Monday, March 31, 2008

The Stand

If you didn't read about Day 4 of Mexico, don't forget to read it. I had to blog twice, this just couldn't wait. I ran across this song today and it just stuck with me, so I thought I'd share it, along with a little bit of my heart.

"I'll stand, arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all.
I'll stand my soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours."
---The Stand by Michael W. Smith

How many times do we forget that we must be surrendered to His call 100% in order to find fulfillment? I know I forget a lot. From the time I was 13 I knew God was calling me to ministry through LifeChurch. I've been waiting for a job for what seems like forever and just when it opened, my mentor suggested I continue growing and start serving at another campus. Let me just tell you all, I've NEVER attended another church and even when I go to another campus it's with all my friends and family. But after this suggestion from my mentor I was reminded all we can ever do is surrender our lives to His plan. We never know what He might be calling us to next. I believe whole-heartedly I am called to ministry, but like I always say, just wait for the right timing, because there's not timing like His timing. All we can ever be is His and just let Him have control. All this to say, I'm leaving my home campus of Edmond to venture out and start serving at OKC. I'm excited, but nervous. But I'm choosing to believe God has an even greater plan for me, and I'm excited to see it! So don't forget: we are surrendered to His call and it is the best!!!

Day 4

Our morning began bright and early with every intention of leaving Basaseachi Falls that day. However two people were sick and we ended up starting later than planned (they estimated it would take 4 hours to hike out...that's how big the canyon was...). So we decided as a group to stay a day and rest in the falls. Lance and Chris hiked to the top to get food for the day and breakfast for the next morning (thanks so much guys!!!!). We spend the day "rock hopping." Here are some pictures of the canyon that day. (and yes by "rock hopping" I mean we literally would jump from one rock to another). We ran from one side to the other and found this rock that stuck out and sat there for about 30 minutes just talking. I think with in about 2 hours we had hiked the same amount of feet running around as we would have hiking up the mountain. We found a few caves in the midst of all the rocks. And most of what we did this day was play and run. We all met up for lunch and wen to the pool at the bottom of the falls and had cheese and crackers. The water was freezing cold, so most of us didn't want to go swimming (two days earlier, snow was on the ground). After this I spent most of my day hanging out with the God who created all this and just couldn't stop praising and thanking Him for creating beautiful places so I can admire His creativity. Laurel and I took two naps on the rocks and found this little waterfall with it's own pool. Going down to it was pretty difficult, and getting back up was even more difficult, but we made it finally!! Everyone made it back to camp and Beth, Laurel, Paco and I went to filter water for dinner. And when we got back, we had yummy chili for dinner!! And we got to make s'mores!!! Talk about a great evening. We sat around and discussed more leadership issues and just spent some time talking about the day. I think we finally made it to bed at a normal time and Chris told us it wasn't supposed to be as cold that night as the night before.........but even the best can be wrong! The wind chill was in the single digits that night I believe. Around 2am the fly (or cover on the top of the tent that keeps bugs and wind out of the tent) was disconnected from its straps (that's how hard the wind was blowing) and blew off. So we had below freezing wind blowing through our tent, needless to say, I didn't sleep. When Lance woke up at 4 he saw our fly was off and came to fix it. So I got an hour of sleep. We all woke up at 5 and ate, packed and headed up the mountain at 7:30. We made it to the top around 11. It only took us 2.5 hours!! We unpacked our backpacks and cleaned up. Then we went to this homecooking place and had some DELICIOUS Mexican food and shopped around and at 1 we headed out for Creol. I'll finish that day tomorrow!! Here's one last picture of the Canyon...

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Day 3

Again, I woke up with the sun at 6:22 and took a quick shower (there was finally water pressure, but no hot water...) and packed my bag. We left the orphanage around 9 or so to travel to the BEAUTIFUL Basaseachi Falls. It was a 4 hour drive and so most of us fell asleep for a little while, if not for all of it. The waterfall was (of course) in the mountains, so to get there we went on one of those "side of the mountain" curvy roads. Now, if you had any idea how nervous I am when other people drive me around, especially if you're within inches of sliding off the mountain, you can only imagine how tense I was. I tried not to watch, but then my "friend" kept telling me how close we were to the edge or how close we would be to another car, so I had to watch, because I don't trust this "friend." I finally got to a spot where I was comfortable in the seat (I needed to get some sleep) and right about the time I would have fallen asleep, this "friend" pretends to push me off the seat, but caught my hand at the last second. I was a little mad...but he decided to be kind for about an hour and I was almost asleep, yet again, and we hit ANOTHER bump in the road, and my eye hit my "friend's" shoulder (I'm really surprised I didn't get a black eye!!!) We finally made it safely to Basaseachi and we ran to quickly to see the waterfall.
We found some spots where we could camp in the basin, so we hustled back to the van to pack our backpacks to begin the hike to the basin. (Keep in mind, this is the 11th largest fall in the world...).

The hike down took about 45 minutes. I was exhausted by the end, but the journey gave me the chance to get to know Mel and grow my friendship with Laurel. We found a spot to set up 3 tents, but we needed 3 more spots. So Chris and Paco gave up their spot for Hannah and I. They slept right below us and the other adults found spots.

We then had about and hour of daylight left (or 30 min of daylight and 30 min of twilight) to collect firewood and get everything ready for the night. I went with Lance, Christopher, and Mel to purify water, which was an experience in itself. We got together that night and had some leadership discussion. Then right as it ended the moon rose and lit up the canyon. BEAUTIFUL!!! As the sun went down, the basin cooled to about 40 with wind chill around 35. COLD!!!!! We ended our "fellowshipping" and got some much needed shut eye.

Thanks for reading I know they're long, but our days were packed full!!!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Day 2

Day 2...this post shouldn't be as long, at least I don't plan on it being!

I woke up with the sunrise every morning at precisely 6:22 am (8:22 our time, so about normal for me). I got up, and started a book called Be Still My Soul. It's crazy how God places things in our life and just the right time. The chapter was about God giving you only what you can handle and to lean on Him for the rest; how we are created to be servants and obedient, even when we might not want to follow the leadership. PERFECT!! The sun came over the mountain right as I finished the chapter...again PERFECT!! I love watching sunrises almost as much as I love rain showers. :) By then it was about 7:30 and everyone had pretty much woken up. We had yummy pancakes for breakfast, and hit the rest of the painting hard (and when I mean hard, I mean we painted from 9:30 until 1:30...and finished EVERYTHING). I was put on the Mac-n-Cheese wall again since I was still covered in paint from the day before. Caroline joins me and decides to do the detailed work on the edges, so I grabbed the roller, and painted the Mac-n-Cheese walls AGAIN. We finished right about lunch time (cleaning up oil-based paint...not so much fun). Lance and Paco brought back so AMAZING mangoes, cantaloupe, and other fruit we loved. I ate a whole plate of cantaloupes BY MYSELF!!!! We all shoved down lunch, part from hunger and part from rush. After lunch we only had one wall left so most people took showers so we could leave as soon as the rest of us finished the wall. We primed an outside wall, took a break, and went after the Mac-n-Cheese orange. I had a little bit more painting to do on my walls that needed a ladder, so I left the Mac-n-Cheese for others and attacked my walls. :) Eventually everyone had showered, except for Chris and I (we couldn't stop painting...we attended high school together...). Once we finally finished, we decided to give in and shower, only to find Chihuahua turns off their water (for the ENTIRE city around 1...) so we didn't get to shower. Covered in paint, we changed clothes and put on our best attitude and piled in the van to do some sightseeing/shopping (with the 5 boys...thanks Chris for watching them). We saw a beautiful church and the governor's office building. We shopped in lotsa stores (I mainly stuck with the shoes) and I almost broke down and bought a pair of baby blue cowboy boots. Had my suitcase not been so packed I would have taken them in an instant. We headed back to the orphanage at 5:30, but at Lori's request took a detour to a mountain top so we could see the whole city!! Talk about beautiful. I didn't get any pics, but as soon as I get some, I'll post them. The wind was blowing so hard, we couldn't stay for very long. We ventured back to the orphanage for some dinner and prepared for the carnival! I think we (the ladies and Deutsch) were more excited. We had coloring, face painting, bracelet making, tattooing, and so much more. We all got rope bracelets that we can't take off without cutting. I had a blast! That ended around 11 when the boys all went to bed. But we (Chris, Lori, Caroline, Hannah, Laurel, and me) stayed up until about 2:30 LAUGHING!!! Tune in tomorrow for our hike down into Basaseachi Falls!!

Monday, March 24, 2008

I'm Back!!!

I made it home around 11 Saturday night from Mexico. I thought I'd go through each day and our journey as we grew in our service and leadership. Thanks for all your prayers, we could feel them. I'll try to add in some pics, but I don't have very many. Well here it goes...

Day One (including the journey to Chihuahua)--
We left Edmond around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon, loaded up a 13 passenger van and drove to the OKC Police Department to pick up, yes that's right...Paco, Paco, Paco Balderrama. Next we traveled to Moore High School to pick up Beth and Laurel up from a debate tournament. We FINALLY hit the road for Mexico around 4pm. Like always, the time you spend with each other in the van are the most memorable. :) We laughed and got to know each other and around 7:30 we started asking for dinner. At around 10:45 we made it to a Sonic and stopped to eat dinner. Twelve of us ordered from one machine. Talk about hectic, but somehow they brought out all our food correct, dare I say it, the FIRST TIME!!! Paco, Paco, Paco was worried about us running late, so we grabbed our food and ate on the road. Around midnight we had, for the most part, wound down and all, expect 4 attempted to sleep. That, however, wasn't successful, at least for me. If you've never experienced me tired, let's just say the angry side of Mandy comes out. :) (sorry Chris)...anyway, just as they started to get tired, we reached the border at 2am (Chihuahua time, it was 4am OKC time). I'm sure we were a sight to see, but thankfully the border patrol who helped us was kind enough to fill out the visas for those who couldn't see straight (Laurel...). We passed smoothly and piled in the van to finish the last 4 hours of our journey. After about 30 minutes of driving, we were stopped at a military check point...talk about scary. Two men search our van (thankfully all the other students aside from Chris and me were asleep) and waved us on. We can begin our journey again. :) I finally found a comfortable spot on the floor leaning against the wheel cover. I slept there peacefully for about 2.5 hrs, suddenly awakened by a loud thud of my back nailing the wheel cover. Paco had hit a speed bump and sent me flying through the air. I fell asleep again for about 30 min awakened yet again to a thud. Man, did that hurt, but this time it was my left shoulder that hit the wheel. I decided to give up sleeping at this point and found and empty seat, propped my legs up, and miraculously rested (no more sleep for Mandy). It's amazing how just resting can replenish you with energy!! We finally made it to the orphanage, at 6 am their time...but the orphanage didn't open until 8. So...we were rushed at every stop we made, no walking time, we shoved our food down our throats, so we could sit in the van another 2 hrs...yes I am bitter. :) lol The cook arrived at the orphanage at 7:30 so we unpacked and did our own thing until the boys (all 5: Marcos, Ivan, Joel, Brian, Andres) arrived at 11. (It's Sunday now...) We played with the boys and got to work after lunch. The girls started by sanding the downstairs of the boy dorms. Next we moved to the outside and primed the outside walls of both dorms, the kitchen, and porch like around (to be painted with mac-n-cheese orange the next day). Some went inside and painted the school room white (to be covered in pink the next day), and finally some started painting the stairway. We got so much done in just a few hours. Everyone cleaned up and we headed to get ice cream with the boys. On our way to the "hot spot for ice cream" in Chihuahua, I had a massive nose bleed--and I mean gushing for 5 minutes straight, so sadly I didn't get to experience the ice cream quite how I'd like, but it was still good ice cream. Next we walked to a park (by the way, it was dark and only 7:30) and played there for about 30 min. We made it back to the orphanage and had debriefing and hung out until about 1:30 am!

If you can believe it, the days get more and more intense as we go along...tune in tomorrow for Day 2!

Here's the nose bleed.... MAC~N~CHEESE!!!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Spring Break

Good morning everyone! Hope you are all having a great weekend! Today I leave for my trip to Chihuahua, Mexico! Please be praying for us while we are down there. We leave at 2pm today and will return Easter Sunday around 3am! Pray for our safety, unity, and clarity as we minister to the orphanage. See you all soon! Hope you have a great week full of God's blessings!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

DEBATE!!

Ok, so here it goes. There's a new law (attempting to be passed, but will most likely fail) going through the Oklahoma legislature that will allow 18 year olds carry concealed weapons. This was sparked after the last two shooting that have occurred on college campuses. My government teacher brought this up in class today, and I'm just curious as to what you all think. I was all for it, but most of the people (all except two other people) were against it. What do you think??

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Eighteen Years

Can you believe it?? I'm 18! I know it's hard to believe, but embrace it with me will ya? :) I can now vote, buy cigarettes, enlist, and gamble in the lottery, and stay out past midnight legally (of which privileges I will only be voting...). I am a legal adult~ I'm so excited to embrace another year of life! God has blessed me so much in the past, I can't wait to continue to grow more in love with Him. Thanks to everyone of you who make my life wonderful: all of you who teach and mentor me, those who walk beside me, and those who I can lead. You each bless me in a different way, and I couldn't be more thankful to have you all apart of my life! Here's to 18!!

(If you want to read my mom's recollection of today, 18 years ago--click here).

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Babble on in Babylon

Brimming closets, shoe racks bulge,
one in every color, I’ll just indulge.
My wildest whim will oft be met,
bigger, faster, give me, get.
Travel on in Babylon.

May I go first? Knew you’d not care,
for my time’s precious.
You’ve lots to spare.
I’ll slip in front and off I’ll go.
See, I’m quite fast and well,
you’re quite slow.
I and me fast friends, life-long.
Prattle on in Babylon.

Nip it here, just there a lift.
I just turned forty, it was a gift.
The eyes, the lips, the bosoms do,
sculptured, lasered, injected, too.
No wrinkles left, the tummy’s gone.
Journey on in Babylon.

Enough of me, how do you view me?
You get one, but give me three.
I couldn’t bare to just say no,
it’s my desire and rightly so.
Add another and on and on.
Shuffle on in Babylon.

No end in sight that I can see,
today is blocked by the mirror in front of me.
A wreck, a death, tsunami tide,
it mildly stirs me, I must confide.
TV claims tens of thousands gone.
Oh well, let’s see what else is on.
Numb to the stunning sight of each new dawn,
Sinking fast in Babylon.

Like a lobster in a pot
who begins to like the water hot,
I’ve been duped, been tricked, been had,
convinced that truth was somehow bad.
Evil, coddled and cooed and purred,
and beckoned me and called and lured.
Now in a place with the lights turned on,
I’m racing home from Babylon.
I’m racing home from Babylon.


This is from the Beth Moore "Daniel" series. We heard it on our video session last night. For those of you who haven't done this study (and don't know what Babylon was)--Babylon was a materialistic, self-absorbed city. Are you caught in the Babylonian world? This poem really got to me, and I can relate so well. :) What do you think?

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Rest

"And I rest in the shelter of Your love
And I rest in the wonder of Your Grace
And I rest in the shelter of Your love
And I rest in the wonder of You

Embraced in the promise of You
Is rest for the weary soul
Releasing all that is mine
I reach for You"



Have you ever gone through a time in your life when you can't sleep at night, and it's not because of worry or stress? Well this past week (aside from Wednesday night) I haven't been able to fall asleep until 1a.m. or after. For all of you who understand my sleeping pattern I'm usually asleep by 11 at the latest. Well, I've been staying up late, exhausted, but not been able to fall asleep. Talk about frustrating. :) Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday--no sleep for the weary. Then as Robby and I were driving to school yesterday I heard the song "Rest" by Skillet. To rest in His wonder, His love, and His grace--THAT'S WHAT I NEEDED TO DO!!! So last night, I slept in Him and had one of the most refreshing rests I've had in a while. I'm choosing to believe my lack of sleep is in preparation for something...just don't know what yet.

What do you do when you can't sleep? Have you ever had a time when you couldn't sleep? In reflection was it in preparation?