Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 5/20/2012
I know it has been a very long time since I wrote a blog, but it has felt like the blink of an eye. I have so much to share with you, but we will start with the most impactful part of my life over the last month... our team changed again! Only one change this time, Pat stepped down as leader to pursue more fully what God had for him, and our amazing sister Melissa came to join us as our new leader.
So, intruducing... team Big Morale Boost (Melissa and Pat are solely responsible for the name and I disavow any responsibility ;) )! Melissa Crilly from Florida, Pat Stiller from Wisconsin, Liz Purrull from Wisconsin, Travis Lee from Texas, Lydia Hart from Massachusetts, Caitlin Roberson from Montana, and me of course =)
Our fearless leader Melissa and my awesome, on-fire brother Travis
These two bring so much joy to this team. Melissa is incredibly caring and full of so much love for this team and the people of the world. She sees her mission field as primarily these six people and is so full of God's Spirit that she radiates joy and love for us. I am honored to share a room with her this month and hear how God is constantly blowing her mind.
Travis is from the same mold. He is constantly being overwelmed by the power of the Father's love and His heart for His children. Joy shines off his face and the words of God are always on his lips. I am blessed to have a brother as caring and honoring as Travis.
My very dedicated, worshipful brother Pat and unique, beautiful sister Lydia.
Pat is always the first to bring us back to worship. He is goofy in the best possibly way (he and Liz are a riot about Wisconsin things), and has such a strong desire to understand the full truth of God and to walk in all His ways, completely full of the Spirit.
Lydia has such a beautiful spirit and childlikeness about her when she is full of joy. There is just something contageous in her smile and she brings an honest, levelheaded simplicity to the group that is very needed. She is one of two people who were on my previous team and I am honored to be with her for another leg of this journey.
 My beautiful, hilarious sisters Caitlin and Liz.
Caitlin has such a quiet strength and wisdom about her. Even though she doesn't like to be the center of attention, she is always willing to step up and go out of her comfort zone, and you will often see her talking to laypeople who usually go unnoticed.
Liz is so full of life and cracks everyone up all the time. She has a huge heart for children and those who have grown up in very rough environments. She also has such a bold and willing spirit, and is often the first person to speak the harsh truth when others dance around it. She was also on my former team and it is a joy to be with her again.
About to start early morning team time... could you tell, lol?
Sunday worship
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 4/27/2012
I was sitting here writing the blog about Not, when my heart just broke. I love these women, I love this country. I want so much for God's name to be glorified here. I see these beautiful women, the women that I spend everyday with, that I see more often than almost all of my other teammates, and I know that they bow before shrines daily; I have seen them do it. Having been in the bars as long as I have, the shrines in the corner almost seem commonplace, but everyday new drinks appear in front of them, new plates of food that no one is ever going to eat, and I am reminded about Elijah and baal. I want to cry out, why doesn't your god consume his food? Because he isn't alive... but my God is, and I want to show Him to you so badly. Can you not see? Can you not see Him in me? You say that Christians are the nicest people you know, and that you get so much peace around them, yet claim that peace only comes from Buddha. He is calling your name, open your ears! You are so desperate for love and acceptance and HE LOVES AND ACCEPTS YOU JUST AS YOU ARE.
This street WILL close down. I believe it with every fiber of my being. Teams come in every few months and spend 2 hours a day praying from home, and 2 praying in the bars for that very thing. Already I hear the women saying, "there are no customers, why are there no customers, it's still tourist season"? It will, and not just closed down, there will be a church there, a church that two of my brothers might help to start. How do I know this? Because OUR GOD IS ABLE, and He is FAITHFUL. I just read my friend Kathryn Chinn's blog, who used to be my team leader, and she called out the American church. I encourage you to go read it. She talks about her heart breaking when her Thai mother worships idols, but how us back home do everyday. It might not be bowing before a shrine, but is our lukewarmness any better? They do not know Him, but our lips are constantly on Him while our hearts are far from Him. Read John 9, really read it.
I do not write this to shame us, but to call us higher. We know that our God is able, let's start acting like it. I finally get it. I finally get that this trip is not about me, He's telling me this with every breath... He is opening my blind eyes. What does He want to do? He wants to set the captives free; He wants to open the eyes of the blind, and His glory WILL be revealed in this place in such a way that those who are blind will see.
Oh Lord, save these women. Save my sister Tae, who I see more than anyone and has the most teasing spirit of anyone I have ever known, save my sister Nay, who has such a childlike innocence in her that always seems to cry out "am I beautiful Daddy?" And sweet Dao, Lord, You know how much she hates the bars, how much she yearns for hope, for geuine life. Oh Father God, You have broken my heart for what breaks Yours, now please Father, draw them in. We are only here for another two days, but You never leave Father. Thank you so much for reaching Not Lord, now I can really call her my precious sister. But in faith Father, I call the others sister as well, believing that if we ask this in Your name that You will do it.
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 4/27/2012
 Let's start at the beginning of the month. Our ministry here in Chiang Mai, Thailand is called Love Acts. Love Acts is just a one of the five ministries that they do here in Chiang Mai. It is run by a half Thai, half hilltribe woman named Emmi whose journey to Christ is nothing short of astounding. I will tell you about that sometime, but today is about the fruit of her labor. Single handedly, she has started Love Acts, which goes into the bars and builds relationships with the women, Wongen Cafe, which does outreach to the college students, X-life, which sends missionaries into the homes of the people in the villages to share their lives and do trafficking prevention, the Change Program, which sponsors the women wanting to get out of prostitution, and yesterday she put a down payment on a house to start a boys home.
As you know, my team has been working at Love Acts with three other teams. Four days a week we go into the bars just to talk with the girls, play pool with them and show them that there is real love out there. We were specifically told not to evangelize. Not because we're afraid of the world, but because in Thai culture, if you don't have a relationship with someone, it's a major turn off and they will immediately write you off and can cause problems with the bar owners. However, we are encouraged to share that we are Christians anytime, and to share our faith if the girl brings it up. So naturally, we've been praying for opportunities.
So far we have been able to have a conversation with two women about Jesus. One wasn't even one of our girls, but another teams. We were passing by and stopped to talk to our friend from A squad, when Ping* invited us in to come and pray for her. That was awesome as she is a devout Buddhist and knows that we pray to Jesus. The second time was the night before last.
We have had a busy week, and I mean busy. One day, after we had been out all day with Not*, we were actually headed home at like 7. We get almost all the way back and Travis pipes up, "I want to run something by you. I really feel like I need to go back and talk to Not tonight." Both Caitlin and I stared at him for a minute. My feet felt like they were falling off (it's about a mile or so to bar street and we walk it down and back about three times a day), I couldn't think, and I wasn't sure how long my eyes could stay open. Still, I had told Travis just the other day that if he really felt the Lord laying something on his heart that he should speak up and not just pray silently that the Lord tells Caitlin and I the same thing. So I told him I would go with him even though I did not feel the same tug (and wanted to cry at the thought).
 Thankfully, the Lord had it all worked out. One of our squad leaders, Lindsay, came by our room and asked me if I was going out again, since I was changing. I told her the story and she volunteered to go instead. Can I just say, thank you Lord? Lindsay got to go to the bars a second night, and while she was playing pool with the bar owner, Travis had the opportunity to talk to Not one on one. He just came right out and started talking to her about her faith. See, she believes in everything, so that she's covered. She has a Chinese talisman around her neck, Buddhist tatoos, and used to wear a cross too. Lead by the Holy Spirit, Travis just came right out and told her that Jesus was the only God and went on to share his testimony and how much He loves her; that He sees her as beautiful. She broke down crying and said that she's been thinking about Jesus for a while, that she has known Christians and thought before that He is different, but that she was too afraid to do anything about it. She told Travis that no man has ever shown her love in the way that Travis has, and she believes him that it's from Jesus. Right there she prayed to accept Christ. This precious 40 year old woman, who has two kids, and has been working in the bars for years, but has a dream of cooking in her own restaurant, has hope. And not just the hope of something better, she has the Living Hope inside of her now.
I am sorry I missed it, but I know that the Lord tugged on Travis' heart and not mine for a reason. Not needed to hear it from him, she needed to hear from a man that she was beautiful, one whose walk she has seen and whom she trusts not to abuse her. Today we are taking her to lunch at Wongen cafe, and she's going to get the opportunity to talk to Emmi about joining the change program (which also teaches Bible classes). And the icing on the cake? They are in desperate need of a cook :)
*Name changed for privacy reasons
(Second pic - Not yesterday, a changed woman :) Last pic - the first day we saw Not. Temple pics - first is one of the oldest, second one is pretty new. There are over a hundred of these in the city proper alone; Buddhism has had ahold of this culture for a long time)
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 4/24/2012
What does it take Lord? What does it take to be Your faithful servant, to walk in Your pres ence every moment? Because honestly, I feel like I have no idea. I know You are on the verge of doing something big, I can feel it building yet the Race is so hard Lord. It is so much harder than I expected. I expected to become alive in Your presence constantly, to glow and blossom with an internal fire that cannot be put out. Instead I feel like I am shrinking, becoming less and less myself while watching other people rise up. Why Lord did you bring me here? Why did you bring me through ten years of training for ministry to then drop me into an environment where not only am I not thriving, but I can't seem to find my footing? I feel so tiny right now.
That was me this morning, but why is that? How in the world could I feel so tiny when I am on the opposite side of the world, befriending prostitutes and sharing God's love with the least of these? Because I forgot that the Lord is truly my father. I forgot what a loving father is actually like with His children. Fathers delight in their children. When they are with their beloved child, no one else matters; He does not compare one child with another, and does not expect perfection. And what hit me above all is that He does not condemn when you make a mistake, or move on to another; He smiles and patiently corrects you or waits for you to realize your mistake, and then gently guides you down the right path, taking joy and pride in the fact that you run to Him and listen to His correction.
When did I stop vie wing God like this? Why have I been jealous of how I perceive other's relationship with Him to be like when all He ever asks of me is to take what He has given me and to run with it? I was never meant to fit a mold, never meant to take on a particular role I placed on myself. I am not meant to define myself based on who I think the Lord is molding me into. Did you hear that? WE were not meant to define ourselves by who we THINK the Lord is molding us into. Why do we have to figure that out? Why do we feel the need to discover who we were meant to be for the rest of our lives? First of all, we change, all the time if we are growing in Christ; we do not reach a stagnant point where we are the same from that moment on. Secondly, God will show us. I know that probably sounds completely contrary to a large part of what we've thought being a Christian is about. One of the biggest things we seek after is knowing what the Lord wants us to do with our life, me more than anyone. But why? If the Father is who He said He is... if His promises are real and He really directs our paths when we seek Him, then where is my faith? If it's true that when we ask anything according to His name it will be done, why this continual desperate pleading for Him to show us where (or to what) we are called?
Today while we were praying for the teams heading out to night ministry, Lauren from A squad shared something the Lord had put on her heart. She was praying earlier, wondering what kind of impact they were really making and the Lord told her, "Well done good and faithful servant." She had  a really hard time accepting that, believing that it couldn't really be that absolute, especially remembering the times she felt she should have done something differently, but the Lord told her to look up the passage. I am sure most of you are familiar with it, it is the parable of the talents. She read it to us, and one of the things that the Father hit me with is that He does not compare the servants. He does not look down upon the man He gave the 2 talents vs. the man He gave the 5 talents to. He does not sigh and say, I wish you were strong enough to handle the 5 talents, but since you aren't I'll see if you can do something with 2. No, in both those cases, He says, "Well done my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in little I will give you much, enter into the joy of your master." All He asks of us is to be obedient daily with what He has given us. He is waiting to welcome us into His joy. The expectations I have set up for myself are rubbish, and that's all they are, MY expectations.
Oh Lord, I no longer want to seek Your will for the rest of my life, show me what You want me to do now, THIS moment. All I want is You. ALL I want is You, and I trust You Lord. I believe that You do love me, that  You do have a plan for me, that You do have me here for a reason that is so much bigger than I can see right now. I give that up to You Lord, I do not need to know what it is, I don't need to see it, You will show me in Your time. All I need to know, is that today a devout Buddhist lady in the bars actually let us pray for her, that another one got so excited when we came in that for the first time she asked the bartender to translate so she could speak to us; that another one recognized we were Christians without even having to be told. That is all I need to know. I truly love these women, and if the Lord never does anything else it doesn't matter because He HAS used me.
(pics - these are the women you have been praying for, and the ones my heart breaks for everyday. I put them in this blog to always remind me of what the Lord is doing)
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 4/13/2012
 We’re in Thailand, and just in time for the Songkran festival! Songkran is essentially the Thai new year, and they celebrate it by “washing the Buddha” which pretty much consists of washing everyone else in the process. Literally, EVERYONE stands on the side of the road with water guns or buckets and douses anyone that walks by. The entire country does this.
I did not realize the seriousness of the situation when our contact Bethsaida told us to prepare to get wet. I thought she meant get wet, not be drenched from head to toe from the second you walk out your door to the second you re-enter it. We found this out the hard way our second day of ministry. My teammates Travis, Caitlin, and I were headed out to bar street during the day to see if we could connect with any girls who went in early to set up for the night. To be fair, we got several blocks before the worst of it hit. I can honestly say I have never been more wet in my entire life. We connected with a girl named Gop who shielded us in her bar for a while and gave us our first weapon to defend ourselves (a lovely water gun shaped like a cat’s head). Her bar is rather out of the way, so we were able to be a bit stealthy at first. In the end though, Gop actually whipped out a huge water hose, and we got sabotaged by another team that snuck up on us. It was the best day of ministry I have ever had, and I am sad to say that, due to obvious reasons, my pictures of said event are limited.
Yesterday we were able to see the fun side of this, the families out in front of their stores throwing water together, the youth riding around in trucks dousing foreigners with an “I’m sorry” on their lips, the little girls with ladybug water guns chasing you. It was wonderful to see the girls laughing and just being able to be girls and have such simple fun. However, today, while walking through the Tapae gate section for the first time, we saw a different side.
As I mentioned before, the entire country does this, but Chiang Mai is a hot spot. Many foreigners and vacationers come to Chiang Mai during Songkran because the environment around bar street and the Tapae gate area is very much like spring break. Not only are there tons of westerners, but for about a three block radius the traffic is rerouted and there is live music, foam machines, and many girls being paid to dance. The bars where the girls “work” actually get busier significantly later than usual because all of the visiting westerners get drunk during the daytime and go home to sleep it off for a few hours before returning.
You see, the Red Light district in Thailand is made up of many bars where the girls “work.” Here in Chiang Mai, it is mainly one road with over 70 bars. My team, along with two other teams on our squad and one team on another squad, will be going into those bars at night, building relationships with the women and showing them the love of Jesus with no strings attached.
With the influx of “customers” Songkran brings, it is even more difficult than usual. There is so much darkness, but there is also so much hope. I looked at Gop today and saw the child w ithin her, the little girl that just wants to know her Father sees her as beautiful and precious. Please pray for these women, they are so broken. Please pray that they would see the love of Jesus in us and know hope; that He would draw them in. Pray for these “Johns”, the men that come here living double lives who are trying to fill the void in their lives with all the wrong things. Please pray for the children on these streets, the ones who have mothers, aunts, sisters caught up in this world, who are so hardened by what they see. And please pray for us, that we would listen to the Spirit of God and go where He would have us go, speak the words that He would have us speak. There is no way we can really be the light in this darkness without being firmly grounded in Him.
(pic 1 - the craziness of the water festival on bar street. pic 2 - Travis with our fist weapon. pic 3 - Caitlin, Travis and I in front of the Thai kick boxing, having survived the ambush)
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 4/7/2012
Santa Matilde is just an average barrio of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. A couple hundred people, mostly men, scratch out a living working in the sugarcane fields for six months, trying to make their measly pay spread out for the entire year. That seems pretty honest and innocent right? Maybe a little heartbreaking, imagining them working in the 100 degree weather with barely any water and no shade, but not really sinister or a life and death matter. That’s what I thought at first, however, the reality is far different.
Many of you have read the blog I posted written by my squadmate Bethany Waddell about the sugarcane epidemic. For those of you that haven’t here is the gist: The sugarcane companies in Nicaragua are using a pesticide (that was banned in the United States) which causes Kidney failure in almost all workers exposed to it for any prolonged period. Since most workers start in the fields as young as 14, many of them have kidney failure as young as 20, and often die by the time they are 30. One man which Bethany was helping to treat (she’s a nurse) died while they were there, at the age of 23.
What does this have to do with Santa Matilde specifically? Well, this little barrio has started to become known for its unique and devastating response to this epidemic. In order to feed their families, the women have had to make a terrible choice between what they believe are their only options... selling themselves, or starvation. Many  have begun to prostitute themselves out, and even sell their daughters into local sex slavery to avoid watching them starve. This has been happening for a long time, but it has been hushed up, no one wanting to beg for help or deal with the shame of public knowledge. However, one of our contacts, Whitney, has been burdened by the Lord to go into this community and reach out with a message of hope. Her goal is to help the women that want to get out of this, to educate them and give them hope for a future, all the while sharing Christ; showing them that He can take away their shame and replace it with abundant life and deep seated joy.
Only three of us girls were able to go with Whitney our second Saturday in Nicaragua, so Liz, Ada and I were privileged to be able to be a part of her very first meeting with the women of Santa Matilde. Not knowing how many women were going to show up, she just had a short message prepared about why she was there, and God’s ability to heal, restore and bring hope. We arrived, set up, turned on some worship music, and waited. Almost exactly 30 minutes later, over 20 women just started piling in under the little shelter of a church we were waiting in. We couldn’t speak their language, but we were called to love them, just to love. After Whitney shared her heart, we went around, laid hands on, and prayed for those we felt the Lord tugging us to pray for.
My lot fell to these two amazing, beautiful little girls. Yerling is thirteen years old and has an amazing love for her younger sister Yorli. She immediately latched onto me, and between a mixture of Spanglish on both our parts, and hugs, we managed to understand one another. She held my hand the entire message, and afterwards was the first one I prayed for. When I moved on to pray for her sister Yorli (who’s 10), she grabbed my other hand, and with tears in her eyes pressed my hand onto her sister’s chest where it was caved in. “Here,” she said, “pray here.” It was a simple act, but the hope, love and faith in those three words broke my heart. This precious girl, who has probably been through things that I cannot even imagine, still has a beautiful, amazing faith that the Lord is going to heal. With tears streaming down my face, I held both of them, trying to show them without words that the Lord desires to heal so much more than just the body.
We were only there two Saturdays, and were blessed to have Kathryn and Lydia join us the last one, but when Yerling came running up to hug me as tight as she could with a drawing in her hand for me the last day, I knew that the Lord had begun a work there that is going to blossom and grow, and transform that community. No matter how strong the enemy is, the LORD is stronger. We will fight for these precious ones. There is ALWAYS hope.
(pic 1 - Sugarcane fields behind the property where we lived in Candelaria. pic 2 - Ada blowing bubbles for Yorli. pic 3 - precious Yerling)
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 3/23/2012
 I have been trying to put together a video for my last blog on Honduras, but sadly, we don’t have the internet capacity to post it, so I will end with a story.
Deep in the mountains of Honduras, Tegucigalpa is known as the most dangerous city in the world. Within the city is a place called Los Pinos, known for it's darkness. A place where street kids do paint thinner all day because they have nothing better to do, where gangs are rampant, and where the six boys that live at Zion’s Gate ministry are from. Each one of them was considered trash, the worst of society, yet because Tony (the founder of Zion’s Gate) loved them, each one now has the chance at a future, and several of them have received Christ. Herman was one of those. He was the worst of the worst, so much so that his community told Tony to stop hanging out with him; that they were going to take him out.
That was 6 months ago. Now Herman lives at Zion’s Gate, knows Jesus, and last month actually lead mission teams back into Los Pinos. Tony has been working in Los Pinos for six years, and in that time, six street kids have opted to get out of that lifestyle, work on the property, go to school, and learn about Jesus so that they can make a difference in their lives and their old neighborhood. However, it was hard to feel like he was making a difference in the entire community. Yes, they suffered his presence without wishing him any harm and wouldn’t hurt the mission teams if he or Herman was with them. Yes, he is able to walk where few outsiders have been able to, but it seems just grudgingly tolerated, not welcomed.
Our last week in Honduras a shift happened, that I cannot believe we were able to be a part of. My squadmate Nicole was in Los Pinos after painting Herman’s mother’s house. She asked my teammate Liz to take a picture of her and one of the young girls she had made friends with. Out of nowhere a man  sprinted up, grabbed the camera out of Liz’ hand and took off. Her first reaction was essentially, “Well, they warned us about this area, it sucks, but it’s gone, nothing to be done.” That’s pretty much what everyone thought. Even in the States you wouldn’t usually get your camera back if that happened, let alone in one of the most dangerous places in Central America. Someone would just pawn it, and that would be that.
Well, the Lord had other plans. The community, that previously had viewed such things as idiocy on the part of the Americans, that it served them right for even bringing something like that there, immediately rallied around Nicole. The store owners nearby called the police, and a local street boy, who had previously been known as a thief (whom Tony had been helping/teaching recently) came forward and gave the name of the man who had stolen the camera. That might not seem like such a big deal, but it is huge. This kid could be killed for that, and was actually planning on going into hiding afterwards. But instead of just taking off, he stayed and helped with the search first, wanting to do as much as he could. And here’s the thing, the community completely supported him. Previously they would have easily told his name to someone as a snitch and helped them take him out, but instead, they encouraged him and lifted him up.
Can you see what this means for Tony’s ministry? It isn’t about a camera in the slightest; it is about the fact that the community WANTS us there. They are no longer grudgingly accepting Ton y’s intrusion into their lives. For the first time they have hope, and are fighting to keep it. Six years, and the Lord finally broke through, and we got to see it; to be a part of it. And to top it all off, Nicole got the call a few days ago that they actually recovered her camera. That floored Tony and Cassie (a former Racer who now works with Zion’s Gate), who are freaking out about the change in the community. God does do miracles, He used a camera to bring a community together and show his faithful servants that their work has never been in vain. I cannot wait to see how the Lord transforms Los Pinos. Thank you for being a part of this.
(First pic - Herman's mother in Los Pinos. Second pic - the inside of her house. Last pic (courtesy of Denise Escamilla) - Herman's mothers house after we painted it (Herman is in the orange))
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 3/1/2012
 My first week in Honduras essentially consisted of the prayer room and some manual labor on the property here, but the second and third weeks held something rather unexpected in store. Six people were asked to stay back from normal ministry every morning and teach either music or English at the public school down the road. I was one of those six. I wasn't too nervous initially, even though I was about to teach English to kids whose language I don't understand. However, the first morning we were there I found out that the three of us would not be in a classroom teaching together, we would each be teaching alone.
Now, some of you might not find that too daunting, but I am not particularly good with entertaining children, or making them listen for that matter, so the idea of teaching 30 third graders and 30 fifth graders a language they do not understand, all by myself, was terrifying. Fortunately, that first day all we did was a short presentation and then had the rest of the day to plan our lessons. Still, I was so nervous all day. My stomach was in knots and I couldn't seem to shake the feeling of panic. I couldn't see how I was going to be able to teach them anything with the chaos I had seen the day before. I ended up spending a lot of time in prayer and looking up Spanish words and phrases. As I have said before, and will keep saying, our God is amazing.
 The next morning before school, we found out that the ministry for two of our teams had fallen through, so they would be going with us to the school to help keep order. I ended up having two other people in the class with me, and one was a Spanish speaker! In fact, Helena became indespensible to me, having all sorts of fun ideas, including a song about hello and good morning, that had helped teach her English when she had moved to the US from Brazil. In fact, she loved it so much and felt God calling her to teach so strongly, that she asked if we could teach it together for the rest of the month. We have been doing so ever since.
With the two of us, It went so well. We were able to get them excited by doing a name game where we give them an adjective, noun, or adverb in English and a motion that goes with it. So, for example, Josue was always jumping Josue, so everytime I say, "Levantate (stand up)," they know that I am about to ask what Josue is and we always get in our jumping stances and do one leap in the air before sitting back down. I have a blast and I know the kids do too. In the five classes we have been working with them, they have learned simple salutations, how to ask someone how they are and their name, their ABCs, the two songs that go with them, their colors, and the names of several things that are those colors (like a pineapple is yellow). That may not seem like a lot, but they knew absolutely nothing before we got there except hello.
 They are a handful. Seriously, yesterday they were so hyper that I thought surely the teachers had given them a couple of candy bars before class. The teachers also disappeared for the rest of class, so they didn't have that influence to daunt them. However, they still learned, amidst our screams of "escuchan (listen all) and silencio," and when I walked into the fifth grade classroom they actually began chanting my name... I mean wow. I teared up of course. I am going to miss these kids so much when we leave. We have not had the opportunity to share the Gospel with them, but since the school is so close, several of them come and hang out with us for about a half hour after school, so at least we can show them love and build real relationships. My plan is that before we leave we are going to be able to share with them why we are doing what we are doing. Helena and I have a pretty good relationship with the principal, who also teaches our third grade class, so we are pretty sure he will have no objections to using Bible stories and whatnot.
We teach every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Those same afternoons we work on the property. I usually rake with a couple of other girls on the squad or help dig up ginormous rocks around the trees so that the ground can be tilled for planting. Others on my team use machetes and hack at the untamed area of the property, or work on turning a room inside into a classroom for some of the street boys that live here. The project I will be tackling next week is covering a pipeline with dirt that goes to the road. This may sound easy, but the entire ground is filled with rocks (and I mean HUGE rocks), so we have to find sections that are more dirt than rock and dig shallow holes til we find enough dirt to move. I have never been a huge fan of physical labor, but I love that we can see the difference everyday, which is very rewarding.
Next week is different f or my team. Those of us not at the school work in the mornings and then we head out to a ministry site in the afternoons to do evangelism and odd jobs in another community. I am very excited as, since I teach at the school, I don't get to go out in the mornings with my team and am almost always on this property. Fridays and Saturdays we do leave for the afternoon though, usually working in a group home, or in different communities playing with the kids and evangelizing. Sundays we go to church, and Wednesdays are our day off. We are also still doing 24 hour prayer starting every Saturday night, which has been amazing. All in all, very busy month, and a little stressful for me at the beginning with teaching, but it has been wonderful. Thank you for your prayers!
(First pic - 5th grade class. Second pic - outside Fleur del Campo, a community we visited one Saturday. Third pic - Everyone at Fleur del Campo. Last pic - a group of us at a worship service in the middle of the city)
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 2/24/2012
 God is mighty. Like I was reminded when He called me out a month ago, He is MIGHTY. At the time I had no idea what the next step He had for me looked like. I was imagining all kinds of crazy things, yet what He put on my heart was nothing like I expected.
For a few weeks now I have been reading a book called Red Moon Rising, which is about a 24/7 prayer movement that started in England unintentionally. Almost as soon as I started I felt the Lord calling our squad to pray like that. Yet, last month we were all spread out, and I didn’t have any sort of a solid vision, so I went before the Lord and He told me to sit on it a while. After that I occasionally prayed about what exactly the Lord had in mind (if He wanted a continual month of prayer, a week, an overnight, etc…), but I couldn’t seem to get a definite answer. However, when we got here to Honduras it seemed perfect. Our entire squad was here and there was a large meeting room where people could camp overnight if they wished. Still, I was very nervous. No one else had mentioned anything about feeling the Lord directing them towards continual prayer, in any fashion, and worship seemed the main theme of the month. So then I started to fear that maybe the opportunity had been missed and that no one would be on board.
However, not four hours later the Lord slapped me again. I was reading in my tent and the Lord just impressed upon me, clear as day, “If you do not step up and do this now, I will prompt someone else to. Start with just 24 hours.” Wow. After how nervous I had been, you’d think I might welcome someone else to stand up and do it, but I just felt this sinking feeling. I knew that if I let this pass me by that I would be missing out on a huge blessing and opportunity for growth and intimacy with the Father; that I would not be standing up and being who the L ord called me to be, but would shrink back into the shadows. That put courage in me, and spurred me to action. Immediately, after I had resolved to do it, the idea of a prayer room entered my head and I began looking for a quiet place on the property (a rather difficult feat), and the means, to build.
I talked to one of my three squad leaders that evening and received amazing confirmation. She told me that the other two squad leaders had felt the Lord really moving them on prayer. One of them had just recently had the idea for a prayer room, but no peace in his spirit about building one, and the other had really felt the Lord telling her that we needed to do at least an overnight of continual prayer, but also had not felt peace about actually planning it. So not only were they behind me 100%, but really excited about what the Lord was doing and that He had used them to confirm it.
After that (although still nervous about speaking to everyone), I had complete confidence that this was what the Lord was asking me to do. I went out, bought materials to make a tabernacle type of prayer room out of sheets, and asked for volunteers to help with the project (without telling them what it was). I had only asked for four, and about 8 people ended up helping. I am so thankful for them, as they are the reason for many things in the prayer room, as well as being invaluable to its construction. At the end, it looked very different than I had originally pictured, but all the better for it.
When it was as well constructed as we could make it, we prayed and I prepared to bring it before the group at dinner. It went so much better than I had even hoped for. The squad jumped on it with no hesitation. In about five minutes every slot (2 people at a time for hour long slots) was filled, including the dead of the night slots, except for the very last hour. So at 9:30 we headed out for worship and prayer, to dedicate the prayer room to the Lord. The first slot began at 10, but we ended up staying out there as a group until 10:30. It was amazing, and while there we decided to have the very last hour be group prayer as well.
I cannot tell you how amazing it was. I wasn’t up all night watching everyone of course, but no one missed their slot, no one. I am actually the person who had to be awakened because I didn’t have an alarm clock and had the 3 am slot, but I am so glad I took that hour. My friend Anjali and I went out to pray together and it was wonderful. We were both so tired, but once we got out there, we got on the roof of the prayer room and just started talking with God, both individually and together. It is one of the best nights I have ever had. I had been worried that the time would pass slowly and that I would be tempted to watch the clock, but the first time I even looked at the clock it was 4:03, and 30 seconds later the next two people arrived. I also think it is amazing that not only did everyone volunteer for a slot (and some people took 2), but that God placed the right people together. Anjali and I prayed out loud, and usually together, but the next two to come in immediately plopped into the divided section and stayed silent. Can you imagine if we had been mixed up? It reminded me that God is God. Not only does He move people to build prayer rooms, but when to pray and with whom.
So, that is the story of how my first week went in Honduras. It has not ended. Many people came up to me later, thanking me for being obedient, and I still look out during the day, especially at dusk, to see several people on the roof of the prayer room. And while the wind often knocks things over, I just go and repair them, because that is how the  enemy is. He tries to destroy what the Lord has built, but we are called to never give up and to continue the work regardless of if the enemy tries to destroy it every day, week or hour. This is a place the Lord has built, and is consecrated to Him, for both our squad, the squad coming in next month, and we will pray it remains for the one coming in July. I know the Lord is going to use it to spur great things, and many to greater intimacy with Him, including myself.
As for our squad, we begin another 24 hours of continual prayer Saturday night, and will do so the two Saturdays after as well. We could greatly use your prayers for every Saturday, and for the rest of the week, that we remain vigilant, as the enemy is at work attacking this ministry hard. The Lord has called us to be a people of prayer, and I encourage you to obey Him in everything He might be directing you to do. It is always worth it and you will be amazed and humbled by what the Lord does.
I will leave you with the verse the Lord gave my teammate Liz, which leans against the wall of the prayer room:
“I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest, till He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.” - Isaiah 62:6
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Posted in General Posts by Christiana Gunn on 2/13/2012
El Salvador. To summarize, it was a rougher start than expected, but God was there. I saw kids come to know the love of Jesus through the simple acts of a hug and a game of tag. I saw some of my squadmates go from having no voice to sharing their testimony in front of hundreds. Others went from picking up tortillas one day to a daily ritual that blessed them beyond belief and shined the Gospel into the lives of several women in the community.
My heart is so full of the goodness of the Lord. The first month was tough, we were hit hard with spiritual attack, more so than I ha ve ever encountered consistently before, and for a time it even felt like darkness reigned. However, our God is SO MUCH BIGGER than anything else in all creation. He turned it all into a monument for His glory, a month full of changed hearts, both outside and inside our teams. I cannot tell you how much all of us have grown. It wasn’t even until the last day that I realized the impact we had made in the community we lived. Even though it had felt like we hadn’t made any lasting relationships, there were people constantly at our house the last day to say goodbye, and just to thank us. Many tears were shed and I am going to miss them greatly, especially our hosts Victor and Sara.
The night before we left, the organization of pastors hosting us had a ceremony for us, thanking us for coming and loving their country. They called us each up, gave us a certificate and told how we had impacted their lives during the month. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. I had no idea how God had used me this month until Victor called my name and told what I had meant to him. That just by always talking so fast (though I was trying not to), choosing to assume he understood all of what I said, and by teasing him all the time, that I had managed to make him laugh even when he was stressed. That meant so much to me, and I do not say this to magnify myself, but to show that you never know the impact you have on those around you. You may not be great with children, you may not have a clue of how to relate to teenagers, or how to talk to someone on the street, but that does not mean that the Lord isn’t using you. Never doubt that you are where the Lord has you just because you may not see the fruit of your labor. He may be moving without you even realizing it.
I know that the Lord used all of us, and we leave, knowing that the Lord has even greater things in store for El Salvador and the people around Apastepeque. In fact, another World Race squad arrives today, and we are so excited that they get to continue the work. Please pray for them this month; that they can build on the relationships we have made and take them even further.
The first month was exactly what the Lord had for us, and as I sit in our new home in Honduras, I am filled with such joy. We aren’t finished, this is just beginning.
(Pic to the right - Victor our host)
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