Temporary Home

I have been home for a week now and I have to say that it is pretty weird.

Another phase of my life is gone, and it's time to begin again.

My life at YWAM was anything but normal. Life happened so fast, and so intensely.
One week you go from meeting everyone and barely talking to telling each other things that have been holding you back and balling your eyes out. It's a unique dynamic, to say the least.

The title I chose for this post was Temporary Home, because it was something that I realized the week we came back to Las Vegas after outreach. YWAM, wasn't just a school or training program that helped me postpone life, and it wasn't just a place where I got to do whatever I wanted and live without responsibilities.
YWAM was my temporary home. Meaning that the people I lived and worked with became my family. The City of Las Vegas became a place of great potential and God's amazing grace. YWAM was a place where my spiritual welfare was nurtured and given new life so that I am capable of so much more than when I arrived. YWAM was a place where fear no longer strangled me. A place where the Church flourished and strengthened each other. A place that was safe, full of love and understanding, and a place full of God's blessings and immeasurable embrace.

During Lecture phase I could literally feel myself changing, I could feel God reaching out for me and encouraging me along the way. I experienced God's love, grace, and peace so much more clearly and vividly. Something that I had been desiring and searching for. I grew closer to the people going along in this journey with me. I saw God working in so many different ways in their lives and saw them grow along the way. I was able to be used by God for other people and also for others to be used to help me. Our bonds strengthened as we learned more about our identity in Christ and who God really is in our lives.

Outreach was a little more challenging, but so much more strengthening and rewarding. We had struggles along the way and hiccups that didn't seem to go away at times, but being at this point, and being able to see it as a whole, I can see how much God carried us through and used us despite the hiccups.

We were used in so many different ways on outreach and God was constantly revealing Himself to us even when we didn't quite realize it at the time.

So, YWAM was my temporary home, meaning that my heart has a place there, in that ministry, and I will be forever thankful and grateful for the way it lifted me up to a new place within my forever-growing faith and communion with God.

Thanks YWAM for your dynamic role in my life. :)

You Make Me Brave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLgpFMWboYw

Hey friends,

Tonight, I have been looking back within the past couple months here in Vegas, and also looking at what the next two months has in store for me.

Time has flown by so quickly, and there has been so much going on here that has helped me grow into a better disciple for the Lord. My journey here has been one of continual growth and trying to know my Father better.

It's been hard to blog about each week and what I have learned because it seems like everything has just flooded together. So I have been having a hard time distinguishing between weeks, and sorting out my thoughts.
But as this weeks starts, I realize that my time here in Vegas is almost complete and finished. I have much to be thankful for, because of all of the new friends I have made that have become more like family to me. Also, being able see Vegas as a city full of potential rather than despair. There are so many strongholds in Las Vegas, but I have been able to see so many people working to change this city and help the people find God despite all of the Darkness that overwhelms them, that I see Las Vegas in a very different light. I have been blessed to be able to see how God is gracefully reaching out to this city.
As my journey here, comes to an end, I will be starting a new journey in Africa. In Uganda, Zambia, and South Africa. I am not really nervous, because I know God is in control and I am really excited for all of the new experiences and revelations that will happen while I am there. We will be serving in orphanages and we are going to a baby home. I am most afraid of having to leave the children. My heart is going to break and be pulled in so many directions. I know that I am going to have a difficult time coming back home after leaving pieces of my heart there. I have felt it before and it never gets any easier. SO please pray for all of our team as we form relationships with people and kids in Africa and have to leave them.
I am so grateful for the gifts God has given me that I am able to go and serve as His disciple in Africa. One gift I have been given is time. I am in a point in my life where I have the time to go. to go and serve wherever He calls me to go. Most people don't think of time as being a gift, but it most certainly is. God gives us time as a gift, and the reason we don't realize it is as a gift is because we usually don't use it for it's intended purposes. We are called to be good stewards of what God has given us. How are we going to use the gifts He has given us? For me God has given me an extended period of time, but for some people He gives you maybe an hour. Either way we need to realize that it was given to us. God wants to see what we will do with it.
On outreach I have been given the responsibility to be the prayer coordinator for our team. I am honored to be able to help facilitate this aspect of our outreach, but I am also a little nervous. I love Prayer, but I struggle with it all the same. So I am worried that I will let certain things get to me and keep me from an attitude of prayer. Please pray for me to constantly fill myself up with God, so that I can help my team along the way.
I think that my team is very strong and will be able to really shine while on outreach. Our passion is serving God through caring for His children. I'm really excited to see everything pan out.
I will greatly miss my other roommates who are going to Eastern Europe and India/Nepal. I really love them like sisters, but God has given us different things to do and I know we were placed in these certain places for a specific reason and I can't wait to hear stories of how God uses them on the outreach. It is so amazing how God uses each one of in different ways, I am just sad I won't be with them.
I should be able to have wifi every once in awhile, but not the entire time so if you don't hear anything for awhile, don't worry.  Our flight will be very long, from LAX to Ethiopia with a fueling stop in Dublin. We will arrive in Ethiopia on Dec. 2nd. We are leaving LAX on Monday, November 30th. But remember Africa will be 12 hours ahead.
I am mostly packed at this point and am just waiting for Monday. Please keep all of our outreach teams in your prayers for these next 2 months.
Thank you for everything! Next time you will see a blog will be when I return to Vegas. So long for now.
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!!

Much Love to you
Jen

Vamanos Amigos

Sorry for my very late post...

It has just been hectic around here, and blogging gets pushed aside.

I am here to tell you about our mini outreach to Mexico and all that happened!

First, I must tell you that one of my favorite parts is the actual roadtrip. And this time did not disappoint on any scale. It was full of laughter and snacks and awesome music choice.

We got to Ensenada Tuesday night. We were staying at a church ministry. It was actually quite the set-up. Like 6 bunk beds in two different rooms. A big room for dining, or whatever you wanted to use it for. And the church building was downstairs in the middle of the ministry site. So...we got there and met our hosts and got settled in.
On Wednesday, we went to a migrant camp in the morning after breakfast, worship, and a devotional. The migrant was pretty much what I was expecting. I knew the conditions were going to be unimaginable in our American perspective, and that there would be many families living together, or should I say surviving. There were mostly women there due to the fact that all the men were working in the fields. There were some children there as well and we were able to play with them and try to talk with them. My spanish was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. We basically just spent time learning about these families and trying to show them as much love as we could in the short amount of time we were there. It was a good start to the outreach trip because it was a good reminder that our American living is something that we often forget is a blessing. A huge blessing. These families aren't thriving, they are merely surviving. This way of living is normal, these conditions are normal, these circumstances are normal.

After the migrant camp, we went to a girl's rehab center. This was a powerful thing. We spent time hearing a few of the girls who lived there, say their testimony and also were able to share some of our testimonies with them. We also went around the entire group and shared our dreams that we had and then they prayed for our dreams and we prayed for theirs. It was just an awesome time getting to share time with these girls and understanding where they were struggling in life and being able to come in and give them love and support through Christ. It was also very powerful to hear the director's testimony and why she had started this rehab center. You could tell that God truly saved her and pulled her from brokenness and darkness and was able to empower her through her struggles to help other girls out of darkness as well. It was really great to see a program like this in Ensenada.

Wednesday night we went to YWAM Ensenada base. OMG, it is beautiful. Our little Vegas base cannot even compare. But in the long run, it made me appreciate YWAM Las Vegas so much more just because of it's smallness. We are so close to each other here in Vegas and it's because we have a smaller class, and we live so close together. I think a bigger base would have lost me. But anyway...we went to YWAM Ensenada because they invited us to their community meeting. We worshiped and had snacks and mingled for a little while. It was cool to meet other Ywamers.

On Thursday we went to an orphanage in the morning. While we were there we helped clean and fix up around the buildings and played with the kids. It was actually really hot that day, but some people still decided to play soccer despite the heat. I was not one of them. i know, shameful. I met a little girl Lucy and she was so cute. I think she is quite the troublemaker, but cute nonetheless.

After the orphanage we went back to the church we were staying at and we painted there fence railings. With so many people it didn't take too long. But I do like water based paint so much better. :/

After that we rested until it was time for church. The Church service was awesome! Worship was great, and the pastor was even dancing along. That actually impacted me so much because you could literally see how much joy he had in the Lord. I've never seen a pastor so excited and passionate to praise the Lord. It was really encouraging and refreshing. A little convicting I think too, because that is how we should all be when we are worshiping OUR FATHER. We should feel immense joy.

Friday was a busy day. It started out quite different than I had expected it to. I found out that my boyfriend, Eliseo, had come to visit me in Ensenada. I was really happy to see him and surprised that he actually came. So I was greeted by him that morning and he was able to meet my roommates. :) That made me extremely happy. So as it turned out he ended up traveling with us to Rosarito. We drove to Rosarito and had TACOS for lunch and spent some time shopping and then headed to THE BEACH. We had to have time to be tourists. it was really nice to just have time enjoying where we were instead of going, going, going. And then...a little surprise happened (which you probably have already heard about, unless you live under a rock). Eliseo had planned a proposal for me on the beach in Rosarito. My Roommate even helped him, by trying to distract me while he was preparing his written declaration in the sand. Usually i hate surprises, but i am glad he did it this way. It was really awesome having my DTS family there supporting me and being so happy for me. I was so happy, and I felt like the luckiest girl ever (what am i saying...I still feel that way). I mean...shoot. He did good. It was better than anything I ever imagined. I am super happy and excited that I get to spend the rest of my life with Eliseo. I feel like God has big plans for us.

After Rosarito, we parted ways again. We headed for Tijuana. We stayed at the YWAM Tijuana base for the night. I said that the ywam base in Ensenada was big, but YWAM Tijuana was even bigger! It was like a college campus. That night we did outreach in the red light district of Tijuana. For me this was really hard. I know that places are like this, but being in it is so much different and seeing it in person is completely mind altering. It was really overwhelming, and I just kept thinking to myself that I didn't want to be there anymore. I didn't want to see all of the pain and suffering. All of the disgusting ways the girls are being used and treated. I felt extremely vulnerable, and I was so happy that I did not have to live that way. The problem is that this is so common and that there are so many women trapped within this lifestyle. It is hard to see, but it is real and it needs to change. Even just prayer can help, and maybe that's all I'm meant to do, but there are people God has chosen to use to help these women and fight for their freedom. It breaks my heart that women and children are used in such horrible ways, and it gives me more motivation to be a disciple and to help orphans and children to prevent them from falling susceptible to this lifestyle and circumstance.

It was a long but very eye opening mini outreach. It showed me new things, and reminded me of other important things. Mexico is close to my heart and I know God wants to give the people there freedom and joy, and love.

Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement.

with much love :) Jen

Week 6, Days 2 & 3

So some interesting stuff has been going on in my brain this week. You may or may not want to know, but I'm going to tell you anyway. :)

here are some memes to start you off...

So one thing that really stuck out to me the last few days was that Christianity in the United States is greatly lacking in embracing the Holy Spirit and teaching about it. 

Why? 

I will tell you from my personal experience that, this would be the first time, in my 23 years, that I've really discussed and have been seeking the Holy Spirit and trying to understand how it works in and through me. 

To me, that seems dirty to say. To say that The Holy Spirit is being glanced over in most churches. Sure there are individuals within the churches that experience the Holy Spirit working through them all the time. That has a lot to do with their faith and how much they pursue the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Honestly, because of my background I have become someone who is skeptical that these supernatural things happen. I believe wholeheartedly that other people can heal and speak in tongues, etc..

I've heard stories from people I trust, but for me I have never been able to grasp that the Holy Spirit is within me all the time. And that I have these gifts and that all I have to do is speak to God to be able to really use them and be strengthened in these gifts. 

Now I don't want you to think I'm blaming my church, because I am definitely not. But i do think the church in the United States is so focused on the knowledge part of God's truth that we miss out on the spiritual part. We are meant to do both. Knowledge is good, but without the spirit it means nothing. 

Now, I don't think that you have to go and heal everyone or anything that drastic, but just merely open up yourselves to the Holy Spirit. Let it overtake you, and go with it's promptings, feelings, and whatever else it may guide you in. 

I am definitely still in the process of believing the Spirit can work through me, but I am more open to it's overflowing power. 

If God can use you, maybe God can use me, God must be real if He can use you, because you are just a person. (that is what we evoke in other people's thoughts, when we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us).

In conclusion: The Holy Spirit is so amazing and incredible! It wants to be known and revealed within each one of us, not hidden. 

Thanks for reading my personal thoughts. :) 

Now I need to mention one other thing that is very personal for me that was told to me by God through our speaker. 

Our speaker prayed over most of the students, and gave us words from God. Here are mine:

I think of myself in only one particular way, but God says that I am so much more than that. That I think of myself as not talented, but in fact God says I possess many talents. God said that there is a hero inside of me. I am an influencer. I influence other people, and I am a leader of leaders. When most people shy away from things or run away from circumstances, I run towards them. I don't back down. God is broadening my identity and my territory. 

Now, i don't what everything exactly means for me or my future, but that will come in time. I do trust in these words from God and will hold to them. 

Thanks again for listening, friends. 

Peace & Blessings

Jen

Week 6, Day 1

So today I woke up and was so ready for this new week. Holy Spirit week. But, I also knew this would be a tough week. Talking and learning about the Holy Spirit is very interesting and crucial, but it is also very new to me in a lot of ways. I wouldn't call myself a skeptic, but maybe I would.

Our speaker threw a lot at us today and quite frankly I was trying really hard to follow everything he was saying, but I couldn't keep up. I was stuck at the beginning, when he was explaining to us about the difference between Hope and Faith. Now, I haven't quite gotten my head screwed on straight to be able to tell you exactly if I agree, disagree, or have no clue. But, i'm leaning towards, agree. Now, you might be wondering why I am not saying what he told us...that is mainly due to the fact that I don't want anyone else's opinion on the subject until I have come to a conclusion myself. Entiendes? ok.

The one thing that I really liked about today's lesson was that it ignited so much discussion afterwards. I love discussions. They are my thing.

One month goes by....

So first thing is....1 month has passed since I first arrived here in Las Vegas. CRAZZZY. Time is going by quickly, and this is becoming such a big part of my life.

Second thing is....My parents also got a new puppy because apparently they can't handle life without me. and his name is Sebastian, contrary to popular belief.

Third thing...what really matters...is what happened in this past week. WEEK 5

Week 5 was a wrestling match for me. I came into the week with a closed heart. I tried to find everything I didn't like about the speaker in the first few days. I was pretty closed off to learning anything new from him. I realized at the end of the week that I was completely wasting my energy on that.

On Monday night I had outreach for ODTS. We went to a new foster family. Here is a little about the family: She has nine kids, all different ages and they are all involved in different activities. She works during the day, and takes care of her granddaughter at the same time, who is a baby. Her husband has Alzheimer's as well. So as you can tell she is a supermom. She has so much responsibility and it is amazing how well she is able to handle everything. So we are coming for the next few weeks to help around the house and take care of the kids. The kids are all really sweet, and the baby is soooo adorable!

Tuesday night we went on local outreach to the Strip. This time we took time before to paint a picture to help us minister to people. It was a cool type of evangelism, but for me personally it was hard because we didn't really know how to get people to be interested in our painting. We were all introverts, which proved to be our biggest problem. But I think that even though it was difficult we were able to put a better image out there than what is normally out there.

On Wednesday, I wasn't feeling very well, but it got better by the end of the day.

On Thursday, I was like a complete different person from the beginning of the week. I was intently listening to the speaker and I have like 4 pages of notes from that day alone. This week I am going to refrain from writing about things I learned, because there was a lot of fresh perspective for me and I am still processing.
You might be happy about that. lol

On Friday, we had a foster mom, who is also a leader in advocacy for foster parents. She told us about the different things they are fighting for within the system and how the system works and also how it doesn't work. It was very good to hear from her. Oh, and she also has the cutest baby. Then after we had our small groups and we went to starbucks and thrift shopping.

It was an interesting week, to say the least.

I am loving being here, and I love my roommates, especially. They each have a special place in my heart. <3

Love you all, and a continual thanks to all for your love and support.

Jen

FAITH

This past week was IDENTITY week. We focused on who we are in the body of Christ and how to respect other people's spiritual gifts.

I'm just going to jump right into it.
What was probably the most profound thing I have been told since I have been here, is that "works cannot get us saved, and works cannot get us unsaved". We are always Holy and blameless, because Jesus died on a cross to save us from all of the sins we have done, are doing, and will do. Our salvation is based on faith not works. Even if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, God knows, and that will keep you within God's heart and grasp. It is when you turn away from your faith and reject God, making the choice despite knowing the gospel, that you are not saved.

It may be tough to wrap your head around, but it became so clear to me. Now, you still have to remember that only God knows how much faith someone has in Him, so it not something we can judge. But for me this just opened my eyes a little bit wider to see how much, Faith, is what counts. Sins will harden our hearts and can make us turn away from our faith, so we still need to understand that sins do hold us back and keep our faith from growing or they may even make us turn away from our faith altogether. But sin itself does not unsave us. It is just a weapon satan uses to beat down and destroy the root of our salvation, which is OUR FAITH. So just like sins can turn us away from our faith, good works also can help us grow our faith and help us to fulfill our God given purpose:

to glorify God
build up the body
serve the world

To build up the body of Christ we need to know how we fit into it and what part we hold. We took the Myers-Briggs Test. Maybe you've heard of it or taken it yourself, or maybe not, but it is a great test to take to understand who you are and how you interact with others. Also, it is good to be able to understand the other different types of people you are surrounded with and may come into contact with.

Here are my results:  ISFP
Introverted
Sensing
Feeler &
Perceiver

Here are some descriptive words to help you understand what it means:  individual worker, self-motivated, practical, specific/detailed, empathetic/subjective, tenderhearted, flexible, variety, care-taker, provide practical service, & and make people feel valued.


This result didn't surprise me because I am pretty self-aware, but I really liked being able to see how other types of people deal with things and how they are different from. This helps tremendously when working as the body, to know each others' preferences and what they are uncomfortable with or aren't as strong in. This helps us to effectively work as the body of Christ to serve the world.

We also did a talents test and a spiritual gifts test.
My top 5 talents are:
1. Believing
2. Potential Cultivator
3. Understanding Others
4. Group Relations (relating with other people)
5. Commitment (responsibility)

My top 4 spiritual gifts are:
1. Pastoring (responsibility for spiritual welfare of believers)
2. Faith (whatever we see, we can conquer)
3. Mercy (genuine empathy/compassion)
4. Exhortation (encouragement)

At first after reading what spiritual gifts I got, I was like, uhhhh no. Pastoring, no thank you. I'm not going to give a message to people, speak in front of people and preach. No way, Jose. But actually pastoring doesn't mean that, it just means that I feel the responsibility to take care and build up the spiritual welfare in believers. Which is exactly what I love doing. Nailed it. lol

Anyway, this week was getting to know ourselves better as a part of the body of Christ. One of the last things we did, was write down lies about ourselves that we believed at that moment. Then we got with a couple other people and told each other what we wrote down and then prayed and listened to God. Asked God to reveal to us what He wanted to say to us. It was a very good cleansing exercise. And then we wrote down what God said to us below the lies and went and burned the part of the paper with the lies on it, leaving only the truth. :)

Okay, let's shift gears a little bit here. On Tuesday night we went to the Strip to do our local outreach. This time we were representing the voiceless by wearing duct tape over our mouths and having only two people in our group who could speak to people. We were raising awareness for the voiceless, victims of sex trafficking and orphans. I really did not like the outreach in a good way. Let me explain. It was really hard not being able to speak for myself. I felt like I had so much I wanted to say to people, but I couldn't. It made me feel helpless and vulnerable. I also realized that I do have a voice everyday and I sometimes make the choice to be voiceless. Why do I do that? I have the privilege and honor of being able to speak for myself and for others, but I take it for granted. I also could see so many people just refuse to even take the time to talk to us and understand who we were. They didn't care. Some people didn't even notice us because they were too focused on their phones or on their conversations with their friends. So often we refuse to inconvenience ourselves with the matters of others because it is uncomfortable or it will take too much of our time, or we are just plain selfish and don't even realize that there are people around us suffering. There are so many people around us in our daily lives that we refuse to see or recognize. It's time to stop, and look around you at what's going on. We are meant to serve the world, especially the least of these, the voiceless. So I did not like the outreach because it was so powerful.

So I guess that's the juicy stuff this week. Come back next week for some more juice.

Also, please remember that I like occasional texts, letters, emails, and PACKAGES.

Thank you everyone for supporting me and please continue to pray for my journey. :)