Newsletter Update

Hey everyone just wanted to give another update on my newsletters, I just sent them out either yesterday or the day before. So I know your all on the edge of your seats but you should be getting them here pretty soon in the mail. Yeah for mail!!!
I don't really have anything more to say, hope you enjoy the newsletter and once again if you have anything more you would like to know about my trips just type it in the comments area. I will try to reply in a rather timely matter.

A New Season of Life

I just wanted to sit down and inform everyone of what's been going on in my life as of late. I believe about three weeks ago I arrived here in Grand Forks, coming home from a absolutely fabulous time in Nashville, TN with YWAM. I knew at this time that the Lord was not calling me back to do the second school with YWAM, SOMD (School Of Ministry Development.) So here I sat, somewhat lost, not knowing what was coming next or where to really go with my life. Would it be back to UND, doing track and getting a degree? Would it be working for awhile, making some money, then moving? Would it be doing what I have wanted to do my whole life, be a massage therapist? Well it was in this state that I stayed for awhile, wrestling with my future not really knowing what to do, or where to go. So the first thing I looked into was what the massage therapy program looked like around here. I called the Skin and Body Institute which is the school where they teach you how to become a massage therapist. And what they told me was pretty alarming, the next school to start was on June 12th!!!!! June 12th was, I believe at this point, five days away. I had five days to decide, my future, my job, whether or not I was jumping in with both feet, or what. I took some time to think about it and went to some important people in my life for advice, instruction, and encouragement. For the last probably eight years of my life, what I have wanted to do or to be was a massage therapist, so it was that day that I decided I was following my dream. Even if it meant going to school if five days!!!
So this is where I am at today. I have been in school for two weeks now, things have been really intense. The program lasts six months and then like nurses we take a national board test to get licensed. I have already given and gotten my first hour massage, it actually went pretty well!! And yesterday we went on site to a golf course, sat at the tee boxes and gave a quick five, ten minute massage to the golfers coming through. So needless to say we've been thrown into doing things, but the best learning tool for me is "hands" on!! Wow, that was a bad joke huh?!??!

Another Quick Update

Just wanted everyone to know that newsletters should be getting out here in the next few days, so make sure to watch your mailboxes!! Thanks so much again for everything, the love, the support, the prayers. These last six months have meant a lot to me, and will be an experience I will never forget. The Lord showed up, revealed Himself to myself and my team, along the way. The things I learned while at YWAM are things that can never be replaced or forgotten. You helped all of these things to happen. God Bless!

Some Random Mexico Fun

Well I thought since I told you a little about Cuba, I would now direct everyone's thoughts back over to Mexico and tell you a little story. If you refer back to May 6th you would read about us moving about debris and rubble to level off a place near a church so they could build a basketball court, that they would also for futbol (soccer) schools for the kids in the neighborhood. At this same site we also helped level off the floor of the church so they could actually put in cement at some point down the road. Well this story is about that same church and the pastor that worked with us there, to sum up this pastor he was a little crazy (loco). The whole week we had worked with him, we needed to keep our hands out in front of us and open, because we never knew what was going to happen next with this guy. By this time your probably like get to the story already, and here it goes.
This story starts on a Sunday morning, my team all got up got ready to go to church, we're riding in the vans to the church. On the way there though we see the pastor driving the opposite direction and then he stops the van in front of us, they speak for a little while and then drive off. So now it's our turn, we pull up, roll down the window and the pastor speaks to Tito (he's our interpreter). Then walks off, gets into his car, and leaves. And we're like what the heck, what was that all about. So we all ask Tito what's going on and he proceeds to chuckle and says, the pastor said you guys are running the service today. In other words your PREACHING!!!! So we all start freaking out, and are like what are you serious????? So we get to the church all sit down, and Lisa (a leader) gets up in the front and says, okay guys you know what's going on, and what needs to be done, who wants to preach..........everyone stares at her and there is no movement in the building. Estimated time to service starting 40 minutes. So at this point what do we do???? Well we do what you should do in a bind, pray!!! We sat down and asked to Lord for direction, in what we should do, who should speak, what we should speak on. And what do you think happened?? Well let me tell you, the Lord showed up, and showed up in a big way. It ended up that myself and two other girls, got up and gave the sermon on Jonah. And it flowed and came together so well, the glory could only be given to the Lord, because none of us girls could have done what we did on our own. The Lord is FAITHFUL!!!

Quick Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that there are new pics up from Mexico and Cuba on my Flickr account. Scan over to the side bar on the right, and it will say My Web Stuff, underneath that click the link and it'll take you to see some pics. I'll try to add some more in the near future.

Question and Answer

Well it seems that my faithful readers (a.k.a. my brothers!!) have a few questions, or a few ideas of what I should talk about here on my blog. So I will proceed to tackle the first question, or suggestion, the suggestion was to talk about Cuba. Here I am going to talk about Cuba. If there's any specific questions though after this you guys can for sure just write on here again if I don't cover something you may want to hear about.
Let's see, Cuba was very, very interesting to say the least. The terrain was absolutely amazing like nothing I have ever seen before. It was just so hilly/mountainy, and they were just covered with tropical life. It reminded me of Jurassic Park, I felt like I stepped right into the movie. Gorgeous to say the least. A photographer's paradise.
The motif of Cuba is 50's style, they haven't imported cars since then because of the revolution, and the few cars that they have imported are for tourists.
The face of Cuba was hard to put a finger on, it changed as your eye fell on the next person. You could have a 100 percent Cuban that had straight blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. To the next Cuban who was as dark as dark could be, dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes. I think Cuba is where the song got the lyric of Jesus loves the little children red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.
The churches in Cuba are amazing, the services may be the longest in the history of the earth but they sure are full of life and energy that's for sure. We had services that lasted like four hours. But they were filled with jumping, clapping and singing to your hearts content. Church while in Cuba was held mostly in people's homes, you need a permit from the government to build a church and they never give them out, so what do people do, they improvise by having it in their homes.
That's kind of Cuba in a nut shell. Like I said though if you would like to know something specific let me know, write it in the comments. And I will try to get to it.

Home Sweet Home

Hey everyone!!! I am officially home. Tash and I took on the trip home, starting late afternoon on Monday. So we actually got home late, late, late Tuesday night, or if you like to say early, early Wednesday morning. Then on Wednesday I hung out with my family a little, but just tried to straighten out my life and get things in order, doing laundry, getting things in place at home, and then Tash headed off for home herself. There probably going to be plenty more of these entries but right now I really don't know what to write down. I know I need to talk about my experience and trips but I can't really think of anything right now. But don't worry things will come to mind and when they
do,I will write them down here for all to read.

The other thing to is if you guys have questions for me please write
them in the comments, and I will try to answer them for you.
Sometimes questions help spark the memory!!