Wow!   How do I even begin to describe what all God has been teaching me? It's been a truly crazy and eye-opening week. To be honest, I am struggling with how to relate a great number of the experiences that I am having in an acceptable, but still accurate, manner, without freaking anyone at home out... Let me just say that the Spirit is working in some awesome ways. I have had a few encounters with demons and seen a great deal of Spiritual Warfare. God has given me my first two visions; I encountered for the first time speaking in tongues, and the whole camp is permeated by God and how He is moving in His Spirit. It's such an indescribable experience. I really have no other way to express the pure joy that I am experiencing, living wholly guided by the Holy Spirit and in a community of other believers who are doing the same thing in their wholehearted pursuit of Christ.   If you are opposed to any of the things I have just mentioned, or even just a tad uncomfortable with them, please take this suggestion from Francis Chan: Abandon your pre-conceived notions and what you've been taught about Christianity and not truly examined, and read the Bible for real. Learn about how the Holy Spirit worked in the early church (read Acts), and realize that all of those things still happen, but we in America have tried to sanitize those aspects from our faith because they're out of our control. This, what I am experiencing, is TRUE Christianity-the way Jesus intended his followers to live and interact and the ways he promised that the Spirit would move amongst them.

This is kind of a jump, but I suppose you would like to know a bit more about daily life as well, so here's a typical day:

We get up in the mornings, have team exercise, breakfast, and then team meetings. After that, we either have training or we go do ministry work. This past week, we visited a children's home called "Pan de Vida", or "Bread of Life". There was a little boy there named Emiliano who attached himself to me. I spent the entirety of the time we spent there with him. He was very rowdy, a little bit of a trouble-maker, but very joyful and kind. He really liked the "gatos" (cats) and his favorite color is "azul" (blue)- just like mine. I really enjoyed the time I spent with him, and I can't wait to go back. We were supposed to visit a prison this week as well, but those plans fell through. Then, we eat lunch and have an hour of free time before afternoon ministry at two. During the afternoons, we go visit our "host families", or local families in the community that we've been assigned to help. My team has a couple, but we have only met the wife, Irma. Her husband is usually at work, and the past few times we've visited, she's been away from the house, so we've spent the time praying and picking up trash on the main road. Then, we have check-in/team meetings before dinner. After dinner, we have either worship time or training, depending on the day. Often when we have worship time, we do what we call "singing in the Spirit". Whoever is leading just plays a chord progression over and over and everyone sings their own song-the song of their spirit in worship to God. I love this so much- it's so cool to hear the beauty of the sound and such pure worship being poured out to the Father. These times are some of my favorite, and the Spirit has moved in some awesome ways during those times as our group learns to truly "walk in the Spirit", or do only what the Holy Spirit leads us to do. It has been crazy!

Saturdays are our days off, so we go into Matamoros or Harlingen, TX, to shop/get what we need, or just to hang out. This week, we went to Harlingen, and we ate at IHOP, saw a movie, and did some shopping. Sundays are our Sabbath day, so we have a lot of free time here at The Gateway (the AIM property) to rest and do whatever we need to do to have that day of rest.

One of my favorite lifestyle changes is doing laundry by hand. We have plastic tubs in which we wash the clothes. This is process: soak your dirty clothes in a tub of clean water for a few minutes. Put them in the wash bin with detergent and agitate the clothes in the bin with plungers for two minutes, let them sit for five, and then agitate again. Wring the clothes out and put them in a rinse bin full of clean water. Finally, wring the clothes out and hang them up on a good, old-fashioned clothes line to dry. Our team tends to do laundry together, and we have a great time laughing and joking while we work. My laundry has been deemed the "happy laundry" for our team because of the many bright colors in it. As you can probably tell, we just have a really good time.

To close, I would like to leave you with a passage of Scripture and a song. These verses have really been on my heart because they are a command from Jesus, and yet I don't see them happening in the church today. If we really lived in the Spirit, we would... The song is one that is kind of becoming a theme for our Novas group. It's one that this morning I was led to sing while worshipping "in the Spirit". One of the leaders heard it and asked if we could all sing it, so we did. This is essentially the chorus- verses/ anything else in the song is in the process of being written. I'll post the lyrics once it's completely finished.

"And proclaim as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.  Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town." Matthew 10:7-15 (ESV)

"Give us visions; give us dreams. Give us prophesy. Help us heal the sick and raise the dead." The rest speaks about the power of the Holy Spirit and our reliance on Him, but I don't have anything concrete yet, so stay tuned!