Outreach is over!

I can’t believe it but outreach is over and so is graduation! Our students are now going home and it is a very strange feeling. I am in the middle of a transition at this point: saying goodbye to this DTS and preparing for the next DTS in January. I apologize that I wasn’t able to update this blog much on outreach, but Internet access and time was difficult to come by! From Guanacaste with Bible distribution, we went to Tegucigalpa, Honduras and spent two weeks in a church there. We did so many ministries there, it was a great time! The ministries there ranged from ministering to the homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes, children’s ministry, youth ministry, school assemblies, and church services. One of my favorite experiences I shared in the last blog in which we worked at a local Christian highschool and had a chance to have small groups there with the students. One amazing thing from Honduras was one night our students went downtown to minister to the addicts living on the streets of Tegucigalpa. They encountered a teenager named Glenn who was 14 years old, living on the streets to support his drug addiction. The team prayed for him and he was delivered of drug addiction that very night. He came back to the church with our group and for the next 3 days that we were there, he came with us to do ministry. It was so incredible to see the change in this guy’s life! He is now off of the streets and sober and free of drug addiction…already sharing his testimony with others!

From Honduras, we took a bus to San Salvador, El Salvador and did some church ministry there. However, part of our goal of going to El Salvador was to take some time for our team to reconnect and debrief this whole outreach. We ended up staying in Sonsonate for 5 days and doing a highschool assembly, Bible studies, and spoke at the Wednesday church service. One of the most special things that happened in El Salvador was that 2 of the girls from our DTS (Laura and Veronica) were from this town that we stayed in and we were able to meet thier families. One of the girls’ parents (Laura) are not Christians and didn’t really understand what their daughter was doing with Christianity or YWAM. We were able to spend quite a bit of time with her family there and she was able to share her testimony with her parents and in front of the church there. This made such an impact on her parents that we know seeds were definitely planted in her parents. We were able to pray for her mom at the end and her mom cried and expressed to us how thankful with the change in Laura that she now is so supportive of whatever she wants to do in ministry!

After 5 eventful days in El Salvador, we left for Antigua, Guatemala where another student (Debbie) from our DTS is from. Debbie’s parents are directors of an orphanage there and her mom is a missionary and her dad is a pastor, however, Debbie was not living her life for Christ before she came to DTS. Coming to the DTS with YWAM was her last attempt to see if God is real. She shared with our group that the night before she came to DTS she hit such a low point that she wanted to kill herself, but she told God that she would come to DTS and if her life changed ok, but if not, she would kill herself when she got home. The DTS transformed her so much that it was so awesome be able to come home with her and watch her parents and family witness her transformation. We were able to have a Thanksgiving feast with her parents’ orphanage in Guatemala City to celebrate what God has done this last year in the lives of the orphanage and we were also able to celebrate what God has done in all of our students’ lives.

After Guatemala, we took another bus back to El Salvador and we were blessed to stay in a beach house for 2 days so that our team could debrief our whole outreach. This proved to be such an incredible time for our group-they really united as a team and were able to process what God had done over the last 2 months in 6 countries (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador). I realized that I hadn’t had much time to really process myself what God was teaching me during the last 2 months. Being a leader of a group of 14 students definitely has its challenges, but I have also realized that I love it! God is definitely challenging me to step up more as a leader and be bold…not to be afraid of what people think, but focus more on what God thinks. I also realized my absolute need and dependence on God during this time. So many times we can rely on what we know or the talents/gifts that we have and not call upon the Holy Spirit for help. I saw the results of what would happen when I would rely on myself to fix situations (we had MANY situations!), and it never ended well. As a leader and a Christian it is so imperative that we have our quiet times alone with God every day so that we can hear Him daily and receive our strength for the day to face whatever we encounter. One scripture that God constantly reminded me of during this DTS was James “Be slow to speak, be quick to listen.” I wanted my words to matter so much and not just be empty to the person who needs advice and it was so hard because many times I had to literally hold my tongue and listen until I heard from the Lord what to say. This has not been an easy lesson for me to learn especially because I love to talk! One of the best compliments I have received during the DTS was that I am a great listener and that I always have great advice! This was great confirmation for me that I am growing in this area, thank you God!

This outreach has been so transformational in all 14 students’ lives and in my life as a leader! I am sad to say goodbye to all of the students, but I know that they are moving on to incredible things! I am going to be finsihing up logistical things here in San Jose and then I will be going to Denver, CO on December 9th to visit my family for Christmas. I will be returning to Costa Rica on December 30th to start preparing for the next DTS which will start on January 7th, where I will serve as a leader again. Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers over these last 6 months. It has been such a wild, amazing journey for me and I am excited to start it over again in January!

still in Honduras

Dear Friends,

Thanks so much for your continued prayers for our team! We have had such an incredible time here in Honduras...we are on our last days here. We are leaving this Saturday or Sunday for El Salvador where we will spend 5 days ministering in Sonsonate and then we will leave for Antigua, Guatemala and will be staying at one of the girls from our DTS´s house. Then we will be heading back to El Salvador to debrief at the beach for a couple days and will be returning to San Jose, Costa Rica on the 25th of November in time for Thanksgiving!

Honduras has been a truly amazing time! So much to say and not much time unfortunately. We have done many ministries, working in schools, just went to the dump today and did children´s ministry, youth ministry, working with drug addicts and prostitutes on the street, etc. My favorite experience to share with you has been working at a local Christian school in Tegucigalpa. We were able to go into the school with the older high'school aged kids and share with them. They were so open to what we had to say that they invited us back and so a couple days ago we went back. They asked us to speak on topics that affect the kids and I spoke on depression-suicide. I had a small group of 9 girls and as they shared their stories with me my heart broke for these girls. They have such hard lives at home and have experienced so much hurt. It was so great though because I was able to share from my experience how God helped me through hard times of depression and that He will never leave you or foresake you. I was able to also pray for them and now have them all on Facebook to encourage and pray for them!

Last night our team went and did homeless ministry also. We saw many miracles...3 salvations and we had one guy delivered from drug addiction and demonic torment. It was amazing and our group is in awe of what God is doing here!

I wish I could write more right now, but we have very limited time at the Internet cafe. Every moment we have here is doing ministry which is great, but also very tiring. Please pray for our team that we finish well and also rest well.

Miss all of you! God bless you,
Kim

outreach update from Nicoya

Wow, so much to share from this amazing week in Nicoya, part of Guanacaste in Costa Rica. The stories of God´s goodness start before we even left San Jose! There are so many testimonies, but of course at the same time we experienced some intense opposition from the enemy! We got back to the San Jose base for 2 days before we left for Nicoya and during that time we had planned to do 2 ministries: one at the homeless shelter in San Jose and the other with a children´s ministry group called Metro Ministries. I was supposed to go with Metro Ministries along with one of the other leaders (Morgan) and the other leader Elena was supposed to go with the homeless ministry. However, 2 hours before the homeless ministry group was supposed to leave 4 of our teammates got extremely sick, including Elena, the leader who was supposed to go with the homeless group. I ended up trying to take care of all the sick people and then had to go with the homeless ministry group as the leader. I wasn´t really ready and felt really overwhelmed, but I went with the group. It was such an incredible time! We sang some worship songs, help feed them dinner and then one of the girls shared her testimony with the homeless people staying at the shelter. At the end we asked if anyone wanted prayer and about 30 people came up to be prayed for! As we prayed over people, 6 people ended up commiting thier lives to Christ! This was so unexpected and such an encouragement to me especially as I didn´t want to go in the first place, but God had such an awesome plan for us to be there.

The next day we left for Nicoya, which is about 4 hours north of San Jose in Costa Rica. The base in Nicoya is in the middle of nowhere, about 30 minutes from any town. It was a great time to experience God in His creation and enjoy nature. Every day we went to different homes to give out Bibles with the YWAM base in Nicoya. They have an incredible mission that they feel God has called them to do; give a Bible to every home in the province of Guanacaste which is about 10,000 homes. During the week we were there we passed out over 300 Bibles to homes in Guanacaste and saw God´s hand on this ministry! We were able to lead over 10 different people to Christ and see Him deliver many people from drug addiction, suicide, and alcoholism. One story of many that I would like to share with you is a family who we went to their door. The husband-father of the home was outside smoking a ciggarette and we greeted him and let him know that we had a Bible that we wanted to give him. He graciously accepted the Bible and then we asked him if we could pray for him and his family for anything. He then invited us into his house and said yes and that he would like us to talk with his family. We started sharing stories from the Bible with him since he shared with us that he nor anyone in his home could read, but that they love hearing Bible stories. After a great time sharing stories we asked him about his relationship with Christ and he said he didn´t have one, but he would like one. We were able to pray for him, his wife, his son, and his brother in law to accept Christ all together. It was so beautiful to see a whole family come to Christ! It reminded me of the Philippian jailer in Acts 16 who heard the message of faith and immediately went home and shared with his whole family and they were all saved. As we finished praying for the family the sister of the man of the home came in and we shared with her what we were doing. She started crying as she shared about her story. she is a Christian and has been praying for her husband to be saved and go to church with her and he just prayed to accept Christ with us. She also shared how she had struggled with suicide and just the day before had attempted suicide but couldn´t do it. We knew we had to pray for her to be delivered of this so we did and she was freed from it! God has shown Himself so faithful to us!

There are so many more stories to share, but not enough time! Just a little update: the sick people are all healed now, thank God! Two of them had to go to the hospital and one had a kidney infection and the other had parasites and they are doing better. We have had quite a bit more opposition other than sickness and so I ask for your prayers for our team´s health, but also that we would be able to stand against the schemes of the enemy. God has a mighty call and purpose for our team and so I pray that we would continue on with what God has called us to do. We are leaving Liberia, Costa Rica tomorrow morning and will be in Honduras tomorrow night. We will be in Honduras for 2 weeks and then El Salvador for one week and will be back in San Jose in time for Thanksgiving (Nov. 25).

Thanks so much for your prayers for our team! I hope you have been encouraged like us in what God is doing here in Costa Rica! God bless you.

2 weeks into outreach!

Things are off to a running start in our outreach! We completed our NIKO which was the bootcamp for missions and finished our week and a half in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Bocas was definitely a beautiful place to be! We stayed in a hostel there in Bocas (I had to share a room with 11 girls!), but it was on the water which was gorgeous. We had a great time in Panama and God really moved! We asked the students to pray and ask God to lead them to ministries around the city of Bocas and they did. We ended up working at a nursing home in the city which I mentioned in my last e-mail. Then we picked up trash in the city and made such an impact that the local news station saw us doing it and asked to interview us about what we were doing there so we were on the local news the second day we were there!

The next couple of days we worked in a really poor community which ended up being made up of indigenous people in Panama, which speak a dialect other than Spanish. The community was flooded and had trash everywhere and was so sad and hopeless. It was so cool because I prayed that God would use us to start the community cleaning up after themselves and see that they can make the difference. I walked away for 10 minutes to pick up some cleaning supplies and when I came back, a group of men were cleaning alongside our group and it was so incredible to see God answer so quickly!

For the next couple of days we spent time cleaning up the local park and painting murals on the benches. One of our students met the mayor of the town and he asked us to help them out which was amazing too. Then we spent time again at the nursing home and painted a mural in the rooms of the nursing home patients.

Some of the other things we did was work at a local hospital and pray with the patients of this hospital. We also were able to go into the town and talk with the people who live there and pray with them. We then did some children's ministry in the city and went to a local church. We had a great time with the people and made so many friends there in the town who we were able to minister to. Many nights we would invite people to dinner with us and most nights we had new guests who would join us and hear about why we were there in Bocas. We had many divine appointments in Panama and are so excited to see what else God has in store for us for the rest of our outreach.

I got back from Panama last night and we are leaving again tomorrow morning for Nicoya, a small town in Costa Rica where we will be distributing Bibles to homes. We will be in Nicoya until October 30th and then we will head to Tamarindo, a beach community and then to Honduras on October 31st. Please keep our team in prayer as we prepare to go. We are excited, but very tired and haven't had much time to rest yet. I really appreciate all of your prayers and encouragement on our outreach. It has been definitely a stretching experience for me as a leader. God is teaching me so much about leadership and myself and where I need to step up as a leader. It is stretching, but good and necessary! Praying for all of you and missing you! God bless!

update from Panama!

Hello my dear friends and family! I want to apologize first for not writing to you sooner. We have been incredibly busy since the last time I wrote to you and have had no availability to Internet. The last week of teaching ended about 2 weeks ago which I heard went well. The other 2 leaders and I had to leave early for NIKO training (the bootcamp for missions). We trained for 5 days without the students and finally they joined us in Talamanca-Bambu. The students then started the NIKO camp in the jungle which lasts for 4 1-2 days where we lead them through various stretching activities (the activities of the camp are not allowed to be told to anyone unless they have completed a NIKO, so I am sorry for not telling more). The experience of NIKO was a challenging one for me as a leader, but a very good experience of growth and leadership. I was reminded that the best leaders lead through influence rather than power.

We finished NIKO on October 8th and went to Puerto Viejo for a couple of days to do some ministry. Puerto Viejo is a little town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. It is mostly a party town where tourists go to get away for a couple of days. This town was hard for many of us as there are a lot of drugs and alcohol and a very hopeless spirit over the city. We visited a youth group on our first night being there and then did a prayer walk along the beach and prayed for the city. The next day we went to church and then the students started initiating their own ministries and they went into the streets and just started sharing with people their stories of what Christ has done in their lives. It was an awesome time of seeing God move in the streets. Our last night in Puerto Viejo I went with 2 students to visit a pizza owner and one of his co-workers. We started by asking him if he would like prayer for anything and he was very open to us and started sharing his story with us. He had been living in Puerto Viejo for 4 years now (originally from San Jose) and the last 2 years for him have been really hard. He has been robbed a couple times and his building almost burned down from some local teenagers. He has been really discouraged and so we were able to come and encourage him to keep going and that God has a plan for him. He was so encouraged when we left, it was awesome!

This last Monday (Oct. 11th) we started our travels to Panama. We ended up in a little island in Bocas del Toro (about 2 hours from the border of Costa Rica). Bocas del Toro is definitely a beautiful place and has been a place of openness to ministry. We started our ministry on Tuesday which was a prayer walk through the city to discover God´s heart for this place. Then we asked the students to pray about the week we are here and each student is responsible to lead a day of ministry in whatever area God is leading them. The first day of ministry was picking up trash in the community. The island is a fairly small and so when the white people started picking up trash it drew a lot of attention to us. The local news saw us doing this and started filming us. They interviewed a couple of our students and asked them what we were doing and why. One of the areas we went to was a very poor neighborhood which was somewhat flooded because of the tides here and the rain. There was so much trash and we just kept cleaning. Many of the locals came up to us and thanked us or started picking up their own trash and giving it to us. It was really a great start to the ministry here. After that, the news asked us to go to the station and get interviewed live for the evening news. They played footage of us helping the elderly and of us picking up trash and just asked us why we were here in Bocas. God is so good...He is allowing us so many open doors through the exposure they are giving us to this community!

Then the next day we went to a nursing home where the conditions are not very livable. We went to bring some joy and hope to the elderly here who have been mostly forgotten. We came and did a little program including singing songs and prepared some dramas, but mostly just talked with them and listened to their stories. While we were there we noticed that their room where they all slept (1 room for all the women, and 1 room for all the men) was very boring. The walls were blank and it was very sad, so we asked if we could come in and paint the walls for it to be a happier place and they said they would love it. So the next day we went and painted the walls of the bedrooms with Bible verse and colorful pictures. They absolutely loved the paintings and were so happy with how it looked when we were done.

We still have almost a week left in Bocas and are still praying about what other opportunities God has for us here. Please pray for us as we continue our time in Bocas...that we may reach the people here in Bocas with a message of hope and the love of Christ. Also, as we have been ministering the enemy is not happy with us. We have had some disunity and negativity in our group and that has made ministry very hard, but we remember that we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities...(Ephesians 6) Please pray with us as we fight this battle! Thank you so much for your support over this time and I will update very soon with pictures. There are some ministry pictures already up on my Facebook if you would like to see them. God bless you all and much love to you from Panama!

week #11...one more week until outreach!

This week was our second to last week of teaching in the DTS and our topic was relationships. One thing we were challenged with this week was asking ourselves what kind of qualities we want in a relationship. Then the question was turned onto us…are we the type of person that we are asking others to be? One of the biggest relationship killers is selfishness. Selfishness is the root of almost everything that will kill a relationship (criticalness, demanding, manipulating, greed, jealousy, lack of forgiveness, impatience, etc.). I realized that many times I have some expectations of others, but I don’t necessarily follow those myself. I want to be a better friend. I want to really live out the scripture Matthew 22:37-39 which says “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second command is to love your neighbor as yourself.” This whole scritpure is a challenge to do, but to love your neighbor (friend, family member, anyone really) as you love yourself can be such a challenge. It is easy to love those who are easy to love, but the Bible says our responsibility as Christians is to love those who are uneasy to love (Luke 6:32). I want to be a person who truly puts others before myself. This is what Christ desired for us…is to have friendships and relationships with others where the other person is treated with respect and love that is not demanding anything in return, just a pure love. This love is afterall not a feeling, but it is a choice that we make and demands action from us. My prayer is that God would grow my love for others and really help me to live that out in my everyday life, not only with my friends and family, but with strangers who God places in my path as well.

This next week is our last week of teaching in the DTS and our topic is Destiny by Design, which talks about the dreams and purposes that God gives us and how to follow those out. After our lecture phase, we will officially begin our outreach phase which will include Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador. The 2 other leaders and myself will be leaving in 2 days (this Wednesday morning) for Talamanca, Costa Rica (Caribbean coast) to do our NIKO training. NIKO, is a 4-day missions boot camp type of training that the students will be doing starting this next week (Monday, Oct. 4th). We as the leaders have to go down early for training and our students will be meeting us by bus on Saturday. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that I have to do before Wednesday, but I am very excited for all that is coming up! After NIKO (which ends on Friday, October 8th), we will be leaving straight for Puerto Viejo and then Panama where we will stay until October 20th. Hopefully in Puerto Viejo I can update you on what God did on our NIKO, but after that we may have limited access to Internet in Panama where hopefully we will be working with some Indigenous people near Bocas Del Torro. Please keep praying for our outreach as we get ready to go. We truly want God to prepare our hearts and the hearts of the people who we will be reaching out to. God has been so faithful to provide for all of our students who needed money for Panama ($650 each), but we still have 3 students who are missing part of their money for the second part of our outreach (Honduras/El Salvador)-$700. Please pray with us that God will provide for these 3 students.

This last weekend I had to go with one of my students to Nicaragua. Here in Costa Rica all Central Americans (with the exception of Mexicans) have to renew their visas every 30 days and this student is from El Salvador and so we had to leave the country for at least 2 days to renew her visa. We went to San Juan del Sur, which is the border town on the beach. We stayed in a nice hostel and enjoyed resting and relaxing on the beach. This was a much needed restful weekend and I am so greatful for this time that I had before our outreach and NIKO start! Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement! I will hopefully update all of you very soon!!

Week #10/How to Study the Bible

Hello friends and family! Well we are getting closer to our outreach..we now leave in 2 weeks for NIKO then Panama! The staff leaders (including myself) will be leaving the next Wednesday, September 29th for NIKO training and our students will meet us on Saturday, October 2nd where we will have one day to rest and then start NIKO, our 4 day intensive training in the jungle. After we have completed NIKO, we will head to Puerto Viejo, a beach community on the Caribbean coast to rest for a day or 2 and then head straight to Panama (Bocas Del Torro) to start our outreach with the Indigenous people. We are busy getting prepared for our outreach while finishing our last 2 weeks of classes.

Last week our classes were how to study the Bible. We were very fortunate to have the leader of the Biblical Core Course teach us the whole week. I am always so excited to learn more about the Bible and I definitely enjoyed the classes this week. We were taught the Inductive method on studying the Bible, which purposes to find meaning in the Scripture through oberservation instead of coming to the text with a predetermined meaning. As a class we studied the book of Philemon together just because it is such a short book and it takes a while to study a book of the Bible completely. I learned so many new insights from the book of Philemon which I had never seen before. One thing that I leraned is to put my confidence in Christ and not man. So many times we put our trust in a person, when we need to put our trust in God who is in control in all situations! Another important part of studying the Bible which is so important is knowing the process of application or applying it to my life. There are 2 steps to application of God’s Word: one is agreeing personally with the text in my mind, the second is to actually do what it says! Many times I can do step one and agree with a text that it is important for me to do, but I never get around to doing it in my life. This is one area that I want to recommit myself to after this week’s teaching.

The other thing that God is really been teaching me this week is to be thankful for all things. I realice that time is short and God gives us so many blessings every day: from the people in our lives to the things that He faithfully provides for us everyday. I want to constantly be thankful for the people He has placed in my life here in San Jose as well as my family and friends back home. When we have a thankful heart, it is hard to complain or be upset for very long. The Lord knows every need that we personally have and knows every desire of our hearts too. I want to thank each of you for your friendship. You are each so valued by me and I am personally greatful to the Lord for each of you in my life!

Biblical worldview (week #9)

This last week for the DTS was a little difficult for us as a team. One of the girls from our DTS (one of the girls I personally mentor each week) decided that she felt like she should go home early. This for me was probably the greatest challenge that I have faced so far in the DTS as a leader. She approached me early in the week and let me know that she had been praying about this for a couple of weeks now and she felt like she should not go on outreach with us. It was nothing that she could really point out, she just felt like God wanted her to go home instead of finish the DTS. I felt really discouraged about it, but I thank God for the encouragement through friends and other staff on the base who have experienced something similar and walked me through it. All this to say, Sara flew home this last Sunday and the team is adjusting to life without one of our team members. I really am thankful to God because the team has started adjusting just fine and God’s peace and grace is with us.

Despite our difficult circumstances, our teaching last week was incredible. We had the base director Giacomo teach on having a Biblical worldview. As I learned more about the worldview in which we live I realized how much the secular worldview has crept into my life. One of the things that constantly is a reminder for me is how to God nothing is secular and nothing is spiritual, everything in our life is spiritual. When we work at our jobs, we are not doing something “secular”, we are working a job as though we are working unto the Lord. When we do anything it is in the presence of God. Colossians 3:23 says “And wahtever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.” God is not more present in the church than He is at my job or when I go to the grocery store. We were challenged to live not in a secular worldview, but to live in a Biblical worldview. The Biblical worldview recognizes that people are created in the image of God and people are of most value, rather than gaining more things. In this worldview we have a freedom and ability to choose within the loving limits of God. Our worldview is so important because it is the basis by which our beliefs are rooted. In the Biblical worldview, the Bible is our true source of life and our guidebook for how to live this life. This next week we are appropriately learning how to study the Bible, which is the perfect way to segment from Biblical worldview.

To finish off our week, I was able to leave on Saturday for Puerto Viejo (the Caribbean side of Costa Rica) for the weekend to enjoy the beach and watch 2 YWAM friends get married. I stayed overnight with some friends and a couple DTS students and we had a great time swimming at the beach and just relaxing. It was an awesome way to end an emotionally difficult week for me. God is faithful and won’t give us more than we can handle!

Thank you so much for your prayers for me and my team. We are leaving in 3 weeks for NIKO, a boot camp type experience in the jungle and then onto Panama for outreach. Seven of our fourteen students still do not have all of their funds for outreach, so I would ask you to please join us in prayer that God would supply their needs so that they can go on outreach with us (we are lacking $7,500 as a team and we need this money by Sept. 27th). Please also pray that God would continue to give me supernatural strength to keep going and that our team would be unified during this transition time.

I miss you all and pray God’s blessings on you! Thanks again for all of your continued support.

Week #6,7,8...sorry for the delay!

This week our topic was the character and nature of God. One of the things that amazed me so much about God is His greatness. Psalm 147: 4 says “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” If He knows every star by name, how much more does He know us by name and every detail about us? Matthew 10:30-31 says But the very hairs of your head are numbered. Do not fear therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.”

This is so important to know the character of God in order to understand the God whom we serve and have given our lives for. He has so many characteristics about Him that are incredible: faithful, love, truthful, wisdom, righteous, patient, holy, humble, etc. The reason why we need to understand the character of God is because these are traits that He cannot help but express in who He is. We are called as Christians to become more like Him and so our character should start becoming more like His as we grow closer to Him. Your thoughts become actions and your actions become habits and your habits becomes your character which becomes your destiny (Thoughts-Actions-Habits-Character-Destiny).

Week #7 was about evangelism taught by one of our own leaders Morgan. One thing that stands out to me about the teaching was recogizing the need for us to not be concerned with the results, but let the Holy Spirit be the one who brings people to Himself. We read Matthew 10 and pulled out some major principles of evangelism which Jesus taught to His disciples. One of the principles which is so crucial for so many of us is not being afraid of what man says, but fearing what God says. Matthew 10: 32-33 says “Therefore whoever confessses Me before men, him I will aslo confess before My father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will aslo deny before My fatehr who is in heaven.” I struggle with this in evangelism. I want to make sure people approve of me sometimes and really it needs to be about what God thinks of me. I think of a phrase I heard long ago…Live for an audience of One, meaning live in concern for God, not what anyone else thinks of you.

And finally last week we went to Nicaragua on our mini-outreach. This was an amazing experience for our group. We were finally able to apply some of the things that hte students have learned during lecture phase. We stayed at the YWAM base in Diriamba, Nicaragua (about 30 minutes from Managua). At the base, they don’t have running water or flushing toilets or showers and they live in the middle of a neighborhood far from the city. This was our first real experience together as a group preparing us for our outreach and the group did great. We were able to do a variety of ministries which was awesome: we went to the city dump in Managua where thousands of families live, we went into a local elementary school and did an assembly there for the kids. We also spoke at a local church service there. I am so greatful for the things that God did through us in Nicaragua. We met a local guy who was on our bus who we were able to pray for and now he is now interested in doing a DTS here in Costa Rica. I know that pictures are worth a thousand words so I will send some pictures with this so that you can see the impact we had in Nicaragua!

Thank you so much for your prayers for my team and me! Please continue to pray for us as a couple people in our group have gotten the flu and are sick. Please pray that they will be healed quickly and that the rest of us will kept from getting sick! We are preparing for our next week of teaching which will be on Biblical worldview. I apologize for taking so long to update all of you. I really do value all of you and thank you so much for playing a part in me being here. God bless you and much love from Costa Rica!
(Pictures are from the dump, children's ministry, one of the school assemblies and a group photo as we played the game Capture the Flag).

Week #4, 5 updates! :)

God is so good! The last couple of weeks have been super crazy for me here. We finished our fourth week of spiritual warfare which was amazing! Our speaker was Kenny Peavy from the L.A. YWAM base and he was incredible. He taught more on fighting the spiritual battle within our own minds and overcoming our own spiritual battle before we can fight the spiritual battle for others. At the end of the week we were able to go to the beach for baptisms which was so exciting! About 12 students ended up getting baptized in the ocean with our speaker (the ones who were baptized are below in the pic)! They were all so excited about starting their new lives in Christ and it truly was a new beginning for everyone.

Immediately after the fourth week we started getting ready for the 50th anniversary celebration of YWAM in Central America which was held at our base in San Jose. The founder of YWAM, Loren Cunningham and his wife Darlene and their son David flew in to celebrate with our base and the rest of the Central American bases. It was great to hear the many stories and testimonies that Loren and his wife Darlene shared about the amazing history of YWAM and how God has moved in the last 50 years. I was in charge of working on the media for the speakers so I was REALLY busy for 3 days. I almost never left the sound booth where I worked tirelessly for 14 plus hours a day with breaks for food only! The celebration went really well, God’s presence was definitely here, but I was really glad when it was over so that I could finally rest! During this week we also did a local outreach in the streets of San Jose with the Panama DTS and I have attached a couple pictures. These were taken in the downtown area of San Jose while people just watched.

We then finished the week of the 50th with a teaching on worship. It was a really peaceful time as we mostly just did worship and then reflected on what God was teaching us about Himself. One thing that really stuck out to me on the teaching from this week was that we need to make sure that our cups are filled daily with His presence and Word or we will run dry and have nothing to give. Our daily quiet times alone with God are so important every day and in order to give something of value we MUST put this as a priority in our lives. I have felt very convicted of this and am trying to find that special alone time with Him, which is definitely a challenge in this busyness of life but I know that it is essential to my ministry here.

We are now on week #6 (1/2 way through lecture phase) and our class topic is character and nature of God. This last weekend we finally decided where we are going on outreach as well which is very exciting! We took the weekend to pray over where we felt God leading us to go on outreach and the decision was made to go to Central America (Panama, Honduras and El Salvador). I am very excited about this decision and sure that God is leading us in this direction. I ask for your prayers though as we are still lacking $9,070 for our outreach (as a group) plus an additional $5,000 challenge for meeting needs (clothing, food, etc. For the indigenous peoples we are trying to reach). We know God is faithful though when we are following His will, so we are trusting that the money will come in! We will be leaving in 2 weeks for Panama and will be staying for one week there to work with an indigenous tribe there. Please also pray for this trip that God will have His way through us! We each have a challenge to raise $100 since we are missing about $1,000 for Panama alone. If you would like to help towards this money, please let me know. God bless you and thank you so much for your prayers!

week #3

I have officially now been here in Costa Rica for one month! Time really does go by so fast and I am having such a great time leading the DTS. This week our topic was called the Divine Plumbline (basically Inner Healing). At the beginning of this week the students are taught about the power of the cross. The first day of classes we watched “The Passion of Christ” and afterwards took communion together as a group. It was a powerful time as we were reminded of the sacrifice that Jesus paid for us on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to endure any pain or shame from our sins again because He paid the price for that. The phrase He has redeemed us is so much more meaningful now. It means to exchange owners for a price, or a released secured by payment of a ransom, rescue. So cool!

I think one thing that I was reminded of this week is the power and impact of words spoken over us throughout our lives. Just as Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” We can cut people down or lift them up just by the things we say to them so we really need to be careful to think before we speak. Many people have been so impacted by things said over them that we need to especially be diligent to speak words of life into people and not death.

The last 2 days of the week we had ministry time where we prayed for each student as a group and staff for them to let go of things that have caused them hurt in the past. Many of them had breakthroughs right away (so incredible) while others are still working through the process, but the healing process has started for everyone! It was a very emotional week for all of us just hearing everyone’s stories and all of the evils that have been done to people. But we have a God who died for those evils and wants to bring healing to our hearts! The freedom that comes from forgiveness and giving our hurts to God always amazes me during this process.

To finish this week off I went to a wedding of my friend Rayme, who did her DTS with me. It was so great to be able to finish this week off celebrating! Thank you so much for your prayers…this week your prayers made such an impact! This next week our topic is Spiritual Warfare taught by a guy (Kenny Peavy) from the Los Angeles YWAM base. J We are also fortunate because YWAM will be celebrating its 50 year anniversary here at our base in Costa Rica (for all of Central America) and the founder of YWAM Loren Cunningham will be coming also for the celebration. These are very busy times for us coming up so please keep our base and students in your prayers!


Well, I have to be going….I have weekend work duty which means I have to clean and prepare all meals on the base for the weekend with a team of people (luckily I only have to do it one time during the DTS, and lucky for those I am cooking for!). God bless my friends and hope to hear from you all soon! J

Week #2!

Week #2:

This week was another amazing one! Our teaching was on the father heart of God. This is typically a tough week for some students because many of them didn’t have fathers who were there for thier children and this affects our view of who God, our heavenly Father is to us. We tend to see God, the Father as we see our earthly fathers and for many people this is a very distorted view of who God is. One exercise the teacher has our students do is tell the students to imagine that God is coming to thier house and is at their front door and then write down their immediate response to that scenario. Their responses to this question many times reveal how they feel about who God is. This week all of the students heard God’s true father heart for them, many heard for the first time that God is not this mean, angry God of the Old Testament, but a loving father who is portrayed through the story of the Prodigal son (Luke 15).

One thing that I was reminded of in this week’s teaching is that God is a God of relationship and NOT formulas. Many of us have a tendency to limit God to formulas. For instance, someone tells us in order to hear from God we need to pray and fast for a couple days and we will hear from Him. However, we have a God who is not limited or forced into doing what we want Him to do for us. Our God is so big and many times we don’t understand His ways, because He cannot be confined to a formula. Isaiah 55: 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.” In a formula, love is missing. That is why He has called us to relationships and not a formula.

As for me, I am having a great time here. I know I am right where God has called me to be. Many of you have asked what my responsibilites are here, so here they are:
I have four girls that I do one-on-ones with (mentoring process once a week with each one), attend classes with all the students, help lead our outreach preparation times each week, responsible for us getting a vehicle whenever we need one (transportation in general), and generally leading the group along with the other 3 full-time staff and 2 part-time staff. We have an incredible group and I am enjoying learning along with them more about God!

Next week we will be doing our week on inner healing called the divine plumbline. This can be a very intense week for our students and staff as we walk alongside the students in this. Please keep us in prayer and our students that God will bring healing and freedom to all of them! I just want to keep hearing from the Lord and being used by Him so please pray for that as well. He is giving me supernatural strength and I am very greatful for that. I miss you all and love you! God bless!!!

It’s hard to believe I have been in Costa Rica now for 3 weeks. The DTS (Discipleship Training School which I am helping lead) just finished our first week of classes and it was pretty awesome! Our group of 15 students arrived last Thursday (July 8), Friday and Saturday. We have a diverse group of students from all over the U.S., Canada, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and New Zealand: 12 girls and 3 guys. We had a welcome party for the students on Saturday night in which we had typical Costa Rican food and some music for dancing. We finished out our first week of teaching by going to Jaco beach on Saturday as a group. We have a really great group of students in the DTS and I am so excited to see what God is going to do in their lives in this coming school and outreach! I have attached some pictures from this week for you to see what we have been doing (welcome dinner girls picture, our group did a drama for a kids ministry here in San Jose, and a beach picture of course!).

The first week of teaching was the topic Intimacy with God. This week of teaching is always so awesome for me. I love the fact that God calls us into intimacy with Him. This concept is so easily forgotten in the church. Many times we get caught up in the works or the needs of the community around us and forget that our God is calling us into an intimate personal relationship with Him. God did not create us out of the absence of something because He has no need of anything. He chooses to use us even though He could do it all Himself, to be co-laborers with Him.

One verse that struck me this week is John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they many know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” This word KNOW is meant not only to know intellectually, but to know perosnally, intimately we would know a friend or someone we love. So eternal life starts now, it is not only for eternity, but starts know as we get to know God and commit our lives to Him.

My first week being here was a bit difficult for me, but I know beyond a doubt that God has called me to be here and i am now enjoying it so much! I am learning a lot about being a leader, listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and leaning on Him for my strength.

For all of my prayer partners, a couple prayer petitions: first, please join our leadership team as we pray for where to go for outreach. We want to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and go to the place that He wants us to go. We have a place in mind and we need confirmation that this where we should go. Second, please pray for our students that they will let down their guards and let the Lord work in their lives. Third, please pray for me that i would lean on the Lord’s strength. It is a struggle to get good rest here so i am relying on Him to be my strength. I will leave you with a verse that keeps getting repeated here to me:

Isaiah 40:28-31 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

DTS staff

As you know I am finally here in Costa Rica! :) We have gotten right to work and are working on preparing for the DTS. We have about 15 students coming for the school and we are getting excited to meet them next week. The school will be starting on July 9th and from there things will start getting pretty busy for me. I have attached a picture of our DTS staff (from the left: Luis, Morgan, Elena, me, Steve and Elizabeth).

For this next school I will be responsible for driving a vehicle, preparing for outreach, and helping with the budget in addition to my regular responsibilities. I will have four students that I will be having one-on ones and a small group to lead each week. Please keep me in prayer! :)

Costa Rica donation info

Some of you have been asking how you can donate towards my Costa Rica trip, so I have attached the information on the last blog.:)

I am finally in Seattle! I moved all of my stuff after work on Monday, June 7th and drove with my sister Heather up to Seattle to my parents' house. We took our time and stopped in Sacramento and visited some friends and then onto Portland and stayed with our aunt. It feels very weird to be back in Seattle, but I am excited to start this new adventure in 11 days!!!!

Please continue to keep me in prayer as I prepare for this 1 year adventure in Costa Rica...

Video

I want to apologize for taking so long to post something new on this site! I really can't believe that I am leaving CA in less than 3 weeks! I am driving up to WA state on June 8th and then staying with my parents in the Seattle area until June 23rd when I fly back to San Jose, Costa Rica! I am feeling a little nervous, excited, sad all at the same time. I know that this is what transitions are all about and I am ready to take the next step! I have attached a clip from a drama that my Vanguard team performed while we were in Costa Rica in March of this year. I was not in it because I directed it. It is definitely a drama that has spoken to so many people throughout Costa Rica and I hope it ministers to you too! :)

Donation info--if anyone needs! :)

Donation Information through YWAM:

Please do NOT put my name anywhere on the check that you send to YWAM. It will be returned to you if my name is anywhere on the face of the check. Please make your checks payayble to: YWAM or Youth with a Mission and return the bottom portion below to guarantee the check goes to my account.

Youth with a Mission (YWAM)
4444 Edgar Park Avenue
El Paso, TX 79904

Or you can make a one-time donation with your credit card on thier website: www.ywamepj.org through PayPal or if you have a PayPal account you can send your donation directly through their e-mail address (accounting@ywamepj.org). Please note that PayPal charges a fee of 2.9% +.30 per transaction to receive funds. This applies to funds that are sent to us for a particular missionary or base. PayPal will waive the fee if funds are sent as a gift from a PayPal accoount that is linked to a bank account. To do so, choose the “Personal” tab when asked what payment is for, then select “gift”. Please check PayPal’s website for more information: www.paypal.com.

Most banks are now offering free Bill Pay service. To send funds this way, just set up as a Vendor using the information above and put MY name in the Account number or Memo box.

YWAM El Paso/Juarez will send you a tax-deductible receipt for your donation. If you have questions, their phone number is: 919-757-3387 or e-mail address: accounting@ywamepj.org.

If you are not concerned about getting a tax-deductible donation then you can send me your checks directly (made out to Kimberly Ulm) at:

Kim Ulm
156 Yorktown Lane
Costa Mesa, Ca 92626

My e-mail: kimberlyulm@gmail.com



Please return this bottom portion with your check:

Name:__________________________________

Address:________________________________

City, State, Zip code:___________________________________

E-mail address:________________________________________

Amt. Donated:___________________


Thank you so much for donating! May God bless you!

Leaving again soon for Costa Rica!

March 4, 2010

Dear Friends and Family:

I hope that this new year you are all doing well. This year away from Costa Rica has been an interesting and conflicting one for me. As many of you know I returned to my job in Costa Mesa at Vanguard University, but longed to go back to Costa Rica to fulfill my dream of being a missionary and now I have my chance! I have been asked to staff the July DTS (Discipleship Training School) in San Jose, Costa Rica! I am excited to have this opportunity to combine my two passions: youth ministry and missions. I have prayed for an avenue to use my gifts and passions and staffing the July DTS is one way for me to do this. I have committed to staffing one year with YWAM (Youth with a Mission), the organization that I went to Costa Rica with last year. After staffing the DTS school hopefuly helping lead in a director position in the January 2011 DTS school.

One thing that really excites me about this responsibility as a staff member is that I have always been concerned about discipleship among young people in the church (I wrote my thesis on this topic). I feel like many times the church is helpful getting people saved but we lack teaching them what it means to follow Christ daily and live their lives for Him. I will have the chance to work with the team of young adults to teach them exactly what it means to follow Christ and help them to do just that during the 3 month lecture phase. I will also have the chance to lead them on their outreach to whatever part of the world God calls our team to go for two months. If I had a dream job, this is it and I am so excited that God has allowed me to be a part of this!

In addition, in less than two weeks I have been asked to help co-lead a team of Vanguard students to Costa Rica as well to work on earthquake relief from last year’s earhquake. I am very exicted to return to Costa Rica and to continue this connection with YWAM and Costa Rica. I will be preparing a video to share with everyone when I return to show you more of what I will be doing in Costa Rica starting in July.

Every person in YWAM is responsible to raise their own support so I am asking you to prayerfully conisder partnering with me in this adventure. I cannot do this without the faithful support of all of you. The costs of this trip seem impossible to me to raise, but I know with God nothing is impossible! I need to raise $1,300 per DTS (a total of $2,600), plus approximately $3,400 more (living expenses and airfare to travel home), for a total of $6,000. I know that this seems like a large task, but God sometimes asks us to step beyond what seems unattainable and trust Him! I am thrilled to begin this adventure with you and share in the joy of all that God is doing in my life and across the world in Costa Rica.

I invite you to follow my adventures on my blogspot: http://kimberlyulm.blogspot.com

While money is important, it comes in a distant second to my need for your prayer support. Since prayer support is so important to the success of this mission, I would like to know if I can count on you. I believe prayer truly moves the hand of God and is the source of everything that I do. Thank you so much for being a part of my life and being a blessing to me. As a prayer partner or financial supporter, you are a significant part of all that I do in Costa Rica and I pray that you will receive the blessings of your giving!

God bless and much love,

Kimberly Ulm
kimberlyulm@gmail.com
626.228.6549