Merry Christmas! Only two days until the big day! Again, time just seems to fly here, and we officially finished lecture phase on December 14th, which is crazy to think. Twelve weeks gone by in the blink of an eye.
Since I last blogged we had two weeks with a well known pioneer YWAM-er, Donna Jordan. She was with Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM) since the beginning days in Kona, Hawaii, so it was super cool to hear her stories of how it all started. Donna is such an incredible example of a disciple of Christ, she walks what she talks about, no questions asked! She definitely startled us all in the DTS the first week she taught and I think we were shocked at the way she challenged us all in ways no speaker had thus far! So Donna arrived for week #1(November 26th-30th), and taught on hearing God's voice, as well as the Kingdom of God. The way that she includes Jesus in EVERYTHING she does and every decision she makes is insane! I think a lot of us in the DTS were startled that we could hear from God and that He wanted to speak to us, and that's definitely a big revelation that I got. I'd often thought that hearing from God was reserved for Elders in the church or 'special' people, but Donna definitely broke that assumption. My relationship with God definitely changed that week, so it was a really special few days.
The next week (December 3rd-7th), Donna continued challenging us to listen to what God was speaking to us, but she also spoke a lot about spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit. Many of us had a lot of questions about tongues and prophecy, and she answered many of those but also encouraged us to go to God with them and always check back with scripture, because that's the only place to find truth. Donna prophesied over a few of us, and it was interesting to hear what God spoke to us through her. All in all, the two weeks Donna was here were my best weeks so far, and I can see that a huge chunk of my growth came from there. She was definitely a huge blessing to all of us!
The weekend after our second week with Donna, basically the whole San Jose YWAM base took off for another province in Costa Rica called Guanacaste. There's another YWAM base there in a place called Nicoya, and every year all three YWAM bases in Costa Rica get together for a weekend of relaxation and fun. Nicoya is in the northwestern part of Costa Rica, along the Pacific Ocean. It borders Nicaragua to the North. Basically...it was HOT! We're used to moderate temperatures here in San Jose because we're in between valleys, so we definitely felt the temperature change. We had so much car trouble on the way there though...
First, one of the vans didn't want to shift gears, so we had to head back to the base and switch vans. After that, the van got a flat tire in a town called Punta Arenas. God was definitely watching over us there though because we almost got robbed at gun point. A man on a bicycle drove by to tell us that a few men across the street were planning to rob us, but they had just gone to get a gun! Most of us hopped in the van that was working and drove to get the police. We were definitely praying the whole time and thanking God for sending us the man on the bicycle. Luckily nothing happened and the guys were able to change the tire. Unfortunately, the battery had died while the tire was being changed though and we were wondering who could jump start the van...just then Giacomo and Mar (the San Jose base leaders) drove by and were able to help us out! BUT again, trouble. Their car didn't want to start after they helped us out, so we waited around for a few hours for their car to get fixed. We were eventually able to continue our journey and we arrived hours later than planned in Nicoya, safe and sound. The base has such a different landscape than San Jose, and it felt so awesome to be out in nature with no cars around! It ended up being a great weekend of meeting new people, going to the beach, hiking, and seeing a new base.
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| At the YWAM base in Nicoya, Guanacaste |
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| The beach we went to about an hour from the Nicoya YWAM base |
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| My friend Alex and I enjoying the sun in Nicoya |
On Sunday of that weekend, fourteen students in our DTS had to re-new our visas (they expire after 90 days), so we headed north to Nicaragua! We definitely had an adventure...I'd never crossed a border in the way that we did. It was definitely a stereotypical latin american border! It was really confusing, dark, so many people, and of course they only wanted us to pay in American dollars! We managed to get through though and we stayed over night at a YWAM-er's home, then took off the next morning to catch a bus back to the San Jose base. Now I can add one more stamp to my passport!
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| My friend Hannah, DTS leader Dave, and I in Nicaragua eating dinner...yum! |
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| A few of us from the DTS, plus our leader, Dave in Nicaragua |
Our last week of classes was on 'Spiritual Warfare' with the leader, Terry, from the third YWAM base in Heredia, Costa Rica. It was a great way to end lecture phase and we learned a lot about how real the enemy is, and how much we miss out on the goes on in the spiritual realm.
On Sunday (December 16th), our whole DTS and four DTS staff members left for another part of Costa Rica, called Cartago for a five days in the Costa Rican wilderness. Many YWAM bases include what's called 'NIKO' as part of the DTS program. I can say much about it because they try to keep the element of surprise for people who will be doing a NIKO in the future (we all had to sign a 'secrecy' paper at the end), but basically it's all about learning to work in a team, learning what your strengths and weaknesses are, and growing in those with God. Most of the activities were really challenging, and all of us felt really accomplished at the end of the five days. All of us were stretched in ways we didn't think possible (literally) and we came away with new perspective and respect for one another. If you don't ever plan on doing a NIKO and want to hear all the cool, crazy things we got to do, let me know...I'd be more than happy to fill you in! I've got some great stories!
The day after we got back from NIKO was a day of rest, while we got our stuff back in order. The girls had to move out of the bedroom we were in because there are teams coming through from different places on outreach. This time of year is super crazy because we get a lot of teams wanting to come help out around the holiday season, and this means limited space, plus a lot of the staff have left to go home for Christmas, so it's slightly insane.
Today was the first official day of outreach for our DTS, and we're doing a week here in San Jose to start things off. In the afternoon, we headed down town to one of the main squares to do some evangelism. A few of us we're doing worship and singing some Christmas carols, while others we're doing a cool evangelism activity we learned. We set out many cards with different images on them and asked people passing by to pick three that represented their life right now. We would talk with them about that, and then ask them to pick three cards that represented what they wanted their life to look like in the future. Again, we talked, and finally we asked people to pick three cards that represented what their relationship with God looked like. It was an incredible time of talking, getting to know people, and praying for them. People were so open, and a lot of the people stood around and ended up joining in on the songs we were singing. It was a great way to start outreach :).
This Friday we leave for another part of Costa Rica, Talamanca, to do outreach for one week, and then the following week will be spent in another part of Costa Rica, Puerto Viejo, doing kids camps as part of our outreach. We're all really excited to be starting outreach officially, and we know God has a lot of amazing things planned!
On January 12th, my DTS divides into our two separate outreach groups, and my group heads to Brazil! It's incredible how God has provided for people to be able to pay for outreach and I want to thank my home church for supporting me to go on outreach! I was in shock when I got the email saying they wanted to support me, and I can't thank them enough! I'm really excited and pumped to see what God's going to do through us!
On December 21st, the base had an official Costa Rican Christmas dinner which was really fun. We all got dressed up, ate tons of food, sang, and hung out. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, but the DTS is still going to be helping out in the morning. We're heading out to help serve breakfast at a soup kitchen for 6 am. It'll be an early morning, but I'm excited to serve and bring people some Christmas cheer. Later on in the afternoon, our DTS is having some fun Christmas activities that we've planned out, and on Christmas day we'll be doing a Secret Santa within the DTS and staff. It'll be a different Christmas than I'm used to, but new experiences are all part of life! I've definitely missed home the past few days, just because it's so close to Christmas, and I miss all the traditions our family has. It's been a bit difficult, but all of us in the DTS are in the same boat, so we've been comforting each other...the girls have been baking Christmas goodies/listening to Christmas music/crying together and the boys...have been watching movies?? I don't know...boys clearly aren't affected in the same way the girls are. Strange.
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| My friend Alex and I at the Christmas dinner |
Anyways, it's bound to be a great Christmas and a great three weeks of local outreach. We appreciate any prayer if you feel so inclined to do so :). Have a Safe and Merry Christmas, thanks for taking the time to read.
-Matthew 2:10
