Dream a little dream with me

When I was in middle school I had these three best friends, we did everything together and told each other everything! we had a dream that after we all graduated from high school we were all going to go on a road trip together across the states. We were going to dance and just travel with not a care in the world. Well sadly we all grew up and grew apart but I still had that dream in my heart. Now flash forward to just a month ago I was driving in a car with three other amaizing Godly friends that God has placed in my life, and we are blasting christian music, worshipping God, on a road trip across the states to go to a dance conference! God spoke so strongly to me "Monica you see I never forget theses dreams in your heart, even the ones that are thrown in the back and have been forgotten"

These past few months God has been teaching me to dream again and to dream with him, because our dreams are important to him. In the beginning of March as many of you know, I came back to YWAM Montana to be apart of a dance touring company. The  first month we spent on the base rehearsing and just seeking God's heart for the dance tour. (I posted our promo video on my page if you haven't gotten a chance to check it out you should) The first month on base is when God started pulling on my heart reminding me of the dreams that I had but pushed away. I remember sitting in the studio asking God what He wanted to show me through the time of the dance tour and He said this, "Monica this is a time when I want to show you things about yourself that you didn't know, I want to stretch you and teach you to walk in confidence of who I created you to be, most of all I want you to dream with me again, to let your heart and imagination go free and wild, That's what I created you to do, I will bring back the dreams you have forgotten about." And that's what He did. Every place we went on tour I would have a conversion with someone about there dreams and what it was to dream with God.

The whole time during tour I felt like I was standing on an edge of a cliff, looking down and seeing nothing, it seems as though it goes on forever. I felt like God wanted me to jump, to trust in Him that he would catch me, to trust him with my everything dreams and all included. Behind me was all of my past, the journey I have been walking though the past few years I don't want to go backward but it seems so scary to jump. See it would be comfortable to just stay right there not to jump and just wait But He was calling be to a new place asking me if I would trust Him to catch me, The thing is that he would still love me if I didn't jump, He would just sit down right next to me and wait patiently. Its such a beautiful thing to jump, to say yes to Him, to trust Him. needless to say I jumped and he caught me and he took my dreams and held them for me.

God did so many amazing things on tour I saw girls come to realize that they are loved by God and that they are not there past. I saw homeless men feel loved for the first time, I saw youth realize that they can use there gifts and talents for God, I saw people literally run to the foot of the cross and I saw that dance can really change the atmosphere. Dance is healing, its redemptive and its the forefront of the battle. Most of all I saw my dreams be restored and come into place. So don't be afraid to dream again with God even if these dreams are thrown in the back and have dust on them, ask Him what it looks like to dream with him, because it is a beautiful thing.

What am I doing next?

Funny you should ask! About 2 years ago I first cam to YWAM Montana for the summer programs and fell in love with it. God did some amazing things in my life and I was able to use dance in missions! after I had always dreamed about staffing it, low and behold I am going to be staffing the summer of Dance this year!! I am so excited to come along side young people who have never experienced missions before and champion them in the Lord. There are about 9 students in the dance program and about 36 students in the entire program, there is also Summer of Music, Summer of Sports, and Summer of Architect. It is going to be an amazing summer. Please pray that God would encounter these students and they would all have a life changing experience with the Lord. I will be posting little updates on my page as time goes on. Thank you!!

The pause button

Right now I am sitting in this little cafe, sipping on my chi tea and listening to some good music (Will Reagan & United Pursuit!) and occasionally eavesdropping on the conversations next to me. But while all this in going on I am waiting for my food to be brought to me. I am kinda getting impatient not gonna lie, I am pretty hungry and I want my food I don't want to wait. Monica why are you writing about waiting for food what is your point?...stay with me I am going somewhere with this. you see I feel like these past 5 moths of my life have been nothing but waiting! waiting for someone to call me back, waiting for money to come in, waiting for God to tell me what the next step in my life is! Its like someone just hit the pause button and forgot to hit play!

After coming home from my trip to Nepal I was so excited, it was like this fire, this passion was lit in me and I was on this high, this excitement, I wanted to make a big change, to make a huge difference and put a stop to Human trafficking. So I started to raise awareness , I went to some churches and just shared my heart, Now believe me I am no professional about Human Trafficking, I only know a few facts and some horrific stories that I heard over in Nepal. but that's just it I only wanted to share my heart I wanted people to understand and grasp the really heartbreaking and eye opening  reality of it. Anyway i'm off topic again bare with me. So I got home and I really wanted to make a difference, I just got back from the YWAM Colorado school of Basic Christian Counselling and I thought that's what I needed to do. I started to apply to ministries with counselling opportunities or for internships, I started going to churches telling everyone that I was going right back on the mission field Why? because that is honestly what I thought that is what I was supposed to do. And I still do believe that is what God wants me to do, I am going to be used in a way to help council people who have been hurt and broken, I want to see them walk into the freedom that God has for them. But it might not be God's time. I have had a passion for 2 things people and dance. I know that God is going to combine both of those and make something great for me. 

I will admit that being home has not been the easiest time in my life or even the most exciting but it has been pretty challenging. I have felt stuck like if I wasn't on the mission field or helping poor people in a third world country I was not in God's will. The last past year of my life was filled with adventure and freedom, I experienced God like I never had before. Being home a lot of the things that I was freed from, the pain or the temptations where all there back home waiting for me. So being home and having all the things and even people that I wanted to run from I was stuck with back home. I thought maybe I should just push this along and start making opportunities for myself ......... yea smart thinking. Well this is what mine and God conversations went like. 

So I applied for some internships and I heard God say 

Monica do you trust me? 

Yea God I trust you.

Well that Door closed 

I applied for another YWAM school, Again God asked

Monica do you trust me?

Yes God I do trust you.

Well another door closed 

Ok well I am not supposed to be home so I will apply for staff for YWAM 

Monica do you trust me? 

God I already told you yes I do! 

and another door closed 

Ok well I guess I will just go on another mission trip somewhere I have never been before. 

Monica do you trust me? 

Yes God why do you keep asking me this you know that I trust you 

Than why are you trying to make plans happen when they are not my plans for you? 

oh wow mind blown! I get it I need to trust in God that he does have plans for me. in his timing, they might not be what I had in my mind but God's plans are always better than ours. Now I decided to really trust in God and surrender everything to him. I still don't know exactly why I am staying home but I do know that I have been learning so much and really learning to truly trust in God. It has been a time of processing this last past year of my life and resting in God. I have experienced so much more healing and I have gained an understanding of his just hanging out with Jesus. Do you know how cool it is to just sit with Jesus, he wants to just hang out with me, it doesn't matter if I am on the mission field or in a third world country, he just wants to hang out. 

But the really most important thing I have learned being home is that he does have amazing plans for me, maybe not in my timing but his and I cant wait to see what they are. I do have some opportunities coming up in the near future and I am excited because I did not force them or try to make them happen I  just waited.

I heard this really cool quote. 

              Until God opens a  door I will praise him in the hallway 

I am choosing to trust in him and wait. Oh and my food finally did come and it was well worth the wait :) 

A Journey through pictures

People say a picture is worth a thousand words, and since I cant cant even find the words to say about my experience in Nepal why not let the pictures just speak for me. So enjoy

We had many layovers on our way to Nepal, I think our total travel time was 50 hours, so needless to say we had a lot of down time.

And were finally off. we traveled through Japan, Thailand and India, but we finally arrived and we were ready to let the adventures begin!

We jumped right into ministry, starting with a blind orphanage. These kids had close to nothing at all but still welcomed us.

 We went on prayer walks, declaring the love of Jesus over the people of Nepal

A group of 7 of us who at the start of the trip were not that close, at the end of the trip we became a family.

The great trek! we hiked up over the mountains and through the rivers ( well not exactly but it sure felt like it!)  and we finally reached a small isolated village filled with hurting people who just wanted love and answers. 

Faces of the village 

The girls home in the city 

I loved these girls 

Sights of Nepal 

These pictures really don't give the real sight justice, But I was in awe of the beauty that surrounded me every day!

JAIMASIHIAH!!!

DUE TO THE SAFTY OF OUR TEAM, AND THE PEOPLE WE ARE WORKING WITH I AM NOT ALLOWED TO PUT THAT MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT THE NAMES OF PEOPLE AND PLACES WE ARE WORKING WITH. FAKE NAMES WILLL BE USED :)

Hello to all my family and friends, I just want to send you all an update of what is going on in Nepal. First off  JAIMASIHIAH! pronounced (Jam-a-see) it is the christian greeting here that means praise the Lord! We have been here for about three weeks but have already done a lot of ministry, jumping right into it as soon as we got here. The first week was mostly orientation, buying our khurtas (the traditional dress for the women of Nepal) and getting to know the area. Our first week we visited a blind orphanage, the kids were young and very precious! they learned how to play instruments and put on a little concert for our team, it was so encouraging to see that even though these kids have close to nothing they still had there joy. 

The second week we went to two different villages. The first one we went to with our contacts to a village called Bizarre, we stayed with paster and his family who welcomed us and was very kind with there hospitality. In the church we ran a short seminar with counseling principles but with the message of hope and identity. Our contacts said the people responded well but it was hard for us to see because as a people they don't express emotion. They were really open to receive prayer which was really encouraging. we also did a lot of prayer walking to different points of the village asking God to show the people his love. one evening we ''helped'' plant a rice field ( I think we were more viliage entertainment rather then help, and it didn't take long before it turned into a mud fight with the Nepalis for fun) The next day we prayed for a family who was being tormented by demons, after sharing the gospel the man wanted to accept Christ! after lots of prayer we saw a breakthrough with the wife who has been struggling with headaches that cause her to pass out. After praying for he man we went home and that night he came to our house with his second wife, he wanted her to know Jesus as well and she wanted answers to why her husband was acting very different and what we did. we shared the gospel with her and she also accepted Christ, after a while the whole family came to Christ!! it was soo cool!! 

The remaining days we went to another village called ''GP''. After our a 3 hour bus ride, we hiked for 4.5 hours mostly in the pouring rain. Let me tell you this was the most challenging thing I have ever done! I really wanted to give up and stop, I really didn't think I had the physical strength to do it but man do we serve a powerful God. He really showed my my strength that I have both physically and emotionaly, while it was raining you could see a rainbow in the distance, God put it there for me to see and promise that he was doing this with me, I could do it and not to give up! and I did it I was very proud of myself!. Our time in the village was a cultural experience for our team, with everything from goats and chickens on the bus to wolf spiders the size of your hand, sleeping on a dirt floor to squatty potties. The first day there we did a program for the kids about hygiene, washing there hands and brushing there teeth. These kids were so much fun to be around, they loved just hanging out with us, playing games, taking pictures and singing songs. most of the kids only had one pair of clothes and most of them didn't even have shoes, I really felt the father heart of God for these kids, they don't get love from there family. the boys have to grow up fast to start working in the fields and the girls barley reach the age of 12 before they are sold to the sex trafficking industry, all this just to get the family money which most of the fathers gamble and drink it away. It is really heartbreaking because the whole time in the village we did not see one girl older then 12 or younger then 25 because they were all sold. We also did a teaching for the women, we taught about their value, identity, forgiveness and loving/respecting each other. It was a slight risk to teach on these topics because the village is very strict against christianity. It was the first time these people has ever heard these teachings, they were really responsive and impacted by the teachings. our contact said they were the most responsive and friendly he has ever seen them, they danced for the very first time which was a big deal ( we had a dance party after the teaching ). They were also amazed at how much we helped our host with dishes and cooking, they saw a difference in our team compared to any other foreigners that has come through there little village. Our time there was so thick with a sense of ripeness as if the village is a fruit that has slowly growing and ripening over the years and now it is just starting to show some its of color it is really such an exciting thing to be apart of. 

these past two weeks we have been working at a girls after care home. Girls who have been rescued from human trafficking. It is amazing being able to build relationships with them, they are so young and have already been through so much( the youngest is only 9 years old! )it is truly heartbreaking. Each morning we are able to lead a bible study with them, some of the girls have been starting to open up which is very encouraging because one of the women who works there told us that these girls are broken but wont open up to tell there story or start to heal. This past friday I was able to teach on the father heart of God and share some of my story with the girls, at the end I had them write a letter to there father in heaven. After a few minuets I asked if any of the girls wanted to share, one girl who is very quiet waned to share her letter. Needles to say it was a heartbreaking letter from a 16 year old girl who has lost everything, been abused, sold and exploited by men, who just wanted to have love from her father but instead was shamed away. But through it she is experiencing the real fathers love and his healing redemption. With tears in her eyes she read her letter and with tears in my teams eyes we were able to encourage her and explain to her that the our father does not shame us but instead loves on us. Working at the home has been so eye opening to me. They all have different stories and is all different ages, but they all come broken and in need of the fathers love. 

Being here in Nepal and hearing the stories of the women is truly heartbreaking. These woman need to know that there is hope out there for them. 

PRAYER POINTS:: Please pray for the two villages but especially ''GP'' that God's love will shine down and there hearts will be ready to hear the gospel.

Please pray for the girls at the Home for healing to start to begin, that they would start to open up and share there stories because there is such power in being able to share your story and take back your strength. 

Please pray for me as I am staring to experience anger towards the men of Nepal, pray that I will be able to see them through God's eyes and love them like he does

Please pray for the rest of our time here that our team will be used in a great way. 

Nepal what?!?!

Hello all my wonderful friends and family! I am so sorry that I have not been keeping you all updated, I have been so busy with classes and homework  but I know that is no excuse! so I would like to give you all a little update. school has come to an end, it has been a long journey filled with friendships, laughter and Jesus! I have been learning so much and it has been really good. the past 12 weeks I have been here I can honestly say that I am so happy I came. This has been a long journey, very much different from DTS or anything that I have done. Each week we had a different topic and a different speaker. some different topics we touched on were, Inner Healing prayer, Sexual abuse, Trauma, Grief, Children at risk and others. Each speaker had an impact on me one way or another, whether it was what they said or how they made time for us outside of class to talk with us or pray with us. 

 During this school I really saw myself grow in the area of letting God into my emotions. Not just shutting them out and ignoring them, but actually letting myself be able to feel and to experience anger, from things of my past and even things that I learned during class that really makes me upset, or that breaks my heart for the injustice that goes on in the world today. Each day when things came up whether it was something the speaker was talking about or things that God brought up, I challenged myself to not just ignore it and push the feelings down but to deal with them in a safe and healthy way. I also challenged myself to bring it to God, and to ask Him where the feelings are coming from, and how to deal with them.

 I have learned a lot being in this school and my eyes are open to the things that go on in this world. It really breaks my heart and I want to see the hurting people get set free and for them to know the truth and for them to know that there is hope.Coming into this school I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like after I was done and how I wanted to use what I have learned, to be able to help young girls who have been abused or rejected. To help them get back on their feet, to provide a safe place for them to go and to gain healing through the arts. I had a vision of young people who were hurting and I knew that they needed help, I knew what they were going through and I understood there pain. I knew that expressing my pain was really easy for me to do through dance; there are a lot of people who can express themselves better that way. I also received a lot of confirmation through people saying that I was going to help young hurting girls through my movement. I know that God is going to use me and the new tools that I have learned along with my gifts.

I will be able to use everything I learned during lecture phase on outreach! I am going to Nepal in actually less the 10 hours I will be bording a plane! I am excited and nervous, there is 6 of us going including the leaders. we will be going to Kathmandu working with at risk children ( due to safety and regulations I am not allowed to give details of the trip) But what we are really going for is just to love on the hurting people and Gods children. I know that God is going to use me and my team and I am so excited to go on this next adventure with him. I will update you all in 2 months! for know goodbye and God bless

What is FCM?

During my time in DTS God was really putting on my heart counseling, my whole life I have always wanted to help people in some way or in other. I have always had a great deal of respect for counselors but the thought of sitting in a four walled room sitting on a chair listing to people problems did not seem appealing to me. During my DTS I was in many situations and had many people come up to me to confirm that I needed to be in some sort of counseling training. During my DTS God really gave me ideas, dreams, and visions of what I would be able to do with training in counseling. I knew I had to go with it, so through research and help from my staff I found out about FCM, It stands for Foundations for Christian Counseling. It is a five month course with the first three months lecture and the last two months are outreach. Really cool story is that I actually applied to the FCM in two places Kona Hawaii and Colorado Springs, Now I really wanted to go to Kona because HELLO its Hawaii!! and because a few of my friends from my DTS were also going to be doing secondary schools in Kona. So I had my heart set on Kona but something inside me knew that it was not the right place and I was to be going to Colorado springs, well when God wants you to know something he will tell you and he will get through to you. I had so many people come up to me confirming that I was to go to Colorado, I never really listened but I finally put my pride aside and asked God why he wanted me to go to Colorado, His response "you will soon see" So I listened and decided to go to the FCM in CO. See, when we listen to God and go were he wants us  to it is sooooo worth it and His ways are far better than our ways. So I had my bags packed and ready to go to CO, My mother, me and the open rode we started our  drive to the beautiful state. Well even before I got there God had blessed me with being able to see two of my DTS friends, one of the states we drove through was Ohio and my really good friend Jessica lives there and another really good friend Becca lives not to far from Jess, So we all met up at Jessica's house and it was exactly what I needed! the whole visit was filled with laughter, memories, inside jokes and encouragement. It was such blessing and I was so sad the visit was so short. But we had to continue the journey. with some beautiful stops along the way  we finally made it to  Colorado. I am so excited to see all that God has for me during this school  I know that there is going to be a lot of inner healing and a greater realization of who God is. Each week is a different topic and we are going to be learning different counseling skills based on a biblical standpoint, the outreach is still in the planning stages but I will keep you all updated, I still am in need for money for outreach, I know tat God wants me to be going overseas with this group of people to help the broken and hurting. If you feel on your heart to bless me or support me financially you can write a check out to Clinton Worship Center the memo Monica Villagomez missions you can send it to
Clinton Worship Center
445 Berlin ST
 Clinton MA, 01510
Most important thing is prayer, please keep me in your prayers for safety, for my school and that I will get as much out of this school as God has for me. I will keep you all updated on the weeks to come.

JESUS

Still behind on my blog I apologize! So the last week I was with Coastlands Consultants we traveled up to Bangor Maine to Penobscot Christian school, were there are only 2 students in the eighth grade and everyone was like family. We all stayed at host family's from the school that week. Myself ,my friend Cassie and Pam we all stayed at a wonderful Pastors house. He welcomed us in there house along with his Wife and his four children who all attended the school. They were so welcoming, the kids even gave up there rooms for us to stay in! needless to say we felt very blessed. Throughout  the week I  helped out with the elementary chapel again. This week we taught on Jesus, a throne was set up in the front of the Chapel. The J stood for Jesus, simple gospel to the point, the E stood for Everyone everywhere, that Jesus is Lord over everyone, He listens to to all of his children no matter who they are, what they look like, what has happened to them, He is always there. the S stood for Savior, they learned that he is our Savior and he was the one who saved us. the U stood for unchanging  even though we change, the people around us changes, he never will, He will continue to love us even through our pain and sorrow. The final S stood for servant they learned how Jesus himself was a servant among his friends. He put others before himself, even when He washed the Disciples feet he was showing his love for them. They learned that they should lay themselves down before others and be a servant to many. Everyone says that they want to help people and be a servant like Jesus was but reality is that its hard to lay our self and our pride before others. to lay ourselves down and help others before ourselves. one of my speakers in DTS told us "Everyone wants to be a servant until they are treated like one" the truth is that we can only be a servant when we lay down our rights. Like I said before there were only 2 eight grade students so we were able to journal with the seventh grade as well. I to was able to journal with one of the seventh grade girls, her dream was to become a missionary and to one day build an orphanage, I was able to tell her some of my dreams that I have and the adventures that I have been on. she was really blessed to hear my experiences but the truth is that I was so blessed to hear that a young girl had a heart for missions and she already new that she did not want to live a "normal life" at such a young age! the week was filled with really awesome conversations and lots of gym classes!. Although the week went really well there were still a few downfalls, we had 2 snow days that we had to miss school and one little boy was hurt in one of my lessons....... OK let me explain Friday was going very well. Before chapel we start with a game called whats wrong with this picture, this is were we pick out students to act out a scenario  that is wrong or mean and the students correct it and they do it over the right way. So I picked out 3 volunteers I told the little boy to go and run and pretend to slip and fall and the other kids would laugh and not help him up, the kids would then point out what is wrong with the picture. Well long story short he really committed to the fall and ended up hurting himself, with a bloody nose and a lump on his head he headed off to the office. He ended up  being ok and the rest of the day went. well beside the fact that every time we asked one of the kids what they learned this week they answered "TO NOT TRIP AND FALL" "oh and about Jesus" haha you got to love little kids! well all was forgiven and forgotten and the kids still loved us and were very happy that we came to there school. I as very blessed and I was happy that my last week with the team was a memorable one.

 I can honestly say that I learned a lot while being on the team, they really blessed me by just living in community with them. The light that that they bring to each school, They really do make a difference in the lives of kids. I f you asked me "how did this team have an affect on you even though you were with them for such a short time"? I would answer, there life screams Jesus! The way they live there everyday life, servants of each other, encouraging , and just being a family. But the one thing that left a big impact on me is there willingness to be used by God, even when they are not on a scheduled ministry week they are still used by God, They are still changing lives. and they are doing all this while still being transformed by God. Everyone has a story, a past that they are either ashamed of, afraid of, or hurt by. So they want to be healed form the past, they want to be fixed by God, then they go and help others around them. These five people that I lived with, served with, and worked with They are still trying to find the answers  they are still healing from the past but they still give, they still mentored. Instead of watching these kids walk though a journey to redemption  THEY WALK RIGHT NEXT TO THEM! going though a  journey of there own, sharing there struggles, fears, and desires with the kids. they are real and that's what effects the kids, and that's what affected me. I was really blessed to be able to hear there stories on the way back from Bangor and all I have to say in response is God is sooo good ! from were they came from, the pain, the hurt that they all had to go through in the Past. They decided to use it to bring change to people. and they are still walking though the journey  I know that God is going to use this group for something big! So all I have to say is Thanks guys! Thank you for letting me into your family, for being so real with me, and for welcoming me. These guys are the dreamers, the Daughters of the King, The redeemed, the Son of the most high, and the Mother of many! I can't wait to see what these world changers are going to be doing next time I see them. :)