Circulo highlights from March

my favorite moment of Circulo: after we say the 3 rules, we all go inside the parachute together to pray for our day. (As I pray, the kids repeat after me.) When we go under the parachute, the littlest kids come running at me to see who will get to sit on my lap during the prayer. :)

Spring is here! Which means the weather is crazy and we never know what it expect. It can be cold and windy at the base and then we get to the colonia and its warm and sunny, we never know! Praise God it hasn't rained on any Tuesday or Thursday, which would cause us to have to cancel the Circle, as we do the classes outside on a basketball court. So far so good! A few weeks ago, the kids at the Circle starting to invite us to come and see them dance at their school. Each time we had Circle, they would remind us of the day and time and ask us if we were going to come. Well, we did go and we had a great time! They had a spring assembly and each class prepared a song and dance to perform. The children dressed up in homemade costumes to perform their dances. Xochil(above) is one of my girls from the Circle and her class did a traditional Mexican dance. Below is the 1st grade class and they did an adorable dance about Froggies! It was fun to see them at school, they were all SUPER excited to see us there. Also, a few of the boys in my group took me to meet their school teacher and introduced me as their "other teacher" hahaha.

At the Circle, we are in our 3rd month of doing a library program with the kids. The kids are doing a great job of taking care of the books and returning them, I'm so proud of them! They are really developing a love for reading too, each time we arrive in Antorcha, the kids are always asking when they get to check out their next book. They can't wait to get their hands on a new book! They also are filling out reading responses, where they have to write why they liked their book and what was their favorite part. Here 3rd grader Sarai shows off her response paper and her book.

The other day I went to a book exchange at the Cultural Center (CECUT) in downtown Tijuana to try to get some new books for the kids. Since the kids are so excited about the library, it makes us want to keep making it better! Right now, the toolboxes (recycled from old Homes of Hope stuff) that we use to carry the books in are almost overflowing. I'm trying to think of a new idea for our "mobile library"... any ideas? Please help!

We also have new kids coming to the Circle each week. It's crazy! Seriously I thought when we reached 100 they would stop coming, but they didnt, hahaha. I had my largest class of 3rd and 4th graders ever - 34 kids! I felt like I should have been in their real classroom as their real teacher! Below is a photo of 3 of my new girls that we pick up from a different colonia and bring them with us to the Circle: Camila (left), her family received a Homes of Hope house about a year ago, we recently reconnected with them and now she is coming to the Circle. Mayte (right), her mom works at the orphanage that we visit and asked if we could pick her up to bring her to the classes as well. Jenifer (center) doesn't go to school, she can't really read or write, so I'm really happy that she's started coming to I can work extra with her to try to catch her up to her peers.

I'm also really excited to have 2 new staff for the Circle. Alisha just finished a Children at Risk school at our base in Tijuana and will be helping us out for the next 6 months. Right now she is working with Laurena and the kinder/pre-k kids. Also, there is a girl from Chile named Vivi who just came on full-time staff with us, she is going to be doing Bible studies with the moms and one-on-one counseling with them. Praise God! This is a great answer to prayer, as we have been waiting for someone to come and invest in the lives of our kids' moms. I am so happy to have both of these amazing women working with us in Antorcha!

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"Start Children off in the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." ~Proverbs 22:6

February 2011 Newsletter

2011 is passing very quickly! Below is my newsletter for February 2011. There are some very exciting things happening in my ministry, my city, and my personal life. Check it out! Click on the images and zoom in to make them bigger....

If you would like to support me and my ministry, you can send a check made out to "YWAM San Diego/Baja" to the following address:

YWAM San Diego/Baja

100 W. 35th St. Suite C

National City, CA 91950

Please include a note saying it is for the support of Susie Walter. Thanks for your support!

Doing Justice in Tijuana

"He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?

To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
~Micah 6:8

How can we really relate to someone who lives in extreme poverty? How can we really know what it's like to be hungry if we've never experience hunger?

Here at YWAM Tijuana we are learning about what it means to "DO justice." There are hundreds of injustices in this world: slave labor, hunger, poverty, unclean water, lack of education, child prostitution, etc. We believe that God wants us to do something about these injustices. Although we don't live in these situations on a daily basis, there are definitely things we can do to feel more compassion and empathy for the people suffering for injustices worldwide.

So every Monday at our base, we have a time of prayer and intercession for people in the world that are experience injustice in our world. This way we get God's heart for those who are suffering. Then on Tuesdays, we take Steps of Justice - we take action.

Week 1 we talked about hunger. We prayed on behalf of the child who dies every 5 seconds because of a hunger-related illness. This is something that can be prevented, and is completely unjust. Besides that, there are over 1 billion people in the world that live in hunger - that includes an estimated 49 million people in the United States. That's 1 in 7 households that struggle to put food on the table. Wow, I guess the problem of injustice isn't that far from home after all.

Week 2 we focused on water. Unclean drinking water causes several different illnesses, including diarrhea and dysentery, and children are especially at-risk because there bodies are not strong enough to fight off these sicknesses. On that Monday, we arrived at the base and there were water bottles full of dirty water - brown, cloudy, things floating and the top and dirt sitting at the bottom. We were faced with the reality that for some people in the world, that's all they have access too.

For those two issues, we went fasted for a day to empathize with those who go hungry, and went without water for understand better what it's like to be without access to clean water. This week was Week 3 and we went without shoes for a day. This topic was very real to me because I see homeless people walking the streets without shoes or children running around barefoot in the colonia almost every day. But how is this an injustice? Well, although it can be fun to run barefoot in the grass in the summer time, here it's not a choice - it's the lifestyle of those living in poverty and have to choose between putting food on the table or buying shoes for their kids. Not an easy choice to make, considering going barefoot in the dirt leads to all kinds of soil-related diseases that can penetrate the skin, not to mention the danger of stepping on broken glass or a rusty nail. Not having shoes also keeps kids from being able to go to school here in Mexico, as its a required part of the uniform even in public schools.

So yesterday I went without shoes. It was cold, and my feet hurt walking on the rocks and dirt, but that's nothing compared to what those living in poverty experience every day. As a community here at YWAM Tijuana, we took off our shoes and decided to donate them to the people living on the streets that don't have any. That was our way of "doing justice" this week.

It has been said that "Justice is what Love looks like in public." That's what we're trying to do, just as God requires of us.

Get more info about how you can take "Steps of Justice" with us at http://www.stepsofjustice.org

Back to the Basics in 2011

When I came on staff with YWAM TJ, I moved to Mexico just knowing I wanted to love God and love people. Since then, its been a whirlwind year and a half of...
...changing houses
...changing ministries
...changing offices
...changing meal plans
...changing staff
...changing relationships
...changing schools
...changing health plans
...changing leadership roles
...etc!

Whoa, its been hard to keep my feet on the ground around here! Now that I'm starting off a new year and reaching the 1.5-year mark of my 2-year commitment with YWAM TJ, I think its time to get back to the basics...

...Love God.
...Love People.

Done. *sigh* I feel better already, how 'bout you? Sometimes we complicate things that are really meant to be so simple.

So, what does this look like in my every day life?

-Digging deep into God's Word for to learn more about his character and how I am to reflect that to a fallen world
-Walking closely in the calling that God has on my life
-Praying earnestly for more revelation about how make a change in my colonia (Antorcha), my city (Tijuana) and my country (Mexico)
-Taking time to enjoy the relationships I have and wonderful people I have around me
-Giving endless amounts of hugs to my kids in the colonia to let them know how much they are loved
-Lending a listening ear to the moms of my kids as they share their heartaches and struggles

And so much more. "Walk in love" is says in 2 John 1:6. I think it means moving forward in love, living out love as a lifestyle, act out of love for God and for others, let love be sprinkled everywhere you step.

It also says in Ephesians 5 to "Follow God's example and walk in the way of love." What was God's example for us? It was Jesus, who "gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:2) Have you ever had someone go past you who was wearing so much perfume that their fragrance stayed with you long after they walked away? Maybe you turned around to see who it was? Maybe you stopped to ask them what perfume they're wearing.

I think that's how love is supposed to be - that after we've shared with someone out of love for them and love for God, the effect of that love lingers long after we're gone; that after we offer ourselves in self-sacrifice for someone else, they remember us and ask us what kind of love we have that makes us want to share it with others.

Will you go back to the basics with me in 2011, and simply "walk in love"? Maybe then we'll see the change we want to see in our homes, our relationships, our jobs, our ministries, our communities, and our world.

2011: Here I come! :)

Christmas in the States 2010

Road Trip anyone??

Day 1 of my vacation, I left from Tijuana at 8 am, crossed the border, flight got delayed in San Diego making me miss my connecting flight in Houston, got on a later flight and arrived in Charlotte at 10:45pm - whew!!! Check out this cutie that was there to greet me at the airport...

My niece Faith, 15 months

I knew it was gonna be a really fun week. My niece now walks, talks and get into everything!! I had so much fun taking care of her while my sister was at work. She also opened her first Christmas presents, and loved playing with the paper. We continued in the Christmas Spirit by taking her to see Santa, but she freaked out and barely got a picture with her on his lap. Later we went to the racetrack where they had a christmas lights show and had a great time there.

After 4 days in Charlotte, we took the looooong overnight drive to Chicago - 15 hours in the car with a baby and a big fat dog. But we survived, anda few short hours after arriving to Chicago we got back in the car to go to Milwaukee Wisconsin to go to a wedding.

I was the Nanny at the wedding and it was lots of fun! for the most part... I had my first experience of poop in the bathtub, which I will definitely never forget! While my sister got ready as a bridesmaid I took the baby with my brother-in-law to the pool! So nice after freezing in the cold Wisconsin air, to take a dip in the hot tub :)

Back in Chicago, it was great to see my family. Most of my days were spent running around catching up with people. And I got to visit my brand new cousin, Victoria, just 2 weeks old!!

We had new fun experiences with my niece, she loved looking at my mom's rotating Christmas tree, see all the ornaments, and watching Bentley run around in the snow. We made cookies too and she put on the sprinkles :)

Also it was so amazing to see my friends from IWU again! We have a tradition of all getting together on Christmas night, after all the family craziness is over to hang out and catch up. This year was no different. Oh my loves, how I miss you all...
So overall a great time catching up and seeing everyone. Far from the restful and relaxing vacation I needed, but what is Christmas for other than to spend with your crazy family, right? :)

"For unto us a child is born, to us a child is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." ~ Isaiah 9:6

Homes of Hope video

Recently, we've had a new family that's been coming to the Circulo Andante ministry in colonia Antorcha. Josefina and her 2 kids, Erik and Lupita, first walked about 4 miles to come to the Circulo when she heard about Homes of Hope. She was desperate to try to see if she had a chance through our minsitry to improve the lives of her children...
Now they have a new home, and Erik and Lupita are a fun addition to the Circulo! I love this family!

CLICK HERE to watch a video about Josefina and how her family's lives have changed by receiving a Homes of Hope house. It's very touching.

A Change of Heart: Last House build of 2010

I was so happy when I found out that my last house build of the year was going to be in colonia Antorcha, where I teach the Circulo Andante every week. "Alright!", I thought, "I'm gonna get to build for one of my adorable little kids!" And it was true, sort of - I mean, who wouldn't want to give this kid a new house?? Meet Daniel Angel, age 6. A typical mischevious little 1st grader, the smallest in his class. He makes everyone smile and always tries his best in class. He and his brother Ricardo, age 8, live with their Grandma, Martha. Ricardo is a big trouble-maker in my class, pushing and making fun of the other kids, not wanting to do any of our activities, and being forced even to come to Circulo by his Grandma Martha. While I was so happy they were getting a new house, I have to confess I wasn't very thrilled about the idea of having to deal with this "problem child" the whole weekend. Although the more time I spent with them and learned about their family, I have to say God definitely convicted me of my judgemental attitude and gave me a change of heart.


Here is Martha's house: a one room shack with blankets and sheets for walls where she lives with her 2 grandchildren. I had the honor of talking to Martha about her family and she shared with me that her daughter - the boys' mother - is currently in a drug rehab center in Ensenada. She bravely took up the task of being the boys' legal guardian and raising these 2 while their mother is rehabilitating. She said they don't get to go visit her very much and sadness and angry the boys feel from missing their mother comes out in their behavior. She called the oldest boy Ricardo "tremendo" - or terribly naughty - and I saw that come out in his rudeness and disrespect towards her several times throughout the weekend. It didn't help my feelings toward him either that he kept asking me when we were going to take him to buy all the free food and how many toys was he going to get (as if the brand new house wasn't enough!) I'm sure this is because he had seen a lot of other kids in the colonia get new houses full of furniture and toys and heard stories about the overloaded carts full of grocieres that the teams often buy the families. Although I had never met a child that was so presumptuous to ask "when" and "how much"! So much for the surprise.... Anway, I had a great time working alongside Martha to get her house built.

Gloria and I working with Martha inside the house

In addition to the team's hard work, we also had several more helping hands: the kids from the Circulo! We had about 20 kids come and help us paint, hammer, carry shingles and anything else they could do. I also had the pleasure of serving alongside some of the moms in the colonia that came out to be a part of this special blessing for Martha.

Brayan, Itai and Daniel Angel ready to hammer

Me working on painting with some of the kids from the Circulo

Karinn and Martin - 2 6th graders from the Circulo- working on painting inside

Jessica and her family received a Homes of Hope house several months ago. Now she came out with her kids to help out and to be a part of this amazing gift for another family!

The house dedication was an especially emotional time as Martha shared with the whole team about the boys' mother and her situation in the rehab center. She expressed that she was absolutely thrilled to be receiving a Homes of Hope house and that she hoped this new home would bring some stability and feeling of security to her two boys. Then each team member got to share what the experience meant to them and how grateful they were to be a part of giving Martha and her family this great blessing. One comment that I especially remember was from an older woman on the team. She said that as a grandma herself, she thought that Martha was very brave for taking on the responsibility to raise her grandsons. This brought Martha to tears, as I believe she never even thought twice about bringing the boys into her home to care for them, loving and courageous as she is.

Martha and her two boys with me translating for the team leaders at the dedication

A few weeks after the build, some of our YWAM staff took Martha and the boys to visit their mom at the rehab center in Ensenada. They said it was a glorious reunion full of love and happiness. Before they left, Martha showed me the letters that the boys wrote to their mom in regards to their new house: (see images and translation below). It broke my heart and brought me to tears (even still while I'm writing to you about it now!), just to see the tender heart of a child, no matter how tough their exterior may be...

Pretty mommy, mommy I miss you, Get better really soon, we need you. My mom (grandma) Martha and my brother and I love you. We really want you to come to my house so you can see it. Your son that loves you, Daniel

Mommy, I love you alot and I miss you. I want you to get better soon so that you can come back to my beautiful house. Please, I want you to come and live in my house with us so that you can take care of us. We love you alot. Do your best - your son that loves you asks you for this -Ricardo.

I thank God that he forgives us for our sinful hearts, judgemental and deceiving as they are (or at least mine is!) I'm thankful that I got another chance to see this boy in a different light, how amazing the love is between a mother and her sons. And I am SO happy that I got to be a part of this build and of bringing hope to Martha and her boys - a hope of a new life, together as a family.

"People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
~1 Samuel 16:7

P.S. This is our 3rd house that Abraham and I have built together!