On A Mission =)

YAY HELLO,

It has been a while since I have written on here, it’s been busy. But I wanted to let you know that I will be heading out for Costa Rica tomorrow! I cannot believe that these 3 months went by so fast. It has been so challenging yet the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I can’t imagine what awaits us for the next two months of our lives.

WOW as many as you guys know, this week God totally stretched my faith to the max in every area of my life and after today my faith has grown to the next level, NOTHING, OBSOLUTELY NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GOD, SO WHEN HE SAYS GO I WILL GO. This morning as a team we needed over $7000.00 and I was scare thinking I might have to stay behind than God remind me of all the events in my life He has provide and fulfilling His promises and this time wasn’t going to be the exception, if my HOPE is in Him than I won’t be disappointed. My faith grew stronger as I hold onto the voice of God and His promises and YESSS He totally came through with His provision. I will be praying for the people who donated and for all the prayer support it’s truly appreciate it!! During the last weeks God has been revealing more and more His love and faithfulness to me and I stand stronger, braver, and fearless thanks to the trials because of course God MAKES ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR MY GOOD AND HIS GLORY. Oh let me share with you something real quick, a few weeks ago God totally  resurrected one of my dreams for His Kingdom and I will write a blog especially for that and as soon as I get a chance I will post it =). You guys know my passion for the fashion Industry and women ministry; well God has opened huge doors to go minister on backstage on March during Fashion Week in Los Angeles California!! Ha God is amazing <3 so extremely thankful for this but as right now I am focusing on embracing the best of this season of my life. I am thrilled to go Costa Rica and Nicaragua let me share what we are going to be doing =).

We will be helping out a new surf ministry on the west coast of Costa Rica for a little while, then we will be going up to the mountains of Costa Rica and doing a ropes course ministry. The group and I will be spending time here and there and still don’t know the absolute schedule. At some time we will go to the San Jose YWAM base and will be helping out for a week to do a ministry to prostitutions. 5 weeks total in Costa Rica and we will then be heading to Nicaragua for 2 weeks. There we will be helping with an orphanage called “Nicaraguan Christian Children’s Center” it is located on Lake Nicaragua in Ometepe Island. It is an island that has two volcanoes on it so it is beautiful. But more importantly I am very excited to be working with these dear children. On the website they have 21 kids information up. Feel free to read about their stories.

The last week of outreach we come back to Ensenada to minister at the carnival. So I ask that you would continue to pray for my team and I for the next few months. I know that there will be ups and downs, but that we would continue to be united and focused. There will be many things happening around us and in our own lives. Thank you so much already for all the prayers and support and I know that the last 2 months will be unbelievable!

A MISSION OPPORTUNITY!!

Dear Friends,

I'm very excited to let you know that on December 18th through February, I will be part of a missions outreach to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The outreach is part of the Discipleship Training School that I've been attending with Youth With A Mission in Mexico since September. The school consists of 12 weeks of lecture, and concludes with an 8 week outreach.

We're still working out the details of exactly what we will be doing, but some of the possibilities include Bible distribution, open air evangelism, construction projects, ministry to drug addicts and prostitutes, and ministry amongst indigenous people groups, and ministry to children.

              The location where we are staying in Mexico started a home building ministry, Called Homes of Hope, more than 20 years ago, and have seen more than 4,000 homes build in several different nations since. One exciting opportunity that we have is to be involved with building the first home with Homes of Hope in Nicaragua, and helping them to start running the program there.

There is a team of 17 of us that will be making the trip. The team members are from The United States, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Mauritius and Australia. Each member needs to raise $2,500 (US Funds) to cover the cost of the outreach. At this point, I still need to raise $1,688.00 to cover my own expenses. Also, if I can raise funds over and above, it will help some of the team members who may have difficulty raising their individual portion.

I'd like to ask you if you would commit to praying for our team while we are on the outreach, and also please pray about giving financially towards our need. There are several ways that you can give; and donations are tax deductible (US and Canada only). U.S. Checks can be made out to YWAM San Diego Baja, (Please enclose a note stating that the funds are to go to my DTS outreach), and sent to

YWAM San Diego/Baja
100 W 35th St, Suite R
National City, CA 91950
USA

Youth With A Mission Society (Mexico)
P.O.Box #1574
Cochrane, AB T4C 1B5

We've also set up a web page where you can give to our team directly with a credit card. at: www.ywamsdb.kintera.org/students or at my bank account at Wells Fargo Bank 6785085777.

Again, I'd like to ask that you please pray about partnering with our team financially, I will be in touch with you in the coming weeks to connect with you and answer any questions you might have.

Blessings,

Lizbeth Espinoza

Witnessing a beautiful Miracle in a wonderful family!!

Week Nine!! WoW yes another wow for this week.

 This week I had the awesome opportunity to serve  in the ministry YWAM-Homes of Hope, building a home for the family Salinas Rovalcaba, who were living inside a camping tent for the past five month. Let me share a little part of their story.

Martin and Jovana are the parents of two wonderful boys, Miguel of 12 years old and Jose of 4 years old. For the past 13 years of their life, they have been renting in different locations. About 5 months ago they were asked to leave the place they were renting with a 10 day noticed. The owners wanted to start a new project and wanted their place available as soon as possible. The family encountered a moment of desperation; they were concern about their two boys. During those days Jovana heard of Homes of Hope and didn’t hesitate to apply. She prayed to God to open doors and to provide for a home, she cried out to God and with faith asked the Lord for provision and protection for her family. Martin found a lot, and was able to buy it with sacrifices and limitations (they are making monthly payments), hoping of one day to be able to provide a house for his family. All they had was the lot and a camping tent. They lived there for five months, it was so tiny; the kitchen was a very small room (only one person was able to fit), the bedroom was so small with one bed, all four slept on that bed for the past 5 months!! – Can you imagine?!!! But Jovana never lost hope on who God is!! Jovana shared; their family gave them their back and people around her were criticizing them, for living inside a tent. The only word Jovana heard from people were many words of discouragement. They used to make fun of them, saying -“they won’t build you the house, you are crazy living like that, there is no hope, too many months have passed by , you didn’t qualify”. But Jovana blocked all the voices and hold onto God’s promises, soon enough she received the news she qualified and a new house was going to be built for her family. After two days we finished building the house and during our second day we took Jovana and the two boys shopping, they were blessed with two carts full of groceries!!!

Maritin said, –“Now our family is a powerful testimony of God’s love, faithfulness and provision, we are no longer going to be cold at night!!”. This family is extremely thankful to God and to the team who volunteer to build their home. They kept mentioning how thankful they are and there a no words to describe the way they feel. Jovana wants to serve the Lord more than ever, she desires to encourage people to never give up, to not lose hope and most important to draw closer to God, because He is the one who provides with the strength to wait and to endure through all situations in life, she’s extremely thankful to the Lord because now she owns her house and her pain is restored to a powerful testimony for the glory of God. Miguel desires in the future to be part of Homes of Hope. Now this family has a comfortable house and a place to be safe during the raining and cold coming season, they have new dreams and desires.

This family changed my life; it’s an honor and privilege to be part of this miracle. There is no other place I rather be then serving the Lord by serving others. My heart felt like it was going to explode of joy when I was translating when the family was expressing their heart out. We had many tears of joy; it truly paid of the wait!! I pray this little blog encourage you to seek the Lord and to be ready to respond to His voice. I AM TRULY BLESSED AND FORTUNATE!

His Protection Overwhelms Me!

Yay let’s talk about week five! This week was a week of physical pain and heartbreaking for the needs of the nations. We had a week conference in Tijuana, full of worship and just inviting the Holy Spirit to move, and oh boy He sure did in such an awesome way. We had an amazing Pastor, who came from Africa as our speaker for the week, his name is Paul. This man is passionate for the word and God used him in such a powerful way. He also shared some life changing stories that impacted my heart and definitely was a waking call to start praying passionately for the nations and my brothers and sisters all over the nations. Monday was awesome, Tuesday was WOW I can’t describe it with words, we had the awesome opportunity to be anointed by the Holy Spirit with the gift of healing followed by a night of worship that I so didn't want it to be over!!!

Then on Wednesday at 4:30 am I began to feel a really bad pain in my stomach, minute by minute the pain became stronger and stronger. I got up at 6:30am to shower and get ready for my quiet time that starts at 7:00am, at that time I was in such a horrible pain that I had one of my roomates call one of the leaders. Soon enough one of my amazing leaders, Kailly came to offer her assistance and asked me if I wanted to go to the doctor (at that time I felt that medicine would do and that I could hold the pain but oh boy I was so so so wrong). They brought me medicine, I took it and as disgusting as it sounds I started to puke and to cry, (through all these hours I was praying for God to bring healing and to help me), so after the first puke I started crying out to God with all my heart and little strength I had left- “God I know that You love me and you don’t enjoy seeing me in pain, and that this situation is not ideal to you so please all I ask you is to please teach me something, show me something, I want to benefit from this pain please talk to me, I want to learn something in the mist of this horrible pain, LORD I NEED YOU!!!” after that, I told one of my roomates; I needed to go to the hospital I couldn’t take it anymore, so two of my wonderful leaders took me to the Red Cross, on my way over there I was praying to God for strength to get to the hospital because I was feeling like I was about to pass-out.  As soon as I got to the hospital I asked for emergency assistance. I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it, than they place me in a bed with IV. Something so important to mention is that about 3 months ago I got a similar strong pain in my stomach but not as bad as this time, it was diagnose as gastritis, so doctor gave me a treatment for one month and gave me instruction of what not to eat (including no CHILE and no COFFEE… etc) and of course two weeks before I had this pain I ate these things, I ate things I shouldn’t have been eating L. While I was laying down I could hear God speaking to my heart saying - “ I love you, do you believe it?! I love you so much and I would do anything to avoid pain in your life, every time I guide you to leave or surrender things in your life is because I AM Sovereign and I know what comes ahead, I know what is best for you, I created you. I lead you with love and to a free life, many times you won’t understand what and why I ask you to do, you just need to trust in Me my daughter and hold onto the promises I have given you and have the assurance I will make everything work together for you good and my glory, don’t ever doubt my love for you, don’t ever doubt I have plans of good for you, I love you and my heartbreaks when you are hurting, trust in my faithfulness because My LOVE never changes’’-WOW I then understood that God was talking about something greater than this physical pain, this was an example; obviously the doctor had given me instructions of what not to eat because she knew how bad the pain was going to be, she knew the consequences and knew I could end up in the hospital. I didn't follow the instruction and didn't trust on her advice and what happen due to not following instructions, I almost die of the pain. –

DO YOU SEE WHERE I AM GOING WITH THIS!!! It’s the same thing with God, many times He guides me to do things a certain way because of His love and protection but many times I act like if I know better and choose my selfishness,(not trusting Him,not forgiving, not surrendering what God tells me to surrender, to let go off) then I see the consequences when I am heartbroken or in emotional pain, God definitely does not want to see me in pain in any way but is disobedience that brings consequences(pain) yet in His grace, turns things around for my good. Isn't His LOVE wonderful?!!! God was teaching me to trust Him more, to rest in Him and to not fear, to be obedient, rather to be fearful of not walking in His will. I understood how much He loves me and how faithful He is. Now I am surer than ever that if He tells me to let go of something is only because He knows what is best and sees what comes ahead. He is my Creator, He’s the creator of heavens and earth how foolish was of me not to trust in Him, following my sticky emotions many times in my life!! Today I choose to trust Him and be obedient to Him, it might be painful and a little uncomfortable to do what He tells me to do but is definitely not as painful and uncomfortable as if I disobey, obviously He knows best and directs me to His perfect will for my life. - Never doubt that God directs you with love and to a free life. Don’t hesitate to be obedient to His call because you never know the blessings you are missing out for holding onto your foolishness. I AM WALKING IN OBEDIENCE <3

WALKING LOVED

WOW I’m finally writing a blog. This blog might be long compare to the ones I’ll be writing and that’s simply because I’ll be sharing with you what God has been doing in my life during these first four weeks=). These weeks have been full of many wonderful things, challenges, tears, laughs and amazing adventures.

Well as ya’ll know I am in Ensenada, Mexico =).The YWAM base here is pretty nice. It’s set up like a hotel with 3 floors, a kitchen, a dining room, a classroom, and an awesome roof with an awesome view of the ocean( that’s where I saw the dolphins =)). We also have a laundry room and a worship hall. Did I mention the ocean is literally across the street, I love it! We can see the ocean view from our room, the roof, and the dining room, and the sunsets are gorgeous. Every night I get to go to sleep by hearing the waves of the ocean right outside. There are 13 of us in my DTS (Discipleship Training School) and there are six DTS staff. My classmates have come from places like Switzerland, Australia, the Mauritius Island (little island near Madagascar), and all over the USA. There is also a lot of other staff around the base, that have different jobs and that run different programs.  We have all bonded really well so far and get along like a family. I share a room with 4 amazing girls; Elizabeth from Ensenada, Priscille from Mauritius, Lani from Australia and Destiny from California! Yup God has blessed me with actually 10 wonderful sisters!! During my first week YAY I got to finally surf, it was an amazing experience =). And a more amazing experience was going to an orphanage to give love to children, children who stole my heart. It is so awesome to be able to share a little to others, of the much God has given us.

First week was full of challenges and freedom. For the first time in my life I shared my testimony from beginning to end, all for the glory of the Lord. I was afraid to share the most intimate moments of my life BUT after I did, felt so much freedom and realized how much I am loved and how God’s grace has always been with me. Every week we have a speaker from all over the world. Kay Charlette was our speaker during our first week. If I was to describe her in two words I would say she is transparent and bold! She spoke to me like no one had ever talked to me before, with honesty of what I needed to let go in my life and firm in a loving way. During this week the Lord taught me about my Identity in Christ and about how important and necessary is to live a life without masks, to be transparent in every area of my life, to live fearless. There are many types of masks; masks of fears, shyness, insecurities, self-pity, laziness, ect.; and this masks are things that wouldn’t  allow me to live in boldness and be the woman God has created me to be. A mask can be the obstacle to be a woman of character and to know my identity that is found in Christ (so important to know this because I strive to be a woman of character and this opens doors to be a woman of impact, who glorifies God). During this week I chose to be obedient to the Lord and trust on His direction knowing He only leads me to freedom and leads me with LOVE. The greatest challenge was letting go and killing the dreams and desires that were holding me back from getting the best of this DTS, because were noises that distracted me from hearing the voice of God and from walking in His will. This was definitely a very very very hard, painful decision but I was tired of holding myself back and I was ready so ready to go all the way for the Lord. I’ve to say that after killing my deepest dreams I became a free woman and I’ve been able to hear the voice of God like never before!! I AM FREE.

Second week, we had Art Jcollens as our speaker and wow I will describe this man as a GIVER and HUMBLE man!! He took all the students to eat tacos.. yay Mexican real tacos hee hee! This week I learned about what a true DISCIPLE is. A true disciple is a person who follows Jesus, someone who places Jesus first in their life, living a life with two main basics; loving God above all things and above everyone else and to love others. During this week, God made me realized how important is to keep in my mind and heart at all times the meaning of being a disciple! That I need to give my best and I need to work hard in living worthy of His kingdom. Yes it’s written in the word and in my heart that with good acts we will not be saved, we are saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ but He also left us a task for us to get done after we are saved and that’s to make disciples in all nations BUT we have to understand, it’s impossible to make disciples if we don’t live the life of a disciple (our testimony speaks louder than our preaching!). It is truly a privilege to be here today and I am so grateful of how patient and loving God’s with me and now I take my responsibility and gladly strive to live for His glory, I recognize that’s the least I can give Him, At this moment I am striving to be the true disciple the Lord desires me to be. I AM HIS DISCIPLE!

Third week Chris was our speaker, yay he is an awesome 30 year old man of God who just came from spending 4 years of his life in China, what an example!! He has a beautiful wife and two beautiful boys. During this week I learned about the Heart of Father God and His Holiness!! WOW this week was a week of REVELATION, day by day God revealed His loved for me that it became impossible to be in His presence and not cry. He revealed the true of His promises “HE makes all things work together for my good because HE LOVES ME”! Amazing things happen when we get to know the heart of Father, God. He gave me a picture of me being on a cage and how He called me to freedom to become the woman He had purposely created me to be and that there is nothing absolutely NOTHING that can separate me from His precious LOVE. The more I know His heart and the more HE reveals His love for me the greater the desire becomes to walk in obedience, to walk in boldness, to walk in His will!! I honestly have become a more confident woman, full of joy and security in who I am in Christ! His love is unconditional and without limits, my main focus is to know His heart first and second, to walk in His will. Just knowing that the creator of heaven and earth loves me and cares about everything that happens to me and that He is the one leading my life, knowing that in my mind and really having that revelation in my heart makes a huge impact in my life. I will never be the same; HIS love stole my heart, ALL FEARS ARE FADING AWAY!!

Week four is named NIKO=OVERCOME!! I have loved every week so very much but I have to say that NIKO week has been my favorite! I hiked like never before, this week was about building character and really finding out what I was made of. I was confronting physical challenges that definitely can relate and apply to life challenges. One of the toughest challenges I confronted, was during one of our hikes, actually the one before our last hike, the toughest hike. The DTS was divided in 3 different teams and we were the last team to start the hike, about 15 minutes after the first team had started. During this hike I was selected as the leader of my team (Lani, Leah, Colton and myself) and my responsibility was to encourage my team, to make sure they drink sufficient water, to have a devotional and to finish the hike. It was in one of the hills where my legs felt really weak and I really felt like giving up when of the sudden I heard God saying to me –“You are the leader of your team, you are here to serve them and encourage them if you fall they will not have direction, get courage and be strong I AM with you and I will give you the strength that you need to get it done”. At that moment I didn’t mention anything to my team and kept hiking trusting the Lord, saying to myself I can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives me the strength I need!! After we finished all the hills we got to this place where we had a beautiful view of the ocean, city and mountains and we had our quiet time. I was thankful to the Lord for providing the strength, health and for helping me get to that place. After four hours of hiking we finished and for my surprise we finished first and it was a 7 mile hike (it wasn’t a competition, it was simply the fact of seeing the faithfulness of God.), God than said to me-“ Every time I’d give you a task or I’d give you directions, you can be sure I will also give you all you need to get that task done with excellence, for I AM your provider and your strength and you can walk confident on what I AM saying, I will be with you where-ever you go and you will bring me glory”!! WOW I was speechless and soooooo thankful for His faithfulness. I WILL NOT GIVE UP when HE says go, for I know I will finish strong and will get things done with excellency because He is the one who sustains me!. PRAISE THE LORD.

God is so awesome and I love how He used His creation to show me His LOVE and GRACE. One of my favorite moments was one of the nights of worship; we were at this high mountain at night and the sky was shining with gorgeous stars WOW it was beautiful like if I was in space. During worship I felt the touch of a warm wind around my body, I could feel through my fingers the way it was moving, it was so beautiful, it was a precious moment one of the most precious moments of my life because I WAS DANCING WITH JESUS CHRIST. I didn’t want that moment to end, the wind was soft but strong at the same time, it was warm and I could feel the delicacy of His love. I am dancing with JESUS!!