Destiny and our dreams

This last week’s teaching was on Destiny by Design. Everyone has dreams and so many times we have forgotten what those are or we feel so discouraged that we give up on our dreams. I was reminded that the dreams that we have are so many times God-given dreams, dreams that God has put in our hearts. God has created us to know His purpose for our lives because He has created us all so unique. He has created us with a special, unique purpose…Jeremiah 1:5 says “Before you were formed I knew you.” It is as if we are a unique puzzle piece in the puzzle called LIFE and we bring a completion to the puzzle that only we can fill. If we try and become somone else or make someone else’s dreams ours, then we will not fit into the puzzle. Our dreams are clues to our God-given purpose in our lives. Many times what we enjoyed doing in our childhood (games, toys, etc.) is a clue to what we are called to do. There are so many detours to our dreams: one that really drew my attention was that we don’t recognize the dream that God has given us or we don’t think our dreams are from God so we don’t pursue them. We can’t let people or groups discourage or control those dreams.

God uses every experience we have had: both good and bad. We were asked to idenify those experiences that “gave us life”in the past. Many times these experiences help us to understand key patterns to our design. Our character is so important through this process as well, which is developed through our experiences both good and bad. We were asked to identify character issues in our lives that are hindering our dreams: pride, unbelief, laziness, unforgiveness, or fear. I realized that fear rules my life many times and it has hindered my dreams from becoming reality (this can be fear of the present which becomes anxiety and fear of the future which is worry). Fear hinders and limits faith. One lesson I have learned is that when fear grips me, I have to ask what area of God’s character do I not trust and have faith in and ask God to renew my understanding of that area of His character.

We also learned about the process of pruning and times of testing, how God uses times of testing to reveal what is in our hearts. Deuteronomy 8:2 says that God allowed the testing of the Israelites to find out if they were depending on Him or in themselves.

Everyone has a soul print, which is a tendency towards personality traits. Our personality is perfectly designed for the “calling” that God has upon our lives. We took many tests to determine some characteristics of our personality. As I am sure most of you know, I am an outward person (extrovert), big picture person (see the big picture, but not the steps to get there), make decisions with my heart (based on feelings verses facts) and spontaneous decision making (dislike deadlines, postpone decision making, like to go with the flow). This really helped me to understand things about me: such as outward people need to discuss outloud in order to process things. This entire DTS there has been great information (so much of it), but I have a hard time processing it byself..it realy helps me to process as I talk about it. It also explains why I procrastinate and why I work better under pressure (spontaneous personality).

The final area that really spoke to me was my identity in Christ. We have to realice who God says that we are, not just who people say we are. We are not identified by what we do, but who we are! God really needs to tell us who we are so that we don’t listen to others’ idea of who we are. In class we prayed and asked to reveal to us who we are and God showed me that I am His daughter, the daughter of the King, a Princess (royalty). I have the authority that my Father God has. I also have access to go see the King as His daughter and come boldly to His throne (Hebrews 4:16). I would challenge those reading this: ask God to give you His identity for you. Ask Him to reveal to you who He says that you are and He will do this!

Well, we are on the last week of teaching now…our topic this week is Leadership and Communication. We found out this week we are supposed to be leaving probably April 14th for our NIKO (this is an intense 4 day training), then we leave for our outreach phase which will be split between Monteverde (rainforest area of Costa Rica) and Puerto Viejo (the Caribbean side of Costa Rica). Please pray for our team as we are preparing for the next week and half before we leave with dramas and children’s ministry. Please pray specifically for unity and love amongst ourselves and for boldness as we share what God is doing in our lives. Thank you all for your love and encouragement! J

Our Nicaragua trip

The last two weeks my group went to Nicaragua for a mini-outreach before our major outreach. The first week we went to Diriamba, which is a small town about 1 hour from Managua. We stayed at another YWAM base which was a little more difficult than the base we are used to here in San Jose. In Diriamba they don’t have running water (the water comes on usually once a day for about 15 minutes to 1 hour at a different time everyday). We also had to take on job duties for the week there (mine was washing breakfast dishes without running water!). We were so reminded of how simple life can be and how grateful we are for every little blessing we have in our lives (running water, showers, washing machines, flushing toilets, etc.). We also had classes everyday taught by people at the Nicaragua base on the theme of knowing God through the Bible. We were able to meet so many great people at the Nicaragua base, fellow students but also staff members who really blessed us.

We also got very close to our own team because we were forced to stay in a small area all week together! The Diriamba base is located in a small community which has a lot of poverty and violence so we were not able to leave the base very much. The base has an elementary school in the campus where they have volunteer YWAM teachers for preschool to 6th grade. On our last day at the base, we helped out with a weekly outreach that they do for the community. Children come and sing songs, see a drama and get a teaching from the Bible and the women go into another room for a teaching themselves. It was such a blessing to see how excited the children were to be there and hear the teachings. Once the gate opened up, the children ran to come and sit down and hear. This community is being touched by this base in such an amazing way…most of the children are growing up in homes with violence, abuse and poverty, but are experiencing hope through this base and the community programs.

The second week we worked with Campus Crusade with the university in Managua. The university has about 30,000 students attending. We stayed at one of the leaders of Campus Crusade’s home in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Every day we went to the university in the morning and walked around the campus and simply talked with the students there and got to know them and share with them what God is doing in our lives. At the end of the week, we invited all the students to a meeting for Campus Crusade. We had about 75 students attend and we did some dramas and gave some testimonies, then a pastor shared more about Christ. Even though we were there only one week I feel like we made some great friendships with some students and staff there in Nicaragua.

At the end of the week were also able to go to a hospital and visit the kids in the cancer wing. We came and played games with them and did a couple dramas for them. That was such a blessing…the kids loved the dramas so much that they asked us to do more! It was really hard being with these kids who were so obviously sick, but it was worth it as one of the fathers came up to us as we were leaving and thanked us for coming to play, love, and give hope to his child.
One of the most touching experiences for me was going to La Chureca, which is a garbage dump where people live. We went to pray for the people there and take a tour of it. It was very difficult to see the way people live in the midst of trash and homes made of trash taped together. The smell was so overwhelming—there was a mixture of smoke as the trash was being burned along with the miles of trash that was all around us. God was really speaking to so many of us there. As we walked for miles through trash, Daniel (the leader of the ministry there) was sharing with us how so many of us are caught up in materialism and yet all that we own eventually ends up at a dump too. I was reminded that the Lord wants us to focus on what matters in this world. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 says that we need to be careful in what we are building because on the day of Lord our work will be tested and we will receive reward based on the eternal value of what we are building. I don’t want my life to be one that is used for only gaining material wealth which will fade, but I want it to be one that has worth in the spiritual realm. We walked to one spot that overlooked Lake Managua which had been polluted by the garbage dump, yet still looked beautiful. As you looked across the lake, you could see a beautiful mountaineous area of land. At one point I looked behind me at the mounting trash which seemed so high and then looked across at the lake and land that was so clean and beautiful. It was then the Lord reminded me that so many times I stay in a place of “trash” in my own life and keep looking back instead of looking forward to where God wants to take me, the place of restoration and peace. So many times we get stuck in this place and don’t move forward, but I encourage you to keep going to your “Promised Land”, the place where God has called you to go, the place of purpose in yoru life. Don’t look back but walk forward in faith…Philippians 3:13-14 “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”