We have arrived!

Hey everyone! So we are officially in china! All our traveling went well and we arrived safe. The place we are staying at is super nice. We are all doing good thus far and we will be adjusting to the time and kind of settling in our first day here. Thanks for your prayers!

Last Post Before That Good Old Ride

Alright friends,
So I'm done with my lecture phase now, what the heck. I feel like I was just in the mountains with my parents, falling down snowboarding and seeing my dad say why would you snowboard its so dumb, and my mom saying "ELIZABETH, SLOW DOWN, I need water" or the famous one my dad hates, "Erv, Beth and I need knew socks lets go to the shop, and then hit sits there and makes fun of us cause our feet are purple in places." Yes that's my family if your not getting made fun of or picked on your not really a part of the family yet, and anyone who knows my wonderful family would agree 100%. But back to the update.
While being here I've experienced some amazing things, I've gone through a ton of "heart surgery" and then being able to see God be complete restoration has been amazing! I have gone through classes on, the fear of the Lord, Father heart of God, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Warfare, Relationships, Life in the Spirit, and Missions just to name a few. Through these classes it's amazing how much God really teaches you through these courses, some stuff we may not agree with, but other stuff God has really challenged us to look at it through a different pair of eye glasses. Its been very refreshing to look over all the foundation with my perspectives and other peoples.
Alright so this leaves me with my last blog update before I get back from overseas, I'll be heading overseas (if you want more info call my mom), I'm so sure how I feel about going. Because this place was always the place where I would tell God anywhere but there! So I'm excited but in a different way than when I was going to Africa. I believe God is really going to teach us how to love with out words, and how to worship with out music. I will have email but there are some rules you will have to follow if you are going to email me, so if so call my mom and ask her what the rules all are then you can go ahead and email me. And PLEASE, follow ALL the rules, for our safety. Thank you!
Well I will be on a plane in less than 24 hours, I feel a little mind boggled right now, but I know it will be a trip of a lifetime that will go by very fast. I love you all, and I can't wait to see all your faces when I get home. Thanks for everything!

mini update

Hello friends
First off I'd like to say sorry for the lack of updates, and with that know this one is being written on my phone because our internet is still down. So as soon as I get a good connection ill send out a more full report but I didn't want to wait any longer because God has been doing some amazing stuff here. Okay so let's start in LA, while in LA we had the opprotunity to work with the Dream Center which was so amazing cause before coming to YWAM I was really considering there program so in a way I was able to do both. While working with them we went out on food distribution into some of the poorest areas in LA, we also got to do a mini Bible camp one morning and it was so fun to put my spanish into work and talk with the children and parents at these locations.

The next night we jumped in our vans and headed down to skid row (3rd worst neighborhood in the US) and we walked around just talking to people if you have seen the soloiest it was filmed there and looks pretty well the same as in the movie. While there the one man that really stands out to me is Little Ceaser he was this funny little Guatemalan man who had been through a ton but we were able to talk with him about guatemala and his life and pray with him and it was one of the best conversations I've had he wanted to live right so bad but his addictions were controlling him so badly. He was heading to court the next day and I hope and pray he was shown mercy because even though he had his struggles he was still a light in those streets, he would hand out blankets and open up his apartment to people he was a true blessing and God truly broke my heart for this little man, through tears shed and laughs poured out he will be a man ill not soon forget.

 While in Cali I also had the privilege of getting baptized in the ocean on Venice beach it was such a blessing to be baptized in the ocean like I always wanted and not do it with 4 others that I have watched God totally transform.

After LA we headed home for a week of outreach prep, this consists of learning dramas, puppets, skits, dances, balloon animals, and for a few of us juggling. Non the less this was a tiring week but also very refreshing.
Okay now let's head back to some stories, so on wednesday nights we head downtown to 16th street mall and we do street evangelism and this particular night we ran into a few people who were just chatting with some of our other students. So we began chatting with them and we ended up making arangments to go out for breakfast on the upcoming sat. So we picked up my friend from home at the train station and headed up the road to meet our new homeless friends for breakfast. Just a side note we were planning on meeting 3 and we ended up taking out 6 I believe! So we all get together and head down to this nice dinner and we slpit up so its more of a one on two convo instead of trying to fight for talking time.
 So now where to start... Okay so we will start with my friend from home, she was sitting with this guy in a wheel chair who we will call denny. Denny would hardly even speak his spirit was so crushed and Hali just kept pressing trying to get to know him, but frankly I think if you would ask her she would of never thought what I'm going to tell you next would of happened. So in the next following days some more YWAMers were down there finishing up on some projects and got a chance to say hi to all our homeless friends then lastnight we headed back down for our weekly outreach and we felt like God was asking us to bring our guitars, drums, and paint. So we headed dwon with such anticipation of what God was about to do. And as we started to lead worship people gathered around and began asking what we were doing people were drawn to us, it wasn't like we were the only music out there cause that was not the case at all but the Holy Spirit was so at move people couldn't stay away. So back to denny he and his friends who ill share about later all showed up and denny was talking to our leader jacob and said "what is this because I want it" and began to cry. Our leader began to explain to him and then prayed for him and with him and then denny started to push people back so he could get into the middle of the circle and he began pounding on the drum and he was laughing and crying so our leader asked him man what are you feeling and all he could say was delightful!
 So at the same breakfast I sat next to this man with long hair and arms full of tattoos, which is always helpful for a conversation starter, but when I asked he said oh you don't want to know and we went back and forth saying yes man I want to know and so he said its from my gang, and so once again we went back and forth can I hear about it... You don't want to no body has ever wanted... Yes I do so he begins sharing with me that he is a member of the Bloods gang in LA and that he has been in and out of prission because of all the crimes. So I began pouring into him at one point he shared with me that when he was in prission he became a minister and he really loved Jesus but with being on the streets he has had a really hard time. So I felt like I was supposed to show him the everything skit so I pulled it up online and as he began to watch it you could see every time a new character came out he would totally relate to that person and when the suicide part came on he got very serious then during the fighting you could see all these emotions rag up inside of him and then Jesus steps in and he just begins to cry. This gang member who had killed several people began to cry because he saw that hey Jesus does love me. So I was able to continue to encourage him and walk beside him although he is still struggling we are not giving up. We saw him lastnight and he was so drunk but the moment I put my finger in his chest and told him to look me in the eyes he was able to listen. When we began to talk about Jesus it was like no chemicals had even been placed into his body. Break...

Update coming soon I promise!

I would like to say sorry for a lack of updates lately, life has been very busy and our internet here on base has been working off and on. But I promise I'll be updating it soon. Some things I'll update you on are...
Our trip to LA
Our local outreaches (Wheelchair Lady)
Love Action (Gang member)
Personal Life

Thanks for understanding I'll post on facebook when I get it up!
Thanks for prayers and support!