Here's the Rest

Sorry about how short that last one was. I was late and I wanted to write that before I forgot. So let's see... the day after my birthday was last Thursday I think. We did local ministry at the woman's rehabilitation center for the last time. If anyone wants something to pray for, this little girl named Estrella needs it. She is living at the orphanage part of this center and her mom is in a hospital somewhere. This week she was refusing to eat and the people punished her by not allowing her to visit her mom. It is just a bad situation and it really scares me for this precious girl. She needs as many prayers as she can get. Please just keep her in mind when you pray. Oh and she has a little sister named Celeste who is the quietest, most timid child (besides Estrella) that I have ever met. On Friday we left the base to go on a retreat called Silence and Solitude. Basically it was like a solo in the middle of a Honey Rock wilderness trip. We spent time on our own before dinner Friday night. Then we came back and made a fire and cooked hot dogs over the fire. For dessert we had smores. Then all the girls slept on a sort of loft thing, but not that fancy. The next day we ate breakfast, made our lunches, and then spent all day until dinner on our own with God. It was crazy. A good crazy, don't worry. I spent a lot of time praying and a lot of time rereading over my notes from the past however many weeks. On the way home we stopped for tacos. Then we had a free day on Sunday. I was really out of it that day and it was just kind of a relaxing, sleeping day. I think we went to Starbucks.

So this week our speaker is Brenda Lewis and she is talking about Destiny. But it's definitely not what you would expect. It's basically about figuring out how to take every step with God and include Him in our daily life. She is awesome and I love all the wisdom she is sharing. On Monday we learned how to officially clean a room here on base and yesterday we cleaned rooms and the learned how to officially clean the bathrooms. Let me just say, I do NOT understand how the guy's bathroom can be sooooo much dirtier than the girls. It just doesn't make sense. Moving on... Actually now I'm just really distracted by how awful that smell was and I can't remember what else we've done this week. Right now there is a team to build houses that is here. I think it's going to be quiet around base because a lot of people are building. Also, we sent a team to Costa Rica on Monday. This team included like our loudest people on base. So it's been really strange without them. Ok well I'm going to go finish getting ready so I'm not late again. Have a good day everyone!

Que Dios les bendiga!
Coray

Hospitality Party

So this is just a quick update. I forgot to say that we switched our work duties. I no longer work in the kitchen every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I am now in hospitality which means... drum roll please... cleaning toilets!!!!! Yay!!!!!!! Ok more later. This is all I have time for now.
Que Dios les bendiga!
Coray

My Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!

Well let's see... where to start...? Perhaps with my lovely wakeup. I woke up to voices around me singing happy birthday. That was happy. So I continued readying myself for the day as normal. After devos I didn't go straight to breakfast. A few minutes later Jessie came bouncing in the room and gave everyone five minutes to get to the classroom. So we went to the classroom and I opened the door to balloons being poured on my head. So I started laughing. As I was inhaling to laugh, confetti was thrown at me. Needless to say, it went down my throat and I choked and thought I was going to die. It was a blast. Well ok today I can say that. However, I had confetti in my throat for quite a few hours. And it hurt. Jessie and Jaime had gone out to buy McDonalds breakfast sandwiches and some breakfast pastries. And, of course, STARBUCKS!!! They brought me a carmel mocchiato! I love those girls! And of course they sang again. After eating I got to open presents that Ma had sent me and I had saved till then. I have some awesome new adidas slides that I wear all the time now (after outreach i can get rid of the disgustingly old tevas!) and some new clothes. Yay Ma!!! Then we went to the worship hall for a community meeting and I got sung to again. Then we had class and then lunch. After lunch was spanish class... aka I just walked around and talked to people in spanish... aka my friend Alejandra and I talked for an hour. We listened to them practice for our worship service. Then we had a giant community meeting that the bases from Tecate, Tijuana, and San Diego came to. Once again they said happy birthday in front of everyone. Then we went to see the movie "Bride Wars". It was the whole DTS except for Marleen, plus Martin, Alex, Carl, Felipe and Gemma. That was probably the most stressful part of my life oh my goodness. Carl was the only person who could legally drive a YWAM vehicle. But there were only five seats. In case you need help with the math... there were 11 of us. So we finally figured out that Heidi had a license on her and she could use Gemma and Steve's car. So it all worked out. But only after half an hour of everyone freaking out about it. We got to the theater as the movie was starting. I think I was the only one who enjoyed the movie... good thing it was my birthday! Then we went back to the base. We tried to get tacos, but it was closed.... Thus ends the story of my birthday. I hope you all enjoyed it. As Bill (our cook) told me today... 364 days until my birthday! Let the countdown begin! Oh and ps, I'm officially an adult. I miss you all!

Que Dios les bendiga!
Coray

So We Have A Birthday Person for You in the Car

Hey everyone! So I'm not really sure when I wrote last. But I'll start with Friday. So we had small group before lunch. So we had small group and then I went and grabbed my lunch and walked upstairs to be alone in my room. Sarvia came to get me and told me that Felicia (a girl from San Diego) had just arrived and there was a package for my birthday in the car. So we walked downstairs talking about some stuff from small group. We get out there and Felicia opens the door of the car and my mom pops out! So I screamed and cried and all that. It was incredible. Wow. Yeah. She stayed till Sunday. It was lovely. We went shopping :). We built a house ... well ok she built a house and I took pictures, painted, and socialized. I took her to the fish taco stand, we had agua de fresa, we went to Starbucks, she saw all of Ensenada. We went to the beach where I was freezing and she was warm. She stepped in the water wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, capris, and no shoes. I stood far from the water in a shirt, my sweatshirt, her sweatshirt, and jeans. We had lots of fun! Then when we were taking her back to San Diego, we got to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. So lunch today was yummy leftovers too! And it was a stupendous birthday present and a wonderful visit! I love my mommy!!! Now I'm going to spanish class. Have a good week everyone!
Que Dios les bendiga!
Coray

The Time The Roof Fell

I can't believe I forgot to tell you all this exciting detail. So this week it decided to rain for the first time since I've been here. On Monday God really decided to send us a lovely storm. So it got so bad that the building was shaking and people thought we were going to have a hurricane. It was kind of scary and everyone ran inside. Unfortunately I missed all the action because I was with Sarvia having spanish class downtown. When we got back our roof, was on the ground. The wind had blown off the top layer of the roof. They have spent the last three days fixing our roof. It was ridiculous. And now the storms are gone and it is all sunny again. But it is still too cold here. Mexico is supposed to be warmer than this. Today we had a party because Mexico played the US in soccer. Guess who won... US!!!!! Yay us!!! The Mexicans took it really well, though. I tried to get a rise out of them and no one reacted... That was kind of boring. Anyways, now I am sitting in the house of the base director's family. They have six kids and the oldest one went out with his dad and their mom is in Tijuana right now, so I'm babysitting five of them. They are Levi (11), Asher (6), Noah (4), Micah (3), Tiannah (2). Now the only one awake is Levi and he just likes to play video games, so I have an hour of free time in their house! Yay! I don't think I have any other new updates... I hope you enjoyed this more exciting one. It was definitely different than the normal ones. Have a good day tomorrow!

Que Dios les bendiga!
Coray

To Be Honest, This is Getting Kind of Old.

I love you all so much and I miss you all a ton, but it is becoming difficult to post on my blog so often. Basically every week is the same and the stuff that is different is really detailed and would take pages and pages to tell. So if you all are getting bored of reading this, that is ok. So this Saturday we worked with a ministry called Project Debora. It is for disabled children and their families. We helped clean up the house that they use. Then we had the rest of the day off. On Sunday we went to Felipe's church and then we had a "carne asada" which is like the equivalent of a barbeque except with tacos instead of hamburgers. It was really fun! I love Mexican culture. It was one of those things where we were there for hours just waiting to eat. I think we ate at like 2:30 and then we were late so we had to leave by 3. Then Sarvia and JP drove to Tijuana to pick up the DTS that was on outreach. I got to see Lizzy Sunday night!! After waiting ALL day Sunday!!!!! Apparently we were loud. Or at least everyone on the base made a comment something like "oh my gosh Coray I was all the way in my room and I heard you screaming". Anyways, we were excited. So I've been getting to spend a ton of time with Lizzy! Yay!
This week we are learning about Passion for Christ and Jeff Pratt is speaking. He is changing my life by the minute. It is incredible and I will be forever changed. When he speaks of God all you want is to be with God like this man is. He is definitely my favorite speaker and I think he will hold that position till the end. I wish I could explain more to you, but I can't even sum it up. I would destroy it if I tried. All I can say is that he is incredible. Ok now I'm going to go to bed because I'm starting to not feel well and we can't let that happen! Have a good week!

Que Dios les bendiga!
Coray

As I Sit Here Writing a Book Report... Oh wait... no I'm not.

So I should be writing a book report right now... I've had like three weeks and every time I sit down to write it, I get distracted. Anyways... this week is on Hearing the Voice of God. A woman named Luba Iliyn is speaking. We're just learning about all the different ways that God can speak to us and everything that we do to block our ability to hear Him. She has lots of experience and many interesting stories. This week I have also worked on my spanish with Sarvia (learning new vocab and such), enjoyed worshiping God, worked in the kitchen (every Monday, Wednesday, Friday - dinner), had an all girls small group to build each other up and encourage each other in how beautiful each of us is, gone for a prayer walk on the beach, and done many more things. In half an hour we're leaving to go paint again at a women's rehabilitation center. These past two weeks we have had a DTS from about twenty minutes away join our class. This has made us realize how much we appreciate the size of our class. We have more than doubled and it has been harder to stay focused and get stuff done. It is just a completely different atmosphere. Ok now I need to go write my book report on "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldredge. I hope you are all having a wonderful winter ;)

Que Dios les bendiga!
Coray

Oops... it's been a while.

I'm sorry that it has been so long! I didn't realize that much time had passed. This week's talk on relationships was good. This week we also did local ministry painting a wall and playing with children at a woman's rehabilitation center. We went to Bajio again and served as many people as we coudl. During small group, I discovered that JP owns one of the old nintendo systems that my dad and I used to play all the time and he has like a bazillion games for it! So I challenged someone and they kind of laughed at me and said heck yes! And I totally destroyed them! It was a blast! So that's the happy stuff for the week.

On a sadder note: my ipod was stolen and I'm out of Starbucks cards. We listen to our ipods in the kitchen so I brought mine down. Then I went to go do something and I left it in my apron pocket and when I came back it was gone. This was like two weeks ago, but I've refused to admit it because I didn't want to accept it :( Also, Starbucks is our lifesaver and it's like all we do. So yeah... my cards are empty :( And now I don't know what to do. Oh well.

Oh yeah and last night we had a bonfire on the beach and we had some poi going on. Poi is something that JP is teaching our class. It is that thing where theres a chain and at the end of the chain there is fire. And you toss it around and stuff. So JP, Sjoerd, and Heidi did some at the beach last night. It was a blast! Today we're going to Felipe's church again. I need to go get ready because we're going in an hour.

Que Dios les bendiga!
Coray