Mission Training International, Colorado

An incredible three weeks were spent in Palmer Lake, Colorado with 41 other adults representing 19 mission agencies and 21 countries. We became like a family.

There really are no words to describe the fire that was relit inside me. I learned so much about our creator, myself and relationships…my relationship with God, family, friends, and the HoM team. We called it “camp on steroids”.

Five days a week from 9 till 4 we were in class learning  and practicing the tools to help prepare us for longevity in the field…embracing rest and silence and solitude, healthy conflict resolution, building community, facing cultural  differences, managing stress, healthy hellos and goodbyes, and the power of prayer!

One of many stories:

Before I left for training I sent a friend a text saying, “Pray that I will come out of my shell.” I tend to be quite on the shy side around a large and new group of people. The first week of training I took a test to determine my conflict style and guess what animal I was? A turtle. God has a great sense of humor! (God exceeded all my expectations and took me out of my shell from the moment I landed in Colorado.) God is good! God is faithful! God is God!

Mexico…Here I Come

I am ecstatic! I am off to Mexico October 30th. I will be coming home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it will start out with a few weeks there and a few weeks here. We will be kicking off with a staff development weekend. Our focus…conflict styles and resolution. I feel well prepared thanks to MTI.                       

Then transition begins by setting up my temporary home, a 1985 motor home, that was so graciously donated. I will be working alongside the moms with their current home schooling schedules and learning the ropes, before bringing them all to the Little Red School House. (It is currently storage, so that will be another project.) Also there will be several loft house builds taking place on the weekends so there will be many opportunities to cook and serve meals and manage projects (painting, roofing, installing windows) that take place on a build site.

Helping Hands

So this last weekend I rounded up some friends and we headed to Mexico to give Southwest Community Church a helping hand. They prebuilt 6 loft houses, but only had enough hands to complete 4 or 5.

Saturday morning we met them for breakfast at Estero Beach and then headed out to our build site with a team of unfamiliar faces. After a few pant     splitting and hair raising events we were quite connected. (Read “Ripped Jeans & A Bee Sting” on my blog.)

The day was spent   working shoulder to shoulder sharing our stories of where we have been and where God has brought us to now. And the quote that I often hear from the HoM guys, “We are not a medicine for Mexico, Mexico is the medicine for us” rang so true.

Every trip I make, my heart expands more and more either because of God’s truth that is poured into me by those I am building alongside of or the receiving family that is overflowing with joy from things we would look right over and their contentment with the simple life.

God’s Protection Over Rancho Casitas

As many of you know, a few weeks back, there was a fire on the Hands of Mercy Ranch. The fire lasted for almost 2 weeks and burned over a 100,000 acres.

God, the all powerful one, did one miracle after another from sending 30 Mexican firefighters and 80 military fire team members that no one ever knew existed to changing the direction of the wind minutes before it would have destroyed one of the missionaries homes.

Everything but the top of a pipe went untouched. As I heard said, “It looks like God took his finger and drew a line in the sand around the ranch” and I would add, “And He said to the fire…don’t go there!”

What an incredible confirmation that God is pleased with what the missionaries are doing and that HoM is still under God’s will.

Through all of the struggles and chaos of those 2 weeks there came so many opportunities for the HoM missionaries to minister and love on people and be loved on back.

5 of the 6 Bibles the  missionaries put out on the table, where they were feeding the men meals, were taken and later 2 men were seen reading them. It gives me goose bumps.

Prayer:

• Of praise that God protected the ranch from the fire
• For a connection with Cade, Colton, Josiah, Micah, Lindsey, and Corbin as I begin building relationships with them
• For opportunities to be around natives and be forced to speak and learn the Spanish language
• For family and friends

Check out my Blog:     www.red-schoolhouse.blogspot.com

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