December Update

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So this year for me has been pretty crazy, full of changes and surprises.  Thank you for sticking with me.  Thank you for holding on through the crazy ride God has taken me on.  Thank you for your constant encouragement, prayers and committed financial support.  This whole missions thing really is a team sport; thank you for being there for me, backing me up, pushing me along and at times carrying me through this process.  We all play different positions, but our goal is the same: To follow the Coach’s instructions, because He knows best.

I’m not sure why the whole sports metaphor came about; maybe I just miss playing softball and tennis. :)

These past few weeks have been a busy and fun mix of events.

Living in a foreign country, even though I’ve been here for 5 years, still makes me laugh sometimes.  Certain things take 5 million times longer than they do in the US (those of you who have lived in a foreign country know what I'm talking about).  This month I had to renew my health insurance here.  To make a long story short I had to go to 4 different offices all over the city.  Driving in Guadalajara is fun.  As my mom would put it, “The only time I was afraid in Mexico was when we were driving”.  I had a fun journey with the GPS on my phone trying to get me to one of the health insurance clinics.  Thankfully GPS leading me down that dirt road alongside the canal did spit me out onto the freeway!

The other night a friend of mine, Nayelli, took us to the streets of Guadalajara where a lot of girls are being sold/trafficked.  I thank God for bringing Nayelli into my life, she has experience in this area and has been able to guide us to the different parts of the city.  Specific alleyways.  Bars.  Night clubs. Street corners.  Parks.  Table Dance clubs where many minors from other countries are hidden.   We have been going to the streets mainly to pray for the girls and pray for strategy.  Strategy on how to reach out and rescue these girls.

On the street with Karen and Nayelli

On another note, my mom came to visit for Thanksgiving!  It was so nice having her down those few days just to spend some quality one-on-one time together.

My mom and I at a cafe overlooking Ajijic

This past weekend I was able to participate in a Walk for Freedom, part of the A21 Campaign, where we raised awareness about the trafficking of girls here in the city.  It was a great time to not only raise awareness, but also to network and make more contacts.  We even made the news!

 

The women wore high heels to identify with the girls and red tape over our mouths to represent the impotency the girls have to cry out for help.

 

As we walked, the men walked alongside us and informed the public about trafficking here in Guadalajara and how we all can make a difference.

It was also a great time to fellowship with other girls and the pastor's wife from my church.

This month I have also been finishing up my master's degree online (Biblical Family Counseling) with a Mexican Christian university.  It has been a long time coming, as I have only been able to dedicate a small portion of my "free time" to it, but this month I will have completed all of the courses and in January I will start my thesis to finish it off!  Praise God!

Something God has been teaching me these past few weeks is that this is not a 100 meter dash race.  There is no reason to run as fast as I can, getting worn out and exhausted after 100 meters.  It is a cross country race.  One step at a time.

My prayer is that this Christmas season we would all slow down and truly enjoy every step we take. 

Enjoy the stage of life we are in and thank God for it, rather than looking behind or too far ahead. 

Let us be thankful for today and live today for Him, letting Him guide our steps.

Training in Pachuca/Mexico City

“Fear grows in the absence of knowing who God is.” Dean Sherman

As Christians we are called to go into the dark places. 

A lot of people do not like this. 

It is scary.

But this is what Jesus did.

We are called to cast our eyes on God, not on the situation.  This does not imply acting rashly, with no regard to our surroundings or the danger.  But it does imply not being moved by fear. 

These past couple of weeks that I spent in Pachuca and Mexico City I learned more about the reality of getting involved in human trafficking.  It is a dark place.  If I were moved by fear or passion, I would be out in a heartbeat.  However God has really convicted me to move according to who He is and what He calls me to do.

During this trip I had the opportunity to witness and participate in the various steps of ministry.  The timing/schedule of events actually worked out perfectly.

 

YWAM Pachuca

While in Pachuca I was able to join the YWAM base as they start up human trafficking ministry.  We went out to the red-light district to intercede and pray for the area, the girls and strategies on how to rescue the girls. 

Red Light District in Pachuca

In Mexico City one of the main focuses of the YWAM base is human trafficking.  I was able to participate with them in a ministry called “Distribution”.  Basically we walked the streets of the La Merced Market where all of the girls are lined up every meter.  In the 4 block radius there are 5000 girls.   

La Merced Market

We handed out little “goodie-bags” with a hand made card with a verse about how they are loved by God, nail polish, mascara and a business card of a beauty salon in the area.  We talked with and prayed for the girls.  The purpose of Distribution is to make the 1^st contact with the girls.  We invited them to a free haircut and to a weekly bible study at the salon.

Some things in the Goodie-Bags

 I also had the opportunity to spend the day at the beauty salon with a good friend of mine from when I used to live in Mexico City.  She showed me the ropes of the salon and shared more about her experience with the girls over the past 6+ years.  The salon serves as a refuge/resting place for the girls when they want to take a break; the girls are provided food, prayer, biblical counseling, etc..  This is where they minister to the girls, give them hope and offer them a way out.

The Salon/Community Center

Another day in Mexico City I was able to spend the day at a safe house for underage girls rescued from human trafficking.  It was definitely an experience to remember.  7 year old girls.  I don’t even know how to explain the emotions I felt that day.  The only thing I could do was hold tightly to God and remind myself of how good He is.   Keep my eyes on Him and not on circumstances.

A phrase that has really stuck with me on this trip is the fact that…  “Jesus was not motivated by human needs, but rather by the heart of the Father.”

Here in Guadalajara our team is in a time of seeking the Father’s heart.  There are lots of ideas, plans, strategies out there, but we want to seek His heart, His plan, His ideas, His strategy.    

“You steady me, slow and sweet, we sway;

Take the lead and I will follow,

Finally ready now to close my eyes and just believe

That You won’t lead me where You don’t go.” 

We Dance-Bethel Music

PRAYER REQUESTS:

-His strategy.

-Continued contacts/networking with others in trafficking here in Guadalajara.

-That we would move only according to His voice.

-The times that we go out onto the streets in Guadalajara to make contact with girls, pray, etc..
-A Christmas Outreach/Distribution Project- we want to distribute goodie-bags to the girls in Guadalajara.  That God would provide finances through partnering churches here to purchase the items and a prayer team to go out and distribute the bags and pray with us.

Passion.

Passion.  
It is what moves you, drives you.  
Supposedly what you do stems from a passion that you have.  If you are a teacher, you have a passion to teach. 

I have lived my life as a missionary here in Mexico driven by passion.  Passion to work with kids, passion to see their lives transformed.  However God has been showing me something important about passion these past few weeks that has surprised me.  

We are in the process of starting up a few safe houses to work with girls on the streets.  It is very exciting to see all of the contacts that God has put in my path.  Actually it is quite amazing and a complete miracle.  I won't go into great detail, but He is working...

• A girl in Guadalajara who used to walk the streets is showing me the ropes of what it looks like to minister to the girls.
• A trafficking ministry in Nicaragua that has worked in Mexico & South America has invited me to train under them in Nicaragua.
• Contact with trained individuals who can do the dangerous operations of going into a brothel or cantina where the girls are at to rescue them.
• Contacts in Immigration for girls trafficked from other countries
• Churches here in Guadalajara wanting to back up the project
• Various key people in Guadalajara and Chapala dedicated to the project
• A group of prayer warriors praying for the project
• Other training materials, healing through art, etc.  
• Contact with a Christian Senator whose platform is human trafficking

All of these contacts have come to me without me even searching.

You would think this would passion me.  That this would increase the passion I have for the project.  But honestly it hasn't. 

Am I excited?  Yes.
Am I amazed at what God is doing in such a short time?  Yes.
Is this project what moves me or passions me?  No.

I think before I was moved or passionate about projects, ministries.  At first I was worried that this project didn't give me passion.  But over the past few days God has really been speaking to me through His Word and through others that He is to be my passion.  I think as we mature and grow He starts to show us His excitement for what He wants to do without us being overwhelmed by our emotions.  With Him as our passion we can have a level head to make decisions and start up projects like this.

This is something completely necessary for this type of ministry.  We are faced with tragic stories left and right.  
Girls 10, 12 years old, orphans, scooped up and forced to be raped hour after hour.  Locked down.  Drugs.  Alcohol.  Hopelessness.  Helplessness.  Numbness.






I wish I could paint a nicer picture that would make a "feel good story", but this is reality. 

At first I thought my lack of passion was because something was wrong with me.  But now I praise God that He is my passion.  I would not be able to wake up everyday and see these things going on if He were not my passion, the reason I live. 

It is a dark and overwhelming world,
But He is guiding.
He is leading. 
He is what drives me.
He is my passion.
I am called to walk in obedience towards Him and move according to what passions His heart.

Map- Training Trip from Guadalajara-Pachuca-Mexico City

This upcoming week we plan to go on the streets and give white roses + a card to the girls.

The starting of our team.  Missionaries: Terry & Karen, me, Cheryl & Ray

One of the houses on the property we are praying for.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• My trip the 1st two weeks of November to Pachuca and Mexico City to train with 2 YWAM bases who work with human trafficking, street girls and safe houses.
• Direction if God wants me to go to Nicaragua to train with this ministry.  And if so, the finances to make the trip.
• Wisdom and discernment as to how to continue ministering to the girls without "standing out" to the pimps.
• Land purchase for the 1st safe home.  Open doors in the process if He wants us to have this land.

September Update

Now that I’ve completed the Discipleship Training School (DTS), I want to share more details on where God is leading me.

During the first week of DTS the Lord asked me to surrender the ministry I was a part of at Love in Action orphanage.  The problem wasn’t the ministry.  The problem was that I had placed ministry as my #1, instead of God.  It was the hardest thing He has asked me to do.  To make a long story short: after many tears, questions, doubts, and my pride being broken down, I surrendered it to God. 

In the following months of DTS I waited patiently, expectant and hopeful; I waited for God’s leading as to what was next.  I had been praying for confirmation, because I only want to take the next step if the Holy Spirit is leading me, and not act on emotions.

These past few weeks, God have been confirming my next step.  When I first arrived in Mexico, I was in Mexico City for about 6 months serving mainly with street kids and with a prostitute ministry.  

God has brought back that passion to love and rescue the girls on the street who are victims of human trafficking/prostitution.  It has been something on my heart for years now and throughout the past few months, God slowly started speaking to me about it again.  Now after many confirmations, I believe He is leading me to help start a safe home for these girls.

God has also placed various contacts and networking during these couple weeks as well.  I am partnering with a missionary couple and a few other individuals that also have the same calling-to start a safe home for girls, women and their children.  I have also been invited by the YWAM director in Pachuca, Mexico to train and learn from them as they start a transition home.  This will allow us to glean from other more experienced ministries before launching the safe home here in Guadalajara.  

This is honestly something new for me and I am very excited for all that God has in store.

I have come to realize that 75% of the children at the orphanage I served at are children of prostitutes; many of the girls themselves at orphanages have been forced into prostitution or human trafficking.  In a sense it will be a preventative work to keep children out of orphanages, girls out of human trafficking. 

Stats:

*Mexico is the 2^nd country worldwide with the most human trafficking (after Thailand).

*Every year 16,000-20,000 boys and girls are sexually exploited in Mexico.

*Worldwide there are currently 27 million victims of human trafficking.

Please join me in praying for:

-Trip to Pachuca and possibly Mexico City in October for training.

-Property for the establishment of this Safe Home.

-Relationship and trust building with the girls on the streets in and around the Guadalajara area.

-Protection for our team that will be going out on the streets with the girls.

-Wisdom and discernment for our team as we come together to seek God’s direction for the safe home.

Graduation with staff, directors and students

Sharing about my ministry experience in DTS at the graduation.

Miguel Auza and Durango

***MIGUEL AUZA***

Before leaving for Outreach we had prayed for direction and God showed me the cross-streets of Zapata and Constitución.  

For the first month we would search in each new town for these cross-streets, but to no avail.  I was honestly starting to doubt if I had heard from God correctly.  When we arrived in Miguel Auza the church we were staying at was on the street Zapata and just 1 block away was the cross-street of Constitución.  It was honestly a very bittersweet time for me.  On one hand I was very excited to see God fulfull what He had shown me and confirm that we were supposed to be in Miguel Auza.  But on the other hand God really convicted me on not trusting what He had shown me.

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."

Hebrews 10:23

 While in Miguel Auza we had numerous activities: presentations in the park, downtown, plazas, prayer times for the church families, etc.. 

I even had the privilege to drive a car full of clowns to the presentation!

But the one thing that stood out for me was the time my teammate Gama and I were able to visit 2 sisters who had attended one of our presentations.  One day we visited Lourdes and after talking and listening for 2-3 hours she shared with us that she has been searching for God for the past few months, but didn't know how.  That morning we prayed for her and she prayed very excitedly to start a relationship with God!

The following day we visited her sister, Azucena, and the same story!  She prayed to receive Christ and right after praying God brought conviction to her heart on how she has been mistreating kids.  Crying she asked them for forgiveness.  So awesome to see Christ bring restoration to a family right before our eyes!

Azucena, Lourdes, their kids, Gama and I at church

That week we continued visiting with them, discipling them and each afternoon/evening they attended all of our presentations.  That Sunday they showed up at church with their children and their mother.  So encouraging seeing that there will be follow-up and discipleship for them within the church!

***DURANGO***

Vacation Bible School

While in Durango we were able to serve at a local church at their Vacation Bible School.  They had very limited staff and were praying the past few days for more volunteers and we arrived just in time!

We were able to serve in the Kitchen, Arts and Crafts, Coreographies and the Bible Class

Youth Jail Ministry

We also had the opportunity to visit a youth jail.  At one of our presentations I had the opportunity to share something that God had put on my heart and afterwards one of the girls, Daniela, came up to me in tears.  Daniela shared with me about her life and how she was in such desperate need of Jesus to help her.  It is so awesome to see how God brought her to a place of such desperation where He is the only one she can turn to.

Prostitute Ministry

Prostitution is completely legal in Durango.  Crazy, right?!  Ever since we got into the city, and even before knowing that fact, God had put it on my heart to plan a night to go out and minister to the girls.  One night 2 guys and I went out to do a spiritual mapping of where God wanted us to go to minister to the girls.  Then as a team God showed us that the way He wanted us to minister to them was for each of us to write a letter to them.  Then only the ones who felt a direct call from God to go the following night would go to deliver the letters.  That night 5 of us went out to deliver the letters along with a handmade paper flower to the girls on the streets.  It was a very spiritual difficult atmosphere.  Honestly I was very affected the first night we went to map it out.  But God showed me the importance of covering ourselves in prayer before, during and after going out to minister in such a dark place.

One of the letters to the prostitutes

My daughter, 
I know what you think.  
I know what you feel.  
I know that you desire a way out.  
I feel your pain.  
I feel your desperation.  
I feel the numbness.  
I understand what it feels like not to feel anything.  
My heart breaks seeing yours broken.  
I see the tears that you try to hide.  
I see your broken heart and I want to give you a new one.  
I want to give you hope.  
I want to see yourself how I see you.  
I love you, not for what you do, but I love you because you are my daughter.  
You are the princess, the apple of my eye and my heart longs that you would cry out to me for help. 

With love, Papa Dad.  

LO DE MARCOS

We spent 3 days serving with the church here, doing various presentation in the plaza and at a Medical Brigade Event that the church put on.  We were surprised with the hospitality of the church and it’s members.

We put on an event for the kids at the Medical Brigade

After De Lo Marcos the team split up, half of the team stayed together onto the next destination and the other half returned to Chapala to run the Kings Kids camp.  Since we all didn’t fit in one van, I volunteered to return to Chapala with one of the staff for my car to caravan with the van.

TEPIC

We met up with the team that was staying at a church called "La Fuente" (The Fountain).  They graciously opened up their doors for us to stay at the church and to help serve there.  The first night we met a girl, Dalia, who had also done a DTS through YWAM.  We went out to dinner after the church service and shared about what God has been doing in our lives and in the end she paid for our dinner.  What a blessing.

The days we were in Tepic we painted the church, served in a small town (La Puga) and participated in the weekly church services.  It as a very refreshing time for us to be poured into as we served alongside the church.

Painting

Painting the church

Inviting people to the presentation

A community of indigenous people (Huicholes) that we visited

Presentation in La Puga

In Tepic God spoke to me a lot from 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 

“Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.  And the best of the three is love.” 

ZACATECAS

From Tepic we drove 8 hours to Zacatecas.  Arriving in Zacatecas we were generously greeted by the pastor and his family at a local restaurant that one of the church families owns.  The pastors have only been in Zacatecas for 8 months, so our main goal was to serve the church, invite people, share with the city, etc..

The view of Zacatecas

The first night we prayed over Zacatecas as we stood on the balcony that overlooks the entire city.  God blessed us with a beautiful sunset, almost like an aurora.  With all of the amazing colors God reminded me of Isaiah 60:2-3.

The city of Zacatecas is a very closed city, very traditional.  That week God spoke to me a lot from 1 Corinthians 15 about planting a dead seed and how a live plant is risen.  A dead seed doesn't really have anything similar with a live plant, but nonetheless that is how a plant is given life.  That is exactly what we were doing in Zacatecas.  Sometimes we felt like we were just planting dead seeds, but it takes time for the plant to grow and to see the fruit.

During our time in Zacatecas we did a lot of presentations in various communities (Lazaro Cardenas, Los Bolos, at the church, etc.).  We also shared with the people after the presentations and throughout the day.

One day we went to the hospital to pray for the sick people and their families.

We also had the opportunity to go to a Woman's Jail and do a presentation.  I was able to talk with and pray for a girl, Jovanna.  It was so cold there that she offered me her only jacket.  It is amazing to see how people with so little are willing to give so much!

With the girls after a presentation

With one of the youth from the church.  After church she ran home (a 1 mile away) to bring me a wallet sized photo of her so I can remember her and pray for her.  :)