Tijuana treasure~

hello my dear lovelies! I had an amazing time in Tijuana and I wanted to share all with you. :) *WARNING* that means that I'm going to write a lot!!! *another warning* I'm not so sure that I'll be telling you what happened and the right day... my days kept getting mixed up and I'm still realizing things happened on different days that I thought they did! haha anyhow, here goes:

Saturday 6/21/08
we meet as a group at HRC to pray and head off for Tijuana. in all, 20 of us went on the trip. I was in the big van and lacking sleep. in San Diego we stopped for some Pho while I was madly texting Rebecca, Ray and Jonder trying to take care of different details for Sun. it actually all worked out pretty well. :) thanks, guys! our first night in Tijuana we all went to the same church. pastor Mark preached and then we all did ministry. on the way down to Tijuana I kept having this feeling that I was supposed to pray for someone with an injured elbow. the way ministry time started I didn't have a chance to go up and call those people forward. pastor Mark had called people forward for problems with their head (headaches, injuries, etc.). WELLLLL.... turns out that the person I went up to first to pray for had an injury on her elbow from 6 months ago. I prayed for her for quite a while. her headache disappeared and her elbow got a bit better. there was some other stuff that I lead her through while praying for her. it was really great! oh yeah, on the way to Tijuana Rebecca had asked me if I knew what I was going to be responsible for while there. I jokingly said "probably Gabe's p.a." she laughed, I laughed, and then we changed the subject. well, after our service that evening we had a debrief meeting... and Gabe jokingly called me his p.a. it was actually so funny that I couldn't laugh! (yeah, that's pretty weird) this day was VERY HOT! we all almost melted once we got out of the cars. Sarah A. was my roommate. I think it's good we were. we helped each other grow in different ways. YAY!

Sunday 6/22/08
this morning our teams were arranged. I was placed in a team with Sarah A., Melissa and Mi Young. while waiting at pastor Samy's church for our first speaking engagement (we were scheduled to go to 2 churches) we discovered that the first church never came to pick us up. this is where all the patience I learned in China comes in handy! I had no problem dealing with it. I'm too used to it. it came time for us to go to the second church (which was the same church we were at Sat. night) and Sarah and I had to decide who was going to preach. we were supposed to split between the 2 services. well, I was all ready to preach... and when we got there the pastor asked if we could focus more on ministry! so all I really did was give a short sharing about how they should be in expectation for God to come, etc, etc, etc. Melissa and Sarah shared short words and then nearly everyone came forward for ministry. it was a great time! I told my translator and a few other guys that were working in the church to also minister. I love seeing the local church members activated! it's so exciting. there were several healings that service and a lady came to the Lord. YAY GOD! we ministered for about 3 hrs and got back in time to have lunch at nearly 5:00! after a short while of relaxing, several of us went with Gabe to play soccer with pastor Samy's son. welll.... when we got there they were in the middle of an intense game of soccer on a small, enclosed field. I wanted to play but could tell they wouldn't let me. so I settled for watching the game and giggling at Gabe for the few min's he was on the field. he actually did a lot better than I expected! but it was still funny. and I've got some great clips of him playing. :) this was the only free night we had. after soccer we had a meeting and then a bunch of us went out for a late dinner of carnitas. good time had by all.

Monday 6/23/08
today we woke up early to go have breakfast at pastor Samy's house and then start construction. when we got to the church I discovered that today's "construction" was more "clean up". it including lots of weeding, picking up garbage and shoveling. my back wasn't prepared for it. I tried the best I could but didn't get far. instead, I filmed a lot (including the dead animals that we found. I still can't believe I picked up those bones! even though I was wearing gloves, that's still gross) and helped cook lunch. I did VBS in the afternoon with Brooke and some other girls. I love working with kids, so this was a great experience. Samuel was our translator. great guy! had fun talking with him and being silly. in the evening we all went to a church about 30 min's away. during the drive there I discovered that a dream I had about 2 yrs ago had to do with that general area. once again, I was ready to preach. pastor Mark said there were about 4 of us that were going to popcorn preach. we never made it past Sarah's message. :) it was amazing, though. the people were so hungry for God! we prayed and prayed and prayed... and then we danced and danced and danced. I was sweating so much! it was disgusting. haha I haven't sweated that much since my very memorable trip to Qingdao in the summer of '04 (I'll tell you about it another time)! God is good.

Tuesday 6/24/08
we started working on stuff that was actual construction this morning. I had so much fun doing it! maybe I'm just weird. haha :) I didn't even hesitate to offer to stay back from VBS and I almost forgot to help make lunch! (that's amazing considering I love kids and I love cooking!) Hailey stayed back with me. we had fun attempting to do different things. I'm surprised we didn't drive Guillermo crazy. he'd teach us something and we'd do exactly what he showed us... and then when we'd taken 10 times as long as him to do it he'd come back and finish it in 5 sec.'s. haha but we still had fun. this night I was supposed to preach again... but the church I was supposed to didn't come to get me. so my group and another group mixed together and went to pastor Samy's church together. I was ready to share if I was called upon... but for some reason right when Gabe asked, from the stage, if I had something to share... God totally changed my sermon and asked me to share something that I don't like talking about. I started crying and couldn't stop. after a while I was ready to share but they ended up not needing me to. I now know that God did that to deal with heart issues of mine... just thinking about sharing it was frightening! but once I told God I'd do it and I was ok with it, He released me from sharing about it. wow!

Wednesday 6/25/08
this morning we went to listen to pastor Mark preach at the pastor's conference. after he spoke we all prayed for the pastors. during the sermon pastor Mark talked about me for a min. it was kinda odd to hear me talked about as a teacher instead of a servant or lover of kids or whatever. but it was nice! :-) after lunch we all went to the beach for our afternoon of hanging out. Jeewon, Hailey, Go Woon, David and I took off for a long walk in search of fruits. we shared a fruit bowl and then did some shopping before heading back. we got semi lost on the way back... NOT MY FAULT! I kept saying we had parked further down but they thought we passed where we parked so I conceded and walked back with them for a few blocks before they discovered that I was probably right. we eventually found where we were going. haha this evening was my favorite evening of the whole week! after dinner my group was changed to me, Melissa and Jenny. we were told to get in the car and go... we got in the car (me driving) with Guillermo, who was to guide us. just as we were about to pull out, Melissa asked Memo (that would be Guillermo) if he was translating. obviously he wasn't, but then I realized that we didn't have a translator. I rolled down the window to ask pastor Samy what was going on. he went "oh my goodness! I forgot!" and rushed inside. next thing I know, Samuel was coming out. we had a fun drive to the church. first I ran a stop sign that nobody saw (which resulted in a conversation that basically ended in Memo and Samuel saying that as long as we don't break a big law we can just drive faster and shout "viva Mexico!" hahahaha)... then the freeway on ramp was closed and so Memo had to think of a different way for us to get there. then there was road construction so we were basically driving on dirt and rocks. we got to the church and were immediately in God's presence. it was so beautiful. it was a small church in an upper room that consisted of mostly little kids. I actually preached this night. we prayed for healing. I told Samuel and Guillermo that we didn't need translators during prayer because the Holy Spirit is the same in all of us and told them to go pray for people. we saw several people healed and people return to the Lord. YAY! then I had them bring back in the little kids and we prayed for them. after that, more people came up for prayer. one little girl kept watching while I was praying, so I took her hand and told her to put it on the person I was praying for. she did. it was so cute! and every time I'd go to a different person to pray for she'd come with me and put her hand on them. one time I left a person to go pray for someone else and she wouldn't leave that person until he said it was ok. TOO CUTE! on the way back to the hotel we had more fun. first, there was a huge spider in the car! took us a while to dispose of it. then I couldn't figure out how to turn the lights on. that was actually really funny. then... well, remember that road that was in construction? ok, so when we had come in the dirt part was being used as a two lane road even though it was a lot larger. so I just drove where the other cars had been driving earlier... only to discover that... welllll.... the lane I was actually supposed to be going the other direction. I came to the intersection where the construction was finished at and we were facing cars at a red light!! I asked Samuel and Guillermo what to do. they said to just go... and as I did, we all laughed and said "viva Mexico!" :) I think we made it back just in time for our debriefing meeting that night. and I think I went to the pharmacy this night with the others to have smoothies. I honestly don't know how I made it through this night. I was exhausted! so was the rest of my team. as we were leaving from pastor Samy's house we were talking about how tired we were... but once we got to the church we were revived. definitely a miracle!

Thursday 6/26/08
back to construction this morning. SO MUCH FUN! I had fun despite me nearly tumbling down the hill into the pile of rubbish (including the dead animals). thanks Gabe for catching me! it could have ended a lot worse than just the few scratches I got. I stayed back from VBS again and I totally forgot to help with cooking lunch. I didn't even offer to take part in the prayer teams for the healing rooms in the morning. I was on the "hard labor" team. yeah, I think I lost my mind... cuz that sounds fun to me! this evening we all participated in being on prayer teams for the healing rooms. then afterwards we went back to the hotel and had our own prayer time. it was so refreshing and amazing. we really needed it.

Friday 6/27/08
more construction! YAY!!!! I spent most of the morning using a huge electric saw. I'm surprised I didn't go deaf! I did have buzzing in my ears for most of the day, though. I don't know why, but part way through the day I felt real lazy/slow... I went up to Guillermo (we started teaming up yesterday and working together almost exclusively... mostly cuz everyone else is weird! haha he's a good teacher and I think I was being a good student?) after lunch and told him that I was being lazy. he didn't know what that meant, so I told him I was being slow. he said he was too... so we spent the rest of the day assisting each other in one person jobs. if I needed to use the saw, he'd stand there and "help". if he needed to drill, I'd stand there and "help". of course, if assistance really was needed we'd work together... but mostly we were just being lazy. haha it was amazing to see all that the team accomplished in the construction by the end of the day! I wish I had pictures to show you... but I was taking all video and only took two pix the whole time. and they were both this night! and just pix of me and Samuel together and me and Guillermo together. haha :-) I said my "good byes" to them before heading off to minister. (I miss you guys already!!!!!!!!!) this evening I went to a church with Anthony, Mi Young and Dana & Anna. it was really far away and we had to walk through several blocks of dirt road to get to the church. we had a really good time ministering. Anthony, Mi Young and myself all preached... and our messages all coincided even though we hadn't told each other what we were going to talk about. absolutely amazing! the church was blessed. we got back to the hotel at midnight and then met up with some of the others at the pharmacy. it was a nice and relaxing last night in Tijuana.

Saturday 6/28/08
we left from the hotel around 1:30 and spent a long time to get through the border. I got a hammock for $15 (they asked for $65... I taught Gabe the art of bargaining and the price came down to $15 after who knows how long) and Gabe tried on a Spiderman mask and ran through traffic (BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA I can't wait to get that video put up!). for lunch we stopped at Carl's Jr. it took us all way too long to decide what to eat. I think we got used to just being served. a few of us had Starbucks, too. :) after that we went to La Jolla for a while and then headed back for Pasadena. after we got back, most of us went out for dinner. yeah, we were surprised we weren't tired of each other, too!

on Sunday a bunch of us went to lunch together and then we ministered at church on Sunday evening. what an amazing experience. I can't wait to see Samuel, Dee and Roshana again (they're coming to the conference in July! YAY!!!!!!!) and hopefully see Guillermo again. I miss everyone... :(