Biblical Core Course Update: July-September 2010

Hello everyone!
Wow I haven’t been able to write in so long! Right now I am a student in the first Biblical Core Course at YWAM San Jose, Costa Rica. This is a 3 month intensive Bible study course I have looked forward since last fall. My last update finished with the DTS graduation – a couple weeks after that I was SO blessed with a visit from my family. I knew my mom, dad and sister Meagan were coming, but I was SOOOO surprised to see Amanda and David!! It was such a cool time, getting to show them where I am and a little bit of what I’m doing. We spent most of the time at the beach – 1 week in Puerto Viejo with Amanda and David (they had to go home after that), and 1 week in Montezuma at a beautiful beach house. Lito came with us for that week and we had a fun time relaxing and eating yummy food. It was such a treat to be able to have that time to rest before starting the intensive bible course I am now doing. It’s been nearly 3 months now of the school, and it’s been incredibly fast and completely full. I didn’t know how much homework I could get done in a week! But it really leaves time for nothing else other than sleeping, eating, and showering! And barely enough for those! Sometimes I take naps instead of eating! We’ve almost read the whole Bible now: from Genesis to Job + Jeremiah, and all of Psalms and Proverbs, as well as the whole New Testament. We started with Acts and then went through Philemon, John, Hebrews, 1 Peter, Romans, Revelation, Genesis, 1&2 Kings, and Esther, and now we are moving on to Jeremiah and then lastly Amos. As well we’ve had teachings on teaching, preaching and small group Bible study – where we actually practiced doing these in front of our class. (That was a big challenge for me but God was so faithful as I relied on Him and I actually discovered that I like teaching!) Last night we also did the drama of Esther – (part of our school is learning how to take bible stories and teach them creatively). I had the honour of playing Queen Esther!
God has been incredibly gracious during this time with the school – he has been speaking to me so much about me trusting him with everything – especially my future. I am so thankful to have been able to study His word during these 3 months – to have Him begin to lay a stronger foundation and confidence in knowing what I believe about who He is and how He reveals Himself through the Bible. These past 3 months God has given me so much more confidence in Him and in walking in who I know He has made me to be. I’m just going to share a couple things He has been teaching me through the school…
This is some of what God was teaching me during the book of Philemon:
I know God has called me to love and is trying to renew my mind on what it means to love in more wholeness. I need to know His perfect love and gain understanding of his love to be able to apply it to my life, and Paul exhibits this example of selfless love over and over in the book of Philemon. I have been challenged to look at my own life and see my own lack of understanding or refusal to walk this out in my own life in greater capacity. Giving of myself, my time, my energy, my resources, regardless the cost… out of LOVE is not something I see in my life. I feel that I lack that love in my actions, when I do things out of obligation, without joy or with a focus on what I am losing. I am not counting all things a loss for the sake of knowing my God – in fact I am counting what I am losing as greater value than knowing my God and making His love known. My eyes are on myself rather than Jesus and His desire to love others, and use me to love others. This is horrible and I don’t want to have that focus. What joy I have experienced when I allow Him to fill me with His love and desire to see others experience the same love and joy. This behaviour does not come into agreement with the principle of loving others based on my freewill… I want that I would know him and count all things a loss… for the sake of knowing him more… I want to know the riches of his glorious inheritance and the inexpressible joy of being in his presence… but I first must forsake my flesh and all that I put before him… sacrifice myself, my needs, my desires and fix my eyes on Jesus. On knowing him simply because He IS worthy of me… I am not saying that loving out of obedience is not right… but still that obedience must flow out of love for the one I am being obedient to. I hold on to His promise that it hasn’t even entered my heart what he has prepared for those who love him and count all that is before me… this life a loss for the sake of knowing him. For this I neeeeed His help. I need Him to renew my mind and remind me of his character and goodness and the joy it is to love Him as I love others. Recognizing when the opportunity come to love my neighbour as myself and before myself. I want to practically do this by giving of what He has blessed me with, including my time, energy and of my own heart. This to me lookslike taking my eyes off myself and not worrying about how to provide and order things just for myself but what can I do for those around me, and those in my circle of influence?

Thankyou so much for you're continued support and love! God bless you!

great is Thy faithfulness,

Back to the recount of outreach! Our last week was in Antigua, Guatemala, one of my favourite places in Central America. He we did a lot of debriefing of DTS with the students, and also visited a special needs hospital everyday. This was both a super fun and beautiful experience visiting and loving on the kids here… getting them to smile and laugh was such a joy. It was also quite sad as most of the kids there have been abandoned… yet God had us there that week to feel His heart for them and be his hands and feet. It was the first time for many of the students working with people with special needs and it was cool to see them be stretched and act in the love that God gave them for the children.

Making our way home was a testimony in itself! You may or may not have heard, but while we were in Guatemala, there was a volcanic eruption, causing ash to fall all over Guatemala City and close the airport. A day or two later the hurricane hits Guatemala causing landslides, roadblocks and borders to be closed. We are now stranded at the base praying and wondering how God is going to get us home in time for DTS graduation! It had been so evident that God had his hand in getting us those tickets so after a time of waiting on him, making a couple phone calls and tickets out of San Salvador being reserved without even our confirmation, it was pretty clear that God was about to do one last miracle for us to finish out… we found a couple drivers that were willing to help us take the 5 hour drive to the San Salvador airport. Even as unpromising as it looked, with the high chance of roads being blocked, borders being closed and not making it on time for our flight, God totally showed up and got us safely home!



Graduation was a beautiful celebration of all the work God had done in the lives of the students these past 5 months… it was such a great privilege to be apart of it… I really never thought you could love so many people so much, all at once! 20 more people, ruined for the ordinary, about to go change the world around them. God is so good.

to open eyes that are blind and to set the captives free...

I almost forgot to tell my favourite story of outreach! Last March in Nicaragua, we were having a time of worship and intercession in the central park, and we met and interceded for this man Edgar. It was quite an intense time praying for him as we could really feel the spiritual battle going on around us. He was an alcoholic living on the streets at the time and after we had prayed for him he decided he no longer wanted to live his life this way. He had sobered up after we prayed for him and decided he wanted to go to his parent’s house to tell them. They weren’t home so we walked the other direction to his sister’s house, running into his parents on the way. He and the small group of us there had a really hard time convincing or explaining to his parents that God had done a miracle and Edgar had taken the decision to no longer give the enemy or alcohol control of his life. It was a little discouraging, standing there for a good 20 minutes, listening to his dad talk about how all trust had been broken between them, and how he wouldn’t believe Edgar was going to change until he saw the change. We walked back to where we were staying that night where Lito gave Edgar his bible and we prayed for him. A month later we return, with intentions to check in on him and his family, but it wasn’t till the last day we really found time. Lito and I were late for lunch at someone’s home and had stopped for ice cream at Eskimo for one last time before we headed to El Salvador. Lito mentioned to me that we had forgotten to go visit Edgar and how he still really wanted to even though we were sort of out of time. I really felt like he had suddenly remembered for a reason, and so we decided to take the 5 minute walk to his parent’s house. His dad answers the door and recognizes us and welcomes us in right away… we see Edgar in the back looking at us like, who is that? His dad reminds him, and we sit down to talk. Turns out that Edgar is just visiting and had only arrived 20 minutes earlier from rehab! He is involved in a church and doing a lot better, repairing his relationship with his family. It was so incredible to see how different he looked than the night we had prayed for him on the street. It was so cool to see how God had used us that night to step into what he was doing in this man’s life.

to say to the captives, 'Come out,' and to those in darkness, 'Be free!'

After this week we headed off to the base in San Salvador, El Salvador. Here were we able to participate in many different ministries the base is involved in… prostitute ministry, handing out food to the homeless, working with an orphanage, and presentations at high schools and churches. Every day was something different, but my favourite was and probably always will be the time where we get to share the reality of Jesus in front of high schools. Whenever we are there, God lets me feel His desperation for them to know Him and not miss out on the life He has planned. …the week after we traveled only 45 minutes to Sonsonate, where Lito is from. Here we did a lot of high school ministry… presenting the drama everything and sharing with the students. We were so blessed to experience the culture and hospitality here! We were staying with one of our friends families and were constantly experiencing their generosity… getting invited to eat pupusas, being taken to a beach house and being able to reconnect and rest! God was so incredible with us that week.

"And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

After this month of outreach in Costa Rica we finally split up into our teams: Central America, Haiti and Mexico. Praise the Lord, all finances came in, or at least what seemed to be lacking ended up being left over and enough to cover some emergencies/miracles.

My team went through Central America, beginning in Nicaragua. This was our long awaited and anticipated return to this beautiful country and although it was only one week, God did so much! It was such a privilege to return to the friendships and work that had begun a month earlier… we were able to get involved again, and see the progress of the library, (in March we had painted a mural and started an organized borrowing system), work again with the neighbourhood church and English classes and bible studies. As well, because we were staying at the base, we were able to get involved with the Escuelita the base has run now for several years. This school is from K to 6 or 7 and is run by ywamers or “volunteers”… the cost of the school is low enough for most of the poorer families in the Barrio to send their kids. One of my favourite ministries we did that week was a princess day at the church. It was soon going to be Mother’s day that week, and so we made little invitations for all the mothers and daughters in the neighbourhood to come and get pampered! We set up manicure and pedicure stations, a place to wash and do hair, and even a little massage seat. The place was FULL of women and little girls… I think I did pedicures for 2 hours straight… one after another. It was a treat to feel like, without words, we were able to speak value into their lives and make them feel even just a little bit special.

outreach costa ricaaaa

Okay! Finally a little update on the last 3 months! After the lecture phase of the DTS we started out the outreach phase with a week in Puerto Viejo. We stayed in a worked with a local church there, helping out with the services as well as planning different outreach events in the community. The culture in Puerto Viejo definitely has a distinct Caribbean flavour and is also a busy tourist community. There are people from all over the world and made for a really interesting outreach week. Something that’s common all over Costa Rica is the spontaneity and relaxed way of making things happen… we especially noticed this in Puerto Viejo as we kind of took it day by day, asking God how we could get involved with what he is doing there. It is a pretty heavy spiritual environment… most of the local shop keepers don’t really have much trust amongst themselves, let alone foreigners. And so we had the grand task of being a light in this dark place. One of my favourite things we did that week was a prayer walk across the beach at night. We split up into pairs, each pair having a candle that we struggled to keep lit, while we prayed on the beach. Each pair had come up with a prayer point and after a time of intercession, we gathered again to sing and praise the Lord for what He is doing there.
The week after this we traveled to Nicoya, Guanacaste to serve at one of the 3 YWAM bases in Costa Rica. The only staff they have are the base directors plus 1 Tica girl, so it was cool to help out some of our YWAM familia. While we were there we were blessed to join in the ministry and call they have to distribute bibles to every house in Nicoya and eventually all of Guanacaste. This was such an incredible experience. The Costa Rican people here were incredibly hospitable and welcoming, and were so blessed to receive a new bible for free! Some people would be getting out their money thinking we were selling them, others would look at us strangely until we said the words, ‘gratis’ or ‘regalo’ (free gift). We would get invited in and some of the groups were even given meals! The joy the Lord gave us through sharing with these people definitely made up for the intensely hot sun and long days we endured. I’ve never felt more like a missionary in my life… walking around with a backpack and purse full of bibles, practicing my Spanish.

outreach!!

ok! so I have like hardly anytime, but I feel slightly guilty for not being able update! we are in Antigua, Guatemala right now... on our last week of outreach! thanks for your prayers! I want to write soon, for real! we will be back in San Jose the 30th of May and graduation is the 3rd... expect an update soon after! God bless!! all my love, jaymie