This is it...

  Outreach has come to an end, and it's time to part ways. Sadness is lingering in the air. Our team has slowly been getting smaller and smaller. Two left about a week ago to go to staff training back in Kona, two left last night, and the 6 of us that are left will say our goodbye's in an airport tomorrow morning. This truly is bittersweet. I can't wait to go back home, but at the same time I know I'm going to miss my team a lot.

  We've had a lot of fun here in Israel. Here's some of the things we did, besides what I already said in my previous post.
- We went to help pick olives at an olive grove near Haifa. We started picking olives in the afternoon as soon as we got there and woke early next morning to do the same thing. We slept in a guest house they had. Not only was it a lot of fun, but it was nice to be able to bless the people in the land. The same scripture kept running through my head the whole time "I well bless those who bless you [Israel]..." Gen 12:3.
- At noon we left for Haifa to this refugee center to help with whatever they needed. As we were getting closer and closer, the sky got redder and redder. Thick clouds filled the sky. It looked like a constant sunset. When we met up with our contact who would lead us to the place, she told us there was a fire near Mt. Carmel, where we were staying. Long story short, we got to the place, left our bags, went to town to get some food, roads were closed on our way back, somehow our team got split up, we ended up meeting up again at 3 in the morning at some hostel, woke up 7 hours later, drove back the long way where the roads were open, and finally got to the place in the evening. This is said to be Israel's largest forest fire ever, you probably heard about it in the news. Though our time there might seem unfruitful, God used it to refine us, putting us through a rough situation were our flesh would come out, but in the end, we each learned how by putting the needs of others before ours, ours would be met in the end.
- We made a lot of friends in the Old City in Jerusalem, with a lot of shopkeepers. We went to visit often just to talk to them, and even had dinner with one of our very good friends Hashem. Once you get past the business level, you find their friendly side. This is probably my favorite thing to do, talk to people, be their friends, love them like Christ would.
- We partnered with a house of prayer here called Succat Hallel. One of the things we did with them was a short burn of 8 hours from 12 am til 8 am, contending for the Jewish people and the land of Israel.
- Etc... these are just some of the things.

Written on: 18/12/2010

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  Now I'm back home, after 7 airports, 7 flights, and 97 hours of travel. And I want to thank everyone that's been reading my blog to keep posted on my life. It's been a good season. I know I was exactly where I was supposed to be. Next in my life, I'm thinking about studying photography in Costa Rica. I feel like that is what God wants me to do next. My long term vision is to use photography to expose justice issues and bring them out to the light. I'm probably not going to have a blog about my exciting life in college, but I'd love to catch up with anyone that is interested. I'm just a phone call or a facebook message away.

Thanks from the

deepest places of my heart

Sincerely,

-Julio-

P.S.

Our shopkeeper friend, Abdul.

Shops on a calm day. Old City, Jerusalem.

Shwarma. Thank you God for Shwarma.

Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount

The team.

Olive picking.

Smoke clouds in Haifa.

Israeli rescuers.

Our Armenian friend, George.

Jewish Quarter Road, Old City.

Mount of Olives. Take a good look at that, that's where Jesus is coming back.

שלום

  This is it. I'm in Israel.

  I don't even know how to describe it. The only adjective coming to my mind right now: breath-taking. This is nothing like what I expected. No matter where you are standing, there is an awesome view. Maybe because of the fact that it's all hills and valleys here, so most of the time you're at the top of a hill over-looking miles and miles of holy land.

View of Old City, Jerusalem from Mt. of Olives

  That's a picture (or a bunch of pictures put together rather) of when we went for a walk around

In King Hezekiah's water
tunnel

Jerusalem. We met up with our contact here and he took us to the city of David, where King Hezekiah's water shaft is, the one where King David went up through with his mighty men to capture the fortress. It was about a 45 minute walk through shin high water and it was pitch black, we had to use flashlights. It was so mind-blowing to think that in that same little tunnel we were walking through, about 3,000 years ago, the only one in the Bible to be called a man after God's own heart came up to conquer the city where he built the tabernacle of God where His presence rested. And it's like that everywhere here, there's so much history everywhere you look.

Wailing wall

  We went to the wailing wall where thousands of jews gather to pray to the God of Israel. They come here because this is the closest they can get to the temple Solomon built for God to dwell, where the Holy of Holies was. The temple is under muslim control so they can't go in. God's presence is so thick in this place (wailing wall). They come here to memorize and recite the Torah (five books of Moses) for hours on end. It's heart-breaking to think, they know God so well, yet they fail to know Jesus his Son. All I could pray while we were there, was that God would open their eyes, that he would give them eyes to see and ears to hear. I kept repeating these words over and over until we left. And that is something we all need to pray constantly, that is why we gentiles are saved, for the sake of them.

  We've been here for a week now. We just settled in Caleb Company's apartment (read previous post), before this we had to stay for a few days in other friends' apartment. So far we have been getting to know the land and the culture, visiting the biblical places, and it's really making the Bible come alive. God's been showing us more and more of what He feels for these people. This week though is going to be more ministry oriented. I'm not sure what this is going to be like since the leaders for the week always let the rest of us know what we're doing the night before.
  Thanks for reading! Please be praying for us! That people might know we're Christians by our love. That God would soften their hearts, open their eyes, open their ears. And anything else you can think of and that God might remind you.

אני אוהב אתכם

-חוליו-

P.S.

If you ever get the chance to go to Israel, take it.

Tennessee Y'all

  Our time in the US is over with. We only have a few more hours in this country.

  But thanks to Nashville, we're so much more prepared for Israel. They taught us a lot about God's heart for Israel and their purpose. Like all the prophecies about Israel in the books of the prophets and the rest of the old testament. Paul talks a lot about it in Romans 11 as well, I encourage you to read it if you want to understand our role as Christians with the Jewish people.

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?

                    Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression,

salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

                                                              Romans 11:11

We are the gentiles. We are saved, to bring His people to Him. They are God's firstborn.

If some of the branches have been broken off,

and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others

and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.... After all,

if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature,

and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree,

how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

                                                              Romans 11:17, 24

The Jewish people are the natural branches, we have just been grafted in to their inheritance, with the sole purpose of bringing to the Jews the good news.

Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

                                                                   Romans 11:30-32

How's that last one to screw up your theology? He is who binds people in disobedience.

  These are just some of the things we've learned this week. I am so filled with excitement. I don't know what I'm going to do to make time go fast in my next 3 flights. One of them 10 hours long.... See you tomorrow Israel!!

Shalom! 

-Julio-

P.S.

You will never understand God. EVER.

Washington D.C.

  It's cold up in here!!

In front of the Supreme Court of Justice.

  Especially on our first day here, Tuesday the 2nd. Election day. When we did another life siege, for 18 hours straight. We took shifts in pairs as we prayed outside the Supreme Court for the election of pro-life senators that would ultimately have the power to end abortion. The shifts were an hour and a half each and started at 6am going till 12am. I took the 6-7:30 shift and the 10:30-12 one. I'm glad we got to stand in the gap for something big like this, the murder of babies. I had to layer up like crazy, and even that didn't prevent my toes from going numb after 10 minutes of standing there.

  On two days we got to attend and help at this conference. They didn't have anyone to play worship for them so our crew did it. Also, the church that held the conference was going on like a local outreach to the lower class area of D.C., "the other side of the river". So they held like a festival for anyone to come. They had balloons, face painting, music, some people rapped, inflatable castles, food, a drama (I got to be Jesus... mainly because of the hair), and a lot of other things. The church did a really good job setting this whole thing up, and it was a good opportunity to go love people that probably don't get much of it. There were a lot of kids.

   Something very significant we did was that we went to Embassy Row, where the embassies of most of the countries of the world are. We went to the Haitian embassy to pray for revival in that nation and for God to raise people full of the knowledge of Him and of His word, for the voodoo priests that God would encounter them and they would come to Christ, for the Fire & Fragrance team in Haiti that God would give them strength to finish strong. We prayed for these things and many more; there's a lot of things to pray for that nation. After that, we took a trip to the embassy of COSTA RICA! We prayed there for my country. It was so good to hear some good ole' Costa Rican spanish, but kind of embarrassing at the same time since I've lost quite a bit of my Costa Rican accent from having to speak english at all times. And it made me miss my country so much. With all honesty, I am homesick. Costa Rica, you are missed. We also went to pray to the Chinese embassy and the Israeli one! After that we drove over to DuPont Circle, an area where a large amount of homosexuals live and hang

out. We just worshipped God for a little bit in a park right in the middle of DuPont Circle. We didn't get to talk to anyone, but we hold on to God's promise that since He lives in us, just our presence, intercession and praises were breaking strongholds and mindsets.

  Then, on our last day, we went to the Holocaust Museum. It was rough. They take you from the rise of Hitler and the Nazis to the liberation of the Jews from concentration camps, and everything in between. The things the Jews went through, things that no one should ever have to endure. I don't understand how  humans can do that to other humans. It broke my heart for the Jews. I honor them so much more now. In this museum, they had this room where you could hear quotes from the survivors about what it was like to be in the concentration camp. After all they were going through, they still wanted to survive. No matter how hungry they were, how cold, hot, or in how much pain, they still did their best standing up straight in front of the person who held their life in their hands and tried to look strong enough to work so that they wouldn’t get sent to the gas chambers. How much did they value the gift of life? What would their thoughts be on the matter of abortion?...

  I’m really glad we got to do that right before going to Israel. It was really significant and important. And pretty much the whole city is beautiful, I loved it there. Now we're in Tennessee, enjoying the woods. This is our last week in the US and we're going to be learning and preparing for Israel. We're gonna be taking classes with this ministry called Caleb Company. Their whole mandate concerns Israel, so we'll be sitting in on their classes.

  I want to thank you all for reading and keeping up with me! Now, about my financial situation, we really need the money right away before we leave for Israel, so my parents are going to have to cover the bit that I have left to pay. But I want to thank all of you who have supported me financially or with prayers. I really am grateful, and it means so much to me. You made this possible.

Love you all

Pura vida

-Julio-

P.S.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the orca:

Enough proof that God exists, we're still alive... all 10 of us.

Hartville, OH

  Another ride on the orca come and gone. We survived the 7 hour ride from Hartville to D.C.

  For our time in this lovely small town, we stayed at a really nice house. The family that lived there was friends with a girl in our team, Lauren Triola, who is from Hartville. So that was good.
Here's a little of what we did:
  -Wednesday: we went to this state park or something to have quiet time with our brotha Jesus. It was amazing. Yet again, I must say how much I love the Fall: a lot. It was so nice to enjoy His creation with Him.
  -Thursday: one of our F&F school leaders, Amy Sollars, came out to visit us to see how we were doing. We all got to hang out with her individually. It was a real boost and encouragement to have her there with us. She was there till monday afternoon where we dropped her of somewhere in PA where she was gonna get picked up by the leader of F&F in Harrisburg.
  -Friday night: we led worship at Canton House of Prayer. We got to minister to the people there and pray for them and what not. We did what we do.
  -Saturday night: we did what we do once again, at this other place in Akron, OH. It blew up!! The Holy Spirit moved greatly. After that was done, we went to Kent State University, one of the top 5 party schools in the US, if not the first one. This was the 30th/31st. Everyone was dressed up in costumes, all drunk and what not. It was a rough place to be. We all gathered on the side of the street in a prayer circle and started praying for God to give us his heart for this people and for the Holy Spirit to use us any way He wanted to. It was like 25 of us there. After being there a bit, and having stuff thrown at us, a big portion of the group stayed on the side of this street and did worship, and the rest of us split into groups of 4 and went out into the heart of it all. My group and I just walked, praying and worshiping. We didn't get to talk to a lot of people, but good thing our God is bigger than all of us, He does His thing no matter what we do, and His spirit lives inside of us, just our presence makes a difference. When we regrouped, there was a ton of people gathered talking to the group that stayed. We stayed there for like 30 minutes after that talking to people and giving them the love they've been looking for in all the wrong places. The love of Jesus.
  -Sunday night: we went to Lauren's youth group. To do what we do, once more. It was amazing. A lot of people got set free from self hatred and suicidal thoughts and all that bad crap. One of them gave his testimony at the end about how he used to cut himself and didn't want to live anymore and how people prayed over him and delivered him from all that that same night. "You guys dont understand" he said, "I am not the same person I was 20 minutes ago, I feel joy for the first time in years". Praise the Lamb!! Plus, I also got to see some old good friends from Aurora, Oh. That was really nice.
  We left the next morning. We drove off leaving yet another family and another group of new friends behind. God bless them.

  Now we're in D.C. till the 10th of Nov.
Fire!

God, end abortion

and send revival to this nation

-Julio

P.S.

Here's what we've been doing all day today. Literally.

http://bound4life.com/the-silent-siege

Harrisburg, PA

We arrived Harrisburg safe and sound. Praise Him.

  While we were there, we stayed with our Fire & Fragrance family. Fire & fragrance started a school in Harrisburg just this fall. It used to be only in Kona, but now they have a base here and are running a DTS. They have a deal with a Howard Johnson hotel so that's where we stayed. It was nice staying in a big room. Even if it was four us in there.

  We had an awesome time blessing the F&F there. We helped them with worship in the prayer meetings, ministry nights, worship nights, and in their very first 24 hour burn. As well as small stuff like helping some of their staff get to the prayer meetings on time by washing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. We also got to minister to a youth group. That was was really good, we prayed over a lot of those kids, prophesied over them, encouraged them, basically just helped them on their walk with Jesus.

  But alas, tuesday came, and we left for Hartville, Ohio. We survived another long ride in our van, "the orca". It was a good 5 hour drive, give or take, which isn't quite as bad as our future 7 hour ride from here to DC. Oh gosh.. pray for us... Anyways, thank you for reading, this was another step in the life of Julio Guillermo Garcia Arguedas. Yall come back now.

All we need is love

Love is a man

His name is Jesus

-Julio

P.S.

If you're interested in a really good book, and in getting a sneak peek of what I might do in the future, I suggest the book "Under the Overpass"...

JERSEY

  I’ve never seen family displayed so well in a church before like it was at King’s Gate Church in New Jersey. That’s what church was intended to be. It’s not a building where people go every sunday, it’s a group of people that have a commitment with each other, live life with each other and love each other with a covenant love. Family.

  I’m so blessed to have been able to spend time with them. We hung out mostly with our contact, Ali, and the rest of the family there. They were such good hosts and treated us so well. It was great.

Here are some of the things we did in Jersey/New York:

  Friday night we went to help at this church in the Bronx and had an awesome worship time, Holy Spirit showed up and the whole place went crazy. It was great. We were there from like 6pm to 1am, and after that they took us to Times Square to eat.

  On sunday we went to King's Gate church and had an awesome time. They treated us like family. They gave us a time to come up front to tell them what we're doing and our vision. We gave them a prophetic word we felt that the Lord was telling them, and afterwards prayed it over them. They were super nice, they even picked up an offering for us. Thanks to them, the people on my team that couldn't buy their plane ticket to Israel, now have their tickets bought. There were a lot of Costaricans in that church too, it was so good to see people from my country, it made me happy.

  On monday we went to a prayer meeting at Resting Place, which is a house of prayer that is part of King's Gate. They both use the same building. We helped lead a set from 9 to 11. It was a great opportunity to bless, pray for and minister to the pastors.

  On tuesday we went to the mall to evangelize and reach out to people.

  On wednesday we went to Montclair University in the morning and to Rutgers University in the afternoon. We just hung out at both, did worship, talked to a lot of students reached out to them, and prayed for them.

  Jersey was such a good location, we loved it. I hope I get to go back some day.
We left Jersey on thursday.

And arrived at...

PHILLY
  One of the girls on our team is from Philadelphia, so we stayed in her sister's house. It was a huge blessing! We only stayed there for 3 nights though. But it was still good!
  On friday we went to our teammate's old youth group and did worship, Holy Spirit showed up, we shared some testimonies, prayed for them, got words for them... it was a really good time.
  On saturday night we went to the area where all the bars are at. We took a guitar and started worshiping on the sidewalk. We had a lot of people come up and talk to us and we got to pray for a lot of them and tell them about Jesus.
  On sunday morning we went to our teammate's church and they gave us some time to come up front and minister to the church. So we went up, did some worship, asked who needed healing, prayed for them, and people got healed. 
  That afternoon/night, we left Philly and arrived at Harrisburg, PA!


I'll probably be able to update my blog more often here since I now have internet. In Jersey and Philly I didn't have internet where I was staying. We're gonna be here for 8 days. We leave for Hartville, Ohio the 26th.

Thanks for keeping

up with my life!

-Julio

P.S.

Philly Cheesesteaks are freakin awesome.

Boston Mass...

  I love Boston!! It's a beautiful place, especially in the fall! All the colors everywhere are amazing. And the weather feels so good! Last time I was in cold weather like this was in April last year. Since then it's been nothing but warm weather, especially in Haiti being woken up every morning drenched in sweat inside a furnace of a tent. It was awesome. But, I'm really glad I get to be in cold weather for now. Thank you to all my supporters for making that possible!

  Our time in Boston has been a great start to this outreach. We were there for a little less than 2 weeks and in that time we have done a lot of praying, interceding and worship. We were staying at the JHOP (Justice House Of Prayer) Boston house. The people there were amazing and really made us feel at home. We partnered with them in prayer for Harvard, New England, Boston.. We also went to Harvard a couple of times to pray for the campus and the people there. There's so much atheism and humanism there.

  We also did a what's called a life siege. A life siege is a silent stand in front of abortion clinics and congress buildings. People wear red tape that say "LIFE" on it. It's not a protest but a silent prayer meeting. By putting the red tape on our mouths we are identifying ourselves with the silent cries of the unborn who have no voice. For more information you can go to http://bound4life.com/the-silent-siege. Here are a couple of pictures of our life/silent siege:

 

  We did many other things, we have a very musical team so we helped lead worship at churches, a conference, and a high school where we got to speak as well. It all went really well in Boston. Now we're here in New Jersey. It's going good too. I'll try to keep my blog up to date but it's really crazy right now! I'm also leading our time in Jersey which makes it even harder. But I'm really excited about it!

  Also just an update on my financial situation, I'm still in need of $2500 for the rest of my outreach. Please pray about partnering with me, keep me in your prayers please!

Thanks for reading!

Much love to all of you!

-Julio

P.S.

Here are some really good videos you might want to check out:

http://www.ellerslie.com/BThots_Archive.html

Really...

Just a Little Update

  I'm in New Jersey!! But only for a little while, we will be leaving for Boston tomorrow. The travelling was a little bit of a hassel since I dislocated my pinky toe the day before. But the good news is I'm gonna have massive triceps from hobbling with crutches so much. Also, I believe God is teaching me about humbleness and about being a servant since now I have to depend on the people on my team for almost everything. They're awesome.
  Anyways, I think thats about it for now. God is good! Trust Him!

Thanks for reading!

God bless!

-Julio-

P.S.

Here's my toe:

Yup.

Outreach Info

  Well, Hawaii was fun, but outreach is getting closer and closer!! In case you don't know by now, my team and I are going to the Northeast Coast of the US and then to Israel. Here is a schedule of my outreach and the locations where I'm going to be in:
1. September 29- 0ctober 4: Boston
2. October 4-14  New Jersey
3. October 14-17 Philadelphia
4. October 18-26 Harrisburg,PA
5. October 27-31 Hartville,OH
6. November 1-10 Washington DC
7.November 10-18 Nashville,TN
8. November 18- December 18 ISRAEL!


 We still don't exactly know what we're going to be doing in each place because each person gets to lead 2 different locations. For example: I get to lead in New Jersey with my teammate Laura, and in D.C. with my teammate Julie. So we are all still planning what we are going to be doing. I'll be sure to update every time I find out what we will be doing. I do know though that for our time in Jersey we will be leading worship/prayer sets in a place called Resting Place, also known as the New Jersey House Of Prayer. Also, we might be going to New York City for the Columbus Day Parade and probably do some street preaching, some discipleship... who knows! I just know Its gonna be awesome.


  We leave the 22nd, 10 days from now! I am really stoked to see what God will do while we're there. I am also so thankful for this opportunity. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for me and everyone who has supported me financially, this wouldn't be possible without you. But don't stop praying! I still need $2,390. That's the last bit I'm going to need. So please keep going to God about this!

Thanks for reading!

God bless

-Julio-

P.S.

Love conquers all...

Trusting in Him

  I'm back from the faith journey! And let me tell you, it was amazing. It stretched my faith on God so much. Just how he provided so much and helped us out with everything. Sometimes we take for granted the little things God does for us, but when you're depending on Him for everything, your perspective changes. I am so much more thankful now. There were times were He was just too good. Like this one super hot day around noon, I was really thirsty and I saw a smoothie stand. I said, "God, can I please have a free smoothie?". Nothing happened. Later that night we got invited to a church and they happened to invite us to dinner. They also happened to give us free smoothies.... No big deal right?... Ask and you shall recieve!!
  It's the small things like that make you appreciate everything much more. And that's not the only cool thing that happened!

  So thursday night, me and my outreach team are all hanging out at the bus station talking to some people. We're getting ready to leave, and I'm at the back of the group, when this guy comes up to me and asks me if I have any cigarettes. This is how the conversation went:

Him- Yo you got any cigarettes brah?
Me- Nah dude I don't smoke.
Him- What about them? (*he points at the rest of my team which was way ahead by now) They got any cigarettes?
Me- No none of us smoke.
Him- Yo don't lie to me, I'll knock you out..
Me- Dude I'm serious we don't smoke.
Him- Yo man dont f--- with me! I'll knock you out!
Me- You know what dude? Jesus loves you

  And his attitude changed in an instant. I was shocked at how fast he went from wanting to fight somebody, to teary eyed and apologizing. Now, normally I would've gotten angry at a threat like that and responded in a bad way, but for some reason, I was so filled with peace throughout the whole conversation, and I didn't even think about saying "Jesus loves you", it just kinda came out. He just stared at me for a second, then started apologizing a lot and stretched out his hand, we shook hands and hugged and I started telling him how God has good plans for his life. He was all high on marijuana so I hope he still remembers.

  Here's another cool one. One of the objectives on the list of things we had to do, was to ask the Holy Spirit who to give money to pay for gas with the money our school gave us for the faith journey. So we went to this gas station and started asking the Holy Spirit to show us who to give the money to. One of the guys on our team felt like God said blue Honda CR-V, and another one got the picture of a hawaiian momma, not a mom, but a momma. Literally 20 seconds after this happened, a blue Honda CR-V with a hawaiian lady drives up to pump gas... Coincidence?... Seriously, it takes more faith to believe it was just a coincidence than to believe that it was God speaking. So the 2 guys that heard from the Lord went over and asked her if they could pay for her gas, she said yes, they started talking, prayed for her, all that good stuff. God knows why we were to pay for her gas and pray for her. Think of what kind of a world this would be if we all just opened up to what the Holy Spirit has to say and helped each other out like that. What can you do to share God's love with someone?

 Another of the tasks was to go to a local radio station and to get to be on the air. One of the teams got to be on the air for 2 hours preaching, prophesying over specific people and over the city. It was pretty cool.

  These are just a couple of the ton of testimonies there were. God is faithful! My faith increased so much in this journey, I wish all of you would do that some time, come out of your boxes and go out to show people how much God loves them!! Preach the Gospel! Whatever! Doesn't it make you feel kinda guilty that some people might be going to hell when you could've done something about it?..

  Also, just a little update on my financial situation, our outreach leader says that an approximate of my outreach fees would be $5500. Right now I need $2500 for plane tickets and such... If you want to support what I'm doing or feel led to donate, click here. If not, then please just keep me in your prayers.

Jesus loves you

He can't wait to hang out with you

-Julio-

P.S.

Aloha au iā 'oe
(I love you)

Faith Journey!

  That's what we got this week. They send us on a journey where we rely completely on God to provide everything. Ok, so, they split us into our outreach teams without our leaders, and they give each team different locations around the island to go to. We then have to figure out how to get there. They have contacted different ministries around the island where we can choose to spend the night, one in each location. Pretty cool huh? But that's not it! They've given us a list of things we need to do. Like: share a number of prophetic words with people while we travel, have someone on the team stand up in a corner and preach out loud for 10 minutes and then invite people to be prayed for and ask them if they want to give their lives to Jesus, go to a grocery store (or something of the sort) and get a word of knowledge regarding healing for someone and then pray for them. And that's just some of the things on the list for tomorrow, each day we open up a new list of things. We leave tomorrow early in the morning and come back on friday. We can only take one backpack per person, no phones, no personal cash (they gave us about $80), no ipods or computers, and no food.

  It's gonna be insane!! This is probably the week I've been looking forward to the most. What is the purpose of this? To prepare for outreach. To get united with the team. To learn to rely on God for the smallest things and learn how to hear His voice. To live on the edge!
  Our team has to go to Hilo which is on the other side of the island. We are probably going to take a bus, or we might hitch-hike the way there. We'll pray about it and see what God says!
  I can't explain how excited I am, I feel like this is something God is calling me to do in the future, so I can't wait for tomorrow.

  Here's a list of things you can pray for us:

• Favor of God
• Protection
• That we would hear the Holy Spirit clearly
• That God would give us wisdom
• Whatever else you can think of

  I'll let you guys know how it went on friday when I get back. Maybe saturday if I'm too tired...

Thanks for reading!

May God give all of you 

tons of revelations of His love

-Julio-

P.S.

You should do something like this sometime... Just for fun :)

Non-stop Burn!

  That's what this week is all about. Non-stop prayer and worship, from monday night to thursday night. Amazing I know. Our whole school split up into several groups and we all have different sets at different times. Like this morning for example, my outreach team and I were in the prayer room from 3am to 4am, then another outreach team took over. Later today, I have to go to the prayer room again with another group. And thats how it works. That's how we keep the fire going on a 72-hour burn. Here's a little (bad quality) clip of what goes on in the prayer room.

  So this first month, the teachings were all about worship and prayer, and now its one week to put it all into practice. As Fire & Fragrance, we really believe in the power of worship and intercession, and these are the pillars of who we are and what we do. What we're going for this week, is to come together in prayer, touch God's heart, and change the world with our intercession. I know that sounds dramatic, but thats what intercession does. We're praying for revival not only in our different outreach locations but also around the world.
  Also just an update on my financial situation, I still owe a total of $1,145 for my lecture fees. This money has to come in by friday. I would really appreciate you praying for my finances and considering partnering with me financially to bring revival to the northeast coast of the U.S. and provoking the Jews to jealousy for Christ, like the apostle Paul said. What that means is that by showing the Jews what we have in Christ (joy, peace, etc.), they will want it too, coming to Jesus and accepting him as their Lord and Savior. So if you feel led to support spreading the kingdom of heaven, please contact me. 

  That's it for now, thank you for reading and keeping up with me!

May God bless you all

-Julio-

P.S.

Encouragement is always nice :)

It's been a while!

  I'm back. I fell off the face of the Earth for a bit but its all back to normal. Had a lot of homework and kitchen duty this weekend.
  But good news is: I know where I'm going on outreach! U.S. East coast & Israel. I prayed about it and felt sure that that is where God wants me to go. While praying about it, I felt like He was saying that He trained me in certain areas when I was in Haiti, but now He wants to train me in completely different areas. As you can imagine, the hardships are different in those locations (Haiti and US/Israel). I also felt like He said that there are things He wants me to see in Israel. Also, it has been a long while since I've been in a cold place, I would enjoy that very much.

 This past week, our speaker was Aaron Walsh. Leader of Tauranga House of Prayer in New Zealand. He had a thick New Zealand accent. Which was a problem for me sometimes. But I understood almost all of what he said, it was just some occasional words every now and then. He spoke to us about the power of prayer and worship. This is something our school has been engraving on us through our books, our speaker, etc. That's what characterizes Fire & Fragrance, the marriage between prayer/worship and missions. He spoke on how we are supposed to pray without losing heart, like it says in Luke 18. When do we stop inquiring something from God? When we get an answer! The longer the wait, the greater and bigger the answer. Here's something for you to consider:
Q: Why do we lose heart when we pray?
A: Because the devil HATES prayer
Q: Why?
A: Cause it's the most powerful action we can take, and it's us, communicating with our Creator. Of course satan doesn't want that. He'll do everything he can to keep us from doing it.


  Right now, I'm working on being disciplined and setting time aside to pray and meditate and just spend some quiet time with Jesus. I can already feel the fruit of it in my spirit, I feel so much more peaceful and... I don't know how to describe it in words, only with a really long, content sigh. I challenge you to try for yourself.
  Another thing I would like to challenge you with, is partnering with me in taking the gospel and God's love to my outreach locations by supporting me financially. Please pray about it. If you feel led to doing so, contact me at juliogarcia8899@hotmail.com. Or if you would rather do it anonymously, you can do it here. What better way to spend God's money than into spreading His kingdom?

Thank you so much for your time

Love you all 

-Julio-

P.S.

He is anxiously waiting for the next time you spend time with Him...

Wow...

  God is just so good... First, I wanna thank all of you who have been praying for me and who have been supporting me. I got my $1000 in, so I get to stay! Which is such a blessing. I still need some more to cover all the fees though, about $1000. Thank you once more.

  I am so glad and thankful that I am able to be here at this moment. I've learned so much already. In just the first week I feel like I've learned a year's worth of knowledge. I am so excited about this season, I just know I will get to grow twice as much as I grew during my first DTS.
 So, class started on monday, and we got bombarded with truth and love... again! Also, Lou Engle and Mike Bickle are here in the Kona base. Apparently they are some big shots in modern day christianity... I had honestly never heard of them before. Anyways, they're here to simply pray alongside Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM) and John Dawson (president of YWAM). And Mike Bickle spoke to us on Tuesday I think, and just brought a whole new perspective on prayer. It was great. We had Loren Cunningham speak to us another day, and its amazing the things he's been through. He has sooo many miraculous stories. If you ever get to read one of his many books, do it, you won't regret it. But yeah the whole week has just been an incredible start to this school. We've also got books to read, time to spend in the prayer room, class, work duty, worship, etc. It's all good.
Also, they've alreay given us our outreach locations:

• US West coast
• US East coast & Israel
• China & Thailand
• Haiti
• Japan

I'll let you guys know which one I picked when the leaders of our school officially make the decisions.

  Thank you for reading! Let me remind you that when you partner with me through prayer or support, you're helping expand the kingdom of God. Thanks again!

Love you all

-Julio-

  P.S.
I got a revelation today: time means nothing
Eternity... think about it. Where are you going to be spending it?

Arrived

  So, I arrived in Kona safely last night, no delays or anything... just a bag that didn't show up... but no biggie! It's so good to see old friends again. And just being here, it feels good, like I'm really supposed to be here. But! I'm not gonna be able to stay unless I pay $1000 by monday... So I need you guys to pray for me please. Pray for provisions and for me so that I dont get discouraged.  Actually, if you can pray right now after reading this I would greatly appreciate it. And if you can help me on my finances that would be great.
  School officialy starts on monday, these days are just like orientation and welcoming activities and all that fun stuff.
 I think that's it for now! Thank you for reading! Please please keep me in your prayers. If you feel led to donate, it says how to here. Every little bit is a big help.

P.S.
I play the guitar now ;)

Love you all!
Thanks for walking with me
-Julio-

AA 1240

Thats my flight ladies and gentlemen. And it boards in like 5 minutes. Its hard to explain how excited I am... I love traveling!

Anyways, I would like to thank everyone who has supported me in any way, be it prayers or encouraging words or any other type of support. A very good friend of mine just texted me with a verse that really encouraged me:
How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they havent heard? And how can they hear without someone to preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Romans 10:14-15

So good!!

P.S.
Last time (few days ago) I got an update of how much I had to pay, it showed that about 300 had already been payed!! Praise God! And thanks again to all of you for your support!
Alright, gotta go board my plane now!

Love you all,
-Julio-

It's Official

  Acceptance letter from Fire & Fragrance, check, passport re-validation, check, plane tickets, check. Kona here I come!
  So, it's official now. After like 2 or 3 hours at the bank trying to sort things out, my parents and I booked my flights. I leave next Wednesday at 7am, and arrive at Kona that same day at 7:50 pm, a whole day of traveling... God-willing! If American Airlines doesn't give me any troubles like last time... But  that's a whole other story. So! I have one more week to see my friends and family. It's definitely not enough time, I'm afraid I'm not gonna be able to hang out with all of them. I really am going to miss them all. But at the same time, I can't wait to see what God does to me this quarter. It just feels really bittersweet right now. I'm still so excited though!
 Just to keep you guys informed, I need $1000 when I get there, and a total of $3210 for the whole lecture phase (not outreach). If you feel led to help, click on donate and follow the steps.

So yeah, that's the update for now. Not much going on, just trying to say hi to everyone. Hanging out with my family. I'll be keeping you guys posted on whatever happens.

Thanks to all of you!

Love you all.

-Julio-

P.S.

Here's a little gift from Haiti:

It's me

...and a baby goat

First Post: Hawaii -> Haiti -> Home -> Back to Hawaii

Hey everyone!
First of all I want to thank all of you for reading this, for spending some time in reading about my life. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

So, my first step on surrendering my life to God: DTS (Discipleship Training School)
  First off, let me explain a little about DTS and YWAM (Youth With A Mission). YWAM is an international volunteer movement of Christians of different backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. It's purpose is to know God and make Him known.
  DTS is a school YWAM offers with the purpose of training young people to be missionaries and then sends them for short term missions all over the world. It consists of 3 months of what is called a lecture phase, and then about another 3 months of "outreach". During lecture phase, you have different speakers coming in every week, (at least my school did), and you pretty much get wrecked... in a good way! You just get bombarded with truth and love. I learned so much... But that's not all! Then comes "outreach". This is where you apply everything you've learned. Basically, they send you with a team, to the outreach location of your choosing to be a missionary. The leaders pray a lot about it and decide which these will be.

  Me, I was blessed with the opportunity of doing my DTS in University of the Nations in Kona, Hawaii. It was a real blessing. I have God and my parents to thank for supporting me all through that. The school I chose is called Fire & Fragrance. Our first week of lecture was like an intense course on how much God loves us... completely mind-blowing. We have no idea. We cannot even begin to fathom how big His love is. That was perfect to get started. Along came many more lectures just as useful. In F&F, you are submerged in a culture of prayer, worship and intercession. This is essential for reaching out to the nations, and pretty much for life as well. Sad that these 3 months had to come to an end...

  Outreach, the moment of truth. God told me to go to Haiti, therefore I chose Haiti. When God speaks clearly, you better listen... The way He told me to go there was through a dream, and a picture. I was in the prayer room for our daily worship and prayer time one day, and as I was asking the Lord where He wanted me to go, when all of a sudden I got hit with a picture in my mind of a black kid crying. And if that wasn't clear enough for me (which it wasn't..), I afterwards got a dream where I was in a house and this family, all dressed in the type of clothes you see voodoo people dressed in movies, starts coming up to me. So in my dream, i start rebuking and binding in the name of Jesus. Next thing I know, the mother in the family starts shriveling up and slithering away from me like a snake. Intense huh? So yeah, Haiti it is!
  Me and my team (we were 10) got there and we had no idea what was coming. What we did was we submitted ourselves to whatever the YWAM base in St. Marc needed of us to do. I gotta say, it was stretching, we had to do a lot of dying to ourselves. But in the end, because of the tough moments, it got me so much closer to Christ.

• So we did some base maintenance such as mowing the lawn, and moving rocks... lots of rocks, and a lot more. It was fun though!

• We also got to stay every other week in one of the tent cities of victims who escaped from Port-au-Prince after the earthquake. We got to build relationship with them and minister to them. One of the most important things we did was just to get to love on the kids, something they don't get very often. We had VBS's (vacation bible school) with the kids of the community and shared stories from the bible with them and did some crafts with them. They loved the crafts, it meant so much to them, and the crafts were just like bracelets, and flowers made out of paper and simple stuff like that. They don't have much so they cherished that so much. We also held English classes for the whole community. It was so gratifying to see all those serious and strict adults laughing as they sang the ABC song with us. They were really grateful. We got to provide jobs for them paid by YWAM St. Marc. This was of great importance, to start giving them a mindset of earning what you get, and to start breaking the mindset of having to rely on foreign aid. We did several more things in this tent city, like opening a nursery for the little kids, worshiping with the community, gave testimonies, etc...

• We also got to partner with an organization called Homes of Hope and take part in the building of 2 houses for people who really needed them. Awesome experience.

•  We got to go to the poorest community in Haiti, in other words poorest community in the western hemisphere. We went there a couple of times to walk around and pray for people and we held a VBS there for about 200 kids the first day and the second day we held a play of Jesus' life in front of this time 400 kids... And then we prayed for each and everyone of them individually. They were all lining up so anxiously for prayer. It was so moving. After that, we returned a couple days later with food for all of the families there. They were so thankful. We did a lot more, like door-to-door evangelism, and we led a lot of people to Christ who were eager to receive him.

  Yet outreach too, had to come to an end. So we went back to Hawaii for "Debrief Week", where all the teams meet up with our school leaders (which are amazing) and talk about the whole experience. It was so good to see all of my friends from Kona again. We also had some lectures on how to re-enter your home without falling back in your relationship with Jesus. Something I feared a lot... falling back when I got home...

  Well debrief is over. Just like that. And after 2 long days of traveling, hello Costa Rica, hello family, hello good food. But little did my parents know, that a couple of days before going back home I had made the decision of doing Fire & Fragrance phase 2: School of Revival and reformation. God has blessed me with such good parents, there's no words to describe... and they are totally supportive about me going to get closer to God. Phase 2 is basically a more intense and in-depth DTS. I feel like this is exactly what I need. So in exactly 2 weeks from today, I'll be leaving for Kona. Again. But all of this, I'm doing by faith, because I still don't have all the finances. Right after I made my decision, I was so scared and worried about how I would raise the money for this. I was so nervous about whether I should do it or not. For a couple of days I wrestled with this until a friend gave me this word:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,

what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear,

is not life more important than food,

and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air;

they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable then they?"

Mathew 6:25-26

  That really put my mind at ease.. Now I just can't wait to see how God will provide.

So right now I'm in Costa Rica, and I am trying to raise support. So if you feel led by God to donate to make this possible, please do. Find out how to donate here.

I love you all!

-Julio-

P.S.

Here's a little video about our missions trip to Haiti