Bible Distrubution

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Dan and I and our group of 19 students just finished a week of bible distribution in the northwest part of Costa Rica.  Our group was able to go to 648 homes this and gave a free bible and prayed/talked to the members of the homes with a local church joining each group.  

The highlighted green streets on the map are all the homes we finished in a week!  It is cool to see it as a visual!

Elena and Jenny got a watermelon for a thank you for giving a bible to one home! There was so many stories of Gods goodness and Him touching people's hearts through us!

We partnered with a local church, so as we went home to home passing out bibles we had a member of the church with us! It was such a blessing!

 One home, a local 20 year old member Antonio (in the picture above) came with Dan.  As we shared about the project the older women said no thank you.  Antonio started talking and walked right in and had an amazing conversation and she received prayer and the bible!  They were a huge blessing to work with! 

Here is a picture after a long day of passing out bibles of us! 

Tonight the group is celebrating Christmas in the hometown of Rossela, the leader of the DTS, in Liberia, where Dan and I spend Christmas last year.  We are having a family style Christmas dinner and a secret Santa among the group after attending church here where we are staying.  This morning we spent time singing Christmas songs and reflecting as a group on Emmanuel, God with us, and what that means today!  We are staying here and having our first free day tmr and plans to go to the beach!  

FREEDOM in CHRIST!

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Here are some pictures of the inner healing week, where God taught through me the first part of the week and then Vanessa (a teacher) and Rossela (leader for this DTS) led the practical applications of the teachings I taught. Totally Gods perfect plan for the week!

Here is our DTS classroom where we have classes everyday during the lecture phrase.  Even through I have been in this classroom everyday for the last day during the lecture phrases, God had completely different plans for me this week, as I was in front allowing God to speak His truth about the intimacy we were created for, how sin has affected our relationship (intimacy) with Him and how the cross and death of Jesus Christ brings us the freedom to live like God orgingally planned for us!

I personally have fallen in love, and fall more and more in love everyday, with God's love letter to us and so we read and studied many scriptures from God's Word!

I believe I was talking about how lies that we choose to believe are planted deeply within us and then proceeded to talk about how we can pull out the roots of the lies and allow God's truth to be planted in us instead.  But I love this picture! Because I know ASL, been around the Deaf community, and I am a visual learner I am a very dramatic teacher using all kinds of motions and signs! 

It is how God created me! And I love it!

Had the opportunity to meet with girls one on one to talk and process what God was doing in their hearts.  I loved seeing the FREEDOM and chains broken in the students lives! 

After all the teaching, we did a practical application by giving each student and staff a stick and allowing time for each one to process with God ways where we have responded in worldly or sinful ways (ex feeling rejected, prideful, depression, controlling or judging). That created habits in us instead of going to God and choosing to respond the way He would.  We wrote this ways on our stick and as a group, called out the different ways we can respond and each time if someone identified with the way we would hammer our stick into the ground.  It was an amazing experience to declare we are choosing to repent from our fleshly ways and allow our spirit to control our decisions.  

Dan led the group in a time of worship and prayer afterwards!  The students experienced freedom in Christ in a deeper way than ever before and this was just the beginning! Vanessa led the rest of the week through some more teaching and practical applications of the teaching.  

Giving the students the opportunity to publicly share things that had happened in their past and leading them through the process of forgiving others, forgiving themselves, receiving God's forgiveness, and blessing the same people they were releasing forgiveness to.  Afterward, we would share any words of encouragements or scriptures God put on our hearts during this time for the student. 

We had a fire where we broke all soul ties and generational curses. 

(We did not take any pictures of this so I just took a picture of a fire).

Allowed the students to wash their hands of sexual immorality and receive God's forgiveness, healing, love and purity.  

Vanessa and Rossela annointing the students forehead with oil, purifying their minds and claiming the mind of Christ. 

Thank you again for all your prayers for this week.  Our Father has such amazing plans and He ways and thoughts are so above anything we can ever think of!  The week was led completely by Him and we would not have it any other way. 

Two Worlds Meet

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This past Sunday, two worlds in Dan and my life meet! The Deaf church in San Jose Costa Rica and 30 staff and students from YWAM San Jose.  Dan and I taught, the YWAMers basic communication in Lesco so the students could communicate their names, where they are from, what they like to eat and more.  All of the students introduced themselves and where they are from in front of the whole church.   Above the students and a member, Kathia of the church are having a deeper conversation so I am interpreting to help communication flow.  

I had the opportunity to share about what is YWAM and what is a DTS.  Planting the seed for the future for youth in the Deaf church to want to do a DTS, when we start one in ASL! 

All the YWAMers had the opportunity to experience worshipping the Lord in a new way!  Worship through our hands, facial expressions and emotions with a bass drum to keep the beat (the Deaf way). 

I was able to interpret the message for the hearing folks!  The message was great about our new identity in Christ! It was an amazing Sunday full of new opportunities and partnerships for the future!

May Edition Newsletter

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May Newsletter

Outreach to Central America!

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We are very excited to share that God has revealed and confirmed the outreach places for this Apirl DTS. As a whole team (18 students, 6 staff), we will be sharing God's love in Costa Rica for two weeks and then the DTS will spilt up into two teams for the last 6 weeks of outreach. One will be going to South America (Peru and Bolvia) and the other be going to Central America (Nicaguagua, Hondurous, Guatamala, and El Salvador).

Dan and I will be staffing the Central America group with another staff member named Luis. We have 8 students (4 girls, 4 boys) on our team and each student is from a different country. Philip (Bolvia), Merlin (El Salvador), Peter (Denmark), Jakota (USA), Alisabel (Venezula), Esther (Hondurous), Jenny (Germany) and Liene (Latvia). We had our first meeting this week to pray for the students and the countries God is calling us to. Through prayer, God shared that our diversity will be our strength and unity is very important (2 Cor 12:18). We are excited about sharing Jesus in Central America.  

April Edition of Newsletter

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Here is a link to Aprils newsletter:

Newsletter 2

April DTS students have arrived . . .

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After 8 trips to the airport in three days (Dan driving for 5), all 18 of our students have arrived from all over the world! The countries represented in the DTS are Germany (2), Denmark(2), Latvia (1), Honduras (1), Venezuela (1), El Salvador (1), Bolivia (1), US (4), Canada (3), Australia (1) and one from Costa Rica! It is the first time San Jose, Costa Rica has ever had a student from Latvia and Bolivia.

We also have many first languages. Some of the students English is there third language. The students have already begun to teach and learn different phrases in other languages. They have already had an Spanish/English class on their own, learning basics in both languages so people can communicate with others, as we have some on our team that only speak Spanish and many that do not know Spanish. We have 6 girls and 12 boys on the team, which is unique for a DTS here. Typically we have more girls than boys.

God created diversity and values diversity (Rev 7:9), so we know that this will be one of the teams strengths. To better understand the cultural different we are reading Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Understanding Hot- and Cold-Climate Cultures by Sarah A. Lanier.

Please pray for:

God to give us His understand and heart for different cultures and a desire to learn about cultures different than our own

Clear communication and God's gift of learning languages quickly as many of the students have the desire to learn

God to use our strength of diversity for His glory now during lecture phrase and in the future of outreach

Thank you so much for your prayers!  

First Newsletter!

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We have just sent out a copy of our first newsletter to everyone that we have emails for. If you did not receive one and would like to receive future newsletters through email please send us your email address.

Here is a link to the newsletter:

Newsletter

We have also updated our "Partnering with us" page to inform everyone on making donations to us how to make them tax-deductible if you desire.

Thanks

Dan and Carole

We are back in the States!

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We had an amazing DTS (Discipleship Training School) and have many awesome stories of Gods faithfulness and his provision for our whole team while in Costa Rica and in Germany on our outreach. We have now been in Chicago for the last week sharing stories and spending time with family and friends, updating everyone there with where God is calling us to next. We had an amazing time of fellowship and we were so encouraged by the excitement that others have about what God is doing all over the world.  And now we just have arrived in PA where we will be until March 2nd. We will then be going to Santa Fe, NM until the 7th of March before heading back to Costa Rica. 

God has called us back to Costa Rica to work at the YWAM base in San Jose helping to staff and lead the next DTS starting in April. For the next 2 years God has called us into a training period where we will be learning what is involved in leading and pioneering a DTS because we feel God is calling us to start a DTS for people that are Deaf. Both Carole and I have a call to disciple Deaf young adults to know God in a deep intimate relationship and then go back into their community and make God known to the Deaf where they live. We are excited about what God is already doing to open the doors for this to happen in the future. We will be focusing on getting to know more Deaf people in San Jose while also working on staff with YWAM. 

In our last few weeks in Germany I was really thinking about all that God had done during our DTS and i was sad about how it was almost over, but then God revealed to me what the next chapter looks likes and I wrote this:

The end is drawing near. I feel as if yet another chapter is closing and a new one is about to begin. One filled with adventure, challenges, and new experiences. A new stage where the stakes grow deeper; where failing hurts harder, but where success is a bringer of true life; where my dedication can effect many live beyond my own. This is a life with Christ; A life that begins at the end and races from the start. A life of battling in the war thats already won. Where the Word is my sword and faith is my shield. This is a life with Jesus; And this is the life where dying holds no influence, where the best is always yet to come, and where excitement bursts at every corner flowing out into the form of new life. It's the foundational energy for the building blocks of tomorrow, the revolutionists of today, and the epic ending tales of yesterdays sad stories. This "life" I can share! This "life" is my new chapter! This is a life worth fighting for!

Hamburg and Stroubing

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Hey! Internet access has been limited in these last few weeks since our last update from Berlin, so we do a quick overview to catch everyone up.

We spent 2 weeks in Hamburg after leaving Berlin. We stayed in the basement of a large church and participated in many of the ministries that the church already had established. Such as a homeless ministires, childrens after school care ministry, prostitute ministries and sharing at church and youth services. God used our group to light a flame in the hearts of the people that go to that church. Many evenings and days people from the church would just spend the day with us, drawn to our excitment and love for God. We also had the opportunity to go to a large public high school and share drama, dance and life experiences with the students throughout the day. It was so cool because we were told not to directly talk about Jesus and God but we were able to come up with many unique ways to share and love on the students without direct talk. I had the opportunity to go to an english class and talk all about YWAM and what we were doing in Hamburg and Germany which definietly got the students thinking and wanting to know more.

We took a 2 day, 12 hour train trip, with 9 different trains to get to Stroubing Germany. We have had the opportunity to share what we are doing in Germany in many different schools through their religion class. Dan and I had the chance to go to a local school for the Deaf and meet with the School Director and tour the school. Tonight we have our last big event on outreach. We are having a 2 hour program at a fancy pub that will focus on intimacy with God. This town in very Catholic based and understands who God is but we are going to share tonight through dance, drama, music, poety, ect... the relationship God desires us to have with our Father.

We are having a 3 day debriefing in Germany early next week before we fly back to Costa Rica on Thurs. for our school graduation.

Berlin, Germany

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Wow, it is hard to believe that 2 weeks ago is when we arrived to Berlin, Germany, when we worshipped God in the train station and He provided a place to stay.  We have developed so many lasting friendships in the last two weeks! 

On January 2nd, we stayed with and served with YWAM Berlin until last night.  The first day, one of the staff at the base led us on a prayer walk around Berlin.  We prayed all over Berlin at many tourstist spots.  It was a completely new way to visit a new city and it was awesome to have the chance to pray in the city we have been praying for since we knew we were going to Berlin.  We had the opportunity to serve in three specific ministries here: dance workshop, Teen challenge and ministry in a park.  Dan and I did not do the dance workshop as there are other people who have a heart for dancing but we did go to Teen Challange and ministry at the park. 

Two other staff members, a married couple, named Micheal and Shayln have a heart for a specific park in Berlin.  It is a dark part of town and the park is known for drug dealers.  We went to the park three times in two weeks to prayer for the park and give out free coffee and tea to the people in the park, delevoping relationships for the YWAM base.  Dan with three other team memebes had the opportunity to give coffee and tea to 10 to 15 drug dealers.  At the start of the day, many were hiding in the brushes and very suspucious that we were cops.  By the end of the day and as our group was leaving the park, they were oout in the open waving bye to us.  It was an amazing example of God' favor.  As Dan shared about his experience, he said that they were so open and friendly and had good conversations with them about thier beliefs about God.  We went back again and invited the people we met to a 'Taste of Costa Rica' party we hosted on Thursday night in Berlin.  Two people we met at the park came, one a drug dealer named Lucky and one a person hanging out in the park named Simon.  We got to pray for Lucky as he left and a memeber of our team had the opportunity to led Simon to Christ after our party. 

This past Tuesday night, Dan and I went to Teen Challenge, which is a ministry that serves food to the homeless everyday in Berlin.  As we were preparing the meal,  we learned there was a man who was Deaf that worked there named Helmi!  I ended up talking with him for the whole night and interpret for the meeting and songs sung by our group.  He signed in German Sign Langauge and me in American Sign Language but we were able to communicate through gestures and were able to understand each other no problem.  I learned many German signs!  It was so fun!He was an amazing encouragement to me as he loved Jesus and knew the Bible soooooo well.  For the whole night, he shared about his life, family and passion for Isreal and heart for Jews.  We exchanged emails and plan to stay friends.  It was a divine appointment from God. 

Germany!!

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Well after a 13 hour plane trip we made it safely to Frankfurt, Germany. It is cold here(especiallty after costa rica!!) and they have some snow. We spent new years eve night in a church. We got to see the most spactacular fireworks that i have ever seen!! We left on the 1st for Berlin and made it after a 9 hour train trip on 4 different trains.
We arrived in Berlin main train station at 8:30pm with no place to stay that night. Our plans fell through for that night and so our leaders asked God what to do. We ended up just playing worship in the train station in 25F degree weather and trusting God he would provide. (All of the hostles that we checked were full).  We made some signs that said FREE HUGs in English and German and continued worshiping and hugging everyone we could. It was an amazing time of trusting on God. We met many people and had many great opportunities to share Gods love that night. After about 1.5 hours we met a women that was passing by and stopped. She said after leaving and coming back that we could stay in the prayer room building of the church that she goes to called Bethel. It was very closeby and we could walk!! So we went and all 19 of us stayed in a house of prayer. Many of our team stayed up most of the night praying and reading the bible with other members of this church!! It was crazy. Just like the apostles in Acts. I had the opportunity to talk to the pastor the next morning and he was very excited about us being here. He shared that he had just preached the day before on there needing to be an overflowing and outpouring within their church and in Berlin. And now here we are overflowing their house of prayer! They were a blessing to us as we were a blessing to them. We are now planning to do ministry with this church in the next week and attending their church service tonight. It is crazy because we did not even know about this church 3 days ago!
Since then we have now been staying the last 3 days with YWAM Berlin. We are doing dance, prostitute, homeless, and drug addict ministries this week. Also we have been doing many prayer walks all over Berlin. As well, today we did questionaires in a popular mall, engaging people with conversations about their culture and God. Some others were playing music in another train station and giving free hugs!
We have been very busy but it has been a great time so far!