HERE WE ARE!!!!
The last day of my lecture phase of my YWAM adventure.... :)
Today is the day I leave for outreach. I can't believe its actually here!!
A couple mornings ago, before the sun came up, my school said goodbye to the first outreach team that left on Nov 30th, the Cambodia team. It was such a sad, teary event... everybody was depressed lol.
Yesterday morning, we said goodbye to the Phillipines team... that was also a horrible way to start a day.
And right now, I'm sitting here on the Hospitality couch, and we just said goodbye to the Bangladesh Team, and that was also so so hard!!! :(
We don't leave until 2:45 this afternoon... so it's going to be here being on this YWAM base with just my team and some other base staff. :( So sad!!
But at the same time... there is excitement lingering in the air:) Every student is excited, nervous, anxious... every possible emotion!! Everything we've been training for, everything we've learned about God and people and serving and cultures and Nations and teamwork and evangelizing... finally gets put to good use!! We're getting off this little Christian Bubble here in Manoa Valley, Oahu, and finally getting a chance to go out to the Nations of the earth and SERVE people and LOVE people to death. Ahhhh, I honestly can't wait! :)
My team has been doing a lot of preparing... we've found out a lot of stuff about my outreach country that I want to share with you to keep as prayer points.
The biggest stronghold we've heard about in Kyrgyzstan is depression. Previously having a socialistic government, the Kyrgyz people have a very apathetic approach to life and many of them struggle with depression. Previous staff members that have lead teams there have told us that alll the buildings in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, are all gray and dull. There is absolutely NO color, no life, nothing. That makes me sad to think about... But my team is full of hilarious, joyful people and we're determined to battle the spiritual warfare of depression in the opposite spirit and be extremely joyful people instead!! :)
So if you could cover my team in prayer, that God would protect our hearts and emotions from getting dragged down with depression or anything of that sort, that would be amazing for sure!
Some ministries we'll be working with involve possibly teaching English in some elementary schools (which I'm SO excited about!!!), working in orphanages, working with street people and in homeless shelters, and, due to the fact that there are MANY musicians on my team, we might even get a chance to play music and evangelize in Pubs!! Ha I'm SUPER excited about that. :)
But the main ministry we'll be doing is Coffee Shop Ministry, which involves a lot of interaction with University Students in Bishkek. It's more "frienship evangelism," we're developing relationships with the students there and praying for opportunities to witness to them and love them to the Kingdom. I'm so excited because that's my favorite type of evangelism... I can't even wait!! :) So that's what we'll mainly be doing.
We're honestly going with the goal to serve the Long-term missionaries there. We want to serve them and be of assistance to them above anything else, so whatever that entails, we'll be doing. :)
Prayer Points:
- Pray for safety as we fly over there... we're taking a 10 hr. flight, getting off for an hour, and then hopping on 9 hour flight before we get there. That's a lot of flying, and a lot of world to cover:)
- Pray against the Spirit of depression and for spiritual and emotional protection against depression.
- Pray for opportunities to share the gospel... for God to prepare the hearts of students there and for the harvest to be ripe! :)
- Pray for team unity... that my team would get along and be united and close to one another.
- Pray for my team leaders, Brandon (21) and Katie (22), that God would give them wisdom and strength and discernment to lead our team in the best way possible.
- Pray for protection... there's a possibility that boys and girls will have to be split up in different apartments in different locations in the middle of the city... pray for safety and protection for both teams.
- Pray for strength that comes from God alone... many times its easy to slip into a culture shock or stress or anything like that, pray that we'd run through that culture shock phase and get right back into serving and loving people!!
- Pray for us to have FUN!!! We'll be in freezing temperatures, with a LOT of snow, but we'll be surrounded by BEAUTIFUL mountains... (a little taste of home I guess *smile*...) so I'm definitely excited for that!!
- For you prayer warriors out there, here are the names of everybody on my team: Brandon, Katie, Donny, Will, Philip, Daniel, Martin, Korina, Brittany, Katie, Kelsey, and Me. :)
Today is the day I leave for outreach. I can't believe its actually here!!
A couple mornings ago, before the sun came up, my school said goodbye to the first outreach team that left on Nov 30th, the Cambodia team. It was such a sad, teary event... everybody was depressed lol.
Yesterday morning, we said goodbye to the Phillipines team... that was also a horrible way to start a day.
And right now, I'm sitting here on the Hospitality couch, and we just said goodbye to the Bangladesh Team, and that was also so so hard!!! :(
We don't leave until 2:45 this afternoon... so it's going to be here being on this YWAM base with just my team and some other base staff. :( So sad!!
But at the same time... there is excitement lingering in the air:) Every student is excited, nervous, anxious... every possible emotion!! Everything we've been training for, everything we've learned about God and people and serving and cultures and Nations and teamwork and evangelizing... finally gets put to good use!! We're getting off this little Christian Bubble here in Manoa Valley, Oahu, and finally getting a chance to go out to the Nations of the earth and SERVE people and LOVE people to death. Ahhhh, I honestly can't wait! :)
My team has been doing a lot of preparing... we've found out a lot of stuff about my outreach country that I want to share with you to keep as prayer points.
The biggest stronghold we've heard about in Kyrgyzstan is depression. Previously having a socialistic government, the Kyrgyz people have a very apathetic approach to life and many of them struggle with depression. Previous staff members that have lead teams there have told us that alll the buildings in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, are all gray and dull. There is absolutely NO color, no life, nothing. That makes me sad to think about... But my team is full of hilarious, joyful people and we're determined to battle the spiritual warfare of depression in the opposite spirit and be extremely joyful people instead!! :)
So if you could cover my team in prayer, that God would protect our hearts and emotions from getting dragged down with depression or anything of that sort, that would be amazing for sure!
Some ministries we'll be working with involve possibly teaching English in some elementary schools (which I'm SO excited about!!!), working in orphanages, working with street people and in homeless shelters, and, due to the fact that there are MANY musicians on my team, we might even get a chance to play music and evangelize in Pubs!! Ha I'm SUPER excited about that. :)
But the main ministry we'll be doing is Coffee Shop Ministry, which involves a lot of interaction with University Students in Bishkek. It's more "frienship evangelism," we're developing relationships with the students there and praying for opportunities to witness to them and love them to the Kingdom. I'm so excited because that's my favorite type of evangelism... I can't even wait!! :) So that's what we'll mainly be doing.
We're honestly going with the goal to serve the Long-term missionaries there. We want to serve them and be of assistance to them above anything else, so whatever that entails, we'll be doing. :)
Prayer Points:
- Pray for safety as we fly over there... we're taking a 10 hr. flight, getting off for an hour, and then hopping on 9 hour flight before we get there. That's a lot of flying, and a lot of world to cover:)
- Pray against the Spirit of depression and for spiritual and emotional protection against depression.
- Pray for opportunities to share the gospel... for God to prepare the hearts of students there and for the harvest to be ripe! :)
- Pray for team unity... that my team would get along and be united and close to one another.
- Pray for my team leaders, Brandon (21) and Katie (22), that God would give them wisdom and strength and discernment to lead our team in the best way possible.
- Pray for protection... there's a possibility that boys and girls will have to be split up in different apartments in different locations in the middle of the city... pray for safety and protection for both teams.
- Pray for strength that comes from God alone... many times its easy to slip into a culture shock or stress or anything like that, pray that we'd run through that culture shock phase and get right back into serving and loving people!!
- Pray for us to have FUN!!! We'll be in freezing temperatures, with a LOT of snow, but we'll be surrounded by BEAUTIFUL mountains... (a little taste of home I guess *smile*...) so I'm definitely excited for that!!
- For you prayer warriors out there, here are the names of everybody on my team: Brandon, Katie, Donny, Will, Philip, Daniel, Martin, Korina, Brittany, Katie, Kelsey, and Me. :)
THANK YOU SO MUCH all of you who've prayed for me, supported me, read my blogs and followed my journey. You all have blessed me so much and I'm SO GRATEFUL to have you in my life!! Next post... will be from a Colorado Girl in Kyrgyzstan! :)
PRAISE JESUS!!
Love you all!! :)
PRAISE JESUS!!
Love you all!! :)
"Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works and PRAISE you're Father in Heaven!!" - Matthew
5:16Also.... on a side note. My boyfriend and mom and sister were able to come visit me this weekend before I left for outreach!!! My mom and sister are still here but my boyfriend left on Sunday... he totally SURPRISED me!! I had NO idea he was coming, he TOTALLY surprised me and it was honestly probably the best thing that's happened to me in my life... (other than receiving the bouquet of 6 roses on our 5 month anniversary a week before...) :) So here are some pics from his visit. We drove up to North Shore, rented a MUSTANG, ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and hung out with my YWAM buddies:) It was an AMAZING weekend! I love him!!
- At Thanksgiving Dinner
- Our new ride... he was one happy man to say the least:)
- Us at Pipeline up on the North Shore!!! Beautiful! :)
- My mom, sister and I at Waikiki!!! :)
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