Friday, December 21, 2007
Tanzania HERE WE COME!
so this is my last post from beautiful South Africa! I begin the very long 5 day journey into Tanzania at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning and I am extremely excited! We have stumbled upon a few complications with registering the vehicles etc. so we got set back a day but it turned out ok and gave me an extra day to tie up some loose ends. I have really enjoyed the lecture phase portion of my dts and am very excited to go out into more of Africa and do some of the dirty work for God. I dont imagine I will have very much internet access in a Tanzanian or kenyan village so I imagine this may be the last post for a while but I assure you I will update as much as possible if oppertunitys open up. Once agian I love you all and am so thankful for your support and Help. Blessings!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
lots of news
hello everyone!
So yesteday we finished building a house! Our team built a house for a family in Zwelethemba in 2 days!!!!!! The whole story is quite an act of God actually. We were planning on buying what is called a Wendy house it is a small house that a company comes and buildes for pretty cheap. However in the end we could'nt afford the house and the materials we needed to mend a house that burned down in Zwelethamba also..... so Suzy a woman on our dts remebered a place that sold sheds neaby so bought the shed took it apart and went to work to build the house ourselves. Most of us have never built a house before and none of us work in construction only like 3 of us have ever been involved in anything like it. However by the grace of God we did it!!! The family we built the house for was a family of 7 girls and two babies under 1. A boy and a little girl. The mother/granmother has Aids and is most likely not going to make it much longer. The father/grandfather just passed away in September because of AIDS. Two of the 6 sisters that live there have babies one of the girls in 22 or so and the other is 17. We felt so blessed by God to build them this house. There is no work at all in the area so only one or two of the sisters have jobs and support the whole family. Both of the babies are also sick and had really bad coughs. they were extremely grateful for thier new house however and are excited to have a clean open space to eat as a family. We also did some evangelising in the area and a few were lead to Jesus for the first time. They have no running water and share bath water everyday all 9 of them standing in a baby bath with a cloth. They also eat poridge everyday just because it's cheap and filling. We had a party for them after the building was over though and they were so happy and were singing and eating and then they sang us off....
Now we leave for Tanzania in 5 days and guess what WE ARE DRIVING THERE! So the whole trip will take between 4-6 days! However it does mean that i will get to drive through and stay in Zimbabwe and Zambia and hopefully on the way back Mozambique too! So wow by the end of the trip I will have been in 6 maybe 7 African countries; South Africa, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozmabique and Kenya! we are really excited about how God is and will working in us and how funny it is that we try to make plans for outreaches and God seems to always have a bit of a different plan.
Well I updated some pictures on our Photobucket so if you click the link i made to it down below a few posts ago you can all see them!
I will try to update again before I leave but in case I dont Merry Christmas and happy new year everyone I hope you are all blessed this holiday season!
So yesteday we finished building a house! Our team built a house for a family in Zwelethemba in 2 days!!!!!! The whole story is quite an act of God actually. We were planning on buying what is called a Wendy house it is a small house that a company comes and buildes for pretty cheap. However in the end we could'nt afford the house and the materials we needed to mend a house that burned down in Zwelethamba also..... so Suzy a woman on our dts remebered a place that sold sheds neaby so bought the shed took it apart and went to work to build the house ourselves. Most of us have never built a house before and none of us work in construction only like 3 of us have ever been involved in anything like it. However by the grace of God we did it!!! The family we built the house for was a family of 7 girls and two babies under 1. A boy and a little girl. The mother/granmother has Aids and is most likely not going to make it much longer. The father/grandfather just passed away in September because of AIDS. Two of the 6 sisters that live there have babies one of the girls in 22 or so and the other is 17. We felt so blessed by God to build them this house. There is no work at all in the area so only one or two of the sisters have jobs and support the whole family. Both of the babies are also sick and had really bad coughs. they were extremely grateful for thier new house however and are excited to have a clean open space to eat as a family. We also did some evangelising in the area and a few were lead to Jesus for the first time. They have no running water and share bath water everyday all 9 of them standing in a baby bath with a cloth. They also eat poridge everyday just because it's cheap and filling. We had a party for them after the building was over though and they were so happy and were singing and eating and then they sang us off....
Now we leave for Tanzania in 5 days and guess what WE ARE DRIVING THERE! So the whole trip will take between 4-6 days! However it does mean that i will get to drive through and stay in Zimbabwe and Zambia and hopefully on the way back Mozambique too! So wow by the end of the trip I will have been in 6 maybe 7 African countries; South Africa, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozmabique and Kenya! we are really excited about how God is and will working in us and how funny it is that we try to make plans for outreaches and God seems to always have a bit of a different plan.
Well I updated some pictures on our Photobucket so if you click the link i made to it down below a few posts ago you can all see them!
I will try to update again before I leave but in case I dont Merry Christmas and happy new year everyone I hope you are all blessed this holiday season!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
read this
so let me explain something about Prophecy as far as my understanding goes. Prophecy is not alway accurate and you never change future plans because of what you recieved in prophecy. It is not a fortune telling thing although sometimes it can fortell things in your future it is more of a confrimation from God than anything else. We are not perfect however and sometimes we get it wrong and so we should always pray about it afterwards. People recieve prophecy in many different ways as well some hear it in their spirit others see visions and ideas others simply are motivated to do things or begin feeling different emotions... All need some type of interpretation by the one who is recieving it although sometimes it may seem so weird. For example the speaker this week told us a story about a woman who God told to go and stand on her head next to a coke machine in the grocery store. Ok weird ya? So at first she ignored it thinking what an odd thing God was asking and she was too embarressed finally she reasoned with herself and just did it and ran out of the store. A man stopped her as she was running and said "what on earth have you just done"? and she said im sorry you wouldnt understand it's just God told me to do it and i did and now i just want to leave and he said "no but you see I asked God to give me this outrageous sign of someone stading on their head next to this coke machine so I would know he was real otherwise if I didnt see this sign I was going to commit suicide because there was no more hope will you please tell me about Jesus"? i was totally wowed by this story. The stupidest things God is telling us to do can be so crucial! So if your saying to yourself well whatever that is not a first hand story maybe it's true but Lauren does not even know this woman well thats true I dont but I still believe however I will tell you something that just happened to me a few hours ago and maybe this will shake you and you will see that prophecy is still so so real and a huge form of communication between us and God. Today we sat in groups and tried to get prophecy for one another and I was in a group with Dina from Denmark and Magged our speaker. I got a vision for Dina which totally applied to her life although i thought it was kinda weird but I got an even weirder one for Magged i couldnt stop getting this word out of my mind i saw it heard it I almost felt it so although i had never heard this word before i told it to him hoping it would mean something and when i said it his eyes filled with tears and he said to me "this word Hassar means protection in Arabic my native language and im going to Pakistan in a little while with my family and I was so unsure about my safety but you have just confirmed to me that it is ok for me to go there". Now how on earth could that not be from God? I spoke Arabic to this man although i know absolutely no Arabic!?!? Trust in God always and simply obey what he says it really is that easy for us. Think if I had not taken that leap of faith when i said to him this unfamiliar word? His whole plans for his future steps were changed because of that one word. God provides thats it he just does so please pray about Prophecy and open your hearts and minds to it's possibilities. I will update with some more news like stuff soon love you all
Thursday, November 29, 2007
i need some insight
there is guy on my DTS from England and his name is Daniel and he is very gifted with Prophecy and recently he has recieved some prophecy for me and sent it to me and i wanted to share it with all of you because since you all supported me through this i figure you all should be a part of this too and help me pray into this prophecy and help me figure out if it is really something God has in his heart for me or if it is just an opinion of someone. Leave comments and let me know what you think but i encourage you to pray about it first. but leave comments everyone.
Lauren
I see you as a bold champion of the people. I believe that you are a voice for those who have no voice that you will be an ear for those who nobody will listen to a shoulder to cry on for those who have never felt safe enough anywhere to be open and vulnerable before. One of your special callings I believe is that you are a champion of women and teenage girls speaking their identity to them and helping them form the future of their lives and young single mums empowering them to connect with Jesus their husband and know Him as their source and I believe that they will step away form self destructive habits and addictions to drink and endless shopping and TV and the bad men who are bad for them as you help them connect with their source. I believe that you will encourage and challenge the middle aged women to step into being spiritual mum to the young women who are starting out in families. I believe that your life and example in love and motherhood even without children at the moment, as you move in that spiritual mothering anointing now, called to encourage young mums and girls to grow into being beautiful women of God will call and rally and release and equip an army of older women. I believe that you will be a catalyst and leader of women twice your age and older who are starting to understand that the calling to grandmother and mother young women into godly lives is an anointing form God and they can operate in it the same as you do. I think that abortion will be an issue that course you a lot of pain and heart ache as you seek to support women weither they chose to or not and you see the pain that both choices course to them and love them as they step into their lives. I believe that to give you extra revelations that will being focus and perspective to balance you huge heart and vision and revelation of justice for women that God has formed in you sovereignly, because this calling and fire for justice is so strong and powerful so strong I believe that it can scare you sometimes and you do not want to dive into it fully as you are scared that it make sweep you away and take you to a place where you will not love everybody because you are wanting justice. I believe that you have had situation where this shout this roar has come out of you and hurt people around you and so you have wanted to put a cap on it but at the same time are unable to because it is the very heart of God for justice wanting to express itself through you. I believe that you have been wanting to be able to control and be able to turn the fire down or have a handle for it, I believe that you have almost not known how this can happen so it may be better for this to be quenched, maybe that it could even be an area that needs healing. But I believe that this passion for justice is from God, and it isn’t just justice for women but also for all that are unheard and unloved and pressed down and abused. I believe that God wants to keep this fire in you and increase it but He wants to put a harness on this fire a guide on this fiery roar of God so it can be released through you with direction and focus. I see it like superman’s eyes that he can burn through things with his fiery stare but he has glasses on to stop it burning up people. Again God doesn’t want to take it away but bring focus and direction. I believe that these revelations that are being released more and more and that He is inviting you to pursue and ask for to you are of “The eternal kingdom of God” and the greater worth of life in eternity instead of life on earth. I believe that this will bring you to a place where the most important thing for you is that somebody would be saved and will empower you to being the gospel in situations were it needs to be shared but it is difficult to share it. The second the live for life and especially life in the womb of a women, I believe that will balance your huge heart of compassion and enable you to speak to and challenge women to make good decisions even though it will be tough for them. I also believe that there will be a revelation and an increased understanding of men that will come long before you are married. I believe that this understanding will bring like a soft spot for men and you will love them and want to bless and love the wounded little boys that are in them and that course them to live in reaction instead of love to the women around them. I believe that you will need this deep compassion for men and understanding of their brokenness because you will embrace and absorb and help many women process deep hurt that they have experienced at the hands of men and this revelation will help you to not take offence at men but bring understanding to women and empower them to love the men in their lives come what may. Amen.
Please weigh I don’t know if it is true or not.
Lauren
I see you as a bold champion of the people. I believe that you are a voice for those who have no voice that you will be an ear for those who nobody will listen to a shoulder to cry on for those who have never felt safe enough anywhere to be open and vulnerable before. One of your special callings I believe is that you are a champion of women and teenage girls speaking their identity to them and helping them form the future of their lives and young single mums empowering them to connect with Jesus their husband and know Him as their source and I believe that they will step away form self destructive habits and addictions to drink and endless shopping and TV and the bad men who are bad for them as you help them connect with their source. I believe that you will encourage and challenge the middle aged women to step into being spiritual mum to the young women who are starting out in families. I believe that your life and example in love and motherhood even without children at the moment, as you move in that spiritual mothering anointing now, called to encourage young mums and girls to grow into being beautiful women of God will call and rally and release and equip an army of older women. I believe that you will be a catalyst and leader of women twice your age and older who are starting to understand that the calling to grandmother and mother young women into godly lives is an anointing form God and they can operate in it the same as you do. I think that abortion will be an issue that course you a lot of pain and heart ache as you seek to support women weither they chose to or not and you see the pain that both choices course to them and love them as they step into their lives. I believe that to give you extra revelations that will being focus and perspective to balance you huge heart and vision and revelation of justice for women that God has formed in you sovereignly, because this calling and fire for justice is so strong and powerful so strong I believe that it can scare you sometimes and you do not want to dive into it fully as you are scared that it make sweep you away and take you to a place where you will not love everybody because you are wanting justice. I believe that you have had situation where this shout this roar has come out of you and hurt people around you and so you have wanted to put a cap on it but at the same time are unable to because it is the very heart of God for justice wanting to express itself through you. I believe that you have been wanting to be able to control and be able to turn the fire down or have a handle for it, I believe that you have almost not known how this can happen so it may be better for this to be quenched, maybe that it could even be an area that needs healing. But I believe that this passion for justice is from God, and it isn’t just justice for women but also for all that are unheard and unloved and pressed down and abused. I believe that God wants to keep this fire in you and increase it but He wants to put a harness on this fire a guide on this fiery roar of God so it can be released through you with direction and focus. I see it like superman’s eyes that he can burn through things with his fiery stare but he has glasses on to stop it burning up people. Again God doesn’t want to take it away but bring focus and direction. I believe that these revelations that are being released more and more and that He is inviting you to pursue and ask for to you are of “The eternal kingdom of God” and the greater worth of life in eternity instead of life on earth. I believe that this will bring you to a place where the most important thing for you is that somebody would be saved and will empower you to being the gospel in situations were it needs to be shared but it is difficult to share it. The second the live for life and especially life in the womb of a women, I believe that will balance your huge heart of compassion and enable you to speak to and challenge women to make good decisions even though it will be tough for them. I also believe that there will be a revelation and an increased understanding of men that will come long before you are married. I believe that this understanding will bring like a soft spot for men and you will love them and want to bless and love the wounded little boys that are in them and that course them to live in reaction instead of love to the women around them. I believe that you will need this deep compassion for men and understanding of their brokenness because you will embrace and absorb and help many women process deep hurt that they have experienced at the hands of men and this revelation will help you to not take offence at men but bring understanding to women and empower them to love the men in their lives come what may. Amen.
Please weigh I don’t know if it is true or not.
Monday, November 19, 2007
8th week
hello everyone!
im sorry i know it's been two weeks since my last post and im really sorry but I've been busy these last two weekends and ran out of time for this. Well these past two weeks have been HIV/AIDS and brokeness/renouncing rights. our speaker this last week was from Brazil and her name was Daniele and her husband's name was Daniel cute huh? Well she was a very joyful person and she brought a new life to our group. Basicially the message was that sometimes we need to just be broken before the lord so that his anointing can pour through the cracks. I think God teaches alot through tragedy and when we are so vulnerable it easier for God to mold us and work with us.
Well sadly this wednesday is our last normal outreach in Zwelethemba. I will miss those kids so much! We are currently working on a project called love in a box. We are setting up stations at local stores so that people can donate items for the children so they can have christmas presents this year. We are asking for things like socks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, non-perishable foods and toys. We are hoping to be able to give all 350 kids a christmas present this year. and in 2 weeks we are having a christmas party for them.
We leave for out reach in 5 weeks! its going to come really fast. We have alot of fundraising to do for it though because only one of our staff membes has the money to go and 2 students are also without the apppropriate funding. we have a few ideas to fundraise but we can not do anything it is going to take a miracle from God for us all to be able to go so please pray for breakthrough for us we really really need it.
My brithday this weekend was really great me and about 8 of my friends went into cape town and we saw the penguins and i saw sharks from the beach shore and we had a really nice dinner and we went to the African marketplace and well it was just alot of fun and all my friends here made it feel really special. The people here are becoming like another family to me. We have had our moments but we are actually really united and we work so well together.
I hope everyone at home is doing well and that everyone is helathy and happy. If only I could have the faith of a mustard seed i could be able to tell a mountain to move from here to there and it would. Pray for my dts to have this kind of faith please. Love every hour of everyday and reap the blessings of the Lord
im sorry i know it's been two weeks since my last post and im really sorry but I've been busy these last two weekends and ran out of time for this. Well these past two weeks have been HIV/AIDS and brokeness/renouncing rights. our speaker this last week was from Brazil and her name was Daniele and her husband's name was Daniel cute huh? Well she was a very joyful person and she brought a new life to our group. Basicially the message was that sometimes we need to just be broken before the lord so that his anointing can pour through the cracks. I think God teaches alot through tragedy and when we are so vulnerable it easier for God to mold us and work with us.
Well sadly this wednesday is our last normal outreach in Zwelethemba. I will miss those kids so much! We are currently working on a project called love in a box. We are setting up stations at local stores so that people can donate items for the children so they can have christmas presents this year. We are asking for things like socks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, non-perishable foods and toys. We are hoping to be able to give all 350 kids a christmas present this year. and in 2 weeks we are having a christmas party for them.
We leave for out reach in 5 weeks! its going to come really fast. We have alot of fundraising to do for it though because only one of our staff membes has the money to go and 2 students are also without the apppropriate funding. we have a few ideas to fundraise but we can not do anything it is going to take a miracle from God for us all to be able to go so please pray for breakthrough for us we really really need it.
My brithday this weekend was really great me and about 8 of my friends went into cape town and we saw the penguins and i saw sharks from the beach shore and we had a really nice dinner and we went to the African marketplace and well it was just alot of fun and all my friends here made it feel really special. The people here are becoming like another family to me. We have had our moments but we are actually really united and we work so well together.
I hope everyone at home is doing well and that everyone is helathy and happy. If only I could have the faith of a mustard seed i could be able to tell a mountain to move from here to there and it would. Pray for my dts to have this kind of faith please. Love every hour of everyday and reap the blessings of the Lord
Sunday, November 4, 2007
greetings
hello everyone!
this last week was titled crucified life.
man oh man was it intense. It was all about how Christ is in us and we are in him and how completely amazing that is. The only thing we have to do is ask what brings life and not concentrate on whats right and whats wrong because Christ died for us and we are no longer slaves to sin but we have the freedom to choose and if we simply submit ourselves to God daily then all we have to do is simply live and just be and we will bear fruit. Let me tell you though i was on the verge of tears and actually have just broke down and cried a couple times this week. My heart feels like it is being twisted and pulled and challenged in so many ways. however im learning what it really means to obey God.
Me and all my team are also getting really close and its really great... we have all these inside Jokes and we cry to one another and we laugh and well basically we do everything together. I love them alot but i still miss home so much.
So for the first time this last week we were able to bring bananas and chips to the children and they were really excited... It was great to be able to give them something besides candy (which they always get) in a weird way these children are really becoming a part of me.. there are a few girls who are really attatched to me and insist on always sitting next to me and when i look at them i cant help but to tear up a little because i wish i could do something more to help them get out of there but they have hope and always have smiles waiting for me. If only we could have this simple kind of happiness they have nothing yet they have joy always.. We can learn alot from these people. Please continue to pray
Another interesting thing I've learned is that the people that live in the bush of Africa really dont have it that bad. There is a man on my dts named Renaud and he is from a bush village in Congo and he misses it alot. He says the city is filled with gross air and the meat tastes horrible as well as the fruit because everything he eats is completely natural. He was telling me of the first time he killed an antelope and he took such pride in it and finished the story with "I cant wait to go back to my village I would like to see the world and I would really like to see the Golden Gate Bridge but I love my village it is so nice". We cannot judge peoples lives simply on the fact that they are different than ours. He has no running water or electricity no grocery stores and no t.v.'s but he is so happy there and it is home.
Lastly we finished the website yay! so go check it out and tell me what you think (i did the interveiw) www.childrenafrica.org
love love love you all!
this last week was titled crucified life.
man oh man was it intense. It was all about how Christ is in us and we are in him and how completely amazing that is. The only thing we have to do is ask what brings life and not concentrate on whats right and whats wrong because Christ died for us and we are no longer slaves to sin but we have the freedom to choose and if we simply submit ourselves to God daily then all we have to do is simply live and just be and we will bear fruit. Let me tell you though i was on the verge of tears and actually have just broke down and cried a couple times this week. My heart feels like it is being twisted and pulled and challenged in so many ways. however im learning what it really means to obey God.
Me and all my team are also getting really close and its really great... we have all these inside Jokes and we cry to one another and we laugh and well basically we do everything together. I love them alot but i still miss home so much.
So for the first time this last week we were able to bring bananas and chips to the children and they were really excited... It was great to be able to give them something besides candy (which they always get) in a weird way these children are really becoming a part of me.. there are a few girls who are really attatched to me and insist on always sitting next to me and when i look at them i cant help but to tear up a little because i wish i could do something more to help them get out of there but they have hope and always have smiles waiting for me. If only we could have this simple kind of happiness they have nothing yet they have joy always.. We can learn alot from these people. Please continue to pray
Another interesting thing I've learned is that the people that live in the bush of Africa really dont have it that bad. There is a man on my dts named Renaud and he is from a bush village in Congo and he misses it alot. He says the city is filled with gross air and the meat tastes horrible as well as the fruit because everything he eats is completely natural. He was telling me of the first time he killed an antelope and he took such pride in it and finished the story with "I cant wait to go back to my village I would like to see the world and I would really like to see the Golden Gate Bridge but I love my village it is so nice". We cannot judge peoples lives simply on the fact that they are different than ours. He has no running water or electricity no grocery stores and no t.v.'s but he is so happy there and it is home.
Lastly we finished the website yay! so go check it out and tell me what you think (i did the interveiw) www.childrenafrica.org
love love love you all!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
hello loyal blog readers
there is'nt a whole lot to update this week so im sorry but this is going to be a short one.
This last week was nations to nations which is a big one week long confrence about how important it is to stand as one in God. God loves all the nations and loves all tounges so every year there are these confrences all over the world. There were 3 YWAM bases that came and stayed at my YWAM base. Two were from South Africa and one was from Bethlem. It was really intense because there was masive amounts of people here and we all ate at the same time we all needed to shower at the same times and well it was tricky but overall it was good. There was music dance and drama every night and every night we ended with a huge dance party and well everyone knows how much i enjoy a good dance party especially if it's for God. We were not able to go to our regualr outreach in Zwelethemba this week though but we still went to DeDoorns which was cool because i had never been there before. It was all 7th and 8th graders and we taught them the story of Daniel and played games it was actually alot of fun.
As for our little ministry that we started in the local stores, well it's going great! we already got some donations! we got 2 bags of books a trash bag full of clothes, 150 rand, some soaps and there is still more to come! one resteraunt asked us to make a grocery type list and they would just go to the store and buy whats on our list and that was a huge blessing! we also are still waiting on a few promised donations. It's really exciting now because when it comes christmas time the children will recive presents! We are really really excited. We also have almost finished our documentary and i will send it out ASAP. We are planning on using this video to raise money for the house of orphans. It will cost between 4-5,000 rand to build the house but we are confident we can get it (thats a little less than 1,000 U.S. dollars) then we need to start fundraising for our outreach, the more money we get the more we can do there. Im a little scared though because we will be living in a village in Tanzania and we will most likely need to fetch all our own water slaughter and cook our own meals, sleep on the ground with the meassive amounts of cockroaches and it will be blazing hot on top of that. We are all actually really excited for this though because we came for an adventure like this.
Well i think thats about it... for all those that are missin me IT HAS BEEN 1 MONTH! see how fast it went! now 4 more to go and i will be back! well much love to everyone leave lots of comments they always make me smile...
This last week was nations to nations which is a big one week long confrence about how important it is to stand as one in God. God loves all the nations and loves all tounges so every year there are these confrences all over the world. There were 3 YWAM bases that came and stayed at my YWAM base. Two were from South Africa and one was from Bethlem. It was really intense because there was masive amounts of people here and we all ate at the same time we all needed to shower at the same times and well it was tricky but overall it was good. There was music dance and drama every night and every night we ended with a huge dance party and well everyone knows how much i enjoy a good dance party especially if it's for God. We were not able to go to our regualr outreach in Zwelethemba this week though but we still went to DeDoorns which was cool because i had never been there before. It was all 7th and 8th graders and we taught them the story of Daniel and played games it was actually alot of fun.
As for our little ministry that we started in the local stores, well it's going great! we already got some donations! we got 2 bags of books a trash bag full of clothes, 150 rand, some soaps and there is still more to come! one resteraunt asked us to make a grocery type list and they would just go to the store and buy whats on our list and that was a huge blessing! we also are still waiting on a few promised donations. It's really exciting now because when it comes christmas time the children will recive presents! We are really really excited. We also have almost finished our documentary and i will send it out ASAP. We are planning on using this video to raise money for the house of orphans. It will cost between 4-5,000 rand to build the house but we are confident we can get it (thats a little less than 1,000 U.S. dollars) then we need to start fundraising for our outreach, the more money we get the more we can do there. Im a little scared though because we will be living in a village in Tanzania and we will most likely need to fetch all our own water slaughter and cook our own meals, sleep on the ground with the meassive amounts of cockroaches and it will be blazing hot on top of that. We are all actually really excited for this though because we came for an adventure like this.
Well i think thats about it... for all those that are missin me IT HAS BEEN 1 MONTH! see how fast it went! now 4 more to go and i will be back! well much love to everyone leave lots of comments they always make me smile...
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
holy spirit week
hello everyone! it is wednesday night of week three and i am fantastic. Yesterday i woke up with what seemed like a sinus infection... the left side of my face just ached and my nose was stuffed on the left side and my eye constantly watered on the left side and my ear ached on the left side and my throat was increadibly swollen....you guessed it on the left side. I still went to class however and a close friend prayed for me to get better and guess what! im completely fine today... i actually didnt even need to take an allergy pill today ( the first in a week or so) so thank God for that!!!! this week is holy spirit week and we have mostly spent our time talking about the gifts of the spirit...1.faith 2.knowledge 3.widom 4.healing 5.discernment of spirits 6.tounges 7.interpretation of tounges 8.prophesy (these arent in any specific order) which has been really really interesting. The base leader and actually he is the ywam leader of all of South Africa is teaching this week and man does he have some amazing stories... like AMAZING AMAZING stories. Anyways tonight was worship for our class and we worshiped God by giving to eachother and wow you would not believe what God asked people to give. A man named Derek on my dts had very little money and he was actually late to the meeting cause he needed stregnth to give his gift.. it was his very best dress suit.. and it was really nice and pressed and in plastic and everything..i cried when he gave this. Another gave away his video ipod and some really expensive Bose headphones... another gave away 500 rand which he was saving to use to go back to Congo to see his family that he has not seen in 9 years and needs to go to tell them he is getting married and he gave every cent of his savings..... there was also alot of exchanges of huge amounts of money and other really incredible things. The whole night was just amazing and we let go of these worldy things that give our life "value" and gave it away because simply God asked us to. It was amazing. We also went to Zwelethemba today which was really great.. we performed a little drama, did some singing, did some dancing, and we held small groups for the older children. However we have a desire to bring children what they really need and thats food and shelter... we already are working on the shelter part so yesterday i came up with an idea to go to the supermarkets resteraunts and all the "food" places around us and ask what they can donate at the end of their day to us. Luckily YWAM is very well known around this area and many buisnesses already donate money so we are pretty sure they will be willing to do something. I also want to set up some cans in front of the grocery store next month to collect toiletries that we can give the children as christmas presents.... this will not start untill next month however the food donation will begin this friday hopefully. we are praying about fasting for a while for this but we want to make sure it is really God's desire for us to do this first. So please pray for the begining of what we hope is major change for these people.
The group of girls in my doorm realized we all have the same problem all of our families, friends and supporters want to see more pictures of us however we are always the one behind the camera and it is difficult so we created a photobucket account that we will dump all our pictures and videos on that way you will see this dts from a few different veiws and hopefully see all of us...as im posting this it is only my pictures on there so far but go look because they are new. Anyways i hope everyone is doing well. Love
p.s the link should appear on my page i hope it works
The group of girls in my doorm realized we all have the same problem all of our families, friends and supporters want to see more pictures of us however we are always the one behind the camera and it is difficult so we created a photobucket account that we will dump all our pictures and videos on that way you will see this dts from a few different veiws and hopefully see all of us...as im posting this it is only my pictures on there so far but go look because they are new. Anyways i hope everyone is doing well. Love
p.s the link should appear on my page i hope it works
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Week2
Hello all!
So this is my second week of DTS and it is going great! This week is callled plumbline which basically is all about inner healing and digging up all the things from your past and truly dealing with each one and letting go of it and forgiving those you need to forgive. Wow it sure is alot you aknowledge happening but you have totally and completely said well it is in my past and thats where it will stay but they are trying to teach us that alot of psycho syematic sympotms are from things we unknowingly carry in our hearts from past experiences. HEAVY STUFF! tonight we had to write a letter God and then simply listen and without thinking for yourself or doubting God just write down everything he is saying to you and wow some random stuff comes up that is really confusing but it is a cool experience.
Today we went to zwelethemba for our first day of our outreach and we introduced ourselves by singing the hokey pokey except we called it the hokey pokey nations and instead of putting body parts in and out we but the Americans, English, nigerians etc. in and it was really fun. There is an outreach team that just got here a couple days ago from Tyler texas and they lead the rest of the activity and it was really good. They danced and did like 3 skits one of which i just broke down and cried during and the poor girls sitting next to me holding my hands were like "whats wrong" and I tried with all my might to sputter out "J-J-jesus L-L-Loves you so much and so do I" and i wept hahaha. It actually allowed alot of people to see how much i really was involved with God and how deeply I wanted them to know him and love him too. They were very Rowdy as they have not had much order in their lives and they were very very excited for the candy at the end haha but a really touching moment was when we asked them all to close their eyes and raise their hand if they were in trouble and needed Jesus to recue them. Nearly 190 out of the 200 (estimate) raised their hand and it was really touching.
this is what it looked like today when we met. at the gym in the center of their town
it takes a long time to upload pictures on to here but i asked my friend if i could put up a link to his picture site and he is on the same DTS as I am so all the people with their flags this was for our Hokey Pokey nation and these are the other students on my DTS and the pictures of the children are of the children we are outreaching to so i hope this helps give you all a better visual. Please excuse all the random pictures ha he is a little camera friendly.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13669084@N02/
I hope everyone is doing well i miss you all!
So this is my second week of DTS and it is going great! This week is callled plumbline which basically is all about inner healing and digging up all the things from your past and truly dealing with each one and letting go of it and forgiving those you need to forgive. Wow it sure is alot you aknowledge happening but you have totally and completely said well it is in my past and thats where it will stay but they are trying to teach us that alot of psycho syematic sympotms are from things we unknowingly carry in our hearts from past experiences. HEAVY STUFF! tonight we had to write a letter God and then simply listen and without thinking for yourself or doubting God just write down everything he is saying to you and wow some random stuff comes up that is really confusing but it is a cool experience.
Today we went to zwelethemba for our first day of our outreach and we introduced ourselves by singing the hokey pokey except we called it the hokey pokey nations and instead of putting body parts in and out we but the Americans, English, nigerians etc. in and it was really fun. There is an outreach team that just got here a couple days ago from Tyler texas and they lead the rest of the activity and it was really good. They danced and did like 3 skits one of which i just broke down and cried during and the poor girls sitting next to me holding my hands were like "whats wrong" and I tried with all my might to sputter out "J-J-jesus L-L-Loves you so much and so do I" and i wept hahaha. It actually allowed alot of people to see how much i really was involved with God and how deeply I wanted them to know him and love him too. They were very Rowdy as they have not had much order in their lives and they were very very excited for the candy at the end haha but a really touching moment was when we asked them all to close their eyes and raise their hand if they were in trouble and needed Jesus to recue them. Nearly 190 out of the 200 (estimate) raised their hand and it was really touching.
this is what it looked like today when we met. at the gym in the center of their town
it takes a long time to upload pictures on to here but i asked my friend if i could put up a link to his picture site and he is on the same DTS as I am so all the people with their flags this was for our Hokey Pokey nation and these are the other students on my DTS and the pictures of the children are of the children we are outreaching to so i hope this helps give you all a better visual. Please excuse all the random pictures ha he is a little camera friendly.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13669084@N02/
I hope everyone is doing well i miss you all!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
hello blog readers
Hello everyone I am sorry i have not been able to update the last few days I have been busy starting school and other things. Well school is going great and Amazing things are happening. We are just learning about how to hear from God and the YWAM values and today the speaker for the week shared his life story and it was very sad as he was born into the Zulu tribe and left to live on his own at the age of 16 and was rejected by his community after accepting God into his life because the Black people from the Zulu tribe think christianity is only for white people and alot of them are very racist. Then he came to Worcester Ywam with only 3 rand in his pocket (this is less than 1 U.S. dollar). He is still struggeling with money but God taught him to not rely on money but on God and somehow he has been able to travel to Egypt, England, and Uganda and a few other places without having any money. We also went to the two sites in the community here where we will be doing mini outreaches twice a week. These communitys are very poverty striken most of you would be sick at the mere sight of it. Those suffering children ads on t.v. are basically what it looks like. There are tons of children living on their own because their parents have either died because of Aids or drugs. All of the children run around outside through the trash on their own looking for food all the time with not a parent in sight. There are some children with parents as well but they still run around on their own there were two little boys there younger than 2 maybe not even 1 years old completely wandering on their own. None of the children have shoes or food and the clothing they have is very dirty and worn they do luckily have water and electricity for free however that does not mean they have lightbulbs and that does not mean the water is clean. I did not know we would be able to get out of the cars and walk around when we went yesterday because they said we would just pass by and see it so i did not take my camera but I will definitely take it next time we go and I will take video as well so you all can experience the heartbreak that I did. Please pray for zwelethemba and de doorns (these are the names of the two communitys) We are going to make a website to help get support for these areas although it will take a long time to do this but i will post the URL as soon as we make it. We are trying to come up with ideas of how to change their lives so if you have any ideas of how to train them at jobs they can do or have ideas of ways we can help in long term ways all suggestions are welcome. I hope all of you are doing well I am feeling great. I will try to update more often.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
it's only day two but i know everyone wants more
hello everyone
it's day two here at YWAM Worcester and it is great. It is warmer than yesterday (well i might just be saying that because im wearing a thermal and long pants and cozy socks) everything is going great though, last night me and the other dts students had a blast! we played some get to know you games like this game swat and wink by the end of the games we were all laughing together and eating food (which my directors wife made and it was amazing) and we all got to know eachother... there is about as much staff on my dts as there is students but in a way thats good because i get all the more support. We are still waiting on 13 people from west africa but i dont think they will get here because people from west africa were lying on their visa applications saying they were coming to YWAM and then never showing up so know the requirements are huge. Hopefully they will come though so keep them in your prayers. I am adjusting quite well to the time difference actually which is great and i took alot of pictures today for everyone.
this is our toaster in all it's glory... we can make toast any time day or night and everyone puts syrup on their toast weird huh?
this is on the window in the dining room it says "please use the door when you want to go out/come in this is a window IT NOT THE DOOR" haha i laughed.
this is amanda(left) she is from Indiana and Sarah(right) she is from England they are both on my dts and live in the cubicle next to me
another sitting/hang out room
this is a hallway where some of the staff live and it is connected to that main hallway i showed you in the last blog this is mainly to show you how big this place is.
this is Laimon and Ashley they are the leaders of my dts and they are really nice Ashley actually is from Chico small world huh?
well i have like 6 more pictures to put up but for some reason it is going really slow now and i cant upload them but i will soon I hope everyone is doing well today <3
it's day two here at YWAM Worcester and it is great. It is warmer than yesterday (well i might just be saying that because im wearing a thermal and long pants and cozy socks) everything is going great though, last night me and the other dts students had a blast! we played some get to know you games like this game swat and wink by the end of the games we were all laughing together and eating food (which my directors wife made and it was amazing) and we all got to know eachother... there is about as much staff on my dts as there is students but in a way thats good because i get all the more support. We are still waiting on 13 people from west africa but i dont think they will get here because people from west africa were lying on their visa applications saying they were coming to YWAM and then never showing up so know the requirements are huge. Hopefully they will come though so keep them in your prayers. I am adjusting quite well to the time difference actually which is great and i took alot of pictures today for everyone.
this is our toaster in all it's glory... we can make toast any time day or night and everyone puts syrup on their toast weird huh?
this is on the window in the dining room it says "please use the door when you want to go out/come in this is a window IT NOT THE DOOR" haha i laughed.
this is amanda(left) she is from Indiana and Sarah(right) she is from England they are both on my dts and live in the cubicle next to me
another sitting/hang out room
this is a hallway where some of the staff live and it is connected to that main hallway i showed you in the last blog this is mainly to show you how big this place is.
this is Laimon and Ashley they are the leaders of my dts and they are really nice Ashley actually is from Chico small world huh?
well i have like 6 more pictures to put up but for some reason it is going really slow now and i cant upload them but i will soon I hope everyone is doing well today <3
Friday, September 28, 2007
finally my first post from africa... YAY!!!! I arrived last night at about mindnight. the plane rides were extremely long (i was in the air about 24 hours) I got to Johannesberg airport and as i was waiting in the line for customs Katie a girl from my dts whi is now my roomate was standing behind me! it was really nice to have someone just as confused as I was but going to the same place... So I was really close to not making my flight to cape town and that was super scary but luckily I made it and Lindane and Loy were there to pick me up. The two of these guys were so nice and helpful and the ride to the site was fun especially teaching them about what halloween was and seeing their faces when i said oh ya everyone celebrates it even churchs have parties for it. It seemed a little too satanic for them haha. Then we got to the base and they basically brought us inside and said goodnight so we figured out where to sleep and when to get up and where to go. It was all an adventure though. Then this morning I woke up had breakfast (everyone says the food is awful here and all i had was toast and im not looking forward to lunch) then i unpacked everything into my closet and started meeting everyone. 
this is a picture of my bed (yes i am happy i dont have the top bunk)
this is a picture of the girls dorms there is two sets of bunk beds so 4 people to each cubicle..
this is our bathrooms luckily there is 5 showers (but only two toilets)
this is the main hallway
this where the computers are and also where we eat and hang out
this is the kitchen not exactly beautiful i know and i guess we have the same meals everyday everyweek such as chicken and rice every monday and tuna sandwhiches every tuesday blah i know but that not what its about.
I have already met so many amazing people i have 2 friends from the U.S. from Oregon and Indiana. I have two friends from england, two friends germany and one roomate from Zimbabwae! we already went to the mall today heh it was really nice actually i was suprised. There is so much to get used to today like the money and the wind (its very very windy) and the 24 hour time instead of 12 hour and the internet and the food and everything. However today when we were at the mall a woman was sad because she is going through a divorce and we talked to her and prayed for her and she said she felt like we were sent there to give her stregnth and that was such an encouragement. well its lunch time now so i gotta go but i love everyone and miss eveyone lots
this is a picture of my bed (yes i am happy i dont have the top bunk)
this is a picture of the girls dorms there is two sets of bunk beds so 4 people to each cubicle..
this is our bathrooms luckily there is 5 showers (but only two toilets)
this is the main hallway
this where the computers are and also where we eat and hang out
this is the kitchen not exactly beautiful i know and i guess we have the same meals everyday everyweek such as chicken and rice every monday and tuna sandwhiches every tuesday blah i know but that not what its about.
I have already met so many amazing people i have 2 friends from the U.S. from Oregon and Indiana. I have two friends from england, two friends germany and one roomate from Zimbabwae! we already went to the mall today heh it was really nice actually i was suprised. There is so much to get used to today like the money and the wind (its very very windy) and the 24 hour time instead of 12 hour and the internet and the food and everything. However today when we were at the mall a woman was sad because she is going through a divorce and we talked to her and prayed for her and she said she felt like we were sent there to give her stregnth and that was such an encouragement. well its lunch time now so i gotta go but i love everyone and miss eveyone lots
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
NEW YORK !!!!!!!!
hello to everyone from NEW YORK! last night i flew at 9 p.m. to the L.A. airport and then an hour or so later i was off to new york. Luckily we got first class all the way to New York so that was nice especially when i found out the seats lay flat completely into a bed.... especially since there is no time for a nap in our busy schedule today..... We have no set plans for today BUT SOMEHOW IT IS BUSY except we are going to eat lunch at the stagecoach deli and then hopefully time square... Unfortunately although I am in the shopping capital of the world I will not be doing any because tomorrow at 5 p.m. im off to AFRICA!!!!!!!! I am a little scared to change flights and everything by myself but I guess I will do fine... luckily i have not lost any luggage yet but i still have two flights to go.... THANK YOU to everyone who came to the airport with me and took time out to say goodbye I love you all very much and will miss you alot. Ok well everyone else is ready to leave so untill my posts in Africa ....LOVE
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
so great news i called the consulate in L.A. and they said im going to get my visa on friday!!! finally the pieces of all my preperation are coming together! It is becoming more and more real to me that im going to be leaving soon. Thank you to everyone who is supporting me through out this whole trip I really appreciate it, i thought i wanted to do EVERYTHING on my own but i realized quickly that it was not going to happen that way. My last day of work at the Growing room is this friday and im really sad actually to be leaving all my kids and my friends that work there but hopefully i will be able to stay in contact and maybe do the whole pen pal thing with the kids in Africa and the kids here... Keep praying for Danny Chris tree and I, this is really unlike anything we have ever experienced and I will be the first to say that im scared. Not that i don't trust God will provide but that he will change my life completely and that is scary. I'm gonna try to get better at giving my blog address out but hopefully some are reading in. Love you all
Saturday, September 8, 2007
my trip to africa is coming closer and closer and i am SO excited. I am also really scared to leave my family and my friends and to need to meet all new people. I am especially worried about having a roomate and how we will get along so if anyone reads this and wonders what to pray for THATS IT. I am also stressing about my visa because it has not come yet. I am trusting in God that he will provide a way for that to happen though. I'm so excited to step off that plane into Africa having no idea what is about to come, i know it will be amazing whatever happens.
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