I'll be home this weekend! Hooray!
I seriously can't wait to upload pictures, especially after today. We went to the zoo and it was sooo fun. Me and Bee (Brandy, our extra team member) played with a pink dolphin for a while, my neck is sore from having an anaconda around my shoulders, and I got to touch more monkeys and a capybara too even though we're probably not supposed to touch them... And last night we had macaroni for dinner -the blue box and everything! Luke is so good to me... it's been a pretty good past 24 hours :)
Being in the city again, like before, is kinda bittersweet. The water at the base situation is still a huge frustration and it's hard not to think why not just be back on the river, but I really do love this city. Well, most of it. I think I mentioned that last weekend at one of the churches we helped out with another youth camp kinda thing, most of us preached, we did dramas, and we had some fun worship times, dancing included thanks to me and Jo. Mostly Jo kept that up though because I got too hot after a while. Me and her made a new friend, not very surprising since she becomes friends with someone wherever we go. But she's coming to visit us at the base tomorrow so I'm excited to hang out with her again.
Like I said, most of us preached and man, I was fighting with God when I had to share. Well I didn't have to really but I felt like He wanted me to talk about trust, so I started trying to figure out what I was going to talk about on like Friday. I was speaking Sunday night. By 5:00pm, two hours before I was supposed to speak, I still had no idea what God wanted me to say. I was freaking out... Aside from the fact that I hate hate hate speaking in front of people and that I really wanted to translate it into Spanish before I spoke so I wouldn't have to use a translator, I was so mad that God wasn't giving me anything to really go on except one story from my life but I didn't know how to tie that in and actually make it an hour long. After pouting for probably 30-45 more minutes, I told Him it was all in His hands, and tried writing again. Words started flowing like crazy and I kept writing until literally one or two minutes before I stood up to go to the front. I haven't gone back and read what I wrote so I kind of don't know most of what I said, but a few people came up and told me that's exactly what they needed to hear, and let me tell you this is probably one of the biggest glory moments I had all Outreach. Considering that all the glory of it is going straight to Ashna (God) because seriously none of that would've happened on my own. Pretty sure the biggest theme of this trip for me is that I am capable of so much more than I think I can ever do, but only when I get over myself, stop pouting, and open up my hands for Him to take control of whatever it is I'm holding onto.
On that note, in a team meeting last night, we talked about frustrations and highlights of the trip, and it reminded me of a lot of stories I have... I'll try my best to put the important things in here when I get home and don't have a life again. Speaking of which... We leave Iquitos Friday night sometime around 7pm I think, fly from Lima to Atlanta, and then to MN and I'll be back at the base probably late afternoon on Saturday. I can't tell you how much I am ready to come home and see my Russia friends... Ahhh it's gonna be so great!
I'll see you all SOON!!!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Monkeys Arent Even Cute To Me Anymore
Back in the city again! I would say home sweet home -as close to home as we can get while we're still out of the country- but it's honestly really frustrating here. Like the things we miss the most when we're in the jungle usually have to do with toilets, showers, and ice cream, but the only one of those we can actually have on a regular basis is ice cream. Not gonna lie, I will miss these popsicles an awful lot. But the YWAM base here is just not quality. It makes me more and more greatful for the amazing place and people in the Minnesota base every day. Seriously. I'm kinda just whining right now but after we get done with the youth camp we're helping out at this weekend, we (the girls on our team) will be doing a ton of cleaning around the base for the next week and I can't wait to have a bed with no dirty q-tips, cobwebs, or bugs around the sides. And apparently the well that the base is getting water from keeps drying up and tubes break or something so that we can only shower when we pray really hard (I'm not kidding at all. we've actually got some pretty good stories from it), we pretty much never flush the toilets, and when we do it's normally with a bucket. So... it's nice not to be in the villages, but mostly because I love riding in mototaxis and not worrying about waking up with chickens or dead spiders under my hammock. I've been pretty spent the past couple weeks, missing things like lasagna and dry clothes, can't wait to come home. Still not looking forward to after we're done debriefing because I have no idea what I'm doing with my life or even where I'm living right away, but God will provide. He always does. That's pretty much my biggest prayer request right now is that I would trust God has a plan for me and not stress out about it, and also that I wouldn't want to kill everyone the last week we're here. My mood has been really good though the past couple days so hopefully the last one won't be a problem... But anyways. I'll be home soon! I'll upload pictures and stuff as soon as I can.
Ciao for now!
Ciao for now!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Back To The Jungle!
We're on our way back up the river tomorrow morning. I wanted to give you guys a lot more than I can right now because other people are waiting to use this computer but...
Ok, like I said, our first village was amazing. When we were leaving Abuelita -grandma- (who I adopted pretty much the first day I met her) told me I should just hide in the other room while my team got on the boat so she could keep me. I told her I would. If there's anyone I could put in my pocket and take home with me it would be her. Or Mama. She's fantastic.
Second, third, and fourth villages were tough. Just really spiritually dark places, rude people (one place in particular), and a lot of us on the team were dealing with a lot of personal crap... The last village made up for it though. Well kind of. It just made the next river trip seem less scary because I remembered how much I really could fall in love with these people.
So a few other things that have happened since my last post or I forgot to mention... I've seen a few monkeys (and touched one), eaten alligator, and my new favorite juice is Camu Camu.
Since I have to leave in a minute, prayer requests...
-energy
-sleep
-migraines (had one at the pastor's house last night which was no good because then everyone else had to eat my food)
-my patience is really running out for everyone which sucks. I really miss alone time. like a lot.
-that we would all feel like we're doing something actually worthwhile and productive even if we're doing a lot of hurry up and waiting.
I'll be back in the city on the 10th I believe so I'll try to update when I can!
Ok, like I said, our first village was amazing. When we were leaving Abuelita -grandma- (who I adopted pretty much the first day I met her) told me I should just hide in the other room while my team got on the boat so she could keep me. I told her I would. If there's anyone I could put in my pocket and take home with me it would be her. Or Mama. She's fantastic.
Second, third, and fourth villages were tough. Just really spiritually dark places, rude people (one place in particular), and a lot of us on the team were dealing with a lot of personal crap... The last village made up for it though. Well kind of. It just made the next river trip seem less scary because I remembered how much I really could fall in love with these people.
So a few other things that have happened since my last post or I forgot to mention... I've seen a few monkeys (and touched one), eaten alligator, and my new favorite juice is Camu Camu.
Since I have to leave in a minute, prayer requests...
-energy
-sleep
-migraines (had one at the pastor's house last night which was no good because then everyone else had to eat my food)
-my patience is really running out for everyone which sucks. I really miss alone time. like a lot.
-that we would all feel like we're doing something actually worthwhile and productive even if we're doing a lot of hurry up and waiting.
I'll be back in the city on the 10th I believe so I'll try to update when I can!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
There´s A First Time For Everything...
And pretty much everything so far has been a first. I don´t really know where to begin and I doubt I have much time to write everything in detail, but I spose I´ll start with the new things I´ve done.
I´ve seen pirahnas, pink dolphins, a giant guinnea pig (capybara. look it up), and a snake chasing a frog on the path in front of us. I´ve been bathing in the river or in rain water for the past two weeks. I´ve totally forgotten what the word privacy means. I´ve walked through the jungle in the dark with no lights at all. Yeah that was not the most fun time for me.. Well actually it wasn´t that awful. My new favorite bird makes a noise that sounds like water dripping. My new favorite food is yuca. My new favorite meat is jungle boar, but only fresh because otherwise it´s sooo salty. I´ve slept in a room with chickens, cats, dogs, spiders as big as my face, bats, rats, and frogs all in the same night. By that I mean pretty much every night spent in the jungle. I´ve had to face literally every single one of my fears since being here, not saying I´ve conquered them, just saying I´ve had to deal with them. Umm I´ve been rescued by pecky pecky when our boat got stuck because the river was too low on the way to our second village. I´ve slept in a hammock for the first time and then the second and then the 14th time...
So basically there´s a ton of stories, but I´ll just give a basic overview of what we´ve been doing.
Our first village was San Jose. It was amazing. We did a youth camp there, all of us taught, and I survived one of my first fears of the list, public speaking. It actually wasn´t that bad because Luke was translating and it gave me time to think in between what I was trying to say. Speaking of which, I´m pretty much translator number 2 on our team because other than Luke, I´m the most fluent here and my Spanish has increased immensly. shoot shoot shoot I really want to finish this but we´re leaving the internet cafe now so I´ll try to finish this tomorrow.
I´ve seen pirahnas, pink dolphins, a giant guinnea pig (capybara. look it up), and a snake chasing a frog on the path in front of us. I´ve been bathing in the river or in rain water for the past two weeks. I´ve totally forgotten what the word privacy means. I´ve walked through the jungle in the dark with no lights at all. Yeah that was not the most fun time for me.. Well actually it wasn´t that awful. My new favorite bird makes a noise that sounds like water dripping. My new favorite food is yuca. My new favorite meat is jungle boar, but only fresh because otherwise it´s sooo salty. I´ve slept in a room with chickens, cats, dogs, spiders as big as my face, bats, rats, and frogs all in the same night. By that I mean pretty much every night spent in the jungle. I´ve had to face literally every single one of my fears since being here, not saying I´ve conquered them, just saying I´ve had to deal with them. Umm I´ve been rescued by pecky pecky when our boat got stuck because the river was too low on the way to our second village. I´ve slept in a hammock for the first time and then the second and then the 14th time...
So basically there´s a ton of stories, but I´ll just give a basic overview of what we´ve been doing.
Our first village was San Jose. It was amazing. We did a youth camp there, all of us taught, and I survived one of my first fears of the list, public speaking. It actually wasn´t that bad because Luke was translating and it gave me time to think in between what I was trying to say. Speaking of which, I´m pretty much translator number 2 on our team because other than Luke, I´m the most fluent here and my Spanish has increased immensly. shoot shoot shoot I really want to finish this but we´re leaving the internet cafe now so I´ll try to finish this tomorrow.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Are Content and Sweaty The Same Thing?
I´ve never produced so much consistant sweat before, and that´s saying something for me. But after missing 2 out of 3 of our flights to finally get here, I am sincerely in love with Peru. First a night in Lima, and now our second night in Iquitos, this place is exactly where my heart is happy. I love the city, I love the culture, I love the people... I´ve even loved the food.
I guess I should explain the flight situation so nobody freaks out. Our first flight from Minneapolis left an hour late. not because of anything they could explain, they just didn´t plan enough time to pack the cargo really. our next flight was 45 minutes after we landed...which we then missed. we sprinted (seriously) across the atlanta airport to try and catch it because the flight attendants on our first plane told us they knew we were coming. yeah they left anyways. so then it was a while before we got things figured out, and while luke and kirstin were at the customer service counter, the rest of the team ..by that i mean jo and timra, sang songs. we got some funny looks and some hardcore stares. it was entertaining really.
Delta then set us up with a hotel and food vouchers to last us till the next afternoon when we would be able to fly into Lima. it was actually a really good restful time for our team, we needed to be able to sleep in and not stress for a while. in Lima, we spent the night with some YWAMers and flew to Iquitos the next night. we were about to miss that last flight too, miscommunication of the take off time, so after some more running across the airport, we made it. we spent our first night at the YWAM base here, went out and saw the city, and hung out today, practicing dramas and stuff. i can´t say enough times that i love it here! but i´m such a city girl, this life appeals to me so much. it also really helps that i have a heart for the latino culture. other than my leader luke, i´m basically the most fluent in the language, so i do a lot of translating and talking in between people. i don´t mind though :)
we have to go back to the base now, so i´m sorry this isn´t a very great update. but we´ll be leaving for the river in a couple days, then i´m gone for 2 weeks...then i´ll try to update again. peace out friends!
I guess I should explain the flight situation so nobody freaks out. Our first flight from Minneapolis left an hour late. not because of anything they could explain, they just didn´t plan enough time to pack the cargo really. our next flight was 45 minutes after we landed...which we then missed. we sprinted (seriously) across the atlanta airport to try and catch it because the flight attendants on our first plane told us they knew we were coming. yeah they left anyways. so then it was a while before we got things figured out, and while luke and kirstin were at the customer service counter, the rest of the team ..by that i mean jo and timra, sang songs. we got some funny looks and some hardcore stares. it was entertaining really.
Delta then set us up with a hotel and food vouchers to last us till the next afternoon when we would be able to fly into Lima. it was actually a really good restful time for our team, we needed to be able to sleep in and not stress for a while. in Lima, we spent the night with some YWAMers and flew to Iquitos the next night. we were about to miss that last flight too, miscommunication of the take off time, so after some more running across the airport, we made it. we spent our first night at the YWAM base here, went out and saw the city, and hung out today, practicing dramas and stuff. i can´t say enough times that i love it here! but i´m such a city girl, this life appeals to me so much. it also really helps that i have a heart for the latino culture. other than my leader luke, i´m basically the most fluent in the language, so i do a lot of translating and talking in between people. i don´t mind though :)
we have to go back to the base now, so i´m sorry this isn´t a very great update. but we´ll be leaving for the river in a couple days, then i´m gone for 2 weeks...then i´ll try to update again. peace out friends!
Friday, November 26, 2010
YWAM Ruins You For The Ordinary
I knew this already coming into it. And when they said it countless times, I didn't doubt it. But this Thanksgiving weekend, I'm realizing how true it is. I don't mean to sound like a giant cliche, it's just ridiculous how real this statement is.
I'm the type of person that needs breaks in between every activity that I do to rejuvenate myself, regardless of how inactive I was or am going to be and regardless of how much I go out of my way to have this time in between things. So living in a place like YWAM where everything is planned out to jam-pack your day can get really exhausting for me. Especially with insomnia and narcolepsy which makes me permanently tired. Basically what I'm getting at is I'm worn out on a very regular basis. I don't really mind, but I do wish I had more free time just every once in a while so I can catch up on de-stressing myself haha.
So I expected to love coming home with my one-on-one Megan to do a whole lot of nothing for five days. Ok I should probably rephrase. I LOVE this home. I've told them I'm moving in a million times. They feed me all the time and it's like I'm eating something mortally sinful it's so good. Something about their family makes me feel right at home, I'm totally comfortable here. Nothing's really expected of me so I'm free to do my own thing whenever I want. Me and Meg's mom are the same person, we're becoming great friends haha. I'm enjoying myself entirely. But... to be honest, there are way too many opportunities here to be bored. For me anyways, Megan's been pretty busy with visas and stuff -Russia pretty much wants nothing to do with American visitors just for the record-.
As much as I anticipated loving this feeling of no pressure to get things done for once since like March, I just feel like there's so much I COULD be doing.
To explain things a little, I'll just start out with the first real week of classes we had. Our speaker, Fred Markert, is pretty crazy. Everyone really loved his stories (I loved his stories but he himself actually pissed me off on a daily basis...but I will give him credit for being one of the most God-trusting, truth-motivated warriors I have met). He has done insane things to further the kingdom of God just one more step, and he really taught us how God promises victory and that means we need to seek it out where we're told it's impossible to find. One of the points he made repeatedly that I will never forget is that Christianity, at least the way the bible says to live it out, is NEVER boring. Let me tell you, the life of Fred Markert is anything but dull. Even through the eyes of an atheist, he's been through intense, terrifying, and awe inspiring things. Living the way the American Church does, you'd think that Christianity is a pretty easy way to stroll through life, but really if you actually read this thing called the bible, you'd see that we're called to live life to the full (John 10:10 for those of you that don't speak missionary). Sometimes that means you die standing up for someone. Sometimes that means you eat monkey brains. Sometimes that means you just have no clue what's coming next -usually the case when you're on missionary support....ha :)-. One of our more recent speakers, Troy Sherman (he's probably going to be the basis of a blog or twenty in the future...just to prepare you), said that being a Christian is pretty much the worst decision you could ever make. Let's be honest, if you're sincerely living the life that is described in the New Testament, there's nothing "fun" about it in American standards. But we're not called to be comfortable. We're not called to stuff our faces full of delicious food for days, sit around and watch TV, waste hours upon hours on facebook, and sleep on pillow top mattresses. Seriously, that just described my entire Thanksgiving break to you, and I know I'm not the only one of my YWAM friends that did the exact same thing.
All to say, being relatively bored, as great as it is, is not enough for me anymore. My body is physically aching to do something productive, and I'm realizing how much better I feel about myself when my day is planned minute by minute even though I hate getting out of bed every single morning because I know I won't stop until lights out. Another point Fred made is that the bible says "GO" more than 8,000 times. Sometimes it specifies what that means, and sometimes you decide how it best fits what you're called to do.
Habakkuk 1:5 says "For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." How am I going to see that if I'm ...bored? Sitting on facebook? Watching Madea? As much as it pains me to say that Madea needs to take up less of my time, I'm not supposed to be deteriorating my muscles because I haven't left the house all weekend, I'm supposed to GO!
So yes, i'm having a great time here at Megan's, consuming glorious things and being lazy. But really, I can't wait to be back at my new home preparing myself for outreach where I get to go! and actually bring hope to people. If you just happen to not believe in the 'hope' I'm talking about, maybe you can at least appreciate that we'll be digging wells in Peru providing clean drinking water so that some of the jungle villages will have access for the first time in their lives to something we take for granted every single day. I should probably use a separate blog for that soap box moment though :).
I ramble so much. If you got to the end of this, I should give you a high five or something. Since I don't really have any great closing statements, this is a video Fred showed us that really portrays how I feel about the American Church. You can feel free to disagree if you want, maybe you've never even been to a "contemporary" church, but I think it's a pretty great video and I'm gonna post it because I can.
Shalom again guys. I guess leave me a comment if you feel as restless as I do right now and we can holla at each other :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqaITA3IO0
I'm the type of person that needs breaks in between every activity that I do to rejuvenate myself, regardless of how inactive I was or am going to be and regardless of how much I go out of my way to have this time in between things. So living in a place like YWAM where everything is planned out to jam-pack your day can get really exhausting for me. Especially with insomnia and narcolepsy which makes me permanently tired. Basically what I'm getting at is I'm worn out on a very regular basis. I don't really mind, but I do wish I had more free time just every once in a while so I can catch up on de-stressing myself haha.
So I expected to love coming home with my one-on-one Megan to do a whole lot of nothing for five days. Ok I should probably rephrase. I LOVE this home. I've told them I'm moving in a million times. They feed me all the time and it's like I'm eating something mortally sinful it's so good. Something about their family makes me feel right at home, I'm totally comfortable here. Nothing's really expected of me so I'm free to do my own thing whenever I want. Me and Meg's mom are the same person, we're becoming great friends haha. I'm enjoying myself entirely. But... to be honest, there are way too many opportunities here to be bored. For me anyways, Megan's been pretty busy with visas and stuff -Russia pretty much wants nothing to do with American visitors just for the record-.
As much as I anticipated loving this feeling of no pressure to get things done for once since like March, I just feel like there's so much I COULD be doing.
To explain things a little, I'll just start out with the first real week of classes we had. Our speaker, Fred Markert, is pretty crazy. Everyone really loved his stories (I loved his stories but he himself actually pissed me off on a daily basis...but I will give him credit for being one of the most God-trusting, truth-motivated warriors I have met). He has done insane things to further the kingdom of God just one more step, and he really taught us how God promises victory and that means we need to seek it out where we're told it's impossible to find. One of the points he made repeatedly that I will never forget is that Christianity, at least the way the bible says to live it out, is NEVER boring. Let me tell you, the life of Fred Markert is anything but dull. Even through the eyes of an atheist, he's been through intense, terrifying, and awe inspiring things. Living the way the American Church does, you'd think that Christianity is a pretty easy way to stroll through life, but really if you actually read this thing called the bible, you'd see that we're called to live life to the full (John 10:10 for those of you that don't speak missionary). Sometimes that means you die standing up for someone. Sometimes that means you eat monkey brains. Sometimes that means you just have no clue what's coming next -usually the case when you're on missionary support....ha :)-. One of our more recent speakers, Troy Sherman (he's probably going to be the basis of a blog or twenty in the future...just to prepare you), said that being a Christian is pretty much the worst decision you could ever make. Let's be honest, if you're sincerely living the life that is described in the New Testament, there's nothing "fun" about it in American standards. But we're not called to be comfortable. We're not called to stuff our faces full of delicious food for days, sit around and watch TV, waste hours upon hours on facebook, and sleep on pillow top mattresses. Seriously, that just described my entire Thanksgiving break to you, and I know I'm not the only one of my YWAM friends that did the exact same thing.
All to say, being relatively bored, as great as it is, is not enough for me anymore. My body is physically aching to do something productive, and I'm realizing how much better I feel about myself when my day is planned minute by minute even though I hate getting out of bed every single morning because I know I won't stop until lights out. Another point Fred made is that the bible says "GO" more than 8,000 times. Sometimes it specifies what that means, and sometimes you decide how it best fits what you're called to do.
Habakkuk 1:5 says "For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." How am I going to see that if I'm ...bored? Sitting on facebook? Watching Madea? As much as it pains me to say that Madea needs to take up less of my time, I'm not supposed to be deteriorating my muscles because I haven't left the house all weekend, I'm supposed to GO!
So yes, i'm having a great time here at Megan's, consuming glorious things and being lazy. But really, I can't wait to be back at my new home preparing myself for outreach where I get to go! and actually bring hope to people. If you just happen to not believe in the 'hope' I'm talking about, maybe you can at least appreciate that we'll be digging wells in Peru providing clean drinking water so that some of the jungle villages will have access for the first time in their lives to something we take for granted every single day. I should probably use a separate blog for that soap box moment though :).
I ramble so much. If you got to the end of this, I should give you a high five or something. Since I don't really have any great closing statements, this is a video Fred showed us that really portrays how I feel about the American Church. You can feel free to disagree if you want, maybe you've never even been to a "contemporary" church, but I think it's a pretty great video and I'm gonna post it because I can.
Shalom again guys. I guess leave me a comment if you feel as restless as I do right now and we can holla at each other :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqaITA3IO0
Monday, November 1, 2010
Gotta Love Missionary Wi-fi
Turns out this blogging website is blocked on the base's internet so I have no way of getting to it. Potentially I could type something up every once in a while and upload it on the weekends when I go back to the outside world, but I keep forgetting. So this one isn't really an in-depth update, it's just letting you know that that's the reason I haven't been blogging. Sowwy everyone.
We've been crazy busy. I mean... my free time comes in half hour spurts. We have weekends of course, but we usually have things planned at some point, plus laundry, wal-mart runs, church, and whatever else I need to get done... Not to mention book reports every other week, journals we turn in once a week, and lots and lots of reading. I spose I could tell you my daily schedule. Breakfast at 6:30 which means I wake up anywhere from 6:12-6:43 (if you don't already know that I work by odd times...well welcome to my life). We don't necessarily have to be at breakfast, but we do have to be there at 6:55 so they know we're alive to the world. Then they send us off to our Quiet Time with God from 7-8. 8-9 is different depending on the day, some days we have worship and some days we have prayer meetings. We are, after all YWAM -Youth With A Meeting. We're all about acronyms. So far I've learned that YWAM not only stands for Youth With A Mission, but also young women after men, young wolves after mates, youth without any money....they're all true. Anyways. 9:15-12:30 is class. Lunch. Afternoons depends on the day. Monday's and Friday's we have free time for a couple hours which I usually have to use every minute of doing something... But every day at 3 we have work duties, so some people are on maintenance crew, some are in the kitchen, and I am doing housekeeping. I clean the entire basement/game room, we're supposed to clean for 2 hours but mine takes me about an hour and a half. Then I shower and hang out till dinner at 6.
Monday nights are Outreach meetings -officially decided on the Amazon/Peru!-, Tuesday nights are Local Outreach -my group is a tutoring outreach in a nearby trailer park-, Wednesday nights are designated for reading so we can catch up on homework, Thursday nights are Community Night which is worship and usually someone comes to visit me :), Friday nights are basically weekends so we're free -depending on what's planned... some Sunday mornings, we speak at churches, sometimes we have fundraisers, we've had a couple events that took all day but were super fun, etc..- until Sunday night.
All to say.....every hour of my life is pretty much planned out for me while I'm here. It's kind of overwhelming a lot of times because I just want to add 6 more hours to every day. But I'm learning a ton- I can't even begin to tell you... If you haven't done a DTS there's no way you can even fathom what we go through. I can already tell I'm growing emotionally and spiritually so hopefully other people notice as well. There's also been some rough times, especially the past week. There's a ton of spiritual warfare going on, if you don't know what that is, you should send me a message and we can talk about it. So there's been a huge lack of sleep for everyone around the base the past few days and I don't know of anyone that hasn't wanted to go home at some point. We're all pushing through though for now.
Prayer requests for the moment:
-spiritual warfare is crazy, overwhelming, and sometimes scary. you can ask me for details if you want
-God's been growing me most so far through helping me let go of things. small things, big things, forgiving things, there's been some reconciliation with people and some letting go of relationships...even letting go of about 1,000 songs off my ipod the other day. so just that I would continue growing through it and not get defiant towards it
-a lot of personality clashes...if you know me, you know i'm blunt. and people that aren't used to that sometimes get really offended by me. ok I'm offensive either way. there have been many confrontations which is mostly a good thing, but yeah, sometimes dealing with people and making them deal with me is stressful.
I guess this is all I can think of off the top of my head. Facebook is probably more up to date on pictures and stuff. well definitely more up to date. I'll try to remember to update this more often when I get a chance
Shalom friends
We've been crazy busy. I mean... my free time comes in half hour spurts. We have weekends of course, but we usually have things planned at some point, plus laundry, wal-mart runs, church, and whatever else I need to get done... Not to mention book reports every other week, journals we turn in once a week, and lots and lots of reading. I spose I could tell you my daily schedule. Breakfast at 6:30 which means I wake up anywhere from 6:12-6:43 (if you don't already know that I work by odd times...well welcome to my life). We don't necessarily have to be at breakfast, but we do have to be there at 6:55 so they know we're alive to the world. Then they send us off to our Quiet Time with God from 7-8. 8-9 is different depending on the day, some days we have worship and some days we have prayer meetings. We are, after all YWAM -Youth With A Meeting. We're all about acronyms. So far I've learned that YWAM not only stands for Youth With A Mission, but also young women after men, young wolves after mates, youth without any money....they're all true. Anyways. 9:15-12:30 is class. Lunch. Afternoons depends on the day. Monday's and Friday's we have free time for a couple hours which I usually have to use every minute of doing something... But every day at 3 we have work duties, so some people are on maintenance crew, some are in the kitchen, and I am doing housekeeping. I clean the entire basement/game room, we're supposed to clean for 2 hours but mine takes me about an hour and a half. Then I shower and hang out till dinner at 6.
Monday nights are Outreach meetings -officially decided on the Amazon/Peru!-, Tuesday nights are Local Outreach -my group is a tutoring outreach in a nearby trailer park-, Wednesday nights are designated for reading so we can catch up on homework, Thursday nights are Community Night which is worship and usually someone comes to visit me :), Friday nights are basically weekends so we're free -depending on what's planned... some Sunday mornings, we speak at churches, sometimes we have fundraisers, we've had a couple events that took all day but were super fun, etc..- until Sunday night.
All to say.....every hour of my life is pretty much planned out for me while I'm here. It's kind of overwhelming a lot of times because I just want to add 6 more hours to every day. But I'm learning a ton- I can't even begin to tell you... If you haven't done a DTS there's no way you can even fathom what we go through. I can already tell I'm growing emotionally and spiritually so hopefully other people notice as well. There's also been some rough times, especially the past week. There's a ton of spiritual warfare going on, if you don't know what that is, you should send me a message and we can talk about it. So there's been a huge lack of sleep for everyone around the base the past few days and I don't know of anyone that hasn't wanted to go home at some point. We're all pushing through though for now.
Prayer requests for the moment:
-spiritual warfare is crazy, overwhelming, and sometimes scary. you can ask me for details if you want
-God's been growing me most so far through helping me let go of things. small things, big things, forgiving things, there's been some reconciliation with people and some letting go of relationships...even letting go of about 1,000 songs off my ipod the other day. so just that I would continue growing through it and not get defiant towards it
-a lot of personality clashes...if you know me, you know i'm blunt. and people that aren't used to that sometimes get really offended by me. ok I'm offensive either way. there have been many confrontations which is mostly a good thing, but yeah, sometimes dealing with people and making them deal with me is stressful.
I guess this is all I can think of off the top of my head. Facebook is probably more up to date on pictures and stuff. well definitely more up to date. I'll try to remember to update this more often when I get a chance
Shalom friends
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