Almost the End

     We are coming up on the end of our time here in Wisconsin. This fact saddens me greatly. I adore this place. This little schoolhouse in the middle of the cornfields where this Texas girl freezes twenty-four seven. Except when I have a beautiful cup of Tazo tea. Usually black, every now and again green, but always capable of warming me up. We have three more weeks of teaching then a half week of ministry prep then Christmas break and then outreach! I am not sure if I mentioned this before but I am going to Thailand and Myanmar. We do not have too many finalized details as there are so many choices and we really just want to pray into it and see what God is leading us to. However, there has been confirmation on several things. Some include, medical camps, child soldiers, a boys' home, the Karen people/refugees, and the red light district. We are all getting excited about our opportunity to show the light, love, and truth of God. I would love to say that we are all able to go at the moment, but many of us lack money. Why is it that it always comes back to finances? We have our first school-wide fundraiser coming up on the 6th of December. We will be passing out hot chocolate to university students for free and from the amount we pass out we will receive the previously pledged amount from those sponsors. I hope that makes sense. Our second school-wide fundraiser is our annual benefit dinner. (By "our" I mean YWAM Madison.) Here, we will be making the meal, serving the meal, providing entertainment, and cleaning up, of course. Those of us that work this meal will receive equal portions of the money. My Thailand team will also be doing other fundraisers, as well as relying on the donations of others for our trip. At the moment, my team needs over $90,000 for every member to go. Please stand in agreement with me before our Father that when He places the desire to give on hearts that our brothers and sisters in Christ obey. Even those who are not believers, that they would respond to the Father's call.
        I am officially going back to Texas for Christmas break. My dad splurged and now all four of us will be there. My older brother's girl was supposed to come, but I guess she is scared of us down south. All I want is sweet tea. And heat. And...I think that is mostly it. Ha
      That was just a random rabbit trail, one that I will more than likely go back and edit and add onto. But then again, maybe not.
    This coming week we will be learning on Destiny. The speaker for this week's topic should be arriving soon. The following week lectures will be on Rescuing and Restoring Street Children and the last week of lecture will be on Relationships. Can I just say that I am pumped about all of these topics? Not necessarily one more than the other because each time I expect a certain topic to be on something specific it is usually not. Which is fine..to a certain degree. Not going to lie, I definitely have a favorite week. The teacher was amazing, the classes where fantastic, and the Friday ministry time was too good to be true. But it is. Day after day the Lord proves His goodness in my life. And this joy that is form deep within cannot be faked. This desire to let all know of my freedom is not from me. God is so good. Speaking of which, I wrote a prose poem and performed in front of my whole DTS and staff. It was so great. So freeing. I love my God and I cannot deny all He has done for me. Let me pull up the poem:
     The Identity Factor

In a place of isolation and shame
Hiding from all mankind
Making an escape 
In a world all my own
Hiding; hidden
And now for my shame:
for what I have done,
what has been done to me
And who I have been
Abused and used
Neglected and rejected
Perfection pushed upon me
A voice 
Ever so calming
Ever so peaceful
Child come
No, I am
Too scared of being cast away
My fear of being rejected
Makes me the rejector
Then one day
Not too long ago
He beckons again
Child come
Though still frightened
I say okay
And in this place
Of heartache and pain
He begins to tell me
Though abandoned 
I have remained the same
You belong 
You are valued and worthy of my love
My heart's desire is for you
And you are certainly not your past mistakes
Day after day
He wrecks my heart
He speaks into me who I am
And who He has called me to be
He has planted this tree
By His living water
They say God doesn't do that
Yes He does
Go God!

 ©Maya Magdeleña

  There is a story behind the last three lines that my DTS and staff understand. That is more or less the reason those lines are there, but you can skip those lines if necessary. 

  Lately, the Lord has been speaking into me about my identity. About who He says I am. My small group and I made books and I have been using mine like crazy. I love that simple book that holds so much truth. And it is truth; I think that is the best part. The hardest part is putting that truth into action and learning how to believe it. Because it is a huge learning process but the people here are helping me learn and most of us are learning together. God never lies.

The Last Two Weeks

Two weeks ago today, the Rescue Ops focus left the TC for Ozark, Arkansas. Along the way we saw the hand of God and learned about His provision firsthand. Shortly after we started our journey the power steering fluid began to leak. By the time we were in Lebanon, Missouri the van would not hold any fluid. So there we are, twenty-seven students and staff hanging out on the side of the road wondering what we are going to do. It is a Sunday and way past closing time for anything that would have been open. Not even ten minutes later, a man, Bud, and his wife pulled into the gas station parking lot. Bud had just finished a men's retreat with his church and was on his way home with his wife when he felt the Lord tell him to pull into this gas station. He asked the question we all ask: Why God? Then he saw us and understood. We spent the night at a huge, beautiful church. We woke up the next morning and they provided coffee (we already had food) and a place to worship and plan. Later that day, we got in the van (not the one that was broken down) and headed to the camping site. We arrived around one in the morning and went straight to bed. The next morning our team was reunited, as we had had to split up in order to make it to the camp site, and we began to meet the YWAM Ozark team. Just to clarify, when I say "we" I mean everybody else, I hung back like I frightened doe. Our days were spent outdoors, obviously, and were filled to the brim. We had breakfast, quiet time, teaching, lunch, stations/day hikes, maybe some free time, dinner and then class and worship. By that time it was dark and some of us would go to bed (like me). Thursday they sent us on an overnight hike with the teams that had previously been set up. My team was to hike a creek bed, a dry creek bed, then pick up a trail and end up back at Base 2. (Base 2 was where we were dropped off.) The dry creek bed was the hardest part. These were not just rocks, these were boulders, covered in moss and leaves and getting more in more wet as the rain kept coming. We made it through with no serious injuries and began to look for camp as we knew there was no way we could find the trail that night, as the sun was setting. We had a window of about thirty minutes when it was not raining. We split up, looking for dry wood, (Jesus, please! Was our cry) setting up a tarp tent, etc. No joke, after we got both the fire started and the tent set up, it began to rain again. My team and I decided to do a HUGE no-no and put the tarp over the fire. We were warmer than we would have been throughout the night had we not done that. The next morning we woke, were able to find the trail, and what had taken us four hours the previous afternoon, took only two. We were the first team in and we were freezing and very proud of ourselves. We went back to Base 1 and waited for the other three teams to come in. They had two hours or they failed. Team 1 came in 15-20 minutes behind us and the other two teams came in after the time limit. We took about an hour then packed into our vehicles and went to the Ozark's base. We spent Saturday relaxing and spending time with each other. By this time I was seeking out others to converse with. On Sunday, we left the Ozark base at 4:30 am and began our drive to Cincinnati, OH for YWAM Finish the Task conference. Here we met up with the rest of our base and a few other DTSs from around the States. By Wednesday, I was spent. I wanted to go home and sleep in my own bed and know where everything was and know what the rules were and... I began to seek out time with just me&God more aggressively and with friends who would encourage me&&remind me that it was almost over. We were going home soon. We left Thursday night, and while I was excited I did not want to leave my Ozark friends. We traveled throughout the night and arrived home at 6:30 Friday morning. I went to sleep and woke thirty minutes before a dear friend left to go home. He had told me earlier that week that he was going home. Then, Thursday morning, he told me he was not coming back to the TC. I was sad to see him go, but I understood how this was a better thing for him. He needs this time to be at home, and we will support him here at the base. So much more to say and post, but they are not well-thought thoughts. My thinker is shutting down. Talk to you soon.