Me, Myself and I (SOMD ~ Wk 8)

This week has been all about discovering more about ourselves. At the end of last week, we did four personality tests (Myers-Briggs, DISC, Strength Finders, and Motivational Gifts) and this week, Sheron, our speaker, expanded on the the different results of these tests.

I loved this week because I think it is important to be secure in my identity if I want to continue to do the Lord's work. If I have no clue who I am, then I have no business telling others who they are. I love these test because they aren't meant to put ourselves in a box, but they help me explain who I am in words I wouldn't have been able to myself. Its has helped me get to know my friends better, learning how different results of these tests complement each other. It has also has shown me that it is important to surround myself with those different me because we all have special giftings that come with our individuality. Learning to champion each others is important. God made us all unique and we should be proud to embrace who he made us.

We presented our test results to our entire class to help
us sum up what we have learned this week. All my results are below. 

Here are my results, in case you are curious! I've summarized the results in my own words based on how I feel it applies to me. 😀

Myers- Briggs:
Extrovert- means I am energized by being with others rather than alone
Sensing- I like to gather information based on the facts, aka my five senses
Feeling- I make decisions based on how I feeling
Perceiving- I am super flexible and don't really need a schedule to run my life

Spiritual Gifts:
Exhorter- I naturally like to encourage others
Serving- I naturally like to tangibly bless others

DISC:
Influencer- I value relationships and am open and accepting of others. It also mentioned a love for talking.  I thought that was funny because it's true! 😂

Strength Finders: (I've wanted to do this test for so long, so I am so happy we had a chance to do this one this week!)
1) Adaptability- flexible; lives in the moment
2) Includer- a love for equality; accepting of everyone; not wanting anyone to feel left out
3) Positivity- encourager; sees the bright side of life
4) Developer- sees potential in others; challenges others to rise up in success
5) Input- collector of information

All my results involved my love for other people in one way or another. Sheron shared what each of our "worst nightmares" would be depending on our MB results and mine was "You are stuck in a room by yourself for the rest of eternity." Yup, that sounds like a nightmare to me!!!

I'd love to know more about your results on these tests, if you've done them before!
Let's chat!
Email: mad4mangoes1@gmail.com
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Becoming a Bible Detective (SOMD ~ WK 7)

This week our speaker challenged us this week and become Sherlock Holmes and discover what the Bible has to say. It was super challenging, but in a different way than I've been challenged before. I'm not really sure how to share what I've learned this week. It was a lot of personal revelation that I don't know as much as I thought I did about the Bible and that I need to go back to God to truly understand what I am reading. Our speaker Heather also challenged me with my spiritual worldview and how Scripture supports what I believe. I love how everything Heather spoke about, she backed up with scripture. If we had any questions, she encouraged us to answer it with what we've learned rather than try to feed us her opinion.

I have grown up with a very western worldview. Others have grown up with a traditional worldview. There's nothing wrong with this, it's just that we see and learn about God differently. This means as a missionary, I have to have an understanding of another's worldview in order to know how to share and teach about God. If someone came to me and told me about Jesus and had cold hard facts to back up what they are saying, I would probably believe them. I would still probably have questions but I would be able to begin to understand who Jesus is and who he can become to me.  If they tried to do this in Asia, where they have a more traditional worldview, then history and truth would not be enough from them to believe. They value power and they would want to see proof of it in order to believe. A traditional worldview also has a totally different view on the spiritual world than what I grew up in. Heather broke this all down for us so we can learn to understand different cultures. Traditional worldview believes in spirits, ghosts, blessings, curses, magic, witchcraft on a totally different level then us in the west. I grew up with all these spiritual things being super glamorized in Hollywood. I don't live my life affected by these things, but those in the traditional worldview, live their lives based on how spirits will affect them. If we don't as least learn about these things, then we will not understand how to reach them with the Gospel. We all have a message to deliver, but do we know how to "package" it and deliver it to the appropriate person.
This week also showed me more of the Israelites worldview in the Old Testament, which we are still reading through (We are half way done! We will finish the Old Testament and start Matthew on Monday!). I loved when we were shown the original Hebrew and the original meaning of the passages we were reading. It's crazy how when a verse is translated into English, the whole meaning of the verse can be changed. I am really enjoying reading through the whole Bible. I am absorbing so much by reading whole books in one sitting. I am building a mental timeline and understanding the context in which it was written a little more each week.

 I ALMOST FORGOT! I have a really exciting announcement!!! I am going on outreach to......

GREECE!!!! 

I am soooooo excited for this outreach. There is a huge Syrian refugee crisis in Greece right now and they are needing aid once they land in the country, and we get the opportunity to serve and tell them about who God is to us as Christians. There have been more Muslims coming to Christ then ever before. I love how YWAM takes time to teach and then gives a way to take what was learned and apply it. I am so excited to be apart of the story. 

Please be praying for the other students in my school, as they make the decision on whether they will be joining this optional outreach and also for finances for those who feel called to go. My leaders will be announcing more details and the final team next week. 

Thank you all so much for your support and prayers during my time here at YWAM LA. Love you all! 

Keep in touch! I'd love to chat! 

Email: mad4mangoes1@gmail.com

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Want to send me snail mail? 

Jordyne Castaneda 

11141 Osborne St. 

Sylmar, CA 91342 

SOMD~ WK 6

Thank you so much for the love everyone showed me after reading my blog from last week! I loved the feedback and knowing that I have such a wonderful group of people who support me! I'm glad that I shared what I was going through with you all. This week has been tremendously better!

This week was really good. We didn't have much free time this week, our schedule kept us going all day and into the night. On Monday, we break into groups and make timelines for each book of the Bible that we've read through the week prior. That's been fun to see everyone's creative side come out as we are supposed to design our timeline with illustrations of the people and events for the book.
We are reading the larger books as a school instead of in the small groups we normally read in, so on

Tuesday, we read Psalms! Yes, all 150 chapters in one sitting! It took us 3 1/2 hours to read it all, which is a lot faster than we though it would be! Our leader, Lisa made homemade soup to eat while we read, and it was a great time spent as a school.

This week Joseph Avakian was our speaker and he spoke on the importance of communication. He shared the importance of not only being in constant communication with Holy Spirit, but also with those around us. It's important to learn to value the individual, whether they are our friends/peers, those we work with or are at trying to share the Gospel with. Everyone was created uniquely and it's important to understand that just because someone is an introvert or an extrovert, doesn't mean they are exactly the same as other introverts or extroverts. We need to learn how to champion the individual. It is also important to understand the culture in which one comes from so we can learn how to champion them as well. Joseph is lively and animated in his style of teaching. He taught us in two different styles, one by giving us powerpoint presentations, thus giving the exact information he wished to share, and through stories, allowing us to pull information each of individually wished to grab onto.  It was really good that he showed us the difference so the different types of learners could all feel like they were getting something from him.

Joseph also shared how he uses a talent to bring glory to God. He is a graphic designer through a company he started through YWAM in Berlin, Germany. He works in a professional setting, allowing God to speak in him and through in the business world. I love when people share their talents and gifts and how they use them to glorify God. It shows me that I can bring God glory, in whatever I do.

Through the UPS and downs (SOMD~ Wk 5)

This blog post is going to be really raw and vulnerable. Please bear with me! This week has honestly been really hard for me. Sometimes we think that we make the decision to follow Jesus and then everything becomes a piece of cake from there. That's not it at all. Sometimes, following him means dealing with things that hurt, and as much as it hurts, it brings it into his light and out of darkness. When things start to have light shed on them, the enemy uses that as an opportunity to target our hurts and often make them feel exaggerated.  John 10:10 says "The thief (or enemy/Satan) comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." 

Last weekend  was the first weekend that I've had free time on base for about 2 months. That hit me really hard. I live away from the other girls in my school, as I live in staff housing here on base, but I don't have a roommate right now. This gave the enemy a chance to try to speak isolation into my thoughts and I'm sad to say he succeeded. I didn't feel like anyone was purposely trying to push me out but I lost the will to try to seek out others. It's honestly a horrible feeling. I was feeling so out of place and didn't know who to go to for help. One of my friends asked to talk with me since it had been a while since we last connected. We had a really good honest conversation and that really helped. I had been texting with one of my friends, who's in Mexico leading an outreach team, and she asked me how SOMD was going. I was able to share with her and she was so honest and caring with me. I love that she took the time to pour into me, even though I'm sure she has other things she could deal with since she's leading a team right now. That helped speak some identity back into my life! Since then, I have started to be more intentional with hanging out with the other students in my free time, and that made a world of a difference. I love my school and I am so thankful for the chance to grow with them. 

This week's speaker, John Bills, has been speaking to us about the importance of Godly decision making earlier this week and that has been really good. Then he switched topics and we started talking about how to deal with trauma and grief. At first I was fine, as we put some of the practical things we learned about decision making into practice by applying it to what we, as leaders, would do during a traumatic event. Then he started talking about how to deal with the grief that comes afterwards and I lost it. I cried for the loss of my uncle all over again, as if it happened yesterday instead of 8 years ago. John was talking about how to comfort someone, what to say, what not to say, and all the emotions from when my uncle died, came flooding back to me. I remember people always asking me if I was ok, and I honestly hated that question. I knew I wasn't "fine" but I didn't know how to share how I was really feeling. I don't know if I knew how I really felt during that time. I know now, that sometimes we don't really know how to comfort someone so when we ask things like "How are you?", it can be out of a place of just not knowing what else to say. It's crazy how grief really ever goes away, even though I've accepted my uncle not being here anymore. 
John had us chose a hard time in our lives (traumatic or not) and draw it out to share with one person in our class. I haven't finished my drawing yet, but I see how drawing it out and sharing it with someone you trust, can really bring it into the light and help the grieving process. I remember my Mom saying when my uncle died, that grief is like waves in the ocean. We stand in the waves and can let them either roll over us or let them knock us down, but either way they will come towards us. Grief never really goes away, but I know that I have a God who is willing to stand with me as the waves come. Grief doesn't get easier, but I don't have to do it alone. 

I knew I wanted to write this blog while it was on my heart to do so, but I wasn't expecting it to be so heavy. I wanted to share and be open about how I was feeling. Serving God isn't all rainbows and butterflies, and I am so thankful that I get to walk with through times that are tough. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for being so supportive of me in my time here at YWAM LA. I still love every moment of it and I love every adventure, through the ups and the downs because I get to walk alongside such a loving God. 

Feel free to stay in contact with me!
Facebook Messager: Jordyne Castaneda
mad4mangoes1@gmail.com
Instagram: mad_4_mangoes