Done! Finally! Free!!

 

I have to admit... That is kinda how Im feeling right now. This week has been intense. I have been pushed to the limit (and over), been frusterated, cried, mad, happy, smiled, felt Gods love and understood more of him. But I have to admit; this week more of the bad stuff took up my thoughts then the good. If I had a week from Hell? Kinda. If it was worth it? Yes. If I ever was happy? Yes. If I would do it again? Yes.

 

But; Am I happy its all over? YES!!!

Im talking about Mission Adventures, guys. I LOVE it! Don’t get me wrong! If you ever get the chance to go and do MA- DO IT! Staff, students, speaker… whatever- YES!!!

However, for me this week was HARD. I hit the wall. Working from 7 am to 10:30 pm every day for 5 weeks it hard. Its FUN. But its hard. The team was challenging, the staff and even the family we build for. But it was fun at the same time. And it was worth it in the end.

Sunday night, they ALL kneeled down in front of the cross after passion play. The students grew so much during this week. The staff too. Having 160 people on base, and 13 staff, was a challenge. A hard one. But we learned stuff.

….and now its over. We ended it all by having a massive water fight on the base. I just got out of the shower- I was already wet, but so so cold, and I needed a HOT shower. Aaaah!

 

…and I get to have a life again! Seriously; that’s how I feel. For the past 5 weeks Ive been passing Hillary in the hallway, office, kitchen, you name it, and said “Hey- remember that time when we used to be friends, and talk?!” or “Hey- remember that time when I had a life and we used to have coffee together?”…. and that’s how I feel. These past 5 weeks had been intense, lots of fun, filled with memories and experiences I could not have gotten anywhere else, but I am done. I am ready to move on. Do something different. Get to sleep at night. Not having to worry about bringing the coolers and putting them in the right van, counting people, translating, going to La Buffadora or running sessions. It has been fun. I feel like this post is all a “MA sucks, I want my life back!” kinda thing. NOT TRUE. Its just that when you are doing MA- MA is your life! The time you have off, from 12:30 Friday to 10:00am Saturday, is not enough if you want to have a life of your own. So that is what I am free to be doing now. I am free to be living my life as I want without tight schedules and breakfastpreps and teamtime.

 

…So what´s next? Well, I don’t know yet- at least not the part after June 10^th. I will be working with Misty with hospitality the time I still have left here in Ensenada, then only thing is that I am probably gonna be gone a lot. First thing is a roadtrip to Minnesota in 1 week. Amanda (my dear roommate), Brandon, Brandons sister and I are driving up there. To bring Brandons car home, but most of all just for fun! Ill be stopping in Denver, to hang out with Ali, South Dakota to hang out with Amy, probably Iowa to hang out with Alicia and the stopping in Minnesota where I am planning on meeting up with Patience, Bryan and Indra, Savanna, Maren and who ever else that’s around. Fun? I think YES.

 

Tomorrow is my first day off, like off off OFF in over 6 weeks. Im STOKED!! I am planning on spending it in my bed, with God, and catching up on stuff that I haven’t done for 6 weeks. Im super excited! Today I was catching up on everybody’s blogs, enjoying what I read. Especially Maries. She is doing her DTS outreach in Malawi at the moment, and its so far away physically and mentally what I cannot comprehend it. But I was thinking about it as I read- how unbelievable different her outreach is form what mine were. We had beds, showers, good Mexican food and no creepy animals. Read her blog, and see what she is experiencing… My outreach was pretty much “lets go and do dramas in the park” kinda thing, while she will be working at a hospital… Wow! Its all for the kingdom and glory of God. But its soooo different. A couple of weeks ago I found myself doubting our mission during our outreach. I had a great time, met a lot of great people, but did they really meet me? Did we make a deep difference? I dunno. I though. So when I was on my way to pick Corina from the Pachuca base up at the airport, I was thinking about my time there, what we did (a heck of a lot of dramas in parks…. And a lot more), and asking God if we really did make a difference. God said yes. I didn’t really get it. But in the car back from the TJ airport, I was talking to Corina about it.

Guys: we did make a difference. Our whole DTS outreach, God was teaching us about the worth of every SINGLE person. And we made a BIG difference for one family in particular.

During our time in Mexico City, we meet a girl names Jocelyn. She was 18, had a two year old son, was pregnant (something we didn’t know than, but know now, as she had given birth to another boy), and followed us around for 3 days. We got to meet her two sister and her mother who is a drug addict, and they all more or less live on the streets of Mexico City. My more or less I mean, they were all born and raised there, but Jocelyn wanted to take care of her son Brian, so she was renting a hotel room every night to create a home for him, washing car windows the whole day to raise the money for it. We talked to her, the people from the base in Pachuca talked to her, and to make a looong story short; her sisters now live in Pachuca at the base. When Giezi, Kelsey and I went down there around New Years, we got to meet them again and talk to them. Corina could tell me that the youngest has now totally changed, prays, is a lot happier, is trying to learn English and is starting school this fall. When the team goes to Mexico City she goes with them, meeting up with Jocelyn and her mom, and also the other sister who used to live in Pachuca. The other sister, Sandra, moved back to MC to help Jocelyn take care of the kids, and also help take care of her mom. Their mom wants to take care of her daughters when they are there, and rents rooms or apartments, but when her daughters are not there she just lives on the street with is dangerous and not healthy, and I think Sandra feels like she should be with her mom just to make sure she has a job. However; their mom is totally ok with them living in Pachuca, and is happy that the YWAMers there take care of them. And so to the amazing news; a couple of weeks, before Corina came here to Ensenada, the mom accepted Christ, and now they are trying to move her out of Mexico City, to start a new life away from the streets and the drug. And now the mom is ready too. Hopefully that will make Sandra move back to Pachuca with them, and she will be able to start school as well. And maybe even Jocelyn will move after them!? Please keep them all in your prayers!!

 

Bah, this ended up being really long. Haha. Oh well, I don’t even have any pictures, but that ok I would think!