing. It's so nice to get out of San José and really see the beauty of Costa Rica. We were in the Jungle looking at the beach!! I'll put some pictures up there. It was another great weekend with just as the title has said revelations.

God has recently put on my heart the desire to do a Children at Risk school in Tijuana, Mexico.

"The school focuses on disenfranchised children, such as orphans, street children, the handicapped and abused. The course content will be taught by ministry and social service professionals experienced in helping at-risk children. The CRS is for those who want to become advocates for at-risk children. This school will multiply leaders who in turn will champion the cause of children through social, political, judicial and spiritual intervention. Students experience God’s heart for justice, defending the cause of the fatherless, rescuing the poor, the weak and the oppressed. It also has an emphasis on human trafficking and will work regularly in the red light district of Tijuana throughout the lecture phase for hands on experience during the course."

That is from the website. Last night I was praying like crazy asking God to tell me if it is his disire for me to go or if I made it up myself. This morning during worship I continued to be reminded of this school and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get it out of my head. I told Him I guess this means you want me to do the school huh? So I started to be stubborn and said okay God if you want me to go to the school then confirm it, make it so obvious to me. After the worship service I was talking to a friend and another girl came up to me and told me she needed to tell me somthing. She has a word for me that God spoke to her. We were both shocked because we don't know eachother very well and we don't talk too much so when she told me she had a word for me it was a bit of a shock. What she told me confirmed it, God wants me in Tijuana, Mexico working with broken children. I don't care how "dangerous" it is when God calls you somewhere you don't disobey you don't come up with excuses. He knows what your concerns are and He takes care of that which makes the decisions He asks us to make so much easier!! When you know that He will take care of all the messy details all you have to do is raise your money and follow His will. He is the light for my path and I'm learning that more and more everyday. I am so excited He has revealed to me what I am supposed to do next. I thought that the "right" thing for me to do was a Bible school but obviously He has other plans for me. This school starts in January and it is 9 months long but 6 of the months are outreach which is optional. I am going to be starting school, college, next fall so if I were to do the Children at Risk school but only 3 months of outreach I could still start school next fall! It's funny how when He calls you to things He makes it just work out. The school is $3,100 but I am planning on putting together a video, selling photographs, doing a fundraising dinner, painting, and other things for fundraising. Now that I have experience in the mission field fundraising will be much easier. Then I'm off to school for nursing!

So that is a little bit of what is going on in my life! Whats going on in your life? Is everyone enjoying these blogs??

LOVE YOU ALL talk to you soon

http://www.ywamsandiegobaja.org/articles.aspx?id=27592

Here is the link for the school I want to do.

LEARNING HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE

Already week 10! Only two more weeks left of lecture phase I can hardly believe it. We still have another 10 weeks but 8 of them we will be in Panama, Honduras, and El Salvador.

We are starting our outreach prep and as we speak seven of the people on our team are learning a drama called "free". The drama is about three people who who get caught up in the worldly lifestyle and they loose sight of any hope. They have somwhere along the road picked up demons to control them. The three demons represent the drunk partier, the model, and lover of money. As Jesus stands on the sidelines and patiently waits for the people to come to Him again the demons are binding the three and violently beating them. When the demons have ruined them bad enough they sit back and watch whats going to happen next. But then Jesus comes in and takes all the weight that they have been holding onto because of the demons. He then does an interpretation of dieing on the cross and the three rise and cry out why did He do that for them when we were so defiant. They fall down at His feet and when He comes alive He kills all the demons in an instant. The play is like 7 minutes long and doesn't have any words. One of our leaders went to Africa and preformed it there for a ton of people and said it produced great results. We have some extremly talented people in our group who have been through a lot of pain so we can defintly portray the emotions being felt quite well.

The pieces of outreach are all coming together. We have contacts in Honduras who are very involved in a giant youth group and they are over excited for us to go there and help out! But before we go there we have to do NIKO camp I have talked about it a little bit and I'm sorry I can't tell you guys too much information but don't feel like I'm holding out on you because I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING EITHER! Like I have said before we are not allowed to know anything about NIKO until we do it and then we can't talk about it to ANYONE who could possibly be doing it. We did get the packing list which didn't include toothpaste, yuk. It did include a pocket knife and climbing caribeaners though- oh gosh, we did find a place to get a pocket knife for $1 pretty cheap huh? I do know that we are going to get wet and eaten alive my mesquitos! Oh no. I don't know what it is about me but they love my blood. At any given time I will have at least 5 bug bites! hahah sucks. I never realized how fortunate I was to live in a place where we don't have any mesquitos.

Today, September 16 (my birthday is two months from tomorrow!!), we had giving day where we pray and think about what we should give other people. There are some awesome stories that come out of giving day and everyone is smiling at the end. I know for me I am so excited because I have been wanting a bilingual bible (Spanish/English) and today one of the girls gave me one! It was such a great present. I also recieved a "free night off work dutie" if you didn't know me and two other girls have to clean the dishes from dinner for the whole base and it takes us about two hours and one of the girls really just felt that me and another girl deserved to have a night off sometime so she gave us a free coupon. She requested that we didn't take off the same night though :) haha.

This week our classes are about learning how to read/study the bible. We are using the inductive method where you read the book all the way through first, some take about 3 1/2 hours, and then go through and observe different aspects about the book including the culture at that time, who was in charge, and other important aspects of life at that time. Then we move onto interpretation which I'm sorry but I can't tell you to much about what that is because we haven't made it that far yet. That is for TONIGHT!

After class tonight we are going to do prostitution ministry. We went out into the city last week as well. It was such a crazy experience especially becuase we worked mostly with transvestites who had so much surgery to look like women the only way we could tell it wasn't a girl was by their voice. Our approach is much different with them, it is an approach I like a lot, we go up and try to make relationships with them. Someone had donated a bunch of make up, nail polish, clothes and other hair products. We split up into groups and went to different areas. It was a little difficult for me because I have never done transvestite and older prostitute ministry before only youth. Lucky for me though I got to go with the person who is runs the prostitution ministry so I got to see how she communicates with them and see what things to say and what not to say. Another challange for me was the language barrier. I know my heart is in this kind of ministry but the language causes such a huge wall to be in the way. I would love to be able to have a conversation that flows but due to my lack of Spanish speaking skills at this point I wouldn't be able to have a deep converstation without a translator. I believe a lot of times we get lost in translation as well so I do what I can and I am so determined to learn Spanish especially for outreach that I think it will all come easier. We are going out tonight too. I don't know if we will be going to the same place that we were at last week but I will update and let you know what happens tonight. Some of them have the most depressing stories too. Last week we met a women, the first women we met that night, and she told us a little bit about herself. She had been married with two kids and ended up in the hosipital due to some kind of illness and her husband left her right then. She had a day job but couldn't put in enough hours to support her kids that she had to find another job. At one point her kids had no food to eat before school and no clothes to wear for school and that is when she said thats it my kids need to eat and they need to have clothes I have to do it. That when she started working on the streets. She tells her kids that she works at a hotel at night so that they don't know what she is really doing. The thing that stood out about her is that she would give anything to not be on those streets when we started talking to her we asked if she would like some clothes that we had in the car. She was exstatic and followed us to the car immedietly. The other people that we talked to were talking to us but their eyes were pinned on ever car that drove by and ever person that walked by, no way would they have come with us and leave their business. This women was so excited to get off that street even just for a moment to have a real conversation. We gave her clothes and with every peive of clothing we handed her, her smile got bigger and her eyes shinned brighter. Before she left we gave her some money for food and offered to take her and her kids out to eat or invite them over to our base for dinner sometime. We exchanged numbers and she was on her way. The best part about all of this is that when she did leave us a couple of people from our team were coming back and saw her get in a taxi and drive off. To where we don't know but we pray it was home.

I hope God makes more divine appointments like that one and we change make relationships with these people that we never would have on our own or in our own eyes. We'll see I'll tell you how it goes.

For now I'm going to sign off I just wanted to give you all an update and let you know how it was going! Love you all.

nina

coffee shop

"A life not lived for others is not a life."

— Mother Teresa

I'm sitting here in a local coffee shop just reflecting on my life; where I was, where I am now, and whats to come and I stumbled upon this quote. "A life not lived for others is not a life" wow so true and I don't think my selfish old self would have even understood what that meant but now it is just reaffirming that I am doing exactly what God wants me to do. Not just for this time, for the rest of my life. So many people say they want to change the world and they sit complaining about the problems they hear on the news and try to blame anyone they can but do nothing to change it. Christianity has been a huge target for people angry with society due to the Christians who messed up. Thats like saying you hate everyone in a family because one of the members made a mistake- no one is perfect.

Mother Teresa also said "What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." meditate on that. Are you one of those people who are watching the news ashamed of the world we live in? If so are you doing anything to make a change? Are you even loving your family and being and example for others in your life?

This week our base leader is speaking on Biblical world view. Wow. This topic is right up my alley. I love practical classes that can be useful right away. We have learned about the different worldview's we have. The main ones are Animism, Secularism, Biblical theism, Gnosticism, and Deism. And the next questions are what shape the society based on their worldview: who is God? who is the ultimate man? what is truth? moral responsibility? I haven't talked with our base leader too much so this week I have learned a lot about him and realized how cool our leaders are! haha

Anyway I have now made my way back to the base with chaos and people all over so I'm going to sign off now but I hope all of you are having a great time. God is really revealing to me my gifts and desires. Who knows... nursing may be in my future.

LOVENINA

Quick Update

Hey just want to let everyone know that we had a great time in Nicaragua with a ton of eye opening experiences. When I came back I tried to turn on my computer and it wouldn't work so I brought it to the apple workshop which is called "i con" here I'm not too sure why. I'm going to go pick it up on Monday hopefully I wont have lost all my pictures and videos!!! I don't think so.

I don't have the computer for too long but I want to tell you a little bit about our increidble week! We left San Jose on Thursday morning on the Tica Bus which is a popular bus that goes to many Central American countries and began our journey to Nicaragua. It was a 6 hour bus ride to the border but about half way through the air conditioning on the bus broke. Although it is winter here it's still about 80 degrees and humid so it got hot! The windows we're screwed shut so people started pulling out screwdrivers and we unscrewed the windows. Even with the windows open we were all sweating like crazy. We took pictures while we were on the bus and in the beginning you can see we look fresh and clean and by the end our faces are covered in sweat.
When we stopped at the border on the Costa Rica side we went in and gave them our passports they checked everything out and stamped us to go on through, we didn't have any problems there thankfully. Then we got back in the bus they took us across to Nicaragua but before we reached the other side where we would have to go out we went through this car wash type thing to disinfect the bus from anything that might be on it. Costa Rica/ Nicaragua take great percaution but The States and Mexico you could just drive on through. Interesante verdad? So we went though that and stopped at the other side where we gave the Tica Bus attendent our passports so they could go and get them stamped for us while we went through costumes which entailed putting our bag on the table and opening your bag for the guy who doesn't even take a look. Before we left on of the people on the base Pablo, who is and incredible photographer if any of you would like to see some of his photo's let me know, told us how he was going to go to Nicaragua for a month and for some of the time he was going to be working at the border with kids who are selling themselves. Since Nicaragua is so poor these kids try everything they can in order to stay alive even if that means sacrificing their purity. It was such a depressing thing to think about, all those kids that I saw had been taken advantage of and degraded that they don't think they are good for anything. But they are and that is why I am so happy God is calling Pablo to go to those kids and tell them about another way of life they live.
After all that we made our way to Diriamba, Nicaragua where the YWAM base is located. If any of you have ever watched Lost the TV show it looks like where the "others" lived. There is a field of grass with palm trees and perfectly kept houses/cabins. The funny thing is it was located in a bario with the worst reputation in Diriamba. The last night I was talking to one of the Teachers at the base who told me that they had recently encountered a couple who lived in another bario near by and the couple told them that YWAM had done some amazing work in that bario. It had the worst reputation for crime, theft, and abuse and now although it still has that reputation it doesn't go on anymore and they see the work the Lord is doing in that community. I know if just filled that man with joy. All we can do is plant the seed, we can't do anything that will make that tree grow but the trees are growing in Bario Berlin and it is so obvious.
The first day we got in late afternoon and just set our stuff down went over the base's ground rules and ate dinner. But after dinner was a treat. They took us out to Eskimo, the cheapest most delicious ice cream place. They gave us a limit of 40 quartabas and everything on the menu was way less than that. Just so you know how inexpensive Nicaragua is. About 20 quartabas are equal to 1 US dollar. That means that everything on that menu, huge ice creams where in the states would be about 5, was less than $2.
Friday we did a kids ministry called Nica Ninos on the base. That was where the kids from the bario all came in and we sung songs, did a little drama, played a few games, then their favorite thing to do... played soccer! Those kids are so good at soccer it amazed me. I mean all they have to do is go to another country try out for their soccer team then they will be out of poverty in a second! haha I know it's not that easy althought I wish it was.
Saturday was my personal favorite day and I believe the most impacting for our team. We went to La Chureca which in english is the dump. The dump is in the capital of Nicaragua, Managua, and it is a entire community of over 1000 families living in the cities dump. These people live on top of trash. They find things from all the trash to make their homes and go to the bathroom where ever they please. Originally when we got to Nicaragua we knew we wanted to go to La Chureca but didn't have any contacts there so we were planning on just going and figuring it out on our own. But when we arrived at the YWAM base one of the staff started talking to a girl who was visiting Nicaragua and asked what she was planning to do. She told him that she has connections with people at La Chureca and was on her way to go do ministry there for a little while. Steve, our staff, was ecstatic! God was so faithful once again. He knew that we had La Chureca on our hearts and he made that ministry happen for us. Before entering the dump we went to a local Christian church who does a ton of help inside the dump with kids, youth, a school, counciling, and gives out meals. This was our connection we met from that girl. The pastor, his wife, and their other worker were so friendly and happy that a group of people wanted to come help out in a garbage town! They don't get much help so it was a huge blessing to them. They lead us in to the area they do a lot of work in which although we thought was bad we didn't find out till later we didn't go to the other side which is fully covered with trash. The smell is horrible too! They burn all the trash so you constantly smell burning trash and it makes many people nautious.
There we gathered up a bunch of kids and put on a performance for them along with some songs. Due to me being white, tall, and blonde I either scare the kids or they all run to me since they are so infatuated by such a creature. "Gringa! Gringa!" is the name I get called most, I love it though. A little boy ran up to me in the beginning and he ended up being my best friend. He sat on my lap while we watched a drama and during everything else he ended up on my shoulders! I was later feeling the cost of love on my back but that was not important at all. Earlier that day we got confronted with the question "will you be willing to touch a human being who is sitting in trash all day long" althought we don't think about those kind of questions often it really hit my heart. I never thought about it in that way, I would never ever dig in trash myself so would I be willing to touch someone who lives in it? The answer came directly from God. It didn't matter if that little boy had been swimming in the sewer for hours before we got there. God gave me His heart and eyes for that boy. I fell in love with Him just as God has fallen in love with every one of us. The thing that shocked so many of us was that the one thing they asked for was water! They didn't ask for food or our jewlery they asked for water. In the beginning we were told not to start handing things out to the kids because then they will believe white=presents. So we developed a realtionship with these kids. Before we got to the dump we had stopped and bought galletas, juice, toothbrushes, and crackers for the kids that we were going to give them at the end. I although I already had a water bottle decided to buy another one. Yes a simple meaningless gesture but I just felt like I wanted to buy a water bottle for myself. Once that boy looked in my eyes and said "agua?" I knew God was telling me, that water you bought is for him. While the little boy was waiting patiently for our group to come around with crackers and cookies I ran and got that water bottle out of the van. When I handed him that water bottle and saw his eyes light up like a full moon I got reminded once more why God has called me to the nations. That one small thing like giving that little boy fresh water was probably the best thing he had been given in a long time.
I am the youngest in my family and all the people I surrounded myself with were older. I never babysitted and the only time I did I got fired for being late. I just am not good with kids. I didn't enjoy being around Children. But this trip has really opened up my heart and began to develop a passion to help out kids. On Monday we went to a Library that was started by a missionary many of our group memeber knew. We did arts and crafts with the kids and they all ended up making dozens of pictures and bracelets out of pipe cleaners for us. This was just another thing that made my heart get a little softer for children.

I loved my experience in Niacaragua it was so amazing and opened my eyes to a world I had never seen before. I have so much more I want to say and so many pictures I want to share with you guys but I don't have time right now to do that. I am going to try to get to a computer as soon as I can and finish the rest of my story!
Thank you guys for reading I love you all