Dreaming.... birth of an ever-expanding vision

Remember when you were young and you dreamt of exploring and conquering the whole wide world; no limitations or boundaries... the earth was your backyard? I remember playing, as nerdy as this is, star wars with my friends and turning our whole basement into a city of tents and space ships where we could go forth into all unknown planets and space....

This analogy is in a way what I feel God is bringing to life once again for me personally and for this school. The words I heard Him speak for these students were about renewing their dreams from childhood; challenging them, all of us, to not only dream, but dream BIGGER. Many have since come to me to tell me that in these past weeks He has been not only reminding them of those past dreams, but reminding them how He has and is fulfilling and making those dreams a reality.  Not only are they seeing their dreams realized in their young adult years but now HE is giving them new visions and dreams greater and more radical than those from childhood. Who can truly upon looking back on their life as an adult or even on their death bed, recognize these often times, unrealistic or impossible dreams that have come to be in full fruition?

I personally am so privileged to have done so much in my short life thus far.... dreams of learning another language, ministering to street children, living in another country, living in Latin America, working as a missionary/volunteer, training, becoming a trainer, having a legal career, getting a degree, making friends/contacts all over the world, having explored many parts of the world, even on the other side of the world....  And yet there are so many new dreams God has been birthing in me since living abroad, but more so in these past months, i.e. recently.

I have mentioned the Women and Children's Advocacy Center in previous blogs. I will add the link to their ministry again. I have been feeling more and more in some form or fashion my next steps will be partnering with them in many ways. I don't know exactly how or what that will look like. As some of you are aware my commitment here in Costa Rica will end with the end of the lecture phase which is September 23rd. I have been processing and praying about my next steps. I do feel that my season/time in Costa Rica and probably in Latin America is coming to a close. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning and living here but my heart is stirring for other things, parts of the world, to pioneer new things and enter into a new season where I discover where my own ministry will be birthed. I have received words and challenges from others and in my seeking our Heavenly Father that I am called to the Nations; which in many ways is a new challenge and comes as a surprise to me. I always thought my calling and passions would be realized in being established in Latin America. Recently He has been stirring my heart for other places in the world. I am not sure where or how exactly that will come about.  Would you join me in praying for clear direction and provision in this?

The School is half way through and I will need to know my next steps in the next few weeks so I can book a ticket. I also will need to begin fundraising as going to another part of the world and establishing myself will take more funding than I have currently been able to raise.

Check out this video and just one of the projects the WCAC is involved in.... inspires me to go forth and change the world one step at a time... I pray it inspires you in the same way....

Women & Children's Advocacy Centre from wcacentre on Vimeo.

A Labor of Love

So... this expression has been playing over in my mind "you win some and you lose some"... its sort of how life works when you work with children at risk globally. It takes a liftetime of investment to individual children to make a long-term impact, but you know what? I am seeing the fruit of even shorter-term investment. This gives me hope.

Since being back in San Jose, Costa Rica, I am excited to be able to support my room mate here who began as my student, then friend, staff for the Children at Risk School(CRS) and finally leader of Metro ministries in Costa Rica. It has been a huge responsibility and undertaking but since I left to go to Mexico, the entire ministry was placed in her lap. Since, she has made this ministry her own and there is visible fruit to see from her labors already. Even more exciting to me, when I go and help her with the kid's ministry, I see her putting into practice what she has learned from the year she took the CRS and training and how God prepared her at this time to be a pioneer. She could never have imagined she would be running such a program on her own or how God worked it all out, but its a perfect fit for her. I enjoy seeing not only the kid's faces light up seeing the "Metro Kids" truck coming to their neighborhood but also Renate's face as she shares with the kids about God. To read more about her ministry, I have included the website on this blog. To me, this is the fruit of our training and school. At times I get discouraged asking myself how am I personally impacting these kids lives but in moments like these, are when God reminds me that the impact the students are having from the training they received is multiplied so many times over than what I can alone do. By disciplining, training and encouraging the students to dream big and to go forward in the vision God has given them utilizing their gifts, impacting, restoring and bringing His light to the broken children all over the world; it brings me joy and allows me to "stay the course," in essence.

Another exciting thing that I get to see is how the Freeman family has been able to pioneer work with children and youth at risk in a town in Costa Rica called Jaco. I have blogged about this area before where we as the 1st Children at Risk School did three months of outreach, researching the need and the resources and work that was already going on there. Jaco is known for "sex tourism" and it also has several migrant communities that live in impoverished conditions in the river areas of this town. Since this school's outreach, there has been another group of students continuing the pioneering work there as well as yet another couple of students from the CRS in Tijuana there right now. I can already see the impact and change that community has had just simply by people investing and networking and unifying the work that is already going on in the town. The Freeman family, with whom we pioneered the CRS, moved there about a year ago and have a heart and vision to see change in that community as they are commiting long term there. Several of the youth we worked with, have grown and changed. Some had considered doing a DTS in San Jose but unfortunately they ended up choosing their own path which seemed not to be the best choice for them. Yet, I trust in God that the seeds that were planted in their hearts from the Freemans and students loving on them, will ultimately bear fruit in their lives long-term. One boy in particular came this weekend to San Jose and seeing how he went from being a youth who had no value, to who he is today, allows me to see simply in his demeanor, the value put back into his life through knowing his value and worth in God. All the labor is well worth the effort. I remember when we used to ask him what he liked to do or was good at, as all the others boys surfed, played soccer, worked, etc. he said nothing and he really meant it. He just went to school to kill time and then would go play video games all day. He would walk around with his head hung low. Now he walks around with a lot of confidence in himself and knowing and recognizing God's presense and his value in God. He is a different teenager than I knew over a year ago and its because a few guys and girls took time to invest in him and help him see his value. This is why we do what we do! He now surfs and the funny thing is; just today he showed me his profile pic on FB of him surfing the waves, which prompted me to write this post. Please keep the Freeman family and team in your prayers as they are going forward working in a local preschool and also continuing to work with the youth in this town through surf and skate competitions and being open to simply forming relationships that are planting seeds in the lives of these often forgotten children and youth of Jaco.

Celebrating Children

The students begin their journey to Costa Rica

I stepped into a whole new paradigm of my little world this past week. Its funny I would not think of it as culture shock, but in ways it really is the definition of culture or reverse-culture shock. I am still in Latin America and in a warm climate culture and yet so very different. For those who don’t know, a team of three students from the CRS school in Tijuana, Mexico, and I embarked on our newest journey. For them, an entirely new experience, for me, my previous life. As I am processing in more detail, I realize this is the 1^st time since I moved from the U.S. to Costa Rica, 2 + years ago, that I am actually dwelling in Costa Rica, during this season of the year. It is a very different atmosphere here, the departure of the summer/dry season and introduction into the rainy/cooler season and yet its unique weather here in CR for this time of year, as I have been told. The rainy season has come early. This is a blessing to me in many ways as I discovered shortly before we left Tijuana that we will be a part of a 2 week training on issues of children at risk in Jaco, Costa Rica, my old familiar home for 3+ months in 2009 and get away off and on during 2010.

Hiking in Jaco 

Preparing the classroom with the Freeman boys

So, leaving the base in Tijuana was a sad event. It was like leaving my home and family behind. However the 2 weeks in Jaco was exactly what I needed. Just before I left for Jaco I felt overwhelmed, tired, burnt out and ready for a long vacation. I couldn’t imagine at the time doing yet another 2 weeks of intense training. Good thing God knows better than I, what I need. The training was intense and a very tight schedule with little time for beach or adventures. However, by the end of the 2 weeks, I was encouraged, renewed in vision for the upcoming Children at Risk school and my life , well rested and refreshed. I was able to spend some good time plugging into God and hanging out with a group of people, my friends who all came from Oregon to train and encourage the Freeman family as well as us in our next steps into ministry to children at risk. We were trained to become trainers who could take the “celebrating children” workshop anywhere in the world with the tools needed to encourage and build up individuals all over the world who are already working with children in need but don’t have all the tools we have readily accessible. The Women and Children’s Advocacy Centre  has taken this training to other parts of the world, last location was Rwanda. I was given tools and the ability to teach some of these topics and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how God allowed me to recognize a hidden passion and gifting for creatively teaching. It was a really fun and rewarding time.

After a week of intense training... we all lost it!

I sense that I have been given new vision, excitement and tools to take this with me where ever God leads me next, and that I am not restricted year after year of up to a 9 month commitment in the Children at Risk schools.  I can commit to the next place He leads me to and make the training available to the community where I will minister to next in less than a 9 month long process. I anticipate being available to do hands on ministry, not restricted simply to solely training and running schools. I am excited for how this will play out in this upcoming school I will be leading and in the next steps God leads me in. Please continue to pay with me clear and direct next steps in leading the school that begin in July, 2011 and then after September, 2011.

A day at the beach with the team students and trainers

What an Amazing and yet Unexpected Year....

Representing our countries in Zona Norte

building relationships with the kids, my favorite part!

Pondering on the new season of my life that is approaching ever so quickly and ooking back on my year last year here in Mexico, makes me realize how blessed I have been. I never planned to stay more than 3 months; God had other plans. I feel its been one of the best years of my life to be quite honest. Full of research, pioneering, pouring into kid's lives, building long-lasting relationships and growing in so many different talents and abilities by being thrown into work and life here on this base. Life is never boring on a YWAM base. I have been able to assist in administrative work, hospitality, cooking, cleaning, ministry, tutoring children, assisting with hosting teams, building homes, running large events, translation, organizing and providing training for staff here who work with children at risk, and prepping for the school.

Craft Time!

Perhaps some of the most exciting things I got to do here was join in ministry as well as research and pioneer ministry here. Makes me wander if God is truly calling me to work and grow in other giftings and abilities that I never assumed I would be able to walk in, along side the talents or passions He already gave me. In missions, in many ways one is forced to be a pioneer. If you want to walk out in your passions, often you have to create the ministry or go find where the need is and how best to reach those in need. I was able to join others in ministry here on the base who pioneered work in a neighborhood here where land was alloted to poor families by the government, through helping to tutor the children. I never imagined I would want to or even be good at that, but I love it. I loved watching the kids grow to love learning and seeing them excel in an already over-burdened school system. I loved to see the hardened girls and boys in the jouvenile hall we visit, learn to love to sing and pray to God. I loved walking the streets of the red light district here, to get even the slightest idea of how much God's heart breaks for the individuals there. I enjoyed the discovery of how little it takes to brighten up a child's already burdened life by simply just taking a program of games, crafts and stories to them and by sharing God's love to them. I was blessed to invest in one of the  families here, being an emotional support to the mom while we took her to drug rehab, taking the kids to visit their mom,  and building a house for them and their grandmother. Wow! There have been so many moments that have filled this past year to overflow for me. So many great people and friends.... I will miss intensely. I love my students and I love the staff here. I also am blessed by the leaders on this base, their humility and surrendered lives to God and the way they lovingly guide us as their flock.

Baseball.... an upcoming phenomenom in Zona Norte

Perhaps my fondest memories... are with working with the children in the red light district. As we have been building relationships with them, we are moving past the "honeymoon" stage and getting to really know the kids and see how they react. Some are very hardened "street kids" who are displaying signs of so many behaviours and dysfunctions and those are the kind that I seek out the most and want God to allow me to touch their lives. They are the kind that are tough to love but oh so in NEED of God's love. Pray with me for them.

wait,  are we frozen????

Leviticus 19:33 We are all foreigners on this earth...

Team work!

needs a little improvement

We had our work cut out for us...

improving....

For those of you who don't know, with this past week came an unexpected adventure and nuance to our previously scheduled week. Due to speaker cancellation, a new plan birthed in the form of local outreach week. Going into the week, we (as staff) had only minimal information about the overall picture/plan for the week. I discovered that about 50 of us (staff and students for 2 schools) were headed off to Ensenada (about an hour south of TJ) for the week to work and live in a migrant camp. Of course, I was a little surprised and anxious about what all that entailed, but well, its the way things go in my life and I have learned to be more and more flexible and take things in stride. Looking back, I wouldn't change anything for the world. The week was such an amazing bonding and stretching time for us all.

and completed with space to sleep...

In part, we were all out of our element for 4 days: dirt floors as our bed, out houses as our bathroom, no showers, the great outdoors as our kitchen/living space, bucket water for dish clean up, etc. We dug 9+ foot holes for another outhouse. Our first project upon arrival was to clean out the rooms we would sleep in. It was not a fun task as the dirt floors were covered in trash and waste and smelled unpleasant. I am sure these rooms had not been cleaned out for a long time. By the time we had them cleaned, minus the bugs, spider webs and trash, and painted; they were transformed into liveable space.

Digging to Japan...

The ironic part of it all is that many families live in these tiny one-room houses with as many as 10 individuals. Its crazy but really a part of their lives, and to them its not a burden or uncomfortable. The people, families and kids were so amazing and hospitable. Its funny though this time I didn't get attached to the kids but more the women. I am still processing why but I think maybe its due to the fact that I wanted my students to have that experience with the kids, where I have had many times previously. Also maybe I have been closing my heart off to getting too attached to kids who come and go in my life only to leave after a short time. It could have been the fact that I was needed to bridge the language gap with the women.

These indigenous women and children... so beautiful them as well as their culture! and well.... they live simplistic lives but are happy and grateful for their lives even though their lives are burdened with hard work! I know my students as well as I got a little taste of the lives they lead as we worked hard all week digging 9+ feet holes for an outhouse, trenches for drainage paths, hygenic water holes for waste as well as filling in an area with dirt that had become a festering water pool with waste and trash. Yet they all did so with amazing attitudes and so much enthusiasm. It challenged me in how I approach life and work.

ummmhhh... can we keep them, pretty please?????

Creating a "clean" environment

good sport, Liz!

With the women, I don't know how much I have to offer to them, other than my friendship. I know nothing about being a mom or wife. One of the women was 15 and pregnant and she looked like she could have been 30, makes me wander how hard her life is.  Another shared about her life

Making a stove out of tin cans... principles of community development

growing up and how her parentes would wake her and her siblings up at 1 a.m. to work until the next day, physically and emotionally abusing them. All these individuals are migrants who come from other parts of Mexico looking for work and a better way of life. Often they work from sunup to sunset at least 6 days a week manual labor. Although to us, it may seem like such a tragic way of life, most were content to be in a place where they could at least earn a living, despite the hard labor and living conditions. It makes me wander how much more simple life could be....

taking steps forward in someone else's shoes or lack thereof

http://www.stepsofjustice.org/

my random thoughts on this day of shoelessness (yes, its my word invention)...

shoot, I forgot its "no shoes" day... but its rainy and cold... why can I not find (while searching frantically) the shoes I had decided to give?... instead submitting to the fact that I will give my flip-flops.... later realizing that actually giving my cheap flip-flops would be more of a sacrifice, more humbling as they are cheap shoes to give and that well, I  NEED those for the shower.... I mean after all they are my only summer shoes. ;-)

uggghhhh! ugly feet, soar and abused feet.... its not that bad, freeing, really then by late afternoon.. I WANT my shoes, I feel dirty, tired of getting up the nerve to walk through the rocks... why do we have to have rock beds? and awww... nice, soft dirt....

What is it like for others around the world who experience their lives with no shoes?  To be honest if it is part of your culture/lifestyle, it would be strange to be forced to wear shoes. I imagine one would walk around with calloused feet, yet I have been told its good for your feet, after all some of the fastest runners in the world... run shoeless. Sure, when its cold/muddy it protects us from the elements but if that is what your body is used to somehow it builds up immunities.

I guess in all this... yes, it is suffering to walk shoeless, against the elements or when the path is rugged, even possibly for health reasons.... worms, etc. It is good to lay aside things we take for granted on a regular basis and its makes me appreciate my comfy and carefree life as it is. I do appreciate what I have processed this day but more importantly I want to not just simply give of my possessions but of the best gifts that I possess; the ability to share out of the abundance and overflow of my relationship with the creator of the universe, who clothes the lilies of the field.

Finally... the students are here....

Our students arrived by planes, cars, trains and buses.... It was a crazy busy day and I was so thankful to those students who arrived early and were ready to help me find others arriving in different locations at the same time.  By the time we picked up the last student and crossed the border, they still had to settle in and get their bearings. This has been the somewhat chaotic introduction to this 1st week of school. Its been great. Our students are so amazing and excited to learn and then get their hands dirty in working with children in need. So far we are all adapting quite well. 

Their schedule is full and overwhelming, yet they are in good spirits. I myself have been learning to let go of some of the comforts I have been used to and really, spoiled by, since arriving in Tijuana. I now live in the trailers, which don't always have warm water and we didn't have heat when we 1st arrived. It is now winter in Tijuana and quite brutal without heat. All in all I am/we all are adjusting. Please continue to pray for us all as we enter into the school and truly allow our minds and hearts to be available to once again be broken in a million pieces only to be healed and given new and true hope that can only come from our Father.