It is completely obvious why there was so much spiritual warfare last week. I started experiencing it midweek, and many other people did as well. Lots of people cancelled at the last minute and were not able to go. Upon getting there, the warfare just got worse. I almost felt nautious because it was so intense. Susie and DD were experiencing it too, so we all prayed together. Other people were attacked by their health ~ sickness, flus, asthma attacks, etc. We prayed for God to keep the asthma attacks from being a distraction, and God answers prayers and the inhaler wasn't used once on the trip.

God moved the entire weekend. I think every woman I talked to said that this has been their favorite retreat yet. Probably the best part was Saturday night. Brenda spoke and gave part of her testimony and how it was relevant to the woman at the well. Afterwards, she had everyone just wait on the Lord and hear God's voice. Then, everyone was given a chance to speak what the Lord has given them and for people to respond. It was totally awesome to see us truly being the body of Christ. People didn't have words for their friends a lot of times, but God gave a lot of people words that came together. If one person didn't share their part, then we wouldn't have been able to understand what it all meant. Every woman that was there was needed. I think most people both gave and received words.

For the people that know me well, you know that I can be pretty impatient. Okay, maybe I am really impatient. Well, God gave me some words to share, so I went first. I didn't want there to be any time that the enemy could seep in to where I wouldn't want to share. It's crazy how when you first hear something from God that you know it's His voice, but after some time passes, the doubt starts entering in. Tracy was going to go after me, but she didn't. It's a good thing, because her words were both for me. I ended out going to her cabin to tell her (see, I read it off of her paper because I'm ultra nosey and she was going to share it with everyone anyway, right?) Besides, it was the only way that God could have given them to me with all the other circumstances. When I got to her cabin, she expanded on her words and then I told her how it was relevant and she prayed for me. The next morning, she asked God to give her confirmation that the night before was from Him, and she opened up her bible to Haggai 2:18. It says:

‘Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth
month, from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid—consider it:

It was so God, and He just confirmed it over and over. God was amazingly good. He knows each of us and He speaks to all different parts of us.

The last person that shared on Saturday night was Kristen O. It was a beautiful word and one that was talked about for the rest of the weekend. God used the youngest woman there to finish off the night. It was a beautiful thing.

Earlier in the night, Carolyn got a word that our generation is going to put the older generation to shame. That the older women need to watch us, pray for us, and encourage us. It's going to be a completely different level than has ever been expereience or expresed before. Kristen giving the last word just confirmed that.

After it was all over, it was obvious that relationships grew, everyone was encouraged, and God was glorified and poured Himself into each of our hearts and lives.

Lately, I have been experiencing a lot of spiritual warfare. It didn't recognize it until today. I know why too. This weekend is the women's retreat and it's going to be awesome. Please pray not only for me but for all the women that will be there. Please pray for openness, vulnerability, honesty, and an abudance of the presence of God in our lives.

Also, I still haven't talked to my boss yet, and I, like Oz, am waiting for the "Reduction in Force" to be completed before I ask. So, please pray that God will tell me the right time to ask and give me lots and lots of patience until it's time.

PS. I am doing better right now thanks to my good friend DD that prayed for me.

Go God for using the people in our lives! :)

We went to Mexico once again. As always, the kids are amazing and a blessing to see. It was their Independance day on Friday, so that made it plenty interesting, after all it is Mexico. They definitely know how to celebrate holidays. :)

When we arrived, there was a lot of kids that weren't at the orphanage. We were still able to hang out with some of the kids, and then after they went to bed, we went into town. Before even parking the van, we saw Cristina and Elizabeth walking back to CdE. We picked them up and brought them into town with us. Then, we see Max, Cristina's brother. Randomly, many of the kids kept coming up to us one by one. Some of the kids were with each other, but a lot were by themselves. By the time we headed back home, we had a van full of kids. It was definitely fun hanging out with them in town and cruising the square on foot, and even watching some of them do that as well, like Eduardo. Manuel, the owner of CdE, is so amazing. He was sitting up and waiting for them to get home. He told them to go to bed, and they marched. He is their uncle and he truly cares and loves each of these kids like they are his own.

On Saturday, Ben, Noah, Jordan, and Jared Gentes got there. They all bonded with different kids, and it was awesome to see. Adrian and Jordan clicked, lots of kids loved Ben, and Noah just liked to ask anyone questions that knew english. He did good though, and he was definitely well liked. They are probably still playing his ever-so-famous finger game. Jared bonded with Adrian a lot too, and he got really into the water fight. It's great to see that both of them are interested in coming again. I'm glad that they had a good time.

(Ben pretending to be a bull)

We brought lunch for the kids which was donated through different people. It's always scary when you're providing for them because the numbers fluctuate so much. There are always random visitors as well, so it can be hard to plan for. In the end, we ended out having more than enough sandwiches, chips, and apples ~ which is always a good thing.

Saturday night, we were allowed to bring kids with us to Magdalena. We took 7 of them (Amelia, Abilene, Adrian, Max, Ramon, Jaime, & David) because that's all we had room for. We got there just in time to catch the tail end of their fireworks. The best quote was from Jordan Gentes who said, "This is so gross but so cool at the same time" as we were standing on the sewer cover. They went and looked at the bones that are buried in the middle of the square. Some of them have never seen that. I think that struck a couple of them pretty hard. We got ice cream and then we went to a mini parking lot carnival. It was totally fun. Ramon asked me to go on the rocket ride with him. He's only 13, so he was the youngest out of the group we took. He was totally scared to go on it, but he had to prove himself to the other kids... even though Jaime didn't go on it. So, I sucked it up and went on it with him. I couldn't tell him no. I was totally scared and I tried not to scream as much as possible because I knew it would make him more scared. His face was embedded into my arm the entire time, and once it started the reverse part of the ride, he kept screaming "No mas! No mas!". The seatbelt was barely over us and it went through a hole in the door that was tied with some rope. Needless to say, my hands were clenched around the horizontal bar and then I had to cross my arms and put one around the small vertical bar. I had to keep us both in! My hands were so sweaty, but we survived it. The other rides went a lot smoother. Yet, during the teacups that also elevated during part of the ride, we could see that Jaime was getting alittle queezy. Let's just be honest and say I had him that way before the ride even started. That's one thing that is great about the teacups... you can go ahead and start the spinning before they even turn the ride on. Well, just near the end, out came the clumply, non-digested bright blue bubble gum ice cream complete with the little color speckles. I felt so bad. But in the end, the kids all had fun, even Jaime.

Oh, and how can I forget Arnulfo's hand. Jordan had to clean it up because he has a serious burn. Supposedly, his hand got run over with a car, but I don't see how that's possible. It's clearly burned. He is a lot better now though, and hopefully he can get some antibiotics. He kept showing all the kids his bandage and thought it was so cool ~ especially the little arm band that Jordan made for him.

All in all, it was a great trip, and now I have to wait another 5 weeks to go back down. If anyone wants to join us on our Oct. 20-22 trip, please let me know. We already have lots of people that are going.

Some beautiful sights:

Yesterday when I was driving to church, I saw two cute little chubby kids sitting in plastic chairs on the side of Guadalupe waving to oncoming traffic. They must have only been 8 and 10.

Last night in Prims, we sang the "I am a Prim" song, and the girls asked if they could dance while we sang it. I said yes and moved one of the tables back for more room. Most of the girls all stood in a circle and held hands with each other and danced around while they bolted out the song. One line of the song talks about standing arm in arm together. It was awesome to see them practice that.

Sunday, I taught the 4s & 5s, and there were 20 kids. My helper didn't show up which was completely fine. I taught about how Elijah came to the widow and how she had to feed him before herself and her son for God to bless her with enough food during the famine. I asked the kids if they would be mad at their parents if they fed a stranger before them with all the food that was left in the house. They all would have been. I couldn't think of a craft to do for it when God told me that He wanted me to have them practice giving before receiving and to have that be the general theme for the day. So, instead of me passing out the papers like I usually do, I wrote each kids name on their paper first, and then I had another child come up and give that kid their paper. In the end, they all received their own paper from someone else, and they all followed the directions really well. I continued that same type of thing during snack. It really helped them pay more attention to do these things out of the norm. All morning, they played with the inflatable microphones that we had at Mandy's shower the day before. I decided we should try to use them for a game, but I couldn't think of anything. Regardless of my lack of ideas, I decided to have them clean up anyway. Pam (started helping during snack), and she had them all sit in a circle. Still not knowing what I'm going to have them do, they are eagerly waiting to find out what game we're going to play. Then, God told me. Use the microphone as a talking stick. I then asked him what the kid should do when they have the talking stick. "Prayer Requests". Prayer requests? Okay. So, here's how it went. I gave the microphone to a kid and they stated a prayer request that they had. They then threw the microphone to another kid. That kid then prayed for the first kid's prayer request. They then stated their prayer request and threw the microphone again. It continued on for 20 minutes until the parents came to get their kids. Even though some kids prayed for more toys and silly things, others wanted prayers for their families and different serious topics. I had to coach most of them how to pray, but it was awesome. They wanted to do it, but they were just unsure how to do it. We did all really simple prayers like "God, please bless Lydia's family. Amen" or "God, please help the baby growing in Jennah's mommy's tummy be healthy. Amen". I was shocked that not only did they do it, but they truly listened to each other and truly enjoyed it. After it was done, God told me to do it Wednesday in Prims.

So, I did. Addi started with her prayer request and it continued on. We prayed for many sick grandparents and parents, friends and teachers at their schools, and even Cheyanna's fish. Only 1 (out of 14 girls) needed help in praying.... and it wasn't the new girl! I was stocked that our visitor felt comfortable enough to pray. While we were in the middle of going through everyone, Kat stated that we should pray for her broken arm. I decided to wait until the end. It was awesome to see them all intently listening to each other's requests and awaiting and hoping that it would get thrown to them. After we were done, we all went over to Kat and laid hands on her and prayed. I opened and Nia closed and I told the girls that any of them could pray inbetween. I was shocked that Grace followed me, then Addi, Summer, Cheyanna, Bethanie, Becky, and Katelyn all prayed for her. They kept asking, "can I pray for her now?" Addi's prayer was awesome because she totally rebuked Satan as Jack often tells us how we should speak to the condition. Summer prayed that she would learn how to go across the monkey bars better so she doesn't get hurt again. Awesome, future protection! It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed, and it gave me hope for them as they will one day become teenagers and adults.

God is good, and He truly knows how much His children love Him, and boy does He ever have good ideas on how to facilitate things! Go God! :)

Update to previous post:

I called her, and asked her why her parents thought that. I found out it was because I didn't call her dad after he talked to Ben months ago. Yes that was my fault. I wasn't ready to fight for her to come, and I didn't try to get her dad's number. But, I got it now. I will call him Thursday night, apologize for not calling earlier, and explain everything. Hopefully, it will all go well. :)

Thank you both for your advice.

As I write this, I contemplate if it's even wise to put on here, but what the heck, I need people's advice.

A few months ago, for good reasons, we had to give a youth a 3 month penalty period for her behavior on our trip in May. This is this first month that she would be allowed back, and she would still be under probation. I heard that she had mentioned to someone that she was so excited to be able to come down this month, so I e-mailed her with the 2 different dates for this month. This morning, I got the following e-mail:

my parents don't want me going to Mexico with you guys anymore because they said that they don't feel that you guys are mature enough to be responsible for it.

Now, I have a couple of options as I see it:

Replying with "Okay, well thank you for letting me know."
Adding, "by the way, we are leading the big trip in March as well"
Asking if she wants me to call her parents to explain things further.
Calling her parents without asking to see if she explained things to them correctly.
Just letting it go...

Opinions? I'm going to hold off for a little bit so I can get some opinions and pray about it. Right now, I'm just completely entertained.

A few posts ago, I talked about the verse that spoke about when David prayed for God to enlargen his heart. I probably think about this verse more than any other verse because there are so many times that I need to have love for someone... that I have none for.

Lord, I ask you to give me a special spot of love for "my friend" in Prims that I struggle to love. I ask you Lord to give me a special love for her and that You will give me patience, understanding, and compassion with and for her.

The great thing about being a follower of Christ and a friend of God is this: God gives us a physical heart and an "spiritual heart". After all, God is love, and it's impossible to love outside of Him. Our physical heart might not grow, but our spiritual heart can grow daily. When God brings new people in our lives, He doesn't squish them in there to make everyone fit. He gives everyone their own special room. When we meet new people, whether it's 1 or 2 or 100, He adds on new rooms. There's always construction going on in our hearts. The best part is that once someone is out of our lives, their room is empty. No one can fill someone's room. Once it's there, it will always be there. Each room only belongs to the original occupant, there are no replacements or visitors. Everyone is a permanent fixture and will always have a place to come, stay, and reside in love.

I love all of you so very much, and trust me in this... You all have a very special room in the core of my heart.

Well, you all know that I'm going to update you, even if it's only for myself... I just have to get it all out and down sometimes.

This weekend was totally different than I thought it would be, and it was truly amazing. I was stretched galore. Friday I felt overburdened and saddened by the kids because they were shocked that I was the only one there, and they missed Susie a lot. I also didn't feel like there's enough in me to love all of them. It made me wonder if I could truly live there and do this. I bought just enough food for me for the 3 days, and some of the kids ate some of it, so I didn't know if I could survive off of the little left. I only left the orphanage when I had some kids with me, so literally, the only time I wasn't with any kids is when I was eating or after they were in bed. It was an amazing trip, but surprisingly, knowing that I am going to see them again in 11 days... made it easier to say goodbye, or just "see you soon".

There were 4 different mothers that came this weekend, and it was really interesting to see all of them and how they interact with their kids (Luis & Gloria; Sofia, Juan Carlos, & Ana; Margarita & Deissy; Juanito, Angel, & Manuel). Amelia's boyfriend Aaron came down from Queen Creek with his family, so it was very interesting to meet him and his brother Jordan... and really to just find out that he really does exist.

Cristina, Carolina, and Antonio Humberto were back from their family vacation, so it was good to see them. Finally, Cristina and Antonio are coming out of their shells and really starting to connect. Carolina and Max (their oldest brother) just started being more vulnerable in July's trip.

Some of the older kids (Jaime, David, and Abilene, Deissy, & Ruby) were a lot more available to hang out with, get to know, and having special moments with. I think one of my favorite moments was with Ruby. Yesterday morning, a bunch of kids took a water matress and filled it up. They used it as a wrestling mat, a gymnastics mat, and just like a normal matress to jump on. Then, they had to empty it, and we were on it with all of the 3 and 4 year old kids, and Ely of course was crying, and Brando cried a little bit too... but it was seriously so funny. Juanito and Angel were actually laying over the spout that all the water was coming out of... and we were having the best time with those little kids and laughing non-stop about it.

Since I'm telling a story about little Angel, I'll tell one more. On Sunday, Luis's mom came, and he got some cologne and Avon Wild Musk roll-on deoderant. He was stoked. He used 1/3 of the bottle of cologne that afternoon on himself, me, and Macario. I kept telling him that he didn't need any more cologne and that he didn't need deoderant. Yet, he insisted... Well, one time Angel was looking at it, and I told him that he didn't need any. Luis grabbed the bottle and took off the cap... and then Angel pulled his shirt sleeve so that Luis could put it on him.....but Luis just put more on himself instead. Seriously, the look on Angel's face was priceless. I had a great time with Luis that day. I don't usually get over an hour to spend with just one kid. We had so much fun, and we played a really fun spitting game (I would try to block him from spitting in my face with my hand and then if I caught it, I'd rub it on his face or arm... He loved it). See, Saturday night, all of the kids watched Benchwarmers, and all of them loved it. They especially liked the little kid that wanted to be the sssssscore keeper that spit when he talked. So, there was a lot of spitting that occured on Sunday and Monday. During that movie though, the kids were so freaking cute. Gloria fell asleep on me, so I had to take her to her room (for the 2nd night in a row). Then, Jesus Humberto (12) was sitting on my lap, but then he moved up forward onto the front part of my legs. So, Jesus (5) saw 4" of spare leg, so he sat on it for a long while before he changed his position and ended up falling asleep as well. Arnulfo tried to use the other leg's 4" of space but realized he couldn't see the movie after that. When I took Jesus to his room, I saw Antonio Humberto sleeping behind the door and by the bench in the front room... So I took him to his room as well. Then, after the movie was over, a bunch of the kids stood in two lines and took turns dancing in the middle while I was recording a video of it...It was so funny.

There was also a bad situation.... One kid, Ramon, took my camera in the boys bathroom and took pictures in there. Thank goodness one was of Adrian so I found out. He had to go through my camera several times just to make sure there were no indecent pictures in there... No kids are allowed to use my camera out of my supervision anymore.

And that's probably more than people even care about, so I'll stop there... :)

But PS... It's kind of funny when you know people at both borders, and when they start to recognize you.

Okay, and one more. I was cleaning up the guest quarters where I stayed and Jesus Humberto came in and waited for me while I cleaned. He entertained himself and drew since we really can't talk that much. Then, a little while later, he walked with me while I said goodbye to every single kid. He even pointed out quite a few kids to me and told me to give them hugs. It was awesome. Seriously, these kids are so amazing, each and every one of them.

PPS. I really hate how people will say that I'm a good samaritan or a good person or that I have a really big heart when they find out. It makes me feel stupid answering their "how was your weekend or what did you do" generic questions. If everyone met these kids... They would understand. If they just knew God, then they would get it. Even if you're not called to go down there as often as we are, you can still fall in love with them. They get a grip on your heart and leave imprint in it.

I made it here okay. It´s all good in the hood, and you all know that I´ll update more when I get back. Till Tuesday.

On Wednesday, I found out that Jordan and Susie might not be able to go to Mexico this weekend and I also picked DD up from the airport. As we were talking, we were updating each other about the different things that God has done to prepare us for our future callings. When I started thinking about it, I told her that I think the reason why everyone will end out cancelling out of this trip is to help get me used to it for when I live there by myself. See, I knew that Michelle's parents would not let her go down there without a guy or with just me... I was right, her dad does not like the idea. Stacey was always tentative, and I knew about a month ago that Rebecca and Ethan wouldn't be able to go..... even though they just cancelled on Tuesday or Wednesday...

Anywho, I have known that I would be going down to CdE this weekend by myself for a couple days now. I am completely confident in my God to protect me. I would never back out of a promise that I make to those kids. I told them I'll see them in 2 weeks, on the 1st of September, and they will see me tonight! I am stoked, because this is going to be very stretching for me. I will really have to focus on my spanish more. So, please pray for me during this time. Pray that I'll learn more Spanish and that I am alert and attentive when I drive.

I'll probably use the computer there to blog just so you know I made it there... If I forget to do that.... then don't go expecting the worst. :)

Till Tuesday..... I'm off, loving on my kids... well, God's kids!