10/11/10

Hola mis amigos. I have decided to start a blog as a way to keep people updated and informed about how things are going in Mexico with me and my DTS.  I have been here in Ensenada Mexico for a little over two weeks, so there are a lot of things that I could say. But I am going to try to keep it short and informative.

   

The base I am living at is awesome.  It is what I was looking for.  The base is pretty big.  There are probably about 50 to 60 people on base the majority of the time. The base is also bilingual.  The classes are in English and Spanish. The base is also right on the beach, it's beautiful.  

 My DTS group has close to 30 people in it, which is a relatively large group for a DTS.  Everyone is cool and it has been fun getting to know people.  Within the first five days of being at the school everyone shared their testimonies, allowing us to get to know each other better.  

My schedule is similar for each week.  We get up in the morning at 7 and have quiet time, a daily devotional, until 7:30.  Then we have breakfast from 7:30 to 8.  After breakfast we have base clean up until 8:30.  Then we have either intercessory prayer, worship, or a base meeting for the next hour.  At 9:30 class starts.  A speaker comes each week and we have lectures from 9:30 to 1 each week day.  At 1 we have lunch until 2. In the afternoon, the things we do vary.  It is either work duties, mine is working in the kitchen, local out reach were we go out to the community and tutor poor local kids, have small groups sessions, or Spanish class.  In the evening we have either bible study, free time, worship night, or community night.  Then the weekends are free time.  So my schedule is pretty busy but also rewarding.  

I have already learned and got a lot out of the DTS already, but it has also been challenging.  The first week our speaker was Jack Kody.  The topic was the father heart of God.  What stood out and stuck with me was how our image of God plays such an important role with how we relate and communicate with the Lord,  how  much God loves us, and how we can do lots of ministry but if we don't do it with love it is just noise.  This week the topic is Justice and the speaker is Amanda Noise.  Today we had the introduction and didn't dig to deep into the topic, but it was still really good and is getting me excited for the rest of the week.  The DTS has  been challenging in many ways.  I can see the God is calling me to become vulnerable and let me pride down, which is extremely hard.  But I think by doing so I will be able to grow closer to the people here and allow God to work through me more.  

Keep me and the people in my DTS in your prayers.  Also, I still need money for my outreach phase.  The options are either Mexico city or Haiti/Dominican Republic.  I talk more about them in the next post.  If you want to donate money I can let you know how if you don't already know.  Email me at elliodo803@gmail.com