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.