Our Washington adventures
Where to begin!
We finally made it to Camas, Washington for Tom fest 2009!
But unfortunately there was no internet and so we couldn’t keep up with our blog! I will do be doing a lot of catch up Today!
We arrived Thursday August 13th and awaited my mother’s arrival. Meanwhile we set up camp and took over almost the whole back end of the festival! We had laundry ropes (to dry clothes) a table with a camping stove and 2 tents for my mom and dad, and the Delgado family. We were rockin it!
Saturday Ian, Elysa, and my Dad left for Portland and weren’t returning until Sunday, my Mom and Dad got to spend the night in the city while Ian and Elysa spent the night with Ian’s uncle. So Xaundelle, Corin, Hunter and I were so bored we decided to walk 2-3 miles (one way) to Wal-Mart. Probably wasn’t a very good idea because I ended up with crazy blisters on my toes!! On the way there we stopped at a Humane Society, panda express, and Pet Smart. What an adventure!
Sunday rolled around and we went to a church that was held on Tom Fest grounds, it was nice and refreshing to go to a church service! Afterwards Xaundelle and I met a few ladies Paula and Denette; they were SO sweet and offered to take us girls out so we wouldn’t be cooped up all week! (SO nice!)!
Later that day Ian, Elysa, my Mom, and my Dad showed up! We were SO excited to see my mom after being away for a whole month! We spent as much time with her as possible! It was so great!! Monday we walked around the whole tom fest grounds and enjoyed camping together.
Denette and Paula came and took us girls out for shopping and starbucks we had such a good time, and we were so blessed by them, they are beautiful women of God and blessed us so much!
Tom Fest started Wednesday and it was full of excitement! We made tons of connections with different bands; got to fellowship with TONS of new people it was great! Our friend Courtney Roser came which was AWESOME! We got to see Veda and Cadance FINALLY! I love those girls!
All in all we had a great time the whole week!
Saturday was when the festival ended and my mom had to leave, it was so sad saying bye to her all of us girls just cried our eyes out! Another 3 weeks until we see her again we are so sad and miss her so much!
Sunday we left for Seattle to play at Beit Tikvah, we were very excited to see some old friends from Cyprus, we had a great time playing and the weeds are VERY hospitable! We had a great dinner with everyone and all enjoyed a birthday cake for Ian! After Dinner we had a great time of prayer and refreshing before we hit the sack!
Monday Elisha weed (an old friend of Xaundelle’s from GTS06) took Xaundelle, Hunter, and I out on the town! It was so much to see downtown Seattle, go to the fish market, and shop around for my friend Lauren’s birthday which I was unsuccessful at! We had a great time in the city and look forward to visiting again!
We left Seattle Tuesday to head for Portland, our friends Ricky and Anna opened up their home to us.
On the way south to Portland we saw a homeless 16 yr old hitchhiker named Elijah. So in faith we picked him up! He had a salad bar of beliefs meaning a little bit of Hinduism, Buddhism, Wicca, Christianity, and Krishna. The second he stepped on our bus all of our hearts just broke for him! Immediately we started ministering to him and telling him about Yeshua Messiah! We gave him the choice to stay the night with us and he decided to take the risk! That night after dinner my dad just poured his heart out to him and told him about truth and love and compassion can ONLY come from Yeshua!
Before we knew it Elijah was asking for prayer and deliverance, before the night was over he was burning belongings that had spirits attached to them and repenting for spirits that he has attached himself to! God is so good and so faithful to bring back his children!
Please be praying for Elijah as he continues to search for God’s heart and continues to grow in the truth.
We are having a great time here in Portland and we should be home in 3 weeks! Hallelujah!
Thank you everyone! We love you!
-Saphraine
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Leaving for Washington!
So our time in Ventura has come to an end.
We have now been on the road for 4 weeks; we all miss home, our own beds, our own space, but especially my Mom!
Monday Aug. 10th, our goal is to leave Ventura CA and arrive in Camas WA by Tuesday night. We all pack up and rush everything to the bus (the one that just got out of the shop) and get everything situated. Then the bus dies on us after not even making it out of the Epic parking lot. What could it possibly be now? We all rush around to figure out the issue and assume it's the battery, so we plug it in to charge and after 30 minutes of charging it starts again. HALLELUJAH! As we pull out of the parking lot. We hear a slight hissss coming from the air break box. Oh no!
We park again to figure out the problem and there seems to be a leak in the air breaks. We can't exactly leave with this kind of flaw, so we park and spend another night at Mikee and Vera's.
This is or was never a waste of money, it isn't a mistake buying this bus, and it isn't an issue our God cannot handle.It's amazing how the situations we have found ourselves in with this bus has prompted the body to action.
In all of these problems and difficulties we have never doubted God, he has always been there to see it through and provide for us. It has been a great testimony of the prayers, counseling, and financial blessing we have received from the body. We all have grown individually and as a community during these situations and others are seeing God's goodness through it all.
We want to remind everyone who reads this that our God is an awesome God, He is Jahovah-Jireh the provider and we put our faith in him!
The following day a mechanic came out to look at it and only charged us $60 to repair the air break box.
HE is a good Father!!
Thank you to all who have prayed and sowed into this Ministry, God will bless you 100 fold as he is blessing us! Please do not lose hope or be discouraged by the things of the enemy, our God is so much greater then all of this!
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Glendale
Wow, last night was an amazing experience! We ended up leading worship at an Armenian-Russian youth group. I was stoked because of the love I have for
We set up in what seemed like a small room, in a basement of a huge church that turned into an amazing time of Heaven touching earth. We were waiting for our pizza and a small group had gathered for pre-service prayer. When I walked in to prayer, it was that familiar presence of God that I have only experienced with Gateways: everyone was praying in tongues, pacing the room and pulling down Heaven!
They bought us 6 AWESOME pizza’s that we enjoyed together and then we began to worship with them. God was touching all of us with the revelation of His body coming together in this little room! Listen With Me is the throne room scene in Revelations with all the angels and elders around the throne, but here I am standing with different nationalities around the throne worshipping and I was wrecked most of the night, enjoying the goodness of God.
Reuben and Ovsanna are the youth pastors and very beloved to us! Saphraine had a word for Ovsanna about her being a mother to the people of
Afterwards! I had it on my heart to pray for Matt, a non-Armenian/Russian kid who had come with his friend that night. The men gathered around him in the parking lot and began to declare what the Lord says about him. Reuben asked Matt if he believed that Jesus had died for him, took His sins to the grave and rose again. Matt said yes and then Reuben began to pray for him to receive the Holy Spirit. IT WAS THE FULL GOSPEL IN ACTION! Right then and there was filled with the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues!Another parking lot where God just blasts people!
During the night I had felt a burden for a young girl, Gohar in the service and Saphraine told me she had a word for her. So we gathered the woman to pray with us and Saphraine’s word was SO powerful, Gohar was delivered from the spirit of depression and given the Spirit of Joy!
The women of the church were so shocked by the spirit of prophecy that we had and they kept asking for more and more prayer and they wanted to learn how to do it. They have such sweet pure hearts they really love the Lord! We all felt so comfortable with them and we knew God had brought us there for a reason!
We ended the night with a 24/hr burrito place deep in the heart of the Armenian quarter of
-Xaundelle and Saphraine Aguirre
Friday, August 07, 2009
Ventura mini-Vacation
by Xaundelle Aguirre
Before I start, I just want to say:
Happy Birthday, mama! We miss you and wish we could be with you on your birthday. See you soon though!!!
The Bridges have allowed us to use their house this week while they’ve been out of town. Its been amazing to have our own rooms, beds and a place to call “home!” Making home cooked meals, leaving your toothbrush out, all those little things we normally take for granted! The Bridges have a ‘mini-zoo’ in the house with 11 turtles of all sizes, 2 bunnies, and 2 kitties. We’ve had fun taking care of them and learning how turtles eat and drink!
All week we’ve just been sharing and testifying of God’s goodness to provide for ALL our needs and realizing how encouraged the body is by living our lives out in the open. Many of my friends from Gateways are constantly asking to hear what’s next for us and catching up with all the crazy things God is doing!
Wednesday we literally stayed in the house ALL day to just rest up and vegge out in front of the tube! A couple of us went over to Epic to watch a movie and mingle with the Epic peeps.
Yesterday was an eventful day with the Weirs! Josh Weir took Hunter out to do some welding “guy stuff” while Saphraine and I went all over Santa Barbara with Jenn for a little girls day out. In the evening Josh took most of the guys to a Dodgers game and they had a blast! The Dodgers won and they all came home with exciting stories about how the Dodgers were loosing and then won in the last inning! I’m not a baseball buff so I don’t know if all my terminology is right, haha!
Jenn asked us girls to help her buy 1¢ supplies at office max. It was so funny; there was a limit per customer so we each paid 42¢ for a basket full of folders, paper and sharpies! Then we went to open mic and had a fun time mingling with locals.
There’s not a lot going on since we were supposed to be back in Texas. I was getting a little worried about food and gas money yesterday; we don’t have any shows until Tomfest! But I did a lot of praying and spiritual warfare last night and felt so at peace. This morning my dad got a call from a Riley Agency client inviting Men As Trees Walking to play their youth group in Glendale. So God heard my cry and here we are getting a last minute show in Los Angeles before we head up to Oregon!
I’m praying that the Lord will use us to show the young people that God is alive and real today. With our own personal lives and testimony I believe there will be lives challenged tonight for real change!
Please pray for God’s continue provision for the next tour. We still need shows, food and gas money and lots of prayer and covering! We can’t do this without you guys!
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Vegas, Utah, and LA again
Friday night by 1am we were on the road for Utah, stopping in Las Vegas on the way to see our friends Kyle and Nancy Knight who had breakfast ready for us it was delicious! Fresh fruit and pancakes UGH! The works!!! We were so blessed by them!
As you know we need $2,200 for our generator to be fixed and in faith we sent it to the shop. Halfway to Utah we had already made $300! So that brings us to $1,900. We got to Utah Saturday night and had dinner with Chuck and Wanita Panza (great friends of ours who we are staying with). Sunday morning we led worship at Mountain Vineyard it was BEAUTIFUL to be in the presence of God! A lot of words were given; God brought people to repentance, and really moved a lot of people’s hearts. They took up an offering for us after they explained our needs. After they took it they prayed that it would multiply. Let me tell you how faithful MY GOD IS! We made just from the offering not including our merch sells $2,400!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! More than enough! That will pay for the generator, gas, and food for the rest of our trip! How faithful can he be?
After service we came back to the Panza’s house we had lunch with them, Lenny and Linda, and some other friends from the church. It was great! We all took naps after exhausted from our travels.
Hunter and I started on some wedding plans! If you didn’t know we were a little concerned about money issues and after I had prayed my mom called and said $1000 came in for my wedding from my Grandparents! That pays off the rest of our bills!!!! THANK YOU GOD!!! Yeshua is so beautiful! And faithful to provide!! Give him praise all the days of your life. The times you are desperate and at your low HE PROVIDES!
It took us way longer than usual to get back to Vegas because our van was having some issues over heating. But after 2 gallons of coolant we survived! Showed up in Vegas around 10pm to dinner at the Knights YUM!
Woke up to the smell of Coffee and breakfast (we’re so blessed) and heading out to Ventura in just a few hours.
Our God is faithful to provide in every circumstance, I am so blessed to be called his Daughter.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Making up the week!
Well,
We have been stationed in Ventura CA for about 6 days now, just chillin at Synapse and makin friends!
Saturday morning I woke up with a CRAZY ear ache! I was in A LOT of pain! Growing up I always had different ear problems and always had tubes in and out of my ears but for the last 3-4 years everything has felt all right. I had a few scares at the doctor’s office when they thought I would need tubes again but Jesus healed me.
So since then I haven’t had any problems until this time. I was worried and didn’t know WHAT was going to happen so we waited a few days and talked about going to Urgent care in Ventura since they don’t have a free clinic like they do in North Hollywood.
But on Monday night the whole band surrounded me, laid hands on me and anointed my ear. We were all standing in agreement for His healing to come!
Well the next morning I woke up PAIN FREE!!! God is so good to heal us even in the small things! Hallelujah!
For about a week now we have had some struggles with a band member of ours on the issue of his participation in the community. After many discussions with my Dad he had come to a decision to leave the band. We are not all in agreement about this decision but if this is what he “feels” God has for him, then so be it. We hope the best for him and we will miss him. It is hard to see someone leave when you don’t feel at peace about it but it is now out of our hands. We tried to encourage him to do God’s will and that is all we can say at this time.
We are moving forward with Ian (our sound man) on Bass guitar and Hunter on Guitar. We are excited to see where this will take us and what God has for us as a community, Ian and Elysa have decided to commit to this band and community and we are happy to have them join us.
We do not think it is His will for everyone to stay with this band forever, we believe God will send others out for different seasons. Some may come and be built up, learn about community, and be refreshed in our ministry for a short time. But others will come and be continuous members.
Wednesday night we played at the Reynolds house in Pasadena CA It is so great to be accepted by other communities going forward in God’s ministry. We have been so blessed by our time in Pasadena with our friends the Delgado’s they have been so gracious to let us stay with them.
Thursday Xaundelle and I went and had lunch with a very old friend of ours Alexandra Perata. It was AMAZING to see her! She has grown to be a beautiful young lady and very successful in her work, it was awesome to catch up with her. Her parents are Lenny and Linda Perata pastors of Mountain Vinyard in Park City UT they married my parents back in ’88 and will Marry Hunter and I 10/10/09. Unknowingly Alex called her parents shortly after and shared with them how we touched her by just spending a few hours with her. It’s beautiful to see how God is shining through us and sharing his love with his children!
Friday night we were so excited to get back to the Dream Center LA it is one of our favorite places to play because we get connected with a fabulous ministry! TONS of people showed up and we had a blast! Half way through our set in the front row were 5 guys singing along!! They had gotten our CD the last time we played there and have been playing it NON-STOP they were singing all of our songs with us and even requesting some! That was such a blessing!
After the show we were headed for Utah but God wasn’t going to let us leave yet! We ended up praying for our friend Jennifer and Joshua Weir and had a wonderful time in the spirit. After that we prayed for a very old friend of ours Orlando Greenhill God really did a lot of work in his heart and it was awesome to be apart of it. Some of us had visions, words and songs it’s crazy!
THEN! (it doesn’t stop there!) A lady and her son walked by and he was limping so we offered to pray for him, immediately it was healed NO MORE PAIN meanwhile his mom was praying in tongues and jumping around in the spirit it really got us going!
She barely spoke English so my dad basically had to translate, she was so blessed by us stopping her and said she felt like we were angels! We told her we were a band and she asked us to sing a song, we sang how he loves us (kim walker) and it was beautiful! We all started crying and worshipping with her then she turned around and blessed us with one of HER worship songs! WOW! It was so beautiful to see the heart of God and how he moves in each and every one of us!
