TJ 2014

TJ Trip

First I want to say thank you immensely to all my family and friends who supported this trip in any way and love me so well in general. 

Thankful for this experience and the connections made, people loved, and the honor to serve. 

I'll try and sum up this trip in a few more or less organized paragraphs.
We traveled by bus and arrived at the border where we walked across and were picked up by buses and drove about 45 minutes to Rancho Jireh (Jireh meaning "God who provides") where we stayed for the week. We had roughly two meals a day, needless to say of lots and lots of Mexican food. 
We were all put onto pre-organized teams of around 22 including two interpreters who became beloved friends of ours, who showed great love, generosity and joy

joyjoy!

    A typical day looked like leaving after lunch and doing a bit of outreach on the streets and inviting people to church. It was amazing, most of the turnout was kids who brought their parents. We walked into many divine appointments of Jesus meeting people through us exactly when they needed it. One woman had just gotten back from a court date to fight for child support and was losing her hope or reason to live and feeling suicidal. Some of our team simply walked up to her and encouraged her in who she is and what God sees in her. She burst into tears and later came to church and was radically met by Love. Our own bus driver found refreshment and cried tears of thanks for healing to his body and rest to his heart. Our services were Holy Spirit led, but all consisted of prophetic words over the church, pastors and individual members. People got totally wrecked and transformed. There was also prophetic art and worship, as well as words of knowledge for healing. Backs, necks, knees, arms, wrists, legs were healed. A man one of our girls met and prayed for earlier that day (that had experienced 10% healing), walked away COMPLETELY healed, with life and identity spoken into him. Amazing amazing testimonies and stories come out of stopping for the one. 
    We also got the incredible opportunity to lead a night of a pastor's conference on the top of this giant hill overlooking all of Tijuana in this massive tent, for hungry hungry leaders and their families who burn and crave the revival fire for their churches. I had the amazing opportunity to co-lead worship that night, and I'll never forget it. The room went crazy and danced wildly and worshiped passionately. It was one of the free-est and fun experiences I've had yet and one of the biggest highlights of the trip. We also ministered and called out words of knowledge for more healing, and a man I prayed for even had his right eye healed. Someone else on our team had gotten one for unsightly scarring and sure enough a man's body was restored from a long scar going down his chest that had been there from surgery for a gunshot wound. I'm telling you, it's so easy. Pray for people, and they get healed. It is God's desire and what He paid for! Another girl burst into tears at the front as Jesus healed her knee after an injury going down a slide when she was 9. People were overwhelmed as they were encountered by the Love of God in so many forms. 
    Another night we went down to Revolution street. I have never seen so many prostitutes and pimps lined alongside the street before. I had figured people over-exaggerated and it'd be similar to San Francisco but I was wrong. It was extremely intense and heavy. It was crazy how in the midst of so much perversion of love, intimacy, thrill and fulfillment, we had people dancing in the street unleashing the piercing beauty of God. People gave their testimonies one-by-one and incredible drama performances rocked the atmosphere. Hand-after-hand shot up in the middle of Revolution street as people gave their lives to Love, and were filled with beauty, peace, joy, and fulfillment for the first time. Some sat and wept, while others jumped up and down and worshiped their God who would never leave or forsake them. Who welcomes all into the Kingdom with open arms, who has pursued them all along and wanted nothing but them all along. I prayed with one man as he gave over his life, and when I first approached him he was the definition of looking unapproachable or open. As I placed my hand on him, he shot his arm up, and after we all finished praying he looked up and his demeanor had completely changed. He was full of life he had never experienced before. He looked and was truly alive for the first time. He looked at me with wide eyes and heart so light and exclaimed, "I feel beautiful! I feel so so beautiful!!" And began to praise God as he stepped into the Kingdom forever. I wanted to stand there with him forever. It is incredible experiencing God's heart for each person individually. When you choose to look through Heaven's lens and His eyes you understand why He would never want to leave, why He is SO committed to us and how He is jealous and yearns for our affections and to be with us and do life with us here and for eternity. He is so in love with us. He has a soft heart so willing and eager to embrace us, comfort us, answer us. He died for us, not because he had to, but desired passionately to. Love compels sacrifice. I also witnessed a man around my age set free of a cocaine addiction and wrecked forever by the Love of Jesus. These are just a few of the literal hundreds of testimonies from our time. 
Everywhere we went we saw God release love encounters, salvations, healings, people encouraged and seeds planted.
We left TJ Monday and stayed the day in Laguna Niguel at the beach and with our new friends at Vineyard Church. Can I just say, that place is AMAZING. I had an incredibly hard time leaving. They are hungry and SoCal will forver be changed by them and all that is going on and only going to increase there. Not to mention the amazing people there. I can't help but think when I look back at all the amazing people and places I've been able to get connected with this year, where has all this been hiding? It's been there all along, and I searched for years unaware people were meanwhile burning the same. The Lord's timing is incredible to say the least, and I'm curious and excited to see what He does with all these connections in the future. 
Also got to eat lots of tacos, buy a poncho, climb some amazing views, 
I am thankful for new opportunities, relationships, experiences, testimonies, to take with me. I am also thankful for American water and toilets and sleeping in my bed. Bus sleeps are not the best sleeps. But you always come back appreciating more. 
I've been home about 30 hours now and I still find myself finishing my prayers in "En el nombre de Jesus, amen." but that is ok, and Jesus thinks I'm a hoot. 

Sorry if this was a little all over the place, writing this still a bit exhausted and out of it.

Hey, if you wanna say a prayer-
-Pedro (or Peter he says) is a nurse practitioner, it is his love and passion and he brings so much life and love to people, and his heart is so to help his people, but he is currently working in the US at a 99cent store because he can't find work, partner with me in declaring a job for him!