Start of Week 5

Hola! It’s the first day of week five! I have already been gone for a whole month! This past week has been an eventful one for me. Our topic this week was Worldview. It was an interesting topic. On Tuesday our whole team fasted so we could focus on praying about where God wanted us for outreach. Unfortunately, it was Melissa’s birthday, so we decided to celebrate by waking her up at 12 Am to break our fast with a ton of junk food. On Wednesday when we came together as a team, we realized everyone but one had heard from God we were to go to Mexico. So that’s were our team will be going! Also we will be spending the whole 9 weeks of outreach located in Mexico!! This is a very excited time for our team as we plan for our outreach. Please pray for us that the funds we need to complete this outreach will come and that God can guide us every step of the way.
This week was very difficult for me. I struggled with a lot of emotional things. It is so hard to deal with emotions while sharing a room with seven other girls! It was a struggle for me but God brought people to my side to help me through it. And on the positive side I feel I have come out of it with a stronger relationship with God. Please pray for me and my whole team, that as we face struggles we don’t turn and run but face them head on with the strength of the Lord.
God blessed us with a joyful end to the week! This weekend we held TWO BBQ in celebration of the BBQ donated to the base by the last short term team. On Saturday afternoon, our DTS class decided to christened the new BBQ and to have some meat (we eat very like meat here on the base). So we all put in $4 and bought speaks, potatoes, chips and dip and threw a great summer event! On Sunday afternoon the whole base, staff and students, came together to have another BBQ lunch with the money donated by the team. There was hamburgers and chicken! It was just like back home. It was awesome to have a meal that was not made up of rice and beans! But I am becoming a real fan of the rice and beans!
Another thing to note is that there is still three people waiting for their money. It is due by the end of week six. That only gives two weeks! Please pray for Mario, Alex and Alejandro that God will provide their money.
I miss home a lot but things are really good here. I really miss everyone.

Support Letter

Dear family and friends,God’s will has brought thirteen strangers; Paola (Costa Rica), Maria (El Salvador), Ashley (U.S.A.), Donna (Canada), Melissa (U.S.A.), Alejandro (Costa Rica), Erika (U.S.A.), Mario (Costa Rica), Morgan (U.S.A.), John (New Zealand/ England), William (U.S.A.), Andy (Guatemala) and Alexander (Costa Rica), from all over the world together to share in a roller coast ride that will shake their lives forever. In many different ways, God has called us to come together in San Jose, Costa Rica to learn and grow in Him. For five month we will live together as we all attend a DTS (Discipleship Training School) through YWAM (Youth With A Mission). The purpose of DTS is to get to know God, in deeper relationship, and spread His love to others. The DTS is designed to encourage students in personal character development, cultivating a living relationship with God and identifying their unique individual gifts and callings in God. Cross- cultural exposure and global awareness are special emphases throughout the course, preparing the students to reach current and future generations and answer the call to “go into all the world and disciple all nations” (Matthew 29:19). For the first twelve weeks, we participate in the Lecture/ teaching phase, studying a new topic of God’s world every week. The last twelve weeks are spent doing God’s will by reaching out to His people around the world. Part of the outreach phase is done locally in communities around San Jose and the other part is done internationally. After completing a DTS the door is opened to attend other opportunities such as other YWAM schools or to become a long term staff member. This is an amazing opportunity to grow in God and we all feel so blessed to be called by God to attend.
To enable this experience funds are still needed for some of our team. As a team we have come together to fundraise for the money still needed. We believe that it’s important that all of us stay and experience all God has for us. The money we still required is $6300 American dollars. All this money is due by the second week in August. This may seem like a big task but with God nothing is impossible. God has brought all of us here with a purpose.
Here is a little interdiction of the team members you will be helping.
Hola! My name is Paola Arce Vindas and I am from Costa Rica.After almost two years of the director(Giacomo) asking me to do a DTS. God began to speak to me and I decided to give up my job that I had been at for almost two years to get to know what God wants from me. In the past few days of DTS God has been waking feeling in my heart for me to better understand the love of God.
Hola! I’m Mario Sibaja from here in Costa Rica. I have a passion for music and sports. I have been working with YWAM for two years and I have a special calling for missions work.
Hi! My name is Alexander Salazar Granados. I grow up in Costa Rica. Since I was a kid I wanted to be a missionary. After going through the worst struggles of my life, I got a call from God telling me to get prepared. This is the time to do it cause everyday we waste the world dies. My hobbies are music, evangelism, adventures, food, traveling, diving and pretty much surviving.
Buenos dias! I’m Alejandro. I come from Costa Rica. There is a lot of concidences that brought me here. My mom saw a phone number on the tv and now I am here. I am passionate about extreme sports like soccer and swimming. I really feel comfortable helping others and enjoy the wonders of God’s creation.
Please keep our team in your prays. If you feel God telling you to support us financially you can do so by sending cost or checks in the mail. For those paying with checks, you can write it out to CIMEC. There is also the option of an international bank exchange, if this works best for you please email asking for more information on how to complete that. If you have an questions feel free to email or call the bases. Thank you for your time. God bless.
Sincerely,
San Jose DTS ‘08



Contact Info
Mailing address: YWAM San Jose, Interlink 828, P.O. Box 025635, Miami, Fl. 33102
Phone number: office -(506) 2227 4435 lounge- (506) 2227 6805
Email: info@ywamsj.org , anabell.martinez@ywamsj.org
Website: www.ywamsj.org

End of Week Three!

Hola! Week three as come and gone! This week our teacher was Jack Kody. He is an amazing teaching and has a gift from God to touch people’s hearts with every word. He taught on the Father Heart of God. Unfortunately, Jack could not stay the whole week so we had to jam a week’s worth of lessons into three days. To do so we had afternoon class. Also Jack entertained us for two evenings as well. On Monday night, Jack showed us Finding Nemo, to make us think about how far God, our Father, would go for us. On Wednesday night Jack took all of us to the movies! He paid for all of us to see Kung Fu Panda and bought us a popcorn combo on top of that. Jack took the time to get to know us and show us love as a father would their children, and as God would His children. It was a very powerful shift to start thinking of God as the loving Father He is. On Thursday, we went back to the same location as last week to continue our work in local outreach. We continued digging and moving dirt and also moved bricks. It was quite the work out but with God as my strength nothing is too hard. On Friday we ended the week with our first memorization quiz. We had to memorize Philippians 3: 7 -14. It was hard but I managed to do it! I was very proud of myself. Back tracking a bit on Tuesday for our pray time the theme was giving. We were asking to ask God who and what we should give. Some people gave bible verses or words of advice. God told me to give internet minutes to Andy, one of my class mates who has been very homesick. Ashley gave Paola all the money she needed to pay for her lecture phase. It was wonderful to see God move in all of us. I was given a gold necklace from Lucy, who is from El Salvador. She was given it for Christmas. She said God told her to give it to me but she didn’t know why. I don’t know why either, but I am sure that soon enough the meaning of the necklace will unveil itself. So, one person down and still three more to go! I have written a support letter for them. Please keep them in your prays. I will attach the support letter. It still has the amount including Paola’s money needed, so the amount needed is around $1200 less than that listed. If you have any questions feel free to email me at bousquetd@hotmail.com. Thank you

Second week coming to a close

Hola! Second week of school is already done! Only 10 more weeks of classes! It’s going by quickly! This week the topic we studied was relationships. On Tuesday we discussed that God made men and women equal. God made the genders different but that is so they can complaint each other. One of the guys ask if all the girls would stand in the middle with all the guys surrounding us, as they song of our beauty and ask God for forgiveness for anytime they may have mistreated a woman. It was a powerful moment. We were reminded that as women, God has may us beautiful and worthy of love and we need to allow guys to treat us with respect. Our relationship study started with studying the beginning to understand the purpose of relationships. As a side note we learnt a tiny bit about the fall of man. One part that didn’t relate to the relationship theme but was really interesting to learn was about Genesis 3: 14- 15. Adam and Eve have just eaten from the tree and God is confronting the serpent. God tells the serpent that he will be cursed to crawl on his belly. Then God goes on to say, “ And I will put enmity between you and the women and between your offspring and hers: he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” God is telling the serpent that an offspring of the women (note nothing is said about the man being involved) will crush him. God is foretelling of the coming of Jesus! Exciting hey! At the fall of man, God already promised to give His own son for us. Class has really been going well. But something that became of a concern on Wednesday was that not only Paola but three other people still need all their money for DTS. And the money is due by the sixth week of class. In that moment I felt called by God to help. I listened to the call of God and started a fundraising committee. We have decided to write a team support letter for all the team to send home, even those who have their money, because we are all in this together. Also we have made a power point to take to local churches and are in the middle of planning a Fun Day type event. We are planning on having a ‘football’ tournament lead by our own British football expert, along with a local band playing music and an ice cream sale. Planning is difficult because most of the team is not use to planning anything. But I am enjoying it anyways. It’s keeping me really busy! Also this week on Thursday we had our first local outreach. It was in this very poor area in San Jose that is filled with drugs. We had to dig and move sand from a dirty river bank to a near by church to level the ground to protect from flooding. The work was hard but we got a lot done. While we were working, drug deals were going on right in front of us. In this community people are not shy about flashing drugs around. I did feel safe at all times but it was scary seeing little kids playing in the same area as people dealing drugs. Please pray for this community and the young kids growing up there. On Friday we did a pray walk through the community around our house. We prayed for people we saw and anything else God put on our heart. The community is a middle class community, not too much poverty and fairly safe. After our local outreach the day before we all feel very blessed to be in such a good community. This weekend I have a lot of work to do with fundraising and schoolwork so I am spending my time work on all of that. Please pray for me that I don’t get distracted by other social events, and that I stay focused and get my work done. Also please pray for my parents who are in Europe for the next few weeks celebrating their 30th anniversary. Ask God to keep them safe and away from pick-pocket –ers.

WATER!!!!

July 7Hola! Water has finally returned! Yah! After four days without water it returned this morning right after breakfast. Flushes the toilet is such a blessing. And right at this moment my clothes are getting clean!!! How exciting hey! It really is an eye opener to live without water, even just for a few days. I had to shower with face wipes and a bottle of water I bought. I feel God is humbling me. And right after the water turned back on, I took a moment to pray and thank God for how blessed I am. And I prayed for those who live without water or have very little water every day. Over the weekend, to avoid our outhouse smelling home (16 people with two toilets and no flushing can get smell very quickly) we went out shopping! Ariana, one of the DTS staff, took us to the Costa Rican Dollarram. But the big differences was this store has a ton of clothes! Cheap clothes, for only $1 to $5 American. After finishing our discount shopping we headed to the closest mall to our house. I was surprised to find a huge mall with loads of expensive stores. We spent most of the afternoon just hanging out in the food court. All the restaurants, except one, were American ones. There was Taco Bell, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut. The best part of the weekends is there is no work duties! Don’t get me wrong I enjoy working in the kitchen, it just gets so hot and I end up so tired! Cooking for two hours straight everyday can be tiring. The best part (other than the fact I am gaining Costa Rican recipes) is a YWAM staff member named Chris. Him and his wife, Grace (who is expecting their first child in November) came from Kenya to work in the Community Development School. I feel a real connection to community development and loving talking to Chris about it. Chris also has been sharing with me a lot about the living conditions in Kenya. It makes me feel so blessed and at the same time inspired. This young couple with nothing under their name feel called to help people, most of whom have more than they do. I feel like already I have learnt so much and it has only been 9 days! My cooking has even improved! I am the master chef of Costa Rican salads! I will share with you all, my secret recipe that only me and all Costa Rican people know. You cut up lettuce (into small pieces), add cut up tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers and pineapple (optional, I like it better without. And this is the kicker. You may think all this is just a usual toss salad but instead of dressing you squeeze limes over it and add salt! Its yummy! Also the coffee is amazing, but I don’t have a recipe for that, sorry! Everyone drinks coffee around the clock here. During we have a fifteen minute break and all that is available to drink is coffee! Class is going well! This week our topic is Relationships. So far its been a fun topic! I am looking forward to the rest of the lessons.
On a more serious note, Paola, the girl from her in San Jose, does not have any of her money yet. She said God called her to DTS and told her to trust in Him that the money would come. But as of now it has not. We are not doubting God we are just asking for fellow Christians to pray and ask God what He wants of them. If Paola does not raise enough money she won’t be allow to come on the outreach, which is a vital part of the DTS. Please pray for her. Ericka’s sister in the States has said she would fundraise in their local community. Pray that in whatever way necessary that God will provide the money that is needed. Thank you.

You lucky people with all your water!

July 5So we are having a bit of water problem here. The first nights we were here, the water was turned off at night. Then on Thursday in the morning the water turned off. It came back on in the afternoon but only for a few hours. Luckily I was able to get a shower in that time! And also in that time I realized there is hot water here! Just a very small amount! So timing of showers is key. But then the water shut off again. It has been off since. Apparently there is something the city is fixing and that is why the water is off. But there was no warning ahead of time. And they haven’t given us water to use for the time being. The only water we have is the rain water that was collected in the backyard and the water in our water chiller. It is difficult make that much water last for all the people living here on the base and for so many days. Also we all smell bad! We are finding it difficult to be patient. On a happier note, we have finished our first week of school. There are only eleven more weeks of school. The first week was very good. It was focused on God’s love. It’s amazing when you start thinking about it. God made us so that He could share with us His love. He made us so we could experience love. God gave us the gift of marriage, this special and unique love so that we could understand the relationship He wants with us. One the lessons that I really like and I think is important for everyone to know is the one about “The parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15).’ The message that was shared about this story is that when we are lost, like the father watched by the window waiting for his son, God always watches for us to return. And as we come in sight, all break and ready to bag God for forgiveness, God comes running to us and embraces us before we have a chance to ask for forgiveness. We sometimes think that once falling from God to return we have to complete a long list of things (like reading our bible more, going to church, getting our messy life back in order) before we can come before God. It becomes so difficult just to get back on the path that we give up before we even go before God. God seeks us because He loves us, He wants us and we need to not fear coming before Him when things have been tuff. It was a powerful week and I am excited to learn more about God. Friday night we went to our leader Scott’s house for fun night. We played a how bunch of silly games. It was a good bonding experience. Now for the weekend we have homework to complete and house work to do. Other than that it’s a free weekend to just recharge. There has been talk about going to the mall to pick up the things we still need and going to visit a local volcano. The time is going by quickly! Before I know it we will be leaving for our outreach! We still don’t know where we will be going for our international outreach, but I will let you know when we do. Please pray for us to have patients while waiting for the water.

First Week

June 30-First of all I want to start by saying Happy Birthday to Evan! Yesterday night was our first church service. We don’t go to church as a class, we are told to find one that commits to us individual. I along with a few other girls went to church with Paola. It was all in Spanish and I didn’t understand much but near the end of the singing I was able to sing a lot! I was very proud of myself. I am the worst of the class at Spanish, but all the Americans had to learn Spanish in school. But I have faith that I will learn soon enough. In the past three days I have picked up on a tiny bite. This morning was our first bible class. I guess before I tell you about class I should first explain what I am exactly doing here. I am attending a DST (Discipleship Training School) through YWAM (Youth With A Mission). There are several YWAM bases all over the world including one in Winnipeg and a few in Alberta. For the first twelve weeks here I will be attending bible classes in the mornings and working on the base in the afternoon with the local missionaries. Every week of we will have a different teacher with a different topic. Some of the teachers will be flew in from other YWAM bases all over the world and some are from the area. After the first twelve weeks are over we will have a four day adventure camp in the jungles of Costa Rica, followed by three weeks in of outreach in Costa Rica but outside of San Jose. Finally for our last six weeks we will be doing an international outreach. We have not been told to where but I should know soon. For our first week of class we were schedule to have our DTS leader’s wife teach us. But in DTS there are flexible and so a YWAM staff from another base who was visiting Costa Rica spoke to us today. Her name is Suzanne and she is from Germany. She missions to people through pictures she has taken all over the world. Her talk was mostly based on her life experiences and how it is important to have faith in God and allow God to work through our talents. It moved me a lot because I am a planner and always have every step planned out. Lately I have been confused of exactly what I am going to do with my life and where. But Suzanne reminded me that I don’t have to know every move before I make it, I just have to have faith in God and He will lead me.
I don’t remember if I told you already but here in Costa Rica there is no hot water and toilet paper doesn’t go in the toilet but instead in the trash can. I will have to get use to these changes. But on the positive side there is rootbeer and peanut butter here!!!!!

July 2
I hope everyone had an awesome Canada Day! Spencer (my DTS leader and the only other Canadian on the base) and I celebrated with a high five. Also Spencer used a quote from the ‘Great One’ in his teaching. Oh also I bought myself a rootbeer! But that’s as far as the party went. Yesterday we learnt about ‘intercession’ . Which is basically when you pray to God, asking Him what you should pray for and then God answers. It is like we want to pray for others and there problems but first we ask God to inform us of who the people are and what their problems are. I have heard of intercession before but have never practised it. It going to take time for me to begin to recognize God’s voice but I will be patient and practice. It seems to be more difficult for the people from North America, most likely because it is not something we are taught in our churchs. Most of the Central Americans have learnt it and practised it in church. With cultures we experience God in different ways. This trip is about opening our eyes to new ways to experience God. After class most afternoons are free to do as we like, but everyday everyone of us has work duties to complete. I was lucky enough to have my work dutie being supper preparation. Every week day I have to help out in the kitchen from 4 to 6 o’clock, making supper. I really enjoy it because the people in the kitchen are fun and I get to learn to cook Costa Rican food. But it is really hot in the kitchen and I have a fear that one of these days I am going to cut myself or something bad like that. Please pray for my safety while I work in the kitchen and for my coworker, Paola, safety as well. She cut her finger open today. Luckily it wasn’t that bad. Today in class we learnt about the love of God. Class has been very interesting, and I enjoy it a lot. After class today we had our first small group meeting. I am a group with the English speaking girls. It is a great group and I am really excited to spend time with them. Today we were each able to share a little about ourselves. All of the girls are so awesome! I feel connect to each one. I am so excited to get to know them better and build strong friendships with them. Every other Wednesday night, the base holds a family night. So that wasn’t tonight but next Wednesday we will be having our first family night. Thursday is our busiest day. We have worship followed by class, then lunch, followed by local outreach, followed by work duties followed by dinner and then an evening class. Thursday is the only day we are scheduled to have class in the evening. On Friday is more of the normal day with class in the morning and work duties in the afternoon. But in the evening we have a “fun night!” So my days are busy and I have a lot to do. But I feel I still have enough time to do things right, like doing my homework and reading my bible. It’s a good schedule. I am really enjoying it here and it makes me so happy to hear from you guys back at home, making me feel supported in my quest to know God better. Thank you for all the comments. I enjoy reading them. Please remember me and my team in your prays. Pray that we may find God in ways we never imagined.