Its Official! I am YWAM staff!

A couple Fridays ago in our base staff meeting here in Constanta, Romania, following our base tradition, I was “prayed in” as an official Youth With A Mission staff member. One of my leaders said that I was being “promoted” after all of my hard work as a volunteer, kind of like if I was in an army. :) It was a really special time, hearing all of my friends’ prayers for me and realizing that God has blessed me with a very special family to serve with here in Constanta. So, my long time dream of being YWAM staff is now a reality. I am committing the next two years of my life to serve here in Constanta. I can’t wait to see all that God does!

Interested in a DTS???

Just to let you all know, we are starting a Discipleship Training School January 14th here in Constanta, Romania, and we are still accepting students! Please email me if you are interested! The school consists 12 weeks of teaching on the character of God, worship, spiritual warfare, the holy spirit, the Father heart of God, missions...and much more, and 10 weeks of outreach in Turkey and Bulgaria or Serbia and Bosnia. This is an awesome time to grow in your relationship with the Lord and to discover how he wants to use your life to touch the nations. Its not too late to apply so pray and contact me quickly!!! tortillaleah@hotmail.com

Back from Macedonia and DTS is over!

Hey all! Last week I got back from Macedonia and I must say that the trip went really well. We had some great opportunities to love and encourage the people and to see God work in their lives. The majority of our time there was spent with people from a tiny two year old church plant. Some of the members had stopped coming and it was our joy to be able to encourage them to get back into fellowship and to pursue the call that God has on their lives. We met so many wonderful people and I miss them already!

After we arrived back in Cluj we spent the week in school evaluations, packing and saying good bye. We had a very nice graduation dinner and received our diploma for finishing Youth With A Mission's Discipleship Training School! Praise the Lord I am official now! I could hardly believe that my DTS was over! It was sad to say good bye to the friends I have made in these past few months but my excitement for what is to come has been keeping me going!

After DTS I went with a good friend from the school to Budapest, Hungary to see the sights and take some days off to relax before heading back to Constanta. The city is GORGEOUS and we had a great time! I even got to spend time at the YWAM base there and with a friend who works with them, joining the team for an English club outreach and a prayer time. It was a big blessing for me and was great to see what a beautiful YWAM family I am now a part of! Praise God for all he is doing through YWAM :)

Now I am back in Cluj for the night and will be taking the train tomorrow to go back to Constanta where I will have a month of rest and renewal before rejoining the base there as fulltime staff for the next two years! This next season of life will be very different for me as I won't be working with the street children's ministry, the families, or the Day Center. Instead I will be staff for the January DTS (the same kind of school I just finished), leading worship, leading a small group, living with and discipling students, and leading the outreach to Bosnia and Serbia, Lord willing! So this is a big change. And, next to this, a couple nights a week I will be staying at the Girls Home that should finally be openning in January as well, beginning with just two girls from the Day Center. Your prayers will be needed!!!

I hope to be in the States in May for two months to see family and friends and do fundraising. So that is the story with me. Thank you for all your love and support and for checking my blog even when I had no updates! Sorry for that! Blessings!