My first week at YWAM has been amazing.  It’s gone by so fast and it’s only Wednesday! I’ve gotten to meet so many new people.  There are 6 girls total in my room and 22 girls in my house.  I know so many girls but it been really great to get to live and connect with these girls! We have 7 rooms in the house, two bathrooms with two showers each, a large living room, and a nice mini kitchen to share.  It’s really hot though. With so many people and a broken swamp cooler, it’s really warm! It has been around 99 degrees and it even has gotten to 118! It’s crazy!

As for my classes, they haven’t really started yet.  They are giving us the week to get used to living on the base and get used to the crazy schedule.  We’ve had lots of “family” time were we have played games to get to know each other and team building games to help us to work together.  We had our first lecture today.  It was a video sermon by Louie Gegilio and it was titled “How Great is Our God”.  He talked about how there are so many stars that are even larger than the sun and that God made them and even if earth was the size of a golf ball they would be huge! Then he talked about how even our bodies are a crazy proof that God is so mighty and powerful, thinking up the little details, like to proteins that make up our 75 trillion cells and that every three seconds 50,000 die and are instantly replaced! How amazing is our God that he even thought to come up with such a complex system inside us that we didn’t even know of!

On a sad note, one of the girls is deciding to return to home in Canada tonight.  She is one of my roommates and I’m really sad to see her go.  Her name is Mikayla so if you think of her, just please pray for her! I’m praying that she realizes that God brought her here for a reason and that she was meant to be here.  After she goes home, she will have a week to decide if she wants to come back, so if you don’t mind praying that she makes the decision that she feels God is telling her to make.  We all have felt like we don’t want her to go home and regret not being here.   

In case you feel lead to pray for my team, here is the list of their names. It’s been really cool to get to know everyone in the house and learn where they are from.  Its been really interesting to see the differences in even the other English speaking countries like Ireland and England!

Ariel - Canada

Katherine- Canada

Luisa- Germany

Rachel- California

Kendra - California

Ruby- New Jersey

Keila- Brazil

Lily- Kentucky

Jenny- Flordia

Claire- Northern Ireland

Jess- England

Jade- Australia

Chelsea- Illinois

Hannah N. - Minnesota

Hannah M. - England

Karoline- Norway

Anna –Georgia

Kirsty- Northern Ireland

Raquel- California

Kendal- Washington

Mikayla (She is leaving back to Canada) :'(

Ida and Noah (a married couple)- Sweden

Phillirie (a single mom with her 4 yr. old son Elijah)- California

Phillip – England

Skyler – Missouri

Isn't it just awesome that we have come from all over, yet we all have the same passion to learn and teach about Jesus and take a stand against Human Trafficking!

I really appreciate your prayers and I can’t wait to share all my experiences with you all. 

If you want to send me letters or pictures, I’d be really happy! We have lots of personal wall space and I’d love to put some pictures up! 

Jordyne Castaneda

YWAM LA JDTS 2014

11141 Osborne St.

Lake View Terrace, CA 91342

~Jordyne