Archive for Prayer

Repentant Thoughts

// October 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life, Prayer, Reflection, Strongholds

I’m noticing some trends that I haven’t yet been able to shake. I don’t like them, God doesn’t like them, and I have a feeling if anyone were to actually feel comfortable confronting me about them, I would quickly find out that they don’t like them.

I’ve been very short-tempered lately, especially with one person in the house. I seem to be looking for faults to call pet-peeves, looking for opportunities to criticize and harass, and looking for specks in this person’s eye, while I clearly have a log the size of the Florida panhandle in my own.

I’m also feeling lonely. I’m surrounded by people I think I actually enjoy, working in ministry and living in a house and supporting each other in two different schools, but I feel completely alone. I have God with me, and I know I need to be looking there for comfort, but I feel anxious. I think this stems from my unwillingness to give up my desire for marriage and to find my mate for life. I had been thinking about that for a few months before coming here, and now that I’m strictly forbidden from dating (which is a policy I fully understand and support) I’m feeling forlorn; like it’s so much further away than I want it to be.

I’m also not doing very well in school (SAGU). I’m not organized or adhering to the organization that I did set out for myself, so I fell behind and have been trying to play catch up, but all my classes suffered because of it. I’ve taken three tests in three different classes so far and did well on one, barely passed another, and I feel like I did horribly on the third. I’m trying to get caught up and organized this week, so hopefully I’ll be feeling secure soon.

I guess that’s all for now. I’m going to go hide in my room to repent, read, pray, and cry myself to sleep.

Running Short on Running Shorts.

// September 26th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Holy Random Batman!, Life, Prayer, Reflection

Ok, so they’re not running shorts, per se, but the possible title was too good to pass up. I’m either getting fat, way too hard on my clothing, or some combination of both, because my second pair of shorts split from the crotch down the leg this morning. Luckily, I noticed before we left for El Colli, so I had time to change into my sole remaining pair of shorts (Why is it a pair of pants and a pair of shorts? Does that make sense to anyone else? There’s one garment, right?). Fortunately for me, the remaining pair is my favorite for looks, so I’m at least safe there. I really need to get more soon though, because this climate is entirely too hot for jeans. Shoot, I’m the loon that wears shorts in -7 degrees at Costco, so I certainly would overheat here in jeans. I sometimes wish my body temperature was different, but then I remember everyone else complaining in cold weather all the time and I figure I’m ok.

The last 24 hours have been pretty amazing. I got a 95 on my Spanish Conversation exam, then an 84% on my New Testament Literature exam, then had some dynamite pizza for dinner. Then the fun began.

Richie and Jen were busy all afternoon making a cardboard ark for El Colli the next day. When they finished that, they decided to put the rest of the cardboard to use…as robot costumes. Once we finished taping them up and drawing faces on the masks and wrapping sections of them in aluminum foil, we found our portable speaker system and hopped on a bus to have them dance battle for spare change for Casa Hogar (our young boys’ home we work with). We took a few bus trips, took some video, danced at intersections, took more video, and finally headed home. They later went back out while I did some homework. In all, we made 118 pesos, which will almost buy two pizzas for the boys. We decided we’re going to split into two teams and do the same thing next week, with me being one of the robots. It should be hilarious.

Later Friday night, we went to the center of Zapopan (our city) to do some homeless ministry. I’d never been there before and I was exhausted before we left, so I didn’t want to go. Once we got there, we immediately ran into a guy asking for prayer. We prayed with him for about 10 powerful minutes. Talk about a wake up call. There’s no denying God was moving last night and doing amazing things. That man and about 5-7 others ended up either getting saved for the first time or rededicating their lives to Christ, and at least 20 people were healed of various infirmaries and serious illnesses. One man had a hernia and a serious shoulder injury. Both were healed. I was so humbled and convicted for wanting to stay home. I’m so thankful God used me last night and I can’t help but change the way I approach ministry from here on out. I also got the chance to use my Spanish a lot, and ended up doing way better than I thought I would.

We finally got home around 1:30 and stayed up laughing and posting pictures from the day and talking until about 2. I woke up in the middle of the night with a calf cramp that didn’t go away for over a half-hour. Finally, it subsided just in time for someone’s alarm to go off in the house and keep me from going back to sleep for a little while longer. I finally got back to bed and woke up for our 6am man-time. (We have made a covenant with all of the guys involved in the program to wake up at 6am for an hour of devotions and prayer every day, no matter when we have to get up. I’ve been taking the time to do my life journal and pray over the house and for all the girls/women involved. Everywhere we go, I’m keeping an eye on them to make sure they’re safe and never in situations where they’re feeling uncomfortable or threatened, so I feel I need to pray for them as well of course!) After my devotional time, I got back to sleep for a couple more hours before the cramp came back. It didn’t last as long this time, but I’ve felt it twinging all day (yes, I’m drinking a lot of water, so I have no idea why it’s cramping up).

El Colli this morning was a challenge to start, but ended up going really well once we got started. I learned how to play handball today and I’m ok at it. We had a couple kids making trouble nonstop (Please pray for Felix. He’s the one kid at El Colli that always makes me want to quit until I remember that God loves him and wants me to do the same), but everyone else was really well-behaved today. I was Noah in the puppet show, I helped with the dance, and Hannah and I put on the game (we made the kids spin around 10 times, then put a spoon in their mouth, put a lime on the spoon, and run to someone else and run around them and come back, then had three more kids on their team).

After El Colli, we drove over near our youth center, split up into three groups, and walked around praying together for the area. It was eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and inspirational. We saw so much and so many people that simply need love. I couldn’t help but hurt and cry for those people while I was praying for them. We ended up walking through a street-market and ran into a couple of our youth kids right next to a guy who was selling magazines, including pornography. I don’t know if anyone else noticed it, but I did and was praying for those kids the whole time. I now know exactly who I’m hanging out with every week at the youth center.

Now we’ve been home for a few hours to relax before one group heads to the youth center for the night and the rest of us go to our church’s youth group. In our relaxation time, Richie and Jen and Brittany had to clean the tarps. Instead of cleaning them and putting them away, they decided to clean them, make a slip and slide out of them, clean them again, and put them away. Definitely an entertaining day. Also, we have real milk for the first time. Like in a jug. I haven’t had milk from a jug for over a month, and boxed milk just tastes wrong. We made chocolate milk for a bunch of people, which was delicious. Richie and I also made a trip to Walmart to test out my new debit card (Bank of America let me draw out over $1,100 from the ATM and at school for classes, but freaked out over a $7 trip to Walmart, so I had to get a new card) and get some food. Unfortunately, we discovered that popcorn chicken from Walmart in Mexico is quite possibly the most disappointing thing ever cooked.

Well, now it’s time to head out to church and my calf just cramped up again. I need a banana.

Boot Camp Day 5. Friday

// September 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Goals, Life, Prayer

Fridays are special. I don’t know why, but apparently they are. I’ve not really cared about Fridays since the last time I was in school, so I guess I’m about to care again.

After Andy finally showed up and we did our devotions, we set about to some homework time, then reconvened for one final training session. We went over some info on each of our current ministries and spent extensive time explaining and preparing for El Colli, including learning the dance moves to two very catchy songs.

Later in the evening, we had several pastors from our churches over for a catered dinner. There were about 8 different taco fillings to choose from and tortillas being made and grilled fresh in front of us. The dinner was amazing and the time with the pastors was great. I met the pastor of my church and spoke briefly with him about helping with the youth group and worship teams.

Eventually, the guests all went home, allowing us to clean up and set to our real task for the day/night. There’s an area not too far from us called Plaza Del Sol. At night, Plaza Del Sol is crawling with transvestite prostitutes. We feel very strongly about helping them, reaching out to them, and sharing the love of Christ with them, so we’ve been talking and praying about how to do so. Currently, the Engage ministry model demands a partnership with a local church (The idea behind this is that we may at some point be forced to leave the country and/or be gone on extended breaks, and we don’t want a ministry to die simply because we can’t be there. Additionally, plugging people into local churches tends to produce much better permanent results.) along with an actual plan for how the ministry will operate. As of now, this ministry has no partner church and no action plan, so it consists of prayer walks in safely-large groups.

Several (three) of us stayed behind to intercede for the safety and inspiration of the rest of the group, but everyone else went and split into two groups. I was one of the people staying behind, and I can tell you we felt a serious battle is taking place in this city. I received two different visions while praying for God to speak to us. The first was of battle-ready but battle-scarred and battle-weary angels flying over Guadalajara. They had clearly been at this for some time, but were unable to land yet and take the territory. The second vision was of the Engage students standing at a bus stop staring at an empty bus (empty buses don’t exist in this city). We were each taking turns paying the driver to stay, and we were collecting the tickets to hand out to the flood we knew was coming.

When the groups got back to the house around 1:30am, we all had the sense that we would be asked to pay a greater sacrifice than we expected, but that it was not only worth it: it was our destiny. This is going to be a long fight, but one we’re proud of.

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