Outreach Week 8

2-10-14

​Heyyo! I can’t believe we just finished up week 8… and that we only have one more week here. So mind blowing! Only two weeks until I’m back among all of you!!! I really can’t believe how quickly it all went by, even this past week went really fast.

​Monday (Feb 3rd) was another free day.  We spent the time at the café, I had a nice long cry about missing home (don’t tell Max ;) … I think I just needed to get it out of my system because I’ve felt fine and done much better after I had my cry), and then just hung out with my team for the rest of the day.  We took it super easy to try to recuperate and rest some from Kayangel and the youth conference.  We also determined at the end of the day, a bit of a plan for the week.  It is a common thing on outreach to have days where a student leads, and when Jim was here he encouraged Max to do that with us, so we prayed and each were told a day that we were supposed to lead.  Alicia- Tuesday, Brandon- Wednesday, Colton- Thursday, and me on Friday.  

​So Alicia lead on Tuesday, and she felt it was just to be used as a day for each of us to do whatever preparation we needed for our own day.  It was a relaxed day. I have to be honest, I don’t think I left the house once, and spent quite a lot of time in mine and Alicia’s room listening to music and just taking as much alone/personal time as I could get away with.

​Wednesday, Brandon led.  We started the day by going to Emmaus (the boys high school we’ve been working with) to do their chapel, where Max, Alicia, and I lead worship, and Colton gave an amazing sermon.  That night we attended the Palauan Baptist Church, which we all thoroughly enjoyed and got a lot out of.

​Thursday (Colton’s day to lead) we again spent most of the time at the house. We spent the morning waiting for someone, who we found out a few hours later wasn’t able to make it.  That night we went to the prison ministry where Max helped with the worship some, and Alicia and Brandon spoke.  We were able to converse and pray for some of the inmates, which was really cool.  

Friday (my day to lead) we got Fuana a new front door and were trying to watch and help as it was getting worked on to fit perfectly.  We also spend some time hanging out with another Palauan YWAMer (who is a good friend of Max’s and also teaches music at Emmaus), named Malo. (Whom we had waited for Thursday) He spent several hours over, chatting, hanging, and jamming.  After that I gave everyone some personal time, mostly because I needed to pray and talk to God about the day.  I was feeling very unsure, unqualified, and unhappy about the whole leading thing.  Earlier in the week when I had been thinking about my day I had thought about how the best leader should be the best servant, so I had wanted to try to find some way that I could bless my team and just serve them as much as possible. But when my day actually rolled around I couldn’t think of a way to actually make that happen, or what I could do.  As I was finishing up praying and trying to listen to God’s voice, He sent Alicia to me.  She told me she’d been avoiding talking to me about some stuff, and that God told her she needed to do it now.  She confronted me a bit about my attitude the past few days/week.  She pointed out how there are almost two sides of me… the normal side of me, where I am happy, joyful, sweet and just who I am, and who I am created to be.  The other side is a negative, grumpy me.  I have some infected bug bites (on my arm mostly, but there are a few on my legs as well), and she pointed out that even thought they are painful, gross, and just no fun in general (she knew from experience because she had the same problem) she told me that I can’t let it get to me and bring me down the way I was letting it.  She challenged me to try to be less negative, and to focus as much as possible on the positive.  She also challenged me to be more bold, and to stop looking and asking for confirmation or ideas from other people, but to make sure I’m really going to God.  The things she said were exactly what I needed to hear, in so many ways! And they also helped me to reconnect with God enough that I knew what to do with the day.  When we all gathered back together (Brandon was gone doing his own thing though) I told my team, that as their leader for the day I was taking them out to lunch for burgers (a novelty in and of itself haha).  After lunch we walked the town a bit just praying as we walked and trying to find ways to bless the people we had had multiple encounters with.  We met back together at the café and then hung out for a bit.  We spent the evening hanging out with the guys at Emmaus, playing guitar, comparing and learning songs, just trying to invest in them as much as we can as our time with them ticks down.  

Saturday we all enjoyed being able to do some physical labor.  We took the day to lay some concrete for Fuana’s back porch.  We spend most the day doing this, from mixing the cement, to dumping it and smoothing it.  I got to be the “smoother” and actually really enjoyed it and was just starting to really get the hang of it when we stopped for the day haha.  But it was not only a nice change to do something physical (even with all the soreness we got from it haha), but Fuana was so grateful and it was so nice to be able to bless her in such a way.  By evening we were all tired so we took it easy and hung out.

Sunday was the best day of all! We got up a bit earlier than most Sundays to go back to the prison to teach again today.  Max and I taught (first sermon I’ve ever given haha) and it was just so good! After prison we attended our favorite church, Koror Evangelical Church, and were just blessed and amazed by the wonderful service.  After that we took almost a team nap haha, but some quiet time to rest before heading to Emmaus mid-afternoon.  When we got to Emmaus we spent some time playing sports and just general hanging out with them.  The other team was there and I got the opportunity to soak up some worship time with Caleb.  I realized that a lot of the things Alicia had lovingly pointed out to me stemmed from a lack of worship time. By leaving on Sunday for Kayangel I had missed the worship at church that week and it had ruined my week.  So on Sunday I found myself soaking up every ounce of worship I could get, at the prison, at church, and even more sitting with just Caleb, a guitar, me and God. It was wonderful. After that we all got to eat dinner with them before Max played some worship songs and then spoke a little. He told the seniors he wanted to give them a night they would never forget, and I think he succeeded! He challenged them to be the world changers they were set apart to be, and after that he asked that we all gather around them and pray for them, which they all were blessed (and made a little uncomfortable) by.  Caleb and the three leaders from the other team also took the time to bless the guys and to impart what they could to them (especially the seniors). After that we had even more worship time (to my delight) and then hung out a bit before heading our separate ways.  It was getting late when we got back, but for some reason we decided to watch a movie and proceeded to do so haha. It was a fantastic day, a memorable day, and probably one of the best days of outreach so far.  

This next week is our debrief week of sorts.  We will be taking it kind of easy.  We plan to go to Pelelu for a few days (the only island we haven’t been to yet, its by Angauar). We are taking a day to go to the Rock Islands, and then just not much on the other days.

​Well… that’s all folks.  I’m counting down the days until I get to see you all! It will be here so very soon.  Take care of yourselves J Love you all! ​