The First Day of the Rest of My Life <3

So…I have finally committed to YWAM Louisville this fall! It’s been a year in the making, but I am stepping out and listening to God’s call on my life and I’m very excited to see where He takes me.

YWAM, or Youth With A Mission, is an international organization that consists of people both young, old, and in between going out to fulfill the Great Commission. “…Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15) One of the schools YWAM offers, and the one that I will be attending, is called Discipleship Training School (DTS). This school is approximately 6 months long. During the first 3 months, which are lecture based, I will be learning about things such as: The Character of God, How to Share Your Faith, Hearing the Voice of God, and so much more. We will also be spending time doing local outreach, small groups, worship, and various other activities. We will get a break for Christmas to come home to see our families, but in January the overseas adventure begins. The last months of DTS will be spent in overseas missions where we will share the gospel with people who may have never heard it before!

Through this entire process of digesting my experience in Nica and then making this life altering decision now, I cannot help but be in awe of how truly amazing God is. A little back story into my YWAM decision…

Last year in Nicaragua, I got to work with Libby who is on YWAM staff in Louisville. She was very understanding of ‘me’ without even knowing me a week. As the two weeks in Nica came to a conclusion, Libby talked to me more and more about YWAM and what kind of experience it was and told me to make sure I paid close attention to Andy Landers when he came to speak for us one night. The night Andy spoke about YWAM, I could just feel the butterflies in my stomach, that yearning in my soul that I knew that was where I belonged. That night I was so conflicted with what I should do about my future because I had just started a new job and I was about to start my junior year of college as well. Libby sat and talked with me for a long time about the hard decision I would have to make and how it would change my life forever. She gave me a book to read too, “Is That Really You, God?” which now I know why. Once I returned home, I was still wanting to go to YWAM but in flooded the excuses: school, work, friends, family, etc. So I continued on with life as it used to be.

Fast forward a year. Same Nica trip, different me. This year I got to connect with a few more YWAM staff members…Josh, Molly, and Becca. Molly is my age so it was really easy to talk to her and ask questions. Josh and Becca were great to talk to as well. Becca has been doing missions for a long time, and Josh too, so they both understood how missions can change a persons life forever and how YWAM can be the perfect outlet to learn more about God and sharing the gospel to people all over the world…not just in Nicaragua. They both talked to me about my options and really encouraged me to just listen to God talking to me and let Him lead me. The night Andy was going to speak, Josh gave me some pamphlets and information about DTS to look at on the plane ride home; however, the moment Andy opened his mouth to tell everyone about his story and YWAM I knew this could be the night. At one point, he asked us to just sit still and quiet and listen for what God was saying to us. He asked us to just say ‘yes’ to God and whatever He was telling us or asking of us that we would just say ‘yes’…no matter what. The whole time I am sitting and just simply listening, I hear “Go…Just go” and I knew. I felt the same butterfly feeling and same fire in my soul that I could not ignore. That was it. Whatever it was going to take, that was it. I had said ‘yes’ to Him before he told me anything and it was going to happen.

So here I am…35 days until I leave for Louisville and I couldn’t be more excited. God has just provided so much for me and I cannot be more thankful that He never fails us. God has provided my tuition for DTS and an amazing office to work at that is supportive of my decision to follow this call.

More to come soon about YWAM and some other updates. If you want to know more about YWAM, you can visit ywamlouisville.org and go to the DTS tab at the top!

God Bless xox

Nicaragua 2013

*1501 patients in 6 days. 

That’s only one of the amazing things we accomplished all because of God’s great grace and power! Nicaragua 2013 was a year I will never forget and a precedent for many more years to come.

Lets start from the beginning though, shall we?

Playa el Coco

My mom, brother, and I went down to Nica a few days early to visit with our friend Edgard. He was able to show us old Managua, a crater lake, a Sandinista memorial, the gorgeous city of Granada (15th century city), a lake tour around Lake Nicaragua (where we got to see monkey island!) and enjoy some coffee from a couple different coffee shops. Day two, we met up with Pastor Jeff’s team (he leads the whole mission in Nica for these two weeks). We all went to Playa el Coco to spend the day on the beach, enjoying the sunshine & amazing food. We got to play in the Pacific Ocean and search for beautiful seashells an even see a ton of hermit crabs!  Day Three was arrival day. My mom, Noah, and I loaded up in the hotel van that took us back to to airport to wait for the rest of our group. We waited at the airport, where we ran into our friend April and Gaby who waited with us while the rest of the 30+ team members went through customs. After everyone made it through, (with ALL their belongings!) we loaded up the chicken bus and headed for El Raizon. Back at El Raizon, we unpacked, got settled into our rooms and prepared for dinner.

Crater Lake

Noah and kitten at a coffee shop

monkeys on the island

Day Four was a busy day but a peaceful one. We started the morning off with worship and conversation, talking about the upcoming week ahead of us. We also got to participate in a foot washing, preparing our hearts to be servants to the Lord and the people of Nicaragua. It is always such a humbling experience. After our morning time together, we spent the rest of the afternoons with our teams, learning names, talents, wants, reasons for coming, etc. There were four teams: medical (I’m on this team), construction, drama, and children’s ministry (these last two also make up the Bible distribution team). Construction went straight to work, drama/children’ ministry started practicing dramas and puppet shows, and medical started sorting and counting meds!

Day Five…FREE DAY! Free day was so much fun. We split into two groups, and I ended up in the early group. We first went to Mombacho Volcano/Coffee plantation and got to zip-line through the plantation. It was such an exciting experience again (even after doing it last year!). After zip-lining, we went to Masaya Market where we got to do some local shopping and bartering. I love the market, it means I can find new bracelets to add to my collection. I even found a beautiful oil painting to put in my room. By the time we left Masaya Market, it was time for dinner back at El Raizon.

Masaya Market

Zip-Line crew

MEDICAL TEAM: Day Six-Day Eleven Ministry days!!! These are the days where miracles happen, lives change forever, and you go home with a piece of your heart forever  in the beautiful country of Nicaragua. Every day, the medical team set up clinic in rural towns about an hour outside of Masaya. These towns were down dirt roads, past homes that looked like tin boxes, down roads lined with rice fields, and so much more. These towns were beautiful, and the people even more so. Clinics were set up with 3 American Nurses/LPN’s/PA’s etc seeing patients as well as two Nicaraguan doctors, who are so amazing to work with.  The providers saw patients, treated illnesses and symptoms, and prayed for people.  After people saw the providers, they were sent to our pharmacy line. The pharmacy consisted of two long fold up tables lined with team members filling the medication requests of the providers. Patients then had their medications explained to them by either April or Rose (who are both American but who are also fluent in Spanish…oh yea!). Patients with need for glasses then came to see me and Enrique and were fitted with the reading glasses that best fit their need. The most amazing part about our team though, was our prayer team! That part of our team was filled with God-loving people who were so faithful and believing in miracles that it really moved me and changed my view on all the things God can do right in front of my eyes. We had many healing those 6 days, physical, emotional, spiritual, etc. The prayer team poured so hard out into the people of Nicaragua and it was such a blessing to see how God worked in and through them and the amazing miracles that He performed.

Prayer warriors!

Glasses

Beautiful prayer

Over those 6 days of clinics, we had 64 salvations and countless healings. God also proved us with the ability to see 1501 people in that time. But sadly, every amazing short term mission comes to a close. Day Eleven was our last night together. We shared worship (as we did every night before lights out), laughter, testimonies, hugs, tears, and smiles. The people I met there will forever be in my heart, on my mind, and one day we will all be together again. I cannot thank God enough for this experience and for the people from our Go team and especially from Nicaragua. They are the most beautiful and loving people I have ever encountered in my life and my heart will forever lie deep in that beautiful country.

What beautiful children 🙂

Dios le bendiga!