Meet No Strangers

Hello there!  My name is Maiya, and I am a STUDENT in the Bible Core Course (BCC) here at the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) Madrid base here in Torrejon de Ardoz.  All of my belongings have been moved into the bedroom, in which I share with my 2 roomies, on the fourth floor of the base.  However, I have [unofficially] moved into the basement.  Let me explain…

Our BCC classroom is in the basement, and whenever we are doing work for the BCC, upstairs in the fourth floor, is off limits.  The reason behind this, is to separate “school” from “living space”.  Our school work consists of reading various books of the bible, and studying at least 2 books a week.  We typically have about 4 days studying a book, and the whole week to get the rest of the readings done each week.  With studying, we have various tasks that have to be completed:

1. read the book without stopping
   • if the book has more than 10 chapters, it must be read out loud, with a group
2. read again – do observations (observations are done by reader chioce)
   • I typically reread and focus on:
     • people, places, the Trinity, imperatives, repeated words/phrases/ideas, difficult terms/ideas, questions I may have, looking for the key verse
3.  Horizontal
   • titling each paragraph
   • putting the paragraphs into sections
   • placing the sections into segments, then to division, etc
   • meeting with our assigned tutor to make sure all the above info is done correctly, and talk about any questions we may have had for the book
4. Additional  work assigned (varies each week)
   • one of our additional works, for Hebrews (with Exodus & Leviticus), was to create the parts of the Tabernacle, then to present the tabernacle.
5. Methods (critical, panoramic, historical)
6. Global Method (application)
7. Card

With all of the above work, I practically live in the basement – as I stated before, and life outside of school is practically non-existent.

I am enjoying every minute of being here, even with all the work.  It’s been very challenging for me, MANY times, especially in the area of being a student again.  Growing up, I always had my “smarts” to fall back on; I fought to make sure that I was one of those students that were “top of the class”.  When everyone would brag about their “new expensive clothing & shoes”, I had my brain & good grades to show for it, to brag about.  Being here, I have truly felt like the “low group” student.

My desire is to become a bible nerd; to be able to use God’s word like a true sword to speak truth over people/situations, with confidence – but I wasn’t quite there upon arriving here.  However, my classmates all seem to be so much further than me on that scale, and it has been so frustrating for me.  This is an area where God has been working in me.

During this past week, with preparing for the Tabernacle, I lost it.  I was so frustrated because it was in this moment that I finally reached a point where I felt like I knew absolutely NOTHING!  Ya girl even fell to tears – AH!  But I had a “heart/spirit check”.

This place, the tabernacle, was the only access these people had to God, but only one man (the high priest) was even allowed to go into the presence of God, and that was only ONCE A YEAR.  Once a year, one man was allowed to go into the presence of God, and that was to atone for the sins of the people as well as for himself.  The presence of God resided in the most holy place, atop of the arc of the covenant, closed off by a veil.

In front of the veil was the holy place, where the incense, the bread, and the golden lamp stand resided; this place is where the priest was allowed to enter at any time.  I couldn’t imagine going into the holy place, seeing the veil and knowing that behind the veil was the presence of God, and that if I entered into that place without being instructed/permitted, I could die.  The amount of fear they must have had of God and His presence.  But God changed that for us with His Son, and that’s what is so special and what really changed things for me.

Jesus changed everything for us, and I have never truly appreciated this before this experience.  Thinking about the Israelites at this time, and how God must have been such a “far away God” to them; a God so scary.  Now, because of Jesus, we get to know this God; we get to be in His presence any time we want to.  This is such a privilege we have, that the Israelites couldn’t have even imagined doing without having certain certifications.  I have truly taken this for granted – I have freedom to be in God’s presence whenever I want, however I want.  I can go to Him with my needs, to say thank you, or just to be – like a child would go to his/her parent.

I was missing all of this because I couldn’t get past my own issue of feeling inadequate; of feeling embarrassed for not knowing stuff like the rest of my classmates.  I realized that in my moment of feeling inadequate, building up this wall, I forgot to go to God about this, entirely.  It wasn’t until God sent my pastor to message me, that I remembered that I NEED HIM!  It’s crazy how I was feeling inadequate about something from God’s word, but I completely forgot to go to Him about it.  Just like the Israelites forgot what God had done for them, many times, there I was in this process.  Praise the Lord, though, that I can go into my God’s presence to ask for His comfort and for His help – even after spending a few days forgetting.

There have been many moments like this for me – where God has been “re-wiring” my thought-process, or even my actions.  I’m learning to put aside my pride, and truly trust God.  He continues to ask me, “are you going to trust Me?”  “are you going to continue to trust me?”.  It’s said that He even has to ask me these questions continuously, but I’m thankful that He does, and doesn’t just “through me by the wayside”.

Like the Israelites, I too am having to REMEMBER; remember what He has said to me and what He has already done for me.  How quickly we forget, especially when things get a little “rough” – but God is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

>>>>>

To other news…

• I have joined the worship team here at the base [vocals only as of now – although I was recently asked to play the piano, so I guess I’ll be exercising these fingers again]
• I purchased my [Round Trip] ticket home for December
  • This in itself was a God thing and I loved to share that with you (call/text/DM me)
• I have [more] little siblings
  • with the Hip Hop DTS going on right now, I have 3 “little brothers” and 2 “little sisters”, and it has definitely been enjoying getting to know them.
• Some friends of mine, from 11 years ago when I lived in Mexico, came to visit me for a short time.

I have another month and a half left of the BCC, and I look forward to what else God has in store.

I do apologize for my lack of blogging/communicating, but I do appreciate your support :).

Enjoy the rest of these pictures – we don’t take many because, well, you read above :), so enjoy what we have taken :).