Pushed and Pulled

I love being pushed to my limits by God. When He stretches me to lengths I didn't know were possible something inside of me just feels so satisfied, no matter what is actually happening around me. I'm learning what it means to simply abide in God. When everything else is so frustrating or so confusing He is so at peace. Which means I am at peace when I am abiding in Him. There's a deepness to just "being" with God that I'm just seeing now. When everything else seems shallow or pointless, He is deep and meaningful. I am so undeserving of Him. I can't help but smile and be amazed at the thought of who He is and what He has done. It brings such a somberness at the same time. That's the fullness of God though right? He's not either...He's both tears and smiles. On to work for the day.

Never Too Young

"Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth.
Jeremiah 1:6-9

It's interesting staffing a school with students older and more "experienced" than I am. I'm learning about God's anointing and that it doesn't matter how old or how much experience we have if God has called us to a position of leadership. He has placed the anointing and taken us through preparation for this exact time. It is definitely a process to learn this lesson. It becomes hard to not be discouraged being the youngest person involved with the school with the least amount of years in mission work. How exciting to know that God is preparing me in this area and that it will be something He uses in the future. There's definitely hope at the end of this little tunnel here.

Hanging in There

Faith is what keeps me hanging on to the things God has called me to do when everything gets hard. God calls us to go out on a limb and take risks for Him, to believe He will do the impossible. It seems, as I'm moving farther out the limb is getting shorter. I can see that I'm about to fall off but God keeps telling me to move farther from the cliff and trust Him. It's a beautiful thing to trust God with your life. The closer to falling I get the more God has room to move and really be glorified! How exciting to know that God is being glorified through me! The fact that He is preparing me to glorify Him even more blows my mind...as His daughter He is going to use me to facilitate His glory...what an honor we have as His children.

I had the blessing of going home the week before Christmas! It was so good to be with my family and friends during the holiday season; baking cookies, drinking coffee, and just spending time together. It still seems surreal that I was just home 2 weeks ago. It brought a new reality of how life is going to be while I'm on the mission field. Though it's hard to be away from home it is so much sweeter when we're all reunited. Right now I still have a week of vacation left this year and the plan is to go home soon after my nephew arrives from Guatemala! This will be the sweetest trip home yet. We're still not sure when that's going to be yet but I'm excited to find out!

WISE School started on Monday! Our first students, Ben and Ashley, came in to Mazatlan on Friday and another student, Christian, just arrived to the bus station now. There are only 4 students that will be attending WISE school this year and it's going to be awesome. The smaller the school, the more time we can spend with each student. Though it's hard for us logistically, we believe there's a reason this starting school is so small and so unique! I'm excited to see where God takes us as staff and how this school forms into something new and refreshing for YWAM Mazatlan and YWAM Mexico as a whole. I'm so blessed to be a part of something that 's going to be so big for so many people.

Keep me updated on how you guys are doing as well. I love letters and emails. :-)

Love you all,


Tasha

Moving Forward

Life seems to be accelerating its speed at high rates. Everything is moving faster and more responsibility seems to be coming every second...I love it. It has been pretty hard the last few weeks but I believe it's God stretching me. This is a season of preparation and strengthening for seasons to come. My faith is growing and pushing forward. God is giving me a joy through every tough situation and really showing His faithfulness in every move. I'm also really learning how to wait on Him in every decision I make. He needs to be the source of everything I do and He has to take everything else out before He can be that source, it's quite the painful process at times. I just mean that He is taking the time to get rid of the selfish part of me, that part that wants to do things my way instead of His way.

We went to a conference in Pachuca 2 weeks ago. It was so great to see other parts of Mexico, it's so beautiful here. I love the hills covered in houses. So amazing. The conference itself was so good. We got to connect with the bases of YWAM Mexico and really see unity come into play. As a whole YWAM Mexico has a heart to plant a base in Mexico City so we went there for a ministry day. I really fell in love with the city. I expected it to be completely crowded and feel really unsafe but I didn't for one second, in fact I would love to go back. I truly hope I can get more opportunities to go back and be a part of what God is doing there. Especially with the human trafficking there, it's really huge and there are a lot of kidnappings that happen...it's exactly where my heart is at. I'm realizing God has made me a fighter. For so long I've seen myself as a wimpy girl but wow, God has made me to fight for injustices and that is exactly what I plan on doing...now, I just need to wait on God to hear how He wants me to do that. How awesome though.

Hopefully I can put some pictures on here in the next month or so.

Love you all,

Tasha

Prayer Requests:

• Wisdom in everything (work, life, relationships)
• Plans for the future
• Finances are a little short right now
• WISE School (it's in less than 2 months!!!)
• Health (I've been better than I was but I'm still fighting to stay healthy pretty often)

Some Reflections

"Jesus dwelled among his followers 'as one who serves' "
-Denny Gunderson (The Leadership Paradox)

God has challenged me to be a leader as Jesus is. He was a man of humility and power. He has a Spirit of authority and wisdom. He has a heart of compassion and justice. None of these things are who I am. None of these things are possible to obtain in my character by myself. God has been showing me that I am not a leader of His character unless I am relying solely on Him. So often in today's society we believe independence is key to becoming a great leader and person of influence...but what about dependence on God? We get so caught up on being who we want to be and how we're going to get there that we forget who we need to look like. The only way to act as Christ is to rely on Him. If we would spend more time dwelling in God and hearing His voice we would be the leaders and followers He has called us to be.

Something God has been bringing to my attention more and more is that He loves to romance me and loves to be romanced in return. The way I see God love me is through the ocean and the cool breezes that cut into the hot sticky days, the sweet scent of jasmine on our long walks, the encouraging words He speaks through His Word and people. He loves to romance. But the work in my heart is to ask how He wants to be romanced. His answers really blow me away sometimes. He loves to sit in silence and just be together, He loves to create so we enjoy His creation, He loves color so I paint a picture for Him, I work to make His temple pure and holy and healthy. The things I love to do are the things He loves too. It only makes sense because He made me. My challenge to you is to ask God how He wants to be loved by you...maybe through sewing, or scrap booking, or taking pictures, or building something (He was a carpenter ya know), or writing, or laughing, or maybe just sitting together. Whatever it is, ask Him what your part of your relationship looks like.

Love you all,

Tasha

Financial Update!

Hey guys I just wanted to let you all know that I have my account set up with YWAM Denver!
This has been such a long process and I apologize for that. If you are looking to support me you can send a check to:

YWAM Denver
Accounting
12750 W 63rd Ave
Arvada, CO 80004

Just write my name in the demo section of the check or send a little note along. If you would like it to be tax deductible they will have papers for you to fill out.

You can also call and pay using a credit card. They're number is (303) 424-1144.

Any questions feel free to email me or them. Their email address is accounting@ywamdenver.org

I will update about my life and the base very soon!

Thanks for everything.

Love you all.

One Month!

As of today I've been in Mazatlan for one month.  I can't believe it's been this long already.  With staff retreat and a big project I've been working on, time has just been flying by.  

Staff retreat was great! I really got to know everyone better and had lots of time to just sit and listen to what God has for me here.  A couple from Tocoma, WA came down to talk to us about God's original design.  God has made us all with special gifts and plans that we usually don't see because we've been so deceived our whole lives.  If we walked out in the gifts God has planted inside of us our lives would be so different.  Our walk with God would be so much deeper.  Our view of who we are is so off track of who God really has made us.  We have the ability to stand in God's authority and power but so often we don't even see the faith God is offering us.  Just a tid bit of what I'm learning right now.

As of a week ago I got an official position on the base here!  I'm working on the media team.  What a blessing. I have a passion to work with video editing and photography and that's exactly what I'm doing.  I have a lot to learn yet but that's part of the fun.  I just got done editing a video on the Base Values we have here.  They'll be showing this video to the schools that come in here during the introduction to the base.  There will be plenty of other projects I'll be working on in the near future as well.  Pray that I learn everything I need to know easily and that I can get a computer soon, I need a Mac for the work that I'm doing.

Prayer Requests:

• Health- I've been sick and had quite a few health issues come up since I've been here
• Mac and programs I need for work and communication
• WISE School- We're in process of getting everything ready but there is a lot coming against us. (pray for the outreach as well)
• I have 2 unspoken prayer request for those back home.  I can't share them due to them not being my own situations but God knows what they need better than I could explain anyway.

Thank you.  

Lots of love and Prayers