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
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
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!
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!
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