The Last Day.

So since Saturday I've been hanging around the base with Michelle. Today's our last day in Mexico.

It's been weird hanging out here, without my DTS family. It was so hard saying goodbye as they slowly trickled away to the airport. I cried a lot. It seemed like little pieces of my heart were getting ripped out and it was horrible. I believe our staff leaders did a pretty good job of explaining reverse culture shock and how hard it would be... but still. My family is gone. This may very well be the most melancholy blog post.. But I miss my family. I miss the last five months. I'm not sure I'm ready to go home, and to get back into North American culture. Blagh.

I am going to miss Mexico. I miss my family sooo much... especially my outreach team.

Post-Graduation.

We are done.

Saturday, February 11, we left Oaxaca and flew into Los Angeles. On the drive back down to Ensenada, I fell silent and blocked out the excited chatter of my teammates. As I stared off into the ocean, I realized I had no words to aptly explain the wave of emotions I was feeling. Part of me was overwhelmingly happy to be finished outreach, and I was elated at the accomplishment I felt. Two months. Two months of mostly cold showers, oppressing spiritual warfare, pouring out into others, tears, more tears, joy, exhaustion, peace, bringing people to the Lord, pouring into relationships.

The other part of my heart was so crushingly sad that I cried. As people were chattering in the background, I realized how each member of Team Chewbacca has become my family. Klaus, Tony, Cory, Colton, Steph, Kiley, Jessie, Ester, Gaby, Ellie, Peta and Rheanne have really become my second family. I cried as I realized... being done means saying goodbye. I never realized it was possible to take a group of twelve strangers from seven countries... and call them family after two months of doing life together.

As a family Team Chewbacca has been through a lot. I think for everyone the Dominican Republic was difficult because the spiritual warfare was so tangible. We had several occasions when we woke up in the middle of the night and prayed together. Times where we all felt so dry that we just sat in a room and prayed for each other.. for hours. We were all devastated when Federico died. Everyone was worried when Cory got sick and couldn't fly to Oaxaca right away. I wasn't there, but I heard stories that everyone pulled together to put out the massive fire. Everyone prayed for me when I was in the hospital. As a family we saw the mountaintop, and we crashed in the valley. We saw little children in the Dominican with huge, open, gaping wounds because a witch cursed them. We pulled together as a team in the tough times, and enjoyed each other's company on our few days off. We collectively drank way too much coffee and got not enough sleep.

This chapter of my life is done. This season is coming to a close. Thursday night was our graduation and it was horribly bittersweet. Such a sense of accomplishment, such a season of growth, finished. Since then people have been trickling off to the airport and saying goodbye has been nothing short of horrendous. I surprised myself at how attached I am to my DTS family. Saying goodbye has left the biggest ache in my chest. Even writing this brings such a raw emotion. Jessie and Ester especially. You girls know that you're closer to me than I can even express. Not seeing you every day, not falling asleep to you ten feet away, not laughing with you, has made me so horribly sad. I've heard the term "post DTS depression" and laughed it off, thinking that was cute, but I now know whoever coined that phrase was not joking.

I'm currently sitting in the YWAM San Diego office. Two more of my family members are leaving this afternoon; tonight I'm picking up Michelle and we're going to hang out in Ensenada for a week. So ridiculously happy to see her, so unbelievably sad DTS is over. So glad for this season of growth and renewal in Christ.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

LAST WEEK!!

HEY ALL!

This is our last week of outreach!!!! On Saturday we will be back in Ensenada!! (Not that I'm excited or anything.)

Anyways. My last week of outreach is looking a lot different than the rest of my team's. Because of the situation with my back, I was not able to go with my team to the village for this week. Also doing any kind of physical labour is completely out  of the question for me right now. So. I am hanging out on the base, which is Esau and Ale's house. At first I was super opposed to the idea of being here while my team is gone. The first night, I moved from the girl's house down the road to the guy's room, which is on the base property. I was still awake at 6 am - it was too quiet!! I have been used to living in community and having a houseful of roommates, and my first night of silence in five months sent me for a loop.

However. Being on the base has been really awesome. I think I needed this time, because before this I was running on fumes and not sure I'd make it to the end without burning out. I'm calling this week my "pre-debrief debrief week." Next week in Ensenada is our debrief week, but I guess I kind of get two. My staff gave me a list of things to do - a few teachings to listen to, team blogging, slideshow, intercession etc. So it's been really nice. I didn't know how much I missed quiet time until I got it back this week!! I am definitely missing my team, but the quiet has been more welcome than I had imagined. Since I have to take it easy for my back anyways, it's nice to have a bit of my own schedule this week. I've also spent a lot of time with the family that lives here, and they are great. Ale is studying to be a nurse too! She speaks English, so her and I talk about nursing a lot. Today I helped Hannah (their daughter) sort clothes for a thrift store for an hour and a half.

YWAM teaches you to be flexible - I definitely appreciate that, especially this week. It hasn't gone at all how I've expected it to, but then again I never expected I'd be in a Mexican hospital having as many troubles with my back as I have. I've had time to catch up with a lot of people from back home, tons of time to pray, tons of time to just be with my Father.

Please continue to pray for my back, and for restoration. I'm still in a lot of pain and am waiting for the day I get back to Canada so I can start physiotherapy, go to my chiropractor again and go to massage therapy.

Also, yesterday was Bob Marley's birthday. One love.

Mexican Hospital Adventures.

Hey all.

So this week I experienced my first adventure in a Mexican hospital. It included...

• mystery drinks
• eating cactus
• flooding the bathroom while taking a shower... the drain didn't work.
• attempting to get dressed again after said shower... It's hard, when you're attached to an IV.
• realizing how minimal my Spanish is when it comes to medical terms.

Basically I've had back problems this whole outreach, and for the last week I've been in a ton of pain. Tuesday night I got the most severe migrane I've ever had in my life and my whole back spasmed so they took me to a really nice hospital in Oaxaca. I was there Tuesday night until Thursday afternoon, just getting drugged up and doing some x rays. Now I'm back on the base, migrane is nearly gone, but my back is still in rough shape. If you could pray for me that would be awesome!! We literally have 8 days of outreach left and I'm not sure what I will be able to do. The next 3 days I'm ordered on bed rest, and we'll see from there.

Kind of getting lonely. The last week I have not been going out with my team to do ministry, and it looks like that may be the next week too. I thankfully have lots of reading material and lots of time to pray and hang out with Jesus!!!

Thanks for checking in with my blog, feel free to shoot me an email or Facebook message - I'd love to hear from you!