Welcome to South Africa!!

Hello there friends and family! I'm sorry that I haven't been really updating you all on how everything here is going. It's a bit difficult to do so when there's no wifi anywhere and barely any free time to find some. But not being able to use any electronics for the first week was actually pretty delightful and refreshing. I have officially been living here in South Africa for 20 days now and it's AMAZING!! When I first arrived, Sarah Gheman, Cammie Bullock and I could NOT believe it. Everything was so beautiful! The one thing that took my breath away was the mountains and the clouds that love to wrap themselves it. There's just something different about the clouds here and the clouds back home. The ones here are much more fluffy and dreamy looking. When the sun sets, they turn pink and orange and make me think they were pulled straight out of an old classic Disney movie. I love it here.

Week One:
From the airport, we were taken to our house in the township of Masiphumelele. During the drive we were told so many things about Africa. It was a little overwhelming just because we were all caught up on looking out the window, taking photos, listening to important details and just trying to really believe that after 55 hours of flying in an airplane, we were actually in Africa!
Coming to the home, we met a number of amazing people. Siya, is a 19 year old guy who was born and raised in Masiphumelele partially by his grandparents and later by his mother. Siya is a guy who is on the fast track to loving God. He has only been a Christian for a year now but has the gift of understanding and learning things very quickly and has absorbed so much wisdom from a close friend name Jake who is a friend of the team and many others back at the Kona campus back in Hawaii. We also met a special guy who our team adores very much, named Leonardo. Leo is a 26 year old man from () with a testimony that you've never heard before. This man humbles me every day with how much joy he has within him from the Lord. Leo loves to sing worship songs and to play card games like Donkey in the Middle. (I'm currently the champion btw) He also is one of ten children Hidie Baker, aka Mama Hidie, welcomed into her family back from an orphanage in Mozambeek. Theres also Daniel and Mike. These two both captured our hearts right from the first day. They are both God loving men that are also incredibly hilarious. Mike is crazy talented with playing the guitar and singing. Daniel has the amazing gift of making people laugh! They only were able to stay a week which seemed like two months, before they had to return back to the states. But it only took us a week to be thankful we met two lovable guys. Finally, there's Brandon. Oh boy. This kid is one of thee coolest guys I know, for sure. The day we all met him, he was in the bathroom of the house, cleaning and while us girls were exploring the house, he abruptly opened the door and while holding cleaning supplies he started yelling at a high pitched voice like a girl would when they meet another friend they haven't seen in a long time. "Oh my goshhh! You guys are hereee! I can't believe it!" Then laughs one of his hardy, contagious laughs. Our whole team is in the midst of amazing, loving, and radical people that we get to also live with the next few months. *Stoked

During that week, our fantastic leaders, Gabriella Winters and Caleb Marmolejo have been working on our schedule to see what life here in Masi will look like the next couple of months. We all adjusted to the time difference pretty well (12 hours). We've been waking up every day, bright and early to have our own individual quiet time with the Lord and to make ourselves some breakfast. Through these past weeks, I've been studying through the New Testament and almost done with it! I have been ROCKED by each chapter I read. Paul the apostle is absolutely crazy lover of Jesus Christ and a perfect example of how Christians should live their lives each day today!

Week Two:
We are slowly but surely getting the hang of things. Visiting regular places and continually meeting new people. Each morning we have a time of worship and intercession. We pray for things that are on our hearts and whats to come in the future while we are here living in the community. Our contacts, Jeff and Beth Reid are amazing. They have taught us so much in just the short amount of time we've been here. Each day is filled with unexpected things. Lately, we've been taught on how to be flexible. Even since before we left for South Africa. It's been really great to see how far we've come. One of the best things I love about each day is the large amounts of children that come over our house! We have about three to five regulars that come each day. I love them so much, but sometimes it's hard because they grew up with no discipline so they have a hard time understanding what 'no' means when they're pulling your hair out, but I don't mind it too much. I'll just grow some more out of my head.

Week Three:
Things are so busy! Been going from place to place, sight seeing on the weekends and hanging out with Masi locals all day every day during the week. I really enjoy meeting new people and visiting familiar faces. One person I love hanging out with a little girl named Ceecee. She is so beautiful and full of joy all the time. When I first met her, she was soooo shy. But as soon as I looked her in the eye and smiled at her, she became alive! She couldn't stop laughing at me trying to speak her language.
"Molo" which means Hello. Then I know a few more other things like 'how are you' and 'my name is'. Everything else is a struggle because I am trying to get the clicking sound down. There's like five different clicks that all mean different things. I'm still working on it. Hopefully by week five I'll be able to be able to get around using basic Xhosa. I plan to hang out with her more and meet her family and minister to them and have a bible study with Ceecee and her friends and others I meet.

Week Four:
Waking up bright and early to worship and intercede for Oceanview and new projects that God has placed in our hearts. Tuesday night, my Graham and I were painting with water colors and God told me to paint a picture of the sky and the sun setting. Then told me to write the verse Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the sky..
Then he told me to paint it it somewhere in Oceanview where everyone can see it. I'm still waiting on Him to tell me where to paint it but when He does, I know it will be the perfect spot and will make an impact on anyone and everyone who sees it.

Prayer Request:
Please pray for continual safety for my team while we are here in Masipuhelele.
Prayer for those people we have met and are building relationships with, to have an open heart for the gospel and the love of the Father.
And also for the new projects that are being developed with us and God. That they are only done by His will alone.

Thank you everyone so much for your prayers and everything else that you've done to help get me here. Every moment I'm here, my heart grows more and more for the people here and the country alone. My heart belongs here. I love you all so much! Here are some photos that I've taken of the township of Masi, the children, friends and a few places I've gotten to see.

Is this real life?!

Team South Africa!! Here we all are, plus one. Gabriella Winters has joined our team in place of our leader Erika Spitler. Erika has some health issues that need to be taken care of so she and Caleb, our co-leader prayed about who should take her place and the Lord clearly told them Gabby was to take up the position of head outreach leader. So for the past week, the group and and myself have been getting to know Gabby and as each day passes by, we all are seeing that she is the perfect woman for the job. 

Yesterday was the day we sent out our first outreach team. Team Uganda!! It was super emotional and sad but everyone was so excited for the team to go out and be the first to go and change the world. Slowly, teams depart from our campus and to head out to their countries to live in for tow and a half months to love on people and share the gospel. It will be difficult at times but will be al worth it in the end.
2 Timothy 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

I cant wait to embark on this new half of the crazy adventure that God has put me on. I am so stoked to meet people from South Africa who desire only to be loved. I want to be that person that loves them. I want to be a representation of Jesus Christ to whoever I encounter so that they will know God through the way I love them.

Please pray that my team arrives in Cape Town, South Africa safely on Sunday and that all our luggage and personal belongings such as our cameras, laptops, and phones are safe in our hands and wherever else we leave them in our house. In Africa, I wont have internet connection, but will write posts to put up here and Facebook whenever I can find a coffee shop or anything else that allows wifi. Thank you all who have supported me this whole time I've been gone, financially and prayerfully. Thank you thank you!! Love and miss you all and I'll see you in September!!
Blessings!

Time Flies..

Its odd to think that it has already been ten weeks here in Hawaii. So weird to think that not too long ago, I was sitting in a classroom with sixty some people I had never met before that had come from all over the world all for one purpose, to learn to use the gifts that God has given them and to use it to his glory. But thats not the only thing we have learned. We've learned to be vulnerable with each other, to love one another in brotherly and sisterly love. Learned how to tell a story about an individual that is not from our own culture through a photograph, to submit our own plans for the future to God and offer it freely so that he may show us what great things he had planned out for us before time began, and to have compassion for someone we have never met who is living in difficult living situations that is inhuman and unjust. Looking back, I have learned much, much more than I have taken notes of, and I take A LOT of notes. Each speaker played an important role in my life and always made me see things in a different perspective. Made me want to be someone who changes something for the better. This whole experience has really changed me. I can see it in myself, see it through other people that I've met here on campus, and soon to be through my friends and family back home. But I am not done being transformed yet! I still have three more months left! But this time, in a new country with a smaller amount of people. South Africa, here I come!!
In my Outreach team we have six girls and one guy, Erika, Cammie, Sarah G., Sarah M., Madalyn, Caleb, and myself. BUT! Our team has been blessed with another male to join our team! Welcome Graham Stewart! Graham is thee sweetest, most interesting individual you'll ever met. He is a young nineteen year old man who desires deeply after God's heart and its so amazing to be a person to champion him on in that. He makes our group complete and I'm pretty sure Caleb is absolutely stoked to have another guy on the team to hang out with for the next two months.

These next couple of weeks are going to be killer. Not only because we will be further learning about our skills and what more we can do with them, but also knowing that in a week and a half, a lot of us will be leaving for our Outreaches! Its so sad to think that we will all be separated after we've grown so close and live in all different directions of the globe. But what cheers us all up is knowing that we are all doing the work of the Lord all over the world!! I cannot wait to hear everyone's stories once we all return. With that, I'd like to share that from the $2,675 that I needed for outreach, I now only owe $1,300!! PTL! (Praise the Lord) Thank you so much for your thoughts, prayers, and donations for those of you who did. It means so much to me that you helped.
As you can see I still am in need of $1,300 before I leave in THIRTEEN DAYS!! Woah! That came up quick.. So please, if you feel led from the Lord to donate, please don't delay. The sooner, the better! Thank you all so much for keeping up with my blogs and what I've been up to over Facebook. When I receive more info on South Africa, I will let all of you know. Again, thank you for everything. Please keep my team in your prayers.
Love you all dearly.

Awake My Soul

Its been a while once again but I can assure you all who have been reading my blogs that you will understand why it has been so long since my past update. A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of having the father of one of my staff leaders speak about the Father Heart of God. Bob Hamp is everything you would expect to see when you think of a father. A kind smile, a welcoming face, a compassionate look in his eyes, and a gentle spirit. He has hair to match his enormous amounts of wisdom and is truly a man desiring to become more and more like God in a fatherly way. During this week, Bob mentioned some great points that my friend Sarah and I liked to call, "Facebook statuses", because each thing he would say, would hit us like a ton of bricks because of the revelation it would have to it the more we thought about it. A few examples of were these, "God trusts you more than you think", "God gave you the will to choose him as a source of life". Boom!! What?! God gave me the option to choose him instead of living my own life of misery? Seems an easy choice to make but everyday we sometimes choose to live our own lives without him. Sad but true. Also! Don't ever take a nice long hug for granted. Have you ever hugged someone for a good 5 or 10 minutes? If you haven't, then you need to find the net person you see and ask them if you could hug them. A hug is so incredibly powerful. At the end of this week, my roommate and I both decided that we wanted to get baptized. Long story short, my roommate and I were sitting in a church sermon and we both had a revelation about being baptized because we couldn't remember when we really chose to do it to proclaim our love and our commitment to follow the Lord God the rest of our lives. So on May 11th, 2012, I was baptized in the Pacific Ocean on the shores of Hawaii by my amazing school leader, Jonathan Zerkle.

Being baptized was the best thing that I have ever done. One way to describe what the meaning of being baptized was is best decried by my dear friend Cammie Bullock. She said, "Being baptized is our way to respond back to what Jesus Christ did on the cross. An act of his proposal of dying for us. The only thing we can do to correctly respond back to him is to live our lives for him. Accept his proposal". So thats what I did. I said yes to spending eternity with the one who created me out of dust. The one who died for my sins and desires nothing more than to have me love him back for as long as I am on this earth. Week five: Amazing. 
One way to describe week six: Wow. This week was called Revival week. Our speaker, Andy Byrd, spoke to us about the revival of the heart that needs to happen in every Christian. Then he drew a cycle that better explained what he was sharing. For each Christian, there needs to be a revival of the heart. From the revival of the heart comes the reformation of the lifestyle. When that happens, things start to change. When that one individual changes, they influence others. Through that individual and those people that were influenced, a community may change. From the community, a city. A city, a state. A state, a nation. It all starts from that one individual that things start to change. It may not happen in their life time but it will take its place in history, the reformation of the world. A Global Awakening. One thing that stayed with me through out the week of lectures from Andy was this, The biggest injustice is that God crated man out of dust, breathed his breath into him and man turning away from him. Holy cow! That definitely made me think a little bit. How could we do that to the one who made us out of nothing?! God so graciously made me so that I would love him every moment of my life, yet I turn away and say that I am more important. I can take care of myself. I can do it alone. When in reality, theres no possible way I could. Thankfully, God has grace over me and his mercies are renewed every morning so that I can always turn back to him.
Week Seven: Devastating. This week was a big wake up call to what is not known about abortion. This week was about biblical world views. Heres a crazy statistic on what rocked my world. Did you know that there are 200 million girls missing from our generation. Two Hundred Million Girls. All because of abortion. One reason for this is because of the Chinese culture. There is an underground trend that families that only want boys as their first child so that they're name is carried on and they can help support the family by working. This injustice is called Gendercide. So if the woman in the family has a baby girl instead of the desired boy, they either leave the baby girl in the hospital for it to be taken to an adoption agency or the take it and kill the newborn and forget it ever was born and the family keeps trying however many times to get that one son. But China isn't the only place where this tragedy happens. It also takes place in India. These two are the only places that have a major affect on the nation that are known but who knows how many more children are not living on this earth because of selfish desires. A way to help stop this from happening is to start in our own country. Everyday there are thousands of babies being aborted because the mother simply doesn't want the baby. The only possible way to prevent this is to spread awareness. Tell others about how much affect this is taking in our nation and how much of an injustice it is to take a life that doesn't even have a fighting chance to say anything. Great things start off small and through the years, things will change. All it takes is one individual. 
These past few weeks have been killer simple because of all the information I have been getting from all the speakers, but it has been amazing to learn all these things. I can see now that I am better being prepared for my Outreach, which is only FIVE weeks away!! I still cannot believe that I will be living and serving in South Africa with seven other close friends that I consider family. 


Prayer Requests!!
1. That those in my group, including myself, receive more than enough money to be able to pay the rest of our Outreach fees.
2. Safety while we are in South Africa. Theres major spiritual warfare going on over there and we only ask that you pray that we are mentally and spiritually prepared for whats to come. 
3. Guidance from God. 
4.That he brings those people that need help to us and that we are prepared to lead them to Him.


Also, I am still in need of $3,000 for the rest of my Outreach fees and I only have a week to raise it. But I know that my God is bigger than money and that he will provide for everything. This verse spoke to me so personally. 
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
Isaiah 6:8
God asked and I answered. Money will not stop me from going to South Africa and teaching the word of 
God. He will get me there.


If you would like to donate anything please contact me ASAP at cpayala21@yahoo.com. I will talk to you more in detail how you can donate. 
Thanks so much for reading and your prayers. Love you all very much.
Blessings!


Enjoy!

Say What?!

First, I want to apologize to all of you who have been trying to keep up with what all I've been doing here in Hawaii. It's been so hectic and crazy busy with so many radical things happening, even from day one, my group and I could tell that this year of PhotogenX DTS is going be INSANE.

To start off, I would just like to share that I have the most incredible roommates ever. I really could not ask for a more culturally diverse group of girls to live with. There's eight of us in one room including myself and we all get a long so great together. There are two girls from Korea, one from California, one from Indiana, one from Oregon, one from Arizona, and one from Chicago. It only took me about a couple hours of living with these girls that I felt at home and at peace. It felt natural, comfortable. As if I knew these girls for years, but it has only been a few days. Now, two weeks already today!!

The past week has been so draining; mentally, physically, and spiritually.. but in the best way possible. My schedule is full of God filled events such as a worship session early in the morning after a 6am breakfast, three hour lectures from crazy good speakers who have all been involved in YWAM for at least three or four years, media lectures about how to be a 'voice for the voiceless' though a photograph, having set aside times for intercessions (praying against unjust situations in the world such as child prostitution, sex trafficking, abortion, and so many others), and having missionary nights. Our PhotogenX group spends a few hours in our prayer room here on campus and pray for people within our group to encourage and build up spiritually. Our days here on campus are set up to be sort of hectic to help us get in the habit of not fitting God into our lives but scheduling our lives around God's plans he made for each of us. That way, later down the road when DTS is over, we have the good habit of asking God what he has planned out for us each morning when we wake up. The whole goal is to learn to not put God in a little box and put him up in a shelf and only take it out to only ask him for things we need or to have him take care of difficult situations when we cant do it our selves. To be honest, I didn't know how this would go during the first couple of days of being here only because we were so busy doing things such as ministry night, corporate worship with all of the Kona campus and work duties each day. But by the fourth or fifth day, I was able to get the swing of things and learn to adapt to my new schedule, which I enjoy doing.

Last Friday was just about the coolest days ever so far. I found out where I was being sent to on Outreach!! We had about eight options to 'choose' from. I say this because it really wasn't our choice to choose but God's. For me, it was an easy to figure out where I was suppose to go. I have always had a heart for Africa. Always, always, always. Specifically South Africa. Around this time last year, God showed me in a dream what I was going to do with my life one year later. The dream went a little something like this.
I was in a hot, dry area. There was a slight breeze in the air, enough to cool me down but ever so slightly. I looked down at my hands and saw that I was holding a beautiful Canon camera, not sure what one but it definitely wasn't one that I had already owned. I then looked all around me and noticed a small group of people with cameras as well who I seemed to know only because they were so friendly to me but never saw faces. All of sudden there were a large group of little African children surrounding me with the biggest of smiles on their faces and I could help but smile and laugh myself and photographing their sweet faces.
I woke up.
Never had I ever had a dream that was so vivid and seemed so real. Right then, I knew that I was soon to be going on a missions trip to Africa. Fast forward one year exactly from that day and here I am, living in Hawaii with numerous people from around the world. At the end of a normal day of lectures, one of the leaders of my PhotogenX group said they wanted to show us something on their computer. She played a video announcing our locations for Outreach. Greece, South Sudan/ Uganda, UK, Burma/ Thailand, India, China, Jordan, andddd South Africa. Boom. No hesitation. No second thoughts. I was going to South Africa.

 

Say hello to my South Africa team! (left to right)

Erika (leader), Madalyn, Sarah M., Kali, Sarah G., myself, Cammie, and not pictured is our only man who will protect us from all danger, Caleb!

So now that I know where I'm going, its been hard to comprehend that I will actually be going there and that my dream that God gave me one year ago will be coming true!! Its so surreal!! Then the logistics come. I don't know yet how much exactly the entirety of my trip will cost but I do know that by May 4th, I need to have a deposit of $2,500 to cover the transportation costs. At the moment, I currently have $1,100, so I'm half way there. But because I don't know the exact cost, I need more donations to reach the entire cost of my trip. I know I was meant to come here to Hawaii and to develop my faith and grow more passionately in love with God. With that, I know that everything that I learn here while living in Hawaii and learning more to love others as my brothers and sister, I know that I'm meant share that with those around the world, specifically to those children in South Africa where I was called to minister. Please help me in fulfilling the plans that God had made out for me even before I was born. In John 14: 18, It says this, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." I don't want to support a child living in poverty in another country while I continue living my own life and only be reminded of that lost child when I receive a monthly letter in the mail about their activity. I want to go to them. I want to physically be there and show them the love that God has shown to me. I want to live with them and be radically changed mind and spirit by their own way of living so that I can better understand what needs to be done to help them survive their terrible situation. I want to be a servant of Jesus Christ.
Thank you so much for reading my blog and again, I apologize for the long wait in notifying all of you on what I have been up to. I try will make sure that there will be a new post every week to let you know more in detail about what God has been doing in my life and others around me.
To contact me directly for anything, you can email me at cpayala21@yahoo.com or shoot me a text at 805-558-6350, with your name and anything else you'd like to say. I will gladly respond right away. If you'd like to donate, you can mail checks to my home address at 17 E. Cedar Ln. Priest River, ID. 83856.
Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers. I love you all and can't wait to see what else God wants to blow my mind with!
Blessings!