Outreach Locations Announced!!!

This is my class.... that is Demaris speaking to us... about SEX! Hahahahaha.



That is me... we went for a walk down the Nickey Line (it used to be an old railway)... now a beautiful walking path.


This is my beautiful and amazing outreach team!!!!!!! Andy, Cindy, and Christine are our leaders... then there is Me, Missy, Emily, Jordan, Pendo, Kate, Neil, Gareth, Raphi, and Jesse. I am so excited!

So I am so so so sorry that it has been so long since I last posted anything. Time seems to fly so quickly here and our schedules have been packed. Since the DNA conference... much has happened!

I suppose that my first major update is that our outreach teams have been established... for the most part. After much prayer and intercession by both the staff and class, the Lord led us to where he wants us to go! Our first week of outreach is from December 21-26, yes over christmas but its all okay and amazing! We will be working with the homeless of Earl's Court in inner city London through the holidays. It is going to be an amazing opportunity and I am very excited since I have done quite a bit of homeless work back in Portland. We will then depart on the 28th or 29th (airfare pending) as a complete team of 24 to Sicily, where we will board the Next Wave sailing vessel/boat/yatch/call it what you want. Haha. This is one of YWAM's mercy and evangelism boats, and our team has been blessed with the opportunity to use it as a mobile base around Italy. We will not be staying on the boat... but docking and using it to sleep on. In Italy we will be working with local churches, as well as evangelizing through street ministry, dances, dramas, testimonies, talking to people and just being a light to an area of the world that needs much hope! On January 12th, half of our team (not me) will be leaving us and flying to Malaga, Spain, where they will be working and outreaching until the third to the last week when they will return to the UK for the final 3 weeks of outreach. I and the remaining half of the team will be staying on the ship and continuing to work through Italy and eventually make it to Greece for more outreach! We also will return for our last three weeks of outreach in the UK. We however, have no idea yet where God is wanting us to minister in the UK during those weeks, though we have been interceding as a team and have had a few places come up many times over. I will leave that for another blog!

I know that many of you might be wondering or thinking why on earth would we go on outreach to Europe... to a western world country... not a third world continent like Africa or somewhere. Well. I can answer that with a testimony of my past weeks here in the UK. Though much of Europe has been established on Christian/Catholic foundations, it is not what it used to be. Many people have left the church, rejecting his truth and love because of the religious spirit of the church. Many don't know that they can have a relationship with their creator. Many of these mediteranean bordered countries are filling with Muslim communities immigrating from N. Africa and the Middle East, while Atheist communities are growing. Europe is a melting pot of many cultures, races, backgrounds, and people of every tribe, tongue, and nation. It is a mini world in itself. Just walking down the streets of London have left me wanting to do more, to help those that need it! There is so much despair and hopelessness in these times... I want to do something about it! So ya... God clearly spoke to us and has shown us where he wants us, and I am excited to be walking in His will for me, and know that he will do much with our team, and use us and our testimonies even more than he already has!!!!

Anyway. There is my brief synopsis of outreach!

I could try and summerize what we have been learning in lectures, but I don't know if I could without writing a book (literally... you should see my notes.). Haha! We had a speaker one week from Argentina come and speak to us. His name was Danny, and he talked with us about the Holy Spirit. What amazing lecture times. His is a very annointed speaker, and stuff that he said really had an impact on me. It was my favorite week so far I think. We had a prayer time with him each individually... and God spoke to me directly through him... and answered alllllll the questions I have been aking him(God), ever since I have been here... (Danny only knew our names and were we were from). God spoke some very direct and clear answers to me... and I was very touched!

The next week we had a guy named Steve Sullivan from New Zealand speak to us about God's family business, and the Abrahamic Covanent... that "we are blessed to be a blessing." (See Genesis and Hebrews 11). God's plan for us all along is that He can and may bless us so that we can be a blessing to all nations and peoples! How awesome is that, that we can carry that inheritance with us! So amazing. We then had a speaker named Connie the last 2 days of that week talk with us about spiritual gifts and being baptized in the Holy Spirit. We had a very amazing day just praying and reaching out for more of him. I couldn't describe that morning with my own words. Also during that week we had a fantastic opportunity to outreach in a local secondary school (ages 11-17). We ran smoothie bars and cafes during their lunch hour, where we got to talk with kids about God and really just love on them. This was my first real time in somewhere completely foreign to me. They all wear uniforms, suitjackets, ties, and everything! And I really learned a lot about the "british culture"... where so many are closed off and quiet about anything. I got to know a couple of girls over the week, and they even came to the concert we put on at the end of the week. It was such a great opportunity, and really our first chance at outreaching to the community!!!!!!!!!!! I was very excited.

This past week we had Damaris, an amazing woman on our base come and speak to us. She is from Brasil. Her topic was Sex and Relationships. Hehe. Don't laugh. It's true! What a hilarious couple of days. God couldn't have appointed anyone better than her to talk to us. We talked about Sex. Yes. And how God didn't created to be a shameful and hidden act as it has been so distorted to be by the world. GOD CREATED SEX. There I said it. Haha. He isn't ashamed of it, as long as it is within the context that he created it and established it to be. We talked about relationships... she shared her testimony with us (amazing)... and talked about marriage a lot... it was a great (yet awkward at times) few days. The last couple days we had John Peachey, our base director, speak to us about stewardship, faith and finances, giving, and such. We learned how to be good stewards with our money, time, relationships, etc. It was a pretty practical week teaching wise, though information that we much needed.

I also had an opportunity for some more outreach last saturday. We have the option to go into St. Albans and pray with a group from many different area churches for people in the street market (Kinda like Saturday Market... only Saturdays and wednesdays all year round). We offer to pray for people and pray for healing on the streets and just hand out flyers and talk to people. IT WAS COLD. I don't just mean cold... I mean BONE CHILLING cold. We were like popsicles.... and it seemed thats kinda how the hearts of many of the people that passed were too. I wanted so much to get to talk to someone. To listen to them, and just share with them. SO...... I really felt like God was telling me to cross the street.... I didn't want to because I was comfortable standing around with my friends. But I did. So... people in England don't just walk up and be like... "Hey! How are you!?" Like we do in the states... but you know me and all my exhuberance... I did. So I would just say Hi to people and offer them a flier.

This girl came up to me when I said that... and said... "are you American?" And of course I said yes... with hesitance. She then proceeded to just pour out her life story to me. That doesn't just happen with people... let alone people from here. Many are very guarded... but no. She began to pour out her life to me... how her parents tried to kill her and strangle her when she was a small child, and how she was from the states but ended up moving to England and being Adopted... and such. My heart was broken. But the strange thing is... as she poured all this out to me... I can't really explain it... I began to see her from God's perspective, not my own. I began to see the rejection and abandonment that the enemy has bound to her, and how much God loves her and wants to set her free. I was completely broken and almost lost it. I asked her a few times if I could pray with her, and she said no.... so I respected that... but God used me to be able to speak some truth to her... truth that He loves her and has a plan for her and doesn't reject her. Maybe she just needed an ear that would listen. Maybe I was more blessed by her, left humbled and broken, than she was speaking to me... but I know that God did something that day in both of our lives, and though we stood out there for hours in the ice cold air... and I only spoke to 1 person... she was the 1 person God had for me to share with, and I was blessed by the opportunity and it was worth every single minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So ya... I really don't know what else you might want me to talk about... I think this is enough typing for me now. My hands are killing me. But. I miss you allll soooo much. I hope that you had an amazing Thanksgiving, and that you are blessed beyond measure. He loves you and I do toooooo!



This is a video of the ship we will be using on outreach!