Update, Additions-Shelbye & Jesse, and Trio Trip 2

!!!! So much to update, so I will go in order. Basically Shelbye Kunerth is an amazing girl from Fort Worth, Texas, who has interned with Count Me In and is going to take my place living in Belize with Tati. After the conference, her and Tati will work on the project and task of establishing a country wide, sponsored youth camp that will take place during the kids' winter break. It will be Dec 30-Jan 5th-ish, and so I definitely plan on being a part of CMI BZ's first year! The first people to come in from our team to help with the conference were Shelbye, and our friend Jesse from Athens, GA. He has been to Belize before and LOVES the Garcia family from Trio that we visited last month. When we visited them the first time, we inquired about and observed what some of their needs were, and so it was so awesome to then tell Jesse to figure out how to get some of these things. Minolo, their youngest son, loves playing the guitar and years ago Tati gave him a guitar. At some point, the some of the strings broke, so he has been using fishing line! Jesse brought some new strings and music to learn! Fidel, the father, who works all day on the pineapple and other fruit farm with his machete, gets cut up pretty bad up and down his arms, so Jesse brought some work gloves that go up to his elbows! Vilma, the mother, she has very painful vericose veins on her legs, and was told that she needed compression stockings, - so Jesse brought some of those as well! He also brought some other goodies that the girls would like, and it was a ball watching them receive all these presents that they NEVER would have been able to afford or have access to buy.

A happy Fidel

Fun machete afternoon

This was right before Jesse said that Shelbye had a big head in spanish - he was trying to communicate that she has a big brain . . as in she is smart . . 

put 'em up!

Jesse is in heaven with his fav family!

So then we all loaded up on the back of their truck and drove to the pineapple fields

Jesse trying to pick oranges from a moving truck

a cute little baby orange tree with ONE orange for me!

This is the most heavenly tasting pineapple you can ever imagine. I could live everyday just walking around outside, eating this amazing fruit!

Minolo beheading Jesse

This is Jesse trying to communicate in english and broken spanish that this pineapple piece would be great for a pacifier . . . yeah but the end they thought he was imitating breast feeding or some sort. . . !!

Driving through more fields to get to the river to swim!

Awesome little cliff to jump into the river!

Everyone playing

Me and their oldest daughter Reina

Tati the pineapple queen hahaha

We cooked them a meal and it was awesome!!!

Spike

LOVE!

All in all, it was amazing time with them, and a super bonding time with Shelbye, as she is mentally preparing to be here in Belize for the next three months!! Then it was also sweet for Jesse to come and reunite with his favorite family ever - they were so happy to see him too. Fidel is Jesse's role model for manhood in every way :)

quick mini update - if feel lead, please help

This is a quick mini update. I have not had internet for the past two weeks, but wanted to say that the conference was SOO amazing. So many pastors got blessed to the Nth degree. Now that the team is gone and it is just me, Tati and Shelbye, we are learning how to be big, middle and baby sisters. The Lord is making it clear that He wants to redeem some of our family roles and has already started to bring up some ways for us to minister to each other in inner healing / prayer ministry / healing memory / elijah house / etc ways. I am loving having Shelbye here, and having a new little sister to do crazy things with me that Tati would never do ;) . A friend to jump and dance on the trampoline and go jogging and exploring with :)



I will be posting soon with pictures updates and realer details, but first I need to share the fact that


I am trying to get home to the states and am almost out of money. I have about $200 and for a one way ticket it will cost $499 before tax and without my bags cost, so I am needing around $600 total (altogether). 




If you feel like the Lord is placing this burden on your heart, you can donate and help me at this link:

https://interns.sagefundraisingonline.com/laurenj

The Lord is totally making it personal now with learning to be present, not worry or stress about the future or about money, but truly trusting Him to totally provide in EVERY way. It is hard to be vulnerable, especially when the whole world struggles with placing self worth on $dollar$ $signs$ . It is a new thing for me. I will be honest to admit that I don't know how to (but am desperate to learn how to) be content and unaffected by how much or little money I have access to. So, now I get to practice what Tati and I did together, and practice what I preach :) It's gonna be good. Fernando hit it home when he said, "If you know what you are doing, the holy spirit is probably not involved".


Anyway, I found the link that goes to the national morning show we were on, on PlusTV :

http://www.plustvbelize.com/Featured/NewsDetails/tabid/63/ArticleId/2533/US-church-hosting-leadership-conference-in-Belize-City.aspx

Here are a few quick pics from the past few days and week!

Sweet Trio visit with shelb and jess

The conference Crew

Plus TV 

Girl Power

Dock Romance

Pastor Fernando, Travis and Caleb! Our favs

Straight Beauty

HE DID IT !!!!!!

I don't have much time to post, and am on Tati's computer, so no pics folks, but soon! We are with the group for the conference which has been amazing. We are currently at Caye Caulker, which is a dream vacation spot. There are 7 of us, all with extremely different personalities, but I am so confident that the Lord has chosen all of us, in all the processes and places we come from for such a time and purpose as this. Bottomline,

THE LORD PROVIDED OVER $3,000 IN FOUR DAYS!!!!!   

So, this thing is REALLY happening!! I feel so unworthy. I feel like a completely new person. Amazing fruit is surfacing in so many ways as we now have contact with other humans, especially our team. Tati and I's honeymoon period is over; which I am realizing is again, SO CRAZY. We have literally taken the person most opposite in every way, and been placed in a foreign country, mostly living out of a car, with no escape :) -learning how to DO relationship. Major fruit is abounding in our lives as we and our friends see how different we are as people!

Anyway, I am so blessed. So humbled. Tati and I are going to be on TV Wednesday morning! On Plus TV, from 7:30-8am. People will be calling in about the conference. As of now we are expecting 200+ leaders from this country, based on estimated RSVP-ing, but after the morning show, who knows!! I mean talk about favor! Tati and I have been faithfully walking and waiting on the Lord, and now that our friends are here, and telling us how crazy it really is that we DROVE THROUGH MEXICO! and how we traveled the whole country living out of our car, with so many unknowns, with showers and coffee, and sweet mind exploding revelations and times with the Lord being our greatest excitement it is all really starting to come together and just blow my little MIND! . . . and  this whole having favor thing! - the Lord raising the money, as well as blessing us in way after way after way after way! Providing time and time again. I wouldn't change this experience for anything. 

I have lived more in the past two months than I have lived in the past 10 years. The God of the universe is real, and true, and ALIVE, and faithful and his character is UNCHANGING. I can risk my life for that. And I hope my life is continually risked and challenged and used for His plan and His will. And in doing all of this, it has done something radical. In me, through me, around me. I don't want to know what is going to happen next. Our group went to Scott Stirm's church Sunday night, and it was so encouraging for him to share with his whole congregation that he felt in his spirit that the Lord was truly going to use Travis and Fernando, and this conference to speak something big in this country, during a time of major shifting. 

Thank you any and everyone who has prayed, donated, thought of, shared about and blessed my life in uncountable ways. I will post pictures and tell more stories and share more victories, but just know that the enemy can find the EXIT - or, (as we tell all the bugs at night): In the name of JESUS, find a Crack and GO IN IT and DIE!

love you guys. 

As of Now

As of right now, I am a little bit less in picture taking mode, and a little bit more just pursuing the Lord’s heart. Intimacy with Him is the most important thing ever.

He loves to surprise! Yesterday (Sunday March 4^th) Tati and I were asked to come and share/invite aka “do our schpiel” at a Methodist Church, and so once we got there Tati was told to come up on stage, and was expected to give the sermon! Hahahaha she was in a state of terror. Anyway something crazy is that a few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night, and I could NOT fall asleep . . . words and thoughts, verses, observations, and just different revelations of mine and Tati’s throughout our trip started coming together like crazy and I felt like I was supposed to write it out. I wrote it all out, and I had crazy energy, you know, the kind when you just randomly have inspiration or I guess the opposite of writer’s block (I don’t know what that is called) – anyway I had this crazy mental energy and so I typed it all out. Later on I had Tati read it, and she thought maybe it would be good to email it to the people coming down and speaking at the conference. Regardless – it was hilarious that all of a sudden at this church we/Tati were being looked at to give a sermon, and I had, days prior, been given a literal speech and the Lord’s heart for the church in Belize!!! So, I shared it with everyone, and it was awesome!! It was really sweet of the Lord to give me a little opportunity to speak, and practice speaking, since that is one of my insecurities; but something I very badly want to overcome. That and heights are the two big things I want to overcome – so it is neat to have opportunities to practice in non-life-threatening ways. And in regard to heights, we found/were told about a little river called Roaring Creek, where people go swim, and there is a huge rock to jump off of into the water . . . I will be working on doing that STAT!!! Tati just needs to be a trooper and do it with me. (she wouldn’t the first time) . . .

While we are getting details together about this conference and trip with different friends from the US who are coming to visit and minister at the conference as well – I am just trying to continually focus on exasperating the enemy through humility, prayer and self control (the three main things I have been focusing on this trip) – and recently studying the topics of idols and authority. AND loving it.

It is really amazing just living with Tati; just one other person, in comparison to the 5-6 roommates I had right before I left Athens (2 of them were taking mine and Tati’s spots) – and we REALLY FEEL MARRIED in so many ways. It is so crazy how we have to communicate constantly to stay in tune with each other and bear with one another. It is crazy how with just one other person in close proximity, we are seeing so much fruit in our relationship faster, because we only have each other to work through and process things with, to go to for help and advice and companionship, as well as our daily opportunities to intercede for one another as she has a convo with someone, or I have an interaction with someone else – it’s amazing, and I can’t explain in words how much WORK the Lord has done.

I’m sure everyone who pursues the Lord and wisdom and growth looks back on the year(s) before and says to themselves, “Man I was so immature back then; I knew NOTHING!” – well, in a lot of ways that is how I feel. I feel like a completely different person. It will be hard to come back to Georgia without Tati!

The quick update of truly what is going on "As Of Now" - is Tati and I are back in Belize City, sitting in the living room of Pastor Lloyd Standford (head of the Baptist Convention in the whole country) and he just made a stew, with chicken feet. He is going to see if I can handle the chicken foot. . . .mind over matter, mind over matter!!! We shall see!  More to come!

a mouthful of . . . . things that should never go in your mouth!

I spit it into the trash. 

Well I didn't realize we'd be in his living room all these hours chillin with him and his wife, so here is what happened. . . I took it in my mouth, but I couldn't swallow it. I mean look at it! It is all cartilage, bone, fat and skin. (GAG) . . . . He literally asked me: What gives you excitement? I listed some things like cliff jumping, different thrills and rushes, and he was like, "yes, eating chicken feet gives me the same feeling" . . . ah WHAAT !

Pastor Lloyd

He was just a jolly little camper watching me try to eat a chicken foot

by the end he called me BRAVE. I'm content with that :)

-We are staying at Pastor Lloyd's tonight, and leaving the car overnight with Bobby, our mechanic. We say his name in a British accent ONLY. (Bow-bay). He is going to continue to try and fix our AC. . . we bought a new condenser, which fixed a big leak, but now he is going to put some sort of dye in the system to find the other leak, which has to be done at night he says . . . tomorrow we are meeting with maria and Pastor Crawford to look at the kitchen and the church.

So guess whaat? We have basically no money for the conference! Tati's parents sponsored some pastors we found out yesterday which is such a blessing, but we still need like thousands of dollars. We are actually thrilled, that we continually get to see in our own lives how incapable we are to make anything happen. The conference. A revival in Belize. . . etc - these are big things that will crush us if we attempt to control and force it to happen - we simply can't. Which is great! I don't want that kind of pressure! I want to admit how small I am, and let the Lord be the one to "do work". As I share on my blog facts like this, the fact that we have hardly any money and we are days a way from the conference - it is a continual testimony to show how predictably unpredictable He is, and how He will provide and come through, either at the last minute, or in a way we never would have thought of! He is an honoring God, and He will bless us in all that we are doing, I believe, to the point where this venture in Belize will be a big reference point for the rest of my life. To Him be the glory!!

Tati just told me that we have a total of $210 for the conference :)

If you at all feel it on your heart to donate any money, here is the link!

https://interns.sagefundraisingonline.com/tatib

Also, please be praying for my Uncle Bob. He has had 2 brain aneurysms and is in the ICU in Ft Lauderdale, FL. He is having a craniotomy either today or tomorrow, which, if it doesn't go perfectly, could easily paralyze him or him have a stroke. . . at best he will be in the hospital a few weeks, so please pray for my family and for his health and life. Thanks guys! I love you all and appreciate your love and support!!!

Moving In To Our New House

So, we moved into our new home and spent the WHOLE DAY and night Sunday (a week ago) cleaning, rearranging the furniture, cleaning, going out and buying supplies like tp, shower curtain etc, cleaning, stocking our fridge, deciding what to use different drawers and cabinets for, and more cleaning. . . it had not been lived in for a while, so it needed some scrubbing when we got there, but we got SUCH a great deal on the place, it was worth it.

The best memory was when Tati screamed my name, and I looked over and there were a BILLIONTRILLION HUGE BEETLE ANT WINGED CRAWLING CREATURES literally SPEWING out of a bottom cabinet. . . none of them managed to fly, and so it was like we were literally at war. We grabbed the nearest sprays (orange kitchen cleaner (sorry Waverly) and something else) and started SPRAYING and MASHING. Mashing meaning with our feet, stomping on every bug that was trying to get through. It seriously felt like WAR! None of the enemies were able to conquer our forces . . . it was CRAAAAZY. I took a pic of all the dead enemy soldiers . . .

Another hilarious memory is one morning I woke up to run (6am) and I saw this little cute toad just hanging out in the kitchen, on the knife block. I watched and it was seriously trying so hard to squeeze its little butt into one of the holes!!! I was so bewildered. I took a picture haha . . . so anyway, when I got back later, Tati (who hates bugs, reptiles, amphibians etc) was around, and I told her that there was a toad in our knife block . . . you can imagine the face she made, of confusion and ew yuck gross-ness. Anyway we put it under the faucet and OUT JUMPED THE TOAD STRAIGHT TOWARDS TATI! Haha it was a fantastic memory.

We also made a trip to Belize city, met up with a lady named Maria who is going to do all the cooking for the conference. She can do magic with food.

I also took Tati to the little mountain I found, and of course later on, our landlord told us that the bush (paths I run on) are pretty dangerous . . . bad news. We have the cutest neighbor boys, a friendly guard dog (Tiger) and a really great roof to look at the stars at night. 

some wild flowers

neighbors new puppy!

Chad, one of the three cutest boys next door

the upper part is unfinished

completely cement house

Tati taking down the Christmas decorations lol

We don't have a tv, but we found this to go in its place

our house is so amazing! We are SO grateful to God for it!

bedroom

antique phone

decorations of paint

doing business. . . check out the pen in Tati's toes

Mr Belizean is a man who sold me some dub poetry about the Belize "he used to know" - it's pretty cool actually. Tati had to translate, but at the end of every poem/rap he says: "Mr. Belizean Says" . . . we have started a quote(s) of the day(s) board . . .

during this time of political elections, Tati got a free tshirt out of it!

Tiger, our guard dog being all handsome one morning

So coffee makers are no joke like $90 to buy! So we made our own makeshift one and it works really well! Strainer, coffee filter, coffee, hot water and voila! Freshhh

painting on the wall

Doesnt this cloud look like a heart!?

Cutest kids ever!

Ritchie, Chad and Eric

their new puppy is adorable

so what they do is they jump from here to the trampoline :)

so cute, so fun

Cleft Rock

3 puppies!

Maria the cook !

Joshua, sweetest cutest kid of the day who lives at Maria's

the baby of the family always seems to be the daredevil!

Mrs Maganya came over and taught us how to cook.bake!

We learned how to make fry jacks, tortillas and johnny cakes! yumm!

beauty

showing me his boo boos

the day Tati came to share in my climbings

;)