New Experiences

The Rasta Camp

If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go? What draws you to that place? I hope you have a place you want to travel to, because there is so much to see and so many rewards in exploring different cultures and meeting people outside of your normal society. I would encourage you to one day try and venture there, especially if God placed a certain area on your heart. The reason I ask this question is because over these past few weeks that question has been asked to me multiple different times, but in a slightly different context. In All Nations the program looks like this: you have twelve weeks of training, three or four of the days goes to a classroom training and two days go to a local outreach in the community, with one day off. However, after the twelve weeks a group of about six people head to a different part of world to begin sharing the gospel on their own, so to complete the program you have to have a location to go to. Luckily, All Nations makes it a little easier on us by giving options to choose from. The options this year were Kenya, India, Malawi, Botswana, and Madagascar.  All of which carry different cultures, people, challenges, and different experiences with the Lord.  Well, if you don’t the location I am headed to this year is Dharmsala, India! When they announced where we were going in class, I literally was bouncing out of my chair.  Originally, India hadn’t been an option for outreach so I had never really thought about going there, but over the past weeks I had been hearing so many different and exciting stories about what the Lord was doing there, I began developing this desire to go. Consequently, when they told us that India had become a option, I had no doubt in my mind that was where I wanted to go. I couldn’t tell my parents fast enough, hoping they would agree, which they did (I think). =) If ya’ll don’t mind, prayer is greatly appreciated for this.  Different obstacles for some of the team have risen up in preparing for India such as waiting for funds to come in, visa difficulties, etc. So please pray for the team and that all these details can get worked through as quickly and painlessly as possible. I can’t wait to share with you guys what the Lord is doing in India, thank you so much for the support and encouragement you guys have shown me even in just reading my blog!

The Fly Zapper

Playing Games in Ocean View

           

What I love so much about God is you can never get enough and He is always teaching you something new. I learned so much about God this week in my adventures in Ocean View and the lessons taught in class. I have to say God became that much more real to me this week in one of our walks around Ocean View. I had one of the coolest experiences in making a new friend this week. About two weeks ago when we had our weekly prayer meeting God gave me this picture of an elderly woman. At first I was like okay, just a coincidence, but on Monday she became a reality to me. One of my friends and I were walking around Ocean View just praying and we decided to take a new route, which is always fun especially when you don’t really know where you are. Well, as we were walking this same woman who I had seen two weeks before in our prayer time walked out of her house. It was like déjà vu, I stopped and before I realized what was going on I was walking up to her. We began talking and got to know one another. Maria was her name and after getting to know her a little more she invited us into her home. Now Maria loves to garden and her home is filled with plants plus she has one of the most flourishing gardens in the community. Maria then walked us through her garden and told us about her life, how Christ delivered her from alcoholism, and her family. Her story was life changing and she asked us to pray for her family. She then explained that she had been struggling the night before with wanting alcohol and she needed an encouragement not to go back. She told us her encouragement had been us coming to see her. In addition, at the end of our visit she blessed me with the most beautiful plant. This plant had been with her since the day she quit drinking, which was thirty-six years prior to our meeting. We have gone back twice since Monday and next week we are going to help her garden. Gardening with her is such a blessing to me because its like a little piece of home and it helps with the homesickness. Another highlight of Ocean View this past week was the poike (sounds like porkie) we had with Usher in the Rasta camp. He had gone fishing earlier in the week and spoiled us with the delicacy of crayfish. As we boiled the crayfish, rice, and veg over an open fire in his backyard we got to know his life and his own experiences with Christ.  Spending time with these different people was very encouraging; I can’t wait to continue to spend more time with them.

Cooking over an open fire

Crayfish

   Life in Africa is an adventure and everyday I am learning something new. God is stretching me in so many ways especially over this past week. My life would not be the same without Him. I cannot wait to see what this next week holds!