Good Bye Corvallis...Hellooooo Palm Springs :)

My family and I are all packed up for our Christmas vacation. We will be heading out to Palm Springs (where its about sixty degrees...take that Oregon!) at about two thirty tomorrow afternoon. I personnally do not like airplanes...all the random people that I have to sit next too give me anxiety :) Its silly actually. I mean, I can go out and talk to all the homeless people on the street, but I am afraid to strike up a convo with the normal people in all the public places I frequent. Ridiculous. We just opened up a few early Christmas that we couldn't quite fit in our bags. Mom got the boys a Wii Fit which is awesome! I only got to experience two days of its wonderful, entertaining, magical work outs before leaving it behind. sniff sniff. Oh well..sigh.
I am now all packed up for Mexico since I will be heading there after my family flies back home on Jan. 3. I will be spending a couple nights at one of my fellow Ventanero's house before meeting up with my team in San Diego on Jan. 5. I am so excited now that its finally happening. It seemed so far off when I first came home, but now that its upon me, I can hardly treasure my time with my family enough. They are all so precious to me, and its been amazing just being able to rest at home with them and play tripoly til the night grows old :) Palm Springs is going to provide an awesome good bye for us, and I know the time will go so quickly I won't even be able to believe it. So, so long friends and family! I love you all soooo much and thank you for the fun time and memories you have provided me with! I'll keep y'all updated!
Mikaela

Home At Last...ahhhh

I have been home for almost two weeks, and its been a crazy time. We had 22 family members over at our house for Thanksgiving which was absolutely insane but amazingly fun. And then my mom and I were sick for almost four days, and now I am getting back into the routine of seeing friends and even babysitting! (If anyone needs a sitter during these next couple weeks, feel free to give me a call.) Its been so awesome seeing my family again, and playing with my puppy Charlie. It almost felt like a dream walking into my house and sleeping in my own bed. I have not gotten out of bed before ten every morning, and I am beginning to feel a little lazy :) I am so content just to sit back and talk with my brothers and my mom, and I can't wait til Spencer gets home from college so we can all be together. My family is going to Palm Springs for Christmas, but we are still decorating the house and getting a tree and all. Its so exciting this time of year and I feel very accomplished since I have completed all my Christmas shopping, and now have nothing to worry about :) I can't wait to see you all! Please, if you see me, come up and give me a hug because I would love to see as many people as I can during this short break!
Thanks!
Mikaela

Prayer Requests

Ventana has been experiencing a lot of spiritual attacks lately...and its become harder and harder to deal with them. Each week someone else experiences some hardship or another that puts a damper on our spiritual journey as we go out into the streets of Santa Cruz. Please keep us all in your prayers as we go out on Saturday for our last service night with the homeless. We have been making a great impact in some people's lives and Satan obviously doesn't like that.

Our team is also experiencing some extremely hard difficulties financially which has severly affected the ministry. Three of my fellow students are having a hard time getting their money raised. They all have to raise three thousand dollars each by Dec. 15th, and they are getting a little stressed and discouraged. We know that God wants them here on the team, and we would really appreciate prayer for them as they scramble to raise all the funds needed. We have already suffered a huge loss already. Laura, our community director, is not going to be able to join us in Mexico due to financial issues, and Ventana not having enough money in the budget to pay seven staff members. It is a very sad time for the Ventana team since we all love Laura immensely and we will miss her humor and sweet face all throughout our Mexico experience. Please keep her in your prayers as she searches for another job and deals with this loss...

Our ministry is losing a very important dynamic, and it is going to be hard to get used to only having six leaders. And if one or all of the students who are in financial difficulty are not able to come back, everything will be different and weird. Its insane to think about going to Mexico without ALL my teammates.

I'll be home in about 4 days which is super exciting! Please keep my family in your prayers as we start to prepare for the first major holidays without Dad. Its going to be a bit tough...which is an understatement.

I love you all!
Mikaela

Wrapping Up

Things are coming to a close here at Mission Springs...we still have three more street service nights, and two more work project days..but besides that its just packing, cleaning, and preparing to say goodbye..but only for a little while.
I am so excited to go home and see my family..only nine more days! I will finally be able to hold my little Charlie, and let him sleep in bed with me again! Yesss! Don't tell mom though :) I have just finished my last piece of homework for the week, but unfortunately I will have some over break...oh well.
This week went by really fast, and time only seems to fly since we are trying to pack everything we can into these last few days. Its been so much fun on this first part of the journey and I hope that Mexico will be even more amazing! I thank God for putting me here and allowing me to experience him in totally new ways. My faith is only continuing to deepen as the days go by.
Thanks all
Mikaela

Finding God is AWESOME!

WOW! Its going absolutely crazy here in my head! I know that sounds so weird but its what it feels like. God has been revealing so much to me this week...all these things that he has slowly been preparing me for have all of a sudden blasted into my brain with such an incredible force that I have barely had time to process it all. Just looking back on the past two years, seeing all the hardships my family has gone through...its almost been too much. But God has assured me that, even though I have been struggling with bitterness and pain for quite some time, he is so not finished with me yet. I've been a little lost, trying to deal with everything while being gone from my beloved family and supportive friends. And God just spoke directly to my heart, telling me that all I had to do was trust and be obedient; then I would be able to rest in his love again, instead of constantly question him and myself. I was at first confused...how was I even to start on that daunting task? He provided some answers, so I now know that I need to get into the habit of spending time with God just one-on-one, I need to love people more consistantly than I have been, and I need to be open to HIS plans, not MY plans...just to name a few. I would really appreciate prayers on this front, so that I don't lose sight of this vision when life gets harder.

I am just so thankful for Ventana right now, even though its harder now than its ever been. Without this constant studying of the Word and consistent practice of serving joyfully I would not be where I am with Christ. I have alot more to work on, but who doesn't? :) Thanks again to all who have been supporting me! You guys have blessed me!

"not gonna try to lock the door
not gonna fight you anymore
you took your life and gave me yours
there's no reason why
no good reason why
I shouldn't trust you."

~Brandon Heath, singer

Missing Home...

Hey all...
Its going great here in Santa Cruz..which is no longer that sunny for those of you who were jealous before. We had one huge downpour all weekend, which brought up some very fond memories from Oregon. Its cleared up some now..but there are no beach trips on the horizon as of late.

We had an 80's party on Halloween night, and it was insane! We had a huge dance party, and then a cupcake decorating contest...unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too well so I left after the first..oh..half hour or so..but it was really fun dressing up. I had a huge sweater that looked like someone ate purple and black yarn, and then threw it up. And I wore more make up than I ever want to again. One of our boys, Jason, shaved off about two months worth of facial hair, leaving his mustache..and its still there. We all laughed pretty hard at that..Jason is our "class clown" :)

Another update on our homeless ministries...Wednesday night was my last night out on the streets..I will be switching with the other half of our group, who has been in the bible study at the mission this whole time. So it was one of my last chances to really open up conversations with the people I have built up relationships with. My friend Shannon and I prayed before hand for about thirty minutes and then set out. Of course, God decided to do things his way, rather than the way we were expecting. Irish (the boy I was telling you about in the last post) was one person we prayed for specifically, and Satan tried to combat our prayers by attacking him..sadly enough he fell into temptation right before we talked to him. He came over and gave me a huge hug, announced proudly "I'm trippin' on LSD right now! Haha!" and then he walked away because the "fuzz" (or police) were coming up the street. It was heart breaking seeing him filling his life with drugs rather than with the God he so obviously needs. Please continue to keep him in your prayers and that somehow, on a Saturday night when we are out on the street, he can be reached and a seed can be planted.

But God answered my prayers in a different way: there is a younger guy who has come every week to the dinner served on Saturdays at Elm Street Mission, and we always said hi but conversation never went deeper, and God has been laying him on my heart for the past two weeks. He was walking by on Wednesday night and just started up a conversation with me, which opened up so many doors to discussing God and the role he longs to play in each of our lives. It was awesome, but the devil is really adament about Nathan (that's the guys name) not hearing anything related to God. People kept coming up and interrupting us..until finally I had to go. Nathan didn't come to this Saturday's dinner...so please pray that he will be there this week. He has alot of heart for those people who can't fend for themselves and has such potential to serve God, but he doesn't realize yet that thats what he needs to do to feel fulfilled. Like many others out on the streets, he smokes weed as much as possible, and drinks insane amounts of alcohol. But he expressed a desire to be free from his addictions. He also carries around the Bible with him, and acknowledges that it has good messages..but he doesn't know if God is real or not. Its so obvious that God is calling him, so please pray specifically for Nathan that he will respond to the call!

The Lord has blessed me so much through this experience..and though it is really hard being away from my family, I know that this is where God has put me. Only three more weeks until I get home though! Which is awesome!!! I can't wait to see you all!

Pretty Sunshine :)

Yes, I know it might come as a surprise for all of my Oregon friends out there, but it is still sunny in some parts of the world! I was actually hanging out at the beach on Friday, and as I stepped into the water--miracles of miracles--my toes did not freeze off! There was a monarch butterfly migration going on while we were there, so we hiked up into the trees surrounding the beach and saw hundreds of beautiful, orange and black monarchs clustering in the branches. It was awesome!

I was out doing some street ministry on Wednesday, and I met a large group of younger people who were part of a bongo group that met on the sidewalk every week. Some were homeless, some were going to college at UCSC, but all were a little intoxicated. My friend Shannon and I were invited to hang out with them that evening and we had some interesting conversations while we were there. The 'gang leader' (for lack of a better word) was called Irish, and he is this super tiny guy who jumps around with bare feet, tattoos, dread locks, and a huge hiking backpack. He is really friendly and into just being who he is around all people...granted his brain is a little beffuddled from the amount of harmful chemicals he intakes, but he remembered me when I saw him on Saturday, and I was invited to hang out again this Wednesday. Please be praying that Shannon and I can open up a meaningful conversation with him and anyone else who is there. We felt a special connection to this group because they are close to our age, but are making some really dumb decisions with their lives.

On Saturday, I was able to talk to a man (whose name I can unfortunately not remember--isn't that sad?!?) about Jesus and his beliefs on Christianity. He claims he is a Bible scholar, and he surprised me by actually knowing a good amount of verses and stories. He believes that you can only get to heaven by believing in Jesus Christ and then stopping yourself from sinning. He said that if I died today, because I was still sinning, I would go to hell...I tried to explain to him the message of grace, and why Jesus died, and the whole basis of Christianity, and even though he listened intently, he kept bringing up random verses and stories from the Bible that "supported" his theory. That is just an example of how many people here in Santa Cruz believe themselves to be "Christians", but they twist the message of Jesus Christ until they believe what they want to believe, and not what Christ calls us to. Please pray that us Ventaneros can find the words to open these peoples eyes to the eternity they are heading into.

We recently got a new staff member...his name is Aaron and he will be filling in the spot of male mentor. We lost our first male mentor due to outside circumstances, which was a sad day for all of us. Aaron was originally going to be our facilities manager in Mexico, but after Nick left, we called him up and asked if he wanted to come hang with us in Mission Springs and then do both jobs while in Mexico. He was thrilled and came up that same week. We all love him and he gets along really well with the rest of the staff and students. God really blessed us!

Only thirty more days until I come home for my long break. I'll be back on November 25th, and will be heading out to Mexico on January 5th. I am really excited to see all my Oregon friends and my family from Washington. Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Love,
Mikaela

Hello from Santa Cruz!

Hey everyone..sorry it took so long for me to get this up. I've had quite a busy schedule :)
I have been living on a Christian camp called Mission Springs for the last two weeks and will be here until break which starts November 25th. We are serving Mission Springs by working on their maintenance and housekeeping teams three days a week. Just this past week, me and a few other people from my Ventana team have been taking apart, sanding, trimming, staining, and putting back together over twenty wooden benches in the center of camp. They now look brand new and we are all proud of our accomplishments. Other branches of our team have put in new stairs on one of their nature trails, sanded and repainted the theater's stage, and folded and stuffed over 2,000 letters. And its been so much fun learning how to serve even when it gets tough.

We have also been participating in a homeless ministry twice a week, which has been life changing. We serve at a place called Elm Street Mission every Wednsday and Saturday. On Wed. half of our team go to the mission to participate in the bible study there that includes several people who live on the streets, and the other half goes out into the main hangouts of the homeless population and strike up conversations with the people there. We have five dollars in our pocket so we can treat someone to a meal. On Sat. we all go to the mission and help prepare a huge meal, sit in the church service, then eat and talk with the people that come. It has been amazing to here people's stories and to love on them like Jesus would. I have met several interesting characters: Dana, who likes to invite me to some study sessions on "medical marajuana research", Thomas, who lost his wife, home, car, and motorcycle eighteen months ago, S.C. (as he likes to be called) who is a practicing Buddhist, as well as several others. Please lift these people up in your prayers, that we can continue our realtionships with them, and show them how much God truly loves them!

The leaders for Ventana are amazing and all of us students love them! There are six leaders in all, and eleven students (four boys and seven girls). We all get along rather well, and love to joke around and prank each other. For example, the boys snuck into the girl's bathroom and put an alarm on the stall door. So the next morning, me and two other girls (LeAnne and Liz) were in the bathroom preparing for the day and we tried to open the stall door, but everytime we did, a loud, obnoxious sound would go off, almost deafening us. We finally figured out what it was, so we could releive our strained bladders :) and we are still coming up with a way to get the boys back!

I miss you all and hope to see/hear from you all sometime. Thank you to everyone who has supported me financially and prayerfully! You have blessed me more than you know! One fun fact that I was just made aware of was that I was the last one to sign up for this trip, but the first one to get all my funds in...what a confirmation from God that I am supposed to be here.
I love you all!