Endings

New Blog

Virgin of Guadeloupe

Wowzers.
I think that word is the one that could best describe my emotions.
I am currently just sitting here looking at my computer trying to figure out how to best put into words all that has happened over the last few days. So many emotions. And there are way more to come!
I'll try and summarize. Cause to tell you the truth I'm pretty tired and have yet to unpack, which I'm not excited about.
The last few days of Peru were great. God blessed us with beautiful weather and awesome things to do. The plane back to Mexico City was the nicest plane Ive been in. We each had a personal Tv. Needless to say my eyes stayed on that screen mostly the entire time. . .
In D.F. (Mexico City)we packed it all in. Or first day we went and saw the cathedral for the virgin of gualdaloupe and heading to the tent for our first day. We spent the rest of our time in that tent (besides our free day)were we ministered to the pilmgramers (pelegrinos). We provided free food for them(tortas), refreshments (usually hand squeezed orange juice),Christian magazines to read, pills and foot massages (usually involving popping blisters). You would think there would be no down time in that tent but thane you are there for 12 hours straight down time is something you find quite easy. There were some frustrations with how the church went about evangelizing to the people but it was a good lesson to learn in that we now have so much knowledge (because of our previous 3 months) that sometimes we need to live it out when we don't have time to disiciple. If that makes any sense at all. Overall it was a dirty, messy, tiring, purposeful, stretching and eye opening experience. So many inside jokes came from those few days alone.
After our free day of touring downtown and shopping we went to the church to eat. God is so great when He throws in times of wonder when we least expect it. There was a missionary who came to the church that night (last nigth) named Adonnis. He is gifted with prophesy and He loves to use it in the Lords name so we had a (i have a loss for words here) renewing time of prayer with the youth worship group of the church (they were there practicing). The Holy Spirit was so present and God spoke truth into us through Adonnis. I love God and all that He does in and through people! He is such a personal God and loves to use us to reach others. He loves it when we finally get it. When we really realize how much He loves us. When we see how much He gave for us. That His love comes to us through His Son and the Crucifixion. He is extreme in the way He moves and the way He loves.
I'm going to leave it at that and talk about how weird it is that I'll be home in 4 days some other time. Pray for us as we work out this transition in our hearts, minds and souls.

He always comes through!

Life has been crazy!
Every time I think about blogging I never end up having time. Today is a free day and so far i have enjoyed it by eating, coloring, looking about pictures and reminiscing and I'll probably leave writing this blog to eat again :). We have been going and going and going and the ing that is insane is that we only have a few days left! I can't get it into my head. I can't comprehend that it's almost Christmas. No matter how many decorations of Christmas trees, snowflakes, snowmen etc. that the Peruvians have set up the 80 degree days mess with my mind. Thinking of being with my family in 13 days is definantly a bittersweet thought. I want to miss them and although I am so ready to go home I have to keep reminding myself that this part of my life is ending. I can never come back to it. I don't want to wish it to end so part of that is making myself not think about home. That is very hard to do as I really do miss everyone and can't wait to be home.
13 days.
It's so strange.
I won't be living with these lovely people anymore.
There is a possibility that I will never see them again.
Okay I'm done talking about this.
Here's what's been happening in my life and in Peru:

We have worked with different churches around the area to do more street/park programs and it's fun to meet new people even if it is just for a day. We went and did a few programs at our local market and park and actually we got kicked out of both of them by the police! It wasnt that big of a deal, it was mostly just funny.
We also got the opportunity to go to a cancer hospital and do a few dramas for the youth there. A really cool story came out of that trip even though it wasn't us in specific. There was a girl who was dying and the pastor we were working with and a ywamer named Sophie went in and prayed with her and she 'prayed the prayer'. I don't any more information besides that but it was an emotional time in the hospital.
I love nursing homes. I like them better when I can understand the people there but it was still so fun to do a program and just hang out at a local nursing home. After our kids program including clowns and puppets they encouraged us to talk to the people. The man I started talking to was named Lois. He really liked to talk and ask questions even though he could not here a single thing I tried to answer. I lost him about halfway through when he started talking about Mormons. Either way he was so sweet and I loved talking to him. There was another lady there who i talked to named Carmen. She is still completely bilingual. That to me was/still is incredible! Her English was perfect! The cool thing is that she is one of a few Christians there and she really has a sweet heart and cares for everyone there. It was a fun experience and I will probably never forget Carmen.
I'm not sure if I blogged about this but back in Juarez one of our main prayer focuses was children with AIDS. We obviously thought that they would be the children in Africa with Michales ministry but there are other kids with AIDS out there. It was such a confirmation from God when we got to work with a childrens home called Hogar de Vida (home of life) where all the kids have AIDS. It was a cool experience to meet the some of the kids that we had been praying for for over a month. They were so full of energy and love. All they wanted to do was be picked up and held. And although we were only with then for a few hours it is an easy way to see God's sovereignty.
There is a girl who lives in the house under us who works with an orphanage and invited us to their Christmas party. So we prepared a drama and some games and headed to the orphanage in the morning. There was another group there but we still got to do our program after lunch. It was fun and the kids were great. It made me miss Rancho Los Amigos (the childrens home at our base) and think the others would agree with me on that.
That night we were able to be a part of a youth group at one of the churches in the area. The worship was really encouraging and needed and God was there for sure. We split into groups and explained YWAM and everything to the youth. I was with Estrella and I fell that it went perfect! God helped me to understand and to speak clearly. I was really encouraged with how well I could communicate with them (with the help of Estrella of course). It was a great day and we were all so pooped. We got back at 12 and headed right to bed in anticipation of today.

In general God has really been speaking to me of the importance of the cross and sin. It has been cool to see ways God has backed up those topics with everyday things. I have also thinking a lot about my future and keeping my mind open to hear what God thinks. I have been starting to see a little more clearly for at least the next few months (i think;) and I know that God will continue to lead me. The cool thing that I have seen and know ever so clearly is that it doesn't matter what I do, as long as I do it in His name He will bless me. That is so freeing and I am constantly reminding myself that.

To my family: when i get home I will not want any chicken, rice or potatoes. I have never in my life consumed so much of those three things and pop! I didn't use to drink pop before I went to Juarez, and even then i had maybe two or three things but it's almost like they don't have water here! However i am getting hooked to a drink called Inca Kola. Its great and I am going to miss that.
There are plenty of things I'm going to miss.
There are plenty of things I miss.
Only a few days. . .

Finally Fruit

We have been doing the same stuff as before but this week we added a twist. We have been dressing up like clowns for the whole thing! It has been fun to be able to connect with the kids in a different way but it has still felt like the same old thing over and over. It got to a point where I believe almost all of us were a bit discouraged and sick of doing the same thing when God stepped in and helped us out. Doing ministry the way we are doing it right now we never see the fruit of our work, but God showed us the fruit when a friend of church had her son and his friend come home from a show and repeat the entire show and ask more about Jesus. Another way was kids were going and getting really interested in the church! It was so evident that we needed that boost of confidence and it showed through our next couple of shows. It was a great reminder too that although we may not see our fruit, we can't get discouraged because God called us here for a purpose and He will use us whether we know it or not.
Prayer Requests:
Some us us have started not to feel so good (we have some headaches, stomachaches and sore throats)
Renewed energy as we are all tired
And a renewed passion

Miss you all!!

New friends

We finished our time in Ventanilla yesterday and it was a strange thing. We made so many new friends in only a week and now we are already leaving. We made plans to see them again before we leave but I will for sure miss them! We led the church service at Gospel last night and it was powerful and the Holy Sprirt was really there. It was a little discouraging because I could see the Holy Spirits presence but I couldn't really feel it and when we were praying for the people of the church I felt a lack of connection because of the language barrier but I know that God spoke to them what He wanted them to hear through me. It's been hard for me to give God time to speak to me while I've been here. It's easy for me to speak to Him but for some reason I find it so easy to make excuses not to take time aside to listen. Today is a completely free day besides eating so I have no excuses today :). There are many things I want to here from Him so if you could be praying it would be much appreciated! Some thing in specific I am searching Him for are my future and why I am here. We have been doing devos for each other each day and Lauren was the first to go and she encouraged us to ask God why we are here. Personally aske Him why He has brought us to Peru.
I have stayed very healthy as has my team, a few feel a little under the weather but nothing too serious and that is a praise! Along with smooth bus traveling! Thanks so much for all your prayers! Continue to pray that we will be a great witness to all the Pruvians and that we won't pass by any opportunity to witness.

Programs

Hey guys! You may be wondering what's going on in my life. Well here is your answer :)
We have been going to a city called Ventanilla about an hour away. We have been working with a small church there and they have been taking us to different schools where we perform for them. I my past blogs i talked about creative arts classes and this is where we put what we learned in them to practice. We do skits, puppets, clowns and give testimonies for the kids. We have done this for 3 days now and it has been really cool. It was weird at the time but now im used to it. There are some things that are still wierd. Like when we go to a school and they all want our autograph or they want a picture with someone in specific. The people at the church that we are working with (Gospel Church) are so great. They are very friendly and super open. I am talking a lot more Spanish here and getting better at it finally! Thats such a praise! It's actually crazy because the things I thought I wouldn't like are actually not that bad. Like getting up at 7 and having an hour and 1/4 bus ride. I like starting early and the bus rides I read and its a good chatting time. The only thing i don't like anpbout Peru is their accent. They smush their words together and always sound like they are selling something, but like the rest of things , I have gotten used to it and it doesn't bother me.
Overall I really like Peru and can't wait to see what God has in store for us here :)

Hanging around

Hey guys!
Im not going to be posting as much because we can only use Internet like twice a week. There is free wifi here but that is a team rule so that we are not spending all our extra time online and not with each other. I don't mind the rule too much, it just stinks that i won't be able to update you guys as frequently.
So far we have mostly been hanging out and walking around. We went downtown yesterday and although the bus rides were really long, it was worth it. We saw the presidents house, the biggest cathedral, a wedding happen in that cathedral, we went to the top of the mountain to the lookout with a huge cross and just walked the downtown streets. Sometimes I'm suprised at how much I Spanish I can understand, although it is harder here because of their accent. Like in church today it was hard to pay attention. It might have also been tht I was sitting next to Eli :) and he was being so cute.
The family we live above cooks for us. She is a grand cook and thinks we should all be bigger! Her portions are SO HUGE!! I thought I was going to lose weight on outreach but its looking the opposite.
That's really all I can think of, here are some pictures!

PERU!!

We arrived at the base (an additional floor above the base leaders parents house) at 1:00 am Peru time. Its currently 10 here and we are about to eat breakfast. The plane rides went well! No throwing up this time! :) the second flight we watched Captain America and had plane dinner which was actually pretty good! We are living pretty much outside. It's so cool! I'll have to get used to the sound of car horns all the time but that won't be too hard. It's the prefect weather here! Thank you guys so much for all the prayers! They were definantly heard! Can't wait to update you more!

CURVEBALL!

I havent posted sinse the Mexicans came back because I didnt want to act like nothing was happening when big stuff has been happing that we couldnt share at first because we were not certain. The day the Mexicans came home we had a prayer time at night. The plan was just to hear from God. Whatever He had to tell us we were willing to listen. About an hour in we hadn't heard anything and were ready to leave and that's when He started speaking. Things became crazy and confusing as God showed us that Kenya wasn't what was on our minds. We kept pursuing Him late into the night and had to stop because we were so tired. The next morning before and after lunch we got together and kept seeking Him. He began to show us that we are not going to go to Kenya. Although it was surprising, it makes sense in more ways than one. We all feel peace about this and are really excited about where we are going. God was showing us different places in southern Mexico, Panama and Peru. We are going (probably have gone by the time you get this) November 9-10 to Lima, Peru and from there we are going to Mexico City on the 7th of December. We decided against Panama because plane tickets are more expensive than plane tickets to Kenya!  The cool thing is that we can minister to all the places God was speaking to us in southern Mexico by going to Mexico City. On the 9th and 10th of December the Mexicans celebrate the virgin of Guadalupe. This is a catholic celebration representing the Virgin Mary and people come from far and wide, many walking the whole way on their knees, to receive gifts from her and to thank her for previous gifts. The scary thing is that these gifts happen, it is very demonic. This is an exciting opportunity and I ask that you guys look it up so that you can pray more effectively. So, the reason I didn't blog about it was because I wanted to be certain of everything and not mislead you guys. I am so excited about all of this as is my

team! The only downside is that some of us are leaving Wednesday and others Thursday. This was on account of buying tickets online for cheaper prices and things didn’t work out as planned. I will be flying with the group on Thursday.

I want to emphasize the fact that God has been powerful throughout this whole change. It may seem that we changed plans just because we didn’t have enough money, but that was only the eye opener. God opened our eyes that He had other things planned for us by not sending all the money. If God wouldn’t have shown us differently we would still have headed to the airport even though we didn’t have the sufficient funds. We still don’t know exactly why God had us invest so much into going to Kenya but we know that He has a greater plan and we will follow Him where He leads us, and that is to Peru and Mexico City!!  We now are completely paid off, plane tickets bought and bags packed! Hopefully I’ll be able to keep in touch!
One thing we have done while waiting to leave on outreach was go on a march for peace! It was really cold but really cool! We walked about 3 miles with a whole bunch of other people, I would guess around 500.

I want to apologize for leaving you guys in the dark for a while but I didnt want to mislead you!

Love,

Kelsey Rae Klumpstra

A 'mustached' welcome

So I was misinformed and the mexicans came back today. Yesterday we bought fake mustaches and wore them to pick the rest of our family up from the bus station. Their bus was late and so us 5 Americans sat in the bus station for 2 hours with mustaches on. It was hilarious.

It is so good to have them back! These last few days we have been helping out where we can. We cleaned out the schools closet, helped out with Felixs comedor and cleaned out the office in El Paso. Other than that we are waiting on the Lord to provide the funds we need. I told you guys that we could buy plane tickets but we are waiting and that we still need 20,000 but we found out yesterday that was a mistake. Ty didn't factor in the staff and so we can't even buy plane tickets if we wanted to and thus it brings our total need to 24,000ish. Thanks so much for all your prayers and I ask that you continue to pray for finances and faith.

Not the same.

We got back home to Juarez around 9 last night. It is so different here without our mexicans. However, there is a change of plans. Instead of the mexicans heading straight from Monteray to Africa they will be coming home on Tuesday. The money hasn't been coming in as fast as we were hoping and we feel that we need to be together as a team before we head out. We currently still need $20,000 for the trip. We have enough to buy plane tickets but we want to be able to eat when we get there so we are waiting on the Lord to provide the rest of the money. We are seeking God to see if we need to cut something out of the schedule or if He has something more for us but until He tells us differently we are sticking with what He has given us.
Amarillo was great! It was a good time to relax, meet new people, spread what God is doing and raise funds. I am not sure what this upcoming week will look like at all, Ty is going to talk to us about that in a few hours. I'm guessing it will include a lot of praying and some ideas of fundraising. No matter what happens, it's going to be a crazy week! If you guys could pray for rest, organization, and for the 18 hour bus ride that the mexicans have back on Tuesday that would be great!
Thanks!
Kelsey Rae

SNOW!!

Cadillac Ranch

While here we have done the perfect amount of stuff.
We have talked with a lot of small groups and today's we went to the local college campus, we have had plenty of downtime both together and with our host families, we have gone to the Cadillac Ranch (a crazy farmers form of art) and we have been saturated in prayer.
I love it here!
I miss the Mexicnas!
I cant wait for Kenya!
I am very grateful!
Sorry theres not more but i am very tired!
Love you guys!
#sorrytherearesomanyexclamationmarks!

Amarillo

Y'all ever been to Amarillo Texas? I feel somewhat like I'm in a western movie.
Ok here's the trip details:
After eating brunch on saturday we waited around for Ty's parents to pack up because they were at the base for the board meetings. The goodbyes were weird! Saying goodbye to all the Mexicans was strange, I'm just excited to reunite with them in Kenya! The Thurmans rode in the van with us until we got to the office where their car was parked. We did most of our traveling in New Mexico actually. We stopped at a steak house called K-Bobs, Ty's parents payed for us. It was really good! Overall the trip was about 12 hours with waiting in the border line and eating. We decided to all stay the night at the Thurmsns because it was like 1:20 and we didn't want to have to go to our separate host families that late. We had to leave the house at about 7:45 to get to church. That means we got about 4 hours of sleep with the time change and everything. Ty's church has three services. We got introduced in all of them and in the first two we left after that to talk to the Sunday schools (like small groups before church). The last one we stayed through the whole service and ate the lunch they had after. The whole time we were selling salsa for a donation price of $5. We had made 56 little cans of salsa and we should have made like 150 cans! We ran out before the third service and there were a lot of disappointed people. Overall we made $1,019! It was so fun! I have never enjoyed talking to people at a church before. They were all so welcoming and passionate! The whole day went so fast! The service we sat through felt like it was only a few seconds! Ty told us that it was a bit of culture shock because the mexican services are so long! After church Marissa and Elizabeth went with their host family and me and Lauren are back at the Thurman's house for now. I think we are going to go to our host family's house after the prayer meeting we are attending tonight at St. Stephens. I'm excited to see what the rest of this week has for us!
Some things I am grateful for:
The smell of a home, the decorations of fall, donuts in the morning, blankets, an english sermon, carpet and God's faithfulness and provision. He is great!

Outreach

This week has been crazy! With class as many times as we could have it, deep cleaning everything, book reports due soon, creative arts projects, writing testimonies and packing on top of our regular job duties. But it's all great cause it's all in preparation for outreach!!! :)
We are doing a thing called state-side outreach before going to Kenya. On Saturday the Americans will be heading to Amarillo, TX for a week to talk to small groups and churches about DTS and our experiences here. We will be staying with families while there and I'm excited to stay in a real house. After that we will be coming back here for another week before heading out. The mexicans on the other hand will be going to Montarey, Mexico and staying there for 2 weeks and heading straight to Africa from there.
I'm really excited how things are working out! I packed today, well organized more like and it was so weird! It's strange to think of other people living in this apartment and not being here.
We will be arriving in Nirobi, Kenya on the 7th of November. For the first 3 weeks we will be staying at the YWAM base called Athi River. Then we will be moving on to Kisumu, Kenya where Michael's Life for Children Ministry is. The rest of the logistics are still unknown.
For all of our travel it costs each of us $1,750 in total. We have yet to raise $8,000 of those dollars to be able to buy plane tickets, which we want to do tomorrow. We saw 8,000 come in today so it is very possible but I still am asking for your prayers. Class has been a good reminder of all The Lord can do and I know He can provide and the power of our prayers.
Thank you all so much for being a part of this awesome part of my life!
I want to send you all a fair warning. I have been posting a lot. And i know mush of you appreciate this as you have told me so. But, we have no idea what the Internet situation will be in Africa. I am saying this now so you guys can prepare ;). I love you all!!

 Grand Rapids I miss you and all your fall loveliness (as Lauren would say)

Fear of the Lord

This week we have Ed Sinke (we were disappointed it wasn't spelled with a z) here talking about the Father Heart of God. We had class tonight and it was one of those classes that you don't plan for but you feel God leading to elongate on something. That something was the Fear of the Lord. He showed us two slides with two different verses on them. Looking like this:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8

What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim it from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell. Matthew 10:27-28

He had us take a close look at those two verses and then tell him if there was a contradiction. I said, "no"
"why not?"
"because to fear the Lord is a different type of fear"
"what do you mean?"
"it's to have reverence for Him"
"what do you mean?"
"ummm, it's like respect."
"what do you mean?"
And from there we argued. I gave up and Marissa took over trying to explain that she thinks that it is that He has the ability and then Ed went off with Old Testament stuff that she couldn't handle. Elizabeth gave it a try (recognize the fact that at this point the mexicans had n idea what was going on because Lalo didn't have time to translate. He tried and Ed stopped him) and I don't even remember what she said, it was really good but again she got shot down.
His point with all of this is that we only gave him spiritual answers. We have to be able to talk to non-Christians in a way that they can understand, without all our spiritual jabber. Another point he was trying to make was that we cannot give a captivating and real answer if it hasn't been reevealed to us by the Father Himself. If we just hear it and repeat it the there will not be an effect. We cannot preach what is not ours! This hit me hard. He even asked me how mad I was at him. I realized that I was frustrated that I didn't know and I couldn't give him an answer. He replied, "that is a really good place to be, as long as you don't stay there."
Wow. The rest of the class all i wanted to do was enroll in seminary! I have had a real want to study the Bible for a while now and it has kept coming up. I just don't know personally what that looks like for me, and I'm not sure if I'm ready. I know that God will show me exactly what He wants with my life and I am excited to see if that is in it!

Another thing he brought up was this:
We go to Church why? We expect Him to be there right? So, how much time do we spend preparing to meet God on Sunday mornings? Or for us, before class even? If we were meeting someone important (like the president) we would go prepared. The reasoning he gave was this: we don't prepare before meeting with God because we don't have the fear of the Lord. It comes down to really not caring (its not a big deal to us). I still haven't wrapped my mind around all that this encompasses and tomorrow we are going to dig deeper into the Fear of the Lord but it's something to think about.

Ed has brought so many new ideas to a topic that I wasn't expecting them to come with. I'm excited to see what the rest of this week entails, especially because it has impacted so many people in the past. Ty said that many times if he asks a YWAMer what the most influential week was for them in their DTS they would say The Father Heart of God. Please pray that our hearts will be open to hear and our minds will be clear from any other thoughts.
Ps. You guys are great!

Luchadores!

The maintenance man here is named Felix. He is also the pastor of the church that meets on base. He and his wife held a luchador fight at their 'comedor' right down the street on Saturday. We decided as a group that we wanted to sell candy and pop (I get mocked for saying that word) for the people who show up. So on Friday we went over there for an hour and a half Nd swept and mopped the whole place. Then on saturday we got there 40 mins early to help set up (we did nothing but watch). During the whole thing there was clowns, Mario and luigi passing out candy with a gorilla and a cat, little luchadores, big luchadores and then the main luchadores. At intervals there was worship music and they provided hot dogs for everyone. The main luchadores put on more of a show than a fight. It was supposed to be the battle between good and evil. Afterword Felix gave his testimony and talked to the kids about God. It was a long day as we stayed at helped clean up, staying a total of 6 hours. And I hate to say it but we actually lost $20. So today we sold the extras after church. Eli was a great little salesmen. We still have some left but we are now in the positive! :) looks like we'll all get about $10. That's ok though because more people heard about us and our outreach. I feel like our entire weekend was focused on those luchadores!

We got a little bored and the lighting was sweet!

Joshua playing hiding from his dad (Felix) behind me

Eli being an awesome salesman!

Ps. It was super hot this weekend, especially today. I wore a sleeveless shirt and my shoulders got burnt!

Relationships

The answer to all DTS questions was our topic this week, Relationships. Elaine Alegretto came and spoke to us. She is the funniest sweetest lady I have ever met. We have so many funny quotes from her written in our notebooks! A favorite is, "it's so great that we can laugh". Also today she told us that Jerk was not a good word and she apologized for using it. It was the title of a book she was talking about :). The whole week was a good reinforcement to things I have previously heard and just a fun time in general. This class was a bit different too because we had some students from the colegio (the school here on base) come and listen too. We had class in the chapel instead of the multipurpose room and I thought I wasn't going to like it but it was just fine, maybe better. Elaine left today and so we had night class on both Tuesday and last night. We also had family meetings almost every night and creative arts has been long. We have had almost no free time and it has been stressful bit still a good week. There was one bad thing about this week. One of our past teachers, Stephen Taylor and his wife lost their full term baby yesterday. They have two boys, one old enough to understand what happened. It was hard for all our staff because the Taylors used to be a part of our staff here before they moved to Tyler, TX. I ask that you pray for them and their family.
Romans 15:13

Dios Asombroso

God is so amazing! It is incredible! At the beginning of this post I stated out loud to those at the table, "I already titled a post God's Provision!" He is continuing to show us how awesome He is and how He will provide. Yesterday, we had a family meeting about finances and Ty brought up the idea of what if, and plan B. This was very discouraging but we had to face the facts, the money wasn't coming in. Well, I think that ignited a spark under us all. Us girls got together for a prayer time for an hour and a half past lights out, we agreed to stay accountable in ways we have all been struggling and I began to ask what else I can could do. This obviously was God's sovereignty. God was saying, "Hello! Finally! You understand! Look what I can do when you obey!!!" I can say all of this because as of today everyone's tuition is paid off! We all still have our outreach fees but this is the home stretch! God is so faithful and loving. We celebrated tonight by having cake and thanking God for everything and acknowledging that we believe He will provide the rest. Thank you guys so much for your prayers. They have been so encouraging, you don't even know! Continue to keep us in your prayers and enjoy the love He has for you!

2 corinthinans 12:9-10

Great Friends

I just have two quick stories to tell you guys :)
1. We went to a different church today. Olivo (Olive Tree) is the church that the kids from Rancho go and so we wanted to see what it was like. It was really good and we all liked it a ton! One thing though that I want to share is a very small part of the whole sermon. We were to turn to our neighbor and say, "God wants to use you". As I was sitting next to Marissa and Leydhi I proceded to turn to my right and tell Marissa, "Dios quire usarte" and she responded. I did the same to Leydhi and she being funny said, "No, Dios no quiere usarte" and then said, "Dios ya esta usando te" (God is already using you). That was great. I don't think she had that planned or thought that it would make any difference but it did.
2. Today, I spent about an hour laughing and singing with Elizabeth. First off, we have hospitility together so pretty much we clean an apartment together. We were just goofin' off and having fun, being bothersome to each other and loving it, that sort of thing. Then, we went back to the room and attempted to work on our VBS projects. That lead to trying to remember good kids songs and doing a lot of looking up online. Then Elizabeth hit the jackpot. She found a document online with a ton of old and not too old hymns, kids songs, worship songs and all of the above. We spent about an hour going through the 300+ lyrics they had. It was so much fun! There was a ton of Rich Mullins songs and a few Kathy Traccoli. (This reminded me of you mom! Remember when you went on her cruise? ;) )

Anyway, those were just two ways I love my friends. They are my family, my sisters and my friends and I love them all. God definitely put us all here together. He is so sovereign!

God's provision

Wow. I feel like I have a lot to catch you guys up on! Let' start with yesterday as that is most important and freshest (is that a word?) in my mind.
Yesterday was no ordinary day. The boys went to get their passports early in the morning and by God's provision they were able to get them yesterday! This is incredible and we are so thankful! The girls got to sleep in and then us Americans went over to the office in El Paso. We went over there to help with the fundraising banquet for the new childrens home. The childrens home, Rancho Los Amigos, right now is falling apart and can only house about 30 some children. They have all the plans and the land for a new childrens home but we are lacking the 2.5 million dollars to build it. Well now less than that. We had the banquet at a church in El Paso and we had about 160+ people there. We were waitresses and although it was hard work it was really fun! Overall we raised $115,000! It was great and very very tiring!
It was cool to see the way that God is starting to provide for the new childrens home and I can't wait to see how He continues to provide for us. I am still so excited to go to Kenya! We are getting more prepared for the kids, and the communication is getting better but I still feel that I am not mentally prepared. But I never really am until I get on the plane. Ty keeps telling us that for finances we do the possible and let Him do the impossible. And I believe we are doing just that. I am excited and of course anxious to see how God provides and very posistive and grateful that He will do so. If you want to help financially you can email me at kelseyraek@gmail.com.
If you want to help us by staying in prayer here are some prayer points:
- Communication between Ty (our leader) and Kenya
- For posistive and believing attitudes
- Fears to be lifted
- Preparation for the kids programs
- Mental preparation
- and continuing unity in our group.

Thanks!

A Heart like His

Meet Alex. He has had a rough past and it shows through his present, in his everyday actions and behavior. He truly loves all of us, he is great in the kitchen and he knows what he is taught. We all have been praying for Alex a lot lately and continuing to try and show him that we have his back. This week we have been talking about the Holy Spirit. Last night we had a quick night class and an awesome time of worship/prayer. So, we all prayed for Alex like we have done in the past. However this time was different, for me if no one else. I had this overwhelming feeling of love for Alex. A love that only a Father could have. I felt so enveloped in a longing for Alex to break down his walls and connect in a new way with his Father. I was in tears and finally understanding God's heart for us. It was an incredible experience! I will continue to pray for him and ask that you do the same. We have been reminded a lot not to tell people the difficulties of others so they can pray because the line between help and gossiping is so thin, so I am going to leave it at that. Alex is from Juarez and he loves the Lord.

I want to also ask if you guys could continue to pray for finances. We are striving to get all the classroom phase tuition paid for by friday, and it's a stress on all of us cause we are a family.

Thanks!

God is Good and He is Here.

I love nights like these

I had him lay down and I traced him :) he thought it was the coolest thing.

I told him to do big eyes and he did this :)

Phillip and I during our chalk date :)

Tonight has been a wonderful night! First, I got to talk to Jenny on Skype! I loved every minute of it and I get so excited every time I think about it! Her base is fricken sweet!
Second, while on my way to dinner, walking by myself, I felt like I could conquer the world. Why? I was trying to figure that out myself on the way. I believe it is because I have recently wrote down a list of the things I miss. Why would that make me feel like I could conquer the world? Because most ot the things I missed were present on that short walk to dinner. The lovely fall weather, my fall outfit, the breeze, the feeling of strength and vigor and most of all the smell. For some reason it smelled like a mix between camping and fall foods. Who knows how or why it smelled like that, but for moments like these I praise our Wonderful Savior who is Sovereign and cares deeply about us.
Third, we had a wonderful dinner of pasta with alfredo sause and shrimp.
Fourth, I had my chalk date with Phillip (pictured above)! It was fun and wonderful. I love that boy!
Fifth, I talked to my mom on the phone tonight! I love her and wanst able to say it on the phone because our call cut out. I love you mommy!!!!!
Sixth, our phone call cut out because the power went out. This may seem like a bother and frustrating but I took advantage of it. I made some chocolate milk and watched as it began to rain. It finally rained again!
Seventh, I bought a candle that smells like apple cider on sunday and i finally lite it tonight! I am sitting here right now enjoying the smell of apple cider and dreaming about Robinettes.
Seven is the number of completion and so my night has been completely wonderful. :)

I am grateful for nights like these and know that God loves me and what I love.
I hope you guys will have a wonderful night as well.
Drink some apple cider for me :)

Short weekend

The coffee/dessert night went really well friday night! It was hectic and busy but it was really fun! I especially liked it when we got to eat the desserts and the drinks :) Your prayers really helped and I thank you for that! We made $310 dollars and decided to split it between those who still needed to pay for their class tuition. We were all so tired that we made a democratic vote not to go to church on Sunday. So we all slept in and most of us went to get burritos for brunch a couple blocks down. Then Ty had to go into the US and asked if we wanted to go, so all the Americans went and we spent most of the day there. While there we picked up the new teacher for this week. His name is Stan Cosby and he is Ty's home church pastor. He is speaking about the Holy Spirit this week and i can't wait to see what God has in store for us!
The weekend went by so quickly! I feel like these last couple of weeks before outreach will just fly! I desperately want some way to slow them down a bit. I want to go to Africa, no doubt, but that just means that it is closer to the end of the school! I am also getting a little nervous about outreach. That is something you guys can keep in prayer. I need to start getting mentally prepared about going. One thing I believe I forgot to mention about outreach is that we are not heading to Africa right away. We are doing a "state side" mission for 2 weeks before we go. The Americans will be going to Texas and the Mexicans will be going to Montarey (sp?) Mexico. We are not all that excited about this because most of us just want to get to Africa and we don't like that we are going to be split for 2 weeks! But we feel that this is something we need to do.
This is all for now :)

Sunny days

Just doing some cleaning. Deep Deep cleaning.

Yesterday we had class and then cleaned til a little before dinner. It was crazy! the whole staff came and cleaned. There were probably 15 people in the kitchen at one point! But, everything looks so great now :) Today during brunch cleanup Lalo decided to get everyone and everything wet with the sprayer. I of course had to spray him :). Soon the whole kitchen floor was wet and the dishes were not even done.
It is a wonderful day out today! I went and read on the playset and I was so happy! Almost renewed in a sense. It was the perfect amount of hot sun beating down and cold breeze passing by. No humidity, only the suns wonderful rays resting on my skin. When I returned into the air conditioned apartment I realized that I had been sweating just a little. And somehow that was still perfect.
Right now I am supposed to be heading to bake for the Coffe fot Kenya night that we are having tonight. Ty keeps telling us about how a ton more people are going to be here than expected. So if you guys could pray that everything runs smoothly, the staff are generous and that God multiplys the desserts, that would be wonderful! I'll let you guys now how everything works out!
I can't believe it is already October and that outreach is this month! It is a little nerve-racking financially speaking but it is so exciting in every other way!
Kelsey Rae

Rainbow dance

Today we essentially had creative arts class as our morning class. We worked on 1/2 of a day (out of 6 days we need to have prepared) for almost the whole 3 hours! It is a skit turned into a dance. The skit is about Jonah (which coincidentally is the next book of the Bible I was planning on reading)and the song is about both Jonah and Noah. Its called the rainbow dance and it is intense! Needless to say by lunch time we were plenty sweaty and hungry.
If you guys have any good activities or day plans for a VBS than please let me know! We need as much help as we can get! :)
I think i have made a new best friends. Actually I know i made a new best friend. His name is Phillip, he is 3 and he has a crush on me (he told his mom). All he wants to do is play! I love him but i also have a lot to do. He speaks to me in Spanish and I respond in what i feel best. (he has an American dad and a Mexican mom so he can understand both but he can pretty much only speak spanish well because that what he is saturated with in school). Anyway, we have a chalk date sometime soon (he bought chalk from the school store to play with me) and I am so excited! I love chalk!
Tomorrow is the base wide cleaning day. Everyone is going to clean like crazy. You can pray for our attitudes as I'm not sure what this day will look like and we will probably be tired. Also we are having a fundraiser Coffee for Kenya night for the staff. You can pray that everything works out well and that the staff will be generous. There is also going to be child care during that time so you can pray for those doing that as it has been hard in the past.

Thanks!

Somalia

Somalia is one of the other countries that we have heard a lot. The problem is that it is pretty dangerous. Actually really dangerous. But we feel that God is calling us there. Here is some really good and recent information as to what is going on in Somalia. Click here! As a summary, Somalia is starving to death because of some Muslim Military who is not letting food into the country and not accepting others help. There are refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, and they need help. That is something very real that we could do. But we don't know yet what will happen with all of this. All we are doing right now is staying in prayer for Somalia and I ask you to do the same! :)

No more normal

Today Ty told us that we have no more normal weeks left. Awesome. Its actually going to be awesome but i really like normal weeks. This week we don't have a teacher. We are going over things for outreach and touching up on some of the previous topics. I am really excited for tmw though! We don't have class! We will have intercession at 9:30 and then the rest of the day til lunch is ours to work on testimonies and raising money. Then for creative arts we are going to watch ourselves perform the dramas. I don't know why but for some reason I'm really excited about that! Last night I got some fall decorations in the mail and I went to town putting them everywhere! I love fall and am sad that there will be no trees changing here :(. Maybe you guys could send me some pictures :). Today i also looked up pictures on flickr of art prize! It looks like it is amazing this year! Like always :). I miss GR and all of you!

Outreach

As of yesterday, we have exactly one month til outreach! We still have a lot of money to raise but we have faith that God will provide! We have known for a while where we are going but there is still a lot to know. We are for sure going to Kenya and working with aids orphans and i am so excited. Like beyond pumped! There are many possibilities of other places we could go but we haven't figured them out/ heard clearly yet. So if you guys could continue in prayer that His answers will become clear and that all the money will be able to come in that would be much appreciated! Also if you want to contribute you can email me at kelseyraek@gmail.com. :) have a wonderful Sunday :)

Jenny!!!!

Jenny valkier left today for Costa Rica to do her DTS there!!!!! I'm so excited it's hard to explain! I'm excited that she gets to experience what i have been able to experience and that she will have just as great a time (probably better knowing Jenny) as i have had :)! I cant wait to here everything about her base and her experiences! Her blog is here! She would kill me/still might for giving this out but she is such a great writer and i love her and want you all to be praying for her as well so there it is! :) sorry Jen.
This week has been an easy week, yet really hard. It was a nice relaxing normal week and the subject of class was not too hard to follow and we didn't have to think a lot. Yet it was hard because we learned all about religions that were lost and the terrible things they do. Today we focused on human trafficking and it was very emotional. It was hard to go with the day after that class but it is better to know and feel pain than to be in the dark and clueless. We mostly learned about Islam, Muslim and buddhists. Although we learned this in senior Bble class, and Mr. schenck is a great teacher, I had forgotten most of the info. If you are a senior at NPC and are reading this, i suggest you actually learn the information and keep it. I learned it but couldn't keep it. Those are subjects that will be some of the most applicable knowledge that you will learn in high school. You can also tel mr. Schenck I say hi :).
It doesn't even feel like a Friday today, otherwise i would be more excited about that weekend. Tomorrow morning at 7:30 we are leaving for "the hole". It is a mix between goodwill on steroids and a flea market. I'm excited! :)
Love you guys!

Trouble and Chloe

We have had this steak lately of getting in trouble while being completely innocent. It's really annoying actually. I told you about the karaoke already. Also i got in trouble for doing laundry when i hadn't signed up by someone who also hadn't signed up, and we don't even need to sign up . . . Then yesterday we went to practice our skit as students and we asked permission to use the sound system. Then we got in trouble for asking the wrong person. But they apologized because it was not our fault. Everything has just been a big misunderstanding and presented in the wrong way. I am not complaining by gloomy you this, i just think that it is something i find funny and worth sharing.
I also took my dreads out yesterday. I had decided a while back that I wouldn't keep fixing them and i would let them come out naturally but then i got sick of them and took them out while i read yesterday. The crazy thing is that Marissa saw me taking out my dreads and decided to take hers out too! So last night we soaked her hair in conditioner and three of us spent an hour undoing her dreads. They are about halfway done and she already looks different. I just thought Chloe Renzema would really like that :).

Vinnie

Our teacher this week is named Vinnie Carafano and he is speaking to us about missions and evangelism. I am very glad to have him here this week mostly for the selfish reason that it is an easy week. He lives in El Paso so we won't have any night classes and the class is made mostly up of stories. It has been great and I love how real he is with people about God. He has what he believes and he sticks with it. Some day I want to have enough courage to tap an angry cussing man on the shoulder who just said "Jesus Christ" and say, " He is Lord ya know". Haha oh Vinnie :) other than that this week has been pretty average. I've been able to keep up on my work well (with the help of your prayers) and it so far has been an unstressful week.
Tomorrow we are going to do our two skits so that they can video tape us. We will be famous from tomorrow on here at the YWAM epj. They are going to use us as an example of how to do the skits :) we also just started the puppets today! I am the Joystealer in the skit. Its hilarious! I go around attacking people stealing their joy. It is recorded so we don't have to speak but I think the funniest thing of all is that the main character has a British accent. I wish i could show you guys the script! Oh well. Whelp, that's about all that I can think of right now. Except that fact that the lady living in the apartment next to us had an enormous centipede crawl out from under her bed today. . . No big deal.
Peace. Love. Centipedes.

Ready for a normal week.

It's been tough trying to get everything done with crazy amounts of non-normal weeks in a row!
But I am slowly getting there and they were some awesome weeks and I wouldn't trade them out.
Class this week was on purpose. It was fun because there was a lot of activities and personal stuff. Overall it was a week of things that I already knew but not about these people. I already knew that I am an extrovert with administration gifts but it was interesting to see everyone elses answers. During on of the classes we had to share our best and worst experiences and that turned out to be quite emotional. Myrna gave us this list of opposites. If you did things on the left of the paper you were acted like an orphan. But if you did the things on the right of the paper you acted like a son of God. It was very interesting and I learned that there was a lot of things that I have to try and slowly work on to act more like a Child of God. It was a good week and just to let you know, you have a purpose :). If you need to know why/how, just let me know:).
The boys were gone this weekend because they both went home, and so last night we had a girls night. We ate pizza and tortilla chips and wathced Confessions of a Shopaholic to start the night off. Then we tok a break and came back for karaoke! It was hard with the language barrier bit that almost made it more fun. We were soooooo loud. So loud! So, what happened next, was. . . We got yelled at. Our leaders we're all gone so another staff member came in and yelled at us. It wasn't handled the best but we stopped, went back into our apartment and wathced Stick-it! My favorite movie ever!!!! The whole experience was just funny and strange.
Also on Saturday, i went into the kitchen in the morning to help Liz with brunch. I went into the pantry and I could count about 15 of those big nasty flies. I decided to make it my job to get rid of them. Turns out there were way more than 15. I foug those flies for about a half hour and there were still soe left. I had a victory pile of dead flies on the ground and it was about the size of my hand. The bad thing about the flies was that as soon as i hit them with the flyswatter they would dart in an unknown direction. So there were many that fell into hiding, trying to recover. It was a crazy experince, none-the-less.
For my book report on Spiritual warfare I wrote two poems. I am proud of them no matter how cheesy or bad they are so i decided that i would post them on here:) hope you enjoy!
Spiritual Warfare:
Dearest child who i created whole,
Life is difficult, trust me, i know.
Spiritual warfare is a part of your soul,
But please, loved one, don't go with the flow.

Be enduring, humble,
And worhsip me always,
And you will be the warrior that Satan can't stumble

I made you to love conflict,
So that you could join with me,
To together throughly evict,
All evil things, even those. You can't see

This daily fight is never compressed.
Don't ever stop.
Be aware of the Devil, but never impressed.

Relationship is also key here,
Ask me anything and stay persistent.
I do not frown on you; stay near,
I want you a part of this, not distant.

I love you so much,
More than you know.
Stay beautiful and aware of my touch.


Dear Devil:
I am a Spiritual Warrior,
No matter who I am.
You may call me a failure,
But I have His authority and power.

I will not stand by
And watch, avoiding the pain.
Wilderness is hard, no lie,
But with endurance i will forever gain.

I will be aware of every though,
Never giving you a hold.
With His blood I've been bought
And you will not turn me cold.

Listen here you fallen being,
I have an angel of protection
Who wathced over me with singing.
You may not take even one action.

I know i have your pride,
Your unbelief and fear,
But I will stand by His side
And always keep Him near.

I am not weak.
I will worship Him always.
Worship only Him, staying meek,
Which, sadly, is not common now-a-days.

But i will not stand for it.
I will stand only against it.


I love you guys and thank you for all the support.
I'm super tired right now, and still have a sufficient amount of stuff to do. If you could keep me in your prayers i would much appreciate it :)
Krk.

Independence day!!!!

After this post I am going to put on my red basketball shorts and my green same same but different t-shirt on and head to an amazing party! There will be tons and tons of food and lots of fun! Why? It's mexicans real independence day from Spain!!! Its actually a cool story, if you are bored and have time you can look it up.
Class has been good this week so far. Myrna is talking about purpose, the purpose of God for creating man in general and us specifically. Today we did a lot on personality and it was a fun and interactive day. I finished my book on Spiritual Warfare and that was really interesting and applicable. The most interesting chapter to me was the chapter on about angels and demons. Here's a quote for you, "Spiritual warfare is not a fragment of Christianity. It is the whole of the Christian experience. It encompasses everything we do. To be a Christian is to be a spiritual warrior. To be a spiritual warrior is to walk consistently and victoriously through life, with Christ at our side." Dean Sherman. That was the last paragraph of the book, and I feel that it summarizes the book well.
I just wanted to let you know all the fun i will be having in about a half and hour :)
Chido bandito.

Letters

I love letters so much! Thank you guys for the letters (you know who you are ;)
Thanks so much!

Creel

Ok so I just had the longest post of my life written down about Creel. It wasn't finished but it had already consumed 2 hours of my day. And as i had already done before, I left the page to do something quick before dinner, and it was gone when I reloaded the page. Usually this would not be a problem because it saves what I write like every minute, but I decided to try the new blogger thing and it doesn't do that. So now I am so frustrated, almost to the point of tears. I am going to dinner now but after i will give you all a short sneak peak of Creel. Here i go! I'm saving it this time! Alrigh, I'm in a much better mood. I just played a while with Phillip, he the 3 year old son of Paula my one on one leader. Creel was beautiful, lovely, fun, tiring, crazy busy, crazy in general and thought provoking. It was beautiful because of the green grass, trees and mountains. The rain, the bright stars shining through the dark night. The wonderful mountains and the rocks. It was lovely because it was a perfect temperature with a wonderful smell. It was great fellowship and amazing food. It was fun because of all the rock climbing, the jokes, the animals, the adventures and the people It was tiring because of the insaine amount of child care we did, the adventures and the scheduling It was crazy busy because we tried to pack everything into a few days. We were scheduled back to back with things at many points It was crazy in general because almost the entire staff came half way through and there were so many people at the small base And it was thought provoking because of first of all one certain intercession time we had and class about the sovereignty of God (we smushed 5 classes into 3 days) and here is where I expand on what i learned. In one time of intercession i learned so much. It started by recognition of Estrella seeing a pink rag. The first time we ever had intercession together i had thought of a pink wash cloth. Estrella remembered that and felt like it was God's promise of answering us about Outreach at Creel. (although this did not happen, i believe that this is significant and we did hear things that are important). We also confronted our apathy. I had no idea that was something that could happen or hinder, but it was very much and once we rebuked that out intercession was less heavy and low. We also confronted disunity. It is something we have all been working on from then on. It's hard but it will be totally worth it down the road. Ty had us think about if we were willing to go ANYWHERE God wants us to, and after some thought i believe that although it would be cool to go somewhere crazy it would be better to go where God calls us, even if we stay in Juarez. We had been hearing a lot about Africa but when we tried to find where in Africa we were not getting anywhere so Ty had us give Africa back to God because he flet that it was a road block. On last thing I learned through Ty about intercession during this time was that we might be focusing our interession too much on outreach. God could be trying to tell us something personal and we throw it to the side because we only want answers about outreach. All of that was influential to me. Class: The sovereignty of God was taught by a tall white Dutch man named Henk Kaemingk. He grew up in Holland so it was difficult to understand Him in both English and Spanish. He is so wise that a lot of his points slipped out of my reach but there are many things that i learned that were influential and great to think about. Here is what i wrote in my journal the day after the last class, Class has been a lot different. It might be the difference in location or the fat that this topic: the Sovereignty of God, almost coincides with last weeks: the Evidences of Salvtion. It was encouraging when Henk would repeat what Stephen said last week. It was also confusing though when things would contradict or conflict. Some key things I learned: - although it is called "the fall of man" it was no accident. We should refer to it as the "fall of the kingdom" -God gives us responsibility to listen to His authority - we can easily resist God's authority but we cannot resist God's power -God works through his authority more than His power because He wants us to have free will and not be robots - God want us to have a choice. That is why He allows Satan on the earth. To give us the opposite choice. - we believe a lie for 2 reasons 1: we use an excuse because our desire is so strong 2: we are ignorant of the power of God. - God wants us to walk to perfection, as long as you are walking in the correct direction, you will not feel condemned. Although we will die on the path to perfection, the walk is the challenge to be more like Jesus - "joy in affliction" is not an emotional joy - and last but not least which i had to practice today is: how we experience trials determines a lot on ourselves. Henk talked for a while on trials and tribulations and thus today as i was typing and then there was no more post, i decided instead of being dreary to try and see the best and stay uplifted. It was hard but I realized that it is a lot better and a lot more fun if you change yourself. I'm glad that I took this small step toward perfection but it would have been nice if i could have kept my post. But hey! God is sovereign! If you guys have the chance you should visit creel :)

September

I was just writing in my journal and i thought that I would like to share some of the things i wrote in it with you.
Answered prayers:
- it is getting a lot easier to communicate!
- my bug\bed bites are done itching! I have scares but they don't itch anymore!
- creative arts is going much better!
- my attitude has gone up a lot of the things I was having a hard time with.
- I'm finally getting use to the schedule.
Worship:
We have worship here at the base probably twice a week. It's at 8 in the morning and we have Sean playing the guitar and singing and see all sit on the couches and chairs. And although it is good and i have loved worhsipping in a different language, I miss worhsipping with all you in GR. I miss HG, evensong and BSHOP. It's crazy how fulfilling it is to listen to Hillsong on my iPod. It is definatly a stretching experience.
Realization:
I have been realizing that most (not everything) of the stuff I have learned so far i have heard before. Keep looking back on my notes and remembering past sermons and seeing that i had the opportunity to understand a lot of this before i came. Then i realized that it is the setting. Bing here learning and learning and soaking everything in all at once is the big difference. Everything begins to click and when they say things over and over and over again in as many ways sa they can, i finally get it. It gets ingrained into your mind.
But, I have also been presented with things i have never heard before and things that i have never thought of. The most resent ones are that we don't get saved. It is not an event that happens. It is instead the beginning of a relationship. We can be enlightened for a long time and never really know God. Also we are not dirty rotten sinners who cannot go 5 seconds without sinning. It is possible for us to choose to walk in the light and with practice (as with a marathon) we can go days without sinning. Why haven't i known/understood these things before? God has a perfect plan, remember that.

Passport Stamp!

Blogging.
Blogging is a funny thing.
Here i am in Juarez, typing on my iPad pretending to talk to you guys. But who even are you guys? I know some people who frequently read my blog but what about you others. You sneeky ones who i don't know. I'm talking (typing really) to you guys like we are buds. And now i don't know what else to say. Ok, update on my life.
I'm not sure i have told anyone this but i have always wanted a ton of stamps on my passport. Whenever I would see movies where people had lots of stamps i would be so jealous. And when i first got my passport I would open it up to the pages for stamps and dream of all the cool stamps that could be on there. Today my dream has begun! As the cast of high school musical would say, "it's the start of something new". I GOT A STAMP ON MY PASSPORT!!!!!! :) I can't wait til outreach when i get another one!!!!!
I finished my book! Now all i have to do is the report. I'm thinking about doing a poem.
I have been loving the classes! Stephen Taylor is really funny, but real. He is very good at presenting his points and he knows what he is talking about.
Other than that life has been pretty normal. Oh, I did fall of my chair in the apartment and eeryone outside looked in through the window. That was pretty embarrassing but of course i played it off cool :). Like i always do. Hahahahaa joke.
WARNING: on Saturday i will be going on a staff retreat to Creel which means that I might not have Internet and i have the possibility of being very busy. Thus: don't be upset if i don't blog for a week. Well, ok you can be upset, i give you that right. But its not my fault :). Chido? (cool?) Chido. (cool).
One last thing, I'm pumped for Creel because there is a lake! I don't care how cold or gross that lake is, I am determined to swim. I miss it sooooooooo much!
I love MI! (and Juarez)

AHHH! Its been a MONTH already!

4 weeks. Who knew that 4 weeks could go by so fast!
This past weekend was so fabulous! I don't really know why but everyone agreed that it was the best one so far! It might have been that we didn't go to church. Ty and Lea were gone for Lea's birthday and we all didn't want to go to the church service that we did last week. Marissa and Lauren watched/listened to their own churches online. I decided to go on a walk with Hillsong. That turned into a run, a long wonderful run. Then more walking. It was overall just great.
I introduced all my roomates to freerice.com (if you don't know what that is you should look it up!) and so I have been almost addicted to learning the flags of the countries. The entire time I think of my first freerice expeirience with Jenny and Annie. I miss you guys! Then Elizabeth and I cooked corn dogs and i made my tortilla chips again! This time they were so much better (except i might have overdosed them with salt, I'm turning into Qudoba!). We celebrated Lea's birthday and she also got a cake smashed in her face :).
Today was a hard day to get out of bed, but it was worth it when i did. We have Stephen Taylor here for the week talking about Evidences of Salvation. In class he introduced himself and told us his salvation using a timeline, a lightbulb and a heart. We all did the same. It's crazy how we have been here for a month and i hadn't heard nearly any of my 'family's' testimonies! They were crazy! It made me wish there was no language barrier so i would have already known and so i could talk to them about there stories.
Today we had small groups and we had a girls time! We did nails and it wasnt necessarily fun but i enjoyed it :). Dinner was my favorite Mexican meal. Rajas con queso. SO DELISIOUS! I ate way too much though. I worked it off by mopping though :)

Can't wait to come back to you guys weighing 15 more pounds! I may not be a freshman but I can still gain the weight!

Tortilla chips

Today i made homemade tortilla chips, and they were fricken delicious. I was so proud of myself! Also today I ate, journaled, watched movies and made dinner. Thats it. And it has been a fantastic day! Yesterday was long. Class was good but long. Especially because we were all sooooooooo hungry. After lunch we decided to break the fast. The Americans went over to El Paso and we went to Walmart. Don't worry there are walmarts in Mexico but Lauren needed to go across to get money. We stopped at sonic on the way back which was a really great thing because the line to get back to Mexico was really long. The rest of the day was tiring but still good.
Just an update for you guys :)
When i get back i will make you all tortilla chips.

Good ol' Internet.

So again we lost the Internet for a few days due to the every rising need of Internet lines. It is crazy how much we use the Internet even around here! We all get so excited when the Internet gets back on! Alright so i am going to update you on the things that i can remember.
- we finished the play. I end up pregnant. Great.
- we have decided to fast for an answer about outreach locations. Today's we ate breakfast and lunch then started. We are not eating dinner, breakfast in the morning or dinner tomorrow. Meaning the next meal i will have is lunch tomorrow. We have different ideas about it but we all believe that it is good and needed. So I ask you to pray that we all have strength and we all stay positive both in hearing God and not being able to eat.
- I don't know if i wrote before that Marissa gave me a dread but she did. And she gave me another one :) (sorry Chloe)
- I finally threw the flowers away but are keeping some in a book
- we are currently reading Intercession by Joy Dawson and it is very good and thought provoking, although she does seem to be a little bit arrogant.
- small groups have been less an exciting. That might however be that I'm going into it with such high standards because of my past. It makes me love, appreciate and miss my real SG all the more :( love you guys!!!
- the flys and mosiquitos are starting to get really bad and annoying here.
- we finally got another mirror from Aida and it has been very helpful
- I have been really enjoying class. Ty is teaching on Leadership.
Well that's all i can think of for right now. Thaks for being patient :)

Jeans.

Today is the day i conquer the heat. It's an averagely warm day today but i have not fallen into the heat. I put on my jeans this morning for our first day of a new class. We where very happy together while listening to Ty wrap up some ideas about last week and start in on his topic of leadership. On any other day after class i would have taken off my jeans and put on shorts to go to lunch but today was a different day. I was not afraid of the sun today. I wore them to lunch, it got a little toasty on the way but it was pleasant. We enjoyed each other during lunch today as we ate with all the kids from the school. Usually i would be dying of heat after lunch cleanup but not today. We did all the kids dishes so Mike, Gabriellea and Paula helped me and Leydhi. Because Aida forgot about small group today and they were stressed about how all the kids booklets were wrong, all of us helped and it was fixed in a jiffy. During that jiffy however I was struggling with the temperature my jeans made me. That however was not going to scare me into not wearing them to dinner. Throughout the duration of dinner I felt the perfect temperature, perphaps even 98.6! The only thing left i have to do today is present my book report. I did a news article and all i have to do is read to everyone. I am positive that i will be joyful then too because it is usually cold in there :) so overall i have finally conquered the heat! Take that heat! Ha!

I am currently wearing my Kennedy sweatshirt (thanks Joseph), listeing to my iPod with my skull candy headphones, enjoying the taste of sports beans (thanks mom) and admiring some lovely pictures I got (thanks Brooke and Kenzie!!!!!) I'm very very happy with in my current state :)

My jeans say hi,
Kelsey Rae

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Today we went to the church that comes to our base. It was nice because it started at 11. It wasn't the greatest though that it lasted for 3 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was hot in there and I was tired and hungry but hey it was still good. There were way more kids than adults. Way more! Besides us there were like 6 adults. Cause I'm an adult!! :)
We had leftovers for lunch while watching some extraterrestrial show in Spanish (Estrella picked it out). We are all hoping we have a real dinner and not just chocolwpate milk with donuts like we did last time.

WAR!

Wohoo! Its the weekend! 3rd week almost done! It's crazy to think I've only been here for 3 weeks!! Alright so i will clue you in about thursday and friday, they were crazy days so i didn't get a chance to post.
Thursday: class was alright. . . Still trying hard to listen and pay attention. Lunch cleanup took a while and it would have taken forever if Lalo wouldn't have helped! Creative arts class was good and fun again. Before dinner we had our first 'family meeting'. It was very good and productive! We just talked about how things were going and it turns out that I'm not the only one who struggled with listening and not understanding the teacher. We had class at night and the other teahcer didn't even speak! She is a part of a house of prayer in Juarez and she brought the leader of the jhop who spoke to us. Her name is Beti and she is CRAZY! Haha there was no way we were going to sleep in class! She talked about spiritual warfare and praying and stuff. It was great information, she was just crazy! That class went long and then we watched a short film after class. It ws so late! I didn't really do anything but get out my glow sticks (thank you lottie and Emma :) and play around with them.
Friday: got up and had a short class for like 30 min. Then we went to war. We went downtown to the government building, the catholic centers, the local radio station and the Santa Muerte store and parred over everything. It was crazy! We spoke against the demons and called Satan out of all those places. It was a great experience, i learned a lot!!! Beti is crazy!
We then got back late for lunch and i walk into lunch and there were flowers for me for my birthday! I love you mom :). After we got done eating, they brought me my cake. It is a tradition in Mexico to cut the first piece and bite it. Well guess who got a face full of cake? Me. Haha I knew it was going to happen but they were chanting at me to bite it so i had to do it. While trying to get back at those who shoved the cake in my face, I bumped into the table that my flowers were on . . . Needless to say the are currently residing on a plate instead of in a vase. I didn't have to do lunch cleanup because Lalo did it for my birthday. Then i worked on homework til creative arts. Fridays are group work days and it was hard at first because Alex was being stubborn but once we got going we did well! Then dinner, we had ice cream at the end :). After dinner i got back to our apartment and it was all decorated for my birthday! There were balloons and streamers :) I made a balloon dinosaur and monkey using YouTube :). We had somewhat of a party in our apartment but not really. We watched the illusionist on Leydhi's computer on Elizabeth's bed. It was really hard to hear so we were all smushed together being really quiet. But it was a great birthday!!!
Thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!

Wednesdays

These hump days have been killing me already! For some reason I am just so tired on Wednesdays! Today was a good day though! The food was good (I'm getting more and more used to hot stuff) and creative arts was fun again :). We wear these gloves that we have to put over our faces and we have to smell flowers and the both smell so bad! Yuck. To clue you in on more of the story, the dad is a cheater and the mom drinks. I am nervous to see what marissa does with the gun in her pocket! The teaching has been so hard to follow, and I was trying to get over it by myself, but today we had a 'family meeting' and it turns our a lot of the family are struggling too. That was good to know and it was good to have Ty there to reassure us that it was ok to struggle wuththose things and give us some helpful tips. Today we had to look in the Bible for God's promises to Israel and at first I did not want anything to do with it because it was too confusing to me how she even got on the topic of Israel. Once I was doing it though I really liked it! I would encourage you all to try it (jer, ezk, and hosea are great places to start). Well like I said I'm super duper tired so I'm going to go :)
Bye!

Average

Today was just an average day. Not average as in good bad or average but as in just an everyday day. If that makes any sense. A normal day might be the better way to say it but average is the word that I believe describes it best. We had creative arts class today and it was actually fun! :) We started to learn a skit called la familia. So far it has been about a family who loves each other than begins to separate. We got to the part today were we all put on black gloves and Jesus was trying to get us not to. I am a daughter and Marissa is a son :)All I know is that she has to carry a gun around in her pocket so who knows where this skit is going! It's a good feeling to actually be excited for our creative arts class tomorrow!

If you guys could pray that i could find something in the message that Laurie has for us. It has been hard for me to relate and listen. It is almost that she presents in a way that is hard for me to follow. I want to pay attention and soak things in but it has been hard. The lesson in about the Voice of God and Intercession so i have heard a lot of talks about this, but i want to learn more.

If you could also pray for Ericks eye. His left eye has been red and bothering him for a while now. It itches and is very annoying. Also for Alex, who has been smoking sense he was 9 and he recently quit. He has been really craving smoking and i know he has been having a hard time sleeping at night (whether than is because of the addiction or just sleeplessness)

That would be great! I love you guys and hope you all have wonderful days tmw!

Understanding

Today God showed me how much He understands me.
He is so great and knows exactly what He is doing.
Nothing huge even happened today.
It was just a few small things that were great reminders.

Panda and Aunt Von, i appreciate the letters so much :) I loved both of them dearly as they are both unique and effective.

I want to let all of you know how appreciative I am. You guys keep letting me know you are reading, supporting and praying. It is so great to have you guys behind me. I cant say thank you enough! I love you all (especially you ;)

Only 10?

Today we were supposed to go into El Paso to grab the food shippment that was supposed to come in today. Thus, we got up to leave a 7:30. We were all in the van and Lea told us that we arr not going and that we could get out of the van. It turns out that the shipment wasn't in El Paso yet. We scheduled the whole day around this so the speaker isn't coming til later. We didn't have anything to do so we deep cleaned the multipurpose room and the chapel. We worked hard and then Ty told us that we were free til lunch. We got back to the apartment and it was only 10! so I have two hours of free time til lunch in which i believe I am going to try and do a little sleeping (maybe after i take a shower though because I am gross!). Because i had all this free time i decided to update you a little. Hope you guys have a great day!
Oh and say happy birthday to karys ellens, cause its her birthday!

Vida

Today, we went to the same church as last week. The worship was great again and there was a different preacher so it was better. The whole congregation was laughing almost the whole time and i was able to catch some of it and laugh with them. The rest of the day was chill and somewhat boring but it is so good to rest and relax.

In the last two nights we have watched she's the man and spiderman 3 in Spanish with English subtitles. It was funny for spiderman 3 but I didn't like it for she's the man because Amanda Bynes voice was lost. All her funny noises did not come through. :(

This is for you Jenny:
I didn't tell you guys this cause i think its gross and I didn't want you to think it is dirty here but here it is: i think i have/had bed bugs. I started getting these bites like two nights into the DTS. There kept getting more and more and itchier and itchier. I tried changing my sheets and that didnt help so yesterday I got new mattresses after I cleaned all my bedding and most of the clothes i had wore. So hopoefully this is over but you can for sure be praying that it is. I am sick of itching my legs.

So ive told you already how good the food is here, but it can be a tad but hot. It doesn't start hot but there are all kinds of sauces that you can on your food. I have become notorious for eating hot stuff without knowing its hot. Example 1: at the mall for lunch, I had a sample of something (no idea what it was) and it was HOT! Example 2: I saw some green stuff on the Table, I smelled it, didn't smell that hot, then i put some on my finger and placed it straight on my tounge. It was the hottest stuff we have at the base . . . Luckily I did not swallow it. Example 3: we had hot dogs one night and Marissa told me that the stuff on the table was ranch (she honestly thought it was and she herself dumped some on her hot dog) so I out some on my hot dog (I was putting a ton of crazy things on it already so why not ranch?) and it was really hot. Example 4: today at the mall for lunch I got enchiladas and I'm not sure what I put on them but they were making me sweat! Example 5: the pico de gallo here is not made with green peppers. It is made with jalapeños instead.

Fr you fans of August Burns Red, Dustin (the main bass player) has a brother, his name is Erick and he is pictured below. :) so i am directly linked to the band! I just think that is the coolest and funniest thing ever!

Whelp, i believe thats all for now folks!