Alabanza al Senor

I'm finally back, I'm able to sit down (alone) with less distractions on this Sunday night to be able to describe to you what the Lord has been doing these past 2 weeks.

First of all, i am so blessed to be able to serve HIM, being a missionary here is certainly humbling and each day i realize i cannot do any of the things i do without HIM (God).

Second, i come to discover that in every situation/event that God provides and it is so amazing to see little miracles unfold in front of my eyes. Praise be to GOD!

Review of CODA events

what an amazing group of girls. We had a girl retreat at my house in Ponce. All the girls arrived on Friday night and we all connected instantly. We played games, got to play truth or dare (except we all just did dares), played in some water fountains, had a photo scavenger hunt in the mall, pained, and the best part was discovering how we are daughters of THE KING. Being daughters of the King makes us princesses. We focused on verses such as Psalm 139, Psalm 45:11, Zephaniah 3:17, & etc. It was really neat to hear testimonies and experiences from all these ladies. To hold on to God's promises for our lives, to be embraced by HIS love, to realize that satan feeds us lies constantly (examples: we will never be good enough, I'm not pretty like "that girl", I'm not interesting enough... etc) and we took a stand against those lies. IN GOD's eyes WE are good enough- We are HIS princesses, in HIM we have worth. We are worthy because He loves us and He longs for us to LOVE Him back!

The girls had a blast- they kept telling me, "i never experienced anything like this and i loved it." Seeing the joy in these girls really blessed me! I praise God for some of my friends who came along to help- they are such a blessing to me (Cairis, Valerie & Vilmarie). Also,i was so blessed to have 3 Deaf helpers to cook & clean for us- (Victor, Isabel & Eva)- without them i wouldn't know what to do. God you never cease to amaze me at who you bring and what you DO!

lovely ladies who love God.

Plaza de Caribe (we went into the mall with our crowns haha)

CODA Family Day at the Z00 was yesterday! Everyone was so excited to arrive. I was shocked at the amount of people who showed up- this really made me smile to see Deaf bring their families to enjoy fellowship with other Christians. After the crazy chaos of getting us gathered and taking "roll" (like the school field trips we use to take) we finally went into the zoo to see all the animals. The kids were having a blast. I got to spend time with each child and they kept saying, "Ezzy- come look at this." It is so awesome to know that these kids really want to talk to me and feel comfortable with me. Each moment i had i made sure to point everything back to GOD. In the end, we all gathered together and prayed. To see a big group of people gathering and giving thanks to our Father really brought JOY to me. I want these people to have a HUNGER for God- that is my prayer!!! That they will be SO HUNGRY for HIS word- nothing will stop them from going to church, fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ, and teach their children about the LOVE of God and how He is the answer to everything and the fulfilment of every need that we desire.

Most of our group... :)

Crazy CODA girl gang.. watch out!

God is doing wonderful things in this girl- she has changed since i first met her. she would NEVER talk to anyone but now she is starting to open up, to talk to more people, her grandfather will call me and say, " the grand kids want to talk to you... " and coming to church is exciting for them now-WOW, God you are awesome!!!!!

So today- David and Marsha "the main missionaries" of Puerto Rico flew off to the states. This was quite sudden decision that happened so soon. David has been experiencing a lot of health issues that have to be corrected by surgery. This might take up to 2 months of their time being in the states. This really made me sad because David & Marsha are my leaders and my mentors (they guide me, give me advice on what to do with the CODA ministry and etc). I am not alone here, Mercy our Secretary and I are working together on making sure all duties are fulfilled in the office as well as outreach. As i juggle teaching CODAs, planning events, purchasing items for retreats, making advertisement's, doing outreach, driving/picking up people for church on Sundays, making sure our vehicles are fixed .... etc.... GOD is with us. God knew this would happen, that at a certain point, I couldn't depend on people to help me but to FULLY DEPEND ON HIM.

Not once has God let me down- this may seem silly but for the CODA family day at the Zoo i bought one pack of water bottles. Then i realized that morning that i needed more water bottles because i know that not everyone was going to be prepared and bring water. As i looked for water coolers early in the morning to put some ice in- i opened the cooler i wanted to use and IT was full of WATER bottles!!!!! hahaha, God heard my heart and knew what i needed and He provided. How cool is that? Then, at the Zoo- we had the PERFECT AMOUNT OF WATER for each person.

And at our girl's retreat it was pouring rain that the garage was flooding and praise be to God it didn't flow into the house- that Saturday morning i planned for the girls to go to a water park nearby. It kept raining and raining- and i just prayed to God to help me make a decision on what to do because i knew the girls couldn't be kept in this house forever. Then, i looked outside and it was SUNNY!!! WE all hurried and changed into our bathing suits- and played!!! Then, when we got back (still sunny) we began to settle back in- 5 minutes later it started to rain...God held off the rain just for US... Oh how He loves us and how HE LOVES YOU( person who is reading this blog.)

Please pray as we prepare for this weekend's CODA Retreat at the beach. Pray that God keeps revealing Himself to these children, youth, their families, and everyone we come in contact with. Thank for your

amor y besos en Cristo!

p.s- MY BIRTHDAY IS ON WEDNESDAY- cards are welcome :)

Address found in blog below if you really want to.