Spring break 2009

I think this spring break is the best that I've ever had. The trip to the PHilippines was probably the best missions trip I have ever been on. I was soooo blessed to be a part of it. We're planning a trip there for Christmas of this year, which would be AMAZING. at least we're praying about it:) This trip consisted of many squatter camp visits, that was pretty much just heartbreaking. But it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. These kids lived in homes that were hardly bigger than a restaurant booth, yet they were so welcoming and excited that we visited them. 

This lil guy is Eden Steve. He is 9, but he comes to about my waist:) he was sooo cute, he was such a macho man for a little guy. haha:)

these are forms of transportation...i rode on the outside back of the tricycle...so fun.

this is at one of the squatter camps we visited to deliver milk and vitamins and to do a Bible study. what a blast. We always started with about 2 or 3 kids, but always ended up with hundreds. We taught them songs and games while parents joined a Bible study.

this is Ariel. He was absolutely fascinated with bubbles. He was the quietest kid at VBS, but he would always come up and sit next to me, no matter where i was, so I'd always join him and we've have some cool conversations:)

this is at another squatter camp. Kelly and I taught them american football. they were thrilled. haha.

these are the teen girls at VBS. they were great and four of them got saved:)

here's Ariel again. (oh, and btw, his name is pronounced Ar-EE-el.)

these are a few of the many teen guys we had at camp, who absolutely enjoyedVBS as much as the kids. They joined in ALL the activities, from the crafts, to the games, and the group lessons. They LOVED it...and were great at games like Duck, duck, goose!:) haha.

we always brought out the water stuff during VBS because it was SO hot. the kids LOVED it, because they don't usually play with water balloons or guns. 

this is Shin and Shan. they're the kids of one of our translators, Ate Sheila, so Kelly and I took them to the arcade and treated them with games:)

herez Eden steven tackling a big water balloon:)

throughout the week, we taught the kids what Prayer was, simply talking to God. by the end of the week, kids were volunteering to pray for the big group!

the door to one of the houses in the squatter area.

this picture pretty much shows all the room that was in the tiny home. this was at the very pinnacle of the squatter area.

isn't she BEAUTIFUL?

all the kids from the first week of VBS. 

I think this is my favorite picture of them all. its absolutely precious.

two of the most active and sweetest lil guys we met.

thats the squatter area behind us where all the kids from the VBS were from. This was probably my favorite day, because we visited all the homes of each kid, and got to meet their parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts and neighbors and perform a few songs for them. they were really excited to have Americans in their homes. 

here's kinda how the inside of the squatter camp looks like.

there was a little courtyard in the middle of the squatter area and we did a lil karaoke for a man's lil business.s

Amar was one of our teen guys that joined us at VBS. hes 18 and LOVED VBS.

The second week in the pHilippines, we took a group of 37 teenagers, and 7 Americans and five translators to a camp in Laguna, which was about 3 hours away from manila. each of the teens were from the slums of the city, and some had never had 3 square meals a day, a shower, or a bed to themselves. most of them had grown up in families that shared a home that was as big as two twin mattresses put togerther, so it was neat to see them enjoy the campgrounds. The campgrounds also had a pool that the kids pretty much just LOVED because they don't ever get the chance to swim in a pool. they'd even swim in their jeans and pants and stuff cuz they'd get so excited and jump in:)

these are three girls that were in my small group. Claire, Madel, and Lhen-all three amazing, and two of them strong believers. Next year we might use Claire and Lhen as translators;)

One of the boys tables...we had some really cool young men at camp. Filipinos are really nice gentlemen!

the campgroup. the tires are the end of the zipline, and the pool is the one beside the little huts. the field was fun for night games of capture the flag and rescue.

one of the night games - Eat the bag.

Nora brought a bunch of pamper items and so we called it "Nora's salon." she did their hair and we did their nails and made bracelets, and stuff. it was so fun.

the time in the Philippines was completely different than the other mission trips i'd been on. It opened my eyes to a different side of poverty and darkness. I'll blog more about it later, but my heart broke in so many different ways in the Phlippines, and at the same time, made me fall in love with the people of the PHilippines. I can't even tell you either how much i absolutely loved the team i went with. 18 students, 14 college students 4 grad students, and ilene and nathan and tito june, were seriously placed strategically together by God almighty because of how amazingly well we all got along. I cannot wait to share with you in my next blog about my wonderful team members and how much i love them. 

Its taken awhile for me to put this blog up, first because i'm not even through posting all the pics i want to show, and secondly, because i'm working on other projects as well that hasn't allowed me to share on the blog what my heart has been saying the past couple weeks. Tomorrow is the trip debrief and team reunion and i am so so so excited to see everyone again. the only ones that won't be there will be Darice and Eric:( but they will seriously be missed. okay, for now, this is it, but i definitely haven't finished talking about the pHilippines on my blog:)

I HAVE RELATIVES!!!

Growing up without relatives always makes me absolutely amazed when i meet people I'm related to. This spring break, i got to go back and see the Castillo side of the family, Mom's family. It was really really cool, and I LOVED seeing my cousins...they aren't little anymore! it was sooo cool, and Ilene and I got to share the gospel and share why we were in the Philippines with them...such neat opportunities.

Ok, this is my mom's school when she was in highschool. a Catholic private school.

This is my uncle, my mom's youngest bro.

this is my Lola, My grandma...she's absolutely adorable

I brought my cousins an american football...they were THRILLEd.

This is me and Alexis...he's 9. He's a cutie pie, isn't he?! he looks alot like ilene.

these are all the girls in the family, minus one other cousin, ashley, and my mom and Lola

pic in some random neighbor's yard

the youngest 2 in the family, Kendrick and Alexis

at the Palenke, the market...buying peanuts.

the whole family!:) except mom and dad;( oh...and plus Ryan. haha.

ilene and i with my mom's sisters, Auntie Virgie, the youngest and also a twin, and Auntie Zeny, the second oldest

Chris and my cousin, Angel

Some of the team and my aunts and cousins, pamela and camille

the team eating lunch at my fam's house...they cooked a TON of foo.d

cousins with desserts, leche flan.  yum yum.

(Kendrick, Angel, me, Camille, Iet, and Vernaliza. they are 12-14 years old.)

diggin in. phil and ryan at the front of the line:)

us with our two aunts and Lola!

First time seeing my Lola.

us after intense games of baseball (taught them) Basketball, and american football (taught them that too.)

Jeff (17?) and Kenneth( 18), the two oldest boys.

Oh, and this is us breaking out of Mom's elementary school. the gate was locked.

and this is the "bonsou" the youngest of the family, Alexis:) He's ilene's godchild.

Lil friends...

I am really really thankful for my Lil Friends.

I love them to death and I love spending time with them.

These two are Clark and Lily.

They are part of my favorite chicago family. 

Check out her beautiful blue eyes.

Clarkster and i have fun playing pretend camping, fishing, polar expressing, and building.

Lily and I just have cuddle time and have fun getting to know each other when she sings and i talk. hehe.

and this is Kristian. his parents aren't believers, but this lil guy is so smart and we've had some good conversations on how God made things. He's learning how to pray before meals and thank God for his food, mom, and dad:) He's spent the day with me a few times the past couple weeks. We've mainly been playing Wii and football...with a spoof soccerball.:) The dude has an AMAZING arm and INCREDIBLE hand/eye coordination.

Ryan and I figured out this might be how our kid looks. His mom is a red head and his dad is asian. :) when ryan played  with him, Kristian was so thrilled.:) 

I'm praying for more opportunities to share Jesus with him.

Starting our life together...

Ryan and I registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond! Wowzer...it was fun! it was really cool envisioning what our home will like in the future, what we'll entertain guests with, and playing with the scanner gun!! (btw, don't buy the potty seat that I registered for...)

We had a really great consultant. she was really helpful and informant. she was so pleasant and equipped us for the long hours ahead of us with yummy rolos and reeses peanut butter cups and water bottles:) we're both pretty excited about what we registered for and we're heading to Target after spring break to register for other stuff. we had to come back a second time because after four hours the first day, we had only hit half the store! :)

this is us celebrating our registering...

we're excited!!!

Preparing

Here are some images of the Philippines. They are the squatter camps in Manila, Philippines.

The past few months, a team of 17 Moodies have been preparing for a missions trip to Manila, PHilippines. I've really enjoyed meeting every week, sometimes once or twice. I like the interaction and preparation we've gone through and getting to know the team members even more. Yesterday we got the team assignments for each VBS and squatter camp ministries that we'll be in. I'm really excited about the team I'll have the privilege of serving with - everyone's really pumped and compliant and are VERY active and enthusiastic. They're really good at brainstorming and communicating what they think too. I'll have Darice, Butler, Elizabeth Powell, Kelly, Melody, and Eric Strand. 

In the morning two teams will be doing Vacation Bible Schools in squatter camps, and the in the afternoons, we'll be at dumps and squatter camps, distributing milk and vitamins to the families that live there. At night we'll be preparing for the next day. The other team will be at a brothel house, working with prostitute women-which is probably going to be the hardest and most heartbreaking ministries there. The Night outreaches will involve going out in the late evenings and seeing the women lined up ready to be picked up, and using those times to reach out to them.

The second week we're splitting into two teams, one to a bario and the other to a camp. I"ll be joining a group under Liz Bierlein, the team's camping girl:) I'm pretty pumped about that, we'll be working with teenagers and having chapels and Bible studies. Kinda like the camp i went to back in jr and sr high. 

I'm getting my heart prepared for this trip. I know that I'm going to be broken in ways I've neve been broken before, seeing poverty in ways I'd never seen or known, and coming in contact people who have been completely abused in every way known. 

At the meeting last night, Ate Michelle shared her testimony to us. She's a grad student at Moody, and she's Filipina. Growing up she was a Compassion child, one that was sponsered and supported by Americans so that she could receive food, clothing and food. Her family never had food, often at times, having to share one single egg for a family of five. Her testimony consisted of just one heart ache after another, and heartbreak, and abuse, and terrible things that no one could begin to imagine.

These are the children we'll be working with. Ones that live in homes that are hardly bigger than a houghton dorm room with seventeen people. Ones that have only ever told they meant nothing, nor will they ever be anything or anyone. Ones that have constantly been beat on, and unloved, sexually and physically abused, not to mention exploited. The testimony last nightmade my heart hurt, and now I'm preparing for seeing all this in person and witnessing the disgrace of sin. 

Please pray for me and the team. Please pray for the hearts of the children, men, and women and teenagers that we'll be serving. that their hearts will be ready to hear the gospel, and receive it. My financial support hasn't been coming in, and the rest of the team as well...if you could pray for that as well, that'd be a blessing to us. and Praise the Lord with us for this opportunity to work with kids that don't have any hope in their lives from anyone. Pray that we can give them that hope. 

Cupid cupid

Ryan and I had our fourth valentine's day together.  I had fun thinking through the last three years of valentine's day while i made my first cake ever. German chocolate cake. Its his favorite. I'm really starting to realize i like to bake and cook and all that stuff. it makes it completely worth it when i see his face after he takes the first bite:)

Here we are back from our date at McCormick and Schmick's, the famous seafood restaurant of Chicago...we went to the restaurant part of it, and had an AMAZING dinner of maryland crab soup and clam chowder, juicy Steak AND incredible Lobster, as well as a special chocolate creme brule. it was absolutely amazing. 

We had pretty much an amazing conversation over dinner, and i observed alot of things during this date. i noticed as cold as it was outside, that i was the only young woman in the room NOT showing cleavage or lots of leg. it was sooooo cold outside, yet the room was filled with women showing everything they got. I felt my heart ache for women all around the country that want love so incredibly badly, and this is the night, when sooo many women throw themselves in whichever way they need to to recieve "love." This is the night, one of many many nights, when so many women are taken advantage of because of their vulnerability of desiring to be loved. My heart hurts as so many girls want love so much, yet do not know of the one PERFECT love that won't take advantage of them or use them. just a lil bit on my thoughts about that. 

on a lighter note, my night was lovely with my man:) Ryan had to work all day, so i spent the day with my FIRST LOVE, and had a really really really deep time with Him as i read His Word and prayed while i baked. I did alot of thinking and praying, as God prepared my heart for this day of love. I had alot of fun spending time with Him as i baked, and spent the afternoon talking to God. Loooved spending my day doing that. 

Heres a pic of us in the elevator after our dinner:)

I prepared Ryan's gift. My theme this year was our Love languages. The first envelop was a card with "Words of affirmation" to build Ryan up:) The Red box was the game Sequence, which was to spend "Quality Time" together The second envelop was a giftcard to get chips and salsa and burrito bowl stuff to eat while we played our game. the third envelop had a picture of the German chocolate cake that i made for him:) and the box of russel stover chocolates...his faves:)

This is the first cake i've ever baked...not to mention from scratch! i dont like cake at all...but this one was soooooooo yummy!

these are the twelve roses he gave me....beautiful:)

each year, Ryan writes me a reflection of the last year we had together. every highlight, special events, and ups and downs, he writes down. i have three of them so far:) i love them because they are made specially for me, and completely from him:) this year, he made a little book out of the reflection and binded it together with a little cover and everything:) he's really really good at this whole romantic thing;)

and this is the cake put together...it doesn't LOOK the greatest, but it TASTED amazing.

Founder's week...

Itz here once again...I love this time of the year. Besides the freezing cold winds, the snow packed ICE that cover the sidewalks, the snow that messes up whatever hairstyle you fixed before leaving a building, this week is one of the best weeks Moody Bible Institute has to offer. This is the time of the year, that my pride of being a Moody Student renews. Great Men and Women of faith come together, and teach their wisdom and life experiences to the students and people of chicago. Man...so many legacies leave their mark at Moody Bible Institute.

So far this week (its only been a day and a half), we've had Dr. Michael Easley, our former president, Crawford Loritts, and Jarrett Stevens speak. We still have sooooo many more people to look forward to like Alistair Begg, Francis Chan, Charles Colson, Frankling Graham, Jerry Jenkins, David Kinnaman, Phil Vischer, and many proffs and alumni. My goodness. It has been so amazing the past three years. Bob McCrea told the youth min seniors this the other day, "In about ten years, you each will give your right arm to take a week off of what you're doing to get fed as well as you do during Founder's week. To hear the Bible being preached and being ministered to -this one of the last times you'll be able to do that. "


so that said, i'm very much enjoying the speakers. soooo good. Jarrett Stevens who works for Andy Stanley's church in Atlanta, is a moody alumni. it was SO encouraging hearing him speak and about the ministry he is in. It was inspiring to say the least. to see what he's doing and where he's gone with his ministry. I loved his stories about being a moody student, a totally normal moody student. curious, mischievious, etc. Got into trouble at moody by setting a big number "3" on fire in his dorm...just cause he wanted to see what would happen. I like that he went through the moody life as a normal college student, and now look at what he's doing!

Makes me wonder...

what will i be doing in 13 years? Will I be leaving a legacy like the Founders week speakers have in peoples lives? how will God use an silly energetic crazy kiddo like me? where will i be and who will i be ministering to?

For right now, I love that i know who i am going into ministry with for the rest of my life. I love knowing that my best friend, and love of my life, Ryan, will forever be my partner in ministry once we are married! I'm so excited to see how God uses us together, and can't help but wonder where He'll place us.

I found this pic that Ashley scanned. this was when i was eight years old, and completely unaware of the amazing things that God would do(and has done) in my life! Founder's week makes me think back alot...and kinda ahead as well...anyways, i'm the kiddo with the fannypack and hot overall shorts.;)