Sunday, July 6, 2008

shell's adventure in the nations (YPDTS outreach)

Going to africa was a dream come true... i love africa... i love the world but... i love africa a lot... the people were so beautiful esp. in the villages... and the food... was amazing... sketch sometimes but amazing in africa... we went to a village one day and it was the harvest celebration they have once a year of all the different kinds of food they grow and make... so cool...

We went village to village in mozambique... and our time ran over in some villages because they wanted to feed us and stuff... one village we were like 3 hrs late and all of these people had come to meet with God and to see us and they praised and worshipped the whole 3+ hours waiting on us.. incredible... really makes you want to have something amazing to give them...

It is weird to see all the cell phones.. esp. in the villages... they are in traditional clothes... and there are like 2 power lines and you see a cell phone... everyone in africa has them... they have power storages so they shift the power from region to region so everyone can have it most of the time.. and in the time when an area does not have power... some of the african people remove the copper wires from the ground and they sell them somehow.. so that is why they no longer have landlines for the most part...

We worked with a lot of orphanages an we painted and spoke a lot.. mainly in churches... i realized i like to tell stories... i'm not too good at making them up off the cuff yet but... i enjoy telling the stories of the bible and i'm hoping this school... (the biblical core course) will help me get better at it... i got to draw lots of cartoons too... teaching english in the schools... this is a? pizzan... banana ... that's right... (indonesia)

Have you heard the banana song?.... bananas unite.... that one.. ? we did it so many times... if nothing else worked with the kids.. the banana song always does it... we played lots of games too... they like singing and dancing songs... the kids... esp . in indonesia... the little girls were so cute they gave us girls cute jewelry... meeeess, meeeeeess... selly.... they were so cute...

In cultures like that you can really tell you have an influence... when we came back from africa my friend marissa and i came back with long braids (extentions) and after a week or so in the Tanamara (the water slum) the little girls started to braid their hair in small braids..

In indonesia we united two churches.. the purple church and the white church.. we call them ... and they committed to adopting a slum.. a 2 year commitment to visit, help, minister to a slum... our slum was called tanamara or the water slum... we taught english there every tuesday night and visited at least once a week... it was a muslim slum.. so we weren't supposed to talk about Jesus but... we a had some opportunities and it was great...

In the front of tanamara we painted a colorful mural... i helped paint and design it... that was def. a hightlight for me... i learned a lot.. and i grew a lot.. i enjoyed outreach... there were def times when i was counting down the days till it was over but.. those days were few and my heart and endurance is consistently growing... looking back it was an incredible adventure and i can't wait to do it again...

So... what am i doing now? i am doing the biblical core course here in ywam perth.

"this course is designed to teach me how to employ many creative and diverse methods for reading, interpreting and applying the scriptures. i will also be involved in topical seminars, dramatic re-creations, and various forms of research, including historical, archaeological, literary and geographical studies... during the course i will read through the whole Bible, and study many individual books in depth from both the Old and New Testaments... besides learning the skills needed for studying the Bible, the Biblical Core Course (BCC) provides a means for learning how to incorporate the scriptures into areas of evangelism including, public proclamation, street preaching, worship and intercession and the lecture phase will be followed by...

an Outreach which is a key part of the BCC as it is all about taking the skills taught in the classroom and applying them in a cross-cultural situation. It is a time to practice our teaching and preaching skills and to minister to people in their situations. This allows us to share the Gospel using the Word of God. "

I am looking forward to the bcc... the biblical core course... it starts tonight... it is supposed to be pretty full on... i'm learning how to trust God, how to communicate better, and how to walk in obedience... all really challenging stuff... i find the hotmail inbox a bit intimidating sometimes... but... i am learning to slow down and try harder... and be less lazy in the field of communication...
Yeah.... so i'm doing good working through stuff everyday... learning to surrender over and over again... and it is good.

the troopers

the troopers
gracie, teresa, and me at 4am :)

House Mates :)

House Mates :)
(Back) Jenni, Me, Beth, Sarah, Ellen, April (Front) Morag, Jenny, and Inge

Painting the Tree

Painting the Tree
Chandelier for the Celebrations:)