My life changes every 37.2 seconds. Not by my choice, mind you. If God left things up to me, we would all stay the same, all the time (unless, of course, I had an agenda to change YOU to make me more comfortable). It would seem, however, that God is not looking for a personal assistant (I offered! "I am qualified!! I have IDEAS!!" and He politely declined), so things keep a'changin.
So what the heck has been going on with me the last 7 months?
I moved. Three times. And I am on the brink of another transition as my beloved roommate is sadly moving to California. (I could be wrong, but I am beginning to suspect that there is some kind of lesson that I am not learning...) So that has not been fun in terms of stability, but I have gotten to live with some really great people, which was a huge blessing.
I am still working at my church in the outreach department, which is also a huge blessing. I do not believe that it was at all coincidence that God placed me in this position. He totally opened the door there. It has not always been an easy process for different difficulties beyond anyone's control, but even in that, I am learning that God is faithful and He is good.
And because God LOVES me, He opened the door for me to teach at GED class to English learners in the spring. That was a new experience, but I loved it! I loved my students (all latinos!!).
"So, Desteni, how are you?" (head slightly tilted to the right).
I have been in a wonderful process. Has it been easy? About as easy as brain surgery in a row boat. It has been so hard and so uncomfortable, but sooo good. Tackling my issue with codependency is seriously revolutionizing my life. I am learning to change behavior/thoughts that are damaging to myself. I am learning that I have CHOICES. I am learning to own and deal with my own feelings, while requiring that others deal with theirs (I always felt responsible for everyone's feelings and needed to make everyone feel good). I am learning to be NICE to myself. (I would probably be in jail if I treated others the way I treated myself, in terms of expections, perfection, brutality over mistakes, etc). So it has been good. I still have a long way to go, but I am encouraged. I am hopeful that God is leading me to a glorious destiny.
"So, Desteni, are you going to go back?"
You know, I still am not putting pressure on myself to make that decision. I have a lot of resentment to work through still that would keep me from being objective at this point. I do know that my perceptions of what happened were/are distorted because of my codependence. I do know that I love Colombia. I miss it like crazy. I feel most alive when I am serving in missions. I am still passionate about the work there. We will see. I believe 100% that when it is time to make a decision that God will guide me and I will have peace. He's good like that ;)
What is immediately on my plate? I am going to lead a weekend trip to Agua Prieta, Mexico to serve at an orphanage. I went in February and it was great! There are so really awesome kids there.
Stay tuned for pictures...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Update on the Baby Shower
Something else pretty exciting also ocurred the first night of the brigade. I got a phone call from the girl we did the baby shower for. The babies were born, and we were the first people she called!! A healthy little boy and girl. I was seriously so touched though. She had literally just given birth and called us!
Ministry Stories
The young couple
One of the first days of the brigade, I received a young couple in counseling. Now, there are times when I am in counseling and I say what I think needs to be heard, but it is not like every time I go in, I feel like God is speaking through me. That was not the case here. We started talking about their marriage and they were really getting what I said. Then, according to what I was hearing from the both of them, I started to go a little deeper with the husband. We started talking about his childhood and he just lost it. He lived a TERRIBLE life of abuse, violence, even slavery. I challenged him to forgive the people who hurt him out loud. He couldn´t, but I could tell he really wanted to. So I encouraged the wife to take the kids and to give him the space where he could get alone to do that. They left. Hours later, I saw him walk by. He looked like a different man. Seriously. He saw me from afar and I gave him a questioning ¨thumbs up¨sign (communicating, "Did you do it?"). He nodded and smiled and kept walking. Later that night, he went to the evangelistic campaign and went forward to receive the Lord. It was awesome!
One of the first days of the brigade, I received a young couple in counseling. Now, there are times when I am in counseling and I say what I think needs to be heard, but it is not like every time I go in, I feel like God is speaking through me. That was not the case here. We started talking about their marriage and they were really getting what I said. Then, according to what I was hearing from the both of them, I started to go a little deeper with the husband. We started talking about his childhood and he just lost it. He lived a TERRIBLE life of abuse, violence, even slavery. I challenged him to forgive the people who hurt him out loud. He couldn´t, but I could tell he really wanted to. So I encouraged the wife to take the kids and to give him the space where he could get alone to do that. They left. Hours later, I saw him walk by. He looked like a different man. Seriously. He saw me from afar and I gave him a questioning ¨thumbs up¨sign (communicating, "Did you do it?"). He nodded and smiled and kept walking. Later that night, he went to the evangelistic campaign and went forward to receive the Lord. It was awesome!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Outreach Update Armenia
We survived the first week of outreach! (Applause...)
Ok, we got here and instantly feel in love with everyone. Seriously. You would have thought that we knew these people our whole lives. However, the pastor (woman) came up to me and started to tell me everything she had in mind. I fell unconscious half way through...it was an onslaught of activities to go at the same rate she was talking...a JILLION miles a minute. All I got out of it was that I wasn..t going to sleep for a week! (I love the pastor, btw)
So, we did more activities than what was healthy for the team, but it turned out SO GOOD!!! God has really put on my heart what it means to really be like Jesus. I mean, I can have all the information in the world, preach, lead Bible studies, be a missionary, but do I really look like Jesus? Do we as a church look like Jesus? I would venture to say that we don..t in many areas. That I don..t. Jesus was know for accepting people and for serving. For living outside of the structure. He was known for love.
With this fresh in my mind, Trinity and I started talking to some woman in the park. This girl was 21 years old, had a four yr old girl, a 2 yr old, and was pregnant with twins. We were getting along really well. They were super sweet. And I asked her if they did baby showers here. She said that they did. She said they did one last week, and confided that they had spent a large amount of money for them to through this party and only one person came and gave her some shampoo for the baby. She was just trouble and told me, "We don..t even have any clothes to receive the children in." So I asked her all excited, "Can we give you a baby shower?!!!" She was embarassed, but excited. So we did. My team, along with the church, gave this girl a baby shower. It was so special!!!!! Seriously. With no intentions, no strings attached, we just got to express love and acceptance to her and help her in her need. And God totally used it. She went to two services this week and started a relationship with the Lord. She asked me a bunch of questions and we got her a Bible that we all signed. It was so awesome.
I wish I had more time to tell all the stories from this week. There were just very permanent things that happened. Fruit that lasts. I will try to post some pictures soon. I don..t have a camera anymore, so I have to wait and borrow them from the girls on the team.
Please keep praying for us!
Ok, we got here and instantly feel in love with everyone. Seriously. You would have thought that we knew these people our whole lives. However, the pastor (woman) came up to me and started to tell me everything she had in mind. I fell unconscious half way through...it was an onslaught of activities to go at the same rate she was talking...a JILLION miles a minute. All I got out of it was that I wasn..t going to sleep for a week! (I love the pastor, btw)
So, we did more activities than what was healthy for the team, but it turned out SO GOOD!!! God has really put on my heart what it means to really be like Jesus. I mean, I can have all the information in the world, preach, lead Bible studies, be a missionary, but do I really look like Jesus? Do we as a church look like Jesus? I would venture to say that we don..t in many areas. That I don..t. Jesus was know for accepting people and for serving. For living outside of the structure. He was known for love.
With this fresh in my mind, Trinity and I started talking to some woman in the park. This girl was 21 years old, had a four yr old girl, a 2 yr old, and was pregnant with twins. We were getting along really well. They were super sweet. And I asked her if they did baby showers here. She said that they did. She said they did one last week, and confided that they had spent a large amount of money for them to through this party and only one person came and gave her some shampoo for the baby. She was just trouble and told me, "We don..t even have any clothes to receive the children in." So I asked her all excited, "Can we give you a baby shower?!!!" She was embarassed, but excited. So we did. My team, along with the church, gave this girl a baby shower. It was so special!!!!! Seriously. With no intentions, no strings attached, we just got to express love and acceptance to her and help her in her need. And God totally used it. She went to two services this week and started a relationship with the Lord. She asked me a bunch of questions and we got her a Bible that we all signed. It was so awesome.
I wish I had more time to tell all the stories from this week. There were just very permanent things that happened. Fruit that lasts. I will try to post some pictures soon. I don..t have a camera anymore, so I have to wait and borrow them from the girls on the team.
Please keep praying for us!
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