Outreach Week 2

Hey everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! You all were definitely on my heart and mind, being away for Christmas was not fun.  But God knows what He’s doing and we will never forget the memories of this year apart.

            So this past week was a little interesting… with Christmas and all, the entire week felt like a continuous weekend.  Mondays are our free days, so we spend the day hanging out and just enjoying our time together without any worries or agendas.  Brandon spent they day out scuba diving (he does better if he can get out on his own once in a while, so these days off are really good for him), and Max, Colton, Alicia, and I enjoyed our day.  We watched Les Miserables over lunch while eating PB&Js, spend several hours in the coffee shop writing home and such.  In the evening Max, Colton, and I went to the gym and when we came home Alicia, Colton and I watched one of Fuana’s favorite movies called October Baby.  Tuesday we spend lots of time shopping at various points in the day to get things (and presents) for Christmas.  We also decided to surprise Fuana, who was stressing over the Christmas plans, and decorated her house for her.  We bought a small tree, put lights around her kitchen and filled the house with paper snowflakes and paper chain garlands.  We went to a Christmas Eve service that night, complete with candles and plenty of Christmas carols. We came home to watch a Christmas movie called Ebenezer (the Christmas story told through a western) and we got a special snack of cheese, crackers, sausage, and sparkling cider to celebrate.  Wednesday, Christmas Day, we got up and ate omelets before exchanging gifts. Half of us then took naps before our lunch bbq.  The bbq was with the other team, and it was under the Friendship Bridge, so the day was full of amazing food, fellowship, snorkeling, swimming and diving.  In the evening we joined the other team again to do a white elephant gift exchange, and afterward we came back home and watched a team favorite, Pirates of the Caribbean (we could only find the third one) (we really are the Palau Pirates J).  Thursday we spend the morning walking around and hanging out at the hospital with one of the YWAMers here named Wilson, who is the hospital chaplain.  We met several people and I hope that we are able to stay in contact with them and pursue deeper relationships with them.  The afternoon was spent with deep conversations between Colton, Alicia, and I.  Our readings had taken us deep into many questions and so we spend a lot of time diving into these questions and through them diving into God.  We discussed such questions as “Why did God create us?” “Why is the devil allowed to exist?” all leading to discussions on the fall of man, the purpose of free will, and how the devil twists things to give us the half truth.  Friday we did faith walks, with Max going one way, Colton and Brandon another, and Alicia and I a third direction.  Alicia and I found four kids hanging out outside of the video store/arcade.  We ended up spending the afternoon with them before hanging out with the other team in the evening. Saturday the guys went to help out around Fuana’s church and so Alicia, Fuana, and I got some girl time where she taught us to make fried rice. We spent the afternoon at the coffee shop, and in the evening the girls from both teams met to discuss a prayer breakfast we are leading. Sunday (yesterday) we attended the Koror Evangelical Church (we’ve been attending Fuana’s which is the Assemblies of God), ended up having a pot luck there.  The afternoon was just like a summer afternoon back home… we played volleyball! Wilson invited us, and we were told this is something they do every week and we hope (and plan) to be going every week to join them.  It’s a large group of locals, many of who seem to be around our age group, which so far has been a rarity.
            There are a ton of dogs here, and guess what that means… Lots of puppies! J I've gotten the chance to hold three separate puppies this week, a puppy named Frodo on Saturday, and then two, named Roxy and Spike, (Wilson and Ester’s puppies) on Sunday.  It may seem silly, but those three puppies have been such a blessing to me! I don’t know if it was just the magic of holding such a small fluffy creature and watching it breath knowing that this little being contains life, or if it was just the joy of having a little bundle of fluff to cuddle with and hold, but it was just amazing for me.  Don’t laugh ;P
            We have no idea what this next week is going to look like.  We are still waiting for Max and Fuana to meet with the governor of Kayangle to be able to tell us when we will be headed up there.  Kayangle is the northern most island and it was also hit by the same typhoon that hit the Philippines.  The miracle was that not a single life was lost, but everything else was basically lost.  We have been waiting to get up there to help rebuild houses, and when we do the five guys on the other team that do not have families will join us.  But again, we don’t know when this trip will be, we thought it was gonna be this week.  But God knows what He’s doing and His timing is perfect. 
            I’m excited to see what God is going to do with this week since we (currently) have no plans.  If you guys could pray for rest for me (and the rest of my team), I haven’t been sleeping well for most of the trip and my team will all randomly have bad nights of sleep. Also pray for our health, several students on the other team have been sick, but not our team and we’d like to keep it that way! So ya… I think that’s about it.  Thank you guys for reading, I miss you all and love you all! God bless you! And Happy New Year!!!

Outreach Week 1

​            Hey all you fun people! Week one is over! I can’t believe it is already over and done!  If you think serving God in a tropical climate is easy, think again! It’s so hot here that dripping sweat is a common occurrence, you can get a sunburn from an hour in the sun, the mosquitoes eat you like they’ve never had a decent meal, and the lack of hot water can be rather chilling in the early mornings.  And here I thought tropical was supposed to be paradise hahaha! But if you ignore those minor details this place is amazing!

Monday we left Koror to head to a state in the north of the big island called Ngerchelong (yea… we couldn’t pronounce it either).  We spend the week up there working on putting a roof back on a church.  It was a small church, only about house size and our goal was simply to re-brace some of the support beams and then to nail in a new tin roof.  Alicia and I got slightly frustrated by having very little to do and feeling like we were sitting around doing nothing (she handled it better than I did, I started going nuts).  We were working with three locals (Osmond, Jessie, and Other), and that combined with our three men, and only three ladders, left us a bit stranded and often times we just thought we’d be in the way if we tried to help.  She and I did get the chance to pound in a few nails and I even went all the way up on the roof and nailed in some of the tin. She and I also had two mornings where we didn’t join the guys, and helped clean a local church for their Christmas event and cleaned the community center we had been staying at as a team.

Let’s see if I can give you a better more concise overview… Monday we arrived, looked at the church, went fishing with Osmond and attended a prayer meeting of a church across the street from where we were staying.  Tuesday we worked most the day (except for a lunch break that is normally an hour or two to try to avoid the greater part of the midday heat) and then spent the evening watching the guys play 500 with some of the neighborhood boys in the street by our house.  Wednesday we worked, took our lunch break at a sand beach, where it stays about 4 feet deep out until the drop off, which is way farther out than it looks.  We continued to work in the afternoon but ended early and kinda hung out with everyone for a bit eating coconuts and learning to husk them better and such.  That evening we all joined in to play 500 and had a blast.  Thursday was a wonderful day.  That was the day us girls helped out at the church (raking and sweeping mostly) then met up with the guys for lunch, helped finish the roof part (also the day I got up on the roof).  Being (what we thought was) our last day of work we ended early and took a trek up to and old Japanese outpost/lookout. We then went to the school and played basketball with a good group of kids for a few hours.  We ended the day going back to the pier to watch an absolutely gorgeous sunset.  Friday Osmond and Jessie took us fishing along with their wives.  We fished in open waters before having lunch on a rock island (that we had seen from the outpost the day before).  We had the fish we caught for lunch and then wandered along the beach swimming, enjoying the waves, and picking up shells.  That evening we made a campfire in our front lawn and sat out there watching the stars and playing guitar, and we were happy to be joined by Osmond.  We got pushed inside by the rain, but enjoyed our day immensely.  Instead of going home Friday night we had been asked to stay another day to finish a bit more on the church, so Saturday Alicia and I stayed to clean the center in the morning while the guys did some little bits more on the church.  We were back to Koror (and Fuana’s- our contact and host) by evening, cleaned up and went to go meet the other team from Kona with the APAC DTS.  They have 25 students and are a bit overwhelming for all of us, but we are all here for the same purpose and my team hopes to be able to serve them as much as we can.  Yesterday (Sunday) we went to church, hung out with the other team, went to the café and then watched a movie together as a family.  

Sorry that was SOOOO long! I just couldn’t bear to leave any details out haha. They main things we learned this week are to really pursue relationships and to be ok with taking them slow, that we need to focus on the people and not the task, and that we need to keep focused on the next little step that God puts in front of us.  Thank you all for taking the time to read through all of this! And thank you all for your prayers! If you think of us pray for our homesickness this week, as it is Christmas, and for the family back home who miss us.  Miss you all, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

 

First Few Days on Outreach!

     Hey y’all!!! We made it to Palau! We landed Friday and spent yesterday tearing the roof off of a house that had been hit by a tree during the hurricane.  We were very noticeable and were seen and honked at by many people driving by on the highway.  We did kinda stand out… being the “white missionaries” and all… haha.  Today we went to church (its Sunday here), met over lunch as a team to hang out and pray and then we came to the café to write home.

     This week was a bit crazy. Monday was our last day as a school, before we sent out the first two teams (the two bigger teams) Tuesday morning.  We didn’t leave until Wednesday night which left too much time to ponder the empty base and soon to be lack of communication with the world.  Tuesday night we met as a team and God sent me a nice 2x4… I had been moping a bit missing the teams, preparing for more goodbyes and wishing I wasn’t going to be even farther from my family.  And God decided to show me how selfish I was being.  This trip wasn’t about me, especially not this part when I’m here in Palau.  This is about the people.  The people here that God destined for me to meet.  He also showed me His heart for lost people.  He told me that the ache I felt when I missed my family was the same ache that He felt towards the lost… His missing family.  When I realized that my heart began to ache with such an intense pain.  I realized that with how much I love my family, it is nothing like the love God has for us, and so much greater is His ache for the people He loves as well. That was intense, and has been a reminder for me multiple times just in the few days we’ve been here. 

     I can’t wait to see what God is going to do with us here.  Please continue to pray for us!!! We need all the help we can get J Miss you all a lot and love you all too!

Last week of Lectures- Circuit Riders Week

      This past week we had our last week of lectures, and also another corporate week, but it was so much better than the other one.  By the end of the week they decided to rename the week from Corporate week to Family week.  It was wonderful! We spent each day sitting and discussing things with our outreach team.  We broke through some of the strongholds of fear and unbelief again, as well as practicing sharing the gospel in different settings, original design, and working on trusting and making our teams family. 
     On the day we discussed becoming a family, two of the things my team and I found the most impactful were the ideas of needing each other, and making sure there was no daylight between us. All the people on our team tend to be rather independent so we spent a lot of time discussing what it looks like for us to need each other, and how to let our walls down to actually make that happen.  The other concept we discussed in great detail was letting there be no daylight between us.  This was kinda a way to show us that there needs to be nothing between us, we should have perfect love between us and not let anything between us.  Even though we were missing two of our team members we still walked away from the week stronger and even more like a family. 
     The last day of the week we spend going over the Holy Spirit.  We discussed His roles, and His methods.  We also discussed spiritual gifts.  After the discussion we spent time praying and being filled with the Spirit and then also praying over spiritual gifts.  There are 9 spiritual gifts, the first three are the Seeing Gifts: 1. Word of Wisdom 2. Words of Knowledge 3. Spiritual Discernment.  The second three are the Hands of God: 4. Faith 5. Healing 6. Miracles. The third are the Voice of God: 7. Prophecy 8. Speaking in Tongues 9. Interpreting Tongues.  I realized I am stronger in the seeing gifts.  I have been walking strongly in Words of Knowledge, and maybe a little bit in Words of Wisdom and Discernment.  I asked for more Discernment specifically, and we'll see what happens with that, and I'm excited to see what He does with that. 
     Outreach is coming up quickly... we leave this Wednesday.  We leave Kona at 9 pm, fly to Honolulu leaving there at midnight for an 11 hour flight to Taiwan, where we spend 7 hours before taking a 4 hour flight down to Palau.  Its gonna be a long couple days, but it will be an adventure! Pray that I will be able to sleep on the plane please!!! haha.  Also please continue to pray for the finances of our team.  Praise the Lord Alicia has received all of her money except the last 1000! Please pray that God provides that last thousand.  But with Timothy its a bit different of a story... He has only 1000 dollars... and is waiting for his passport as well.  Our team does not feel complete without both Alicia and Timothy... so PLEASE pray for a miracle that will allow both of these wonderful people to remain on our team!!!! My team has become so important to me! Each of them is so special, I love them, and after this week I can say I need them, so please! Pray for a miracle for this to be possible to have each of them there!

Next Couple Weeks

     Again guys, so sorry for the silence and the gap in posts.  To be honesty I've been not feeling like posting because of how few views I have on each thing I post. 
     After Joseph, we had John Dawson speaking for a week on the Father Heart of God.  During this time we talked a lot about adoption, families, and how these things relate to us and God.  The week after that Danny Lehmann spoke to us about Spiritual Disciplines, Fear of the Lord, and Evangelism.  That was a fun week, full of crazy stuff.   The week after that Johnathan Spainhour taught us about how to study the Bible, which I found very helpful and useful. And this past week we had a short week due to Thanksgiving but we were taught by Braulia Ribeiro who taught us on cross cultural missions.  She was LOTS of fun! Super crazy, energetic and fun to listen to and learn from. 
     This weekend we took a "camping" trip with my outreach team.  We left Friday afternoon, spent the night in a church in Hilo (the other side of the island) and spend all day Saturday exploring and hanging out before getting back to our base late last night.  We had some great bonding time and feel even more like a family, even more than we did before, which was already strong.  We are really strong together and enjoy being together.  We are praying for God to release the finances for two of our family so that we may stay the strong, small team that we are.  So if you guys could pray for that release it would be wonderful, or if you wish to help with the funds just let me know and I'll let you know how to do so. 
     I really am sorry for not updating. 
     I am so exited for our trip in Palau.  God has given my team so much power as a team, and has given each of us a testimony that will be useful for a specific issue in Palau. We had a time Wednesday night where we shared our stories with each other, and also began to break some of the chains the devil has burdened us with, and as a team began to fight spiritually for ourselves, each other and our families.  This fight was just a taste of what we will be facing in Palau with spiritual warfare.  So please keep us in your prayers. 
     Thank you guys for reading and partnering with me on this.

Outeach and Past Couple Weeks

     Well, I don't know where to start.  I'm sorry to have been so long in letting you guys know everything.  We finished out the week with Jonathan and Taylor by writing our fears and unbeliefs on a box and then reading them out, declaring the opposite, the truth, and then used a wooden stick to beat the crap out of the boxes.  While doing this one of my fellow teammates came to put aside her fears, and doubts and make Jesus her Savior.  It was absolutely incredible! I was sharing a box with her and we had spent several days before that talking about some of our similar struggles, and discussing a lot of the unbeliefs and doubts that had been holding her back, so watching her take the step to actually change her life was quite incredible and so amazing!
     The week after that we had Corporate Week, where we spent our lectures up on big campus with the rest of the DTSs.  That week was a little rough for all of us.  We had good speakers, but with how impersonal it felt, how packed we were, and the multitude of distractions around us, we all struggled to stay focused that week. 
     Last week our speaker was named Joseph, and he was all sorts of fun! He is fluent in seven languages and uses all range of them to keep you on your toes, paying attention, and to add fun and entertainment to his talks.  He often times would use various accents to punctuate a point and make it stick.  His numerous languages also helped to punctuate his topic of the week, which was worldview.  I can't tell you the specifics of what he said because there was way to much, and a lot of it was told in story form, or in discussion.  The thing that I walked away with the most from the week was just a more holistic view of the world.  I see the world as God sees it now, not as individual countries, or ethnic groups, or however else we split up the world, but instead I see it as THE world.  The world with its people, the world with its lands, the world as a whole, even with its diversity, is one big whole.  And God doesn't just love a group or a land or a generation, He loves the WHOLE! And I hope that he continues to show me how to do the same for the whole world. 
     Another big thing happened last week... My school leader came to me and asked me to pray and pick a new outreach location.  I had a bit of forewarning that this talk was coming thanks to a friend, which ended up being very helpful and allowed me to have a level head and to enter into the discussion with an open mind and heart.  Our leader reassured me that they did not doubt that I had heard the world of God, and told me that the reason they had taken so long to decide to cut the team had had to do hugely with my confidence that I had been called to Hawaii.  The other reason they chose to cut the team was due to the fact that none of the leaders were feeling called to lead our group.  As I said my leader reassured me that I, and they as leaders, had heard God correctly, and that they weren't sure what he was doing either, but that we must have just been trying to do His will in the wrong time.  I also told my leader that even if I did not stay here for my outreach, my heart was called here, and I had no doubt that I would be back at another time to continue to bless these islands, and do God's calling here.  The decision of where I was supposed to go was actually rather easy.  From the beginning I had had the thought that "Oh, if I wasn't going to Hawaii I'd go here" and "Oh, if I went there I would really enjoy being a part of that team"... and thoughts like that which made the decision so much easier because I already knew.  So the next day it was announced to my school that my outreach location would be switched to Palau.  I was still slightly bummed out by the fact that I would not be staying in the Hawaiian islands, but after the announcement was made we had a quick 15 minute meeting with our outreach teams, and I found my teams excitement contagious.  I also started learning more and more about the country and people of Palau that has excited me and confirmed to me that Palau really is the place I am being called to go.  Their flag is a single yellow circle surrounded by blue, not only two of my favorite colors, but it is to represent the sun, another one of my favorite things ever.  We were told to get used to the idea of being pirates, because our team is the Palau Pirates, other thing I've always wanted to be, a pirate :) The people there are very relationship oriented, and we were told that we would not be able to serve them or minister to them at all without first building relationships, and getting them to trust us.  The first week or more we spend there we will be mostly hanging out with people and getting to know them in order to build those relationships.  I still have a small team, which I am thankful for, and there are six of us including our leader.  Max is our fearless leader, and this will be the second time he's been to Palau, he lead another outreach there a few months ago. He has a crazy big heart for Palau and the people there, and is a great source of wisdom, comfort, and support.  Brandon is the oldest in our group, and I don't know much about him, except that he is a sailor, likes to get up early and go paddle boarding, and from what I have seen he seems to have a strong, but gentle spirit and a wise heart.  Timothy is our crazy guy. He's fully of energy, passion, and overflowing with the Holy Spirit.  He's got the heart of a child, with the protectiveness of a father.  I think Colton (and Brandon) will be the steady rock(s) of our team.  He has great courage and an ever present aura of kindness and joy.  Alicia is the other girl on my team, and I think we are gonna be great friends. I don't know her very well, and have only had a few conversations with her so far, but from what I've already seen she seems wise beyond her years, and steady as a rock in a storm.   I feel so blessed to be able to join such an incredible team and to go to this amazing nation of Palau with them.  In regards to outreach, I ask that you guys would really pray over my team and over the nation of Palau.  Pray for the divine appointments God is getting up, pray over the peoples hearts that we will meet, and pray over the nation itself that it would see revival.  For my team and me, I ask that you pray that our hearts would be entwined and that we would become family.  We think the theme of adoption will be a huge thing for our trip, so please ask that we would and could be able to adopt, first of all, each other, as family, so that we may be a strong group that can do the same when we go to adopt the people of Palau. 
     I know that was a ton of stuff to dump on you all at once, and I appreciate you sticking it out and reading all of it.  I also appreciate all of you and all of the support you guys have given me.  You are all such a blessing! Mahalo!

Outreach Destination!

     Aloha all! I finally know where I'm going on my outreach! I will be staying in the Hawaiian Islands, but taking the time to travel around them and go to some of the other islands, getting off of The Big Island. There is only one other student on my team and we don't know who our leader is yet either.  The other destination options were Cambodia, Palau, and on the boat, where they would travel between Christmas Island, Fanning Island, Washington Island, and Fiji.  None of us know what kind of work we will be doing yet, only where we are going, and the other students that are on our team.  So ya... Just wanted to keep you guys updated and in the loop, Love you all and mahalo!