Saturday, November 14, 2009

Jericho March

We live a block away from a park that holds Mayan Ruins. Ever since we got here I have had the feeling that we should do some sort of Jericho March around the park. I didn't know exactly when we should do it, though, so I just casually mentioned it to a few people here. Then last weekend we had the chance to work with another DTS (the same school I am doing now) from Antigua Guatemala. They came without a real plan so we began to pray about what God wanted our group of about 30 to do for the day. I had not said much of anything because I wanted someone else to confirm if the Jericho march was what God wanted or not. I definitely did not want it to just be my idea. As we were sharing a few people began to share they felt like we should do something at the park... BINGO, I thought. So I brought the idea I felt God had given me up and everyone agreed they thought it was what God wanted us to do.

The DTS from Antigua had a speaker with them so we attached an ipod- a modern day trumpet- and put it on a dolly and started the march. Here is a picture of our group starting off...

We marched 7 times around the park, which was probably a little less than a mile around. It had been a cloudy morning and it looked like it would rain, but God held the rain off for us all day. Our first time around we stopped at a certain spot where you can see into the park and began to pray because we felt a heaviness there. Only later did we see this shaman performing Mayan acts very near the spot we were praying.It was an amzing time of spritual warfare and on the 7th round we could not help but shouting out and cheering for what God had done. Although it took us from 11:00 to 4:00, we all felt privelidged to be able to be a part of God's work.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

update...

Most of our group in Antigua Guatemala


A boy named Angel and I at our weekly children's ministry



Hi, I am so sorry it has taken so long to update. Things here have been really busy as we prepare for our local outreach. Here is the update letter I sent out to Rosedale Bible Church for October. I hope to get another post up before we leave for two weeks on Sunday.

October Update

October has come and almost gone and it is hard to believe how fast time is flying by around here. We have been here for over a month now and had 5 weeks of class so far. All of our classes have been very relevant and applicable to my life. One of the topics that was my favorite was Hearing God's Voice. We had a speaker come from the great state of California and give us the lessons for the week. We learned that God created us for a relationship with Him and that He truly desires to have a dialogue with us. Our other class topics have been The Nature and Character of God, The Father Heart of God and Inner Healing. This has been an amazing time of classroom learning.

Also during this time of training we have started preparing for outreach. We have what we call outreach workshops twice a week. I attend the adult workshop on Monday nights. We have learned 3 dramas that are geared toward adults. One of them is a very powerful drama that tells the story of a broken home and how it affects each member of the family. We are also learning how to prepare a quick street testimony so that we can have that tool ready to go on outreach. I also attend the children workshop on Wednesday nights. There we have learned about 8 clown and puppet skits. We also learned how to give a testimony to children in "kid friendly" language. It is exciting to be able to prepare so many things so that when we go on outreach we will be ready and well equipped.

We leave for our local outreach on November 15. We are going to a small village called Tecpan. It will about a 2 hour drive from where we are in Guatemala City. It is a town that has a huge Mayan influence and as we have been praying we have sensed that it is a very dark place. We are going to be there for 2 weeks bringing the light of God, though, so I am excited to see how God is going to work. Then at the end of December we leave for Mexico City which is our main outreach location. Mexico City is also a very spiritually dark place. We know we will have a challenge ahead of us, but with God we are ready to face it.

Thank you for your continued prayers. I definitely appreciate them and as a school we can feel them. Here are some specific things you can continue to pray for:

+Outreach- both the actual time and our time here as we prepare

+Health- this is a constant prayer request as our bodies get used to the food, climate and living in community

+Team Unity- we feel that God wants to do big things through our team, but we know this can only happen if we are unified so please continue to pray for this important aspect

Thank you again for all of your support! I love knowing that I have a whole army at home who are backing me up!