My first month at "La Roca"

Dearest Friends and Family,

Wow! It has been a hectic month! I cannot believe I have already finished my first two classes Evangelism and Christian Living and am starting two new classes tomorrow. Thanks so much for all your prayers they meant a lot to me. I definately had some hard days thinking about and missing my family and Elli. But God is good and he has definately been my strength in the hard times. I was really asking God why I wasn't able to go with to get Elli and how I just don't understand His timing in this and one thing that I really felt God speak to my heart though this is about His love for us. We waited for, prayed for, wanted and loved Elli since before she was born. What an amazing picture of the Father's love for each of us. Also, as I was able to follow my families journey in China through the website, I felt this intense love for Elli and a longing to know her. I feel like God said that is how He feels about each of us that He loves us and longs to have a personal realtionship with us even more than I love and long to have a relationship with Elli. What an amazing and loving God we serve. I am so grateful that God has brought her to be apart of our family and I can't wait to meet her!!!

Thanks for all your prays I can't believe I was able to finish all the homework, but I did. I finished reading four books in spanish! Wow! That was quite a feat:) And I memorized 19 out 20 verses in spanish. We also went out doing door to door evangelism every Friday and that was awesome! We were able to share the gospel with a gothic person and she received Christ! That was very exciting.I also personally had the opportunity to share the gospel with one of my cousins. All in all it was an amazing month that went by really fast.

This past week was stressful with having our finals for each class but also very cool. At the end of each month as we finish out our class we have what is called a Friday Prayer Day. We take all our exams on Thurs. and then on Fri. we all dress up and come together to have communion, worship, testimonies and to pray together for about 4 hours. It was awesome! We pray all the time at my school but not as in depth as we were able to do on Friday. You grow so much closer with people as you each begin to open up and share what God is doing in your life and encourage and pray for each other.

Down here at the school; I never seem to have enough time. But hopefully, I will adjust to the rhythm very soon. I only have 1 hour or free time everyday from 5:30-10:30 it is intense. Plus on the weekends I am working at the church about 15 hours a weekend doing: administrative stuff, planning for a children's program in the future, playing on the worship team and doing specials, helping set up for any programs we are having that weekend and I am going to start teaching the older group of children in two weeks. The picture is me with my pastor and his family. 

This next weekend my whole school and I are going to be working as volunteers Thurs night-Sat night at the Pastors and Leader conference held by Willow Creek Church here in Guadalajara. So next weekend will be even more busy than these past few:).

I have been thinking about you all and have been praying for you. Please let me know if there is anything I can personally pray for.

A few pray requests for me are:

1. The Willow Creek Conference that everything would go smoothly and that we would serve well.

2. That I would continue to hear God's voice

3. Health (I feel like I am lacking sleep:) )

4. Language (It is getting better but it still takes me more time to do my homework and sometimes I just can't find the words, etc.)

5. That I would be able to balance my time well with homework, school and ministry

Thanks so much! I love you and miss you all! God bless, Stacia

My first week at "La Roca"

Dear Friends and Family,

First off I want to thank you all for your prayers. They mean so much to me! I thought I would write a little about what is going on down here and what my first week was like at "La Roca".

First off God so confirmed to me that this is exactely where He wants me right now. The first night we were there we head a message around a campfire and it so spoke to me about being a David generation. I am generation 22 (2008-2011). One morning during my devotionals I decided to read Proverbs 22 to see if it said anything that would apply to me since I am apart of generation 22 here at "La Roca" I found two verses in particular that really spoke to me and I feel apply to my life. First off there is Proverbs 22 :6 "Train up a child in the way he/she should go and when he/she is old they will not depart from it." Although I am not a child I am still young and they are definately intensely training me and making sure my foundation is firm. Also, verse 11 "He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend." and they are definately encouraging and training us about what it means to have a pure heart and how we attain that. Something that I found out this weekend when I was telling Kimar about what I learned ant that I was generation 22 and just confirmed to me again that I am where I am supposed to be is that Kimar and David's house number is 22:) God definately has a sense of humor!

This week consisted of a lot of running around, meeting new people and trying to figure out where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing:). I wake up at 5:30am to work in the kitchen in the morning. Then I have chapel and 2 hours of lecture (in Spanish). I have Evagelism Tues.-Thurs. and Christian life/living on Wed.-Fri. Both classes are awesome but the Evagelism class is absolutely amazing! After breakfast at 9:30am, which I get confused and feel like I am eating lunch because I have already been up for four hours, I have some clean up time and then 2 more hours of lecture. After class we have 1 hour of work around the campus (although my work is in the morning so this is my devo time) and then an hour of sports. They are very stirct about everyone participating and always being on time. Then we get to clean up and have lunch 2:30pm. The food routine is still strange for me because I am not a big eater in the morning and they it their biggest meal of the day in the morning, medium at luch and a light dinner and we usually eat opposite, plus the times are a little different. Then we have 1 hour of free time after everything is cleaned up we are in charge of all the cleaning around the campus. Then it is off to the Library for 3 hours of study time and trust me I need all of it. We have dinner at 7:30pm and then go back to the library to study more. So far by the end of this month I will have to read and write reports for 1 book in evagelism and 3 books in Christian living. Did I mention I have never read a whole book in Spanish before and by the end of this month I will have read 4!?! Also I have to memorize 20 verses and have daily homework and exams. In my evagelism class we are required to participate in door to door evangelism, evagelism on the buses (which is the main source of transportation down here) and personal one on one evagelism. It is intense!!! But I am so excited about what I am learning. On the weekends I leave the campus and go live with my amazing missionary friends Kimar and David. I have to put in a minimum of 10 hours a week serving in my church and if my Pastor has his way it will be 30 with all the things he would like me to do:). But please do be praying for me to be wise about my time so I don't end up totally burned out, but that I am also to help in as many areas as possible. Monday is my only day off basically and I have to back to "La Roca" at 6pm to start my routine all over again.
Here are a few quick prayer requests:)
- My family is in China right now so please be praying for their safety and health.
- My homework (being that Spanish is not my first language it is a little more overwhelming)
- My time that God would help me to make the most of it
- Whatever else God lays on your heart to pray for:)

Thank you guys so much and know that I am thinking about and praying for all of you. Please feel free to write me (although I only have access on the weekends to internet) with any pray requests or just to say. I love you all! Blessings, Stacia