Silence and Solitude

So sorry that it has been so long since my last post, My computer pooped out on me almost 2 weeks ago so i have been without laptop for a while! I find it so incredibly difficult to post blogs because there is so much that happens here each and every day and I can never do it enough justice. Anyways so lately I have been learning much about the importance of being making time for silence and solitude with God. A few weeks ago on a Saturday we were all sent out to different cathedrals across the city just so we could reflect on the last month of our lives and us being here... instead of being inside all day I went across the street to the a park on Nob Hill and sat on a park bench for four hours listening to worship, journaling, and observing the kids playing on the playground. It was here that I realized and concentrated on the Father Heart of God as i watched the fathers play with their children on the playground... whenever they would fall and cry the dad's were right there to scoop them up, comfort them, and once again make them laugh. I have always called God my "Father" but never meditated on what exactly that means in all its many facets... a father is loving, protective, wants the best for His children, wants His children to mature and grow up in their faith and in wisdom and be able to walk on their own but communicate with Him in the process, provides, leads, and is the strength of the family. I could go on forever about the Father Heart of God and am sad that I never have taken the time to study all the different names that God calls Himself-- it reveals so much about His nature and character.

I have been trying to get an idea of what i want to do once the DTS is over. I realllly feel like God wants me to go to different churches, organizations, home groups, small groups, etc and spread awareness about Human Trafficking and how people can realistically address this issue in their own lives since it is so underground and massive! So I have been talking to my awesome Mom about wanting to do that and my leader Katie here. The morning after i told Katie about what i wanted to do we found out that on our outreach in Italy some of us would be trained and sent to different churches to spread awareness about Human Trafficking! How amazing is God?! He is totally preparing and equipping me for where my heart is so that I can go out and do this EFFECTIVELY for His glory and for His justice! I am so excited for that and to learn, to research and study and get more involved in this world issue I can't describe it.

Things are not always very easy here... I have been having difficulty not feeling homesick all the time (my nephew was born on 2/12!!!!!). God is continually bringing me outside of my comfort zone in every way possible and it gets freaking exhausting! Living in community like this is wonderful but so intense, the people in my DTS see all my weird moods, my brokenness, my bad and good habits.. everything, its weird to be known so well and to be open to feeling like I can really let them. I am working on that. A lot of the DTS focuses on introspection.. getting to the root and core of all our issues that block us from fully giving ourselves 100% to Jesus and His will, a lot of the issues that have come up I didn't even realize were there such as: unbelief, pride, distrust, my need to control everything in my own life and apathy. This was not easy to admit! Its something that i know I will have to face and come up against daily in asking God to give me His spirit and make these things not a part of me because in no way do these things show people who He is! In saying that I am asking you all for prayer for me for perseverance and strength because it get's wearing here and there is little time for rest!

I think that is all for now... I will try to post more frequently so i can portray what happens here more efficiently! Thank you all much for your prayers and for keeping in contact with me! If there is anything you want to know please email me at reyes.mindy@gmail.com.. i would love to hear from you personally
---Mindy

"To have no opinion of ourselves, and to think always well and highly of others is great wisdom and perfection." - Thomas a Kempis