Graduated but still a Student

A little more than a week has past since graduating from the Discipleship  Training School and I am still processing and reflecting on all that The Lord  has done in 5 months. 

During the lecture phase God complete transformed my heart in ways that only He could. 

I had a new understanding on love & how much unconditional love he has for us. I began hear Gods voice (no I'm not some weirdo, God is always speaking  and he might even be speaking to you right now!) I started to see God as a  father, a mother, a lover, and even as a friend. Ultimately I grew deeper in my relationship with him while He constantly poured out his love on me.

During the outreach phase I was stretched and challenged in my faith  yet I held tight to the promises that the King of Kings has given us. 

While traveling about the 10:40 window of Mexico our team served in a variety of places. These included teaching basic health in schools, doing youth programs in town plazas, working physically for recently planted churches,  preaching and doing children programs in persecuted churches, hiking up mountain sides to find people who did't yet know Christ, and much more.

As we were lead by the Holy Spirit we planted seeds and interceded for town and also saw many salvations and miracles.

God's goodness doesn't stop on graduation day. The best advice that a speaker told us  is not to graduate but to keep being a student and keep learning. 

My next step is exactly that: I'm returning to the University of the Nations in September to do a nine month intensive School of Biblical Studies. 

Thank you so much for your support throughout the past 5 months - lives were changed because of you. Thank You!

(The migrant school, where many children received lots of well-needed love!)

Mexican Indian Reservations

These past few weeks my team and I have been in a state of Oaxaca. We traveled to a few different places within the "Indian reservation."  All though we have been working with different indigenous groups, including the Triqui and Mixteco, people I've been learning to have a heart of praise in every situation. 

(A woman from the Triqui tribe & I)

Currently we are staying in a church building in a town called San Pedro Pedro. For my bed I pushed together two church pews and added lots of blankets to keep warm during the night. 

(The pastor laughed and said, "me gusta tu cunita!" (I like your little crib))

We don't have flush toilets and we have been taking  "bucket showers." But through every situation I am learning to have a heart of praise. I praise God for giving me the opera unity   to support the missionaries in the work they are doing. It is a dream of mine come true to work with the unreached people groups. And here I am sharing the gospel with people who don't know Christ!

Follow the link below to watch how God used us in the town of Cuevas!

https://m.facebook.com/home.php?refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F&__user=515153997

El Porvenir, Chiapas

After 25 hours of travel (planes, taxis, pick-up trucks, and walking)
we arrived at or destination- the little mountain town of El Porvenir,
Chiapas. Life here is very “simple”. To warm our toes and cook our
food we have a fire pit/stove. This same stove warms up our pot of
water to take a hot shower. The water comes from a large cement
container of water which is also used to flush the toilet. The wood to
burn to heat the stove is cut from the surrounding forest and the eggs
for breakfast are from the chickens running around the backyard.

(The woman cooking tortillas)

We have been working with the local church and also taking day trips
to near-by towns to support other churches.
I have spoken in churches, ran children´s programs, taught English,
spoke at woman´s groups, performed plays in the town square and much
more.

(English Class!)

By far my favorite outreach activity is hiking through the jungle to
share the Gospel with people who haven´t heard of Jesus. The way the
react is such a need for a savior is something that I have never seen
before.

One day we walked down a cement road for half-an-hour and then walked
along a little mud path for another hour walking around coffee fields,
through streams, and over a river to arrive at a family´s house. The
family was very welcoming and hospitable… that was after we scared
away the guard dogs! They were attentive to the testimonies we shared
and very interested in hearing how Jesus was sent to this earth to let
us be in relation with God again and be saved from our sins. We gave
the family a Bible and let them know how loved they are by the maker
of the Universe.

(Some of the houses we visited)

The way we share the gospel with the indigenous people is very unique.
After shadowing the pastor I learned that these people are very interested in parables from the Bible and will pay much more attention
if you directly relate it to the crops they harvest.

On the first of January we are packing up and heading North to the
state of Oaxaca. Our time here has been priceless and I look forward
to our next six weeks in different town of Oaxaca.

I would love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at
erosing@rams.colostate.edu or message me on facebook.

Our team would love your prayers for health and that the bed bugs that
are eating us would stay here and not hitch hike a ride to Oaxaca.
Take care and I wish you a Happy 2014!

( Between the clouds on top of the mountain... A priceless view on Christmas.)

A Quick Photo Update

The lecture phase of my school is over and from now on will be on the outreach phase. 

My outreach team is  made up of 8 students a a young couple as our leaders. We are from 5 different countries (Mexico, US, Cuba, Switzerland, South Korea) and age from 18 to 36 years old.

The most important is that we all have smiles on our faces and are going for the same reason: to share the gospel and love the people we work with. We are going to the most un-reached population  in Mexico.  (The green dots are un-reached people groups. The explosion of green dots is where we are going.)

I would love your prayers for the hearts of the people we are going to come in contact with, for our team's unity, and for safety as we travel for 21 hours on plains, trains, buses, and by feet! 

Enjoy your evening, I pray that it be filled with blessings and laughter like mine was!

Thanksgiving

Of all the thanksgiving celebrations I have participated in, this year was definitely the most rewarding.  I went with the YWAM base to Zona Norte (read earlier posts for more info) to bless the homeless & deported people with a sit-down Thanksgiving dinner. Along with this we washed and cut their hair. As dirty ran down the back of their head I realized how thankful I am for a shower. Some students performed a play about prostitutes, AIDS, drugs and then Jesus ultimately giving hope.  It was very well done and the reactions from the people were indescribable. We also had a mini service by a pastor who grew up in Zona Norte.

Me, being the social one, got to check in with my friends and hear how they are doing. Let me present one very special friend to you. Her name is Teresa. She is “state raised” but is living in Mexico because her husband was deported a few months ago. Last week I met her and we talked about her kids. She told me about her five children and how two were taken by social services. Then she looked up at me and said, “You know what? You remind me a lot of my 20 year old daughter.” Looking at
me again she commented, “You’re tall, and you are so happy, and you
look like her- especially your smile.” She started to cry telling me how she missed her and how life on the street is so tough. I gave her a hug like I would give my mother and she said, “but at least I know my daughter is safe in the US.”

Yesterday when I saw Teresa again she gave me a little update.  She
said she was able to get 20 pesos (1.60 USD) from washing a woman’s clothes yesterday. Showing me her cracked and dried hands from washing she began to cry.  These tears weren’t all that bad this time. “Emily, remember how you prayed for me last week?” She began to tell me, “I prayed before going out a day ago and I felt like someone was actually with me. Like someone was by my side.” She continued to tell me how she felt safe and protected. I went on saying God is always by your side, he wants to be in your life, and ultimately wants a relationship with you.  She replied, “I know, I felt Him then.” 

Would you partner with me in prayer and lift up all my homeless/deported friends of Zona Norte? They are God’s children just
as much as the preschoolers at Timberline Church are. They need love and prayer just as much as me and you do.

 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 )

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Zona Norte

The local ministry I work with is called Zona Norte. Translated into English it means the North Zone. This is the northern region of Tijuana know for the most human trafficking. It is a very broken area with everything from prostitution and child-slaves to drug cartels and deportee camps.

YWAM partners with a local church to give back to the deported men and
woman what the devil has stolen - joy, hope, love, ect. We spend Wednesday afternoon in the park and bring hot soup to the 80+ men and woman.

            (Lined up ready for food)

This ministry has so much spiritual warfare so we spend an hour praying, worshiping, and interceding for the precious people of Zona Norte. You can be involved too through your continued prayers for the men and woman. For example, while praying over a woman last week a drugged man decided to start screaming profanity. The devil isn't happy because God Is Moving in this area!

Last week a guy from the Bible School shared his testimony and then
gave people the option to accept Christ as their savior and symbolically throw away (in a trash can) any sin that was hindering them from having relation with God.

A guy named Jesu, that I had met a week ago, came up and said, "Emily,
can I through this away?" He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and threw them away. As I prayed for him and congratulated him, he wiped tear drops from his cheeks. It means so much for me to see a man that has hardened his heart by being deported, living in the canals, digging in the trash can for food, and living without family
in this country be able to cry. God is working in his heart.

                        (Jesu)

Another man pulled a bunch of needles out of his coat pocket and
dumped them in the trash can. 

A young woman named Sandra came up to me and wanted to re-accept JesusChrist to be Lord of her Life.

God is moving. God hears our prayers. God is good.

Thank you again for your support and prayers. If you have any
questions or just want to say hi I would love to talk! Email me at
erosing@rams.colostate.edu to set up a time.

Dios Puede (God is Able)!

Taco Ministry

Every week in class we have a new speaker come to teach a new topic. Last week’s topic was about Fear of the Lord. It was a rather confusing topic at the beginning but after I put it into practice it became much simpler.

One of the first things we talked about was giving up our rights to serve the God as Lord. Rights in this situation could mean finances, reputation, dreams, fashion, food, ect. I began to think about rights that just being American will give you. Can you think of a right that your country, society, or family has given you that would keep you from serving the Lord? If we want world evangelism then we have to be able to give up our rights.

Something that got my attention during lecture was a Joy Dawson quote,

“Fearing the Lord is caring more about God’s reaction than the

reaction of men.”

That is just what happened these past weekends – walking in fear of the Lord.

Some roommates and I went to a nearby beach town and walked around searching for opportunities to pray for people, share the gospel, or just smile and tell someone they are beautiful.

Around noon we sat down for lunch at a taco shop and asked God to bring us the family we had talked with the weekend before, or other people we could bless. As we were finishing up our homemade tacos, two little girls approached us selling bracelets and gum. My initial response, “no gracias” automatically rolled out of my mouth. Soon after I thought, “am I fearing man or the Lord?” All of a sudden what

we were learning in class became real. Was I holding on to my rights or letting them go to be a servant of the Lord? The Holy Spirit

convicted me to give up my rights to finances and reputation in order to choose to walk in fear of the Lord. We asked them, “tienen hambre?” (are you girls hungry?) A shy and timid “sí” came out of their mouths

so we bought them tacos and listen to their stories.

Over tacos and cola we learned that Alejandrina (age 12) and Angela (age 11) both like playing soccer, have siblings but don’t know how many, go to school in Tijuana, and sell bracelets & gum in their free time to help support their family. I’m sure there is plenty of their story we don’t know but I do know that that day they heard that they were loved by the God of this world, they are cared for by a Heavenly Father, that He is always by their side listening to their prayers, and that Jesus was sent by God to this world to die on the cross so that we could have a relationship with God.  This was all possible for simply deciding to walk in Fear of the Lord.

I encourage you to go about tomorrow walking in the fear of Lord because he has some amazing plans for you.  There might not be as many drug dealers or gang members to come in contact with, but there are people searching for hope in every nation, state, city, and neighborhood.

“For we are God’s Masterpiece . He has created us new in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” -Ephesians 2:10

I continue to pray for all the mothers, children, drunks, homeless, deported, drug dealers, guards, and American tourists that God has placed in my path through our “taco ministry” weekends. God is good. 

And finally, what I have been supper excited about…. For my outreach phase in December- February I will be in southern Mexico working with un-reached people groups in Oaxaca and Chiapas!! I am so excited for the ways that God will use our team to share his love!