Sunday, March 30, 2008

HOLY COW!!!

Holy cow.. I'm in India... and it is pretty insane.. I have so much to share with you guys but i have limited time so i have to sum it all up..

First the plane ride here was awesome, then we got here at 3:30 am an it took us and hour to get the YWAM base we are staying at there was so much traffic and soo many peole on the streets either sleeping or walking.. and i was like ohh this is what people mean by saying India is packed with people, and it was 3 in the morning!! The driving here is a little crazy well actually a lot crazy they don't really have lines on the road and their main way of communticating it honking... oh my soo much honking! Then i was expecting Delhi to be kind of nice but the part we are in is not.. and I thought i would be more in culture shock because it is so different but i just think that because God has giving me such a heart for missions and helping these people, instead of just sitting back and taking in all the sites of the slums and being sad, i just want to get in there and help! So i'm so exicted to be here! We went to the market to buy India clothing i don't know how you call it but you should like google India traditional clothing for women.. and that is what we have to way we look so funny... it isn't that warm but that outfit makes it hot, because as women here we need to show the least amount of skin as possible

We are staying at a YWAM base and before i came i was like man i don't want to stay at a YWAM base i want to be like hardcore... well i got hardcore, how shower is a bucket of water! and for food it actually is not that bad but sometimes we have meat and i have no idea what kind of animal it is.. so i just stick to a lot of rice. :) yum but the chai tea is soo goodd!!!Oh ya so we went to the market... and that is why i said holy cow because oh my there are so SO sOO many COWS!!! everywhere!! haha it is insane... ok and i will just paint this picture for you, it is our first day in Delhi that we went to the market, and our guide is so nice she is part of the YWAM base and she said she would come to the market with us and help us find the clothes we need... well we are in this little ally and it is full of little stands ( not shops because we are going through this all y to get to the shops) So this all has a ton of stands... seriously like 100 cows! random dogs, trash, so many peolple, bikes, cars!, beggers, and holes in the wall were people live... and ok this was intense because we are all trying to take in what we are seeing and our guide is walking so fast!!! And so i'm trying to look at these holes in the wall where a whole family lives and then a car honks at me to get out of the way and then i run into a cow!! it was the craziest time of my life!

But we got the clothes! ha and we wore them for the first time today because today we went to church...we actually ran the whole church service besides worship, so it was a lot of pressure on our 2nd day of out reach, so last night we prayed and people recieved that myslef and my leader Cliare are suppose to give a testimoney... So i talked about obeying God.. it was so crazy i was nervous at all!! it was excited and i can't wait to talk more infront of people... God has given me so much strength when it comes to public speaking, i use to hate it!! and then us a girls did a dance to a song and that i was a little more nervous for but it still went good!! aww it was so exciting!

I'm really excited for our Delhi ministry because at first i was like man i just want to go to calcutta but i think it was smart to start here so we wouldn't get over whelmed.. So like 3 min away from where we live, the YWAM base owns a coffee shop and it is the cutes coffee shop ever! And the people of the Universty come here.. and so that is one of our ministries and i'm really excited because we just get to work there and inter act with the costumers and most of the speak english and i get to bake! so i'm excited!

we will also be teaching kids english!

aww my time is running out... but just know that i'm so exicted to be here and serve God! Thank you for all your prayers :)

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Lecture Phase = amazingly wonderful

Right now I am sitting here typing this in my room as people around me are going crazy trying to figure out what to pack for out reach! It is going to be hardcore, we are only bring like 2 shirts, and 2 pants.. but as for me, the girls have to wear special clothes in India that we are buying there like skirts that hit the floor and some scarf thing that goes around our neck... I should probably start to pack soon… but I wanted to write one last blog. This is such a weird stage right now, I can’t believe lecture phase is over… I can’t believe it has already been three months! I want to type so much about what I have learned here but sometimes it is hard to put into words, but I will try my best…

First of all experience so many cultures was amazing! I have loved living in Switzerland and it was been so amazing to share it was the coolest people. Something really awesome about doing a DTS is that everyone is in the same place, everyone is learning so much about themselves and trying to grow closer to God at the same time… so you become so close to the people you are living with! I know me personally there are a couple people here that I have truly grown so close to! And it is really hard because I’m not going on outreach with them. It is just so cool that I know that I have really good friends from all over the world! You form such a deep bound with these people because you are so open with each other and it isn’t just a surface relationship, but you cry and you laugh with these people and most of all you are seeking to know more of God together.

Coming here all by myself was kind of crazy, because none of these people would know who I am, or know my personality.. so I was like do I even really know who I am?? Because I mean as you all know I have an awesome twin sister, and we do everything together! So coming here I thought for sure I would learn a lot about my character.. and I have learned some, but I think I will learn more on outreach. Because for example like ok I guess I’m a little shy sometimes and like I’m never one to go against the flow of things or step up and take charge in a situation… but I think outreach is when I’m really going to live to my full potential. Like people here are so outgoing so they can be outgoing here and that is one of their strengths, but for me I feel like my strength or what God has created me to do is help those in need, and ya I can do that here but there is so much need in India and we will be living in it for 3 months and I really think I’m really going to find my true character in God because I really believe this is what God wants me to do.

Thank you so much for all you who kept Lauren and me in your prayers, read my blog, and even supported me finical!!! It means so much to have support form my friends and family.
To sum it all up God is seriously indescribable and I’m so in love with him!! Before DTS I loved God with my whole heart but I wasn’t in love.. when you are in love with someone you think about them all the time, when you first wake up and they are the last thought before you go to bed.. you want to tell them everything. And I know that is easy to say now because I’m in YWAM like this whole Godly atmosphere, how could you not always think about God. But being here I have grown so much deeper in my friendship with God and I know that I’m not just going to go home and forget about everything I learned here. It would be SO impossible because God has done some really crazy things in my life as I have been here that seriously I will not be able to forget even if I wanted to!!

I have found a new obsession… Following Jesus :) and it is pretty darn exciting

Ok well I better go pack now.. Oh my gosh I’m going to India!!

India Itinerary

Bonjour everyone!
I leave this Tomorrow for INDIA!! Sorry I have updated sooner of what I will be doing there but we are just getting the finally things finalized… So here is what I’m going to be doing for 3 months J
Friday March 28th- Friday April 25th……. NEW DELHI
· Teaching kids English
· University Ministry… which has a population of 550,000!
· We will also be going to a lot of churches in Delhi, and we when we go there we could do anything from giving sermons or doing dances and dramas that we have learned.
· Also on one of our free days we are going to go see the Taj Mahal

Saturday April 26th- Friday May 16th…… CALCUTTA
· Mother Theresa’s Home!!
· Children’s Home
· Prostitution Ministry
· Slum Ministry

Saturday May 17th- Friday June 6th…..Darjeeling
· Evangelism to the Backpackers in the city
· Helping out with local youth groups
· Then we are going to travel up into the Himalayas and do village evangelism!! Where we are going to be roughing it for a couple weeks up in these villages… exciting! Lauren gets to do this village ministry for 2 months!

Then we travel back to Calcutta for a couple more days and then our plane leaves Wednesday June 11th. Then I will be back here in beautiful Switzerland for debriefing! Which I’m so exited for because our DTS family will be all back together again!! So ya this week we just share a lot about what we experienced on out reach. Then I will be back in Sunshine Florida June 18th.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Last Day on the Slopes

I really can't believe that my time here in Switzerland is already almost over :(.. i leave for India on the 28th!! ( i will be writting a blog soon about what i'm doing in India) So last weekend was our last time on the slopes and it couldn't have been better! As you can see in the pictuers it was one beautiful day!! Look at the clouds!!!

This is Go-Eun i work with her in Hospitality everyday! We have so much fun baking together! And on the right of me is Claire she is my outreach leader!
Cammy and me!
OUT REACH TEAM! Josh(Canada), Stefan(leader-Canada), Shaddy(Egypt), Claire( Leader- California), Andy( pennsylvania) and Me!! and Cammy is taking in the pic.... my team is really cool, i'm so excited for outreach!

Friday, March 7, 2008

Some Stuff to Think About....

http://www.stopthehunger.com/

www.callandresponsemovie.com

http://www.ywam4k.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea
- Why don't more people talk about this?? Maybe i'm just really uneducated but this week is the first time i have ever heard about the way North Korea lives. People that live there can't even leave ther country, and no one can go in unless they have a guide with thme 24/7.

These past 2 months God has really given me a burdn for these communist countries like Cuba and North Korea... i jsut can'e believe this could happen in our world today, i mean i'm in switzerland and i'm going to go to India in 3 weeks, and these people in North Korea don't know/ won't know anything besides living in North Korea. What is even worse is that people can't get into North Korea to preach the gosple... but actually who says you can't. Do you know taht 1/3 of the world is closed to the gospel, but who closed that 1/3?? God didn't, because it is still open to him. Because in the bible it says go into the whole world and preach the gospel, it doesn't say... only go into the parts that are politically correct... no, God wants us to still go there, because those are his sons and daughters too...so Jesus followers, we better start thinking of a way to get into North Korea.