… for You are who You are

Hakuna mungu kama wewe
Hakuna mungu kama wee
Hakuna mungu kama wewe
Hakuna na hatakuwepo

Nimetembea, Kote kote
Nimezunguka, Kote kote
Nimetafuta, Kote kote
Hakuna na hatakuwepo

There’s no one, there’s no one like Jesus
There’s no one, there’s no one like him
There’s no one, there’s no one like Jesus
There’s no one, there’s no one like him

I walked and walked all over, over
I turned and turned all over, over
I searched and searched all over, over

There’s no one, there’s no one like Him!

Today was the last day of Urbana and it was a GOOD one!

We finished off our last manuscript study.
We had a last powerful morning message.
I had lunch with AACF people.
I went to two seminars.
I visited the prayer journey room.
I visited the world vision display.
I visited the art room.

We worshipped the Lord with all our hearts -worshipped him into the new year :)

Today was our day of rest. Manuscripts started a half an hour later and there were no seminars for the day.

We had hoped to meet up with CEFC people for lunch, but there was a miscommunication and it fell through :(

We went to White Castle for lunch! What a fun experience. Almost all the customers today were asian… most likely from the west coast. We saw some of Elliot’s TCF friends there :)

After eating a whopping 6 sliders we headed back. On the way we found a nice plot of snow :) and in that snow we played for an hour. Freshly fallen snow is amazing! It’s softer than cotton (and colder).

Afterwards I just needed time for prayer and reflection… and sleep. After a little bit of prayer I found myself dozing off even with my eyes open so I decided to take a nap. After a half and hour I reluctantly dragged myself out because I had told myself to go finish looking at the booths today since it might be my last chance. It was a fun experience. Usually at places people tend to target me because I look friendly and the type of person who would say yes and because I smile at them as I pass by. I guess the same goes for missions conferences. I decidedly walked extremely slowly through the booths so that I could read the titles of all the booths. I guess they saw me slowly moving and looking at their signs and so almost every missions organization beckoned me over. Being the push over that I am, I went over and left with a handful of papers.

Interestingly OMF was the only organization that prayed for me :)

We finished off the day with our solidarity meal, which really wasn’t that bad, I’m sure hungry families have it MUCH worse. I did get to meet a girl named Stacie from North Carolina. She’s really cool. Both her parents are from Hong Kong as well and she’s a 3rd year Bio major.

In the meal we had a bread tortilla type thing and beans as well as 1 dixie cup of water.

We made commitments today to serve the Lord. I turned in my card :) On the bottom we were to write a person we would share our commitment with to keep us accountable. I wrote a name on there… but after we had our family time I may have decided on a different person. At the time I didn’t really think about who to put on that line since my commitments made were pretty easy, but now that I think about it… I think I have a better one in mind, but I think I need to pray on it a little.

Though I went through the day very sleepy and very… out of it, I feel like a lot has happened, but I’m not sure what.

The morning started off with another cold breakfast and manuscript study. They didn’t change rooms but instead cut the herd off and sent them else where. Something I did enjoy was that we sang a song, no instruments, just voices. It was a hymn and I loved it.

After the morning session we searched for lunch by the water. We found a small bar and burger kind of place. Unfortunately lunch went over time and most of us missed our first sessions :( but it’s ok. Instead I spent the time at the book store where they hold an enormous amount of overwhelming materials. I think I was a bit too overwhelmed and didn’t buy any books. Instead I bought a nice handmade notebook and an Urbana bag to support the women who are looking for trades after being rescued from sex trafficking. At first I wasn’t too sure about buying the bag because it’s a little pricey for me even though I was looking to buy a bag much like it. Something I thought about was from yesterday when Juanita talked about not just looking to save money but looking at where your money is going. I think that my $15 is going to a good place :)

Luckily dinner moved faster today both because of Urbana staff’s efficiency and also because many people decided to find dinner elsewhere to avoid the Urbana lines :)

Today we talked a lot about money and overall in Urbana we talk a lot about poverty.

After the Urbana day, we gathered once again for family time :) This is one of my favorite parts of the day. I have to admit I was really excited to come with these people from church because I want to hear from them what they’re thinking and what God is doing in their lives and I think it’s wonderful :D

Joyce is right. I’ve changed a lot over the last 2 years and in my opinion it’s a good change. Actually, I’ve changed a lot over the last 6 years, but most drastically in the last 2. I’m starting to see now what my mom meant. If you know my mom, she’s crazy – in a good way. She’s definitely an E and is always out there. She used to tell me though that she used to be really quiet when she was younger and she’s told me before how amazing it was that God changed her and decided to use a shy quiet girl to teach Sunday school, lead children’s ministries and become a great speaker. I remember distinctly how in 7th grade I met up with one of my elementary school friends and one of their first reactions to seeing me again was “WOW, you’ve become louder” haha. I also remember how people from church told me once that it took them a long time to even know I was there because I was always so quiet. Now I try my best to go out of the way to talk to people. I also remember how in freshman year I didn’t like eating with other people and would frequently take just me and my bible to the dining halls. Now I’ve taught Children’s Sunday school and for a while was the main teacher. Now I’m leading the skit team at my college fellowship. Now I invite people to share meals with me on a daily basis (and last year had breakfast with people everyday!). Where I once used to want to hide in the corner I now push my self out to shake a hand and meet a new person. Not that it’s easy, I don’t think it’ll ever be easy for me, but I can do it now. But I still wish I could be super hospitable. I wish I wasn’t so afraid to talk to people. I wish I trusted God more to give me the words to say.

Anyway, today my mind is everywhere. I think they made a good choice of making tomorrow the digestion day.

Today was our first full day of the conference filled with fun :)
The day started out great with me getting my actual nametag and becoming the right Audrey and Evan getting to register :)

Unfortunately the line at the registration made us slightly later for the line for breakfast (blue berry muffins, an apple, and yogurt). Luckily it didn’t make us too late as we still made it in time for morning manuscript reading. The room became so filled that 20 or more people were actually turned away because even the floor space was gone.

I was able to stay awake for the morning’s sermon thanks to my stash of Bon Bons and my desire to take notes :)

For lunch I decided to join the UCLA get together which ended up being larger than anyone expected. We crowded into a Subway, but they ran out of bread after a little. The remaining people went to Quiznos next door, but the store soon got filled to capacity. We checked out an Indian restaurant nearby and they had already ran out of food. Darn me and my passiveness. So us leftovers went to a small convenience store where I bought my first Chimichanga. Luckily Christina also got stuck buying a $3 sandwich. A few of us went to one of the hotels and sat inside comfy and warm and ate our food :) It was a fun blessing in disguise.

Then it was off to the seminars.
I was amazed when the architecture and Engineering seminar was filled beyond capacity. Unfortunately it was uninformative, stuffy, hot, and extremely uncomfortable :(
The next seminar I went to on Developing Christian Community (or something like that) was not full, but very good :) I’m glad I went! The speaker was engaging and interesting. She hit a lot of good points and even though they seem to be obvious, they were things that I never necessarily thought out into words and action.

After the seminars I had an hour to kill so I went down to the booths. I hit up the engineering group and I hope to apply for an internship for the summer. They have an information meeting later I hope to go to… though I wonder if it’s really worth my time. Perhaps I’ll just go and talk to the people at the booth and ask them more in-depth questions myself.

I also got to meet Erin, Katie’s friend from OMF. I like OMF people, so far they all seem very cool.

Then at around 6:20 I thought maybe I’d take a quick peek into the bookstore before lining up for dinner… to my surprise the dinner line had already started and had reached the exit to the booths so, I immediately was placed in line haha. The line took about an hour and I missed worship for the session :( but I did get to meet some interesting people. A girl named Sarah who is a zoology major from Ohio State and a guy named Drew who works for OM. I ended up sitting with him during the session. That was fun.

I like how we get to close the day off with our family group time and hearing about what everyone did and learned for the day :) I shall look forward to the next one tomorrow!

Happy New Year from St. Louis!

Until yesterday I didn’t know I got free wifi in the hotel :)

I typed up my journalings in my journaling area of my laptop, but I figured I’d share it here as well, so here you are, a copy and paste :)

So I guess I’ll share starting today, the first day of the year – my Urbana experience!

Sunday December 27

Today we arrived at St. Louis at about 10am in the morning :)

Unfortunately I barely got any sleep (but the money saved and the adventure earned taking the red eye was worth it!). I almost finished all of C.S. Lewis’ biography :)

It was amazing landing in St. Louis. The moment we dropped out from the clouds you could just see the ground covered in white and snowflakes beginning to fall on the windows of the plane! This was only my second time seeing snow and it was… it was just wow! Last time there were only a few small snowflakes but this time it was tremendous! You could easily see all the small intricacies of each flake :)

After landing, some Urbana helpers directed us towards the metrolink and the waiting shuttles. While walking down the platform looking for somewhere to squeeze in, to my surprise I heard my name being shouted. Aaaand who was there? Millie!!! :D I knew Joyce told me she was going with Millie… lo and behold, out popped Joyce and the twins :) what a great way to start the never ending day! So we rode on the metro with mah buddies and departed at the shuttles. I wouldn’t realize till later that our hotels were right next to each other and that we were supposed to take the same shuttle… but I’ll say this much, we got on the right one :)

Driving down the snowy streets, someone made a remark I found to be completely true. It looked just like the movies. People in coats walking briskly down the white streets around old looking buildings and an occasional open space. It really was surreal.

Our hotel is quite amazing :) the girls have a perfect view of the arch, I mean, really a perfect view. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the lighting right to take a good picture of it at night, but man is it gorgeous!

After checking in at the hotel, we decided to go check in at the conference center. Apparently there’s another Audrey Lee out there that lives in San Francisco cuz I’m fairly certain she accidentally took my name tag… because now I have hers. Looks like I have to return to get a new name tag tomorrow and fix the problem.

Next it was onto sight seeing and the arch!

Underneath that magnificent engineering feet lies a museum of some pretty interesting things :) we walked around looking for almost an hour before our ride up to the top of the arch and I still only got through a little less than 1/2 of the material. I woudn’t mind going back and finishing up the rest, it really was quite interesting. Going up the arch was stupendous! We squeezed 5 of us into a super tiny room thing. It sort of reminded me of those space escape pods like in starwars or something. Anyway, up and up and up we went! The view from the top was awesome :) According to the handout it only takes us 4 minutes to reach the top. According to the guard it takes 45 minutes if you take the stairs. Glad we didn’t have to do that!

Then we met up with Bonnie and Willie and went off to dinner. Unfortunately Evan fainted on the way to his first plane stop and was held up at the hospital in Chicago for the day :(

We went to eat at the only place in town that seemed to be opened; Zuzu’s Mexican restaurant. The food was good… but it took about an hour to get to us and the portions were small :( I don’t think they expected SO many people. It was obviously a family owned place and I felt kind of bad for them. Our waiters were 2 little boys between the ages of like 5 and 12, the guy taking our order was their teenage older brother, and our chefs were their parents. You could see how they would be backed up being one of the only restaurants open for 17,000 hungry college students!

Our first session was good. Unfortunately it wasn’t very memorable as I admit, I fell asleep… yuuup and that’s that!

Random funny happenstance:

A very nice guy named Tom approached us asking if we were here for Urbana. After hearing our reply he asked us … well almost stated more like a so you guys are staying at the international hotel?… We all gave him blank stares … so the international students typically house together…hahaha… international, it must be because we’re Asian.

Random sadstance:

I notice at conventions or times such as these I become very fustrated or dissapointed in the Christian community. Walking around you can obviously tell who is here for Urbana by their name tags. It really pains my heart when I over hear talk that isn’t quite as nice or not necessarily mean… but could have not been said or at least said in a softer way, and I know it’s coming of out a Christian’s mouth :(

I studied for a midterm for two hours and got an A+

I studied for a midterm for 6 hours and got an A

I studied for a midterm for 2 days and got a D+

What a bummer :(

When I was in Elementary school, I used to get a B on every history test I studied for and an A on every test I didn’t study for.
When I took the SAT the first time I didn’t study before hand to see how I would do. I studied up and took it again. My score dropped by 100 points.
This seems like an unusual trend…

and drag me headfirst fearless…

My freshman year of college I was so excited and afraid. I knew it was God who I was serving and I knew tangibly how I wanted to change.

It was freshman year of college when I realized that I was being selfish with my faith. I had been content for so long with having my relationship with God, and I didn’t think much about sharing it. I didn’t really talk about my faith with my friends at school, and I didn’t even talk much about my relationship with God to my friends at church… I guess it was a part of the whole “solitude makes you stronger”, “needing people is for the weak”, “I’m independent”. Then He slapped me in the face and told me I was wrong.

How could I not share this love for Christ? How could I be so selfish to keep it all to myself. How could I hate people so much that I didn’t want them to have a part of that overflowing love and peace? How could I not have seen that we were made to be relational beings for ourselves, and for the … well pretty much fellowship period exclamation point (I’m kinda tired right now and words seems to be running out of my brain and fusing with passing air molecules)?

Anyway, it was then that I realized I need to be outspoken! Christ isn’t another part of us that we can hide away when we feel like it. We ARE Christians, Christ is a part of who we ARE, we are the “new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of it’s creator”!

I like tangible goals. My goal freshman year was to always offer to pray. I love to pray (and I don’t like to use the word love that loosely).  I love to talk to God. Since about my junior year in High School I would pray all day. Any moment I had to my own thoughts, well… I guess they wouldn’t just be to my own thoughts, because God would be right there in the conversation. So why then would I be embarrassed to pray for dinner or pray to open the night, pray to close the night? FEAR OF MAN. Ooooh, that’s bad. So I decided to get rid of that fear. I prayed about it. He took my hand, I jumped in. I was fearless.

Whenever I reminice with a group of christian friends about some of our first impressions of each other, they always tell me how amazed they were that I was so ready to pray. There was a point when I went to visit one of them for their Birthday. We went to a Japanese restraunt with about 6 of his friends from High School. God tugged at my heart, this was it. This was the ultimate test of the quarter, you are a Christ follower no matter what the situation. I asked if I could pray for dinner. They let me. We all bowed our head for a little and I prayed. I prayed for dinner for 3 christians and 6 non-christians.

For some reason we seem to feel more comfortable praying for something if the number of Christians out numbers the number of non-christians… or if it’s close, that’s ok too. Why should that be? If we ARE Christians, I mean, if that’s really apart of who we ARE, shouldn’t we pray “even if we were the only one, who wants to [pray]” (from an Amy Grant song… except the word was fly instead of pray… same idea). A long while back I wrote a post (no longer here) about being the minority of one. Jesus did was was unpopular. Jesus hung on the cross alone. Just because no one else seems to think your right, it doesn’t make you any less right (unless you were actually wrong to begin with). If praying is the right thing to do, then DO IT.

After I was satisfied and I knew for myself that I had no fear in praying aloud, and the ultimate goal had been reached; I stopped offering so often. It’s not because I don’t want to, or that I’m afraid again, it’s because I want to give other people a chance. For that short while, I had so much joy and experience blessings from God each time I prayed aloud. Why steal that joy from others? Unfortunatley not as many others see it as a joy. I don’t know if it’s the right tactic, but I wait till the veeeery last moment to see if someone else will offer to pray, not because I don’t want to, but because I want them to find that part of their faith as well. I mean, I understand that some people are still afraid to pray aloud… it’s ok, their time will come (though I do encourage it to come sooner than later). I must say, sometimes I’m selfish and just announce that I’m going to pray without giving anyone else the chance to.

I guess this is why I hate it (not dislike with a passion, but actually hate as in it makes me fustratingly angry, as in the last time I heard someone do it, I felt the heat rising to my face and had to calm down… that doesn’t happen a lot to me) when people thank others for praying before they’ve actually prayed or offered to pray. What does that say about our love of God and our love to pray? It basically says it’s non-existant. It’s become a forced habit. If no one wants to pray for the people there, well then don’t do it. If you don’t love the people there and if  you don’t want God in your life enough to want to simply ask Him to be a part of your time, well then don’t ask Him. It’s just making you look Christian without being Christian.

For you have died and are hidden in Christ with God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory… He IS your life. You can’t hide who you are. So what does that say about you right now?

Are you empowered by God? Does His love make you fearless? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

There are so many things we can be afraid of, but God lets us hide in the shadows of His wings… unfortunately I’m usually still afraid. One day I’ll be able to say for sureity that He is enough. Right now, I want Him to be enough. But just as God in His perfect knowledge knows, I am sinful.

It’s always good to remind ourselves of the lessons God has taught us so we don’t back slide. About two weeks ago, I realized I was afraid to share the gospel to a group of people I knew were already Christians. I started back sliding. I need more friction under my feet.

Tonight’s message at AACF is about the necessity of prayer. The title is “Thirst”. The speaker is Rich Katakawa. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say. “THIS, IS THE BIBLE” :D

was stuck in my head all weekend. Today, Our Song is playing over and over. Not that it’s a bad thing, infact, they make me want to grab my guitar and play a tune… though it is kind of bad when you can’t because you have to finish over 5 pages of homework or sit through 6 more hours of class.

It’s funny how things come into your head sometimes. About half an hour ago I was set to come sit down and write a depressing blog post about my grandfather and what seems to be hopelesness in the world, but as Our Song was playing in my head, I decided to browse through my google reader and see if anything new had popped up. Oh lucky! Two of my favorite bloggers had updated not just once but twice since the last time I checked! (Too bad my 3rd favorite blogger didn’t post, I always look forward to those because they’re longer but less frequent)… but I digress (and I do know what this word means). Blah blah blah. Somehow it popped in my head again, just for a split second. I guess this is what comes from reading blogs about people’s walks with Christ mixed with the Taylor Swift soundtrack. 

Lots of worship songs, if not all worship songs are love songs. Obviously not all love songs are worship songs.

In our “Choose your own adventure” series in Genesis, I joined the small group talking about faith and the media. The question that was asked throughout that was never really answered was, can you think of something of the media that is not explicitly Christian that gives you insight into God (something along those lines)?

Aren’t we a lot like that jerk of a guy that Taylor had a crush on? We watch the music video the whole time thinking about how stupid that guy is and waiting for the happy ending to come when he realizes it. Obviously the girl singing the song is better for him and waaay prettier even if they try to hide it with glasses. I wonder if God ever sees us that way. He sees us going for the things the world tells us we should look for, the glamour. The high heels, short skirts, cheerleaders. When we look at God we seem to think He just isn’t as enticing; t-shirts, sneakers, out on the bleachers. We might think of Him as our best friend, that neighbor across the street we like to hangout with when no one else is around to take our attention, but nothing more than that. He hears us rant, sees us suffer as the world gives us false hopes and fake joys. They don’t get our story like He does.  

I think about those who are still searching for the narrow path or those who are aimlessly trudging on not knowing what they’re even looking for. Since about freshman year of High School I noticed that one of the first things I thought about when I saw people was “I wonder if they’re happy, I wonder if they know Christ”. Actually, I look at Christians and non-Christians alike everytime I see a dejected face, fustration, or just a lack of that peace and joy that is supposed to be our inheritance. Most Christians don’t look to God the way they look to the world – and there enlies our problem.

Oh I remember you driving to my house
in the middle of the night
I’m the one who makes you laugh
when you know you’re about to cry
I know your favorite songs
and you tell me about your dreams
I think I know where you belong.
I think I know it’s with me.

Can’t you see that I’m the one who understand you?
Been here all along so why can’t you see?
You belong with me

Standing by or waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know that, baby
You belong with me

Why can’t we all seem to have that happy ending and realize that it’s God that brings us the most joy.

I’m waiting for the day when we wake up and find that what we’ve been looking for has been here the whole time.

“Maybe it’s because, like I said, writing (or typing) makes me feel like I’m talking to myself, except that there’s an audience (that’s you) here while I have these conversations with myself.”
- Jason Iu

I like to write out my testimonies sometimes. Yes, that is plural, meaning that I have many testimonies of what God has done in my life and how he has molded me. Here is one I would call my testimony of learning to love.

Jesus is everything we know about Christianity. His whole life was devoted to teaching and building. Who was there to support or encourage Him? Did Jesus ever get burnt out? Why is it that many missionaries can last several years serving in an area where they are the only Christians or at least really only qualified leaders for years?

What causes Christians to get “burnt out”?

Getting burnt out from ministry has become a norm. If you serve a lot or for a long time, you’re almost expected to burn out. I was thinking about this a lot because of recent events and recent talks with friends with struggling churches or just friends at churches. I think getting burnt out is a result of sin. It’s become normal, but it really doesn’t have to be, especially here where we’re surrounded by brothers and sisters who love us and encourage us in our faith. So how would we not get burnt out?

Love God, Love His People, Walk in His Footsteps
Align your heart with God’s

I think a lot of times we either just try to love God and mess up on loving people or vice versa. They should theoretically go hand in hand, but for some reason… they don’t. I think it’s because we also forget to align our hearts with God’s. When I was younger, I knew I should care for people. Looking back, I know for sure it wasn’t a result of my love for God, but most likely a selfish desire for my own glory. I did it for that sense of “it makes me feel good”, “I like to see other people happy”. Not that wanting to see other people happy is a bad thing, but at this point it was purely so I would feel accomplished, I’d feel like I had done something. Obviously this type of mindset then requires said happy people to give you thanks, to appreciate you, to like you, and inevitable, to praise you. I didn’t used to think that way, but now I see that’s what it really boils down to, wanting praise. I was missing the “Love God” and I guess I was missing the true version of “Loving People”.

In 7th grade i was tired of life. I was tired of trying. I tried to make people happy, I tried to be the good girl, I tried to please my parents. It wasn’t working. It didn’t satisfy. What was the purpose of all this? Maybe I could be just as happy putting people down, releasing myself and doing bad sometimes, doing what I really wanted to do instead of hiding behind this mask of happiness and seemingly under appreciated care for others. I knew I was ugly inside. I knew that I just couldn’t do it any more (I have some fun stories of this time of me breaking down, but I’ll keep those for in person talks).

Then it happened. God humbled me through the cross.

Sitting down one Easter evening, reading the book of John, I realized God’s amazing unsurpassed love for us, for me. How was it possible? How could He possibly love like that? Looking at my own selfish, dirty, unrepentant heart, whey would God send His only begotten son? Why would Jesus go through such pain and humiliation to save this wretched sinner? While I found a dirty ugly soul, God found something more. I came broken and He healed me.

I wanted to do everything for Him. I wanted to love Him. I needed to live a life worthy of the gospel. I starting caring for people, doing acts of service because I knew God wanted me to and this felt like a way I could thank Him. “Do you love me? Then feed my sheep”. This is what empowered me for a little while. My love for God drove me. If this is what He wants, the I’ll do it! But it could only take me so far. When people get overly annoying, when it went against the very sinful fiber of my being, it just gets too hard. It takes so much. It drains so much energy.

Then I realized it. “Be complete just as your Father is complete”. Love your neighbor as yourself. This wasn’t about being nice to people, this was about loving other people. This was about aligning my heart wit God’s. Love what He loves, hate what He hates. When you love someone, you desire above all else to care for them, to give them your best, to give them joy. To love them would be to bring them closer to Christ. What else, who else, could ever give the peace and joy and purpose that Christ Jesus our Lord does?

Now, service isn’t just a thing I do to put on my spiritual resume, it isn’t something I’m obligated to do, it’s something I love to do. I yearn so much for everyone else to see and understand the God I worship. I want them to realize the life changing joy that comes from knowing Him. I want to see Jesus lifted high. I want to see Him glorified. I want to serve others in their spiritual needs!

We don’t get tired of doing what we love to do. Sleeping, eating, shopping ,video games, whatever it is that you love to do. The speaker at AACF last week talked about how it’s human nature to be passionate about something. What you’re passionate about, you don’t burn out from. If your passion is for God, if your love is for His people, you don’t burn out.

I don’t have a perfect love for God or for others. My heart is not completely aligned with His, but by His grace, I’m ever so slowly getting there.

My goal this year is to not get burnt out.

Hola mis amigos!

Ensenada – que chilo B)

Haha, that’s a slang some of my friends from Mexico taught me, it means it’s cool (though it sounds like mostly the teenagers use that one, that means I’m hip now)

Anyway, thank you once again for all your prayer and support for our team!
Praise the Lord that everything went safely and beyond our expectations as always!

I know I always seem to write these letters late, but it’s never too late to share blessings! I just wanted to share with you the fruits of your labors of love, how your support has allowed great things for God’s kingdom.

God is awesome and never ceases to amaze me! You’d think I’d be used to the routine, I’ve been there twice already. NOPE, God always has new things in store. In my last two trips to Ensenada, our team stayed with Pastor Martin and helped mainly at his church. This time, we stayed at Pastor Jose’s church, a church I’ve only visited for about an hour my first time down. To our surprise we were also teamed up with another group! It was a match made in heaven :) We were paired up with the youth group of a church in LA called Panorama. It was definitely a different experience, but a good one. The Panorama kids were amazing! Hard working, dedicated, and certainly a lively group.

Even though we stayed at Pastor Jose’s, we mainly worked out in Pastor Martin and Pastor Chava’s churches. We got a chance to lay down concrete in the dirt lot in front of the church at Pastor Martin’s and have a day of VBS with the kids at Pastor Chava’s again. What fun!

At Pastor Martin’s prayer service, we performed body worship to Son of God and sang for them Ante el Trono Celestial (Before the Throne of God). Then they performed for us! What a blessing! Some of their youth had the opportunity to go to a youth camp of some kind and so shared a body worship with us. Earlier, Pastor Martin shared with us the history of the church and told us about how our group has been serving them 6 out of their 8 years. The super special part of watching their youth perform body worship was that AACF LA had taught them that very body worship about 3 years ago! Of course I wasn’t there, but it was a blessing anyway. It’s amazing to see what God has done through our group and the strong bond we really have with their church. I had heard that we had built a relationship with them, but I guess I never realized how strong that relationship was. Now I understand why they made that nice poster for us last year.

At Pastor Chava’s I took a look at the field we weeded during the spring. Not only was the field still cleared, but a small house had been built where impossible weeds once stood! It’s really cool to see how God has been using the churches and seeing the little things we made a difference in. It was also really nice to see the family and the kids again and get to play with them. We were also blessed to get to pray for them. I noticed this time around I really feel like the people in Ensenada are family. I come back thinking of them and praying for them. It’s a funny feeling since I also know that at most I’ll only see them twice a year, but yet I love them so much :)

Once again we had the privilege of  getting to cook for our family, though this time it was basically for the pastors. I didn’t know this, but Dave brought it to my attention that really, even though Pastor Martin, Jose, and Chava are friends, they never really come together except when we’re here. It was not only a special time for us to get to see them, but also for them to see each other. There was so much joy in the room.

Once again we sang Happy Birthday to Kaycee (I noticed that their birthday songs are a lot happier than ours), served almond jello, and had a great time of fellowship.

Last time I talked about how God was teaching me to be a Mary, building relationships with people and spending time with them. This time, God forced me to be a Mary and I’m very thankful He did. After our first day of construction, my shoes rubbed against two mosquito bites on my ankles. If you don’t know me that well, you wouldn’t know that I’m allergic to mosquito bites. Usually it’s not that bad… but when you scratch them… especially if you scratch them all day in the hot sun… well, let me tell you, amazing things happen. Anyway, my ankle became extremely inflamed and grew lovely blisters forcing me to wear sandals and limp so that I couldn’t help with construction. Instead God had me spend time with people. My spanish still isn’t very good, but just getting to sit with people has really showed me a lot. I was especially encouraged by Pastor Jose’s son Samuel. He is ever so bold with his English even though he’s never taken a class. It was a real joy to get to talk to him as well as his younger cousins and his mother (she’s super funny and the one who taught me my slang).

God gave me so much peace and joy during that week. For those of you who don’t know, my great aunt just passed away the Saturday of my return from Ensenada. I went to join the team on Sunday night after saying my last good byes to her. She had a stroke the Saturday before we left and was in the hospital, unconscious. She was like a second Grandmother to me, always at the family get togethers, always asking how I was doing, always giving a hug and a smile :) It was hard to leave her in that condition and go off to Ensenada, but God gave me great joy. It was because of this that I realized how much fellowship, Ensenada, and serving the Lord means to me and I got another small taste of his overflowing love. When I left, she was sound asleep in the hospital, very comfortable; if she had been consious, I wouldn’t have wanted to go to Ensenada. I was feeling pretty down as our family drove to meet up with the rest of the team, but the moment I saw them all, I just felt a weight lift from my shoulders. When I saw my family in Ensenada, all my depression just washed away. How great it is that He didn’t leave me to wallow in my tears, but instead blessed me with the chance to be encouraged and loved by my wonderful family in Christ. I also learned that week that Hermana Nena’s father had cancer and that this was pretty much it, they couldn’t do any more for him. I was able pray for them and really understand what they were going through. He reminded me I’m not the only one. I hope their family felt just as encouraged to see us as I was to see them. Ensenada to me is a reminder of our need for fellowship, family, and encouragement in our faith. I used to think I could do everything alone. Now I know I shouldn’t.

I found soooo many blessings during the week. Blessings in everthing! Meeting the Panorama kids, keeping us all safe, letting us see our old friends and meeting a lot of new ones… there’s just so many! God really is great and it’s such a joy to serve him. Our theme verse for this trip was Isaiah 66:1-2. It talks about well… just how WOW God really is. The earth is His footstool. The earth is His footstool! Many times I feel like people go on missions or serve the Lord out of some type of idea that we really make an impact, like God really needs us or something. Like being a Martha, we need to do stuff for other people. But in reality, Missions truly is the overflow of our passion to see our almighty God glorified throughout the earth (or at least it should be). The goal is to see others glorify God and to lift up his name. I hope I can build a humble and contrite spirit, one that really trembles at His word and has a passion to see Him glorified :)

Now I just have to bring it all back and continue to remember and live it all out, or else God will somehow push me into it again. I’d prefer not to have gigantic bug bites on my ankles again, but I guess if that’s what it takes, its ok with me :T

:D Thanks again for all your prayer and support! And remember to stay in His word!
“And so what we have learned applies to our lives today and God has a lot to say in His book!”

Your sister in Christ,
Audrey :D

Isaiah 66:1-2

¹ This is what the LORD says:

“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me?
Where will my resting place be?² Has not my hand made all these things,
and so they came into being?”
declares the LORD.
“This is the one I esteem:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit,
and trembles at my word.