finishing up project....

Campus cycle has finished up and we're on out way this morning to El Valle for a little R&R before heading to the interior on a 6 day rural missions experience. Campus cycle was great and even though we had a shorter time than planned at UTP we had a fantastic time and God moved hugely! Heather, one of my team members said, "I think we saw the same thing that would have happened in one month at the national campus that we saw in 2 weeks here!" God was simply faithful and the students are stepping into this next phase of project excited and encouraged and I think truly changed themselves.

Tuesday morning we leave for 6 days in the interior... no running water... no electricity... no nothing! It'll be a nutty time. This is the first time we've done a trip this long so it's going to be a little insane. BUT!! I am so excited to be working again with Pastor Correa and his ministry into this set of 20 villages. I'm also stoked to let the Canadians see a peek at the interior of Panama and what the complete flip side of the city is. Please be praying for safety and wisdom as the stint team is running this little endeavor! Till then.... chau!!

field trip?!

In a classic case of Panamanian action, protests shut down the national university for three days last week. Normally we would take a "riot day" and catch up on administration or whatever loose ends needed to be taken care of but for three day and with a team of 5 Canadian students working hand-in-hand with Jon and I this wasn't an option last week and so.... we headed on what originally thought would be a one or two day field trip to the Universidad Tecnologica de Panama, UTP. We headed to the private campus to do some evangelism and weren't really sure what was in store for the team there or at the national campus. As the days passed and the national campus didn't open I think that as a team we fell more and more in love with the UTP campus and more importantly the students there. I walked onto campus there for the first time and was surrounded by trees and I could hear the birds instead of the normal drone of Panamanian traffic. Both the students and the staff there were awesome and as we pulled students from the national campus onto UTP to come help us go sharing I was simply excited to be there.

UTP has no campus for Christ staff working permanently at it but it does have part time staff and a small but dedicated group of volunteers with a heart for that campus. And so, the decision was made that even though national campus had opened up, our team would be staying at UTP for the remainder of May. When I told Johnny, one of the key volunteer leaders at UTP, that my team would be staying at UTP you could see the shock all over his face. "Really???" he said. His face of appreciation and gratitude made any qualms I would have had about a campus change completely disappear. We're excited to be on a new campus and see something new happen from the ground up, that way we'll know like always it was God, and not us, that was really at work!

41 & counting...

30

We started our second full day bright and early this morning, kicking off the day with a classroom talk in a nursing class of 33 first year students. Our campus director Secundina gave a talk on goals and limits with all the new Canadian students along with Jon and I also getting to introduce ourselves, saying what we studied and where we're from. Secundina wrapped up the talk with a gospel presentation and soon after that the room was filled with voices repeating a prayer to receive Christ. Out of a class of 33, 30 indicated decisions to accept Christ! It was craziness and again reminded me of how incredibly blessed we are to openly share the good news in a university lecture.

8

One of my teammates has left to the interior city of Santiago and sent me a text message this afternoon. Their team had been touring the university there when they were randomly invited into a classroom. Wes, the co-leader, shared what was on his heart and 8 students prayed to receive Christ.

3

My team went out sharing today on the rest of us were in a staff meeting. Even at times without translators the team saw one young man and 2 young ladies pray to receive Christ. My team is blowing me away time and time again with their excitement and their hearts for these students around them.

41

So Day 2 in Panama ends with 41 new brothers and sisters in Christ. PLEASE PRAY for these students as we will be starting the follow-up process tomorrow with phone calls to set-up times to meet and begin the discipleship process. God is so faithful, through sickness and lack of language students are pushing through, being faithful and God is answering and salvation is coming to our universities!

The New Team

Our new team.
(Kaitlyn, Grace, Heather, Steve back L to R, Jon & I in front)

So... this week has barely begun already but I am so excited about whats already taking place. Today we took the Canadian project students to campus for some prayer and a tour of what will become their new home/workplace for the new 4. The above picture shows the awesome group that Jon and I are blessed to have an opportunity to lead and work with in the science faculties. I am so so excited to have 5 more people to add to whats been Jon and I for the last eight months or so. We have an awesome team and getting to know them and their hearts has been a blast. Tomorrow will be our first full day of ministry on campus. I know that they're nervous about the language and everything that comes with being in a foreign country but at the same time they are so much desiring to be obedient to what God is calling them to do and really change our faculty over the next 4 weeks. Please be praying for us... for our spanish... for the classroom talks we already have this week and that more than anything the Canadians and the Panamanians alike would experience the life-changing love that is only found in Christ.

All my love!!

this country....

The Canadian staff arrived for project on Monday and its made me take another look at this city and again realize how much it needs God. Yesterday my cab ran out of fuel in El Chorillo, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city... especially when you're white and female. Now I was with Jon and Wes so I was safe but there was definitely some concern on my part. Normally we wouldn't have been driving through that area but we were looking for an open gas station. It was the middle of the afternoon but gas stations had closed in anticipation of today, when gas prices went up 25 cents; they simply wanted to make more money, and were doing it at the expense of others.

Today I stood in line at the grocery store behind a mother and her daughter. Their cart was stacked with the simplest of groceries but I soon realized they didn't have the money for all of them. They had separated the groceries into stacks of what they needed and what they would take if the total on the grocery bill wasn't yet high enough. I was standing there with a cart full of food for the Canadian students coming in tonight, with more than enough money for things that may not have even been necessities. I realized though how simply blessed I am. I've never been in the shoes of not having enough for even the simplest food items.

Today is a national holiday and instead of typical holiday actions people took to the streets in passive marches protesting the elevated cost of living. Even at the university Jon and I have become immune to the "exploding" noises of protests occuring as they often do. Someone asked today, "why are they protesting, does anyone actually listen?" Maybe no ones listening, but the people still desire to be heard and so act out to show that they're not happy with the status quo. A cab driver last night told me that none of the presidential candidates would actually represent the people and I could hear the apathy in his voice, and yet also desperation for someone to come and change this country.

What I've again realized this week is how much this country needs to know and experience the true love of Jesus Christ. Human action alone simply cannot solve dishonest business dealings, poverty, protests or corruption in the government. Tonight 15 Canadian students are arriving to join my team and the 5 other staff members that arrived Monday. All of these students are coming with a passion to see lives changed and moreover this country changed. Please pray for us. Only Christ can change hearts and change nations, and yet we choose to stand in the faith that this can and will happen.

And then there were 5.

When I came on project I had no idea what was in store but I knew that God knew. When I applied to come on Stint I knew that God would have to be my provision. He was and still continues to be every single day of my life. When I re-applied to come on Stint for another year I knew it would be hard but again that He was going to provide and draw the new team together. He's faithful and I know that with all my heart.

When I applied to re-Stint I was the third girl on a team of four. Raquel, Karina and I would make up the females with my friend Derek being the only guy. Knowing what I know now I was praying for another guy, not knowing where he would be coming from but knowing that God had the team dynamic covered, however it worked out. And so.... today I found out something officially that I get to share now. We have one more guy!!!... and none other than my good friend Steve who's on Stint with me right now. When I met Steve in an airport close to 2 years ago I never would have imagined going on Stint and let alone for 2 years. I feel so blessed to have a teammate that's going to know what it's like to be giving the whole stint thing another round and I couldn't have asked for a greater guy or a better friend to be doing this with all over again!


(p.s. although Jon seriously I'm still voting for you to come back too.... jokes jokes.)

"tell the world..."

(the napkin gospel... sat am. training)

This weekend was crazy!! Our "crossfire" youth retreat was these last 3 days and just like the last retreat there was not enough sleep but more than enough of everything else!!! The topic of this retreat was evangelism with the tagline being "tell the world...!!!" After an intense Friday night we spent Saturday morning training on everything from what evangelism is, why we do it, how we do it to obstacles to evangelism itself. The Canadian crew... Jess, Sarah, Steve and I, had the blessing of giving a chunk of these training sessions and using our "Campus for Christ" evangelism focus to teach and challenge the students in their own evangelistic lives.

(view from the top... cerro ancon)

This morning we all loaded on buses and headed to Cerro Ancon, one of the highest look-out points in the city and from there teamed up into groups of 4. These "evangelism teams" consisted of younger and older students with the jobs of praying, speaking or simply standing in support of each other as they were about to be sent throughout the city to share their faith. As we passed out 4 Spiritual Law tracts and survey questions I began to realize that the whole thing was a dream come true. Our Stint team seems to live and breathe evangelism... but to see the newer generation equipped and sent to share the good news was absolutely amazing!

(16 girls + me = 4 evangelism teams)

As I headed to Albrook Mall with 70 students on a bus I was again struck with how crazy the situation was. There we all were on a Sunday morning headed out to share the love of Christ.. in public and with complete strangers. I had the job of sitting at a "cinabon" in the mall in case anyone ran into troubles and was there to watch and pray. As I sat there I saw people with a completely different perspective. When I go there to shop I'm focused on myself and what I need and rarely realize that I'm surrounded by people that don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. But as I sat there I realized the opportunities that surrounded me and the students. The chance that everyone had to know someone and touch their hearts with the love of Christ.

The mall was pretty empty and I began to pray that God would bring people into the mall and that all the students would be able to have someone to talk too. A patter became a roar as a torrent of rain began to come down. I almost started to cry. Rain in Panama stops traffic. Rain in Panama stops people and sends them to seek cover. And so there we were... 200 of us spread across the city with rain causing people to stay in the mall instead of leaving, and coming inside instead of outside. God answers prayer... and I believe with all my heart that as we were praying for people God brought them right to us.

I glanced up onto the second floor and spotted two of the students, Ana and Gracia gazing over the ledge. I began to look for the other two members of their team and as I watched, Laura and Rebecca (the other half of the team) walked up to a lady sitting on a bench in front of the cinabon where I was. I began to pray just as the two above me were and as Laura and Rebecca began to to talk with the lady on the bench. I looked up again and saw my friend Christian standing on the other side of the upper floor praying for what was unfolding in front of us. As we prayed I realized that the lady the girls were talking to had no idea that she was surrounded by a triangle of people praying for her. I don't know what all happened in that conversation, but I know that as soon as Laura and Rebecca left this lady sat and read through the 4 Spiritual Laws, and then clutching it in her hand along with her shopping bags stood up and left the mall.

I don't know what will happen in her life and I have no idea what kind of impact that had on her. But what I do know is this... a seed was planted. And all over this city seeds were planted this morning AND(!!!) there are new brothers and sisters in Christ as at least 6 people prayed to receive Christ today. As the retreat wrapped up this afternoon I talked with one of the students and a good friend of mine. He said with tears in his eyes, "I will never ever be the same after this." Gods love changes lives, evangelism changes lives and as the retreat tagline says, we simply need to "tell the world!"

(me and my small group... i love these ladies)

"Galleta-logía"

Something a little light-hearted to finish the week off... among the random things that happen here in this country there are tonnes of people with personalities that are distinct to say the least... let me tell you about my new friend the professor of "Cookie-ology"... "galleta-logía" in spanish.

Tuesday afternoon I was having bible study with my girls and a man approached selling cookies. Now as the convo went on the laughter almost reached hysterical levels as he went through his sales tactic...

"Galletas (cookies/crackers) with sodium chloride anyone???"- Sodium chloride being salt for any non-science people

"Benzene anyone?"- code word for chocolates that have the same shape as the chemical structure of benzene... rotating double bonds you say?

...and on and on it went... my spanish vocab missed half of it but the girls were quick to explain...

As I think looking back on it... how cool is it that my bible study is full of science students and that we could laugh together over something as nerdy as "scientific cookies?" God has totally placed this bible study together so that we can connect over cookie-ology or whatever it is that we've been through as science students.

Wednesday morning bible study happened again but with a different twist. Tuesday afternoon I lead a study with the four girls I work closely with in discipleship. Wednesday morning is a new group that Erika and Yavi are leading, so I get to sit back and watch as they take leadership over this group. It's been amazing! The new girls that are coming are awesome and it been amazing watching them share their pain and joy with each other. They're all connecting with each other but more importantly with God and its beautiful to see every week.

Frosh at national

(hanging out at the info table in chemistry)

This week was a definitely a little unexpected for me... frosh week hit at national and we were there in full force! Well at least everybody else was... I on the other hand was out of commission on Wednesday and broke ordered bed-rest to make it to the concert! It was definitely difficult for me to not be on campus with the team but at the same time it was amazing to see all the students come and take leadership. Tuesday Jon and I were actually able to leave our "info table" in the hands of the students and take an unexpected lunch break. One of the highlights was sitting at our table in science and being surrounded by students in matching VE t-shirts and then... walking over to the law faculty and seeing their table surrounded by more students...

(Ericka, Yavi and I at the concert)

Thursday morning came along and with that the concert... the outreach meant to cap the week of activities off. As I came onto campus tual (our amphitheater) was already humming with people in matching shirts... setting up sound equipment or the info table. Students filled the back rows of tual, sitting in the shade and listening as the sounds of Jose Andreas and his band filled the air. It really did sum up the week for me. I sat there, with two of the girls I disciple on each side of me and listened as the name of God was lifted up and glorified on our campus. These two girls, Erika and Yavi have blessed and encouraged me so much. And so as frosh week has winded down I'm excited to start their leaders bible study this week... and then on Wednesday morning to pass over a fresh batch of students to them and watch as they begin to lead their own bible study!!

(the concert!! everyone was up top in the shade.. )

A simple touch

"Come to me, all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matt 11:28-30

The last couple of days I haven't felt burdened so much as weary. I've been physically sick and so weary as I tried to keep going at a normal pace, only to realize that I simply couldn't. That was a hard realization for me to come to. Jesus tells us to take His yoke, instead of our own... and more than that to learn from Him, to learn from His gentleness and His humbleness.

"And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, the sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought their sick to him, and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, all who touched him were healed.”

Matt 14:35-36

In my mind I can see the crowds and the people just grasping to touch the edge of a simple cloak, a simple garment. And yet, for them it meant healing, cleansing and more than anything life. This was the Jesus who saw people down to their deepest need, the powerful man that healed with a word and whose heart broke with compassion when he saw the crowds of people, even in spite of his grief (Matt 14:13-14). That’s my best friend. That’s the relationship that I wake up to every morning. And so my prayer is that I would to be gentle and humble in heart like He is and that every day I would get another touch of His cloak.

Semana Santa... Holy Week

I walked into church Sunday and was jolted into the realization that it was Palm Sunday. Easter is my favorite time of year because it makes me think for more than a moment, or more than a time of communion once a month at church of what Jesus did for me. There's no other perfect picture of love.

Isaiah 53 (The message translation)

"Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true.

Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.

Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly— the best of everything, the highest honors— Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep."

#100.

A new school year...
Coming up is a lot of firsts for our staff team here in Panama City.... a new (and first ever here) servant team, the first leadership retreat, the first frosh week, and a new "look" for our campus ministry.

A new look...
Looking at the logo above you might notice something a little bit different. "Green???" you might say... "whats up with that? what happened to the red?" Many of the political parties at the Universidad de Panama use red combined with some combination of black, white and yellow. The political parties at the university are extremely active, especially in the law faculty, which is one of our key faculties. And so... to distinguish ourselves all together we've decided to change the color altogether to green, a color not used by any of the visible student groups on campus... at least as far as we can tell.

The frosh approach...
Rapidly approaching in t-12 days is our frosh week at the Universidad de Panama. Yesterday, the four of us Canadians that work at the national campus met up to brainstorm and get on the same page for this crazy week of activities. First year students are always key to a ministry. When a student gets involved in their first year they then have four years to both be built into and trained but then also to turn around, reaching out to those around them and then taking leadership in the movement. So from the 24-27th of March we're targeting the frosh. Whether it's carnival style games, information tables, a concert and prayerfully a concert; we're praying for salvation and for new students to get hooked into and full heartedly committed to reaching their campus for Christ.

P.S. This is post #100. Thanks to everyone that's stuck with me this far. That's pretty special.

Reminded why I'm here...

This morning I took my dad to the airport and as I said good-bye I felt pretty homesick. As much as I miss my family and friends I'm able to talk to them and keep in touch but there's a chunk of me that misses Canada. That misses what is still deep down still my home. But tonight as I get ready for what looks to be another crazy week I'm reminded of why I'm here and how much I love it.. even when it's rough sometimes. Yesterday and today I've been getting calls and text messages from the two of the Panamanian students that I'm discipling here. Just simply to say they missed me. Don't get me wrong, that's nothing to do with me and everything to do with God and what He's been doing and continues to be doing in their lives. But as I've talked with them and with other students this last week they show me why I'm here. Last week our team (minus one) headed to campus to share our faith and with being an odd number I really felt like I wanted to stay back and pray as the other four headed out. I was sitting in a really uncomfortable spot so as I went to move to a bench I spotted a girl sitting alone on a bench. I felt God whisper "go talk to her" and so I headed over to say hello, wondering more than that what I was going to say. BUT (!!!) sure enough she's a Christian about to enter her first year in architecture and not only that she spoke fluent English. I was totally blown away and taken aback. If I had stayed in my comfort zone I would have sat on the bench and not said hello. Instead I have a new friend, Jissella, in my life and a lunch date set up with her to explain a little bit more about what we do and to challenge her to get involved.

God has brought people into my life in crazy ways and each of them are so special to me. This week I'm getting to reconnect with the students that have been key in my life the last semester and gear them up for this new semester... frosh week is on the way!

Jericho... Day 1.

Tonight was the first night of 7 days of prayer for the campus ministry here in Panama. For the 6 days we'll be prayer walking around the national university campus praying for the students and the needs there. Sunday morning at 6am we'll be marching around 7 times... for the biblical back-up to this check out Joshua 6. So tonight 13 of us set out around the national campus praying and confessing the sins of the various faculties. This was something new for me and I was wondering why exactly I was confessing sins that I hadn't done. But as we were praying and speaking out loud what was happening in the university I really felt that it was bringing these things into the light. Darkness and sin isn't hidden when it's openly confessed and that's exactly what we did tonight on behalf of the students. So as we came to end I just started to pray for forgiveness and that it would begin to roll over this campus. It was a special time and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens this week. Please be praying with us.... all my love.

One more year.... officially.

Found out yesterday afternoon. I'm officially accepted for one more year in Panama. Whoa, it's kinda crazy it'll actually be happening all over again.

Please be continuing to pray for my team and us being here now... but... looking forward to the future, please continue to be praying for the movement here and for the new members of next year's team that are getting prepared to support raise and move. Currently, there are 3 of us ladies accepted and 1 gentleman. Please please please (!!!) pray that one more guy would join the team. I can't imagine the team without at least two guys and I'm praying that God brings us one more... at least, I'd take more if we could get more. God had the dynamic covered on this team totally and I know that it's in his control for next year too.

p.s. took me long enough to figure out how to title these hey??!

My part of my application to re-Stint.

The last 6 months have been full of ups and downs, both as a team but for me individually. But 3 months into Stint when God starting to speak to me about coming back it was honestly the last thing that I wanted to do. Jessica (one of my team members) spoke at a weekly meeting about "running the race" like the finish line was on top of our toes. I was really convicted by that as God spoke to my heart that for me to run like the finish line was any minute I needed to stay another year and to come home to Canada was running like I had 20 more years of ministry. I knew that the decision to stay was the one I needed to make but it still was a little unnerving to me. Stint has been a lot harder than I had ever anticipated. At times I just wanted come home and join what I thought would be a normal staff team somewhere on campus. But in Jeremiah 29 is a letter to the exiles and as I was reading it vs.10 really gave me the peace about making the decision to apply to re-Stint. God says to the exiles, "... I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place (their home)." I feel that's a promise for me to hold onto. Its harder applying to come back another year because I know the struggles that are in store for our team and for the ministry here. More and more I'm coming across verses about the flawless nature Gods word, His faithfulness in His promises and more than that His everlasting love for me. I don't think that I'll really ever understand the depths of any of these 3 characteristics. I could list off the practical and strategic reasons why it's a good idea for me to stay and give this another go and tell story after story of the lessons I've learned here. But in the end its my relationship with God that makes me want to stay. He's placed in my heart a God-given passion for people and daily I learn what that means for my life. But it's His love that gets me up in the morning and turns me in the right direction and places me in the right place when I don't want to move. It's this love thats calling me to stay.

Back home safe and sound in Panama. When we left for the Dominican Republic I thought to myself, "okay, we'll give some training sessions, set up some logistics, get to know the staff... pretty basic stuff." What I wasn't counting on was how much of a missions trip it would be and how critical what were doing would be for the those we came into contact with throughout the trip and also the futures of the students that step onto their campuses, like UASD and PUKMM, the two campuses we spent the majority of our time at.

Tuesday afternoon we were at PUKMM, one the private campuses in the city of Santo Domingo waiting to meet up with Laura and Carlos, two of the key students there. We weren't 100% sure of what we wanted to "do" with them. We wanted to see their hearts for their campus and if they were committed to Vida Estudiantil and all that entailed but had no idea on how to go about doing that. We were thinking about it when Lusanna, our key leader from UASD showed up, followed shortly after by Laura and Carlos. So there we were, sitting with the 3 students that had come out as leaders over the last week. I still remember looking at them and realizing that these three are going to change the world, starting at their schools. Lusanna and Leyla (the campus staff there) are already seeing fruit at UASD and Carlos, Laura and two other students have submitted a letter to their dean at PUKMM requesting permission to start actions as an official club. We had a chance to interview them on video to bring back to Panama and I was truly blown away by their hearts. They see the need on their campuses and instead of just seeing it, they're stepping out in faith to make a difference. It's taking that first step of commitment where everything it is that really starts. They're choosing to believe God has a plan for the students around them, each and every one of them and are acting on that. So just like in Panama, a piece of my heart is there with them, praying for them and standing firm in the promise that God goes after the lost, each and every one of them.

And the Dominican adventures continue... even though half of the team left yesterday back to Panama. I´d had a blast working and training together so it was a little weird this morning to wake up and not have them here with us. But we headed back to UASD this morning and spent the morning talking with students, getting them to fill out questionaires and interviewing them for a video to encourage the Panamanian students to come here to the Dominican. Would you believe that there are 120,000 students on this campus? The question always is... where do you start??

We had a meeting this afternoon with the president of the federation of students. I definately didn´t catch all of what happened in the meeting but I caught enough. Jhon Garcia (the president) was so so open to having Vida Estudiantil on campus and offered to do whatever he could to help us put on events now, and when the Panamanian project comes in November. He was simply a pretty coool guy and after the hour and a half long meeting I think we felt we all knew each other pretty well... We met some amazing students even today and I was so encouraged by the people that God brought into our path. The four of us (Jon, Jessica, Leyla and I) had split up around the entrance to the main library on campus and we chatting with students when an English speaking student named Jason came up and said hello. And then he left before Jess or I could say anything other than we were from Canada. Later on though he came and joined our group and we got to chatting. He´s only 16 and already at the university. He became a Christian 2 years ago and I was so encouraged by his heart. He simply put it this way,¨"Christ set me free and now I want to tell others about him." Doors are opening all over the campus, from the directors to the students and I can´t wait to see what´s in store!

We are in the Dominican Republic!!! We arrived safe and sound yesterday afternoon and I can´t even explain to you the beautiful color of the ocean as we landed. We settled into the retreat center where we will be staying and met up with Layla (the campus staff member we´re working closely with) and headed to the national offices here in Santo Domingo. We then met with the national director, Braulio and heard a little bit about how he became involved in Campus Crusade, some 30 plus years ago. I was really encouraged to see Braulio and Layla again since our time together in Nicaragua and its been a blast already to be here on their home turf. Last night we attended an amazing church service, they have a beautiful new building which is still being constructed and it was a huge blessing to worship and learn with them last night. This morning we headed to UASD, the only public campus in Santo Domingo and both toured thier beautiful (!!!!!) campus and met up with a couple of key students. We were then joined by a pastor and his wife as we continued on the tour and ended up sharing with a group of students outside the sports center. 3 young men prayed to recieve Christ with us this morning and tomorrow we have a chance to follow up with them!! We met up with a Christian group on campus and it was a blast meeting them and seeing what they´re doing already. There´s more to say but we´re training tonight and doing some logistical investigation this afternoon so... please keep us in your prayers, Gods at work in huge ways already!!!!

There's times that I read a passage and think that I've never read it before in my life. I've been sick the last couple of days and curled up on a couch with a cup of tea. Silvia, my awesome discipler, put me on a bible reading plan much to my dismay and so I've been making my slowly through the bible, revisiting a lot and beginning to enjoy the structure that's come with the reading plan. Yesterday I polished off Leviticus, which was actually better than I thought it would be... although I'm still confused by the whole wave offering thing... and started in on Hebrews.

"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs."
Hebrews 1:1-4

I never remembered Hebrews being so cool before... the first chapters really sets up Jesus to be the Son of God, higher than the angels, greater than Moses and yet like his brothers in coming to the earth as flesh. Reading through the old testament you really get a picture of what it meant to make atonement, to be redeemed and forgiven, but all needing to be done through sacrifice and through a priest. And yet the message Hebrews preaches is one of fulfillment. We don't need to go through a priest because Christ was and is that priest for us complete with a new covenant.
Jesus was the exact representation of God on earth and He came to be our sacrifice once and for all.. that's amazing, and I still haven't wrapped my mind around it all yet, I'm not even close.

Tricia and I were chatting last night about how the next 4 (and a bit) months are going to fly by. We’ve hit the homestretch more or less but it’s really in this final stretch. When we first made it here a year seemed like forever and now I’m in awe of how far we’ve already come, as individuals, a team and a ministry. The next four months hold craziness for this team. From a trip to the Dominican Republic this week, a leadership retreat March 20-22, frosh week March 24-27, follow-up and discipleship throughout April and preparation for the Canadian summer project coming in May and June, there's a lot in the works.

But it got me to thinking... how do we measure time? In Canada for me, seasons were measured by the first snowfall, or the first sprouts of grass pushing up through the ground in the spring. Or now seemingly marked by the varying wares of the street sellers at the corner I walk through every day. Seasons of our lives change just as constantly as the weather. Relationships change as do the seasons and cycles of ministry, of health and of sickness. The ways to “measure” these seasons of our lives are numerous as we look to measure and mark the times in our lives. We look back at the as “a time of growth” or some other phrase explaining where seemingly we “were at” in that year or on the day. Time is always passing and it really makes me aware of how I need to be a good and faithful steward of the next couple months and then into the future as the final push on my first Stint year has really begun!