Category: Ensenada

My, How Time Flies: A Journey Into Full-Time Missions, Part 2

2/1/2017

I am sharing my journey into full-time missions. If you missed the first part, you may want to start there so you aren't confused. We will wait. You can find that here.

When we returned to the States the youth went on their next adventure, leaving me behind, and that Wednesday night after a series of events, Mary Rogers (who I consider my Spiritual Mom) told me I should go work for YWAM. After figuring out that neither of us knew what that was, I left determined to find out. The next day during a break at work, I searched for what I thought was YWAM & I found YWAM San Diego/Baja. I looked through their website and saw several “job opportunities” that I had either experience in or that at which I was naturally gifted. Each description stated that I needed to be a successful DTS graduate to qualify for the position. After trying to decipher this new language & figure out what DTS meant, I clicked around and pretty must stumbled on a page stating that a DTS or Discipleship Training School was a 5 month missions experience. As “luck” would have it, there was a DTS starting in 2 months in, you guessed it, Ensenada, Mexico (where I had been not 3 days prior).

I immediately contacted the school registrar and asked about a thousand questions and really emphasizing that I needed everything spelled out for me. What is this? How much does it cost? What all do I need to do? Is there still space? I needed details and ASAP! I sent the email and went to lunch.

When I returned from lunch I had a voicemail and an email waiting for me. I was ecstatic. I listened to the voicemail from Nico, the school registrar, and read through the email. I knew that I couldn’t return her phone call right then as I was at work so I would have to wait until my afternoon break. I did, however, immediately download & print off the application and stuck it in my bag to fill out later. Nico had answered all of my questions with lots of details and I felt satisfied and at peace while somewhat nervous about this decision.

After a few hours of working on some data entry and accounts payable I was ready for my afternoon break. I grabbed my cell phone & headed to the break room to call Nico back.

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My, How Time Flies: A Journey into Full-Time Missions, Part 1

1/24/2017

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10 years ago I was sitting in Guatemala during the outreach portion for my DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM San Diego/Baja. I had already made up my mind to join this incredible missions organization about 5 months prior, in July, when I first heard about it. Now, all I had to do was complete the rest of my outreach phase, another month or so, and graduate. That was it! I remember that around this time our DTS director & school leader at the time, Tym, came to visit us. I was able to chat with him about my staffing opportunities and was really excited to jump in head-first to what I KNEW God was calling me towards.

Let me back up. You need a bit of backstory to fully understand and appreciate this leap of faith. *PS, this is a LONGer story so it will be broken up in a few different posts coming out over the course of the next few weeks (promise).

As I wrote a few months ago (if you haven’t read that post, go do so here, I’ll wait ....), in the Spring of 2006 I really had to press in to the Lord to hear what HE wanted me to do for the summer. I was used to going on every missions & youth trip the student ministry at my home church, Metro Church of God in Birmingham, offered plus several camps and local ministry opportunities like VBS and kids camp. But that year, I was roughly 6 months into a new, “real” job with vacation days, sick days, clock-in hours, etc. I, for the first time pretty much since birth, had to really contemplate what my summer was going to look like.

So I pressed in & prayed and felt the Lord telling me Mexico. Our youth group was headed to Ensenada, Mexico the last weeks of June and I knew that God was leading me in that direction. So I signed up and helped lead that trip. The dates lined up perfectly for me to even have a few days of recovery time before heading back to work thanks to a conveniently place long weekend for July 4.

As I sit here thinking about it, my first international trip & my second missions trip altogether was also to Mexico, back when I was 15, when we went to Mexico City. Fast-forward 13 years of trips every single summer and my last short-term trip was going to be Mexico again!! Seems fitting!

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My Story: How Did I Get Here? Part 1

7/26/2016

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As I am here in Alabama in the summer for the first time in 10 years, since I moved to Mexico, I can't help but reflect on the things that led me to full-time missions back in 2006. Let me set the stage for you.

In November 2005, I started working at a company called EBSCO. EBSCO is an international company that started as a magazine subscription agency. As the company grew and different needs arose, the company created and acquired many businesses and expanded around the world. Even getting this job was the result of a series of events that was set into motion several years prior. Don't worry, I won't get into that right now but look forward to even more background info to come.

So, after many years of working as a preschool teacher, nanny, and retail associate, for the first time in my life I had what my parents affectionally referred to as a "real job". With this "real job" came only 5 days of vacation time which didn't really sit well with me! I was used to being free most of the summer to participate in the many camps, missions trips and youth activities that our church was involved in. For the first time in 10 years I had to really pray about what God wanted me to do for the summer.

As I prayed I felt like God said, "Mexico." As it happened our youth group from Metro was heading to Ensenada, Mexico that summer. I looked at the dates and our company's vacation/free days and realized that they lined up perfectly! Not a coincidence. I was able to go to Ensenada and still have a few days to recover upon returning home before I had to go back to the office.

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God Gave Me a FitBig

8/10/2015

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God has been blowing my socks off lately. As you know, I am a full-time missionary with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) San Diego/Baja. I have been on the field since February of 2007 after completing my Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Ensenada, Mexico. I have served at all 3 of our locations now (Ensenada & San Antonio del Mar, Mexico and San Diego, CA). In all of my years in missions I have only received a handful of tangible items that I didn't purchase myself. One of those was a computer generously donated by Shelter Cove Community Church in Modesto, CA. They are a group that I worked with for several years while I was leading Mission Adventures. I've received a few care packages through the years but most of them were ChrisValBirth boxes from my mom. What are ChrisValBirth boxes?? These are the things that my mom put in boxes to send me through the months of December - May (Christmas, Valentine's & my birthday) but never got around to sending me until she had combined 6 months worth of "holidays" into one (or 2) boxes. I love getting ChrisValBirth boxes from my mom!!

You may recall in June I wrote a blog about God working through beef jerky. If you haven't read it, go ahead & click the link. I'll wait.

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Ok, now that you are back, I have, in the last month or so, received 5 different care packages of various sizes filled with stuff on my list!! Seriously, every time I get an alert that I have a package I wonder who sent me something now?! I feel so loved and cherished not only by my Heavenly Father but by you guys as well. One of my love languages is Gifts! That's one of the ways that I receive love! (ps, doesn't have to be monetary or costly things just something that says you hear me, think about me, know me, etc. ). I mean how else would you explain crying over bandaids and hydrogen peroxide?

Well on top of all the awesome care packages I've received, just this last weekend during our President's Gathering (aka Share the Vision Event) God gave me a FitBit. A FitBit is in essence a bracelet (or in this case a watch) that you wear and it counts and records things like your steps, your heart rate, your sleep patterns and how many calories you've burned.

Check out this video where I explain exactly how God gave me this awesome tool!

So, what has God done for you lately just to show you how much He cares?

He hears you and loves you and wants to shower you with His goodness!

How do you receive love and what are some ways that He has shown you that lately?

Leave a comment below and let me know! I'd love to hear your story!

If you liked this story, you will probably also like:

Make sure you also check out all of the other stories through our YWAM Ministries.

Want to join us for the next quarter? Check out all of our awesome upcoming schools that you can be a part of! Head on over to our newly designed website to find out more. If you have questions, let me know!

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Drama Continues ...

4/14/2014

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Last week I shared about all the drama going on at our Youth With a Mission (YWAM) Ensenada and San Antonio del Mar campuses. In case you missed that post feel free to check it out here. Well, I know you are all so very curious to SEE some of this drama that I've been talking about so without further ado, here are a few videos of just some of the awesome skits and songs that we learned. FYI, you may see a few that you recognize and if you look closely you may even see my awesome acting skills as well.

Post by Julia Perona.

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Impacting The World

2/9/2011

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This past weekend I was able to travel down to Ensenada with some very dear friends of mine, the youth leadership team from Shelter Cove Community Church in Modesto, California. They came down to plan and prep for their upcoming trip in April. They are hoping to bring around 150 students and leaders with them this year (they brought 105 last year) and hoping to build 5 houses. They are such a HUGE blessing to YWAM, the city of Ensenada and especially to me personally. As a matter of fact, the computer on which I am writing this update was graciously given to me by this wonderful student ministry.

Their student ministry is called Impact and one of the amazing things they are planning to do with their trip this year is to live up to their name. They want to Impact the city and communities (colonias) of Ensenada. As I said they are hoping to build 5 houses but above and beyond that they are wanting to do so much more. During our visit last week, we were able to meet with several ministry leaders in the surrounding areas of Ensenada. Some I knew personally, some I had met in passing and some I just knew from pictures and updates from various friends on Facebook. It was such a blessing to hear the hearts of these leaders and the impact they are making on the lives around them.

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Homes of Hope: See I can build a house ...

4/20/2010

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A few weeks ago I was blessed to be able to go out on a Homes of Hope house build with Cedar Mill Bible Church in Portland, OR. They were here for Mission Adventures and as I will be visitng them soon, I will post more about the team later. While we were building this house for a family I was able to build many relationships. One of those relationships was with one of the children for which the team was building a house.

On the second day of the build as I was cleaning up from lunch, I looked over and noticed that the middle son, Erik, was stacking wood pieces up against the a-frame ladder in front of the house. When I asked him what he was doing he replied, "building a house". I asked him who the house was for and he just grinned. A few moments later one of the ladies from the team came to get the ladder as they needed to use it to finish up some detail work on the "big" house. When she pulled the ladder away, all the wood that Erik had stacked toppled to the ground in one large pile. He looked devestated. His house that he had worked so hard on had been destroyed.

I walked over and surveyed the mess looking for a way to salvage this wreck. I put my thinking cap on and realized that I know how to actually build a house. Looking around I found all the tools necessary (since we were building a house and all they were readily available) and told little Erik not to fret, we can do it.

Erik and I found several matching pieces of plywood and started constructing a small box-like shape. Soon the structure was taking shape and beginning to look like a house. We found extra roofing paper and shingles and added them to our masterpiece. We even got one of the guys to cut out a door for our house. Not to waste a single thing, we used a left over duct tape nametag to secure the cut-out door back to the house creating a hinge. Now that is inventive!!

I found through my talking and building with Erik that this 10 year old liked to build, use the hammer stapler more than the regular hammer and was thrilled to be moving into his house (the big one, not the one we built together, it was too small).

We had to clean up before Erik and I could finish building our house but I promised before I left that we would complete it the next day. Well, the next morning I was a little late getting to the job site as I had to turn in paperwork for my Mexican Visa. When I finally arrived at Erik's house I found that he had already completed our house and had been very sad that I had not been there to help. I explained my morning activities and reassured him that he had done an excellent job without me. A few minutes later he asked how to spell my name and I looked to see that he had added a small piece of metal that we use to cap off the edges of the roof. On this metal he had painted his name and with a pencil was adding my name. This was truly our house!!

I must admit I have never had so much fun building a house and I will remember this experience for the rest of my life. So see, I can build a house too!

Enjoy this story? Make sure you check out other stories of the transforming power of God through the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) ministry, Homes of Hope by clicking here.