Routine Military Checkpoint

Because there is a lot of drug traffiking going on right now in Baja, the military has set up checkpoint along the major highway where you have to stop and tell them who you are and where you're from and where you're going, etc. They also sometimes do a search of your car. Because we were bringing a bunch of sound equipment back from our trip to San Quintin, we got stopped and the soldiers searched our car. This is not the noteworthy thing, but instead the best part is what the people in the car in front of us got stopped for....


let's just say they had a good time freaking out the gringa with their giant snow crab... and the back of their pick up was Full of them!

Another interesting encounter I had at one of these military stops was in one of our 12-passenger YWAM vans. A motley crew full of YWAMers - germans, mexicans, americans, canadians - we got stopped, asked the routine questions about where we were and where we were going, then the soldier went around to the side door, opened it and asked, "are you guys all Family?" we all burst out laughing, thinking, "he's gotta be kidding!" our driver just calmly responded - "yes, the family of God." :)


"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring..." Proverbs 27:1

Ministry in San Quintin

Well, I was barely unpacked before I had to re-pack for a 3 day trip to the little town of San Quintin. We arrived in San Quintin after 3 hours of driving through the mountains of Baja...on the way we passed through vineyards and strawberry fields!

On the first night in San Quintin, we had a missions conference for the youth in the community, and they showed up in BUSES to come! over one hundred youth from San Quintin and the surrounding community showed up to worship God, hear about missions, and learn what they could do to serve the Lord in their community.

waiting for the church service to start, I made some friends and we had a little nail painting party.

The next day we went to a colonia (small neighborhood) outside the town and handed out tarps to the families there. Some of their homes had leaky roofs and we put the tarps over the roof, and some were just in need of some shade around their home. We also did some kids activities in the afternoon. Here are some favorite faces from the afternoon...


At night we had another church service with all of the youth, which was completely led by them - music, dramas, everything. At YWAM,we have a ministry called JuCUM Teens, which is a youth group for teens in the Tijuana area. They all come together and use their talents to reach out to the other youth in their community. Some of the kids did dramas, another performed a mime, others sang raps and break danced. The aim was to show the youth that whatever their talent was - whatever they had to give - they could use it to bless others and serve God. Through faith, if we give a little, God can multiply it into A LOT!

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Another of his disciples, Andrew, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." The men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
~John 6~

Made it to Mexico

Hello!! Hola!!

So I'm writing to you from Mexico!!! Yeay!! I Finally made it....Friday was probably the worst travel day of my life - delays, cancellations, rebooking, more delays, running through the airport, losing my purse, losing my luggage....it was almost too much to handle. ALMOST. But getting to the border and seeing the "Welcome to Mexico" sign made it all worth it. :)

I was happy to see all of my friends from YWAM here in Mexico again - Lizzie and Danae from my DTS now work at the base in Ensenada. Also I was glad to see and catch up with the other full time staff in Ensenada. Just to clarify, I'm living and working at the base in Tijuana. I dnt know the people there as well, but we're all friends and the girls i'm living with all seem to get along really well. Also, there are 2 girls from IWU that are also here at the YWAM bases, so I was excited to see them. Sam Pierz is doing her DTS in Tecate, and we got to hang out this weekend and catch up on life, and I loved seeing her as well.

I sort of unpacked some of my suitcases (once they were found again). I am living in a town house alittle off of the base, becasue the staff housing on the base is not built yet. we have 5 girls living i nthe house, 2 more to come. there will be 4 of us in my room, one bathroom and one walk in closet - wheeeew. it should be ok though because I went to the Container store before I left (which no one knows what that is here, americans included, hahaha) so I have all my stuff pretty well organized. I unpacked, only to have to repack again to go to another town this week. Some of the staff from Tijuana are going to a small town about 3 hours away to do some ministry and talk to the youth there about YWAM and the Discipleship Training School (DTS) we are doing i nthe fall. We wil be there until Wednesday. I'm alittle sad that I didnt get to settle in more before having to leave again, but happy to already be out doing ministry. No need to rest, as we always said in college, "You can sleep when you're dead!!" hahaha

I'll try to post some pictures of where i'm living later this week. we dont have internet at my house so its not as convenient as I would like, but I will definitely keep updating.

as a reminder, you can send me mail whenever!! no cell phone though, so we have to do it the old fashioned way. :) here is my address:

Susie Walter
YWAM San Diego/Baja - Tijuana Base
100 W. 35th St, Suite C
National City, CA 91950

I'd love to hear from you!!!

"Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told."
~Habakkuk 1:5

A quick recap...

Not all who wander are lost... ~J.R.R. Tolkien

So I realize that I am very far behind in my blog, and new things just keep on happening! So right now I am going to do a quick recap, chronologically backwards...

June 18, 2009 (aka right now) Packing to return to Mexico -TOMORROW!!! (we'll come back to that ;-) )

June 14, 2009 Sara's Baby Shower- It was so great to have all of the family together to celebrate Sara's pregnancy and expecting her first baby, and It's A Girl!!! I'm SO EXCITED to be an AUNT!!!

June 6-12, 2009 Disney Cruise - my wonderful and talented cousin is making our (and every other little girls') dream come true as a Disney Princess on a Disney cruise ship! I drove down to florida with Rob and Maura (2 friends from IWU) and took a 4 day FREE cruise with Beth to the bahamas. it was AMAZING! she is fantastic, i cried as she came out as snow white and cinderella, *sigh* so many plays in her basement and in front of my christmas tree, and now this is her life!

May 2009 At home I spent a lot of time this month at home with my family, babysitting my cousins, or hanging at my best friend Lily's house.

Easter (April) 2009 North Carolina visiting Sara It was so fun to go see my sister! Mom and I drove down, then spent a week at her house. we shopped for baby furniture and other baby items mostly. I can't believe the next time I go to her house there will be a little baby in it too!!

End of March 2009 YWAM Veracruz I spent 2 weeks helping out at a new YWAM base that is starting out in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz. The base has a connection with a local church there, and some of my friends asked me to come down and help run a Vacation Bible School for the kids at the church. They didnt have sunday school or anything for the kids, so we had a great time singing songs, playing games, and teaching bible stories with the kids there.

March 2 2009 Home from Mexico- Coming back to the US after being gone for 6 months was hard, maybe that's why I only stayed home for about two weeks before I left again...

End of February 2009 Carnaval and YWAM Mazatlan After my DTS finished, I spent 2 weeks in Mazatlan, a city on the western coast of Mexico. There I spent some time relaxing after an intense 5 months, and also serving at the YWAM base there. I was there during a time called Carnaval, its kinda like the Mexican version of Mardi gras - parades, floats, costumes, large amounts of food and even larger amounts of alcohol. During all the craziness, the YWAMers run a free beauty salon and cafe, with the intention of getting people off the streets and into a calmer, safer atmosphere. I really enjoyed my time in mazatlan, hopefully I'll be able to go back again next year.

February 13, 2009 DTS Graduation I was so sad having to say goodbye to all of the good friends I made during my DTS. I know that I will see some of them again back in Mexico soon, but my closest friends just happen to be from Germany and Japan... :-( I was sad to leave Ensenada, but know that I will be back soon enough this summer.

February 6, 2009 Back from Outreach After 2 months away, my team finally came back to Ensenada! Oh, how we missed being so close to the beach! During the week before graduation, we spent lots of time "debriefing" with our staff, talking about going home, and our plans for the future. During this week is when the YWAM base director in Ensenada asked me to come on staff for the next DTS, and I was very honored. But I felt like Tijuana was where I was supposed to go, so I spoke with the DTS staff there and they are ready to have me come back this summer to work on staff with them.

February 1-5, 2009 Ministry in Huitzitzilingo, Mexico This was our last location for our outreach, and by this time, everyone was pretty exhausted. however, this is the place that i was looking forward to the most for all of outreach. It was this tiny village up in the mountains surrounding Mexico city, a 4.5 hour windy drive to be exact. Some of the women from a local church cooked meals for us, I even got to learn how to make tortillas. They also speak an indigenous language there called Nahuatl. For example, "Nhu tuka Susie, Catiqui mu tuka?" is "my name is susie. what is your name?" I absolutely loved being there, and trying to learn some of this new language from spanish speakers, no english, hahaha One of my main jobs there was teaching an english class. now, we were the only white people there so even though we only invited a few kids (day one there were about 30), word spread quickly that we were offering free english classes and on the last day that week we had almost 100 kids! plus parents listening in :) This was by far my favorite week of outreach, even though I was exhausted at the end of each day, I knew that I had given my all, and then some, for the ministry that we were doing.

January 26-31 2009 Ministry in Mexico City This was one of the hardest ministries that I have ever done. We spent most of our time on the streets of Mexico city with the prosititutes and drug addicts. I think most of them couldnt really have cared less what we were trying to do, so that made the ministry extra hard. We handed out sandwiches to the druggies living on the streets, and flowers to the prositutes working the streets. We talked with them about the love of God and how nothing they could ever do would make God love them less. Some had never heard it said to them that God loved them, some had given up on God all together, but its my hope that during the time that we spent with them, they were able to see Jesus through us.

"No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another God lives in us and His love is made complete in us" 1 John 4:12

Well that catches you up on the wayward journeys of Susie Walter. Tomorrow I leave for Mexico, I'm going to work at the YWAM Tijuana base full time. More info to come..