South Africa

                                                                   Hey Guys!

Today marks exactly eighteen days until I leave for my two month outreach to South Africa. It is really starting to hit me that we are leaving VERY soon and I'm starting to freak out in a good way! When I started DTS it seemed like we had all the time in the world before outreach arrived but time has flown by and here we are, two weeks out from leaving. I am beyond excited to go to AFRICA and share the gospel message with the people! I thought it also would be neat if I filled everyone in on a few facts about this beautiful country and all that we will be doing for two months.

South Africa is located at the most southern point of the continent of Africa. It is the richest country in the entire continent as well. It is a country full of diversity in skin color, language, and living conditions. There are nine provinces in South Africa and the main language is Afrikaans followed then by English. The population is just over 51 million people. The climate is very enjoyable and when my team is there it will be summertime. 

My team leaves the states on December 9 and we arrive in South Africa on December 11. Yes, it will take us two days, four flights, and an eight hour time difference before we arrive in Cape Town. Needless to say I'm not looking forward to the travel. We will be spending the first four weeks of ministry time in a beach town called Mossel Bay. A lot of local people travel there for the holiday season so we will being doing a lot of evangelism. We also will be running some kids camps and helping run kids programs in a local church on the weekends. This is where I will be spending Christmas and New Years with my team. The last four weeks we will be staying in Cape Town and we will be working with the YWAM base there doing all sorts of things. Most of our time will be spent doing open airs, street evangelism, and some community service types of projects. I cannot wait to see some sun shine and experience some warm weather! 

Please keep our team in your prayers for traveling mercies, good health, and safety while in Africa. God is going to do some awesome things while we are there and I am just so excited to bring the love of Jesus to these people. When I came into DTS the thought of going to Africa for outreach didn't even seem like a possibility. I was so shocked when this was an option for outreach and I know that God has called me here at this time for a specific purpose. Also please keep the four other teams going to Cambodia, Iceland, Thailand, and Taiwan/Philippines for outreach in your prayers as well. I have mixed emotions as lecture phase is winding down and soon our DTS will be heading out to different places across the world. I'm super excited for outreach but also sad to say "goodbye" to some of my closest friends for two months. Thank you in advance for the prayers! 

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." 

~Matthew 28:19-20~ 

A YWAM Thanksgiving

Happy day after Thanksgiving y'all!!!!! I hope everyone had an awesome holiday and enjoyed the time spent with family and friends. This was the first Thanksgiving that I spent away from my family and it was a little sad at times to be separated from them but I also had an equally amazing day with my YWAM family. My Thanksgiving break started Wednesday afternoon and will continue on until Sunday. It has been super nice to have a few days off from classes and schedules so that we can rest and start really preparing for outreach.

My morning started out with a whole group of us watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade on TV. I watch the parade almost yearly at home and it was nice to continue this tradition with new friends. The only weird thing about watching the parade was the fact that it wasn't live due to the time difference. We pretty much watched the whole thing and laughed over the bad lip syncing, cheesy floats, and the couple of total mess ups on national television! It also was cool because all my Canadian friends have never celebrated an American Thanksgiving and we got to explain all the ins and outs of this holiday to them. 

The base fed us a delicious brunch that consisted of casserole, sausage, fruit, and juice! We NEVER get breakfast food that nice so it was awesome to have a little taste of home in the morning. How Thanksgiving works at YWAM is that the permanent staff that live in houses on base invited all the students over for a meal and fellowship time. They want to make sure that we all have the "homey" experience on the holidays. One of my fellow DTS students, Millie is from Kalispell, so she invited ten of us to her house to spend the day with her family. It was so nice to spend the day off base and be in a home with a family to celebrate the holiday. 

We spent the afternoon playing games, singing worship music, going on a walk, and just spending quality fellowship time with each other. Her parents welcomed all of us with open arms and made us feel quite at home. Her mom cooked an amazing meal and I left so stuffed I could barely walk! We had turkey, ham, green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potato's, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls, and pie for dessert. I don't think I've eaten that much food in quite a long time! I also got to spend the day playing with her two HUGE dogs, Hudson and Bear. It made me miss my sweet puppy dogs but it was nice to have some loving from other dogs. 

Thanksgiving is a holiday filled with fun, food, and family but it is also so much more than that. I was reflecting on the past year and just remembering all that God has blessed me with.  He is such a faithful and loving God and as I reflected, I could just see the many times where I had lost hope and yet He still provided in ways that blew me away.  I am so thankful for my parents who have been there through the good and bad times and just continue to love me with their whole hearts and encourage me to chase after Jesus. I am thankful for my little brother who brings such laughter into my life. I am thankful for YWAM, new friendships, and this new season of my life. I am thankful for my job and the fact that I get to love on and care for two of the most precious boys ever.  I am thankful for an amazing church and the friendships that have come from that special place. I am the most thankful for Jesus and the price He paid for me on the cross and that I get to spend the rest of my life serving Him and walking in a relationship with Him! 

As the holiday has come and gone, I encourage you all to not just have a heart of thankfulness on Thanksgiving but daily give thanks to God for all He has done in your life. Personally, I have found that if I daily have an attitude of thankfulness the stresses and bad days of life become a lot less important and overwhelming. 

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations." ~Psalm 100:4-5~

Portland: The city of hipsters and coffee

So sorry it's been such a long time since my last post on this ole' blog. Life has been crazy around here and I have so much I want to share with you all. We are currently on week eight of twelve and it is starting to hit me that my time in Montana is quickly drawing to a close. The last three weeks have passed in a blur and I hardly know where to begin with all that God has done. I am going to start by sharing with y'all about our mini-outreach to Portland, Oregon last week.

Last week my entire DTS, staff, and their kids all loaded up in six fifteen passenger vans and started on the LONG journey to Portland. There was right at 80 people total in this caravan and it was quite the adventure. 10 hours of driving, multiple potty breaks, and a few awesome dance parties later we finally arrived in the city of hipsters and coffee! We stayed at a local church and all the girls, 35+ of us, slept in one room on the floor for the week and the same went for all the guys. We were blessed with one, 10 minute shower for the week and we were lucky if we had the chance to shower more than once. I was slightly worried about the living arrangements but God is so awesome and there were absolutely no issues the entire time we were there. It was very stretching in many ways and I feel as if it was great preparation for my big outreach to South Africa. 

We did a lot of really cool things throughout the week and God showed up in major ways. Monday we learned about sex-trafficking in America and watched a documentary about stories of people who have come out of this in America. A major fact we learned is that Portland is the number one city in American for sex-trafficking. This was so socking but it made all of us super pumped to get out and go bring the light of Jesus to this city. That afternoon we went to the Lloyd-Center mall and participated in a flash mob to bring awareness to sex-trafficking in Portland. We also walked around the mall and just talked to people about Jesus. I found it very difficult to approach people in the mall and we got shut down very quickly in many conversations. I struggled a little with doubt and I had to give those thoughts over to God and just trust that we were going to see fruit throughout the week. 

Tuesday came and it brought plenty of rain and awesome ministry chances. We spent our morning in lecture time. That afternoon they split our group in half and some people went down to pioneer square, which is in the middle of downtown Portland, to walk around and talk to people. My half of the group went to an art museum to see an exhibit about sustainable architecture and how we can use that in ministry. After walking through the museum and grabbing a little snack from voodoo doughnuts, we hit the streets to share the love of Jesus with people and pray for them. We had a good conversation with this one man who was not a christian but we were able to pray with him and encourage him.  I was so surprised at how people were willing to actually listen to us and not shut us down immediately. 

Wednesday was Halloween and it was so awesome to see God glorified on a night that was meant for evil. All day we spent time in worship and intercession for that evening and we just really spoke truth and encouragement over the city of Portland. That evening we returned to pioneer square to do evangelism and an open air type of thing. We sent the worship team, prayer team, and dance team in ahead of the rest of us to draw a crowd in. The rest of us gathered and got ready for a skit we were doing. For this skit we had a coffin with one of our guys in it and the rest of us walked in a line behind the coffin in a mock funeral procession. We walked a couple blocks to the square and we drew some major attention. People were mocking us, throwing stones at us, and just being rude because they realized it wasn't an actual funeral. We walked around pioneer square twice then set the coffin down in the middle and that is when Daniel, the guy inside, popped out and started preaching the gospel at the top of his lungs. After he finished preaching we all split into groups and started talking to people about all that had happened.

I went out that night in a group of four and we had a really cool experience. We talked to this one guy and come to find out he was a christian but was really discouraged in his walk with the Lord. He told us his whole life story and we discovered that he was originally from Ethiopia and he had moved his whole family to America so his kids could attend university. He was struggling to find a job and just seemed a little hopeless. We were able to pray for him and encourage him. The best part of the story is that he told us that he had a dream that four people would come up to him on Halloween and be an encouragement. We were so amazed that God allowed for our group to fulfill that dream and bring a little light into this mans life!

Thursday we had another day full of evangelism and worked with an awesome ministry that night in the city. We walked around Portland that evening in groups. Some groups did prayer walks and other groups were the literal hands and feet of Jesus and just served homeless people and blessed them. God is doing some crazy things in Portland and it was so awesome to witness all sorts of healings, lives being changed forever, and just seeing the light of Jesus brought into such a dark place. We saw prostitutes get saved, people on the street get healed, and all sorts of people touched throughout the week. God was moving in mighty and powerful ways and I loved every second of it!

Throughout the week I realized that America needs the gospel message just as much as other countries do. Sometimes I find it hard to evangelize in America because of a fear of rejection or people judging me but this week God totally delivered me from those chains that were keeping me from being bold. After DTS is over I am going to continue to go out in my hometown of Charlotte and just take every chance to preach the gospel message to anyone I come in contact with.  In Mark 16:15 the Bible says "go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." This verse doesn't mean all the world except your own country, but literally ALL the world, including America! God is SO GOOD and He did above and beyond all I could have expected in Portland. The week was awesome and it only made me even more excited for my upcoming trip to South Africa!