Beyond Adventure

Some surprise turns

The outreach is over.

2 months

2 countries

12 students

many adventures

Outreach

The team

Germany

The adventure with God began 1 week before we left for outreach. I had everything planned out and set up to work with refugees in Germany. Then I got a call. Our host in Germany said they had plenty of volunteers and didn't need us. They asked if we could go to one of their contacts 2 hours away. So, there goes my plans! To make things even more exciting, our new contact didn't speak English. So, here we go!

We arrived at the YMCA in Reichenbach, Germany at midnight. I was happy to see our contact standing there to greet us (since speaking with him proved be.....uh.....interesting). We stayed at the YMCA during our whole time there. After resting for 2 day, we helped with a 3-day kids camp where my team were the main counselors. This presented an interesting experience since none of the 35 kids spoke English and all but one of my team didn't speak German. Most of these kids came from either abusive or single-parent homes and they weren't Christian.

One of my girls doing crafts

Somehow, by the end, those kids were impacted and we began to here testimonies from our host and the parents of how they changed. The kids heard the Gospel and experienced God's love.

After the camp, we began to engaged a lot with the local churches and ministered to their young people groups. It's not what we had planned, but according to our host, our team helped open several doors to ministries for him and others.

We did a LOT of dramas in churches

My team kept me busy with many injuries (8 trips to the hospital total)

Tallest brick bridge in the world

Indonesia

After 3 weeks of Germany and some amazing food, we headed to my old home, Bali. For 4 weeks, we worked with my old base doing ministries from prison to soccer to kids' education.

Teaching kids from the slums through crafts

Most of my team have never traveled outside of the States/Canada so Bali was quite the culture shock. Going from the cold nature of Germany to the warm nature of Indonesia was good for them. Bali also is highly Hindu so there are temples, offerings, and idols everywhere. These students got to experience God's heart for all cultures....no matter how different they are.

One day, we took a whole orphanage to the beach and played with them

Testimony

Sophie, a New Zealander, is a 19-year old girl on my team. God saved her last year from a suicide attempt and changed her life. She had always struggled with feeling valued. Throughout the outreach, she would isolate herself from the team and often withdraw into herself. One day, in Germany, our team was praying and God told me that she was to give the next sermon. When I told her, she looked shocked and said that God had told her the same thing but she didn't want to believe it :)

A few weeks later, when in Bali, that opportunity came. She gave the sermon at a church we attended. Before giving the sermon, Sophie said she felt that her sermon was for someone specific. Once she finished giving her sermon, one of the other girls on our team came to her and said "Sophie, I feel like God wants you to know that the sermon you just gave was for you". Upon hearing this, a major breakthrough came and she could see, for the first time in her life, value inside herself.

After this happened, Sophie changed. Her countenance changed, she began engaging with the group and in prayer, etc. It was amazing! THIS is why I do what I do......to see people's lives change.

Back home

It's been 2 weeks since the students graduated and left. Since then, I've been home to celebrate my Mom's 70 (uh.......55) birthday :). I've also been processing a lot with God. Even though I got to see God change the lives of a few students, the outreach (as a whole) was very difficult and took a huge tole on me. So, I'm taking these next few weeks processing and praying while serving here at the Denver base.

What's next

Our new training term is beginning in 3 weeks. God surprised me in Bali and told me to take one of secondary schools called the WISE school. WISE stands for "Worship, Intercession, Spiritual Warfare, and Evangelism". I feel these are areas God wants to grow me and use me in. So! For the next 3 months, I will be a student preparing for the calling on my life.

In addition to the WISE school, God has also confirmed that I should begin preparations to take the BCC (Bible Core Course) next January. The BCC is an intense 3-month Bible school focused on the inductive Bible study method. It's like squeezing a year of seminary into 3 months.

This will depend on if I can raise enough funds for this school (the school is $3700). The reason to take the BCC is mainly for the YWAM base I want to start in Huntsville, AL. I believe every Christian needs a firm foundation in the Bible therefore I want to offer the BCC at my base in order to do this. The BCC is a secondary course which means one has to successfully complete a DTS (Discipleship Training School) before they can take a BCC. I try to avoid asking for extra finances too many times, but this will be one of those times I will need to do some extra fundraising.

Prayer points

1) That I will be able to raise $3700 by next January

2) That I will continue developing relationships for the future base

3) That I will be a blessing to my supporters

Fun Stuff